Tidbit: Before Heading Out the Door, Read Jesus

Before you walk out the door, read Jesus. Open the Gospels and encounter the testimony of Jesus Christ. Let His voice shape your perspective before the world demands your attention, and carry His words with you into the day ahead. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome everyone to the Sears Watch. I'm your host, Sarah. And of course, joining me is Nazeem.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

I think you mean to say welcome everybody to Sears Watch.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I know. I keep saying the duh.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Yeah, it's hard.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

But it's so hard. It's not there anymore. So it's Sears Watch.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Welcome everybody to Sears Watch. Sears Watch.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Yes, we do. We watch. What is it? We watch, we weigh, and we wait. So today, Neizem, you're going to be sharing just a little thing I saw, basically. A little thing you saw after the episode Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, correct? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Yeah, which is the beginning of this month. We're here towards the very end of May. And um Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, that episode is kind of like so far, it seems like a once one time a year kind of thing with us. Um, we have dreams throughout the year, we share a lot, we read scriptures, we get interpretation, application, it's great, it's fun. But so far, at least the last two years, uh, typically around the springtime, we'll get like multiple dreams, layers, somebody else has a dream or a narrative. Just so many things connect. It's like, wow, God. So Mayday, Mayday, Mayday was a dream, uh, was a set or series of dreams because another brother had one as well. Uh that was that kind of um payload, payday, I guess. But what I noticed after we finished recording that episode, I I was just, you said to me, you know, I feel like we need to do something with this. What should we do with this? Because you know, I'm thinking about judgment day.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

And that's what you said. And I was just, I just paused. I was like, who thinks like that anymore? But that's exactly how you're supposed to think as Christians. And then because of that, because that's the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord taught you that. To say, okay, I just I I have we got this word and it's on my podcast. It's mine, I'm stewarding this. I know it's from the Lord, and I know it's really important. This is different. And so what do I do with it? Because Lord, I'm thinking ahead to judgment day. I want to have not held back such a timely, important word and just didn't give it the proper estimation and you know utilized it, multiplied it, etc., etc. But the beginning of that thought and wisdom giving of now who do you contact, how you contact, didn't come till first you realized, I'm looking at judgment day. Like that is the fear of the Lord teaching, and then wisdom came because then you started getting um you know, a to-do list uh or not to do list, but who who should, you know, people should you directly contact with an email that you'd first did a document, prayed over it, said Lord, uh, I don't want to make it uh because as you know you don't do this, this is a first-time thing for years, so you don't contact people, we don't try to, you know, um plug it, promote it. We want the Lord to promote it. If it's that good, he'll get the message out there. And um so, but this was different. So because I was like, that kind of thinking has to come back in the body of Christ. It's the way the the Lord thought, it's the way the apostles thought, that knowing that we must all give an account. And I saw you do that, and so the list came, and then you began to after you crafted it, the message you sent it to people who the Lord was starting to give to you. Mm-hmm. And uh I just thought that was so healthy and good, and it was refreshing to hear and see. So uh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Well, that's awesome. I didn't even think about it.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Yeah, I know, but because your thinking has changed, it's been renewed.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Yes, renewing of the mind.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

And the fear of the Lord is uh actually there's a psalm and Psalm 34, I think it says, Come, children, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. I think he says that. All right, yep. Come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking to see, turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Peter quotes that very line. So let's see how the apostles do it. This is another thing I'm thinking about and been kind of just putting together is let me find all the psalms that are quoted in the New Testament. And like that'll I wonder if it's like 30 Psalms where I could use that for a month. I just read all the ones that are quoted in the New Testament. Um but yeah, Peter does it. First Peter, he quotes this very how does he use it? How does he quote it? Um I love it. He says, Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil, or reviling for reviling or insult, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you must obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and seek good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit, let him turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. This just keeps going. It just is gold, but it was interesting. As I did that when I quoted it, I kind of my voice changed. It was it was like I'm quoting something from in that time was a thousand-ish years old, and now it's three thousand years old. Yeah. Three thousand years.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

