The Bad News, The Good News, The Lord's Army

Pastor said I could talk as long as I want, but you guys can leave whenever you want to. I want to say up front, the reason I, I want to make sure you guys understand where I want to go with this. The bad news, of course we know, but we're going to develop that a little bit. The good news is Christ dying for us, and we are the Lord's army. And that is my primary message for today, is how are we God's army?

I mean, we've all been taught so well in this church that it's going to be review. So, as you listen to the New Testament reading, did you catch what the disciples did? Let's read it again. So, look at Matthew 28, just verses 16 and 17. The eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

Can you imagine the disciples doubting? they had spent three years with Jesus, seeing His miracles, hearing His teachings. They witnessed His resurrection. As Luke says in the book of Acts, they spent 40 days seeing Him after the resurrection so they knew it was Him. And yet, some of them doubted. Now that's encouraging. The unbelieving world doubts the Gospel all the time.

We bring something to the world and they say we're foolish. They just don't get it. So as we look at the Word today, let's be encouraged. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning asking that you grant us a greater love and understanding of your Word. Please allow your message to be clear and use your Word to fill us with a desire to proclaim the good news and the bad news to a lost world.

You have crushed the head of your adversary and we have been given your spirit to stand firm. Help us each day to rejoice in the new life you have given us. Open our hearts this morning as we look into your word. We ask these things in your son, our Savior's name. Amen. So let's consider why people doubted.

All the way from the Garden of Eden to the Ascension to this morning right here in this auditorium. Certainly there are some who doubt. Even believers often doubt. I mean, it's a struggle. So if we're going to understand that, it going to be a refresher class for you guys most of you But hopefully it a different angle and it may fill in some blanks that you just haven thought about So let turn to Ephesians chapter 6 so we can see who this the enemy of God is Now Paul is talking about our enemy here, but keep in mind he's the enemy of God.

So Ephesians chapter 6 starting in verse 10. Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. To get a better idea of his might, look back at Ephesians chapter 1. Page back. Look in Ephesians 1.18 down to 21. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saint, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

Now the disciples had the advantage of seeing the demoniac who had a thousand demons in him. And when Jesus approached them, the demon said, Have you come to torture us before the appointed time? these demons right away knew who Christ was they were fearful of him they weren't getting ready to do battle with him they knew there was no battle and so Christ does they ask to be cast into the pigs and Jesus tells them to go they go in the pigs and the pigs run into the into the ocean or into the sea and drown so I put that in there just so that we can understand the control that Jesus really has over the enemy. So if we look at this enemy who is powerful, I never want to forget that.

Let's go back to Ephesians chapter 6. Starting in verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Now in the first century, they didn have Walt Disney They didn see the genie who said you know phenomenal powers itty living space They didn have that idea When we talk about the rulers and the authorities and the cosmic powers and the spiritual forces, they weren't thinking about Star Wars or any other entertaining demons. They were thinking about the real thing. And for that reason, And possibly that's why the disciples doubted.

They're going up an enemy that they can't stand. They can't stand against this enemy, but they can with Christ. So when we put on this armor, we're going against the schemes of the devil. For us to understand the bad news of our enemy, let's go back to Genesis chapter 3. this war that began really began in heaven it didn't begin between Satan and man it began between Satan and God Satan wanted what God had Satan wants God's glory and he continues to try to get that if he can't take God's throne in heaven he wants to take God's creation on earth and that's why he went after the image of God.

He went after Adam. So let's look at that again. Genesis chapter 3. The serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field that the Lord had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, least you die.

Now, look at chapter 2, verse 16 so we can understand what God had really said. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in that day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Look at what Eve does. Eve adds to that. Look at chapter 3, verse 2 and the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that in the midst of the garden neither shall you touch it That not what God said Here we have our first legalist They wanted to make sure they were doing what God wanted and so she said man when I going to touch it But Satan takes that And we know he's a serpent, and we've got to use a little imagination here, but we'll go with every drawing that you ever see of the garden.

Where's the serpent? He's in the tree. Eve is thinking, if we touch the tree, we die. This serpent isn't dying. So she goes for the bait. she takes the fruit. Adam is thinking, oh, wait a minute, you're supposed to die.

