All right, so let's turn in our scriptures to Luke 13. So let's be in prayer for college students. And just a few more weeks, schools get started again. Those that are on campuses that are predominantly secular, not Christian campuses. They are the salt and light for those campuses. And so, students, I wanna encourage you to be that salt and light. And then, body of Christ, we need to be praying for these students on a regular basis. All right, so let's turn over to Luke 13. We're gonna pick up and we're gonna start our reading in 31. Luke 13, 31. At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to him, to Jesus, get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you. And he said to them, go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I finish my course. Verse number 33, nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. And then listen to 34 and 35. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stone those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing. Behold, your house is forsaken, and I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And then I want you to look back at verse number 22. This is from last week. Verse number 22, chapter 13. He, Jesus, went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Let's pray together. Oh God who spoke the word into existence, who is the very word. Tonight we look into that word and Lord we reverence what you have to say to us from your word. We hold it in very high regard tonight. We count it as the source of all truth. We wanna look into it, we wanna peer into it, and we wanna see where we need to change. Lord, we wanna understand it. I pray that the Spirit will come tonight and help me communicate in a clear and understandable way that you will open the doors of understanding and you will enlighten our minds from your word. Lord, I pray that we will have the courage to change what we need to when we're confronted with those things we need to change. This is the word of God, and so let it be in us. In your name we pray, amen. So, let's look at verse number 33. Verse number 33, we pick up the journey that Jesus began last week, or actually has been for several weeks, been journeying towards Jerusalem. We read verse number 22 because we want to be reminded of last week as Jesus journeyed towards Jerusalem. Several asked him a very important question, and last week as we listened, last Sunday night, as we listened to his answer, we were challenged with that hard and difficult answer. How many are going to enter into the kingdom? And it was challenging, and it was tough, and some of the hard verses in the word of God. But here Jesus continues, and it says in verse number 31, Nevertheless, nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. So what we see is Jesus is working his way to Jerusalem. This is really, really important for us to understand. In fact, it is actually part of the plot tonight, part of the plot. Jesus is on mission, and this is what's so interesting to see, because we basically see a warning of a threat to his life from these Pharisees. But we see that Jesus is on mission, and he is not rattled in one way or another. In fact, he knows the call to suffer, he knows even the timing of his suffering, and he knows the location, the place of his suffering. And this is really important. Because look at his answer. He says, go and tell that fox. Now I wanna ask you, why do you think Jesus calls Herod a fox? Because we've got, so if we didn't see it in the story, we've got the Pharisees are coming to Jesus and they're warning Jesus that Herod has it out for him and that he needs to be on the move, right? Okay, so why do you think that He used the word fox, any ideas? This is where you can look in your study Bibles, it'll tell you. You can look like you're a real big genius, Bible genius, but it's right there in your Bible. I want you to think about this, I want you to look it up. Yes, give me some ideas. Okay, somebody who's worthless. So Sam brings to our attention that the term fox was often used for somebody who is worthless. All right, don't read your whole note. Somebody else is gonna give some other answers, Sam, okay? All right, so. Deceitful and cunning. What else, what else you got in your note? Yes. Sly, like a fox, right? There's one or two other ideas. Yes, right here, what do you got? Okay, he wants to ambush on Jesus. What else? Yes? Yeah, we said that over here. I know you couldn't hear. I should probably be repeating things. So we've got Sam said that worthless, you know, somebody who's not important, and then we've got cunning, and we have wants to make an ambush on Jesus. Anything else, Jeff? Okay, so nip and bite, yep. So, all important things to look at. At first, you know, you might seem, well, first of all, don't you just love the humor in the scriptures? Go and tell that fox, right? This was not a tournament of endearment, okay? This was kind of a put down, but in the way that only Jesus could, he did it, we know, without sin. Right? But he's clearly communicating something to the Pharisees. And I think that the number one probably good answer there