What Are You Waiting For?!
Lessons From The Fall Of Judah & Jeremiah
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good morning welcome if you're new here Among Us my name is Gene and you can just call me Gene I'm trying to come up with new ones today before we begin I want to share with you a very popular historical sermon illustration it's been used for many many many many years since the birth of our country kind of threw me for a loop because I started second guessing myself on some of the details and so if I get them wrong well you can just complain to me after the service directly to anyway so if you're familiar with American history and it turns out a lot of people aren't because I was asking questions this morning and no one could really give me the answer but crossing the Delaware River probably saw the painting I'm assuming that these two events are connected otherwise blame all the pastors who came up with these illustrations before me but anyway Battle of Trenton New Jersey right so I think I got it right military people is that correct across the Delaware River anyway Trenton New Jersey there's this German commander commander over even the British troops General raw or no Colonel Raul Colonel Robb and he's there hanging out playing cards he's assuming nothing's going to happen people are giving him some warnings he's largely ignoring it so he's in the middle of this card game and a courier comes to him with an Urgent Message what does he do puts it in his pocket don't do anything about it at all finishes his card game takes the nut out reads it oh we watch General Washington's coming but it's too late so it ends up costing him his life a whole bunch of his men and everybody else he's captured it was too little too late it was written about him later and I'm not sure I tried to look this guy up too Nobert Quail but the statement is poignant only a few minutes delay cost him his life his honor and the liberty of his soldiers Earth's history is strewn with the wrecks of half finished plans and unexecuted resolutions tomorrow is the excuse of the lazy and The Refuge of the incompetence so it's a very strong statement but as we're seeing in the rest of the story how true is that when we look at the Biblical history very true we see a lot of putting things off a lot of procrastination well it's not happening to me now so I'm good but they're not so we're going to continue I'll do a little recap if you're totally new and this is new to you I try to kind of anchor it to David because a lot of people understand you know King David so if you go back a little further you may not know they want a king so you start reading first Samuel right so he's the prophet that anoints King Saul but they're warned like you don't want a king but they reject God so ideally the right way to think about the Bible is that we don't want a king we want God God should be enough and that's right from the Garden of Eden all the way through when they start asking for a king that's a problem God is Not Enough right so fine I'll give you a king don't worry Samuel they're not rejecting you they're rejecting me and so this is what happens and then it just goes down so for hundreds of years that's what we've been looking at this whole history of just the decline they end up with a civil war even Solomon's not so good because of him right Obama and all the his ancestors bad bad so the kingdom splits Israel in the north falls first and the South we're looking at Judah now we come to the point where it's the end it's just about over in the series we've been weaving the prophets through right the Bible is not chronological and even some of the books of the Bible are not chronological so you got to take the prophets and put them back in so we looked at Daniel we looked at Ezekiel we look at Isaiah before that then we looked at Jeremiah now we're going to continue looking at Jeremiah so here's the thing it gets confusing but the backdrop here now is that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon took away jehoiah chin and so there's a king with Ezekiel over there right there's also a Kings zedekiah the puppet King that he put in charge so that's just just the context of what's going on here that's what's going on in the background so what I did because of these parallel accounts I made you a chart all right the jokes about the cartoon uh are done I'm done with those so we're just gonna move on but I didn't draw that I can't draw like that but I made the chart and like I got about halfway through and wish I didn't because it's very confusing so about halfway through the series or where we are now I got a parallel Bible someone asked me is there a chronological Bible finally found one it's okay this helps a little bit but some of the places I was like I'm not sure about this really right so I got another chronological gave it to me actually it's a very old one and I'm like goody another Chronological Bible no it wasn't good at all because the two Bibles don't disagree they don't agree with one another so even Scholars cannot make up their minds on this and where it goes so I tried my best to put this together from scratch for you but it's so much that you can see there's two columns right so one two then you gotta move over and go down and you could see how some of the books of the Bible they run in parallel right and then all of a sudden it breaks and we gotta hop over to Jeremiah but you see even when you're in Jeremiah it's not chronological so in order to put it together you have to start like tearing out pages and putting them don't do that and putting them back just you can use the chart if you want the chart it's in the app or it should be in the app if you really really want the chart you can email me right so come up to me after service we'll exchange information and I'll email it to you did I say email