Berean Community Church - Sunday Worship - 10/19/2025

'It's time to get to the end of the day' 'I'm going to take a while' 'I'm going to take a while' 'I want to take a while' 'I want to take a while'

'Can I ever say now' 'How amazing is Your love' 'How can I keep from shouting Your name' 'I know I am loved by the King' 'And it makes my heart want to take a while' 'I want to take a while' 'I want to take a while' 'Cause You hear me, Lord, 'When I call to You in prayer 'I can sing with my last breath' 'Sing, for I know' 'That I'll sing with the angels' 'And the saints around the cross' 'How can I keep from shining Your grace?'

'How can I never say now' 'How amazing is Your love?' 'How can I keep from shouting Your name?' 'I know I am loved by the King' 'And it makes my love' 'I know I am loved by the King' 'And it makes my love' 'I know I am loved by the King' 'And it makes my love' 'I want to sing' 'I know I am loved by the King' 'I know I am loved by the King'

'Now on the same occasion' 'there were some present' 'who reported to him about the Galileans' 'whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices' 'Jesus said to them, 'Do you suppose' 'that these Galileans were greater sinners' 'than all other Galileans' 'because they suffered this fate?' 'I tell you, no, but unless you repent' 'you will all likewise perish' 'or do you suppose that these eighteen' 'on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them' 'were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem' 'I tell you, no, but unless you repent' 'you will all likewise perish' 'and he began telling this parable 'a man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard 'and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any' 'and he said to the vineyard keeper 'behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree' 'without finding any' 'cut it down, why does it even use up the ground?'

'and he answered and said to him 'let it alone, sir, for this year too' 'until I dig around it and put in fertilizer' 'and if it bears fruit next year, fine' 'but if not, cut it down' 'let's pray' 'Father, we pray for wisdom and insight' 'we pray for your Holy Spirit to convict us' 'remind us and renew us, Lord God' 'that we may be built up to the church that you desire us to be' 'in Jesus' name we pray, amen' 'and the text that we're looking at, we're finally out of chapter 12' 'but obviously it is directly connected to what he's been saying 'as Jesus is heading toward to the cross, he is concerned' 'that the people that he is ministering to do not recognize him' 'then they're coming to him, and they're superficially saying that he is the Messiah' 'but he's not going to fit whatever paradigm that they had, that this is what the Messiah is going to do' 'and their primary concern was that their biggest problem was the Romans' 'that because of their oppression, because of their pagan worship, and because they put restrictions on them' 'and what to do at the temple, what they can do and not do' 'that they thought that Messiah is going to come and make them a superpower and they're going to overthrow the Roman government' 'and if they sit in the seat that the Romans are, that financially, that spiritually, that all of it is going to be what they desire' 'Jesus knew that because they had the wrong paradigm, that when Jesus didn't fulfill their desire, that they were going to end up rejecting him'

'and being fully aware that he's turning around telling his disciples, he's warning them about the spiritual leaders, about their hypocrisy' 'he's getting them to do not fear death' 'ultimately God is the one who's going to, who has the author, who is the author of life, physical and spiritual' 'and then last week we looked about how they need to be spiritually discerning' 'to be able to know the signs of the times' 'everything that Jesus did pointed to the fact that he's the Messiah' 'so what needed to be corrected is not Jesus' 'but their understanding of what Jesus came to do' 'if we don't assess the problem correctly, no matter what you throw at it, it's going to be the wrong answer' 'and a lot of times, the reason why we get so easily deceived is because we have a verse or two that we can back up what we need to say' 'but if you apply the Bible to the wrong person at the wrong context, you could be just as wrong' 'there are parts of the Bible where it tells us that if you need to submit to your, honor your father and mother, if you want to live long' 'and then there's also text where it says, 'he who loves his father and mother more than me cannot be my disciple' 'so if you apply one text at the wrong context of the wrong people, you are wrong' 'so at any time, if we choose, pick and choose certain parts of the Bible, and if we did not assess the problem correctly' 'whatever solution you throw at it, it's going to be wrong'

'and so it's crucial that we understand, what is the central problem?' 'years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book called 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' 'and some of you guys may be aware of it' 'but in that book, he was trying to answer the question of suffering' 'because he just lost his 14-year-old son to a rare disease' 'and in his pain, in his suffering, he was trying to reconcile 'why do these things happen?' 'why do these ugly, painful things happen to good people?' 'so he suggested two answers' 'one, God must not care.' 'he's all-powerful, but he doesn't care.' 'Who are we? We're just ants' 'and if bad things happen, and he has all the power to do it, and he's not doing it, it's just simply he just doesn't care.'

