Thank you, Lord, that this is a day
that you've made.
We rejoice and we're glad in it.
We want to lift up the name of
Jesus in this house and I just pray
that you would be exalted.
Flesh wouldn't be exalted here.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Reflecting on his kindness and his goodness toward
us, those things are not possible without
the shed blood of Jesus, without the sacrifice.
There's no blessing without the forgiveness of sins.
So Jesus gave his life for us so
that he could ransom us, pay the ransom
for us.
Does someone want to check on that?
Yeah, let the redeemed of the Lord say
so.
We got nothing to be proud about.
We've got everything to be thankful about.
I was thinking about the process and the
prophecies and all the scripture that led to
the fulfillment of Jesus' death on the cross
and how that came about.
It must have been hard as a young
man when he began to hear the voice
of his father and began to realize the
purpose in which he came that he was
going to give his life as a ransom
for many and to allow himself to be
obedient in all things even to the point
of death on the cross.
I wanted to read a little bit, a
little unconventional, but how this began, how this,
the end events sort of took place.
And I was looking in
Matthew chapter 26 in verse 6.
It says, and Jesus was in Bethany.
He was at the house of Simon the
leper and all of a sudden this certain
woman came in having an alabaster flask, a
very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it
on Jesus' head as he sat at the
table.
But when his disciples saw this thing, they
became angry saying, why this waste?
For this fragrant oil might have been sold
for much and given to the poor.
But when Jesus was aware of it, he
said to them, why do you trouble this
woman?
For she has done a good work for
me.
For you have the poor with you always,
but me you do not have always.
For in pouring out this fragrant oil on
my body, she did it for my burial.
Surely I say to you, wherever this gospel
is preached in the whole world, what this
woman has done will also be told as
a memorial to her.
It's very important for us to understand how
the Holy Spirit is speaking.
We can get into arguments about different things,
especially to do with money, how we should
use money or whether we're wasting money or
what wisdom looks like.
And you can see that as this woman
is pouring out this very expensive perfume, it's
looking like waste to most of the brothers.
But to Jesus, it was preparing him for
burial.
It was a sacrifice.
We don't know what was going on in
the heart of this woman.
You know, perhaps this woman had used this
perfume for some say for prostitution or some
other means like that to lure men.
And now she was pouring this instrument out
and surrendering it completely, her life to the
Lord Jesus.
And it was anointing him for burial.
We know that he paid the penalty for
all of our sin.
And it became like a sacrifice, a fragrance.
The whole room was filled with an aroma.
And this passage says all the brothers were
angry.
But I looked a little closer at it,
and I saw that in John chapter 12,
it gives a more clear picture of what
was happening here.
John in chapter 12, starting verse one, then
six days before the Passover, Jesus came to
Bethany where Lazarus was, who had been dead,
whom he had raised from the dead, and
they made him supper.
And Martha served, but Lazarus was one of
those who sat at the table with Jesus.
Then Mary took a pound of very costly
oil.
You see, it was Mary here of Spikenard
and anointed the feet of Jesus.
Obviously, it went from his head all the
way to his feet and began wiping his
feet with her hair.
And the house was filled with the fragrance
of the oil.
Verse four, but one of the disciples, Judas
Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray him said,
why was this fragrant oils not sold for
300 Neri and given to the poor?
This he said, not because he cared for
the poor, but because he was a thief
and had the money box.
And he used to take what was put
in it.
And Jesus said, leave her alone.
She has kept this for the day of
my burial, for the poor you have with
you always, but me, you do not have
with you always.
Now we get another picture of what was
really going on here.
In this passage in Matthew, it seems as
though the brothers were very concerned about the
poor.
Why such waste?
But then what we see is there was
one insurrectionist among the brothers that stirred them
all up and began to talk about this
waste.
But then when Jesus knows the heart, he
sees the heart of Judas and he sees
this guy has been stealing from this box
for a very long time.
And he's angry only because the money was
not sold and put in that box because
he wanted the money.
And this thing triggered him.
This thing triggered Judas and set him in
motion to betray Jesus.
And we as brothers and sisters, we have
to be careful that circumstances that happen in
the day to day life don't trigger us
to take a direction which will alter the
course of your future.
We can be triggered.
We can get angry about something and have
a because of something that's in us that
is unclean.
Judas was a thief.
There was uncleanness there and he'd been doing
it for a while.
