Alrighty, you can be seated, and if you got a Bible, you can turn to the Gospel of Luke.
Happy Memorial Day to you.
It's funny, the older you get, the more you think about those who have passed on.
I'm getting that place in my life where I know more people that are there than are here.
And so kind of an odd deal.
I have to go do a funeral service tomorrow down in the Twin Falls area,
for a kid that was 20, or not quite, but 10 years younger than me anyway.
And that always just kind of brings it home, don't it?
That it's a real deal.
None of us are getting out of this thing alive.
So, but Jesus reminds us in the word that when we come to him,
we've got to die to ourselves anyway.
So might as well be getting practiced up.
and be ready for that day when it does come.
We're going to be just reading 12 verses here this morning
in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke.
And I'm going to start in verse 12,
but Jesus has totally offended everybody, right?
The traditions of the religious leadership,
and they're plotting his death,
and, you know, he's just kind of made a big splash on the scene,
and it's not overly popular.
And so, you know, just please keep that in mind as you walk with the Lord,
as you name the name of Christ, and with boldness as you share the word,
just know that a lot of times it's not very well received, right?
The world don't want to hear it.
And so we start in verse 12, and it says,
Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray.
and continued all night in prayer to God.
And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose 12, whom he also named apostles,
Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John,
Philip and Bartholomew, aka Nathaniel,
Matthew and Thomas, James, the son of Alpheus, and Simon called the zealot,
or as my grandpa would say, the Z-Lot.
Judas, the son of James and Judas Ascariot, who also became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of his disciples
and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem,
and from the sea coast of Tyrant Sidon, who came to hear him and be healed of their diseases,
as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits.
They were healed, and the whole of their diseases, and the whole,
whole multitude sought to touch him for power went out from him and healed them all. Then he lifted up
his eyes towards his disciples and said, Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your
name as evil for the son of man's sake.
Rejoice that day and leap for joy, for indeed, your reward is great in heaven.
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
Shall we pray?
Lord, thank you.
Thank you for your word, Lord Jesus.
It just cuts to the chase.
And it causes us to turn our attention to you and this relationship that we have with you, Lord,
that it would be truly the pre-emble.
eminent thing in all of our lives, Lord, that you've called us to lay down our lives, Lord,
to be crucified with Christ and to live this life that is selfless. And it gives glory to the one
who deserves all the glory, knowing that you will never share it with anyone. And so, Lord,
we love you. We praise you. We pray that you would speak to us now in Jesus' name. Amen.
So it says, and now it came to pass in those days.
that he went out to pray. Now, Jesus was at a critical point in his ministry. Obviously, after all the
stir that he had created, the political leadership also began to plot his destruction. And according to Mark
chapter 3, verse 6, where it says, then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians
against him, how they might destroy him. Right? They didn't just want to remove him. They wanted to
kill him. They wanted to cut him into little bitty pieces. And that's what a murderous heart does.
You ever had one of those? I have. And if we're honest, I think there is times when we all have.
And this hatred that they had for Jesus was actually quite shocking, but so is the condition of man.
And great crowds followed him, but they were not interested in spiritual.
things so they could quickly be turned against Jesus. In response to these pressures in changing
situations, Jesus secluded himself for the time of special prayer. And it says he went and he prayed
all night. Have you ever done that? I've never done that. I've been woken up at night and sent
aloft some prayers, but I've never just consistently been in prayer all night. And maybe it was
it was for this particular need, he went to the, he secluded himself right all night and was alone
with his father. I like what Charles Haddon's Spurgeon said. He said one night alone in prayer
might make us new men, changed from poverty of soul to spiritual wealth, from trembling to
triumping. Amen? Just being still before God and getting alone with God. I got a buddy that
he travels about doing ministry.
But when he comes home, he loads up a couple horses
and gets in his truck and trailer
and heads to the mountains for a couple weeks.
And you won't see him.
And he's just up there and he's getting filled up
and he's having the Lord speak to his heart.
And it's powerful.
We need our cups filled up.
And we're way too busy of a world, right?
So if you've got to do it, you've got to do it on purpose.
and being still before the Lord and knowing that He's God
and letting him soothe your soul, so to speak.
I had to have one of a few of those moments with the Lord in my own life this week,
just being still and reading his word
and reading accounts of other believers that are going through hard things.