is that he's insignificant. The timing doesn't matter. The threat is not important. Jesus is on mission. Okay? And of course we see because he was cunning, the fox can be cunning to try to get the prey. And then because Herod, maybe because he was destructive, a fox comes to destroy. And we know that Herod has a history of doing that. So, who is this Herod? Just in way of review, this is Herod Antipas, or Antipas. I don't know how you're supposed to say that, but I say Antipas. Put the emphasis in the right syllable. B.C. 4 to A.D. 39, okay? And he was, of course, the Herod that had the debacle with John the Baptist, and not really looking to repeat that, he's trying some new things, okay? And it's really not sure, well, we're almost confident that the Pharisees weren't doing this because they cared about Jesus, okay? He had just, you know, for many chapters really laid into them, and they really had no love for Jesus. So we know that this wasn't an honest concern that they had. They were, there's something up. They got game going on some here, okay? So it probably, the fact of the matter is that he's trying to manipulate the situation. Herod is trying to, or the Pharisees. It could be that Herod never even said this, but the Pharisees and Herod want Jesus And Herod just wants him out of his region. And the Pharisees want him in their region because they're trying to put him to death for heresy and other things. So this is the likelihood of what's going on here. But here is, you can see the territories. And up in there in Galilee, where Jesus was at the time of this, is where he is. And down here in Judea, the influence of the Pharisees, which it's said to be about 6,000 strong. down in Judea would be where they kind of want to get Jesus there because they want to put him to death. And all while this is going on, the prophecy is being fulfilled and God's work is being done, right? So here's Jesus' clever response. He said, you know, Pharisees, I'm not really concerned about that because I'm gonna get done when I get done, right? It looks like he says it's three days. My work will take three days, right? If you look in the text, he says I'm gonna do some miracles, do some cures. Gonna be here about three days and then I'll be moving on. But the reality is he's just communicating that God's work is done when God says God's work is done. And not Herod, not the Pharisees, or not anybody else is gonna stop God's work, the proper work of God, okay? So now talk to me, what does three days make you think of though? All right, three days, you know, the sign of Jonah. We've heard this language before, three days, and then he's raised again. So certainly some imagery there. And then here's the thing. We say God's work is done when it's done, but how often do we want it done when we want it done? Or maybe we think it's done when we think it's done, and it's not done, right? And so we struggle with that. So talk to me, what was Jesus doing on his way to Jerusalem? We look back at verse number 22, and we did that for a reason. We see Jesus is making his move to Jerusalem. We know that it wasn't just three days, but this is an idea that Jesus is on purpose going towards Jerusalem. He's on mission. So talk to me, what was Jesus doing on his way to Jerusalem? Teaching, I heard teaching, what else? Healing, what else? Casting out demons, good, you got all three, okay. He was teaching, he was performing cures or healing, and he was casting out demons, okay. So here's my question for you. Why was he doing that? Why was Jesus doing that? Okay, Jeff says to prove he was Messiah. I heard some other things over here. Show his power, show his, tell his sovereignty. To fulfill prophecy. Compassion and love, okay. So here's one thought along those lines. The teaching and the miracles of Jesus was a loving demonstration to his people, the Jews, as he's going to his certain death, knowing that in just a few minutes we're gonna read that they're gonna reject him, but as he goes to Jerusalem, he's still doing the work that he was called to do. Everywhere he's calling people to believe in him. Everywhere he's calling and doing the work of healing from compassion. And we certainly understand that it's from prophecy, we certainly understand to show who he was, but we're gonna see in just a few moments that some of this was because of the pure compassion of Christ for people. When he saw someone afflicted, Jesus was moved. He had true compassion. So even on the way to the cross, he was still working to draw men and women to him. And I love this little, you know, there's memes abound now, right? Christian memes and t-shirts, but this one is pretty good. I thought love was shaped like a heart, but it's actually shaped like a cross. So here's our first encounter where we take stop tonight and we ask ourselves this internal question. This isn't raise your hand and tell me out loud, but do you have a Jerusalem? Are you on a mission? Are you headed anywhere of sacrifice? Is someone somewhere in your loving care? Are you grieving for someone who needs Christ? Are you giving up your life as you move towards God? winning those who are under judgment. Because see, what Christ understands is that this is so important because the house of Israel is going to be under judgment. In fact, anyone who does not follow him is going to be under judgment. But we're going to see specifically as we look tonight, He's really grieved about Jerusalem. And of course, Jerusalem is just symbolic of Israel, which is just symbolic of his chosen people, which is on and on and on. We've seen throughout history that they rejected God and fell into idolatry. But here he is loving care. So let's look at verse number 34, and we see this so clearly and so poignantly. Let's read it together. Look what it says. And you can just, you could hear the emotion come off the page, right? Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets. Wow. Wow. Is that the way it's supposed to be? What was Jerusalem supposed to represent? The highest form of worship on earth. You almost get like the sense, and we'll look at it in a minute, but Paul, when he just, I wish I was accursed. for Israel, I wish I was accursed. And he's so grieved because they had the oracles of God, but you could just hear it. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets, and stone those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together? What a tender picture. Now this is not intended to be some sort of just warm and fuzzy image. No, this is supposed to be reality. We're supposed to live in the care of Christ. We're supposed to live in the care of God the Father who wants to gather. This is Jesus speaking for God the Father all throughout Old Testament history as they wandered away. And the emotion And the concern and the compassion comes through in his struggle. Why are you not willing? But you are not willing. It's just so sad. So here's the fact and point. All of the prophets weren't killed in Jerusalem. But the imagery, the point is made that Jerusalem was supposed to be where the temple was, where the worship of God was pure, and yet time after time again in Old Testament history, Israel refused the word of God that came through the men and women that God sent to them. And then finally, they refused his only begotten son. Here's a couple Old Testament references, just so you can look at them. 2 Chronicles 24, 20 and 21, we got Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, stoned to death in the courtyard of the temple. Folks, can you grasp just how offensive that is to God? I don't, I'm not sure we understand because, you know, the stone building, we're the temple of God, we're the, you know, we don't have a holy of holies where no one can enter anymore, and so we don't have this concept. But he was stoned for bringing the truth of the God of the temple in the temple. And then Uriah, the son of Shemiah, cut down with the sword by King Jehoiakim for the same thing. Don't tell me the truth of God, I'm gonna kill you. So, look at this next phrase. You were not willing. You were not willing. We're just gonna think about that for a little bit. We're just gonna think about that for a little bit. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing? Can I ask you a question? Does this mess with your theological grid at all? I don't mean to be like that, but just think about that. You know, you ask yourself what you understand, and what we see is we see in Scripture always this great tension, because in this very passage we see the sovereignty of God. I'm going to Jerusalem, I'm gonna do the work that I'm gonna do, nobody's gonna stop me, and yet I'm holding you accountable because you were not willing. I am grieved because you were not willing. So Jesus is filled with compassion and grief. Can you hear the concern in the verses? So we have this language. We have this language in the Old Testament. It's beautiful. We've got Psalm 61, four. Let me dwell in your tent forever. The psalmist is saying this. Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings. Now, here's the thing. This is kind of a churchy thing, right? We don't say this to our kids. You know, they're running across the street. Come and take shelter under my wings. No, right? Stay out of the street, you're gonna get hit. But it's the same sentiment, right? We love our children. We don't want them to get hit by a car. And so we say, get over here. Get right here. What do we say? Hold my hand. Stay by my hand. Right? Okay? But this is the idea that the psalmist has, and there's so many beautiful passages in the Psalms of this idea of, and we're also not farmers and have, well, maybe some of you, I know some of you have chickens, okay? Some glorious chickens, beautiful chickens. And maybe they do the wing thing, I don't know. But we're not familiar with this, right? The mother, all we've got is the penguins that stand on the egg forever on the, what is that? not History Channel, the other one, National Geographic, you know, and we, oh God, that's some dedication, right? But this idea that we're bringing the ones that are vulnerable, that need protection under the wings. And then Psalm 106, 47, save us, O Lord, save us. You ever say that during the week? Save