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Fresh from the hands of Jesus.
The title is Fresh from the Hands of Jesus. Number eight in the
Acts series. We're going through the book
of Acts, and let's just read where we left off in chapter 2. And with many other words, Peter
testified, he exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse
generation. And we are still living in a
very perverted generation right now. They call good evil and
evil good. Then those who gladly received
His word were baptized. And so when you gladly receive
the Word of God, you want to get baptized. It's part of the
commandment that Jesus gave us. In that day, about 3,000 souls
were added to the church. Those are genuine converts. I
can guarantee you that. The Bible would not say that
wording if they were not genuine converts. And last week, I talked
about the power of sound doctrine. The power of sound doctrine. And I'm still getting emails
and things from people thanking our church for being bold in
these areas. Because you guys see what the
fight is about right now, correct? You're seeing that more and more.
The battle for the truth. And I threw in a quote there.
I didn't give the reference. I hate Him because He only prophesies
harm against me. Anybody remember reading that
in the Bible? a king by the name of Jehoshaphat and Ahab. So Jehoshaphat came to King Ahab
and said, I'll help you win this battle. And King Ahab grabbed
some lying prophets, and they told him what he wanted to hear. I think Jehoshaphat was a little
wise to this and said, isn't there another prophet? I think
his name was Micaiah. It wasn't Micah, it's spelled
a little bit differently. Yeah, Micaiah. And he said, ah, there
is one more, but I hate him because he only prophesies harm against
me. Really, if you look at the prophecies,
I don't know if there's any record of him, but the history of the
kings will show you they didn't like to be confronted with the
truth. Anytime you confront the king with the truth, they didn't
like it. They hate to hear things that... Unless you're a cheerleader.
Right? Go Biden, go Harris, go Trump.
You know, you're just a cheerleader and you never tell people the
truth? And so they will not like those people who speak the truth.
And what we're seeing right now is there is a battle over truth. And let me just give you some
cultural relevance. I think we have a picture. I
just sent it yesterday. It's a side-by-side. Maybe you
don't know, but that's our current Director of Health and Human
Services, Rachel. And that's RFK that Trump has
appointed to kind of oversee that department. I'm not going
to get into all the different things. here just because I've
challenged you know even on Twitter different things his stance on
abortion is not not in alignment whatsoever with scripture but
we're seeing like how is that okay but that's not And you see
on CNN, they were talking about this, not him per se, but the
man was saying, hey, this is why the country is shifting because
a lot of them don't like men playing in women's sports. And
the guy was, I've got to stop you right there. You're being
a transphobe and this. They're not men. They're transgender. Like, no, they're men. Slap you. I don't know about you, but this
is insane. This is absolutely insane. And so you are seeing the battle
over truth taking place. And God will use imperfect people
to accomplish His goals. And we can put that down. I think
that's enough of just seeing the outright lunacy of what's
going on. And the reason I talk about this
a little bit is I believe we all have different callings.
And I'm gonna talk about that tonight at the college age group. So if you're college age, make
sure to talk to Gene and Sarah Folsom. Get more information
about that. They live in Quartz Hill. And they meet on Sunday
evenings. And I'm gonna actually talk to
them with Morgan about different callings that God has given the
body. Some are an ear, some are a nose,
some are a loud mouth. and we're all supposed to be
united. And that's why I talk about issues like this sometimes
because that's my burden for our nation in this area. And
separating and drawing the line of demarcation in the sand. And you'll see just so much misinformation
is coming out. And that's why you have to be
grounded in the Word. Correct? And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of
bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Incredible. Fear the Lord and
live. Seek the Savior, not signs, and
seek the gift-giver, not gifts. And so many times in our pursuit,
we want gifts and the miracles, and we don't search for Jesus
and get our lives lined up with Him. And think about this, John
the Baptist, they said he didn't do any miracles. He didn't even
raise the dead. But he did raise a dead nation.
That call, that preaching of repentance And now all who believed
were together, and they had all things in common, and they sold
their possessions and their goods." All right, is this a proof text
for communism? as many suggest, and they sold
their possessions and their goods and divided them among everyone,
as anyone that had a need." So basically, they were a community.
That's where the word communism comes from a little bit of it.
