I've been going through the Gospel of Mark. We got out of that because of the whole Christmas season, so you all ready to jump back into that? Alright, let's go to Mark Chapter 6 is where we're at.
Mark 6. And I was reading something a little while back, it's kind of interesting. Paul McCartney of the Beatles, as a boy, auditioned for a spot in the Liverpool Cathedral Choir. He was cut by the choir master because he said, you don't have a good voice. I was reading about another bandmate of his. John Lennon was partially raised by his Aunt Mimi, and he spent most of his time in his room playing his guitar. And one day his aunt who helped raise him came by and said, John, it's all very well playing your guitar, but you will never make a living out of that. When John Lennon made his first million dollars, he gave her a silver plaque with those words inscribed on it.
And in an interview, I think it was either McCartney or Lennon, I can't remember which one, said, it's kind of interesting. They said, what we needed back then was somebody to say, number one, I believe in you. And number two, here's how to do what you've been created to do. And that's what we're seeing in Mark Chapter 6. Jesus is taking his disciples aside, and he's saying to them, I believe in you.
To do what you were created to do. Mark 6 kind of marks an interesting shift in Jesus' ministry. Up until this point, it's Jesus who preaches. It's Jesus who heals.
It's Jesus who casts out demons. And now what Jesus is saying to the disciples is basically, one day I'm not going to be here, I'm going to go away. And it's going to be you and the church's job to carry on my mission. It's a short-term mission trip.
And on this short-term mission trip, I'm going to teach you to do what you've been called and created to do. There's basically, at this point, one year left in Jesus' life. And this shift is not just in Jesus, not only he doesn't just do it all, now he's training his disciples to do it. There's another shift.
He has been operating in Galilee, in the rural northern part of Israel, and now he is shifting his ministry to Judea, the urbane southern part of Israel. And I love that. Jesus is saying, I'm not just going to throw you out there. I'm not just going to say, now go do what I've called you to do. I'm going to do a small, short-term mission trip, and I'm going to teach you some principles, some lessons about carrying out that call in your life.
Verily, I say to you, you'll be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. And they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. So let me give you some lessons that Jesus is trying to teach his disciples on this short-term mission trip. Go out, preach, and then come back. First lesson he wants to teach them is the lesson of fellowship. Look at verse 7.
And he called unto them the twelve and began to send them out by two and two. Here's what Jesus is trying to say to them. Fellowship is vital for the calling on your life. I've told you before, if there has been a weakness in my walk with Jesus through the years, it's this. I'm an introvert, I like to be by myself, and sometimes I minimize the need for Christian fellowship. Jesus did not live the Christian life in isolation.
It was never designed to be lived in isolation. Jesus makes it very clear. I'm sending you guys out two by two. Isn't this interesting? Every time he sent somebody out, he sent them out in Paris.
We see this with these guys, with the 70 or 72. We see this in the book of Acts. Jesus never sent them out alone. Jesus wants to get this message across. If you're going to follow me, you've got to stay connected with other Christians.
Nine times in the New Testament you see this term. One another. Love one another. Bear one another's burdens.
Be kind to one another. Implication the Christian life has got to be lived out in fellowship, in community. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25. Don't forsake yourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching. Hebrews is saying it's going to get tough out there. The closer we get to the second coming, the day, the harder it's going to be. So don't disconnect from other Christians.
You've got to stay connected. That's what Jesus is trying to teach. The church in America is not really good at this. I read a 2012 story on church splits. Every denomination included ours. We brag about how many churches we planted as a denomination last year.
Can I give you a little dirty secret? Most of those church plants were church splits. This group got mad at that group and they go and they start their own church. In 2012, I think this is from a secular source, they talked about church splits in America and they said, look, 2% of church splits are over doctrine. Meaningful stuff. 98% are over things that don't matter.
It's kind of interesting. In this article it talks about one church that's split over a piano bench. Half the church like this piano bench.
