Glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps.
They have built it here, but all too in Thee there lives the best.
I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps.
His day is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, hallelujah, glory, hallelujah.
Our God is marching on.
He has sounded forth my trumpet and shall never retreat.
He has sent me out my eyes and made me proud and free.
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him be true.
O let my feet our God is marching on.
That's good. Sing it out now.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, hallelujah, our God is marching on.
On the last lifted up in the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea.
With the glory in His will, so let His fingers you and me.
As He died to make me whole, He led us there to make Him free.
Our God is marching.
That's good. Sing it out now.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, hallelujah, our God is marching on.
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus.
Sing His mercy and His grace.
In the vengeance bright and glassy, we'll prepare ourselves for creation.
Lift up all together.
We all need to make you whole.
We all need to make you complete.
And we all, sweet Jesus, will sing and shout for me.
While we walk the pilgrimage that way, clouds fill the woods and the sky.
One man's round he brings our own, now a shadow's sign.
And we all, and we all live together, for many are rejoicing and proclaiming.
And we all, sweet Jesus, will sing and shout for me.
So let us stand, be true and grateful.
Trust, we serve you every day.
Because one thing's not living for it will not work again.
We all live together for many are rejoicing and proclaiming.
And we all, sweet Jesus, will sing and shout for me.
We're all blessed now.
Onward to the Christ.
We adore Him soon.
He's new.
He will be known.
Soon the worldly gates will open.
We shall transfer to the throne.
And we all, and we all live together, for many are rejoicing and proclaiming.
And we all, and we all, sweet Jesus, will sing and shout for me.
There's the wonder of sunset at evening.
The wondrous sunrise I see.
But the wonder of wonders that grills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me.
Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all,
Just to think that God loves me.
Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all,
Just to think that God loves me.
There's the wonder of springtime and harvest.
The sky, the stars, the sun.
But the wonder of wonders that grills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me.
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
We can go ahead and find our seats.
We will get started.
Once we find a seat, grab a hymnal.
And for the first hymn, we will sing together this afternoon.
Let's go to song number 147.
Song number 147.
Leaning on the everlasting arms, let's sing it out loudly this afternoon.
147.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms,
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms,
Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms,
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms,
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
I have blessed peace with my Lord,
So here, leaning on the everlasting arms,
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms,
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
Great singing, everybody.
Let's open up the service now with a word of prayer.
Lord, we love you and we just thank you so much for this church.
Thank you for the ability to gather here, hear the preaching,
listen to the singing and sing together.
Lord, we just ask that you fill this church with your spirit
and bless it in everything that we do.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, for our next song.
It'll be song number six.
Song number six.
Beneath the cross of Jesus.
Song number six.
Those that note well, sing it out loudly.
Song number six.
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
I vain would take my stand,
The shadow of the mighty rock
Within a weary land,
A home within the wilderness
Of rest upon the way,
From the burning of the new tiny
And the burden of the day.
Upon the cross of Jesus,
Mine eye at times can see,
The very guiding form
Of one who sought her there for me.
And from my smitten heart
With tears to wonders I confess,
The wonders of His glorious love
In my wondrousness.
I take the cross I shall
For my abiding place,
I ask no other sunshine
Than the sunshine of His face,
Content to let the world go by,
To know no gain nor loss.
My sinful self, my only shame,
My glory all across.
Great singing.
Good evening.
Thank you so much for coming to
Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you did not already get a
bulletin, you would like one.
You can lift up your hand nice
and high.
On the front, we have our
Bible memory passage,
Matthew 28, verse 11.
And then on the inside,
we have our service times,
our soul winning times and
church stats.
On the right is a list of
expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for them.
Also, our missions trip,
a large group of our soul
winners are already left this
morning to go down to Renosa.
I did talk with them.
They have arrived, so
everything went smoothly with
the drive down, so that's great.
And make sure to keep praying
for that church van, all right?
We want to make sure they come
back, too, okay?
But pray that the soul winning
will go well tomorrow morning.
I'm going to be flying down
there early, early in the
morning and joining them,
and we're going to be going
into Mexico.
And, of course, there's
always a little bit of danger,
but just pray that the Lord
would keep us safe and that we
could find lots of people to
talk to and preach the gospel
there.
So we have a good group,
over a dozen people that are
going to be out there soul
winning.
Please just be praying for us
for the weekend.
I'll, of course, be back for
our Sunday services.
And then next week, we have our
cruise missions trip, which
some of our church members are
going to be going on.
Evangelist Fur is going to be
help leading that.
And I'm really excited to hear
their report and to see how
everything went.
They're going to be going to
several different Caribbean
spots.
And so we're excited to see
what kind of work that they can
accomplish out there.
And then a couple other events.
As far as our church numbers.
So for January, we had three
hundred and sixty eight
salvation, which I went to bed
and look back.
I think it's the best month
we've ever had for soul winning,
apart from when we went to the
Bahamas two years ago.
And so it's great work on the
soul winning and we want to
keep that up.
We still, you know, Vangelis
Urbanic still beat us.
OK, so I don't know.
Maybe, you know, this next this
month or maybe, you know, when
we go to the Bahamas, we can
beat him. All right.
So we'll try to do that.
But this month, this is the
month that we need to beat him.
All right. Let's see if we can
do better.
We got some mission strips and
stuff like that.
So but let's keep up the great
work on soul winning.
And then also just some church
reminders there on the back is
our prayer list.
We are continuing to pray for
the names for their grandmother
and Miss Charlotte.
We've been praying for the
Carlson's mother, Rebecca,
been praying for the Miller's
friend for her mom's cancer.
We've been praying for the
Scots.
Please be in prayer for brother
Scott.
He is considering going through
treatment and so for his cancer.
And so just be in prayer for
him.
Also from his grace and also if
you would.
This is a new one.
But if you've been prayer for
also Elijah and Olivia's
health.
They were asking for prayer for
that as well.
Please also be in prayer for the
Garcia's for the daughter
Krista.
I don't know.
I know she was around this time
expecting so I don't know if
there's any update on that but
just continue to pray for them.
Also pray for brother Tony's
health.
We continue to pray for the
Foley's for their visa.
We've been praying for the
Good Winds friend Miss Sarah.
We've been praying for brother
Nick's mother.
Also if you would be in prayer
for the absolute father in law.
I guess these the surgery was
postponed and his his health has
declined a little bit.
And so we're just in prayer for
a miracle for them.
And just please keep them in
your prayers.
Also be in prayer for brother
Billy's friend Blake and
coworker pray for their health
situation.
And then we're continuing to
pray for brother first brother
for their situation.
And if you've been prayer for
brother Ellie asked for prayer
for a friend there.
And then also if you'd ask Miss
Ginger's brother who's also
struggling with health.
And so a lot of health requests
a lot of some some serious
situations.
So please please continue to
pray throughout the week.
But we'll say a quick word of
prayer here as a church family
for them.
Thank you Heavenly Father so
much for this opportunity to be
here.
Thank you so much for all these
ladies are expecting.
I pray you just help them with
their pregnancies.
Please help them with their
children's development.
Thank you so much for those
blessings.
I pray you'd also help those
that have recently had babies
that you would help them with
their children's development and
their overall health that they
would be strong and healthy.
Please also I pray that you
would just give favor under
these church members and friends
and family that when talking
about having some serious
illnesses and serious issues I
pray if possible that you could
just give them a miracle.
Please grant them health.
Please give them life.
I pray that you would also give
them wisdom in any of the
decisions when it comes to
treatment or when it comes to
just making the right decision.
I pray that you just comfort
them also while they're going
through such difficulty and
tribulation.
Please also just give us favor
as far as our our work and our
travel and those that are
needing assistance there.
I pray that you just give them
favor.
Please also be with our soul
winners down in the border near
the border.
I pray that you just keep them
safe.
I pray that you bless our
soul winning endeavor tomorrow
and this week that you would
help us to see and find many
people that need to hear the
gospel and that you give us
boldness to preach that you
could help us get many people
saved.
I pray that you continue to
motivate our church to do great
works for you this month and for
the rest of this year.
And I pray that you would just
help us with the service.
I pray that you would also just
give us grace and that all the
works that we do would just give
honor and glory to the Lord
Jesus Christ in his name we
pray.
Amen.
So I really have as far as
announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing our psalm
of the week psalm one hundred
and forty nine some one hundred
forty nine.
All right that was psalm one
hundred and forty nine.
Psalm chapter 149 sing out loudly on the first
Let them praise his name in the dance, let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and
heart. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people, he will beautify the dream for salvation.
Let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud upon their beds,
let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and the two legends soar in their hands.
To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people,
to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with bares of iron,
to execute upon them the judgment written, this honor at all it takes, praise ye the Lord.
Let them praise his name in the dance, let them sing aloud upon their beds,
Matthew chapter 10 the Bible says, And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits,
to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these. The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother,
James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican,
James the son of Alphaeus, and Labaus, whose surname was Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not,
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give.
Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves,
for the workman is worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy,
and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it.
But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words,
when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues.
And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
For it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death,
and the father the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death.
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another. For verily I say unto you,
ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come.
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
Fear them not therefore, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known.
What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light, and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father,
but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my father which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother,
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.
