Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday August 20, 2024. Turning On the Lights! Tuesday August 20, 2024 Matthew 25 and final Judgment
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters and welcome to a very challenging edition of Turning On the Lights! It is challenging not only because of its content, which I hope causes you to think about your salvation and your role as a disciple of Christ; but challenging because the internet is week, masons are drilling and hammering all throughout the church, and I am inundated with messages and phone calls!
We get through it though, and I think we do a pretty good job overall of teaching what it means to be prepared and WHY we MUST be prepared.
God bless you and we will talk to you on Friday.
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, August 20, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, August 20, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Good morning. Good morning. My brothers and my sisters. Welcome to turning on the lights from the church town Church of God. A very busy church town Church of God. Today, we have a lot going on here at the church first among them. We are crawling with masons today. No, not masons like the ring wearing people actual masons who are repairing a lot of the brick work and pointing and making all kinds of improvements and repairs on the exterior of the church today. So shout out to Keystone Foundation. They are here making repairs so that we can be watertight and so that the brick doesn’t come down. Good morning, Sandy. So anyway, there’s going to be some drilling. There’s going to be some banging and pounding and there are people walking and crawling all over the place. So I am in the church office here. This is where I sit this not all the time. I rarely actually there’s some beautiful the artwork and pictures the two you can see our pictures. One’s very old one’s rather new and then one is a painting that a congregational member did a long time ago. So I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this place. There’s not much to it and I really only use it when I’m copying or when I am sometimes I clean it up if we have counseling or meetings or things of that nature. Otherwise, it’s very utilitarian in nature. It’s not a fancy office with a library and all of those different things like a lot of pastors have. I live in the parsonage right there. So that’s where I work. I work from the parsonage with my dogs and all of that. So that’s my story. There’s a lot going on in my life right now. There’s a lot going on at the church right now and but I thought it would take a little bit of time with you all today and maybe get into and finally talk about Matthew 25 last Friday was very good. I thought we talked about what it means to be a pastor and what it what church can and should look like and sound like and be like as we move forward in Congress. As we move forward in congregation and I talked about small churches. I talked about what I knew of larger churches and that sort of thing and like I said, I I’ve learned other than straight up heresy. I’ve learned to not criticize deeply how people are trying to share the gospel in whatever context they are. Like I said, you can tell heresy right? No, Jesus was not the Christ of God. No, he didn’t die on the cross. No, whatever element of the gospel they choose to deny you can tell straight heresy and I will always speak and teach you preach against that. But when it comes to how individuals are trying to deliver the gospel in whatever context I would I take a wait and see attitude or is it authentic? Are they authentic? Or is their you know heart in the right place? Ultimately only God can judge that but we can certainly judge their behavior and their actions. So there’s more than one way to get this done and we tried to bring that across here at Church Town. We are one we know everybody and it’s been interesting. We’ve had a lot of folks coming in to check things out. People have been inviting. I always encourage everybody to invite them to church a friend to church somebody who’s struggling to church that sort of thing. I don’t know what the percentage is, but it’s a very high percentage of people who go to church for the first time go to church for the first time because they are invited by somebody who they trust. That makes sense like you’re completely unsure the whole church thing. You’re about to walk into a whole group of people that you don’t know so it makes sense that you would morning attach yourself to somebody who you trust. Good morning Brandon. Good morning everybody. It’s good to see everybody this morning. You’ll have to forgive me. Medium high pollen alerts go figure and now as the as we close off the summer which is my favorite time of year late summer right late summer is my favorite time of year and maybe that’s because I grew up in a football family and late summer from the time that I could walk meant that we were on the field. I was on the field with my dad and then I was on the field as a water boy then I was on the field as a player then I was on the field as a coach. When you get that first whiff of fresh cut grass in late August still brings tears to my eyes not only because I remember pop but because of the that was my life until I was oh my goodness 44 you know it’s my favorite time of year. Let me get into fall and all of that stuff but late summer there’s a small window of late summer three weeks or so that is just perfect in the cicadas. I tell the story every year. I have I have neurological bilateral neurological tinnitus or tinnitus however you choose to pronounce it. I have ringing in my ears constantly loud ringing in my ears had it my entire life nothing they can do about it born that way and the only way that I can describe it is it sounds like cicadas so I don’t mind this time of year at all when the cicadas are out matching the tone in my ears and I can it’s like freedom when I’m walking the dog or I’m outside or whatever whatever the case may be it’s like freedom from that sound and I love cicadas and that’s the reason why I’ve always loved cicadas. How much more do you want to know? Do you have any other questions about me you want to ask? I’m volunteering a ton of information. Good morning Renee. Good morning everybody. Father God we pray your word will go out this morning and it will turn heads soften hearts and make your kingdom grow ultimately as your disciples that’s