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Amen luke chapter number four the bible reads in verse number one and jesus being full of the holy ghost returned from jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness being 40 days tempted of the devil And in those days he did eat nothing and when they were ended he afterward hungered and the devil said unto him If thou be the son of god Command this stone that it be made bread and jesus answering him saying it is written that man Should not live by bread alone, but by every word of god now this chapter starts out with the temptation of jesus christ I'm, not going to spend a whole lot of time on this part of the chapter simply because Less than a month ago or about a month ago I preached a whole sermon called the temptation of jesus christ, and I stole my own thunder and I preached about Matthew chapter 4 and luke chapter 4 and I already taught all this So i'm just going to make just a few quick comments on this and blow through this to get to the rest of the chapter But just a few things that I want to point out here is that the thing that the devil Keeps questioning over and over again is the fact that jesus is the son of god You know if you're in matthew chapter 4 he's saying the same thing Well, if thou be the son of god Command that these stones be made bread if thou be the son of god cast thyself down for it is written if thou be the Son of god, so the devil puts a question mark where god puts a period jesus is the son of god He questions that and all the way back to the garden of eden That's the way the devil operates just trying to get you to question things He doesn't always take a direct approach of just coming to you and say hey jesus is not the son of god He's not going to say that to you Because that's too obvious the bible says of the devil that his main attribute is that he is subtle That's what it said in genesis chapter 3 and when he came to them in the garden of eden, he says Yea hath god said You know, i'm not saying that he didn't say it But is that what he said and then when he tells them? The opposite of what god said because god said and the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil You shall surely die and this is what he says to them You shall not surely die Now he could have just said to them you shall not die That would be more direct right? You're not gonna die. He just said well, you're not gonna for sure die Think about that. You should not surely die So the devil is always subtle and when the devil comes at you with another gospel The bible says it's not another It's a perversion of the god of of the gospel of christ. It's not a completely different separate Gospel that he dreamed up that has no similarity No, he takes what god has done and he tweaks it a little bit. He changes it a little bit He perverts it a little bit and that's what you see here. It's a questioning If you are he doesn't just come up to him and say you're not the son of god He said well if you are then you should be able to do this and you should be able to do this And he's trying to provoke him to do things that would be wrong for him to do And this is how he's going to operate with us. He's going to try to come in the side door He's going to try to come in the back door and when he tries to creep into our church It's going to be subtle it's going to be nuanced it's not going to be just an in your face Heresy, it'll be something that sounds good on the outside or it sounds okay, or it sounds like it's not a big deal And he'll try to smuggle that in And that's how he's always operated and how he he continues to operate and so we need to be very careful That we live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god Amen And I find it disturbing somehow i'm just going to be frank with you right now I find it disturbing sometimes how little people read their bible Even in our church and even in other churches like ours and you say well How do you know how much people read their bible? Oh just talk to them a little bit And when you talk to people you can get a feel for what they know about the bible and what they don't know And of course i'd never be rude to anybody and I don't point it out while i'm talking to them like whoa You don't know the bible Have you even read it one time? I mean, obviously i'm polite and I don't I wouldn't say anything like that But in my mind sometimes when i'm talking to people You know, and i'm not angry. I'm just thinking to myself wow People don't know the bible or people don't read the bible as much as they should and I make a mental note preach on reading the bible And even people that have been saved for a long time even in a great church like this other great churches I get to talking to people and I start to notice that they're not really reading a lot of bible Because they're not familiar with a lot of the stories They're not familiar with a lot of the concepts that come up over and over again and even guys who want to be a pastor Often there's something to be desired when it comes to their bible reading. This is a shame We need to live by the word of god. Job said i've esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food We need to live by and look when it says man should not live by bread alone But by every word that preceded out of the mouth of god, it doesn't mean just live by as in You know, I live by these rules or I follow the bible when it says live by it's saying, you know, you're ingesting it as a nutrition source To keep you strong and alive and growing and thriving. That's what he's saying because he's comparing it to living by bread Where bread is something that you eat every day to stay alive to get the calories To get the strength that you need the bible is saying that we need to have a steady influx of the word of god Coming into us and it's not enough to just read a whole bunch and then you don't read it for weeks That'd be like just eating a whole bunch of food And then you're just like well i've already eaten so much food i'm done for the whole rest of the year Because i've already read through my whole bible. So i'm going to take three months off but try that with eating You know, you have to eat every day. In fact Most people are going to eat more than once a day, you know, it might not be a bad idea To pull out the bible again partway the day through the day and do a little reading or you know Pull it out a little bit before bed read it again You know and and and and just keep keep the word coming in and here's the biggest advice I could give you on reading your bible is have a plan Plan If you fail to plan you plan to fail, all right If you don't have a plan, you're not going to read the bible very much if you're just like well I just kind of read it wherever I just open it and wherever it falls I read That's not a good plan to read the bible You need to make sure you read the whole bible cover to cover And some people like to just start at the beginning and keep it simple and just read from genesis to revelation You know, i've read the bible scores of times i've never done that. That's just not my style. I skip around You know, I I read this book Then I read that book because I find that if I read the book that I want to read I end up reading more But I check them off so that I make sure i'm