The 21st. Century Christian

0:00 We are looking at now, and the closing argument of this series is the 21st century Christian. What is, we should ask the question, what is the 21st century Christian? That's the century you and I are in right now. And why do I put it this way? Because I want to make it sound like, as we go through this closing topic, that it's almost like, I want to be like Paul, who was saying farewell to any one of the churches that he was speaking to on his missionary journeys. And he would lay it out before them saying, you got to watch for this, you got to watch for that. And if you remember, he came down and he said goodbye to the Ephesian elders. And he was at the beach there. And they all gathered around and he was announcing to them, I'm not going to see you again. I'm going off eventually to die in Rome. He doesn't tell them that.

0:53 But at that point, he's going to be heading back to Israel, to Jerusalem. and then ultimately he'll wind up in Rome and do his death. But he spoke to them, watch out, because after I leave, many wolves will come in and not spare the flock. Church, I want to stress to you tonight that the 21st century church or Christian is someone that is going to have to put up with strongly dealing with wolves. That's not a happy thing to say. This is a great night for us to have s'mores, have a little happy song. We've got our jackets on, it's rainy. And I'm here talking to you about the 21st century Christian and how we survive. The number one thing is that we open up our eyes to realize that Jesus himself went on to say, I tell you this in advance.

1:46 There's going to be false prophets and false teachers that will come in, and you will not be able to detect them without knowing the word of God and without the Holy Spirit. He went so far to say that if it were possible, even my very elect would be deceived. And you look around the nation today and I personally believe that the American church is something that is in great peril at this hour.

2:14 What's going on? I think we're in the 21st century, obviously, that we are Christians. What does that mean? We're going to be learning that. And what does a 21st century Christian, what does that church looks like that they attend? It all depends on your dependency upon the Bible, upon the word of God, upon pursuing God's truth. I want to read this to you. It's kind of a long statement, but you'll survive. From the outset, I must add this to our introduction. We must define what a Christian is and what the church is compared to what the world says a Christian and the church are. We must also make it clear that all the various, listen, denominational flavors offered up as what Christianity is do not necessarily represent first century Christianity and the first century Christian church.

3:08 The traditions instituted by men have led to gross divisions in the body of Christ, the church which were never meant to be. According to the Bible, there is only one church, and Jesus Christ is its head. Can I hear an amen? We'll explain this tonight. If tonight you find yourself having greater loyalties to a religious group, religious individual, or maybe a denomination, local or global, that is not a first century Christianity, nor a 21st century Christianity. I should have said, that's doubled up, isn't it? Or first century or 21st century. See, it's not the first and it's not the 21st and it's no century in between. There is no such thing as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ that is fixated on some man-made institution is what I'm trying to say there.

4:08 you and I are not to find our identity in names or communities that we associate with church hierarchy movements or groups cannot be linked to our salvation in Christ if we are seeking such know that that is not true biblical Christianity nor the Christian church of any century those are strong words. And it's all true. When somebody asks you about your faith or about your religion and you say, well, I'm a lifelong Baptist or I'm a lifelong Catholic or I'm a life... That's not the answer. Well, I'm a lifelong Calvary Chapel person. That's not the answer. Well, I go to a non-denominational home group, something, whatever. That's not the answer. If you look to any group or gathering, denomination, individual.

5:05 That's not the answer. This church is not the answer. Jesus is the answer. We come together and we make this building the church so long as we are following Christ. We're living in the days that people are giving up on following the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't lose heart. Be encouraged. I'm dead serious. Does it hurt? Does it sting to see brothers and sisters who we assumed anyway were brothers and sisters, and they give up on Jesus? I'm not talking about them going to other churches. That's fine, so long as they're Bible-teaching churches, right? But when they give up on Jesus, and they say, well, I don't believe the Bible anymore, those are things that hurt, but those are necessary pains as God prepares His church for the last days.

5:59 And Satan, I believe, is out and afoot picking off stragglers at a time like this. And I don't want any of you to be picked off by the enemy, by the world and its system. I want to give you this quote by Billy Graham, and it's beautiful. Historians are speaking of our time as being in a post-Christian era. Many of our Western leaders believe that Christ and the church are irrelevant to these times. There's a lot of truth to what Billy Graham said some time ago. Listen to 1 Timothy chapter 3. The Bible tells us here in verse 15. Paul says, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. That's it.