And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this scripture. I pray that you would please bless Pastor Shelley now
to draw out the truth within it and to help us to apply it to our lives.
Please bless the Mexico trip, give them safety, and let it be receptive in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Matthew chapter number 10 is a pretty famous portion of scripture because we see the disciples
being commissioned to go out and do likewise as the Lord Jesus Christ has been doing.
And so after we got the Sermon on the Mount, we see in chapters 8 and 9 the Lord Jesus Christ going
and healing people, preaching, and just ministering to a lot of people out in the public square.
And he is now sending his disciples to do likewise. It says in verse 1,
And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits
to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Now, honestly, this is a huge chapter with a lot of information, so I really can't necessarily cover
everything in great detail. I'm going to try and just get through the chapter.
But I do think this beginning portion has some interesting things.
And the end portion I'm kind of really hoping to talk a little bit about as well, time allowing.
But a couple of things that I think are interesting to think about is the Lord Jesus Christ is going around
performing some of the greatest miracles that have ever been recorded in the Bible.
We also have him specifically preaching the greatest sermons that have ever been taught.
And yet, when it's time for him to send people out to do his work, notice he's not sending 300 people,
3,000 people, 10,000 people. He's only sending 12.
And it kind of should go to show that there's not really that many people that are super dedicated to serving God.
And if you've kind of read through the Bible up to this point, you know, if you've gone through
Genesis all the way up to this point, you just don't see giant multitudes wanting to serve God,
wanting to do the serious works and labor of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, it's usually a few. And when we say few, I mean, this is a small number, 12 people.
There's many more than 12 people in this room today.
And yet, here at this point in time, only 12 people are going to do this incredible work of traveling
throughout all of Israel, preaching the gospel, performing miracles, and doing this great work.
And even one of them is a Judas, okay? Even one of them is a devil, even of this 12 specifically.
But he is giving them the same power, essentially, that he has.
He is granting unto them this ability, in verse number one, to have unclean spirits cast out
and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
And so, you know, we could think of, like, oh, well, it's easy for Jesus to do the things that he did
because he has these special abilities, but he ends up empowering his disciples to do the exact same thing.
And I believe, obviously, while we don't necessarily have apostolic powers
and we don't have these special giftings of, like, healing people,
I do believe that God enables us and empowers us to do the same work that the Lord Jesus Christ did,
and that when we walk in the Spirit and we're filled with the Holy Ghost, he does give us power,
he does give us authority, and he wants to commission us to also go out and do these great works.
You know, if you look at the end of Matthew, keep your finger and just go all the way to the end of Matthew,
he says something interesting about power. It says at the very end of Matthew 28, verse 18,
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
So who's in charge? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has been given all power and authority.
You know, it's kind of interesting, you know, how could you deny the Trinity
when the Lord Jesus Christ is in his resurrected, transfigured state,
and then he's saying someone gave him power? Who's giving him power?
It's obviously the Father is giving the Lord Jesus Christ his power in heaven and in earth
because he's the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He is the supreme ruler,
and he's been given that power from the Father, and he is telling us all of that power is mine.
Verse 19, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you,
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the world.
So here's the thing. If we were to understand what he's saying,
the leader and the ruler of North Korea is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The ruler and leader of China is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The ruler and leader of Mexico is not some Jewish woman. It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's not even Donald Trump. It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has the power and authority over all nations,
and he has commissioned us to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to every creature.
And while he gave those power to the early disciples, to the 12 disciples,
he also gives us power to go out and to preach the gospel and to teach all nations and to baptize them.
And that is what we are commissioned to do.
Now go back, if you would, to Matthew chapter number 10.
Go back to Matthew chapter number 10.
This is an important point. We see the transition,
and we see that the Lord Jesus Christ isn't going to do all the work on earth by himself.
You know, he says in another passage that greater works shall these do,
and he's talking about his disciples. He's talking about Christians.
And it's not really in the quality of the work. It's more in the quantity of the work.
Obviously we can't do a higher quality of work than the Lord Jesus Christ,
but at the end of the day we could do more in quantity
just simply from the fact that his ministry was limited to three years in a small geographical location.
He didn't have planes. He didn't have cars, although he could walk on water.
But at the end of the day he didn't necessarily have as much time.
So we have more number, more volume, more time, and so we can end up doing more works.
We can reach more people than he did in his ministry
just simply from the fact that we have more time and opportunity.
Obviously he is the greatest soul winner. He is the greatest preacher, period.
But at the end of the day, just because we have more time and ability,
we can end up doing more works as a conglomerate,
not as an individual but as a whole and as a group.
And he's wanting to commission these 12 to go out and to do the work.
God wants us to do the work. Of course Jesus was the model.
Jesus is showing us the way. Jesus is the first.
But he wants us to follow in his like footsteps and to be a Christian.
What does Christian mean? Like Christ.
And if he says to Peter, he says, hey, if you follow me, I'll make you a fisherman.
That's not limited to Peter. That's limited to no one.
And it's for every Christian that will follow the Lord Jesus Christ
that he wants to give him that power, he wants to give him that authority,
and he wants us to do the work.
The problem is that we're lazy and we have the flesh
and many times we don't want to do the work.
But he is commissioning these 12.
But we need to also, when we read these things,
insert ourselves into the text and into these stories
and into these commandments and into these instructions
and say, okay, you did that for them, but what am I supposed to do?
We are also supposed to go out and to reach people and to preach the gospel
and he's given us that power and authority.
Even though I'm not an apostle, even though I'm not a disciple in that regard,
I can still be a disciple. There's kind of two meanings to the disciple.
We typically think of disciple as the 12,
but really a disciple is just anyone that follows the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a broader context too.
I'm not one of the 12, but I can be a disciple if I follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as long as you're following the Lord Jesus Christ
and you're walking in the Spirit, you will be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whether you're saved or not is not based on discipleship.
Some people would say you have to be a disciple to be saved.
Well, then virtually no one's saved.
Heaven is real empty up there.
But it's not disciples that get into heaven.
It's the saved. It was a free gift.
Of course, disciples are going to be in heaven,
but I'm just saying that discipleship is a choice
and it's a very serious and sober choice to be a disciple.
Being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is not something you should take lightly.
And we're going to see the sacrifices that they make as we go through this chapter,
but notice the 12 names that are mentioned here in Matthew.
It says, Now the names of the 12 apostles are these,
the first Simon, who is called Peter,
and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother,
Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican,
James the son of Alphaeus and Levias, whose surname was Thaddeus,
Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
So these are the 12.
And you can compare this with some other lists in the Bible
as far as the names of the disciple.
It's pretty consistent.
There is a few things that are slightly different.
But for the most part, you have a couple brothers.
You have Simon and Andrew,
and then you also have James and John.
And this is encouraging to me because there is a lot of verses,
especially even in this chapter, that talk negatively
about how family can desert you and brother can betray brother,
and many times families won't want to serve God together.
But here's evidence and proof that sometimes families do want to serve together.
And in fact, even brothers want to serve together.
And you know what?
You should count yourself very lucky and very fortunate and very blessed
if your brother wants to serve God with you
because it's a rare thing.
It's a rare thing when your flesh brother wants to serve God with you.
And you should take advantage of that.
And I would almost say that you're almost in a position
where you're better off than most of us
because you kind of see the main disciples,
the ones that were used the most and kind of mentioned the most
and kind of seeming to be the greatest of the disciples,
were ones that had a physical brother that wanted to serve God with them
because you have James and John, and then you have Peter and Andrew.
And of course, the ones that had a literal brother,
you should take advantage of that.
If your brother wants to serve God with you, you know,
iron sharpens iron.
Two are better than one.
You should really take advantage of that and really do a lot for God.
And it's not just for brothers.
If your sister wants to serve God, hey, serve God with them.
Of course, a family that wants to serve God is going to be way more powerful
than the individuals that want to serve God.
And so if you can be an exception to the rule
that most of us will have family issues, you know what?
Take advantage of that exception.
Take advantage of the fact that you and your family
are going to serve God together
and use that to propel you to do great works for the Lord
and not just to be a disciple, but be one of the best disciples,
be one of the greatest disciples, and be greatly used of God.
Now, we also have Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, they're all the same.
Matthew is mentioned as the publican.
He was sitting at the receipt of custom, as the Bible describes him.
Then you also have James, the son of Alphaeus.
So we have another James, James the Less, as he's sometimes referred to,
and popular culture.
Then you have another individual, Lebeas.
Then it says surname Thaddeus.
Surname just means last name.
It's kind of an older word for last name.
Sometimes you'll even see this, especially if you travel,
they'll say, like, what's your surname?
And you're thinking, like, I have no idea what that means.
Sir? You know, I don't know.
It just means that it's your last name.
So what would you go by as your last name?
And then he's mentioned in Mark chapter 3 as just Thaddeus.
It just mentions him by his last name.
And then it also mentions someone in the book of Luke,
because all the other names match, except for one in Luke,
and there's someone named Judas, the brother of James.
And it's Judas, not Iscariot.
It seems like he probably was just like,
hey, let's not call me Judas anymore.
Let's call him Thaddeus or something.
Even though Thaddeus is kind of a weird name,
he's like any other name.
Do you have any other name that you can call me?
I'm just kind of joking.
But obviously, Judas kind of ruined that name
for a lot of people probably, you know what I mean?
