Why The World Needs Jesus

In this episode, Kevin discusses the pressing need for Jesus in today's world and  reminds Christians to live in a way that reflects their need for Him. 

Transcript

Kevin (00:01.55)
What's up everyone? It's been a while since I've done an episode. A lot has been going on in my personal life and just things of that nature. God has been doing some things for me just personally. And I just haven't had the desire to actually do an episode. I don't feel like I've been led. I have actually a couple of episodes I wanted to do. I wrote them all down, had them all out loud, but something in me just said, no, not yet, no, not yet. So literally I was sitting at home just relaxing and this entire episode came to me.

points, the scriptures, and it took me a while to put it together, this, when I'm recording right now, I don't know how it's going to turn out. I may do the edits later, but really today, I kind of want to dispel with the formalities because I feel a sense of being led to just share this episode. And you'll see in the title of the course is Why the World Needs Jesus. And when you look at the state of the world and where things are, we need Jesus now more than ever. And it's a phrase that we say all the time. Somebody's tripping and you say, you know what? You need Jesus.

You say that all the time, but we really do need Jesus and not just the person who doesn't know Christ. But obviously, I would even say more important than the person who knows Christ. Because sometimes we feel as if because I'm saved, Jesus and I are good. We're good and our relationship is great, but there's always more. There's always more that you can learn about Christ and there's always more that Christ needs to do in you because we are not finished products for sure.

So I don't want to belabor. I kind of want to dig right in to this episode. I don't know when the next was going to be again. I don't know if I may edit it, put the scriptures on the screen or not. We'll see as we go. Of course, you know I do have scriptures as always. But I have four different points of why the world needs Jesus. And for each point, I tried to be thorough. And this was definitely the work of the Holy Spirit. I'm not that smart.

an Old Testament perspective and a New Testament perspective. Because I think sometimes, especially as Christians, we kind of fixate ourselves on the New Testament, the New Covenant, where we're in the dispensation of grace, all the Old Testament stuff we kind of dispense with it. But I've been reading recently more of the Old Testament, been really digging into more. And I just started recently reading the Minor Prophets, those small books that we just pass over, help us don't even know where they are.

Kevin (02:28.365)
You know, some of them will be like, oh, I didn't even know that was in the Bible. Those books. You know, I'm reading Nahum and reading that and again, God has just showed me this and I just felt like I just had, this is the first time since I did the last episode I did, which I believe is in December. This is the first time I really just felt like, okay, it's time to do an episode because I wanted to make sure I wasn't just doing them just because it was an expectation or not just because I want people to like it because I felt like God wanted me to share and

Again, a lot of things going on with me personally, but I'm still endeavoring to serve, endeavoring to please Him. That's what this is, just God using me hopefully and I prayed it to something that whether you're saved or not, we all need Jesus, period, point blank. There's no getting away around it. Some of these are going to be kind of basic, but some of these hopefully, if they're not basic, it may be a reminder. It may be something that's remedial, but sometimes you got to go back to go forward. Again.

But I believe in time, I don't want to make this, you know, this is just, I just feel it's here. So first reason why the world needs Jesus is simply put, we are not good people. Now I've mentioned this other episodes, but I just really want to emphasize this because what I've been seeing a lot, especially on social media is the sense of entitlement. People don't like to acknowledge their shortcomings. It's almost as if

If I admit I have a flaw, that means I'm flawed altogether. I'm worthless because I mess up. I'm worthless because I have errors on improvement. I'm worthless because I feel short in this area or I don't measure up in this area because I compare myself to other people and I don't want to feel less than so I don't want to be held accountable so I feel like I'm just good where I am. But none of us are good. Now we are capable of doing good at times, but none of us are good people.

Perfect example, it's not a script I'm going to share, but the perfect example, the nation of Israel and the book of Exodus. We probably know the story of those of us who have been Christians for a while. Israel, on the Egyptian captivity, they finally get out and we know about the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. At that point, they've seen God work all these plagues, these miracles, the manna, all this stuff. But then now, they get to the foot of the mountain. The one that says Mount Sinai.

Kevin (04:53.325)
And Moses goes up to the mountain and you know, those who know the story, he was up there for 40 days waiting to hear from God and things like that. The people down there after seeing all the stuff that God had done for them, decided they couldn't wait for Moses. So they fashioned a calf and started worshiping the calf at the foot of the mountain. They also started doing other stuff. Some people think there was reverie, was orgies and all kind of unscrupulous, ungodly stuff. So my point is,

But all the good that they saw God do, they still reverted back to sin. To prove that even though God did good, even though God promised them good, inherently they still went to do things that were not good. That's no different than us. Most of us, present company included, have seen God move, have seen God show up, have seen God do great things. We have testimony. This is not like it's someone

doesn't know the Lord who's an atheist or an agnostic or something else. You and I, probably if you're watching this, you have a relationship with the Lord. So you've tasted and seen that he is good. But even with that, we still are not good people. We still go back to doing things we shouldn't do. Saying things we shouldn't say. Thinking things we shouldn't think. I'm going talk about it in an episode, but we do it under the guise of...