And now there is a trigger that happens
that sets the course of his future.
And he's angry and he stirs up the
brothers to be angry.
And he's saying, you know, you should have
give the money to the poor.
And Jesus is saying, listen, the poor are
with you always.
He's not saying we shouldn't be generous and
help the poor and the widows.
But what he's saying is we need you
need to examine the motive and intent of
your heart because John 12 says you don't
care about the poor, you care about yourself.
So we need to be careful because the
Lord tests the hearts.
Blessed are those who are pure in heart
for they shall see God.
We want to make sure that our heart
is pure and our thoughts are clean because
the Lord searches the motives and the intents
of our heart.
You can justify anything.
We don't want to self-justify ourselves because
we get ourselves into a bad way.
Now we see what happens here.
Verse 14 of Matthew 26, then one of
the 12 called Judas Iscariot.
He went to the chief priests and he
said, what are you willing to give me
if I deliver Jesus to you?
This is right after this.
What are you willing to give me if
I deliver this Jesus to you?
And they counted out for him 30 pieces
of silver.
And from that time, he sought an opportunity
to betray Jesus.
You see what the love of money can
do?
The love of money can make you wise
in your own eyes.
But in your heart, you could be a
greedy thief and not even know it.
And then you come to a place where
even Jesus himself, you get bitter and angry
with him because he's doing things that are
not wise.
Because you self-justified your stealing and your
lying and your deceitfulness.
You believed your own lies and now all
of a sudden in your anger, you sin.
You go and you say, listen, I'm going
to kill two birds with one stone here.
I'm going to get what I can out
of this deal.
And I'm going to humble Jesus because Jesus
humbled me here in front of my brothers.
And you know what?
We have to be okay with being humbled
by Jesus.
Because there's sometimes if we don't humble ourselves,
we're going to get humbled.
And in this case, it had to do
with money and it had to do with
pride.
Judas got humbled in front of the brothers.
So he went and he made a plan
and he set the plan in motion and
he later would regret the plan.
We have to be careful because sometimes we
take decisions that will affect the course of
the future for others and for ourselves.
And it's not just so easy to find
forgiveness for some of these things.
Judas never found forgiveness for this thing.
He found condemnation is what he found.
So we go from there and Jesus begins
to prepare the Passover and they're going to
eat the Passover.
And then we look in verse 26, he
says, Jesus took the bread and he blessed
the bread and he broke the bread and
he gave it to his disciples.
And he said, take this and eat this.
This is my body.
His body was broken for us.
So this is where they're preparing the Passover.
The initial Passover was established in Egypt before
they came out, the plagues had come.
And then the last plague was to put
a death blow on the firstborn.
And he sent an angel of death and
he instituted Passover and he told them, instructed
the people of God and everybody, even the
strangers, whoever would associate with the people of
God, even see Gentiles included in this year.
There were other peoples that joined them.
And when they came together and they participated
in those things that God had commanded, it
became a law unto them as well.
And God became their people.
And so it was that as they were
eating the Passover, he gave specific instructions that
the blood was to be put on the
doorposts and on the lintel of the homes
so that when the angel of death would
come, he would pass by whenever he saw
the blood.
I'm telling you, it is important for us.
It doesn't matter what men teach about the
blood of Christ.
It's not like semen.
It's not like saliva.
It's the shed blood of Christ and the
death of the cross.
Together we have the communion.
And when the angel comes, if he does
not see the blood, there is no passing
over.
Death will come to that house.
And in the New Testament, as brother shared,
he has a revelation from Hebrews 9 that
we are God's house and we are God's
building.
And when God comes and he enters into
heaven itself now, because he said heaven is
my throne and also the earth is my
footstool, so we become part of heaven.
Even on this earth, you say, sounds like
a heresy, but he says you are seated
with him in heavenly places.
I am you and you and me.
So heaven is his throne and the earth
is his footstool.
Where is the house you built for me?
Where is the place of my rest?
And brother Sean shared, on this one will
I look.
On the one who is humble, who is
contrite and trembles at my word.
That's the one where the blood is applied.
That's the one.
When we're humble and we're obedient to what
God says, the blood is applied.
We're whiter than snow.
That's the justification.
So it's not only enough that his body
was broken, but it had to be that
perfect, spotless lamb of God.
In the shedding of blood of bulls and
goats as a reminder year by year.
