They Have Become Speechless (Romans 15:1-6)

[Music] Hey you guys, we have a message today and we're calling it this. Basically this. They have become speechless. That's the world. The world's got nothing to say to you and I, the believer. They have no words. They're they're always talking. They're always saying something, but they're actually speechless.

So, let's dive into the word and find out what it is that God is saying to you and I. God bless you guys. Romans chapter 15. You want to grab your Bible or you can read the scriptures with us together. Romans 15, brand new section of scripture. And uh we're in verses 1 to 6. I'll read verse one. And um I have to tell you guys, last week second and third service, they were louder than you. I know it's hard to believe, but they beat you fair and square. But um you'll pick it up on the even numbered verses if you would. And again, this is Paul, by the way. You're going to you're going to detect this, everyone. Uh in in this little section of scripture, you're going to detect what is known as the benediction. Paul in chapter 15 starts to say goodbye uh to the believers uh in Rome. He's writing them, but don't worry. Uh Paul's goodbyes last a very long time.

We then who are strong ought to bear the scruples or the weaknesses of the weak and not to please ourselves. >> Let each of us please his neighbor for his good leading to edification. >> That's very very loud. That's beautiful. For even Christ did not please himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. >> Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be likeminded toward one another according to Christ Jesus >> that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. >> And all God's people said, >> "Amen." And wow, you may be seated. God bless you guys. That's great.

So yes, now so Paul begins his long elongated farewell. It will take uh the mid portion. We read that one verse a moment ago. I think you picked up on it. Uh where he starts to say goodbye. He's starting to give the farewell address. And uh he's been writing from Corenth and he's been writing to the believers in Rome. Notice though, if I might bring you back uh to Romans chapter 1, uh when it says uh that he's writing to uh those that are in Rome, he's not writing to the church at Rome. Like he says, for example, I'm writing to the church in Colasse or the church in Galatia or the church uh in Ephes at Ephesus. Regarding Rome, he says, I'm writing to the believers in Rome. This went out to many many groups of believers that were throughout the area of what we would say uh is the midsection, the southern section of the Roman Empire. Of course, the epicenter being Rome itself. But Paul doesn't spend much time on talking about Rome itself. He talks about the believers that are there mentioned in the book of Romans. These were the Italian believers. And even if they some were uh Jews, many of them were slaves uh not Jewish slaves. They were Jews who converted to Christ. And then among the slave world there in the Roman Empire, epicenter of Rome, many of the slaves became believers in the Lord. Of course, that makes sense, right? When you when you're a slave and then you hear about freedom in Christ, you would naturally gravitate uh to that message. Uh but we also know this that from the book of acts that there were those who were serving Caesar in his home in his palace. And we know from the book of acts that many believers who worked in that palace had given their hearts to Christ and they were working in and among Caesar himself. Translation, God's got his people everywhere.

And I love that. Everywhere. I'm convinced of it. Doesn't matter where you go. See, what if I'm thrown into into isolation somewhere? You'll probably bump into another believer somehow. God's got his people everywhere. And so, this world that you and I are looking at and you and I are living in, and even the world that was 2,000 years ago during the authorship of the book of Romans, is a world that is Antichrist. And I'm not saying that to be bombastic. The Bible tells us in first John that there has always been a spirit of antichrist. You could say that there was a spirit of antichrist that even predated the fall in the book of Genesis because the Bible tells us that Lucifer, Satan had fallen at some point in time uh before even creation itself or I should say of what we know of regarding earth. Uh why do we say that? Because the Bible tells us that in creation uh the angels of God sang at the the creation of God. They sing praises to God. Now regarding the timing of Satan's fall, we do not know. It was obviously early on. But that said, he is the personification of the spirit of Antichrist. You say, what is Antichrist? Well, the Bible first of all says that there's a spirit of antichrist. The Bible says there's an antichrist that uh speaks false doctrine and there are many of them that are in the world. And then there's the coming antichrist, the one who is going to come and deceive the world in political intrigue. The book of Daniel tells us that when the antichrist comes onto the world scene, he's going to deceive the world through peace and prosperity. And Satan knows exactly what people want. People want to be left alone and people want to be rich. And so Satan's going to leave them alone. Not really. He's going to drug them with a fake peace seven-year peace treaty he's going to sign. Which, by the way, test your Bible smarts here. Is he going to sign a seven-year peace treaty with uh Canada?