'Now, he rejects that idea.' 'being a Jewish rabbi, he says, 'no, I believe that God is good.' 'So the alternative to that was, then God is not all-powerful.' 'If he cares, and he's allowing suffering to happen, then maybe he just isn't all-powerful.' 'and that was his end conclusion.' 'I've heard the people were influenced by this book, and I've heard even a lot of Christians.' 'So all this false theology, the openness of God theology, started coming into the church,' 'meaning that God doesn't direct traffic.' 'He's not able to be sovereign over what's happening in people's lives.' 'He's only able to foresee.' 'That he's basically predicting what we will do, because he has no control over us.'

'Obviously that's heresy, that goes against everything that we see in Scripture.' 'But if we assess the problem wrong, whatever answer that you put in is also going to be wrong.' 'So the problem with his question, the title of his book is, 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' 'The problem with that is we have a hard time determining if something is bad.' 'The worst thing in human history was somebody to be crucified on the cross, and yet God ordained that to bring about the best gift.' 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' 'Well, we assess what is good based upon, are they good compared to me?' 'They're better than me, so they're good.' 'They're worse than me, so they're bad.' 'We don't have the ability to assess what is good or bad.'

'We may look at their behavior not realizing that that's the greatest sacrifice that they're making.' 'So if you don't discern, if you don't discern what the problem is, whatever solution you throw at it is going to be wrong.' 'And so that's why he's saying what he said, you need to be spiritually discerning, right? 'Know the signs of the times, so that you may recognize why Jesus came.' So the text that we're looking at, Jesus is speaking to the crowd, and a particular event that takes place and was asking this question, and Jesus uses this opportunity to show them why he came, and what the primary thing is concerned of mankind. So let me start with this. He said, 'The greatest problem of mankind,' let me give you the answer to this before I even get started.

'The greatest problem of mankind is his spiritual condition.' 'The greatest problem of mankind is his spiritual condition.' 'If you remember, when we're starting through Genesis, right? 'We're going through the creation account, is it literal six days, 24 hours, 'who did Seth marry?' and we can get into all of that, but if you missed the whole reason why Genesis is written, then you're going to miss the whole point. Genesis is written during the period of the wandering of the Israelites in the desert, and they're allowed to enter into the Promised Land, and for the first time in Israel's history, they're going to actually be a country. Prior to that, it was just a people group. They became, they started growing in number as they were slaves in Egypt.

God delivers them, they're wandering in the desert for 40 years. But for the first time, they're going to have land, they're going to have king, and then so God gives them the book of Deuteronomy. Here's the laws they need to abide in order to have a kingdom. But right before he goes in, they needed to know why they existed, and for what purpose God's creating this kingdom. So when Genesis is written, he's trying to convey to them, here's the origin of what God is trying to do in history. The whole book of Genesis is to tell us what went wrong. How sin came in. And as a result of sin, that all the other stuff, all the societal problems, all the sexual perversions, all the problems of society, all stem from the fact that Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God, and when sins came in, murder came in, division came in, anxiety came in, rebellion came in, and so God is listing the history of mankind, and yet in the middle of all the sin, defiling everything, God remains faithful to his covenant promise.

And he keeps a strict order of the genealogy telling us, even though sin is having its effect on family, children, society, that this genealogy keeps going. Because he remains faithful to the promise that he made, that a Messiah, the Son of God, is going to come and reverse this curse. And so, everything that we know that he's been telling us, if you get that wrong, you're not going to understand the Bible. You're going to look at the story of Jonah and say, don't mess with God. Everything that you interpret is going to be interpreted wrong, if you don't understand the meta-narrative of what God is trying to teach us. That the central problem of mankind is his sin. And he illustrates it with two things.