not just reading the same books over and over again And I make sure i'm getting through the whole bible Whole bible whole bible. So whatever your system is get some kind of a checklist Some kind of a system of bookmarks some kind of an app or whatever you use but get a plan get motivated Get a system to where you're making sure you do some real serious bible otherwise in our busy society It's easy for a few days to go by and you think oh, I haven't read my bible in a couple days But if you actually looked at a calendar, it might have been a week or a month Because I know that's how it is sometimes With other things where where you know, let's say for exercise, you know Let's say i'm trying to do a lot of running and I feel like man I haven't run in a couple days and then I look at a calendar It's been like two weeks since I went running or something like that. Well, it's the same thing with your bible reading You know if it's not a daily habit If you don't have a system if you're not marking up I mean look just buy a calendar stick it on the wall And if you read your bible that day put a big x on it And make sure that every day has an x on I mean even that is a start To making sure you read the bible and i'm telling you there are people in the church That read a ton of bible at faithful word baptist church and there are other people who are not reading a lot of bible We need to make sure that all of us are in our bibles that all of us know the bible Because otherwise we're going to be carried about with every wind of doctrine Otherwise, we're going to be constantly falling into temptation How are we going to face the devil's temptation without the word of god? That's what jesus christ himself used to combat temptation the word of god The bible says thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee The devil here is trying to tempt jesus in various ways He's going to try to tempt us in various ways. We need to live by the word of god and be prepared for it But the devil he wants to attack this idea of jesus being the son of god This is always the thing that the devil wants to attack That's why whenever it talks about the antichrist or the spirit of antichrist In first john and second john It's always talking about denying that jesus is the son of god or denying the father and the son denying that doctrine For some reason the devil hates that doctrine That jesus is the son of god And that's what we need to focus on and make sure we not this oneness junk this modalism garbage That basically, you know, it sounds like it affirms that but at its core It actually ends up denying that jesus is the son of god By teaching. Well, he's actually the father just in another format. No, he's actually the son of god. Amen I care what the devil says about it But anyway, i've already talked a lot about this in a recent sermon So we're going to jump down to verse number 13 where it says and when the devil had ended all the temptation He departed from him For a season and I like how it says for a season there because it goes to show that even if you have a total victory Over the devil you have a total victory over temptation the the battle's not over It's only over for a season. There's going to be another battle And there's going to be more temptation going forward. I you know, we were just talking about this today out soul winning I don't believe in this so-called deliverance doctrine That you'll hear taught a lot where you just get a final victory over the sin in your life and you're never even tempted again You know jesus here had a pretty decisive victory. I mean it's jesus It's a hundred percent victory. It's a flawless victory and what happens? Oh, he'll be back To fight again another day Well, guess what? It's the same thing In our lives, so don't let these deliverance types tell you. Oh, you know You just got to claim the victory and get deliverance and then you'll never crave alcohol again You'll never crave cigarettes again. You'll never crave gambling again. Listen, I you know, i'm not Promoting alcoholics anonymous obviously is not a bible-based program But I will say this they're right about one thing once an alcoholic always an alcoholic That is the truth and they're right about that. I don't care what these deliverance pentecostals say if you have ever been a drunk If you've ever been an alcoholic you have that tendency for the rest of your life And you let better let him to think if he stand to take heed lest he fall and you should never touch alcohol ever again And don't go anywhere near it Don't go anywhere near it. You don't you need to stay further away from it than the guy who's never done it Because you've already shown that you have that proclivity to become a drunkard. You need to stay far away from it And you know, there are people and and look I don't condone of alcohol at all I believe that the bible condemns any alcohol consumption So I don't believe it's okay to drink one beer. I don't believe it's okay to drink one glass of wine I'm a complete teetotaler. I believe in complete abstinence from alcohol, but let me say this there are people in this world who do Drink in moderation and they just drink that one beer or they just drink occasionally and they drink in moderation and they drink socially and they only drink a little bit and they keep it under control and it Never destroys their lives. There are people out there like that not gonna lie to you and say that they don't exist It's not right, but they're out there Okay, but listen to me People who have already been an alcoholic. They've already been a drunk. They can never be that guy That's what aa is telling them when they say once an alcoholic always an alcoholic you've already shown That you're gonna go over that cliff You're gonna go over that line and you will go over it again and again and again and again And you know what the vast majority of people? Go too far when they drink alcohol now again biblically any of it's too far But i'm i'm talking about even what society would consider too far And so if you have ever been a drunk and let me say this if anybody At our church gets thrown out of the church for being a drunk because the bible tells us That if anyone's found to be a drunkard or a fornicator that they're to be cast out of the church They come back a teetotaler they don't come back as a social drinker They come back a teetotaler Or they don't come back at all Because once an alcoholic always not and look if you've had a gambling addiction in the past you shouldn't even Watch wheel of fortune or even play jeopardy. You probably shouldn't even play monopoly And i'm not saying it's wrong to play monopoly But you know if you had a gambling addiction you probably you shouldn't even be gambling for rupees on the legend of zelda You shouldn't be doing any gambling and you shouldn't be doing any kind of game shows or gaming or anything That could get you back into that because you know you have that tendency We need to understand that even when we win the battle against temptation Is only for a season the devil's gonna be back The temptation for drinking is gonna be back the temptation for uh, uh smoking drugs, uh pornography Gambling whatever it is The battle will come back and you better be ready to keep fighting that battle And keep taking in the word of god, you