Is he going to sign a seven-year peace treaty, according to the Bible, with the US? No. How about How about Madagascar? No. You say, "Jack, you're being silly." Of course I'm being silly. To stress the point, a lot of people today are saying Israel is irrelevant and it doesn't matter anymore. Those are dumb people. Super dumb. Super dumb people. You want to know why? The Bible says that there's an antichrist coming. and he's going to engineer a contract of peace for seven years and he's going to have that signed up with the nation of Israel and he's going to deceive the world by peace and then by the antichrist tactics of of his economy he's going to cause people to prosper and by doing so he'll deceive much of the world the spirit of antichrist you and I live at a time where that spirit is increasing and you might find it odd by how I'm bringing this portion or this topic out of this section of scripture but I think over the today and maybe next week as well it will come together. My whole point is this that you and I are living in a hostile age. So we better be nice to one another. We better love one another all the more. If if we could actually see God's assessment and God's call upon your life and mine as to how much we should be loving one another, I think it might shock us.

Because things could change in a second whereby your life and my life become incredibly dependent upon your life and my life. Amen. And we have this sense of being individuals in America. And I get it. And independence in America early on was never independence from God. It was independence regarding our personal responsibility to God. But as a nation, we were a nation that proclaimed that our dependence was upon God, which allowed for us to be individually dependent or independent. Amen. As we were dependent upon God, we were able to stand on our own two feet, so to speak. The church today more than ever needs to heed the call to stand upon the truth of God and to speak the word of God and to live out like never before our Christianity. Folks, we don't have much time.

Amen. You say, "Why? What's coming?" I don't know what's coming, but you're getting older by the minute. And how do I know? Because I resemble that remark. We're running out of time. And while we're able, we want to live for Christ. The world can tell you a lot. Boy, the world is very proud of all of the social media stuff that it puts out. The world is just publishing everything. But you know what? The world can only repeat like a one string guitar its own philosophy, its own views. What the world cannot say are the eternal things of God. And you've got them. You've got them in your heart. I trust you've got them in your hand right here. The Bible and uh you've got them in this Bible study today. Number one, we look at it. It's in verses 1 to3. And uh it is this uh what this world cannot say. We see it here. And that is when this world speaks ill of you. Can you write that down? And I want you to write that down and put a little smiley face off to the side of this first point. Uh the world and what it cannot say. It cannot understand your Christian life and it cannot give you uh the the do that that uh this world should give you and I folks we cannot expect the world to pat us on the back because they are of the world and you are not of this world. You are of the kingdom of heaven and you think God thoughts. The world does not think those kind of thoughts. So how does the world respond? And by the way, these points were made up uh Friday and early Saturday before I ever got a phone call regarding the persecution in South Korea. So maybe God is trying to say something to us that the world of unbelief will speak ill of you. They will view you and I as the enemy. They will view you and I because we don't listen, we're not of the rainbow alphabet soup world of confusion. We actually love people and we love them honestly and we love them fully and we want all people to be with us in heaven forever with Christ forgiven of their sins like he has forgiven us and for us to experience that eternal life that Christ purchased. But the world is against that. The world wants people to be blinded and the world wants people to be lost. And that's why you see today the battle for the microphone, so to speak, because whoever has it is going to speak either truth or they're going to speak error. And we are called to speak truth. But just know this, the world is going to speak evil of you. Young people today, can you just get that into your bloodstream, please, right now? If you think that you're going to be uh looking at social media and you make a post about, aren't aren't those lovely butterflies? Someone's going to write on your post, "I hate butterflies. What's wrong with you? Butterflies are evil. Don't you know it's a conspiracy?" And then your feelings are going to get hurt and they're going to want to go commit suicide because somebody that you don't even know criticized you about your post on butterflies. I'm being facicious, but not really. The world has gone mad.

