Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:06] Good morning. If I have not had the joy to meet you, My name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. And we're going to start a few weeks series that leads us up to Holy Week, to Easter, and a couple weeks after that. And we really want to just take some time and prepare our hearts. It is. We are two Sundays away from Easter. In my brain, it is November. And so the fact that we're even in April is having a hard time with it. All right, So I like to repeat myself over and over again. So I'd like to do that again. Something you've heard me say probably 100 times.
[00:00:42] Nothing great in life is easy. So to accomplish something great, you have to have.
[00:00:52] And I kind of want to just, like, land on this word for a few minutes. Resolve. It doesn't take resolve to do easy things. It takes resolve to do hard things. Go back with me to the last century. The year was 1999, and I was 19 years old. It was my freshman year at Michigan State. Sorry. It was my senior year of high school. And my youth pastor got up and gave a message. And his message essentially went like this. The vast majority of you in this room, when you go to college, are gonna walk away from Jesus. And so most of the students, they kind of ignored it and they said, okay, whatever, but not me. Oh, no. I was like, challenge accepted. And so my thought was this.
[00:01:36] What's the point in spending all of this time growing spiritually if I'm just going to abandon Jesus when it gets hard? So Michigan State University, here I come. It is the fall of 1999. I vividly remember my first night. I'm laying in bed, I'm looking at the ceiling, and I made three resolutions. Resolution number one, I would study the Bible every day. At least a chapter a day. And when I mean study, I don't mean I'm just gonna read it to get through a Bible reading plan. I meant I was gonna slow down. I was gonna take time every day, and I was going to get into God's word. And so back in the 90s, it was, believe it or not, it's coming back. But it was cool to have baggy jeans. And so I had these jeans and I had a Bible with me. It was a small pocket, new American Standard Bible. And I would take it with me everywhere I went. And it had an indentation in my left pocket. So even when I didn't have the Bible in my pocket, you could, like, see, like something was supposed to be there. So everywhere I went I would make sure I was just reading and studying God's word. And then shortly after I got to Michigan State, somebody gave me a book called Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. And that book actually for me was a key that unlocked so much of the Bible for me. Now if you're thinking to yourself, I'm going to go buy Systematic Theology by Wayne grudem. It's over 1,000 pages, okay? It is not intended to be read cover to cover. It's more like a reference book. So like you're like, I want to learn about baptism of the end times. It gives you all the different views on a subject and all the relevant scriptures to it. And then it's just a really, really helpful book. And Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology just was like a key that unlocke theology and the scriptures for me. Resolution number two, I would not shy away from being a Christian or talking about Jesus in any class or in any paper. I also had a minor in religious studies, so religious and theological discussions were all the time. And so like I had a whole bunch of students or friends, sorry, of mine from high school, they would be in classes and one by one they would reject Jesus. The pressure of the. Prof. The pressure of the other students. People were asked in class, what do you believe? What is your faith? Again, religious studies. And I just watched them buckle one after another. And so I went out of my way and I was like, no resolution. I'm gonna make sure that for the ones who don't wanna give up, they're gonna know that they have a partner in this room who's gonna stand with them and be proud of Jesus revolution. Resolution number three. I would share the gospel every single day with at least one person. Now that was a lot easier then than it is now because you have to remember this is like a time where people were a lot more open minded. I was also on a with over 40,000 students and so opportunities were all over the place. Shockingly, I succeeded in all three of my resolutions. And do you know why I succeeded in all three of my resolutions? Because I actually made a resolution because I actually determined to do something. And we find is that most of our lives are just haphazard and aimless. But if you actually step back and you find something, something worthy of making a resolution about, you're gonna give yourself a greater opportunity of doing it. Now I did not know this at the time, but I was not the first 19 year old to come up with a series of resolutions. 277 years prior to my arrival on the campus of Michigan State University, there was a future pastor named Jonathan Edwards. And at 18, he just finished his undergraduate degree at Yale. He's a pretty smart guy. Took a year off and he spent time in New York City, really trying to figure out vocationally what his future was going to be.