know You want to just this deliverance doctrine sounds cute because it sounds convenient that you could just kind of just Win a battle and then you're just kind of on easy street spiritually for the rest of your life But that's not the way life works It's a battle all the way to the bitter end And you just need to just realize that and get ready to die daily for the rest of your life Die to deny self and take up the cross daily and follow him The bible says in verse 14 and jesus returned in the power of the spirit into galley And there went out a fame of him throughout all the region round about So jesus is filled with the spirit And he's led to the spirit to be tempted to the devil. He he overcomes temptation. He wins the battle He comes back in the power of the spirit Okay, and if we want to have the power of the holy spirit in our lives, we need to overcome temptation We need to walk with god if we're constantly giving in to sin and the flesh and the devil, you know We're not going to be filled with the spirit at that point if we're drunk with wine We're in his excess. We're not going to be filled with the spirit the bible teaches Ephesians 5 18 so he says he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all so jesus christ Is going throughout galley now galley is not judaea Galilee is a different province So in the old testament you have these two kingdoms the northern kingdom of israel and the southern kingdom of juda Well in the new testament the romans have taken over And the romans have divided up the land into these little provinces sort of like we live in the united states of america And we've got different states California arizona new mexico and we can travel really easily between the two and it's all the same nation But it's broken into these different states or provinces or districts. So under the roman empire it's broken into judaea Which is what used to be juda But it's less territory than what juda had so you've got judaea And then you've got decapolis is another region. You've got samaria You've got galley and these different regions. And so jesus is preaching throughout galley Which is not really the hub of the jews down in judaea is further north In an area where people were actually more receptive to the gospel Being a little further out from that main hub of the temple and judaea So he's being glorified of all so he goes to this town. He preaches in the synagogue The preaching is powerful people are glorifying. Jesus. They're glorifying god It's he's a he's a success. He's being successful. He's in the power of the holy spirit. He's Getting people say he's a success as a preacher, right? But then it says in verse 16 he came to nazareth so nazareth is a city in galley so all around galley He's been doing great But then he gets to nazareth Which is where he had been brought up And as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for to read And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet azaias And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written the spirit of the lord is upon me Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor now, I love that phrase right there the spirit of the lord Is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, you know If we're going to be filled with the spirit, what's the point? What's the purpose of having the power of god the power of the holy spirit being filled with the spirit? The purpose is to preach the gospel to the poor, you know the charismatic Maniac movement the charismatic movement or the pentecostal movement has a counterfeit or a fake fullness of the holy spirit Where they they roll around on the floor, they speak ecstatically they get excited. They laugh hysterically They get all wild and emotional and they're crying laughing jumping shouting rolling in the aisles and the pentecostal the charismatics To them the goal is to get filled with the spirit so they can go to some meeting and flip out But it's so easy to see that it's a counterfeit because the one thing it does not lead to them doing Is actually preaching the gospel to the poor First of all, they don't even believe the gospel themselves because they have a workspace gospel every single time They're never teaching a gospel of salvation by faith alone that you it's once saved always saved. They never believe that It's always a gospel of Live a good life. Keep the commandments follow christ in order to be saved. It's a works-based salvation Not a grace-based or a faith-based Salvation and so they have the wrong gospel. How could that be of the holy spirit if it's the wrong gospel, you know I'm out soul winning today. I knock on somebody's door and you know, I asked her What do you think a person has to go to heaven due to go to heaven? She says be good You know goes to a charismatic church well be good. Oh, okay. Well nuts to jesus then we don't need him Just be good. Amen What do we need jesus for? What do we need his death? What do we need his barrel? What do we need his resurrection that doesn't even enter these people's mind when you ask them how to be safe It's just oh follow the commandments live a good life be good. The only thing jesus serves for them is just an example Of how they can be good and get into heaven on their own through their works The bible says I do not frustrate the grace of god for if righteousness come by the law Then christ is dead in vain his death doesn't even matter His death isn't even necessary if you think you're saved by the law by your works by your deeds It's by grace through faith. They've got the wrong gospel and then when they get filled with the holy spirit quote unquote It does not lead them to go out and and be a soul winner It doesn't lead them to go up and down the street knocking on doors house to house daily in the temple and in every house preaching the gospel It leads to a lot of ecstatic utterances, but it does not lead to actual soul winning yet If we go to a baptist church and we see people legitimately Truly filled with the holy spirit of god. What do we see? We see them going out and preaching the gospel to the poor and we see them being effective and getting people saved That's what we see That's the evidence of the fullness of the holy spirit It says in act chapter 4 and when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together And they were all filled with the holy ghost and they spake the word of god with boldness That's the real fullness of the holy spirit the whole purpose Of the fullness of the holy spirit is to equip you or enable you to do a job In this case to preach the gospel to the poor In the old testament when the spirit of lord came upon them. It was always to preach a sermon That needed to be preached It was always to win people to the lord or it was to fight some kind of a physical battle But it had a function it had a purpose It's to equip it's not the end in itself. It's a means to an end The end is to do the works Of getting people saved by preaching the gospel to the poor the means to that end is getting filled with the holy spirit The spirit of the lord is upon me Why because he's anointed me anointed me means he had anointed him with the holy spirit To preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted To preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised To preach the