Sermon – “Judgment Time at God’s House”

The Mighty One, God the LORD, Has spoken and called the earth From the rising of the sun to its going down. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. 3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. 4 He shall call to the heavens from above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people: 5 “Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” 6 Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge. Selah 7 “Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, your God! 8 I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices Or your burnt offerings, Which are continually before Me. 9 I will not take a bull from your house, Nor goats out of your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. 13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High. 15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” 16 But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to declare My statutes, Or take My covenant in your mouth, 17 Seeing you hate instruction And cast My words behind you? 18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him, And have been a partaker with adulterers. 19 You give your mouth to evil, And your tongue frames deceit. 20 You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. 21 These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes. 22 “Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, And there be none to deliver: 23 Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.”

12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 14 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. 17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

The first lesson from our scriptures. Is from psalm fifty and it’s going to be up on your screen i believe is this. And. But i’m going to read it in another translation i’m going to read it from the message by. Eugene peterson which is a very free. Translation and. Acted may even be so close to almost being a paraphrase but. I’ve been using it daily for some years now and it’s really been blessing me. So much share with you first. Psalm fifty. And you can follow along. And you can compare them. In your minds if you like the god of gods. Its got speak set. Shutouts earth. Welcomes a sun in the east. Fair will the disappearing sun. In the west. Turn me into foot tapping songs. I’m sorry can i change two pages. I’m sorry. I’m from a does all of zion. God blazes into view. Are god makes his interests. He’s not shy in his coming star bursts of fireworks preceded him. He summons heaven and earth. As a jury. He’s taking his people to court. Round up my saints who swore on the bible their loyalty to me. The whole cosmos. Attests to the fairness of his court. That here. God is judge. Are you listening there are people. I’m getting ready to speak. Israel. I’m about ready to bring you to trial. This is god. Your god speaking to you. I don’t find fault with your acts of worship. The frequent burnt sacrifices you offer. But why should i want your blue ribbon book. Or more and more goats from your herds every creature in the forest. It’s mine. The wild animals on all the mountains. I know every mountain bird by name. The scampering field mice are my friends others. If i get hungry do you think i’d tell you all creation and it’s down to your mind. Do you think i fished on venison. Or drink drafts of goats blood or. Spread for me. A banquet. Of prey. Serve high god. With a feast of kept. Promise and call for help when you’re in trouble. I’ll help you if you are me. Next. God calls up the wicked. What are you up to. Spouting model alls. Talking like we are good friends. You never answer the door when i call. You treat my words like garbage. If you find a thief you make him your buddy adulterers are your friends of choice. Your mouth drools still lying is a serious art form with you. Used to have your own brother in the back. Rip off your little sister. I kept a quiet. Patience while you did these things. You thought i went along with your game. I’m calling you on the carpet. Now. Laying your witness. Out in plain sight. Time’s up for playing fast and loose with me. I’m ready to pass sentence. And there is no help in sight. It’s the praising life. That honors me. As soon as you set your foot on the way. I’ll show you my salvation. And then from the first letter of saint peter. The fourth chapter verses twelve. Through nineteen. And i’ll be reading from the new king james version i’m not sure what that will his beloved do you not think it strange concerning the fahri trial. Which is to try you as though. Some strange thing happened. But we joyce. In the extent that you partake. Or have court here in christ’s sufferings. That’s when his glory is ribby. You may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of christ. Bresson are you. For the spirit of gloria. And of god. Rests upon you. But on their part. He is blasphemy. But on your part. He is glorified. Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief. And evil doer. Or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if any one suffers at a christmas a christian. Let him not be ashamed. But let him glorify god. In this matter. For the time has come for judgment. To begin at the house of god. And if it begins with us first what will be the end of those who do not obey. The gospel. Of. Should now. If the righteous one is scarcely say. Where will the ungodly end his head the center up here. Therefore. Let those who suffer according to the will of god. Commit their souls to him. In doing good. As to a faithful. Creator. Here in this reading of the lesson from the scriptures blessed are those who hear the word of god and are changed by. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of god and it begins with us first what will be the end of those who do not obey. The gospel of god. Let us pray lord your message. Has been burning in my beat. Now dear lord. Set me on holy fire. With your flame. Of divine love. In jesus’ name amen. It’s the crisis. Is here. The greek word for crisis is the root word for judgment. And the greek word for crisis is pronounced the same way christ. So that’s where we get the word christ. The greek word for judgment is crema. But don’t you feel it coming. Is there something inside of us that feels something dreadful. Is coming this way. The planet is more dangerous than ever. There is no place on earth. That is really safe. Not our schools. Not our homes if we read the news. Murders in several different homes. Of one family. The church is not say. People have been murdered in church. Now is the acceptable time. And that word. Acceptable time is caro’s there’s a difference between. Caro’s and chronos cross is a greek word for a chronological time the tick tick tick of a claw. The days of a calendar. The passing of the years. But then there is the kyra. Time which is god’s time the opportune time. Now. Is the day of salvation. We all need jesus more than ever. We need eternal life. More than ever. It’s important to have eternal life now. For jesus said. This is eternal life. As he prayed that prayer in john seventy. To know the the one true god and jesus christ the messiah. Whom thou hast sent the car oss. Has come. The crema. Is now beginning. At the house of god. It is god’s time. About twenty years ago i was at evangelism conference. And dr dennis kinlaw. Of as a very seminary was speaking. And as he was speaking the thoughts came into my mind and then there was a question and answer period. Afterwards and i screwed up the nerve to ask a question in this group of ministers. Which are jim a dating. Doctor can all. I have observed that the church is growing in those parts of the world where there is great faith great prayer. But also there is great suffering. Can we in the united states have a genuine awakening. If we could just have the great prayer. And the great faith. Without the suffering. This great scholar great bible teacher said. Well it’s coming. He knew it twenty years ago. And it’s come. The main points of the message just morning. Big. Judgment begins at god’s house with god’s family. Whether we like it or not that’s what saint peter says. And i believe it’s true. And it has begun. In speaking in terms of god’s. Caro’s time. In your hearing. It’s happening now in our hearts. But it is better thirdly to be judged as a believer. As one who truly trust christ. As one who has eternal life. Now. So that whatever happens. We can make it. Even though we die yet. Shall we live. Judgment begins with us. As the insiders. Judgment is a partial absence of god with christians. It is a risk draw all of god’s hand. Withdraw all of his touch. Because we have chosen as christian. Cannot stay close to him. God does not directly have to punish us as christians. All we have to do is just take his hand away. And let us do in our own juices. He leaves us to our own devices as to what we are to reap what we have so that is as a judgment that is just. In the pattern of nature in the way things are you reap what you say. If in the old testament parable of the darnel. Or the way the enemy says the weak. God and his disciples. So the good. And when the weeds. And the weak. Are gathered together. You wait until harvest time you don’t dig them all up because the roots will be dug up there. If you start judging people within the church family. You don’t really know who’s weeds newsweek. Only god knows that. So you’ve got to wait for the judgment day. For the time when there were the wheat. And the. And the tears where the weeds are separated. And then the weeds are burnt. But i need mercy. When i have neglected god and have my emphasis on the things of the world. My family deletes divine touch. To be sustained in mercy. And this church family needs. The touch of mercy. If god withheld his force of gravity. Everything would fall apart when. To we need the continual touch of god. And we need to keep calling for that touch of god to be with us we need to keep fellowship with god. We christians believe in god. And we trust in christ for our eternal salvation well and good. But too much of the time. We ignore god. Or we act as if god did not matter. And if we do not really think that god wants to be an on our little things like. And yet it’s a little foxes at school that we need to bring god ian on that they really. Details of our lives and to do it consciously. And prayerfully. So that each day gets better. jesus’ parable of the sower in matthew thirteen twenty two. The seed which is seven among thorns. And that’s i think a parable of. Christians in america. The seed a sinner long thorns. Because a soul or arms or the cares of the world. The deceitfulness of riches. And the desire of things. Jesus my attention. Is not on you. And it is in the worries. And in the things of life. And the obtaining things that cause me to have your hands. Far away. In matthew twenty two the parable of the wedding ceased. Everybody was invited. But those invited. Made light of it. Oh yes we believe in christ and he’s died for our sins and we know we’re going to have it. But our world is still going badly because we’re not staying connected to the war. We’re not staying at the feast. We make light of it one to his farm and one to his merchandise. And then. The parallel parable. In luke. Fourteen eighty. They begin to make excuse. I can’t be in church today because i can’t pray. I’m too busy to pray. I’m too busy to read my bible. Because. They began to make excuse. Well. I have bought a field. I have