Because this life is hard.
It seems to be getting harder,
the closer we are getting to the coming of the Lord.
And he's coming soon.
and verses
14 and 15 there
he calls his disciples
and
a good way to remember their names
I try to remember all the time
I think it's just a good thing to put to memory
is all the disciples
so a good way to remember it is there's
two Simons, two Jameses
and two Judices
well there's half of them right there
right there's two Simons
two Jameses and two Judas
And then I go in alphabetical order, right?
You got Andrew Bartholomew, John, Matthew, Philip, and Thomas.
And these guys are stellar.
There was a lot of disciples following Jesus.
They were learners of Christ, this multitude.
And here he picks his team out of this multitude of those.
those disciples.
And he was getting ready.
So no doubt he was spending time in prayer
because these men that he was going to choose
were going to turn the world upside down.
Think about Jesus' ministry three and a half years.
And he changed history in three and a half years.
And then his disciples went on
and did, like he said, they did many more works
because their life was extended a little longer than his.
And not only were they going to turn the world upside down,
but they were going to be willing to die in the process.
Willing to die.
And we remember a lot of people that were willing to die this weekend, don't me?
Memorial Day, right?
I used to work at a cemetery, and the amount of people that would come to this
big cemetery. You know, you always, you learn all the cemetery funnies when you get there.
Right? Like we, around here we get ourselves in a hole occasionally.
Business is always dead.
Never had a complaint.
And I had about 10,000 people under me.
you learn all those really quick but on that Memorial Day weekend obviously is the biggest weekend
of the year for us there at the cemetery and just absolutely unbelievable the amount of decoration
and the amount of attention that was given to those who had passed on and so it's a good thing
Jesus established a Memorial Day for himself, right?
Every time we do communion, it's a memorial.
It's a remembering of his body and his blood and his death on Calvary's Cross.
And also the pearl of the good news, right, is the resurrection.
Amen.
So Jesus was looking for some dudes with some guts, some intestinal fortitude.
Jesus wasn't interested.
for anyone who wanted a life of ease.
Well, that just pretty much blows all the Americans out the water.
Right?
This week, I read, like I said, I was going through some heavy,
so I have a Founder's Bible,
and so I was reading through it.
And when Washington got his troops ready to go
and do a surprise attack,
in Trenton, New Jersey.
They were going across the Delaware
and through the ice and the snow and the rain
and it was on Christmas night
that they were going.
And then it was a nine-mile hike
once they got across the Delaware to Trenton.
And it said that Washington was riding
up and down the troops as they were marching,
encouraging them, telling them that we can do this.
We can have a victory.
It's interesting that in his,
his quarter before they got into the boat, there was a soldier or a officer and a little piece
of paper had fallen off the table of Washington's desk and was on the floor and he picked it up
and it read, victory or death. Victory or death. And so he was riding up and down and some of the
soldier's shoes had worn out. And so they'd wrapped their feet in burlaps.
Saxon is said that there was a trail of blood in the snow where the soldiers were marching to
Trenton. And they hadn't eaten or slept for 48 hours. And as they would have it, things didn't
go according to plan. Do they ever? Do things ever go according to plan? And as the Lord would
have it, they got the victory. But Thomas Payne wrote about this time.
And it says this.
And just know that that's what this life affords us.
When Jesus said, in the world, you all have tribulation, but be of good courage.
I have overcome the world.
Pain writes, these are the times that try men's souls.
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country.
But he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of men and women.
tyranny like hell is not easily conquered. Yet we have this consolation with us that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper price on its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be high,
rated. And I just think that's so true. Our souls need to be tried. Right? We need these hard
things in our life to refine us and to remind us. This is not our home, folks. Right? We're just
passing through. We're on the battlefield of life, so to speak. I don't have a lot of
hopes for the golden age that's been talked about lately.
Okay?
So these men that Jesus chose here were these kind of men.
James, right?
Dyes by the sword.
The first Christian martyr, even before Stephen is stone,
James dies by the sword.
Peter is well on his way in prison,
and you remember the people prayed him out of jail.
first automatic gate
right opened of its own accord the bible tells us
and they pray him out of there
and then they crucify him upside down
Andrew along with Matthias
the one who replaced Judas Ascaria
were crucified and burned and killed in North Africa
the other James was chucked off the temple
it didn't kill him so then they
they stoned him and beat him to dead with with clubs
because he wouldn't recant.