Community. And they gave, the new term really is socialism
now. You're hearing AOC and all those people, socialism. They
sold their possessions and they gave it to those in need. And
that's where a lot of people believe that the Bible teaches
socialism. In a minute, I will show you
with certainty that it does not. So continuing daily with one
accord in the temple, so they were in a large gathering, and
then they went house to house, small churches. So those who
say that the small church is the only way, they say home churches
is the only way. Well, you've got a problem here
because they also met in large groups too in the temple. And
any time you start to say, God only does this, you need to be
really careful. All types of churches have their
weak points and their strong points. And so they ate the food
with gladness and simplicity of heart. They didn't get too
complicated on things. Praising God and having favor
with all the people. And the Lord added to the church
daily those who were being saved. But let's talk about this for
a minute because it's where I left off last week and I don't want to
just gloss over it because our kids are being confronted with
this now a lot. And especially they're on TikTok,
you're not. They're seeing things about how
evil capitalism is and how evil the government is and that, you
know, the socialism is the new term. And I don't know if they
were able to upload a clip I sent them. This will kind of set the
stage. When I think about what those definitions are, capitalism
isn't, to me, it's an ideology of capital. The most important
thing is the concentration of capital and it means that we
seek and prioritize profit and the accumulation of money above
all else and we seek it at any human and environmental cost.
That is what that means. No. Wrong. So wrong. It's exactly
backwards. And I'll prove it to you. Been
on Amazon lately? Each of the thousands of products
Amazon offers represents the work of people who believe they
have something you want or need. If they're right, they prosper.
If they're wrong, they don't. That's how the free market works.
It encourages people to improve their lives by satisfying the
needs of others. No one starts a business making
a thing or providing a service for themselves. They start a
business to make things or provide services for others. When we
talk about ideas, for example, like democratic socialism, it
means putting democracy and society first instead of capital first. In a socialist economy, the government
has the ultimate power. It decides what you get from
a limited supply it decides should exist. Instead of millions of
people making millions of decisions about what they want, a few people,
government elites, decide what people should have and how much
they should pay for it. Not surprisingly, they always
get it wrong. And this is a big deal. The young
generation and how it's framed is what's leading them astray.
And I will say this, no system is perfect. Because in capitalism,
whatever you want to call it, evil is there. So the evil of
capitalism can be corporate greed, or even greed in individuals. But no matter what system you
have, that you're going to have to fight evil. And so I gave
my daughter, she'll remember a recent, well it wasn't recently
now, it's probably a couple years. She did some chores, she worked
hard, and instead of giving her $20, I gave her five and all
my kids five. That's socialism. at its core. You need, I need to determine
who gets that money. Versus they were giving freely
of their own heart. Huge difference. That's the difference. The government says, I'll handle
it and you'll be happy. And you've been seeing the clip
that's been going out from the World Health Organization, or
actually the World Economic Forum. You'll owe nothing and you'll
be happy. But really, if you dig a little
bit, this is about power. The government has the power.
And I think socialism actually takes you closer to the mark
of the beast that we talked about. Because you can't buy or sell
based on what you believe and who you worship, and they'll
cut that off because they have the power. And so it's a very
important topic And socialism, I'm going to just quote the dictionary,
has consistently referred to a system of social organization
in which the ownership of property and the distribution of income
are subject to social rather than private control. Basically,
there's no private property. I'm not going to confuse you,
I'm going to bring it home in just a minute. Communism is more
strict and involves government control, but to me they're one
in the same. How do you spread the wealth
if someone's not in control of it via the government? So if
you dig deep there's some, you know, socialism is more not as totalitarian right you
think of North Korea and you think of you know these communist
countries but socialism to work actually has government control
involved so to me they're they're one in the same especially if
you study it but one of the reasons I want to share this is I've
been seeing more and more of this and I saw this on a social media
feed from someone in their 20s I was actually on something called
threads we can put up that quote socialism is not A dirty word. It's a mindset that says you
care for your fellow human beings as you care for yourself. Does
it remind you of anyone? Love your neighbor as yourself.
