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And on the back of your papers today, if you didn't get one, I'm sure we can arrange someone to get them to you. I wrote out both passages, excuse me, I copied both passages to the back of the paper because I am going to be going back and forth and I didn't want us to get lost.
17 days from today, 17 days from this very day are the only days left for shopping for your pastor, for your family till Christmas. 17 more days. Are you ready? Are you ready? I am registered at Gander Mountain Academy Sports, Bass Pro Shop, and Cabela's.
That's where I'm registered if you want any last minute ideas. Brother Michael, I'm doing something wrong, I think. But while we get ready, yes ma 'am. Aw, did you really? It's the right color. It is.
It'll be for my finger. It's a Tennessee hat. I'll put it up here where someone gave me a Bucky Beaver up here. Guys, only 17 shopping days left. Folks, are you ready? Now what are we celebrating? What is Christmas all about?
Well ladies and gentlemen, I want to talk to you today about something called the first advent and the second advent of Jesus. Now that's just a fancy way, that's just a fancy way of saying the first time Jesus comes and the second time he will come.
Now Christmas is not really about Jesus, okay? I don't want to get everybody all wound up, but just listen to me. In reality, what we do in the United States of America and other countries really has very little to do with Jesus, okay?
Nowhere in scripture does it tell us to celebrate or remember the birth of Christ. It doesn't say that anywhere. Guys, there weren't three wise men when Jesus was born. That happened several years later.
Jesus was not born in December. Most of the Christmas icons are a blending of pagan worship, i .e. Christmas trees and stuff like that, are a blending of pagan worship and Christianity that the Catholic church started many years ago to bring in and to make pagans feel welcome in Christmas worship.
All of that is true, okay? And I celebrate Christmas. I celebrate Christmas, i .e. the opening of the gifts and eating large amounts of food. That's what I celebrate, okay? But I celebrate Jesus Christ every day.
The word of God tells us to memorialize the death of Christ. It doesn't say anything about his birth. It tells us about his death. But it also, in more places, doesn't just tell us to memorialize his death.
What it tells us is to be ready for when he comes back. You might not be ready for December 25th, but ladies and gentlemen, if you leave here today not ready for that, it's okay. But what you cannot leave here today is not be ready for his second coming.
Let me tell you this right now. At any moment, before I finish this next sentence, Jesus Christ raptured to bring his church home. There is nothing prophetically that has not yet happened to bring his church out of this world.
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for that? I'm going to compare and contrast Matthew chapter 2 with the first coming of Jesus, with Revelation 22, the second. Now, the second coming of Jesus. Now, how do you know if you're ready?
I want you to answer these questions today, four of them, and grade yourself. Are you ready? You are ready if you're worshiping God. It says here in Revelation chapter 22, and once again, you'll find that on the back of your paper if you don't have your Bibles with you.
In Revelation chapter 22, John, who wrote the book of Revelation, it was given to him through the vision of Almighty God, and an angel was talking to him. And as this angel appeared to John, starting in verse 8 of Revelation chapter 22, when this angel appeared, John fell on his face before this angel.
Now, I want you to read real carefully what it says. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had shown them to me.
But he said to me, don't do that. And it's a very powerful statement. If you read it in the Greek, there's an exclamation point in English, but it's actually even stronger in the Greek. It's not anger, but it's like frustration.
Don't do that. For I am a fellow slave with you, your brothers, the prophets, and those who keep the words of the book, worship God. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to be ready for Christ's coming, I hope and pray that Witten Baptist Church and all the people that are gathered here today will be found worshiping God.
It says very clearly, don't worship me, worship God. Ladies and gentlemen, can I ask you this morning, just let's go back 10 minutes when we were singing. And I don't mean to sound or to cast aspersions upon you of negativity.
I'm asking you as a fellow servant of God, were you worshiping God? Now, you cannot qualify that by whether you were singing or not. OK, let me say that again, because there are millions of people who were singing who are not truly worshiping God.
You see, worship happens in here. God has told the children of Israel throughout all the Old Testament, stop your celebration, stop your singing. I'm tired of it because what I want is the worship of your heart.
You know that cute little girl, men, that you just love with all your heart? You know that one that she just comes around and you're like a buck and rut. You're like, you smell her and she bats those eyes at you and your heart just goes, right?
