The Danger of Decisional Salvation: Trusting Sovereignty Over Ritual

• Faith vs. Fear [00:24:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines the core conflict as choosing between trusting the 'sovereign savior' or letting 'circumstances be the loudest voice,' determining whether one lives by faith or fear.
• The Nature of Doubt [00:34:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor corrects the cultural assumption that doubt is the opposite of faith, asserting instead that fear is the opposite, and that doubt can coexist with genuine faith.
• Biblical Examples of Struggle [00:35:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses John the Baptist, Jeremiah, and King David as examples of faithful figures who experienced doubt, despair, and feelings of being 'tricked' or 'forsaken' by God.
• John the Baptist's Ministry [00:27:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor details John's role as a prophet in the spirit of Elijah, his confrontation with corrupt government, and his humility in pointing to Jesus.
• Honest Lament and Doubt [00:35:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses Jeremiah, David, and John the Baptist to illustrate that biblical figures expressed deep doubt and feelings of being tricked or forsaken by God, validating these emotions as part of the faith journey.
• The Nature of True Faith [00:36:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > Faith is defined not as the absence of doubt, but as picking up doubts and unanswered questions and continuing to follow Jesus, exemplified by Peter's response in John 6.
• Scriptural Authority vs. Feelings [00:39:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Jesus answers John the Baptist's doubts by pointing to fulfilled prophecy (Isaiah) rather than appealing to feelings, teaching believers to stand on the 'solid rock' of God's revealed word instead of their emotions.
• The Cost of Discipleship [00:42:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor debunks the 'prosperity gospel' or 'best life now' narrative, arguing that following Jesus may lead to offense and loss of life, and that true life is found by laying down one's life, not chasing cash, prizes, or health.
• Spiritual Warfare and Kingdom Advancement [00:47:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The Kingdom of Heaven is described as 'suffering violence' and being taken by force, calling believers to be 'warriors' who fight against false ideologies and darkness rather than being 'spineless, pansy, do-gooders' seeking comfort.
• Spiritual Warfare and Kingdom Advancement [00:47:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the church is at war and must actively advance the kingdom, rejecting 'spineless' passivity and 'playing church' in favor of forceful engagement against spiritual darkness.
• Complacency vs. Alertness [00:50:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > He identifies complacency as the greatest threat to the church, criticizing those who seek comfort and applause rather than advancing the Great Commission, comparing them to children playing games instead of listening to the music of the gospel.
• Religious Hypocrisy and Legalism [00:52:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the analogy of an HOA, he critiques religious people who focus on finding fault rather than celebrating, noting that both John the Baptist and Jesus were criticized by religious leaders regardless of their behavior.
• Judgment and Repentance [00:53:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that God's kindness leads to repentance and that those who reject Jesus despite witnessing miracles face greater judgment than pagan cities like Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom.
• Childlike Faith vs. Religious Pedigree [00:57:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > He contrasts the 'wise and understanding' with 'little children,' arguing that salvation is not earned by status, knowledge, or being born into a Christian family, but through trusting faith, illustrated by a child jumping into a pool.
• Self-Righteousness vs. Grace [00:59:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the futile attempt to prove oneself righteous through performance with the biblical truth that God's verdict comes before performance, granting credit for Christ's perfect life through faith.
• The Exhaustion of Sin and Religion [01:05:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor lists various sources of spiritual and emotional exhaustion, including chasing temporary things, secret sin, anxiety, comparison, and the 'myth of there,' arguing that these pursuits fail to satisfy.
• The Meaning of the Yoke [01:10:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the historical context of a 'yoke' as the legalistic requirements of rabbis, contrasting this exhausting burden with Jesus' easy yoke, which is defined simply as repentance and faith.
• The Invitation to Come to Christ [01:08:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes that Jesus invites the weary, heavy-laden, and sinful to come to Him directly, rejecting the idea that one must 'get their act together' or perform religious rituals first.
• Salvation by Grace vs. Religious Works [01:13:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the failure of 'doing life your way' and religious exhaustion with the rest found in Christ's invitation, emphasizing that salvation is a gift, not an earned reward.
• Personal Faith vs. Cultural Religion [01:14:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using a personal anecdote about growing up Southern, the pastor distinguishes between cultural familiarity with Christianity ('tooth fairy' level belief) and a genuine, personal trust in Christ's atonement.
• The Ordinances (Baptism and Communion) [01:17:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the two ordinances as reminders of the gospel rather than means of earning grace, detailing the symbolism of baptism (dying to self) and the Lord's Supper (Christ's body and blood fulfilling the Passover).
• The New Covenant of Grace [01:23:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that the Lord's Supper represents the new covenant of grace, contrasting it with the old covenant of law, highlighting that believers drink the 'cup of grace' because Jesus drank the 'cup of wrath.'
• Spiritual Rest and Invitation [01:25:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor extends an invitation to those who are mentally, spiritually, physically, or relationally tired to come to Jesus and cast their cares on Him, citing Peter's instruction.
• Congregational Response [01:25:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor transitions the service into a liturgical response involving singing, praying, and responding to the message.

• Sermon Illustration [00:29:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts receiving the William Wilberforce Award from Florida Family Voice for standing against a 'demonic confusing amendment' in the state, which he claims resulted in 40,000 babies being able to live each year.
• Sermon Illustration [00:32:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes John the Baptist's disciples complaining about losing 'market share' as crowds followed Jesus, illustrating John's response that he is merely a groomsman whose purpose is to decrease so Christ may increase.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Jeremiah feeling 'tricked' and 'seduced' by God because he was called to build up nations but faced rejection, and King David crying out 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' in Psalm 22.
• Sermon Illustration [00:39:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the story of John the Baptist sending disciples to ask Jesus if He is the Messiah, and Jesus responding by listing miracles (blind seeing, lame walking) that fulfill Isaiah's prophecies, deliberately omitting the part about captives being set free to highlight that the Kingdom involves suffering and offense, not just immediate relief.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analogy of a surgeon cutting a patient to remove a heart of stone and replace it with a new heart, illustrating that the offense of the gospel (conviction of sin) is necessary for healing, even if it stings.
• Sermon Illustration [00:45:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > A personal anecdote about a church member who texted the pastor feeling that God had turned His face away due to unanswered prayers, to which the pastor responded by pointing to the cross where God turned His face from Jesus so that believers could be face-to-face with Him.
• Sermon Illustration [00:43:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > A reference to Theo Von's recent public display of being 'poor in spirit' and wrestling with whether he truly wants to change his life, used to illustrate the blessing of recognizing one's need for God rather than just seeking temporary wants.
• Sermon Illustration [00:52:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of an HOA (Homeowners Association) member with a clipboard who can only see what is wrong (grass too long/short) to describe the religious leaders of the first century who criticized both John the Baptist and Jesus.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > He describes a first-century children's game similar to 'Simon Says' where kids would dance to a flute or mourn to a dirge, but instead listened to each other and messed around, illustrating the crowd's refusal to respond to Jesus' message.
• Sermon Illustration [00:59:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses the image of a child jumping into a pool when their parent reaches out, trusting the parent to catch them, to illustrate the nature of saving faith as trust rather than self-righteousness or preparation.
• Sermon Illustration [00:56:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > He references the biblical account of Sodom, specifically the men of Sodom attempting to rape the male angels, to illustrate the severity of their sin and why their judgment was so severe, yet still less severe than those who reject Jesus despite seeing his miracles.
• Sermon Illustration [01:06:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his wife Gretchen stating that 'secrets are exhausting,' and reflects on his own high school experience as a 'southern man' who assumed he was a Christian without truly understanding the gospel.
• Sermon Illustration [01:10:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the historical analogy of first-century rabbis competing to see who could impose the strictest legalistic 'yoke' (requirements) on followers, contrasting this with Jesus' simple call to repent and believe.
• Sermon Illustration [01:14:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story from high school where he assumed he was a Christian due to his Southern upbringing, comparing his belief to believing in the tooth fairy, the Second Amendment, and SEC football, illustrating the difference between cultural religion and personal faith.
• Sermon Illustration [01:20:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of 'touching a hot stove' to warn against partaking in the Lord's Supper flippantly or without faith, emphasizing the serious spiritual warnings in the New Testament.
• Sermon Illustration [01:21:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the historical context of the Passover meal, explaining why the bread was flat (no time to rise before fleeing Egypt) and how Jesus reinterpreted the Passover symbols to point to Himself as the Lamb of God.