And as the world goes mad, you and I need to be more anchored in truth than ever. And so when the world speaks ill of you and I, we shouldn't be surprised. Number one, we see it here. It displays, by the way, when it does, it displays our values. It says in verse one, when they who are strong, we then who are strong ought to bear the scruples are the weaknesses of the weak and not to please ourselves. This is a a a conclusion of the previous chapter of chapter 14. And he's talking about brothers and sisters bearing one another's weaknesses. That we love one another to put up with the fact that we're we might be different from one another. And we might be in different development areas of our spirituality and none of us are to congregate as the super holy over here, the kind of medium holy here, and those guys don't even know what they're doing over here. And we we divide up. Not at all. The church is supposed to be the opposite of that. I don't know if you realize this or not but and I don't know how it is but many years ago 20 I don't know 20 years ago 25 years ago I spoke quite a few times in uh schools in Germany and I was really impressed with some of their structure regarding education because their whole thing was this there in those days they set a really high standard and and kids uh they were eventually brought up to those standards in other words they didn't have kids in a class and then dumb them down and kept them there. They put the kids in the class. They they set the bar high and the kids eventually, some sooner, quicker than others, made it to the high bar. Are you with me?

And I think of the gospels like that. The word of God is like that. The word of God speaks the truth to all people. And he calls us up. He calls us number one to love one another and to bear up with one another's weaknesses. If we do that, then all criticism and all clicks will begin to go away. Your spiritual welfare will become the most important thing to me and mine to you. And so to speak, we will hold each other's hand as we grow along. But this word bear in the Greek language is this. And it's a beautiful word to bear up. It means to take up, to carry alongside. I love the picture that that paints in my mind. Alongside I see somebody walking along my life carrying the burdens that I'm experiencing in this life. Of course, who is that? Someone is Jesus himself. But when he says when the scripture says that you and I are to bear one another's burdens, we'll read that verse in a moment. We are to take up whatever is burdening you, to carry alongside, to lift up and off from another. This is the Christian life. This is what we live for. To take a burden off another and to have it placed upon you. We would say something like this. How can I help you? How what can I do to alleviate? We just this last week uh heard that a a man at this church, a doctor cycling on his way home uh died, was killed, uh leaving behind his two children here. And uh this church now is mobilizing on what to do and how to do it. There's family involved as you can imagine. But to hear such a thing, you don't you don't say, "Oh, wow, that's unfortunate. Hey, you know what? What's for lunch?" You can't do that. Notice that in your life as a believer, when you hear about something, the response is, "How can I get involved? What can we do to help?" A vitally important truth regarding us as believers. Galatians 6:2 is a good verse to apply here. It says, "Bear," same exact word, "bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Let's carry one another's loads."

It's remarkable. So, I often now since I got this thing, I've been using it as illustrations. Um, but you guys know that I have this this old beat up pickup truck and I I had it here on Thursday and a woman who was here for some services, she said, "That's the truck?" And I said, "Yes." She said, "Well, when you said it was old and beat up, I didn't think it was that old and that beat up." And and Matt and I were looking at her. Matt and I, two guys looking at her, the woman. She's looking at this truck, which is absolutely perfect. And Matt and I are going, and she says, "Oh, why don't you paint it?" What she doesn't know is that it's a four-wheel drive. And when you put it in four-wheel drive low and put it into first gear and you let the clutch out, you could fall asleep. Why? It will just go. It'll drive through fences, over hills, over cars, through buildings, and you'll whatever direction it's pointing, it will get there no matter what's in the way. And it's it's goes about this fast when it's in first gear in two wheel drive and you can't stop it. It's just along and you know what that it it reminds me now when you see me driving around town in that truck. You got to remember this illustration. That's like the Christian life. You can put tons of stuff in the back of that thing and then put it in low gear and it just goes just you can't stop it. You're not going to get there fast. It ain't shiny. It's not cute, but it's beautiful. Why? Because it it is carrying a load that most vehicles cannot carry. And it's going to make it all the way to the end. That's your life and my life. Hey, listen. We may not cute. We may not be cute, but we're beautiful in the eyes of the Lord. Carrying one another's burdens, finding out what is it that you need? What is it in your life? How can we help? It's simpler than what you think. If each of us, Armen, had you turn and greet one another a moment ago, do you realize if before you leave this service today, you you were to say, "Hey, can I get your cell number? If I'm not being too forward, please can I get your cell number? And if you ever have need of anything, let me know. And here's my number. Let's let's exchange numbers and let's be brothers and sisters in Christ. If you need me, call me."