acceptable year of the lord and listen to me Jesus christ wants us to do the same thing To go out and preach the gospel to the poor and you know what if you look at that map back there All the doors that we've knocked, you know, which doors are all pretty much shaded orange anywhere near our church all the poor areas We do all the poor areas first. In fact the poor areas that are close to our church We've done seven to eight times town of guadalupe. We've knocked every door seven times south phoenix We've knocked every door at least seven times now as we get further out and we get into areas that are Less receptive where we get into scottsdale Paradise valley gilbert, you know nicer areas awatuki. We knocked those doors one time And we knocked them after we've already done everything else Why because we want to go to the poor first, you know, we're out soul winning And we're doing different indian tribes all over the state We're focusing first and foremost. We want to get them all done But we're focusing first on the poorest tribes And i'm telling you some of these tribes that we go to the people are very poor and and they're not just poor But many of them are broken-hearted. I mean, I you know every single time I go I don't know about you garrett But whenever I go to that white mountain apache have you had people just breaking down crying how many times have you had people break Down crying you think a lot right almost that almost every time I go there Somebody yeah people are breaking down crying when you talk, you know, they're broken-hearted Broken-hearted Why because of the stinking casinos and the liquor? And the gambling and the government programs and the government subsidies that has screwed up their life and screwed up their culture And and and and made it look good to them like hey, we're gonna help you We're gonna give you all this stuff as they destroy them with alcohol gambling And free money the worst thing you can do to somebody's give them free money, right? Because then you make them dependent you make them weak you make them a slave And so we see those that are bruised in these areas We see them that are captives and these people are blind and they're broken-hearted And we need to preach the gospel to the poor That's our number one mission field when jesus gave a parable That had to do with soul winning and it's it's where we get the term going out into the highways and hedges In that parable he tells them go out and first gather the poor The blind the maim the whole he's saying get the people that are crippled people that are disabled People that are that are sick people that are poor You know and then after they went and talked to all those people he comes back and says lord It is done as thou has commanded and yet there's room And then he just says go out in the highways and hedges and tell everybody invite everybody so it's biblical to first preach the gospel to the poor Then to everybody else we start with the most receptive we start with the poor the bruised the broken-hearted Deliverance is another word for salvation liberty from Sin liberty from their wicked lifestyle that's put them in bondage Liberty also from the punishment of sin eternally in hell if they don't believe on the lord jesus christ as their savior He says to preach the acceptable year of the lord he closed the book And he gave it again to the minister and sat down And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him now. Why is everybody so mesmerized? Why are they all fastened on him? Why are they all looking at him? Well? It's not because he stood up and read isaiah because he'd already done that many times and that was his custom Throughout his whole life. He'd grown up there. He'd done that And they're they're pretty much used to that The reason that they're fastened on him is because back they've heard the fame. I mean, he's already hit all the towns In nazareth and and and his fame is going abroad and then he gets there and then he reads this passage That sounds like he could be applying it to himself and they want to say, you know, is is he Just reading isaiah to us or is he saying that that's him? So they all look at him their eyes are fast on him and then he began to say unto them in verse 21 This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears? So he tells them hey, this is about me That's a pretty strong statement right there. That's a bold statement to make And all bear him witness and wondered wondered means they marveled they were amazed At the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. So let me ask you this were they impressed by the preaching They were impressed. They were blown away. They marveled at it and they had a positive Reaction to it in the sense that they couldn't really deny this was some good preaching This was powerful preaching. They wondered at the gracious words that came out of his mouth So they couldn't really deny that what he was preaching was powerful That it was gracious that it was wonderful that it was amazing But what do they say though? What's their reaction to it? Does that mean they all get right with god? That means they all confess him as their savior No, actually they say well is not this joseph's son They're just trying to find a reason Not to believe in him not to listen to what he's saying They're trying to find something that they could throw at him and he said unto them He will surely say unto me this proverb position heal thyself Whatsoever we've heard done in kapernaum do also here in thy country And he said verily I say to you no prophet is accepted in his own country and that that's a pretty interesting statement No prophet Is accepted in his own country and he also said a prophet is not without honor Save in his own country and in his own house But I tell you of a truth in verse 25 many widows were in israel in the days of elias. That's elijah When the heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine was throughout all the land But unto none of them was eliah sent save unto syrupta a city of zidon unto a woman that was a widow And many lepers were in israel in the day in the time of elisius. Elisius is elijah Elisius the prophet and none of them was cleansed saving nayaman the syrian and all they In the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath. So on the surface what jesus starts out to say That a prophet Is not accepted in his own country He's starting out to say Well In nazareth, this is where i've been brought up That's why you're not receiving this preaching from me, even though in other places they did receive it. Okay, so he starts out with that But then he takes it a step further because he uses these old testament examples That don't just go outside of his hometown, but they actually go outside of the nation of israel itself They go outside of jewry itself because he starts to say well god specifically singled out These people that were from places like zidon and syria to receive special blessings from god To receive men of god that would come and preach to them and minister to them and heal them and help them And this has to do with something that's a theme in all the gospels And especially well It's a theme in all the gospels. I mean, especially matthew luke and john But it's it's really a theme That jesus christ is looking beyond