6:50 the pillar and ground of the truth is what the church should be all about. And that's where a Christian should attend, and that's where a Christian should be. I'll give you another observation. This is my own. I believe that professional religion of this era is irrelevant to these times. I'm agreeing with Billy Graham. Professional religion. What is that? I believe that a Bible-less church is irrelevant to these times. Somebody just told me on Monday, I was with Lisa and I, we were at an event Monday night, and somebody told me that they were on vacation, and they attended a church, and they went to the church, and that young lady goes to this church. She went to that church that she was visiting in some other state, and she was the only one carrying a Bible in that entire church. She was shocked. And then she looked closer and she saw that the pastor didn't have a Bible.

7:50 I would have ran out of the church. Thirdly, I believe that recreational Christianity is irrelevant to the times that we're in. This is a strong word. I'm going to give you one more passage before we show you the points up front and then we dive in tonight to the first three of them. There's ten total. We'll do three tonight. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24 and 25. Before I read it, let's see how well you know the Bible. Do you understand? Do you believe that we are living in the last days? You know the Bible says we're living in the last days. Now technically, Jesus said, the apostles said, that we're in the last days. But the last days began at the birth of the church, and they're going to intensify until the culmination of the end. So we are 2,000 years down that road of the last days. So our answer yes should have been a very, very great shout of a yes because boy are we close to kickoff as it were.

8:50 And because that's true, listen to Hebrews chapter 10 beginning at verse 24. And let us consider one another. Think about this congregation tonight. In order to stir up love and good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. As is the manner of some. but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. Wow. Wow. Should we be together more? Listen, should you have more Christian friends in your life? That doesn't mean you exclude your non-Christian friends. You want to love them to Christ, right? But in this day and age, we need more good, solid Christian friends in our life. We need to make sure that whatever we're doing, we're provoking one another to love and to good works. Things like this. Hey, let's go to the mall and tell people about Jesus. And then your friend might say, really? I think I'm scared to do that. Yeah, let's go and see what God wants to do. I'm dead serious.

9:58 What would that do? Well, first of all, it would throw you in dire need of the power of the Holy Spirit. Number two, God is going to honor your great step of faith. Something's going to happen. You can expect something great to happen. We live too carefully, people. We need to start taking risks like we see these lunatics on YouTube jumping. A guy jumped out of an airplane with no parachute, drinking Red Bull drink, but of course he wound up. There was some other guy in the vicinity with a parachute, but he jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. and then he did his thing and then he wound up flying over to his buddy that had a parachute and he grabbed onto them and they strapped on and his buddy pulled the ripcord. Are you kidding me? Listen, we're Christians and we're walking around like this. We don't want to wake up Satan or whatever's going on and this lunatic drinks Red Bull and jumps out of an airplane without a parachute.

10:55 That needs to be reversed. We need to be that crazy for Jesus. We need to be that reckless. Who are we protecting? This is a remarkable time to stir up one another to love and to good works. To find out in the church who's in need. Who needs help? What can we do? To call the church. To ask. Hey, does anybody need to be visited at a hospital somewhere? Or does anybody need their lawn mowed? Does somebody, you know what I'm saying? Christianity works the best when it's at work.

11:31 It's remarkable. And so listen, I'm going to show all these points up front, but we'll come back to them over the course of these next few weeks. Again, I hope to get to three of them tonight. When we talk about the 21st century Christian, we are to be the ones that we understand that we are a redeemed people. Tonight we're going to be talking about what it means to be redeemed by God. The next thing is that we're a forgiven people. How does that happen? How does God forgive sin anyway? On what basis? And how do I know if I've been forgiven? And then what about that admonition in Scripture about forgiving one another and loving one another so as Christ has loved us and forgiven us? And then thirdly, we hope tonight we get to it that we are a transformed people. There's no substitutes for any of these.

12:25 We will go on to see that we are an empowered people. We are a kingdom people. We may be living in this world, but our citizenship is in heaven. So what does that mean? How does the Christian live and the church exist in the 21st century? We are a kingdom people. We must never, never forget that we are of a whole different politic, and that is the one of heaven. We are a relevant people. The Christian should be the most relevant individual walking on the planet right now. The Christian should be the one. We should know the most about stuff so we can insert Jesus into it, no matter where we are. You guys okay tonight? All right. Just always get nervous once it's so quiet. We are to be a loving people, obviously, right? We're supposed to be like Jesus.

13:18 And by the way, if the Holy Spirit has a hold of you, he will see to it that the fruit of the Spirit, fruit, listen, it's not fruits of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, because you might say, well, I just read a book on this. I think there's nine fruits of the Spirit. No, wait, wait. There's technically one fruit of the Spirit. That's why it's singular. The fruit of the Spirit is love. And then all the other attributes come from love. the descriptions that follow love, it has to have love first. We are to be a loving people because our Jesus is loving.