One, he says, you know, the Galileans, those people got slaughtered and their blood got mixed with the sacrifice. What do you think about that? And it doesn't tell us in this text exactly what event he's referring to, but Josephus, a Jewish scholar, records two particular events that happened during that period that it may be referring to. And the first one is mentioned in Acts 5:37, where Gamaliel comes to the defense of the apostles, saying that if these men were professing Jesus, that if this is a movement of God, that there's nothing we can do. But if it's like that other rebellion, if you look at verse 37 of Acts 5, "After this man Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of census and drew away some people after him, he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered."

So the Galileans were following this man in rebellion against the Roman government. And so the Roman government came and they squashed him and they disappeared. They were probably not referring to that event because that event happened in AD 6. This looks like a contemporary event. So the second event that Josephus records is it happened somewhere between AD 25 and AD 30, which is about the time that we're referring to, about when Jesus is speaking here. What happened during that period was the Romans decided that they needed to build an aqueduct. But they needed funds. So what they did was they went to the Jewish temple and taxed all the funds that they had at the temple. So they took the money that was dedicated to the temple and used that for their purposes.

And so obviously the Galileans were not happy about this and they built up a rebellion against it. And they were coming and basically causing trouble for the Romans. And so Pilate was tasked to suppress this rebellion. But they couldn't find them because the Jews are scattered. They don't know who these Galileans were. So they decided at the Passover, since that's when all the faithful Jews would come to Jerusalem and make sacrifices, he had his soldiers dressed up like civilians, went into the temple, which in and of itself would have been sacrilegious. You can't have a pagan come into the temple. So they dressed up like Jews, went to the temple, waited for these Galileans to make their sacrifice, and then they revealed themselves and slaughtered all of them.

So not only did they come into the temple, they ended up killing them while they were worshipping, but their blood got mixed in with the sacrifices itself, which in and of itself would have been as sacrilegious as you can get. So if they already had hatred toward the Romans, can you imagine what would have happened after that? Remember I told you they had three specific groups of Jews that are mentioned in the New Testament? The first group were the Sadducees and they were the ones who controlled the temple. They were the people who controlled the Sanhedrin. They were the liberals. They've already given up on God. So all they were concerned about their political power. And they knew that the only way that they could have any kind of influence was to appease the Romans.

So they probably looked at that and say, you should have never rebelled. You should have never rebelled. It's because of your rebellion. We have them coming in and bothering us and we can't worship at the temple. So the Sadducees would have approached it by saying, keep your mouth shut and just keep doing what they tell you to do. Right? Stop rebelling. And then we had the zealots. You know what? The time of peace is over. We need to carry our knives. And so that's what the zealots were known for. They would carry their knives and they were constantly looking for opportunities to rebel physically. One of these days we're going to have enough people. Enough people who are going to be angry enough and gather them and get our knives.

And when we get an opportunity, we're going to wipe them out. And they actually tried that in AD 70. So they go in and rebellion and they blocked themselves in in the temple. And so the Romans just had enough. They come in and they slaughtered them. And they finally said, that's enough. And we're going to get rid of this temple. And the temple is completely destroyed. And those are the zealots. But neither group had a wide influence on the Jews. The Jews primarily looked to the Pharisees and the scribes for answers. And so the Pharisees, what they were teaching was, we don't have the manpower. We don't have the political power to be able to overthrow the Roman government. But we know that we were powerful when God blessed us.

So they were thinking that if we obeyed the law perfectly, if we kept the Sabbath perfectly, God would empower us. And if he empowers us, Romans are nothing. I mean, he overthrew the Babylonians, the Assyrians and, you know, and so we need to appease this God. So that's why they were so meticulous about obeying the law, because that's what they were teaching. And that's what they were thinking. And Jesus is addressing that particular paradigm. That must have happened maybe because they were greater sinners, or else God would have blessed them and would not have fallen into that. He says, in verse 2 and 3, Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?"

Now, if Jesus never said anything, the answer would have been yes, because that was the theology of that time. He says, "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Now, you have to understand how offensive this must be, right? Because they were thinking that happened to them because they were sinners. They were greater sinners than us. And he says, "No, you're the same." And if you don't repent, how you live, how you die may look different from person to person. Some of you may live a ripe old age to 95. Some of you may die in your 20s. But at the end of the day, all of you have the same fate until, unless you repent. And that's why in Luke chapter 20, verse 22, remember, they come to Jesus and they ask this question.

Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Because they were living between these two tensions. They wanted to honor God and obey the commandments and that's the only way that God's going to bless them. But the Romans are forcing them to bow down to Caesar's statue at the temple. They were putting restrictions on them so that they couldn't be faithful. So they were constantly living between this tension and they weren't actually asking Jesus a question. Knowing that this was a hot button, that if he says to obey Caesar, then the Jews are going to say, "What a compromiser! What a coward!" And he would have been rejected by the Jews. But if he said to ignore it and don't give it to the Romans, then the Romans would say he's an insurrectionist.

So either way he would have been rejected by either camp. But remember what Jesus says, knowing what's in their heart, render to Caesar what's Caesar, render to God what's God. Now this is probably connected because they were living between this tension that they took our temple's money and they were doing something that was dishonoring to God. What do we do with this tension between this pagan nation and trying to honor God? But in the middle of that he says, "You've assessed the whole problem wrong." Your issue is not with we're wrong, first and foremost. Your primary issue isn't that because if you worked and you worked harder and you made all the commandments. He says, "No, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

And the only way to be reconciled was by repentance. The second example he gives, in verse 4 and 5, he said, "Do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will also likewise perish." The second one is a deliberate act of evil from the pagan nation. The second one is just random. But he chooses both of them to make the same point. Whether you die at the hands of your enemy or whether you die from what seems to be a freak accident. He said, "Do you think that these things happened because they were better than you or worse than you?" He says, "No, the need is the same.

Unless you repent that you will experience likewise." See, that was the paradigm of that time. Remember in John chapter 9, when they run into the blind man? And the disciples automatically thought, "He passed by, he saw a man blind from the birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" So they're trying to assess the problem. What's happening here? Why is this happening? Is it his sin or is it his parents' sin? And Jesus answered, "It's neither." In fact, God has ordained this. Because he has something that he's going to do through this man to glorify him. Jesus' answer exposes their health and wealth theology. Which is the same problem here.

You and I are sophisticated enough to know that believing in Jesus doesn't make you healthy. Like just because, "Oh, we're wealthy, so God must have blessed us." We know our theology well enough to know to reject that. But that type of thinking has so deeply been embedded into the American Christian culture that we instinctively think that if we were sick and we are not sick anymore. If we had financial problems and we don't have financial problems, if there's something wrong and then it gets fixed, God has blessed us. But if we fall sick, if we lose a job, if something doesn't happen the way that we are hoping for, what did I do wrong? Maybe I need to do Bibles, maybe I need to pray more. If I do more, if I am more righteous, somehow God's going to bless us.

Even though we reject the health and wealth gospel, the culture of the health and wealth gospel is so deeply embedded in us. If we evaluate what is good and what is bad is saturated by this health and wealth gospel in our mind. Some of the most horrendous things that we see in life, God uses for his glory. And some of the most, the best blessing eventually turns into the downfall of the church. I look at what's happening in Korea. Here's a church that had the greatest revival in the last hundred years and the greatest downfall at the same time. In the same century. And if you ask all the pastors there what's going on, why is this church, we have mega churches, like nine biggest churches in the world in one city, why are they falling apart so quickly?

And every single pastor says it's the wealth. Which they were praising God, God's making us wealthy, he's like our economy is blowing up. And every single pastor there says it's the wealth. We saw it in China, when we were first coming into China in the late 1990s. They were so hopeful and they were so eager to hear the gospel and then the money began to roll in. And their church there doesn't look a whole lot different than here. They say if I believe in Jesus, am I going to have money like you? And the health and wealth gospel, Kenneth Copeland, if you know who he is. He's one of the fathers of the health and wealth gospel of our generation. And his teaching saturates the underground church.

And so what seems to be a blessing turns to be a curse and what seems to be a curse turns to be a blessing. If we don't, if we don't observe and is not able to discern what the problem is, whatever solution we throw at it is going to be wrong. See, remember Job, he experienced tremendous suffering. I mean, he's the guy that we turn to whenever we're suffering to try to find answers. Eliphaz, a young friend of his, just couldn't figure it out. Why would God make you suffer? His answer is, he says in verse 79, Remember now, whoever perished being innocent, or where were the upright destroyed? According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and those who sow trouble harvested, by the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they come to an end.

