[0:00] Okay, if you remember the last time we spoke about Matthew's Gospel, what we did was, well, we read the whole of chapter 9 and we didn't quite finish studying it because the preacher went on too long.
[0:17] And it actually seems like they put the chapter break in the wrong place anyway, because the end of chapter 9 goes far better with chapter 10 than it does with what precedes it.
[0:43] So by way of intro, when we studied it last time, we recall that two blind men had come to Jesus, followed by a deaf mute man who was possessed by an evil spirit.
[1:01] And Jesus used these occasions to establish even more his messiahship. He showed that he was messiah and he did so by doing the very miracles that the teachers of Israel said only messiah could do.
[1:17] In fact, the common teaching of the day was if somebody turns up and starts healing people, particularly if they've been born blind, but certainly the deaf mute, they couldn't cast out the deaf and the mute spirit.
[1:30] And we took the example from Mark chapter 5 as to their method of exorcism, which doesn't work if the person can't speak because it needs to use the voice of the person who's being delivered.
[1:44] So he was showing them again and again and again that he was the promised messiah. He was the one who the Old Testament scriptures had spoken of.
[1:57] And he these weren't the only things he did. There's a there's a phrase in John's gospel that says if he'd have if all his miracles of healing had been recorded, there probably wouldn't have been enough books to contain it all.
[2:11] So the scriptures selected cherry picked miracles. And imagine living in that time where there was so many miracles, you couldn't get them all in your books and you were cherry picking to make you point, which is what Matthew has done.
[2:25] But his life fulfilled over 300 prophecies. If you take his life as a whole, right up to the resurrection and the ascension, he fulfilled over 300 prophecies to the letter and they still rejected him.
[2:40] And what's more, having having had 300 signposts that pointed to Jesus being messiah, they said, oh, he's doing this on behalf of Satan. Now, there has to be a determination to reject Jesus in order for them to do that, because they knew in their heart of hearts that he was the messiah.
[3:00] But he was interfering with their way of life too much. So they decided instead to kill him. And then we come to this, the end of chapter 9, and we'll just read from verse 38, which says, And this is, This is an interesting little bit of scripture to unpack.
[3:52] And I don't think I've unpacked it particularly well, save to say that it left me asking the question, Why would the Lord of the harvest who is present be asking them to pray that he would send workers into the harvest?
[4:09] It kind of seems, well, that's, is that prayer going to achieve anything that Jesus couldn't have achieved because he was there and he was in charge? And it left me thinking this.
[4:22] And please don't take this as a big scripturally profound point, because it's really just what I thought at the time, which is quite a lot of our prayers are like that.
[4:35] We pray for things that we can't affect. And if God doesn't move, they stay the same. And we know God's always there. Does he need us to pray?
[4:46] Probably not. But does he ask us to pray? Definitely. So for some reason, God has always wanted to include people in his work.
[4:57] He's always, even if it's at the level of simply praying for its success, he somehow wants us all to be involved in what he does. At the moment, the earth is kind of going to hell in a handbasket, isn't it?
[5:12] I mean, everything's falling apart and everything's becoming more and more ungodly. Is it going to end differently if I don't pray for it? Probably not. Does he want me to pray for it?
[5:25] Absolutely. So that's the best I could do with that. I don't kind of understand it further than that.
[5:36] In a sense, it's simply obedience that God has asked us to pray for certain things. When we meet to pray before the meeting starts, invariably, and it's usually Linda that does it, because it's where her heart is, but invariably we pray for Israel.
[5:52] God has said in his word in several places, pray for Israel. Is the destiny of Israel going to change if we don't? Probably not. But does he want us to pray for Israel?
[6:05] Yes. He wants us to love Israel. Why? Because Israel is his firstborn son. He wants us to love the ones that he loves. And the most loving thing you can do, especially when it's the other side of the world and you can't physically do anything, is to pray.
[6:25] It's a demonstration of both obedience and love. And he says, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
[6:38] This is a pre-empting of Jesus's intention to use others to do his work. It doesn't happen all that much until after the resurrection and the ascension, and in fact, until after Pentecost.
[6:56] But ground is being prepared here, I believe, for Pentecost to come. And clearly he is very willing to share his power and authority with selected people at this point.