Now, this is true if I'm willingly pulling out a savings, I'm willingly
selling a car for a homeless, but this verse is out of context
because it's not me allowing the government, because a lot
of that money's gonna go to places that are not good, and when you
start to spread the wealth, guess what? My daughter, the $20 was
now deflated, doesn't wanna work anymore, what's the point? Now
you just reward laziness. A biblical principle says, if
you do not work, you actually do not eat. Now, we just prayed for the homeless
ministry. We have a homeless ministry here. It goes out, and
we need helpers. We're careful because you know
a portion of them really need help. They need a hand up, or
whatever they call that, and maybe somebody come alongside
them and help them. No fault of their own. It's a
genuine need. It's where the church shines the brightest.
But then you have a group that are there because they don't
want to work. They don't want people telling
them what to do. I've talked to them. They're like, I just
want to live off the grid, man. Well, that's not good. And how
many times have you seen God work in your own life or someone
else by getting them to rock bottom? So sometimes God could
be breaking them and then we come along and enable. Enablers
any enablers out there that enable your family and you're you're
you know, you keep you know But then you have another group that
is mentally challenged a true mental illness I think there's
some demonic stuff going on as well. And they that's a whole
different group So when they talk about how to help the homeless
crisis in California, especially Los Angeles County. Well, it's
not that easy because free housing well For who? I mean, you've got to have a
vetting process here. Is it San Francisco? Let's give
alcoholics free shots of vodka. And drug addicts, needles. Look
it up. This is insane. Absolutely insane. And how much money did California
just lose? They don't know where it went
for dealing with the homeless. This number will stagger you.
Come on, Roger, you know? Anybody remember? I think it's
in the billions, wasn't it? Email us. Too many different...
It was a lot of money. And they're like, we don't know
where it went. And the homeless crisis is worse.
That's why you can't just throw money at things. You have to
have boots on the ground, grassroots approach, churches can vet them
or some system to vet them, get them on their feet, rehab centers,
and you have to say, hey, buddy, I can't keep bringing you food
if you're not going to do something about this. You're not going
to work. because then we enable. But it's such a difficult topic,
but it fits right in here. Because that's how you love your
neighbor. Actually, do you know you're not supposed to give and
help if God is breaking that person? It's hard to find that
balance, I'll tell you. But there are times where I know
in benevolence, if you don't say no, people will let you keep
making their house payment. And there's so many issues I've
seen over the years where you know God is wanting them, and
we'll say, hey, here's some applications. Here's this. Go knock on doors.
And we'll come back a week later, oh, no, I haven't had time to
do any of that. No, you have to make time now. And then we'll
ask, is there anything you can sell? And like, oh, no. And then
I look, you've got a $3,000 drum set. You've got motorcycles that
are broken. You can sell stuff. The church is not the first resort.
It's the last resort. And sometimes we need to help
people and say, listen, we can't keep doing this. And God is using
it sometimes to break them. Sometimes it's a genuine need.
And it's hard to use discernment on that. But God will wake us
up, often through financial need. Anybody get a better prayer life
going when finances are difficult? Well, God, He takes that job.
Man, I don't know why I said that. I feel like Biden. But we've seen people up at the
altar. A lot of times, it's because they're in financial need. They
lost their job, especially during COVID. or they're going to get
layoffs. And see, that draws us to the
cross. And sometimes the need can be
a very good thing. So if we pull somebody out too
quick, how many parents keep fueling their kids' addictions? So this topic, you need to be
prayed up and let the Lord direct you. But socialism, in short,
is give us everything to control and you'll be much happier. It's
designed to fell from the get-go. And the big thing they use, you
know, is corporate greed. AOC and others, they're, you
know, the corporate greed and Trump wants to give these tax
cuts. And remember, when the corporations make more money
and they're tax less, the finance issue filters down and you get
lower prices. I don't like some of it, but
if it affects your bank account and your checkbook, corporations
say we don't have to pay as much so we can lower the price down.
Why is everybody, what happened when minimum wage went up in
California? Prices went up. And I just like, they're in another
world because you hear a year ago, even Biden and others saying
like, we're not in a whatever, financial crisis. Things haven't
really went up. Look, here's a chart. Have you
went to the store? Have you bought eggs? Have you
bought? Hello? And that's why the whole
election was just a tidal wave, because people are not stupid.
They see. Their checkbooks are affected.
They say men can't be girls. Why are men playing in women's? It's just asinine, and people
have had enough. Even in California, I was encouraged.
What countries are communist? China, Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea,
Russia. Even though it says the communist
regime, obviously under Reagan, remember that famous speech?
