Urgency (09.22.24)

Good morning.

So, Steven is

our volunteer of the week. And,

wow.

So,

Steven does he works with the worst. He

works in the booths back there. He was

weren't you just ushering? Was that you up

here? Okay. He's also,

with the ushers

and, and he's part of the men's team

too, men's ministries team. So so, yeah, Steven

does a lot. We like that. We like

when people do a lot. So,

so I I have a question. I always

ask this around this time of year.

How many how many like the weather outside

right now?

I do. I love it. This is like

my favorite.

I like cool, cloudy, drizzly.

I don't like all those fake sunshiny days

when they give you a not accurate outlook

on what life is.

I like this

right here.

I'm

mountain biking, I really like, misty rainy. That's

the best because you're getting hot, you're sweating

all this stuff. I'd rather I'd rather not

do that. So, yeah, it's

few days here. We had, General Flynn here

with the, human trafficking, conference that we did

Friday night, all day yesterday. It was it

was just great.

It was powerful, extremely

informative.

A lot of lot of different people and

a lot of different,

places, spaces within the the concept of rescuing,

kids and and also adults, by the way,

from human trafficking.

And then, those that do after care and

just just the whole gambit of stuff with

this. It was I I've been in this

space for a long time.

I've done the training,

the, the training to recognize,

kids being trafficked. I've done all this stuff,

And I still learned from every single aspect

of this thing,

who's who's doing what out there and how

they're doing it. And

and, and then just also a good sense

of

we've got to care about this. We've got

to care about,

kids that are being trafficked.

And and I've run bills at the house.

I've done,

all kinds of things. Of course, none nothing

I ever do

comes to fruition in the house. But

but

but this is an important

important place. And so,

we also got to watch the movie yesterday,

Into the Light.

The director producer was here

to,

to show us the movie and then explain,

and they did a panel afterwards discussing this.

And basically, this is if you're interested, you

can scan the QR code. This is you

have to pay something to watch it. But,

but it's about how,

everything is,

everything that's going on manipulate

is manipulating us.

The, everything, every social platforms, Hollywood, all this

stuff. I mean, they show how they're doing

this, how they're spinning things, how they're telling

you certain amounts of information

or completely wrong information. And they go over

and it's it's just a lot of information,

a lot of good stuff in there. And,

so if you're interested in that, we can

also make sure that you that you have

access to that at some

at some time in the future too. But

it was just a good weekend.

And I really enjoyed getting to,

to meet General Flynn. We've been,

connected some with some of the stuff that,

he he's posted some of my

videos from the house and things, but I

actually got to sit down and talk to

him. He's just a really,

really nice guy. I really enjoyed getting to,

know him a little bit.

And now, you know, I can I can

say I know General Flynn? So there's that

too. So

we're buddies.

Okay. So,

I I do want so last Sunday, I

mentioned of course, I've been mentioning this a

lot,

but I talked about,

I I mentioned before service, before I jumped

into this, that,

that, they cannot

by they, this is not Democrat, Republican. This

is a lot bigger than that. This is

kind of the powers that be in our

country. They cannot allow Trump to get to

the White House. They cannot do it. And

you guys know, no matter which way this

comes out in November, our our country's going

to explode.

BLM's already been putting stuff online, putting a

lot of information out there, and attached to

Antifa

that they're gonna tear they're gonna burn this

country down if Trump gets in the White

House.

Well, if

if Kamala gets in the White House, the

the rest of the country knows this is

a big fat lie.

And what are the what is gonna happen

then?

Right? So I don't know. It's gonna be

crazy. But but even after I said that

last Sunday,

what, 2 hours later, there was another

attempt on his life, another assassination attempt, and

then 2 more this week. 1 where there

was a bomb in a car

that, was right

near the,

the group of cars

that drive with President Trump in them. And

they found that before

the the entourage got to there. And then

he was at a speech in Arizona and

a and a group of people at the

front were sitting there. And all of them

immediately got sick, started throwing up. Some of

them passed out and all this stuff. And

so they they, you know, take Trump out.

But they had been exposed to some kind

of gas that was up there at the,

front of the speech. Guys, this isn't this

is not gonna stop. I've I've been saying

this. This is not gonna stop. There we

have crossed a line in our country where

this is okay.

The media is blaming Trump

on his own assassination

attempts

because he's not he's not bringing his speech

down, his rhetoric down. In other words, you're

saying things we don't like. You're speaking truth

and we don't like that and so we're

gonna kill you.

This is where we've come to in our

country. This is disgusting.

It doesn't matter which,

party affiliation you are. This is not okay.

This is beyond the pale and this is

not what made our country.

This is not who we are.

I just strongly encourage you. I think that

the greatest

thing we can do at this point is

truly pray. I mean really seek God for

our country, not just our God protect Trump,

but really pray for the soul of our

country.

We're in a in a very bad place.

With all of that said, the last thing

that I wanted to mention,

I was very excited to see all of

the stuff happening in Israel

and actually mostly in Lebanon,

this last week.

I didn't know you could do this stuff.

I didn't know you could make pagers blow

up.

This is absolutely amazing.

And they're only

blowing up on Hezbollah

leaders.

That is absolutely phenomenal.

These Israelis are absolutely geniuses.

Then all of a sudden, cell phones started

blowing up. Then

walkie talkies

started blowing up. So then all the Hezbollah

leaders are like, we should not be using

technology. So let's get together in a group

and just talk personally.