But the blood on the doorpost and on
the lintels, that is what is the key
for death to pass over.
If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation.
He says in Ephesians 2, you were dead
in trespasses and sins, but he made us
alive together with Christ.
And this is where the communion is instituted,
where he also goes on from here.
And he says, then he took the cup
and he gave thanks and he gave it
to them saying, drink from it, all of
you.
For this is the blood of the new
covenant, or this is the blood of the
covenant, which was shed for many for the
forgiveness of sins.
But I say to you, I will not
drink the fruit of this vine now until
the day when I drink it anew with
you in my father's kingdom.
And then they sang a hymn and they
headed out to the Mount of Olives where
he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, where
he would endure the last trial, the last
temptation, the last test to seek to save
his life.
Communion is instituted with the bread, which is
his body, which was broken and with the
wine, which is the blood of the covenant.
You can't have one without the other.
You can't just take one without the other.
They both signify the death, burial, resurrection, and
Jesus now entering into heaven itself and not
without blood, it says in Hebrews 9.
And he offered for us by one sacrifice
forever, those who are being sanctified.
That's the finished work of the cross right
there in the offering of blood and making
atonement on the mercy seat for us.
And we know that when Christ is in
us, it's just as if we've never sinned.
That's how God is able to see us.
That's how he's reconciled us to himself through
the blood of his cross.
Yet Judas, Judas took another decision.
Judas went after the money.
Judas made a compromise.
He was angry.
He was bitter.
His greed got the best of him and
he seemed as though he was going to
get justice.
You know, there's a scripture that says, be
angry and don't sin.
Don't let the sun go down when you're
angry.
You know, it can happen.
Children can get angry with parents.
But you better be careful that you don't
hang on to your anger.
It will turn to bitterness and unforgiveness.
You'll find yourself praying the Lord's Prayer till
you're blue in the face.
Forgive me of my sins.
But if you don't apply the last part,
which says, as we forgive everyone who sinned
against us.
And you'll find yourself with unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment,
and you'll be a miserable person.
And you will feel the guilt of your
sin.
Because when the blood is applied and we're
whiter than He doesn't cover over sins like
in the Old Testament.
He takes it away.
And it's a tangible feeling of being lighter,
feeling liberated, being able to breathe like someone
was sitting on your chest.
You just take deep breaths and you feel,
thank you, Lord.
He's taken away the guilt of my sin.
Not just the guilt of my sin, having
cleansed my conscience from dead works, because that's
what the blood does.
It cleanses our conscience.
So it's just like we never committed those
sins.
We know of them, we can think about
them, but we don't feel the guilt.
There's no more shame.
Because He who knew no sin became sin
for us.
That we might become the righteousness of God.
I can hear him even now saying, what
will you give me if I give him
to you, if I betray him?
What will you give me?
Brother, be careful.
Man's life does not consist in the abundance
of things he possesses.
I'll tell you that for sure.
We can't serve God in money.
You're going to love one, hate the other.
And if you compromise in the area of
money, it's just a matter of time.
You'll find yourself like Jesus.
You'll find yourself like Judas, betraying Jesus for
money.
You can think that you're wise and you
know lots of scripture.
But you know, I'll tell you something, Solomon
was wise and he knew lots of scripture.
A lot of it's written because he spoke
it.
It was recorded but didn't do him much
good when it comes down to bowing the
knee to other gods and idols.
Worthless idols.
Idols of gold and silver and bronze, making
shrines and temples unto them for his wives.
It's important just to obey rather than sacrifice.
God doesn't delight in burnt offering and sacrifice.
He desires obedience.
Simple childlike faith, just obey it, even though
you don't understand, even doesn't make sense.
Why should I obey?
Because mommy and daddy said that's why.
And one day you'll get a revelation that
God said and that's why.
It's important for us not just to analyze
these scriptures, to talk them away, but to
to do the word of God.
Blessed are those who do the works of
God.
Verse 31, Jesus began to speak to them
and he said, all of you will be
made to stumble because of me this night.
It is written, I will strike the shepherd
and the sheep will be scattered.
There is a fulfillment of what was written
that was going to happen.
But after I've been raised, I will go
before you to Galilee.
And Peter said, even if all are made
to stumble because of you, I will never
be made to stumble.
You can have the best intention.
You can have all kinds of zeal.
