0:00
We're going to be in verse 54 to 59. We read out loud together here, Cottage Grove words will be up on the screen you can read through your Bible as well. And we'll read this. Luke chapter 12, verses 54 to 59. Let's say it out loud together.
0:21
He said to the crowds, when you see a cloud rising in the West, you say at once a shower is coming. And so what happens? And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, there will be scorching heat and it happens, you hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky. But why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate make an effort to settle with him on the way let's see drag you to the judge. The judge hands you over to the officer and the officer puts you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny. The title of this morning's message is this certain urgency, certain urgency.
1:20
Let's pray together Jesus I ask, the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would be pleasing to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer with the gospel of Jesus Christ be made manifest this morning. Would it be evidently clear this morning? Would there be a certainty in all of our hearts this morning? Would there also be an urgency for us to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ wherever we find ourselves today? Lord, did you do that in this place by the saints of Christ's name, amen. Amen. You guys can take a seat.
1:51
Certain urgency. For many of us, guys who have young children, we remember the certain urgency that we had when our wife went into labor. That is no time for us dudes to be asking this question. Are you sure? Is that is that Yeah, actually hurting that bad? Like, let's let's just see what's happening like, No, actually when the wife says to you, it's time. Your answer is always this. Yes, ma'am. And you become a military soldier. precise. The bag is packed. The keys are in your hand. You are confident you are sure you know the plan. You're not being a doofus running around in circles, like neat heard needing to help you. Right? Like Like, you're gonna be okay honey, make sure you breathe. That's not her job for you. That's your job for her. You just Yes, ma'am. You are certain and you don't dilly dally. Let me finish this episode on Netflix. I love that as you know why miss out. You know, I just need a quick snack. And now they're good to go. I'm gonna finish up this little project and I'll be ready. No, it's urgent. You get after it. You are certain, and you are urgent because you have a job to do and that beautiful child is coming well in the kingdom of God, He requires of us this same thing, certain urgency, that when he shows up on the scene, Jesus Christ, and he steps and he says, The kingdom of God is here, what we see in the Gospel of Luke over and over and over again, and what we see specifically in this text is their certainty. And there's urgency and responding to God's kingdom call, certainty and urgency. And that's what we'll see from this text today. Those are actually my two points, certainty and urgency.
3:39
So let's start with verses 54 through 56. And that's Jesus talking to the crowds about certainty. He's highlighting to the crowds their ability to interpret the weather signs and respond appropriately. Right. So farmers in first century Palestine had a way to predict coming weather. So he talks about the clouds from the west, right? So in the West is the Mediterranean Sea so you'd see clouds coming over the Mediterranean Sea, which meant this thunderstorms were coming. This is good for the crops. Here they come we're gonna get a rain shower it's gonna be great. It's going to be helpful but it would be a different response if there'd be wind from the south because when from the south was coming off the desert of Northern Africa and that was an ominous sign. Because of it lead to what meteorologists now refer to as a samoon wind. Okay, so this is like real stuff. So Samoon when is a phenomenon like a meteor or Raja glocca? Cole Cole. Good start. Meteorologists call it this, a Samoon wind, which is a 130 degree Fahrenheit blast of like tornado wind off the desert into Palestine. It lasts for about 30 minutes and within seconds it wilts plant life. They call it the poisonous winds. Because it's so suffocating to you. It's 130 degree wind blasting in your face where your body literally can't cool itself off in time and you feel like you're going to suffocate, it causes heatstroke for those who get in the way. So think about your you're observing the weather, and you see clouds from the west and you're pumped. Great. Your Palestinian farmer, awesome. It's dry, we're going to get some we're going to get some water. This is fantastic. But you see the winds coming from the south, and you don't stick around and you're pumped you duck for cover and get out of the way and you know, you're going to lose some crops when this one comes.
5:42
All of this here, right is is is discerning what type of weather was coming by observing wind direction and then taking decisive action. So you'd predict the weather science and you would take decisive action. The language in the text expresses certainty and divisiveness, looking Verse 54, Jesus says you say at once a shower is coming. There will be a scorching heat, right? There's certainty in all of this discerning weather and patterns though get this is crazy and we know this is Iowans discerning weather patterns are at best, an estimated prediction.