[7:12] He's selected the 12. Now, when we read Matthew 28, just flip over there, keep your thumb in the place because you're going to come back.
[7:24] Matthew 28, verses 16 to 20, which is the passage that deals with the Great Commission. The 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.
[7:42] When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
[7:55] Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.
[8:05] And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So, Jesus, when he sent out the 12, and we'll come to what he did with the 12 in a minute, but just before that he said, Pray that the Lord will send workers into the harvest.
[8:21] And then the Great Commission is, All authority in heaven and on earth have been given unto me, therefore you go. And so there was to be this delegated authority, which has sustained the body of Christ through millennia up to this point.
[8:41] And we have kind of gone off at tangents with it and made all sorts of false claims about the power of God, which is probably why we don't see so much of it these days, because when you do find people who are claiming power, they're normally glorifying themselves and not God.
[8:56] However, the plan of God is to loose his power on earth to save through others. So this power should be delegated to the likes of us.
[9:11] And just before we leave the end of chapter 9, it says, He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Why sheep without a shepherd?
[9:22] What did he say to Peter? At that time, it's at the end of John's Gospel, when Peter meets with Jesus and he says to him, Feed my lambs and feed my sheep.
[9:37] And this didn't mean give them straw or sheep nuts or whatever it is you feed them on these days. It meant feed them the word.
[9:49] It meant get them saved. There was a mission in that. Feed my lambs and feed my sheep. And he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Now they had, these were Jews, and they had the religious hierarchy behind them.
[10:04] They were learning the word of God from the people who supposedly had knowledge of the word of God. And yet Jesus said they were without a shepherd.
[10:16] So these were false shepherds. And they had been badly taught. And this comes across as we study Matthew's Gospel, where as soon as Jesus did what they said Messiah would do, they then denied that he was Messiah.
[10:33] So badly, badly taught, and used and abused, and treated corruptly. Not feed my sheep, not sleep, not sleep on the brain.
[10:47] Not feed my sheep, but fleece my sheep. They were using their position to extract money from the congregations.
[10:57] And unfortunately, Jesus might say the same of his church today in this country.
[11:10] It's often biblically illiterate, corrupt, and disobedient. Heresy is taught in what calls itself God's church.
[11:26] Sexual perversion is taught as okay in God's church of all places. We'll return to this point. that divorce is kind of okay, is taught in what calls itself God's church.
[11:42] Gender ideology is embraced by what is called God's church. This is anathema to God, abomination.
[11:55] And we mustn't lose sight of that fact, because it's little groups like this who stick to the word of God is the only voice that can ever speak out against it. You won't get, I made up the percentage, it's guessing, 80, 90% of churches who will not stand and speak the truth of the word of God in this current situation where everything that God hates is being elevated in society.
[12:23] Our nation are sheep without shepherds. We can be shepherds to whoever God puts across our path if we stick to this word. And then at the end of chapter 9, he calls these disciples together and he speaks of the magnitude of this task and accompanied by an exhortation to pray, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers.
[12:51] And I think I've already covered that in that it seems a kind of odd thing to ask, but he wants us to pray for the harvest, so we should.
[13:03] And then Jesus calls out the 12. So let's read on in Matthew 10. Jesus summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
[13:24] Now the names of the 12 apostles are these. First, the first Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
[13:49] These 12 Jesus sent out after instructing them. Do not go in the way of the Gentiles. Do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
[14:02] And as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
[14:13] Freely you received, freely give. Do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts or a bag for your journey or even two coats or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his support.
[14:28] And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it and stay at his house until you leave that city. As you enter the house, give it your greeting.
[14:39] If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. Whoever does not receive you nor heed your words as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.
[14:54] Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in that day of judgment than for that city. Sobering words at the end there.
[15:05] Now, the fact that he summons the 12 at the beginning of chapter 10, but prior to that, speaks to a load of disciples and encourages them to pray, makes me think that the group at the end of chapter 9 is a bigger group, a wider group, than this group of 12 that he selects as his first workers, if you like.
[15:27] Now, I've nothing to base that on other than the way it's written. I could be wrong. It's not even that important. But I think in verse 38, 37 and 38 of chapter 9, he was talking to a bigger group.
