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Amen, in Luke chapter number four here we have this account of Jesus Christ going and preaching in his hometown and the bad reception that he gets. Let me just start out at the beginning of the chapter and just kind of lay a little bit of a background here. So this is just the very beginning of Jesus' ministry and in chapter three he's baptized by John the Baptist and then in chapter four he goes through this temptation in the wilderness with the devil where he's tempted for 40 days and 40 nights and then when he's through with that the Bible says in verse number 14, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee and there went out a fame of him throughout all the region round about and he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all. So Jesus has paid his dues so to speak, he's gone through the trials and tribulations, he's filled with the Spirit and now he begins his public ministry and it's going very well. I mean he's glorified of all, he's teaching and preaching in all the synagogues, he's doing all of these wonderful works but then it says in verse 16 he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. So he's been preaching all around the region of Galilee but when he gets to his actual hometown in Nazareth he's going to get a different reception, he'd been glorified by everyone but when he gets to Nazareth he gets up to read in the synagogue as his custom was meaning that even before he had started his public ministry he still had just participated in the local worship at the synagogue and was showing up on the Sabbath and he was one that would read the scripture out loud in the Sabbath in the synagogue and so he shows back up there after he's done all these great works and all this great preaching, he shows back up to do what he had done when he was younger and he stood up for to read and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias which is of course Isaiah and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him and he began to say unto them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears and then it says in verse 22 and all bear witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Now here's what I want to point out first of all is that obviously Jesus Christ is the son of God, he's totally without sin, he's perfect in every way and yet when he shows up to preach in his home town even though he even picks a positive subject for his message because if he's going to preach out of Isaiah he could have preached something more negative right because even a little bit later in this very chapter there are some negative things and he could have really focused on that. I mean he's getting up and he's preaching a benign sermon, he's preaching something positive, obviously he's not doing anything wrong here and even the sermon is a good sermon because everybody is wondering at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. But then they begin to still get negative about him and what he's preaching. It says at the end of verse 22 there and they said well is not this Joseph's son, of course the answer is no it isn't but they thought that it was Joseph's son, that's what people believed of course and he said unto them you will surely say unto me this proverb, physician heal thyself whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum do also here in thy country and he said verily I say unto you no prophet is accepted in his own country and so his response to this when they get upset, when they begin to kind of take him down a notch like hey isn't this Joseph's son, isn't this just the carpenter's son, like who is this guy, like who does he think he is, Mr. Big Shot. And here's what you'll find, any time you have a powerful preacher he's always going to be labeled as prideful no matter how humble he is, right, all throughout the Bible you see this. Any time you have a strong leader he's just always prideful. That's just an automatic knee jerk reaction of just an easy way to attack somebody who is just you know maybe a powerful preacher and so Jesus of course is the most powerful preacher. Of course he's getting up and preaching a powerful sermon but instead of just accepting the truth of what he's saying, instead of just being moved by the power of God's word they begin to attack him personally and just say well you know and they're trying to think of something to attack about him personally but since he's the perfect son of God it's like well he's Joseph's son, they're just trying to find something negative to say about him. And Jesus' reaction is just to say well you know no prophet is accepted in his own country. Now one of the things that we can learn from this right away when it says no prophets accepted of his own country is that sometimes it's going to be hard for us to be able to reach our own family members or the people from our own hometown with the gospel and it's not necessarily because we're doing anything wrong or that there's something wrong with us because look there's nothing wrong with Jesus and he's certainly not doing anything wrong, nobody's going to preach a better sermon than Jesus and yet he's not accepted because no prophet is accepted in his own country. And so we of course are burdened for the people that are close to us. We want to get our brothers and sisters saved, we want to get relatives saved, parents saved, children saved, cousins saved, neighbors, people that we grew up with, our old school friends saved. Sometimes just the fact that they are our people from our hometown that we grew up with could be a stumbling block to them receiving the truth that we're preaching even if we're doing all the right things and so don't be too discouraged if you run into a similar reaction to what Jesus ran into here when he tried to preach in his hometown. But then Jesus does get a little bit negative as he explains to them the error of their ways. He says no prophets except in his own country but I tell you of a truth many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, Elias is Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine was throughout all the land but none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta a city of Zidun unto a woman that was a widow. So he says you know here are some Old Testament examples that kind of explain why you're not accepting me right now, why no prophet has accepted his own country. Here's an example, how about the prophet Elijah? You