6:24
Best, right? Like and we know that this this happened to us this recently our whole staff got together we had this big old we do this once a year we do our staff party, okay. And we call it a holiday party because Christmas time here is absolutely insane. We have no break. So we after it's all done and we can take a breath. That's when we hang out. Well, you know, before Christmas, there was no snow after Christmas. We got hit a couple of times. We're planning for months for this thing. We're all getting together. Everyone's clear the schedule, spouses are going to be there. It's gonna be a really good time. And then of course, the one of the snowpocalypse come and here it is. But here's what we know here in Iran. I'm We're talking to Adam white and daily was about it and we were like, okay, is it gonna come though? Cuz let's be honest, it usually never dies. And then but then the question is, but sometimes it does. And sometimes it really does. And we have some folks who aren't used to the Iowa finicky weather here on our staff, some of our beloved ones from Philadelphia, and from Texas. That's it, they see any of these weather predictions and it is gospel truth. They're saying this snowpocalypse says come two inches, you times that by 12 whenever that prediction is there, in their mind, so so I remember this actually, we just went ahead and said, we're tough. We're Northerners, we don't care what the predictions are. We're just going to go for it. We've made these plans and I just think I remember my mind, the grays and the tides in like parkus right. It was like the it was like the little It was like the little brother and I in A Christmas Story, right? And they're like all like this, but they had their arms linked together. And they're crossing the street like this and the way it's been And they were like, Oh my gosh, was there like 30 minutes late? And there was like this, like slow clap as they open the door. You know, I mean, they came in and they're your blood sticking and y'all, you're getting this more and more tough as each each winter goes on.
8:12
But this is this is it though, right? With weather predictions. It's a prediction. And we act with certainty. That's what Jesus is saying here. You have incomplete data. You have speculation. You have an estimate, you have merely a prediction. And you act decisively, confidently, certainly, where you get out of the elements to hide yourself from that scorching wind, or you put your plants out on the front porch so that they can get a drink, you act decisively. It's based on incomplete estimated data.
8:55
So then he punches them, if they're all like, yep, yep, we're pretty good at that here at Palestine. knowing why The world to do. And he says, you hypocrites, you hypocrites. And then he rebukes them with this. He says, you know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky. But why do you not know how to interpret the present time? This is what he's saying. Luke chapter four, this present time Jesus had declared to them. eight chapters earlier, he declared what time it was, it was time for the good news to be proclaimed to the poor, for liberty to be proclaimed to the captives for the blind, to recover their sight, for the oppressed to be liberated. The present time was the year of the Lord's favor, Jesus was declaring, at this time, the kingdom of God has come. It's here, but he didn't just say that he demonstrated that. So he started proclaiming and displaying the kingdom of God this life that he was living, not just saying, I'm going to show you with signs, evidence, proof that the kingdom of God is here to cast out demons and He cleanses lepers, and he heals the paralyzed and he calms the storm and he raises a little girl from the dead. And he feeds 5000 people from almost nothing. His words, and his works are the miraculous signs proving that he was the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and that the kingdom of God and the king has come. Jesus is giving him proof and evidence of what time it was. And in Luke 12, he looks at the crowd and he says, you can look at weather patterns that are cynical, inconsistent, unreliable, and you respond with certainty. But you observe all these miraculous signs I've performed and you're hesitant to acknowledge who I am. You hypocrites. You completely inconsistent, blatant contradiction right now. certainty with inconsistent data hesitancy with proven facts here. Jesus is calling us out now, I think in two different ways. Because we're feeling it.
11:17
The first is we must be consistent. We must be consistent, and I gotta get specific on what kind of consistency he's calling out here. We often respond decisively, and with certainty, even though we don't have all of the data. The stock market exchange is literally based upon acting on predictions. Our whole economy is rooted upon people acting on with certainty, incomplete data and predictions, just trying to observe trends at best, but no one actually can predict the future and all of it is acted upon it. Let's be honest, that's what parenting is. We just all act with certainty based upon complete inconsistent data, an inability to be confident in anything that we're actually doing, what parenting is making it up as we go, it is absolutely guessing check, right? relationships, the exact same thing when you stand up on an altar, and you declare, I am certain that I will love you for the rest of my days.