just the jews and that he's going to take it to the gentiles You know and remember we saw this in luke chapter one and luke chapter two Where it kept coming up he's going to be a light to light in the gentiles It's going to be for all men. It's going to be for the whole world I mean, why do you think those three wise men came from the east? God's already showing that the most receptive people the people that are coming and working the hardest to get there are non-jews Because he's there to be the savior of the whole world And so in this passage, he's already and look this is early in his ministry This is chapter four. He got tempted by satan right after his baptism Then he starts preaching throughout galley He works his way to nazareth very early in his ministry and he's already talking about what you know, what? A prophet's not accepted in his own country Syria zidon they flip out because he's already talking about what? How he's going to be believed on by the whole world. He's going to be reaching out to the whole world Not just to the jews. They wanted a messiah just for them Their own political messiah or their own personal messiah just for their country When jesus christ came to die for the sins of the whole world He's only just starting in jerusalem. He's just starting in judea, but the gospel is supposed to go to the uttermost part of the earth Okay, and so that's what we see here and you know, you'll find the same thing in matthew Pretty early on in his ministry He's saying hey many will come from east and west and sit down with abraham isaac and jacob in the kingdom of heaven But the children of the kingdom meaning the kingdom of israel will be cast out into outer darkness There shall be weeping and ashing of teeth how ironic That those of us that are here this morning or this evening red yellow black and white Right, we're not jewish. We're not israelites. We're not hebrews. We're of all different nationalities whether it be indians koreans black white african whatever and we're gonna be Sitting down with abraham isaac and jacob our spiritual ancestors I mean who's excited to see abraham? I am I want to meet him And then all these jews who are just oh, we love abraham, you know Oh isaac. Oh god of jacob. Oh, you know and they're at the wailing wall. Oh abraham isaac and jacob They're never gonna see abraham isaac and jacob except just to beg him for a drink of water, right? from the fires of hell They'll be begging father abraham for a drink of water. That's that's their big meeting with abraham I'd rather meet abraham on better terms than that And so we see that this is a constant theme in the new testament you have to be blind not to see it but sadly When you've been taught your whole life how the jews are god's chosen people and and israel this and israel that You know, it's hard sometimes to see this stuff even though it's just on it's on every page Of the new testament's on every page and yet when we preach the truth about this from every page Of the new testament. Oh you guys believe in replacement theology. You better know we do Replacement theology. Amen Christ rejecting israel has been replaced by spiritual israel made up of all believers red yellow black and white Old testament has been replaced by the new covenant the new testament The jews have been replaced by christians there I said it Oh, yeah replacement of course, what else is there? But to just ignore something that's on every page of the of the new testament The bible says here that they didn't like it and and this is about how this is about how fundamental baptists react When you start telling them About how you want to get people saved in syria? even today I mean even today you try to get syrian saved you try to get the muslims saved They still react the same way even in baptist churches they'll say but they hate israel They hate israel Oh, okay. Well, let's just let them all go to hell then You know, there's something wrong with you if you don't want to see muslims get saved I want to go to heaven and and a bunch of arabs be there I want a bunch of syrians there. I want to see a bunch of iranians and iraqis I want to see As many arabs as as many middle easterners as possible Amen. Oh, but sean hannity's shut up and read the bible His fame went throughout all syria It's a blessing Yeah, but that's our enemy you know what that might be your enemy it's not my enemy You know why because I have no dog in this fight because you know what my kingdom is not of this world Because it's christ kingdom is the kingdom that i'm a part of And jesus christ is the captain of my salvation and you know what I pledge allegiance to jesus And only an enemy of jesus christ is my enemy I don't want to get involved in political fights or in wars or in these entangling alliances or these battles in the middle east You know what? It's just a game It's just a charade except the difference is that people die Right and we need to stay out of it and we need to fight a spiritual battle We need to not wrestle with flesh and blood We need to wrestle with principalities and powers and with the rulers of the darkness of this world And with spiritual wickedness in high places and by the way, there's spiritual wickedness in high places in our own country It's not only other countries. That's not just the middle east folks. That's washington dc And we got a whole movie about it back on the shelf grab some dvds on your way out babel on usa So the point is that you know, we Need to understand that jesus christ had a heart to reach everybody. He started with Israel because obviously it made sense because that's the old testament covenant people Those are the people that should first hear the the gospel and so it went first to the jew and also to the greek but here's the thing he always Was planning on getting into the whole world and every time he starts preaching that People get angry they choke on that and people still get angry today Because they're still messed up in the same way. These people were messed up but the bible says that when they heard these things look at verse 28 all they in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath Now, why would they get filled with wrath if he says you know what there were a lot of lepers a bunch of Israelite lepers in the days of alicius the prophet, but you know what? He didn't heal any of them, but he did heal asyrian And you know what elijah could have stayed at any widow's house God could have picked plenty of israelite widows, but he had him stay with a zydonian widow Now what they should have reacted to that is just like huh? That's interesting That's an interesting bible story It is it's an interesting point I wonder why god did that teach us jesus Because I mean it's kind of a hard point to refute Yeah Why did god do that? Because he's trying to show you that he loves the world Not just one nation. Yeah Because he's not a respecter of persons, right? But they know instead of even though they knew the preaching was powerful they knew that these were gracious words proceeding out of his mouth They just get mad Emotion kicks in instead of using their brain to think about the fact that what he's saying is biblical I mean he got it. He got it right He got the story right about elijah and elijah. It's all biblical. It's all right there in the