• Pastoral Charge [00:30:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor requests that the congregation take concrete action in response to his preaching rather than merely complaining or being offended.
• Pastoral Charge [00:48:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > To become spiritual warriors who actively advance the kingdom of God rather than being passive attendees.
• Pastoral Charge [00:55:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > Surrender one's life to the lordship of Christ.
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > Place faith in Jesus Christ.
• Pastoral Charge [01:14:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > Repent of personal ways and believe in the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
• Pastoral Charge [01:15:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > Lift hand and verbally pray 'Lord Jesus save me' to accept salvation.
• Pastoral Charge [01:18:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > Get baptized publicly as an act of obedience and faith declaration.
• Pastoral Charge [01:19:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > Invite friends to witness the baptism and ask them if they believe in Jesus.
• Pastoral Charge [01:25:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > To sing, bring offerings, pray, and respond to the message.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:00:00] It's 1122 family. We're so glad that you are here. My name is Jay. This is Phil. And we're so pumped that you're with us. And just to share from the beginning, we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. And when I mean a movement, I mean a family. And we are a family. Wherever you're joining us from, you are a part of our family. And I mean all over the world. People are joining us. And so go on in the chat right now. Let us know where you are joining us from because we're glad you're here.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:02:38] outposts that are all the way out in Alaska.
[00:02:40] Come on. Idaho, right?
[00:02:42] Idaho, Alaska, outposts all over.
[00:02:45] That's right. And it's not too late to share the link of this service.
[00:02:49] We want you to share it. We want you to share this sermon with people around you.
[00:02:52] And hey, who's someone in your life that needs to hear the gospel? Share it on Facebook.
[00:02:56] A text, an email you can send out to them. If you have a grandparent and uncle, someone in your life that needs to hear the gospel. And those are what we call around here, one more. And it's anyone
[00:03:06] in our lives that are far from Jesus or don't know Jesus, share that message so they can hear.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:03:11] We believe in the power of inviting, and we believe in the power of prayer. So if you have a prayer request, if you're watching on our church online platform, you can actually hit the prayer
[00:03:18] button. Prayer request, we'd love to pray for you, or if you're on social media or YouTube, just go and put that in the chat. We would love to be praying for you. And we have communion today.
[00:03:26] It's always special, so make sure you have time to grab some elements. But Phil, tell us a little

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:03:30] bit more about communion. Yeah, communion, Jay, is just a way that we can reflect and remember the cross and what Jesus did for us. Romans 5.8 said that God demonstrated his love for us that
[00:03:40] while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So when we take communion, we're remembering the body of Christ that was broken for us, the blood that was shed for us. So grab some elements around
[00:03:52] you. If you're in your house, if you're in your truck, find something. We're going to be taking some communion. And hey, Pastor Joby is going to walk through when the sermon is happening of when

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:04:00] we're going to be taking communion. It's going to be great. I know the way we celebrate the life change of Christ in our hearts. It's baptism. That's right. And coming up on May 17th, we're
[00:04:07] talking about beach baptism. It's my first one. First one. First one. So we're going to see, I mean, thousands of people join us at the beach to celebrate with thousands of people going public with their faith. And so if you've made the decision to follow Jesus, your first step,
[00:04:21] baptism. And you can be a part of that. Just text CLASS to 441122, and you can actually be a part of it in Jacksonville and get baptized on that day. It's going to be great. So we've got about
[00:04:30] 30 seconds left, right, as we get ready for service.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:04:32] Yeah, and we're continuing it in our series in the Gospel of Matthew.
[00:04:35] We're in Season 4, Episode 4, and we know that Pastor Joby is going to give a powerful message.
[00:04:40] And we are believing that the Holy Spirit has something for you today.
[00:04:44] So grab your Bible, grab your journal.
[00:04:46] And hey, another thing for me is I get distracted easily.
[00:04:49] A good thing I do is I turn off my phone to eliminate any distractions.
[00:04:53] So go ahead and get ready to worship the ones you've got.
[00:04:56] Pastor J, you ready for it?
[00:04:57] Come on, it's going to be great.
[00:04:58] Let's go.
[00:04:59] Let's go to worship, guys.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:05:00] We are so happy.
[00:05:11] It is such a blessing to be in the house of the Lord together.
[00:05:14] If you're not out of understanding, put yourself in a posture of worship.
[00:05:20] Let's sing to our King.
[00:05:22] I stand when everything around me is shapeless.
[00:05:58] He's never...

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:05:59] We look all the way back to the cross.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:17:39] We look at Calvary.
[00:17:41] And that faith gives us confidence for whatever we're going to face next.
[00:17:45] Knowing that miracle signs and wonders follow you in all that you do.
[00:17:51] God, we love you.
[00:17:52] You are the one that we came in this place to worship.
[00:17:55] You are the one we came to love.
[00:17:57] Would you meet with us again?
[00:18:00] It's in that mighty name of Jesus we pray.
[00:18:02] In Jesus' name, amen.
[00:18:03] Y'all can take a seat.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:18:06] Amen.
[00:18:06] And welcome to the Church of 1122, where we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.
[00:18:13] It's a joy to get to worship with all of you here at San Pablo and with all of you worshiping with us online.
[00:18:18] I have been telling you something for a few weeks now, and I'm going to say it for two more weeks.
[00:18:21] I hope that you hear me.
[00:18:23] May 17th is coming, and that is beach baptism.
[00:18:27] And if you have no idea what beach baptism is, these people are so excited because it is literally the best day in the year, every year for me.
[00:18:35] And you're gonna wanna be out there.
[00:18:36] As a faith family, this is our time to gather together.
[00:18:38] And you are going to see hundreds, if not thousands of people walk into the ocean.
[00:18:43] Your family members, your friends, your one mores, those people that you've been praying for, and they're publicly going to declare that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior.
[00:18:51] And you're gonna wanna be there.
[00:18:53] and so maybe you hear me say that right now and I keep saying this too.
[00:18:56] Maybe you know that's the next step that the good shepherd is calling you to take or maybe you've never been baptized as a believer or maybe you were sprinkled as a child and you wanna confirm those prayers
[00:19:05] and those promises that your parents had for you.
[00:19:08] We wanna help you do that.
[00:19:09] As soon as the service is over, you can head to the lobby and there's men and women with signs that say baptism or you can go to the Connect Centers and they'll walk you to a quick baptism class
[00:19:17] and get you signed up to get baptized at Beach Baptism and then everybody else.
[00:19:21] I mean everybody else everybody listening I got all eyes and ears I'm going all kindergarten teacher right now we are going to all park off site this year because there are going to be over 10,000 of us out there and so if San Pablo is your home I'm asking you to join me
[00:19:39] in parking at Mayo and we're going to make it easy for you we're going to have food trucks where you can get all kinds of great food for your family out there we're going to have air-conditioned
[00:19:47] coach shuttles that'll have space for your kids stuff I got five kids there's a lot of kids stuff Just take it from me.
[00:19:52] You're going to want to do this.
[00:19:53] Now carry it yourself.
[00:19:54] They're going to drop you off right at the beach.
[00:19:56] We're going to park in Mayo, amen?
[00:19:59] And it's going to be an amazing day.
[00:20:00] I can't wait to see all that God is going to do there.
[00:20:02] And because we're going to be out there, there will not be a 422 service that Sunday afternoon, which is another great reminder.
[00:20:08] I'd love to invite a bunch of you, if you look around this room right now, to see there's not a lot of empty seats in here.
[00:20:13] Praise God.
[00:20:14] I want some of you guys to go on a mission trip with me to our Sunday 722 a.m. service or our Sunday afternoon 422 p.m. service or go ahead and put it on your calendar
[00:20:23] that you're gonna be at the Thursday 522 service when we launch it in August, amen?
[00:20:28] Right now, we're gonna continue to worship.
[00:20:30] So grab a Bible and if you don't have one, take that one in the seat back in front of you.
[00:20:33] That's our gift to you.
[00:20:34] And let's continue to worship by watching this testimony.

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:20:43] End of 2018, met my wife playing kickball.
[00:20:46] Whenever she moved to a different city, one of the first things she always made sure she did was find a good church that she felt good about.
[00:20:53] So she found 1122 and she felt like that was the church she wanted to be a part of.
[00:20:58] And when she met me, she wanted me to be a part of it as well.
[00:21:02] My wife brought me to 1122 on Easter 2021 San Pablo campus.