Well, that happens when you're younger. That does. When you get older and you're married 30 years, it's like, hey, baby, good morning. But in the newness of that, right? I know some of you women, oh, my husband still does that.
Well, good for you. I don't. But that's worship. Worship, the word comes from who is worthy. This morning while we were worshiping, I was praying and it just came to my head. I've never said this before.
I said, God, I love your grace, but show me your mercy. I am so thankful for God's mercy. Man, I have failed a million times since I've been a Christian, since I've been a pastor yesterday, this morning.
The mercy of God is limitless. I love Lamentations three, where it says his compassions fail not. They are new every morning and great as I faithfulness. That's why I worship God. It's not a religion to me.
I'm beyond I don't have words, I'm beyond thankful, it's beyond appreciation, it's beyond anything because I'm not worthy yet. He chose to give it to me. That is worship that no matter how many times I have failed, the voice of God still beckons me to come, no matter how many times I'm unworthy, I still have a destiny and glory based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ that in my heart wants to say thank you, but not with words of the English language, but with words of my spirit.
And that happens during worship and that worship can happen, folks, in your car and your truck. It can happen in the depths of despair. For those of you that are suffering with depression this morning, the greatest worship is when you feel like total.
The green stuff growing in your bathtub, right, you don't have green stuff growing in your bathtub. I need to talk to Gwen when you feel like just the stuff you scrape off your shoe after walking through a yard with six dogs.
You with me? And you still look past that because God does and you worship him in spite of that. Guys, worship is not a feeling. It's not. It's an action of showing God and telling God how worthy he is.
Guys, two other things on this. Number one, who are you worshiping? Sometimes we get focused on the style of music and I'm not going to get all wound up on this. But folks, if you worship the style of music, if you say, I just can't worship God unless it's a hymn or I can't worship God unless it's contemporary music.
I want you to understand something. You're either worshiping tradition or you're worshiping your likes. That's who your God is. God is totally devoid of anything needed by human hands to construct worship in our hearts.
Worship is a choice. Don't worship the style of music. Don't worship the personality. Don't worship the drum sets or the guitars and pianos or your feelings. Your feelings are irrelevant to worshiping truly God.
And then here's something else. Leaders, leaders, and I would pray today that all of my brothers and sisters in Christ standing in pulpits around the world would remember this. The angel was sitting there, and as John fell down to worship him, the angel immediately said, don't do that.
Get up. I am a slave just like you worship only to God. Leaders, who are you directing people to worship you? In today's world, it seems like the guy that writes the first book or the 30th book or who has the greatest oration skills is the one who worship.
And it seems to me not all, but a lot of preachers today want the worship to be focused on themselves. Leaders in your own individual ministries, you have an example to follow today in Revelation 22, your job, our job, because remember, here are pastors, here are street walking whores on Jackson Avenue.
We're the same. There is no one who is better than the other. All of our sins have made us unacceptable to God. But what we need to remember is no matter where in life and the matriculation of maturity in your growth as a Christian, you are our job is to simply do this.
Hey, guys, Jesus, your job is to point people to the only hope they can they can have. There is no hope found in you, a church or a creed. It's only in Jesus Christ. Who are you worshiping this morning?
Number two, it's not just who are you worshiping, but who are you testifying of? I want you to understand that starting in January, we are working really hard. In fact, I have a meeting all day tomorrow to talk about plans that we're going to be doing in twenty twenty one.
And the reason we're doing this tomorrow is I want it all written out. I want it all organized so I can present it to my people on December twenty twenty seventh twenty seventh. OK. One of the things, though, that I'm directing our staff and our ministers to do is I want twenty twenty one to be about us preaching Jesus.
How many of y 'all are preachers in here? If you are born again Christian, you are a preacher. OK, preacher is not a title. It's a command. OK, we as God's people, we preach against homosexuality. We preach when someone takes a nativity set out of a government building or the Ten Commandments off the wall in a courtroom.
That's when we get fired up. That's just absolutely silly. Guys, it's not about what we're against. It's about what we're for. The world will know us by the legalistic stance we take on things. But God's word says the world will know of our testimony when we show the love of God one to another.