13:59 And exactly the same level, we are to be a hated people. Isn't that something? You say, I don't really like that one. Can we delete number eight? No, you can't because number seven is true. If number seven is true, number eight is going to be true because you are going to love the way Jesus loved, which means you are going to be hated like Jesus was hated. The goal for all of our Christianity, I know it is for me, and I'm sure it is for you, is to pray, Lord Jesus, make me the most loving individual in the world that I live in and the most hated individual in that same world. You want to know why? If I'm really loving God, then Satan and his friends will hate us. Jesus said don't get upset if they hate you they hated me before they ever hated you that ought to encourage you to come back next week number nine we are to be a praying people we are to be a praying people and then we'll end this series realizing that we are a forever people that we are forever people meaning that how we treat and speak and minister and conduct ourselves around one another matters forever.

15:15 Everything that you and I do in this here and now matters forever. If you're doing nothing, if you're a Christian and you're doing nothing with your Christianity, it's gonna matter in eternity. If you are serving the Lord and trying to find out, in fact, you might be so excited about serving the Lord, you just fumble from one mistake to the other trying to find out what he wants you to do. I think you're gonna get an A from God for trying. I'd rather get in trouble with God for goofing up, trying to do his will, than sitting around doing nothing for fear. Right? So these are wonderful things, strong things. These are things that were... And you might say, well, Jack, why did you pick those 10? I could have picked 50. But you got to pick 10. Can't do this forever.

16:01 And I assembled these based upon some of the most dynamic first century church action. because all of us have heard or maybe thought those words I wish I would have lived in the first century and walked with Jesus and the apostles alright I get that but God ordained you to be alive right now in the 21st century we may not have Jesus physically walking around and the apostles but the exact same Holy Spirit that the disciples and the apostles had then we have now he's not lost any power, he's not gotten weaker, he's not gone somewhere, it's that we need to press into him like never before. We need to draw close to him. So church, we dive into this. Number one, you saw it on the screens a moment ago. We'll see it again. And that is we are a redeemed people. Mark that down. We are redeemed. And what that means is this. What does it mean to us to be a redeemed people. And it simply means this in the most simple way, is that a redeemed people is someone who's been bought out of the slave market. The word in the New Testament for being redeemed comes from the slave trade market of first century Rome. That if you're redeemed, it means this, that somebody saw you, you were in chains and shackles, and somebody saw you, and they went to the slave trader, and they would say, how much for that guy right there?

17:38 That guy right there. Oh, that guy, Jack? Yeah, Jack is a slave to, and maybe hanging around Jack's neck is a placard or description. You know, listen, tragically, that in the European and the American slave market, the Muslims who sold us the slaves, and Europe, the slaves, they would take those slaves, those black African slaves, the Muslims would go get them and then put them on ships and sell them to Europe and to America. And they would put on their neck what their strengths were. This one is for this, the other, the other. And they were tagged, so to speak, that way. And so the buyer comes by and sees Jack. and there's the list of things that I'm guilty of. And I'm in that slave market of pride or fear or lust or violence, whatever it is.

18:39 And I'm chained. And the word redeemed means that somebody comes by and sees me and goes to the trader and says, how much is that one? That's 50 bucks. Here's the 50 bucks. They unshackle me. They bring me over to my new master. my new master says, thank you very much, and walks away, and then my new master puts clothes on me and washes me and says, listen, because I've set you free, I would love for you to stay with me. I'm not gonna make you, but I would love for you to stay with me as an adopted son. And I would say to that, are you kidding me? You delivered my life. and so that that the the owner the one that would buy me would say so you willingly want to be under my leadership under my house yes I do do you know what I would become I would go from a slave off the market to a doulos and a doulos is what is called in the bible a bond servant the moment the doulos says wait you're setting me free you bought me to set me free yep I'm not going anywhere. I'm following you. Okay. The owner would take me out to the doorpost of the house.

19:59 He would take my ear like this for real. See this wood? Can you see my ear? Is that gross or what? It feels gross. And he would take a hammer and a nail. And that would be the most happy pain you've ever felt because he would mark, he would drive an earring into my ear and that earring signifies that I am now a bondservant of my master. My master who loved me, he gave me, it means he gave me my freedom and I gave my freedom right back to him because he loves me. Sound familiar? Jesus Christ bought you and I out of the slave market just like that. Listen, tonight, maybe you're watching right now, you are a slave to cocaine or drugs or drink or sex or power, money, I don't know, violence.