[00:21:07] And I remember at first coming from a Catholic background, it definitely caught me off guard a little bit.
[00:21:13] But looking back on that, I really feel like that's where the spark began.
[00:21:17] Something deep down really just kept me coming back each week.
[00:21:20] We dated until 2022.
[00:21:22] That's when I asked her to marry me.
[00:21:24] And we started doing the premarital counseling through 11-22.
[00:21:27] That's really when I first started to experience what grace was and what it truly meant.
[00:21:33] I remember just focusing on the love I had for my future wife, but also the love I had for God and just how it all tied together.
[00:21:40] How can I love her if I don't love God?
[00:21:42] That's when the feeling started like stirring up inside of like, wow, this is what love is supposed to feel like.
[00:21:47] When I started thinking about the grace that he has for me and that forgiveness that he has for me, it really started to change my life.
[00:21:57] So then as we go through the premarital counseling leads to marriage and the greatest day of my life.
[00:22:03] And then I remember starting to have the thoughts of, is baptism for me?
[00:22:08] The more I thought about it, the more questions I started to have.
[00:22:11] I was like, oh, no, baptism sounds like a good step.
[00:22:14] And it's like, no, no, you shouldn't do that.
[00:22:15] You shouldn't do that.
[00:22:16] You grew up Catholic.
[00:22:17] You've already been baptized.
[00:22:18] Why would you do that again?
[00:22:20] But then, you know, we start coming to 2025, and we're talking about how the focus is going to be on men and doing things that aren't comfortable, stepping out of our comfort zone.
[00:22:29] I'm like, okay, well, doing this is definitely going to be uncomfortable for me, but I want to stand firm.
[00:22:33] I took the pledge, so I actually have to live it out, right?
[00:22:35] So that's when I start just saying, okay, 2025 is the year I get baptized.
[00:22:40] And I wanted just the world, you know, I wanted to scream from the rooftops, from the mountaintops, right, and say, this is it, like, God is for me.
[00:22:46] I remember taking that bus ride in, going into Hannah Park and just seeing the amount of people.
[00:22:54] As far as you can see, there's just people everywhere, one after another go into the water and just like the pure joy and how many people are cheering and celebrating.
[00:23:02] It's just like winning the Super Bowl, World Series, everything at one time.
[00:23:08] I go out into the water as one person and I'm going to rise out of the water as a completely new person.
[00:23:13] I feel like I do live so much more free now.
[00:23:17] He has more forgiveness and more love than you can ever fathom, than you can ever wrap your mind around.
[00:23:23] Just trying to understand how he could feel that way for me.
[00:23:26] It really is.
[00:23:27] Even to this day, I still can't truly understand it.
[00:23:29] If you feel you want to get baptized, get in the water this year and get baptized.
[00:23:33] It'll be the greatest decision you've ever made in your life.

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:37] Amen and amen and amen.
[00:23:39] How we doing?
[00:23:39] Doing good?
[00:23:41] You're extra clappy.
[00:23:42] I love it.
[00:23:43] I love how we clap every time we see somebody baptized, even if it's on a video from a year ago.
[00:23:48] I love it so much.
[00:23:49] Because what you celebrate shows the world what you value.
[00:23:52] And I hope you're planning on being at Beach Baptism.
[00:23:55] If you've not been baptized, you should get baptized.
[00:23:57] Also, if you've got a Bible, go to Matthew chapter 11.
[00:24:00] That's where we're going to be.
[00:24:01] We're going to do the whole chapter.
[00:24:03] Welcome back.
[00:24:04] Surprised to see so many of you here after the beatdown we took last week.
[00:24:07] So good job.
[00:24:09] This week, it's going to be kind of the opposite.
[00:24:13] Like in the beginning, it's a little more in your face.
[00:24:15] It gets real awesome at the end.
[00:24:16] So hang to the end, okay?
[00:24:18] the reality is this is that you and I even a lot like this baptism video we saw we always have these two competing voices going on in our lives these two competing feelings going on in our life
[00:24:30] and it pretty much boils down to this you can either listen to the voice of the sovereign savior or you can let your circumstances be the loudest voice in your life and fundamentally at your core you believe you trust you have faith in one or the other and where you put your faith
[00:24:56] whether it's in your sovereign savior or you put your faith in your circumstances will determine your reality and this so you'll either trust Christ or you'll take your trust and you'll put it in what's going on in your world and this could include like you trust your behaviors or your
[00:25:15] traditions or your upbringing or your financial situation or your health situation, whatever it is. And where you put your faith, where you put your trust determines whether your life is ruled by faith or ruled by fear. It will determine whether you have a life of hope or hopelessness.
[00:25:38] It will determine whether you live a life of dependence on the almighty God who is in control of all things and loves you or you live a life of despair I told you this 50 times the difference
[00:25:51] man between faith and fear is simply this when you look into the future who do you think is in control because if it's you if it's your behavior if it's your medical situation your financial
[00:26:01] situation your marriage situation whatever it is if you think that will determine your world you will be gripped with fear because Jesus says don't worry about tomorrow part of the reason he says this is because new mercies come in the morning and God has not given you the mercy that
[00:26:18] you need to worry about tomorrow but if you look into the future even if you can't understand why in the world the almighty sovereign God who loves us and is in control of all things would even allow
[00:26:29] us to be in this situation but you are confident that he is in control that's when faith will be bigger than your fear and so we're going to look at somebody that's struggling and he's a boss man
[00:26:44] Matthew chapter 11 the Bible says this when Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples he went from there to teach and preach in their cities this is Matthew's way of saying that teaching section is over and now we're going to a new teaching section and what he had just finished
[00:26:59] instructing the 12 was he sent out the 12 like sheep among wolves to preach the gospel of the kingdom he gave them authority to heal the sick and to raise the dead and cleanse the lepers and
[00:27:08] cast out demons and then he said don't worry don't worry about money got you covered don't make a reservation, I got your cover. I will take care of you. Verse two, now, when John, that's John the
[00:27:20] Baptist, John the baptizer. If you're new to Bible study, John's like a Baptist. He's not a Baptist like you think. It's not like Pete the Presbyterian and, you know, Tim the Methodist. That's not what
[00:27:30] it is. John the Baptist, no, no, no. John was the guy in the Jordan baptizing people, so we call him John the Baptist, that John. Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, now listen,
[00:27:42] we talked about this when I wore the little prayer shawl John's a really big deal Malachi prophesies that John that there would be coming one coming who was coming in the spirit of Elijah and that this one who comes in the spirit of Elijah would precede the Lord this is how
[00:28:01] we know that the Lord will be on the way John the Baptist shows up in the same essence the same spirit of Elijah. They were both from the wilderness, man. They were homeschooled. They were tough. They wore camel hair, both of them, probably from a camel that they killed themselves.
[00:28:22] You understand what I'm saying? And so Malachi says, be on the look. One will come in the spirit of Elijah who will turn the hearts of fathers to their sons and sons to their fathers. And sure
[00:28:31] enough, this is what John the Baptist does. And if you'll remember, and I know you remember every word that I say. We did a whole series on Elijah. Remember this? We did it last year in the whole
[00:28:41] stand for me and act like men year. Because Elijah had faith in God and he had a backbone.