The other half like that piano bench. They're split over that. In this article they talked about another church that split over the spelling of the word Immanuel.
Is it Immanuel with an I or Immanuel with an E and the Es went and started their own church. This article also talked about a church split. They split over whether or not to have flowers in the sanctuary. We like flowers in the sanctuary. We don't like flowers in the sanctuary and the church split over that. One of the first ones I've heard is this church in Centerville, Georgia. They split over do you take up the offering before the sermon or after the sermon and they split over that. This article said that church had split 49 times in 100 years. Jesus is saying that's okay for the world to be divided.
It's okay for the world to be messed up. But if you and I are going to go out and win the world for Jesus Christ, he says you've got to stay connected to other Christians. That's the first lesson he's trying to teach.
The second lesson he teaches is the lesson of dependence. Verse 8. And he commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only, no script, no bread, no money in their purse, be shod with sandals and do not put on two coats.
Here's what I want you to do sometime. Read what I just read to you. Mark chapter 6 verses 8 through 9 and then read Exodus 12 11. Exodus 12 11. God's people are about to leave Egypt and go into the desert for 40 years. And all the things that they left behind is the same thing Jesus mentioned right there, the sandals and the script. It's almost like Jesus is saying to these disciples, the same God that provided for the people of Israel for 40 years in the desert over there in Exodus, that same God is going to provide for you as you go on this short-term mission trip. Implication, God is our provision. Now on them, people ask me, Chad, aren't you afraid to preach the kind of things that I'm about to preach in about five minutes? Aren't you afraid your church is going to fire you, the deacons are going to fire you, how are you going to make ends meet?
And I say the same thing. My provision does not come from this church or deacons or other pastors. I am dependent on God. He is my provision. And beloved, that's not just for me, that's for you.
Now I mean that. God is our provision. And that's what Jesus is trying to say to these disciples.
Same God that provided for Israel in the Old Testament is the same God is going to provide for you. I read this one, I don't know if this is true or not, but supposedly a quartermaster general of the U.S. Army did a study on what would it take to provide for, keep in mind, there were about three million Jews in the desert for 40 years. And this quartermaster general said, three million Jews, here's what they would have to have. They would need to have 1,500 tons of food every single day. That's equivalent to two freight trains each a mile long filled with food. They would need 4,000 tons of firewood every day. That's several freight trains a mile long. They would need 11 million gallons of water every day. That's enough to fill 1,800 tanker cars on a train.
That's a train of tanker cars 20 mile long. Just for the water day after day after day for 40 years. And Jesus is saying, that same God who provided for them, he's going to provide for you as well. God is our provision. And beloved, when you start to learn that lesson, when you start to understand that God's my provision, it's honestly very liberating. That's not what he's saying.
This is a short-term mission trip. The way we know this is not a permanent situation, get rid of everything, just have one pair of shoes and whatever, is if you look over at Luke chapter 22 verse 35, at the end of Jesus' ministry, Luke 22, 35, here's what Jesus says to his disciples. He said, hey guys, y'all remember back in Mark chapter 6 when I sent you out on that short-term mission trip? Did God provide for you then? Yes, he provided for us. And then Jesus said something. He said, that's great, but now you better get some money and put it in your pocket.
Put it in your belt. If you don't have a sword, you better go get a sword. You need to stock up because tough times are coming and you guys need to get ready. Implication, what we're reading here in Mark chapter 6 was a short-term situation. Are you with me on that?
Okay. But my big point is this, God is our provision. You see, this is why worship, honestly, is so important. When you have a small God, when you need provision, here's what you ask yourself. Is he going to come through for me? Will you have a small God in your mind? Is he going to look out for me? Small God, big anxiety.
Big God, small anxiety. If a man called you up and said, I know you're in a lot of debt and you can't pay your debt back. You got college loans, mortgage, house loans, you're underwater. My name's Bill and I want to get you out of debt. And you say, how do I know this isn't a telemarketer?