In other words, I've never seen a righteous suffer. Maybe you've been lying to us, you've been pretending to be righteous, but behind the scenes, you must have some sort of sin. And he's, he's pleading with Job, repent. Find out what's wrong with you, and repent. That's probably because, God would never punish a righteous person, if you were really righteous. But the problem with what Eliphaz was saying, was Job chapter 1, verse 1 says, He was actually suffering because he was blameless and righteous. That's how the whole book begins. Here's a man who was blameless and righteous, and Satan says, The only reason why he's being blameless and righteous is because you put a hedge around him of protection.

Take that away, and let me bring suffering in his life, and let me see what happens. So his whole suffering came because he was blameless and because he was righteous. It goes against every single line of Eliphaz, Eliphaz is his counsel. If we need to be able to discern, what is the biggest problem of mankind? How we experience life may differ from person to person, but the end is the same, he says, if we do not repent. So if the greatest problem of mankind is spiritual and is sin, then the greatest pursuit of mankind, he says, needs to be repentance. Repentance. So much of our effort is trying to fix our economy, try to learn to communicate with one another, and all of these things are great things.

But if you tell a sinner who is selfish, and give him the tools how to love his wife, he'll know what to do and not do it. If you give him the tools of how to raise children, and the man is not repentant, he'll know exactly what to do, but when he is wronged, he's not going to apply righteousness. Knowing right and wrong doesn't change anything until the man changes. All the problems of mankind is because something has been corrupted in us. It is not because we do not know right or wrong, that we just need to teach them what is right, what is wrong, what is God's will, what is not God's will. You teach an unrepentant man the will of God, and he'll run the other way. Until he repents. Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed for all men to die once, and after this comes judgment."

And because the primary problem of mankind is his sin, the primary central point of preaching was repentance. Remember John the Baptist? Now there's a lot of things that he said, but what was his central message? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, right? When Jesus came on the scene, Jesus said a lot of things, but what was the, if you were to summarize his preaching, what was his primary message of his preaching? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When the disciples began to preach after the resurrection of Christ, and he said, "You killed the altar of life." And they were convicted in their heart, what should we do? What does Peter say? Repent, and be baptized. Every instance where the preaching went out, he says to repent.

If you preach a gospel, where after you've preached the gospel, and they walk away and say, "Hey, thank you for letting me know about this wonderful, merciful, gracious God who loves me unconditionally." And they walk away. You know, I'm glad you believe, but you know, I don't want to believe. If they don't walk away recognizing that the danger that they're in, you didn't preach the full gospel. You didn't preach the full gospel. Because he said the whole purpose of the law was to make sin utterly sinful. So that sinners would recognize where they stand before God. So that Christ may be introduced as an answer to their sin. But if they walk away, saying God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life, why would you reject this love?

And they don't walk away recognizing the danger that they're in, you did not present the full gospel. Because the only solution to man's central problem is repentance. And people say, "Well, you know, all you're preaching is, you know, repentance and fire and brimstone. It makes us feel weary, and we don't really understand the love of Christ." Romans 2:4 says, "Do you not understand that it is riches and kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" If the central problem of mankind, what brings us to repentance, to meet Christ, is the kindness of God. Making sure that people understand where they stand before God in their sin is the kindness of God.

Because if God wasn't kind, there would be no preaching. If God wasn't patient, the flood would have been the last time we heard of who God is. If God wasn't kind and patient, there would be no Bible, there would be no prophets. He said it is His kindness that leads us to repentance. The greatest problem of mankind is His sinful state. Then the greatest pursuit of mankind needs to be repentance. Then what is this repentance? What does repentance mean? The word repentance in Greek literally means is metanoia, which is to change your mind. So some people heard a superficial understanding of this, saying, "You know what, I used to think like this and now I think like that." And so simply changing their opinion about God is enough to be saved.