And so it's these kind of men, these kind of people that the Lord is interested in.
Jesus tells us this interesting phrase in Matthew 20, verse 16,
it says, for many are called, but few chosen.
What does that mean?
So all those disciples that were following him, just the 12 were chosen?
And one of them was the devil, the Bible tells us, right?
What does it mean to be chosen?
Maybe it means that when you're called, you choose to follow.
I mean, really follow.
Not just to put on.
And so these guys were some pretty salty guys.
Though we see their humanness, we see them scattered
about when they arrest Jesus and fear fills their heart.
But he chooses them, he calls them,
and then he immediately takes them and shows them how to minister to people.
Verse 17.
And he came down with them and stood on a level place.
That means like a lowland or a valley.
With a crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people
from all Judea, Jerusalem,
from the sea coast of Tyre and Seiden,
some of these people travel to waste to get here
and to be in the presence of the Lord,
who came to hear him
to be healed of their diseases
as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits.
And they were healed.
And the whole multitude sought to touch him,
for power went out from him and healed them.
Wow. That's pretty powerful.
They wanted to get close to Jesus.
First, they wanted to hear him.
I think it's good because the Bible says,
faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Why do you want to hear God?
You want to hear him just because, oh, I know he's got some blessing for me.
Right? Well, just hearing him as blessing.
And, but he might have some healing or might have a,
a career that might be a blessing to you and your family.
But I think it's an incredible hunger to want to hear the words of Jesus.
And it's a great thing to read through those letters written and read over and over and over again.
Because the Lord promises us, right?
They came to hear him.
And in verse 24 of the fifth chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus said,
Most assuredly I say to you,
He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life
and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
That's powerful.
He who believes in him who who,
my word and believes in him who sent me.
The word of God is, it is powerful.
It'll speak life into you every time you pick it up.
The sad part is we don't pick it up enough.
That's the sad part.
We need to do it every day.
The days when I don't do it, I feel it.
And my very soul.
So first they came to hearing.
Second, to be healed of their diseases.
These people wanted to be touched by Jesus.
They wanted to have a whole body.
Is that what you want?
We do want that.
We desire to experience the touch of the master's hand.
Thirdly, to deliver those tormented by spirit.
I think some people are in a spiritual darkness and they don't even know it.
They may even come to church every Sunday.
And they got demons all about them and maybe even in them.
Have you been oppressed?
Are you in a place of depression?
It's like an epidemic depression.
And the scripture tells us where that comes from.
The proverb says that anxiety in the hearts of men causes depression.
What are you anxious about?
Because the word tells us to be anxious for nothing.
But in everything, by prayer and supplication,
let your request be made known to God.
You anxious?
Giving the enemy a foothold?
You bitter?
He's come to heal us of those things.
All it says there,
all desired to touch him.
For power went out from him and listened and healed them all.
Jesus is showing his disciples.
This is how you do ministry, boys.
right you go make yourself available to these these demon-possessed people and these people with diseases
no doubt the homeless and the the broken
the first and foremost you share the word of God with them
and so he uh he heals every every one of them that says that all of them are healed
this is the power that these disciples were in awe of and desired in their own life,
and they needed it in their own life.
You and I, we need this power in our life.
I can't do this.
I can't do this Christian life, ain't?
Right?
I'm too much of a wanny.
I'm just a weakling.
I'm prideful.
I'm arrogant.
I'm just so fallen and so flawed.
I can't do this.
But when the Lord comes along and he,
he fills you with this spirit, there's a, there's an ability that he gives you an eye.
And we can never take the glory from for it, right?
Because it's not us, it's him.
It's borrowed power.
Amen?
Do you need to borrow a little power from the Lord?
Would you just ask him?
Because he tells us, if you'll ask for the Holy Spirit, he'll give it to you.
Some of us don't want the Holy Spirit.
Yeah, oh no, the Holy Spirit's going to make me do some things that it's going to be uncomfortable.
He's going to stretch me a little.
I don't want that in my life.
No, you need that in your life.
First Peter 1-3.
As his divine power, divine power has given to us, listen, all things that pertain to life and godliness
through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue.
everything you need that pertains to life and godliness is available to you.
If you're not drawing on it, it's your fault.