Amen. Imagine what would happen just this service alone because it may it may be just like this. Hey, I'm just calling you. I don't need anything from you. I need everything from you. I need you to pray for me. Think of that. Just pray for me. Somebody might call you. That's bearing one another's burden. And this world knows nothing about that. And it can't. Don't expect the world to do good things for you. You are not of this world.

But those of us who are of the kingdom of heaven, we need to love on each other like we have never loved on each other before because the hour is late. Christ is coming. And we may not always have these freedoms. And we might look, I hope not. I don't ever want to look back and say, "Oh, I wish I would have taken advantage of that opportunity when we had the freedom to or the health. I was healthy enough to do it or I had an extra $10 in my pocket and I didn't do it." Yeah. Are you hearing me? Anybody?

So very important. The Bible tells us regarding what Christ set for us as an example that if we carry one another's burdens, we so fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ is love. And I see love displayed this way. This may surprise you, but this is, in my opinion, God's love on display. It's an ancient prophecy. Isaiah chapter 53. It's nearly 3,000 years old. The prophet said, "Who has believed our report?" That's God speaking through the prophet. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. Speaking of the Messiah, folks, if you're Jewish today, you know this. This is the Messiah. This is one of those forbidden scriptures that the Jews are not allowed to read. Of course not, because if they read it, they'll find out who their Messiah is. And as a root out of the dry ground, he has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. That might come to a shock, but according to the prophet Isaiah, God is speaking that if you saw Jesus walking the shores of Galilee, you couldn't distinguish him from any common individual. Did you know that? Because in our minds, you know, if we're looking at a Rembrandt or some sort of oil painting, Jesus is kind of glowing as he walks along the shores of Galilee. There's a little gold halo over his head. Not so according to the Bible. I appreciate this. I don't know about you, but Jesus wasn't born in some ivory palace. He was born in a stable and he was laid in a manger. Do you know what a manger looked like? Listen, if we ever get a chance to take you to Bethlehem right now, Bethlehem is not a safe place to go, but if we went to Bethlehem like we have in the past, if I showed you a manger, you would be appalled. A manger was a slobber uh crusted stinky trough that you fed cattle and sheep or goats with. They must have lined that and put Jesus right in that manger. If you were God, would you bring your son into the world like that? God did. Why? To associate with us. And if you were God, wouldn't you have Jesus looking perfect? Like I don't know who perfect is these days. What is perfect these days? But who are you know this person the most handsome man in the world? Who says who says this stuff? She's the most beautiful woman in the world. How do you know? But these are magazine covers. Jesus would never make the magazine, folks.

He looked just like you and I. common, but this is God's love on display. Do you view him like this? Verse three goes on in Isaiah 53, he is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Wow. The Messiah came into the world and that's what he felt. That's what he went through. Yep. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has here it is borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Can you say amen? Amen. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. This is the Messiah. He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. Amen. And by his stripes, by his beatings, the lashes upon his back, and his face being hit, we are healed. Why would God do this? Verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, the Messiah, the iniquity of us all.

This is Jesus. The ultimate example is Jesus carrying the sins of the world to the cross. That means you and I can carry one another's cares and concerns and the burdens that you have. How's your light bill? Are you are you able to pay your gas bill? Are you with all that's going on in the world, are you coming a little bit short on your mortgage? This is where the body of Christ comes in. Think of it. I get I I hope this changes in the not tooistant future in California. But if the leadership of this state changes, one of the things that I'd love to see happen is for a governor of this state to say, "We're going to do something different now. We need to save money in the state of California because we've spent money beyond our means. And so we're going to start paving the freeways and the roads with actual so they don't have any holes in them anymore. Could you imagine that? We're actually going to keep your lights on. But I'm calling upon um this is not me. I'm pretending. I want to hear from Sacramento. The governor, the next governor say, I'm calling upon the houses of worship, the people of faith to stand up and start taking care of their neighbors. Do do the Christian thing that you guys preach about. do the Christian thing you guys talk about.

Would that be awesome? Think about it. Now, some people will say, "Well, what does that mean?" Oh, then if you have to pause, get out of the way. But the Christian will say, "That's awesome. Where do we sign up?" Right? Amen. Listen, regarding the homelessness thing, let a governor say the crazy people the state will take care of. People who want to get a break and learn a career and get church, take care of them. Yes, that's what we're supposed to do. It's wrong that America had a welfare system to begin with. It's all because the church stopped doing what she was called to do. And that is bear one another's burdens. Think about it. All those social ills should be something that the church and the love of God through you and I would fix. and people I'm trying I'm doing the best I can ma'am I'm I didn't sleep much last night but maybe that's it but God gives us that example he carries our sins you and I cannot carry the sins of our brother or our sister that's what Christ is for but their needs the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 21 for he that is Christ or God the father I mean made him who is Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us. That means God laid upon him your lust, your anger, your pride, jealousy, you name it. Everything God put it upon him that we might become the righteousness of God in him in Christ. I wrote in my Bible the great exchange. Christ goes to the cross. He dies in my place. He puts his righteousness and demolishes my sin. He picks it up. He carries my sin. He demolishes by it his righteousness. Then he turns around and being resurrected from the dead. He bestows upon us his righteousness and changes the account ledger that your name, my name is in heaven. And underneath it used to have all of this stuff, what is known as the handwriting of ordinances that were against us. Christ washed them away by his blood. You should clap at that. You We should all be very happy about that. Atonement. Atonement. Christ carried our sins and he washed them away.

He did that. And if you understand that, then you get to experience freedom from guilt and shame. Because you're the one that become keenly aware of the fact that there used to be a different you and now there's a new you. And he died for you because he loved you. I uh you know what? Listen, if you have a if you have a husband in this room right here, right now, you got to make them come to buds today because we're going to talk about we're going to talk about men being sacrificial and persevering in their relationships. So, you should say, "Honey, you're you're I just I just texted your golf friends. I just I just told them you're not coming. Johnny cannot come out and play today. He's got to go to school this afternoon." And uh why? Because, you know, I think God would honor a world where men stood up and said, "You know what? I'll I'll carry that load. I'll take that burden." Jesus gave us that model. He gave us that example in Matthew 5:41. I'm I'm giving you these verses for you to write them down. Matthew 5:41, the Bible says, Jesus says, "And whoever compels you to go a mile," we've all heard this. This is the uh uh sermon on the mount uh be the the beautiful Matthew 5 6 and 7. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks you and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. Wow. This is so Christlike. You have heard that it has been said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." That was the proverb until Jesus blew that out of the water. Verse 44, "But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your father in heaven." You say, "Jack, I can't do that." None of us can do that. We have to ask God to give us that kind of love.

Are we willing to bear the burdens of even of those who hate us? Now I understand we are called and commanded to bear the burdens of those in the family. But what about those in our lives who I mean they may not have come up and say I hate you. Or maybe they have. Then it makes it very simple. you know what to do. But if it's somebody it's just like you kind of get the feeling, yeah, I don't think they like me. Figure out a way to bless them. I am not going to tell you some details because it's I don't want to give you the details. It's I'll just say this. Many many years ago, decades ago, there was a person that just would not leave me alone. It was bad. Nuisance. I'm telling you, every turn I'm hearing something about me that I didn't know about me. This person spreading stuff, this person saying things, just this incredibly overwhelming preoccupation with disgust for me. And I thought it was pretty contained and quiet, meaning limited to just and then I began to hear strangers talk about it. And I just here's my first thought. I remember it like it was yesterday. Jesus, this is doing nothing but hurting your reputation, your name, your glory, your word. I don't know what to do. And then I go on and live my day. And then I do what you do. The next morning, I'm reading my Bible and I come across this scripture and it says, "Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who spitefully use you and say all kinds of evil against you for my name's sake. How can I do that, God?" First of all, I'd have to get a phone call through to them somehow. They would never take my call. But what would I do? In our family, there's a tradition. It's been going on for generations. And that is that from my mother in the Hawaiian culture. My family, generations on my mom's side, there is this very, very special meal. I will just say it's, have you ever heard of uh locco? Well, that's junk compared to what this is. It's Hawaiian fried rice and eggs, but it's unbelievable the way that it's prepared all of this stuff. And my mom taught it to me and I taught it to Lisa and our daughters and our granddaughter. And that's a deal. But you only share it with special people. That's the tradition. And you know what God said to me?

