Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem

Foreign.

Glad that you're here. I brought my friend Mike Weinberg. Do you know Mike? Mike has been here 30 years, and that's pretty amazing. So we're grateful to you and your family.

I know Mike and Patsy, you know Olivia, who often is running tech and things for us. We're grateful to them. We wanted to invite you to join us this Thursday. This week is Holy Week, and on Thursday, we kick off a Seder Passover meal together as a church. And I wanted Mike to be with us.

He's helping me this year. Because, Mike, you have a unique experience with the Passover meal that is kind of different from a lot of us, if not most of us in the room. Tell us a little bit about your experience at the Passover meal. So I grew up in a Jewish family, and I have always considered myself to be both Jewish and a Christian. And so I grew up doing the Passover Seder every year.

My family was not a religious family, but we did the Seder to connect us with the history of the Jewish people. That's awesome. So for growing up, your experience as a kid for it, that was just a part of life for you guys. So fill in the blank. For me, growing up, the Passover meal was blank, I'd say, fun and interesting.

The Passover meal is different than a lot of religious ceremonies in that it's not a serious event, it's a joyous event. And so built into the ceremony are games for kids to play. There's all kinds of food, which I guess is part of a lot of religious ceremonies.

And so I always liked that, playing the games and always trying to win, which I usually did, beat my brother. And it was just interesting because it was both going over a history that was sort of interesting. If you've seen the movie the Ten Commandments, well, that's the. That those are the events that are being celebrated in the Seder. And so it provided an interesting context for where my family and I came from and connected us to the history of Jewish people around the world.

I love that you and I were talking about this, how the Jewish people were scattered by force, and it's always been that way. And it was a way to remind you of who you are. Yeah. And I think it's very different from Christians. Right.

Christians were commanded to go around the world and to spread the word. And the Jewish people didn't have that commandment. They were instead blown apart, forced to go around the world, really, in an effort to destroy the Jewish identity. So that's one of the Things that hooked me when we were talking about this is how Passover meal is meant to help you re embrace who you are. And it's answering a lot of identity questions.

Yeah. And, you know, I grew up in Houston. There's not a lot of suburbs of Houston. Big Jewish family, not a big Jewish community in Houston. Before that, I lived in West Virginia.

Again, not a big Jewish community there. And so, you know, people looked at me. Nobody ever criticized me for being Jewish. I didn't have that experience growing up. But my friends would sort of know that I was Jewish and they would think it was different.

Yeah. So one of the cool reasons that we do a Seder meal, my family's been doing this for 15 years or so, is because it is an identity meal. It's about reminding us of what story we are apart and we are doing, grafted into your stories, what the Bible teaches us. Well, if you think about it, Jesus would have done a Seder every year of his life.

It's something that Jesus did. It's something that we ought to be aware of. So this Thursday, we'll be gathering here at 6pm I want to invite you to join us. RSVP for us because we've got to plan all the elements and the meal and all of that. You can go to our website, legacychurch.org at the very bottom of the page, there's a link.

It looks like this on the screen. Click on that and register. Let us know that you'll be here. We're going to have fun. We will laugh at ourselves because we make big messes.

We will be stretched out on blankets on the floor and probably tripping over each other. But that's a part of the fun. It is, right? It is, definitely. Mike, thanks for joining us.

Would you pray for us as we continue? Yes. Dear Lord, thank you for the history that you've given us through your word. It's recognized through our traditions, Lord. And thank you for the promises that you've given us and that were that came together in the events that we recognize this coming week with the death of Jesus and his resurrection.

Lord, Lord, we ask that your spirit open our eyes to see your word, open our minds, to ponder it and make sure we're understanding. And through your spirit, Lord, open our hearts so that we can live your word and your will. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Mike. Appreciate you, man. All right, you guys give him a like. Thank you.

Okay, I want you to fix in your mind a picture. I want you to think about a way of life that is completely opposed to the way of Jesus. See if you can fix your mind on a portrait like that. There is a life that Jesus embodied. There's a way that he spoke, a way that he behaved, a thing that he revealed about the nature of God.