Don't be crying about not having enough strength or being depressed or just pressed down.
No, he's giving you everything.
Your job is to reach out and grab it.
And yes, that takes energy.
Yes, that's hard sometimes.
It's more important now, folks, than ever, to be walking with the Lord.
Because the world offers a power also.
The enemy offers a power.
The flesh offers a power.
Are they not powerful?
The flesh, the world.
and the devil, right? The three great enemies of the saint, of the Christian.
And because there is this artificial power available to us right now,
it's going to leave the world astray like no other time in history.
You know, when Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 24,
he's talking about the last days and he says,
he says unless those days were shortened no flesh would be saved but for the elects sake those days
will be shortened the lord has to shorten our days guys right i mean he needs to shorten it really make it
really short and and come and uh because this AI stuff is going absolutely crazy
and our golden age president right is he's pushing it right which i don't know that i wouldn't if i was
in his position, but it is scary stuff, what is coming down the road at us.
It's getting so advanced and so fast that Jesus must come soon. Think about this.
What is it that God wants with us? A relationship, right? He's created us for his good
pleasure. God desires this relationship with us. Well, now a,
AI can offer you all kinds of relationship, right?
This intimate endwelling that we get to experience with the Holy Spirit
as we seek the Lord as we put God's word in our heart.
AI can mimic.
And it's going to affect every area of our lives.
There's an AI Jesus now.
you can go ask this AI Jesus all kinds of questions
who do you think those answers are coming from
right
you can go to AI Jesus and ask all kinds of things
all of our assignments in education now can be generated by AI
I just talk to a guy says the school I went to he says there's a kid that
that's coming up behind me he's going to the same school I went to
he says all his papers are AI
He reads through them and then writes them in his own words.
I talked to a high school senior here a year or so ago,
and he's told me about, chat GPT got him through high school.
I said, you can be able to do that in college?
He said, I don't think so.
I think they can nail you on it in college.
And now AI can produce artificial relationships.
There are these things called metahumans.
This is freaking me out, you guys.
And the Associated Press, there is an Associated Press article,
and this was the headline of it.
Artificial intelligence, real emotion,
people are seeking a romantic connection with the perfect bot.
This is where we're at right now.
We're there right now.
I'm just like, oh my gosh.
This is insane.
And yet, will there be any resistance to it?
I don't think so.
I think people are going to be all into it.
In fact, this one, I'm going to just read a couple paragraphs out of this article.
This one gal says, a romantic relationship with an AI can be a very powerful.
mental wellness tool, said Eugenia Keita, who founded replica nearly a decade ago after using text message
exchange to build an AI version of a friend who had passed away.
And you're just like, oh my goodness.
Lord Jesus, please come today.
please don't wait till midnight
one person in the article
pointed out some problems
for those who choose this
she says
you as the individual
aren't learning to deal with basic things
that humans need to learn to deal with
right yeah like having an argument with your wife
could you imagine having a bot
for a wife
you get in an argument with her you just hit the power button
or girls, if he makes him mad, just go throw him in the closet.
Tell your...
With basic things that humans need to learn to deal with since our inception.
How to deal with conflict, how to get along with people that are different from us, said Dorothy
Lender, professor of business ethics at the University of Virginia.
Actually, this woman has a voice of reason.
And so all these aspects of what it means to grow as a person
and what it means to learn in a relationship you're missing
with your cute little bot.
God help us.
It's truly a scary time we're living in.
And if this was the last days yesterday,
this right here's the last days today.
Right?
We're right on the edge.
And people have all kinds of arguments for Jesus not to come back.
Well, I want to see my baby grow up in heaven.
Without any of this crazy stuff, right?
I don't know how that works.
If they grow up on the way up or, right,
Or once you get there, they get to have a glorious time.
I don't know, but I know God's got only good plant for our kids and for our grandkids.
And because there's a lot of stuff, I would just want my grandkids to forego in this life.
I'm going to wrap it up here with Luke's little condensed account of the,
the beatitudes. And it says, then he, Jesus, lifted up his eyes towards his disciples and said,
blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Now, it doesn't say it here because it is
condensed here in Luke, but Matthew says, blessed are those who are poor in spirit. In other words,
you recognize the spiritual deficit in your life apart from God. Right? Do you have this,
this poorness in your spirit where you know that you need Jesus?
