Jesus for Messiah | Week 5 | Sermon

it made me think about baseball. I I I remember the time when I was playing in high school. I was on an all star team. And we were going in the last inning. We're home. And I got on base, and I knew that all I had to do was score and and the game's over. We we win.

So could back then I used to be able to run and I didn't run like a pregnant sasquatch. Now I don't even run like a I walk quickly like a one. But I just so I was gonna steal second. I knew if I could steal second, I was fast enough that a single would would end it.

Or two sacrifices I could get get around before we went out. So I thought this is gonna end the game. If I can take second, we're gonna win this game. So you start leading off. You know? You gotta lead off.

And you and and what you wanna learn, you watch the the pitcher, you look for moves, how good is I've been watching little games. So if you get to where you think you can go, he turns the throw, I got back, I go that was pretty easy. So I knew I could get further on this next pitch

and and and and get a little bit further out, and then I'm gonna steal second. So right as I start to get little bit further out, I'm looking at where my foot mark was for where I got out the last time. And right as I look down, I go, why is there gum on my pants?

There was a piece of gum just stuck to the the front of my pants. And as I'm sitting there, I go I noticed I go, and I just I don't know why, but I touched it. And it was still gooey, and it stuck to my finger.

So it's like, ew. I'm like, oh, gross. So then I, like, try to grab it with the other hand. I'm trying to get rid of it. It's stuck on my hands. I'm like, god. This is so cool. What am I gonna and then right then I hear this, and I don't even look up. I'm like, oh, great. And the first baseman has the ball and

tagged me out. I literally sat there playing with gum on my pants in a tie game of an all star game where I needed to steal second and I could have won the game for us. But instead, I'm out of the game now. I'm walking back to the dugout. And I thought about that in the passage that we're looking at today in Matthew 24,

and I realized I think that's what many of us do. I do too. We struggle at times in our faith, in in our life, in our purpose, in in in what God has for us, and and we get frustrated because we get stuck in the gum.

We start messing with the gum things, and the things of life start to gum up our life, and we take our eyes off of what we're supposed to be doing, and so we just deal with the gums so much that we end up out of the game. And and that's really what Jesus is gonna be talking about in Matthew 24 today.

And the big idea we're gonna see is this, faithfulness today stops freak outs about tomorrow. You see, I think the gums of life. Sometimes when there's gum in your life, when there's these things, there's these sticky issues, there's this messy stuff, there's these problems,

and and we focus on it too much. I mean, I needed to deal with the gum. Not that I wouldn't deal with the gum. You have to deal with it. It's just not right when you're trying to steal second base. You gotta stay in the game. You gotta stay on mission.

But sometimes those things stick to us. We start messing with it. We gets all gummed up and it kinda messes you up. Matter of fact, it messed me up because the very next inning, was the pitcher that gave up the winning run to the other team. And I think part of it is because my hands were so sticky. I couldn't throw the ball right.

But we're not gonna talk about that because I still get PTSD about that part. But what Jesus is talking about is like, hey,

there's going to be sticky things. There's gonna be gum. There's gonna be these things that get on your life. There's gonna be things around you that are happening in the world. There's gonna be tough things. And you do have to kinda deal with them, but not at the expense of getting thrown out of the game.

We need to stay on mission. We need to understand that. We need to be faithful.

We need to be faithful to him, and and I thought about this because we're this Jesus for Messiah. This is really Jesus. What he's about to share is he's got like a day left until he's gonna be tried, arrested, tried, beaten, half sent, and and hung on a cross and die.

And he's with his disciples at this moment now. He's not arguing with the religious leaders. He's trying to these are some important things he's saying to them. And and and he's gonna talk to them about the future. In chapter 24, they ask a question.

They ask two questions after they he makes a comment about the temple being destroyed. And and in there, he actually talks about, you know, some prophetic things like, here's what's gonna happen. But here's the weird thing is, most people are gonna be mad if you think the way I'm saying we shouldn't be thinking.

You're gonna be mad that I don't dive into every one of these little statements he makes and try to figure out what it is. Because he's talking about what's gonna happen before he returns.

And and here's the point. He even says it at the end of the chapter. I'm not even gonna read that part of the chapter. He says, but no one knows the time, not even I do. In other words, he says, quit trying to figure out the when. Quit freaking out about what's gonna happen and be faithful today,

and you won't worry about tomorrow.

In other words, if I choose to be faithful today and stop getting gummed up in my fears over an election, the fears over what's happening in the next, you know, two days, the fears of, really, what's gonna happen after two days from now? And, you know, and then the the six months later when they finally figure out and counted all the ballots and everything. But

who knows? It's it's just it's always you know, we go crazy every four years in this country, and we act like it's never happened before. Everybody's ugh. I'm like, you know, we were doing that four years ago too. Right? And and and and and but why as Christians?