[00:05:22] During about a two year period, Jonathan Edwards wrote 70 resolutions. You can go read them. I want to take just a few minutes. I think it's worth it. And I want to share with you my top 10 favorites of Jonathan Edwards resolution. And when we get into the text this morning, if you're like, you know what, I'm bored, you can go take out your phone, Google Jonathan Edwards resolutions and you'll be edified. So top 10, here's my first one resolution. This is his third resolution. It's on repentance. He says, resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull. He's talking about spiritually so as to neglect to keep any part of these resolutions. To repent of all I can remember. And I love this line when I come to myself again, unliving for God. Resolution number seven. Resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
[00:06:19] Number 40. Resolved to inquire every night before I go to bed whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, specifically with respect to eating and drinking. Okay, apparently he had a struggle there, on my words. Number 27. Resolved never willfully to omit anything except the omission be for the glory of God, and frequently to examine my omissions. Apparently some of us have the habit of omitting truth from stories. Number 31. Resolved never to say anything at all against anybody when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor and of love to mankind. Some of you are like, I'm going to make a poster of these. I'm going to put these in my kid's bedroom because my children, this is perfect. Not us, of course, just my children on my relationships. Resolved never to suffer the this is great. The least motions of anger to irrational beings. So here's what he means by irrational beings, animals or inanimate objects. And one guy wrote a biography on Jonathan Edwards, and he basically said this. He said for Jonathan Edwards, he believed that to be angry at animals or inanimate objects would be akin to being angry at the God who oversees and superintends them. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. As I copied and pasted this into my notes from his resolutions, something happened and I got frustrated with my dog and then think I stubbed my toe on. It was like literally 10 seconds after I wrote this. And the irony was not lost on me at all. Okay, resolve number 34 in narrations. This is the stories I tell. Never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity or truth on my family. Okay, I'm going to make posters for moms and dads. This is going above all of your kids. Resolved never to allow the least measure of any fretting uneasiness, that's irritation at my father or mother so much as in the least alteration of speech or motion of the eye on disciplines. Number 28. Resolve to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently as that I may find and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same. And here's the last of my top 10 resolved.
[00:08:52] Whenever I do any conspicuously evil action that means obvious and intentional, to trace it back till I come to the original cause, and to both carefully endeavor to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my mind against the original of it.
[00:09:12] So Edwards didn't know this at the time, but behind the scenes, God was working in America, preparing for a movement. And he was looking for leaders who were gonna be on the forefront of this movement. And it was called the First Great Awakening. So big was this move of God that it is estimated that around 10 to 15% of Americans came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. During this Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards had the privilege to be a pastor on the and leader on the front lines of this Great Awakening in his own church. It was in a city of about 1100 people. In a few months period of time, 300 people came to faith in Christ. That is just under one third of the entire city. And this was just a move of God happening all over, all over the nation in the mid 18th century. No one has accomplished great things without resolve. And the Lord is moved, apparently, by those sons and daughters of his who are resolved to live for his glory. All right, now open up your bibles. Luke, chapter nine. We're gonna be in verse 51. Pastor Michael, why are we talking about resolve? So here's what I wanna do this morning. I want to prepare us for Holy Week. So next week begins Holy Week. It starts with Palm Sunday, and then we celebrate Good Friday and then Easter where we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. And so really what we do at Holy Week is we hyper focus on two essential tenets of the gospel. One is the crucifixion of Jesus for our sin and our place. And the second is the victorious resurrection of Jesus. And so this is a time every year where we just kind of hyper emphasize these two doctrines. Now, too many people believe that Jesus was somehow a helpless victim or an aimlessly wandering nomad or maybe some sort of like really cool hippie preacher. And none of these, I mean, these couldn't be further from the truth. So let me set up our text in Luke, and I want to show you how the book of Luke is structured. So, so the book