it to me I don't know anyway second guessing myself a lot today so as you can see really difficult to put together but it's interesting and that's how we're going to run today don't worry I'm not going to read all of it to you we're going to get out of here in time for lunch upstairs one thing to note if you're a real Bible nerd I left out some of the prophecies to the other nations so what I want to do you got to balance this stuff like chronologically and topically and so I want to focus on zedekiah and Judah right so I want to get too distracted but I told you I'd send it to you you don't have to write it down diligent student keep writing it's good I like that they're great but anyway so I'm just I want you to focus on this particular part of the story right so if you start jumping around too much you're going to be like you know where are we it's already very confusing so we're going to start off here in parallel ish so we're gonna go to Second Chronicles 36 and here we have Jeremiah 52 and second Kings 24 kind of lining up put that up on the screen there all right so I'll do second chronicles first because there's some different ish information zedekiah so that's the king the puppet king that's left there was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 11 years but zedekiah did what was evil on the side of the Lord his God and he refused to Humble himself when the Prophet Jeremiah spoke directly to him from the Lord he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar even though he had taken an oath of loyalty in God's name zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man refusing to turn to the Lord the god of Israel so similar information in the next two and then it gives us kind of like a window into what's going to happen right he's finally banished right from his presence and sent get sent into exile so there you go we get the point moving on now we'd have to go and jump over to Jeremiah 37 just like that with the noise and everything Jeremiah 37 1s that akaya son of Josiah succeeded jehoia chin son of jehoiah Kim as the king of Judah he was appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon but neither Kings at ikaya nor his attendance nor the people who were left in the land listen to what the Lord said through Jeremiah getting a theme Here not listening nevertheless King zedekiah sent jehookal son of shalimaya Zephaniah the priest son of mayasia to ask Jeremiah please pray to the Lord Our God for us Jeremiah had not yet been imprisoned so he'd come and go among the people as he pleased at this time the army of pharaoh hofra of Egypt appeared at the southern border of Judah when the Babylonian Army heard about it they withdrew from their Siege of Jerusalem then the lord gave this message to Jeremiah this is what the Lord the god of Israel says the king of Judah sent you to ask me what is going to happen tell him Pharaoh's Army is about to return to Egypt though he came here to help you then the Babylonians will come back and capture the city and Burn It To The Ground this is what the Lord says do not pull yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians are gone for good they aren't even if you were to destroy the entire Babylonian Army leaving only a handful of wounded survivors they would still stagger from their tents and burn this city to the ground so you are done so what does it play here and get confusing with all the names right so jehoia chin was taken away during this first kind of Siege going on right they're still doing it they're still attacking Jerusalem well you may think Ethiopia or Egyptians how are they helping these people out well it's hundreds of years right so after you know God redeems them from Egypt so they'll make alliances with other countries to kind of save themselves and that's one of the alliances they have so now during The Siege the Egyptians come and it kind of scares the Babylonians away just think of it that way and what is said to Jeremiah from the Lord is like ah they're not going to help you right so when God sets out to punish them that's it it's it's going to be final so that's what you have in your mind but this is very very unpopular so profits not popular people Jeremiah 37 11 when the Babylonian Army left Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's approaching Army Jeremiah started to leave the city on his way to the territory of Benjamin to claim his share of the property among his relatives there but as he was walking through the Benjamin gate a century arrested him and said you're defecting to the Babylonians the century making the rest Was Elijah son of shalimia grandson of hananiah that's not true Jeremiah protested I had no intention of doing any such thing but Elijah wouldn't listen and he took Jeremiah before the officials they were furious with Jeremiah and had him flogged and beaten and whipped and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary Jonathan's house had been converted into a prison Jeremiah was put into a dungeon cell well where he remained there for many days while he's in prison zedekiah is kind of curious so he sends for him all the time he's constantly asking him questions right so do you have a message from the Lord yes I do Jeremiah says he's like you will be defeated by the Babylonians now Jeremiah then levels his complaint why I'm in prison basically what crime have I committed why am I here I'm going to die if you keep me in prison so zedekiah first he's like okay let him out give him bread as long as we have any right so just take care of him and he puts him in better quarters he puts him in like the jail in the palace so it's nicer it's more comfortable there but here's the thing Jeremiah has some haters so we turn the page Jeremiah 38 1. now shivataya son of maytan get a lie of the son of pasture jehookel son of shelimaya and pasture son of melkaja