[15:41] And now he's selected these 12. And his selection is really, really interesting. He says, well, let's just pick out a few names.
[15:56] So, you could say Peter, who's the one who betrayed him three times, was one of the ones he selected to be a worker. He selected James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who in another part of scripture, we know Jesus had called them Boanages, sons of thunder, because he called down, he wanted, he asked permission to call down lightning on people who wouldn't follow Jesus properly.
[16:29] So, their answer was, you know, follow Jesus or I'll kill you. My grandson did this. He went out into the street and he tried to give them the gospel and they basically told him to go away.
[16:44] And he said, well, I'm going to get God to kill you then. Good for him. He was, I think, six or seven at the time.
[16:56] But at least he was trying to spread the gospel very much like Boanages. But, you also had Matthew, the tax collector.
[17:10] Tax collectors were hated in the society. And if you want somebody to receive the gospel, you wouldn't think of sending them a tax gatherer because they'd immediately want to escape his presence.
[17:23] Simon, the zealot. The zealots were a religious group who were kind of terrorists. You know, so Simon the Terrorist would be a pretty good title.
[17:34] The sort of people who carried knives and would mingle with the crowd and stick a knife in someone and slip away if you didn't happen to agree with their theology. And then you've got Judas Iscariot who, but the important thing for us to note because actually, potentially, this is a group like us.
[17:54] We all have the potential to be like this. I, in my moments of road rage can be very, very, and not nice to know.
[18:08] So, this is potentially a group like this that Jesus takes. They've got nothing to recommend them and gives them the job and gives them his power to do the job.
[18:23] And that, to me, sets a pattern for the way Jesus intends to propagate the gospel as he goes forward. He's going to take people like you and me and them and he will put his words in our mouth and empower us to the extent that we need to be.
[18:41] Now, people quite often use this. I mean, the word faith movement uses scriptures like this to say, see, we're all empowered and I'm sorry but that is not true.
[18:52] You are empowered enough. If you take the gospel out into virgin territory, you will find that suddenly your power increases because you need it to and that's where you're likely to see the miracles of healing and that's where you're likely to see the deliverances and so on.
[19:09] We live in a western society that has got no time for all of this but we have enough power to do the job that God wants us to do. We simply have to be available.
[19:23] One could go on at great length about the stupidity that calls itself these, you know, like the current NAR conventions that you might have seen on Facebook where you have people who claim to be wielding the power of God in a way that is completely unbiblical and you're supposed to believe them just because they shout loud.
[19:48] What we will, the thing about this use of power is you can come very, very unstuck. Turn to Acts 19 verse 11.
[20:07] God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. Note that link. God was performing these miracles at the hands of Paul. God was also going to be performing great miracles at the hands of the 12 he was sending out.
[20:23] this wasn't something that was integrated into the 12 themselves. We've already said what they were like.
[20:34] They were just like us. They were actually not a lot really unless God did something. So God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that handkerchiefs and aprons were even carried from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.
[20:51] But also some of the Jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempted to name over those who had evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus by saying I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.
[21:07] Seven sons of one Sceva a Jewish chief priest were doing this and the evil spirit answered and said to them I recognise Jesus and I know about Paul but who are you?
[21:19] And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them and subdued all of them overpowered them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known to all both Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus and fear fell upon them and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
[21:38] If you go about trying to wield authority that you don't have you can come very very unstuck. These seven sons of a Jewish Sceva who obviously hadn't taught his boys particularly well they got duffed up and kicked out by this spirit that was in this person.