20:50 Obsessed. People are becoming obsessed with violence. Something's controlling you. Something's all over you. And Jesus wants to buy you out of that market. Listen to this, Colossians chapter 1. And remember, we're talking about the 21st century Christian and how we ought to be. The Bible says in Colossians 1.13, He has delivered us. Jesus has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us. That's a legal term. It's a term of selling and buying. This goes with the deal. I like that. This goes with the agreement. he has conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love wow in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins and all of God's people said amen to that wow we are a redeemed people the brothers and sisters in the first century that you and I would have met up with they would have told you about what Jesus meant to them and you would have been smiling from ear to year, and if you've ever been on the mission field or some way far away and you meet people who are Christians, it's a remarkable instant bond that you have with them, though you don't even quite know anything about them at all. It is supernatural, and it is awesome, because there is that Holy Spirit witness that you have been forgiven and that you've been brought into the family, and you have a whole new master. We are redeemed people by the Lord Jesus Christ, and so we have turned that redemptive work back in worship to him. It's a wonderful, absolutely awesome truth. Listen to this, Romans chapter 6. In verse 17, Paul says to the Romans, but God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, and having been set free from sin. Listen, don't

22:57 respond. But verse 18, have you been set free from sin? You say, well, Jack, what do you mean by that? I'm not saying are you sinless. None of us are sinless. But can you say tonight that the sins that used to dominate and control your life no longer have a grip on you? You became slaves of righteousness. Verse 22, but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Boy, that is something. That is glorious. We'll go more on this. Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. The first verse, the first prophecy of the Bible and the first promise of salvation and redemption in the Bible.

23:53 And I wrote this out odd like this so you wouldn't miss it. God is the one speaking. And he says, I, that's the Lord, will put enmity between you, he's speaking to Satan in the Garden of Eden, and the woman, that's Eve. It's Eve, but it means even more than Eve. By the way, if you're a woman right now, if you're a young woman, listen up. And between your seed, that's Satan's offspring, your seed, your Satan, and seed offspring, and her seed, singular, capital S, this speaks of Messiah, her offspring. So coming from Eve, the first woman, would eventually come from her DNA, eventually, her offspring, which would be the Messiah. How do we know? Next word.

24:46 Look at the pronoun. He, that's the Messiah, shall bruise your head, speaking to Satan and of Satan. And you, Satan, shall bruise his, the Messiah's, heel. In other words, the Messiah is coming. I mean, Satan, you missed around. You did this and she, Eve, fell for your lie. She crashed everything. But it ain't over. from her descendant DNA on the human side will come the Messiah who will crush the word bruise in Hebrew is actually crush. You say well really? Yeah I don't know why the translators don't put the word crush. Your margins probably say the word crush but listen when it says Satan will crush the Messiah's heel he's going to inflict pain in the Messiah Can you live with a crushed heel?

25:44 Of course you can. Can you live with a crushed head? Not a chance. The Messiah will crush Satan's head. And how does he do that? That verse right there even speaks of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ as a descendant of Eve would come into this world, live a perfect life, die on the cross for our sins, and because he and he alone is righteous, rose again from the dead, and now all of our redemptive glory is wrapped up in him. All the power and all of the benefits come from him, not you, not me, from him. the power of that the message of that 1 Corinthians chapter 6 tells us or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your own there you go that's kind of like right?

26:46 doulos, bond servant master talk you're not your own I'm now a slave of Jesus And I love it. for you were bought at a price therefore glorify god in your body and in your spirit which are gods and boy you know that's true everybody you know god is there's a day coming when god is going to uh recall lisa got a recall on her car you know you get it in the uh mail and it says your car is being recalled for this whatever and you got to take it in something's something's got to be done to it. You know, God's going to recall me, and he's going to recall you. He's going to recall every human being. And he's going to say, okay, I want to review your life. I want to look at your life. We're going to see your life, what you did with it. I gave you life.

27:40 Let's see what you did with that. Wow. Pastor Tate, I was blessed this evening. We always pray Wednesday nights before we go to our various ministries we're at teaching on campus. And Pastor Tate said, you know, last Sunday, he said, I just felt the power of God speaking through me to the youth. And he said, I got to tell you, it was so good. I want you to hear it. He said, I just felt just the presence of God and these words came out. And he said, it's so simple, but so profound. And that's how God speaks, so simple, but profound. He said, I told the young people, he said, you know, Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He's seeking who he may consume. Have you ever seen how a lion tracks like a herd of water buffalo or even elephants of all things? Listen, when lions track an elephant pack or herd, do they go after the big bull elephant?