of Luke is structured in two big sections. Chapters one through nine roughly covers 32 and a half years. Okay, so nine chapters, 32 and a half years. The book just kind of moves at a pretty quick pace. You get to chapter nine and all the way to the end of the book in chapter 24, this period of time, it takes about six to eight months. And so Luke slows time down to a snail's pace. And here's what's kind of happening. He is emphasizing in chapters nine, all the way to the end of the book, Jesus's resolve to go to the cross to pay the penalty for sins. Okay, and so Luke makes this shift in chapter 9, verse 51, to slow time down with this phrase. It says in Luke 9, 51, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, it says this, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. This Greek word, to set his face. It means a firm, unwavering determination. It is someone who is obsessed with achieving a specific outcome. To set your face. Or in modern language we might use the word resolve. So the phrase actually comes from the book of Isaiah, written centuries before Jesus was ever born. And I want to show you this in Isaiah, chapter 50. And so here's what's happening in Isaiah 50. It's a prophecy of the Messiah. And the Messiah is speaking in this prophecy. And so one of the things that the book of Isaiah tells us about the coming Isaiah, coming Messiah is that he was going to suffer. He was going to suffer a lot. He was going to suffer physically, emotionally, relationally and socially. And so what you're finding here is almost this prophetic word that one day that's going to describe the Messiah. And here's what it says in verse six, says, I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. And so just first thing I want you to see here is that the Messiah is intentionally choosing this. The Messiah is not framed as a Victim, but a willful person walking towards suffering. And then in verse seven, here's what the Messiah says. But the Lord God helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced. Therefore I have. And here's the phrase, set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. And here's what the Messiah knows, and here's what Jesus knew. I can, as Luke 9. 51 says, set my face to Jerusalem, knowing for certain what awaits me there. Because all of the prophecies tell me that my God will not let me be disgraced. Now, some people, as you're reading this book, you might be newer to the Gospels, you might ask this question, why is it a big deal that he's going to Jerusalem? Why does Luke spend all of these, chapters nine to the end of the book, emphasizing, like, this journey of Jesus to Jerusalem? And I'll tell you why. Jesus has been to Jerusalem multiple times prior to this one as a kid and at least three as an adult. And here's kind of the impression that Jesus maybe left unforgettable, antagonistic, irritating to spiritual leaders. Let me just kind of show you what he did. His first visit as an adult, Jesus attends the Passover in Jerusalem, which is great. But then he does something really interesting. He makes a whip. He goes into the temple, throws over tables, throws money into the ground, and starts basically whipping. We don't know if it's people or just the ground to scare them. But guess what? That didn't fly over very well. Jesus, by the way, he's gonna do that again the week before he's going to be killed, right? But this is the first time he goes to Jerusalem. He's just throwing everything up, and he's just making a ruckus here. Do you think that the spiritual leaders of the day really had a high view of Jesus at that point? Probably not. Try this in any context and see if it goes well for you. Go to your business or your job this week and just throw tables and start making accusations. It'll go great. All right. His second visit to Jerusalem as an adult. He goes to the Pool of Bethesda. He heals a person on the Sabbath. Okay, here's what I need, Mark. I need a button. When I press the button, it's gonna go dun, dun, dun. Okay, so you get the dramatic, dramatic part of it. You don't heal on the Sabbath, apparently, because all the religious leaders had rules about the Sabbath. And apparently if you heal on the Sabbath, you upset all the religious leaders. And so they Were like, we don't like this guy. I think we should kill him. The dude just healed somebody and you're thinking to yourself, how do we kill him? Instead of like, where does that power come from? So then on this second visit, he doesn't just claim to be from God or prophesied about by Moses. He actually claims to be God. And they are so angry that the text literally says they're conspiring to kill him. On his third visit as an adult, he goes at a major holiday in front of all the Jewish leaders. They're trying to catch him. Cause they're smart. But guess what? When you get into a debate with God, who loses every time we do, and so they get into a debate with him, Jesus makes them look, honestly, completely like, foolish. They're embarrassed. They're so embarrassed. They're like, we need to go arrest this guy and finally kill him once and for all. They can't manage to do it. And he gets away. And then he heals more people on the Sabbath. You say it with me. Dun dun dun.