Well, God knows my heart. Well, God knows I'm not perfect, and God's still working on me. God's been working on you for 20 years, 30 years. Now, of course, the work keeps going forever. But my point is, we're not good people. And because we're not good, we need someone who is good to be in our lives. Because our default thoughts most of the time are not even for other people. They're not even for God.

Let's be honest, most of our default thoughts and perspectives are about us. What's in it for me? What am I going to get? And even when we think about God, we think about what God's going to do for me, not what I can do for God. So just in that, we are not the people. Let me share a scripture. Again, I got an Old Testament one first I want to share and then a New Testament one. This one is relatively famous. Psalm chapter 14, verses two and three.

Kevin (07:14.421)
And it says, Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race. He looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away. All have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single.

You can't put that in the clear. The Bible makes it clear that there's none that are righteous, none that are good, none that seek God. Now you might be saying, well, Kevin, I'm a Christian. I see God. Yes, so do I. But we don't see God like we need to. We don't seek him like we should. Because what happens is sometimes we get comfortable in our walk with God. When God does good for us, we interpret that that we're good. Because I can't be doing too bad if God is blessing me.

I gotta be a good person because God is doing this for me. God has made these ways for me. And why would God bless me if I wasn't good? But then we totally ignore all the things that we don't do that God asks us to do. And that's sometimes bad. We ignore all the things that we do that he specifically told us not to do, we shouldn't do, or we should know better by now. I know I'm, I know

I'm convicted. I know for a fact that I'm convicted of that statement right there. Things I know I shouldn't do. Things I know I shouldn't say. Places I know I shouldn't go. Things I shouldn't engage myself in. I still do them. But then what we do, we hang our hat on the kindness and the love of God saying, well, he loves us anyway. And it doesn't matter because

I'm good. And again, going back to the culture, the culture doesn't want you to think that you're a bad person. They say everything about you is good. So there's no way there's room for you to grow. And because you and I can be deceived into thinking we're good when we're not, we run the risk of alienating ourselves from our Lord and Savior. Because it always talks about being proud, right? Pride is a big thing when it comes to God. When you don't think you're a bad person,

Kevin (09:26.285)
you're not acting in humility. Humility is understanding who you are in context to God. Now, if I'm going to compare myself to a career criminal, if I want to compare myself to someone who's been in and out of prison, who's doing all these deplorable things, oh, Kevin's going to look like a saint. But if I compare myself, if you compare yourself,

which is what we're supposed to be doing, which is what we should be aspiring to be like, which is what God wants to do to make us in his image. Then guess what? You ain't so good. And the enemy does a great job of making us be uncomfortable and complacency in our delusion of thinking that we're good and nothing needs to change. If nothing needed to be changed about you, then why did Jesus die for you? Because of nothing else.

He had to change the fact that you and I default destination was hell. So that's the biggest thing that he had to do to prove that we're not getting good people. Here's another scripture. This one is very famous. And I was trying to find a different one, but it just covers the topic so well. Second Timothy three, starting at verse one. And it says, you should know this, Timothy, that in the last days, there will be very difficult times.

People will only love themselves and their money. They will be both for and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and forgiving. They will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up. Here it is again. Puffed up with pride and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious.

but will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that. So much in those five verses. I will break that down. That's a whole episode right there. That's that verse. But a couple of things that stood out to me was about being pride, being arrogant, all of those things you and I can see just by going online. If you just open up Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all those things you see. How many times if you're on social media like I am, do you see posts from people?

Kevin (11:48.927)
And you just cringe because you're just beside yourself in the fact that I can't believe you posted that. First of all, it's just a sense of pride of just having, you know, pride and dignity. But the fact that you not ashamed of that. But what says here? People care more about fortune. They care more about money. They care more about pleasure. But the part that stood out to me as well, the part that says people who act religious but deny the power that could make them.

sounds like someone who thinks they're a good person. I'm a good person because I go to church. I'm a good person because I have a podcast. I'm a good person because I treat everybody nice at my job. I'm a good person because I sing in a choir. I teach Sunday school. I'm a preacher. I'm a pastor. I'm a this, I'm a that. So all those things that we do, we think make us good.