know Elijah could have been used by God to feed all kinds of widows, it's not like there weren't any widows in Israel at that time but yet Elijah was not sent unto any of those widows, he's sent unto a woman of Zarephath, a foreign city right, Sarepta it's called here, a city in Zidun unto a woman that was a widow. There were lots of widows but God chose that widow of Zarephath who is actually going to be more righteous of a person and more receptive to what Elijah has to say to her and so God uses her. And so you know he could have chosen a widow in Israel, he chose a widow in Zarephath instead and of course Jesus Christ says some similar things to this when we're reading the narrative in the book of Matthew for example when a foreign man comes to him and he says I've not found so great faith no not in Israel and he brings up the same type of ideas. It says here also in verse 27 many lepers were in Israel in the time of Alyssias, that's Elisha the prophet and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian and all they in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath. Now he just pushed the button that the Jews at that time didn't want anybody to push which is to try to imply that God loved people of other nations and that God was going to do great works or even greater works with people of other nations. This is the last thing that they wanted here because these people the Jews of Christ's day were really obsessed with themselves and they thought that they were just so wonderful we're the children of Abraham, we're the Jews. They saw themselves as so much better than the Gentiles that when Christ gets up and points out from this Bible story that actually Elijah is ministering to this woman in this foreign country here, Elisha is healing Naaman the Syrian and they did not want to hear that at all and they're enraged at that. Now why are they so mad? Here's the thing when people get super mad at preaching a lot of times it's because it's so true and it's hitting a little too close to home for them, right? If Jesus were saying something that didn't make sense they wouldn't be so mad but he's bringing up a familiar story that they know and it has never even dawned on them how in Elijah's hour of need God sends him to a foreign country where he can be safer with someone who's going to actually take care of him in Zarephath, in Zaidon or that God is actually showing an example of a great healing not an Israelite but on a Syrian. It's like they hadn't really put that together and now they're offended because they pretty much just hate the Gentiles. They have a bad attitude toward the Gentiles and of course this is a huge theme in the New Testament. The Jews don't want the Gentiles to get saved. The Jews aren't interested in the Gentiles coming to God or being evangelized. They want it to be this us against them and they think they're better and so forth and so when Jesus preaches this they are just enraged. They're filled with wrath and look what the Bible says in verse 29. They rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him unto the brow of the hill where on their city was built that they might cast him down headlock. They literally grab him and lead him out of the city and their goal is to throw him off of a cliff. I mean it's one thing to just not like the sermon or to be offended by something that's preached but I mean they're literally just going to kill him. They're just actually going to kill him and it says they take him to a cliff right the brow of the hill and they're ready to cast him down headlong basically just throw him off the edge headfirst and murder him. But he passing through the midst of them went his way. So somehow Jesus Christ slips away you know and this is obviously some kind of a divine intervention some kind of a miracle because you know people don't just take you to the cliff to throw you off and then you just kind of walk away. That's not the way these things are going to work right. Obviously there's some kind of a supernatural thing where basically God sends a little bit of confusion into the crowd and they get a little bit confused and you know hey I thought you had him and then he just kind of slips off and and heads away. Why because obviously Jesus Christ is going to die for the sins of mankind but he's going to do it according to God's plan and in God's timing and this isn't the time this is the very beginning of his ministry. He has a ministry of preaching and teaching and miracles that he needs to do first and there's a certain way that he's supposed to die. Of course we've been talking about Galatians how important it was for Jesus to be hanged on a tree right. So Jesus Christ had to die on the cross he had to die a certain way to fulfill prophecy to become a curse for us to deliver us from the curse of the law. He had to die in that certain mode. And so God allows him here to just pass through the midst and go his way. And then in verse 31 it says he came down to Capernaum a city of Galilee and taught them on the Sabbath days and they were astonished at his doctrine for his word with was with power. So as soon as he goes somewhere else and goes back to preaching in Capernaum as opposed to Nazareth where he'd grown up now all of a sudden people are again just blown away by his preaching and why did they love it. Why were they so astonished because his word with was with power. They're astonished at the doctrine. So it's the content of his preaching that matters versus who he is. So the problem with preaching in the hometown. The problem with the prophet that makes him not accepted in his own country is because then it's too much about who he is instead of about the message right. So when Jesus Christ is preaching everywhere else it's about the sermon. It's about the word of God. It's about the preaching and people hear the powerful preaching and they respond to it. Whereas when he's in his hometown it's like well who is this guy. Isn't this Joseph's son. And when we listen to the word of God preach we don't want to put too much emphasis on who the messenger is. This is where you get into a situation where you don't end up being as receptive to God's word as you should when you start focusing too much on who the person is. You know obviously people who get to know me really well or maybe people you know my brother's here this morning and he grew up with me. You know obviously people that know me really well or are really close to me right are going to