28:41 Are you kidding? They'd get killed. They don't even go after the lady elephants that still get killed. Who do they go after? The babies. Those cute little, nothing cuter than the little baby elephant. And the lion just wiggles its way along the way and they'll stalk those herds for days until the little one falls over, trips up, lollygags around, gets behind. Or the old.

29:12 And he said, Satan, what if, He said, what if Satan is in this room right now looking at all of you kids and he's seeking out, he's looking for the one that's weakest in the room to eat you, to take you. Jesus said, watch out. The disciples, the apostles said, watch out. Make sure that you're not professionally religious. Well, I have a doctorate in theology. That's a professional religionist. It means nothing. There's nothing wrong with it if you're born again. If you're not born from above, look, you would be no different than George Whitefield or Charles or John Wesley who did great works, but they were never born again until later in their life. They were shocked. They were leading people to Christ, but they found out themselves, we've never come to Christ. They had all the degrees, they had all the amazing oratory skills, but they were unsaved men wearing robes.

30:11 Professional religionists. And you don't want to be a recreational Christian either. and you certainly don't want to be irrelevant in this day and age. We want to be 21st century Christians. If Jesus is coming back, then it just begs to differ that the fact of the matter is with the darkening world, the brighter the Christian. That's what he wants from us. That's what he wants from me.

30:43 Ephesians 1, verse 7 says, in him. In him we have redemption through his blood. Notice this. You might say, well, how am I redeemed, Jack? How am I redeemed? It's through his blood. This is wild. Now, some of you are not familiar with your Bibles, you're thinking, I mean, that's kind of gross, right? Blood? Yes and no. Blood is gross because blood is valuable to us. We don't want to see it because there's a sanctity to it. Look at, I mean, think about that in your own life. When you see blood, Look, I don't know about you, but I'm a sympathy barfer. Do you know what that means?

31:22 I'm a sympathy. In fact, if you throw up, I'm just going to start throwing up right alongside you. You just have that effect on me. The funny thing is, we're just, blood's different. when you see blood you'll have some sort of a reaction to blood I'm not saying you could throw up but I'm going to at the very least you'll have a profound what I believe thought and that is man that's a lot of blood no one can live without that much blood being outside their body or there's blood here or that he cut his finger and there's there's something in your mindset about blood.

32:11 The Bible says in the Old Testament, your life is in the blood. You know, scientists didn't find that out, I think, until 1100 or 1200 AD. They thought it was in other things. It's the blood. The Bible has always said that. Blood is sacred. Isn't it interesting that even where there's no Bible, there's still blood sacrifices in the world where there's unreached peoples? blood God does not require your blood. Other religions require your blood. Not God. Not the God of the Bible. He doesn't require any blood. You want to know why? He's satisfied.

32:56 All of the sin that you and I had committed needed to be paid for, but none of us could pay for our own sin because our blood is tainted. under God's microscope electron microscope of God if you took out some blood sample of me you would see all this uh iron and proteins or whatever and then going right from this side of from the left eye to the right eye as you look into that microscope you'd see this little thing go by and it says sin on it what was that what was that thing in this that sample it said sin yes it seems to be in every human being it's in every single one of us it wasn't in Jesus He was 100% human and 100% God, the incarnation.

33:50 Perfect. Perfect man representing you and I, and yet perfect God. Christ came into the world. And God accepted his blood. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Because the Bible says the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit raised him from the dead. Isn't that beautiful? Think of that. And oh, by the way, that verse goes on to say, and the same Spirit's power will raise you from the dead also. I'm glad for that. God redeems us by and through the blood of Jesus. And the blood of Jesus, according to hard, direct theology, you can find it nowhere on earth. The blood of Jesus, the Bible says, is on the altar in heaven. And I love that because God says, lay up your treasures where? In heaven, where moth and rust and thief cannot break in or steal.

34:47 My salvation is secure, so is yours, because it is in heaven reserved based upon the blood of Jesus Christ. And there's no other way to heaven. There's no other way to redeem yourself. Thank God for that. I'm grateful for that. Romans chapter 3, verse 24. being justified freely by his grace, here it is, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption. Galatians chapter 3, verse 13, the Bible tells us Christ has redeemed us. And notice, you guys, it's past tense. It's done in the mind of God. It's done. He has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Having become a curse for us, for it is written, curse it is everyone, who hangs on a tree. That's what they called the cross.