[00:17:25] Okay, so to be clear, Jesus had a big reputation and he deserved it. He was not subtle at all. Jesus was not nice to those who wanted to kill him. Jesus was not respectful to the Jewish leaders who were imposing unbiblical laws on people and keeping them away from a true relationship with God. He saw right through their false doctrine. He saw right through their motivations. He saw right into their heart. Perk of being God again is you can see past someone's words into their actual intentions. And what he saw were people who were up to darkness and satanic agendas and no good. And he just called them out for exactly who they were. So Again, in Luke 9. 51, it says, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. He's going back. And the disciples know if you go back there, they're not super thrilled about this. They're trying to kill you. So why are you going back? And then I want to. I want to show you this. I want you to see in the book of Luke, between after chapters nine, before he gets into Jerusalem, I want you to see what Jesus keeps saying to his disciples. Okay, so Luke chapter 9 and verse 21, he says this. He Jesus strictly charged them and commanded them to tell us to no one, saying, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes. And by the way, where do they dwell? Jerusalem. And be killed and on the third day be raised. A little bit later in Luke chapter 9 again verse 43. Jesus said to his disciples, let these words sink into your ears. The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. Luke, chapter 13, verse 33. Nevertheless, Jesus says, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following. For it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Where is Jesus focused on going? It's to Jerusalem. And why is Jesus on this fourth trip, as a third trip, as an adult, intending? What is he intending to do? He is intending to die. He knows exactly what's waiting for him. Luke, chapter 18, verse 31. And taking the 12, he said to them, see, we're going up to Jerusalem. And everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished, for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles. And the detail with which Jesus is articulating this is striking.
[00:19:56] And he will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. Remember Isaiah, when they spit upon him and they beat him, and after flogging him, they will kill him. And on the third day, he will rise.
[00:20:12] Is Jesus pumped up about dying?
[00:20:15] No. Death is ugly. It doesn't matter who you are and where you are. It doesn't matter if you die peacefully or painfully or in war or otherwise. Death is one of the ugliest, if not the ugliest thing on this planet. There is no part of Jesus that is like, I am thrilled to experience the pain of crucifixion, to be carrying on my body, soul and emotions the weight of the world's sin.
[00:20:37] There's no part of Jesus that is pumped up about this. But what you do have to understand is this. It's not the death, it's not the excitement about dying that is motivating him. It is what happens on the other side of this. Because all those people who said, you're not the Messiah, you're not the Christ, you're not the King of Kings, you're not the Savior of Israel, you're not the God, man. When he was raised three days from the dead, they were made to look a fool. And for the ones who had all the evidence that Jesus truly is the Son of God, and they went to their deaths. After the resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. He took his seat at the right hand of God the Father. Where every single person, when they die, who do they come face to face with? The risen, resurrected, glorious God man, Jesus Christ. And here's what he knows he is going to get his vindication. No matter how you slice it, every single person on the planet all the ones who mocked him, he is gonna look them in the face and he's gonna call them to account for their sin and prove without a shadow of a doubt who he actually is. And so Jesus looks to the cross, knowing that on the other side of the cross is salvation. And it is also vindication.
[00:21:49] Now let's go back to our main text, Luke, chapter 9, verse 52. Because what comes next I think is very striking. And Luke wants us to see some things. Verse 52, it says he sent messengers ahead of him. He's going to Jerusalem. Who went and entered the village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people, the Samaritan people did not receive him. Because this is interesting wording, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. So the Samaritans and Jews generally didn't get along. But this was really shocking, this rejection was shocking to Jesus and the disciples. Because the last time Jesus came through Samaria, do you know what happened? They received him and a whole bunch of Samaritans came to faith in Jesus.