Gorbachev, tear down this wall. But the Soviet Union, many who
lived there still say, Still got a lot of control. They'll
say republic, but if Putin wants something done, it'll happen
while he's in control. And so, it's important to know
the difference, but with God on your side, everyone has equality
to succeed. Because you'll hear that a lot. And I see where people are coming
from. Because it was hard for me, not
as hard as others, but growing up in a construction family and
not graduating high school well, there's a lot of things stacked
up against you. Correct? I mean, speaking wasn't
my good, wasn't a forte of mine, if I grammar and like you know,
it's gonna be hard for you buddy to make it a little bit more
than the 4.0. I know my high school friends, a lot of them
are doctors and you know, they're miserable but and alcoholics
but at least they're making good money, right? And so, but there
is, you know, with skin color or ethnicity or poverty, they
can definitely play a role. But when God's on your side,
you plus God is the majority. So it doesn't matter. I was raised
in Harlem and I had this, you know, destined to be defeated
and never had a dad around. God says, oh, that's okay. Let
me elevate David, Joseph. All the people he elevated were
least likely. Have you ever thought about that?
David's dad didn't even go get him. When Samuel said, go get
your sons, I'm going to see who's anointed king. His dad didn't
even go get him. He's out tending sheep. Joseph? I mean, how many stories do we
have in the Bible? You plus God is the majority.
And I really want to get that in young adults' hearts because
you don't have to be beat up by what the culture tells you.
You'll never succeed. And that's why it's called equality. Now, what is it, diversity, equality? equity training, and it's just
ridiculous. All the corporations are giving
it up. The NFL is finally saying, no more LGBTQ night. We've had
enough of this stuff. And you see, it's not healthy.
It's not good. Because see, I can love the transgender. I can love the gay community.
And I do. I'm telling you with all my heart. But I will not
allow the perversion to go unchecked and unchallenged. And you try
to push that in the schools and the different things, we will
call it out. because we also love other kids
too. Transgender community right now,
Shane, is depressed and they're feeling bullied and they don't
know what Trump's going to do. Hey, point them to the cross.
Stop scaring them and giving them hope. Stop scaring them
and giving them hope. There's nothing to worry about.
Trust in God. Okay, that's your struggle. Here's
this person's struggle. Here's this person's. Did you
know that we all struggle with something? Hello? Like people think Christians
just walk out with no problems, no issues, nothing. Never depressed. Always upbeat. Never deal with
anxiety. Never deal with fear. Man, just like, I'm in heaven
right now. No, sometimes life's a battle. You've got to push
through. You've got to persevere. Why?
Because your eyes are on Jesus. And you say, you know why you're
depressed and suicidal? It's because you don't have a
relationship with your Creator. Fix that. Fix that. You might still struggle. They
still might want to dress up as women. I have no clue. I can't
relate to that one. To me, it's like, I don't know. But you might still struggle,
but now you're holding on to the Savior. And we had people
here. I remember we were in Lancaster.
I had a guy who did that and his wife. They came in for counseling
after like six visits. I'm like, dude, I don't know
what to tell you. Stop putting on your wife's lingerie. Like,
it's like at some point, but I didn't see a genuine repentance
either. I didn't see, and this is interesting, we have to deal
with these issues, right? But there's hope for every single
struggle. That's why I don't feel like
it's beating people up. And if you're saying, you're
going to hell, I can't believe you. Yeah, okay. But you can
say, hey, listen, God's word says, Nobody who practices sin
is going to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Even the adulterer
who's cooked to pornography. Unrepentant. You call it out
and you give people the answer to their problems. So with God
on your side, everyone, everyone has equality to succeed. What's also happening while I'm
on this topic of socialism based on acts, universities are flooded
by professors who defraud students of the truth. And I was reminded
of Luke 11.52. It says that religious leaders
took away the keys of knowledge and hindered others. And it's
just astonishing what is being taught to the kids and that they're
taking it. They think it's gospel truth.
Because a hippie who smokes marijuana teaches at Berkeley said it.
It's sad to see. And how do you address the error? You bring the truth. You lovingly
challenge. Pray about it, of course. Don't
have the wrong heart. But I don't know if Christians
are always supposed to just be quiet and passive. Somebody posts
something, Challenge it in love. And I don't know if you've seen
the new one, but there's a meme, did I say that right? That's
showing how the United States would have voted if it was just
college educated people who voted. And so I respond, it's like,
you actually just put down yourself because you're for the killing
of innocent babies. You're for men becoming women
and having tampons in their restrooms and sex trafficking with our
open borders and our cartels. You actually just told on yourself.