[00:28:47] And we need more believers that have a backbone. Like he showed up tough, man. He was not like Ahab. Ahab was the king who was weak and evil. No good. He was also not like Obadiah. Obadiah was
[00:29:03] the guy that was weak and quote unquote good I don't know that you can be weak and good I think you're just weak if you're weak your weakness is not a virtue no no no no but Elijah shows up and
[00:29:15] one of the things that he begins to do is he begins to call out immoral corrupt governments and he gets attacked for it he stands on the truth of the word of God that's what he does
[00:29:27] and by the way that's what this church does I don't know if you realize this you got an award this week. Did you know that? Congratulations. You got an award. I mean, they gave it to me
[00:29:38] because I have the microphone, but you got an award. It's pretty awesome, man. It's called the William Wilberforce Award. It's given out by the Florida Family Voice. This is an organization of people run by one of our deacons, Eric Dillenbeck, and it equips the church to help
[00:29:58] in the realm of legislation and politics and all that in regards to life, which is God's idea, marriage which is God's idea family which is God's idea and religious freedom and so I want you to
[00:30:11] know I mean they gave it to me because I'm up here screaming against that evil demonic confusing amendment forward it tried to stick its head up in our state and we said not on our watch and
[00:30:21] because believers did something about it it got voted down and they have told me that equates to 40,000 babies every year being able to live praise God okay so now listen I know I'm gonna say what
[00:30:42] I'm gonna say okay but a lot of churches won't I mean I got a bunch of friends to get run off from preaching the truth just know this and so the reason I say we got an award is because you
[00:30:53] did not just simply hear the word and so deceive yourself you do something about it and you endure me every single week and when I call us to action you actually do something about it don't just
[00:31:03] complain because you get offended so congratulations on your award now John the Baptist he's in prison and he is a really really big deal he shows up on the scene again he shows up on the scene
[00:31:16] and he's in the spirit of Elijah he's a prophet of God he is preparing the way of the Lord he's calling out corrupt governments because the king was sleeping with like his stepdaughter and i mean it's just sick man what's happening and he didn't he did not have the spinelessness to
[00:31:36] be like now we just do church and they do no no no no wherever he saw injustice he called out injustice and it got him locked up john is the one that stands in the water when jesus shows up
[00:31:48] on the scene he makes the pronouncement that Jesus he says behold the lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the entire world let me tell you why this is a big deal the way the Jewish audience
[00:31:59] in the first century would have heard this they would have thought well you mean not another lamb of God that's going to cover over the sins of the Jewish people until next year on the day of
[00:32:06] atonement and John's going right here he is the Messiah that one time uh John the Baptist's disciples come to him and they're like, hey boss, we're in trouble. He's like, what you mean? And he's like, man, we're losing market share. Everybody's leaving us. We used to have huge
[00:32:24] crowds. Now our crowds are getting smaller because they're following Jesus. And John the Baptist is like, bingo. The point of my life is to point people to Jesus. In fact, I must decrease and he must increase. He said this, he says, I'm like a groomsman in a wedding, man. It ain't about me.
[00:32:43] I am just here to point to the marriage of Christ and his church.
[00:32:47] That's the whole point.
[00:32:49] I just got to get out of the way.
[00:32:52] And so he calls out this immoral government and he gets arrested for it.
[00:32:57] And he's in prison.
[00:32:58] So can we agree that John the Baptist is legit, man?
[00:33:03] In fact, in a little while, we'll get to the passage.
[00:33:06] I know you think you're awesome.
[00:33:08] Jesus says John the Baptist is the greatest born of all women.
[00:33:11] Anybody who has ever been born of a woman, John the Baptist is better.
[00:33:16] That means he's better than you.
[00:33:17] That's what Jesus says.
[00:33:20] And so he's in jail and he heard what Jesus is doing and he sent word by his disciples and said to Jesus, are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?
[00:33:37] This hero of the faith facing down King Herod and baptizing people and he baptized Jesus and he heard the voice of God the Father speak out loud and said, behold, my son in whom I am well pleased.
[00:33:49] He was an eyewitness to the Spirit of God descending like a dove onto the shoulder of Jesus.
[00:33:55] And he's in prison from a long time, all the way back to chapter 4.
[00:33:59] Just hanging out by himself.
[00:34:02] He's got a very limited perspective.
[00:34:04] And from his jail cell, he's thinking, are you the one?
[00:34:11] You ever have doubts?
[00:34:14] You ever have unanswered questions?
[00:34:17] You ever find yourself in a circumstance and you think, God, what are you doing here?
[00:34:23] What are you supposed to do with that?
[00:34:26] Well, I got some really good news.
[00:34:29] The opposite of faith is not doubt.
[00:34:33] You know what I know?
[00:34:35] Jesus post-doubt is going to say, this is the greatest of all the prophets, and he's got doubts.
[00:34:41] The opposite of faith is not doubt.
[00:34:43] The opposite of faith is fear, because faith always produces action, and fear paralyzes.
[00:34:49] You see, here's what the enemy wants us to do, man.
[00:34:51] In fact, if you've got doubts and unanswered questions, it's just a shadow of the fact that you do have faith.
[00:34:57] and the enemy always wants us to doubt our beliefs and believe our doubts you ever notice that and what God wants us to do is believe our beliefs and doubt our doubts and so what do you do when
[00:35:09] circumstances are not going your way I mean have you ever you wouldn't pray this but have you ever thought all right Lord I've got this whole thing figured out okay why don't you just do my plan
[00:35:19] and it's gonna go way better for me and then he doesn't what do you do with that I mean I get it man what do you do with that well what we're going to see here is you bring it to the Lord
[00:35:31] do you know that Jeremiah eventually we'll teach through that book do you know that Jeremiah comes before the Lord and says this you have you have tricked me God you have seduced me that's what
[00:35:43] he says because when God called Jeremiah God said I'm going to give you the power to build up nations and tear down nations ain't a dude in here wouldn't sign up for that you're like give me some of that
[00:35:53] and then nobody listens to his preaching.
[00:35:57] And so he's beating up battered brews, laying in a ditch and he's like, you tricked me.
[00:36:02] Anybody ever feel tricked by God?
[00:36:04] Or how about this, King David.
[00:36:07] You know what his nickname is?
[00:36:09] A man after God's own heart.
[00:36:12] That's a good nickname.
[00:36:13] I got a heart, it ain't like that.
[00:36:17] You know what David says?
[00:36:19] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:36:23] You know what God doesn't do to that prayer?
[00:36:25] You better shut your mouth.
[00:36:26] No, no, no, no.
[00:36:27] He's like, ooh, write that one down.
[00:36:29] We're going to put that one in the book.
[00:36:30] That's Psalm 22, 1, by the way.
[00:36:33] He'll also say, oh, my soul, why are you so downcast?
[00:36:37] He talks to his soul.
[00:36:39] At one point, he asked God, how long will you not listen to me?
[00:36:42] Anybody ever feel like that?
[00:36:44] This is how John the Baptist feels.
[00:36:47] So what do you do?
[00:36:48] Here's what you do.
[00:36:48] Number one, do not fake it.
[00:36:52] Don't, man.
[00:36:55] David wrote it down.
[00:36:56] Jeremiah wrote it down.
[00:36:57] Shared it publicly.
[00:36:58] not on not on social media he started with other human beings that love God and love him and he brought it to the Lord and secondly here's what you do with your doubts and your unanswered
[00:37:09] questions you just pick them up and you follow after Jesus that's what faith is my favorite example of this I've taught it before is John chapter 6 where Jesus feeds a bunch of people and then afterwards the crowds are getting big but they just want more miracles for their stomach
[00:37:24] they don't believe in Jesus like in their heart and so they start asking him for they're like hey do another miracle he's like oh i got your miracle and he says yes unless you eat my flesh
[00:37:36] and drink my blood you have no part of me and they're like what what did he say can you imagine the note takers eat my flat flat did he say flesh he had to say fish we're jewish we can't eat we
[00:37:51] can't eat pork much less the messiah i mean what everybody starts leaving jesus wasn't going to make the fastest growing church list that year and then here's what's crazy he'll explain it to nobody yeah look we're gonna do communion later this is what he's talking about this is what he's
[00:38:10] talking about unless you accept the gospel the broken body and the shed blood which is what communion reminds us of you have no part with me he could have explained it in one second he doesn't explain anything then he goes up to peter and says you want to leave too
[00:38:25] why is he asked this because peter wants to leave he's like i have made a poor career decision and maybe my dad will take me back into the fishing business.
[00:38:36] Man, everybody's leaving.
[00:38:38] And Peter's answer is like John the Baptist.
[00:38:43] His answer is not like, well, until I figure this out, I don't know if I can keep following you.
[00:38:47] That's not what he says.
[00:38:48] He just says, to where shall we go?
[00:38:51] You're the only one that offers eternal life.
[00:38:53] I still have no idea what you're talking about with this blood and flesh thing, man.
[00:38:57] But I'm going to pick up my doubts.
[00:38:59] I'm going to pick up my unanswered questions.
[00:39:00] I'm just going to follow after you by faith.
[00:39:02] and if you follow after Jesus one day all your doubts go away not next Tuesday one day you're gonna get to heaven you're gonna see him face to face no more doubts nobody in heaven's gonna be
[00:39:11] like you believe in Jesus you're like he's the shiny one on the throne man you can ask him yourself so John the Baptist got some serious doubts are you the one who is to come or shall
[00:39:24] we look for another and pay close attention to how Jesus answers and Jesus answered them go and Tell John what you have heard and see, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, leopards are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have
[00:39:40] good news preached to them.