Because you even get to the last books of the Bible,
and it's like it's Jude.
It's not Judas, but it's Jude.
Just like here, it's just like it's Thaddeus.
And it seems like he wants to maybe not have
that name associated with him.
That would be my guess,
but I do believe that that's the same person.
You have Judas, the brother of James.
You have Lebbeus Thaddeus, or just Thaddeus.
That's that same guy.
Then you have Simon the Canaanite.
He's also known as Simon Zelotus and Luke.
And then you have, of course, Judas Iscariot,
which is the betrayer, which was the traitor.
And so you have kind of an interesting crew here.
You have brothers.
You have, of course, many of them
are probably literal Israelites physically.
You kind of have an exception here,
where it seems like Simon.
It seems like Simon is not of that same heritage.
That's why he's denoted as Simon the Canaanite.
You have Matthew, who was a publican,
so he wasn't really serving God prior to this.
You have fishermen.
You just kind of have just like a mix
of just all kinds of different people
coming from all kinds of different parts of life.
And really, Christianity should be that way,
that no one should be discriminated against
based on their past.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not a respecter of persons.
He can use anyone.
He can even use a betrayer.
He can use a traitor to accomplish the work that he has.
He can use the Canaanite.
He can use brothers.
He can use uneducated fishermen.
He can use highly educated individuals, publicans.
He can use sinful people.
And so really, God is willing to use
anyone that's willing to be used,
and in ways that they're not even qualified for,
because the fishermen, Peter,
they're not qualified to be these great orators
and great speakers and have a lot of wisdom.
But you know what?
God ends up making up the difference for them
and allowing them to be greatly used
and then confounding the wise
because they're sitting here thinking like,
how are these unlearned men, you know,
preaching this way and speaking this way
and understanding these things?
And it just gives more credit
and more glory to the things of God,
to the Lord Jesus Christ when you say,
wow, how are you so educated?
How are you so sophisticated?
How do you understand all of these truths
in the world when you haven't gone to college?
Well, you know what?
College for the birds.
Now look, I'm not against college entirely.
I'm college educated, but you know,
it didn't really benefit me in my pursuit of a career.
I do think it benefited me a little bit
just because in all labor there is profit,
but it really was not worth the time and the money
and the investment that I invested into it.
And I think for many people,
if you're not going to college with a specific goal in mind,
a specific career or a specific task,
it's often probably not the best option.
Now it's better than doing nothing,
but at the end of the day,
everything's better than doing nothing.
When you have to compare two decisions though,
I think there's many decisions
that would probably be even better than college.
You know, today we have a big push to go to Bible college,
but I would venture to say that many people
that just get a job, go soul winning,
read their Bible and go to a hard preaching church,
they'll probably know more of the Bible
than these Bible college kids.
And so I'm not saying Bible college is bad.
I'm not saying that Bible college,
you couldn't study on your own and become very smart
or couldn't be greatly used of God.
But let me tell you something,
just showing up at an institution
doesn't necessarily make you wise.
You have to put the effort and energy into it.
And even if you don't go to college,
even if you don't have a higher level of education,
just reading your Bible will make you smarter
than 99% of all people.
The Bible says that it makes wise the simple.
And so God can use anyone where they're at.
And honestly, you're not gonna get the wisdom
of this book outside of this book.
Typically speaking, I mean, of course,
there's a lot of truths in the world that you can learn.
You'll end up realizing, oh, wow,
that was found in the Bible.
But most of the stuff you learn in the world
is contradictory to the word of God.
It's contradictory to sound wisdom.
And so really you just need to be focused in on
the things that God has for you.
Now I'm all for learning and education.
I think we should all encourage our children
to be greatly and highly educated.
I'm constantly trying to learn things.
I'm constantly trying to read books.
But let me tell you something, a lot of college now
and a lot of these high school curriculums,
they're not even having you read.
And they're not having you read good material.
They're not challenging you to understand that material.
And here's the reality.
If you just read the Spark Notes
just so you can make a score on a test,
you didn't learn anything.
You learn by reading.
You wanna become a great Christian?
Read your Bible.
There is no such thing as a great Christian
that's not reading their Bible regularly
or that's not reading scores and scores of scripture.
The greatest Christians will have
and have always read tons and tons of Bible.
That will make you a great Christian.
In fact, you will get burnt out on church
if you don't read your Bible regularly.
You know, you say like,
why do people come and go at church all the time?
It's because a lot of people aren't reading their Bible.
Because if you read your Bible,
you know what you're gonna do?
You're gonna be motivated to serve God.
Not only that, you're gonna wanna hear what the Bible says
because you've got an appetite for the things of God.
You've got an appetite for the truth.
And so when you go to an institution
that's gonna lie to you,
it just rubs you the wrong way
when you've been reading truth
for a couple hours every day.
I mean, if you're just reading truth
for about an hour all day,
it's gonna be really hard to wanna show up
and waste an hour or two of your time hearing lies.
But for some people, they've done nothing spiritual,
so they just kinda drag themselves to a church
and they don't really even care to listen that much.
So they'll listen to virtually anything.
But let me tell you something,
the reason why people come to this church
is because they read their Bible.
The reason why people drive across town
to go to a church like this
is because they read their Bible.
Because they actually care about the things of God
and they're special to them,
they're important to them,
and so they actually wanna do it.
Otherwise, you could just drive five minutes to any church.
I mean, there is probably 20 churches
within five minute drive of your house.
I don't really care,
unless you live like out in the middle of nowhere,
I mean, I'm not getting raised hands.
I mean, unless you live out in the boonies
or just on some farmland or something,
and even in that situation there might still be,
I mean, there is just tons and tons of churches
everywhere near you.
But let me tell you something,
the people that read the Bible care where they go to church.
The people that read what Jesus has to say care.
They wanna go to a Wednesday night service
to hear what these verses even mean.
And of course, a lot of us already know most of this,
but we just like the refresher.
We just like to hear it being communicated.
We like a fresh perspective sometimes.
We all have our own different perspectives.
After sermons, many people come up to me
and they're like, hey, this is something that I saw
or this is something that I caught
or this is what I was thinking of
or the Holy Spirit was leading me to think of this verse
and I'm thinking like, wow, I never thought of that.
Wow, that's great.
Yeah, that's a good connection.
And it's great to just be around like-minded brethren
that love the Bible and love the Word of God
and allowing Him to motivate us to serve Him.
These disciples, think about it,
they were spending time with Jesus, weren't they?
He didn't just grab them off the street
and then they went out.
They've been with Him for a while, haven't they?
They've been hanging out with Him, hearing Him preach.
We had Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
They were listening to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're constantly hearing Him.
Now they're going out.
And the reality is most people probably won't,
day one, become a soul winner.
You know what they need to do?
They start hanging out with Jesus for a while.
They need to hang out with Jesus in Matthew 5 and 6
and 7 and 8 and 9.
And then by 10, they're like, all right, I'm ready to go.
And that's how it is even with soul winning.
You know, maybe you're not ready to talk.
Maybe you're not ready to preach the gospel yet.
But why don't you come with me?
Come with us for the fifth time and the sixth time
and the seventh time and the eighth time.
And then by the 10th time, you're like,
all right, I'm ready to go.
You know, eventually you're gonna say like,
hey, put me in, coach.
I want to do it.
I want to participate in the program.
I like hearing you preach the gospel,
but it kind of gets boring.
I want to say it.
Let's just be honest.
Talking's more enjoyable than being a silent partner.
Being a silent partner, it's fine.
It's good.
There's nothing wrong with it.
We love silent partners.
But don't we all love talking?
I mean, I love talking.
Who likes talking?
All right, there you go, yeah.
I love being a talker because the time goes by
quicker, you know, it's a little bit easier.
It's kind of this effect that I notice with golf
and shopping.
I have no idea why, but it's like I could walk
a golf course for two hours, and I feel fine,
but if I have to stand for 30 minutes while my wife's
shopping, my knees are like they're gonna buckle.
And I'm just like, I don't even understand.
I'm not even carrying golf clubs.
I'm not swinging, and it's only been 30 minutes,
but I'm just like, I'm already just so done
because I just hate it so much, you know?
I just hate just standing around doing nothing.
Now, again, being a silent partner is not doing nothing.
You should still be there to assist and help
and provide support, but at the end of the day,
you know, we need to get out there and do the action,
and we need to be a participant, and you know what?
Being a silent partner is being a participant.
That's a great step, but that'll help motivate you
to get to the point where you need to open your mouth
boldly to make known the mystery gospel,
and there's gonna be times when you're alone
and there's somebody else, and you have to talk
or they're not gonna hear the gospel.
There's gonna be times when you're around somebody,
and so you need to have the opportunity to learn
so you're prepared when that opportunity comes around.
Just like when Jesus is about to commission people,
you've been hanging out with him for long enough.
Now he's ready to use you.
Look what it says in verse five.
These 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them,
saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles
and into any city of the Samaritans.
Enter ye not, but go rather the lost sheep
of the house of Israel.
So the initial mission of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his disciples is dedicated to the Jew first,
and we see verses about that, to the Jew first
and then to the Gentile, and of course,
the gospel went to the Jew first
and then now to the Gentiles.
It's kind of funny because it seems like
some Baptists today, it's like Jew first only.