But I'll tell you that all will be
made to stumble.
If you're not walking in covenant with the
Lord, and if you're not walking in faith
with him, and if the blood is not
on the on the sacrifice in your life,
then we're going to find ourselves in a
bad way.
Doesn't matter how much zeal, how much passion,
how much commitment, how much loyalty you have.
We stand by grace, my friends.
And if we get proud and we think
that we stand by some other means, you'll
find yourself licking the pavement in Hastings.
I've seen it 100 times.
It doesn't take much.
God is opposed to a proud heart, but
he gives grace to the humble.
It's not how we come from a good
home.
And you know, that will never happen to
me.
You'll be amazed what happens to good folks
when they become proud.
God is able to humble them and bring
them to their faces.
So it happened that Peter said, I will
never deny you.
And Jesus said in 34, surely I say
to you before the rooster crows, you will
deny me not once Peter, but three times
you'll deny me.
And Peter said, even if I have to
die with you, I will never deny you.
Well, let me say this, let God be
true in every man a liar, because you
don't know what we're but for the grace
of God.
That's why we shouldn't become wise in our
own eyes, we should choose the fear of
the Lord.
So it came to pass as Jesus was
going to get 70, he took three brothers
with him, Peter, James, and john.
And he said, sit here a while, and
I'm going to go pray over there.
And when Jesus went over there, his soul
was exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.
And he said, Please stay here and watch
with me.
And he went a little farther, and he
fell on his face.
Jesus fell on his face, and he prayed,
Oh, Father, if possible, if it's possible, let
this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as
I will, but as you will.
When he came back to his disciples, he
found them there sleeping.
And he said to them, he woke them
up.
And he said to them, Could you not
watch with me for one hour.
Brothers, it's important that we are watchful in
our prayers.
Because the enemy is not just like a
roaring lion with no teeth.
He is a roaring lion.
And he has teeth and I've seen many
brothers devoured by him.
The enemy has devoured and taken down many
brothers who've been doing well spiritually.
I've seen them go back to addiction, back
to alcohol, back to drugs, back to sexual
sins and all that.
The enemy is out there to destroy us.
But God is able to keep us from
falling.
If we continue to look to him to
watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation,
lest we deny him.
So it happened that he told them these
things.
And he said, Listen, watch and pray, lest
you enter into temptation, verse 41.
For the spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak.
Our flesh is weak.
We can be doing really well in the
morning, have a devotion, spend two hours in
the Word.
In the afternoon, you get on your phone
and you get tempted with sexual stuff.
It can happen that fast.
We have to be vigilant and watchful in
our prayers.
We can't take a day off.
We can't take an afternoon off.
We can't allow our eyes to just wander,
right?
Because the eyes are like an open grave.
The scripture says they never have enough.
And so we need to have an eye
single for the Lord.
I always set the Lord before my face.
That's what the writer said.
Job says, I made a covenant with my
eyes.
I would not look at a young woman
in my lust, in my desire.
We have to be careful.
We can also have a lust for things.
We can get a lust for money.
We can get a lust to make a
name for ourselves.
We want people to respect us.
We want honor from men.
We didn't get it in our lifetime.
It doesn't matter what it is.
We can have a lust for whatever it
is, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, or the lust for the
boastful pride of life.
We want to be esteemed, whether it be
as a preacher or a man of God
or in some profession.
Our motives, we don't even know them half
the time.
And we spend and are being spent for
things in the flesh that do not profit.
It's better to put our heart and our
soul into seeking the Lord and being watchful
in our prayers, lest we get led astray.
And he came and he found them asleep
again, for their eyes were heavy.
And he left them and he prayed the
same.
And then he came another time and he
said, the son of man is being betrayed
into the hands of sinners.
Verse 45, rise, let's be going.
And while he was still speaking, Judas, one
of the 12, he came with a great
multitude.
Boy, he made friends in a hurry, didn't
he?
Came with a great multitude with swords and
clubs.
And in they came from the chief priests
and from the elders of the people.
Now his betrayer had given them a sign
saying, whomever I kiss, he is the one,
seize him.
And immediately went up to Jesus and said
to him, greetings, rabbi.
And he kissed him.
Before this happened, when they were eating and
drinking the cup, all the disciples, they asked
one another, Jesus said, one of you is
going to betray me.