don't try that at home her or do heard what Jeremiah had been telling the people he had been saying this is what the Lord says everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war famine or disease but those who surrender to the Babylonians will live their reward will be life they will live the Lord also says the city of Jerusalem will be will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon who will capture it so these officials went to the king and said sir this man must die that kind of talk will undermine the morale of the few fighting men we have left as well as that of all the people this man's a traitor King zedekiah agreed all right he said do is your life do as you like I can't stop you so kind of reluctant so here's what happens it's not funny actually they take him and they lower him into his sister and the picture a well with no water in it what's at the bottom of a well that used to be a well nor lots of mud so a picture like quicksand he gets stuck down in the mud and they just leave him there for dead they're like you're done so really horrible punishment but interesting little sidebar ebed melek it's an Ethiopian Court official comes in so he's not one of them really but he comes in to try to save him and he goes to the king and tells him what's going on the king says okay take 30 men go save him but he does an interesting thing he smirked he's prepared he goes and gets some Rags essentially because he knows what how are we going to pull him out right not with chains and a winch right so we're going to use ropes but what are the ropes going to do they're going to hurt when you try to get them out of the mud so he throws the rags down and has him cover his arms with them so not only does he save him he's very very kind to Jeremiah right so Jeremiah says was returned to the Courtyard of the guard and placed in the Palace Prison at this time so now what you have is again this back and forth between Jeremiah and the King he's sending for him and if at first he's like you're not going to listen anyway right you're not going to listen to my advice so whatever you know what why should I bother but he says no I I want to know and he lets him know basically you need to take this punishment and it'll go well for you but if you keep rebelling against if you stay here in the city not so much even the women are going to taunt you when this happens right so what's the idea the big idea again is that they're supposed to take this punishment but it's not yet really coming for him so zedekiah thinks like I'm just better in my current condition he's also afraid of the other Exiles that are there right remember he's the puppet King the real king is there with the Exiles taking the punishment so they might kill him he thinks so the idea again going back like what is going on here like why is the Lord if you're new punish him remember these people have done horrible things they've killed their children so they're not just worshiping other gods like we do in church right they're really like putting their money where their mouth is they're killing their own children to these gods and that's detestable to the Lord that's very wrong that's just one of the things that they're doing so and when they run out of food what are they doing eating their own children so it's just they're terrible they deserve this punishment and the idea is that God and he can use anything is using the Babylonian King to enact this punishment on them that's it he's a tool for the Lord they need to take it so the equivalent of like zedekiah would be like hey go in time out and your kid goes nope I'm staying right here and watching TV right so that's that's what's going on here they're being stubborn they're not taking it but there's extreme procrastination going on here he figures I'm good it's not happening yet okay so now if we jump around I'll give you the chart for just a second because this is where if you look at the top middle that's where Ezekiel came in so I haven't been doing this completely chronologically again because I want you to get the topic right so we saw two different things The Watchmen on the wall right and then we moved on to Ezekiel the bulk of Ezekiel happens a little bit later so this was the Watchman on the wall stuff and the Ezekiel Bread remember we talked about that kind of funny so that's where that happens and then we go back to Jeremiah 27. and so on Jeremiah 27 this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord early in the reign of zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah this is what the Lord said to me make a yoke and fasten on your neck with leather straps and send messages to the kings of Edom Moab am entire sidon through their ambassadors who have come to see King zedekiah and Jerusalem give them this message for their masters this is what the lord of Heaven's armies the god of Israel says with my great strength and Powerful arm I have made the earth and its people and every animal I can give these things of mine to anyone I choose now I will give your contrise to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who is my servant I have put everything even the wild animals under his control all the nations will serve him his son and his grandson until his time is up then many nations and great Kings Will Conquer and rule over Babylon so you must submit to babylon's King and serve him put your neck under babylon's yoke I will punish any nation that refuses to be a slave says the Lord I will send War famine and disease upon you upon that Nation sorry until Babylon has conquered it so I yoke not an egg right so it's something that like two animals they put that over them so that you know you can use them they stay in the same direction to plow a field right so you're going to be put under a yoke like that like plowing slave animals right that's the idea