12:29
I am certain that I know everything about you, I am certain that I'm going to be committed and devoted to you realize that is not complete data for you. You have no idea who this person actually is. You have no idea what in the world you're actually capable of doing. And yet you act in certainty on that day, saying, I will be committed to you, I'll be devoted to you. Certainly I do know what in the world to do here. Our job projects, how many of us just make it up trying to say I know what I'm doing. I'm totally good. And you act with certainty, in fact, get this the best leaders make the most decisive decisions when everything is gray. Right? The majority of our life is gray. And the best leaders are the ones who decisively say, let's just take a step in that direction was a staple, take a step in that direction. And our whole culture celebrates those leaders that can confidently say, even with incomplete data, let's move forward.
13:25
Know for all of us. We act on incomplete data so often in our lives, and we respond decisively to it. And yet, for so many of us in this room today, we don't respond to Jesus often, because we don't have all the data we desire. We don't have all the answers yet to our questions. We don't understand every nook and cranny of his character. We don't have all of the systematic theology wrapped around in our heads, we can't place everything together and fit it into our box in the way in which he's working in the world.
14:13
Jesus is saying this. You act on incomplete data all of the time. Therefore, for you to be hesitant about the quote unquote, incomplete data you have about me, you're in blatant contradiction with yourself. Be consistent. That's not an excuse for you to not respond to me. That's not an excuse. You actually just being hypocritical. If you say that you are. Our excuse to respond to him cannot be I need more proof. Because we act on a lack of proof all of the time. Jesus is saying be consistent. But it doesn't stop there. Because we didn't stop there. He's just blowing smoke because he also says peace. Certain, be certain be certain I think that's the other call limits of this be certain. So while in our lives we respond decisively based upon incomplete data and speculation. The call to respond to Jesus is based upon proof. It is based upon proof. So he's calling out or inconsistency. But he's also saying, but guess what? You're not inconsistent though, because all of this is completely proven. I've done it. I haven't just asking you to live out in blind faith. I've given you everything you need to respond in certainty. To me. The call to respond to Jesus is based on proof, because he not only declared that he was God, he proved that he was God. He came to this earth and he did what only God Himself can do live in complete perfect holiness. Live in complete selflessness, loving people completely, perfectly like only God could, that he proved He was indeed full of love, because he came and He died for the people who are not deserving like you and me. He proved his love for us with that act. And he proved that he was indeed the victorious King of the universe that can defeat death and sin and the devil and his full power over everything by rising from the dead. And he proved that he would never leave us or forsake us, because He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within those who believe in Him.
16:30
Jesus Christ not only declared that he was God, he proved that he was God. So we act in this kingdom life on certainty, that we're worshipping truly God Himself. We can act uncertainty. Our faith is based upon proof that our king is indeed true, that he is real. So this is now a bit of a sidestep but I do need all of us Hear this?
17:02
It's okay to doubt. It is okay to doubt.
17:09
There are so many examples in Scripture of God's people struggling to believe him and understand him and fear what he's calling them to do. Look at Moses, look at Gideon, look at Elijah, look at Thomas. So many examples of people struggling to trust and believe and understand what God was saying. struggling, struggling, struggling. In fact, I actually believe that God uses doubt in very, very helpful ways. Because doubt often is the motivator for us to look for answers. It is that fuel that motivates you and me to go look for answers. It's really his doubts can be a redemptive thing, because it creates this longing for us to just know that we know that we know that Jesus is who He says He Is it prompts us to do that it's good for us and God is so patient with us. When we're finding ourselves in a season of doubt. Again, look at all of the examples in Scripture over and over and over again. He didn't boot Thomas out. He showed him the holes in his hands. No, no doubt often results in clarity on who God often is.
18:20
So it's okay to doubt. But it's not okay to be okay with doubt.
18:27
Some of us in this room. Like being in doubt, especially of us men and millennial folk, we, we like being in that state of doubt. We're okay with it. We're actually digging our heels in it. We like it. While doubt can be helpful, because it leads for searching for answers and even searching for help. But being okay with doubt is harmful. Somebody illustrated this way. I did a renovation project of a My attic told you guys that sir before just totally bombed out it's terrible plaster falling all over the place and then I Here I go, I had to strip it all down to the studs and totally redo the whole thing and display star son parentheses is down in the you know guest room forever two months straight, you know, just terrible. He was he was actually fine. So but uh, but but you know we're redoing all this other stuff and I realized though that I was going to have to redo the electrical up in that attic. Okay. never done that before. I've replaced outlets, so I feel great. But in terms of totally rewiring and knowing the flow and creating free switch pathways and all that kind of stuff. Here are my options.
