All in the Family - Part 2 (Hebrews 12:3-11)

You can be seated, everybody. And for time's sake, I'll read the scriptures with you. As we're in Romans, or excuse me, Hebrews. Yeah, feels like Romans still, but now Hebrews. No, we're in Romans 12 and Hebrews 12. Isn't that crazy? It's amazing. But we're looking at a message series titled "All in the Family." And, uh, last week we started it, and it was horrible. The message was, all I don't know what I told you. We'd do it over. So this is a do-over. Um, and so we're picking it up. But we will call it part two for accurate, accurate sake here. But, um, before we get into the reading of the text, I want you guys to, um, to consider a few things. Uh, right now, you and I live in an age where, watch my fingers, air quotes, "being spiritual" is really in vogue. A lot of people are spiritual. For example, you look at a guy, uh, what's his name? Um, Jordan Peterson. Very spiritual now. Very spiritual. Uh, there are various people that are very spiritual right now. They're, they're publicly announcing their spirituality. We're not quite sure what they believe. That's a little muddy. But, uh, people have kind of graduated to a point where, well, gosh, I don't believe in evolution. That's, that's all broken down, and the science has disproven all that stuff. And then there's metaphysical type of conversations taking place. But there's this always this internal need on the inside to get answers about our origins and what's the meaning to life. And if, if, if people don't want to bow their knees to, uh, the Lord of Glory and what God says about himself in the Bible, then they search for some form of spirituality. And the culture is going that direction. And so today, it's kind of vogue. But listen, that's not God's plan for you and I. And it's not God's plan for people, for that matter. Because spirituality is part of the human existence, but without Jesus, it's disaster. Without Jesus, there's no life. You can have all the spirituality in the world, but miss heaven by 18 inches. So that's the distance from your brain to your heart. And God wants you to know him. And he wants you to know him personally.

And before we get into our scripture reading, the fact of the matter is, uh, we are often, if not always, reminded in scripture. And this is a shock, it shouldn't be, but the scriptures remind us from Old to New Testament that there's only two families that actually exist on the planet. Only two. That is the family of faith and the family of a non-faith. Meaning, there's the faith that God accepts, which is faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And then there's a faith that the world has, that we would call a non-faith, which is that spirituality. Well, Jesus was a great person, but I believe in this. And, uh, there's only two. And listen to this. These are the words of Christ himself. John chapter 8. Listen to this. And they answered and they said to him, Jesus, this is the scribes and the Pharisees. Truly, listen, those who are saying, and they answered him, those are the ones who are highly spiritual, but lost. A spirituality that would have been impressive, but they're lost. They answered and they said to Jesus, Abraham is our father. Note the family statement there. Hey, Jesus, Abraham was our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, oh, there's another declaration of family, isn't there? If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father. Another family statement there, right? Then they said to him, watch this, we were not born of fornication. We have one Father, God. You get to, you get the stab. Jesus, we know who our dad is. You were born into a scandalous rumor. No, we know who our father is. And then they, they say, our Father's God. Verse 42. Jesus said to them, if God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Nor have I come of myself, but He sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to my word. Wow. You are of your Father, the devil, and the desires of your Father, you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. These are the words of Jesus. Church family, when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father. Notice the family of it. Verse 45. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Jesus's words, both of them citing Abraham. Jesus says Abraham knew me. Jesus says my Father sent me. I came from eternity into this world. We're both claiming Abraham. But wait a minute. You don't do the deeds of Abraham because the Bible says that Abraham believed God. And the declaration is made to him that the just shall live by faith. And they had rejected Jesus, the religious spiritualists. They had rejected him.