But it might not be that. It might be something in your life. It might be a marriage relation relationship issue, like a marriage. It might be something to do with your kids. It might be a challenge you face. Might be a health crisis. It might be a financial crisis. It might be what is it that you're so freaking out about tomorrow

that the words of Jesus actually answers how you can stop doing that? And it's about being faithful today. That helps you not freak out about tomorrow. And it sounds very counterintuitive, but it works. So here we go. Let's look at what Jesus is saying. I'm gonna read verse one through 14.

And it says this, as Jesus was leaving the temple grounds, his disciples pointed out to him the various temple buildings. Like, oh, look at that. Isn't that cool? But he responded, do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another.

And that's where he leaves it. Now I get where the disciples go with this. He just left that like, oh, yeah. This beautiful temple, the place where God's supposed to be. Yeah. That's getting that's going. It's gonna be leveled. We're gonna put in a mall, but those won't last either. But just, you know but he's gonna

he says it. Doesn't say anything more. So then later, when Jesus sat on the Mount Of Olives, his whole teaching is called the Olivet Discourse. He's up on the Mount Of Olives teaching his disciples.

And as he sat there, his disciples came to him privately and said these are the ones that told him it's all gonna be demolished. He goes, tell us when this will all happen, and what sign will signal your return and the end of the world?

So it's like they heard him say it's all getting wiped out, that's all they said. And understandably,

I would probably have the same idea of like, I think I need more details than just, yeah, that's getting wiped out. And so they go so they come and ask two questions. They go, come on, Jesus. We gotta talk to you, man. They're freaking out. They're like,

when is this gonna happen? When is the temple gonna get destroyed, and when is the world gonna end? When are you gonna come back and the world's gonna end?

And and I'm thinking about it. I know I'm adding in here, but why the second question? He didn't say anything about the end of the world or his return. He just said the temple's gonna be destroyed. Here's my theory. They assumed if that temple gets wiped out, that means the world has ended.

And I think that's what we do. I think when our world, when something comes catastrophic in our world, we automatically assume the world is ending. And I think that's one of the problems in when how we get caught up in our country, which I told you we should be active citizens. We should be voting. We should be involved.

Don't hear what I'm not saying. But why do we freak out so much about elections? And why is every time our country's having something weird, people want me to preach the book of Revelation and talk about how Jesus is coming back any second? Why do you think that the world revolves around The United States?

Because every time our world has something tragic or hard in it, we assume the entire world is ending. Pretty natural. I think we all do it. So I can't fault them for that. But they they asked the when question about both of those. His answer never answers the when.

Matter of fact, his answer is you don't need to worry about the when. Because, dude, I don't even know when it's happening. Jesus says that. But what does he say in these these this first part of this passage? He says this.

Jesus told them, don't let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name claiming I am the Messiah. They will deceive many and you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don't panic. These things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately.

Nation will go to war against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many part of the world and the cardinals will still have not won a Super Bowl.

But all of this is only the first of birth pains with more to come. So he says it's just like the big he's like all of these things, this cycle of wars and rumors, wars and famines and earthquakes, he's saying nature is gonna seem like it's getting angry and stuff. Does that sound familiar?

Because he's not giving them direct word. Now these aren't answers. We need to figure everything out. It's pretty much he's giving us, this is gonna be the pattern of how the world works until I come back.

They're gonna you're gonna have wars in it because you're gonna try to fix everything with government. You're gonna try to make things work. And and and and government's not bad, but it's never gonna fix the problem. So you're gonna keep having the problems. And nature and earth and the world, it's like the whole earth is groaning under sin. And he goes, there's gonna be a cycle of all this. And don't worry, he's trying to encourage him, but he says, but don't worry, that's just the beginning. That's like the birth pains. I I just had a well, I didn't. My my my daughter-in-law just gave birth to our third grandchild. It's a girl this time, a little Isley. So that was awesome, a week ago.

So now I got two grandsons, and now I got a granddaughter.

And it's awesome. But they they let us know right away, should come down. She had a contraction. Like, I'm not showing up to like know, no way. This is just beginning. Matter of fact, the birth itself is just the beginning. I think what Jesus is hinting at is what anyone who's had a kid knows. When we had our first daughter, Micah,

my my wife, you know, goes through all the labor. She finishes. She's holding the baby, and then she goes, she just let out. There's this older nurse who was helping her, and she just goes, I did it. It's over. And she's laughed at her. Goes, honey, it just started. And

I think Jesus knew. That's what he was saying. He goes, you think this is bad. Sometimes we think this is the worst. He's like, it's just beginning. Like, well, what's encouraging about that? Well, let's let's go on. Because he says it gets worse. And look at verse nine. He says, then you will be arrested, persecuted,

and killed. You'll be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. Now when people read this and even the rest of the chapter, go study it, it brings out it talks about some prophecies in the book of Daniel that are gonna happen, but it's really the same stuff about these prophecies. Like, there's two views of this. Well, there's three, but one is this is all about

all of this is only talking about what happened in 8070, forty years after Jesus was saying this stuff when Rome came in. They rebelled against Rome. They tried to, you know, get their own messiah and make it work their own way. They reject Jesus, and they end up rebelling, and Rome just crushes it, and they destroy the temple.