bible But instead they just get mad they rose up and thrust him out of the city And led him onto the brow of the hill where on their city was built That they might cast him down headlong. I mean they drag him up there to throw him off a cliff For being replacement theology So That's basically what's happening there They take him up to the brow of the cliff They're going to throw him on the cliff and then it says but he passing through the midst of them went his way Now what what what just happened there? They take him up there. They're going to throw him off a cliff He just passes right through the midst of them and goes on his way So I don't know if this is a miracle or if this is just something to happen Here's how I think it could have been a miracle i'm just you know throwing out some options here It could have been that they get up there They're they're an excited crowd and god just kind of confounded them confused They got a little confused and they where is he, you know? because there's all the ruckus and he just kind of walks through and just kind of Slips out and maybe you know because because sometimes god would put people under a delusion or blindness like for example when they show up to arrest elijah elijah and and you know He's surrounded right and then god blinds the whole Army And he tells him oh no, this isn't the guy you're looking for Let me take you to to elijah and then and then basically he takes them into the headquarters of their enemy's capital city and delivers them over to the king of israel And they they didn't realize what they were doing. They just kind of like, okay. Yeah, they're just going along and then they get there How did we get here? You know, so it could have been something like that Some kind of a thing where god allowed him to miraculously Slip through that's why I think probably happened. He was able to just slip through miraculously or another option could be that he just You know that they just decided not to go through with it or you know And the bible could be just kind of leaving out some detail of the fact, you know How he got away, but you know because it's just not important how he got away It's just that he got away he escaped. Okay, but however, he did it he got out of there He escaped why because his hour was not yet come and there are multiple times when Jesus could have been killed or arrested and many times when people wanted to do that But it wasn't time yet. He had not completed the works that he was supposed to do And it's the same way with us as god's people, you know, if god has more works for us to do he can protect us And he'll keep us alive as long as we need to be until it's our time to go and when it's our time to go It's our time to go But he'll he can preserve us even in these type of situations So don't don't just hold back on your preaching because you say well, I don't want to be in that position Well, I mean I wouldn't mind getting dragged up to the cliff as long as I can pass through the midst And get out of there, right? I mean if you knew you're gonna pass through the midst you don't mind getting dragged to the cliff, right? I mean, I mean nobody wants to get thrown off the cliff Now here's the thing as Christians we should be willing to even be thrown off the cliff But here's my point though most of the time you don't even end up getting thrown off the cliff Most of the time you end up passing through the midst Because God is constantly delivering people in the Bible who think that it's over They think they're doomed think about you know Shadrach Meshach and Abednego or Daniel in the lion's den Or just all different examples where people look like they're doomed and then they're not God can do the same thing for us So a lot of the things that we're so scared of or oh man if I preach this I'm gonna end up having this happen Or oh if I go soul wedding this will happen Or if I say this my family's gonna do this A lot of those cliffs you don't even end up getting pushed off that cliff But you just constantly live in fear of going off that cliff When in reality God's plan is that you pass through the midst Now if you end up going off that cliff so be it Be willing to go off the cliff Be willing to go into the fiery furnace Be willing to be consumed of the lions But a lot of times people are just literally afraid of their own shadow They're afraid of a phantom that's not even there And it paralyzes them and preachers today are not preaching the whole counsel of God Because of fear They don't want this to happen when they preach But you know what if I preach the sermon and this happened I would love for this to happen Because we're supposed to rejoice when we get persecuted Because it means great is our reward You know so you know if I'm getting arrested for preaching If I'm getting deported or banned from countries I like it I'm trying to collect them all You know so far I've been banned from three countries I'm trying to collect them all You know I'm collecting country bands like other people collect beanie babies Because it's all just rewards in heaven You know ban me again Ban me from another one let's do it You know nobody wants to go to prison Nobody wants to be killed for the cause of Christ Myself included I don't want to do those things But you know what if that's what happens So be it But I'd rather pass through the mist Until my time comes But you know what that's up to the Lord And at the end of the day there's nothing I can do about it But just trust him And just walk in his will And let the chips fall where they may And that's what the Bible is showing us here So he passed right through the mist He went his way He came down to Capernaum verse 31 A city of Galilee And taught them on the Sabbath days And they were astonished at his doctrine For his word was given to them And in the synagogue there was a man Which had a spirit of an unclean devil And by the way If you go to synagogue in Tempe I'll bet you most people there have an unclean devil But it says Which had a spirit of an unclean devil And cried out with a loud voice saying Let us alone What have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth Art thou come to destroy us I know thee who thou art The Holy One of God And Jesus rebuked him saying Let us alone What have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth And Jesus rebuked him saying Hold thy peace and come out of him And when the devil had thrown him in the midst He came out of him and hurt him not And they were all amazed and spake among themselves saying What a word is this For with authority and power He commanded the unclean spirits And they come out And the fame of them went out Into every place of the country round about And when the Bible says country Or it doesn't mean like a nation state It means the whole region And we know this because in Matthew it says His fame went throughout all Syria Decapolis, beyond Jordan It talks about how even the adjacent nations Heard the fame of Jesus Christ Even in the early stages of his ministry And he rose out of the synagogue And entered into Simon's house This is Peter And Simon's wife's mother Was taken with a great fever And they besought him for her And he stood over her and rebuked the fever And it left her And immediately she arose and ministered unto them And he said Well how