So our text now, with that in mind, we read, or I'll read to you, Hebrews 12, beginning at verse three. For consider Him, that's Christ Jesus, who endured such hostility from Sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. In other words, go read John 8 and be encouraged because they attacked Jesus also. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives." Verse 7. "If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us. I love this part. And we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they, that is our earthly fathers, indeed for a few days chastened us as it seemed best to them. They parented us the best, yes, they knew. But He, that is God, for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Wow. Powerful stuff. Church, you want to talk about discipleship? Here we go. This is good stuff. Being in the family of God. We opened up with this argument. It's number one, and that is, welcome to the family of God. And we saw in verse three that He says to us there, with this great challenge, He says, "For consider." That word, consider. Take it to heart. Take it in. He's telling this right now, hey, everybody, listen up. Ponder this. It's vitally important. Consider this, that Jesus endured such hostility from Sinners against Himself. And we have become followers of Jesus. If we are going to walk in His footsteps, then we cannot think that hostility launched against us should be a strange thing. I probably am speaking for all of us here tonight when I say, all of us have lost friendships because of Jesus. I don't know where you were at or what happened to you. But the night I accepted Christ, it was around 9:00 PM on a Monday night. I told my friends the next day by phone that I had accepted Christ. There was a party on Tuesday night. Night after work, I went to the party, which is what I normally did. And when I showed up, I felt awkward. I walked in, I felt awkward. Nothing that I had once done seemed normal anymore. In an instant, amen. And all, everything that was normal was no longer normal to me. And I didn't belong. And I felt so awkward. And my friends came up to me and they said, "Hey, how you doing?" And they handed me a beer. And I'm holding it and I'm like, uh, uh. And it was all wrong. Now, there was no sign, there was nobody marching around saying, you know, don't, don't drink this. Or there was a sign on the inside. I was shocked. What's going on with me? I didn't know what it was to be a Christian. I just knew that there was somebody else on the inside of me now, and it was the Holy Spirit. And listen, I had to leave. But before I left my friends, I, I can see them right now in my head. We grew up together. And that was the last night I ever saw them. They never called me again. I think it was the mercy of God, by the way. They never called me again. They never invited me anywhere again because of one name: Jesus. Now, I'm telling you this right now, and Paul the Apostle would say, "Are you telling a joke?" That's funny because we're talking about, "Oh, I lost my friends." Paul's said, Paul would have said to us, "Lost your friends?" I can't tell you how many times I was beat up, shipwrecked, stoned, my back was laid open with lashes. I mean, you lost your friends. But it just goes to show you the value of the name of Jesus, man. We were in LA on Monday, and somebody mentioned Jesus, and this woman goes into some cursing rage. I mean, I, I, I, I don't want to make a big weird thing out of it, but I started thinking, this woman's screaming profanities, and I'm thinking, that's like demonic, man. It's like, it's like a demon in torment. I was looking at a camera. I wish I could, I wish I, and it was live. I wish I could have just went, "Can you hang on a minute, everybody?" And just gone over there and said, "Jesus," and see what she would have done. Like she would have melted or something. I don't know. It's so weird. But the name of Jesus. And we're in this family, family, and it's truly awesome. And for some of you who are living a boring life, um, either become a Christian tonight or sign up and make yourself public as a believer. It's thrilling. It's absolutely thrilling.

And so in verse three, it says, listen, that we, we shouldn't become weary, uh, and discouraged in our souls. But we do. But here the Bible is encouraging us. And, and that, that word weary, uh, is fantastic. Powerful words. Don't become fatigued by various concerns and situations. Uh, to be laboring under a yoke of concern. Listen, we all go through this. To be wearied by the point of, or to the point of physical sickness. Weary, weary, where, where you, you're so spent, so tired of, of, of fighting life itself in this world. And, and we think for a moment, I can't go any further. And that's not, that's not true. You're in the family of God. And God will not let any of his kids wander off into oblivion. It might feel like it sometimes, but He's training us up. He's growing us up to be spiritual adults. Don't become weary. Or don't, well, I should say this, we all will become weary. Get around good brothers and sisters that will pick you up. Listen, when we become discouraged, and I'm going to throw all of you in with me, we become discouraged. If you hang out with me, I will eventually discourage you. Because if it's Sunday, and I'm driving home after service, I'm going through this meltdown in my heart and in my mind of, why did I say that at first service? And why didn't I, and then how come I didn't say that? What I said at first, I should have said it a second. But I did. I preached the greatest sermon on the way home. Because I, I have three services to edit. And if there was only a fourth, but you know the story, right? I could preach 10 sermons a day and none of them would be good enough, right? Because the human factor gets in. And then you start thinking about it. And it's like, oh man. And that's why God gives losers like me a wife like I have. Lisa will say, "Suck it up." Uh, and there's always next week. And God called you, and you have to obey Him. And you don't have the permission to quit. And all this, right? And it's right. It's true. Get around people like that. Find Christian brothers and sisters. You say, "How do I find them?" Get involved in the Fire Relief efforts. You're going to be rubbing shoulders with people. You're going to be meeting people. And somebody might speak a word of encouragement to you. Amen. But we're prone to these things. But we're in a family. And I want to welcome you to that family.