[21:59] Now I came up through some church shenanigans as a young Christian and it's amazing I finished up saying at the end of it really but there was so much of this naming over demons and sometimes praying over people for days and you look back and you think how close were you sailing to a really really evil wind that could have duffed you up and thrown you out killed you whatever because you were trying to move in an authority that God had not given you so I think what I'm saying is you need to have discernment there was one occasion in my life when Sharon and I went to a hospital for people who were severely mentally ill to visit one of our congregation who'd been sectioned and we wanted her out of there we wanted to get her home because being surrounded by what she was surrounded with in there was not going to help her and we wanted to get her out and one of the things they needed before they would release her was to know that she had support outside so the church kept visiting her and I was one of those with Sharon that would go and visit her and we prayed before we went in and then when we got in there we started to speak to her chat to her drink a cup of tea with her and she suddenly started manifesting something and to this day
[23:32] I don't know what but she was making an awful lot of noise and convulsing a little bit and doing all sorts of strange things and in that moment of need I think we were empowered because I spoke to that thing and I said you be quiet in Jesus name you see if she started making a big fuss they wouldn't let her out Satan knew that and we spoke to that thing and we said you shut up you be quiet in Jesus name and she went silent on the spot and they did let her out about a week later but that would not give me license to go around doing that everywhere and saying because I caught you being angry one day you must have a spirit of anger let me cast it out and all of that sort of thing discernment is needed as to when you have authority and when you don't and sometimes that is just a heartfelt thing it certainly was for us on that day so he gave them authority to heal the sick raise the dead cast out demons cleanse lepers do we have that authority another thing that happens before we move on another thing that happens we see it across it's unfortunate this but we see it across what calls itself the church of
[24:56] God today in our country is people who say well I believe God's given me the gift of healing so I'm going to pray for you and you're going to be healed and the prayer goes and the healing doesn't come and nobody says I must have got that wrong then that wasn't obviously the word of God what they say is oh you just haven't got enough faith yeah and why why do people go for a healing ministry because it gathers fame and attention and crowds and we want crowds don't we at any expense and I stand up and I say I'm the anointed one and I can get you healed and then when they all go home not healed nobody says well actually you couldn't have been the anointed one then could you and when you compare the ministry of the apostles I mean Peter's first claim when they healed the man at the gate beautiful was you shouldn't be looking at me this wasn't the action of a man this was something that
[26:05] God did through us and the true disciple will always put the glory back to God but the hot water that I speak of if you don't have the authority and you embark on this kind of ministry false ministry and people don't get healed what happens is instead of sowing the seeds of a successful gospel because they see the fruit of it what you get is they realise it's a load of lies and they turn their backs on Christianity so you're having the opposite effect that you should be having on the kingdom and it is anathema and we're talking a lot this morning about things that are anathema to God the other thing is he doesn't seem to have given them any formula I think of people who we always pray in this particular way we use these particular words we lay hands on in this particular way and we apply this formula and you'll get healed and I'm afraid it's cods a block when you're when you have authority you when you have authority you really have authority you wield that authority in any way you see fit just one other reason that
[27:22] Jesus selects people because he selects people who will use it right but there are no formulae sometimes people get healed because you're praying for them miles away and you keep holding them in prayer and they get healed with no laying on of hands or anything sometimes they need that experience of somebody drawing to them giving them a hug putting hands on them praying for them it just depends on the need of the moment there isn't a formula but he prepared these twelve to go out back to Matthew 10 he then he says to them doesn't he he says don't go don't go in the way of the Gentiles do not enter any city of the Samaritans but go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel now when you think that the purpose of the church was to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and when you think that in the Old
[28:27] Testament the Jews were supposed to be a light unto the Gentiles and we'll have a quick look in a moment but God's plan has always been for the gospel to go to the Gentiles why would Jesus not want them to take the gospel to the Gentiles is a very very good question I'll try to answer it as best I can and two things occurred to me the first is that Jesus was always coming to the Jews he wasn't coming to the Gentiles he was coming to the Jews and the purpose of him coming to the Jews was so that the Jews would spread the gospel and up until Jesus walked the face of the earth they didn't they hated Gentiles I think I've said it in this room before they would if a woman was in labor on the side of the road they would walk around her and leave her and actually hope that she would die because if she succeeds in giving birth it's just another Gentile kid their hatred for the Gentiles was palpable but yet they were supposed to be a light to the
[29:30] Gentiles Genesis 12 amazing how all these things start in Genesis Genesis 12 verses 1 to 3 this is God speaking to Abraham when his name was Abram now the Lord said to Abram go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and the ones who curse you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed so the first the founder member of the Jewish nation his job was to bless all the founders of the earth through his descendants so at the time of Jesus that hadn't happened so Jesus instructs that the first preaching goes to them that should have been doing it all these years to try and restore to give