[00:39:43] What Jesus is doing, his answer is, yes, I am the one.
[00:39:48] And what he does is he doesn't even appeal to his feelings or his circumstances, he appeals to the scripture.
[00:39:55] He's quoting a kind of a smash up of Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61.
[00:40:01] Isaiah, one of the major prophets of the Old Covenant, he says that when the Messiah gets here, here's a bunch of stuff that's going to happen.
[00:40:09] And Jesus is like, yes, I'm the one.
[00:40:11] You co-tell John the Baptist that I am the fulfillment of everything that Isaiah said.
[00:40:17] And check, check, check, check.
[00:40:20] Part of the reason God has given us his revealed word, when you have all kind of doubts and have all kind of questions and you don't know what God's up to, then you can stand on the solid rock of the revealed infallible inerrant word of God and
[00:40:33] quit listening to so many of your feelings and quit believing all your feelings and believe God's perfect word this is what Jesus does now here's one little part kind of do the bible study you'll miss this it's kind of it's almost I don't know if I can say it's mean but it ain't awesome
[00:40:52] in Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61 if you put them all together you know what it says it says that the Messiah will the blind will receive their sight the lame will walk lepers will be cleansed the
[00:41:08] devil here the dead are raised up the poor will have good news preached to them and the captives will be set free and Jesus doesn't quote that part of John the Baptist think about that John
[00:41:23] the Baptist sends this guy hey go and ask him are you the one or did we miss it and the guy comes back he's like hey boss I got good news he's the one is he yeah he told me to tell you that the
[00:41:36] blind have received their sight sweet and the lame walk yay and the leopards are cleansed good for them and the deaf here do what great and the dead are raised up praise God and the poor have had
[00:41:50] good news preached to them and John's like is there one more no that's all he said now hold on there's one more. That's all he said. I wrote it down. That's all he said. Here's what Jesus is
[00:42:09] saying. Follow me and it can end badly. No promise of cash and prizes because cash and prizes are not our ultimate treasure, but Jesus is. That's what he's saying. Anybody that tells you that the way to have your best life now is just to have some faith, they are so out of line with
[00:42:34] the good news of the gospel. In fact, we just learned a couple of weeks ago, if you want to find actual life, you're going to have to lay your life down. And if you chase after the temporary
[00:42:43] things of this world, like cash and prizes or even health or long life, then you're actually going to lose your life. That's what is going to happen. And then Jesus keeps going. Verse six, look at this one. And blessed is the one who was not offended by me. I resonate with this verse.
[00:43:00] be offended by the gospel it is so offensive the beginning of the gospel is this you were created by God for God that's cool next and sin separates and you and I by nature and nurture are a crooked
[00:43:20] and depraved wretched black-hearted sinner that's who you are and again I know your kindergarten teacher told you you were a skittle but she's a liar that's what she is but congratulate blessed are you though when you are convicted by the spirit of God and are poor in spirit and realize
[00:43:41] something's broken and I can't fix it anybody watch Theo Vaughn sinners yep now he seems awesome if you watch him this week he put on display what poor in spirit is he's saying I need to do
[00:44:00] story and he I was reading and this is him he was saying I'm reading in the bible in John chapter five the man at the pool of Bethesda and Jesus says do you want to be healed that is the question
[00:44:09] and he's wrestling on air with like do I really want it because if I because I know I need to change but do I want a new story blessed are you when you realize that you need someone to do for
[00:44:20] you what cannot you cannot do for yourself and blessed are you when you are ready to receive what you need instead of merely looking to Jesus to meet a temporary want so Jesus says blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Listen, if you go in for surgery, are you offended
[00:44:38] by the doctor because he cut you? No, you want him to so that he can make things better. This is what Jesus wants to do. He wants to cut you at the heart and rip out your heart of stone and give
[00:44:50] you a new heart, his heart. That's what he wants. It's going to sting a little. Man, I got a text this week from a saint at our church. I'm not going to share any of the details. And I didn't
[00:45:02] ask this person for permission so I'm definitely going to use it in a sermon and this person walks with the Lord and they are praying and praying and praying and so far God has not answered their
[00:45:13] prayers the way they want them to be answered and the and it just said this has God turned his face from me I've prayed and I've cried you ever feel like that it's a legit feeling and then my answer
[00:45:25] was no no God has not turned his face from you Romans 5 8 says but God demonstrates his love for us and this that while we were yet still sinners Christ died for us that Jesus on the cross says
[00:45:39] my God my God why have you forsaken me the actual answer is the father turned his face from Jesus on the cross that you and I could be face to face with him that your circumstances do not dictate
[00:45:51] God's love for you the empty tomb does that's how we know that he loves us so Jesus says blessed is the one who is not offended by me and as they went away Jesus began to speak to the crowds
[00:46:07] concerning John he's gonna he's gonna hype him up man he asked this question what did you go out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken by wind answer no you didn't go out there because he's a
[00:46:24] weak man he's not a weak man he was a he's a strong man what then did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothing. You see, Jesus was the originator of save not soft. John ain't soft.
[00:46:38] He wore camel hair. Listen, you want to go hear soft preaching? The options are endless, but you ain't going to get it here. All right? He says, behold, those who wear soft clothing are in king's
[00:46:53] houses. What a jab there. He's like, you want to meet some men with soft hands? You go check out some government work okay praise be he said what did you go to see a prophet yes I tell you and
[00:47:07] more than a prophet this is he of whom it was written behold I will say my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you and truly I say among you those born of women
[00:47:16] there have arisen no one greater than John the Baptist he makes this statement about John the baptist after john how's he has his doubts jesus can handle your doubts just bring them to him then he says yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he
[00:47:35] one of my favorite verses and from the days of john the baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force some translations say it this way from the
[00:47:45] days of john the baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men take hold of him. Listen, church, I've told you, man, we ain't got time to play church.
[00:47:58] We are at war. Now, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but there is no place in the church for these spineless, pansy, do-gooders that just want to show up and hear a nice sermon
[00:48:13] and have a little nice life, but not want to advance the kingdom of God. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and darkness. It's against false ideologies and false religion and wolves in sheep's clothing and a Christless Christianity. It's about protecting
[00:48:31] the vulnerable and standing up for righteousness. Because all it takes for evil to prevail in our world is for godly men to do nothing and not on our watch. We are raising up warriors. The Bible
[00:48:43] says the Lord is a warrior. The Lord is his name. And so from the days of John the Baptist until this day the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing and violent men take hold of it this is
[00:48:57] who John the Baptist is verse 13 for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John and if you are willing to accept it he is Elijah who is to come he who has ears let him hear he what
[00:49:10] Jesus is saying is remember Malachi Malachi said what was coming in the spirit of Elijah I'm here to tell you it's John the Baptist and then he turns on the crowd he's like so don't hate on
[00:49:21] John the Baptist he's having a rough day but your worst days don't define you Jesus defines you then he turns to the crowd he says but watch how I compared this generation and he says it's like
[00:49:36] children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates let me explain this a little bit he's like I just said that from the days of John the Baptist until today the kingdom of heaven
[00:49:48] has been forcefully advancing and violent men take hold of it.
[00:49:53] But you guys, y'all are acting like children.
[00:49:57] You're like children in the square.
[00:49:59] We're at war and you're playing tiddlywinks with your classmates.
[00:50:03] What are we doing here is what he's saying.
[00:50:07] I told you a couple weeks ago, instead of being alert on watch for the attacks of the enemy, advancing the kingdom of God, advancing the great commission, and most of us are just chasing after
[00:50:22] the applause of man and comfort.
[00:50:26] We spend all of our time, effort, and energy on these things, and God gets our leftovers.
[00:50:32] People ask me all the time this question about 1122.
[00:50:35] What's the greatest threat at 1122?
[00:50:38] Okay, and I can tell you what it is.
[00:50:42] Complacency.
[00:50:44] You know why?
[00:50:45] Because it's going good, man.
[00:50:47] The moment you begin to think, well, look, man, there's so many people here.
[00:50:51] surely somebody else will do everything about everything then it's over bro the moment you just get comfortable attending a service and you know encounter the king of kings and then get about what he has ordered us to do then it's over we're just playing games like children in the street
[00:51:10] calling out their playmates and then he says we played the flute for you and did not dance we sang a dirge and you did not mourn and you're like what oh let me explain there was this little game that
[00:51:21] kids would play in the first century and this is what they'd do it was kind of like simon says and instead of simon says if they played a flute they danced and if they played whatever the other
[00:51:31] thing is and they played a sang a dirge they would mourn that's what they would do but instead of playing the game they're not listening to their cues and they're just messing around with each
[00:51:41] other that's what's going on and what jesus is saying is i am clearly articulating the advancement of the kingdom of God and you're not responding, you're not listening, do you hear the music of the gospel?