And the Israelis were like, are they all

there? Okay. Boom.

Blew that place up.

This is this is what should always happen

to terrorists. This is absolutely amazing. I have

been a little shy of answering my phone

this week.

Absolutely phenomenal. And, and this is they're scared

to death

they're scared to death to get near anything.

Pretty soon, they're I mean, somebody's going to

be at morse code. Boom.

That's going to blow up. So, alright. I

I wanna I wanna look at something this

morning. I think it's

So I spoke 2 weeks ago.

I spoke about the rapture.

Okay?

And,

now I'm not going to revisit that really

this morning. I know that I I do

love to preach about that. I am pre

tribulation rapture. I know that some of you

in here, and

you're post trib, stuff like that. But what

ifs? But I do want I do want

to look at the bigger subject because it's

not necessarily about the rapture. Okay. Let's kind

of take that

the table. Alright? But this is one of

the arguments that I I have for pre

tribulation rapture is what I brought out 2

weeks ago in in Matthew 24, and I

wanna take this into this week,

is the idea that, Jesus himself says that

that,

before

the rapture, he doesn't use that term, but

before the rapture,

there

the earth is going to look like the

days of Noah.

And he does not say,

evil like the days of Noah. What he

says is which is which is true. That's

got to be included. Right?

Because of the whole everything that follows. But

what he says is that there's gonna everybody's

gonna be living life as normal, and there's

gonna be partying

and marrying and things like that. And he

says, and you won't be ready. They were

not ready. I'm getting ahead of myself. They

were not ready for the flood. But Noah

had been telling them for a 100 years.

But they weren't ready for the flood. Why?

Because they were just living normal life. There

was nothing,

there was nothing urgent. That's part of my

argument with why it can't be mid or

post trib because you're going to have been

in the tribulation.

There is urgency. There is, oh no, we're

in the tribulation. So that somehow it could

sneak upon you.

I just don't think that fits theologically. Okay?

But let's let's

let's let's look at this without the

the the trying to figure out when the

rapture takes place.

But let's look at the fact that Jesus

says,

you're not going to you're not just like

they weren't ready for the flood, you're not

going to be ready for the rapture.

Because you're gonna be living life as usual.

The partying I don't think there's gonna be

a lot of parties in the tribulation.

Partying,

giving in marriage, all this other kind of

stuff.

That

gets me with this with the church mentality,

as I think that I don't think the

church has a sense of urgency about it.

I'm saying the church across America, we just

don't have a sense of urgency. And there's

some things that are tied to that urgency.

It's, this is this is one of the

reasons that I to me, I think the

church needs to to be preaching a rapture

mentality

sense of urgency. You don't know Jesus himself

says, you don't know when this is gonna

happen. It's gonna happen instantly. It's gonna happen

suddenly. And and even though you have been

told about it, you're just partying it up.

On actual stuff. I feel like that's where

the church is at. We're just kind of

going through the motion to party and we're

doing marriages.

We're doing all this stuff.

But there's not a sense of urgency on

a few things. There's not a sense of

personal urgency.

There's not a,

there's not a,

urgency for the lost.

Doesn't

exist anymore, which kind of makes sense though,

because if you have an urgency for the

lost, then there has to be something driving

that urgency.

Rapture mentality, or the reality that is for

all of us that take the rapture off

the table. So let's say God came

to you right now and said,

you, I'm not coming back during your lifetime.

When is that?

When is your lifetime

over?

Let let me read a couple of scriptures

to you. Romans chapter 10

Romans 10:13

verse 13. For everyone who calls on the

name of the Lord will be saved.

This is this is a part of what,

people have called the Romans road over the

years. But but ask yourself this question.

What does this sentence mean? What are the

elements of this sentence?

Everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord. First, what does that mean to

you? Because it means different things to different

people.

And then it says, everyone who calls on

the name of the Lord will be saved.

What does that mean to you? What is

saved mean to you?

How do you define saved?

I I've I've mentioned this over the last

3 years, a statistic I read 3 years

ago from Barna Research that says from Gen

z. Okay?

It actually was a little bit

older than that too. But but let's say

Gen z,

that over 60% of all of the the

the gen z generation, and this was basically

like 30 and under

for the statistics,

that 60% of all of the the people

within that age group that are Christians,

that declare themselves to be Christians,

believe that it is morally wrong.

This is this is important, the wording.

That it is morally wrong

to tell other people about Jesus

because they have their own religion and that

would be proselytizing.

So let me ask the question.

What does saved mean?

Do we really believe that this is a

a,

a big enough issue to cause concern within

our spirit, our minds, our hearts,

our lives?

Should it should it cause anything to happen?

John 316,

this is how God loved the world. He

gave his one and only son that everyone

who believes in him will not perish,

but have eternal life. What does perish mean

to you?

What does eternal life mean to you? Why

would Jesus himself,

God of the universe, the Word,

the the one that is the Word itself

at,

creation.

What why would Jesus himself take on human

flesh to die for us? Because the word

perish

is a very important word.

And in Romans 2, when it says that

you will be saved,

saved from what to what,

for what reason, purpose, all this kind of

stuff. See, this is the thing is you

have to be able to answer this for

yourself.

And this this demographic that is saying that

it is morally wrong to tell other people

about Jesus, they have not answered it scripturally,

or they wouldn't be thinking that way.