But it was just like there was a charge to it. I'm like, whoa, he's quoting things that have already been fulfilled. Like this word of God, man, is just so potent, yeah, so powerful. And I I want to learn to quote and use the Old Testament the way Jesus Christ and his apostles do it. So there's one example of that. So, anyways, Psalm 34. Uh, we weren't going there, but I just thought that's the fear of the Lord. It teaches you, okay, where do you start in your day? You start with he is on his throne, he is the king. I bow my knees before him, I love him. And by the way, there is something called judgment day. So today, Lord, in my prayers, I say, Lord, let me do things today that matter for good for judgment day for reward. That begins the wisdom and knowledge and what should I do for a day when you have that attitude in your heart and your mind and your prayers before God. It's he answers that prayer every time.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Well, yeah, because I was just thinking about I think I'm I think that's just confirmation from a download, I believe I just got, um, how it correlates between like Mayday and pruning.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Um the episodes, Mayday, yeah, excuse me, the episodes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Um, and you because you know, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday was like an intense episode. Yes. And my thought process now was just, well, how do you prepare for that when persecution is coming? And I don't know if we talk too much about it um in that episode. But here, if you're thinking towards judgment day, that's to me the beginning because it's the beginning of um New Heaven, new earth.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yeah, eternity.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

I mean, your process completely changes, your mindset changes when you were thinking eternity and judgment day about the choices, um, the choices of who to what uh to prune out of your life, what the Lord is showing you. So I think if we could just explore maybe a little bit of okay, if persecution is coming, yeah, how do Christians start preparing for that?

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Well, I just hit a sweet spot in my heart after around this time, uh, remembering First Thessalonians and Second Thessalonians, that the Thessalonica in church. They when we first got the word in my inner core of uh fellowship, I remember the day, it was an evening at uh Jay Baylor's church in Parkville at his house, uh July 6, 2011. It was the first time it was like several of us just got a download persecution is coming to the church in America and systematic. And um, but uh the Lord kept over the years since that word having me read um Thessalonians, they're a church that went through persecution, like straight up, and they did it really well. Paul in his letters to them is like you guys we told you it was coming, and it has, and you're doing really well. So as far as preparation, well, the word prepares and equips. So uh, you know, read first and second Thessalonians, read uh Acts, uh, that gives you a little more of the narrative in 17 ish Acts 17, but read that a few times in the week and just let it become because there's amazing prayers in there that Paul prays that uh I adopt and make of my own now. When I don't know to praise some of these things, I just adopt and say, Lord, I believe this prayer and I pray it and God answers it. So but there's one way you definitely equip through the word. There's some proverbs to talk about when you send a messenger, uh a lazy messenger, it's like cutting off your feet. Yeah. Um trusting in a is it a fool? I don't know what word he uses, a fool. Basically, not a good uh an unrighteous person, a lazy person in a time of trouble.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

I just think about like uh a staff that you're using to lean on and it has a splint you get a splinter because it's not a really good staff. It's not smooth. This is how important it is to make sure that the core fellowship that you're with, the friendships are are as Paul said in his last letter to Timothy, pursue righteousness, pursue these things along with those who are calling on the Lord from a pure heart. You need to make sure that you have that inner core that just absolutely is after Jesus Christ, not allowing yourself to fellowship, friendship.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah. And because um Well, because that I think too was a really big theme um within that week of the Mayday, Mayday, Mayday episode. I just kept hearing and seeing like something like Luke 14. Uh one brother kept bringing it up. That was really good. Um it was like an entire week that just theme kept coming up, and it just like again it correlated with the pruning. And so I just saw this overlap of you know, a few things like we just talked about. Um when you're setting your eyes towards eternity and judgment day, your the choices you make are different, you think differently. So when like you just you know shared, I it was just so second nature, I didn't even think about it until you put it up, and I'm like, okay, on judgment day, I just don't want to hear the Lord say, Well, you didn't share it with this person, so I just want to make a list, pray with the Lord, give me that list, right? But it became it's like second nature because now I'm starting to think more, okay, on judgment day. I want to mind things that are gonna matter in the end. So that um in the fellowship, but I think Luke 14 was a big theme. Uh, I guess what was that, that week of when I posted Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Blessed for uh two um editions in our fellowship the last few months or so, is they're asking questions that you know we just kind of just forgot about. Or like like one of them said, Um, what does it mean to plead the blood of Christ? Yeah, and you know, and it's funny because uh their brother didn't it was like, why do we do? I'm not sure. And didn't didn't just say, Well, we just do. Yeah, what that's probably a cue that I have some more to learn. So we go back to it and we're and then we're having breakthroughs, and like that's refreshing. And so then our brother with 14 comes to a passage that many believers, and you should kind of go, Whoa, um, what did Jesus just say? Um, and so I really could spend an hour on this. Um I've been so jazzed by it, but I so I had a uh an answer, but because I whenever someone's bringing it up, I would you know I kind of start defaulting to, yeah, but Lord, Lord, what what else? There's something else you'll make it from this. And I did, I finally got something I've never gotten, uh, an answer to a question. But here's the passage, and it's in fourteen. Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Beloved, if you have ears to hear, hear. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So right now we just receive grace and peace to hear.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Mm-hmm.