Well, if that's what you think, it says in the book of James, you're no different than the demons because they have right theology and they shudder in the presence of God. Just having a different opinion about God, you know, I used to not believe it, but now I do believe it. You know, so do the satans. In fact, what's interesting is the people who knew the Bible well, when they saw Jesus, they didn't recognize Him. You know who recognized Him first? The demons. They were in fear in the presence of Jesus. "Son of God, why have you come before time to torture us? Have mercy on us." That should have been, if they recognized who Jesus was, they would have had the same reaction. They would have been terrified, but they were not.

They had the audacity to call the Son of God demonic, but they were that spiritually blind. The word metanoia intellectually means there's two things, negative and a positive. The negative is acknowledging that we are wrong. That whole paradigm, how we come to the conclusion of what's right and wrong was wrong. What made me happy and what made me sad was wrong. What I thought I value was wrong. My relationships were wrong. All that I pursued was wrong. So repentance means to have a different view of the world. You cannot continue to love the world and love God at the same time. My whole paradigm of what I pursued, why I pursued it, was wrong. That's what repentance is, in a negative sense. In a positive sense, we put that away and we recognize and we see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And in light of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, they all become rubbish. So I want Jesus. I realized that what I was pursuing was wrong. What made me happy was wrong. Now that my eyes have been opened, I see the treasure in Christ. Now I live the rest of my life knowing and pursuing this Christ. So metanoia first means negatively to repent of my past and recognizing that Jesus Christ now is my pursuit. Volitionally, willfully, negatively, we crucify our old life. And then we begin to pursue Christ the rest of our lives. You know what's interesting is the word for repent is in the present subjunctive. And what that means is, it's not just a past tense. Like you need to have, you need to have repented.

It's the word repent is in the present subjunctive, meaning it is something that is continual and repeated. That's what that tense means. Something that needs to be continual and repeated. Now let me tell you what that means. You better understand the word repent here. God told Adam and Eve, if you sin, you shall surely die. As soon as they sin, what happens? They get separated from God. God is the author of life. And if you're separated from the author of life, you're dead. But they didn't fall down and die. Right? So they died, but the rest of history, human history, is them dying. Right? Because they're moving further and further away from God. And so they're experiencing death. And that's why the Bible says, to those who are perishing, it is foolishness.

But those who are being saved, it is the power of God. So death came in past, present, and future. They died immediately when they were separated spiritually from God. They began to experience this death. Right? This coveting led to lying, to murdering, to corruption of society. Every thought that they had was evil. And so it is a history of the sin reigning over mankind, past, present. And then after they die, they will experience a second death, a future death. And in the same way, when the Bible says that you shall live, as soon as we're reconciled to God, we live. But for the rest of our lives, we are being saved. We're not just saved from the penalty of sin. We are being delivered from the power of sin.

And so sanctification is the process of redeeming an empty way of life. And learning how to live under the kingship of Jesus Christ. And so that's where we experience life. And then so we are saved. We are being saved. And we will be saved one day when we're glorified in our body and the sin is completely done away with from this body. And so the Bible describes our death as past, present, and future. And the Bible describes our life as past, present, and future. But if you only see salvation as a past tense repentance, and you're waiting this whole period of the middle, waiting until we get to heaven, you see this whole process of sanctification as a burden. Because you don't see life in this.

It says that righteousness with contentment is great gain. Meaning, if you understand the gift of righteousness. If you understand that the righteousness itself is the gift. It is not a burden. Because that's where life is. We had life, and then death kept on coming in, ruining everything. Jesus comes in and reverses the curse, we're reconciled to God, and then now we're beginning to relearn. What God intended for us to be. So living and pursuing righteousness is our pursuit of life. Amen? You sure? You don't seem sure. Okay, this is very important. How you view pursuit of righteousness either will be liberty to you, or it will sound like legalism to you. If it's a burden, it's legalism. But if it produces joy, then it's life.

For many, because they don't understand that we are being saved. That they see all the commandments of the scripture as burdensome. Of course it's burdensome. If it doesn't produce life, it's going to produce death. You're already working so hard. You're working 40, 50, 60 hours a week, and then you come to church, and then you're burdened. Now you've got to serve. You're having financial aid. You've got to give. You have a hard time even being gracious on the freeway when somebody cuts you off, and then it says, turn the other cheek? Are you kidding? Are you kidding? So all you hear in the church is do more! Do more! Because you don't understand that we are being delivered so that we may have life and have this life abundantly.