I believe he is talking about that. But then he starts talking about when he's gonna return and stuff a little bit more futuristic. So then you're like, well, is it about that? I think it's about both. Because anytime you look in the Old Testament prophecy, there's an already not yetness to it. A lot of these prophecies,

there'll be an actual smaller fulfillment, kind of a type, kind of an illustration of what is to come. And 8070 was an illustration of the end of time. And so he what Jesus is really describing here is be aware, don't be misled. Here's the cycle of what's gonna be happening.

This is the cycle that's just gonna keep happening. Men and people of the world, men and women, and the world system that's fallen is gonna keep trying to make it work. And it's always gonna fail.

And there'll be war, rumors of war. The earth itself is sick. It's gonna have struggles. You are gonna have famines. There are gonna be earthquakes. There gonna be problems. There's gonna be people. And then you know what's gonna happen?

Christians are gonna get prayed. If you truly are faithful, people are gonna start hating you because the world hates the word of God.

And so then they're gonna be frustrated and says many will fall away because a lot of Christians come to church, but it doesn't mean you're a Christian. You want comfort, you want a little bit of tweak in life, and when it gets hard to be a Christian, when it's hard to be a Christian in your culture, many walk away.

And I think he's saying that is going to keep happening until I return. But here's what he says to his disciples in this moment to encourage their hearts.

He goes, but the one who endures to the end will be saved, and the good news about the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world so that all nations will hear it, and then the end will come. He gives us the mission. He gives the encouragement,

and he's really encouraging them in this moment to say, this is how you don't need to freak out about this. You just need to be aware. You don't need to figure everything out. Our job isn't to go when's Jesus coming back. That just makes us look stupid when he doesn't come back. Our job

is to spread the gospel, as he said. His last words to him, just a few chapters later after resurrection, he says, go make disciples in all the world. And that's what our calling is.

And so in there, there's two things. When it says, hey, if I'm gonna stop freaking out about tomorrow, you wanna have some calmness and peace? Calm and peace from what Jesus has to offer us is not because of our circumstances, it's despite our circumstances.

That's a peace that surpasses all understanding. If you keep approaching God, this is the only way you can feel peace and calm and happiness is the way the world does is by having all of the things going your way and it being easy. You will fall away from the Lord.

What he's saying is, I offer you something more incredible. My love can transform your heart. And if you trust it, you can go through all of this and not only be okay, but you'll be a part of what I'm doing for all of eternity and being on mission.

So how does that look? What does it mean? In there, I think there's two things he's saying to do as well as all through scripture. There's two things we need to do to be faithful today to stop the freak outs about tomorrow,

and that is stay alert and stay active. The first one, stay alert.

He says don't be misled, and then he kinda tells them, this is what's gonna happen. Here's what's gonna be happening. We need to stay alert. And how do we stay alert according to scripture and according to later on and according to even what he's saying here is you need to notice there's gonna be false messiahs.

Now when you read that, everyone just actually thinks there's gonna be people coming along saying, I'm Jesus or I'm the savior. You you make it all just religious. A false messiah, idolatry, according to scripture,

is anything you put ahead of God for your happiness. Anything that you think is the answer. Anything like that's what Adam and Eve fell for. Original sin is really the heart of all of our sin. And Satan came and said, you realize God's holding out on you.

And you need to take that for you need to do don't do what he said because the only way you're gonna get to what you really want, true freedom and true this, is to do the thing and ignore God. And that's anything. And idolatry is anything you put above God.

Because that's anything that you make anything that you make the God thing is a bad thing.

So it's talking about, like, if I freak out about politics all day, if you are so worked up about our lives will be altered forever and can never work right and our country could be doomed and all this if so and so doesn't get president, that is idolatry, actually.

You're putting your faith in a political system. Did I say we shouldn't care about it? Did I say we shouldn't have a preference? Did I say I want it to be terrible? I pray for our leaders. Do you? I pray for the good ones, the ones I think are bad. I pray because it says God can direct their hearts.

I mean, it says in the Bible that God spoke to an ass once. He can do it again. I think he's doing it right now. So it's okay

if you trust who really king is. So what he's saying is don't be misled. Quit falling. Don't fall for the false messiah. Don't run after the cheap way to feel happy. Trust me. Be alert. How do I do that? What this point says, the bible's really clear. We stay alert in the word, in worship, and with others. That's

why we read our Bibles. That's why he says thy word. That's why we should be in the word because the word reveals God, reveals who he is. It reveals the truth. And that's why we should read our Bibles when we're not in church. It's not a guilt trip. It's not like, oh my gosh. I didn't read my Bible today. God hates me.