19:44
In my doubt, I stay fine with it.
19:48
Okay. And I just say even though I have no idea what in the world is happening, I'm just going to kind of exist in my doubt and therefore potentially burn my entire house down because I'm just going in within No idea what to do. being okay with doubt would have been dangerous for my family. But the other option would have it is, if I would have just done nothing. Then my son Prince would never have gotten his room back. He would have just stayed in that guest room and that attic would never actually be finished. So the options are this if me remaining in my doubt, I either destroy everything or harm the people that I love. But instead, what I had to do in my doubt, is it prompted me to look for answers and it prompted me to ask help. Were therefore made really great friends with my friend, Chad Gleason, who understands in his head, how to wire all of this type of stuff. He helped me he showed me how electricity works. And He therefore do this. My house didn't burn down and my soon son got his room back. Is that amazing? Right? That doubt when we remain in it? It's harmful Cottage Grove.
21:02
It's harming you. If you're sitting in it, it's destructive for your soul. It's destructive for even the people around you, it is not an innocent thing to to sit in doubt. But it is okay if you are because it should be prompting you to find answers should be prompting you to seek help should be prompting you to desire certainty. That goal should be certainty, not doubt, certainty should be your goal. Because in God's kingdom work, it requires certainty. But it also requires urgency. And that's the next point and all of this doubt should be a motivator. But here in this we're called to be urgent in this whole kingdom work. Jesus speaks to the crowd about settling accounts with someone they are indebted to settling accounts of someone they're indebted to. So he says, as you go with your accuser to the magistrate, which is like you're going into court, right? So you're with somebody and they're Dragging you to court is like the imagery within this. It's like you've harmed them. You're indebted to them. And they're grabbing you by the collar and pulling you into court. And by the way, the whole idea here that we're getting this, you're totally in the wrong as well. This isn't injustice, this isn't oppression. This isn't Oh, man, don't you don't understand me know you've done messed up and this person's trying to get blood now because you indeed have jacked up their situation. We're all sinners. Yes, we're all victims, but we're also all perpetrators. We hurt people every day. And first, john tells us No, no, we, we acknowledge that we are sinners, that we hurt people all the time. And this is that situation. You've harmed someone that they're coming to get vengeance on you. That they're actually not even doing that. They're coming to get justice upon you. There dragging you to court to get justice. Justice happens in the court. That's what's happening here. You're in the wrong in someone is going to make it right. getting dragged into court. Jesus says make an effort to settle with him on the way I know that for me, I grew up with five younger siblings. I know exactly what this feeling is. Okay. I'm downstairs and me and Blake, my brother, we're having a conversation you know playing video games. A little let a little word out little four letter word that I learned in school that day, right? It was great one just trying out my new cussing opportunities Okay, like and I would practice our cussing you know, and then decide how how good we were doing whatever. Well, of course, here's sister Christy, you know, didn't even know it. Here. She was sitting at the top of the stairs. Just listening. And then we hear and we hear Oh, like you know after we dropped the new words that we learned and what's happened is you are gonna go tell mom and we're now Christy now you know it's we're running upstairs What are we doing? Please I beg you can have my toys you know my nine ounce you know my lunch you know everything just do not go tell mom do not go tell mom because we know this whatever like thing we need to like broker with with Christy is so much better than the weapon I was going to get from my mom, when I found out that when she found out of that four letter word I learned and I was repeating in her house, right? It's better, to pay the fine to have the hard conversation, to own up the failure and the mistake to do whatever you need to do to make that right than it is to stand before the judge and experience the consequence that you deserve.