me, O Lord, I've really messed up, right? That's what usually follows my next thing. And gather us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. And yet we move on to another sad portion as we see in verse number 35. Now a pronouncement of judgment. And really it would be better if it just wasn't in here. It would be a great sermon if we didn't have to go through this, but it's in the text. And I think there's some really awesome things we can learn from this. Some really encouraging things as well that we can learn from this. But let's look first of all at verse number 35. And you can see in verse number 35, it says, behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Okay? So now we're gonna do a little thing. We're gonna flip this verse. We're gonna struggle with the end of the verse first. I know that's kind of a little unusual, but I have a reason for it, okay, I promise. So we're gonna struggle with the end of the verse. So I want you to look down where it says the word you, you will not see me until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So who is the you? Who is the you? What's your thoughts? What's that? Jerusalem. Okay, so he's looking at Jerusalem. He can see Jerusalem. He's saying Jerusalem, the city. All right, who else? Who else is the you? The Pharisees? That's a possibility. The Pharisees. The nation of Israel. Okay, so what you're communicating by that, let's just be clear. Okay, so ethnic Israel is what you're communicating? Okay, so does everybody understand the difference, what we're trying to make a difference between sons of Abraham genetically and true Israel in the heart, okay? So which do you think it would be when he says you in this verse? Is it the true Israel in the heart, or is it ethnic Israel, or is it some kind of combination of both? True Israel? How many vote for true Israel? Let's just put it on the line right there. All right, how many vote for ethnic Israel? Just want to pull it out. Some of you didn't vote at all. That's okay, that's okay. What'd you say, Jeff? Combo, oh yeah, I guess I should say combo. Combo is the easy answer, right? That's like a cop out. That's like, you know, you can always, it's both and, yes. Yeah, the easy way to get out of it is just it's both and, right? But definitely, he's not talking to Gentiles at this point. Would we all agree about that, okay? So, somewhere in that spectrum, he's talking to Jews. He's talking to people who would claim Father Abraham as their father, okay? And I suppose it does matter a little bit, let's wrestle with the next question, when, I guess that does matter who the you is. Right? So let's wrestle with the next question. When are they gonna hear, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? Triumphal entry, I heard triumphal entry. What else? Palm Sunday, yep. Triumphal entry. Anybody else got any other viewpoints on that? Okay. So, of course, Luke 19, he's gonna be near Jerusalem again. He's gonna say kind of some similar stuff. And then we see the triumphal entry. So, you know, we're wrestling back and forth. Is this individual Jews? Is this corporate Jews? Is this true Israel? Is this ethnic Israel? Well, The reality is, to a certain extent, what you believe about eschatology is going to probably drive the train about where you end up when you're considering verses like this. Now, I'm not sure it should, but it's kind of, it has to in some sense. And the problem with eschatology is some of them are very complex grids. And if you change one thing about one Old Testament verse, it's gonna suddenly change every, have a domino effect all the way down, okay? So we are not gonna get in and pull all those sweater threads tonight, okay? Because we'll end up just here without a shirt. Right? So, but we're going to try to look at the main point, the main idea. What's the most important thing that we can agree on? Well, I've got some thoughts. When we're considering, is this a future or past event? Is the desolation lifted? And if so, when? We've got a few things to think about. Okay? First of all, I heard triumphal entry. Logical, makes sense, why? Because it sounds the same words, right? Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And in the parallel passage, the problem is, this is said after the triumphal entry. So we've got a choice. Either this author chose to put it in a different place, or the other author, Matthew, chose to put it in a different place, or maybe he said it twice in two different places, Okay, we got some choices, but the hard reality is not 100% sure about that. But I do have some thoughts about the triumphal entry. If we're looking at the grief and the passion that Jesus has, and we understand just how extremely painful this is to him, if it's just gonna be a couple of weeks, it doesn't seem like a real big forsaken, abandonment, desolation. So words like desolation and abandonment that we're gonna look at in just a minute and unpack don't make a lot of sense. I mean, they could make a little bit of sense. And then what do you do with it was finished? Jesus says it's finished on the cross, right? And so that