How do I know this isn't a prank call? Now, it wouldn't make any difference if a guy named Bill calls you up and says, I'm going to pay for all your stuff. I'm getting you out of debt. But what if that guy named Bill who called you up had a last name of Gates? His name is Bill Gates and he's not just any connection. He's actually your biological father.
Do you think maybe then you won't be quite as anxious about paying your bills? Can I tell you something? Our father is the one who created Bill Gates who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He has never let the righteous be forsaken. He's never let his children beg for bread.
He's going to provide for you. And Jesus is saying, I got to teach you the lesson of dependence. The parallel passage in this is Matthew Chapter 10. Matthew Chapter 10 is talking about the same thing here in Mark 6.
In Matthew Chapter 10, Matthew adds something. Jesus said, guys, when you all go out on a short-term mission trip, do not go to the Gentile villages. Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Implication, Jews are lost without Jesus Christ. There's this thing going around today that Jews are covered and we don't need a witness to Jews and Jesus is saying, no, they are the Jews. They're not as lost as the Gentiles are. They're the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But at any rate, he's saying, go and preach this message to the Jewish people.
Now, here's the interesting thing about this. It was Jewish custom, Jewish culture. When a Jew left Israel and went on a business trip to a Gentile country, before he would come back to Israel, do you know what he would do?
He'd shake the dust off his feet. Basically saying, I don't want this filthy pagan Gentile dust messing up this beautiful, pure, sacred land of Israel. So I, as a Jew, shake the dust off my feet so that Israel will not be defiled. And here's what Jesus is saying.
It's very interesting. When you go into that Jewish village, if they reject you, you do to them what they do to the Gentiles. You shake the dust off your feet and say, fine, we'll go preach somewhere else.
Church, we got this thing all wrong. Jesus doesn't say, if they reject you, beg them to accept, cajole them to accept. Become a salesman for Jesus. Take a survey of the Jewish village, find out what their felt needs are, and then try to respond to those felt needs and make my message as countable as possible to that Jewish village.
That's not what he says. He says, preach the gospel, proclaim repentance. If they receive the gospel, praise God. If they don't, dust your feet off.
And go somewhere else. We got this thing all messed up, church. There's a, see, Jesus is a, he knows human minds and human nature better than anybody else. Have you ever heard of this term before? There's a psychological term called the law of least interest.
Have you ever heard of that? The law of least interest. Here's what that law says. Those who have the least interest in the relationship hold the power in that relationship. And the wife wants the marriage to work. And the husband just doesn't care. And she's begging and cajoling, and please don't leave. I'll do whatever it takes.
And he doesn't care who holds the power in that relationship, the husband. And Jesus is saying, church in America, the law of least interest is in effect. Y'all are begging and pleading and want this culture to accept you, and they don't accept you, and your feelings are getting hurt.
And when you get into this relationship, here's what you do. You preach the gospel. You hold the gospel out. If they receive the gospel, praise God. If not, shake the dust off and go somewhere else and preach the gospel. It's an incredible lesson that Jesus teaches.
Now, I'm with him on all this. He's teaching him on this short-term mission trip. Be in connection with other Christians. That's so important. Be dependent upon God. He's gonna provide for you. I love that, don't you? He said, look, don't get your feelings hurt.
If they don't receive you, just go somewhere else. We're good with all that. Here's how I'm about to lose some of you right now. The fourth lesson he teaches them is the lesson of messaging. Verse 12. What's their message?
To soar with the eagles, not four keys to success, not your problem is a low self-esteem and you just need to think better about yourself. Do you know the message he set his man out to preach? It is repent. Repent means you're a sinner. You're headed for destruction. You're about to fall into the hands of an angry God. You need to repent, turn away from your sins, and turn to Jesus Christ because your sin will destroy you.
There's still time. Turn away from your sin and turn to Jesus. That's the message. And that's not the message we're hearing from the American pulpit today.