[00:22:38] But when they heard the Samaritans that Jesus was not staying, but he was actually going to Jerusalem, they took this personally. And just a little theological insight to tell you why. What set the Samaritans and the Jews apart was the Jews believed that God's temple was going to be in Jerusalem. The Samaritans, they didn't believe that. They believed there should be a Mount Garrison. And it was a big fight. And so they actually separated and essentially created two totally different versions of Judaism. The Samaritans hated the Jews, the Jews hated the Samaritans. And it was largely based about where the temple of God or the presence of God should be. So Jesus comes in and says, I'm going to Jerusalem. And they were personally offended by this, apparently to the point where they said, if you're going up to Jerusalem, we don't want you here. Like, we'll believe in you. Jesus, as long as you agree with me theologically is essentially what the Samaritans were saying. And so what happens Next in verse 54 is actually pretty hilarious, particularly when you consider that These are probably 18, 19 year old boys, the disciples, all of them. But Peter says this. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
[00:23:53] Whoa. Verse 55. But he turned and rebuked them. Rein it in, buddies. Calm down. You need to make some resolutions. And they went on to another village. Look at verse 57 as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you, Jesus, wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes, birds of the year have nests. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
[00:24:19] In other words, the guy had great intention. He had no resolve. Verse 59 to another he said, follow me. But he said, let me first go and bury my Father. And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Again, guy, great intention. He had no resolve. Verse 61 yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to those at my home. Great intentions, no resolve. Verse 62 Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
[00:24:57] Luke is primarily trying to teach us about the resolve of Jesus to go to the cross to pay for the price of sins and be raised from the dead. But he's also writing this book for all the followers of Jesus who are going to read this. And he also wants us to know a thing or two about what does it mean to follow Jesus. Let me just poke for a minute and ask you a rhetorical question.
[00:25:20] Would you die for Jesus?
[00:25:23] And most Christians, here's what they're going to say, yes, I would die for Jesus.
[00:25:29] And Jesus point, it's pretty simple.
[00:25:32] Why should I expect that you would die for me if you won't even live for me?
[00:25:39] So likely, like, here's what Jesus was seeing in each of these three people, and you might read this and be like, man, Jesus is a jerk. I actually don't think that's the case.
[00:25:49] The enthusiastic guy, I'll go wherever you tell me to go. Whatever. Have you ever seen someone get really pumped up about something and then their follow through is really pathetic and minimal? This is really common. In fact, what you see is the people who have the most longevity, they don't get super pumped up excited at first. They actually build slowly. They're thoughtful about what they're doing, they make some plans. The best resolve happens out of intention, not just hyped up emotion. And Jesus looks at this guy and he's like, I already know that you have good intentions. You had a great emotional experience, that's wonderful. But you have actually no intention to follow through. And he knew this. The grieving guy who wanted to go bury his father. You might say, let the dude bury his dad, but here's a little clue in the text. Why is he even here if they're in the middle of a funeral service for his father. Like, clearly this is some kind of excuse. And so Jesus sees right through, and he's like, listen, if you're in the middle of a grieving process, you shouldn't be here. I know that you don't mean this, okay? He's going to go home and never show his face again. The third guy who just wanted to say goodbye to his family first, right, Jesus saw right through him. He's like, listen, you're going to go home, you're going to look at your mom and your dad and your brother and your sister, and you're single. But maybe I want to. I want a wife one day, and maybe I want a family. And then you're going to have all these regrets and you're never going to show up. So Jesus has played the game. He's seen it before. He's listened to a whole bunch of people. We believe. We believe. The Samaritans. We believe. We believe. I don't agree with you theologically. Ah, kill him, right? And so he's used to this game with people. And so he perka again of omniscience, of being. God is omniscience. He sees right past their words and right into their heart, and he just calls them out for it. All three of these men, they had two things in common. Number one, a deeply emotional experience with Jesus.
[00:27:33] They probably weren't in a church service. It happened probably as they heard him speak, they heard him teach, maybe they had personal conversations with him. His charisma, the love that he showed, the. The presence of Jesus was super compelling for the people who got to meet him and follow him.