bought oxen. I’ve gone shopping for the. Another one says. Well i got married and surely i can bring my wife to a banquet. What i stupid excuse. And jesus further goes on to luke seventeen twenty six twenty nine on. It’s in the days of no i’m lot people ate they drank. They married and they gave in marriage. They bought. They sold they planned it. And they built. But that is not the kingdom. The kingdom of god is within you. It is your connection to jesus christ. And trying to walk with him you know what he’s saying. And he walks with me and talks with me and he tells me i am his. But do we live it that we should yes. But i’m here to confess that i don’t always so therefore i’m preaching to me as well as you got no judgment begins with me to. The average christians are being judged and beginning suffering. Because i think we missed a big. Operate window of opportunity. I think the window of opportunity was between one nine hundred ninety and two thousand and five when communism fell. And i believe even much of the muslim world. Was right for evangelism. Now one thousand nine hundred ninety. The korean christians. Sent missionaries to moscow and within a year founded several churches. Within the city of moscow. How many did america say the very heart of communism. We missed her opportunity. It was about the same time that. My can tere were distributing bibles in vogue area. People wanted bible so bad. So i’m wondering. Others want to sell it on the black market and michael is just a bad crush and sasha saved his life by pulling him around the corner as he was pressed against the wall. And they became friends. And the mission started among the gypsies. Amazing. The press of things. How god works. But did we help. Send the greatest missionary venture ever. We should have done it. Americans were too busy buying and selling. Marrying and giving in marriage building. We did not. On the kind of scale that god desired. For us to evangelize the world. At that critical point in history and now you know what. Some of those people who are not christians today. Are our enemies. And their enemies not only of america but they’re enemies of the church. Their enemies of the church of jesus christ in their enemies of jesus christ of their enemies of the church of jesus christ of us big church. I don’t speak about a nomination. I speak about all those who put their trust in christ as lord and say that’s to me the church. So the judgment to crema. And the crisis is an x.. The crema. In the greek can be either the execution of judgement. It can be judgment. It can be a sentence. It can be an award. So if your judge today i hope you get an award. It can be a judicial sentence. But it also can also be an adverse. Sentence. Or it can be administration of justices of the meanings of the word crema. Judge. Now the old testament god judges. Because he is. He is israel’s god. And he is not thanks for the blessing. And not praise for the blessings that they have taken for granted. Folks i’ve never met a thankful person that wasn’t full of joy and i’ve never met a thankless person who wasn’t basically ms. They’re always there saying now. The person who has a half a half full cup. Lives longer than the person who has the hit that this friend of mine gave me this. What if you woke up today with only what you thank god or yesterday. Think about what if you woke up today for well. For only what you thank god for. Yesterday this. I believe. Is part of america’s great since it merican church is great see it. We’re just not thanked we’ve taken things for granted. I’m going to tell my age. When i was growing up. Twelve miles north of flintstone. Fremont from the metropolitan center of cheney’s village five miles from the metropolitan center of artemus. We did not have indoor plumbing i have told people. We grew up just like a wall except they had indoor plumbing. And they were a nicer family than us. We did not even have toilet paper. We had sears roebuck. And we had mcgovern award and occasionally we had a spiegel. And i remember spiegel catalogs. Ok. You’re telling your age now. Our art has was air conditioned in the winter time. You didn’t mess around. Well how did you thank god that you have a bath or did you thank god that you had. Did you thank god that it worked. This not broke. Thank god for that maybe. Yes we need to do that but. But we just take things for granted. So much. Of the time i thank god for toilet paper. I thank god that our electricity work today. I thank god i had like i have i thank god that the kerrick work. I actually had. What was some kind of special coffee this small and i thank god for everything. Yesterday i have ethiopian coffee believe how wealthy i am. And so on great. What did the people have. David if you recall. In the refugee camp. How many times. In two weeks could they take a shower at five in the morning was a shower warm. Ok i thank god that my water. Water heater were to smoke. You know if it’s not working you know i’m going i’m going to comply. I want america. I deserve this. God says absolutely not. I want people to praise me. That’s what he tells of people in psalm fifty. I want people to be thankful. And they will to have joy. No matter what their condition. What do the earthquake victims. In ecuador have right now. They don’t have water and food. I think. Judgment has come to us now. Here’s why judgment. The suicide rate has gone up. It is the highest since one thousand nine hundred. We have all these things. But we don’t have you know we don’t have the kingdom. It’s we don’t have christ in us. The hope of glory. This is judgment. This is judgment. And the time has come and we christians are part of because we are affected by our culture. I can’t watch any group with with that. Without having