Now, I preach very hard against sin. I do. OK, there's no mistake. I haven't turned a hippie overnight. OK, but in reality, as I get a course correction in my own life from God, which happens all the time because I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, as I get that course correction, the greatest evidence we have is not our apologetics in evolution and creationism, not our Socratic means of debate.
The greatest power we have will never be found in the explanation of doctrines, but it will be found in the actions of obedience and love that we show towards God and how we serve each other. Guys, let me ask you today, are you testifying to God?
Look here in verse 10 and 20. And once again, I'm going to let you read Matthew 2. But in Revelation 22, verses 10 and 20, it says this. Once again, the dialogue between the angel and John are happening.
And he also said to me, don't seal the prophetic words of this book because the time is near again in verse 20. He says he who testifies about these things says, yes, I am coming quickly. When's the last time you witnessed to anyone?
When's the last time you witnessed? I mean, think about it. When is the last time you shared the gospel? A lot of times in the past, Christians and churches have been taught this, Mike, Roman six, so cute, your little mask.
Mike has such awesome hair, doesn't he? I wish my hair did that. I wish I had it, but. Mike, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. And we learn this Romans road thing, we learn this sequential, almost chronological idea of leading people to Jesus.
I'm going to share something with you as Mercedes finishes opening her Coke. I felt like I was in a game or so here, hold this. I didn't embarrass you, did I, Mercedes? Hey, your cheeks match your head.
Um, guys, we get this idea that witnessing is this program. We go out this church, the people of this church have knocked on every door in a five mile radius, every single door over the last 10 years, every single door, some of them, much to their chagrin, five or six times.
We wore Hillshire out, right? And that's OK. That's OK. But I'll be honest with you. I'm not downgrading door to door. We're witnessing, but we're not going to do that anymore. Not for a while. Here's what we're going to do.
Cliff's going to get with Bob. Scott's going to sit down with John. Char is going to meet with. Well, she didn't have any friends, but those of you that have friends and acquaintances, I want you to first show the truth of your conversion to them, because here's why it holds you accountable, because people who are closest to you know who you really are.
And it holds you in humility. It really does. Guys, I want you to testify about the word of God to those who are your closest to. I want you to reach out. I appreciate people going to the mall and handing out tracks, but I'll be honest with you, that gets on my last nerve when I'm at the mall.
You know, I'm not at the mall for someone to come up and hand me a piece of paper and tell me about Jesus. I always jack with them when they do. I always say, yeah, I sacrifice squirrels and I'm the member of the first satanic church of.
And it's funny, you can watch the young Christians like, oh, cool, we found a satanist, you know, and they get all excited. Oh, yeah, they do. Oh, it's hilarious. I ask him, tell me what grace is. Oh, it's good.
What is it? I don't know. But if you pray to ask Jesus Christ in your heart right now. No, no, no, no. Guys, I want us to testify not about what we've been taught, but about what we've experienced. Have you experienced a life changing encounter with Jesus?
I'm not talking about walking down a silly aisle or praying some prayer for Jesus to come in your heart that's found nowhere in scripture. I'm talking about how has Christ changed your life? And if you look and say, well, I don't know.
Maybe the first one we need to testify is you. Because if your total experience with God has been revolving around a religion, you've got some issues that you need to work out. Remember, folks, we have never led anyone to Jesus, no one, no one in this room has.
That's the Holy Spirit's job. Our job is to simply testify. Number three, not only do we need to worship God and testify that God, but here's a big one for me. Are you obedient to God's word? Read with me here again in chapter 22 of Revelation, verse 14 and 11.
It says this. Blessed are those who wash the robes so they might have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexual and moral, the murderers, the adulterers and everyone who loves and practices lying.
Verse 11, it says this. Let the righteous unrighteous go on in unrighteousness and let the filthy go on being made filthy. Let the righteous go on in righteousness and let the holy go on being made holy.
Answer yourself this question. And I know that's like, oh, man, that's such a downer. But guys, I'm sorry. Obedience to God's word. There's no ambiguity. You're supposed to be obedient. And here's the thing.
If you love the Lord, it's not something you have to make yourself do. If you're witness, I mean, if you're worshipping, worshipping is actually gasoline to get obedience going in your life. It gives you the fuel.