It's like only Jew first, but the reality is
is we should also go to the Gentile,
and the Jews were already reached anyway,
so you should probably be focused more on the Gentiles,
but at this point in time, the Jews are the focal point.
He's going to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Verse seven, and as ye go preach, saying,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
What does that mean?
It's available.
It's nearby.
It's accessible.
It's at hand.
Something that's at hand means you have it.
What is it?
It's getting saved.
That's what they're alluding to,
and of course, he's using these metaphors
to talk about getting saved.
That's the kingdom of heaven is believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I've preached those sermons about this.
The kingdom of heaven is broader than just getting saved,
but essentially, you enter into the kingdom of heaven
by being saved, and then of course,
the rest of your life is now you're in the kingdom of heaven.
You're doing the works for the kingdom of heaven,
and you're a part of the kingdom of heaven,
but your entrance into that kingdom of heaven
is to be saved.
It's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse eight, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,
raise the dead, cast out devils.
Freely ye have received, freely give.
Notice again, salvation was free.
Hey, the Bible tells us so many times
that salvation's free.
Romans chapter five says it three times in a row
that it's a free gift, free gift, free gift.
Here, it's saying freely you have received, freely give.
You know, that should be the goal of a church
is to freely give the gospel.
We're not charging people.
We're not interested in their money.
When we go out and knock on doors,
we're not trying to solicit money or business.
In fact, I want them to visit church,
but I'm more interested in just getting saved anyways,
and we're there to freely give them the gospel,
freely explain to them how to be saved and to go to heaven,
and we should understand that all the things
that we have in our life
have virtually been freely given to us.
I mean, we were freely given life.
We were freely given parents.
We were freely given lungs to breathe,
all the free oxygen in this world.
I know there's some people trying to figure out
how to tax that, but I'm just saying like right now,
I think it's still free to just breathe.
All the things on the earth and water,
all this stuff was free until the government came
and tried to tax everything,
but what I'm trying to say is that
we've been given so many things for free,
our health, our height, our development, our parents,
and of course, spiritually, we've been given,
I got this for free and since.
Obviously, I might have bought this particular Bible,
but I'm saying the King James Bible,
other people did for me and just handed it down to me.
I didn't have to translate it.
I didn't have to do all the labor.
I didn't have to get burned at the stake or stabbed
so that I could have the King James Bible.
I mean, I did no works to have the King James Bible.
It was already done for me.
Having the fundamental faith, having a Baptist faith,
having Baptist doctrine,
all these things have just been freely given unto us.
Great doctrine has been freely given to us
by men that have labored and studied the word of God
and of course, our salvation was free
and so we should have this attitude of appreciation
for the things we've received
and not get lifted up with pride or arrogance
and thinking that we're better than other people,
thinking that we're smarter than other people.
We should recognize all the things that we've received
and then we should say, you know what?
As appreciation, I'm gonna also freely give.
What I've received, I'm gonna recognize it.
It was a gift.
I've received it.
I'm not special and I'm just gonna pass it on to others
and help others.
Some people wanna kind of hoard this to themselves,
keep this for themselves to be better than other people.
You kind of see this with Calvinists in my opinion
because they kind of just don't wanna go out there
and share the gospel
and they wanna think that they're better than other people.
They're special.
And here's the thing, they are special if they're saved.
Now some Calvinists for sure aren't even saved.
They teach work salvation.
I think there's probably some Calvinists that are saved
and because they're saved, they are special
but then they don't wanna share that gift with other people.
They're hiding their light under a bushel
of laziness, pride and arrogance
and we should shake them of their pride and arrogance
and saying, hey, freely you've received, freely give.
Why don't you start being a giver of the gospel?
Why don't you go out and preach the gospel
and to reach people and not look down upon others
and think, well, if they were gonna get saved,
it's just gonna automatically happen.
No, it doesn't automatically happen.
Someone needs to go under them.
Why is he sending out people to preach the gospel
if everybody's just gonna magically get saved?
I mean, this just immediately debunks the stupidity
of Calvinism.
The Lord Jesus Christ is sending people out
to go and preach the gospel and to tell them
the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I mean, imagine them being Calvinists.
Hey, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
How do I get that?
You can't do anything.
It's just gonna magically happen or not.
You're just gonna have irresistible grace hit you
or it's not gonna hit you.
Well, can I do anything in the meanwhile?
No, you're a dead man.
Dead man can't do anything.
I mean, how does anybody believe Calvinism
and then read the Bible?
And, of course, they freely receive the gift of salvation,
but it was through their faith that they freely received it.
Okay?
Again, Calvinists would mix a lot of these things up.
This isn't a sermon against Calvinism.
I wish it was because I would love to preach against them,
but we wanna keep going through this.
But we have to recognize that we freely receive things,
so we need to freely dispense them.
Verse 9, provide neither gold nor silver nor brass
in your purses nor scrip for your joy.
Neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves,
for the workman is worthy of his meat.
Now, of course, the word purse here
is a little bit different than we typically think of it.
Typically, it's thought of as just a woman's accoutrement,
a woman's item where they store lipstick and whatever.
I don't know what's in purses,
but they would store just female products
and whatever they need, maybe their wallet.
But a purse, in this context,
is more like a satchel, so it's just more like a bag.
They didn't really have backpacks.
We pretty much, you know,
most of us are men that go out selling,
and we typically have like a backpack or something.
But they kind of just more have a bag or a satchel.
It's just referred to as a purse.
And he's saying when they're going out,
they don't need to put money.
They don't need a bunch of money.
And again, this isn't even necessarily,
I wanna be careful,
because I'm not saying they didn't have any money,
but they did.
I'm not saying they didn't have any money.
You know, gold, silver, and brass,
this is like a lot of money.
So he's saying you don't need like a ton of money
to go out and do this.
You don't need script.
You don't need two coats.
You don't need shoes.
You don't need states.
Just go out and do it.
Because I think what he's trying to warn people
from thinking like I have to store up a whole bunch of stuff
in order to go serve God or something.
It's like I don't need a two-year deputation.
I don't need to necessarily store up all of these goods
and all these assets.
I mean, I can literally just take a Bible,
walk outside, knock on someone's door,
and preach them the gospel.
It's that simple.
It's that easy.
There's not like a huge requirement here
of physical necessity.
You can just go out and preach the gospel
and get a bunch of people saved.
And of course, at this time,
he's allowing them to go out and do this work
and allow other people to help them along the way.
That's what he says the workman is worthy of his meat.
People who are preaching the gospel and serving God
are worthy of being taken care of.
Financially, food, clothing,
everything they could possibly need,
they are worthy of their meat.
Whatever they get or whatever they need,
they should be provided for.
Now, this is interesting
because in this portion of scripture,
he's saying don't take anything extra.
You're good.
People are going to shower you with everything you need.
They're going to give you all the coats and the clothes
and the food and the money and the gold.
Everything you're going to need,
they're going to just give you.
But then later, keep your finger,
go to Luke chapter 22.
Jesus changes his instructions unto the disciples.
It says in Luke 22, look at verse 36.
Then said he unto them,
But now he that hath the purse, let him take it.
And likewise the script.
And he that hath no sword,
let him sell his garment and buy one.
For I say unto you that this that is written
must yet be accomplished in me.
And he was reckoned among the transgressors
for the things concerning me have an end.
This is my interpretation of how these things are different.
Okay.
Early in Jesus Christ's ministry,
he's going out, he's healing people,
he's providing them food, all this different stuff.
He's super popular.
You have to admit like Jesus is wildly popular
everyone's really excited.
He's showing up to crowds of thousands of people
and they're all on board.
So at that point in time,
I mean, if you walk into a town
and you're just healing people,
everybody's going to come out of the woodwork.
Everybody's going to want to be very appreciative,
very hospitable at first.
But as time goes on and as the gospel does its work,
well, things end up changing, don't they?
And even the Lord Jesus Christ who's coming in
and they're screaming Hosanna,
pretty shortly after they're screaming crucify him.
The same people.
You see the apostle Paul and I believe it's Silas.
I can't remember his partner in this part of the Bible.
They go into the town, I think it's Silas.
They go into the town and they think that they're gods at first
and they're like worshiping them.
And I think it's Barnabas actually.
Yeah, because they call him like Mercurius or something.
It's like Jupiter Mercurius.
He's going in with Barnabas
and they think they're gods at first
and then soon after they're wanting to kill them.
And I think this is how you have to understand
like Christianity in many ways,
everybody's all excited and on board at first,
but then once the message starts to sink in,
once the message has done its work,
once the message starts dividing people,
then it becomes dangerous.
Then the tide turns a little bit
and you start realizing, oh, okay,
not everybody's for this anymore.
This is something that we're going to end up attacking.
This is something we're going to come against.
And you have to realize
that the gospel has a radicalizing effect.
The gospel has a radicalizing effect
in the sense that it will take somebody
that is very sinful, very apathetic,
and it can get them saved and make them wise
and they can end up becoming a great person.
They can end up becoming a transformed person
to where you would almost say
you're a completely different person.
But it can also have the same effect
to someone that's just kind of normal, ho-hum.
They get approached with the gospel and they reject it.
They don't like it. They don't want it.
And then they start going down a downward path
and they end up becoming one of the most wicked,
evil, hateful, bitter type of people
because essentially the gospel just kind of,
it really just starts to fast forward who you are.