unknown 14:22

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Receive it. The word of God for many of us right now, because of so much commentary and so many things that we've added to the Bible, numbers, title headings, etc., etc., make it feel like a textbook kind of feel.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

And just put a lot of constraints. So a lot of us haven't really been eaten the word. So I hope today, by the grace of God, I can remove some of these chains. I want to teach you guys, like, look at here's how you go about this question. Did he really say hate? Even in my non-commentary Bible that I go to, my main one, has a commentary on this part of the word hate. It's not, oh, the Greek also says, it's just a commentary. Like it's blushing, trying to make sure the reader doesn't feel like he said hate. It'll say quote. What he means is, well, not yet, uh, i.e., it'll be by comparison of your love for him. That's what Jesus meant when he said that. Okay. First off, he said hate. Second off, the biggest thing you need to remember from the beginning is a real person and servant of the Lord is writing to a real person, a believer. And the textual evidence shows the believer he's writing to, Luke is writing to, is a man named Theophilus who is a governor. He got saved and he's currently a governor. You can know that by the way that Luke opens up this gospel account we're reading with most excellent Theophilus. That is a term later on in Acts you'll see happen twice, I think. When a letter is being written to a governor, that's how you open it up. You talk to him that way. It's like saying, Mr. President.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Okay? So Theophilus is a governor. Luke is writing an orderly account. That's his statement about the purpose of this writing for Theophilus so that he can have this full, like, yeah, this is the certainty of what's been written uh what I've heard and been taught. So he's a but he's a disciple. So here's the first question. Luke writing to a very real Theophilus. Why didn't Luke anticipating Luke uh Theophilus' confusion? Jesus said, hate your father, your mother if you're coming after me. Whoa. Why didn't Luke add a little um afterward kind of commentary, a little parenthesis, something to just kind of ease the blow of that? He doesn't. Not one, he doesn't ever do that. That's the first big problem. You've added commentary, it's called watering down the word, the strong line of the word. You're now watering it down when you add that commentary. Yeah. He said it. That's what he meant. So that's the first thing. Get rid of that commentary. Some of you have actually already, and I because I've read it with some other brothers, and they already have this commentary so deep in them that that's what they go to. Oh, he don't really mean hate, he means uh by my love and comparison. Oh, really? Okay. Because this is easy. Flow of thought is the one of the most, if not most important, you need the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

The flow of thought is the most important interpretive key, meaning you have a grasp on the entire book currently you're reading. So if it's Luke, you have a good feel of what came before and what come after. Now, the immediate context, that's the first thing he did was the immediate context. When you read the couple of paragraphs before, oh, you're like, oh, people were being invited to this great banquet, but they're making excuses. Uh oh, yeah, I just bought a field, I got to do this. Uh the other guy said, I just got married, I can't. I just got some oxen, I got to try them out, so business related, so I can't come. And the master is furiated. So he tells the service to go out. The highways and byways get everybody, but those who were invited at first, they're not getting a taste of my banquet. Then we go into this thing about now great crowds are following him. So he's like, Yeah, that's important. That's one example of what's happening is your life you have to hate. A cross is an instrument of death. If you have a cross and you're hanging on it, guess what? All your aspirations and hopes that you had before that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter about your career, doesn't matter about your your real estate has no, it doesn't matter about whose family you are or not, you're you're you're dead. You're hanging on a cross.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

So all of that, the men who made excuses, look at all the excuses right before that that this parable before this command, Jesus says, look, there's three excuses. The ones who are poor, lame, out in the highways, they don't have any of that. They don't have the finances, the money to have five oxen, which is a big deal financially in that culture.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Um, you know, they're they're poor, they're blind, that they come immediately. But he said, okay, so that's the first thing, it's flow of thought. What came right before that? Look at Luke 9. He said something very similar. This is 957. By the way, in 51, this is important because most of the second half of Luke, most of Luke is actually the later part of Jesus' ministry. In 951, it says, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. So he's actually we're now nearing the end of the three and a half years of his ministry at this point. From Luke 9.51 on. Well, actually, the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah were talking to them, talking to him about his exodus, about his departure. All right, so 57. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, Follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my Jesus said to him, No one who has put his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the king of God. After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. So he gives them a commanding, commissioning. They go out. Why are the harvesters few? Because they they don't like these prerequisites Jesus just put before him.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Well, it's also very similar to the banquet scene.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Same deal.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Same deal. There's that expensive more so.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

I can't even go bury my dead dad.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

I mean, that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

I can't even say bye bye. Farewell. What?