well there's a lot of false preachers out there and so there's warnings about that right false prophets they're promising that there's going to be Prosperity so that's the backdrop here so Jeremiah 28 1. one one day in late summer of that same year the fourth year of the reign of Kings zedekiah so you see the timeline moving king of Judah hananiah son of azer a prophet from gibeon addressed me publicly Jeremiah talking in the temple while all the priests and the people listened he said this is what the lord of Heaven's armies the god of Israel says I will remove the Yoke of the king of Babylon from your neck within two years I will bring back all the temple Treasures that the King Nebuchadnezzar had carried off to Babylon and it will bring back jehoiah chin so that's one that's away son of jehoiah Kim King of Judah and all the other captives that were taken to Babylon I will surely break the Yoke that the king of Babylon has put on your necks I the Lord have spoken so we know it's not true right because what Jeremiah said right on behalf of the Lord not true at all so we've talked about this a lot in the past right these false teachers lots of them out there and so it's both sides of the coin as Christians we're going to have times where we have trouble and there are going to be times of prosperity and we just hope and pray for that Prosperity right and so Jeremiah kind of does that he shows up he's like amen amen I hope what you say is true that would be absolutely wonderful but there were many prophets before me and you who prophesied disaster right so you're not telling the truth so he leaves but then the Lord says go back and tell him that you know what you've broken this yoke so hananiah takes it off he breaks the wooden yoke left that part up breaks the wind yoke and so go back to him and said all right you've broken the wooden yoke but now I'll replace it with a yoke of iron over you and you know what you're gonna die because you're a false prophet sure enough two months later he's dead so that's the episode there warning against false teachers so now if you wanted to be real chronological issue go to Jeremiah 51 essentially the Crux of that again it's like one of these warnings to the other nations but there's some interesting imagery going on uh write this down for Babylon and so tie it to a brick the message on the scroll throw the scroll into the Euphrates river and it's going to sink and in the same way Babylon will sink never to rise again that's Jeremiah 51 in a nutshell again Ezekiel 5 through 23s probably here now we see the Babylonians come back and The Siege begins again so zedekiah he rebelled so on January 15th through the ninth year see the time Move Along of zedekiah's Reign King Nebuchadnezzar Babylon LED his entire Army against Jerusalem they surrounded the city and built sea dramps against its walls Jerusalem was kept Under Siege until timeline 11th year of King zedekiah's Reign note self to the note takers this is probably ish where ezekiel's wife dies chapter 24 of that book now they're under siege Jeremiah 34 new King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with all the armies from the kingdoms he ruled and he fought against Jerusalem in the towns of Judah at that time this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord go to Kings zedekiah of Judah and talent this is what the Lord the god of Israel says I'm about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will burn it down you will not Escape his grasp but we will be captured and taken to meet the king of Babylon face to face then you will be exiled so a little too little too late King zedekiah tries to free the Hebrew slaves there so they have their own people that they're enslaving they really shouldn't be doing and so now you see this throughout history when someone knows they're going to be overwhelmed or overcome they'll let the slaves go and things like that uh every man for himself or maybe they'll fight for us because they have some type of investment here so that's what happens Jeremiah 32 though it's too late so we'll hop over there there's a land purchase kind of interesting in the 18th year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar and the 10th year of the reign of King zedekiah just before it falls in the 11th year the idea here is that the Lord tells Jeremiah that his son Hannah Mel is going to come and he's going to say by my field bless you at Anna sauce right so Anna thought this interesting Jeremiah 1 1 that's where Jeremiah is from so remember he was trying to leave through the Benjamin gate and go that's like where he's going to get so there's this land transaction we see Baruch or Barrack show up again we talked about him in this series right so the point here is that it symbolizes he's going to buy this land he buys the land and then he makes a declaration right in front of everybody this is what the lord of Heaven's armies God of Israel says take both the sealed document and the copy of it and put it in a pottery jar and preserve it why because you're going to be restored someday you're going to come back here and you're going to have that property so you know prove that you own the property that's really what's going on here if we continue right through 32 and 33 we have Jeremiah's prayer there's some recalling of all the great things that God has done for Israel but despite that they have been disobedient but despite that they will be restored and so that's kind of the pattern of the profits that continues on and on we see kind of a cool Messianic prophecy says that in the future time the descendant of King David's line will come he's going to be called the Lord is our righteousness so prophesying about restoration after the 70-year Exile but then even better in future restoration so finally we come to the end of it by July 18 in the 11th year of zedekiah's