It's not popular. But church, you and I are calling this world to turn from their sins and turn to Jesus Christ. And some group of people have got to start raising their voices and say, it is wrong. Hey, the sexualization of our children is wrong.
Taking your kids, I know you're a cool mama and you want to fit in with the end crowd, but taking your kids to a drag queen library reading is wrong. Right by an instant. And what Jesus is saying is I want my followers to say, we're not perfect. And we're not.
Good grief. I'm the most imperfect one of all. We're all messed up people. That's not what I'm saying.
What Jesus is saying is a group of messed up people who have found salvation in me have got to stand up to a world headed for destruction and say, you got to repent. You got to turn away from this mess. It's not going to be popular. I'm just telling you. You think we got some heat 10 years ago?
It's about to get worse. One of my favorite preachers was a man named Joseph Parker. He preached in London in the 18 hundreds. And he has a quote from a sermon that I go back to periodically. It's a good reminder to me.
Parker says this. There is but one in for such a man, and that's this off with his head. Therefore, you have better not try to preach repentance until you have pledged your head to heaven. America has stopped being a moral voice and preaching repentance. And why is the church stopped doing this? I mean, I'm serious.
I've been doing a little bit of analytics here. Why is the church in America preaching success and five keys to reaching your goals and all that? But we're not preaching repentance like Jesus told us to. Why are we off message?
That's my question. Why are we off message? I think we got two reasons. Number one, the church is not quite sure what is morally acceptable and unacceptable.
We're as confused as the rest of the world. The New Testament teaches us very clearly. You can call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but this is the New Testament. The New Testament teaches there is behind the scenes this world system, these world powers that are really calling the shots. You don't know their names. They are unelected, but they are the morals behind the scenes, and they tell us what's right and what's wrong.
If you don't get away from that book, then you just start listening to them. And we're seeing, look, they are confusing. They are capricious.
They are arbitrary. And because the church doesn't have a connection to the word of God, we're listening to this weird behind the scenes world system telling us what to believe and what's right and what's wrong. Let me give you an example of this. Last week, it blessed my heart. I mean this. It blessed my heart to see when that NFL player got hurt. People just dropped into the knees and prayed. I loved watching ESPN and having that guy on ESPN, that Christian on ESPN. He led everybody in prayer. That was beautiful. Hey, last night before an NFL game, the players met midfield, and they all dealt, and they all prayed, and I thought it was beautiful.
Here's my question. I thought we told Tim Tebow you can't pray on the football field. I thought we told Tim Tebow you can't pray on the football field.
I thought we told Tim Tebow you can't pray on the football field. Beastiality, no, for the time being that's off limits. Incest, we're gonna say no but come back to us in a couple of years. Pedophilia, dude, Disney's time to do its work and then come and talk to us and we throw all these things out.
Now, autoerotic asphyxiation, hmm, that's what killed that guy from NXS, no, let's not do that now. And as a result, the church is absolutely confused as to what is right and what is wrong morally. The reason we can't say repent is we don't know what to repent from. So why don't we just make this a lot less confusing and go back to this book. Sex is between one man and one woman in the context of marriage, that's pretty clear in the church.
So that's the first reason. Why aren't we preaching repentance? We're not preaching repentance because we don't know what to repent from, we don't know what's right and what's wrong.
Second reason, and I'm sorry if you invited your cousin here today or your coworker, whatever. The second reason the church in America no longer preaches repentance is we're as messed up inside the church as the world is out there. We are as perverted as the culture. Jesus, again, he says something very interesting. In Matthew chapter 10, Matthew's account of this, he says, disciples, go to the Jewish villages, the villages of Israel, and preach repentance. That was blasphemy in those days, why? Because the Jews said, well, we're God's chosen people, we're God's congregation, we're God's church. The Jews might need to repent, but we're God's holy people.