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Oh, this. But these 72 did. They listened, they they said, okay. And look at the report when they come back. This is verse 17. The 72 return with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

He said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Um, actually, and Enazabius says, I was watching Satan. So that that implies that he was actually interceding while they were gone. That's actually what was happening. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and on scorpions over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, That's a very rare line in the gospel account about Jesus. He does it right after 72 said yes. They didn't turn back. They became poor to follow him. They gave it all. And then they come back, and then now he's rejoicing in the Holy Spirit and saying, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. And they're written, they're recorded in here. That's what happens to us, though. See, there's books in heaven recording. Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. Who are little children? Disciples. Yeah. People will give all. There's just for him. Little children, man. I need you, God. Yeah. I'm a little baby. I need you.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

And he loves that.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows that who the son is except the father, or who the father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal. All right. So you're starting to get a little more idea of the context of yeah, he did say that.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

He did. And I I do want to point out, too, because this is also first century Near East, Middle East, yeah. Yeah. Um, because we live in a culture now where it's like, you know, there are people who hate their parents, hate their family already, so it's not like a huge, like complete shock. But for him to say that is a huge deal, especially during his time to that audience. They didn't have retirement. They didn't have, you know, backup plans for or the government taking care of them in their old age. Family was everything, it was the core of your entire life. I mean, families a lot of times would live in the same house. They just build another room. I mean, that's very foreign here in America because we are very independent and you go off into your own place. But no, I mean, it was like century after century, you would live in the same place. So this is a big deal for him to even say it then in the first century. Like it's huge. Like I think we it sometimes we don't grasp it in the 21st century Western um viewpoint or perspective. So I just wanted to point that out. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

So then the next question is all right, great. So we're starting to get wow, flow of thought. He did say this before. This is nothing new. That's why Luke is not writing an apologetic commentary saying, well, he didn't really mean that. Nope. Luke didn't say that, didn't find it was needful to say it to Lithiaophilus. So why are you?

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Smells like compromise. I I got really, I get really angry about this, these lies and garbaged commentary. But a little bit later, so the next question I ask, Art, well, did he say the word hate ever again? Like in the in this in this gospel, in this kind of this account. Uh yeah, in Luke. All right, so go to 16. You want to learn about finances, how the Lord sees it? Man, 16. Luke's filled with these kind of things, these teachings, but look at 16. We'll go to verse 10. I I mean, I I really hate missing any of this, but look, you're gonna have to be a breen and do your own homework and devour it yourself. Go read 16. But we're gonna look at uh 10. 16, 10. One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you tr entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. The Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things, and they ridiculed him, and he said to and he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. All right, so let me add the same commentary about, well, he means in comparison to your love for him, to this line here, because it's hate. We don't like that word. All right, so here we go. If you have not Okay, he says, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other. But what he really means here, this is what he actually means. All right, he really means you should love Jesus so much that in comparison it looks like I hate money.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

That doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

No. Let me tell you something. When I get paychecks and I I get worldly wealth, there is a hate. I know what money can do in my own affection and trust level. So I have very I I know how to approach to deal with money and stay debt-free and to use it well uh for his glory. I know the principles, I read them all the time of what the apostles teach about it. You know, I can be rich in every circumstance, even as a material poor person. I've proven this, the Lord has proven this in my life, this principle is true. All I'm saying is that I know what he's seeing, he's saying here. In fact, I got a new thing about it uh yesterday. David, uh the King David, before he was shepherd of Israel, it says he was tending his father's sheep. His father's sheep, and doing it faithfully, by the way. Jesus just said, if you have not been if then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you true the true riches? And if you've not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? So think about it. David was faithful with someone else's flock, his dad's flock. Then God exalted him to the true riches, shepherd of Israel, to have a name and a lineage that lasts forever.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

This is what the Lord's talking about here. Wow. And you see, you guys, we we think that you can we can have both. We live it a lot of times. Either a lover of money or you're a lover of God. There isn't other either or.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Well, there's going to be goats and sheep.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