maybe look at me differently than strangers would would look at me right. Because it's just this you know it's just this is Steve that I grew up with my little brother you know as opposed to Pastor Anderson. OK and so the point is that when we listen to the word of God sometimes we're going to be listening to preachers that we know really well right and maybe people that we've been friends with for years. You know I think of Pastor Jimenez I mean I've been friends with him for 20 some years and I knew him when he was a 16 year old teenage guy. And so you know obviously I'm going to look at Pastor Jimenez differently than say his church member that's been going to the church for the last five years or something because I sort of grew up with him a little bit so to speak quote unquote I mean we were both a little bit older but still we sometimes are going to be listening to people that we know well and sometimes we're going to be listening to people that we don't know so well right. I'm preaching to you every week and a lot of you have maybe spent time with me outside of church and maybe we've gone hiking together or we've taken trips to the Indian reservation soul winning together and maybe we've joked around and you know gone out to eat and spent time together in a friendly way and then other times maybe a guest preacher comes in who you don't know anything about and he gets up and preaches a sermon. But here's the key whether we're listening to someone that we know well or whether we're listening to someone whom we don't know well the key thing is that we don't want to get too focused on the messenger and get too focused on the person but rather be focused where the focus belongs which is on the word of God and on the truth that's being preached. See it's not about me, Faithful Word Baptist Church isn't about me, it's not about my personality, it's not the Steven Anderson show, it's about whether the doctrine that I'm preaching is biblical whether it's right you know it doesn't matter who's saying it if it's the truth it's the truth and we shouldn't be so hung up or focused on who is doing the preaching we should focus more on what's being preached because let's face it if we hang around with anyone enough if we get close enough to anyone enough we're gonna find their flaws and their faults and their weaknesses just by virtue of spending time with them obviously you know when you're married you live together or when you're growing up with your siblings you live together and you're gonna see people when they're not at their finest hour right and so maybe that could cause you to think about them a little bit differently and then when the guest preacher comes in we don't know anything about him but does that mean that he's perfect no because honestly the guest preacher that comes in is gonna have just as many issues or problems as the guy that you grew up with right let's say some other prophet or some other man of God would have come through Nazareth and preached some powerful sermon and his hometown is like oh yeah this is great you know just because they don't know that guy but that guy had a childhood too he had an upbringing too he has people too and so it's just that people because of human nature they tend to put too much emphasis on the person on the messenger and then that can get in the way of being receptive to the message and hearing the word of God you see this could go both ways too sometimes people could actually believe something that's false just because they really like the person who's preaching it so if it's a famous preacher or a beloved preacher and then he gets up and preaches then everybody is just defending it even if it's heresy because it's their boy it's their guy okay or this could go the other way of well I grew up with this guy who does he think you know this is just he's just an ordinary guy well we're all ordinary guys you know the powerful preaching is only powerful if it's powered by the Holy Spirit it's only powerful if it's the truth that's being preached if it's good doctrine if it's the word of God you know we're all just ordinary isn't this just Joseph well every you know everybody's somebody's son remember when they asked the question is Saul also among the prophets the question was well who's their father right I mean who's their father like like what makes them special what makes anybody special we're all human the only thing that makes the preaching special is if it's powered by the Holy Spirit and if it's the word of God and if it's sound doctrine so we don't want to put too much emphasis on the messenger for better or for worse you know we don't want to just glorify or lift up the messenger so much that we're just going to blindly listen to everything he says just blindly accept it all as truth but then we also don't want to get this attitude of well you know I I know Pastor Anderson went outside the pulpit and he's just kind of an ordinary guy you know and you will hear people have this attitude of like well you know Pastor Anderson you know you're just you're in a totally different league you know than Bible teachers like you know and then they'll name some famous guy or something right and you and by the way usually famous guys are pretty much always going to be heretics otherwise they wouldn't be famous why because broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads on the life and few there be to find it and when you go to Barnes and Noble and that's what's on display on the end cap of the religion aisle you can pretty much take it to the bank it's not going to be good doctrine otherwise it wouldn't be popular why is the world glorifying it you're never going to be loved of this world preaching the truth but it's just oh shit off you're not even you couldn't even loosen the shoe latchet of Billy Graham or you know Rick Warren or you know you know John McArthur or Paul Wasser you know all these big name guys you know they're preaching garbage you know and it okay I'm I just don't have the gravitas or I'm just not as a big of a of a guy or something you know whatever that means it doesn't matter because I'm right that's all that matters right it is what does the Bible say that's all that matters it doesn't matter whether I'm as powerful or or as charismatic or as important or as fame you know it's easy to sometimes downgrade the people that are close to us because you know these big name guys have this mystique but here's the thing if we got to know them you know