And it's just ridiculous. So, let's get back on track here. Let's talk about this verse for
a minute because it is important. So they sold their possessions
and their goods, and they gave it to those who were in need.
Context, when it comes to the Bible, is king. Context is king. How many of you know that you
can make the Bible say pretty much anything you want? When
our governor put up a verse by Jesus supporting abortion? Others
have supported alternate lifestyles by saying, judge not. God is
love. Hey, what do you say again? Man,
they've got some good points there. Of course not. Context. So this verse in context, it
probably wasn't all their possessions. Anybody have abundance and you
can give? That's probably what it covered. It was a choice. It was their choice. They were
not forced. That's the big difference. And
it was a genuine need, right? These early Christians could
vet What does that word mean? It means to do due diligence,
to make sure this is a legitimate need. It's interesting too, the
Bible says don't help widows under a certain age. Is it 50? 55? Oh, 60. Oh, we're getting
close. 60, so a 50-year-old widow has
to work. And the Bible would talk about
that and give boundaries. Why? Because they discern between
a genuine need and a need that is not genuine. And that's why
everything is messed up. If you look and you study Section
8 housing, the goal was actually, if you research a little bit,
was not a bad idea that you can help families in need. But then
how many take advantage of that? I mean, it's just unbelievable
how much our government spends on things. The food stamp idea
when it came out, another good idea initially, to help families
with food, government subsidies, right? And they could go into
a store and they could buy things to help them. blown out of control by 1,000.
So see, there's good ideas, but without feet on the ground, being
able to vet the people. Now, how it works, I don't know.
The Titanic's been hit. It's going down. Don't ask me
to get the water out now. It's going to take a miracle
from God. Or Elon Musk and Vivek cleaning out the government.
I mean, it's like, wow! They were able to vet what was
legitimate, what wasn't. And then they could make decisions
based on those things. Side note, do you know the number
one product that food stamps are used for today? Soda. If you want to do it right, have
it cover meat, fresh vegetables, beans, God-given food. That's how you do it, right?
I mean, I'm glad I'm not in charge, but I say, hey, this can't be
used for alcohol, soda, garbage. It's going to hurt you and your
kids. I know I'm getting Michelle Obama on you when she said no
junk food in schools, which is actually not a bad idea, but
we're killing people. We're killing people. We're giving,
even it kind of breaks my heart sometimes with homeless people
or this, why is it always the bad junk that's not getting rid
of their diabetes? Again, I don't have the solution
because I know all these things are very costly, but I think
we need to look at these things. If we're going to help people,
Section 8 housing. Is there a period? Can they be
vetted? Is there any, hey, we'll help
you for six months, but at some point, we need to see a little
effort, show some applications that have been filled out. If you told somebody, we're going
to help you for the rest of your life, even I would slip into
lazy mode, wouldn't most of you? That's why it's called from cradle
to grave entitlement. And this verse is so important
here. The people were vetted. Number
five, hard work was rewarded. See, when you get away from that,
this entitlement now that we've built into our system, like I'm
entitled to this, I deserve this, and we don't have to work to
eat, we don't have to get our fingers dirty, God actually blesses
that. God actually blesses that. If
you're hurting financially, watch what God does with humility.
Go out and work at the place you don't want to work. Oh, I
can't work there. Oh, yes, you can. Maybe God's
trying to humble you. It's humbling. But God will do
a mighty work in your heart through that. I'm not saying this to
everybody. Correct? There's exceptions.
And I've shared this before. It was very humbling. I went
from managing 24-hour fitness centers, Good living. And then God just
completely broke all that out of me. And within a few months,
now I'm digging ditches. And for a while, I fought it.
Like no, I'm going to start a website. I'm going to do this. I'm not
going to go do that. And then God will say, I've got all the
time in the world. But that was a turning point
for me, right? Because it breaks you. It breaks you, and God's
breaking you in order to build you up. Then you can be more
gentle to those who are going through situations. Then you're
not going to be all high and mighty because you think you're
special, and you've got this degree. God breaks those things
out of us. But there is a caution. Caution. Be careful not to downplay giving
because it hurts. What do I mean by that? As I'm
giving all those points, people are like, yep, yep, that's right.