Adam, rather than obeying God, even in the face of this apparent lie that she didn't die, Adam takes it. And so we're all taken down by Adam. When Adam did that, he handed over the authority. I like the way Erwin Lutzer who is of the Moody Church in Chicago. He puts it very well. He says, When Lucifer, whose name means light bearer, rolled the dice, gambling that he could do a better job by being God's enemy rather than God's friend, he set in motion a moral catastrophe that would reverberate throughout the universe.

You and I have been deeply affected by his decision made ages long ago. Yeah, pretty good description. as you think about that even unbelievers are so affected that unless someone proclaims the gospel to them and god opens their heart they'll be condemned in hell for all eternity remember what paul wrote in romans he wrote how can they call on the one they have not believed and how can they believe unless they hear faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ. This is where we need to love the lost.

If the lost are as lost as we believe them to be, we should never look at them and say, why can't you get it? Do you ever think that sometimes? When people actually go into schools and shoot kids or whatever disaster you see and you think, how could anyone do that? The question is never how could anyone do that. If we really understand the captivity that Satan has on man, it's amazing that more people don't do it.

Our job is to go out to that world and bring them in to the kingdom of God. That's what the war is all about. Look at the Old Testament again, Ezekiel chapter 36. I just want to emphasize these readings. And so it's just, it's really cool when you look at it, about what God really does. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Ezekiel 36, just 22 and 23.

Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

Do you see God defending His name? It's what He's doing. If you look at Job, Job chapter 1 and 2, just a wonderful story about an encounter between God and Satan. And God brings Job up. And God says, look at my servant Job. He loves me.

And Job says, sure he does. Look at all you've given him. And so God says to Satan, do whatever you want. You just can't touch him. So in one day, this man learns that he loses all of his crops and all of his servants that were watching him. He loses all of his livestock and all of the servants that were watching them.

He loses all of his family. and all the servants who were serving them, in one day. And he says, Blessed be the name of the Lord. The Lord is given, and the Lord taketh away. So when Satan comes the next day, God brags again about Job. He says, look. And he doesn't say, look at what you did to him.

God says, you enticed me against him without reason. It's really neat. when you see God is operating on a different level than we think about. We often think God is there to serve us, God is there to save us. We're the main center of everything. But really, the main center is the glory of God. If God would put us at the center, it would be a sin.

God would become a sinner. God has to honor the highest being, and it is himself. For us, that's pride and arrogance. For God, that's holiness. So back to the idea of Satan We have Satan back in Genesis chapter 3 who now has taken over creation because he took Adam down What does he do after that? This is really where the history ties into it. hold on a second, I have lost my space in my notes, forgive me.

This is what we do though. We do the same thing. So when we're looking at what happens with Adam, it's a fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what is it that he really wanted? He wanted to know good and evil, just like God. He wanted, Satan wanted to be God, Adam wanted to be God. And we, every day, we do the same thing.

Every day we have God's word that says do something, and we have what we think is right, and we weigh it out. There's no weighing it out. We need to look at God's word and do it. And none of us do that perfectly. So when we start looking at the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and someone asks you, if God were good, why is there evil in the world? There's evil in the world because God is giving us what we ask for.

We want the knowledge of good and evil. The depth of evil is so deep that it's taken eons to teach us. And we're still learning. Because if we really understood evil, we would flee from it. Instead, it entertains us. We still enjoy evil. and so God is showing us don't enjoy it enjoy holiness so we have a broken relationship with God this broken relationship as we look at Satan I'm sorry I had a lot of different notes and I took things out but when we look at Satan and his operation you see in the New Testament he's evident I mean there's demons there's wind storms there's all kinds of things that say hey look I'm the devil I'm here I'm fighting he operates a little differently today demons do not die those same demons that were against Jesus are against Jesus people today We have demons who operate against us daily The only thing is today they operate a little differently John MacArthur describes the battle this way, Satan continues his effort to make sin less offensive, heaven less appealing, hell less horrific and the gospel less urgent.

