JESUS FOR MESSIAH | Week 2 | Sermon

And and the problem with the grout group he's talking to is not that they they they don't believe in God. Not that they're not even trying to to to live good. It's like nothing has actually changed in your heart. So no matter how you act on the outside, nothing's really changed.

And so where are we at in this? What we have is last week we looked at Jesus, he rides in on Palm Sunday, and the first place he goes is the temple, flips some tables. We talked about that last week of what he was trying to challenge him. Well, now he comes back to the temple, and of course, what he did last week, the day before, immediately these leaders come up and challenge his authority. Like, who are you to come and say we're not worshiping right? So there's this crowd. They're they're doing their WWF worship of God. They're making up their storyline. They're doing it. They think it's good. They're leaning in. He goes, this is wrong. You don't even have true faith.

And and so then he comes back, and of course, they wanna challenge his authority. Who do you think you are?

And and he goes, where do you get your authority from? And he goes, well, me ask you this. Where did John the Baptist get his authority from? He had came and baptized people for repentance, meaning they're gonna own their sin, make way for the Lord. They're expecting the savior. They know they need a savior. They the Messiah is coming,

and and and and a lot of them were people far from God. You had prostitutes, tax collectors, all the people that these religious people looked down on. And so they didn't like that Jesus hang out with them. And so then they ask him,

and so where did get your authority? He goes, well, you tell me where John got his. Was his baptism from heaven? Meaning, was he really a prophet of God? And they look at each other like, well, believes he's a prophet of God. We if we say no,

they're gonna we're gonna get a little riot. You know? The the show won't be good. The the audience is gonna get mad. So then he go they go, well, we're not gonna tell you. And then he just looks at him, well, I'm not gonna tell you where I get my authority either. And then he gives them a little three point sermon.

He gives them a three point sermon. He gives three illustrations, three points of three different angles to look at what true faith really is. What does it really mean to know the Lord and what type of faith transforms your life from the inside out? And what he's saying is you don't have that

and you think you do and you're missing everything. And in each of these, it points to Jesus in a slightly different way and it tells us something that we can learn from it as well. So okay. If I'm gonna have a true faith that transforms, what does that look like? And so in Matthew 21,

I'm gonna read just a part of each of these parables.

There's these three stories. A parable is an illustration, a story, and and and and the first one is called the parable of the two sons. And so what he's going after is he's describing, he goes, alright. This this vineyard owner, all of them has a vineyard owner or a king in these stories, and that's God.

And then he has people in the story that represents the these religious people that, you know, they think they they got together. But the problem is they're self righteous. Self righteousness means they think knowing God is I do rituals and then I'm good and then he'll bless me. And he says that's not how it works.

And so he says there's these two sons, this vineyard owner, and he goes to the one he says, hey, I need you to go out into the vineyard and work. And he goes, no, I don't want to and walks away.

Then he changes his mind. He whatever thinks about the love of his father, the authority of his father, and that in his God, his father's plans for his life or whatever and he goes, alright, I'm gonna do it. So he shows up.

He then walks over to his second son and says, need you to go out in the vineyard. He's like, yes, sir. I'll right away, basically. And then he walks away from his father and immediately ignores him. And that that's kind of what he he so he tells the story and then he asks the crowd.

He he asked these leaders. He goes in verse 31, which one of the two obeyed his father? They replied the first and then Jesus explained the meaning. I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you do.

For John the Baptist was there mad like Jesus hung out with these people that were far from God and what he's trying to say is you don't get it. You think you're better than them because you do these rituals. You think you don't have sin. You think you've made yourself right before God. You're no different than them. Only the only difference, you are different because they're coming to me. They've confessed. They know they're broken. They know they need Jesus

to live life and to have life. And he says they responded to John and that baptism was, I'm confessing that I am a sinner that's far from God and only God's grace can save me. We need the Messiah.

And he goes, so he's saying that they did that. They're gonna get into the kingdom before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn't believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused

to believe him and repent of your sins. Repent means turn around and go lay away. So you refused to believe what he was saying. He was a messenger of God, a prophet. And what a prophet is, when you're a prophet, we always thank someone who predicts the future. That

was a very tiny part of what prophets did, and some of the prophets never even predicted the future. They were called prophets were ones to come proclaim the message of God to people to remind them to turn back to the Lord.

That is what I do on the weekend. That's what the preaching gift is. There's teaching where you just wanna teach, and preaching involves teaching. But the main that is to proclaim what God said to his people and point them back to the right way. And what he's saying is,

you won't listen to him, but yet you come to the temple and worship me and you say you're followers of me, but then you won't listen to the messengers that proclaim my word.

And and so in other words, what he is telling them their problem is and what we gotta think about is is if we are gonna have true faith, we need to choose action over acting.

You see in the WWF, they they they take real life stuff. They get down there and and Vince McMahon was weird because he actually talks and he made himself a character that was loosely based on him, only really exaggerated.

And and and and it was like he was like mister McMahon. He comes in and then he started bringing his kids in and his wife in, and they had these storylines that were almost

too close to reality, but really exaggerated. He blurred the lines of what's real. And he's so this fantasy world that he's creating is almost real. And what did Jesus saying is you've created your characters.

And in your world and your characters, you're the right ones. You're righteous. You're holy. You're made right with me because you do these act. These these these acting this role. Going and doing a ceremony, doing a sacrifice,

all of that is is not the true actions Jesus is talking about. He says, I don't require sacrifice. I want your broken heart. I want you to know that you need me. Sacrifices

at the temple was a was an illustration waiting for Jesus to come to be the sacrifice. But they really thought since I come and do these things, I now just made myself right with God. You're acting out a part, but now you believe the part.

You ever read interviews? There are certain actors that are character actors and they get and they're method actors, the method. They do they really dive deep into the role. Like some actors, like like they they they start acting all week long. Like leading up to the part, they start really starting to act like that character and they dive so deep in it that they've had problems. Some have had to have counseling after they played a character because they were were were were so

into it that they couldn't separate the character from who they were. We can start acting before God at such a rate that we think we really are that character. How about you? Is your faith just a role you play? Starring this Sunday at 08:30 to 09:35 ish, nine zero yeah, 09:35 ish.

You're coming here and go, I believe in Jesus. I love Jesus. And then cut, end scene, you walk out and get in your car and go back to who you really are. Is is is your faith this act you put on? Or is it the genuine actions of a faithful person because you know Jesus and you know his love? And his love is transforming

the fact that you know you're a sinner saved by grace. That's what he when he mentions the prostitutes and tax collectors, He had them following him. One of those tax collectors became one of his disciples. So because of understanding who Jesus is,

the first action you need to take is understanding that what makes us right with God is not our actions at all. It's the action that Jesus took on our behalf. And because of that love and realizing I am so far from God, yet he died to connect me to him.

That's where the grace and the power comes from to then. Now my actions are gonna be in alignment with who he made me to be and who he called me to be and who he died to allow me to be and now out of love. See being an actor means I'm living for his love. I have to go perform

and then he loves me. That's not what I'm saying. That's not what Jesus is saying. He's saying that's what they're trying to do. You're performing this act and then you think that that earns the love. He's saying, I've already loved you.

I will die for your sin. You need to own the fact that you're a sinner that's so far from God. But because of my love, I made it right. And now you know that I loved you that much, out of that love, I should live from it, not for it.

Like if you have a friend that would die for you, then they're trying to give you good advice, they need something from you, you're probably going to do it not, oh, I feel obligated to go do this thing. You're like, no. This person sacrificed for me. I want to do it.

So ask yourself, you know, these questions. Where am I at on this? In other words, AW Tozer, great theologian, great pastor, said this once. He says, the test of our obedience is not in what we say, but in what we do.

That's what this this parable saying is. You say you love me. You say you obey me. All you do is come and do this act, do these rituals. But the things I've really asked you to do, what I really want, the vineyard I want you to go work in, you won't. That's what he's saying.

But the question is don't make yourself do it. The first question is why don't I want want to?

In other words, ask yourself right now this question, am I choosing actions or acting right now?

Which one are you?

And if you're choosing acting, what's the answer? And the answer is the second parable. His second point he makes. He goes to another story and he starts talking about this parable of these evil farmers.

And what it is is the Ritz, the guy that owns all of this land has these farmers and he allows them to use the land. It's his but they use it. And then what they do is they keep most of the crop but they give him a percentage.