we would find out that they also put their pants on one leg at a time okay because everybody is human and of course in the case of Jesus Christ you know he's the ultimate yes he's human but he's also of course divine Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and so Jesus Christ is totally without sin and yet this phenomenon is still there where no prophet is accepted in his own country and if that's true of Jesus then we better know that it's going to affect all of us as well because if they called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his household right the the servants not above his Lord if we're serving Christ we're not going to get a better reception than Christ in this world and so that should tell us that if these things happen to Christ they're going to happen to us so again don't be discouraged if because obviously you know I'm talking to a room full of people that are not necessarily pastors or preachers that aren't going to be necessarily getting up in church and delivering a sermon but yet you have a ministry to the people around you and you want to win your siblings to Christ you want to win your parents to Christ you want to win your children or your cousins or your neighbors co-workers you want to win them to Christ don't be super shocked if they also have a hard time receiving the message from you because they're too focused on you they're they're thinking about well this is coming from you and then that gets in the way sometimes here's what I'm saying sometimes they need to hear it from someone else and I've seen people sometimes be a little bit offended when they try so hard to win their loved one to the Lord and then someone else comes along and just wins of the Lord it's just like what in the world is what I've been telling you but it's because that person as an outside third party was able to just bring the message without distraction of thinking too much about who was doing the talking okay now as we go through this scripture so again Jesus after he preached in the hometown they literally try to murder him and it takes some kind of a divine intervention some kind of a supernatural act in order for him to get out of there alive after this he goes to another town Capernaum and again he's just back to succeeding preaching and all kinds of people getting saved and so forth but let's continue on in the story here there's a man who has a devil and he casts out the devil for sake of time we're going to jump down and get to verse 36 they're all amazed after he casts out this demon and they spake among themselves saying what a word is this for with authority and power he commanded the unclean spirits and they come out and again notice what they say what a word is this they're astonished at his doctrine his word is with power they're focused on the message as opposed to who is this this is Joseph's son like what is that that's not relevant right they're focused on the message his fame went out into every place of the country round about but then this is the part I want to focus on beginning verse 38 it says and he arose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon's house and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever and they besought him for her now here's someone who's not close to Jesus but he's close to Peter or excuse me I'm saying he she here's someone who is not close to Jesus not related Jesus but she is a relative of Peter because this is Peter's wife's mother right and they besought Jesus for her so they come to Jesus and say hey look you know Simon Peter's mother-in-law is very sick she's got this fever and then Jesus comes in and it says in verse number 39 he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she arose and ministered unto them now if we take a parallel passage in Matthew where Jesus says something quite similar to what he said here here he said no prophets except in his own country in Matthew he says in a similar circumstance a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house but then it follows that statement up with and he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief okay now we're over here in Luke and he goes out of his hometown and he actually goes to someone else's hometown you know someone else's family member someone else's relative and he's able to do a mighty work there among someone else's family even though among his own hometown he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief and so the idea here obviously this is a physical healing where Jesus physically heals Simon Peter's mother but we have to understand is that physical healing in the New Testament is often a symbol or figure it's a picture of spiritual salvation okay so you could take a spiritual application of this as well I'm struggling to reach my own family members with the gospel or I'm struggling to reach my own hometown or my own friends or the people that I grew up with but I can go to someone else's house and I can win their family their loved one their close person to the Lord and so the idea here is that there needs to be some cross pollination here where you may not be able to win your parents to the Lord but you can win somebody else's parents to the Lord and then hopefully someone else can win your parents to the Lord and it kind of needs to work that way that's just kind of how it ends up working you know Jesus is able to go into Simon's family and get them saved although his own family's not believing him now think about Jesus's own family Jesus had half brothers okay and the half brothers of Jesus according to John chapter seven did not believe on him in his lifetime so guys like James the author of the book of James or Jude the author of the book of Jude while Jesus was alive and preaching while he's doing things like going back to Nazareth and preaching in his home synagogue and everything they didn't believe on him his own half brothers did not believe on him and they are even making fun of him in John chapter seven criticizing him making fun of and again accusing him of being prideful that he wants to be known openly so hey why don't you go show yourself to the world since you want to be known openly and everything they're down on him they don't believe in him yet later on in the book of Acts we see that James has become a pillar of the church in Jerusalem and of course we have the inspired scripture that James wrote in the Epistle of James so what what changed what happened between Christ's brethren not