And he said, well, all of them came
and said, Lord, is it me?
Lord, is it me?
Because I think something in them realized that
there was a capability in them to betray
the Lord.
You know, they wanted to believe the best.
They said, we'll never deny you.
You know, obviously we'll never betray you, which
is one worse.
But yet they all asked him, is it
me, Lord?
Is it me, Lord?
And he said, the one who dips his
hand in the dish.
And Judas asked him, is it me?
And he said, you said it.
But even having told him, you said it,
it didn't change his mind.
He'd already made a decision.
His course was already set.
And here he comes.
Greetings, rabbi.
And he gives Jesus a big kiss on
the cheek, a brotherly kiss, greeting him with
a brotherly kiss.
I think of a scripture, and I have
it written down here in my Bible.
It says from Matthew 15 verse 8, it
says, these people honor me with their lips.
They honor me with their mouth, but their
hearts are far from me, and their worship
towards me is in vain.
We can come and we can say, I
love you, Lord.
And I lift up my voice to worship
you.
But God looks at the heart.
Is it with a kiss?
You honor me this morning?
You give me lip service?
While your heart is greedy for money?
Well, you'll do whatever it takes to get
more?
We wonder why the spirit of God doesn't
move in our life, in our homes.
It's because things have been hit off kilter.
The house is being built and it's crooked.
We have to be careful that we build
in such a way that the house stands
steadfast.
We talk about having a heritage, right?
Leaving a legacy.
We can leave a legacy with money and
with business and, you know, with being successful
and all that and having integrity among the
people.
But how does Jesus see us?
You know, Judas was seemingly leaving himself a
legacy there, talking about the poor and all
that, and even convinced all the brothers to
defend his cause.
Yeah, what about the poor?
How come we're not giving to the poor?
But our hearts can be greedy.
Our hearts can be evil.
We can miss Christ while we're giving him
lip service, sitting in church, singing their songs,
making long prayers.
Talked about two men who went to pray
and one man said, thank you, Lord, making
fastings three days a week, making some good
prayers.
You know, thank you, Lord, I'm not like
these sinners that go to Joshua House and
all that, saying these kinds of things.
And meanwhile, the man was there.
He didn't even have enough confidence to look
up, beat his chest and said, Lord, have
mercy on me, a sinner.
He said, which one went home justified?
God looks at the heart.
It's not that the one man committed a
thousand more sins than the other.
He said one man was repentant and the
other man was self-righteous.
If we become self-righteous, then we're going
to leave our prayer times and our gatherings
just exactly the same.
But if we can humble ourselves before God,
as Brother Dan shared, when that onion gets
smaller, first the skins come off easy in
the beginning, and then it gets tougher to
get them off.
They get thinner and they get hard.
Our hearts can be like that.
We need to allow the Lord to get
at the deep things of the heart, to
search us and to try us and to
see about these unclean ways in us that
he might take us deeper with him.
The scripture says deep calls unto deep at
the noise of thy water spout.
He has deep dealings with his people.
All your billows have passed over me.
You wonder what's going on.
Lord, why are you allowing all this hell
to break loose on us?
Why are all these billows going over me?
Because I want you to go deeper, because
there's these hard layers of self-righteousness and
pride, and I need to chisel them off
so that your heart would become soft, that
you would have compassion.
Sometimes we hear him say these words, go
learn what this means.
I desire mercy.
Go learn what this means.
I desire compassion.
Sometimes we write a check and we put
it in the box.
Well, that's good.
But God would rather us fill the altar
with tears and go home and make changes
in our life.
That's more important to him.
It's not the poor he's concerned about.
It's the poor in spirit.
It's the contrite in heart.
That's what pleases God.
That's the sacrifice of God, not a check
to pay for the poor.
Yes, it's good to help the poor, but
what's more important is to be poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I thought of another scripture when I was
reading this passage.
Greetings, rabbi, and he sends a kiss.
Proverbs 27.6 says, faithful are the wounds
of a friend, but the kisses of an
enemy are deceitful.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but
the kisses of an enemy, they're deceitful.
Here's Judas bringing deceitful kisses, one intention to
fulfill his promise, because he got money for
doing a job for the devil.
Better to have a friend strike you and
be a kindness, tell you something about, hey
man, be careful, beware of covetousness.
You know, life doesn't consist in the abundance
of things a man possesses.