Whoever you are inside, the gospel,
once you kind of get exposed to it,
it ends up revealing what you're really like
and who you really are and it's going to kind of
push you into one of two camps.
So if there's an area where the gospel's not at,
everybody's just kind of like,
it's kind of like playing Minesweeper.
Who's ever played Minesweeper? Okay.
I don't know. There's this game. It's on the computer.
It's just all these boxes and you have to click
and you don't know what's underneath it.
It's either nothing or a bomb.
And then when you get close to bombs,
it'll have like numbers by them to kind of tell you
like how many bombs are kind of nearby
and it's just like a puzzle. It's kind of a game.
But it's like that's kind of how it seems like the gospel is.
It's like the gospel, you're like clicking
and it's just like, okay, nothing or it's fine.
But then sometimes it's just a bomb.
Sometimes the gospel's going to literally create a reprobate,
create some of the most wicked, evil people.
And you'll kind of notice in America specifically,
let's just say America's probably had the most privilege
when it comes to the gospel message.
Just the most preachers, the most churches,
the most people going out and preaching on a regular basis.
And I'm not talking about today.
I'm just saying like over the last hundred years or so.
I mean, they've pretty much been reached with the gospel
more than any other area, generally speaking.
And if you look at America, it seems to kind of have
some of the greatest people,
not saying that only the only great people in America,
but I'm just saying it seems to have a lot of the greatest Christians
and greatest people.
And then it also seems to have some of the worst of the worst in America.
And again, this is my personal opinion, personal theory,
that it's because the gospel, wherever it's at,
is going to have such a radicalizing effect.
And so when you see the gospel entering into areas at first,
it might be really positive.
It might go over pretty well.
But as it takes its course, as it has its time to settle,
people are going to become threatened.
Who's going to become threatened?
The Catholic church.
Who's going to become threatened?
Idolaters worrying about their gain being disrupted.
You know, you have all these idolaters in the book of Acts
that are starting to say, like, wait a minute,
if everybody converts to Christianity,
how are we going to sell all these idols?
And they start getting worried about that.
And now they're going to start attacking.
Now they're going to start going against and bringing opposition.
The same is with this church.
Let me be honest with you.
When you start a church somewhere, it's not that bad at first.
Everybody likes you.
You go and you knock on your neighbor's door.
Hey, we're starting a Baptist church.
It's like, awesome, great.
We're friends.
You're friends with every single neighbor.
The city likes you.
Everybody likes you.
And then you start preaching.
And then you let Brother Dylan preach for you.
No, I'm just kidding.
Then you just keep going.
And then all of a sudden, your neighbors,
they're not as nice anymore.
They don't stay your neighbor.
Then the city doesn't like you anymore.
Then you just pretty much, you just start,
everybody kind of starts changing over time,
and you start realizing, oh, wow.
It's just because the gospel kind of has this effect
where at first, it's like, oh, it's fun.
It's cool.
It's exciting.
Everybody likes it.
But then over time, it has its work
where it just manifests what's really going on in people's hearts.
And it starts to become dangerous.
Not everybody's excited.
Not everybody's on board anymore.
And so at first, the disciples, they can go out
and just stroll the towns.
Everybody's excited.
Everybody's on board.
They don't even have to provide anything.
But then later, think about what he's saying.
Once the gospel happens,
once the death, burial, and resurrection,
well, I'm not going to be as popular anymore.
Now you're going to face severe persecution.
Now you're going to be arrested by the Pharisees.
Now you're going to be put in jail.
Now you're going to be, some of you are going to be stoned.
Some of you are going to be basically heavily persecuted.
And so they do have to essentially provide for their own needs.
They have to basically have their own purse.
They have to have their own money.
Paul, in many cases, had to provide his own money.
Not always.
He said at times he was a robber of other churches.
The Bible makes it clear he was paid money at times.
But then he's also having to work a side job
to make up the difference.
So I guess when the money's flowing,
he's just focused on whatever.
When it's drying up or people aren't able to provide,
he's having to make up the difference.
He's trying to make up the hedge.
And at the end of the day,
you're just trying to get the job done.
And you have to understand that if being a disciple,
think about this, if being a disciple was,
I just go out and everyone's just going to shower me
with gifts and money and food and it's just rainbows.
A lot of people just do that because they just want the benefit.
Like a lot of people just be like,
I mean, I've seen so many people email me and call me
and they're just like,
hey, will your church pay me to be a full-time soul winner?
And I'm just like, I don't even know you.
And it's like, yeah, well, I got fired,
I don't have a job and nobody wants to hire me
and I don't have any skills.
Could I just be a full-time soul winner?
It's like, if no one wants to hire you,
why would I want to hire you?
It's like, no, how about you just get a job,
come to church, be a soul winner for a long time
and then maybe if you're really awesome,
then maybe you think something could work out in the future.
You know what, why don't you just start doing it now,
prove that you're a good soul winner right now
and then maybe we can talk later.
But there is not this just,
hey, I'm going to go out and preach the gospel
and knock on doors and everybody's going to hand me money
and hand me coats and be excited.
People are slamming the door on me.
People are not always that happy to see you
when you go out soul winning.
And yeah, a lot of them will get saved.
You'll get a lot of people saved going soul winning,
but let's be honest, they're never going to come to church.
They're not interested.
And of course, the people that actually have the money
and stuff, they're not even interested.
The people that are interested don't have anything to give you.
They're asking for money.
After you get them saved, they'll ask you for money
in the places that you go that are receptive
and then you go to the nice areas,
they'll throw you out.
They'll call their HOA Karen manager or something like that.
So you have to understand that Christianity
is not this just like I go out there
and just everybody's excited that I'm a Christian.
Everybody wants me to be around.
No, the true disciples, the true Christians,
once they've had enough time,
everybody wants to get rid of them.
People are mad at them.
People want to kill them.
They're threatened.
They're persecuted.
It's not this is glorious life.
But I think there was the exception
here at the beginning of the story.
That's how I would interpret these two different things
is that it's just more of a timing issue, right?
Once the gospel's done its work, that's how it's gonna work.
Also, this could just be a useful tool.
Let's say we start doing evangelism in areas
that have not been reached.
Let's say we start going to countries and going to areas
and going to cities that haven't been reached very much.
We should probably expect at first
it to be a lot more positive, a lot easier,
a lot more smooth sailing
than once you've been there for a while.
As you start getting established
and doing more work and growing,
that's when the opposition's really gonna come.
The dynamic's gonna change.
A lot of people are gonna turn on you.
A lot of people are going to try to attack you at that point.
Now, let's keep reading here.
It says in verse 11,
And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter,
inquire who in it is worthy,
and there abide till ye go thence.
And when ye come into a house, salute it,
and if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it,
but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
And whosoever shall not receive you,
nor hear your words,
when ye depart out of that house or city,
shake off the dust of your feet.
Verily I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah
in the day of judgment than for that city.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.
Be therefore wise as servants and harmless as doves,
but beware of men,
for they will deliver you up to their councils
and they will scourge you in their synagogues,
and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake,
for testimony against them and the Gentiles.
So here he's kind of bringing up this concept of when you're,
when you're traveling though,
even though it's kind of positive still,
it's not perfectly positive.
There's still going to be bad people.
There's still going to be a house that's worthy,
and there's going to be a house that's unworthy.
And he's also showing that even when you inquire,
even when you try to do research,
even when you try to figure out if someone's a good guy,
sometimes they're still not a good guy.
Because they inquired,
they tried to figure out who was the best person to stay with,
who's the most worthy,
they went unto them,
but then what happened?
They did not receive their words.
And whosoever shall not receive you,
nor hear your words,
when you depart out of that house or city,
shake off the dust of your feet.
So saying if someone doesn't want to hear you,
if someone doesn't like you,
well, you know what, they're wrong.
And boy, it's just kind of weird
how people just don't agree with this point.
They'll simply say like,
oh, there's nothing wrong with me not liking you,
Pastor Shelley.
But wait a minute.
Isn't this saying that if a disciple came unto you
and you didn't receive them,
that they can literally shake off all the blessing upon you
and that you're actually under a curse?
I mean, the Bible is saying if a Christian,
if a God-sent man of God comes unto you
or is needing help or is with you
and you don't receive them,
you're not kind unto them,
you're not willing to participate with them.
You know what?
They can remove a blessing from you
and cause a curse to come upon you.
What does it say in verse 15?
Verily I say unto you,
it should be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah
in the day of judgment than for that city.
Now, I would say the primary application here
is, of course, the gospel message, right?
If they won't receive the gospel,
they won't get saved,
they won't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
well, then they're going to be severely punished
in the day of judgment.
They're going to die and go to hell.
And I think he's contrasting this city
because they didn't have disciples coming
unto them performing miracles.
They obviously rejected the truth still,
but it's one thing to reject the truth
when you're just hearing it from afar
as opposed to it just being right there in your face
and you're just seeing the miracles
and so God's going to judge them more harshly
considering the opportunity for them to be saved
was so much higher.
I would say this.
People in America that don't get saved
are going to face a worse judgment
than people in other countries
because they had so much greater of an opportunity
to be saved and they had so much more
of an obvious opportunity to hear the gospel
and so they're going to be judged more harshly.