But the Bible makes it clear, the scripture read, the Old Testament one, there are none that do good, and our goodness only comes from Him. The Bible says that James, every good and perfect gift comes from above. So the very fact that we're saved, that we know the Lord, is because of His goodness, not our inherent goodness. Because again, none of us are good. And because we are not good, we need someone who is good. We need Jesus. And that's every person on this planet.

That's the first thing. The second thing or the second reason why the world needs Jesus is because we, the world, we ignore God's warnings. Now, this is something again, if you're online, and this is something close to my heart as a teacher, as a minister, a teacher. And let me say this, now I'm missing this on a bunch of episodes, so you might hear this. If you've heard it before, you're going hear it again. These episodes hit Kevin before they hit you.

And this is something, this whole episode specifically, but this is something God is dealing with Kevin about. There are things that you and I are involved with that God tells us over and over again, don't do it. Stop behaving this way. Stop thinking this way. not. And one of things that for me, I was in prayer this morning and I had to repent for this thing.

Kevin (14:16.545)
I had to repent because I was just thinking about sin and why we, all of us, as we just mentioned, we're not good people, we sin, right? And what came to my mind, family, was we sin, simply put, we sin because we don't trust God. Now, what do I mean by that? We sin because if there is a need, we don't trust that God can fill it. If there is a desire,

We don't feel that God can feel it. If there is something we crave, if there's a need, we don't trust that God is capable or able or willing to do it. So we say, let me take care of it myself. Or even worse, we let the enemy say, I can take care of that for you faster than God can. So for me, I had to repent from not trusting God. Now where am I going with this?

There are times when God is telling us to trust Him. And we ignore Him telling us to trust Him. We go in a different direction and things happen that we don't want. But the reason why we need Jesus is because we ignore God's warnings to tell us the way we can stay in His good graces. We ignore the times that Jesus uses His word, that Jesus who sent His Holy Spirit, all those things to help us stay on the path.

that God would have us for. But you and I, we make a regular occurrence of hearing what God says, knowing that it's Him, and we just ignore it. That's what sin is, again, not trusting God and then ignoring God. I'll you an example. It's almost like...

On our Christian walk, let's say you're in a car and you're driving. Well, better yet, yeah, you're driving, right? You're driving the car. You're going down a path and everything is fine. But then you think you know of a path that you should go, but you don't like the fact that it's taking too long because you're driving and it seems like every other intersection, there's a stop sign. And it's not just a stop sign. It's a four-way stop. You know, four-way stops. Okay, you got to wait. There go first. There you go first.

Kevin (16:34.573)
So imagine you're driving and every intersection is a four way stop. At some point you can be like, man, look.

So what happens sometimes, I ain't say I ever did this before, but you make it to the point where you like, look, and you just run the stop signs. Cause you like, look, I gotta be place X, right? When we sin, when we ignore God's warnings, we are running the stop signs.

There are so many people who, if you look at accidents, I'm not around the stats, but I would dare to say how most accidents happen because someone, maybe they're drunk or whatever, they either run a stop sign or a stoplight. Something that clearly says stop, you go through anyway. There are accidents and some of them are actually deadly. That's what happens with us. We ignore God's warnings and this is the part that's even more condemning for us. God's warnings?

done so lovingly and consistently. God gives us a lifetime of warnings, of telling us, heed my voice. And it goes back to the first point, the old little bit when I talked about earlier, when you don't trust God, then you don't wait on God. And then you start ignoring his warnings. Because I don't believe you can do this anyway. So I'm going to do what I want, which means I'm going to take the route I

and the stop signs be damned. No, whatever. I did a little quick look, you know, I'll be all right. That's what happens. We ignore God's warnings. So we need Jesus because the Bible says he sits on the right hand of the Father to intercede for us. So imagine, right, we're not good people. God tries to intervene for us and we don't heed it and we don't even have an intercessor.

Kevin (18:32.749)
Imagine if Jesus did not intercede. How patient would God really be with us? It's not to say that Jesus protects us from God, but it's good to know we have an advocate that says, I know Kevin ran five stop signs, but give him a chance. Let's work with him. Lord, you knew when you sent me what Kevin was going to do. You knew Kevin was going to run by 15 limb stop signs.