It says, yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Why?
Because you're going to chase after it.
Because you're poor in spirit.
You want your spirit to be full and not to be poor, but to be vibrant.
And so you'll seek him.
Blessed, it says, for those who hunger, for they shall be filled.
Hunger for what?
For spiritual life.
Years ago, I watched this.
It was a bodybuilding movie.
and the subtitle was called Stay Hungry.
And I think that's what should be over every Christian's heart.
Stay hungry for Jesus.
Don't lose that hunger.
Because that appetite, that spiritual appetite for him,
you'll be filled.
You'll be fulfilled when you read through His Word
and let it minister to you.
Thirdly, it says,
and...
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
This world causes a lot of tears.
You know, you think you get older and you kind of got it together.
I get more tearing now than I ever have in my life.
It's terrible.
It's embarrassing.
But I think it's good.
I remember it happened to my grandpa, one of the gruffest, toughest, toughest, hardest men I knew growing up.
and right before his 80th birthday, I'd go over and talk to him, and he'd start quoting scripture.
One thing he knew, he knew the Bible.
And as he would quote scripture, he would start crying.
And I could tell it, just unsettled him.
He was just so embarrassed by it.
And he apologized.
And I was thinking in my heart, I never said it because I had so much respect for this guy.
I didn't even know if I could talk to him half the time.
But in my heart, I'm just going, I told him, I said, Grandpa, don't apologize.
and at my heart I'm thinking,
because God's getting you,
crusty old fart for heaven.
He's ready, right?
He's getting you ready for heaven.
And he did.
And with a month later,
after we had that conversation,
he would quote out of Ezekiel
where it likens Israel
to this baby that was born
and the cord was still attached
to the afterbirth
and the afterbirth was laying there
and this baby's just wallowing
in its afterbirth.
And God comes.
along and scoops this baby up and swaddles it and takes care of it and it becomes the nation of
Israel and my grandpa would talk about that and he said that's me and he would just he would just weep
God came along I was just this helpless wallowing chunk of meat and God came along and he picked me up
and he saved me and he would just get all teary I said well God's getting urine for heaven man
Right?
Lessor those who we're going to laugh.
All the way through the pearly gates, man.
Yeah!
It'll be over.
Our sojourn.
It's hard.
It's full of tears.
My grandson was just shedding all kinds of tears out there
because his daddy left him with the Sunday school.
Versus 22 and 23
Blessed are you when men hate you
and when they exclude you
and revile you and cast out your name as evil
for the son of man's sake
rejoice in that day and leap for joy
for indeed your reward is great in heaven
for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets
listen when we stand up and proclaim Jesus
in this golden age that we're going into,
and we say that this stuff,
like this AI stuff, is like,
no way.
I ain't going there.
It's not going to control my life.
And when it comes to that place, right?
Just know.
Just like the early church.
They would not say three words
that cost thousands of them their life.
Caesar is Lord.
They wouldn't say it.
They said, no.
Feed me to the lions.
Cut off my head.
Run me through.
Burn me at the stake.
Crucify me upside down.
I will not bow.
And so,
it's going to come against us.
You Christ's followers,
for those you are kind of wishy-washy,
no problem.
You guys will just slide.
right into the tribulation period and experience all kinds of hell.
It's getting more and more evident that this is not our home, right?
We're just passing through.
I'm with Washington.
Give me victory in Jesus or give me death.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for your boldness, Lord Jesus, to go to Calvary's Cross.
Lord, you would not compromise on our salvation.
And that your followers, Lord, your apostles, those ambassadors, those those ones that were sent out to upset this world.
Lord, they did the same thing.
Lord, help us to be those people that are willing to just lay it down, lay down our selfishness,
lay down our desire for ease and comfort and to walk with you,
to walk with you in a way that is so disruptive to the world,
the flesh, and the devil.
Lord, that is so obvious.
Lord, that we're your people.
That we are truly lights shining in a dark place.
I pray for those who need to be delivered.
Lord, that you would be with them.
and bless them and fill them with your spirit.
Lord, that you would be there all in all
in our preeminent focus.
Lord, walk with us this week.
We don't know what it's going to afford,
but we know that we need you.
Direct our steps.
Lord, when we plan out our way,
may we involve you.
In Jesus, holy name.
Amen.
Let's all stand, shall we?