We don't have to repent, and Jesus says, no, I want you to go to those villages and say, you might have a religion in front of your name, a denomination in front of your name, you may tithe, you may whatever, but you are not right with God, even God's people need to repent. Now, I'm going to, all right, so Chad, why is the church, you said the church is as morally messed up as the rest of the world. Why is that? Now, I'm going to, I've intentionally avoided talking about this. I've been waiting for somebody else to talk about this, and nobody else is talking about it, so I guess I'm going to have to talk about it. Here's why the church is as messed up as the rest of the world. It's because pastors in the American church have lost their moral bearings, and we are sexually as perverted and messed up as the rest of the world. We have churches being led by perverts, and then we wonder why the church is perverted.
The world does not respect us, and it's not just because of our message. It's because every week there is a new scandal from a new pastor, forget about liberal churches, I'd expect that liberal churches, no, this isn't Baptist, charismatic, Pentecostal, quote unquote, Bible believing churches, every week there's a new scandal, and you wonder why the world doesn't respect us? You wonder why the church is in a mess like this? I can blame all you all for, it's the way pastors, it's the lifestyle of the American pastors.
Let me give you some examples of some things I've just read over the last, this is just the last couple of weeks, okay? And look, I'm not going to get too much into this because I already got a cold and I don't want to get nauseated as well, but listen, a little while back, not too long ago, the pastor of an Assemblies of God church in Miami got busted flying around his mistress and having trysts with her in lavish hotels all over the country. Do you know how he got busted? He got caught because he took one of his mistresses to a Boston Celtics Miami Heat game and the pastor got drunk and wandered onto the basketball court in the middle of the game. And you're wondering why they've stopped respecting us? Last week, a mega church in Texas that claimed to be one of the fastest growing churches in American history at one time, the pastor just, he's left his wife and his kids and married a massage parlor owner with a seedy background.
And you wonder why they stopped respecting us? Mega church pastor in Virginia just a couple weeks ago got caught by the authorities for soliciting a minor. He is back in the pulpit preaching while they sort the things out with the authorities. We've had the Hillsong mess, the Ravi Zacharias mess, the former president of a major denomination mess, and that's why we're not preaching repentance. That's why pastors don't preach repentance. It is very psychologically disconcerting to try to preach something that you're not living out.
And I don't know, I'm seeing this pattern all over again. I've got a friend that pastors in another, he's not a friend, he's just an acquaintance I went to school with, he pastors in another state. He's part of a mega church leadership. He was brought in to that leadership because the former pastor got caught up in a scandal, got fired from his church, and then started a new church right down the road where all he does is preach grace and forgiveness. And that's the pattern I'm seeing, church. I'm seeing it time and time and time again, and I've been waiting for somebody to say something and it's deafening what I'm hearing from the pulpit.
Here's a trend I'm seeing over and over and over again. Number one, a man builds a mega church. Number two, he gets cocky and has an affair. Number three, he's kicked out of his church. Number four, he starts a new church down the road where all they preach is grace. And then number five, he becomes judgmental toward those who have a negative reaction toward that. That is a prime signal that that man has not repented. And he judges me for saying, I don't think that's right. He's not repented yet.
And yet we're seeing that happen over and over and over again. I'll set my watch to it. Well, Pastor Chad, did you hear that Pastor so-and-so had a moral failing? Did he?
Okay. He's going to leave his church, start a new church, and bash the rest of us in three, two, one, go. And it happens. I hear people say, how about pastor, look how far he fell. Yeah, but you don't know how low he was living. Now what should somebody like that do? A pastor like that should join a church. You understand God, he can forgive anybody of anything. Can God forgive that pastor? Absolutely. My goodness, I'd be a miserable man if I didn't believe in a God of forgiveness. Can he forgive that man?
Absolutely. But here's what you need to do. You need to go join another church, serve on their parking team, maybe be on their guest reception team, get a secular job. But here's the dirty secret. There's an adrenaline rush in being in front of the people.