Jesus says that he is the way, the

only way,

truth and the life that he is the

only way to God the father. Without Jesus,

there is no salvation.

So it doesn't matter. If you really believe,

if you really believe that Jesus is the

only way to God, then that means all

the other options are not real. They're not

true.

They're they're false religions.

You say, well, no. I believe that that

all the other religions have validity too. Then

then somewhere you're you're off track with what

the Bible says and you need to reinvestigate

this.

Because this is where we this is where

we are as a country within the church.

We are not telling people the truth. We

are not living the truth. We are not

displaying

the truth. And so therefore, there's any,

a myriad of options

to get to God the father. There's a

myriad of options for eternal life and all

these other things. That's not true. If if

Jesus dies on the cross so that we

won't perish, if he himself

is the necessity

to keep us from perishing

so that we can have eternal life, then

we need to know what that perishing means

and we need to know what that eternal

life means.

Or

or what's the point of this thing?

This is this is why I believe there's

not an urgency within the church and why

the church at large

is not concerned anymore about witnessing. We don't

have problem inviting people. In fact, they encourage

that.

I I I talked to a guy the

other day that had been to a church

and he said that this church was giving

bonus bucks to people that brought guests.

And I'm like,

excuse me.

I have lots of questions.

Bonus bucks

for what?

Are these heavenly bonus bucks?

You get toward the front of the line

in eternity. I don't that was weird to

me that I think it's like for their

gift shop or something, but I'm I I

don't know.

Just seemed a little strange to me. But

but here's the thing guys, if we're not

actually about people getting saved, what's the point?

What's the point of this whole thing?

Benefits to that, but I don't mean this

pejoratively, but look around the room. Is this

the social group you've chosen?

You got me? All right. So here's the

thing. Guys, what are we saying when we're

saying being saved

Guys, what are we saying when we're saying

being saved?

Alright.

Let's go to John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

See this is, this is interesting to me

is again, let's take the rapture off the

table.

How long

Yeah. I don't want to. That's not

But but how long do you have left

in life?

Alright. I'm gonna I'm gonna drill down here

quite a bit. I'm not trying to to

scare you but I'm actually okay with that

if it happens.

But how long is your life Like I

said earlier, if God says to you, I'm

not gonna come back during your lifetime. That

could be the the day after tomorrow.

You you understand what I'm saying?

And tomorrow is your last day. But he's

he's promised he'd not come back during your

lifetime.

How long how long do you have on

this earth?

James chapter 4 verse 14.

James 4:14

How do you know what your life will

be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog.

It's here a little while then it's gone.

And I do want to thank the Lord

for the illustration.

He's he's working well with me.

Verse 15,

guys

what you ought to say is if the

Lord wants us to, we will live and

do this or that.

I think that's important the way he says

it. He says, my life is like a

vapor. It's it's here today. It's gone tomorrow.

But what we should be saying is, God,

you're the one who determines my life. Not

just if I'm alive,

but what I'm doing.

Do this or that. What I am doing

with my life

This is where we have

in our American culture, you know, we get

up, we go to work, we go home.

We get up, we go to work, go

home. And if you're not careful, what happens

is the routine or the mundane of life

can, lure you into kind of a, a,

can lure you into kind of

a,

a sleep,

a laziness.

I think even without trying to.

There's not an urgency in our spirit.

And so we can go to work with

somebody year after year after year. We know

they're not a Christian. We know that they

don't have a relationship with Jesus. But it's

there's not an urgency in our spirit to

do something about it,

have a conversation, do something.

Somewhere there has to be an urgency.

Why?

Because

how long are you gonna be alive?

How long are they gonna be alive?

I I,

I,

I had

a meeting with somebody this week,

and this is a political stuff, and we're

trying to set some things up. And he

was telling me, he said, did you hear

and so I'll ask you the question. Did

you hear about the motorcycle wreck on I

25 this last week? Anybody hear about that?

It was on the news, all this kind

of

stuff. This was interesting. He said his wife

was driving

their van

right beside

this motorcycle wreck. He said, this is what

happened. This is her she watched the whole

thing. She was the person directly beside,

the guy that died on the motorcycle.

Okay.

There was a car coming down I 25

the other on the other direction going northbound.

She was going southbound.

And tire came off of the car,

ran through the median, hit something in the

median, bounced up in the air.

She said she's watching this happen, and she

thinks it's gonna hit her van.

K. It goes up and it and it

goes over all of this. Like, 20

something, 30 something motorcycles all riding together.

Goes over all of the motorcycles until it

hits the very back

guy on the motorcycle.

It hit him square right here.

Instantly killed him, instantly. And he said, this

is where it got so weirdly, spiritually bizarre.

He said,

it killed him. He just

laid back on the motorcycle dead, instantly dead,

laid back on the seat on his motorcycle.

She's now worried because that motorcycle is not

being driven.

K.

The motorcycle didn't veer, didn't stop. It just

kept driving straight down the middle of the

lane,

slowed down, slowed down. She's braking this time,

so she's getting slower faster at a quicker

rate. And so the motorcycle is still slowing

down, slowing down,

slowly pulls over to the shoulder

and then just stops against the guardrail and

kind of leans over onto the guardrail.

The guy is laying back on his back

dead the whole time.

She's and when he's telling me this, he's

tearing up because he said, God did that.

How does that happen?

And he said, God protected my wife and

my kids in the van right beside the

motorcycle.

That guy didn't get up that morning saying,

I think I'm gonna ride my motorcycle and

this is the last day of my life.