[30:38] Israel the opportunity to be restored to their previous rightful place turn quickly to Isaiah 42 in Isaiah 42 verse 6 this is a prophetic word I am the Lord I have called you in righteousness I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people and as a light to my Bible says the nations which is the Gentiles so it was always and those are two of many scriptures by the way there are many more you could pick but for time sake I've just picked enough to make the point the job of Israel was to take the gospel to the rest of the world and they didn't do it and before Jesus unleashes the church to carry the gospel he gives
[31:42] Israel one last opportunity to do so and so the reason I think he wanted us to go he wanted those people those disciples to go to the Jews was to give them an opportunity to finish what they should have started and there was a second thing that crossed my mind and before we get to that I'll just mention this it's interesting God designed that the Jews would save the world they got to the crucifixion and they hadn't done so and yet when we read Revelation 7 verses 4 to 8 we realise that in that last 7 years of Jewish history there will be 144 000 Jews saving the world so the word of God is going to be fulfilled in the end anyway and I just thought that was so sweet that despite all the tribulation despite all the rebellion against him he will have his way and we need to be praying for that even though we probably not going to influence it but God says pray for these things the second reason I can think of is that if you're going to make a start in sowing the seeds of the gospel into a nation you're going to have a greater degree of success and in theory an easier task if you set a group of men who are almost entirely
[33:20] Jews to preach it to Jews who already have the words of God sown into their past many of them knew the Old Testament by rote or if not all of it large chunks of it it's a lot easier to go to the people who already have the word of God sown in them and tell them what it means than it is to have to sew it in them to start with before you can even begin to tell them what it means do you follow me so from a pragmatic point of view it makes sense to start with the Jews so back in Matthew 10 there's a couple of interesting points I hope I have time to get through them this morning they've been told what to do heal the sick raise the dead in verse 8 cleanse the lepers cast out demons freely you receive freely give it goes on to say don't acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts or a bag for your journey or even two coats or sandals or a staff for the worker is worthy of his support we have a nation covered in ministries that are becoming wealthy by ministering the gospel freely they have received but they do not freely give
[34:43] I belong to a church a while ago long while ago now that asked me to do a series of ten Bible studies so I prepared the series and I did it and I discovered that everybody that turned up had been charged to come and listen to those studies and I was appalled and the only reason I continued and did it because I did have a word with the leaders and I said I'm not happy at all about this I don't want people to have to pay to hear the word of God take offerings by all means but you shouldn't be charging people and they said well that's the way it has to be why does it have to be like that well because at some point in the past we got ourselves up to our armpits in debt because we bought this building and we took on a massive mortgage and now we're serving two masters and what happens to a house that serves two masters it will fall there are other examples of churches who've built debt in and therefore they can't serve the
[35:44] Lord with that freedom of you know I have freely received from God so what I have to share is freely yours you don't have to pay me for it it's one of the reasons Joe and I take no money from this church because you should not have to pay offerings are there and they do the expenses of the church pay the hall higher and things like that but we take no money two reasons for that one God has blessed us so we don't have to if you don't have to why do it and the second reason is he says don't it's a simple bit of obedience don't take gold copper silver don't even take a spare bag the worker is worthy of his support God will give you enough and you don't need more than enough to plan to get it clearly says you shouldn't be getting wealthy on the backs of the people to whom you're ministering again this is anathema to
[37:24] God enough said about that let's read on this last bit that I'm going to share is was to me it was a real kick up the backside and I hope it will be for all of us if only to drive us into greater prayer but it says whatever city or village you enter inquire who is worthy in it and stay at his house until you leave that city as you enter the house give it your greeting if the house is worthy give it your blessing of peace but if it is not worthy take back your blessing of peace whoever does not receive you nor heed your words as you go out of that house or that city shake the dust off your feet truly I say to you it be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city this set me to thinking we we live in a land that is committed to doing everything
[38:32] God hates and for the stuff that is going on in our nation and this is it suddenly gripped me we are making light of and are tolerating in our society more than tolerating given governmental support to exactly the same stuff that caused God to obliterate four cities of the plains Sodom and Gomorrah and two others and yet there is no fear of the Lord here I'm not saying in this room I'm saying in this land there is no fear of the Lord to run and apologize and to beg his mercy exactly as it was in Sodom and exactly as it was in the community in Noah's day they ridiculed him and he preached and he preached and he preached and the thing is at least he had a voice and at least he was being heard and in
[39:41] Sodom and Gomorrah there were those who were preaching and the angels turned up and what did they do try to commit sexual perversion with them I question whether the church of God in this land has got a voice at the moment!