I thought he was so wrong. He said, "That's what I want you to do to this person." Say what? But here's the deal. Lisa cannot be involved. She needs to be dismissed. You're in the kitchen. You do all the preparation. You do it. You set the table. You make it. But I don't know this. I'm not kidding. You guys listening? I Lord, I don't know what kind of bread the guy likes. What did God say? God said, "Get wheat. Get white. Get rye. Get sourdough." And I had it all. I don't know if the guy liked coffee or tea. I had coffee and tea. I made it all up. Person came over and said, "What are you trying to do? Kill me?" No. Please sit down. That breakfast was at 8:00 a.m. That person talked till about noon. I didn't understand what was going on. They got in their car, they drove away, and when that person drove away, I can't explain to you, and I'm glad I cannot explain it to you. It was so supernatural. I felt like I had lost 10 pounds in 30 seconds. There was this peace and this release of blessing the one who spoke evil of you. Did that person stop speaking evil of me? No. It never bothered me again.

When when you see scriptures like that and you say, "I can't do that." Please do it because listen, Jesus wants you to be free. And the world hates you and I to the best of our ability, to the best we can, bless them. You say, "I don't know how. I didn't either." Ask God. He'll tell you. Amen. That's who we are as believers.

You know what's going on. And I'm going to put a plug in for this. Although we're almost done. Since No, not done with the message. I'm just getting started. This is introduction. I'm kidding. But on January 1st, we started meeting live at 5:00 a.m. Pacific time. And Wow. And we pray for like uh 10 minutes and people leave their prayer request in the comment section and prayer goes on all day all around the world. You should see the comments. It's amazing. So if somebody says, "Pray for my daughter. She's got cancer." That that prayer request falls into the comment section and in and at 5:00 a.m. Pacific time, California. But listen, the rest of the world is living all around the globe, 24 time zones. And by the end of a 24-hour time zone, you can go down the list and read the comments of people saying from Australia, from England, from uh Saudi Arabia, I'm praying for your daughter. Let us know if she gets healed or the Lord. And it's like, what? It's just unbel What's going on? Listen, now we're all addicted to this.

And people people are bearing one another's burdens. I never thought that would happen. If it can happen in that kind of a world of social media that is redeeming social media in my opinion, how much more should it be happening with you and I that can actually touch one another and pray for each other. Philippians chapter 2 verse4 tells us let each of you look out not only for his own interest but also for the interest of others.

Wow. And the next thing we see is in verse two that it reveals your loyalty. When the world speaks ill of you, cheer up. It reveals your loyalty. Some of us, I hope all of us know what it's like to be attacked for Jesus' sake. Have you ever had people attack you and um it's not even you they're attacking? It's so obvious they hate Jesus, man. It's it's uh it's like it's it's ratcheted up pretty high right now in the world around us. I'm getting all kinds of hate mail right now. I'm being told you need to get a security team. You're getting these threats, these uh uh pro uh pro- Hamas, pro- Hezbollah uh people are speaking about you. Why? What I do to them? Well, I I was in in in Israel and I I don't know how I didn't I didn't like fill out a application for this, but in Israel, uh I was voted number five out of 10. The top 10 uh Gentiles that uh stand with Israel, I was number five. And um and I and I thought, well, that's cool. Well, this not everybody else thinks that's cool. And uh and then this article went on to say, "This guy believes what the Bible says. This guy believes that Jesus is the Messiah of not only Israel, but the Messiah of the world." This is all true. It's true. And listen, I'm This guy is a Zionist. Yes, that's true. You want to know why? Where is Zion? Does anybody know where Zion is? It's in Jerusalem. You know, that's where David had his throne on Mount Zion. It's a hill. for crying out loud. Oh, guess what? The son of David is going to establish his throne when he returns on a hill called Zion. But listen, when people don't like that, they say, "Are you a Zionist?" It's like, "Yes, what of it?" But we think, listen, if the other people who hate Jesus and hate the word of God and hate you say, "Are you a Zionist?" The way that they frame it, you go, "I don't know. I don't know if really should it. Maybe am I? I don't know. What are you doing? Stand up. Stand up and say, "Yeah, God is, so I am, too." Yeah, that's right. God is, so I am, too. So, you do you believe in Jesus, the Jesus who died on the cross and rose again from the dead? Yep, I sure do. Yes, I do. Why? Because he's your only hope.