He didn't say that.

He wasn't thinking that.

Guys, I we there has to be a

moment. There has to be some times I

don't believe it's a moment. I believe it's

moments in our life

when we realize,

our own mortality.

That we're limited.

Do we have a certain amount of time

on this earth? And even if you live

it out to the way Psalm says 70

or 80 years, that's a long time. We've

You know, a lot of people live past

80 years nowadays.

Right? But that's still not very long.

And as I get older, I'm recognizing that.

I'm realizing how short

life

is, how how this little

bleep of time

What are we doing with it?

What are What's happening in Luke chapter 16?

Luke 16 · chapter mention

I,

was thinking about this the other day.

So my mother passed away 4 years ago

this

this summer, this last summer.

Do you know the rapture is basically irrelevant

in that context?

Didn't matter when the rapture is gonna happen.

She died 4 years ago.

Doesn't doesn't matter

when the rapture is gonna happen for that

guy on the motorcycle.

He died last Friday.

Rapture is irrelevant to that point.

But there needs to be an urgency because

of this thing we call life

and death.

And again, it just feels like we just

don't have

this urgency in the church. I think part

of it's because,

well, there's no heaven. There's no hell.

There's no sin.

There's no right or wrong.

This is just about going to church.

Well, if those things are true, then what's

the There is no urgency.

There is no urgency. Look in Luke chapter

Luke 16 · chapter mention

16. Okay? Now let me throw this out

here before I jump into this. Jesus tells

us a lot of parables in scripture. Okay?

When he tells us a parable, it is

it is got a certain parameter built into

it that lets you know it's a parable.

Sometimes, he literally says he's gonna tell us

parables.

Right? But

when there are names

in the stories, they're not parables.

They're stories.

They're true stories

about real people.

And the people of the time frame

would have known who these people are.

That's why we know they're not parables.

Okay.

Alright. This is a true story that Jesus

is telling. This is not a parable.

Jesus said, there was a certain rich man

who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine

linen

who lived each day in luxury.

At his gate lay a poor man poor

man named Lazarus. This is not the Lazarus

of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Okay. It's

a different Lazarus.

At his gate lay a poor man named

Lazarus who was covered with sores.

As Lazarus lay their longing for scraps from

the rich man's table, the dogs would come

and lick his open sores. I'm glad he

included that in the story.

Finally, the poor man died and was carried

to the angels to sit beside Abraham at

the heavenly banquet. This is before,

God's giving us,

access to,

Jesus has not died on the cross yet.

After Jesus dies on the cross, when you

are separate from this body, you are present

with Christ. You're merely with Jesus Abraham's bosom.

This is before this. This is why, if

you just want to study this stuff out,

this is why in, in,

chapter, Matthew chapter 25, I think it is,

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

or maybe 26. I think it's 25.

When it says, after Jesus dies on the

cross, the graves open up and they could

see the saints walking. That's part of that

understanding. Abraham's bosom, all that kind of stuff.

Okay. Now, with that,

the rich man also died

and was buried and he went to

the place of the dead.

There,

in torment, he saw Abraham in the far

distance with Lazarus at his side.

Okay. So you've got

you got the place of the dead and

you've got Abraham's bosom is what it's called.

And,

so Lazarus goes to Abraham's bosom

and the rich man goes to the equivalent

of hell. Alright. This isn't the hell. This

isn't the fullness of hell that we see

in Revelation at the end where he throws

Satan and,

the the devil and his angels, all that

kind of stuff, but this is that place.

Okay?

Alright. Now with that being said and the

the reason I say all of that is

because I guys, I hear all the time

from people. I hear from Christians. I hear

from church leaders. I I see where guys

write this stuff in books. These are pastors

and theologians

that say that there is no such thing

as hell, that that is a creation of

the church. It's not a biblical understanding.

Hell is described

many times in scripture. Different descriptions of it.

Different aspects of it. But it is a

very real thing. But see, here's where the

church is at. If the church does not

believe there's hell, then what are you being

saved from? What are you being saved to?

Right? And it's interesting. They all believe in

heaven.

That's the part that irritates me. You're getting

heaven from the same book that hell comes

from.

Why do you just choose 1? Well, because

heaven's a lot easier, isn't it? Yeah. It

is.

But there really is such a thing as

hell. And and the more the church tries

to sideline that or disassociate,

or I think just kind of erase it

from the story. Guys, it

comes back to then what is Jesus dying

on the cross for? Because if it's just

to give us a little bit better life

on this earth, and then we're all just

going to get there anyway,

then why would Jesus himself die? Couldn't he

have sent something else like an angel?

Why would the son of God himself, God

in human flesh need to die? It's because

this is the utmost of importance and he

is literally saving you and I from the

clutches of Satan himself

in hell.

And we don't like to say that in

the church nowadays,

but that's just reality.

When when when you come across somebody that

says there is no hell, I would I

would this would be a one of the

ways you could approach this. Say, if I

brought you a bunch of scriptures that prove

that there is a hell, would you believe

it?

From the Bible, many sentences

that show and describe hell, would you believe

it? Because this is the thing that gets

me is I don't think they I think

they don't believe it because of a choice,

not because of what scripture says.

They're just hoping it's not real because it's

easier that way. You can do whatever you

want.

Doesn't matter what you say.

Doesn't matter what you do. Doesn't matter what

you think. Doesn't matter where you go. What

you're what you're involved with doesn't matter.