believing on him in his lifetime and they're not there at the cross weeping for him that you know they have rejected him in their life in his lifetime but yet sometime afterward at some point you know at least two of them end up getting saved maybe they all got saved hopefully but we see that we've got James and Jude not only getting saved but becoming important men of God in the early church and writing these important epistles that are scripture that are part of the New Testament you know that tells me that they were reached by someone else you know because by the time they get reached Jesus isn't on this earth anymore necessarily doing soul winning okay and so probably other people were influential in reaching them or at least discipling them teaching them and and getting them to the point where they are major leaders in the church and so the point is that we're not always going to be able to get our people saved but we should just get other people saved you see at the end of the day a soul is a soul winning a soul is a victory it doesn't matter whether they're red yellow black and white doesn't matter whether they're our people or from our hometown or our state or our culture or our nationality you know really it's just about getting people saved no matter who they are okay you know I remember there's a missionary to Germany he went to Germany and he was struggling to get German people saved he went there to get German saved Germans were pretty unreceptive he was struggling so he ended up just creating a big ministry to the Muslim refugees there and getting multitudes of Muslims saved and some of the people that were there and and not succeeding as missionaries kind of had the sour grapes mentality of like well I'm here to reach Germans you know and and look that's great but why not also go soul winning in some of these receptive areas on the side if you can be greatly used by God instead of beating your head against the wall with just unreceptive people and look we beat our head against the wall with unreceptive people because we want to give the gospel to every creature and so we got that map over there where we're shading everything in orange guess what if you go look at that map that now of this you know greater Phoenix area a huge amount of it has been shaded in way more than half of it has been shaded in you know you're gonna find if you look at that map a lot of unreceptive areas shaded in because we want to preach the gospel to every creature so we're going to Mesa and beating our head against the wall we're going to Gilbert and beating our head against the wall we're beating our head against the wall in Scottsdale now the really receptive places South Phoenix Guadalupe you know we'll go to those places six seven eight times ten times right and yeah we've got the receptive places going in North Mary Vale is really receptive a lot of people are being saved we're doing both we want to emphasize the receptive areas but we want to get everybody saved but this attitude of like well you know I'm here to reach Germans you know or I'm just here to reach this kind of people or that kind of people you know we really should just be ready to just reach anybody that can be reached and a lot of these missionaries that go to these places and they don't know the language and they're you know they're getting paid to just sit in language school not preaching not soul winning because they have some pipe dream about you know winning some certain people group to the Lord you know what they should be doing in the meantime is finding people that speak English that they can win to Christ in the meantime you know while you're training to speak whatever obscure tongue while you're learning that foreign language you know what find those English speakers and get some people saved because a soul well I'm but I'm here to reach the Moroccans or you know no get somebody saved just get somebody saved you know it's like it's not like you get to heaven it's like okay well you know you're gonna get rewards and it's like you know you get double rewards for the Germans you win a Muslim the Lord it's like a quarter you get a quarter reward for that you know it's a soul is a soul and the thing is you know we want to just get people saved and they're not necessarily always gonna be the people closest to us unfortunately we'd love to see the people close to us saved it's not always gonna work that way is it now the Apostle Paul he struggled with this because he really wanted to get the Jews saved right and he said brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved for I bear the record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God so why is Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost saying that Israel is not saved it's because they're trying to establish their own righteousness same reason why people aren't saved right now it's not that this oh they just got confused and didn't realize he's the Messiah it's because they're prideful because they're trying to earn their way to heaven because they believe in a works-based salvation they are ignorant of God's righteousness they're going about to establish their own righteous that's why they're not saved when we go door-to-door and knock on someone's door why is that person not saved 99% what are they gonna say something about establishing their own righteousness something about works now think about it there were already people saved before Jesus was physically born on this earth right because obviously people in the Old Testament could still be saved they still called upon the name of the Lord they looked forward to the cross we look backward to the cross obviously they saw through a glass darkly they didn't know the details of the name of Jesus or the death barrel and resurrection or the cross itself they didn't know those details but they looked forward to the Savior we look back to the Savior people were saved in the Old Testament so when Jesus started his ministry there were people out there that are already saved and then there are people out there that are not saved and Jesus said that all the sheep heard his voice so when Jesus preached people that are saved obviously they immediately know this is the Messiah because they're saved they knew that the people who rejected Christ as the Messiah they're just proving that they're not saved they're proving that they're not of his sheep because he said my sheep hear my voice others came before me that were thieves and