And then there is life that is completely opposed to that. Can you kind of fix your mind on that for just a second? You remember how in the Sermon on the Mount how Jesus said, there is a broad gate and a wide road which leads to destruction and many people will find it. And he said, there is a small gate and a narrow road that leads to life, and not many people will find that. Do you remember this?

Jesus said this. It's easy for us when we see this verse to go, well, okay, Jesus, you were saying that the narrow road and the small gate is you. That's Jesus himself. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me.

So he's the small gate and the narrow path, or the narrow road. But what is this broad road and this broad gate which leads to destruction, which life is in complete opposition to the way and the manner and the calling of Jesus? And maybe when we think about that, naturally, we first think, well, it's probably someone who's in open rebellion against God, right? They. They go, well, there is no God, and so I am free to do whatever I want and I will live my life as I want to.

Or maybe it's the person who says, well, okay, even if there is a God, I don't really care what he thinks. I'm not going to, like, do all the things that this God wants me to do. And so they are living in open rebellion to God. And maybe you think of like a, you know, mass murderer. You think of Hitler or you think of a politician and you go, that guy is knocking on the gate of the broad road and the broad gate which leads to destruction.

I see him on the path of destruction. And we wouldn't be totally wrong to think that. That that is a life when you're in open rebellion against God. And you go, either I don't care what you think, God, or I don't. I don't think that you're real.

That's a path that leads to destruction. Yet I also want you to think about this Today. When Jesus said this and he talked about this, I think he had even more in mind than just the person who was declaring, I don't care what God has for my life. I'll do whatever I want. I think that because in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes the kind of person and he warns about them.

He says, beware of this kind of person, false prophets who. Who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly the ravenous wolves. You'll know them by their fruits later. He says, not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, that's the person who enters in. And then he talks about people who build their lives on different foundations.

And he says, there's a person who builds their life on a foundation of sand, and everything will come crashing down on their life. There are people who look on the outside like they're doing the right thing, but on the inside, it's not right. He's describing lukewarm and loving it people. He's describing people who are religious but just empty on the inside. There's no fire for God.

There's no honest even struggle for faith in their life. They're just going through the motions and they don't really care about it. And it shows us that there are really not two ways to live, like living in surrender to God or living in surrender to my own will and my own rule. But there's a third option, and that is to surround myself with religious activity, but to have no true fire or burning for the things of God going on in my life. And I think that way is just as destructive, if not even more so, than the one who says, I don't care what God says.

The person who says, oh, yeah, I'm a part of the thing of God, but there's nothing going on on the inside. This is a problem in the Old Testament. And God spoke through Isaiah, the prophet, saying how it didn't please him and how it broke his heart. He said this. These people, they draw near with their words.

They honor me with lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me and their reverence for me. It's nothing more than just traditions practiced and learned by habits. Jesus talked about these people in Matthew 5. He said, you're the salt of the earth. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?

It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. This one really came to mind. Remember in Revelation when there's the letters to the seven churches and there's a letter to a specific church, Laodicea, but it's also a letter representing A lot of Christians and a lot of church people. Jesus said, I know your deeds, that you're neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot.

But because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, then I will spit you out of my mouth. Shows us there's three ways to live. You can live gospel, you can live anti gospel, or you can live functionally anti gospel. That makes sense. Gospel, anti gospel.

I'm against the things of Jesus, or functionally, I'm against the things of Jesus because I say that I'm a Christian. I identify with the things of God, but there is nothing inside me that belongs to Jesus at all. It's just an outward show. And I think that there's maybe no place in the Bible more clear than our text today that shows us what that looks like. And so grab your Bible, turn to Luke.

Chapter 19 will be in Luke 19. I'll confess, I started with four verses for today and it became two and a half chapters for today. I don't know what this is going to look like, but I promise that I will get you out by dinner time.

This was the first day of the most important week in the history of Earth. It was the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem. That would culminate in him going to the cross and bearing the weight of our sins and being put in our tomb, dying the death that we deserved only so that he could come out of the grave and we too could be raised from our brokenness and the sin in our life and walk with him in life and light and freedom. It was a moment that should have been good. It should have been beautiful.

It should have been just perfectly cementing the grace and the love and the generosity of God. But it was ruined by empty religion. And the way Jesus came in, this was called the Triumphal entry. Have you heard that before? Probably you've heard that story.

You're familiar with it. If not, go back and read this story this week. Everything that was happening was happening in detail in a way to fulfill prophecies that God had given in the Old Testament so that God's people would see it when they knew it. They would see when Jesus came and go, there. It is the deliverance of God's promises in our life.

And I just pulled a few of those prophecies for you to look at this week. Write them down or take a picture of this. Psalm 24, 7, 10, Isaiah 40, Malachi 3, 1, Zechariah 9, chapter 9 through chapter 12. Go look at those this week and just be Satisfied to see how God prepares His people for his blessing and his promise. I'll give you just a line from Zechariah 9, verse 9.

It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just. He is endowed with salvation.

He's humble and he's mounted on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a donkey. And you see that in this story. If you haven't read the triumphal entry in a while, go to Luke 19 and read through the detail and just be in joy and satisfaction that God prepared His people for his promises and then delivers. Because God makes good on his promises always. But here's the scene.

I want to kind of set the picture for you. Let me say this. When we read about Israel, it is not always a one for one equivalent to the church. That would be a wrong way to think. But Israel is a prototype for the church in that they are the called out people of God, called by his name into his ways, blessed to be a blessing.

And in the New Testament, we see that that's what the church is. It's the people called out by Christ's name to live in his ways and to be a blessing to. To bless others. It's the same. It's a prototype for us.

So in this story today, I want to paint the picture of Israel as being like the church. And imagine this is the story. The church has gathered and this is the biggest, loudest, most exciting worship service you have ever been a part of or ever heard of. And it has like the biggest band and the biggest choir, and everyone is there. Everyone you know is there.

People from out of town have come to be a part of this incredible, incredible worship service. And Jesus is entering in like a conquering king. The manner in which he comes in history. Conquering kings would come through the city and people would come out and they would throw out flowers and palm leaves and they would cry victory over this king who had just done some great thing. And they would celebrate him.

And Jesus is coming in like a king, though prophecy said he would come in humble. And we know that was Jesus. He emptied himself so he didn't come in a chariot and a great war horse who came on a donkey. Kind of think what it would have been like for this crowd. As they're setting up and celebrating, we hear Jesus is coming.

This one who has raised people from the dead, this one who talks like no one else talks, this one who heals and does miracles and they're all coming out, and then he comes in on a little donkey, right? Like, it's got to be just this wild scene for them. But they are crying out, they're singing. It says that they're shouting, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord is verse 38. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

And Matthew adds, the crowds are going ahead of him shouting, hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And the Son of David was a reference that they recognized that he was the Messiah, because the Son of David would be the Messiah. So they are even calling out with their praise songs.

This is the one who comes and saves. And in John, he records. They were shouting out, he, here comes the King of Israel. He's coming. And so they're celebrating and they're singing, and there's a drum solo and the guitars are on 11.

And everyone is jumping. You've seen the meme with the praise hands. And there's like, the rookie praise hands. I'm still in rookie level. If you guys ever look at me, I'm worshiping, but I'm worshiping like this.

But then there's like the, you know, intermediate level, and then the full YMCA graduate level or touchdown or whatever. Like, these people are what, YMCA praising God. @ this point, as Jesus comes in, they're celebrating. And it should be this incredible moment of passion and of joy and of celebration. In fact, the Pharisees, which is kind of typical for what we find in the Gospels of the Pharisees, they get ticked off because they don't like the song that's being sung.

And they go to Jesus and go, we don't like the song. You better tell him to stop. And Jesus says, no, this song has to be sung. If they don't sing it, even the rocks will begin to cry out, because this song must be sung. I am the way, the truth and the life.

I am the son of David. I am the king of Israel. I am the saving one. And people must hear this song. It's going out.

And yet, have you ever noticed what he does in the next verse? It's powerful. In verse 41, look at how Jesus reacts when he looks back on the crowd and the singing and the celebrating. When he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and he wept over it. Kind of surprising if you're reading along, just seeing what's happening in the story.

He sees all of this, and he looks out on the crowds. He Looks out over the city, and he wept over it. And that verb in Luke 19 doesn't mean there's like a little tear in the corner of his eye. It means he was bawling his eyes out. He's mourning and grieving.

There's another time that we read Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died. Before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it says that Jesus wept, but there's a different word used there. And in that place, the word is he cried a little. Here he is just upheaval is pouring out of him. It's snotty, gross crying as he looks out over Israel.

And it makes you begin to go, why? Why is Jesus crying like this when he sees this incredible worship gathering happening? Verse 42 tells us why. He says, if you had known in this day, even you, Israel, the things which make for people peace, but now they've been hidden from your eyes. I want you to understand, when we as a church talk about the love of God and that God loves people, do we believe God loves people?

Yes. Right. He really loves people. Like, this isn't just stuff church people say. He is overwhelmed with deep and abiding love for all of his people.

And if you read the Bible, you cannot miss that. He is always sacrificing and he is patient and he is pouring himself out for a people who were in rebellion against him all the time. And you see that in the intensity of Jesus response to this moment. They are gathered, they are singing, they are shouting. They have the words of this song.

The lyrics are right even without having them on the screens. They know them by heart and they're crying them out. But he goes, I don't think you actually get it. And he's bawling his eyes out over it. He's going, I know there are some of you, there are a few of you in this crowd that see the gospel in me.

And yet the majority of you, the nation as a whole, you do not see that the gospel, the good news has arrived. You do not really recognize me as the Messiah. You are caught up in the emotion of the crowd. You are caught up in the miracles that I've done, the gifts that I give. But you do not know who I am and what I have come to bring into your life.

And he just bawls his eyes out as he looks. Could you imagine that moment? That is the depth of love that Jesus has for the people who do not truly understand who he is. I don't know what we typically think. I don't know if we think it's just no big deal.

Because he's got some. I don't know if we think it's, you know, that he's mad about it or resentful about it, or he's like, those guys, they're gonna burn in hell. You know, I don't know what we think Jesus is thinking. This shows us what he's thinking. He is torn apart.

He's bawling his eyes out. Because these people, with their lips, it's like Isaiah with their lips, they praise me, but their hearts are far from me. Because I just wish you understood. I wish you knew who I was. I wish you could see it.

You don't get it. And you don't get what I came to bring you. I came to bring you peace with God, reconciliation with him. I just wanted you to know what that's like. And the life that you're now living is nothing.

You think that's living. It's actually not. It's like, it's sick. It's death. It's nothing.

It's a shadow. I want you to have life and life abundant, but you don't get it. I so badly want you to get it.

When's the last time you ever felt like that over someone who didn't believe in Christ?

I mean, maybe a family member. Maybe you had, like, a child or you had a parent or someone. You go, man, I just so wish, Wish that they knew the Lord and the way that I've come to know the Lord. But, like, even more than that, like, just people that you don't know their name, who don't know the Lord. When's the last time we had passion, sorrow and sadness, that we mourned?

Patrick talked about mourning sin in the Beatitudes the other day, that we mourned over that. That it broke us to our core. That we had a heart that looked like the heart of Jesus right here. Jesus wept and he wept and he said, if you had only known, if you only understood. Reminded me of Psalm 81.

God says, oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways, what I would do, I would quickly subdue their enemies, and I would turn my hand against their adversaries. In other words, guys, if you would just draw near and you would actually listen to me and not pretend it. If you would actually hear the words of a heavenly Father who loves you more than you could ever know. All the things that I would do for you. Oh, just the blessing that you would have simply by knowing, Knowing my love for you, you, and yet you don't know.

And Jesus here, he's not impressed with their, their parade. He's not impressed with palm leaves. He's not impressed with chants and praise hands. He's not impressed with singing songs louder than normal. He's full of sorrow.

He is mourning their sin. That they don't know him, that they don't really truly, they can get caught up in it, but they don't have the peace of God within them. Their reverence for me consists of traditions learned by habit. Like in Isaiah. On the outside it looked right, but on the inside there's no fire for God.

There's not even a struggle for authentic faith. I mean that Jesus, Jesus, remember in Revelation he said, I wish you were hot or cold. That's such a weird thing. Why would you want them to be cold? If you're cold, at least you know that you need the heat.

You're frigid, you're freezing, you're dying, you know that you need the warmth. And so there's a struggle that there that might lead you to being turned towards God. But when you're lukewarm, you just kind of, you're just kind of there and he's broken over it because it will lead to their destruction. Look at verse 43. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you.

They will surround you and they will hem you in on every side and they will level you to the ground and your children within you. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time, time of your visitation. You did not recognize the time that God came and stood in your midst. Sometimes when we read stuff like this, we very much spiritualize it and we go, oh, that's just a metaphor for, you know, how it will be bad for you if you don't go God's way. But how many of you know that in AD 70 that exact situation took place that the Romans came in and they invaded Jerusalem and they actually built a five mile long wall around the city and they had like 12 or 14 guard towers around it.

And they hemmed in the city with an attempt to starve them. And after a period of time and sieges, they eventually burned the city and they burned the temple. And do you know what, what was stored in the temple was a bunch of gold artifacts of worship. And when the temple was burnt, what happened to the gold artifacts? They melted into the stone.

And so the leader of the army said, I want everyone to Pile rocks up on your chariots, and then you're going to drive over the stones and break up all the melted gold so we can get the gold off of the rubble. So not one stone was left upon another. Jesus said this. He knew what would happen. He wasn't just giving a metaphor that things will go badly for you.

Jesus knows exactly what he's talking about. This very thing happened. And they rejected Jesus and the time of his visitation and the time, time that he came near to them, they rejected him, they rejected his rule, they rejected his offer to bring reconciliation to God and just show them a way to live. And they have the right, every person has the right to reject God. There's no forcing, but they're going to suffer because of it.

And that bothers Jesus. It breaks him down to his core. He weeps because they're good on the outside, but they're dispassionate and they're lukewarm. And there's nothing in them that has a heart that beats for God. Now if you keep reading, this is where I was going to stop.

This is where I just kept reading going, oh, my goodness, it gets bigger and bigger. Verse 45. Then Jesus enters the temple. And the temple was the meeting place between God and man. You know, they would physically come to the temple.

And there was a sense at which God was in this, this place. It's different than in a church building, right? This was in the Old Testament, the place where, where God was. And you wanted to be near God, you went to the temple. And the situation here is religious leaders of the day made it into, into a profit center.

And so Jesus began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, it's written, and my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a robber's den. So imagine this. People would come to the temple to make sacrifices of worship to the Lord. And they would bring animals and they would bring spices and all different kinds of things. And you came from your home, maybe you traveled from further away, and you came to Jerusalem to worship at the temple and you brought, you know, some animal from, from your flock.

And the religious leaders would stand out front, like on the front porch or in the lobby. And as you came up, they would look at you and they go, you know, that little lamb kind of puny. And I don't think that you're going to get God's blessing if you sacrifice that lamb. It definitely won't please God. And if you want God's favor, you're going to have to do better than that.

Just so happens I've got a lamb over here and they're charging, you know, like H E B prices or central market prices on this stuff. Like I've got some premium spices, that these will be pleasing to God. And if you sacrifice my spices, then you will have God's favor. The, the stuff you brought is just ash. It's just trash.

No good. And so they would charge these people for the elements, for sacrificing that they had. And they charge them, you know, and abuse them in this way and manipulate the whole situation. And so Jesus comes in and he looks at all of this and remember, he had already come in John 2 and turned over tables in the temple. And maybe you're thinking of that situation where he took a whip and he was like knocking things around and he's knocking tables over and he's saying, you don't do this here.

And now it's three years later and they're still doing it. That's because we always gravitate back to our sin when we don't have our eye on Christ. And he comes in and says, you will not do this here. This is the place of prayer. It's a place where people commune with God.

And you have turned it into something selfish. You've taken God and you've used him as a means to your end. You've made it all about you and you are manipulating and you are destroying this people and you're making it all about you. And the interesting thing is here, when we picture the whip and we picture the tables and we pick. I've always pictured this as Jesus mad.

Have you pictured it that way? Like he's gone mad. He's angry. It's terrifying. The idea of get out of here.

Right. What's crazy is it's not. It's an act of love. It's a total act of love. It's the same Jesus who was weeping only moments ago.

He looks at it and he goes, that my people don't understand. And then he comes to the temple and he goes and he drives them out. And the way we know it's an act of love is the very next thing that he does. In verse 47, he walks in and begins teaching. He walks into the temple and he starts down and he begins speaking words of life to the people, begins telling them the truth, Matthew says, and they begin bringing their sick to him.

And there in the temple, he was healing people in the place where people were being abused, where they were being manipulated, where religious Leaders were causing all kinds of havoc. It became the place it was supposed to be, a house of prayer where people commune with God and the good news goes out and people who are hurting come and experience healing from Jesus himself. It's a total act of love. And that's why in our lives, even in our lives today, like, the most important thing we can do is drive out anything inside of us that distracts us from Jesus. Anything that makes the Christian life a show or a presentation, anything in us that makes it where we say, oh, it's all about Jesus.

I live for him, but really it's all about me. Because all the decisions that I make and the way that I speak and the things that I do, really about making me feel secure in this world and not about bringing him honor and glory to drive all of those things out. And it feels like with a whip or a turning of tables, that that would be a painful thing. Sometimes it is difficult. But that's only when we're holding on to sin that remains in our life or when we have held on and been completely committed to some kind of life of spiritual mediocrity where we're just numb on the inside and our hands have to get pride off of that so that he can bring something better in.

God, would you just drive out from us all of the things that are stealing from us, the abundant life that we could have in you and replace it with all the things that are so much better? That's what Jesus does. He comes in and he drives out and he begins teaching and he begins healing, and he is passionate about filling his people with good. You keep going. Go to Luke 20.

Flip over to the air. This is how it starts on one of the days while he's teaching. This is the same week. This is the same. We're just progressing along.

This week, he's teaching the people in the temple. He's preaching the Gospel. The chief priests and the scribes and the elders confronted him and they spoke to him, saying. And then Jesus starts getting a bunch of questions. Let me ask you this.

If by some, you know, bizarre circumstance, Jesus physically placed himself in front of you today, what would you want to talk with him about?

Because I've said before, I'm sure all of us have heard someone say before. One of these days, I'm going to ask God about this. I've got a few questions for you. God, right? I wonder if Jesus was to place himself in front of us in this moment, if all of those questions and possibly accusations would just melt away.

Because we're standing face to face with the living God. You think yet these religious leaders, while he is opening up the heart of God and speaking words of life and of truth and healing people in their midst, while that's going on, they walk up and they start debating Jesus. And this is what empty religion does. Verse 2, Tell us by what authority you're doing these things, or the one who gave you this authority. Who's that?

And we know this isn't an honest question. They're not going to Jesus. We want to know more. Could you tell us more? Help us to understand.

By whose authority do you. We know that that's not their heart because Jesus loves to answer that question. And he answers it often throughout the Gospels. But here he can tell that their question is about their agenda, not about a true answer. And so he won't satisfy them.

It says in verse 8, verse 22, here's a debate. Let's talk about politics. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not Jesus? The next verse says that he noticed. He knew that their trickery was what was really driving them.

He knew that they were trying to get him to say something politically motivated that they could use to incriminate him and to kill him. Get him to say this about politics, and then we can bring the law against him. And so Jesus wouldn't satisfy him. He gives them an answer that left them stunned and silent and amazed. Like, how did he do that?

Well, what did he just say? Verse 33. They set up this weird scenario. They go, there's a woman and she's married to a guy, and the guy dies. Now, that guy has six brothers.

So she marries one of the brothers and that guy dies. And then she marries another brother and that guy dies. And then seven brothers, they all die. And then the woman dies. They say, well, Jesus, tell us this when she gets into the afterlife, which one is she married to?

For they'd all married her. And again, the question isn't about the question. It's about their agenda. It's about trying to manipulate Jesus. It's trying to talk about everything in the world that doesn't matter, instead of facing the one thing that matters most of all.

And that's what empty religion does. It drives us to debate secondary or tertiary issues, all while ignoring the core issue, the issue every person must face. Who is Jesus, and what am I going to do with Jesus? And there will always be reasons that we hold back on stepping forward in faith. And I can't tell you how many people have asked me Very good and valid questions, but not with any kind of a desire to lean in towards Christ.

Like, you know, is it young earth or old Earth? What about the dinosaurs, Kevin? I go, if you really want to know, we'll do a class on what about the dinosaurs, Kevin? I mean, they go, well, is it, you know, is it that God's going to come back in this manner or in this manner or in this manner? Because I've heard about all of these different what the end times look like scenarios.

And I go, what is the reason that you're asking? If you really want to know, let's do an eschatology study. That's great, but I don't think that's what you're really wanting. I think that you just want to debate right now, why have these things happened to me? Why did bad things happen to good people?

And I go, these are valid questions. It's not that there's. It's wrong to ask those questions, but is it really about those questions, or is it about the fact that you don't want to surrender to and believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord? You don't want to have faith. And here that's what was happening.

That's not happening with every question everyone asks. But in Luke 20, that's exactly what was happening. They didn't want to believe in Jesus and they didn't want to surrender to him, so they wanted to draw him in to these debates. And Jesus, he gets at it. And you can read this this week, verses 9 through 17 of chapter 20.

He says, I am the very Son of God, so sent to Israel, the ones the prophet spoke of and that are going to be rejected by all of the religious leaders. I am the chief cornerstone is what he says. And you can argue all day long about all kinds of things, but if we don't ever get to the main thing, then we are wasting our breath and wasting our time. And there are so many religious people loving the debate and never coming to love the Lord. And Jesus sees this here.

He continues, I mean, I just. I kept reading chapter 20. It's a warning to the disciples. There are those who like to walk around in long robes. They love respectful greetings in the marketplaces and the chief seats in the synagogues and the places of honor, at banquets, they devour widows houses.

And for the appearance and for appearances, they. They give long, long prayers so people will think that they are holy. In other words, they're faking it. They're doing everything they're doing, not for the Glory of the Lord, but for their own self glory. And then one of the best moments, in my opinion, one of the best moments before the crucifixion and the resurrection takes place on this week.

Chapter 21, verse 1. He sees that not everyone is putting on a show. He looked up and he saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And then he saw a poor widow, and she was putting in two small copper coins. And he said, wow, Truly, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, for they gave out of their surplus into the offering.

But she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on. There's a passionate believer. There is a woman who has trusted God with her entire life. And we don't get the privilege of knowing, like, any more details of her life other than that. We don't get to know what happened after.

We don't get to know how to. How she came to know the glory and the goodness of God. This was. I mean, this was a moment before the crucifixion, resurrection. It's not like she got to hear the good news of that has been accomplished for you.

It is finished. Somehow in her life, she got to know the goodness and the glory of God and it set her life on fire. And she kicked out the crutches of her life and said, I don't need anything. She's the only one in the room that we know of that was deeply in need. And yet she.

He's the only one who's really giving, like a faithful person who depends on the Lord. And Jesus says, I can see it. Her life burns so brightly. This is what I've been looking for in this whole path. Coming towards the cross is one like this.

This is what I brought the stick for. You remember the movie Castaway? Yeah, we like that movie.

Imagine, like Castaway, you're on the deserted island and you realize you're gonna be there. What's the first thing that you need to figure out? Shelter. And what Fire. And you got Tom Hanks doing this.

You remember the scene, we don't know if it was like five hours or five days, he's doing this. We watch him doing this, trying to build a fire. And you see his hands are just ripped to shreds. He's been doing this for a while, trying to get some kind of a spark, some kind of a flame. And I think about how for a lot of us, when you are trying to help someone learn to know Christ, maybe it's in your own home.

A family member, maybe it's a child, maybe you taught a class, maybe even sharing the gospel with a friend in ministry. This is what it's like. This is what it's like. You're doing this. You're doing this.

You're going, God, would there just be a spark? God, would you just let a flame. I'm so tired. And you've done this as you're trying to disciple someone that you know, make a disciple. Every once in a while you see a spark and you go, yeah.

And then it's gone. And you go, no, come on, come on. And your hands are shredded and you see a little bit of a flame. You go, yes. And then a wind blows and it goes out.

And there's this moment in Castaway where finally he has a fire and he's on the beach. He's like, fire, you know, and that's. Guys, that's what I want in our church. I want a moment when we throw our hands out and we yell, God has built a fire. And it's hot and it's bright.

And I'm so tired of us going through empty religion. We're so caught up in what did I look like when I came? And did I sing the right lyrics and did I give in the right way? My gosh, can we not be set on fire by the spirit of God? And I'm afraid that there are so many of us.

Me too. God, would you help me not to get caught in the trappings of empty religion, of lukewarm living? God, would you help me to make it through the trappings of the worship service where my praise hands are up and I'm beating my chest to the beat, but there's nothing going on inside of my life. Right? Would you help me make it through the trapping of coming and saying, oh, I'm here for church, but I'm really making it all about me.

And I'm about goods and services. Would you help me get through that to the place where words of life are spoken and healing is taking place and broken things are being made new and not come looking for debates with church people. My goodness, what a waste of time. It's good to learn. It's good to know.

It's good to grow for the purpose of edification and worship. But it is not good to have endless debates that lead nowhere but just more questions that do not honor God. But we just have agendas that we're pushing. My goodness, let us not get trapped by pushing our agendas and protecting ourselves. And let us not Strut around throwing a few coins and a plate and going, look at what I have done out of my surplus.

Can we make it through all the traps? To be like this one woman?

Jesus is broken over the rest. Not because he's mad about it. Not because he's going, oh, you disgusting. Because he loves his people.

He loves you. Got a friend in the church who keeps reminding me. Over the last couple of weeks, he's just been sending me texts saying, God loves you. And I'm going, would you? You need to tell me.

And then I pause and I go, oh, God, you do love me. You really do love me. God loves you and he doesn't want you caught in the traps of lukewarm living. That is nothing. It means nothing.

It doesn't give life. It doesn't bring hope. It doesn't sustain you. When life kicks you in the mouth, he wants you to come in and experience life and life abundant. Like this woman who came the way he says it to his disciples.

She gave the last of what she had. Like, that's it. I depend fully on God. There's nothing more, right? I so want us to experience that as a church.

I want you to experience that. I want to know it in my life. I want to know it in my life.

Let me just pray for us. Would you bow your heads, God? Would you help us to avoid the broad road, the broad gate that leads to destruction? It's interesting how that broad road and broad gate is easily found and many go through it.

And it's not just one thing. It's not just this dark, evil person that it's obvious. It's all of us who don't fall at the feet of Jesus and say, you're my everything.

Whatever we hold onto will be burned up.

Everything that we let go of and we put in your hands is for your glory and for our good.

Help us to trust even as we struggle. Help us to have a struggling faith because struggling faith grows.

Help us to see the signs of the trappings of lukewarm religion, honoring you with our lips. But our hearts are far from you, God. We want hearts that beat.

I pray for those who are gathered here and those who are missing today that make up Legacy Church. God, would you make our. Would you bring revival?

Would you bring spiritual fervency to our lives, to my life and to every life that makes up this church, that we depend more on you, that you'd help us to let go of those things that are crutches in our lives, that we just kick them out and say, no, no all to Jesus. I surrender.

For all the things that hold us back. It's the fear of the unknown or disbelief or debates and questions or hurts that we've experienced. None of it is too big for you. And you've asked us to bring. To bring those things and to lay them at your feet.

Help us to do that.

The good and the bad. Trusting. Trusting that your way is better.

God, we pray for our brothers and sisters throughout the state and country and throughout. Throughout this world.

We have no idea when the day is of your return. You're so patient, as the scripture says. I pray that we would throughout the world that your church would have a fervent passion for declaring your name with boldness, without fear. That we would really believe, not just with our lips, but with our very lives, that you have come and that you will come again. And now is the day between in which your name may be declared and many may come.

Help us to have a heart like yours, a passion like yours, a satisfaction in knowing you. In Jesus name, amen.