doesn't sound it still doesn't fit the timing, right? Are you following with me? Is it making sense? And then the question is, will the sacrifices begin again? And once again, we're all the way back to your eschatological grid. What do you think about the end times? Is the temple going to be rebuilt? You know, are we going to have sacrifices again? All of those things kind of impact your answer. Is everybody with me so far? Okay. So, Let's look at this idea of it is finished real quickly. Hebrews 10.10, and by that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, what does it say? Once for all. Folks, here's why I struggle with the idea that we're gonna kick up the sacrificial system again. Clearly we understand from this teaching that Christ's work on the cross satisfied it all. And then the next one, A few verses later, Hebrews 10, 19 through 22, therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way, what does it say? That he opened for us through the curtain. What is he talking about in that curtain? The veil. What happened to the veil? It was torn. Seems kind of permanent, okay? And we're gonna think about that in just a minute as well. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. So this idea of an empty house. Let's just bore down into this just a little bit. So we're gonna jump back now to the first part of the verse. Remember, I told you we're gonna kind of flip-flop it. We talked about when, is he gonna see. Now we're gonna really unpack the forsaken idea, okay? It says that the first part of the verse, behold, your house is forsaken. Now do you think the your and the you are linked? You know, we talked about who is the you. We said nation of Israel, Jerusalem is, you know, true Israel or whatever you believe about that, right? Behold your house. He's still talking to the Jews. Of course, this came first, so that's obvious, right? So here's what we have. We've got three basic translations of this in English word order. We've got, behold your house is left unto you desolate. We've got, behold your house is forsaken. And C, your house is abandoned to you. Okay, does everybody see that? So we're going to talk about this idea of forsaken, abandoned, and desolation. Desolation. The word desolation. Okay? So first of all, we need to recognize this is a sad pronouncement. A sad pronouncement. And I think we've stated it enough tonight. Jerusalem is supposed to be the place where Jesus was embraced. Jerusalem is supposed to be the place of true worship. the temple was supposed to be a place of true worship. And yet, Jesus made the statement that, you know what? If I'm gonna be killed, make sense that I'm killed in Jerusalem, because that's what they do over there, they kill the prophets. Sad. And of course, this is spoken in prophecy, Jeremiah 12, seven, so turning your Bible back, please, to Jeremiah chapter 12, verse number seven. Jeremiah 12, seven. So this is some pronouncement that we have from the Old Testament of judgment upon Israel given to Jeremiah. And here we see verse number seven. It says, I have forsaken my house. The I there of course is the Lord, God. Yahweh has forsaken his house. What could cause Yahweh to forsake his house? I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest. She has lifted up her voice against me. Therefore, what does it say? I hate her. Some amazing things. I have forsaken my house. I have abandoned my heritage. I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of my enemies. And then Jeremiah 22 five. This is given as a pronouncement to them. Jeremiah 22 five. Look what he says, but if, but if, that's conditional, but if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, because I can't swear by anything greater, declares the Lord, declares Yahweh, that this house shall become, what does it say? A desolation, desolation. So let's just unpack this a little bit. The phrase here, and let's go back to Luke, and look at verse number 34, and we can see here it says, see your house is left unto you desolate, in one of those translations. What does the translation in front of you say? Someone just, what do we have? Your house is forsaken. Anybody have something different? Okay. So, similar uses, we've got desolate, desolation, forsaken, abandoned, all of these words, all of these kind of imagery that we've been using. and I went and I just dug down into this. I wanted to know because some of the translations had a little different word order and Pastor Brian helped me and we looked at this and I made slide to show you here in the Greek this pronouncement right here and the definition of this word used in Luke, solitary, lonely, desolate, uninhabited, And then I went and I looked, okay, well, I wanna see what the link back to Jeremiah was, so I'm gonna go to the Septuagint. Why am I gonna do that? Okay, Greek for Greek, it's gonna be the best Greek translation of the closest one to the Old Testament that they would've had at the time. And it says, a different word. In fact, as I dug into this a little more and more, The ideas were the same, but I don't know what the translators were doing. They didn't do it