But I'll go beyond.
This is not just simply, I believe, just the gospel.
There could be people that are even saved
and if they're not going to receive God's people,
if they're going to treat poorly the people of God,
God may still curse them and God may still punish them,
not obviously in the day of judgment in that context,
but I'm just saying this parallel,
this teaching still applies that we should be kind
and gracious unto every Christian
and unto every person that's a saved believer.
We should receive them.
We should help them.
We should do good unto them.
And you know, woe unto us if we're not willing
to help brothers and sisters in Christ, period.
We should always be willing
to help brothers and sisters in Christ
and those that are going to attack
other brothers and sisters in Christ,
this is what we have to understand
is that Jesus takes everything personal.
You know, you should always insert Jesus
into whatever scenario you're facing.
You say, hey, if Jesus was the person
that's asking me for this, what would I do?
I mean, if I'm talking to a saved believer,
just play this game for me for a second.
Let's say a saved believer comes up and he says,
hey, I need you to help me with this,
but let's just swap them with Jesus real quick.
If Jesus came up and you said, hey, I need a ride,
you'd be like, of course, it's Jesus.
Hey, I need 20 bucks.
You'd be like, here's a hundred.
Hey, I need a coat.
Here's my coat too, right?
Isn't that how we would treat Jesus?
And I mean, you know, when we're upset or we're mad,
we should also think like, okay,
if this is someone I like,
if this is the Lord Jesus Christ,
how would I treat them?
And look, if someone is coming to my door
preaching the gospel,
I should be very kind to that person.
We should offer them water and we should try to help them
and say, hey, you want me to go soul winning with you?
Right?
I mean, we should have an attitude
that just loves other Christians
and loves the body of Christ and loves other believers.
But you know what?
The people that treat other believers like scum,
well, you should expect Jesus to treat you like scum.
And you should be fearful of trashing
other believers in Christ, railing on them,
lying on them, deceiving them, taking advantage of them,
betraying them, being a traitor.
Boy, it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God.
I would not want to be doing that to a Christian
because you know what?
You're doing that to Christ when you do that,
the positive and the negative.
We should be very kind and we should be very careful
how we treat other Christians.
We should be fearful of how we treat other Christians
because Christ is always taking it personal.
It's kind of like that older brother syndrome
where the older brother loves to pick on his younger brother,
but boy, you better not mess with his little brother
because he might be mad at his little brother.
He might pick on him.
He might be messing with him.
But if someone else comes to mess with his little brother,
he's going to pound you into the ground.
And I'm sure the Lord Jesus Christ,
sometimes he's embarrassed by us.
Sometimes he's kind of like, oh, man.
But he's still like, all right, Father, I got this one too.
But here's the thing.
When someone starts messing with one of his people,
he starts getting really mad at that person.
He starts getting really irritated.
It's how it is with my kids.
If you have multiple kids, you know what I'm talking about
because your kid will just be irritating the fire out of you.
They'll make you mad.
They'll make you think things you shouldn't think, okay?
But then their brother will punch them and you're just like,
you're going to like, ugh.
Now you're just so mad at that other kid,
you're just like, you don't mess with my kids, you know?
You don't mess with your brothers and sisters.
You be nice to them.
You be kind to them.
And look, that natural instinct, I believe,
is a God-given instinct because that's how he feels.
He gets mad when Christians are attacking other Christians.
He gets mad when Christians aren't receiving other Christians
and aren't being kind to other Christians.
Look, obviously when you're a David
and you have to run away from Saul, you run away.
But David was never mean to Saul.
David never attacked Saul.
David was always kind unto Saul.
It was Saul that was constantly attacking.
It was Saul that was constantly on a campaign to hurt
and to harm and to damage and to lie and to do evil.
And you know what? He destroyed himself.
The quickest way to destroy yourself is to attack other Christians.
You should have an attitude of grace and humility
and loving your fellow Christian so that God doesn't judge you harshly.
And of course, the world should be kind to Christians
because they're going to face severe problems.
But we need to beware of men.
Look, this world is a dangerous place.
There are traitors galore.
People suck. I'm sorry.
I'm not trying to be mean to y'all or anybody in particular,
but I'm just going to tell you people will disappoint you regularly.
People will attack you regularly.
People will lie to you and take advantage of you.
People are selfish.
People are arrogant. People are prideful.
People will just do all kinds of horrible things to you.
And you just have to kind of just live your life always on guard.
And I hate that that's true because I sometimes forget
and I start getting relaxed again.
You start thinking that your friends are actually your friends.
You start thinking that people actually love the Lord
and go to church for sincere reasons.
You actually think that people want to do the right thing
and you just kind of get relaxed and get comfortable.
But then, boy, the knives just come out.
And you just kind of have to live your life realizing,
you know what, it's just I can't ever get too comfortable.
I have to be careful. I have to always be thinking.
I can't just trust my kids with everyone.
I can't just trust everybody with private information.
You've got to be careful.
You've got to be careful what you say even amongst brethren
because they will use what you say against you.
And this is what's annoying.
It's not only will they use what you say against you.
They'll lie about what you said and use that against you.
It's not always this exaggerated thing.
So you need to be very, very careful
because they will deliver you up to councils.
It says in verse 18,
You shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake
for testimony against them and the Gentiles.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought.
How or what ye shall speak,
for it shall be given you in that same hour.
What ye shall speak, for it is not ye that speak,
but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death,
and the father the child,
and the children shall rise up against their parents
and cause them to be put to death.
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
But he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
You know, I think that this has always been true,
but as we get closer and closer to the end,
we're going to see more examples of this.
There are going to be more and more examples
of brothers wanting to kill their own brothers.
There's going to be examples of children wanting to kill their parents.
There's going to be examples of parents wanting to kill their children.
And not just wanting to.
Here's the sad part about this verse.
It says shall deliver up the brother to death.
It doesn't say like they're going to try.
It says they're going to succeed.
Many Christians are going to be killed by their own family.
Boy, it's going to be hard to convince people
that the man's foes,
or they have his own household when your brother's trying to kill you.
You think it's going to be hard to do that then?
It's like these verses are real, folks.
And for some of us, it's already real.
For some of us, we already have these kind of issues
and these kind of situations.
But you know what?
Real Christianity is going to go through that.
Notice it says but he that endureth.
The Christian life is enduring.
It's like running a marathon.
The best part about the marathon is when you start
and it's downhill as soon as you take the first step.
I mean, it only feels good when you start.
Any time I've ever run at first,
the first like 10 seconds, it's probably not.
I'm like, this is fun.
What's wrong with running?
It's the next five seconds, right?
And then the next whatever amount of time I continue running.
It's just like, wow, now I remember why I hate running.
Running is so horrible.
And it's like this is Christianity.
People, it's like we all just got on this line.
We're going to run this marathon.
We're like, oh, cool, let's go.
And we all start running.
And then in the first like five seconds,
everybody's like, what's the big deal?
This is great.
This is fun.
But then you start realizing after 10, 15 seconds,
people stop running.
And then 20 seconds and then 30 seconds.
And you know, we don't serve God for 30 seconds.
Let me tell you something.
There's a plaque in this hallway for people
that have been in this church for 10 years.
There's not a lot of names on that.
That is a huge accomplishment to be in a church for 10 years,
to endure for that long,
because there has been all kinds of weird
and crazy things that have happened in this church.
I mean, I think if you just wrote all the crazy things
on a list and hand it to any of those people
when they first showed up,
they would have been like, I'm not coming back.
I have to go through all of that.
It's because they didn't know they were going to have to go
through all of that, you know?
And it's just, it's kind of crazy and insane,
all the weird things that sometimes you have to go through
to serve the Christian life.
But you know what?
It's called Steadfast Baptist Church for a reason, folks,
because being steadfast isn't automatic.
Be ye steadfast.
What does that mean?
Endure some things.
You know, enduring means it's not always fun.
You know, when you run, it's not always fun.
In fact, it's almost always just bad.
It's just enduring.
There's not really any part of it.
Like, when I start running, after a while it's only pain,
and it's only going to be pain until I stop.
And sometimes you might even get into a cycle
of the Christian life where you're just experiencing pain,
and you're like, when's the pain going to stop?
It's not until you die, or you give up.
And then a lot of people, they give up,
and they say, oh, my life's so much better now.
It's not better.
You just quit running.
It's not better.
You're just not doing anything.
Okay?
How has it improved?
You aren't improving.
The person that kept running is doing better.
Even though they might not be feeling better,
they're still doing better
because they're still going forward.
You know, we need to keep serving God
until the bitter end and doing the hard works
and enduring, enduring.
Christianity is an endurance sport.
It's not really one that you just do it really quickly.
Christianity is one that's more about how long can you last.
How long can you stay on the merry-go-round as it spends?
How long can you hold your breath?
How long can you keep running?
How long can you endure all the persecutions
and all the dramas and all the fighting
and all the people lying about you
and all the backstabbers and the traitors
and the people coming and going?
I mean, people come and go all the stinking time.
It's crazy.
Pretty soon the people that left
is going to be a bigger church than the people that stayed.
They'll be running a thousand.
Okay?
There's going to be these old IV churches
that are filled with thousands and thousands
of ex-steadfast members or whatever.