Way he doesn't do work. He's like, you're just giving me some of it back. I own it. It's like it's kinda like your rent. Like I'm but you're giving back. That's what I want you to do. And he says he sends out his servants to collect

and he says they rough them up, beat them up, annoy them, and they actually kill one. This is a real biblical theological thing he's saying. He's saying he's talking about himself. God the father

has asked us. Here's my word. Here's my will. Here's here's what life is all about. I need you to get in the harvest, and I need you to give back to me what I'm asking for. And he goes, they're rejecting it, so they rough up and they kill some of those servants

he sends, he's representing the the prophets of the day. And he goes, I send my messengers to preach to you and and and say this is thus saith the Lord out of my word. And he goes, ridicule him, you won't listen, and you even killed one. The one that he's talking about killed is he's talking about John the Baptist. He's telling him you killed him.

So then the the he says, so the father goes, well, surely they'll listen to my son. So he's gonna send his son. Now he's talking about Jesus talking about himself.

And in verse 37, he says, finally, the owner sent his son thinking surely they will respect my son. But when the tenant farmer saw his son coming, they said to one another, here comes the heir to the estate. Come on, let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves.

So their idea is like, the son comes, well, we're not gonna listen to him because we wanna keep what we wanna keep. We're gonna do it our way even though it's not our land. He says, so they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him.

When the owner of the then he asked them this question. When the owner of the vineyard returns, Jesus asked, what do you think he'll do to those farmers?

And they say they're they're pretty brutal about it. They say the religious leaders replied, he'll put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest. The ones that'll actually obey and listen to him. And and and he says and then Jesus kinda drops a hammer on him. He says, then Jesus asked, didn't you ever read this scripture in scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.

When you built buildings back then, you built like, you know, the cornerstone. He laid this foundation in one corner and then built around that. And that's what really established this how solid the building would be. They did a pretty good job. There's still some of those buildings that are standing thousands of years later. I've been over to England, same thing. I I look at my house and I go, I don't think this thing's gonna outlast me.

And he's saying that's what the scripture was talking about me. I'm the cornerstone. This is I'm building. The sun is the is the cornerstone that you rejected. You were the builders. You were the ones that should know better. You're the ones that go to church all the time and say you believe in me. But you've rejected

my will in your life, and now I'm gonna be the cheat that I am the cornerstone. Everything else is being built.

And he says, this is the Lord's doing and it's wonderful to see. I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. He's talking about the gospel's gonna go out to everybody because you missed it. Because you got cocky.

Because Israel instead of worrying about truly knowing the heart of God did the ritual acting, not the actions. And out of self righteousness, they look down on sinners because they think they're not one.

That reminds me of a lot of churches and a lot of Christians these days. We're angry and look down on all the people out there that aren't like us. And we reject them because we think we're better. That was the problem Israel had. They were religious but they didn't have the right relationship with God at all.

He says anyone who stumbles over that stone, him, what I've called you to do, who I really am in your life will be broken to pieces and it will crush anyone it falls on.

That's pretty harsh. He's saying you're gonna miss it. But this is crazy, sad, but almost funny. Verse 45, when the leading priests and the Pharisees heard this parable, they realized he was telling the story against them. He's like, wait a minute. He's talking about us.

And then they and and what did he just say? He goes, you're gonna reject me. You're gonna kill me. That he called the shot. He goes, that's what's gonna happen. They go, he's talking about us. And then look what they say they wanna do. Is they go, they wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds who considered Jesus to be a prophet. You're right back to the John the Baptist question. You're right back to that. They're like, no way. He's saying that's us. That we're gonna kill the the cornerstone.

We're gonna reject it. We're gonna do it. You know what we ought to do? We should kill the cornerstone. We should reject them. How do you do that? How do you hear the truth and go, you know what? That's bad. That's wrong. And you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna attack anyways. That's

what we do. That's what sin makes us do. That's what being separated from God's real love makes us do. And a lot of us sit here and that's what you do. You come in here, you say you believe in Jesus, you hear me say something, and it's like, wait, he's talking about me. And instead of actually leaning in and going, maybe I should trust the word that this guy's preaching, you get mad and attack. You do exactly what you're mad that you're said to be doing.

That's what WWF life will do.

You believe this narrative about the world. You believe this. You've bought into a lie. Something in your past, the hurt, the angst, the whatever, your own shame, your own guilt, your own frustrations, your own idea that you have to earn the love. Because if you think you have to be self righteous and then I tell you, you're not righteous and here's what God really wants you to do, go what else? I've done all of this stuff. I should be right. And you're adding something to the list?