And in 2 Corinthians 11:22, the Bible says, "In fact, Paul was under attack by the religionists. They claimed to be the real Hebrews." And Paul says, "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? Christ, I speak as a fool. I am more. In labor is more abundant." That means, remember the word labor, working under a yoke. I am exhausted. So often of the time in stripes. That's a nice word. It means having your back laid open with whips. Above measure. Imprisons more frequently. You know what? Can you imagine, church? Are you guys with me tonight? Can you imagine this being a resume for being a pastor for a church? Where the board that's going to hire you says, "Can you take your shirt off? We want to see your back. Do you have a bunch of scars from being beaten as a Christian pastor? Have you, have you been, you know what I'm saying? Have you, let's see your rap sheet. How, how many times have you been convicted of being a pastor and you've been imprisoned?" None. Oh, well. Well, no. Dismissed. This is the first century church credentials here. Think of that. And Paul is saying, "Listen, I'm following Christ. I'll tell you how much I'm following Jesus. All these things have happened to me." In prisons more frequently. I go to jail. And it's starting to happen more and more. Uh, in deaths, often. Wow. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. In other words, five times 39. Was he beaten with whips? Three times I was beaten with rods. You know, caning, you know, to be be caned, whipped with with rods. Once I was stoned. In California, it doesn't mean what you think this means. Rocks. Three times I was shipwrecked. I don't want to be shipwrecked ever. Paul says, "Yeah, can you imagine the, the third time the ship's going down?" Paul goes, "Everybody's freaking out." Paul probably said, "Yeah, you know what? I've survived two of these previously. You know, trust Christ. Here we go. Hold your breath. The ship is sinking." Oh, my goodness. And then he goes on to say, "That a night and a day I have been in the deep, floating around in the ocean. In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness." Sounds like LA. "In perils of the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil and sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." Wow. Verse 28. "Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches." I just want to apply Paul. God bless you, Paul. Thank you, Paul. What an example. What a high bar for this wonderful Apostle. And he was prone to be discouraged. And often times Paul would be there seeking the Lord. And he, in Corinth, announces that he had lost basically hope. And he says that the angel of the Lord, or the Lord had spoke to me and said, "There's many people in the city, Paul, that are going to make professions of faith. So just hang in there." We need to remember that. I believe this, things get real dark. Listen, everybody. This might be encouraging to you. Sometimes it's very predictable in my life. It's either going to go one or the other in the way of directions. Watch this. When things get almost unbearable, and you, it doesn't matter what direction. It's like, I, this is insane. Miscommunication or illness or whatever pressure, strange, bizarre. This, I know something awesome is about to happen with God. And then, listen. When something awesome happens, often just cruising along, doing life as as normal as it can be, then something amazing happens. Guess what? I know. I know something's coming up. Why? Because God, when God does something, He will never share His glory with somebody else. And I actually love this. You know, I don't know how many of you are joining us at 5:00 AM Pacific time for prayer. But that community is growing huge. And it's amazing what's going on. Quarter of a million people are are viewing and praying around the world. And, and watch this. What's amazing, we just started on on New Year's Day, 5:00 AM New Year's Day. And I don't know if we should continue because I've been so blessed. I can't take it anymore. It's like, no way. What the, the, the doors that have opened up for ministry to advance the gospel. It's like, are you kidding me? I've got two legs. I need two more. It's, it's amazing. And I can actually set it to the opening day of New Year's Day when we begin to pray. That's how our God works. And He's amazing. And if you don't know that, you ought to jump in the water. If you don't know that, come on in. The water's fine. He's amazing. Well, yeah, but you just talked about beatings and shipwreck and all that. Oh, do you know what? By the end of Paul the Apostle's life, he said, "I wouldn't have changed a thing." He didn't say it that way, but that's what he was saying. He's saying, "You know what? You know what? This has been an amazing, amazing ministry life. And what's laid up for me now is a crown of righteousness." Don't you want to live like that? I want to live like that. I want to die like that. Think about that. That's, that's, that's amazing. And that is awesome. And that is so very powerful.