You knew that Jojo and Susie and Barbara was going to run a whole bunch of stop signs. They're going to jump over the curb. They're going to hit the median. You knew all that when I went down on the cross. So let's just stay the course. But we ignore God's warnings. He makes it clear of what we should do and not just, let me make it clear too, not just for the Christians, but even for the non-Christians. Because all of us who are Christians, we're Christians because the Bible says,

that Jesus was, we were drawn to him by him. So he was even in our calling was warning us, you need to come to me. I died for your sins. You need to come to me. That was a warning. Come to me or else you're going to talk about what those or else's are in a minute. But what happens is we just, again, we ignore God's warnings. I got two scriptures. This is the first one, Testament, Jeremiah chapter 44, starting at verse 15.

and assessed in all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols, a great crowd of all the Judeans living in Northern Egypt and Southern Egypt, answered Jeremiah, we will not listen to your messages from the Lord. We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the queen of heaven just as much as we like, just as we.

and our ancestors and our kings and officials have always done in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we have plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles." So think about that. First of all, this line in that scripture as well, because there was some affluence there and things were great, they felt like oil wasn't because of God, it was because we worshiped these false gods. And ignoring the fact that...

Kevin (20:54.177)
God punished their ancestors because of false worship. So now they get into, remember this whole idea with Jeremiah, they make it to the promised land and they start right back, just like an Exodus, worshiping false gospel again. But God sent Jeremiah, he sent Isaiah, he sent Ezekiel, all those Old Testament prophets are basically giving the same general message. Repent, turn back to me or else.

So God has given a warning. Now if you look at those books, those Old Testament books, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, they're so long because they were prophesying for many, many years. And over the years, like the scripture, they said, whatever. I don't care what you say, Jeremiah. I don't care Ezekiel as Isaiah, Nahum, know, Tephaniah. We don't care none what you got to say. We gonna do what we

Sounds kinda familiar. Sounds like the same thing we do when you're flipping on your phone and someone does a post about Jesus and you swipe over it. When you're driving and you pass by a billboard that says something about pray, and you just say, I'll do it later when I get home. Sounds like when you go home and you're about to turn on that show you like, and then the Holy Spirit says, now you know when you turn on that show. It's gonna have some stuff in there you shouldn't see.

some language you don't need to hear. You probably don't need to watch that late at night. That should not be the last thing you put in your eyes and your spirit before you go to sleep. We ignore that anyway. Or if you are a Christian and you convicted, you read the scriptures and you know exactly what it says. And God shows you those scriptures to prepare you for something. And then when that thing he says going to happen happens, you remember the scripture.

you ignore it. That's what we do. That's why we need Jesus. Because just as he died for us, he knew who he was dying for. He knew that these folks I'm dying for, they're not going to heed me the first time, the second time, third time, fifth time, 18th time. But look at what that says. It says about the patience.

Kevin (23:20.031)
It says about how wonderful he is, how long suffering he is, that even though I'm mourning you over and over and over again, and I'm not doing this arbitrarily, I'm doing this for your good. I see what awaits you, and I'm trying to direct you around that. But you decide, either I know what's best or better yet, I just don't want to do what you want.

So we need Jesus because we're in a world of trouble because first of all, we're not good people and we just ignore the danger, those stop signs, those red lights that God gives us. But that's the Old Testament scripture. Let me give you the New Testament one. Romans chapter two, starting at verse three. And it says, since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God's judgment when you do the same things? Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and

patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. I tell the kids all the time in Sunday school, I'm sorry, study. There's always a scripture too in Bible study. tell them.

You need to write that one down. If you don't remember any other scriptures, write that one down. That might be the one for this episode. And then Romans chapter two, verses three through five. Think about that. It talks about how patient he is. Now the question is, why is God patient? Well, partially because that's just who he is. God is love, right? But this is where the Jesus part comes in.

Jesus said when he was on earth, that when he was here, he said that he died for the lost, right? He died for the world. But he told Jesus, he told the Lord in prayer before he was crucified, he said, all those that you brought to me, I didn't lose any of them. I'm going through with this. So if God and his anger came down because we were not heeding the warnings, he would be pretty much

Kevin (25:42.999)
doing away with the work that Jesus did. Because Jesus said, I completed this work. The work wasn't just for the disciples. It was for us and all the rest that will follow. So God's major plan mandates almost that he has to wait. And it's not because he's just loving what he is, because he says, I see the bigger picture. Yes, I'm grieving. And the Bible does say the Holy Spirit grieves. I'm grieving now, but it will be glory later.

When I see how I waited with these people and I sat there with them, even though I warned them, I believe there's going to come a time where they will get it. The light will turn on and you know, my goodness, I need to repent. my goodness, I fall in a shoulder of glory. my God, you know what? I need to just get on my face and pray today. I don't need to worry about that. Right now it's just me and God. And I know for me, during this season of my life, when I gain into personal, that's where I'm at.