That's why I don't have to give. Yep. It's not genuine. It's not
a real need. It's not this. I don't want to.
But actually, God loves a cheerful giver. A Christian, it should
flow out. If God doesn't have our pocketbook,
does He have our heart? And Christians should live in
such a way that where they can, they can give and help those
in need. And so be careful here. Don't downplay giving. Because
it does hurt a little bit, doesn't it? First service you guys give her?
I don't know. It hurts a little bit, and God
tests us with that. If you want to find out, if you
have the heart of a servant, you'll find out when you're treated
like one. Elizabeth Elliot. If you want to find out if you
have the heart of a servant, oh, yes, I do, I do. Well, you'll
find out when you're treated like one. Did you know that's
a true test? That is a true test. When you're
treated a certain way, you won't get the limelight. You might
not get your name up on the projector. You might not get the center
stage attention. Oh, but we can use you, but in the capacity
that God wants to use you. in the background and in the
foreground, and not being recognized and not wanting to be noticed.
It's a process. And if you have the heart of
a servant, how do you handle the word no? A pin can drop. But isn't that true? When we
hear, you know what, I don't think this is going to work right
now. Or we lovingly confront certain issues. Or we lovingly
challenge. How does a person handle that?
Because that's where the rubber meets the road. All of us can
come in on Sunday and speak Christianese and smile. Oh man, Pastor, did
you get my application? I want to be the next men's director.
Oh, okay, we're not really doing that right. Sorry Rick, you're
out of a job. And well, you know, we're good,
but thank you. What do you mean? See? It comes out. When you're
told no, when you're challenged, when you don't get what you want,
the little kick comes out inside of us. And if you want to find
out your true heart of a certain, watch what happens to your heart
when you're treated a certain way. With gladness and simplicity
of heart, they praised God and they had favor with all people.
The miracle of thankfulness. Can you just imagine bringing
that back to the church? Gladness. Happy to be here. Happy to see one another. The enemy wants to steal that
joy. And often it's because of offense. We get hurt. Or we hear something
we don't want to hear. But they came with gladness.
They were happy to be there. They didn't have to drag their
kids to church. Maybe they did. I don't know. They didn't say
that. The adults. And the Lord added to the church
daily those who are being saved. The Lord grows the church as
a result of faithfulness. The Lord will grow a ministry
as a result of your faithfulness. And I came across this studying
the book of Acts. It's fresh from the hands of Jesus. Marks
of the early church by Dr. Steve Schell. So this chapter,
what we've been talking about, and even beyond, or even back
the last couple months and even going forward, what were the
marks of the early church? Because when you know what the
early church was, it's good to look in the mirror and compare. Becoming a Christian involved
a dramatic change of lifestyle. And that's why we often say,
if you haven't changed, has your heart changed? Because there
is a dramatic change of lifestyle. You'll still have the same, sometimes
the same disposition, the same work ethic and things like that.
Not everything changes necessarily, but a person entered into a family-like
community. This koinia, that word is Greek,
I believe, fellowship, was not forced upon them based on rules. People were drawn together by
love. People know that you are My disciples
by your love for one another. An encouragement here for you,
I have found that that doesn't come naturally. What comes naturally? Bitter. Anger. Grumpy Gary. I don't love that person. They
didn't accept my friend request on Facebook. They didn't say
hi to me. They walked straight by me. They
didn't call me. Pastor Shane said something,
I know he was talking about me. Let me assure you, 99% of the
time, I'm not talking directly about someone. That's ridiculous. Things come to mind situations.
But we get hurt by things. choices that are made, decisions
that are made. And we come into church hurt
instead of joyful. But the early church was drawn
together by love. They put their differences aside,
I'm sure they put personal offenses aside. And it has to come supernaturally. Because what you have to do,
I believe you take those thoughts captive. Let's say I'm coming
in, something happens today. I wasn't planning on that. I
mean, it could be a whole bunch of things. And you say, you know
what, Lord, that's not right. I don't want to let the fiery
darts come into my heart. I'm sure their motives were good.