That the salvation is not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin. We are being delivered from the power of sin. And so the more we die in the flesh, the more we live in Christ, the more we experience this abundant joy. The more you hold on to this life, the more you covet the things that have nothing to do with God, the more it squashes the joy that God intends in your life. And the moment we're crucified no longer matters. You know why when you go home you feel relaxed? Because you're putting the world outside your home. And you can put on your comfortable pants. You can eat what you want. Because you're not concerned about how your face looks. You're not concerned about what you're wearing.

You can be comfortable. You can be yourself. God is calling us and delivering us from all the stress of living in this fallen world and living up to the Joneses or the Kims or the Changs. He's delivering us. He said be crucified with Christ so that we may live our life being delivered from the bondage and the power of sin. And that's sanctification. So when he calls us to repentance. Right? When he calls us to repentance to deliver us from the central problem of mankind is to look within first. Because our natural sinful inclination is I'm not happy because these people here. I haven't found the right group. I haven't found the right partner. My children are a certain way. My job is not a certain way.

And so our natural inclination is to think that if I can solve all the external problems I would be right. And Jesus is saying do you think that that happened to them because they did something wrong? No. All I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Unless you repent you will experience the same. In Psalm 139:23-24 Search me O God and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way. If the study of the Bible only equips us to see what's wrong with the world. You missed the whole point of the Bible. The more you study the Bible the more you recognize what's wrong with other people. You missed the whole point of the Bible.

Search me and know me. The corruption first of all is within me. So until I live daily in repentance I'm going to see everything through an unrepentant vision. I see all light through the through his light. Greatest problem mankind is his sin. So greatest pursuit of mankind is repentance. And then look what he says here in the next stage. He talks about how here's this tree that was planted for years. It doesn't bear fruit. Should we cut it out to be burned? Is it just taking up space? It's useless. All our energy is going to that. And Jesus and again if you look at the parable clearly Jesus is referring to himself. He said give me one more chance. Let's be patient one more year. Give me one more year.

Let me dig around and put put the the fertilizer around and if at the end of next year if it doesn't bear fruit. Then we have to cut it down. But give me one more chance. If you understood what he was saying. We're living in a period of grace. Where he's telling us that judgment is coming. That judgment is coming that at the end is coming. But because of Jesus's patience. Because we're living in a period where God's giving us an opportunity to come to him and repent. It's not coming because if God wasn't patient with us. The flood would have been it. Human history would have ended in Genesis. Human history would have ended with the floods. Human history would have ended with with Israel and Egypt.

It would have ended with Assyria and the Babylonians and the Persians and the Romans. It would have ended when Jesus came and they said you are a demonic man. And if Jesus wasn't holding back he would have destroyed them. When he was at the Garden of Gethsemane. When Peter took out his knife and he wanted to fight and Jesus said do you not think that I can bring legions of angels and destroy them. If God wasn't patient that's where it would have ended. How dare you come to the Son of God thinking that somehow you have power over me. 2 Peter 3:19 The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you. Not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

We are living in a period of his grace. We're living in a period where he wants us to join him to bring to repentance. Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them as I live declares the Lord God I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die O house of Israel? 3 Peter 4:19 He established us in order that we may plead with the world. Just like Paul did. We beg you. Be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God. We have assessed the problem of mankind too superficially. That if we somehow change the economics. If we change some of the leaders. That somehow all problems will be fixed. The problem with mankind is much deeper than that.

Much bigger than that. It is beyond us. Remember when Noah was building his ark. For over a hundred years as he was building people were mocking him. He said, "It's the rain. You fool. Why would you build this ark here in the middle of nowhere? There's no river and there's no water." And the whole time Noah was preaching to them. Repent. Judgment is coming. Repent. And they would not. You and I are the ark. We're building a church that the world doesn't understand. Why do they keep going to church? Why do they keep worshiping? Why do they keep giving? Why do they keep going out to mission? The world does not understand. But he has called us to be the light. And the salt of the earth. What good is it if the salt loses its flavor?