35:41 Jesus died in our place. He became the curse that we were. Wow. And then Titus chapter 2 verse 14 tells us this powerful declaration. He, Jesus, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. Think about your lawless deeds. Think about mine. I mean, I'll think about mine. You think about yours. And purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. This good work stuff that you keep hearing is that when a person is that slave to the Lord Jesus Christ, that person turns around and says, what do you want me to do? What else do you want me to do? They don't go out and do things to get saved. Because they've been redeemed, they are so grateful and glad for what Christ has done for them, for us, that we say, Lord, what do you want me to do?

36:45 what do you want Lord remember Peter was famous for saying not so Lord that's impossible that's that's an oxymoronic declaration you cannot say not not so Lord or that's not going to happen Lord or forbid that Lord you know Peter said that and Jesus turned to Peter and said get thee behind me Satan. Wow. If Jesus is Lord, you are delighted and you only have one response back. It is, yes, Lord. If Jesus were to say, just sit right there. Yes, Lord. Come with me. Yes, Lord. If he would say, jump over the moon. Yes, Lord. If he said jump over the moon, you know one thing for sure, absolutely for sure. Oh, I feel something coming here on on this one. If he tells you to jump over the moon, and that's impossible, if he told you, you will be jumping over the moon. You won't have to make it happen. He will have it happen. Now, this leads me to that thing that I said a moment ago, I feel something coming up.

37:59 There are so many people today who want something so bad that they talk themselves into thinking that God has said to them, jump over the moon because that's what they wanted to do. And so they figure out every kind of which way to talk themselves into it, to get people to say, yeah, to do it or think, oh, yeah, you should. And they get themselves all positioned up, all amped up, and then they can't even get six inches off the ground. and then they turn and they say, I wonder what God's doing, as though he made a mistake. Have you ever, look, I don't know if you see this. We see this a lot in Christian ministry, where people will come and say, man, my faith's been shaken, man, because God told me, he told me that I was going to get that job or win the lottery. I don't know what it was. I don't know. And I did this, and I don't know what he's doing. I have very low tolerance for that kind of talk.

38:59 you mean you wanted what you wanted you tried to manipulate god into getting behind your scheme and it fell apart because it was man-made and then you're landed on god he didn't tell you to do it friends when our master says go ye therefore into all the world and preach this gospel oh and by the way first start at your neighbor's house Let's go. you can trust them and it's always a victory to obey him secondly is this we are a forgiven people by the way all of these all ten of them you can't separate one from the other they're perfectly glued together they're like laminated if we are redeemed then we are a forgiven people and the power of forgiveness can only be displayed through God and by God and we his people Ephesians 4 verse 30 watch this do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God that's the person of the Holy Spirit God the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed wow for the day of redemption do you guys believe that verse for real do you understand that the bible is here telling you be very, very sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading and guiding and his presence in your life, Christian.

40:36 Don't raise your hand, but are you a Christian here tonight? If you're a Christian here tonight, then you can bear witness of the fact that you know the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. If tonight you're here and you do not know that, you need to either come to Christ tonight or you might need to be counseled in Scripture to recognize and be educated about who you are in Christ. Because listen, the Bible says every believer knows that they are in the family of God. That's why you never see believers in the New Testament, in Scripture, walking around in the book of Acts saying, I don't know if I'm a Christian or not. I mean, I thought it was last month, but I'm not so sure this month. Are you kidding me?

41:28 You never read that in there. Why? Because it didn't happen. Did they have doubts like, is God going to get me through this one or is this one I'm going to die? Sure they did. And listen, doubts are not bad. Hear me out. Doubts are not bad as long as you get them answered.

41:48 Young people, if you have doubts, you got to get those answered. Don't leave them alone. Don't neglect them. don't grow old with doubts. Doubts are fine. They should drive you to the Bible to get them canceled. Faith comes by hearing, Romans 10, 17 says, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. You want to slay doubt? Read more Bible. It supernaturally fights doubt.

42:16 It's amazing, but I'm still reading this verse. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Watch what he does. by whom you were sealed, marked. It means the seal can't be broken. He marked you. The Christian is a marked man, a marked woman by the Holy Spirit of God for the day of redemption.

42:39 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Why would we do that? She made me upset. He took my parking spot. They didn't make me happy. I don't like their whatever.