[00:51:53] This is what he's saying.
[00:51:55] Then surrender to the advancement of the kingdom and be about his business.
[00:52:00] For John came neither eating nor drinking and they said, he has a demon.
[00:52:04] And the son of man came eating and drinking and they say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of a tax collector and a sinner.
[00:52:12] This is more evidence that the religious people are the HOA of religion of the first century.
[00:52:18] Listen, man, if you're in the HOA and you just walk around town with nothing but a clipboard, you can't celebrate anything.
[00:52:25] All you can see is what's wrong because that's all you're looking for.
[00:52:29] Your grass is too long.
[00:52:30] Well, you did it too short, too demerits.
[00:52:32] This is what's happening.
[00:52:34] So John the Baptist shows up.
[00:52:35] He's a teetotaler and I'm like, you legalist.
[00:52:37] Jesus shows up eating and drinking and I'm like, you're not doing it right either.
[00:52:42] And I love this response.
[00:52:43] What do you do when people attack you?
[00:52:45] Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.
[00:52:49] You just outlive the critics and do what he tells you to do and you trust him with the consequences.
[00:52:54] So this is the conversation he's having.
[00:52:56] And then it gets worse.
[00:52:59] It's gonna get way better at the end.
[00:53:01] And then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent.
[00:53:09] The Bible says in Romans chapter one that because of God's general revelation to all people, no one has an excuse for not turning to the almighty God.
[00:53:18] That's what he says.
[00:53:19] that we will all bear an account he goes on to say that it is actually God's judgment to turn you over to your own desires that the worst thing God could do for you and me is give us what we say
[00:53:33] we want ever think about that then you get to chapter two of Romans and it says but it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance do you realize one of the kindest things that you
[00:53:46] could ever do if you're chasing after the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh or the pride of life is for you to get busted that it would be the kindness of God for you to experience the
[00:53:56] conviction of your sin and the conviction of your sin is not God being mad at you it's a warm invitation for us to run to the father instead of from him this is what he's saying and he says
[00:54:08] woe to you Corazon woe means I want to give you a warning of judgment and he says woe to you Beth satan for the mighty works done in you had been done in tyre and sidon these are super pagan
[00:54:23] super gross old testament cities where evil things happen in fact sidon is where jezebel's from this ain't good man they would have repented long ago in sackhawth and atchis but i tell you it will
[00:54:36] be more bearable on the day of judgment for tyre and sidon than you man one of my something i found sadly hilarious these days is the number of people that have not surrendered to Jesus
[00:54:53] but they will say things like I love Jesus' teachings but about him like dying for your sins and you know resurrecting for the great I'm not sure about that but I love Jesus' teachings I just want to go
[00:55:04] have you read his teachings?
[00:55:06] because his teaching was that you were going to burn in hell forever and ever and ever amen you love that part?
[00:55:13] then you should surrender your life to the lordship of Christ because that is what he's teaching and you, Capernaum, this is where he is.
[00:55:23] I mean, it's great when somebody brings down a woe on the town next to you, right?
[00:55:26] You're like, you get them.
[00:55:28] And then he's like, well, while I'm here in Capernaum and you, Capernaum, will you be exhausted in heaven?
[00:55:39] They're like, we're good, right?
[00:55:41] No, you ain't good.
[00:55:42] You will be brought down to Hades.
[00:55:45] Here's what he's saying, man.
[00:55:46] The line in heaven is a single file line.
[00:55:50] You don't get credit for being near Jesus.
[00:55:52] that God credits you with his righteousness once you surrender your life to him.
[00:55:57] God saves first names, not last names.
[00:56:00] And the South better hear this.
[00:56:02] The number of people I ask about, oh, so when did you become a Christian?
[00:56:05] I've been a Christian my whole life.
[00:56:07] That is impossible.
[00:56:09] You were born, unless your last name's Christian, but that ain't gonna get you into heaven.
[00:56:14] You were born in iniquity.
[00:56:17] You were born separated from God and Jesus came on a rescue mission to save you.
[00:56:22] Now, just because you can't remember the moment that you surrendered your life in Christ, there was a moment when that thing happened, when you went from death to life.
[00:56:32] He says, you will be brought down to Hades, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, and bro, when he said Sodom, people were like, oh, it would have remained
[00:56:43] until this day.
[00:56:44] Sodom was judged by God because of their rejection of God, and it played out in the abuse of people and the rejection of God's ways primarily in sexual immorality. And the thing, the straw that broke the camel's back is two male angels show up to Sodom and the men of Sodom tried to
[00:57:04] rape the male angels. That'll get you judged. He says, but I tell you that it'll be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than you. Why? Jesus is saying, because you have more
[00:57:19] evidence than they had they had a general revelation and now God in the flesh is doing miracles and preaching the gospel right here in front of you and I would say the same for those
[00:57:30] of us at every one of our campuses and every one of us listening online because you have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ do not close your eyes to the Savior and then Jesus is going to shift gears
[00:57:43] he has made the diagnosis on your own trouble and at that time Jesus declared this is so incredible Well, this is a prayer between God the Son and God the Father.
[00:57:58] He says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.
[00:58:08] You know why?
[00:58:10] Because wisdom and understanding won't save you.
[00:58:13] Only faith will.
[00:58:15] Later, Jesus is going to say, unless you change and become like one of these little children, you have no place in the kingdom of heaven.
[00:58:24] Well, what do kids have?
[00:58:25] Do kids have power?
[00:58:26] no and if they got too much in your house that's your fault parents okay do kids have knowledge no they're morons they don't know anything do they have experience no do they have a religious
[00:58:42] pedigree no do they have status no now power and knowledge and experience and status are fine they just won't save you you know what a child has trust trust we're not supposed to be childish
[00:58:56] but we're supposed to have a childlike faith.
[00:59:00] I mean, how many of you have been in the pool and reach out to your kid and be like, come on, jump, and with a childlike faith, they believe you are who you say you are
[00:59:08] and that you're gonna keep your promise and not gonna let them die.
[00:59:11] That's what it means to be saved.
[00:59:12] That's what it means to put your faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:59:16] It doesn't mean to get your act together so that you can prove yourself righteous before the Lord.
[00:59:22] That is, by definition, self-righteousness.
[00:59:24] But the Bible says in 1 John 4, 10, and this is love not that we first loved him but he first loved us and he gave his son as the propitiation for our sin propitiation means a payment that satisfies which means that the
[00:59:36] verdict comes before the performance and if you put your faith in Christ then he gives you credit you his perfect life which means God's not dissatisfied with you John chapter 1 verse 12 says but to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become a child
[00:59:53] of God Jesus is saying I'm not opening this thing up to the smartest people because they'll want to take credit for it I'm opening up to anybody who would have faith that's what he says trust
[01:00:05] pistou is the Greek word says yes father for such was your gracious will all things have been handed over to me by the father and no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father
[01:00:17] except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. First of all, you cannot reject God the Son and claim to know God the Father. Jesus says that's impossible. Don't like it? Cool,
[01:00:37] take it up with him. You will one day. It's not going to go good. Secondly, he says, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Listen to me.
[01:00:54] He wants you.
[01:00:56] You're like, me?
[01:00:57] Uh-huh.
[01:00:58] How can you say that?
[01:00:59] The empirical evidence that God would situate all of the universe, that in this moment right now, whether you're hearing me live or it's three months from now and you're cutting grass listening to this on a podcast or something, that God would come reaching out for you with an invitation, sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[01:01:22] And I'm just daring you to actually listen to the voice of God in your life right now instead of listening to your circumstances.
[01:01:31] There we go.
[01:01:39] And it's some of the coolest verses in the Bible, man.
[01:01:43] Jesus, the Christ, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, who spoke all things into existence and by his very power holds all things together, who will return one day to judge every single person and we will all bow.