advertisement. Ten advertisement between sessions. And they come at you by gang bang bang. And by the time you’ve heard it all your nerves are on it and all be peaceful nerves watch an indie group basically go on knots. You know. But i think these things tend to just make us. Aggravated. We are given subliminal messages. Deep in our subconscious. And we don’t even know it. They just keep flashing them for before slicing the horse and. Fraction before us because somebody wants to make more money. And they think that they will have what they need if they have more money. But i thank god that i had a bed to sleep in and clean sheets. I thank god. I had clean underwear this morning. And you should too. But judgement is now. It is not common us. It is. It is god time. Now is acceptable to. Now is a day of salvation. And it is a beginning of suffering by some market we can see this feeling of dread the joy. Joyousness of people. John wesley said god first visits his church. And that both in justice and mercy. And wesley i know you’re right. But i’m going to ask god for mercy. As a christian. As an american christian who is salt in school and needs to have money ethiopian call. Or thinks i do. My one enclosed porch is bigger than the whole house. Of someone’s cardboard house. Into milliken republic. When i was in bow gary and i stayed in inside his old happiness where my can terrier play live. They had a gypsy out house. And it’s different from the one i had. It didn’t have a seat. I walk two blocks in the morning. To go to the ones who saw. Present. So i could get a shower and go to the bathroom then. You see. We have so much and we expect oh. We deserve it. We don’t deserve. We don’t deserve. It’s just pray that god’s hand is not withdrawn. Now. Wesley says the judgments which are milder at the beginning. It what i’m sorry he says. How terrible will he’d visit. Those who abate not the gospel what’s the gospel. In a nutshell as first corinthians fifteen. Christ died for our sins. According to the scriptures that he was buried. That he rose on the third day. That he appeared to pee. Other disciples. Five hundred. Last of all he appeared. I know jesus. He appeared to me. Not my eyes. But in mine and i have eternal life. I want to better life for my grand children. In this country. And i don’t know of any other way. Unless all of all christians repent. First. And maybe just maybe. The rest will follow. The rest will follow i hope and pray. But wesley says that. How terrible when he visited them that obey not the gospel. The judgments which are moderate the beginning. Row more and more severe. And good man. That is those who know. The gospel and know jesus. Are only spectators at the judgments all addictions are modest first you say and then you reach civil war. And eventually it’s death. It’s death of relationships. Death of family ties. And it’s a venture lee. Physical death. Because jesus said the thief. Comes. But korda. Kill and steal and destroy. And i am come that they might have life and have it work by the way. God help us to believe in jesus and have life abundance. Even in a world that is passing away. Even the world where there are suffering. There are just so many overdoses here come. That’s judgements. Its crisis too. But it’s be better to be judged as a believer. And then. It’s so much better than having neglected christ completely yes we neglect christ too much. But less because of that william booth. Started out of the good metals. Eight hundred fifty two he began his ministry. On the streets. Of ink. But then. By that time and then just like the founder john wesley. But by then the methodists in england had become too far and to ray far too well they couldn’t do that. We don’t want any of our ministers doing. So william but. Left. The methodist church. And he and his wife. Founded. The salvation army. He said. At the beginning of the twentieth century one hundred sixteen years ago when he said that the chief dangers. Which the coming century. Will be religion without the holy ghost. Christianity without christ. Forgiveness without repentance. Salvation without regeneration. And one thousand or two two thousand sixty. Hala ticks. Without god and heaven. Without god have mercy on us. American christians. In the twenty first century. Let us pray lord. Nia coppa. It’s me it’s me oh lord standing in the need to pray not my brother not a sister but it’s me oh to stand in the need of great need of prayer. I have forgotten. Too much of the day. Help us to walk with you and talk with you and let you tell me. I’m your. Help us to listen. Every moment to the spirit’s call. Resting in my savior as an as are all with all standing on the promise of. God help us jesus. Help us jesus. Help us jesus a met. I mean does words of those who may be listening to yours. If you don’t have eternal life if you don’t know jesus. Let me just we’re going to god made her say. Christ died for your sins. According to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose with it. And that he appeared to peter and others. Say a prayer. Right now and i’ll lead you in this prayer that you might receive. The living christ right now and he will appear to you in your heart. And we do pray this prayer if you’re really touched by the spirit of your lord jesus. I believe that you died for me. Not just for the sins of the whole world but for my sins. Even mine. You are holy. Absolutely how. I need to have your forgiveness. Through your cross. And be born again. And have eternal life. Come into my heart. Into my heart into my heart lord jesus commanded a minister who into my heart. Or jesus. And this is my. Cairo smoke. Now. Is the top and now may the blessing of god almighty the father son and holy spirit. Be among us. Always. Amen.