If you say, you know what, I've been guilty of that myself, does
that help anybody ever? You'll be a lot less judgmental
when you look in the mirror. And you say, Lord, I'm just going
to choose to love them, obey Your Scripture, forgive them,
and guess what happens? Joy comes. The joy wasn't there
initially. What was there initially? Bitterberry. It was tough. I don't feel it.
I don't want to. I don't want to. Oh, I hate to
be too transparent, but I just told Pastor Abram this morning,
no matter where I go, I might as well say that now, I'll run
into people that have left the church over 15 years. And nine times out of 10, thinking,
guys, there's nothing to be offended about. But you can tell, right,
when things are awkward, you ever use that word? Like, oh,
hi, how's it awkward? It's like, it doesn't have to be that way.
These are not big, mountainous problems. These are just things
you work through. You have difficult conversations,
or you don't maybe like the church is doing this, or we apologize,
but you don't, nine times out of 10, if we walked in love,
these things could be reconciled. and the relationship even stronger. But instead, we're walking around
for the rest of our lives with an offense. And the sad reality is we'll
take that to whatever church we go to. And I tell people sometimes when
they're new here, boy, they've been hurt by another church.
I encourage them, you need to work that out. Work that through.
Work that through. Because in six months, we'll
be on the hurt list. I know, I've seen this too many
times to tell you. How many times have we seen it?
People come, oh, man, pastor, I love your preaching the truth. I love
the church. And then six months later, they're
criticizing me about the truth I preach. Why do you bring this
up here? Not an actual Bible. We need to open our Bibles. I
love that idea, but I need big font. And Scripture's all over the
place. Why don't you use the King James
only? Why aren't you wearing a suit and tie? Why do you do
communion this way? I can keep going. These people,
six months ago, they were like so on fire. But now they come
in, scent sniffers. You told everybody to park in
the dirt, why are you parked in the back? It's the dirt. But we're all guilty of that,
right? I go to visit a church, too, on vacation. I'm like, they
don't have our worship team. I hope that lady does not get
up with the flags. Yeah, she just did. And she's
in my face with the flags. It's like, whoa. But see, that's not good. I'm just saying we come in and
we've got to deal with those offenses. Anytime I seem to support God's
sovereignty and Calvinism, the Armenians don't like me. Anytime
I seem to support free will and man can choose, the Calvinists
don't like me. It's like, guys, I think the
Bible says there's a healthy tension for a reason. God is
sovereign, but man has to make a choice. Man is held responsible
for his actions. But God is sovereign. I don't
know. I'll let the theologians worry
about it. I think you think too much about it. When was the last
time you led somebody to the Lord? 1981? But that was my point ten minutes
ago was no matter where we go, we run into people at parties. Right? You get invited to a birthday
thing. It's awkward. It doesn't have to be. It doesn't
have to be. None of these things are worth...
It's like, gosh, you killed their cat or something. Or their free dog lovers. But
that's my point, people, we get so hurt. And I know I'm just preaching
the truth because I get hurt too. But like I've shared with
you, I have to be here. I have to keep coming. I can't stay home. The other church we went to, I think I've shared this before,
but it was Calvary Chapel. He's not there anymore, but this
guy, because I was traveling speaking, or the kids were sick,
right? We'd stay home. He'd be like,
I don't see you very much. I don't want to run into this
guy. I don't want to go to church just so I didn't run into this
guy. He's going to drill me about my attendance. And so nope, I'll
show him. We're not going for a while.
Like that's the smart thing to do? Right, so you have to humble
yourself. I hope my stories are a blessing
to you. They regularly met in one large
group for teaching, evangelism, ministry, and then they went
to small groups such as home churches to eat and pray together.
Have you ever thought about that? Well, that's another criticism
that home churches are the only way, the only truth, the only
life. Nobody comes to Christ except through home churches. That's
not biblical either. But see, all these judgmental...
And that's what people told me. Your church is too big. You need
to be home churches. I remember when we went to JetHawk
Stadium, their people came against us for that. Oh, that's not... Home churches are the way to
go. Guys, how do you live like that? Can you imagine being that
critical of every little thing? What happens is it's the heart
of the Pharisee. It's the heart of the Pharisee. And there's
pride in there that they don't want to deal with. Because if 3,000 were added to
the church, and one day, I have a feeling they didn't have that
many home churches just yet. They would meet in the temple,
inner court, outer court, right? The Holy of Holies outside for
the Gentiles that couldn't go in. And then they would meet
in small fellowships. So I love home churches. I love
house churches. But there's not one way that God does things
when He multiplies different ministries. They gave generously
to the poor and at a sacrificial level that we might think unreasonable
today. They prayed for the sick and
those who were demonized. That was a normal part of life.