Like there's no, it's like that's where this is all going. See, God already sees it all, but persecution brings this out wonderfully. Yeah. You can't you can't like uh toe the line. I love that I read it earlier in uh the ESV when um Elijah's having the encounter with the Baal prophets in 1 Kings like 17 or 18. In the ESV, it says, all right, how people of God, how long are you gonna go limping between two opinions? If Baal's God, serve him. If Yahweh, then him. And then they just big test, and obviously Baal doesn't show up at all, doesn't speak, and then God shows up and burns everything. That's awesome. Like, I'm like, yeah, but that limping between the two opinions, you gotta pick at some point because you're either gonna be a you're gonna have one master. Yeah, you're either gonna love money, mimonis, greed, which is most of the world is governed by this system. You have to hate that and love him. If I'm loving Jesus, there's I hate the stuff of the world, the pride of life, all the value, the value system. Oh, I hate it, I can't stand it. So I'm like, look, so we didn't add the commentary to that. Most of us don't, but we added it to this part. And it's the same word. It's the same word. It's the same exact word. Why? It's because there's compromise. There's compromise in our life. We don't actually, there's so much of us, many of us that don't actually, we can't actually say we've been become a disciple.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Well, yeah, because I think we talked about it too. When we hear that word hate, like hate your family, it's we said, what was it? Our flesh hates that Jesus said hate. Yes, we do. The flesh hates it. But yet, if you look in Mark 3, and then he went home and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying he is out of his mind.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

So they wanted to remove him from the will of God doing the work of God.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

And then just a little bit later, and his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him, and a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you. And he answered them, Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

So what are they trying to do? They're trying to pull him away.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

They're trying to use the old system. Hey, they've got the best most access to you. You need to stop what you're doing and go to your family.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

And the Lord just flips it completely upside down. He says, No, here's my family right here. So you don't understand something. Before Christ, they're dead. Leave the dead to bury their own dead. See, this is what we have to understand. This is all going somewhere. Sheep and goats.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Okay. The goats are the dead. The scripture says in Psalm 115, for example, the dead do not praise God. Before Christ, I was dead in my trespasses and my sins. Before. So when you're called by the Lord, you're being called out of death, out of darkness, out of what is going to lead to second death if it's not rectified in Christ. And those right next to you, if they're not like James and John, like your flesh brothers, both receiving the call at the same time and going to follow Jesus, then they are dead.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

They're dead.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

And they can't hear, they don't know what love is. They don't know what they think they do. And neither do you. You need to get out and escape that. That's what it's saying. Now, here's for me. So, first off, this is what we're doing. This is really cool. You start with the current book you're in. So Luke. Yeah. Okay, flow of thought. Then the next genre, which is the gospels, we'd say Matthew and Mark. Is there any other places that he says the same thing? So it's really cool about Luke 9. We said that someone came to him and said, I'll follow you.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

In Matthew, it says it was a scribe that came. Now, a scribe is well, you know, well, in that community, well to do, you're going to have at least shelter, a clean place, some bread, because that is a prestigious religious position of copying the scriptures. That's what he that's his what he's used to his life before he goes up to Jesus. And Jesus says, Foxes, they have nests. Birds of the air, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. He's telling this scribe, listen, die. You are not guaranteed, you're not guaranteed any real estate. You might sleep outside tonight. Are you okay with that? Scribe. Yeah, see now. Oh man, you're gonna hate your life. Everything you thought that Jesus could add to your life. So, all right, for me, this is really what's really cool about this for me personally. This brother asking this question calls me to really look at it again. So much of what I've shared up until this point, I've I've kind of that's my doctrine about it. I've looked heavily into this, but then I had a new thing, answer to my question. When I'm talking to people about the Lord, and there's a call to get after Jesus, renounce all possessions, go after him, kind of deal. A lot of times there's a hesitation, and I've realized it's actually the Holy Spirit, and I never could really answer why, because hey, you said it, Lord, renounce all possessions. But then the Lord helped me understand looking at these passages fresh and anew. Look, there are times when in these passages where someone comes to Jesus and says, I want to follow you. Why? Because they have heard about him and or seen the power. So they're drawn. Then there's times where Jesus himself directly says, Follow me. I was like, okay, alright, alright. And then so by the time Luke 14 rolls around, where we started that we kicked off this passage. Let me let me read it again just to refresh our memories. It's that important.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Uh Luke 14. Now great crowds accompanied him. And he turned and said to them, now this is crowds. At the point of this gospel narrative, currently at the flow of thought, we're nearing the end. Three years. They have seen miracles, miracles, miracles, miracles, not just from Jesus now, but you know, he sent out 72 others. The 12 have been sent out. Like, it's this place is shaken. People are stampeding, actually, it says earlier to get around Jesus. So he's saying all of them. So a lot of them want Jesus. Uh well, they think they do.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