43:05 He's talking about the family of God. This is why, by the way. I think Christianity is the only answer to racism. Think of that. Think that for a moment. I think Satan is the author of racism, and he stokes that flame wherever he can find a willing idiot to promote it. Useful idiot. And there's a lot of them out there, and Satan rides that wave until it breaks. Jesus, on the other hand, isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing the 21st century Christian right now is having to deal with a global hatred of Jews, Israel, Jerusalem,

43:56 and the Jewish people, the Jewish state. When you ask people, why do you hate Jews so much? They don't even know. I think they are demonized. And isn't it wild? Because the very God who saved us on the cross came into this world as a Jew. Don't you see the correlation? Satan and God's truth colliding. Satan hates the Jews because God loves them. And listen, Jesus died on the cross for any and everybody who will believe in him. I don't care how white you are. I saw a guy last night, no, Monday night. I saw a guy so white that I looked black. He was so white. I couldn't take my eyes off of him.

44:50 It was unbelievable. And I'm not a racist, but I'm thinking, man, that guy's white. He's so white. I don't know if he'd ever been outside. I think he only came out at night. It was amazing. It was weird because I was doing something, and I'm looking, and then I saw his skin, and then I'm going like this, and it's like, wow. I don't care how white you are. I don't care how black you are. it doesn't matter to God and it shouldn't matter to the Christian there should be no look you're going to hate me for this I don't, I, I'm sure I'm wrong. but I don't know if churches are supposed to be broken up into racial congregations.

45:50 I don't see God in that you think heaven you think excuse me oh whiteys whiteys over here to the right whiteys to the right right Pacific Rim Pacific Rim over here to the left Pacific Rim you think that's going to happen that's not going to happen so why does it happen now because people churches pastors are not staying true to the word of God They're not going verse by verse through the word of God and teaching the full counsel of God. And so we've got churches.

46:29 And I got a bunch of data on this. I got to get ready for tomorrow night. And I'm grateful. I hope you guys tune in. Please pray for me. But tomorrow night will be on Fox News tomorrow night. And it's about, it's supposed to be. It can change at any second. It's really terrifying, everybody. It's live. It's live, Nate. nationwide, 11 o'clock New York, 8 o'clock LA. So set your DVR, watch, but whatever you do, pray. Whatever the DVR thing is, I don't use it. But Fox News at night with Trace Gallagher. And so you only got like 60 seconds to give an answer to whatever it is. You don't have much time. And it's pretty terrifying. and there's no like can we like do that over it's life and I'm supposed to talk about unless it changes and it's changed sometimes five minutes beforehand but I'm supposed to talk about faith and the various denominations and how they correlate to the different races but that's the wrong word There's only one race.

47:49 It's the human race. The different pigmentations in churches and how they vote. You got like 60 seconds to answer that. And so I'll read a bunch of stuff. Freak out my brain. And without you praying, I'll fall flat on my face with 3 million people watching. So please pray. But saying that is this love that we are to exhibit in this life of ours that have been redeemed by the Lord and forgiven by God. How dare we turn around and say to someone else, to another Christian, let's just keep it in the family for a second and say to them, I'm not going to forgive you. And God says, excuse me, what? say wait wait wait wait I forgave you and then you turn around and you say to your Christian sister or brother you can't forgive them Come on now.

48:57 the Corinthian church was famous for it. We have to end. I didn't make it. Well, no, it's impossible. There are some things that are possible. This is not possible. This is not possible. I can't. But the Corinthian church, they were so bad at that, not forgiving one another, that they wound up,

49:24 and you could see it coming, though, because at Corinth, these churches, on one, so to speak, on one corner, it was the church that followed Peter. Remember this, how they said this? They said, Paul rebuked them because he said, you guys say that you're of Peter. And then you guys over there say, we're of Paul. And you guys over there say, you're of Apollos. And then you guys that are really, really uppity, holier than thou people, you guys say, oh, but we're of Christ.

50:00 We're of Christ. We are so separate from all you guys. It's just our little group. We're so Jesus-like. There's nothing like, Jesus is not like that. And Paul said, you got your man-made divisions, all of your little things. The Baptists won't talk to the Lutherans. The Lutherans can't talk to the Presbyterians. And they all hate Calvary Chapel. Who knows what? I don't know. know. But you know what I'm saying? It's insane. It's insane. And so the divisions create clicks. Clicks build the flesh up, quenches the spirit, disables your effectiveness, so that you've got to stay within your group to protect your acceptance. and when that happens you can't go outside you can't talk to a whatever fill in the blank what flavor of denomination folks those denominations they came from men's traditions Jesus didn't say and in the future there will be the Presbyterians and the Lutherans and the Baptists and the Methodists.