robbers and the sheep did not hear them other fake messiahs the sheep were not fooled but when Jesus came the sheep recognized them and then obviously among the people that were not the sheep among the people that were not saved many of them got saved through the preaching of Jesus and his apostles so it's like there's there's three kinds of people you know there's the people that are that are not they're just not saved and they stayed not saved then there are the people that were already saved and of course they embraced Jesus message because they're saved and they knew he's the Messiah they recognized him as such and then there were the people that were not saved but then Jesus and his apostles came preaching and they got saved as a result they believed on Christ and so the reason that they were not saved is because they were trusting works that's what Paul says they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God the people that were already saved were the people who had their faith and trust in the Lord they'd called upon the name of the Lord and they weren't trusting in their own works based self-righteousness okay so Paul had this burning desire for Israel to be saved and he said they're not saved because they're into workspace salvation bottom line and then when we read the book of Acts God is constantly sending Paul where to the Jews to Israel no he's sending them where to the Gentiles in fact that's where God sent all the apostles he said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature go ye therefore and teach all nations but what do we see the Apostle Paul keep doing over and over again he keeps just going back and trying to reach the Jews in fact three times in the book of Acts Paul gets mad and says that's it I'm done I'm going to the Gentiles and then like a couple chapters later he's like oh let's go find some more Jews you know he keeps saying he's done with the Jews he's just never done with the Jews why because he's human I mean he loves his people he grew up as a Jew he grew up as a Pharisee and so that's his crowd he just really wants to get them saved but who did Paul have the most success with was it with the Jews is that just the powerhouse evangelism that he did was among Jews no the great success that Paul had was among the Gentiles it was in Greece it was in Macedonia it was in Asia Minor that's where God greatly used him and it wasn't what he necessarily was the most excited about doing on the surface of man we got to reach Jews for Christ reach Israel but that wasn't what God had in mind but yet he keeps trying and beating his head against the wall and you know they pretty much want to throw him off the cliff too right because they want to stone him and murder him and have the Romans killed they're constantly trying to hurt him and get him killed why because he's not accepted among his own people he was more accepted when he goes outside of that and he goes to Greece he goes to Macedonia he goes to Asia that's where his message had the most power and bore the most fruit okay and so the moral of the story is if you want your mom to get saved I'm 100% for you giving the gospel to your mom and maybe you'll be able to win your mom to Christ because of course the exception proves the rule and sometimes you will be able to win your close friends and family to the Lord and so I'm not trying to discourage you from trying I'm just trying to encourage you if you have already tried and it didn't go so well to realize it's not you it's just a phenomenon that even Jesus experienced with his own brothers with his own hometown so don't get discouraged I'm all for trying I'm all for attempting to give them the gospel but what you need to realize is that your main mission on this earth is going to end up being reaching people that you're not related to reaching people that are not from your hometown reaching other people's friends relatives etc and so when I go out soul-winning and I knock on somebody's door sometimes I'll even knock on somebody's door and go through the whole plan of salvation with them and they get saved and then they'll say something to me like oh man wait till my brother-in-law hears about this he's been trying to he's been trying to talk to me about this I've had people say me oh man my wife's family they're all Baptist and they've they've constantly been trying to convert me and you know what I'm thinking to myself is that I'm answering those people's prayer like those people are probably on their knees praying like man our brother-in-law he's Pentecostal he thinks he could lose his salvation he's trusting his works he's going about to establish his own righteousness he doesn't believe in salvation by faith he doesn't believe that once you're saved you're always saved because God has given us the gift of eternal life and it will never perish and that no man could pluck us out of God's hands they're trying to establish their own righteousness by you know well Jesus made the down payment but they have to pick up the payment each month in order to stay saved but you know what some dad somewhere some grandparents somewhere some brother or sister somewhere is on their knees praying for their loved one that they've tried to reach and their loved one will listen and then I show up a stranger randomly randomly knock on their door and I'm answering their prayer and I guarantee you that when we go out soul-winning we are answering people's prayers that are praying and look it's so funny when people are down on soul-winning just it's just how foolish and misguided they are to act like soul-winning isn't real or soul-winning doesn't work or you know all these people that you're getting saved are they really getting say I mean think about how stupid this is God says in the Bible that he wants people to be saved okay people are praying for their loved ones you're praying for your loved ones everybody's praying for their people to get saved that they care about then we go out and we literally pray dear Lord please fill us with the Holy Spirit as we go guide us to the people that want to listen help us not to waste our time with the wrong people that aren't interested so we're praying to be led every time we go soul-winning other people praying that the gospel will get to their loved one like God's just up in heaven just not doing any of this God's up in heaven just like just totally focused on some Calvinist sermon that's real deep you know on some deep theological sermon where the