24:47
So Jesus is saying it's better for you to get that thing settled for you to be reconciled. Then for you to delay it and not have urgency and then find yourself standing before the judge guilty of your crimes, guilty of your debt that you have no ability to pay. So Jesus ain't here to Hey saying, Hey, get things right let you get handed over to the judge, who then hand you over to the guard, who then throws you into prison. And by the way, you'll never get out until you pay the last penny. pennies we know are worthless, right? I throw them away now. So because they're just get annoying, I can't buy a thing with a penny. Okay. Well, Jesus is saying the justice that you're going to get on you is going to be so meticulously intense that even to the very last almost insignificant Penny, I will demand the view everything. And this by the way, the debtors prison in ancient Palestine was the worst place where you could find yourself because you would be in that prison and you would not be able to get out until you paid the debt that you owed to that individual. Would torture you to prompt your family to try to step in and pay. You'd be tortured saying pay up pay up pay up, I'm in prison, I can't pay up get someone else to then they can either. So people sometimes when they knew that debtors prison is what was on their way, they would sell themselves into slavery to avoid it. It was that terrible, and it was that bad. That terrible in that bed. Jesus is saying you get that thing settled. Before you go into that horribleness I believe for us this has horizontal and vertical implications. Horizontal and Vertical implications. horizontally, some talking to us. Person in person.
26:46
We're called to settle our disputes with one another quickly. reconcile quickly. get things right quickly. We're supposed to get things figured out with one another And unfortunately I think we live in a culture, especially the Midwest and we've been taken I would niceness to town lately.
27:08
By the way, that has not been on purpose. That's been us laboring in the text and realizing I think the Holy Spirit of God is revealing something unhealthy within our church that we thought was normative in okay, because our current pushes us in that direction. And actually we're realizing is it is a toxic poison to our community, and antithetical to what the community of God is called to emulate. Iowa niceness is a perfect petri dish to cultivate gossip and slander. Because of this, we would rather go talk about somebody to somebody else to get our pains, our frustrations, our opinions affirmed Rather than actually going to that person and saying what needs to be said, because the foe part of being mean, is more severe to us than gossip and slander. Iowa niceness is being a toxic poison to authentic Christian community in this place. And this text is colonists to say, you go there and you get it figured out and you have the hard conversation and you own up your sin, and you do whatever you can do to make it right, because it's better for you to be reconciled with your brother and sister than to stand before the God who you cannot see and hate your brother or sister and have brokenness with your brothers and sister and that bitterness with your brother and sister, who you can see that's hypocrisy right there. And Jesus is calling us out on it. And the text over and over and over again, especially in the New Testament calls us in multiple different ways. To get things right with one another, Matthew 18, Jesus lays it out. You go to a person, you got issues with, you go to them face to face. By the way there isn't a step in Jesus is conflict resolution. It says you talk about it with somebody make sure that they affirm your perspective first.
29:20
He says you go to him right away. That's what he calls us to do. That shooting I would niceness into the ground is by actually stepping and having real conversations with each other, even if it's painful, and even if you need to repent in that moment, because you're still trying to figure stuff out.
29:40
We need wisdom in our life. We need counselors in our life. We need people to call us out in our life. But we can't ever have someone coddle our perspective. We need someone to call out our perspective in order for us to authentically live out Matthew 18. Do you have people in your life who are coddling you or calling you out?
30:00
That will actually allow us to live out this text with authenticity, as we strive to be in community with each other effusions. 425 says, therefore having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your angern and give opportunity. Give no opportunity to the devil. Why is urgency and reconciliation so important? Because God knows how good we are at stewing in our own perspective. And the enemy will capitalize on that black hole that you're actually digging right now to foster bitterness to foster resentment to foster distrust to foster brokenness.
30:56
And when you bring it to the light, Jesus shuts it down. You speak the truth and you don't give the devil any foothold. When we go and speak the truth to one another in love for the glory of God and the good of his church. We're called to do that Cottage Grove. And it is antithetical Lee different than what our culture currently does, amen. It's a hard word for me. Right now, guys.
31:24
I'm the biggest hypocrite right now and needing to live this out. I'm feeling the way to this text but God have mercy on us and by the power of spirit give us the ability to live this out. That's the horizontal implications we reconcile we settle things quickly. But then, secondly, the vertical implications. settle your debts with God, quickly. settle your debts with God quickly. The call is not to delay in getting things in order before you have a conversation. With God about where you stand with him, the call is not to make sure that you have your ledger on decent, you know, balance right now or even have a little more positives than negatives in the midst of this because Jesus is saying your ledger is obviously always infinitely forever will be in the red because of your sin. You will perpetually have infinite debt to a holy God. And he's calling us to say, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. There is urgency. What are you going to do today? He knows this about you today. Here's what's true. You're a mess.