51:23 These things all came about by a man believing that they were seeking or finding or doing the right way. I don't think they all woke up one day with bad intent. And there is a time when, well, I can't go to your church because you baptize people backwards instead of frontwards. You put them all the way under. How dare you do that? You should sprinkle them. And it's just like, really? We're going to talk about this? The Bible says, put that stuff away.

51:58 That stuff, what are you, put that away. Did Jesus die on the cross for your sins? Is he the son of God, savior of the world? Was he born of a virgin? Is he God in flesh came here to liberate you on the slave market of sin. and he bought you out of that market and brought you into his family. Do you know that? Do you believe that? Is that what you believe? Is this the word of God? Do you believe this? Then listen, you don't need a label. You don't need a title. if you've been forgiven, if I've been forgiven, my job, our job, that when somebody repents and comes to Christ or our brother and sister repents and comes back into fellowship, you receive them.

52:53 And you strengthen them, you love on them, you nurture them. Hey, let's stand. I gotta tell you, were any of you here, was it first service? Was it first service? First service last Sunday? This young woman's become the most famous convert of this church in three days than any other time in the history of this church. Carolyn or Caroline.

53:21 So I had an altar call at first service and I got to tell you, we've had altar calls before where hundreds of people come forward. And that's great. Don't get me wrong. That's awesome. and I said it right up front. I'm gonna, in a moment, I'm gonna give all of you who don't know Jesus an opportunity to accept the Lord, but I am not gonna come back to this podium and beg you to come. I'm not gonna play, let's play the music again. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. If God is speaking to your heart, get up and come forward. One call, that's it. We have to do second and third service, and I just stepped back for a second. The music was playing. This young woman, she got up. She came forward. She stood right here, and nobody else came, and God so touched my heart, and I thought, oh boy, I hope this is okay, but I was so touched by her.

54:21 She came. She just came, and she stood. She's looking at me like just a little kid, and I mean, with the age difference, she was a little kid. And I said, what is your name? Carolyn. And I said, Carolyn, would it be okay if you turned around and looked at all these people right now? She just turned around and she looked at all of you at first service and everybody started clapping and all that and she turned around and we prayed together in front of everybody. You could hear her little voice in the microphone I'm wearing. And then I got back up here and I looked around. I could see on the cheeks of so many people with the light hitting you, I could see wet cheeks, people crying.

55:15 And I thought, oh my goodness, they're crying. But heaven says when one sinner turns and is forgiven, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, the angels in heaven rejoice. and it was the most amazing it was the best I'll never never forget that one precious soul tonight if in your life you don't know what it's like to be forgiven why not he loves you he died on the cross for you and he invites you to be redeemed by the blood of the lamb you read that tonight so I'm just going to ask you as we pray right now we can bow our heads God hears your heart that tonight if that's you maybe you're a Christian tonight and you're at odds with a brother or a sister and and God is saying reconcile be reconciled because Christ has reconciled us but if you're not a Christian tonight become the 21st century Christian who follows Jesus and no man, no system, no agency, but Jesus.

56:45 if this is your prayer tonight, you can make it your own, but you would say something to God right now to him, Lord, I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I know my sins. God, I am ashamed to discover that you know them too. I want to thank you for going to the cross, as your Bible said, and you died for me. And I want to thank you for being resurrected from the dead and leaving an empty tomb there in Jerusalem. Just as the prophets foretold, yes, I believe what your word says tonight, God. Will you please wash away my old life and give me a new life right now? Will you put your Holy Spirit in my life, in me? And will you walk, Lord, with me now as I walk with you?

57:41 Will you buy me tonight out of the slave market of my lust or my sexual disorder or my violence or my pursuit of wealth? I'm all messed up. I'm inside out. I'm upside down, God. I'm giving you my life tonight. and you would say that to him in the name of Jesus and we would all say this tonight Lord bless we pray pour out your Holy Spirit upon these precious saints this night God I pray that you would spoil them with your favor with your goodness Lord that you would overwhelm them with revelations of yourself when they pick up the Bible Lord get them hooked get them hooked as they pick up the Bible you speak to them that they can't wait for break time at work or to get home, to get back at it, to receive another beam of light out of your word.

58:38 Just cause them, Lord, to be completely consumed with this love of yours. We pray it in Jesus' name, and all God's people said,