Presbyterians are arguing with the Lutherans or you know over some totally vain jangling like point of minutia of theology we're like 99% of the general public doesn't even understand the vocabulary of what they're even talking about all this deep theology and you know and they're Calvinist it's all whatever and like like God's just really into that and you know over here this person begging for their loved one to get saved here's this other guy who's just saying here are my Lord send me I'm just ready to get in my car and just go out and knock doors randomly to win people guys you don't think God's up in heaven guiding and directing that spirit-filled soul winner to go and knock on the door of that person who's ready to hear the gospel and then we get to that person that's ready to hear the gospel what do we do we present the gospel they pray and get say well you know I just don't know that you know these people are really getting sick what do you think what is happening what are we doing then like our prayers are just a joke their prayers are a joke the prayer at the door is a joke the gospel is a joke is that what you think but that we're supposed to be over at first Church of the deep freeze high steeple few people arguing about minutiae of theology and laughing at those darn soul winners that are just praying a prayer with people well you know what when I got saved I prayed a prayer I was on my knees I prayed for Jesus to save me and guess what that's how people get saved they call upon the name of the Lord they hear the God and it's so funny when people are just like well I don't think so it works like what is so winning Sony just like showing people Bible verses and telling them what it means and then ask them to make a decision to receive Christ as their Savior and then they say yes I'll do that oh I don't know if that works how could it not work what what else could possibly work you know I'm saying like what else could but well you know it's got to be you know it's got to be over the course of weeks or months and you got to build the relationship well you know what based on what I'm reading this morning in Luke chapter 4 it almost seems like building the relationship is gonna be counterproductive I'm probably gonna have a better time winning strangers to the Lord then people I built a relationship with but these misters like man it takes years to build that relationship why so that then people can just be like well who's this guy this is Joseph's son the less they know you the better and you know I'm constantly trying to tell people it's so much easier to preach the gospel to strangers than to people you know it's so much easier I mean look it can be hard to preach the gospel to people that you know well because you're nervous and it can take a lot more guts to broach the subject with someone close to you then it does just knock on some random person's door in a city of 4.7 million people because let's say it all goes wrong and you're dropping your Bible and saying something stupid you're just like I'm never gonna see that guy again you know and even if you totally screw it up he was if he was already going to hell when you got there he's not gonna go to hell number two he's going to the same place and if he was already going to heaven you didn't like you're such a bad solar you unsaved that guy you can't because once you're saved you're always saved so you know what I mean like like the stakes are so low you go out and screw up and it's like whatever you know you miss every shot that you don't take right and so basically you know you know the people that you never witnessed to you didn't win them any of them to the Lord you might as well give it a shot right you might as well get out but I'm telling you when in my personal life I tried winning friends and loved ones to the Lord and had zero success until I started knocking doors and just started just winning strangers to the Lord then I started getting some success started getting some confidence started learning how to be a better preacher of the gospel just through experience and just through serving God obviously you become more skilled at the work of the Lord then I was able to take that skill that I'd learned out there with them and then I was able to win a few people to the Lord close to me co-workers friends family people like that but you know when I think about winning co-workers to the Lord I feel like the times that I won the most co-workers to the Lord was when it was like their first day on the job because I remember one time I was working at this company and for some reason it was like the boss just kept sticking every person with me their first day it was just like whenever it was somebody's first day they were in my truck I was the lead technician they were my support tech I don't know why but there was just this this fate because I was kind of new myself but there was just this phase I didn't know if it was just a coincidence or what was going on but it seemed like I just kept having people for their first day being stuck with me first day on the job it's like you're teamed up with Steve and I'm just like okay whatever and and and I remember thinking I wonder if it's because God knows that I give these people the gospel because the thing is I was kind of in the position of power because like I'm the lead technician so I'm controlling the radio or just turning it off and talking about Jesus you know cuz it's like you're in my truck you're in my truck we're and and it's not like we're supposed to be working we're supposed to be driving to the job we're driving to the job and you're hearing about Jesus while we drive to the job but you know oh well you know I got to build a relationship with this guy no because it's you know the easiest time to give them the gospel was the first day it's only gonna get harder it gets easier from day one and so I just want to encourage you number one don't give up on your family member because you struggled to get them to listen to you preaching the gospel don't give up on your family member just keep praying for them and yes you should try to give them the gospel yourself but you know if it doesn't work out just pray for them and hopefully God will send someone else and in the meantime get somebody else's family member saved and realize that your ministry is not necessarily always gonna be to the demographic that you envisioned or the town that you envisioned or the people that you envisioned you know I