Reign the famine in the city had become very severe and the last of the food was entirely gone then a section of the city wall was broken down since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians the soldiers waited for Nightfall and escaped through the gate between the two walls behind the King's Garden then they headed toward the Jordan Valley but the Babylonian troops chased the king and overtook him on the plains of Jericho for his men had all deserted him and Scattered they captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at ribla where they pronounced judgment upon zedekiah they made zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons then they gouged out zedekiah's eyes bound him in bronze chains and led him away to Babylon Jeremiah lets us know he remains there blind and in prison until his death so the last thing he sees is his family getting killed just to mention here we did this in the series before a lot of different versions of the Christian Bible have been around for years that may shock a lot of people but the earliest copies of the Christian Bible going down to like the mid 300s uh they will include more books than a lot of people have in their bibles if you look to more modern times 1560 King actually the Geneva Bible that has more books in the Old Testament and so does the 1611 KJV more bucks in there so among those books you're going to find like the Epistle of Jeremiah reflecting on these things limitations of Jeremiah but in most all Bibles you're going to find Lamentations right after Jeremiah if you finish Jeremiah you get your five chapter book Lamentations and there are these like psalmish laments like songs of Sorrow about what just happened so we're not going to skip those books acknowledge them you can read them on your own so we see that there is a huge Danger in procrastination a huge Danger and we see that a lot through this series some Kings last a long time right and then some Kings they do okay like King Hezekiah but what's the Thought at least it won't happen in my time I'm good still a form of procrastination that lands on somebody else interesting and the prophets they're begging these people right risking their lives to see it they're like no it's not okay stop it right they're like couriers to General raw hello are you seeing this this bad stuff is going to happen well it's not happening now so whatever all right so here's the thing we talked about the Watchman on the wall all right so last time when God calls us to do crazy things we did a huge chunk of Ezekiel but if we go back just before that the Watchman on the wall right and now here's what happened I'll tell you I'll tell you a secret about preaching because sometimes people will say to me you're not going to say that are you right oh okay I shared this with my wife you can go as hard as you want because the majority of the rooms thinking about someone else that's what's happening they got someone else in mind so you can say something hard and they're like oh yeah that person's doing real bad at that right so that's it they're displacing it let's not do that right so we're all the Watchmen on the wall right that's Christians that's what we are we're the Watchmen on the wall and we gotta tell everybody right you're going to hell you know like that's that's our job right we got to get out there and do that and what I did a good teaching on that I think right yes yes but we have to do it lovingly that's the way and once they've heard it they've heard it the blood's not on our hands but we just like keep doing it to the same family member right like over and over and over and over and over again does it just get some more stuck in the mud doesn't get them anywhere how is it working have they changed their mind after like 30 years of saying the same no no right but we're the Watchmen on the wall that's how we picture ourselves okay how about we turn it around What If instead of the Watchman we do that what if we just hold up a mirror all right what if we're the the ones the recipients of the warning let's look at the other side of that today it might be healthy so zedekiah here's Warren but he procrastinated right doesn't heed the warning and there were others that were happy to encourage him to stay put like hananiah the false Prosperity prophet but it had consequences they were warned but they didn't act on it so again theme of The Watchman a lot of people don't know Ezekiel 3 that's where that is it comes up again in Ezekiel 33 then after it we see this pay attention Ezekiel 33 30. son of man your people talk about you in their houses and Whisper about you at the doors they say to each other come on let's go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying so my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you they listen to your words but they have no intention of doing what you say their mouths are full of lustful words and their hearts seek only after money you are very entertaining to them like someone who sings Love Songs with a beautiful voice or plays find music on an instrument they hear what you say but they don't act on it but when these peop these terrible things happen to them you know as they certainly will then they will know a prophet has been among them so they listen but have no intention of doing what you say Ezekiel I feel you are we any different in the church today are we any different right we're the Watchmen right but are we any different and this is a big thing we asked ourselves we did a Corinthian series like 10 million years back right so you don't remember it but anyway this was the thing right so a lot of Christians if you're familiar with First Corinthians especially you know they're crazy and so I did a whole book and a whole series those crazy Corinthians are we any different though so I know the book pretty well first four chapters