And then there's that word, discouraged. To become despondent. Anybody know what despondent means? It plays upon you. Despondency. Strange. We're all subject to our emotions. That's why we need the Bible more and more. Because we need to fight despondency. To be tired to the point of carelessness. Have you ever been so fatigued and so tired when somebody says, "You want to go left or right? Up or down? Steak or chicken? Beef or chicken?" Or what? "I don't care." You bar. Listen, emotionally speaking, you barely have the strength to raise your hand. Have you ever had the wind knocked out of you? It's like that where you can barely catch your breath. You're completely exhausted. And you don't think you can go another day. The word goes on to say, to no longer be able to hold on. And many have had that feeling at times. No one's exempt from this. I just thank God that His Bible addresses these real-life issues that you and I have to deal with. It's not like God has missed something. That's one of the things, by the way, that Satan wants to seek to do is to get you to think what you're going through is so unique. No one's ever gone through it. And you're never going to survive it. Satan loves that. You know the old story? You've seen this a thousand times. A coals in a fire burning are awesome. But when you take one coal and set it off to the side, you look at the fire and you're warming your hands, or you've got your marshmallows or s'mores going on. And then you look five minutes, five minutes later, you look at that little coal that was once with the group, and he's all cold and dead. That's kind of like Christianity. If you stop fellowshipping among God's people, you wind up getting kind of cold. Cold to things. Indifferent to things. You, you can become so tired because there's no brother or sister that'll pick you up and put you back in the fire. No pun intended. But that's where the church glows with the glory of God. And He's amazing. He's awesome.

Verse four says that you have not resisted. He's speaking about evil. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against evil. Not yet. A lot of Christians in the world are striving against wickedness to the point of blood. I mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago, and it's not, you think CNN's, you think CNN's going to mention what I'm about to say? Never. Fox News? Never. Nobody will mention this. Everybody's talking about Gaza and, uh, Lebanon. Let me tell you something. It's tragic. Any loss of life among innocents, Israel, Gaza, Israel, doesn't matter. It does that. It's a whole another story. When you talk about what's happening with the Muslims exterminating Christians in North Africa, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world right now. And it has been that way for nearly 24 months. It's not Gaza. The media wants you to think so. It's Sudan, because the Muslims in Sudan are killing the Christians wholesale. I forget the, the number. It is off the charts. And listen, here's what's amazing. They could hide. You know what happens on Sunday? The Muslims know the Christians are going to come out of wherever they're hiding. And they go to church on Sunday knowing. Can you imagine? Can you imagine getting your little kids together, and you're coming up out of the, so to speak, the ground, you're hiding in, or bushes, or jungle, or wherever you're at, and you say to your, you say to your little one, "Sweetheart, listen, baby. You remember Jesus." And you just pour scripture into your little kid. And you're, and you're saying, "Listen, if, if we don't, if we don't live this day, we live this day forever with Jesus." And they go to church. And this is happening in the now. This is happening in 2025. And they, there's nothing that will stop them from going to church. No, no virus. Makes you wonder, huh? If there was a terrorist with a sword standing there, or a virus, which one would you pick? I don't know. I don't. Which one really? Probably take the one without the sword. What are we afraid of? We're not going to live here forever. We're not even going to live here long. You see, you don't even know how young I am, Pastor. I'm so young. Not for long. Eternity awaits. Amen. And, uh, in this world, listen, God has promised us that He'll provide. He says, "You'll never see the righteous, my children, begging bread." That's a promise from God. God will provide for His kids, no matter what the economy is like, okay? And God says, "You'll never have to worry." No matter what's going on around you. "Yeah, but it's looking pretty bad. And they're coming into the." God says, "I got this." "Yeah, but what if they kill me?" "Then you come see me." Think about that. What's the worst that can happen for us? People don't like when I talk like this. They're like, "Can we keep it recreational?" I don't want recreational. I want Him. I want to see Him. I'm going to see Him. I know. I know. And I know at the right time, you're going to, you and I are going to see Him at the right time. I know that. But you know what? And you know, I know the Bible teaches Jesus could come back at any moment. So you have to be ready because you don't know the day or the hour. But it's like, it's the world is so crazy. It's like, oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. And it's like, Lord, are you hearing me? I mean, it's pretty obvious. I mean, if you don't, don't come back soon, it's not going to be a surprise. Everybody was, it's like, "About time."