can Jesus rebuke a fever Because the fever is caused by germs This is something that we know now And germs are living things Right, they're a living organism The bacterias and germs and stuff like that So it makes sense If Jesus can even command the winds and the waves Which are inanimate objects Right, I mean you know the water is not alive Unless you count what's living in the water Same thing with the air He rebukes the winds and the waves He can rebuke demons He can rebuke animals You know, he has authority over all flesh Over all things And so he rebukes the fever The fever goes out of her Obviously, you know, that's talking about That which causes the fever Right, the germs or whatever He stood over her and rebuked the fever And it left her And immediately she arose and ministered unto them Now when the sun was setting All they that had any sick with divers diseases Brought them unto him And he laid his hands on every one of them And healed them And devils also came out of many Crying out and saying Thou art Christ the Son of God And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak For they knew that he was Christ And again, he doesn't want to reveal too much Early in his ministry He doesn't go around saying early on That he's Christ, that he's the Messiah That he's the Son of God So he's rebuking them He wants to preach things And teach things in his timing In his plan He's rolling things out And he doesn't want people to know that too early So he rebukes them And doesn't allow them to speak Because they're I mean, they know him They know who he is They know that he's the Son of God And when it was day He departed and went into a desert place And the people sought him And came unto him And stayed him That he should not depart from them Now, these people They want him to stay They want to hear more preaching They like the fact that he's healed their sicknesses They don't want him to leave But he says unto them In verse 43 I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also For therefore am I sent And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee Now, this is something that we see throughout the four gospels And throughout the book of Acts Is the idea that we need to get the gospel to everybody We need to get the gospel to all the different cities and towns And even every village Every creature Every creature That's God's plan That's the way Christ and his apostles did it They did all the cities of different regions And they'd move from one region to another And they had a plan And they covered everything They split up They got it all done And then in the book of Acts You see them moving You don't see Paul just go into one place And just stand in that one place And just not You know, you see him He's going from place to place to place And then there are other people that become the pastors That stay in that one place And continue to lead that person But even the pastors are told to do the work of an evangelist Meaning that they're not to just teach the existing church members But they're to go out and evangelize more people Go out and win new people to Christ Go to the other areas And win people to lord the villages, the towns, the cities New streets You constantly need to be knocking on new doors You constantly need to be going and finding new people to give the gospel to Whether you're a pastor Whether you're any kind of a Christian This is what God teaches Now, the big thing that a soul winning church like ours will get constantly criticized for Is because we're not doing follow up Right? And this is a big thing that's constantly thrown in our face Hey, you guys aren't doing effective follow up You're not discipling people You're preaching the gospel to people But you're not discipling them You're not following up You're not discipling them You're not following up You're not teaching them to observe all things that Christ commanded This is a foolish accusation Because of the fact that we go out and we win people to Christ Who live many times within a certain distance of our church Where it would be pretty easy for them to get here You know, they could either drive They could take a bus They could come on foot And if they wanted to get here, they could And often we even offer people rides And we're willing to pick people up And find a way to help people get here If they're not willing to get their carcass down here Then that's their problem That they're not getting followed up or discipled I'm not gonna sit here And you can criticize me all you want I refuse to do it I'm never gonna do it I'm not gonna go babysit these people And coddle them And hold their hand And hold a personal church service in their house for them When I'm here preaching three times a week They can come here and learn everything that they need to learn Why do I need to go and just So that they can just lay on the couch and not move And I just go and Why would I go Right now I'm talking to hundreds of people Why would I just go talk to that one person Again and again and again Who's not even willing to take the step to come to church Now, if we had an infinite amount of time Then maybe you could make the case that Yeah, you should be doing that and whatever But hold on a second If I only have a limited amount of time And there's another guy down the street Who's gonna go to hell if he doesn't hear the gospel It makes more sense for me to go down the street to that other guy Who hasn't even had his door knocked at all And give him the gospel so he can be saved Than to just keep going back No, you're still not coming to church You're still not coming to church So, what is it gonna take to get you to church And by the way, it's awkward If I invite somebody to church I give them everything that Here's the address Here's the location Here's the service time Here's where it's at Love to see you down there This is my name This is my so many partner's name Come find us You already have a friend You know, he'll sit with you You know, whatever And then they don't come It's like, then we come back and it's like So, you didn't come So, you wanna come? Well, they didn't come I'm not gonna go around And look, I'm not gonna go around apologizing To a bunch of repent of your sins Lordship salvationists Who just wanna pick apart soul winning And find something wrong with them I didn't do enough follow up Yeah, I didn't do any follow up I hate follow up I'm never doing it again So, there Put that in your pipe and smoke it I need to go to other cities also That's why I'm sent forth Jesus is being begged to follow up And he says, nope Going to the next city Next city I love Philip's follow up with the Ethiopian eunuch Wins him to the Lord, baptizes him And then he's literally warped away by the Holy Spirit No follow up Oh, but what church is he gonna go to? Do you get him set up in an Ethiopian church? This stuff isn't biblical It's just man's attempt to justify not going soul winning And to pick apart the people who are doing the work Now, let me say this We started the church in my house eleven and a half years ago At the first service, there was my family of five And four visitors So, nine people The next Sunday we'd grown to eight, okay? From nine to eight A year later, we were up to seven But here's the thing Here we are Eleven and a half years later With