We're living in an amazing age. Don't be discouraged. Because every day your loyalty is going to be tested as to who Jesus is in your life. This is not a time to get scared or weak need. It's a time to lovingly stand and say, "Yes, I love the Lord. He's amazing. He's been so good to me. You should know him, too." Respond in a way. He says, "Let each of us please his neighbor as uh for his good leading to edification." And that's how Jesus is to us. Jesus builds us up with with his love. And so we should mimic the same. And the word please here, this is a good word for us to to look at. The Greek word for uh to please is to make glad. Is to make glad. To create a pleasant atmosphere. Oh, this is cool. to set a table as in welcoming in a stranger. I like that. Isn't that neat? You know, some people the one of the one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the gift of hospitality. Have you ever seen people with the gift of hospitality? It's almost so amazing it's uncomfortable. You ever been where somebody's got the gift of hospitality, you walk into their home and it's like the lighting is perfect. It smells perfect. They're so sweet and nice. They thought about everything and you want to be there and then it's time for you to go home and you don't want to leave because they have the gift of hospitality. And if they were to say, "Well, we have an extra room here." Okay. Because you know there's going to be a sule or something in the morning, love just comes out of them. They care about every little thing. And if humans can be like that under the possession of the Holy Spirit, how much more God?

He loves you and these beautiful things. Well, there's so much wrong in the world. Of course, there is. But there's so much good also. Yes. Don't know. Don't don't get fixated on one thing. You'll get depressed. Psalm chapter 23 verse one. The Lord is my shepherd. Notice the possessive origin of this. That by the way, see the caps on LD? That's Yahweh. Yah. In the in the uh scriptures, it's Yah. Yahweh is my shepherd. That's beautiful. That's the name of God. Yah. I shall not lack or want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yay. I've always heard it in my head this way. Yay. Yay. Yay. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Listen, you're going to want to remember verse four because every single one of us will experience verse four. You will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You say, "What is that like when I breathe my last and I that's what when I die, when my body dies, is that when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death once I die?" Nope. Walking through the valley of the shadow of death leads all the way up to the moment you die. Aren't you glad about that? The Bible tells us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Listen, we're not Muslims. Muslims have to go through this in their theology. When you die, then you've got to walk this incredible gauntlet of difficulty. You have to walk the line, which is a a thread of of uh a blade over hell, and jin, which are demons, are trying to knock you off. And if you make it to the other side, you might be accepted. Listen, if you're a Muslim, you need to come on over and visit with Jesus for a while in the Bible.

Because he did it all. Listen, to walk through the valley of the shadow of death is living through this life now until the moment you breathe your last breath and then to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. You go home, you see Christ. God opens up the gate and says, "Come on in." This is what Jesus has done for us. It's awesome. So, yay. Yay. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. No COVID there. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Instruction, encouragement, and discipline. Comfort me. You prepare a table. Here it is. Before me in the presence of my enemies.

Amen. Wow. God can give you incredible control and peace in the most hostile, ugly situation because the spirit of the Lord, listen, is not only where you're at. The spirit of the Lord has to be wherever you're at because Jesus tells us regarding the fact that the spirit of God dwelling within you. He says, "I will never leave you or forsake you." And Jesus does that by the power of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 19 says, "For though I am free," Paul is speaking from all men. In other words, uh, nobody can buy me says Paul. Nobody owns me. I have made myself a servant to all that I might win the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, which is funny. He was a Jew. Why is he saying this? Because it didn't matter to him anymore. Is this amazing? The super Jew. Paul was the super Jew. By the way, if you're Jewish today, please listen. If you're Jewish, don't stop being Jewish. My Listen, our God's Jewish. Our Messiah is a Jew. If you're Jewish, you need to come and meet your Messiah. He'll take care of the rest.

It's amazing to think some people have said Jesus was the first Christian. Do you know what Christian means? It means Christ follower. And it's also a slang word. It was a derogatory statement. Antioch in Antioch. The unbelievers started making fun of Christians by saying, "Look at the little Christians. You guys just walk around talking like Jesus, acting like Jesus. A, you're so cute. You're but little. We're going to call you Christians. Little little Christ walking around." And the Christians said, I mean, the the the believers said, "That's we like that. We're going to hang on to that." No, friends. Jesus was not the first Christian. Jesus was the Jew who pointed us to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We're the Gentiles who have been grafted in to the commonwealth of Israel, says the scripture. So, listen, if you're Jewish, you're just a little bit ahead of us. You just need to understand that your Messiah is not coming for the first time. You're not waiting for your Messiah to come for the first time. He's coming again. We're waiting for him to come back. and you need to know that you've been focusing on the wrong one. The Messiah came and died for our sins at the cross, rose again from the dead, and he's coming back.