And that word, resist, is to grapple with. We've not yet grappled regarding striving with sin to the point of bleeding or dying regarding it. Oh, um, I, I wrote this down. I don't know if it blesses you or not, but only by spiritual engagement are we you able to enjoy the battles. I hope this makes some sense. It makes sense to me, but I'm the one that wrote it. So, only by spiritual engagement are we able to enjoy the battles. You see, Jack, do you really mean to enjoy the battles? Listen, battles are enjoyable if you're winning, okay? The growth, listen, there's the, the growth for the believer only happens in hardship. That's how diamonds are made. This is a really great book. You ought to get it, especially if you're young. It's by Vance Havner. Vance Havner was one of the greatest pastors in American history. Vance Havner, and he wrote a book called "Plain Marbles with Diamonds." And he talks about how the church has forgotten the wonderful promises given to us. We're, we're, we're playing games with the word of God when, actually, we're, we're playing with these marbles of great, great value. Growth, the victories, and the ongoing warfare of being in this ever-darkening world for the cause of Christ. Spiritual engagement. Every, every one of us is going to be called upon more and more to be spiritually engaged. Everyone. It's going to happen. God will see to it. It's happening now. I believe this. It's happening now. You must admit that things have a pulse rate to it. Things seem to be throbbing, pulsing, beating more toward a destiny that God has planned. And it's a wonderful thing to know your Bible and to realize, in the midst of whatever, God's in control. And in the battle, in the warfare. You mean warfare? What do you mean warfare? Because you say that people don't know the Bible, they think you're crazy. But when you read the Bible about the two families that are in the Bible, the family of Satan's kids and God's kids, there's an ever-for-ever tension and warfare there. Has to be. But the Lord is with us. And He says, "Don't be discouraged." And some of you, what makes it so hard for so many of God's kids is that the battle you're fighting is in your own home. The mockery, the rejection that is upon you, or fear. It's tremendous.

1 Corinthians chapter 10:13. 1 Corinthians 10:13. This, this verse, I, I think of often. "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man." Keep that in mind. "But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it." Let me unpack this. No temptation. Listen. Temptation comes from Satan. Trials come from God. One is of the dark world, the other family, the other father. The other one is from the heavenly Father, and it's to build you up, not destroy you. Amen. He says there that God's faithful. He's not going to allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. Let's be honest. Don't you think that when you're tempted, and you remember this verse like I do, I'm thinking, "God, apparently your estimation of me is much higher than I think of myself, because that was a whopper." So I think that was too much. But God says, "I'm not going to let you be tempted beyond." "I'm not going to have you fall." "I'm not going to, I'm not going to let the enemy come in and take you away." Jack, don't you remember what happened to Peter? Peter denied me three times. I told him what would happen in advance. He did it anyway, and he fell, and he denied me. And he went out and he wept bitterly. And then I went to the cross. I died. I rose again from the dead three days later. And right when I got out of the tomb, I told those women, "Tell the disciples I've risen from the dead." And away, away, and make sure you tell Peter. You know, Jesus said that. "Tell the guys I'm, I'm up from the grave." And make sure you tell Peter. Why did Jesus say that? Peter must have been devastated. What a loving God. He says that to you. I say this to the church, and to you. That's Him. But just remember this, that when a temptation comes, listen up, everybody. When a temptation comes knocking, you know, first of all, realize because of your knowledge of the Bible, "Hey, this is a temptation. I can tell." Number one, it's not good, but it's awesome. It's pretty. It's nice. It's loud. It's fast. It's, uh, fattening. Uh, it's a donut. Whatever it is. It's like, "Huh, wait a minute. This, see, this wants it." And I say to this, "Sit down." It tries to do this, and you have to do that. And it says, "I want it." "Don't you understand how bad I..." "Lord, I ask you now, rebuke this temptation. I'm going to walk away from this temptation." Jesus, you see, I want to do that. Pastor Jack, that's what I want to do. You know, there's only one way. Get more of this, yes, in you than this in you. Listen, you're not going to, you're not going to be able to fight off temptations if you spend most of your time watching, uh, I don't know what's out, what's whatever's on TV. Pretty much the news. How about that? You got to get this in you. That's how you fight the. Listen, David said, "I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." Oh, God, that your own. That's the strength. That's the strength of His word. But temptation, watch this. Temptation's not a sin. To be tempted is not a sin. You're not sinning when you're being tempted by the enemy. You sin when you take the temptation and you put it in here, and you let it sit in there, and you're like, "I know it's really bad, but I, I remember that time." You know, when you start entertaining it. You need somebody to just come up and, and someone just lay hands on you. Step out of it. I wish, I wish the Lord would do that. He'll never do that. You notice He's so, He's, He's so soft. That you're like, "Wow." And He's, and He's going, "No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not good. It's going to hurt you." Still small voice. "I'd rather have Him just punch me right in the nose." It's like, "I got the message. I got the message."