That's what a self righteous attitude does. It's a person that thinks that I go make it right. So then if you hear something you're not doing and you're already tired and already frustrated and already hurt and already crippled and already been broken and you had already people hurt you and you have all this stuff, you're just gonna get angry.

And what he's saying is you're gonna get angry at me, the messenger, when really you're attacking Jesus. And that's the second thing. If you're gonna choose actions over acting, what we need to do next is accept. Don't attack Jesus.

Because if if if I come up here and preach something that's clear in God's word, he goes, man, if you're gonna follow me. I've I've preached on Jesus. If you're my followers, you'll do what I say. If you if you love me, you'll listen to me. And I said, here's what he asked us to do. And and you notice in all these things, it's go into the harvest and work. Go into the harvest and work. Go and give me what I've asked. Give me what I've asked. And then I preach about what he's asked us to do as disciples and you get angry at that.

Why? That's what you should say. Why if you're a follower of Jesus, you hear the clear words of Jesus and the actions he wants you to take? You're mad at me.

That's exactly what these religious leaders were doing.

You got to ask yourself, why are you angry at that? Why do you not want to go into the harvest, go out into the vineyard and do the work he's called us to do?

Probably because you're too busy in your own little ring playing the character you want to be,

and then it's called out in your life, you don't accept Jesus, you attack. So what's the answer to that? To accept Jesus really,

and if you don't want to do something that God's clearly said that we're like and then me as the messenger who's been is a shepherd. It's called listen to your leaders, your pastors. Know that he put some structure in the church and I have a responsibility to lead. And if you're like I don't want to listen

when I'm clearly teaching God's word then you Don, I'm not saying buckle up and make it happen and force yourself to do it. You're hearing the wrong thing. A self righteous, I gotta live for God's love mindset

will make you think that way. Even if you're gonna do it. You're like, you're right. I just have to make myself and and and be frustrated. No. What I'm asking you to do is if there's something hits you that we're supposed to do and for some reason you don't want to or don't think you can, that is revealing some WWF

world lies and feelings that have been generated that you need to get alone and you need to ask Jesus to search your heart and you need to look at what is causing me to not trust the Lord in this. Because I guarantee there's something else deeper. A hurt, a habit, a hang up,

things that people have done to you because hurt people hurt people. Things you've done, fears you have, things you've attached yourself to.

Sometimes it's as simple as this. You don't want to trust God because if I trust God, I got to do stuff with my time and my I got to do stuff that I want to do this with because I want to build this kingdom. I'm trying to build my character. I'm trying to build this and I mean the character I've created not my character of my heart.

And so it's a perfect opportunity to sit down and go where have I bought into a lie? Where have I not understood that the love of God comes with the grace and that grace also comes with power?

It's always an opportunity to trust. He's saying you guys are missing it because you think it's just I go do these motions. I believe this list of things and once I believe the right thing, I'm right. So what I'm saying is it's not force yourself to do this stuff. It's it's it's accept Jesus.

CS Lewis said it this way. Every person who rejects Christ is stacking the bricks that will form the walls of their own prisons. Every person who rejects Christ is stacking the bricks that will form the walls of their own prison.

Meaning when we reject him in our life, reject we're just stacking these bricks and then we end up in a prison

and then we get blocked in and all the things we tried to build in our life is really not a walls of protection. It's we're imprisoning ourselves and then you get to some point when you finish these walls and you're like, wait a minute. Now I'm stuck. And that's for those of us that really do know Christ.

We'll do that to ourselves,

but that also applies what he was doing the quote in was there's a lot of us that come here that are like these religious leaders. You're religious. You show up at church. You say the name of Jesus,

but you've never really accepted his love. You've never called him Lord and Savior. That's what the Messiah is. The word Messiah means he is God himself who saved us from ourselves.

And you've never really surrendered to that because the way you have to surrender to that is you don't understand him as Messiah till you understand that you are a sinner not a mistaker. There's a difference between being a mistaker and a sinner.

Mistakers is, alright, I messed up this one time. I can clean that up. I'm sorry I made a mistake. A lot of us think our sin is alright God, I'm sorry. I made a mistake. I can clean up. And so you think the actions of coming here is how do I clean up my mistakes? How do I you're not.