very consistently. So at the end of the day, it wasn't much help. So if you really like to geek out about that stuff, you can dig into that this week and you can send me an email and see if you can find any better links. But honestly, we get the idea. To walk away from something is to abandon it, right? To depart from, leave behind, leave, let alone, and then our other words were solitary, lonely, desolate, uninhabited. Okay, we get the idea. So in some sense, here's what Christ is communicating. You can have it. You can have it. Your house has become such a place of idol worship, such a place of meaningless worship to actually Yahweh that you can have it. And that's the saddest pronouncement I think that he makes here. Only those who pretend to worship God go there. Israel was referred to as God's house. The temple was the house of God. Temple stood for 586 years. It's hard for us to wrap our brain around that because we don't have buildings that have stood in our country for that long really. 586 years and then from 68 to 70, the siege of Jerusalem, it was destroyed. And I don't know, I get a little emotional about that and I wasn't even there to see it. That just sounds like a really bad deal to me. The house of God, the representation of the worship of God on earth stood for 586 years and then it was destroyed? So why is this so sad? Well, if they'd embraced Jesus, then think about it. The worship at the temple. What worship it would have been. What worship it would have been if they would embrace their Messiah. The place on earth. it would be beautiful and true and meaningful. And yet now as they reject the word of God standing before them, now as they reject the creator of the universe that's standing right before them, it's meaningless and empty. Jeremiah 22 five, but if you would not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. So let's think about this. We're not exactly sure how long, we're not exactly sure when. We kinda got the you, I think we're in the target area for the you. But let's think about this concept. One of the worst pronouncements of judgment is when a wicked people are given exactly what they want. When the Lord says, you know what? You wanna do that? Just do it. A false religion that appeases their conscience but has no power to save your souls. So here's some things that I thought about. Maybe you can think about them this week. From one weekend to the next weekend, think about how the temple and the purpose of the temple changed after Christ raised from the dead. The week before could have been the best place of worship. The week after, it's just a room. The temple, the curtain is torn down. Do you ever think about, did someone put it back up? And can you just think what God was thinking as he looked down as that person or persons, probably persons, were putting the thing back up? Wait a minute, I tore that down for a reason. Why are you putting that back up? No, no, no. It's false worship. Don't do that. How we offend God, right? And then what was it like the Passover, the year after Jesus rose from the dead? We know what it was like for Christians, but man, those Jews who, because folks, you do realize that, you know, from the time that Christ rose from the dead till the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of temple was a good amount of time. You know, like 34, 33 to 68. And so temple worship continued. How do we know this? Well, because Paul went into cities and synagogues, and that's where he tried to reason with them about Jesus being raised from the dead. So we knew that the Jewish form of worship and temple and teaching was ongoing. And yet it was empty and vain. In fact, it was as Jesus said, I'm going to give it to you. It's empty. It's empty. So was this then the final judgment? So I want you to think back last week. What did we have last week when Pastor Sean talked about the closing of the door? Remember that? We talked last week. Anybody? It was permanent, right? It was permanent. So here we have something I think a little different, but tearing the temple down was pretty final. It was said that during the siege from 68 to 70 that the Jews were so starved to death that they didn't even cry. They didn't even weep when their children died. There were no place to bury. They threw them over the wall. It was also said that the Romans would make fun of the Christians when the boulders would fly over the wall and the sun would glint off the boulders. They would say, oh look, Jesus is coming back in the sky. So this is a very final judgment, at least on that beautiful temple. Was this God's final judgment on false worship? Some things to consider. So what about us? This is just a quick article we see from NPR. The faithful seek both crisis and opportunity as churches close around the country. And we read on what we hear all the time as a narrative as more churches are closing than are opening up in our own country, right? And this is sad. Look what this article says in one place. Every year the pews are getting emptier and the collection plates getting lighter. He says, we're going to see thousands of church closing