Acts Part 20

Acts Part 20

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. This is Acts 29, our nineteenth hall, number four, and last. All right. Take a breath and breathe. Take a deep breath and breathe into this. You have been sent. Just imagine somebody that you really admired, liked, looked up to, sent you on an errand. The principal calls you from his office, come down to the office, and he sends you on an errand. A teacher sends you on an errand. A boss asks you to do something special for him. Band director. Coach. How do you feel? How do you feel? Well, Jesus Christ has sent us on an errand. We're still walking to the specific place, but we've been sent nonetheless. The journey there is like a long school hallway with many classrooms along the way. You must believe that at the intersection of the hallway and the place to where you have been sent, the scent spot stands the man of authority who hands you your diploma of scholarly excellence. His name is Dr. Christ. Now you are a doctor of faith. You all have areas of expertise, giftedness, specialization, but it's the same faith. We're on the same team. Most PhDs, most people with extensive learning are puffed up. Because knowledge puffs up. But this doctorate, this certificate of achievement humbles you because you know who deserves the credit. It's like you cheated all the way through school and you still graduated. You cheated. You had help. And you wear this certificate of achievement, this doctorate best when you live in remembrance that in each classroom along the way, that long hallway of classrooms, God broke your heart. God broke your spirit. And until the moment you have endured to the very end, not almost to the end, to the very end, He will continue to break your heart and spirit when he sees it is best for you. Now this brokenness of heart and spirit is the best gift you can give God. The Bible says, Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. David says, I give my hurt, my brokenness to you. I need help. I know you love me, and I know that you will protect me. I don't want you to behave like the children of Israel who didn't listen to Moses because of their broken spirit. They were crushed. Their spirit was crushed by the Egyptians. And because of that crushing, there were points where they didn't listen to Moses. I don't want that to be true of you. I think of the verse. Paul said, Beware lest any root of bitterness spring up, troubling you. That word trouble is a powerful word in the Bible. When something is troubling to the Israel, to the Jews, it means they're major trouble. A major trouble. And I like that word root. That word root that Paul uses is interesting. It's like we all have a deep root in us that at any time is potentially bitter because we've all been hurt. We've all been dashed on the rocks of life. And at any point in time, that hurt, that brokenness can like spring up and trouble us. Be careful. Paul says, beware, watch out for it. We want to keep our hearts tender. Because the world doesn't keep their heart tender. They keep their heart hard. Their attitude is to have a stiff upper lip. Never let them see you sweat. They're so proud. They're so proud. President Trump, and I'm not making this political, but it's an obvious illustration. He's so devastated and hurt and humiliated that he lost the election. He's spent five years now trying to convince the whole world he won the election. That's a hard heart. That's bitterness. That's gall. So I want to compare Pharaoh and his people and the ten plagues to Antichrist and his kingdom and what's coming for that regime. God sent a prophet to both with a crystal clear message. Moses said, Let my people go. And the same message is sent in many different ways to Antichrist. Hear Christ. Hear Christ. But both harden their hearts. They ignored and will ignore severe judgments. It's amazing. The judgments, the world's falling apart, and they ignore it. They keep their heart hard. But then both had their heart hardened by God. Now, how does God harden a heart? I don't really think that God hardens a heart. I think that God doesn't step in when he sees the heart's already hard. But I like the phrase, as God finds a heart, so he acts upon it. That's not giving us any credit. But as God finds your heart, he acts upon that heart. If you think you understand that, well, I don't. But be careful. Guard your heart. Don't let the bitterness of the world and the bitterness that's in you, the disappointment that is in you ruin you. Guard your heart. Keep your heart. Their subjects follow their leaders. Their people follow their leaders. Into hell, into doom. And we get the government we deserve. All people get the government they deserve. Debbie often accuses Trump of one man has done all this? No, we've done it. We've done it. God makes it easy for the fearing humble to disassociate from the leader. It's easy. You may have to give up everything. Like the people in Revelation, all they have to do is refuse to receive his mark, the mark of the beast. What could be easier? You may have to give your life for it, but it's a clear choice. And both reveal the mercy and long-suffering tendencies of the Lord. How patient God is. And there's a statement in Genesis, it says, in talking to Pharaoh, God says, I could already have cut you and your people off from the earth. But he didn't. He gave them chance after chance after chance to wake up and to do what down deep they knew was right. Both were raised up to show off, to show them, to show the world God's power, so that God's name may be openly proclaimed in all the earth. God raised up Pharaoh to humiliate them, to show off his power, to warn people, to encourage people, to humble themselves. And when he did this, when it spread abroad, around the whole area and disseminated across the whole world, people feared. Especially the land of Canaan, where the Jews were going. They were afraid. And he wants you to see and be convinced of God's power and authority. You, he wants to convince you. You. But he especially wants to convince you of God's power and his authority. Both are destroyed with most of their people for exalting themselves over the people of God. You are the people of God. And anybody who tries to exalt themselves over you will be destroyed so long as you're walking in faith. They will be destroyed. You may die in the meantime, but your death, again, your death is like giving a horse thief a horse. It's your escape. That's a good thing. You and God are the same. You and God are the same. As long as you stand for God and walk humbly in faith, you and God are the same. I want you to believe this. Do you believe this? Hell is coming towards you. And Antichrist is coming with it. I'm begging you to continue, to begin, to continue, to begin to continue to develop Peter's attitude that he displayed when Christ asked his closest disciples, all the other disciples, hundreds of them left him. And then after, you know, the second tier disciple so called left him, his disciples were left alone with him, and he asked his twelve disciples, will you also leave me? Will you also leave me? Wow. Then Peter said, Where will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Wow. And of course, after that Christ told Peter, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock, Peter means a rock, I will build my church. And of course, you know, false preachers use that, you know, make, you know, try to prove the Catholic Church is, you know, the rock of Christ. No, no. Peter's testimony is the rock of Christ. The church is built on Peter's testimony. Not that it's Peter's. But our rock is the fact that Jesus Christ has the words of eternal life, and he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's what the church is built on. Where will you go? Well, there are many, many places you can go, but keep this in mind. Wherever you go, you take your conscience with you. It's like the drunk in the gutter watches a rich man take off in his limousine. He says, But for I, but for me, there go I. Could have been him taking off in that limousine. But he didn't make the right decisions. Last two things. I've told you for years and years, if I'm wrong in anything, I beg your forgiveness. I search and check my heart daily. But God is going to allow me to be wrong, and that doesn't bother me. I know I'm going to be proven wrong. I know it on something that just doesn't bother me. I'm not God. So please, I ask your forgiveness in advance. And then I say this for your edification and proper reflection on my life. Here is my life. My life has never been my own. Christ is building his church, and I was born to be doomed in this world only.