So listen, Paul says, listen, when I was hanging out with Jews, I became like a Jew that I may win Jews to those who are under the law as under the law. In other words, when Paul was hanging out with a bunch of legalistic people, he just walked a very straight line with them that I might win those who are under the law. Verse 21. To those who are without the law, unbelieving or gentile world, as without the law, not being without law toward God, but under the law toward Christ. In other words, love. I'd never I never compromise my love. That I might win those who are without law. To the weak. I became as weak. That I might win the weak. I became all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Is this sweet? Now, this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be uh partaker of it with you. To be the kind of a believer that never compromises truth, we stand on that unwaveringly. Like so many things in life, it's how we communicate it. Do we communicate the truth of God by the fact that we love other people because we love God first? And that we minister by carrying one another's love. Such a great example for us. It would be good maybe for you to take this up as a project with your family. Say project that sounds kind of cold. Yeah, I know it sounds kind of cold, but the temptation for you and I to hear the message and then 20 minutes from now you can't even tell me what we talked about. But what if we decided, you know what, kids, we're going to go home and we're going to do this. Or did you guys hear um I don't know where I heard this, but it was from Erica Kirk, Charlie Kirk's wife. I don't remember what platform she said this on, but she said every day, every day, Charlie would say to her, "How can I serve you better?" I I predict their marriage was so amazing that it's probably going to be something of movies and books because it was truly a Christian home. You say, "Yeah, but that's a marriage." Okay. Well, first of all, are you doing that in your marriage? I hope so. Number two, how about if we extend it out further, not only to our neighbors, but right now our neighbors are sitting with us right here.

Let's all stand. Um, I never get this right. You guys always have to correct me. But you know those two, it's not Chip and Dale. It's the two other uh squirrels. the chipmunks or something. Do you know those two that are always polite? Do you know who they are? No, no, no, Don't Don't If you know, raise your hand if you know who it is. Okay. Who is it? Who's who [Laughter] Chip Andale is? Some Okay, let's forget this. It happened. It happens every time. Do you know the two the No. No. Just stop. It's out of control. No, it's this one. They never as far as I know, they never talk. They're in the cartoon. Maybe Bugs Bunny. Maybe it's it's Daffy Duck. But they're the two little guys and and they're in the midst of a of a horrible moment. The cat is about ready to bite them and eat them. And the one stops and opens the door and says, "You go first." And he goes, "No, no, no, no, no. You go first." "No, please. You go first." You You know who I'm talking about now? Those guysale. It is Chip and Dale. I knew it all along. I was just testing. I was just testing to see if you knew. So, we should be like that. We should be like that. No. After you. No. No. No. After you. Now, remember that in the parking lot. After you. No. After you. Listen, isn't it amazing that Jesus Christ instead of leaving us to our own devices and to our own demise, Jesus comes and takes upon himself the form of a human being. The Bible tells us when you read Philippians and Colossians, he never considered itself himself to be equal with God. For he was God in human skin. Yet he humbled himself and became poor like us to show us what it would be like for a life to be lived out in this dark world for God. And after living the life that he lived, perfect, spotless lamb of God, Jesus was, he was brutally betrayed, beaten, crucified, and intombed. Not once did he ever say, "This is unfair. This is unjust. I want a retrial." He never opened his mouth. Why? Because it's for the exact reason why he came. Last week, I think Tucker Carlson said that Jesus was murdered. You guys, Jesus was not murdered. Jesus said, "Nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down when I lay it down, and I raise it up when I raise it up. He's the one who loves you. He's the Messiah. He's the Christ. Turn to him. Follow him today. take your sins to him and say, "I need you in my life. I need to be forgiven. I need to be washed clean. I have offended the holy God and I thank you for dying in my spot and that you extend to me the great exchange to receive your forgiveness." And in doing that, you hand me your righteousness. that you you stamp my account in heaven paid in full. Thank you, Lord. in Jesus name. And all God's people said, "Amen." Amen.