Every time I have not read my Bible for a while, I start to feel the guilt. That's the enemy line. Ah, see? You got you hate God. He hates you. You're bad. You're a horrible student. You're gonna get an f on the exam. But then I sit down and I just talk to the Lord,

and then he speaks to me through the word. And I'm like, why did I miss out on this? I'm the one missing out when I'm not in the word. It's it's like this.

This happened accidentally last night. I almost got distracted like the gum. I reached into my pocket. I'm like, what is that? And I pulled it out. It was a dollar bill. Turned in to get a sermon illustration. It's been in here a while. Reason we need to be in the word is how do you think they train agents

that have to track down and be on the lookout for counterfeit money? They don't sit there and look at the types of counterfeits. Did you know that? You know how they train you to spot counterfeit? You study and spend time holding, learning every principle about and knowing everything about how the real thing is.

You know why? You don't have to study anything else. If you know the real thing, you will always spot the false thing. How do you not fall for false messiahs? By being in the word and knowing the real one. That's the answer,

and we have to stay alert. But you know what? We can be deceived. Why does the the New Testament talk so much about being a part of a church and not just being in rows, but being in circles?

The rows is the what we do, the corporate worship. Now worship, when I'm saying in worship, is not just coming here and singing. This is an important part of it, to rally together. But worship is like it says in Romans, to be a living sacrifice. Jesus says, died for you so you can live for me. Worship just says, I'm gonna declare the worth of who God is. That's why we sing and celebrate.

I'm going to listen to the word of God because he is worthy of it. And then I'm gonna intentionally apply that into my life as my act of worship. I'm I'm not just in other words, worship is not believing in God. Worship is believing God. And they're two different things.

So the question is when you come here in church, and if you're freaking out about tomorrow, you're freaking about everything, you're freaking out, you just can't seem to be calm, and you hear me preach something, it's like, God says, here's what I would like you to do, and you're thinking of all the reasons why you can't, and you're wrestling with it, and you're struggling with it, it's probably because you believe in God. You believe in Jesus.

You just refuse to believe Jesus.

And that's why we freak out all the time. And that's why we also need others in community, because other people that are like minded that are trying to be in the word and be together and pray for you, all these one anothers in scripture, that helps us not be deceived.

You see, a lot of people will go to us, yeah, didn't work out. You know why? Because everyone in the room wasn't really committed to what the room needs to be. The room needs to be a group of people that iron will sharpen iron. That's friction. There's gonna be some heat. You need to look at each other. You need to know each other to a level where someone can call you out and challenge you, pray with you, but say, hey. Look. I think you're looking at this weird. If we look at scripture here, we need that.

Just like, you know, you always need to grow in this. Why do why do pro football teams and all pro sports still have coaches? Why do they still practice?

Because you'll never get there if you don't keep doing it. That's be alert. Where are the false messiahs? And the answer is to be in the word, to be in worship with your whole life, and to be with others. That's why we need the church. That's why we need it. But then the second thing is to stay active.

In other words, on mission. That's our part of worship. Do I do have I intentionally oriented my life around the purpose of the gospel? In other words, we say around here those two points, say, we need to know, we need to grow, and we need to go.

And I think the go part is where we get caught up on because the go part is when I'm okay. I'm really gonna worship God with my time, my talents, my treasure,

and my own testimony. I'm gonna I'm gonna be a part of sharing the gospel. I'm be part of supporting my church. I'm gonna be a part of this because I know that we need that. And a lot of us, we wanna come to church, believe in God. But when you get to that step, that's like, oh, I can't do that. We fight it. We resist it. And then if I talk about it, you're mad at me.

Because that's where it gets real. That's where it says, I actually believe you on this, Jesus. I'm gonna believe you. And he says, when we do that, the gospel is preached to the whole world. And the problem is I think when the church and church people get too caught up in the gum, we take ourselves out of the game.

And that's not a good thing because we end up doing dumb things. We end up doing dangerous things. We end up doing stupid things. It's kinda like a soldier that when there's a war, they're not actually in battle. They're either back away from the fight

and they're they're getting bored because they're far from them. They're just in this strange land, which the Bible says, we're not of this world, but we were sent in. That's a soldier mentality. We have been sent in like soldiers with a mission into this world.

And then there's nothing worse than a soldier that's not on mission and just sitting there. They do stupid things. My dad taught me that. He was in three wars. World War two, Korea, Vietnam. I was thinking about it because today would have been his 90 birthday. And and so he

he he talked about it. He goes he's learned that, hey, when the men when we're not in actively engaged and we're sitting around and you get that boredom and you you freak out about other stuff, you worry about stuff, and and and you end up doing dumb things. And he goes, I learned it the wrong way in World War two because he he signed up. He was 17 years old, joined the Navy. Nine weeks later, he was a machine gunner at the landing in Iwo Jima.