There's adrenaline rush in being the center of attention. And most guys just can't walk away from that, so they're going to go start their own church. And churches need to say to guys like that, we love you, we thank God for you, God used you in a mighty way to bless our lives, but you're never getting back in that pulpit again. You are disqualified from being in that pulpit. And they'll say the same thing, Chad, you don't believe God can forgive you? Yes, I believe God can forgive.
I don't care if you're a pastor, God can forgive you. Well, but what about King David? King David had an affair and God forgave him, which he did, and he restored him as king, which is true.
Two things with that. Number one, King David was not a pastor. You're telling me you're holding pastors to a higher standard than King David?
Absolutely. Ministers of the new covenant have a higher standard. Secondly, look at King David's life after the affair.
He lost his family, he loses his kingdom, things do not end well for Davids. Don't throw that one out. And so church, I'm just saying, I know you're just staring at me, I don't like it, you don't like it, but I'm just saying to you, there's got to be a standard of holiness and it starts with the pastors.
Meanwhile I'm at it, since I made half of you angry, let me just go all the way here. It's kind of gotten back to me that we got young people in our church who feel no qualms about having casual hookups, casual sex, and coming here on Sunday morning. If you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ and you have no problems having casual sex, this isn't the church for you, because I'm trying to get the bride ready for Jesus to come back.
He's coming for a holy bride, a pure bride, a sanctified bride. I heard a story one time of a theater manager that came out to a packed theater and he said, we got a problem. There's a little bit of smoke in the back, we're not sure what's going on. If you guys would just leave for a few minutes, we'll take care of this problem and we'll bring you back in. And he walked off and everybody just in stunned silence.
And then somebody said, wait a second, he's just acting. Man that's powerful. They start clapping. The manager comes back and says, what are y'all clapping for?
Marvelous, marvelous. You were so convincing. He said, no, no, there really is a fire behind the stage. We need you guys to leave. And the more he pled for them to leave, the more they cheered and they were on their feet cheering. We've never seen acting like this before. And according to that story, the fire swept through that theater and many were killed because they thought this was just a little game. And sometimes I feel like that, standing up here entertaining you, talking about the judgment that is to come.
I'm not playing a game. God is coming back. He will rule this world. He will judge righteousness. God is a holy, righteous, pure God, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a wrathful God. We've got to preach repentance.
And I'm out of time, but let me just do one more lesson here. Fifth lesson that Jesus teaches his disciples is power. Look at verse 13. And they cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick and he healed them. It's interesting. The disciples go out and say, all right, Jesus, you tell us we have power over sickness.
I'm telling you that. They just believe what Jesus said, they anoint people with oil and they get healed. It's interesting. You never see Jesus anoint with oil. Did you know that? Because oil symbolizes the presence of the divine. Jesus didn't need oil to symbolize the presence of the divine because he was the divine presence. And they cast out demons. One cessationist scholar that believed the miraculous gifts of the seas, I was reading his thing on this this past week, he said, now look, we are to follow the disciples' paradigm here of preaching repentance. Obviously we're not called to pray for the sick and cast out demons.
My question is, why not? What in that passage says preach repentance, but don't pray for the sick and cast out demons? Hey, I believe we are called to preach repentance and take authority over sickness. And I believe we are called to cast out demons. And the question always comes about, why are we not seeing this in the church in America? Why is the church in America not casting out demons the way the first century church did? There's a lot of reasons, but I think it goes back to this purity thing I was talking about. You can't sleep with Satan on Saturday night and then cast him out on Sunday morning. It doesn't work that way. I just believe when the church in America rediscovers the fear of God, holiness, purity, righteousness through the power of the Holy Spirit.
When we start taking our walk with Jesus seriously, when we start living in a holy reverence, a holy fear of God, I believe we're going to start having the power to do that again. You know what? Look, you know what a swamp is?