Don't be ignorant of Satan's devices. The word of God leaves no doubt about the existence or the nature of hell. With clarity and authority, God has told us everything we need to know about hell and how to avoid it. I think that's pretty descriptive. Contrary to the word of God, many people believe they can remain neutral on this issue. Just think of people that you talk to.

You may be even sitting here right now saying, you know, this really isn't a big deal. I don't believe in the devil. I don't believe in God. I'm okay, you know. But the truth is, that's a lot. Then we have people who, they believe the Word of God.

They believe that God so loved the world, He sent His only Son, that whosoever believes in God should not perish but have eternal life. But what to believe about God's sin? And that's up for grabs. Believe whatever you want about Jesus. Could have been man, could have been girl, could have been... Just look around.

There's all kinds of options. So if we're going to believe who Jesus is, we've really got to look at the scriptures. But the deception that Satan uses is this. You have the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. And then there's this kingdom of indecision. And if you're in the kingdom of indecision, you're okay.

If you haven't chosen darkness and you haven't chosen light, you know, you're just kind of here weighing out whether you're good or bad. There is no kingdom of darkness. Sorry, there's no kingdom of indecision. John Lennon put it very well. John Lennon of the Beatles. Imagine there's no heaven.

It's easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us, only sky. Well, isn't that comforting? If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin, hey, just imagine there's no heaven. No hell below us.

No judge above us. We're okay. We're just fine. Let's just have fun. Let just not worry about it And that really is the attitude of most people today But it is a deception and we need to proclaim the truth So as Christians we need to fight it today We need to remember that our struggle, our battle is not only our struggle with our individual sins, us becoming more and more like Christ.

That's a daily struggle. But we're also the army of God. When God said, go out and proclaim the truth, He could have sent angels. He could have written it in the trees. He could have written it with clouds. He didn't.

He took man and he said, here's your duty. Go out and proclaim a truth that no one wants to hear. Go out and proclaim a truth that will take people out of condemnation and into heaven. And we sometimes fall in love with this world as Satan. It's a deception of Satan. We fall in love with the things of this world.

We forget about the gospel. We forget about who we are, the army of God, and we just go about our day. We need to be careful. So some of the variety of things that Satan wants people to believe is this. God only exists if you believe it. God is whoever you want him or her to be.

People are able to decide these things on their own. And really, we should all just let everybody believe whatever they want to believe. we should just, as the bumper sticker says, coexist. And if you know that bumper sticker, it has a lot of religious symbols on it. Many religions are okay with a variety of religions. Christianity is not. God says, I am the way and I only.

And so if we want to say, well, you know, you believe in Buddha, that's okay. He teaches good things. No, Buddha's teaching will take them to hell. Mohammed's teaching takes them to hell every teaching out there even if you would become Jewish they have not come to Christ as their savior only Christianity is the one that saves people from the fires of hell do we love the lost? are we willing to jeopardize our reputation? jeopardize our friendships?

Are we willing to even jeopardize our jobs? Now that's not always something we can do. But to what level are we willing? At least mull that over in your head, decide at what What point do I need to stop witnessing about God? I'm not saying there's never a time. We'll see that with Jesus.

It's very interesting when we look at Jesus, the way Jesus witnesses, and so I want to look at some of those. Let's look at John 3.16 first. Not John 3.16. That's the verse everyone knows. How many people know John 3.19 and 20? Have you memorized John 3.19 and 20?

What does John 3, 19 and 20 say? It says, this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed. There's the world you're looking at. You're going out there with the light of the gospel.

They hate it. Their deeds are evil. now we have a tendency to think evil is being really bad but when you look it up the terms wicked and evil biblically are defined as bad worthless or of no account so it's really fits just about all of us even unfortunately sometimes even christians but we're safe and so we change we change our ways so um you know that's why that's why jesus It says in John 6, 44, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. We have an enemy in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 4.

It says the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers. If you're an unbeliever right now, or if you know unbelievers, remember they have an enemy, who we've read about, who is blinding them. It's not that they have some innate capability of understanding good and bad. They don't. The enemy has blinded them. Now they may do better than other people, but in comparison to God, we're all bad.