Recently, you know, all of a sudden the
siblings are all talking, and you know, there's
an inheritance to be divided coming up in
the near future, and boy, everybody's got their
knife out, we're ready to carve the turkey
and see who's going to get the nice
portions.
And I thought of a scripture, and Jesus
had a man come to him and said,
tell my brother to imbibe the inheritance with
me.
And I was thoroughly convicted when I thought
of the scripture.
The Holy Spirit brought it to me, brought
it to remembrance.
He says he's going to bring things to
remembrance, and the Holy Spirit's going to teach
us.
I made some calls.
I said, what do you think?
How should I handle this?
I called some real respected brothers, some real
respected ones.
And somehow in my spirit, I felt as
though it wasn't the word from the Holy
Spirit, and then the Holy Spirit gave me
some good counsel, said beware of covetousness.
Write the inheritance off in your heart, buddy.
Life does not consist in the abundance of
things a man possesses.
Tell my brother to imbibe the inheritance with
me.
I deserve it.
If we set our heart on an inheritance,
you're going to die a miserable man.
You'll be one of the most miserable men,
because money does not make you happy.
The more you have, the more you try
to figure out how you're going to keep
it, how you're going to invest it, and
what you're going to do with it, and
you're worried about people ripping you off and
stealing it.
The man who does not have, but he's
rich toward God, that one has righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Spirit.
We're going to wrap it up here.
One brother grabbed his sword, cut an ear
off, because Jesus told him to take a
sword, and Jesus, not in this passage, but
another took the ear, and he said, those
who live by the sword die by the
sword, and he healed a man.
He said, if we were, if my kingdom
was of this world, my servants would fight,
but we're not supposed to be fighting for
our rights, fighting for our dignity, fighting for
our reputations, and fighting for our money.
If you want to fight, the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in
God.
Fight in prayer.
Watch and pray.
Fight for your children's salvation.
Fight for your family's salvation, that the devil
wouldn't destroy them.
Stand in the gap.
Be one of those wailing women.
It said, who will call for the wailing
women, who will weep, and wail, and mourn,
and sigh, and lament over the abominations done
in the house of God, to intercede, to
be an intercessor?
Fight for that.
They took Jesus.
They led him away.
They spit in his face.
They beat him.
Others struck him.
They said, prophesy to us, if you're the
Christ, which one struck you?
Peter sat outside, and there was a girl
there, said, you're one of them, and he
denied.
A little while later, there was another girl
there.
She said, I'm sure your speech gives you
away.
You were one of them.
He called down curses.
He lied, and called curses, and denied the
Lord.
They all ran away, but Peter, he made
the absolute fool of himself.
Exactly as the scripture said, three times, he
denied the Lord, called down curses.
I don't know the man.
And immediately, the rooster crowed, and he remembered
what Jesus had said.
Brothers, sisters, we stand by grace.
We don't stand because we're smart guys, or
we know lots of scripture.
We've got it all figured out.
We stand because God says we stand.
And if we remain humble, and little in
our own eyes, then God is able to
keep us from falling.
And may we never become proud, and look
down on others.
Because they fell, because they denied the Lord.
And may we never betray the Lord, especially
with a kiss.
Peter remembered the word, and he had said,
and the rooster crowed, and he went out,
and he wept bitterly, and he repented.
And Jesus told him, he said, you're going
to deny me, but he said, after you
return, strengthen your brothers.
We don't want to deny the Lord by
our actions.
It says in Titus in chapter 1, verse
15 and 16, it says, to the pure,
all things are pure.
But to those who are defiled and unbelieving,
nothing is pure.
Even their minds, even their consciences become defiled.
They profess to know God.
They honor him with their lips.
But by their actions, they deny him.
Being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified.
Disqualified, that word is 7 to 8, ad
hocimos, a reprobate.
We don't want to be reprobates.
We want to be sons of God, daughters
of God.
May the Lord help us not to deny
him, but to confess and renounce our sin,
to keep short accounts with the Lord.
Don't let the sun go down when you're
angry.
Make things right with your husband, with your
wife.
Make things right with your brothers and your
sisters.
Forgive your enemies.
Love those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Bless and don't curse.
Ask the Lord for the grace to overcome.
Ask the Lord to keep you from the
love of money, to keep you from being
boastful and proud, for seeking to make a
reputation for yourself.