[00:27:51] But they also had, number two, no resolve to actually follow through.
[00:27:58] Here's what I've learned about resolve. Again, I've heard a thousand great intentions. I've given Jesus a whole bunch of great intentions and not followed through. But I've learned about people with resolve, particularly those who say, I believe in Jesus, I wanna get baptized right now. Sometimes I'm like, rein it in for a moment because I see that you're excited, but why did you even become a Christian in the first place?
[00:28:20] And here's what I found. That the people who come to Christ because they are broken over their sin, because they realize they've offended a holy God, because they have realized that there is no way to receive forgiveness except through repentance and confession to God. That the people who actually come to God out of a conviction that they are a sinner and the blood of Christ is the only remedy to that sin are the ones that I have found who have the highest probability and resolve to endure. The people who are just like, ah, I just felt the love of God. I went to a church service and I just knew it was real. I heard some guy teach the. And he shared the gospel. And I'm like, oh, I just know God loves me. And that's all great, and that's true. But here's the deal. Those with a deep conviction of their sin before holy God are gonna be the ones who have the greatest resolve and possibility of enduring as a real and true believer. True Christians have imperfect but unmistakable resolve. They keep getting up. They have a determination like, okay, I've had a season where I'm off. I gotta just get back. Like, this desire to realign and this ability to make resolutions to. To live for the glory of God, imperfect as we are. All right, I wanna share with you a few. So what's three of them? Number one, write your own resolutions in your phones. You have this thing called a notes app. It's really wonderful, and it saves everything you write. And then it syncs up to the cloud androids. What do they call them?
[00:29:49] Notes. Notes. Okay, good. So we're all on level playing field right now. Okay? You've got notes, no matter who you are. And if you have a BlackBerry, I cannot help you in any way with that. I don't think they even make them anymore. Okay.
[00:30:03] You don't have to write all your resolutions all at once. It took Jonathan Edwards about two years to come up with 70 resolutions. And he did this in two primary ways. Number one, by reading God's Word. And so here's what would happen. He would read God's Word every day. He would seek to study it. And so typically, like, when you're reading God's Word, it doesn't blow your mind every time you read it, right? Like, you don't read God's Word and just have this deep sense of conviction every single time you pick it up. But every once in a while, if you are faithful, it's like there's a text of scripture that just pops up and the Lord convicts you or breaks you or puts some kind of vision on your life. And I'll share with you. One time this happened for me. I was reading years and years ago, the book of Jeremiah. And I'll be honest, I was just trying to get through the book. I was bored. I wasn't paying attention. And I came across Jeremiah, chapter 20, verse 9. And as soon As I read it, my heart was pierced, and I went back and I read it again, and I read it again to the tune where it is now. If you get an email from me, it is on my email because it's like my life theme verse. Like, as soon as I read it, I was like, this is what I feel like inside. And here's how Jeremiah 29 goes. Jeremiah says, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in. Indeed I cannot. And I read this, and I was like, this is my life verse. This is how I feel about God's word. Like, I only do a couple things like that I'm super excited about in life. And one of them is I love teaching God's Word. And it was like God was like, this is what I made you for. The reason I gave you this obsession with the Word of God and sharing with people is because this is part of what I've called you to. And every once in a while, you get these moments where the Lord uses his Word. And if I was going to make a resolution, one would be resolve to faithfully teach the Word of God. At every opportunity, the Lord opens up before me. Well, Edwards resolutions were also the result of a second practice of his, and that was evaluating his own life and sin struggles. And so he would reflect on his life, and he would be looking at his sin. And then there's. Every once in a while, there are these sins that just plague you, you know, and you're like, I'm done with them. I don't want them to be a part of my life. And so he would study his life, and every once in a while, he would make a resolution based on his sin struggles in his life. And, guys, you don't have to have a new one every day. You wait and you say, you know what? I'm gonna make a resolution and come back to it on a regular basis because nothing will happen without some kind of aim and direction. So at number two, prove your resolve through taking your next step. I like to keep things as simple as humanly possible.