Right in Jude chapter 1, verse 9. Listen to this. I love this. Oh, boy. This is great. Michael, you don't mess with Michael the Archangel. You understand that? Whenever you find Michael in the Bible, he's beating somebody up. He's in some fight with Satan, Lucifer, somebody. Gabriel. He's the Gabriel. He's the announcer. Gabriel in the Bible. Archangel Gabriel. Everywhere there's an announcement being made. I'm Gabriel. I've come to give you understanding. Daniel, or Mary, or whoever. Gabriel is like the PR department of heaven. And then you've got to wonder sometimes if, if Gabriel is not going so good. Gabriel, I, you know, we need, um, I need Michael right about now. And Michael is the warrior. And I, I want you to revel in this. God has no challenger. You understand that? God has no challenger. God is not, uh, equal to anything. He's above all things. And He's created all things. Satan is not omnipresent. Lucifer is not all-knowing. He's not all-powerful. He's not everywhere. He's limited to his person, to his place. He's not God. He wants you to believe that he's a god. He's the father of lies. And he'll lie to you. And he'll use your emotions. And he'll use, uh, even supernatural things to fool you. And those days, according to the Bible, are going to increase. If you don't know your Bible, you're going to get swept away by remarkable miracles that are coming. Jesus warned us. He said, "They're going to be so powerful of deceiving miracles done in the name of God that if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived." Now, it doesn't take an Einstein in a logic course to figure out or decipher that. I hope you revel in this. Jesus said, "Such deceptions coming that if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived." Conclusion. Do you know what the conclusion is? It's impossible. Everybody who's being deceived are those who do not know the voice of the Shepherd. People, you know, they might be family, they might be ministers, they might be football players, they might be rock stars, or the trash collector. It doesn't matter. They might have even, they might even been in ministry. Judas was in ministry. Judas did miracles. Jesus sent them out, all 12, remember that? And they did miracles. Judas was one of them. That's creepy. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, "There'll be those on the day of judgment that said, 'Didn't we preach in Your name? Didn't we cast out demons and raise the dead and do all these things in Your name?'" And Jesus said, "I don't even know who you guys are. Depart from me. I've never known you." Be careful that you get caught up into some personality cult. Oh, them, him, that group, this thing, that guy, that gal. What, you know, you just follow them like a lemming. Watch out. Be careful. Oh, I'm still talking. Sorry. Jude 1:9. Michael. Yet Michael the Archangel, in contending, watch this, in contending with the devil, boom, smack, pow, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him, that is Satan, a reviling accusation, but said, "So Michael said this to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you.'" Michael the Archangel didn't say, "I rebuke you, Satan. Get out of here." Yeah. Are you hearing me, everybody? Don't ever do that. What you want to do, you want to say, "Lord, I'm asking. I'm calling upon You. Lord, rebuke that situation. Rebuke this thing. Lord, You rebuke this thing by the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the blood of the Lamb of God. Lord, rebuke this thing." When you find yourself resisting evil and you feel like you're losing, call upon Him to rebuke it. Michael taught us here in Jude that when he was fighting Satan personally, he said, "The Lord rebukes you, Satan." Wow. That's awesome. I love that.

I want to show you this image. Um, I love this. Somebody sent me this today. And I don't remember who it is. And I, but I sent it out to everybody. My, this, listen, this is C.S. Lewis. "My prayer is that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I'm out of the fire fight." I like that. Do you remember in this? That's so. Go ahead and leave it on there. I want that to soak in. As you look at that, I want to remind you of a scripture that in the book of Acts, this guy saw that by the name of Jesus, you could do miracles. He didn't want anything to do with being a disciple. He just wanted to, you know, see some, some action. And so he thinks he's going to try to pull off an exorcist. And so there's a demon-possessed person. And the book of Acts records that this guy shows up. And he says to this demon, person, demonized person, "I rebuke you in the name of, uh, Paul, and Jesus. I, I rebuke you." Like with like what those guys do. And the demon spoke out of the person and said, "Jesus, we know. And Paul, we know. But who are you?" And the Bible says the demons came out of that individual and possessed that man. And he went running like a maniac. I'm sorry, I think that's awesome. I, I want when you, and I pray, and in my mind, every Sunday and Wednesday night, you don't know this, it's coming out for the first time. When the doors open up and you're leaving, I'm always thinking that hell gets all, "There they go. They're loose again. We had them all in one spot for a moment. They were out of the, out of the town. They were out of the community." And then they again. And you think about this, this place, uh, the way it's constructed. Think about these walls just going like this. This is like aerial drone footage. You're in here. These are the walls. There and there. It just goes like this. When we say, "Amen. God bless. See you next week." And it just goes like this. And out you go, like toothpaste out of the tube. And I want to see demons and say, "Himself, go, 'Oh, no. Here they go. They're filled with the word. They're lay, they're relying upon God.'" This is a horrible situation. No, it's a wonderful situation. And then I always encourage the worship people. When you go out there, and I'll pray for them. When you, when you sing, when they're singing, I want in my mind, I'm seeing bolts of lightning going out into the dark world. When they sing, when these guys are hitting the drums and playing the guitar and whatever they do, I think it's so disruptive to the kingdom of hell. I think it just shakes things up. And I don't know about you, but I really want Satan to have a bad day every day. That's what he wants for us.