Because I mean we're kind of all gonna

get there anyway.

And then you got the group that says

I'd rather be in hell with my friends.

I'd rather party in hell. I I heard

that so much when I was a teenager.

Other, I'd rather party in hell with my

friends than go to heaven with with all

those church people.

You're an absolute moron.

That that makes no sense.

Why? Because we don't really understand. And if

we do, we don't really believe

in our soul, in our heart, or we're

choosing not to. Look what he says. The

rich man's shrouded

The rich man shouted,

father Abraham have some pity. Send Lazarus. All

of a sudden he cares who Lazarus is.

Lazarus has been sitting at the gate, been

walking by him every day for years. Doesn't

care who Lazarus is. All of a sudden

Lazarus is important.

And people say, hell is not a real

thing.

Difference is is if I'm a Christian, I

belong to Jesus, then I have it's not

it's not in reference to me.

Right. I worry about hell if I don't

belong to Jesus, or I worry about hell

for my friends and family that don't know

Jesus.

That's where that's where it gets Here's your

first. He says, just the tip of his

finger and water and cool my tongue. I

am in anguish in these flames.

And and let me throw this out too.

Even if somehow you think this is a

parable, which I don't but it's okay I

guess if you do. If you think this

is a parable, Jesus is not making stuff

up that's not true in parables.

He's telling truth in parables.

Okay?

Abraham said to him, son, remember that during

your lifetime you had everything you wanted and

Lazarus had nothing.

So now he is here being comfort and

you are in anguish. Now I do wanna

think I I have to say this. I

do think this is important.

Being poor

does not give you access to heaven.

That's not what Jesus is trying to say

here. K? Does does the Lord have,

special compassion on poor people? Yeah. He says

this all through scripture. And as Christians, we're

also care supposed to care about poor people,

right?

Take care of the widows and the orphans.

This is scriptural stuff. Sometimes we get so

involved in our own materialistic direction and gains

that we forget there are people that go

without stuff.

Right? Now, I I have found that there

is actual

crazy abject poverty around the rest of the

world, not so much in America.

It does exist in America, but it's a

different kind of poverty. And if you've ever

been anywhere else around the world, you know

the difference.

Okay?

But but this idea that somehow that Lazarus

has that that's how he got to heaven,

that's how he's standing there beside Abraham, that

is not not because he's poor,

because he knew

God. He had a relationship with God.

And and the rich man's not in hell

because he's rich.

Right?

These things are natural directions that show attitude

of life and stuff like that, which could

lead to that. But it's not it's not

a given. If you're rich, you go to

hell.

I I've actually heard people say that over

the years.

There's and they take from the scripture, it's

more difficult for camel to go to the

eye of the needle than a rich person

to get to heaven. That means all rich

people are going to hell.

I don't think that's what that says.

Right? But we do things like that. Right?

So

he says,

and besides there's a great chasm separating us.

No one can cross over to you from

here. No one can cross over to us

from there.

This is important too. That seems like a

little casual statement. But there's mentalities nowadays that

are being taught in the church that hell

is rehabilitative,

and that after a while you'll work your

way to

heaven.

There's no bridge from hell to heaven. Okay?

Hell is not rehabilitative.

It's never designed that way. It is it

is literally

eternal torment and punishment

because you chose something besides Jesus.

He gives you opportunities, but you choose something

else.

Hey. The rich man said, please father Abraham,

at least send him to my father's home.

I have 5 brothers.

Now, he's concerned about his 5 brothers spiritual

direction.

I've said this at many funerals,

almost every funeral I've ever done. I'll say,

I can promise you one thing. I know

this for sure

that the person that died,

that they their number one priority for you

right now is that you know Jesus.

No matter whether they're with Jesus or not

with Jesus,

their number one priority for you is that

you know Jesus.

This rich man's number one priority is that

his brothers be warned,

because he doesn't want them to end up

where he is.

I want him to warn them so that

they don't end up in this place of

torment. But Abraham said, Moses and the prophets

warned them.

You've been told.

You've been told. And you have a whole

life to live this out. You have a

whole life to make this decision. Day after

day after day, you make this decision. Do

I serve Jesus? Do I not?

Am I am I all in with Jesus

or am I not?

Your brothers can read what they wrote. The

rich man replied, no father, amen. But if

someone is sent to them from the dead,

then they will repent of their sins and

turn to God.

Well, that happened. Moses wrote and he's dead.

He told you. But here's the bigger one.

Jesus,

for us, Jesus actually

died and came back and told us.

And he's saying, but you

but but I need somebody else. I need

more people.

This has always been the question for me.

And this was this was the question for

me too when I was when I was

not serving Jesus, when I wasn't a Christian.

I mean, I can tell you what it

took for me but what what does it

take what does it take for anybody?

Jesus has given us the information. But here's

part of what's happening is the church has

been complicit in this. The the more that

we do not talk about sin, the more

that we do not talk about heaven or

hell, the more that we do not show

the reality of what this means in the

bible, we are hurting people and we are

we are condemning

them to not knowing the ultimate truth. And

so therefore, there's no urgency. There's no reason

for them to need Jis. There's no reason.

All they have to do is just go

to church every now and then do some

good things.

And it's basically okay.

Because that is not biblical truth.

That's not

reality.

The reality is there that Jesus really did

that on the cross for what? To cover

us with his blood, forgive us of our

sins, so that we turn our entire life

to him.