three hundred and some people that come to this church Somebody must be getting discipled Right? If you start a church with my family and a couple visitors And then eleven and a half years later You got three hundred and some people coming every Sunday Then that tells me somebody got discipled somewhere along the way Somebody must have got baptized Somebody must have been taught to observe all things that Christ commanded Meanwhile, some guy in a church that was running forty and is still running forty That you can count on one hand how many people they had saved last year It's like, yeah, but did you follow up? Did you follow up though? No, I didn't I don't want to, I'm not going to Why? Because, you know what? People need to get their butts down to the local church on their own And I'm not going to go take it to them And you say, oh well, you know, it's too hard, it's too far Bologna Jesus expected people to come to him He went up on the Sermon on the Mount And they came to him He got out on a boat by the seaside And they came to him And throughout the book of Acts Throughout the gospels They came to him And you know what? The people who didn't come to him Guess what? They just weren't there That's why in Acts chapter 1 There's only 120 people in attendance Even though they'd had thousands saved They had 120 in attendance So this thing of, oh, follow up, follow up, follow up Look, and I'm not against you doing follow up You can do all the follow up you want I'm not going to do it And you can't make me do it Why? Because I'm going to go to other cities also I'm going to go to other villages also I'm going to go to other towns also I just want to keep knocking fresh doors And once we've knocked every door I'm going to follow up And you know how I'm going to follow up? By knocking every door again I mean, did we follow up in Guadalupe When we knocked every door seven times? That's follow up, brother We even followed up on the people Who wanted nothing to do with it We followed up everybody By knocking every door a second time And so we need to just not listen to the critics And the naysayers And we don't have to like go out And prove some point to the naysayers By showing them, okay, look everybody This is me following up You know, nuts to you If you don't like soul winning Then go jump in a lake And go to the non-soul winning church This is soul winning church And it will continue to be a soul winning church And you know what? We're going to go to every village And every town in Hamlet and Arizona We've already knocked every door in tons of small towns And we're going to continue to increase that Until we, God willing, if God allows us to We're going to knock every Indian reservation Every small town Even small towns that are four and a half hours away We're going to knock them Oh, but how are you going to follow up with them? We're not! And by the way, there's this cool thing called the internet Where they can actually listen to the preaching anyway And guess what? There's a, did you know there's a Baptist church In every city in this whole state? Show me a city in this state that doesn't have a Baptist church They all have a Baptist church Oh, but it's lame Right, and that's my fault It's my fault that they have a lame Baptist church Why didn't you get them saved And cause their church not to be lame? I'm human There's only so much that we can do here And you know what? I'd rather get somebody saved And they never get in church And they never get saved And they never get in church And they never get followed up And they never grow in the Lord And they go to heaven Than for them to go to hell I'd rather be the janitor in heaven I'd rather be the bottom guy in heaven I'd rather be the least in the kingdom of heaven Than to be in the coolest spot in hell I'd rather be at the Cause there's a huge difference Between heaven and hell, friend You'd rather be in the worst part of heaven Than in the best part If there is a best part Which I'm sure there's not But you know That's a pretty big difference, friend And so don't listen to this junk Just, you know We just need to get out there And win people to Christ And you know what? If people don't want to get in church And grow and everything That's their loss They're the ones who are gonna continue To live a worthless existence of sin You know And they need to get down here And you know People act like Oh it's so far to go to church And you don't understand And look There are even people who listen To my sermons every week Who go to church Even in the United States Where there's Baptist churches everywhere And here's what they say Oh well you don't understand You know My closest Baptist church Is an hour away Or two hours away Well stop and Let me just teach you something An hour away in a car Right? Two hours away in a car That's pretty far, right? That could be like 60 miles, 120 miles, 130 miles That's pretty far Okay but stop and think about this What about before cars were invented? How far is an hour away with no car? Three miles Because it takes 20 minutes to walk one mile Okay So basically in the olden days If you lived three miles from church You have an hour each way to get to church And if you live six miles from church You have two hours each way to go to church And guess what people did They walked an hour to church You think they all just lived right next to the church Everybody just lived right there No A lot of people are walking an hour to get to church They're walking two hours to get to church And what's easier Sitting on your rear in an air conditioned vehicle Or walking to church For an hour Or two hours But they got it done And even the people who lived close to church Even the people who lived one mile from church Still had 40 minutes of walking to get there Right? 20 there, 20 back Even the people who lived three quarter of a mile away They could see it from their house Still had to walk 15 minutes there But be like You know You're in Tempe I'm all the way to Mesa I'm all the way to Peoria Wow Oh man You drove all the way from Peoria I'm so impressed That's what people have done for the last thousands of years It took them an hour to get there And they went on their own steam They weren't riding riding chariots and horses They were on foot Throughout history That's what mankind has done And so you think it's just so amazing of you To drive 40 minutes or an hour But you know what That's what everybody's been doing for thousands of years When these people went to hear Jesus When they went to the synagogue They walked to get there And they got there because it was important to them And they made it a priority to get there And so I'm not going to sit there And take it to everybody People need to come to church They need to come here Or go to another church That's a Bible believing church But we can't just follow up with them And follow up And follow up No They need to get down here and do something on their own They're saved And by the way At least when we win people to Christ At least we do leave them with materials We try to leave them with a Bible Or a New Testament Or a Bible Or a New Testament Or CDs Or DVDs Or something Or at least the internet is there for them to find materials So that they can get to church So let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer