Let's turn to Matthew, chapter 26--the closing of the Gospels, Jesus is fulfilling His ministry. He has been betrayed. He has given the admonition to watch and pray that we would not fall into temptation. In the midst of this, as the Lord is ministering, He's taken away and He's before the rulers, and in verse 64 He answers the question: "But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death."
What they call blasphemy we call the blessed hope, amen? This is the pivotal point of how we live our lives, how we behold Jesus and answer the question: "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" He's not just one of the great religious leaders, as we all know. Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior, the Redeemer, said, "I've gone to prepare a place for you." Think about it. I don't know about you, but I think on this Scripture virtually every day. That's how I get through every day. He has gone to prepare a place for me. This is a nasty place. I don't like it here; I'm ready to go home, aren't you? This isn't my home and it's getting more and more unlike my home daily as iniquity is abounding, the love of many waxing cold. We see people that are moving as heretics and being heralded as prophets. They're calling good evil and evil good. In this nation that used to be the greatest proponent of Christianity, and the source of the missionaries of the world is drunken with the blood of the martyrs. We're living in a day when they're going to kill God's servants and believe they're doing God's service. We're getting ready to enter into a time that's unparalleled in the history of man. Are we ready? When you begin to look around you it doesn't take long to understand that, from a national perspective, we, the Christians, are the only people without rights in this nation...
Look Up!, Part 2
July 18, 2004 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Hallelujah. Amen. Let's turn to Luke's gospel, chapter 12. We want to continue the little study we started on "Look up, your redemption is drawing nigh." Amen. You don't hear much about the coming of the Lord anymore. Everybody's kind of happy hanging out here. Jesus said, "I've gone to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I shall doubtless come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you will be also." He said at the beginning of that chapter, "In my father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you." Think about it. He's gone and prepared for us, you know they talk about the mansions. That's what Jesus is talking about, a mansion. Our mind goes off to some type of mansion down in Beverly Hills or whatever. I was watching something the other day on TV, like the 10 best homes in Hollywood or something. They're some pretty cool places. They've got some neat stuff out there now. They're all just shacks compared to what the Lord has gone to prepare for us. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and it hasn't entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love Him. Everything that we can relate to--mansions, streets of gold, gates of pearl--it's all just references to an eternal that is far beyond anything that the natural mind can comprehend. Its just types.
Far beyond what you can imagine is waiting for us and what transcends all of that is the glory and the presence of God because, really, heaven is just where the Lord is. If we're content in the presence of God, we're really experiencing heaven right now, in His presence. Are you at peace today or are you uptight like everyone else in the world that doesn't know Jesus? Are you at peace or are you still governed by covetousness and lust? You know, we've got to have more and if I can acquire bigger and better, then I'm going to be satisfied. No, the Scripture says, "Godliness with contentment is [say it] great gain." Praise God! There's no treasure like the presence of God. Heaven is just about knowing Him in His fullness and being known, the Scripture says, as we're known because one of these days, soon and very soon, one of these days, we're going to see Him as He is and we're going to be like him. Praise God...
Look Up!, Part 3
July 18, 2004 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Let's go ahead and turn back to Luke; chapter 12, we'll pick up where we were. It's just a good time of establishing in our hearts and minds the hour that we're in, the need to discipline our hearts and our minds to look up. Our redemption is drawing nigh, praise God! A time, a generation really, as we were talking this morning, where the church really doesn't have anything to say about the coming of the Lord. So where, other than here, are we getting that encouragement? Where, other than here this small group, this community of believers, are we being prompted to discipline ourselves to be free from the bondage, the cares of this world, the worldliness that is spoken of by the Lord when He refers to those that are earth-dwellers, those who are imbibing the spirit of the world? That judgment in Luke that says it is going to come upon all those who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. There are only two kingdoms that we were talking about this morning, and you are going to be a part of one of them. One is the enemy of God whose whole reason for being is to oppose the kingdom of God. Their wisdom lies against the knowledge of God, their treasures are instead of the presence of God; and outside of seeking the kingdom first, outside of preparing our hearts for the coming of the Lord and having eternal treasures, that is what we are going to be partaking of. There is no alternative, there is no middle ground. As true Christians we are absolutists. There is no existential approach in any of our reasoning; truth is not subjective to us. So, here we are a people that are walking in absolute truth and proclaiming absolute light, and yet, as our thinking in our minds is tainted and vexed, as we get distracted with temporal cares--That is what we were talking about.
So let's look back in this twelfth chapter of Luke. We were talking about the thirty-fourth verse: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. [We need to constantly be looking up. Now, we're not talking about literally, because its dangerous enough with people on cell phones (isn't it?) without us believers driving around just looking up, putting back our sun roofs--and as we referred to them back in the '70's, the "Rapture Roof"--in your cars. The "looking up" is a heart attitude. As little children--We taught the kids, as I've shared with you before, that Jesus was coming in the clouds, and as little kids they were always looking at the clouds. It's not just a literal gathering; it's a spiritual preparation that we need to be emphasizing. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be.] Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;" That speaks of action, the girding of the loins. We all know what that is talking about...