And He says, "Have you forgotten verse 5, the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons? Do not despise the chastening of the Lord." In other words, God is going to deal with you if you get into stuff you ought not to be getting into. He loves you and He's not going to leave you alone. "Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him." When God tells you no, listen to Him. He loves you. Verses 6-8. It's this that we belong to Him alone. We don't belong to anybody else but Him. He bought you. He owns you. And so in the scripture says in verse 6, "For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons." He won't let you get away with it. Listen, friend, I've said this before. If you're getting away with stuff that you know is wrong, and you think you're a believer, and nothing's happening to you, you're not a believer. You might believe, but you don't, you're not in the family. You believe in George Washington. He really lived. But you may not be an American. That's a choice you make, right? Think about that. You might believe, "Oh, Jesus was a historical figure. I believe in Jesus. Of course, I'm not stupid. He really was." No, buddy, He is. And the fact of the matter is, you can be all the religion and all the spirituality you want, but you know Him personally. And so that's quite a shock. Because God will not let us, His kids, get very far without Him stepping in, saying, "What are you doing here? What are you doing that for? Stop it." And listen, if you don't listen to Him, He'll step it up. And He'll make it unbearable. Remember, do, do kids still play this, or is it illegal? Do you remember when we were little and you had been somebody's arm until and and say, "Uncle"? I don't know why, why did we say that? Say uncle. Do you know what I'm talking about? Anybody raise your hand? Please help me out. Oh, wow. Okay, now it's child, I'm sure it's child abuse now. But back in those days, how you got a nickel or two from your buddy. But he loves us. And whom the Lord loves, chastens. My goodness. This is the response that happens when we're chastened. Uh, first of all, read the book of Job, man. At Job's expense, you and I can learn a lot. By the way, it's the oldest book in your Bible. The book of Job. I thought, Genesis was. Moses came along way after, after Job. It's amazing to me that the oldest book of the Bible is all about suffering and God being faithful. Psalm 32:4 says, "For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer." Psalm 88:7 says, "Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves." This is God dealing with His kids. Lamentations 3:20, "My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." What an awesome God. And He says in verse 7, "If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons." Notice this, sons. And then again, "For what son is there whom a father does not chasten?" In John 3:1, this is how you become a son or a daughter of God. There was a man of the Pharisees, very spiritual man, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs or miracles that You do unless God is with him." Notice Jesus in verse three. If I was writing the Bible, it would have said, "Well, thank you very much. Thank you for noticing. It feels great to be appreciated." Nope. Jesus said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." You're not going to go to heaven unless you're born again. Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" And Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, in other words, earthly life comes first, then the spirit life, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'" Everybody, listen up. See those words, "must"? You must be born again. In my opinion, right up there, most important words ever said. I've had people tell me they've been religious, gone to church all their life. During COVID, I had people tell me during COVID, because, you know, we had everybody here from COVID. I mean, during COVID, I saw people there. You know, who are these people? And then, you know, I'd give a message, and they'd stop me in the courtyard and they'd say, "You, I, I have gone to whatever church for 28 years. You said you have to be born again to go to heaven?" I said, "I didn't say that. Jesus said it." Can you imagine going to church 28 years and you never heard the pastor say, "There's two, there's two people that are not doing well in this re, recounting this." Number one, the pastor never taught that you had to be born again. But what's worse than the pastor? What is worse than the pastor not teaching it? Is the knucklehead that didn't read his own Bible. Think about it. It means that this guy must have been getting spoon-fed every Sunday because why weren't you reading the book on your own? You would eventually come to John 3. Was that a little harsh? I mean, we're talking eternal life here, man. And so Nicodemus said to him, verse 9, "How can these things be?" And Jesus answered and said to him, "Watch this. Are you the teacher of Israel?" I mean, you're the, you're a guy, you're the dean of theology for the country, and you do not know these things? "Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we've seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" Man, that's powerful, isn't it? Yes. And in verse 8, He says, "But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." Man, that is, you, friend, listen, you need to go home and you check your heart. And you said, "Lord, when was the last time You, You chastised me for for doing something wrong?" Now, I know this is Wednesday night, or I'm sure heaven's going to be full of w Wednesday nighters. It's those Sunday people you have to watch out for. But don't assume anything. Well, you know, I've been going to Calvary all my life. Is that a plus? Think of it. Well, I, I was, I'm a Catholic. I was baptized when, and I didn't even know it. That's how. Is that a plus? Well, I don't know about those other people you're mentioning, Jack, but I have a card that proves my salvation. I've been a member of the First Pentecostal Church for 50 years. That's not going to work. Can you imagine showing up? You drop dead and you assuming you have a pocket with your card in it? Excuse me, Peter. Do I tap or do I swipe?