And that's the standard we have to meet. So the drawing that Jesus is talking about in John 6, 44 involves both the Holy Spirit and a believer. So let's look at Acts chapter 13, starting in verse 44. Acts chapter 13, starting in verse 44. Okay The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord Paul and Barnabas have been preaching But when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul reviling him And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, since they were Jewish.

Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles. for the Lord has commanded us saying I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this they began rejoicing and glorifying the Lord the word of the Lord and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. What do you see Paul doing there?

Paul proclaims the gospel they reject him and he leaves them. Sometimes you do that. Sometimes you do that. Other times you don't. you preach to those who will listen. You proclaim the truth to those who will listen. And those who God has opened their heart like we read in Ezekiel, remove that heart of stone, put in a heart of flesh, they are the ones who will come to Christ.

But God doesn't do it without a witness. And so if we want to understand witnessing, let's look at some examples of Jesus. Look at John chapter 3. We're going to look at Nicodemus here. Jesus witnesses to Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to him.

But Jesus, recognizing that he is a leader, a spiritual leader of Israel, and should understand things, Jesus doesn't really go easy on him. So let's look at it. John chapter 3. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

And Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus ignores this whole conversation. He comes to him saying, Hey, you must be from God. And Jesus just hits him. Hey, you can't see the kingdom of God unless you're born again. And Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born again when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb? And Jesus answered him following what we read in Ezekiel removing the heart of stone getting a heart of flesh Jesus answers him truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. The Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? And Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Now there's a witness that God gives to someone who should understand these things.

Are you talking to a believer who should be farther along in their walk? Are you encouraging them? The scriptures say we're to encourage one another. So when we know where someone should be and they're not there, we should encourage them. Now look at how Jesus does with the next chapter. the woman at the well. John chapter 4.

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. So he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field where Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Joseph's well was there. So Jesus was wearied as he sat from his journey. He was wearied as he was from his journey. He was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. What do we know about the sixth hour?

What does that say to you? There's a reason the Holy Spirit had that put in there. The sixth hour is in the middle of the day when the sun is its hottest. So, look at verse 7. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, Give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

And the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman? For Jews have no dealing with Samaritans. And Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that's saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. So he piques her interest here. he's not hard on her he's not slamming her he's being gentle the woman said to her as you read it you see that the woman said to him sir you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep where do you get that living water Are you greater than our father Jacob He gave us the well to drink and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

And Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never be thirsty again. And the water that I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here again to draw water.

And she's not even thinking about eternal life here. She's thinking, man, it's hot. I don't want to have to come back here and draw this water again. So give me this water that just keeps coming. And verse 15. Sorry, 16.

Jesus said to her, Go call your husband and come here. Now, Jesus knows the heart, so these witnessing is perfect. But we can still learn from it. Oftentimes, we know sin in people's lives. It's not wrong to point out sin in someone's life because that's what takes them to hell. A lot of people think you go to hell because you don't know Jesus.

That is not why you go to hell. You go to hell because God said, if you sin, you will die. We go to heaven because we know Jesus, and he takes our sin. He takes our penalty. The world especially messes that up. We've got to remember, you're not going to hell because you don't know Jesus.

You're going to hell because you're a sinner. And in Romans chapter 1, it says, even those who haven't heard of Jesus have creation to show that there's a God. And what do they do? Do they try to worship the true God of creation? No. Paul tells us in Romans.

They take a piece of wood, they carve an idol, and they worship it. So they already know they're worshiping a false god because they made it. And so they, even though they never heard of Jesus, will spend eternity in hell because by their own standards, they don't worship the true God. Because they're in captivity to Satan. So we've got to keep these things in mind if we're going to have a good witness to people and nail these things down when you're talking to people and they ask you questions find the answers don't just, I don't know find the answers, tell them to get back with them get their phone number Everybody has a cell phone anymore.

In fact, you can ask your cell phone for answers. It gives them to you. You can look up verses in a heartbeat anymore. It's amazing when you're studying the Scriptures how easy it is now. But, so, as you read through this, you're going to see that the woman is just surprised. That she knows, that he points out that you have had the woman said, Sir, I perceive you're a prophet.