Not a little along the way,

but that we belong to Jesus.

That he's not just the the the originator

of this thing we this religion we call

Christianity, But he's actually my savior,

my God, my King, my Redeemer.

And according to Romans 12, I put myself

up on his altar and I sacrificed myself

to him.

This is this is what true Christianity

is.

We can we can kind of go along

with

the the kind of the woke mentality that

the church is in involved in so strongly

now.

That use

the term love. I don't even think it

applies here. But you love them enough to

not

hurt their feelings.

But you don't love them enough to keep

them out of hell.

That that makes no sense to me.

That that is the opposite of what the

church is supposed to be about. But I

would much rather have people come to the

church and give in the offering.

That's the disease that the church has. I

want more people in the seats and more

money.

So we can't offend anybody because then they

won't come back.

That's sad.

Guys, we're hurting. We're hurting the people that

God said we're supposed to love. God says

love God with everything. Love your neighbors yourself.

When you split those 2 and you only

focus on one side, neither become true.

All be about God and then therefore, you

don't witness. You don't you're not ministering to

others. We're just all about God. Well then,

actually, you're not because then he says the

next sentence,

this next law is the same as the

first one. It's just as important the first

one. Love your neighbor as yourself, as yourself,

which means if you want to go to

heaven, you should love people that much.

And then churches become all about loving people,

and they're not really loving God because if

they love people, they would tell people what

is right and wrong. They would tell them

what the Bible says. They would tell them

that there is life and death, and that

you don't have to go to hell because

if we really love them, we'll do that,

which that actually comes from love for God.

When we really love God, we will truly

love people. Not limitedly,

not not just for us, but we will

love them to God

or we're not really loving them. We're really

liking them a lot. And I would even

argue, how much do you really like them?

Right?

Listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't

be persuaded even if someone rises from the

dead. And

that's

a stark reality.

So a few things here. I've put 4

things together.

The first one, hell is real.

As we we've got to the church has

got to come back to seeing this as

a reality.

We've lost this. We don't think this is

a thing anymore. It doesn't matter.

We have a very strong universalism that's invaded

the church.

In other words, everybody's going to get to

wherever they're going to go. Well, actually, universalism

is everybody's going to get to heaven someday.

Unitarianism, then that means everybody's going to get

wherever they think they're going.

That makes a lot of sense. We're all

just going to get where we think. So

that means

that when a Muslim blows themselves up by

a,

a suicide vest, that they really are going

to end up in paradise with 70 virgins.

Everything Jesus says is not true, because he

says that's not true.

So which is it?

Hell was a real thing. Revelation 20 verse

Revelation 20:11

11. I saw a great white throne and

the one sitting on it.

The earth and sky fled from his presence,

but they found no place to hide.

I like the fact that it says, they.

I don't think he's talking about

clouds and stuff.

Right?

Verse 12. I saw the dead. I love

this sentence because he says, I saw the

dead, both great and small,

standing before God's throne. Well, I thought they

were dead.

Uh-huh. They did die on this earth.

They had a physical death.

Guys,

We are every one of us in this

room, we are eternal

beings.

We are spiritually

transcendent

of this earth being.

We're going to be somewhere forever.

You decide. But the dead,

John sees the dead standing

there.

So they died

in their life.

And the books were open. I've talked about

books before. Right? There's there's the book of

life and then there's other books. There's a

lot of books are gonna be open at

this time. K. Including the book of life.

The book of life is the one that

if your name is in it, the reason

it's in there is because Jesus has covered

you with his blood at your reach out

of faith. He doesn't just do it. You

have to ask for this. You have to

repent of your sins, and by faith embrace

Jesus covering you with his blood and making

you right with God the father. Then your

name is in the book of life.

The other books are stuff that has done

has happened in your life.

The things you've done.

K? And the dead were judged according to

what they had done as recorded in the

books. The sea gave up its dead.

I I love this part because,

I was in the navy and so that

has a a navy feel to it. You

know, the sea gave up its dead.

In fact, 2 years ago, this was an

interesting thing. I so I I am I

got ministry when I was 20 years old.

Okay?

So,

34 years I've been in ministry.

The first 15 or so years I was

in ministry,

every funeral I did was a coffin

funeral.

Every single funeral.

I I did not see for the first

15 years I was in ministry, I never

saw a cremation or or an urn. I'm

sure they they were obviously happening, but I

just didn't see that in the church setting.

They were all coffins. And one of the

things, and I'm not trying to be, you

know, too critical here, this is just me

personally, I don't like coffins open and viewing.

I've never liked that. I think that's a

that's there's a lot of cultures that have

very morbid things. I think that's western culture

morbidity.

It's strange to me that we do that.

And I understand for closure and all that.

So whatever. I just don't like to do

it. And I just usually don't. Even when

I'm doing the funerals, I don't. I go

stand at the head of the casket because

I'm supposed to shake hands with our family

and hug them and stuff as they go

by. But I don't like looking in the

casket.

So I don't.

But but here's the thing I noticed about

15 plus about 15 years in the ministry.

So

so 20 years ago,

is,

it began to change

and we started doing more and more cremations,

which which are really they're cheaper. They're easier.

They're better. You can have multiple memorial services.

It's a very Cremations make a lot more

sense, in my opinion.

But either way,

but then I was getting a lot of

questions at that same time as we begin

to shift as a culture. I began a

lot of questions.