[01:01:58] every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord he'll either be Lord of your salvation or Lord of your damnation and if you bow on this side of the return he will lift you up
[01:02:12] we will go to heaven with him a new heaven and a new earth and we will hear well done good and faithful servant but if in our arrogance and if in our self-reliance we do not bow then we will
[01:02:22] bow and we will receive the just due for our sins this Jesus coming back on a white horse with fire eyes and a sword out of his mouth and tattoos on his quads. This Jesus, he doesn't say
[01:02:41] you better get right. He don't yell like I'm yelling. He yells at religious people a lot.
[01:02:47] But here's, you ready for it? He's just called down, woe to you, Tyre and Sidon. Woe to you, Sodom and Gomorrah. Woe to you, Capernaum. But then when he looks at the people, he says,
[01:03:02] come to me what an invitation Jesus in this moment right now because we don't follow a dead rabbi rabbi with some unique teachings we follow a resurrected living Christ and he calls nobodies like me to speak on his behalf to be an ambassador for the reconciliation of sinful humanity with an
[01:03:31] almighty holy God and the word of Christ to you right now is come to me and some people hear that differently some people hear even me and Jesus goes yeah even you and I know you can say to me
[01:03:55] yeah but you don't know what I've done you but you can't say it to him because he knows what you've done and he's not surprised like he he knows every sin he knows the ones that you didn't even act out
[01:04:10] you just thought in here can you imagine if you were held accountable legally for everything you thought in here can you imagine the friends that you wouldn't have if they knew what you think about them sometimes but you just don't say it Jesus knows and he goes yeah you with all your
[01:04:30] doubts and all your struggles and all your sin and all your depravity all that I want you to come to me even me yeah even you especially you now there's another group of people be like yeah but
[01:04:43] I go to church cool Jesus didn't say come to church he said come to me church is but a means to an end to know Jesus better and Jesus's people better so that we can advance the kingdom all
[01:04:58] together that's what the church said the church cannot save you man you see the reality is that We are experientially rich and we're spiritually bankrupt.
[01:05:09] And Jesus says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.
[01:05:17] Anybody humble enough to admit that they're worn out?
[01:05:22] Sometimes it's physical, you know.
[01:05:25] That's fine, though.
[01:05:26] It's easy to fix the physical exhaustion.
[01:05:30] You just eat a little bit, sleep a little bit.
[01:05:32] No problem, man.
[01:05:35] But you feel like mentally, emotionally, spiritually exhausted?
[01:05:41] Let me tell you what's exhausting.
[01:05:42] it's exhausting to chase after the temporary things of this world man the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and you chase them and you chase them and you chase them
[01:05:50] and it's I don't know what's worse to spend your whole life chasing a dream and not getting it or to grab on to it and realize it's not what you thought it would be it's exhausting to try to
[01:06:00] figure everything out before you'll just choose God and trust him it's exhausting to try to be good enough. A relationalist religion is exhausting. Gretchen and I were filming a podcast last week and she said this, secrets are exhausting. Some of you are living a life of secret and darkness
[01:06:23] and it's exhausting. Sin is exhausting. I know it can be entertaining for a season, man, but it'll always cost you more than you thought. You always stay longer than you planned and it always hurts
[01:06:33] worse than they advertised. Anxiety is exhausting because we're not in control. The approval of man is exhausting because they all won't light up at the same time. You take the keys of your happiness and you hand them out to everybody and then one knucklehead just won't treat you the way you want
[01:06:52] to be treated and it doesn't matter what the other ones think. Comparison is exhausting. The rat race is exhausting. Keeping up with the Joneses is exhausting. It's not. The pursuit of happy is exhausting because it's so conditional. Religion is exhausting. You see, because when you chase
[01:07:16] after any of these things, it's the myth of there. And when you begin to think, because we told ourselves before, oh, when I just get there. Anybody about to graduate from something? And you begin to think, oh man, that's when life's really going to begin. Or if I could just get
[01:07:37] this job oh or if I could just get another job or when I go on that vacation oh or when I get married then no more problems ever if you only knew man if I just had more money if I just live
[01:07:56] in a better neighborhood if I just had a better spouse maybe I didn't pick wisely the first time if I could just get to retirement oh man well see the problem with the myth of there is you're here
[01:08:13] Like right here and right now.
[01:08:19] And Jesus doesn't say, come to me then.
[01:08:23] He doesn't say, get your act together.
[01:08:25] Send in your application and I'll review it.
[01:08:28] And we'll see if you make the second interview.
[01:08:30] That's not what he tells us.
[01:08:32] Whether you reject him through religious activity, because you think that's going to earn you a spot, or you reject him by sinful rebellion, he says to every single one of us, come to me because I can see it.
[01:08:43] You're worn out.
[01:08:44] and then look what the sovereign perfect holy judge giving out woes to people listen what he offers come to me and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle
[01:09:05] and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your soul you know I've been I've intentionally never looked up what those words mean exactly I don't know what they mean but boy it sounds like
[01:09:17] the greatest invitation I've ever heard in my life I mean isn't that what you're looking for peace contentment meaning purpose union with God sins washed away adopted into the family you know why this world could never provide it because you were created for more than this world
[01:09:39] when when Adam the very first human being was ever created God forms together the dust of the earth and he is physically a human but he's not yet what the Bible calls a living creature that's where
[01:09:53] some of you are right now I mean you're alive but you're not living and then God breathes the breath of life into the very first man he opens his eyes and he's face to face with his heavenly father
[01:10:04] and that was imprinted on him and we inherited that and this is why the temporary things of this world will never ever ever satisfy and then Jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light
[01:10:16] man I read a bunch of commentaries about how a yoke is this farm tool where they put like a strong ox with a young ox and it preaches really good I just don't think that was what Jesus was
[01:10:27] talking about at all a little bit maybe but do you know what a yoke was in the first century what they called a yoke were the requirements of a rabbi to be his follower so they would take the
[01:10:42] word of God they would take the Torah the 613 laws and there's a lot of general laws in there like remember the Sabbath and keep it holy and then a rabbi would write down what exactly like
[01:10:52] if you want to follow me, here's what that means. We can take a hundred steps. We can do these things. We can't do these things. And then rabbis would get in this competition of like, who could
[01:11:02] be the best? Who could be the most strict? Who could be the most dedicated? Who could be the most legalistic? And they would literally roll these things, roll their yokes out in front of everybody and be like, look how dedicated to God I am. It is impossible to be my rabbi. Who wants
[01:11:19] the end. That's what they would do. And so the religious legal requirement was exhausting. Get it? It's called a yoke. And Jesus says, my yoke, it's easy. And my burden is light. And if you were
[01:11:39] to say, okay, so what is it? So what do I have to do to follow you? He says, repent and believe.
[01:11:48] That's it? Hold on. Come on, man. Don't I gotta get baptized or go to a class or say Hail Mary or I mean, I gotta do something, right? Pray a prayer or raise my hand or I mean, come on,
[01:11:57] I got to do something.
[01:11:58] Jesus goes, no, no, no.
[01:11:59] This is how simple this thing is.
[01:12:02] You repent.
[01:12:04] You're going to reject.
[01:12:05] I'm not an add-on, okay?
[01:12:08] I'm not like an accessory to your life.
[01:12:10] That's not what this is.
[01:12:12] You turn away from the sins of your past, the ways of this world, all the dark and demonic things that you've ever been connected to in your whole life.
[01:12:21] And then you put your faith in me.
[01:12:23] And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
[01:12:27] And you're like, God, that doesn't seem fair at all.
[01:12:30] Jesus is like, right, it's not.
[01:12:31] it's not that if you believe that when Jesus died on the cross somehow that counted for you then you receive the right to become a child of God not a slave not a worker not a member of the
[01:12:52] army but a child of God the invitation of all invitation is Christ's invitation so let me ask you. I know you've been doing life your way, and how's that going? Some of you have finally come
[01:13:14] to the end of it, and you're like, man, it's not going good. My way's not working. I'm either gripped by this besetting sin that won't let me go, and it's wearing me out, or I've achieved all the
[01:13:27] things, man. I've achieved all the things, and they just won't fully and finally satisfy, and Jesus says, okay, cool. Why don't you come to me? All who are weary and heavy burdened. He says, I'm gentle.