Sorry, I'm getting all tangled up here. You know what a swamp is? A swamp has no power. It's dead. It's kind of smelly. It's stagnant. No power.
Listen to me. A swamp is basically a river with no boundaries. But you take that swamp and you put it between two boundaries, and the stiffer and stronger and higher those boundaries are, the more powerful that water becomes, and it stops being a swamp. It becomes a powerful river. It's a river that is clean. It's a river that is pure. It's a river that drives things. It's a river that makes things happen.
A swamp is simply, listen to me, a river with no boundaries. If the church of Jesus Christ in America will rediscover the boundary of holiness, the boundary of the fear of the Lord, of righteousness and purity, when we rediscover those boundaries, we stop being a swamp and we become a mighty river that changes the world for Jesus Christ. Just stand with me right now, because what Jesus told those disciples to proclaim, I now proclaim to you and I proclaim to me. It's time to repent, and repentance starts with those three powerful words, I have sinned. Second Samuel 24, 10, David said, I have sinned. Second Samuel 24, 17, David said, I have sinned. Psalm 41, 4, I have sinned. Psalm 51, 4, I have sinned. Micah 7, 9, I have sinned. Matthew 27, 4, I have sinned. Luke 15, 18, I have sinned. And it's time for us to say, I, that's personal, I'm going to stop blaming everybody else.
She's a cougar. She's out to get me. No, no. I. That's personal. Have, that's positive, I positively sinned.
Not may have, not could have, I have. That's positive. Sinned. That's pointed.
Not oops, not a fumble the ball. No, I've sinned against a holy God, and I turn away from that sin, and God, I plead the blood of Jesus over me. God, I have sinned.
You're storing to me the joy of my salvation. Maybe that, maybe that revival would start right here, as you bow your head with me and you pray, and as the Spirit of God points out areas of sin in your life, you say that to the Lord, I've sinned. Father, forgive me. Not lived up to the holy standard of your word. Father, I have sinned. God, we turn away from our sin. Father, I pray for a mighty spirit of repentance to saturate the church in America, that we will rise up as imperfect, unholy people cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and begin walking with clean hands and a pure heart. God, restore the power of your salvation to the church in America. We have sinned. We have sinned.
People of God said amen. Now church, listen, I'm not here to give you a downer. I'm really not. I don't want to make you down.
I don't want to leave you here depressed. I know it seems bleak, and I know this sounds trite, but I'll say it again. I've read the end of this book, and in the end, we win. Jesus is coming back.
Y'all believe that? Jesus is coming back. Jesus Christ is going to set up his throne.
Jesus Christ is going to make everything right. He's going to judge wickedness. He is going to be the king.
He is going to be the ruler. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. All the earth will praise the name of Jesus.
May the people of God raise their hands and say, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. All the earth will shout your praise, our hearts will cry, these bones will sing. Great are you, Lord, all the earth will shout your praise, our hearts will cry, these bones will sing, great are you, Lord. It's your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise, pour out our praise. It's your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise, pour out our praise. It's your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise to all of you.
Church, I was thinking about this the other day. In these last days, and these are the last days before Jesus comes back, what is the one trait we're going to need more than anything else to thrive in these last days? Do we need to love? We need to be loving. Do we need to be kind? We need to be kind and humble and all that, but if we're going to stand strong in these last days, there's one trait we need more than anything else, and that is spirit-inspired boldness, confidence, courage, conviction.
That's what we need. It's getting crazy out there. You stand against that world system, they're going to come at you, so if you're a wimp, you ain't going to make it, and that's why every week I try to speak a blessing like this over you, this old Hebrew blessing, chazak ve'ematz, al ta'erat va'adiket, hi imchah adonai l'hecha b'hor ashet alach, which means cross assembly, be bold, be strong. Y'all are going to be afraid, and you're going to be terrified of anything, because the Lord your God is going to be with you everywhere you go this week, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit we pray, amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Go change this world with Jesus Christ.