The joy of the Lord is the strength to move on in life. Right. But it's more than that. Guys, I want to give you a point of condemnation and a point of encouragement. Number one, if you love the Lord and you're not obeying, something's wrong in your life.
I'm sorry. You either are not a Christian or you're living outside of the grace that God give you. But I want you to look at the last part. And that's common sense. You've heard me rail on that for years.
I want to give you a word of encouragement in this same act of obedience. Look at this last part of that verse. Let the holy go on being made holy. Hey, Christian, are you struggling? I promise God I would never do that again.
And then where do you end up? All right, what is sanctification, the doctrine of sanctification? What is it being set apart for holiness? That's great. And Johnny said the correct word process. I want you all to embrace the process a little bit.
You see, it's ongoing. You know when it stops? When you die, that's the only time it stops. Guys, I am a licensed ordained pastor. Excuse me, senior pastor. I have been on the radio. I have been on TV.
I have spoken to three million people on television. I'm writing books. I've done radio. Man, I'm just it. I have taught Ph .D. candidates. I am brilliant when it comes to scripture. I am absolutely brilliant.
And I fail God miserably every day. Now, listen, one of the acts of obedience that I need to do is be obedient to the process of sanctification. A lot of times when we fail, we give up. We sit there and we go, God, I promise you'd never do this.
And then you'll start to pray to ask forgiveness and then you'll just quit because you're going God ain't going to hear me. God ain't going to hear me. I've failed too many times. Listen to that verse.
Let the let focus. Let the process of being made holy continue in your life. In other words, you need to focus on obedience. You need to focus on testify. You need to focus on worshiping. But you also need to focus on the grace of God that is at work in your life right now.
And last thing, last thing and I'm done. Are you searching? Verse 17, and this ties closely into what we were just talking about. Verse 17, both the spirit and the bride say come. I'll be honest with you.
I didn't grow up in church. I was saved late in life. And I'll never forget the first time I heard that I was the bride of Christ. It made me feel really icky. I just because I pictured my 300 pound self in a bridal dress and.
Marty was excited about that, but I just. The spirit of God and the bride, the church say, come on, anyone who here should say come and the one who is thirsty should say come. Whoever desires should take the living water as a gift.
I had a lady several years ago. Who told me this pastor, I am so backwards, I don't even have the desire to have the desire to get right with God now. Some of you may not understand that some of you that just hit you right between the eyes because that's where you're at.
I don't even have the desire to have the desire. One of the things I have learned in my walk with Christ is that if I rely on my desire to motivate me, I will stay in the exact same place I am. I won't ever change the word of God tells us to seek desire is a secondary reaction to a primary action of seeking God first.
Matthew 633 says this, seek God, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things will be added unto you. Ladies and gentlemen, I know it gets frustrating. I know it gets tired, especially when you see the holiness and the perfection of God.
You want to give up and quit because you say, why bother? I'm going to lose anyways. And then you lose that desire. Listen to me to get that desire back. Don't pray for it. Don't pray for it. Don't even worry about it.
First, seek God. In other words, if you start worshiping, if you start being obedient, if you start witnessing, if you start searching for God, you will find the desire follows your efforts and your humility and your submission to Almighty God.
Guys, don't look for emotions to motivate you, whether it's in worship or whether it's in obedience, because emotions are fickle. They're here today, gone tomorrow. OK, let your actions speak louder than your feelings.
And there's another word for that. It's called faith. When I don't feel like God loves me, God's word still says, I love you. When I don't feel that I'm worthy to be forgiven, God's word still says to you, my son, your sins are forgiven.
When I don't feel worthy to worship him because I'm a hypocrite or a liar, God says, let all God's voices praise and worship his name. Because it's not based upon what I do, but it's based upon what Christ has finished on the cross and has set me free.
And when you get that mindset, all four of those things work together. All four of them work together to help you grow and mature in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm asked the music folks to come up and Brother Jeremiah and some counselors to come up.
And if you're in here today and you are struggling with where you're at with Jesus, listen to me. If you're struggling where you're at with Jesus, this is the time for you to respond. I am going to go and speak to our Latino church who's worshiping right now, Pastor Josiah and I are.
But I want you to listen to Brother Jeremiah. But more importantly, listen to the spirit of God who has spoken to you today. Not me, but the spirit of God. And you come this morning as God leads.