32:48
You're broken.
32:50
You're a sinner. You're rebellious against a holy guy. You desire your will and your ways and your goals. In your idols, and your money, and your prestige and your pleasure more than you desire God, and therefore you are finding yourself for the rest of your days, adding more and more and more debt to your ledger.
33:17
And tomorrow, James 4 says, God call you Your life is a vapor. Have you noticed in our culture The Haunting Enos of what happened with Cody Bryant, Kobe Bryant. It rocked many of us in this room of this guy who like crafted what the NBA looks like even today, and within a moment as he's flying with his daughter and seven of his friends to go to an AAU basketball tournament. God called him and said, Your time is up. You're looking at all these people. I mean, I've seen videos of Allen Iverson in tears, not even knowing what to do with himself. Seen Shaquille O'Neal who had beef with Kobe, all of his life, in tears, saying, Go to your loved ones, go to your loved ones, go to your loved ones, be reconciled, be reconciled, be reconciled Cottage Grove tomorrow, you or your loved one could be standing before the judge of heaven.
34:24
This isn't brought fire and brimstone right now. Your life is a breath. The life of your loved ones is a breath. We, as Kingdom people, have an urgency to understand why we have a God who is in heaven and fully in control, fully knowing exactly what he's doing certain that he is indeed the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We are also certain that our life is merely a mist There is an urgency and how we live out this life for we do not know what tomorrow will bring. We are called to have this urgency. Are you pleading Cottage Grove with the people who are around you, as Paul says in Second Corinthians to be reconciled to God? Have you had those real conversations? Or are you saying I need to wait for the time to be right? Today is the right time to say be reconciled to God. Today use that time that urgency is our time. are you delaying and being reconciled to somebody? Because tomorrow, God could call them home? Tomorrow God could call them to stand before him tomorrow it could happen. are you delaying reconciliation horizontally or vertically in your life and saying I'm waiting for the right time? Hear me please hear me.
35:55
Today's the right time. Today's the right time. It's urgency.
36:04
It's urgency. Are you right with the Lord today? Or are you still in eternal debt because of your sin? Because there's a deep problem that we have that we have articulated. The call is to settle our debts quickly with God, but our debt is too severe. Our sin is too much. Our punishment is too deserving. We are unable to settle our debt. So while all of this is scary news, all of this is bad news. All of this is urgent news. It is all unbelievably blown out of water by the unbelievable good news on the other side of this man, I've heard pastor say this, here's the bad news. Here's the bad news is this. You're a sinner, you are in need. There's nothing you can do to save yourself. Here's the worst news you are doomed. You actually deserve punishment. You actually deserve hell. It's the consequence of the righteous wrath of God. Sin. That's the really horrible worse news. But here's the good news. Jesus Christ came for you. That while Paul says this in Romans chapter five, while we were still weak, Paul says, while we were stuck in our sin, overloaded with eternal, dead, unlovely in every sense of the word, doomed to punishment and separation from God forever unable to fix our situation, unable to actually give him the honor and glory that is due, he knew you couldn't pay your debt. He knew that it was impossible. So he came to pay for you. Jesus Christ came in, pay it for you. He was certain that you couldn't pay. He was certain that you didn't deserve to be set free. He was certain. They did infinite love for you. That's why you can see our Jesus Christ modeled what certainteed looked like. He modeled it. He modeled that he certainly had a desire for you that he certainly was going to fulfill the Father's Will That he certainly was going to do whatever it was going to take to get his people back and he died. Certainly no one this, this is going to work. This is horrible. This is the worst, I mean, separated from my father. But I am certain that this is the glorious redemptive plan that is going to redeem all of these broken people who are lost, and bring them into myself and into my glory and into the trying relationship that I have to adopt them as my children, I'm certain that this is going to work. So he stayed there for you and me Let His blood and his life go out. And then he was certain that something else was going to happen, that he was going to go into the grave that he was gonna stay dead for days. But then three days later, he was gonna come out of that grave. And he was certain that what that was going to do, it was going to end deaths, curse and sins, curse on his people forever, and he was certain that His Holy Spirit was going to go and change them now in forevermore. certainty is what our God had and when it came to do for us this is what I love to. He also had urgency for love what Paul said in Romans five at the right time, at just the right time, at the perfect appointed time, Jesus Christ came for you. Jesus Christ came for you, Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. I'm thankful that our God shows up and just the right time. I truly am. You know, you look at scripture, he showed up just to the right time for the Israelites and they're standing for the Red Sea. As they look and they see the the Egyptians coming down towards them to completely wipe them out at just the right time. He said, Be still and see the salvation of your God. Part of the Red Sea just the right time he redeemed him at just the right time as the Assyrians were marching on Jerusalem, God showed up and sent an angel and wiped them all out and saved Hezekiah and all of the roussillon at just the right time, our God shows up. When Daniel was tossed into the lion's den thinking this is over, it's all done at just the right time, the Holy Spirit of God showed up and shut the lion's mouth at just the right time when Paul was wreaking havoc upon the church, Jesus Christ showed up on the road and transform the worst persecutor into the greatest missionary at just the right time. Jesus Christ showed up in your life, and redeemed you from your mess and your brokenness. I know the stories in this room. So don't you dare just like you know, be kind of cool about this. Every single one of you can be able to say this, just the right time Jesus showed up. at just the right time Jesus showed up when I was in the depth of my diction at just the right time God showed up. When I was overwhelmed with grief and sorrow, having nowhere to go at just the right time. God showed up with me when I was watching my loved one run away from the faith at just the right time to the show. showed up radically and completely revealed himself to them in profound ways. When you knew that there was no way I was going to be able to pay this bill at just the right time Jesus showed up and provided for you, when you were standing, watching your loved one die of cancer. at just the right time, Jesus showed up and gave you the hope and the peace that you knew could not come from yourself at just the right time, when you're standing before your friend in tears, not knowing what they were going to do. God gave you the words to declare the incredibly good news to our God shows up at just the right time.
41:45
Cottage Grove we're going to conclude with communion together. But I want you to know the kingdom call for all of us. He's a certain urgency. It's a certain urgency See that our God demonstrated through Jesus Christ Himself. Some of you today are waiting for just the right time to actually respond to the good news of Jesus Christ. So I want everyone to just bow their heads and worship team is going to come up.
42:24
And I want you to take a moment before the Lord. And there's two questions that I want you to reflect on and process through. Because we're about to have communion. And communion is this powerful, powerful illustration of the reconciliation that we have indeed received with Jesus Christ. And the two things that happens in Scripture is that Paul warns us to say if there's brokenness with a brother or sister, you go to them and you get things fixed. Because you are not just united to me, you are united to one another, and what I've done for you, but also, in this room, I want you to be asking this question.
43:15
Are you right with God today?
43:21
Have you never given your life to Jesus Christ? Have you never surrendered in faith? And as said, Jesus, I know that you are indeed sent from the Father to redeem me that this this old, old story, I am wrapped up into it because of what you've done for me, Jesus. Have you today never actually believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. For the salvation of your sins are you just waiting waiting for the right time to do that? Hear me brother and sister. Today is the day. Today is the day. Today is the day.
44:08
If today for you, you're realizing I am a sinner, and I need Jesus, and I'm done trying to bring my ledger to the positive because I can't. I'm realizing I will not be right for the judge right before the judge. I'm realizing I am fully alone. I want you to show up at just the right time I'm telling you, the right time is now. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins and the salvation of your souls. If that's you today, pray now to the Lord for forgiveness and for salvation.
44:46
And as we're going to be protecting, protecting and community together, I would ask for you to come and talk to me. I'll be standing up here. If that was you, and you're realizing I this is me and I need to believe in Jesus Christ today. It's I can't delay anymore. I see the urgency and I'm certain that he is who He says He is. Do not leave this place without talking, and without receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, for the salvation of your souls, and do not leave today, without you addressing before the Father asking him to the power of your spirit to be reconciled with a brother or sister. Oh, Father, God, we need you to do a mighty work in this place to reconcile us to one another and to reconcile us to you. Holy Spirit as we partake in this communion time together, I ask that you would have your way in this place.
45:40
Horizontal reconciliation occur. But all of that horizontal reconciliation is all possible because of the vertical reconciliation of you. You have you have allowed us to receive on your behalf. You've made a way because of that broken down the dividing wall of hostility that separated us from you and from each other. God would you do in a mighty mighty way in this place? I pray these things in Christ's name, amen.