I'm at this place where God is like saying, this is time for me and you to get together. There are some things I got to work out in Kevin. Yes, I have a big plan for you and there are things I'm going to do for you, but right now I need to make sure that I'm so deeply entrenched with you that when I give you what I want to give you, it's not going to take you away from me. Because that's what happens a lot of times. God says, I'm not giving you what you want right now as a defense mechanism.

because you got to be ready for what I give you because you got to be ready for what comes with what I give you and the attacks that are also subsequent. Because you think if God gives you a big blessing it's not going to be big attack? don't, because think about it, the bigger the blessing, the bigger the testimony, which means the bigger the possibility that people can come to Christ. So if God has something big for you, he's got to prepare you for the humongous attack that's going to come with

But what happens is this again, we don't heed his warnings. And it says right here, he's being patient. Thank God that he's patient. Thank God that he's long-suffering, which is why he wants us to be patient. The Bible makes it clear that he says, if you're patient and long-suffering with others, I will be patient and long-suffering with you. And all of us could use.

Kevin (28:10.157)
some grace and mercy, all of us. So the best way to get grace and mercy from God is to show grace and mercy with others because Lord knows we need it because a lot of times again, we don't heed God's warnings, which consequently means we need Jesus. So that's the second thing. The third reason why we need of the world, needs Jesus. Very plain and simple. And this is pretty much a fundamental thing of a Christian faith. Jesus, he...

is our only hope. We need Jesus because first of all, what would we be without Him? Literally, every scripture you look in New Testament when Jesus is talking to the disciples, He makes it clear not just who He is, but the fact that without Him, there is nothing else. There is no hope outside of Christ. There is no Plan B. God went all in.

with Jesus. He says, you are my vessel, chosen vessel to go down to this world and save these people. That's the only way. And that's one of the things that makes Christianity so interesting is because we believe that's the only way. Now other religious believe other things and some people, which is such an affront to Christ, again, being not good people, ignoring the warnings. A lot of people have this misconception that you're just a good person. There's many ways to get to heaven because God is so loving.

Jesus is the only hope we have. And it makes sense because only he could pay for us. Only he could satisfy the requirement of righteousness that we absolutely can't meet. So imagine if Jesus did not die and you and I were left to stand before the Lord on our own and defend ourselves.

Imagine going to court. You're on trial. You're accused of a crime. The prosecutor attorney shows up. He's got fingerprints. He's got forensics. He's got eyewitness testimony. He's got phone records. He has you on video showing you what you did. They even have a recording of you admitting it. Imagine that level of preponderance.

Kevin (30:35.029)
of evidence. In your defense, you don't even have an attorney. You got to stand there in front of a jury and a judge in the world and tell them why you think you didn't do it with all that evidence.

That's what it's like for us without Jesus. That's what it's like for us trying to fumble our way and stumble our way into trying to defend behavior that's adequately documented and proven that we've done it. There are no innocent people here on this planet. None of us are None of us innocent. We mentioned earlier on in the first point. Because none of us are good, our only hope is in Jesus. And imagine if here it is.

Let us know that we need him, giving us warnings, and then we turn around and we will buff his attempts to save us. A lifetime of that. That's scary. So let me give you the first scripture. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6. This is a famous one as well. It says, of us like sheep have strayed away. We have left God's path to follow our own, yet the Lord laid on him the sins.

of us all. So right there plain and simple. And this is Old Testament. This is one that I want to really talk about too, because a lot of times, again, when we think about Jesus, we pretty much confine him to the gospels and the New Testament. Jesus was prophesied even in Isaiah. Chapter 53 is one of the most famous ones in the Old Testament that really chronicles and breaks down Jesus' birth, the whole nine yards, crucifixion, the whole thing. But look what it says. It laid on him.

Jesus, the sins of us all. Using that lawyer analogy again, you and I wouldn't stand a chance in the courtroom if we had all that evidence against us and we don't even have an attorney on our side. That's the Old Testament scripture. Let me give you the New Testament one. Another famous one, 1 Timothy chapter two, starting in verse five. says, there's one God and one mediator.

Kevin (32:49.431)
who can reconcile God and humanity and the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. Look at what it says. It says that he gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. So that means regardless of who you are, where you come from, what you've done up until this point, if you're watching this and you haven't, receive Jesus. This is the time for you.

to go to him yourself and ask him to come into your life. I don't believe in the sinner's prayer. I'm not going to give you repeat after me. No, you go to God. And I believe the Holy Spirit will give your heart is sincere and you confess and you tell him that you want him in your life, that you repent of your sins, that you want to accept him as king and Lord of your life. I believe the Holy Spirit will give you those words to say, just like he gives me the words to say, because he knows your heart. But the thing is, he...

is our only hope. And the sad part is family. Even with him being our only hope, even with him helping us to not do the right, help us do the right things and not, and giving us warning signs, and even him letting us know how much we're not good and we need him, there are going to be scores and scores of people who still won't want him, who will still reject him, who still will say, like the Jeremiah, whatever.