What good is it if the light is not functioning? He built us so that we can be the ark. So when the judgment comes that they would know that God left a witness in this generation. We are to warn. We are to warn this world. That there is a sovereign, holy, holy, holy God. That if they do not repent. If they do not recognize that the author of life has been offended. And that this holy, holy, holy God is patiently waiting. That they also come to repentance. They will also one day meet this holy, holy, holy God. And he's not going to be a loving, merciful, gracious God. Everything that he's been withholding. All the wrath that he's been withholding at the white throne judgment is going to be revealed.

Until the church recognizes our calling, every other endeavor is going to be for nothing. All our efforts to raise good children. All our efforts to put away money. All our efforts to build a nice community. Will all be for nothing. Not realizing all the problems of mankind is because of his sin. You can create the best system in the world. And you put a sinner in there and he'll ruin it. You can give him the best circumstance. Garden of Eden. Everything was good. First day was good. Second day was good. Third day was good. Fourth day was good. Fifth day was good. Sixth day was good. Everything was made perfect. But you put sin in there and it ruins everything. You can't get better than Garden of Eden.

Until sin is dealt with. Every other endeavor is going to be for nothing. Let me conclude with this. What's happening in our community, in our society. I mean, I don't know any other word to say it. It's disgusting. Some of you guys who have lived long enough. Can you imagine 30 years ago if somebody told you that there's people who want to kill babies right up to the point of birth. And then if they intended to kill the baby and they come alive, they want to kill the baby. Because they don't want to acknowledge it as a human being. That they want to sexually transition a 10 year old just because he says, I want to transition without the mother's permission, without the dad's permission. Can you imagine 30 years ago?

Can you imagine 30 years ago? If they said that? Are you kidding? In our lifetime? That wouldn't be any more surprising than if somebody said, you know, they're going to be giving child sacrifices in 30 years from now. Right? Is it much different? Is what we're seeing much different than child sacrifice? Whether it is sexual or whether it is abortion?

It's disgusting. And the fact that the church is complicit about it is shocking. But, but, all of those things are just symptoms. The reason why perversion is happening is because the church is asleep. You can't get unrepentant people to fight for political causes. You can't get unrepentant people to care about sexual immorality. You can't get unrepentant people gathering together and sacrifice and fight evil. Because repentance has to start from the household of God. The people of God must first repent. We need to recognize the compromise in my life. We need to recognize the sin that we are allowing in my life. And the scripture says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Who's going to heal the land? He will heal the land. If we do what? Humble ourselves and pray and seek his face and repent. We are called to repent first. We can spend all our energy trying to change what's going on out there. And I think Christians need to wake up. We do need to get politically involved. We need to vote for what's right. We need to fight against what's wrong. But in the middle of that, the most important thing that we must not forget is that power comes from him. Repentance must first start in the house of God. If revival is going to come, it's not going to go out there. We can't expect revival from Mormons. We can't expect revival from the Catholics. Revival must start in the household of God.

And when God's people recognize that the only power that we have to change is by the cross of Jesus Christ, revival begins at home. Revival begins at home. When we humble ourselves and we pray and we seek his face and we repent of our wickedness, then he will hear our prayers. He will forgive our sins and he will heal our land. I hope that sinks in. Let's put our priorities where it needs to be. And see Christ with all our heart. Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, Lord, we continue to pray for revival. We pray, Lord God, as you warned us that because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. Help us, Lord God, not to turn from your word to the left or to the right.

Help us, Lord God, to know that we cannot bear any fruit unless we abide in you. Help us to be men and women, a church that pray, seeks you, humbles herself, Lord God. That we may come before you week after week. Praying, search me, O God, know my hurtful ways. Lord, we pray, as so much wickedness is increasing around us, that we would run to the one, the only one, that has any power to do anything about it. Bring revival, Lord God, to me. Bring revival to our leaders. Bring revival to our church. Bring revival to our city. Bring revival, Lord God, to our community. Bring revival to our nation. Let us see, Father God, through your lens. Let us grieve as you grieve. Let us pursue the sinners that you have pursued.

Help us, Lord God, to not to simply confess with empty words that we have been crucified with Christ. that we are crucified with Christ. It is no longer us who live, but Christ who lives in us. The life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I pray, Lord God, that that would be our testimony. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise.