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Scripture: Matthew 3:1-3; Matthew 4:12-17; Matthew 10:1-8; Acts 3:17-23

 

Introduction

  • The events in Israel have served as a wakeup call to the urgency of FAITH.
  • Faith in Jesus Christ is our only hope for the future, and we need to get serious.
  • We have accepted the demise of the Christian church in America,
  • We’ve watched our congregations get grayer and grayer as the following generations turn away.
  • The coming generations just simply don’t see the value in church anymore.
  • Bobby Ukrop spoke last Sunday to the Dover Association about his family life.
  • He told us that his family life basically revolved around church and life at church.
  • As, I suppose so many of your stories would agree. I can say that has become my case.
  • I didn’t grow up in church – oh we went to church – sporadically, but it was always a struggle.
  • It wasn’t until I got married and had kids that I discovered a burning need to go to church
  • My wife and I helped start a Sunday school class that grew and dominated our social life.
  • Our kids grew up with their kids and friendships grew that continue to this day.
  • Unfortunately, because of me or, in spite of me, my kids have also seen the ugly underbelly of church.
  • Churches have done so much to self-destruct over the past years that it’s a wonder there are any churches left.
  • Repent means to make a choice – to choose to return to obedience to God’s will.
  • People have a lot of choices today: youth athletics, busy work schedules, distractions.
  • We have got to find out how to make church relevant again.
  • We have to remind people that they need to make a choice and quit fooling around.
  • We need church because church is evidence of our choosing to devote ourselves to God.
  • To repent means to change and that means to change in a direction towards God.
  • I believe if we are to be effective in making a change, we must BE THE CHANGE.
  1. Change our Message
  2. Take Responsibility
  3. Reap the Rewards

1. Change our Message

  • The Gospel message is not about feeling good or breathing a sigh of relief.
  • I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins so that I don’t have to pay for them.
  • Is that it? We have our Get Out of Jail Free card so we can check that box?
  • NO, it’s not enough to preach THAT good news without telling the whole truth.
  • Why do we even need a Savior? We are all sinners and we are all doomed.
  • The message we have been preaching is weak and appeals to entertainment.
  • Jesus loves everybody and is all sweetness and goodness and took away all my responsibility for the horrible alternative facing me after I die. NOPE
  • It’s not that sweet and nice. It’s a brutal and horrible alternative that nobody wants to talk about.
  • The correct image is to see our world and our lives as though we are in the middle of a burning building.
  • We are facing a horrible and agonizing fate left to our own abilities.
  • Jesus, and ONLY Jesus will walk through those flames and carry you out into safety.
  • We are a corrupt and evil generation in our world, yet we were going to make everything better.
  • Our job as Christians is to get the message out about Jesus, but we aren’t going to do it holding hands and singing Kumbiyah.
  • I’ll admit that I focus more on the positive message about Jesus my Savior.
  • But I’m not doing my job if I overlook why we need a Savior.
  • Church isn’t optional. Jesus isn’t optional.  Faith isn’t optional.
  • Yet don’t we act like we can take it or leave it?
  • It’s time we get back to basics and tell the message the way Jesus told us to tell it.

2. Take Responsibility

  • Our Scripture today clearly points out what our responsibility is to Jesus.
  • In Matthew 3 we read about John the Baptist.
  • John was sent to prepare people for the work that Jesus would come to do.
  • It was a simple thing for people to do to make a statement of faith.
  • They simply came down to meet John in the Jordan river and he baptized them.
  • He didn’t baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as Jesus taught.
  • He baptized them to ritually cleanse them of their sins and begin a change.
  • He said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
  • This was foretold hundreds of years earlier by the Prophet Isaiah who said:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,  make straight paths for him.’”

  • Prepare the way means stop what you are doing and get ready for what is coming.
  • I believe that we need to be the John the Baptists of our day and get people’s attention.
  • Oh, you might say “it’s been 2000 years since this happened, what’s the rush?”
  • And I would say that you are right, what’s the rush?
  • How does any of us know when Father God is going to say: “that’s it, I’ve had enough!”
  • Even Jesus didn’t know the day or the hour of His return, so how could we?
  • But when you see and hear the atrocities that were committed against innocent women and children in Israel last week, do you think God’s patience could be wearing thin?
  • I may not be as evil as those Hamas or Hezbollah terrorists, but I don’t want to be included in God’s wrath and if it weren’t for Jesus I could.
  • Because when God pours out His wrath on humanity it won’t be pretty.
  • Just read Revelation and you’ll get the picture.
  • Moving on with our Scripture today in Matthew 4, John has been put in prison.
  • Jesus has stepped in to pick up where John left off and what was the message He preached?

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

  • I’m not the smartest guy, but if that’s what Jesus preached, why would we preach anything different?
  • Not to say that every one of my sermons should say the exact same thing, but shouldn’t they all lead to that same message?
  • I believe this church knows what it means to repent. If repent means change, we get it.
  • Biltmore has literally reinvented itself over the past 5 years.
  • In Matthew 10, when Jesus sends the 12 disciples out do the work, He tells them:

Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.  Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.  As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

  • First John the Baptist, then Jesus, then the disciples are all told to preach this message.

3. Reap the rewards

  • We cannot remain stuck in the defeatist mode we are in with the decline of the church.
  • God can turn things around and He has done it before in America. And He is doing it in Israel
  • Robert D Pace writes in his article God Defends Israel:

It’s happening again! In recent weeks, Hamas has launched hundreds of rockets into Israel. Yet, Israel’s borders stand impenetrable! Remarkably, Arabs admit that the Israelis’ God circumvents the direction of their missiles. Inquisitr.com headlined a report,“Israel Miracle? Gaza Strip Hamas Complain, ‘Their God Changes The Paths Of Our Rockets In Mid-Air’” (7-20-14). The story of misdirected missiles is not the only mystery associated with this battle. During July 2014, the course of nature brought a dense fog and provided cover for Israeli troops to advance unnoticed against Hamas. Here is a paragraph from an article written by Rabbi Tzvi Gluckin entitled, “The Hamas Miracle.”

A lot of my religious friends are talking about miracles. “How can it be?” They say. “Thousands of rockets are raining down on Israel! The number of dead should be much higher! The amount of damage is minimal!” And they are right. It is miraculous. Rockets miss their targets. They miss populated areas. The wind blows them off course. My friends argue about the Iron Dome, too. “MIT said Iron Dome doesn’t work. Too many rockets slip through, and yet – a miracle – they miss their targets. Iron Dome’s failures are a sure sign of God’s love.” They even quote Hamas. “Our rockets are good,” says Hamas. “Obviously their God loves them.”

  • God is very much involved in our world and He will intervene just as He has promised.
  • Can we afford to be unprepared when He does? Can we fail our friends and loved ones?
  • Peter was bold when he told the Hebrew religious leaders in Acts 3:17-23:

“Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.

  • OK, I’m sorry, we can’t play the ignorance card – we have God’s word and over 3000 years of history.
  • Peter says: this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.
  • God’s plan is perfect and He has unveiled that plan across our history.
  • Once again, we hear the message preached in verse 19:

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.

  • He was telling the Jewish leaders then and he tells us now to make a change NOW.
  • Today is the day. Repent from your normal ways of doing things.  Make a change.
  • And as Peter said: “God will restore everything, as He promised.”