He's like, so they're coming to him. So the first thing the Holy Spirit helped me understand is like there is a lot of powerless Christianity. And so, or some people haven't yet to taste the power. And I'm calling them as if I'm Jesus to give up everything. No, first they have to encounter the power. Encounter Jesus Christ. When people have an ample taste of him, like these people did, then if they are drawn to, man, I want more of that. I want to follow you, Jesus. Okay, then the then the count the cost kind of thing, which he says here comes up. I was like, all right, that's really good. However, the people where he said leave the dead to bury their own dead, yeah, let's go back to that. I'm sorry, I was gonna read that. I'm sorry, let's refresh. Let's just read that because it feels like it's getting away from us. Let's read it again. Um now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going out to an encounter another king in war, will not sit down first to deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand. And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has, some will say possessions cannot be my disciple. Alright, so that's the passage in question here. Earlier in 9, Luke 9, and by the way, even earlier than that, Luke 6, it's interesting with Luke, Jesus' telling of the Beatitudes in Luke 6, he'll actually say, Blessed are the poor.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Meaning materially. Blessed are those who they literally were poor in a moment when they were called, or they said yes. They're literally lost family, friends, all that they knew their whole life, so they're mourning. He's like, You're blessed for that kind of poor.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

You're blessed for that kind of mourning. And you're blessed for that kind of hunger.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

So uh so again, the theme is throughout this whole gospel, it's all there in the flow of thought. All right, but nine. Um, one, so one's coming in, I'll follow you wherever he goes. Now, based on Matthew, same guy we know is a scribe. Jesus says he's he's letting him count the cost. Foxes have holes, birds of the ear have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. He's for that scribe, that is what he needs to count the cost right now. When you're coming up to Jesus, like he'll give a specific thing. Well, do you know that you might lose your house if you come become my disciple? Count the cost.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Your family, your friends.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Now, to another, he said, so now Jesus is directly saying to this person, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go bury my father. Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go proclaim the kingdom of God. Okay, so that in that case, he's actually directly calling somebody. So when, and I've gotten a direct calling from the Lord, follow me, like five or six years into being a disciple, I heard him say, follow me, like a clear as day, and I knew exactly what he meant, what the cost was immediately, and I did it. Praise God. But there is a different requirement or response needed when Jesus Himself is saying, Follow me. And so sometimes the Holy Spirit's like, Well, um you need to let the Lord say, Follow me to so and so. Like it's gotta be the Lord saying, Follow me. Okay, you can't force that on somebody. Okay. You can read the word, you can say, you can share testimony, you can say, but sometimes it's my flesh saying, Oh, tell him, Lord. It's like so that's one thing. When he says follow me, you drop everything and follow him. There you can't even bury your dad. That's how big of a deal this is.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Okay. Now, somebody else, another one coming to him, saying, I will follow you, let me first say farewell. Can't even do that. If you're now meeting Jesus, like this guy's meeting Jesus, he's being drawn to him. So revivals are happening. You're being drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, you're coming, and you're like, I want more of that. I want to learn more from him. When you have that moment with Jesus Christ, the word of God, yeah, the one who made it all, holding all things together, when you have that encounter with him, sorry, hate everything else. Nothing else matters. You ghost everybody. Yeah. There is there is actually a righteous ghosting, people. That's it, right there. You don't even say farewell. Bye. You don't text them. No. You went up to Jesus Christ and said, Lord, I want to be your disciple. Okay, go. I got a mission right now. I got a town right now. Go. See, there's the difference. I was like, so first off, based on the flow of thought, I know that this country, this area, these towns have experienced the power of God. They're being drawn. And so from that base, they're saying, I want to follow you. So the Lord has says, okay, we need to count the cost. Yeah. Not necessarily drop everything. Sometimes, all right, count the cost. You're not going to have a place to lay your head. Not guaranteed a meal. Not guaranteed three square meals. Are you okay with that? Like you have to count the cost. And now others, he actually goes, looks at it, and says, Follow me. Yeah. When he says that, not even a family member, dear friend who's you can't even go back and bury. That's how serious this call is when it happens or when you come to the Lord saying, I want to follow Jesus, I want more of Jesus. It's that big of a deal. You can't have two masters.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Yeah. Because I'm I'm just trying to, yeah, uh, think of the even the word, you know, the word hate, why we have such a big deal about it. Because there is a version of Jesus that we have gotten in this culture very comfortable with. We like this version of Jesus where he is your homeboy, uh, this hippy, dippy kind of Jesus. Our Jesus does not say hate. Because we're we're called to love everybody. We're called. Yes, we love our enemy, but he also says hate. He does say hate.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