Isn't it interesting how early church, if we try to resemble
the early church, we're called fanatical. James, people aren't
demonized today. Well, says who? And that's where
the word King James translated possess. It's really not possess.
The word in the Greek is to have a demon. To be demonized. So if a Christian opens their
heart to porn, addiction of some sort, they've just given a pretty
strong foothold to the enemy. And they can be tormented by
that demonic element or a demon in their life. So we believe
we can pray for people in this area because the Bible talks
about it. In My name you will cast out
Devils speak in other tongues. Oh, that verse isn't really...
Guys, God allowed it for a reason. They lived with a healthy fear
of God. They knew He was present and
saw everything they did. There was a healthy fear of God
that we have lost. Their gatherings were marked
by joy, warmth, and praise. People were welcomed, not judged. And finally, they had a great
reputation in the city, and people were drawn toward them. Here's the thing about Christians.
Well, I thought the world hates us. They do, but we should have
a good testimony, a character in the community. And that's
challenging, isn't it, sometimes? Because the world wants to come
out of you, the old self. wants to come out, but a good
testimony. It was funny, I don't know if
I was going to tell the story or not, but yesterday we got
my son a car finally, and we were down there, I wish I could
tell the story sometime maybe. But he's a younger guy, and he's
like, okay, how much do you want me to put that you bought it
for so you don't have to pay as much taxes? Like, well, just put what we
paid for. I fear God. So it was a great opportunity. Long story
short, he's agnostic, but wants to maybe come to church, talk,
because they don't agree with maybe what we teach, certain
things, but they understand, they'll see you're different.
There's a distinction there. And so I'll close with this.
His scars, fresh from the hands of Jesus. You know, maybe a confession. I don't know if I've always told
somebody that when I bought a car. I do remember the days 20 years
ago. You guys, for service, I'm going
to have... You guys know, just say this amount, and then I pay
less at the DMV. It's a process. You're growing
and you're maturing in the Lord. His scars, fresh from the hands
of Jesus. And how many of you listen to
Erwin Lutzer on the radio? He's on a radio network. He gave an incredible example. He went to, I think, some type
of event where it had all different kinds of religions. And he was
walking around. He went to Buddhist. He went
to Islam. He went to the different ones.
And he said, I'm a sinner, and I'm looking for a sinless Savior. None of the religions could provide
that. Did you know Islam even recognizes the sin in Muhammad? The prophet? Buddha? No, it's enlightenment. We can't
recommend a sinless... We don't have a sinless Savior.
Enlightenment. All these religions did not have
the one thing that Christianity has. The sinless Savior. That's why this is the most important
question a person can ask or even research. Let me put this
verse up here that's probably not going to be put up on a lot
of screens in churches because it is very challenging but very
true. Listen to this and I will close.
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin,
but a certain fearful expectation of judgment. It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So we either
fall into the hands of judgment, or you fall into the hands of
salvation. talking to the unbeliever now who might be listening later,
you do have to make that decision. You do have to make that decision.
There is a fearful expectation of judgment. And I think most
people know that. That's why they don't want to
talk about God unless they can define God for you. Their God
is a cosmic ball of love. God is love. But they know there's
a... Even the demons believed and
trembled because they knew what was coming. And so people know. Don't talk about... They'll tell
you, I could go on Oprah, like Joel Steen and those other guys,
if I didn't talk about anything like this. Tell us about the
cozy God. That God. But you start talking
about these things. Why? Because there's something
in them that gets upset. They don't like to be challenged.
They don't like that fearful expectation of the judgment of
God. There's something that resonates
with them in a negative way, but in a good sense. Have you
ever noticed that? People are fine to talk about
Jesus and all His nice sayings. But when you get to the judgment
of God, that's where the rubber meets the road because they will
know in a moment that they'll have to be accountable for their
actions. And they will not be able to
stand before a holy God.
Fresh From The Hands of Jesus
| Sermon ID | 1119242118273085 |
| Duration | 52:13 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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