Nine weeks as a 17 year old. He got trained. Here you go. Boom.

And it was crazy. They fought for a month. It was it was like some of those terrifying things he's ever seen. Coral. But, you know, they're winning. They won. And a month later, they're he says they're the Navy. They're getting bored. They've already loading. There's loading and unloading stuff. They they work a little bit, but they're on their boats are kinda harbored there. And and in the background, you could see that the island's just carnage. Smoke destroyed, broken out vehicles, everything on the beach. You could just see the results of this battle. But now they're not doing anything, and so they let him swim. So they're swimming in the ocean.

You know, here's these guys that just fought for a month, and my dad gets this dumb idea that he climbed onto the bow of a ship. And he doesn't you don't even realize how far that is. In a human body, if you go dive, even if you jump foot first, he did a swan dive.

Like then went in, and he did not realize if you go in really good, you're gonna go, woah. He went down so deep, went all the way down like the 30 feet and hit the bottom of the ocean there. And fortunately, didn't kill himself, but he conked himself pretty good. And when he got up out of the water, his his the

the chief the chief, you know, petty officer

came up to him, and he'd come up, hey. Are you okay? Did you get a boo boo? No. He read him the riot act. He says, what do you think you're doing? He goes, you could have got yourself killed. Do you know what that means? You could have got yourself killed. And my dad's like looking right next to him is all the carnage of a month about it. He's like, what are you talking about? You almost got us killed for the last month.

And he goes, that's different. You are a United States naval soldier at a time of war. That is the job. And the US government can get you killed in active service for your country, but you cannot be stupid enough to kill yourself.

He's like, what? But then he realized when he led men in World War two I mean, in Korea later on in World War two, Korea, Vietnam, he goes, some of the most dumb things happened when they weren't doing anything.

You know, in Vietnam, they always talk about how so many soldiers got drugs and all this stuff, not like any other war. You know the ones that had the problems with the drugs? It was all the ones that were not near the combat. Crazy, isn't it?

We do dumb things when we refuse to stay in the game and take on the mission. Now I know a lot of you have been coming here for a while, like the last six months. Wow. These sermons sound really repetitive. He keeps saying, we need to know Jesus.

We need to groan with others, and we need to go live intentionally. We need to give. We need to go reach people. We need to give to this building because we ran out of room. We've reached people. You know we've had over thousand people come to Christ in the last six weeks? So

what I'm telling you is we have a church of people that are doing this. And those of you that give and you serve and you bring in your friends, you are active and you are a part of that. God is using you in this mission. We are doing what it says here. We are actually preaching the world the gospel to the world.

But I gotta keep inviting you guys to join in, the rest of you, because God is doing something. We don't need to freak out about this, that, or the other thing. We need to trust him completely. And, yes, it does sound repetitive.

But you know why it's repetitive? Because I've been going through the book of Matthew. You know who's repetitive? Not me. Jesus.

Jesus keeps saying, this is the things we need to do. If you know my love, I've given you the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness and the power. You can do these things. And if you don't think you can, you're listening to a lie. You're being misled.

So, yeah, I gotta keep repeating. It's kinda like what pastor Jeff did a great job preaching on last week. Are you worried about the flash and forgetting the fundamentals? Because Jesus keeps talking about the fundamentals.

And when we do this, when we stay alert and stay active, we are in mission, and the gospel is preached to the whole world. And you know what? We need to do that even when it doesn't make sense, even when it's hard,

because it's God that's gonna make it happen. And I wanna invite a friend out for the rest of this sermon, because I believe this is a friend in my life that has embodied this message more than any other human being I have met. His name is Malenga Chella, doctor pastor Malenga Chella. Many of you have met him and seen him before. He's the guy we support in in in Africa, in Zambia. He's a movement maker. He started a church in 2018 back a few months ago when I was preaching on the on the the new building and sharing all the victories of here's why we need to keep giving to this and keep going is, he was the one that started Christ Life Church, and then I popped down under him since we helped him start and what we give here. When you give here, it goes there too. So we're a part of this.

Since 2018, when we helped him with Christ Life Church, he has now planted at the time, it was eight had eight new churches he's already started. But I'll let him share what's going on now as he comes out. Where is he? Hey. Come on out here, Malenga.

Give me a hug. Can you tell we're twins? Take a seat, my friend. Get comfy. Wonderful. Alright. So I just set up who you are, where you're at. You're in Zambia there.

And and then and before we dive into the part of the story I want that that kind of finishes off this sermon, it makes my job easier because you'll preach it better than me.