I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm focusing more on this money. I'm focusing on my relationship. I'm focusing on my business. I'm focusing on just trying to have fun. You only live once. I'm focusing on these things. Did Jesus stuff go better yet? You know what? I'm young. maybe when I get about 40, when I have my fun, then I'll hit that switch and take Jesus seriously. But for now, I'll take my time. I have a young man in my church.

I teach the kids, the coolest kid ever. And he's young, but one of the things he said, I asked the kids a question. I asked them, know, sometimes we get deep. You know, the kids, I try to be real with them. I said, you're standing at the gates and Jesus asks you, why should I let you in heaven? What would you say? And you know, the answers were were there. This young man said,

Kevin (35:19.245)
Well, I don't think he would let me in. I said, why do you say that? This is a kid who reads the Bible, comes to church every Sunday, loves the Lord. Like I said, greatest young kid ever. He said, because I'm only such and such age and I feel like I'm not ready to give my life full of the Christ. I'm going to wait a little bit longer and then I'm going to get baptized and then I'll take God seriously. So of course he's young, but my heart broke when he said that.

Because even though he's his age, there are decades or older who think the same way. I'll wait until tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, as if you can assume you're going to meet next week, next month, next year. You and I are a phone call, an illness, a car accident, something happened, a freak accident away from leaving this earth. And the part that makes it worse is

It will be different if something happened to you and you didn't know. But the fact that you do know who Jesus is, that you do know you're not a good person, that you do recognize that you've passed through the warning signs, and that you do know He's your only hope, but you still say, I don't want Him, I don't want Him.

That's scary. And that's something as Christians, why we got to be on our job, why we got to be evangelizing, why we got to read our Bibles, because we are people who are literally dying and they may have been a day away from confessing their sins, but they didn't make it that day. And I don't know about you. I don't want anyone I know that I come in contact with to at least didn't hear from me that I told them that they should do it. Now, if they don't,

Two things, one, I can't be responsible for them. They made a decision. And then two, God can't say, well, Kevin, why didn't you say something? That's something else as Christians we miss all the time. We will be held responsible for what we did not say to people just as much as what we do say.

Kevin (37:28.493)
So we gotta make sure when we're talking to people about Jesus, we say we need Jesus, the world needs Jesus. As Christians, we need to make sure that's a part of our agenda. We gotta make sure people know that he is the only hope they have. Not your job, not your career, not your family, not your followers online. He is your only hope. Now let me say this, I'm gonna go to the last point. I started to let...

That point can be our only hope, be the last point because it's kind of a good news thing where you know what, there's still time and we can work at it and that's true. But for some reason, I don't know if the Holy Spirit wanted me to go in a different direction. I had to end this episode with something that's maybe not so and they all live happily ever after, but it's got to be real. So the fourth reason, the last reason, I need you to bear with me because I'm going to go over different scriptures and we kind of teach a little bit more on this point, but bear with me.

The fourth reason and the last reason why the world needs Jesus is because God will punish sin. Now we just said that Jesus is our only hope of salvation and we think of salvation as just going to heaven which it is. Salvation is also being in God's presence forever which is the greatest gift ever. But salvation is also...

escaping the wrath.

Because too often family, and this hits me hard as a Christian, as a minister and a preacher and a teacher, we never talk about the wrath of God. We never talk about how God views sin. We never talk about repentance. We never talk about the fact that God gives us warnings. Me too. And at some point, he's going to stop warning and he's going to start acting.

Kevin (39:30.893)
At some point, he's going to say, okay, it's obvious to me after how long you don't want me. In the book of Jeremiah, before the Babylonians came in to take over Judah, there's one part I forgot the exact chapter, but it says, and remember I told Jeremiah it's one of those 53 chapters, because he preached for a long time. It says in one of the verses, I've been preaching to you for 23...

years. And at this point, you still don't get it. So what did God say at this point? Two things. I've been more than fair because I didn't tell you once or twice or three times. Remember that scripture we read in Jeremiah, how they just abruptly said they didn't want to listen. And not only is God being patient, but it says also at some point, God is just. Now we say God is just.

We think in terms of him getting things right when we've been wronged. We don't think of justice as God getting his when we've wronged

when we spend a lifetime of ignoring him, of marginalizing him, of blaspheming him, of acting as if we're too good for him, of ignoring all the warning signs, and then acting as if, I don't need Jesus, my life is gonna be great even without him. A lifetime of that, and we think God's just gonna turn a blind

The Bible makes it clear he is a consuming fire. When you look in the scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, whenever someone had an encounter with the Lord or even angel, they feel prostrate at their feet because they was like, I'm in the presence of God. God is wonderful. He makes himself personable, but he is God. And he does not abide by sin.