We're going to have single-handedly replenished
all the old IV for them.
But then they're going to be new IV
because all those people want, you know,
the post-trib rapture or whatever.
So we're making them new IV whether they like it or not.
There you go.
But at the end of the day, you have to realize
this is an endurance sport.
And we're in a heated battle.
It says in verse 22,
and you should be hated of all men.
Don't be surprised when someone hates you for being Christian.
In fact, you should be surprised when they don't hate you.
And, you know, some people are like,
why are you guys so hated?
Well, here's my question.
Here's my question.
What church is a great church and not hated?
I mean, how can you read this,
and you should be hated of all men for my name's sake,
and then say like, yeah,
but this one church everybody loves.
Well, what do you believe?
Do you believe what Jesus said?
Or do you believe this church that they're just so great?
I mean, you can't believe both.
Who are we gonna believe?
Are we gonna believe that the church
that has a horrible reputation and is hated of everybody
is on the right track,
or the one that everyone loves and is great,
and it's just supersizing,
and there's no drama, no problem.
I mean, which one is the one that's fitting the model here?
I'm just gonna say that the churches that I look at
and say like, that's a great church
are very hated churches,
with very hated pastors
that are constantly having to endure.
They're constantly having to endure.
The churches that are just super fun,
and everybody likes it,
and it's just everything's great,
don't seem to be typically accomplishing as much.
It says in verse 23,
but when they persecute in the city,
flee into another,
for verily I say unto you,
you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel
till the Son of Man become.
The disciples not above his master,
nor the servant above his Lord.
It is enough for the disciples
that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub,
how much more shall they call them of his household?
Fear them not therefore,
for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed,
and head that shall not be known.
What I tell you in darkness,
that speak ye in light,
and what ye hear in the ear,
that preach ye upon the housetops.
And fear not them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul,
but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.
You gotta think like,
this is Jesus' like commission
before you're about to go out.
Hey, don't be afraid to die.
People are gonna deliver you to the councils.
You're gonna be put to death by your brother.
Like that's intense.
Think about how many of them
actually have their brother with them.
They're thinking like, James, like what?
Andrew, like is that you?
Like really?
Like you're gonna do this to me?
You know, this is sobering words.
Christianity is serious.
This is a serious fight.
This is a serious battle.
You should take your Christian life seriously.
It's not a joke.
We're not just playing a game here.
We're not just trying to have fun.
This is some serious work.
And hey, oh, well they call you all these names.
Well, if they call Jesus Beelzebub,
then we should be able to take
whatever accusation we get.
Because we're not even Jesus.
We're not even good.
He's good and he got called Beelzebub.
I'm not good, so whatever I'm called,
I should just take it, you know?
And it's okay if I'm like him.
It's okay.
If he's hated of people,
then why should I think
that I'm better than Jesus
and not be hated?
That's the whole point of this passage.
The whole point of what it's saying
is if Jesus is hated by people,
then why in the world
would I be so prideful and arrogant
to think that I won't be hated?
Yet some people, again,
they take pride and glory
in the fact of like,
I have a pristine reputation.
Well then why are you,
why do you have such a pristine reputation
if the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't?
If the Lord Jesus Christ is hated
of all these people
and doesn't have the quote,
reputation you have.
You know, Jesus was a malefactor, right?
That's his reputation.
That's what they accused him of being.
And of course, we know it's lies.
Of course, we know it's slander.
Of course, we understand under the hood,
he has a perfect reputation.
He who knew no sin
became sin for us though.
He had to take a lot of approach.
He had to take a lot of sin.
He had to take a lot of flack.
And you know what?
We should recognize that as Christians,
we're gonna have to take a lot of flack
for the things of God.
But we shouldn't be ashamed of him.
That's what it's gonna bring up.
It says in verse number 29,
are not two sparrows sold for a farthing
and one of them shall not fall on the ground
without your father.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear you not therefore,
you have more value than many sparrows.
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my father
which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny me before men,
him will I also deny before my father
which is in heaven.
We should not deny Christ.
Now of course, there's layers of this.
One would just say you're not a Christian.
That's a huge denial.
Peter denies even knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a major denial.
But I think that there's even more denial
beyond just simply denying being a Christian.
How about when people read uncomfortable verses
in the Bible and then people try to explain them away?
You know, we shouldn't deny any verse in the Bible.
We shouldn't be ashamed or embarrassed
of any verse in the Bible.
But we should confess them.
We should openly confess every verse in the Bible.
You're like, oh, you guys believe in Leviticus 2013?
Yes, I do.
You know who should be embarrassed?
Sodomites.
Not the Bible and not the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
If the whole world thinks that I'm nuts for believing that,
well, you know what?
Let God be true and every man a liar.
Because the word of God is the truth
no matter what I think or what you think.
And notice that if you're denying him,
he might start denying you to the Father.
I need that advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.
So I want to make sure I'm making it clear
I'm on his side.
Verse 34.
Think not that I'm come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father
and the daughter against her mother
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father and mother more than me
is not worthy of me.
And he that loveth son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross and followed after me
is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it,
and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
The Bible says in many cases,
Christians will have to make a very personal sacrifice
in their pursuit of being a disciple,
in their pursuit of the kingdom of heaven,
in their pursuit of serving God.
And it's a sad, it's sad, grievous affair.
No one should ever want to,
no one should ever try to separate from their family.
We shouldn't be seeking to just get away from family.
We should want to have the closest relationship we can
with our mother and our father.
We should seek to have a close relationship
with our brothers and our sisters.
We should seek to have a close relationship
with our kin and with our brethren and taking care of them.
But sometimes, push comes to shove,
sometimes there comes a chopping block situation
where you do have to sacrifice that relationship,
not because you wanted it, not because you were seeking it,
but because the call to serve Christ calls for it.
Because there's a greater need to serve the Lord Jesus Christ
and because you have to pick between the two
and you say, well, if I have to pick between the two,
I'm going to pick the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't want to lose that relationship,
but I'm willing to lose it if I have to.
That is the attitude, that is the mindset
of a true Christianity.
True Christianity says, hey,
if I have to walk away from a relationship
because that's what's needed to serve Christ,
I'm willing to, but I don't want to.
Abraham didn't want to offer his son on the altar,
but he walked away from, he walked up to the mountain,
brought his son, tied him up, got the knife,
and was willing to sacrifice his own son
for the Lord Jesus Christ for God.
Not only that, Abraham was willing to say bye
to his oldest son, Ishmael, for the rest of his life
to serve God.
God said, hey, get away from Ishmael,
and he's like, sure.
Hey, you only have one son left?
Isaac, take him and bring him on the altar.
He takes him up to the altar.
I mean, at any point did Abraham want to get rid of Ishmael?
No, he was actually very sad
that he had to get rid of Ishmael.
Did Abraham want to take Isaac up to the Mount Moriah
and offer him there?
No, but it was a really important point in the Bible
because that's where the temple was gonna be built.
It was on Mount Moriah where Abraham
was going to offer Isaac his son on the altar.
That same location is the location
where Solomon was gonna build his temple on Mount Moriah.
Incredible.
Incredible, it's incredible how the Bible
has all these different pictures there.
But, you know, that came from a sacrifice of a father
saying, I'm willing to sacrifice this relationship
if I have to, if I have to.
Not because I want to, not because it's something
that the Bible's telling you to do.
It's because sometimes God is putting that choice there
of saying, you know, who are you gonna pick?
Because the Bible does not say just get rid of family.
The Bible doesn't say get rid of family relationships.
The Bible doesn't say forsake your son
or forsake your father.
It doesn't say that.
But it is saying, hey, if push comes to shove
and you have to, well, then you might have to forsake them.
So we have to understand the context
upon which the Bible does say,
he that hath forsaken houses or lands
or wives or children or fathers.
It's not saying like you're just like nuts do you buy.
It's like, hey, I want to serve God.
I want to have a close relationship.
And they're saying, well, I'm not gonna have a relationship
with him if you're gonna serve God.
They're like, but I'm gonna keep serving God.
And you have to sacrifice that relation.
Not because you want to,
not because the Bible's telling you
to just get rid of relationships.
The Bible doesn't say that at all.
We should never be the person that walks away.
They're the ones that walk away.
They're the ones that separate when we say,
look, we're gonna serve God.
Do you want to come with me?
Hey, I'm ready to serve God with all of my family.
But at the end of the day, if they're not coming,
I'm still showing up.
I'm not gonna go and just hang out with family
just to hang out with family.
I'm gonna serve God.
And wherever that's at, I mean, Abraham,
I mean, just Abraham's whole life is just like
he's told to literally just leave his father.
He's just, he's like told, hey, get rid of your family.
Leave.
Then later he has to get rid of his son, Ishmael,
and his concubine wife.
Then he's told to have to kill Isaac.
And he considered the greatest Christian.
Why?
Because he was willing to sacrifice
any and all relationships to serve God.
But ultimately, God didn't make him sacrifice a relationship.
Isaac and him had a great relationship.
He didn't have to sacrifice the relationship with his wife.
But sometimes God just wants to test you
and see where your heart is.
Where is your heart?
Would you be willing to sacrifice
close personal relationships for the Lord Jesus Christ?
And sometimes he's gonna test us on that.
For some of us, we might have to make
that really hard decision.