Give us an update. Like I start with I said just a few months ago that you've had eight churches planted now and where are you at right now? Yes. Good to be back, Rob Point. Again, we are grateful to the Lord for the works that are happening in Zambia. We've planted 10 churches. This

It's two more just since a couple months ago. That's faster than we're planting churches. I mean, it's it's not a competition because we're losing. But when we catch up to you, it'll be a competition.

So what else is going on? And we got a picture up here too. This year, we had a team from Rock Point Church come to Zambia, and the team did amazing works. They fed 600 kids in the slum of Chayinda.

They loved on the kids and shared the gospel with them. They also reached out to the girls' home where we have an orphanage for girls we rescued. They had crafts, games, and they just poured and minted into these young girls. Also went to the school. We have a school with two nineteen kids,

and the Cornerstone team went to the kids in each one of the classes, did the crafts, a Jesus presentation, and the ministry was amazing. And on top of that, we had a 300 youth conference. Kids were mentored, loved on, discipled, and amazing, amazing works. This year, we had a 700 leaders and

pastors conference. Pastor Bill came, he poured into the lives of the pastors, mentored them, and Zambia is better because of Rock Point Church. Thank you. It's true. We're better together. This is we're going into the whole world, guys. We're doing what Jesus has. Rock Point's being faithful.

And that's why I'm gonna keep preaching, let's be faithful,

And inviting everybody to jump into what's going on because but here's the thing. You think, oh, that's great. You're planting all these churches. You got it going well. I know when you play at churches, takes a special kind of stupid. That's why we got along so well. And it's hard.

But it was even harder before this even got started

because you had to learn to be faithful. You were already going in ministry. You were a pastor,

but according to what you thought at the time, your plan in your life got completely derailed, almost made you struggle with maybe being frustrated with God because you got wrongfully imprisoned for what, two years and three months? Yes. Tell us about that. In 2006,

I was serving the Lord in Zambia as a minister of the gospel. Then this

gentleman came to Zambia and he told me that he came from a nation called Tanzania, he was helping orphans, widows, and doing amazing ministry there. He invited me. So I jumped on the vehicle that he was driving from Zambia to Tanzania two days drive. When we arrived in Daras Alam, Tanzania,

to my surprise police officers pounced on us. One of them came and he was holding a pistol to my head and he said, You are under arrest. Later, the officer told me that the gentleman who had invited me was not a minister of the gospel, instead he was an international criminal,

and the vehicle that he was driving was a stolen car, and since I was a foreigner there, they thought I must have been his ally, and they ended imprisoning me for two years, three months before the day of judgment came.

Now friends, you have to understand that African prisons are different from American prisons. American prisons are what we call a five star hotel. I mean, being imprisoned, I was beaten in the prison, I was thrown in human excrement in a field toilet, and I spent my night there, the food we had was bad, it was awful.

The places we slept were crowded, the prison was constructed for 1,500 prisoners, it had a max of 5,000 prisoners, It was jam packed and while

I was there, I even started complaining. I thought, Lord, why would you do this to me? But in those days, the Lord spoke to me and encouraged me and instead of complaining, we started preaching the word of God on a daily basis in prison. We preached the gospel in the morning, after the bad meal,

in the afternoon, and even in the evening. And I'm so grateful to the Lord that during my time in prison, the Lord used us to minister the gospel to men who had never entered the church building, to men who had lived as hardcore criminals, to Muslims and other people who had no faith in Christ. So

just just I wanna hear it because he never he'll never say this,

but how many people came to Christ when you and then you started leading others helped you kinda preaching the gospel in your two years? How many came to the Lord? During the time of my two years, three months in prison, we saw over 5,000 people come to know Christ. Wow.

And that was difficult. Like, we're being honest. Like, guys, what God asks us to be faithful is sometimes it's very hard. That's super counterintuitive. It was easy for you to say, why are you letting this happen?

But as you started it, what what really changed you in that moment? Like it like the process with the the man who was with you that that you got arrested because of him, he ended up having some issues and you had to make a choice. And didn't that kinda change your view on some stuff? Yeah. The gentleman

who deceived me and told me that he was a minister and yet he was an international criminal was arrested with me. After going in prison, I later learned that he was also a human trafficker. While he was in prison, he decided to end his life. He took an overdose of medicine and instead of dying, he

became very sick. He couldn't walk, he couldn't talk, he just lay on the bed, the mattress that he was sleeping on and he had serious diarrhea.

When he became that sick, the prison officer in charge of the prison called me in his office and he said, hey, we know that you are a minister of the gospel, but we are advising you that since this gentleman that you were arrested with is sick, don't help him, just let him die because he's a wicked man.

And if you do help him, the judges and the police officers will hear about it and they will conclude that you are his ally in all the criminal activities that he's done and you'll be convicted with him.