mean look obviously part of me would love to be pastoring a church in Sacramento California right now right there's like a part of me that would be like well that's where I'm from I'd love it but you know what no though just no and why did I not do that because that's my hometown I wanted to go somewhere different and it turns out Phoenix is way better anyway you know but I'm just saying like part of us even if Phoenix is better with I don't know why I said if but basically part of us always is gonna have this like thing of like oh you know our hometown blah blah blah but then it's like you go back there and you're just like you know it's all about Phoenix amen the point is though I you know I thought about going back there and starting a church in Northern California I thought about it and I'm really glad that pastor Jimenez is doing it because like I just want to make sure that my hometown is being reached I don't care who's doing it so I'm glad somebody's there running a soul-winning powerhouse in that town and then that that like absolved me of all guilt of not going back to Sacramento because I'm just like it's covered it's all about Arizona and so we need to understand that our ministry our life is probably going to be about reaching strangers for the Lord more than people that we know or grew up with you know just focus on strangers it's just and you know what this thing of like oh wow it's gonna take weeks or months or years you know that's funny cuz when I read the Bible I see a lot of people just getting saved right there on the spot right I mean think about it people who just get saved the first day we could think of all the examples in Matthew Mark Luke John and Acts where Paul gets up and preach the sermon yeah there are those people who are like well we will hear the again of this matter but then there's a bunch of people who just get saved right then and there and look yeah a lot of the people that we preach to aren't gonna get saved that moment but a lot of them will it can go either way and so we don't want to get that attitude you know and well you know it's we need a and there's this thing you know we were talking about this that like the four-week class for getting someone saved you know the thing about that the thing that always kind of cracks me up about that I mean hey I'm glad if someone gets saved through a four-week gospel presentation but here's here's my thing about that is that it's kind of like you're kind of leaving them hanging like why why not just finish you know like it's like is the gospel that complicated because if it is you're probably not preaching it right you know a gospel that takes four weeks to preach you might be adding some stuff that isn't really part of the gospel now I can see that like hey sometimes you got to plant the seed you got a water and so forth so maybe for certain people they're not ready the first week then yeah I want to go back the second week I want to go back there I just hope that like there's a clause built into these programs I'm not that familiar with these programs I hope there's a clause built in like a little asterisk at the bottom page that says hey if this guy's really getting it skip to page 25 and just give the guy the gospel for crying out loud not just be like and so we're all sinners and we all deserve to go to hell see you next Tuesday let that sink in all week you come back it's like Jesus died for you but I don't want to spoil what happens three days later but I'll see you next Tuesday you know I mean look I understand that a lot of people do have to hear the gospel repeatedly you know I gave the gospel to my wife ten times before she got saved you know it's it's not always gonna happen the first time I get that but what we never want to forget is that sometimes it does happen the first time and so sometimes you just want to just give people the gospel and don't buy into this cynical disillusioned attitude of like oh these people on soul and he aren't really getting saved and but that's baloney we're praying they're praying everybody's praying and God's listening and you know what God's not listening to is a bunch of boring lame theological types that are just all obsessed with their own self and their own intellect and they're you know they're speaking in a language that no one can even understand what did the Bible say about Jesus the common people heard him gladly if that can't be said if you're preaching something's wrong with your preaching because if Jesus preaching is heard gladly by common people I guess you're smarter and more intellectual than Jesus since the common people can't even figure out what you're even saying because you're using all these deep theological terms I mean I look at these Calvinists on my Facebook feed and they'll they'll post these status updates and I don't even know what they're even saying and then just all their other little Calvinist buddies are just kind of like oh yeah amen so good or whatever and I'm just like what like what are you getting at I'm trying to remember one of them because I saw one the other day and it was just like it kind of just cracked me up because it was just it was this this obscure saying and it was it was like oh man it's it's like on the tip of my tongue but it used like it was literally a sentence of like ten words and had like three theological terms and I only knew what one of the three meant and I'm a pastor who like eats and breathes and sleeps this stuff for decades and I'm just like I'm having to like look things up to understand this like ten word sentence you know and then those are the same kind of people that will scoff at soul winning right and oh yeah you guys are out soul winning yeah cuz they've got their nose so deep in some theology book while the world goes to hell and I'm all for learning I'm all for gaining knowledge but real knowledge and not a bunch of philosophy and theology and junk how about actually learning the Bible and guess what one of the best ways to learn the Bible is by putting it into use putting it into use those birds have word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great passage Lord about Jesus Christ and and preaching in his hometown Lord God help us to realize that there's a whole world out there of people that would get saved if the gospel would be preached to them Lord help us to be an answer to someone else's prayer and then Lord may you answer our prayers for our friends and loved ones and in Jesus name we pray amen