And if your enemy doesn't repent, they're currently dead. Your end is going to be second death.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Don't repent. Jesus called to repent. And I just want to say something. Like I you gotta hold these passages in tension. But there is a beautiful psalm, 139. Many of us know these lines, they're so beautiful. Just open up with, Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down, when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. Most of the psalm is that kind of psalm. It's just whoa. Alright. And then suddenly it makes a shift. And it seems something initially for me it seemed a little out of place. Oops, I flipped. Where am I at? Oops, sorry. Oh. How precious are your thoughts to me, O Lord, O God, how vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I'm still with you. Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God. O men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

Hold up. Yeah. Well, because I like it's actually something I'm currently dealing with when he just brought this up. Um in our, you know, our personal dwelling, we share, you know, a household with others. And it's been very interesting in the last probably this year. I've just started noticing anytime I hear certain footsteps or I know it's not you other than you, there is like almost this irritation in my spirit.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

And I'm thinking, okay, Lord, um, what's going on here? Because I know this is not me, the flesh. Yes. I know this is not the enemy, but what is this? Because this is no for me. Where you just read in the psalm, can you read it again?

SPEAKER_02 42:30

I hate those who hate you, O Lord. I hate it.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

That's what it's starting to complete shirt. I'm starting to feel that way. No, I am like it's and the next line is beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Search me, O God, and no, know my anxious thoughts, you know, see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the ancient way, the everlasting way. So we end with that. We love that prayer, but that middle part, like, well, where's where is that? And I'm I'm really trying to understand what's going on here. Where is this place for hate? Because it's there. Yeah, you need it.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Because right now I'm in that tension. Yes. I'm like, okay, how do you go about this in the way Christ would go about it? Not the way the commentary or the world, okay, how do I deal with this? Because I want to be a disciple.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

That's what I want to be. So how do I navigate this?

SPEAKER_02 43:19

You keep his commands before you all the time. I mean, the love is that passage is a chunk, it's an MO of life. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless you. I that's at least I'm I've memorized it and I keep it before me at least once a week, fresh, like along with other passages to keep that intention. Now I'm looking at this and I'm trying to understand where is this complete hatred? How is he where's the perspective of that kind of hatred? Well, I look at uh the end of Isaiah 66. We did a message called Second Death is coming to earth, and it is. It's coming to earth, it'll be right outside of Jerusalem. Jesus Christ himself is the one that's going to set on a flame when he comes back. But he Jesus actually in Mark 9 alludes to this the scripture, Isaiah 66, when he says. Says, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Basically, what are you doing? An arm uh if it's causing you to stumble, you cut it off. You hate that part. You cut it off. It's better for you to enter life um with one hand than have two and go cast into Kehina, where the yeah, where and he says, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Okay, there's only one place in all the scripture that line appears, and that's right here. Now, this is talking of new heaven and new earth. It actually says that in this passage in Isaiah 66. And so after a new heavens and new earth, we've gone and worshipped in Jerusalem. We're coming out, it says this, and they, the righteous, will go out and look on the dead bodies of the men or corpses of who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be in abhorrence, loathsome, hated by all people.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 44:48

So you say you're going to go out of New Jerusalem having a great old time. Look out with hate towards those who didn't repent, who now have resurrected corpse-like bodies, because they can see with weeping and gnashing of teeth that we've just gone in and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven while they're cast out in utter darkness. The righteous in New Heaven and Earth are actually going to hate those who are in Gehenna, weeping and gnashing of teeth.