it's all about Pastor worship do we do that Pastor worship all right do Christians have like this person that is just like one little hair away from God right that they worship doctor something so and so or Bishop Apostle this that and the other thing Pastor worship Paul's really upset about the pastor worship really upset they're like babies Acosta so I come at you with a rod he's upset I'm glad I baptized none of you he's mad about it who is Apollos who's Peter who's Paul first issue are we any different five through seven main issues lawsuits at the top six main issue sex are we any different eight through ten meet sacrifice titles overlying context what is that well they're squabbling over secondary doctrinal things Paul's worried about the church splitting he wants Unity that's happened like 40 000 times since Paul right why because we squabble over non-gospel things right most you know Christians they're real Christian churches you know they'll tell you they preach the same gospel but they preach a whole bunch of other different stuff and they've split over it are we any different in that context First Corinthians 10 6. so he's talking about the Israelites right he's talking about things in the past and how they're being disobedient and he says something important of them these things happen as a warning to us so that we would not crave the evil things as they did wisdom is learning from other people's mistakes but as I think Benjamin Franklin said experience keeps it to your school but but fools will learn in no other foreign people ignore These Warnings because nothing really bad is happening right now like zedekiah right still got my Palace I've got all my stuff I'm good nothing bad's happening yet people ignore the warnings because they're in this like little comfortable space it's not that bad but yet you're eligible too all right you're watching me on the wall careful remember to be humble and receive the warning it's not happening yet so maybe the consequences haven't come yet but what happens when the future becomes now now just because you don't feel the consequence immediately doesn't mean it isn't impending that isn't coming as we can see long drawn out consequence sometimes the longer you stay in that complacency that sin whatever it is the worse the consequence is going to be sometimes the longer you're in that the worse it's going to get as we can see here sometimes it enables the procrastination keeps you there but we must live in the noun and so we got a little sidebar story even melick right he sees the now and he goes for it and waste any time and so there's one of those little acronym thingies now no opportunity wasted yet how are we wasting opportunities that God's just practically spoon feeding us here's the thing you may still have time but maybe not much so if that's you you're putting things off procrastinating if you're hearing this in your breathing that's you breathing still have time you still have time but now now and I've said this in the past very quickly see a lot as a pastor of a church a lot and some of that is death we're all going to experience it and some of that happens early and it's sad but it's not so sad like Paul says first Thessalonians 4 right we don't have to grieve like those who have no hope Hebrews 10 doesn't matter how bad it gets because we know that there are better things waiting for us huh Philippians better for me to go and be with the Lord that is the proper Christian attitude right so sometimes it is comfort that leads to complacency it can cause us to procrastinate so we looked at Revelation last week we're going to hop there so the seven churches and so basically if you don't know much about Revelation the first three chapters are basically like report card letters to the early church then that's really what it seven churches there and five of them it's essentially like you did this well or doing that well but and then all the bad things they're doing only two churches give pass we'll go to the last church later to see it Revelation 3 15. I know all the things you do that you are neither hot nor called I wish that you were one or the other but since you are like lukewarm water neither have a cold I will spit or vomit you out of my mouth you say I'm rich I have everything I want I don't need a thing and don't you realize that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Jesus points to the spiritual I advise you to buy gold for me not literal gold clearly gold that has been purified by fire then you'll be rich also by white garments from me so you'll not be shamed by your nakedness and ointment for your eyes so you'll be able to see I correct and discipline everyone I love so be diligent and turn from your indifference basically what are you gonna learn why aren't you doing anything because you've been comfortable and distracted lulled by the enemy into indifference that's what's going on here there are many today in the modern Church we're doing the same thing this letter could just be we change it to Naples big problem here actually that's one of our top problems that's a problem they even ain't able to procrastinate because they're in a very comfortable place put it off and again this is a real thing in Naples there will be plenty of prosperity teachers to tell you you're fine you're good in fact keep piling on more of that stuff that's causing you to procrastinate let's focus on that those who are not focused on that have the real Faith that's what faith is the things that are not seen that's where your focus is if you have faith think about it for a second kind of logical right but Jesus despite his warnings he's calling wake up stop it don't listen to Jesus you know don't take the warning as we get to the end of the book the conclusion of the Bible if you're indifferent it's not okay comfortable place can be a dangerous