in America over the next 20 or 30 years in every part of the country, in every region, in every state, urban, suburban, and rural. That's sad. Church closings are sad. But what is more sad? A building filled with people and empty hearts toward God. Empty hearts towards God. We have buildings filled with people seeking to worship God in their own way. And we can run all the way back. We can all run all the way back to this story. You remember this story? What happened here? Right. We have our first time in history when someone brought their own sacrifice to God. And it was empty and desolate. And what did God do? He walked away from it. Walked away from it. So let's just think about this as we close. What about me? What about the worship in my heart? A sobering question. When you worship, are you the only one there? Is God here? When we sing together, are you truly worshiping God? Because we can look, we can flip this, right? And we can talk about the desolation in our own heart. We can talk about our own empty hearts. And we need to be worried about that. We need to be concerned with having empty hearts towards God. I want to close this with this. This is kind of a contrasting closing. This is actually a positive closing. So I was reading a book and in contrast, empty temples in the first century. So true Christianity was having an effect in the first century. I want to recommend this book, Can't We Trust the Gospels? This is where I saw this quote and it just leapt off the page for me. And so this is from Pliny the Younger, and Pliny the Younger was one of our first century extra biblical writers that we can go to and say who was writing during the time of the gospels to kind of prove that the gospels can be trusted. And Pliny the Younger was one of those folks. And let's read what he says. He's writing a letter to his boss. He's asking for some advice how to deal with these pesky Christians, okay? And it says, it is my custom, sir, to refer to you in all cases where I do not feel sure for who can better direct my doubts or infirm my ignorance. That's called kissing up. Okay? I have never been present at any legal examination of the Christians and do not know, therefore, what are the usual penalties passed upon them, or the limits of those penalties, or how searching and inquiry should be made. Those who deny that they were or had been Christians are called upon the gods in the usual formula, reciting the words after me, those who offered incense and wine before your image, that's Herod's image, and the ruler there, which I had given orders to be brought forward for this purpose, together with the statues of the deities, all such I considered should be discharged, or they're dismissed. The charges are dismissed against them. If you worship the Roman gods, even though you said you were a Christian at one point, you're good to go, you can leave. Especially as they curse the name of Christ, and look what the next statement says, which we can't get a single authentic Christian to do. We can't get a single authentic Christian to curse the name of Christ. In fact, that was the measuring stick. If they would refuse to do that, they knew they were really Christians and they were gonna have to be dealt with. Then look what it says. For the contagion Christianity, I put that in there so you'd understand. He didn't put that in there. he calls Christianity the contagion, of this superstition has spread not only through the free cities but into the villages and the rural districts and yet it seems to me that it can be checked and set right. It is beyond doubt that the temples which have been almost deserted Desolate are beginning again to be thronged with worshipers that the sacred rites which have for a long time been allowed to lapse are now being renewed and that the food for the sacrificial Victims is once more finding a sale whereas up to recently a buyer was hardly to be found Okay, we'll put that in regular English We ain't got no customers for the idol worship because these Christians were converting everybody to Christ and That's what he's saying. And so here we have, in the first century, Christians are emptying out through the gospel. Of course, it's the gospel, it's not the Christians. But Christians delivering the gospel, the gospel, the power of Christ, is emptying out, making desolate the temples of the Roman worship. So much so, they were losing money. and they were not happy about it. All right, so let's close with this thought. May we go out and do the same thing to the world in which we live. May we go out and make desolate places of sin and destruction by the way we live our lives in Christ. May we have them calling us up, why are you doing this? Our bottom line is being affected because you're following Christ. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your encouraging word tonight. Pray that we'll have a great week. We thank you for the privilege that we have to come into this place and worship you authentically, the Christ that has redeemed us from our sin. We love you and we want to worship you all the days of our life. In your name we pray, amen.