The question was,

if we is is it is it a

sin to cremate the body?

Is it wrong? Is it morally wrong

to cremate the body? And they get this

from, I think, 2 places. 1 is a

misunderstanding of couple scriptures that talk about some

of this. But

but I think that this is my opinion.

I don't this is just from seeing it

over the years. I think what's happened

is people got confused

because

the Native Americans burned their dead.

Right?

And then there was also, oftentimes, some animistic

or spiritualistic

ritual that went along with that.

But those are 2 different things. Burning the

dead is innocuous.

The ritualistic stuff is animism or something.

Okay? So I think that the church was

confused and saying, coming from 150 years or

200 years before, should we be doing this?

Because

way they would say it is, you know,

if it's burned, what does God do with

that?

I think that's

a kind of a short sighted question.

Alright?

Because then there's a part of me that's

like,

well what if like they they had an

appendage cut off

and they didn't keep it along with them?

In other words, they didn't carry it around

the rest of their

life. Does God know where it is?

I mean, that's the same kind of question.

The sea gave up its dead. Do you

think that body goes to the bottom of

the ocean and just sits there?

And all the fish are like, hands off

or fins off or whatever.

Do you do you think

Guys, it's weird how we approach it's weird

how we approach things like death, and the

finality of it and the and the the

giving of a new body and all this

other kind of stuff. It's weird how we

do this.

Right?

What is what is God actually saying about

all this stuff?

The Christians the people that are serving Jesus

and covered with the blood are going to

be given new bodies. Did you know nowhere

in scripture does it say

that the the sinners that

die

are given a new body?

Doesn't actually say that anywhere.

You should process that.

And here's part of the deal. The worm

that they're in fire and torment and the

worm, it says that the worm eats at

them and it never dies.

That's why they're not given new bodies.

What would be the point?

Sin and disease will will get But and

where did that sin and disease come from?

From the Garden of Eden when they sinned

and God and they asked for

all the other stuff, all of the evil.

They already had all the good. Now they're

asking for all the evil. That sin and

sickness and disease and all this other stuff

is added to humanity on that day.

And it's going to stay with them forever

because they're still part of that system.

Getting saved and being covered with the blood

of Jesus pulls you out of that system.

Jesus redeems you out of that system and

brings you into the relationship with God.

That's what salvation is. You're not a relationship

with God. You're not part of that old

system. So God's gonna give you a new

body. Why? Because you're gonna spend eternity with

him and he doesn't want that stinky old

human body with him. That's just my thinking.

I don't know. But

the sea gave up its dead and death

and the grave gave up their dead and

all were judged according to their deeds. That's

the books.

The death and the grave were thrown into

the lake of fire.

This lake of fire is the second death.

And anyone whose name was not found recorded

in the book of life was thrown into

the lake of fire with them.

Satan and and his demons are thrown into

the lake of fire. And if you want

to go that direction with his team, that's

where you'll end up.

But if you want to go with Jesus

and his team, that's where you end up.

But to do that, you have to surrender

your life, submit your life, and and be

covered with the blood of Jesus.

The second thing, all of a sudden the

rich man is concerned with Lazarus.

The rich man is now concerned

with his brothers. Maybe I should have done

better. Maybe I should have done more. Maybe

I should have done better. Maybe I should

have done more.

You know, I've I've sat with

so many people over the years, literally in

the last seconds of their life as they

take their life last breath. I've been with

many, many, many, many people

over the years. And I've never heard anybody

say something like, I wish I would have

spent more time at work.

I wish I'd had one more car.

Never say that stuff. I

wish I would have spent more time specifically

with my wife, my husband.

Always, I wish I would have prayed more.

I wish I would have talked to my

kids more about the Lord. I wish There's

all this spiritual stuff that's involved. The third

thing here, guys,

you only have one

life. You only have one life.

How are you using it?

What are you doing with this?

There needs to be some urgency in the

church nowadays.

There needs to be an expedience with the

gospel,

some focus when it comes to, we need

Jesus now.

My kids need Jesus now.

There needs to be some urgency. What are

you doing with the life that you've been

given?

How are you spending that currency?

That time, energy, resources.

Then the 4th thing,

we truly are the answer

for people.

And I want to I want to put

2 sides to this. In James chapter 5,

James 5 · chapter mention

the first side is we're the answer for

the prodigals.

Okay?

I I'm I don't believe in, what's called

unconditional eternal security. I don't believe in that.

It's another way to say it is once

saved always saved. I don't think that's,

a legitimate theological stance.

In fact, I think it's actually one of

the most dangerous

manipulative,

theologies that man has come up with. Is

to me very, very clear. I could give

you 30 other scripts, but this is very

clear. And I think this one is literally

for prodigals. Well, it's obviously for prodigals.

Verse 19, my dear brothers and sisters,

away from the truth, that means you are

a Christian and then you are not. Because

you chose something else

besides relationship with Jesus. But see, if we

if we,

couch salvation as a prayer that we prayed

one time,

not relationship, not being engaged to Jesus, to

be married to him someday,

but it's just a prayer I prayed one

time and shook the pastor's hand, then yeah,

you can come up with some kind of

theology that says that. But when it comes

to relationship,

Jesus wants you in relationship at all times.

He wants you waiting for the return of

the bride. That's the that's the, the the

parable of the 10 virgins.

He wants you to be waiting for him

and ready for him.