Sometimes it's not about money, it's about reputation.
Wanting to seek honor from one another.
Seeking honor from men.
The last thing I wanted to share is
a scripture that the Lord showed me from
Luke 9.
Luke 9, 23.
Then he said to them all, if anyone
desires to come after me, being Jesus, let
him deny self.
The opposite of denying self is denying Christ.
If you're going to love self, you're going
to deny Christ.
You'll deny him by your actions.
But if you want to come after Jesus,
you're going to have to deny self.
Just as Jesus denied self when he went
to the cross, you also are going to
have to pick up your cross and follow
him.
It says, take up his cross daily and
follow me.
For whoever desires to save his life in
this world will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake
will save it.
And what profit is it to a man
if he gained the whole world and he
himself is destroyed or lost?
Make sure the choices that you make every
day, they're life and death choices, some of
them.
That we take them to prayer before we
go and marry some divorced woman and think
that we're going to get God to bless
us.
Or we go and we commit sexual sin
and think there's an easy fix and easy
forgiveness and greasy grace.
Or we decide we're just going to use
and hope for the best and come back
and return as always before.
This isn't guaranteed every single time.
And judgment delayed is not judgment denied.
For everything that the man does, we have
to give an account of it in the
day of judgment and even every idle word
that we speak.
Verse 26, I want to leave you with
this.
It says, whoever is ashamed of me and
my words.
You know, some of us, we're ashamed, Josh,
to come up here and testify what God
has done in my life.
We're ashamed.
We're worried about what people are going to
think.
Maybe we have a little lisp or something.
We cannot be ashamed of the Lord.
If we're ashamed of him, he's going to
be ashamed of us.
It's not about how your speech is so
awesome or when you pray, you know, what
do people think if the prayer is not
very good?
We want, we're praying to the Lord.
It doesn't matter what anybody thinks.
And if you're worried about what people think,
there were people who believed in Jesus, but
when they were in the synagogue, they wouldn't
confess him because they were afraid they were
going to get put out of the synagogue.
If you become ashamed of the Lord Jesus
himself at your workplace, you're one of those
secret Santas.
You know, you're one of those secret service
Christians.
We did this thing called secret Santa.
What a demonic thing, Santa.
Secret service Christians.
You're a Christian, just nobody knows.
Wow, you must be one of the wisest
Christians there ever was.
I'll tell you, you will get a surprise
on that day because the scripture says, whoever
is ashamed of me and my words, of
him the son of man will be ashamed
when he comes in his glory and in
his father's glory with the angels.
We need to be careful that we're not
ashamed of the Lord.
I'm not saying everybody has to rush up
here and say something, but I'm saying that
we do not want to be ashamed of
Jesus.
And if anyone asks you of the hope
of why you're different, they're going to know
you're different because you're not going to be
putting them down.
You're not going to be mocking them.
You're not going to be making light of
them.
Why are they doing the things they're doing?
Because they are not regenerate.
You're born again.
You're a new creation.
Of course, if you see a bug flying
in the darkness and a cockroach crawling in
a dark corner, of course, this is what
they do.
They hide because they're of the darkness.
We're of the light.
Let your light shine before men.
So when people say, oh, you're a Christian.
Yes, I'm a Christian.
Oh, you're one of them and they have
a big laugh.
You know what?
It shouldn't even bother us one bit because
Christ bled and died for us.
We want to be associated with Jesus.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, Paul says
in Romans in chapter 1 verse 16, for
it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone who believes.
Don't be ashamed of Jesus or he'll be
ashamed of us.
May the Lord give you grace to walk
boldly, to stand with confidence.
Ask for the Holy Spirit.
There are people who were fearful when the
persecution was breaking out.
Peter was fearful.
He denied the Lord, you know, and the
church was fearful.
And then they prayed for the Holy Spirit
to give them boldness.
And it says the whole place shook and
they all began to proclaim the word of
God boldly.
And then the persecution goes up and all
those firebrands were spread out and lit fires
all across Europe there, wherever they were in
Asia or wherever in the Mediterranean.
And the gospel went out everywhere because they
all spoke the word of God boldly.
May the word of God go forth from
you boldly in whatever way, whether it be
by your actions, whether it be giving an
answer of the hope that you have.
You know, may the Lord give you the
grace to confess him before men because he
will confess us to his Father in Jesus
name.