Kevin (41:35.467)
He's willing to save us from our sin, but he doesn't make us accept the gift he offers us. And because he's just, he's going to punish sin. We need Jesus if we want to avoid the wrath of God. We want to avoid that judgment. I don't want to stand before him and he says, away from me, I never knew you. And cast me down into a place of eternal weeping.

torment and gnashing of teeth, that's scripture says. But God can't be a good God if he allows sin to go unpunished. And look at this, I'm say this, we'll go to the scriptures. What good would it be to believe in a God who doesn't give us hope that he will punish sin? Now, of course, we think about sin in other people, but what about the sin in you as well? But think about it, even as Christians, all through the New Testament specifically, he...

gives all of us the ammunition to keep going even through persecution because he says, will avenge. I will make sure those who do you wrong, I will repay. And I say this to the kids once, it's going to sound kind of petty, I'm not a good person. joke there. When someone does you-

If you want to be real petty, the best revenge is to let go.

Because you and I can only do so much. And you and I are only equipped with so much information. God knows these people inside and out, up, down, left, right, from beginning to end. He knows they're coming and they're going. And He has resources at His disposal that we can't even scratch the surface of. So think about the worst thing you could do to somebody. It doesn't scratch the surface of what

Kevin (43:34.795)
So if you want to be petty, you shouldn't be that way. I'm kind of half joking, serious and half joking. But in all cases, leave it to God. My point is, God takes sin seriously. And at some point on this planet, there's going to come a day where he's going to come back. Jesus is going to come, and he's going to deal with sin and sinners once and for all.

Now I'm going give you a couple of scriptures here and this one I want to set up because this is something I actually just kind of learned recently but I think it's really cool. So I got a bunch of scriptures here I'm going to kind of teach a little bit so bear with me. First scripture is Jonah chapter one verses one and two. We know the story of Jonah. Jonah was sent by God to go to a place called Nineveh to preach to the people there to repent. Now these people were not Christians per se or Israelites per se and Jonah had a problem with that because he was like

I don't want to go to talk to these people and I don't want waste my time because God, I know your heart and you're going to forgive me anyway. So what's the point of me going there talking to them? I ain't going to do it there because you're going to save them. They're going to repent. I don't want to be a part it because I don't like these people. That's part of it. So first verse, Jonah chapter one, verses one and two. And it says, Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai. Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.

I announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked these people are." So again, stand it up. God says to say, to these people, preach the word to them, let them know, hey, repent. I've seen what you've done and I'm going to judge you. Now, this is the part that's interesting too. I'm going to get on this little nugget. The Bible is a book that obviously centers around God's people, especially old Jews and then how the Gentiles are crafted in.

But we miss sometimes these kinds of scriptures where we see that God is moving the people in the lives who aren't his chosen people. He's saying, yes, is the nation that I've chosen, but I'm holding these other people who are not my chosen people accountable too. They're saying God's eyes, his plan was always bigger and wider reaching than just Israel. Let's a quick little nugget.

Kevin (45:58.443)
Now let's go to same book, Jonah chapter three, verse 10. And it says, when God saw what they had done and how they had put and stopped to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. So now we're seeing, okay, the Ninevites came, they went, they repented, they fasted, and God says, okay, cool, I'm not gonna destroy them.

this is the part of the industry that goes to my point. We gotta keep on doing a little teaching, right? So the Ninevehs, okay, they repented. Now, let's go to a little book called Nahum that most of us probably didn't even know was in the Bible and probably haven't read it. Nahum, chapter one, verse 14. mean, what it says, and this is what the Lord says concerning the Assyrians in Nineveh. Same place. You will have no more children to carry on your name.

I will destroy all the idols in the temples of your gods. am preparing a grave for you because you are despicable." You see that? And guess what happens? God punished Nineveh. Now what's my point? You see what I'm saying here? You see the connection? Jonah went years prior to tell them repent. They did, but then what did they do? They didn't heed the warnings. They didn't realize that they needed God. They thought they were good people.

They went right back to Worshippin' Falls idols and God says, okay, now I got to deal with you. Now I got to punish you. Now see, cause I gave you a chance. Now to give you more context, some of the Syrians were used to take over the 10 tribes. But God says, because I used you to do that, but you took it way too far. So I knew that you were doing evil.