And he says,

if you wander away from the truth and

and someone is brought back,

you can be sure that whoever brings the

sinner back from wandering

will save that person from death.

This is very clear.

But it's weird how we can just pass

by this stuff.

You'll save that person from death and bring

about the forgiveness

of many sins. So that's the prodigal.

As I think part of our responsibility as

the as Christians is to tell people that

used to serve Jesus, hey, you you better

get your mind, your spirit right.

We we we've got to be urgent about

this. And then John 316 again, this is

for the for the unsaved

that's never been saved. This is how God

loved the world. He gave his one and

only son. Everyone who believes in him will

not perish,

will not go to hell,

will not be destroyed,

but will have eternal life. I want you

to stand with me.

So my prayer for us

is that that somewhere in our spirit, somewhere,

we let the Holy Spirit

give us a sense of urgency.

Give us

a

care, a deep care for

our friends and co workers and whoever

that need Jesus.

Because you don't know how you don't know

how many days they have left. You know

how many days you have left.

Okay?

Here's what I do know.

If you've got today, you've got the answer.

You've got the answer for people.

Do what you can.

Let's pray. Lord, we submit ourself to you.

That you really are the king. We're not

the king. You are.

Lord, you are our savior,

our redeemer.

Jesus, you died for every one of us

in this room. But lord, you died for

everyone

that everyone in this room will come in

contact with this week.

You died for them too.

You died for our friends, our family.

Lord, you died for our enemies.

Jesus, you died and shed your blood so

that we could all,

every one of us know you.

So Jesus, stir in our hearts.

Stir in our hearts right now.

Lord, I wanna say like Isaiah said,

here am I, send me.

Lord, I believe that you have sent every

one of us in this room.

You've already called us

to preach the gospel, to make disciples of

the nations. You've already called us.

So lord, help us to respond to it.

Keep your head bowed with me. I wanna

I wanna pray

for you, but I want you to think

about this. So

so keep your head bowed here for a

minute and focus in

on this right here. I wanna do this

kind of as a commissioning

moment, a commissioning time.

Same way we would do with missionaries when

we you lay hands on missionaries before they

go out, but the same way you do

with with pastors

when they're responding to the call kind of

thing.

To say,

I I need

I I want

to be sent.

My heart is, Lord, send me. So I

wanna be sent.

And that we can do this as a

whole body.

But, right right where you are, I'm not

gonna ask you to come down front or

anything like that, but right where you are,

if you say, I I truly want this,

and I want you to really think about

what you're saying if you say this,

Lord, I want you to send me.

I want my mind to know that. I

want my spirit to know. I want to

hear your voice. I want to, I want

to look for those moments. I want to

be responding to this call. If you can

say

completely honestly,

Lord, hear my, send me. I'd like you

to raise your hand. Just keep it up

for a minute.

Lord, send me. Send me.

Send me. Send me to who? You know,

I don't know, but you know who.

Some of them you may not, but most

of them you know.

Lord, send me. God, you see our hearts.

Lord,

I I I pray with everything in me,

send me.

Use me.

Give me wisdom, discernment.

Open my eyes that I see the moments

that I don't just pass them by.

I see the moments when I can talk

to somebody.

Lord, let it let it jump out at

us.

And all of a sudden, everything kinda slows

down and we can see

this is a moment that you've called me

to.

I can talk to somebody. I can pray

with them.

Lord, I get to tell them how much

you love them

and how much you've done for them specifically.

Lord give us those moments.

So Lord I pray over everybody here just

like Paul said to Timothy,

preach

the gospel.

Preach

the gospel.

Use us, Lord.

I will preach your gospel.

I will preach your word, not my word,

your word.

Lord, help them to see

your love through me.

I pray that for every one of us.

Lord, thank you.

Thank you for being so amazing, so big.

Thank you for using us. God, that doesn't

even make sense,

but you use us.

Give us these moments this week.

Empower us with your holy spirit.

Just like the book of acts where we

are ready, just like acts 4 where we

pray, God, give me boldness.

Give me boldness

and help me to truly care.

Break my heart for your people,

your people.

Jesus' name.

Name.

Amen. Amen.

I wanna encourage you with this.

It is,

if you if if you're kind of stepping

into this maybe for the first time ever,

you can invite somebody to church. That's good,

but that's not

really what I'm asking you to do.

It's to try to step out there, and

it's gonna be a little scary, but try

to step out there and just talk to

somebody.

Invite them to church if that's all you

can do. That's good because they may not

like this church.

Sometimes I appear to be not likable. It's

not true,

but they may want to go to a

different church. Okay. So talk to him about

Jesus

and then maybe invite him to church. Right?

You understand what I'm saying?

Look for these moments. Look for these moments.

Okay? Don't forget Wednesday night. To

this. Tonight, my house,

the journey, if you've never been, then you

need to be

there.

Just let me know ahead of time so

we can make sure Linda is I'm not

going to tell you

what she's making. It's one of my favorite

ever favorite dishes she makes, but

it does involve bacon. Yes. I'm sorry.

So guys,

before noon tomorrow, let me change. Let me

broaden it for this week.

Sometime this week, God's gonna give you an

opportunity to let somebody know Jesus loves them.

Do the best you can.

Tell somebody you'll change their life. You'll change

your life, and no telling how many other

lives. And God honor that

with you. And so shake somebody's hand, tell

them how glad you are that they're here,

and we will see you tonight or Wednesday

night. Have a great rest of your afternoon.