place Jesus tells us why if we go to the beginning of chapter 3 Revelation 3 1 write this letter to the angel of the church uh in Sardis or it could be Naples right this is the message from the one who has a seven-fold spirit of God in the Seven Stars I know all the things you do and that you have a reputation for being alive but you are dead wake up strength in what little remains for even what is left is almost dead I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God go back to what you heard and believed it first hold on to it firmly repent and turn to me again if you don't wake up I will come to you suddenly as unexpected as a thief and that it's not Jesus's first warning that's just as we get to the end as we get to the end right so if you go to the gospel of Matthew it's in there lots of orange I think of Matthew 24. if we go to the gospel of Mark Mark is often called in the gospel of immediately and it's not necessarily if that is that word is used more than in Matthew but it really stands out it's only 16 chapters as opposed to Matthew it's 28 and you just see everything happening immediately even that word being used a lot in a good translation so Jesus the the spirit immediately is baptized he immediately comes up the spirit's immediately on him and then he's going out he's getting his disciples right so you have Simon Peter and Andrew he calls him follow me right and immediately they follow immediately right so John James they're in the boat mending the Nets follow me immediately they leave the business so you got to think about all these guys have a fishing business right it would be like and don't do this if you work for someone else it's not nice give two weeks notice but anyway if it's Jesus right so you have this business it's really important to you like Jesus is like nope come follow me immediately immediately they leave clearly drop the Nets and leave them in the boat bye called right out of the world immediately immediate immediate immediate it's like that it goes fast why well Jesus tells us Matthew 13 34 the coming of the son of Mandel he's talking about now his second coming a sense goes to heaven we're not sure when he's coming back please stop speculating about it and he's going to come back but the point is be ready be ready right he's coming back we're waiting for that can be illustrated by the story of a man going a long trip when he left home he gave each of his slaves instructions about the work they were to do and he told the gatekeeper to watch for his return you too must keep watch for you don't know when the master of the household will return in the evening midnight Before Dawn or a day break don't let him find you sleeping when he arrives without warning I say to you but I say to everyone watch for him Jesus instructs us to stay alert be ready what did he say in Revelation meet the requirements right now we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ keep reading Ephesians 8 9 and 10. we are created why well for good works that's what it says go and read it Ephesians 2 8-10 we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ some people that's it why for you are God's Masterpiece or craftsmanship created for good works that's the rest of it and if we read all the way to Revelation ah you're going to see in heaven it says the Liars won't be there that's what it says you get to the end of that book so what you do matters what's the thing here well you know there are a lot of people calling themselves but if you're a Christian you're filled with the Holy Spirit and so what are you going to do you're going to produce fruit that's what Jesus says judge a tree by what the fruit not what they say James you can't just be a hearer of the word you need to be here and a doer of the word wake up I really believe in a large way that's what the church needs to hear so as we close let's reflect me all of us all of us like what what can we change to be less conformed to the world Romans 12 but transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit it says in that chapter so that we can even love our enemies we've been through that in this series it's an important chapter of the Bible right how can we just humble ourselves to see ourselves not better than everybody else to see our own Character defects reflect on them and ask the Holy Spirit to change them so that we can we can bring people in through love that's how it's done there's sacrificial living that's what's important let's be mindful of God being watchful or Ezekiel and the whirling wheels and I explained that the eyes what did that represent he can see everything you can see everything we need to be mindful of that right it's important now right before I closed it I just want to because it's a tough message but it's kind of what Jesus says over and over and over and over and over again right so why should what I say be any different that would be highly problematic so I want to invite you to be the church so if you're not so if you come here when I do in the morning kind of early-ish it's great because you just see a very active Body of Christ you just see people without being told what to do they're just doing stuff and that's kind of how we operate here they're up in the kitchen they're making food all this different stuff so there's food for you and it's good right so they care it's like oh they're going to be some hungry people here or just people I want to fellowship with and love on good let's make food for them and you see people during they're just running around cleaning the bathroom whatever it is they're just doing things right they see a problem they just fix it that's it because they are the church so I want to invite you into that to be the church get into service somehow right maybe there's something you do you can bring a gift a talent to the church something we've been looking