what we are charged with. Go and tell in Jesus name. Amen. So we talked a little bit about that on Friday and oh I was saying we’ve been having visitors you know people coming to the church and a small church environment is different in the sense like I said we know everybody when we are finished with our time in the word we have a little transition and then we just take the time and we just talk and people talk about praises and prayers and talk about things that they’ve done they talk about how their garden is growing they talk about we talk and then we pray and to a lot of people that can be too intimate if you will. I mean the reaction here at Church Town seems to be one of two things and it seems to be more in the favor of wow that was pretty neat but it’s one of two things and that is way too intimate for me like I couldn’t imagine being a part of this and being this close I need a larger church where I can sort of hide more and it’s not a criticism that’s a reaction or wow like this is what church is and so it doesn’t seem to be too much middle ground when it comes to that but we are who we are and I tell everybody that I see for the first time what you’re going to see today is completely authentic and we’re going to laugh and we’re going to mess up and we’re going to laugh about messing up and we’re going to get back on track and we’re going to do all of these things and so that’s who we are we’ve been talking I don’t know how I got back to Matthew 4 we’ve been talking about oh I know that was the final word last week this these last set of parables when Jesus before the last supper and what we call the passion and to the cross and you know resurrection all crucifixion resurrection all of that he is doing his final set of teaching and again these are teachings that people are going to kind of understand then because there were those who believed that he was the Christ but after resurrection and the understanding of what the kingdom of God is now where the temple of the Lord is now and where we go from here this in between time that we’re still living in where we are spiritual beings in this physical body we are regenerated by the power good morning Nicki we are good we are regenerated by the power of God’s Holy Spirit we are living in the kingdom of God we are called to expand the kingdom of God we are called to speak against and walk against and fight against the forces of evil that are trying to destroy God’s image bearers we’re in this messy in between time now and these parables help with that because we’ve been in this in between time for a while now haven’t we and so we learn to keep our lamps full and we learn not only to keep our lamps full can you guys hear that drilling if that drilling is annoying let me know and I’ll shut the door but we learn to keep and not only full we keep them full and we have all of this extra oil to continue the metaphor from the power of God’s Holy Spirit that we in this in between time with the parable of the three servants to take what God has given to us each according to his abilities in God’s sovereignty giving us what we exactly what we need and exactly what he wants to give us taking what he has given us and making the most out of it in his kingdom not burying it right fearing God in an unhealthy way and just burying our salvation the power of God’s Holy Spirit and just cowering and waiting to die basically and hoping we go with him we are called to do the most that we can with it and some will it will look like to us because we’re very egotistical that some have a lot and I don’t have much doesn’t matter God says it doesn’t matter if you have one bag or three bags of silver right you’re called to do live life to the full follow God’s will make the most out of what you are given so these are the two parables that we’ve covered in preparation for the second coming of Christ and they’re important to know and to understand and it is important not only to know and understand them but to be very intentional day after day about living them it’s hard believe me over the past few weeks there have been sequences of events here at the church and in my personal life that have been so distracting to me I’ve been wrapped up eyes off of Jesus eyes on the issues the problems and it’s so easy to do and you know I’m living proof and you’re living proof because I know that it’s happened to you as well we all have our testimony about that but I’m telling you that God is always there I will never leave you or forsake you always there turn to him eyes up on the cross one foot in front of the other some days it’s on I was doing a little bit of a I was sharing with the individual I’ll be doing a funeral on Saturday it begins hour by hour maybe minute by minute hour by hour and then by the power of God day by day then by the power of God week by week maybe month by month maybe season by season right and then by the power of God day by day then by the power of God week by week then by season right because the individual said time will fix it no it doesn’t fix it but by the power of God you can become you can learn you can grow and become from this experience in an even greater way in a greater capacity so it is the power of God that we fixate on not the issues at hand so here we go and I’ll read the last paragraph of the parable of the three servants because the last section about final judgment begins with but so in order to know right but in order to know what was kind of coming after the but we need to know what’s coming before the but and we’re always talking about our big Christian buts right we’re always it’s been a kind of a running sermon joke here about our big Christian buts like I love Jesus but I want to I’m Christian but well I believe that in in the love of God but like we’ve got all these buts like we want Jesus and we want the world all at the same time and you know you need to choose you need to choose scripture makes it very clear Jesus makes it very clear who do you say I am do you believe this Mary right all very clear that it’s one or the other but we live with our big Christian buts because we want it all as human beings so here we go verse 28 of Matthew 25 and then we’ll go into the but then he ordered take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver to those who use well what they are given even more will be given this is what we were talking about and this is the lesson learned by the servants of the master make the most out of what you