[39:58] I really don't think anybody is listening to us and I also this is my personal conviction am I shouting loud enough? I have been praying Lord give us a way to be heard because I find myself wanting to when some idiot gets up on TV and talks about all these things as if they're okay I want to stand up and say they're not okay not only are they're not okay but God raised cities to the ground with fiery sulfur for doing exactly what we're doing and if they then say oh that's just a load of rubbish we don't believe that well at least they've been told and I think I think I think my burden this morning is that we would have a voice to be able to tell them and I'm just like everybody else in that when the opportunity comes to tell people
[40:58] I kind of duck it you know I've occasionally made quite a stand I remember when I was in the civil service and they they said they wanted do you want to come and join our diversity group and I said well I am a born again Christian who thinks homosexuality is fundamentally sinful and they said oh our group set up to get rid of people like you and I said well you're not all that diverse then are you but it just I'm glad I've done that but there are so many other occasions when I've just kept!
[41:39] gone for the easy life and I've realised that if I of all people go for the easy life then nobody else is going to be shouting it either there needs to be okay to stand up and say that is wrong and at the moment we're having an example set to us by who is it that wrote the wizardry books JK Rowling JK Rowling at the moment is making more of a Christian churches are and personally I feel shamed by that but I suppose to finish up what we're saying this morning I want so much for us not to lose sight of the seriousness of these things that these are not just well they're all at it again God raised cities to the ground God sent a global flood for exactly these offences and it was
[42:42] I think Billy Graham that said if God doesn't judge this lot he'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah and he has said in his word people who ignore the gospel it's going to be worse for them than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah now it was pretty bad for Sodom and Gomorrah so and as we go along with the day-to-day rollercoaster I kind of lose sight of the seriousness of that sometimes that God is totally offended by this let's finish with a scripture from Ezekiel if I can remember where it was yeah Ezekiel 16 49 to 50 starting 48 because that's the beginning of the paragraph as I live declares the Lord Sodom your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done behold this was the guilt of your sister
[43:42] Sodom she and her daughters had arrogance abundant food and careless ease but she did not help the poor and the needy thus they were haughty and committed abominations before me therefore I removed them when I saw it so we think of Sodom and Gomorrah as being purely sexual perversion as a line of sin and undoubtedly that was the major one and it left us with the term sodomy today to reflect it reflects!
[44:16] all the way back to Sodom and Gomorrah although you're not allowed to call it sodomy anymore but it says they were arrogant they had abundant food and careless ease in other words they really couldn't give a damn about anything and nothing to be concerned about and did not help the poor and the needy so it was a panoply of sins that beset those cities it wasn't just this or that it was a range of sins that beset them and because of the range of sins God obliterated their cities and the only one that was saved if you remember was Zoar and Zoar was saved because Lot needed to go somewhere because God the angel said we're not allowed to judge these cities while you're still in them so Zoar was scheduled for destruction as well but
[45:17] Lot went and lived there and because Lot was living there which is a parallel with us while we live here God's destruction cannot come but life can get pretty awful and we should be at least speaking out the word of God and applying God's standards Father thank you so much for this word I was very very challenged by it and very challenged in the preparation of it and I pray Lord that you give us courage I pray that you would give us opportunity and small there we are Lord I pray you give us a voice I sense that many parts of the community are crying out for some common sense input against the gender ideology and against the gay pride stuff and against all the stuff that flies in the face of your good word and people are keeping their heads down and not rocking the boat and not saying enough and consequently the sensible people in the world are being ignored and
[46:32] I would love Lord to be a catalyst for common sense speech and to have a voice wider than just in here that would at least be heard by some and I realise I should be careful what I ask for because I realise that might involve being locked up but so what we have just read in your word that the worker is worthy of his provision and we know that you will provide for us and it's a scary moment when we have to trust that that's true but Lord bring that on in Jesus name Amen Amen Amen Amen