[01:13:45] I'm lowly. I ain't mad at you. I actually took the punishment and the payment that you deserve because I love you. And if you want credit for that, and if you want a rest for your soul,
[01:14:06] you want your shame to be gone your guilt to be gone you want you the exhaustion of religious activity to be gone then Jesus says just come to me here here's my yoke just repent our God my
[01:14:23] ways don't work and believe I trust that when you died on the cross somehow that counted I did that a long time ago I was in high school and I had heard the gospel 100 million times because I'm
[01:14:44] southern man and if you'd asked me if i'm when i was in high school if i was a christian i'd be like of course i'm southern i believed in god like i believe in the tooth fairy the second
[01:14:52] amendment and sec football i thought it was like one like a package deal you know i mean but there was a distinct moment in my life what it was it was not my knowledge of bible stories
[01:15:05] that i could regurgitate but it had to be personal for me yeah the only paperwork that's going to matter when you stand before the throne of god it's not your birth certificate nor your resume
[01:15:17] but it's your RSVP to his invitation and so right now right here in this place Christ is saying to you and you and you and you come to me and we simply do that by putting our
[01:15:33] faith in Christ would you bow your heads would you close your eyes and if today you are ready to receive the free gift of the invitation of Christ to repent to admit it my way in working
[01:15:54] this world isn't working for me my flesh is a terrible God and if you're ready to turn away from that and turn to Christ and say I believe, I trust that when Jesus Christ pushed up on his nail pierced feet
[01:16:08] and says it is finished that somehow that counted for me if you were ready to receive that invitation to come to Christ, not just to better you but to come to him by faith for the first time
[01:16:20] I just want you to lift your hand as high as you can right now and in your own words praise God in your own words you just tell him Lord Jesus save me and he will not take back this
[01:16:31] invitation he is a promise keeping God and in this very very moment what he is doing in this moment as you receive that free gift then you also receive the right to be a child of God sins washed
[01:16:45] away the righteousness of Christ imputed counted credited to you that your name is changed your eternity is changed and in this very moment you have been saved our good and gracious heavenly father god we love you more than anything because you first loved us and god i thank you so much
[01:17:05] that god you came to seek and to save the lost lord i thank you so much for the invitation to come to you not a set of rituals or religious activity but to come to you because through your life death
[01:17:19] and resurrection you give us what we're all looking for and that is peace with God and the peace of God inside of us we pray this in Jesus name amen so we're going to close by celebrating
[01:17:32] communion our ushers are going to start making their way around to hand out the elements and so if you could just help them out that would be awesome you see there are two things that two
[01:17:47] ordinances that Jesus gave the church that we should continually practice. And we don't call them sacraments because they're not means of grace. In fact, that very idea, it doesn't make sense. Like if it's grace, then what do you have to do to earn it? If you do something to earn it,
[01:18:06] then it's not grace. No, no, no, no. They're just, they're just pointing back to the celebration of what Christ has already done for us and so what we as a church do and what protestant churches do
[01:18:18] in accordance with the scriptures there are two ordinances that Jesus says that we should continually practice to point to the gospel to point to the good news of the grace of Jesus one is baptism it's coming up in three weeks and if you've never been baptized as a believer you should
[01:18:35] be obedient to Jesus and you should go publicly declare your faith in Jesus now we're going to do this thing in the Atlantic Ocean. There ain't nothing holy about the water in the Atlantic Ocean. All right. We're going to do it at Mayport. You know what I mean? So there's nothing magical
[01:18:53] about that water that saves you. What happens in that water is you were declaring to the world that Christ has already saved me. That you're going to reject, renounce the sins of your past, the ways of this world, anything dark or demonic that you've ever been connected to. And you are
[01:19:07] are going to declare in front of all of us that show up and all of heaven that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and when you get dumped down into the water it is a picture of the moment you
[01:19:18] died to yourself the Spirit of God through the blood of Christ washed away your sins and just like Jesus came out of the grave you will be resurrected to new new life and there's a party
[01:19:29] in heaven and there'll be a party on the beach that's one of the ordinances so get baptized if you've never been baptized as a believer get baptized and if you're getting baptized you should ask all your friends you should tell them hey I'm getting baptized you want to come
[01:19:40] and if they go nah then ain't your friend man I mean straight up and then they go yeah sure you're like yeah come celebrate with me and then I want you to ask do you believe in Jesus let's
[01:19:52] be a great day we'll do it together me and you get baptized that's one ordinance the other ordinance is the Lord's Supper the Lord's Supper you see the Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ to
[01:20:04] his church so I would say this this is the Lord's table this ain't my table so he determines who's comes to the table and all who believe in Jesus Christ are welcome to the table now honestly man
[01:20:17] I would warn you if you're not a follower of Jesus the only reason that I would warn you not to do it is because there's some serious warnings in the new testament about anybody that does this
[01:20:26] flippantly and not by faith so I'm just warning you it's kind of a hand to the hot stove kind of thing okay so if you do it that ain't on me when you stand before him one day all right so but I
[01:20:37] don't care what denomination you grew up in or whatever man this is the Lord's table and it is a picture of the gospel the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus it points back to the Passover
[01:20:50] meal when when the children of Israel are enslaved and then God sends Moses and 10 plagues come and on the 10th plague God tells Moses to go to the people of Israel and say take a perfect spotless
[01:21:02] lamb shed its blood and put it on the doorpost of the house and then the angel of death will pass over so this was called the passover meal and so the reason the bread is flat is they knew that
[01:21:14] they were going to be heading towards the promised land crossing the red sea the next day so they didn't have time for the bread to rise everybody had to sleep with their tennis shoes on because
[01:21:20] you got to go and so on the night jesus was betrayed and he's supposed to quote all this stuff from exodus and he doesn't he makes up his own words he doesn't talk about exodus talks about
[01:21:34] himself and he says this is my body broken for you and what he's saying is that thing that happened at the exodus was actually just a foreshadowing of the real story and behold here I am the lamb
[01:21:50] of God has come to take away the sin of the entire world if you look at some other verses in the new testament the new testament says this for the joy set before him Christ endured the cross well what
[01:22:11] was the joy set before him now it's not all about you so don't get too far in there God's for you anybody that dies for you is for you it's ultimately about the glory of God but God has
[01:22:27] decided that what would glorify him most is for him to rescue and redeem his children anybody that would believe would receive the right to become a child of God and so as you take this bread Jesus
[01:22:42] says as often as you eat of it you do so in remembrance of me but I want you just to yourself to say for the joy set before him and that's me Christ endured the cross taking it and then on
[01:23:03] that night he held up the cup and he said this is the cup of the new covenant covenant and testament mean the old thing the same thing the old covenant was a covenant of law and Jesus says I'm coming to
[01:23:15] do a new thing that I bring you a covenant of grace it's not by your obedience to the law that you were made right before God but it is by my finished work on the cross by my shed blood on
[01:23:28] the cross and because Jesus would drink the full cup of the wrath of God every single believer in Jesus is invited to drink the full cup of the grace of God and he says and as often as you drink
[01:23:42] of this you do so in remembrance of me would you stand let me pray for us our good and gracious Heavenly Father God we thank you for the gospel may we never forget it God with the circumstances
[01:24:04] that folks are walking through right now and they just don't understand what you are doing God I pray that we would just fashion our fate to what you have done that you sent your only begotten
[01:24:14] son on a rescue mission to live a perfect life to die a sinner's death to be resurrected on the third day and for all who would believe we will be resurrected just like that and in the meantime
[01:24:25] God. I pray that we would hear and heed your invitation to come to you. So God, all of us that are weary and heavy burdened, I pray that we would come to you and in so doing we would find
[01:24:40] rest for our souls. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. The Bible says in the New Testament that after the early church, the early disciples would celebrate communion, that they would sing together and so we're going to do just what the early church did we're going to sing and we're
[01:25:01] going to bring our tithes and our offerings our first and our best and we're going to pray so when Jesus has come to me that was not just a one-time offering for salvation that's an all
[01:25:13] the time offering for every single believer in Jesus and if you are going through something right now and you're a little worn out and you're a little tired whether it's mentally or spiritually or physically whether it's relationally then the invitation is won't you just come to me peter will
[01:25:27] say it this way later he says cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you so let's sing

[01:25:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:25:33] let's bring let's pray let's respond my heart still reach you something deeper something celebrate with the 58 men and women at all of our campuses and online and listen if that was you

[01:33:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:33:17] Would you text the word SURRENDER to 44-1122 so we can walk with you, we can pray for you, we can help you take all of those next steps, including the next step to get baptized,
[01:33:28] which a bunch of you need to be heading to the lobby right now to go to that baptism class so we can baptize you at Beach Baptism. Amen?
[01:33:35] We love you like crazy, church. We can't wait to do it again next week. Be free.