have to those who use well what they’re given even more will be given and they will have an abundance but from those who do nothing even what little they have been given will be taken away I’m not going to preach through this but there are a lot of instances in scripture teachings of Jesus commentaries by Paul and Peter and John that seem to indicate that yes you can experience an authentic conversion at least you can experience a meeting of the Lord right and then turn your back on that and this is something you talk about eternal salvation or the I don’t want to get into all the weeds about that but there are so many scriptures like that this servant of the master was given the gift he chose to do nothing with it and he feared the Lord in an unhealthy way not in all and rev and he was given a little he did nothing with it he had a very unhealthy view and relationship with the Lord and his gift was taken away make of that what you will but from those who do nothing even what little they have will be taken away now throw this useless servant into outer darkness he’s pretty clear where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth but when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him then he will sit upon his glorious throne all the nations will be gathered in his presence and will be set and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates sheep and the goats he will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left here’s final judgment right here’s final judgment Jesus comes sits on the throne and judges now we have already had two great lessons about being prepared and about making the most of the gifts that we are given Jesus will judge who is prepared and who has made the most out of the gifts they were given Jesus will you can look at all the other Christians that you want to you and then that’s kind of what I said it’s kind of what I talked about when you’re looking at a church and judging what a church does and how a church does it you can judge by the words that come out and by the actions that are made and we’re called to rightly judge according to scripture and that’s how we know that if they are preaching blasphemy that sort of thing then we understand that that is not a Christian church and there are lots of places that call themselves Christian churches that are not Christian at all and they ignore scripture or they change scripture or whatever the case may be and we that’s easily judged right because we have God’s word but we need to be careful if somebody is taking God’s word and simply presenting it in a way authentically and in full but in a way that we would not necessarily present it and so that’s where we need to be very careful and understand the fruit that may come from that and all of that all to say that ultimately regardless of what we may think or how we may judge Jesus is the judge he will come and he will judge. Good morning, Jane. And that’s what we need to learn in this verse 34. Then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world for I was hungry and you fed me I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and you were a and you gave me clothing I was sick and you cared for me I was in prison and you visited me then these righteous ones will reply Lord when did I ever see you hungry and feed you thirsty and give you something to drink or a stranger and show you hospitality or naked and give you clothing when did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you and of course you know the scripture and the king will say I tell you the truth when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters you were doing it to me. So we understand this from that and a lot of social gospel preachers will take that and say look it means it’s all about the marginalized Jesus is all about the marginalized and there is certainly a degree of that inherent in the text when we talk about those who are don’t have power don’t have authority don’t have resources do we care for them and certainly that is a part of it but it really let’s relate it back to Jesus’s teaching before what we are doing when we are loving caring for these people we are living out the great commandment to love God with all of our heart soul strength and mind and from that power of God we love our neighbor as ourselves it doesn’t say that you you give drink to the Christian brother or sister it doesn’t say that you clothe the Christian brother or sister it says basically that you demonstrate who Christ is by loving your neighbor who is my neighbor my neighbor is a fellow image bearer of the most high God what do you do how do you live your life are you ready first of all do you have the power of God’s Holy Spirit in you that’s the first parable yes are you living it out are you making the most of the gift that you’ve been given that’s the second parable and by doing this loving God loving your neighbor you are living it out so Jesus is no fool thank you very much I need it these past couple of weeks Rick I’m telling you man I’m everything from a theologian to a contractor things that you they don’t teach you in pastor school so why don’t we take a break there we’re going to finish Matthew 25 we’re going to wrap everything up on Friday but they these are the words and fuel for thought as we move forward through this week being full of God’s Holy Spirit that’s our oil in our lamps and it is a never ending supply God does not grow weary. He does not sleep God does not rest in the sense that he will stop providing for you in the sense that he will remove his spirit from you making the most of the gift that we have been given we’ve been given the gift of grace do we demonstrate grace to one another do we demonstrate grace to other people can we love our neighbor as ourselves does not mean that we are doormats it does not mean that we simply allow evil to roll over us because we’re just supposed to love everybody it means there are lots of teachings that we can get into about that but we enter in to any even confrontation with God’s love first the offer of salvation the offer of the good news because you you even love your enemies enough to share that with them what they do with that information that’s on them your command is to live it and to share it and so that’s where we are right now with that sheep and the goats and you’re going to hear on Friday that Jesus Christ never preaches the gospel partly
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