Our Father's worship is on this mountain. But you say in Jerusalem is the place to worship where we are to worship. And Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship. So in verse 25, the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. So she's got an idea of that. Most people in this world today don't. we're dealing with a different group of people they don't know that they're under condemnation of God or if they do they don't understand it they don't understand that there was a promise of a Messiah and they don't understand it was Christ we're starting from way back here you know when I was growing up everybody knew about everybody knew church, everybody knew about Jesus Christmas had the right idea with it those things are gone in this society today.

When you're talking with people who don't know Christ, they don't know the very basics of Christ. You've really got to start with the ABCs. But she doesn't. She understands that the Messiah is coming, and Jesus said, I who speak to you am he. And so he spends two days in that city, and many of them, unlike you saw in Acts chapter 13, where they kicked Paul and Barnabas out, many of them come to know Christ.

So, look back at Luke chapter 18. Luke 18 is a case where Jesus doesn't even tell them the gospel. He just lets them go. Look at the rich young ruler. And as we read this this isn a lesson on giving It a lesson on what do you love Are you ready to give up what you love So, starting in verse 18. And a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal.

Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. He's feeling pretty good now. All these I've kept for my youth. And when Jesus heard this, he said to him, One thing you still lack, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

And Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. The message of the gospel has come to Christ. Why didn't Jesus just say that? Jesus is working with something in this man's life.

And when you know people personally enough, you can work through things in their life that they can see they need a Savior. and if they reject it, as this rich ruler did, all we do is bring the truth to them. If God doesn't remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, you're going to literally be beating your head against the heart of stone. So you pray for them, you give them truth, and God has to do the rest.

Go back to Luke chapter... This is the last one. Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10 is probably one of the misunderstood. This isn't me speaking. This is studying and reading and looking at these things.

This is probably the most misunderstood parable in Scripture. So, parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 25. Behold a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test saying Teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life He said to him What written in the law How do you read it And he answered You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

And he said to him, You've answered correctly. Do this and you'll live. Is that a works-based rule? There's something going on here, right? Okay. So, but Jesus, and he said to him, you have answered Christ, you do this and you live.

But he, the lawyer, but he desiring to justify himself to Jesus, said to Jesus, who is my neighbor? This guy doesn't want to have too many neighbors. If I have to love my neighbor, I want a small circle of neighbors. I don't want a big one. Too hard. So Jesus gives this parable.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by him on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to that place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

He went to him and bound his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three men do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?

And he said, The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said, You go and do likewise. Now this is a parable. We don't need a teaching on what the innkeeper did or what kind of an animal it was or did the guy ever recover. It's a parable. There wasn't.

None of this happened. Jesus is using this to teach this guy. Look at the question in verse 36. Which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man? The question isn't who is your neighbor that you need to love. The question is what kind of a neighbor are you going to be Wherever you are what kind of a neighbor are you going to be So sorry if I went too long I not sure Anyway listen when we defeat God enemy or the way that we defeat God's enemy is to bring the gospel to the lost.

The battle that's being fought is for the glory that belongs to God. and all those that Jesus takes to heaven brings Him glory. That's our job, is to bring Christ's glory. So go out, be a soldier with the gospel. Proclaim it to everyone you can. If you mess up, it doesn't matter. God can bring someone else.

If you mess up, it's just a lesson on how to do it better the next time. You'll get it right eventually, but always keep in mind, and many are called, few are chosen. Most people are going to reject you. They do not want Christ. So just proclaim Christ. Let's pray.

Father, we do thank You that You're a God who has been so gracious to us, open in our hearts, Lord, giving us a heart of flesh that can understand Your Gospel. We pray, Father, that today we would go out with a desire, a stronger desire, more of a passion for the lost, a desire to see them come to heaven, that we would love them with an everlasting love that only comes through you, Lord. As we read your word, help us to understand it better that it not only changes our lives, but that we can use it to help others change their lives.

We pray, Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have crushed Satan's head, that in the end we will be resurrected to eternal life, and we know Father that many will be resurrected to eternal death Father give us compassion for them help us to see them as lost people not arrogant or dumb but blind by the enemy Father we know it is their choice they willingly follow the enemy but they don't have your spirit in their heart and so we pray that you would move in their heart and that we would move in their ears in Christ's name Amen Thank you.