Sin what the Bible says the depth of sin is we are born into brokenness that we naturally now are born into a life that in our hearts we are rebellion to the God who loves us. Everything in us wants what we want.

We want to eat the fruit. And really, if you look at what Adam and Eve did, it's like, I will get what I want even if I have to go around God's word to do it.

That's what we that's not mistakes. That is we will fall into that, and that has to be dealt with because God is holy and righteous, and you will stand like these next ones, these stories get pretty proud of He's saying that God is God brings his wrath upon sin, and he will judge it. We're worried about why do these people get away with that? They people we're always worried about justice in this world and we're worried about what happens now. But God has the long game. He has the eternal perspective.

God's justice will prevail. Every person will stand before God and answer for all of your rebellion and sin. Every one of us. And you have two choices. Either you're gonna pay the price and be in outer darkness because now you just can't be in the presence of God or you plead Jesus. You have Jesus' righteousness

because he loves you. And if you understand that and you know that Jesus rescued me from something I can never be saved from myself and you really embrace that, what he's saying is that should unlock your heart to start trusting him in these other areas of your life. It should start happening.

So if you get stuck on something,

stop and go, Jesus, why? I know you love me. What do I need to deal with in my life and in my heart that is keeping me from stepping out in faith in this area, whatever it is in your life? That's what we need. And you need to lead with the love. You need to accept Christ, not attack him.

And the question is, have you really accepted Jesus as Messiah? Because just because you come to church and say the name of Jesus and try to do religious things doesn't mean you've done that. Go sit in your garage. You can be in there for the rest of your life. It doesn't make you a car.

If you try doing that, it just makes you a crazy person. You're sitting there. You're acting. Are you doing that when you come to church or do you really know Christ as savior, as Messiah? Because then he goes to this last one. So choose action over acting. How? By accepting Christ not attacking Christ.

And then the third thing in the chapter 22, he does this last one. This is an awesome,

awesomely positive and great if you know Jesus, scary and terrifying if you don't. And he talks about a king who is going to throw a wedding feast for his son.

And he invites all the people that should be invited. He's meant they're the religious people that just do the act acting, not the act of attack Jesus. Don't really honor him. We're the son that, yes, come here. Yes, Jesus. And then walk out there and ignore Jesus.

It's all of these people who are invited and and look what happens. What he's saying about them. He so so he sent the other servants. He he sends out to to go and share with people about his incredible party he wants to throw. So he sent the other servants to tell them, verse four, the feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened calves have been killed. Steak? Yes. And everything is ready.

Come to the banquet. Come to the party. Come on. He goes, but the guests who were invited ignored him and went on their own way. One to his farm. They wanted to stay at home. Another to his business. I'm more about my world, my kingdom, my business.

Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them. Once again, he's talking about the people that proclaimed the message. He goes, the king was furious and he sent out his army to destroy. This is the hard part. He sent his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town.

And he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready and the guests I invited aren't worthy of honor. Now go out to the street corners, invite everyone you see. This is what he's talking about how Israel's rejecting them because of self righteousness. They're acting religious, but they're missing the Messiah. Now it's going to the whole world. The Gentiles, people that aren't Jews. So if you're in this room and you're not a Jew, the people he's now inviting is us.

We're these guests. We're getting invited to the party to come to know Christ, to come be a part of his kingdom. And he goes, so the servants brought in. He said go invite everyone you see. So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

He's talking about how the church should work. The servants he's talking about are people that are his followers. And who do they invite? Everyone they can see.

When I have that closed off acting mentality and self righteous mentality, you're the person that says, why does this guy keep talking about how we need more seats and we need to reach more people? We're supposed to invite everyone we can see to know the Lord. And he says, but when the king came in to meet these guests,

he noticed a man who wasn't wearing the proper clothes for the wedding. Back then if you go there there's a certain thing you had to wear and he goes, he's not wearing the wedding outfit like it used to be in our days like you wear a suit or you wear it now. It's like anything goes but

And he goes, you aren't wearing the proper clothes the wedding. Friend he asked, how is it you were here without the wedding clothes? And the man had no reply. I don't what does that mean? No reply. Do you go, mhmm. Was he like your kid when they're 15? Hey, did you take the trash out?

I'm like, man, enunciate. Use a word. I have issues I need to deal with because it's not my kid, that's my wife asking me. Did you take the trash out?

Verse 13, then the king said to his aides, bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You didn't come dressed right. You're you're not invited to this party. And then he says, for many are called but few are chosen.

What does Jesus really say? These three stories build you don't have true faith because true faith will transform you. And if you're not getting transformed, you don't have faith

It's kind of what he's saying. This last one, what he's been saying is, biblically perspective, if you look at these three in a row, the first one is you've rejected the father. The second one is you've rejected the son. And this one is you've rejected the Holy Spirit.

The Trinity is seen in this. The triune God who loves us and and and and and so what are these talking about? They're not gonna be at party. What does it mean to get thrown out for not dressed? Because once again, if you have this self righteous, I gotta earn it mentality, what you thought he heard is you better do all these things or you're you're not you're gonna get kicked out of heaven.

What he's saying is the clothes they said, because we now know Paul talks about this in the other part of the New Testament. What he's really talking about is the clothing you're supposed to wear our new clothes is the righteousness of Christ.

Meaning it's truly putting your faith in Christ and truly knowing him. When you do that you have his righteousness. Said a few weeks ago impugned upon you. Like, these words are so dumb that they make up. It means something awesome. Impugned sounds like, don't know if I wanna be impugned.

It sounds bad, but impugned means it's his righteousness is seen over you. So the fact is when the Father looks at you when you genuinely believe in Jesus and have accepted him as Messiah, he doesn't see your sin anymore. He sees his son,

and that's why. So this guy showed up, which means he was invited. It's it's kind of implying a person that comes to church all the time that says the words, but you don't really have accepted Christ. You haven't confessed your sin. You haven't you don't have the righteousness of Christ on you.

And you can come to church your whole life and you're gonna be nothing. And you know what your answer is gonna be? I don't know. And and what he's saying is you need to come the point here is you need to be prepared for the party.

Are you prepared for the party? Prepare for the party. Because you know what? Here's what's funny. If you come without the clothing at all, you know what? You're you're not a Christian.

But he also implies in scripture when Paul talks about, hey, make sure you're wearing your clothes. We wear the righteous of Christ. But you know what? Sometimes we're wearing the righteousness of Christ, but we spill some spaghetti on it or something. It's like that's the idea of sanctification,

learning to trust, confessing our sins, repent. He keeps talking about repent. We're always are repenting. Because even if we have the righteous clothes, sometimes we go to the places and we're getting it dirty, and I go, you know what? I need to get it cleaned. I need to clean

that off again. That's the acts of going back, turning, admitting your sin, turning back on the right path, and staying away. Jesus is the one that'll clean it again. He keeps it clean, but you need to stop going to the place where it's getting dirty

and start going where he's asked you to do. That's what got our our mission with battling sin in our life and repenting. And that's why when I preach something that you don't like, if you're really a Christian, you need to go say, why? If this really is biblical,

why if I believe in Jesus and know his love, why won't I do this? Because God wants to help you with that. Because you're missing out on the love I have. You're missing out. And you know what? He wants us to prepare because we know there's a party.

A lot of times we like and you know when we follow God and Jesus sometimes it doesn't feel good, But God has good plans. That's what this is saying. His plans for us are good. He says if you trust me and you obey me, my plans will be good

in the end. It'll always work out good in the end. The problem is it's not always good in the middle. It's not always good to be if there's tough stuff to it. We the Bible says if you genuinely follow me, people are gonna persecute. People are gonna attack you. Man, my job, I get up here and say, I get attacked. You know I get attacked by more people like what Jesus says is you say you believe in Jesus, but you won't listen. I tell you what Jesus says, and then you yell at me, mainly on social media. So I got off of it. So how do you like them apples? I don't even see what you guys are whining about.

Because if you are fighting me on what I'm saying the Lord says, in all the love I have, I don't care what you think because I know what you need.

Because I'm listening to the Bible and I am trying to love you and help you have your life open up in a way that you will be so excited and you will be prepared for the party. And when Jesus comes back, it's party time. That's what we need to be prepared for. And I don't you wanna get ready for this? I mean, honestly,

John Murray, here's what I'm trying to say about how that should transform us from the inside out and we trust Christ. He says Christ did not come to make good works merely possible or to produce an incentive for them. He came to make good works inevitable.

That's what the Bible says. The more you embrace Christ's love, it is inevitable that you will start trusting him. And if you get to a sticking point, there is something in you. You are listening to a lie from that devil. You have caught yourself up into w f ring mentality. You're looking at the world's way of doing stuff and you're getting an emotional about it. You're getting caught into it. You're getting pulled into it.

And you're getting sucked into that.

Are you preparing for the party is the question.

Do you spend more time preparing for the party you're gonna vote for or the party you've been elected to? That's the question. You see when you get caught up into this world, we think this world is more real. What's happening here is more real.

And I see so many Christians like it's like Jesus for Messiah because we're an election year and it causes craziness.

And I'm seeing so many Christians who should be calm and should be I'm not don't hear what I'm not saying. Some of y'all always hear what I'm not saying. And I tell you I'm not saying it and you still act like I am. I have political convictions.

I believe the Bible tells us to be good citizens. We live in a free nation where the citizens vote. I believe you should be active. You should vote. You should have conversations with people about what you believe. But where is all the fear, the anger, the mongering, and the yelling at me for not preaching about them? Or you need to make this issue be known. You need to tell people to vote this way. You need to talk about this. Why? Because our country's going the wrong way. I'm not here to talk about our country. I am here to point us to Christ. And

so are you. That is our calling and our gifting.

The way our country, government, all that stuff God created, but it's it's it's temporary world. It's the w f ring. It will never ever ever save anybody. It's not gonna fix anything. And we're out on the ice acting like this is the most real thing we've ever seen. You're crying and weeping and go, come on. Come on. And and and and you're getting angry, and then you get mad at me. And I'm like, why are you so caught up in this? Ask yourself, if you are so angry

about the the the MAGA or the liberals, if you're so angry at both sides, why? And I know guys why you're angry. And I'm gonna call you out. You are scared. You know why? Because you think where this country goes, your contentment, your peace, your joy, your happiness goes. That tells me you're not looking at Christ.

That tells me you're more worried about what's happening in this political ring than what Jesus is doing for all of eternity and what he wants to do in you and through you. And that's the same problem this crowd had. They rejected Jesus because they were more worried about their government.

They were more worried about their economy. They were more worried about a Messiah that would fix their country and make it great. That's what they were more worried about. So when Jesus says, I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to put you on my mission and do this. Governments come and go,

but my word will stand forever. How about you? Where are you at? Which party do you prepare for more? Which party do you argue with people about more? Which party do you watch stuff about? Which party do you study more on? Which party do you spend more time being fretful and worried about and angry about?

It's fake. You're not going to get the life you want from that. I went to a WWF match back in the 80s. It was King Kong Bundy versus Andre the Giant. And I went in and this crowd was crazy. I knew it was fake, but it was still fun to watch, get the popcorn.

But people got into it as they wrestled King Kong Bundy one when Andre the Giant was the favorite one. Everybody wanted him and and and what's funny is I know it's set up. They decided beforehand. But you know who didn't believe that?

Was everyone in the row in front of me, everyone in the row behind me, and the four or five people on each side of me. Because I could tell the way they got into it. I was laughing. I just thought it was fun. You'd cheer. The way they were cheering, they were

man, when when King Kong Bundy won instead of Andre the Giant, I saw the grown middle aged woman next to me start weeping. And not the type of weeping like you just saw a really good scene in a movie and it just grabbed all the feels. It was weeping like I cannot believe this happened.

Andre, he's the here. He's the one that needs it to win. He should have won. He's the better wrestler. Why didn't he win? She's yelling all this stuff like Matt and her husband. This is why I know they were they believed this was real because he said more profanity in one minute than I thought was humanly possible.

They were sad and angry and upset and mad over something that didn't really matter in the long run. That's what I see in our world right now. You want me to talk about politics? This is what I'll say about it. People are angry over something that doesn't really change much.

We should be involved. We could care. We can enjoy. We should be active and stuff. But when you're at that level of mad and frustrated,

there is something going on inside of your heart that you want from this or you're afraid that's gonna happen from this that Jesus says, you don't need that to have peace and joy and contentment in your life. You need to be preparing for the party.

Where are you?

Where are you at? Where's your faith? Do you have the true faith? And it all comes back to this simply.