But you, let you continue to do evil for my purposes, but then you kept going on a way that was beyond the pale. But look at my point. After repenting, they went right back to sending in. Sounds kinda familiar. Sounds like Kevin. Sounds like Susie. Sounds like Jose. Sounds like George. Sounds like...

Kevin (48:22.005)
insert your name. But what we're seeing here is we're not saying this is a template, but this is what God's character says. God has given us a template that says, some point, I'm going to deal with sin, which is why we need Jesus so we don't have to face these consequences. Now, that's Old Testament. Now, I'm going give you New Testament. And this is one, again, I got to set up. I got a couple of scriptures here.

Luke chapter 19, starting at verse 11. And it says, crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was near in Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the kingdom of God will begin right away. Verse 12, he said, a nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then returned. Now this is the book of Luke. This is the story of the Talos. There's one, I believe, in Matthew, and this is one in Luke.

the 10 talents, The three servants, one had five, one had three, I believe, and one had one. We probably know the story. The one with five worked and dealt with his, the one with three worked and dealt with his, the one with one buried his. But see, now this is different in the Luka count because it starts off, look at what it says. A nobleman was called off to a distant empire to be crowned king in return.

Who do we think that's talking about? Remember who's talking. And he's giving this example about the kingdom, right? So he's saying a noble one himself, gone off to heaven to be crowned king and then come back. This is obviously Jesus. Now, same book, same chapter. Let's go down to 26 and 27. We know the story, most of us who do. The one with five, God says, I'm doubling what you've done.

Well done, faithful servant. The one with three, I believe it was three or two. I'm going to say three. Double yours. Well done, faithful servant. The one with one, he said, you know what? You worthless servant. You slothful, lazy servant. Get out of my presence. going to weak and been lashing your teeth. That's the Matthew version. Check out what Luke says. Same account, but a different perspective. Now, because remember, we're talking about the king coming back after he's been crowned. So now he's going to, he left as a nobleman, coming back as king.

Kevin (50:47.021)
Remember that. Chapter 19, 26 and 27. And he says, yes, this is Jesus talking. Yes, the king replied, and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But for those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. And as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them in and execute them right here in front of

Kevin (51:19.041)
Think about that. Look at what says. The enemies who did not want him to be their king, he didn't say, get out of my face. He didn't say, well, I don't want you no more. He said, bring them in, execute them right in front of me. Now look at what it's saying. Let's the picture again. King goes off, be crowned, comes back, gave his subjects things to do.

for him and the one who did nothing didn't just get shamed.

they were dealt with. And we don't like to think of that as being a sin. But if God is giving you a charge, which he has, if God has called you, which he has, which he has chosen you, which he has, he's commissioned you, the great commission, Matthew 28, which he has, and you or I decide not to comply with the King. Look at the word choices. Have you ever thought that when we don't heed the warnings, we don't accept him as our only?

hope we think that we're better than we are, that we are rejecting the King? It's no matter when he say he's gonna come back, he's gonna say, I never knew you because if you knew who I was, if you recognize me as King, guess what? There's certain things you're gonna do. Let's be real, at your job, wherever you work, if you have a supervisor, there's some supervisors when they step in the room, you already know, you gotta have your ducks in the room.

You know if you don't have XYZ 123 done, you are in trouble. We have more fear of a human master than our heavenly eternal king. And think about this, going over the whole episode and we're going to get ready to close. He went on a trip for a long time. It wasn't like he was going for five minutes. He was going for an exorbitant amount of time, giving you and I an exorbitant amount of efforts in things.

Kevin (53:23.703)
to do what he asked. And it says here, he's going to execute them in front of them. That's scary. Now I didn't want to end the episode on a bad note, but I had to be real. Because I think sometimes in this world as Christians, we fail to realize just how much we need Jesus. And it's not just a cliche. It's not just a clever quip with somebody cutting the fool and y'all need Jesus. No, it's the truth.

And this is my prayer. And I'll wrap up this episode. Again, I just felt the need to share it. I'm just amazed at how quickly it came to me. It just literally came to me in the span of 15, 20 minutes, about 30, 45 minutes. I had the whole thing written out. The Holy Spirit just gave it to me. I pray that we don't take for granted how much we need Jesus. The world needs Jesus. And as Christians, that we make it our business to tell the world how much they need Jesus.

So thank you for watching, listening. I pray this episode bless you. I don't know when the next is going to be, whenever the Lord speaks, but it's not an indictment to say you need Jesus. It's a reality. And if you need Jesus and you have him, we should live our lives like we still need him, even though we have him. Thank you for watching, listening. Pray this episode bless you. As always, make sure your light shines brightest for the Lord Jesus Christ.

beyond the benediction. Until next time, be blessed.