for if you see stuff it's a pastoral technique sometimes you leave a mistake somewhere so that someone goes up to you and says hey did you notice this pastor I said oh good I was looking for someone to take care of this thank you very much watch what you complain about because sometimes you're being set up anyway so call to action we're just a very if you saw our website you should read the website if you haven't we are not trying to be a mega church I'm not trying to be rich and famous been there done that right so if you know my story in my past I'm over it right so done with that our vision this room fills up we have a couple overflow areas that's it right that's it if I can't remember your name after like three or four tries I'm not your pastor that's it all right so I hear about this guy's pastoring me like on the internet like no no no no no no no no no a real Pastor pastoring all my people I know you you know me what we're developing relationship and so that's one of the things I just want to share with you so after the service today if you've never met me you want to come up meet me that's fine we can exchange numbers I text out a proverb every day to my people I know it's not an Autumn my wife had to remind me of that like they don't know some of these people that it's not automated it's not automated I pray for every single one of those people and praying for you in the morning sending the proverb out so you want my number fine seven to seven Sunday through Friday otherwise leave me alone I need some family time right anyway it's a lot of hours so I love you right and that's how we do it and so you're gonna start there right get involved you can fill out a card if you're shy or worried about getting bit um or a connection card wake up or through through the phone right you want to do that you know so like you're just like I don't know talk to that guy he's crazy about it last week the unfortunate couple like they just said hello to me and they ended up talking about or hearing about the Bible for like an hour my wife's like you got we gotta go now right so that could happen but if you like that you're good anyway through your phone connection card that's it I don't want Proverbs Debo I need prayer I want to get involved I know some of you got to go that's fine we're after church but during the week we're going to be told about opportunities you're going to have to serve really important I just want to end with just this encouragement to you I showed it or I had them show it like two or three weeks ago but here's the thing right A lot of people complain about the school district what are we teaching kids in school and then go on and on right instead of writing nasty letters posing things on the internet picketing in front of the schools all this stuff does any of it work never never and in fact it infuriates these people into doubling down that's what always happens so they're going to make it worse so what do we do and people ask me what are we going to do what are we going to do we're going to love on them we're just gonna love them and they're gonna ask why and that happened that happened it was amazing so check this out you want to bring God back into school yeah it ain't working the way you're doing it we did this and we found out that there was a need at the school we found out that Christians they're like they packed the backpacks they put all the school supplies in there and schools are like no we give those to the kids anyway like that's not the problem but you keep spending thousands of dollars on it and giving his backpacks we don't need what do you need nah not not well stuff we really don't want to deal with right so feminine hygiene products that for middle school that's a thing like okay check right sucks we're in Naples ah there's a part of Naples that we don't want to look at right so that's going on there sucks shoes we're running out of shoes for the kids we're like okay so we put together a whole bunch of this stuff we had some kits we had if we like to help people are experiencing homelessness and we sent that to the school that's it and we didn't like stick like a Bible verse in there that they're never going to read they don't know anyway no no bait and switch no strings attached just send it to them they know this is a church they're talking to my wife they're not pastor's wife right okay sent it to him we got back a letter on Collier County Public School letterhead talking about God now people will know where to go and they need help is basically the Crux of what they were saying see how it works results so just went a little bit longer today but I think it's worth it right praise God praise God don't worry we'll feed you afterwards too praise God that's how you make God known through love just love them love them love them that's my encouragement to you so effectively just together as a body that we're getting stuff done that's what you're supporting when you support this church that we want to be just a beacon of light in our own community that and we support foreign missions too but just we got to get it well here first right probably a good idea love and so just corporately we love individually love do the same thing you disagree with somebody's choices in their life where can I meet them what do they need serve them love them you might change their mind that way I've seen it happen they pray for you Lord thank you for everyone who came today taking the time out to do this in beautiful Naples with so many distractions they came here they chose to hear your word today I think everyone watching online for taking the time honoring the search to do that thank you but I pray I pray that you fill them with your Holy Spirit and enable them to get out there and be vehicles of Love grace mercy and peace in this community I pray this in Jesus's precious and holy name amen