Is Jesus your Messiah? That's it. Is he your Messiah? And so what I wanna do is I just wanna pray and then we're gonna sing a song and close. I hope you all stay about good plans. Because I think what we struggle with is some of go, yeah, I believe this. I'm trying to trust God, but it's getting hard.

It's dark, it's scary, it's not easy, it doesn't feel good, but what he's saying, in all the scriptures he's saying is following him in a fallen world is gonna be hard. But he goes, but in the end it'll be good. In the end for those who chase after the ring, chase after things that make this life feel just good,

it's gonna end in darkness and separation. We chase after the light and the right party, it might be tough, it might be sacrificial, but in the end it'll be good. And so you're saying, but it isn't good and you know what Jesus is trying to tell you what I want to encourage you with, if it's not good, it's not the end.

Plain and simple.

And it comes from the love of Christ.

Have you confessed that you are a sinner? That the reason you don't want to do these things with God is you don't trust him because in our innate heart we're sinners. But have you embraced the love and the grace of Christ to unlock that love?

So I want us to close our eyes and I want some of you if you you know that you're a follower of Christ, you just need to be prepping for the party right now. Where's that spaghetti stain on your clothes and just say, hey, alright, God, I need to deal with this. You need to clean this off.

Where am I not trusting you and just talk to him right now, but I wanna pray with somebody in this room right now before we sing about You need to actually confess and profess right now Jesus is Messiah, Jesus is Lord. That's what it means to be a Christian.

It's a transformative thing. It happens by his power and his love, but you have to your action, the most key action you gotta do to start everything else is the act of putting your faith in Jesus, not yourself. In his love, not yours. And

so that's what I wanna do. I wanna pray with some of you, and you can commit your life to Christ. You can give to into his love. You can share that I'm a sinner, but he is a savior. You can just have that relationship with him right now, but you just gotta choose to do it.

And what I'm gonna ask you to do while our eyes are closed is if you wanna pray with me like the couple 100 already this weekend, I want you to stand. Just stand where you're at before we pray. I know it's scary, but everyone's looking down. But here's the deal,

if you can't stand in a simple moment, how are you gonna walk with them? There you go, I see you guys standing there and in the back and all over the sides.

Wow. That's a lot of people standing up now.

Hey, by standing, I believe you've already admitted that I'm a sinner that needs a savior and that's already happened, but I just wanna walk you through a prayer that you can just make it more real in your heart. Just pray with me, but pray, make these your own words. Just pray something like this, dear Jesus, thank you.

Thank you that even though I am a great sinner, you are a greater savior. Thank you that you came and you died on the cross and took my sin. You took the wrath of God. You took you you were just and you took the justice on my behalf. And then you came back to life defeating that death to give me a life I could never earn.

I confess that I have sinned, I've gone my own way, I've done my own thing, but I'm giving that to you and thanking you for taking it from me. Help me to go from this moment and understand what it means to every day learn about your love and choose the actions you would choose, accepting you in my life each day

and preparing for the party that you have planned through all of eternity. Thank you. And before I say amen and we sing, I want everyone else to stand. Just join this crowd that's already standing.

And God, I pray for all of us in here that know you. And even those who maybe still aren't ready, they're not there yet. Lord, I just pray that something that was said today from your word will just sit in their heart and sit in their mind, and they can reflect on this and see how much you love them.

Don't see the scary part. See the hope. See the love.

And, Lord, for those of us that know you, I pray that whatever it is in our heart, whatever that hurt is, that habit, that hang up, that fear, that anger, whatever it is, may we sit before you and say, Lord, help take this from me. Help me understand this. Help me process through this, and help me come out on the other side trusting your love all the more. Because, Lord, we know

we know in your word, it says that you have good plans for us, that you know that if we trust you, it'll all turn out good in the end. So help us walk in those good plans and trust that if it's not good now, it'll be good in the end, Lord. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

And church, the beautiful thing about being in the presence of the Lord is that we no longer have to chase after his goodness and mercy, but we will when

Amen.

But church, real quickly, I just wanna take an opportunity for us to celebrate all those individuals that said yes to Jesus today for the first time. Come on now.

Heaven is a little more crowded because of that, and I'm so grateful to be a part of that decision in your faith journey. If you said yes, please go to Rock Point.

Click that button to say yes to Jesus. Someone from our team will reach out to you in the days, weeks, months, years ahead as you continue that faith journey.

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.