And so we need to prepare ourselves now to say,
you know what?
I would do that.
Verse 36, a man's folks shall be they of his own household.
Who's keeping you back from serving God?
Sometimes it's literally family.
And again, it's enduring.
Can you endure?
If you had to lose that relationship,
would you still keep going to church?
Would you still keep going soul winning?
Would you still keep reading the Bible
even if you had people leave you, walk away from you,
desert you, treat you poorly, lie about you,
say all manner of evil against you?
I mean, honestly, I have a pretty great family
in my mind, and I don't think it's that bad.
But of all the people that are close to me,
I've probably had them all at one point
say some of the worst things you could imagine.
I mean, just pretty much every nasty, horrible thing
you could dream up, make up, lie about me or whatever.
And honestly, like, it hurts.
It's not fun.
I don't like that.
But I'm just gonna keep serving God.
And hopefully they'll come around.
Hopefully they'll realize, you know what?
I think he was right on that, and they'll come around.
But at the end of the day, I'm not gonna sit here
and paint this picture that Jesus isn't painting
of, like, everyone in your family is gonna serve God
and it's all gonna be fun.
I mean, like, how many verses do you need?
I mean, I feel like he hammers this point.
Jesus is constantly hammering this, and he's saying,
hey, if you love these people more than me,
you're not worthy of me anyways.
I want to be worthy of Christ if I can.
And I'm a weak man just like everybody else.
I have the flesh.
I have the same desire to please my father and mother
and my wife and my children and all the close relationships
with me just as much as the next guy.
But at the end of the day, we should be prepared to say,
hey, if I have to make an uncomfortable, not fun sacrifice,
I'm gonna do it.
We need somebody to do it.
We need at least, can we have somebody in this world
that says, you know what?
I'm gonna serve God, period.
I am gonna be steadfast.
I mean, shouldn't it be a church
where it's named Steadfast Baptist?
I mean, if you're gonna pick up all the churches
that are gonna say, you know what?
I'm willing to endure.
I'm actually gonna do it.
I'm willing to say, hey, if there's some sacrifice
I have to make, I would actually do it.
Couldn't it be someone that goes to a church
called Steadfast Baptist Church that says,
hey, I'm gonna be a disciple.
Hey, I'm gonna serve Christ.
And look, he's not saying you have to sacrifice
literally everything all the time,
but can you just sacrifice something?
And sometimes it keeps escalating.
Hey, you got rid of Dad?
Okay, now it's Ishmael.
Okay, Ishmael?
Now it's Isaac.
Then sometimes it's your life.
Are you gonna sacrifice your life?
But what does the Bible say in verse 39?
He that findeth his life shall lose it.
And he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.
Sometimes you give up on your dreams and hopes
to do whatever you want just to serve God,
and he ends up giving you a whole other life
that you never dreamed up, and it's way better anyways.
You know, I was really close.
I was really close with my family,
like, way more than almost anybody.
Probably most of y'all.
In fact, my family, we hung out every Friday
and Saturday and Sunday,
and then many days during the week.
And I'm talking about my extended family,
my brothers and sisters that are married with kids, adults.
I mean, we would go over to their house all the time,
have dinner with them, we're going to church with them,
and it's super close all the time.
Very close relationship, hanging up all the time.
But I believe that right now I have way more relationships
that I'm closer to people than I've ever been to them
at any point in my life.
I have brothers and sisters in Christ
now in my life that I have a closer bond
and a closer relationship to right now
than I've ever had with them than I did in the past.
You know what?
There's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
And you know, sometimes when you give something up,
God has something better for you
that you didn't realize He had for you.
So I don't want you to think like,
hey, Christian life is going to not be fun.
In fact, oftentimes it's better.
You just don't realize it's better.
You just have to go through the sacrifice process.
You just have to do what the Lord's telling you,
and it's going to be better.
A brother's born for adversity.
I don't want adversity anyways, okay?
There's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,
and you know what, there's people in this room
that would help me way more than anybody in my family.
They would do more for me, and they have done more for me,
and they care about me more,
even though they're not even blood.
And so sometimes you have to just realize,
like, it's worth losing it because then you can find it.
Sometimes you have to lose something to find something.
Verse 40,
He that receiveth you receiveth me,
and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet
shall receive a prophet's reward,
and he that receiveth a righteous man
in the name of a righteous man
shall receive a righteous man's reward.
And Israel shall give to drink unto one of these little ones
a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple.
Verily I say unto you,
he shall in no wise lose his reward.
It's a long sermon.
Sorry, it's a lot of verses here.
I just kind of wanted to get through them,
but, you know, the last point here,
again, it's kind of been emphasized already,
but notice that Jesus takes everything personal.
It says in verse number 40,
He that receiveth you receiveth me,
and so that's why we should treat other Christians
very carefully,
because how we treat other Christians
is how we're treating Christ.
The Bible even says,
How can you love God whom you have not seen?
You know, if you're not loving your brother whom you have seen.
If you can't love your brother whom you do see,
how can you love God whom you have not seen,
is what the Bible is saying.
And the way we show our love to God
is how we love Christians.
So this is how you should just judge someone.
I just want to know how good this person is a Christian.
Just ask them, how much do they love other Christians?
The person that loves God the most
is the person that's the most loving to other Christians
and is the kindest and the most gracious
and they're going to help Christians the most.
That is the greatest Christian.
That's the one that loves God the most.
The one that's constantly attacking, hating, bitter, envying,
he does not love God.
That person doesn't love God whatsoever.
You know, the person that's constantly kind,
gracious, loving, charitable, trying to help,
that is the person that truly loves God.
The one that is the closest to loving God.
And so we should, if we want to love God,
we need to see how do we treat other Christians?
And this is how you should really test yourself.
How do I treat the people that are Christians,
but they don't like me?
How do I treat the Christians that are lying about me?
How do I treat the Christians that are attacking me?
Like how do I treat those people?
And then that should give you a pretty good litmus test.
The Bible says, love your enemies.
And how we treat other people, he's going to receive.
You know, when we help people,
notice we won't lose rewards if we do things
in the name of Jesus Christ.
Hey, if you even just give a cup of cold water
only in the name of a disciple,
you will not lose your reward.
We need to help and bless other Christians.
This is what Matthew 25 is all about.
And we'll get to that passage.
It's really hard, difficult passage in the future,
but you know, Jesus took it personal.
All the good works that people did to other Christians.
He's saying they visited them in prison,
and they fed them, and they clothed them,
and they're like, when do we do that to you?
When you did it one of the least of these, my brethren,
you did it unto me.
And that was the whole point of Matthew 25.
Because who are the people that help Christians?
Christians.
You know, when Christians go into areas,
you know who doesn't want to help them?
The world.
They want to cancel their online subscription.
They want to get their bank account shut down.
They protest them.
They're gnashing on them with their teeth.
They hate this person.
They're giving them a one-star review.
But you know who's going to help a Christian?
Other Christians.
They're the people that are the sheep,
and we're separating them from the goats,
which they didn't ever help God's people.
They just attacked God's people because they were fake.
And you know, there's a lot of fake people out there
that don't really love the people of God.
That's how you should just constantly evaluate Christians
with like, do you love other Christians?
Because when you don't love any other Christians,
there's something wrong with you.
It seems like you're a Saul or something, you know,
when you're just not really helping other Christians.
And look, David loved other Christians.
He did good under them.
We should do the same.
Jesus did the same.
The disciples did the same.
Let us show the world that we're Christians by our love.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this great chapter
and this great task that we have before us.
The world is such a dark place,
and it needs the gospel so much more than ever.
And we need people that are willing to make those sacrifices
to go out there and preach the gospel.
I pray that for all of us,
that you would give us the greatest opportunity
to have close relationships with our family,
that you would bless us
and you would allow us to be having good relationships
with our father and mother and brother and sister
and that you would help us in those relationships.
But I also pray that you give us the courage,
the boldness, and the faith
that if we ever had to make a sacrifice,
if we ever had to distance ourselves or to make a choice,
that we would be willing to choose you.
I pray that you would help us
to have the courage not to deny you,
and I pray that you would help us
to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, in closing, let's go to song number 110.
I apologize.
Song number 210, Wonderful Grace of Jesus.
Song number 210, Wonderful Grace of Jesus,
Greater Than All My Sin.
Song number 210, let's sing it out together on the first.
Wonderful grace of Jesus, Greater than all my sin,
How shall my tongue describe it?
Where shall its praise begin?
Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free,
For the wonderful grace of Jesus, reaches me.
Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea,
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,
All sufficient grace for evenly.
Broader than the scope of my transgression,
Greater far than all my sin and shame,
O magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name.
Wonderful grace of Jesus, preaching to all the lost,
I in I have been pardoned, saved to the utter host.
Chains have been torn as thunder, giving me liberty,
For the wonderful grace of Jesus, reaches me.
Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea,
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,
All sufficient grace for evenly.
Broader than the scope of my transgression,
Greater far than all my sin and shame,
O magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name.
Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching the Most Divine,
I is transformed in power, making you rise, dear child,
Purchase you peace and heaven, for all eternity.
Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaches me.
Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea,
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,
All sufficient grace for evenly.
Broader than the scope of my transgression,
Greater far than all my sin and shame,
O magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name.
Thank you for watching!