Verse 9. "Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect." This is prepared. He's preparing us, friends, with this chastisement and correction for a real-world environment. Don't, that's why you don't despise God's correction. He's getting you. He's getting you ready for big stuff. Amen. "Shall we not much more readily be subjection to the Father of spirits and live?" For they, indeed, our earthly fathers, that is for a few days, chastened us as seemed best to them. But He, for our profit. Isn't that beautiful? You remember when your dad told you, "It's going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you." And this is like, "Yeah, I don't think so." Until you become a parent, and it is true. It hurts. I don't, I, I know God doesn't want to put you in the penalty box. Put me in the penalty box all the time. No parent wants that. You want to love your kids. And you, because you do love them, you want them to be blessed. But then your kid keeps going off the course. Then you got to pull him over, grab his ear, stay on this path. Why do you say that? Because you love them. And they wander off. Nothing's worse than when your kid grows up and departs from the way. It's crushing. I, I'll end with this. Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe said, "When we're raising our children, they step all over our toes. They're always in the way. You turn around, you trip over them. They're crawling by you. Step on their finger. You feel horrible." When we're raising them up, we, you know, they're just all over our feet. And then he says, "When they get old, when they grow up, they step all over our hearts." Man. No. See, the Lord says His chastening is all with this purpose to establish righteousness in you. Amen. Now, you can stand. But I want you to watch my hands. Righteousness. Righteousness. We, we complicate it. Righteousness is given to us from the Lord. Jesus gives us His righteousness. You can't become righteous, but we are called to do righteousness. What is that? Do the right thing. "I can't do the right thing." Yes. God knows that. So the Holy Spirit does the right thing through you. You become animated by God as you yield to the Holy Spirit. You and I have no righteousness of our own, but God works in us this practical doing of righteousness. And, and you're doing it when you do the right thing, even if you don't want to do the right thing. You, you have a conversation with yourself and you say, "What was the Bible? What does the Bible say about this?" It says this. "But I don't want to do that." "But we're going to do it because that's what the Bible says." That is the spirit of the person being born again, being directed by the Holy Spirit to put the flesh in the back seat. And we go do right. We go do the right thing. And in that is growth, development, and maturity. It's awesome.

Father, we pray that there would be nothing less than that in our lives. Lord, it's amazing to realize that as we pray, as we talk to You right now, there's going to be a day when we won't be talking to You like this. We won't have our heads bowed or our heads lifted up. We won't have our eyes closed. We won't be folding our hands or on our knees. We're going to be looking at You, in Your face. God, the one and only. And You've invited us to be in Your family tonight. My friends, if you're here or far, say yes to Jesus tonight. If any of this that made any sense at all, say, "Lord, I'm, I'm asking You to do what I heard tonight. Please do that in my life. Just, Lord, can You hit copy and paste all over me? Fill me with Your Holy Spirit because tonight I believe that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, having died on the cross for my sins and risen from the grave. I give my life to Him. And from this moment on, I'm going to walk with You, no matter what the distractions. I'm expecting the attack. I'm expecting somebody to make fun of me or mock me or something to happen. I'm expecting it. Now, now I'm on guard because I want Jesus in my life. I am ready. And I thank You, Lord, for placing me and inviting me into Your family. Thank You."