[00:32:52] I think most of you in this room know exactly what your next step is in your relationship with God. You may not want to face it, you may not like it. It might petrify you, but you know what it is. For some, it's an act of obedience that you have been postponing. For some, it is an idol that you have been avoiding getting rid of. And you know what? I don't have to say anything more at that point, because you're like. The Holy Spirit's like, yep, that's exactly it. And you're like, be quiet, Holy Spirit. I'm trying to listen to Pastor Michael. And he's like, stop listening to him and listen to me. Okay.
[00:33:24] For some, it's just becoming a part of a church family. You keep the body of Christ at arm's length. For some, it's a conversation where you need to sit down with somebody and you just need to apologize. For some, it is a sin that you have not been able to shake, and you need to finally just humble yourself and go get the help you actually need. But here's what I found. Here's the question, Holy Spirit, what is the one thing that you are asking me to do next? And I find that the Holy Spirit is very, very faithful to let us know what our next step is.
[00:33:56] But prove it. Because really, the Christian life, no matter how many years you've been walking with Jesus, he's never done with you. And the question for me before the Lord is, all right, what's my next step?
[00:34:06] What do you have today, this hour? What is the thing that you're calling me to do, to obey you? What do I need to keep doing? Stop doing. Start doing number three.
[00:34:17] Jesus was resolved to crucifixion because of love.
[00:34:23] So there's one big message that Luke has for all of his readers, and it's very simple. Jesus willingly went to the cross to do for you and me what we could not do for ourselves.
[00:34:37] Our sin has separated us from a holy God. And there is no sacrament. There is no good work. There is no accrual of good work that can bridge this gap. We are separated from God. And the only way that our sin can be dealt with is if God deals with it. And so God loved you and me so much that he gave Jesus, who willingly took on his body, soul, and emotions, all the punishment for our sins in our place. You and I, we don't have the ability to pay for it. He does. And his shed blood is so potent, it has the power to forgive anyone and anyone all, all throughout human history, who would come to him and believe in Him. And so I just have great news for you. When you think about Holy Week and Easter, or just the Bible in general, like these stories are being told and documented and written so that you can know that there is a God. You are not him. You are a sinner. But God loves you and has gone to great lengths to give you every opportunity to be reconciled back to him. And if you are here and you have never trusted in Jesus, I just have the best news in the entire world. You'll never be good enough. The sacrament didn't do it. You have one way to come to salvation and forgiveness. And it is by personally telling God, I have sinned. I am sorry. I believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Forgive me. You don't even have to say it perfectly. The Lord sees your motivation and your heart. And if you have never done that, great news. Right now, today, next week, whenever you. Whenever you are ready to own your sin and believe in Jesus, God's hand is extended to you to forgive you once and for all and forever. Here's what I want to ask. If you make that decision to trust in Christ, tell someone. Tell someone who is a Christian so they can help you take your next steps in following Jesus. Amen. Ville Church. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, I want to thank you for the resolve of Jesus. Because Jesus, you did for us what we had no ability to do. So thank you that we are here right now. Forgiven, cleansed, redeemed not by sacrament or good work, but through the blood of Christ.
[00:36:47] God, I thank you truly that you did not look at humanity and say, be good boys and girls and then maybe I'll love you. I'm just really grateful.
[00:36:55] No, you put that kind of deep, unconditional love in the heart of every father mother on this planet. Something that transcends good works.
[00:37:04] So, Father, I pray for every person in this room. If we have trusted in Christ, I pray during this season as we amp up to Easter, Lord, that you would fill us with such renewed awe and gratitude and thanksgiving. And for those in the room who maybe never trusted in you, God, would you show them that they need salvation? Death is imminent, but salvation is now. That you can grant anybody forgiveness through faith in Jesus. And so, Lord, we pray that you would do great work in our heart and life, building up inside of us. Gratitude. But Lord, please reveal to those who don't know you, who are asking questions, reveal with clarity who you really are. We love you. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