Friends, I'm so grateful to the Lord that when I walked into that prison, I carried my Bible with me and I read the Bible every day. I prayed through the Bible every day. And as I read the Bible in prison, I came across Matthew chapter five verse 44 where the bible says, love your enemy. And those words hit me.

Through those words, the Lord was telling me to disregard the advice of the prison officer in charge of the prison and just reach out to my enemy and love him. It was hard. The gentleman was sick for two weeks.

He couldn't walk, couldn't talk, there was nobody to help him, and I went there in obedience to the Word of God and started nursing him, literally washing his underwear, cleaning him, literally the way a mother nurses a toddler for two weeks. I would join long queues in prison, getting food and feeding him, and in those days I started asking myself, I thought, what's life?

What is the meaning of life when you've been wrongfully imprisoned? You're eating in a you're sleeping in a crowded place full of bed bugs. What's life when you don't have all the luxuries we long for such as money, nice bed, TV, etcetera, etcetera. What's life?

And it was in those moments the Lord started teaching me that life is an opportunity that God gives to us. Life is an opportunity to love, to serve, and to honor God and mankind. And I remember as I continued cleaning my enemy and washing his underwear,

I started saying to the Lord from the depth of my heart, I said, Lord Jesus, I love you. As I clean this man, I'm doing it in obedience to your word. I'm doing it as an expression of my love for you. And amazingly,

as I said that prayer to the Lord, I felt the presence of the Lord rest upon me in prison while I was doing that dirty work. I felt the peace of the Lord that surpasses all human understanding and the grace and the strength I needed to carry on for the two years, three months I was in prison. So what would you say

was the key ingredient of faithfulness that helped you to stay alert, stay active? Like, if if if you were to talk to somebody like like, many here are in their own prison. Mhmm. It's not an African prison, but it's still a prison just as much. So many people here are are feel like,

can't do the things Bill's been preaching out of the gospels. I I I I can't serve. I can't be in community. I can't share my faith. I can't give because I'm in a prison financially, or I'm in a prison relationally, or I'm in a prison it's so difficult.

They feel trapped, and they might even be wrestling with the feelings you first said, and they're in prison and it's God's fault. What would you say? What did you hold on to? What's the key to getting past that and to be able to experience what you experienced? I think the key is surrender. Surrender.

Getting to a point where you surrender to the rule of God's word in your life, getting to a point where you surrender to God's command and obey him in line with where you are at. One of the key things that strengthened me when I was in prison is the word of God. Reading from,

Romans chapter eight verse 28, the bible says, and we know that in all things God works them together

for good, for those who love and serve the Lord. And I held on to that scripture in prison, and that scripture told me a number of things. Number one, God is sovereign. He's sovereign over our pains, over our struggles, over our challenges, over any issue that you and I can be going through. He's sovereign and is able to use the very challenges to work it out for our God.

So in other words, last question here.

What do you think you would have reacted like if God told you, hey,

I'm gonna send you to prison for two years wrongfully, and it's gonna be horrible. You're gonna sleep in excrement. You're gonna take care of a guy that put you there. And you're gonna turn into this and all of that. And that's what my goal is for the next two years and three months for you as a follower and as a leader.

Mhmm. Do you think you would have maybe ran away like like many people in scripture have and and and gone your your own way? Or Or maybe on the flip side, looking back, are you glad that God did that? That's a great question, Pastor Bill.

Yes. Definitely I would have run with Jonah. And I'd run away. If he told you, you would have been Jonah. I would have run away. But here's the thing. But now that it happened, are you? Now that it has happened and I've seen the end result of it. What's the end result? The Lord has started a wonderful ministry in Zambia.

Thousands of people are being fed. Thousands of people are hearing the gospels. Thousands of lives have been transformed. Was it worth it? Yes, it was worth it. And, if the Lord came to me and said, this is the plan and this is the end result, I would say, Lord, it's hard, but Lord, let's do it because

it's working out for good for the saving of many lives. And I want to encourage, you, I don't know what challenges you're going through, but I encourage you to hold on to the Lord, to surrender to him, to trust in him because if you healed and surrendered to the will of God for your life, at the end, it will pay off.

Excellent. Very you know what? And I got I got to agree. Because the truth is how it's what you inspire me, my friend. I mean, a lot of guys, when we go over there and you're like, oh, we're the big church from America. We come over. We're gonna save the day. And I met you and you have changed my life

more than I think I've been able to help in your life. And and and the way you lead and just how God has used you and knowing your story, it is obvious that it wasn't yeah. You led 5,000 people Lord

and and and and and you did that. And God did end up turning around and blessing him, didn't he? I think the one thing you didn't share is how did you end up out of prison? Uh-huh. Because you did take care of him, and they were gonna assume that you were a help helper. What happened two years and three months later? Thank you for that reminder.