SPEAKER_00 45:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

Loathe them. So, what did he say? Leave the dead to bury their own dead. Be those current, that current system, they have a master. All of that. Their master, their value set, darkness, all of that. If you want to be my disciple, hate it all. All of it. Don't bring any of it with you when you come to me. Either Jesus Christ calls you directly or you're being drawn. Like, Jesus is it. He is real. He's today. He's everything. Great. Then make him everything. Take up the cross, the instrument of death. Die. Today. He actually love it. In Luke, he says, daily take up your cross. It's a daily thing. This gospel is amazing. You're supposed to apply it each day. Choose. Each day. And the more you choose it, the more you grow. The more you see the wisdom of what he said. And then by the way, the people that that you were like, man, I want them to be saved too. Well, you know what? After you get out of it and retrained or wired, God can bring you back around. In fact, they can now see, when they see it six months later, a year later, two years, they can see, wow, I used to know you. You look different. You sound different. There's hope in you. Now you're actually a witness to them. But if you don't if you stay compromised, you don't actually leave. No, it's just religion. It's not, they're not going to see transformation. They're not going to see a disciple. No. That's why. It's like, look, none of y'all know how to love. None of us know. That's why you got to get out and die to the whole thing, all the system of it. Count the cost, but when you go, you go all out for Jesus Christ. And then he can work with that. But a lot of us, a lot of Christianity has a whole lot of mixing, mingling, other masters, idols, idolatry with our technology. Like there's so much junk. But what's cool about all of this, we can wrap it up here. Fruit. I was going to say fruit, the brother that asked about this within two weeks. He had a little conviction and he ended up burning an idol. Burning an iPhone. Which I'm hoping we're going to have on the phone. Yeah, we'd love to get more detail. But excuse me, he burned an iPhone because he recognized the truth. It was an idol. He burned it based on reading and discovering, counting the cost, looking at Luke 14, the Lord in Luke 14, 19. He's like, man, I'm actually compromising. And it's making me hard to hear the Lord. But I heard him say, burn it. And there was a witness, a brother in the Lord there, saying, Yeah, that's the Lord. He did it. And what was really cool the week after that that week, right after it happened, getting all kinds of dreams. He said it's easier to hear the Lord voice, the voice of the Lord now. Like he got a little flack of persecution from family. We knew it would happen. That you're nuts, and and they they call themselves Christians, so they're like, Well, that's not really Jesus. No, the thing is you've been feeding on a false Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

Well, yeah. I mean, that's the thing. It's uh a uh watered down. It's not the Jesus from the word. Yep. Um, from the gospel. But I think the question is, again, where a lot of people wrestle with that word hate. I think the question is, well, what lens are you looking from? What Jesus are you looking um from?

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Luke did not give you any commentary, he didn't theophilus, any commentary, lessen it to go, well, I don't want him to feel bad. Um, so I'm gonna say add a little thing here. No, he didn't do any of that.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Yeah. And I think too, is why do you have a problem with Jesus saying hate? Like, I think that is a question people need to ask. Why do you have a problem? Why do you have a problem with that? What's going on?

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Don't want to take up a bloody cross. We don't want to take it's like Jesus saying, if you want to follow me, take up, take up your lethal injection, your electric chair. Like, why do you that's how scandalous to the first audience that heard that thought that way. Guys, it was a there it was offensive to say a cross. You mean a thing that the Romans kill and our people on? Like, like, oh, that that? What?

SPEAKER_01 49:18

Well, it's also it sounds like it's like Jesus is not nice. I think that's a big uh problem in this culture. Well, that just seems so mean. That's just that's just unnice. I'm like, have you not read the gospels? I mean, he rebuked a lot of people, he wasn't a this nice little teddy bear or something like that. And then if you read Revelation, I'm like the way he comes back. I mean, it's it's a wow factor.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

It's those who take refuge in him. Psalm 2. You're supposed to kiss the sun. Homage to him. And the warning is this is talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King. Uh, if you don't, his anger can be quickly kindled. Lest, it says, all who take refuge in him. Psalm 73, at the end, I have made the Lord God my refuge that I might tell of his work. We have choices to make to either be a friend of the Lord or take refuge in him, let him be our all-in-all. When you actually do become a disciple of the Lord, you there's a transfer happening. We're transferring all your trust, all your hope, dreams, plan, purpose, design, all of it to him.

SPEAKER_01 50:31

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

And God can wreck towns with that, which is two.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

Wreck them forever.

SPEAKER_00 50:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:40

That's how important it is. So may that fruit spread. I mean, that's just such beautiful fruit to hear that from that brother that asks us the question. There's wisdom and power in taking up the cross of Christ. Taking up your cross, it's yours. Own it daily.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

So that the power, the resurrection power can also flow through.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

So praise God. God be the glory.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Get glory. Get glory, Lord. So thanks everyone. Uh I hope and pray that you have a wonderful morning, afternoon, or evening.

SPEAKER_03 51:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

God bless.

SPEAKER_03 51:14

Amen.