When I helped that gentleman for two weeks and he recovered, finally the day of defense and judgment came in court. So the gentleman that I'd helped was the first accused, I was the second, he

gave the statement. He pointed at me and he said, this man is an innocent man, he doesn't know anything about all my criminal activities,

and the words he spoke opened the prison doors for me to be released from prison, and he was convicted for ten years. I came to learn that if I had disobeyed the word of God and refused to forgive my enemy, to love my enemy, that man would have died in prison and police officers would have pinned the case on me. Friends,

after coming out of prison, went back to Zambia. 2013, the former president of a school in Texas called Baylor University came to Zambia, heard my testimony, invited me to The USA, and guess what? Baylor University gave me a full scholarship for my six years at Baylor University. Yeah.

And so what he was willing to go through and choose faithfulness instead of freaking out in in in doing counterintuitive things of what he thought would work led to him being out of prison,

led to all those people coming to Christ, changed you as a leader inside Yes. Taught you the real meaning of surrender, and that you can trust God's love because what he did on the back end of this. And the bonus part is because you were a bailer, that's how I ended up meeting you. Because a friend made you gotta hear this guy's story. We became friends,

and now we get to be a part of what's going on over there. And the one thing I haven't asked you any times, how many people have come to Christ through the the the 10 churches you're up to now, and the ministries you've done through the school in the in the since 2018? Do you have a ballpark figure or anything of that?

The rough estimate of the number of people that we are reaching out to is over 5,000 people. Over 5,000 people? Yes. On a weekly basis. Wow. Amazing. Amazing.

And on top of that, I I got to meet you, And I am thankful because we get to be a part of it. We actually are now where we send a team. I go every other year and help pour into leaders, which is helping advance the cause and getting guys ready to to go plant churches because we can't develop leaders fast enough for you, my friend, to launch these churches. And we get to be a part of it, guys.

When we're faithful to what God's called us to do, if you faithfully give and you've been trusting God, especially through the tough moments, this is a blessing for you as well. We get to be a part of this, and it never would have happened. None of this would have happened if you didn't go to prison. So

so in the end, I just wanna pray for you guys. Surrender. That's the only freedom. You're that's the way. Because God could take anything bad and turn it into something good. But like you said in Romans, his promise is if you trust me. You have to be faithful. You can't just say, I believe in Jesus, and he'll fix this.

You gotta say, I'm gonna believe Jesus through this. And I'm gonna stay alert, and I'm gonna stay active.

So my challenge to us as we pray here is, hey, some of you, if you've come to Christ in the last few weeks, some of you could turn over. When we pray right now, you could give your life to Christ right now and say, I believe in you, Jesus. I'm gonna choose to believe you, and then get up and go get baptized. If you've been a believer and you haven't been baptized, that's one of the first acts of what's stopping you from trusting them.

Just just go out there right after. They got all the stuff. They'll they get the towels, the clothes, you can go get baptized. Another thing you can do if you're really intrigued by what's going on is is you can get personally involved in Zambia. I know we're all involved that we give, that we when we give here, it goes there.

But you can sign up. You can go out there to his table, meet Malanga, and sign up to go on one of our trips, and and and talk to him and learn some more about it. And and also, if you feel like, you know what, I was really moved by Malanga's story.

It's not just about us here. If you feel like I would like to give above and beyond what I do at Rockman, I just really am moved by this, you can actually personally support what's going on over there as well and advance the gospel quicker. But as we close, my challenge is, as Malinga said, surrender to that love

and then surrender to his word and see what happens.

So, Malinga, let's do it this way. Mhmm. Can you pray first Okay. And pray over everyone here, especially those who are struggling, maybe in their prison Mhmm. And give them a prayer that they would see the freedom of Christ. And and I told you what kind of a prayer like that, but I'm gonna ask you what I did last night. Would you pray in the native tongue of Bemban? Bemban? Yes. How did how's it said? Bemba. Bemba. Yes. I was remotely close. Bemba.

And then I'll pray for you, and we'll close it out here. How's that sound? Okay. Let's pray.

Amen.

Amen. And Father God, I just thank you for my friend. I thank you for his story. I thank you for the way you can encourage us all. And I pray for myself, everyone in this room, and anyone watching online that we would understand this. That if we are struggling right now feeling like we're in a prison and we just can't be faithful, we can't trust

you at this moment. That, Lord, we would not be misled by that, that we would we would embrace and surrender to your way in order to just experience a peace that surpasses all understanding. Be with us who are really, really wrestling right now and struggling with some deep, hard things.

But I pray that we would just hold on to you through all of this. And Lord, I pray for Malanga. Pray for his family as they'll be traveling here to meet him soon. I pray that he has a great time in in The United States and he goes back with incredible more stamina than he already has

and that we can hear the story of the tens upon tens upon thousands of people that are coming to know you in all of the regions of Zambia in the next few years. So Lord, I just thank you, and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. Let's thanks Belanga for being here. Thank you. Hey.

Thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.