Make Every Effort — Luke 8-9

0:00 Good to see you all again. Well, some of you. I didn't see... No. I didn't mean that.

0:07 I meant I meant the again part. Some of you I didn't see the last time I was here. And then... Mhmm. And that's alright.

0:17 It's good to see new faces. For... But those of you who I have seen before, It's good to see you again. And I'm thrilled to be part of your study in Luke. I trust that I can contribute.

0:39 I've listened to most of the messages. And have learned, have been blessed, have been ministered to, have been nourished spiritually. I appreciate the work of Luke himself. We will meet him someday. Of course.

1:01 I would suggest that he probably spent more time investigating so that he could write the book then you will spend reading the book and studying it. Just my... I'm just gonna put that out there. I don't really know how long it took him to compile and to put all the information together, but being who he was and not meeting him till Acts 16? I'm gonna say that he spent a lot of time investigating so that he could say, I have thoroughly investigated.

1:36 A very studious disciple of the Lord Jesus. Where did he get all his information? I'm sure a lot came from his coworker Paul, but also from above. Inspired. So he writes some things that are not in the other gospels that only God could give him.

2:03 Certainly, Paul wasn't there during the life of Christ as recorded in the gospels. He was alive, but he wasn't there. So it couldn't have been by word-of-mouth that Luke gathered all his information. I mentioned before there was this collection of details called the Quell. I Can't tell you for sure if that exists.

2:28 Many people believe it did. You'll find it referenced in movie series, The Chosen. As you'll notice that Matthew's taken notes, so you have Matthew and Mark's gospel that are closely related in events and sequence but if those notes existed and Luke had access to em, he could have a lot of information from Matthew's notes. We don't know that either. We do know that the Holy Spirit inspired him, and certainly God has the ability to reveal to him.

3:01 The question would be why? And I say that only as a challenge even to myself. The promise is to those who thoroughly search after me, genuinely. I was teasing with Devin before the meeting about the phrase that's used in NIV in the second letter of Timothy, which I'm sure you study when you're studying Ephesians. Or should've.

3:33 Do your best. Do your best. And I think it's a term that is helpful, but at the same time, it doesn't really account for the truth of the translation where it should read, make every effort. Do your best is, in my opinion, an accommodation that we make to people who know that regardless of how hard you try your best will be less than. It'll be less than.

4:04 You won't reach the mark. But you did your best. And so we offered us not condolences, but consolation. We often tell sports teams, you did your best, you just didn't win because the other team is better. And so, the writing from Paul in the second letter to Timothy three times, do your best.

4:25 Do your best. Interesting translation. Not saying it's wrong, saying it's interesting. Compared to the phrase, make every effort. Because every effort is a quantitative.

4:37 You can turn around and say, I've made 10 efforts and that was every effort. Oh, no. There were 10 needed. I only made eight. So you didn't make every effort.

4:46 You left some out. You left some out. I think Luke made every effort. That's my personal comment on the brother. He made every effort and the reward was a deep understanding of the lord Jesus Christ even though he never met him.

5:10 Face to face, didn't walk with him. But also then called upon by god to record the acts of the Holy Spirit or the acts of the apostles, whichever you prefer. So his two books, filled with information that I'm convinced are because he made every effort to know the lord Jesus Christ. And the challenge is would god say that about you? You make every effort.

5:45 See, we're satisfied with some. And if you make more than others in comparison, most of the time we'll pat you on the back. You made some effort. Have you made every effort to follow the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the question.

6:20 Well, he didn't really change direction. He, last week, notified me that he was gonna do something else. Well, he wanted to finish eight. So, he finished eight. So, he said, can you start at nine?

6:31 Well, I can't do the verses I wanna do on feeding in the 5,000, which are part of nine starting at verse 10. So, get the first nine verses. I can't do both. I I wouldn't try to squeeze both in. So, I just wanna do the first nine verses of Luke nine and I say that I'll try to do that because I might not be able to finish all that.

6:57 We'll see. We'll trust the Lord to lead us. We will pray first and ask his help because without him we can do nothing. None of us will understand anything from this book unless Jesus Christ guides us, uses his spirit to penetrate our hearts, opens our understanding so we can see what he wants. Now, keep in mind the peril of the sower, which we heard from the brother, brother John.

7:25 Alright? The enemy wants to keep you blinded. He wants to snatch it away. During this next twenty nine minutes, thirty one minutes, thirty five minutes, the enemy's gonna try to take everything you hear from the lord and snatch it away. He'll snatch it away.

7:44 Just distractions, other thoughts, the cares of this world, whatever it may be. But as brother John shared, and I totally agree, every time we hear the word of God, the seed of his word is testing us to see what kind of soil we are. Alright? Every time. Every quiet time, every loud time, every time you read your bible, every meeting you've ever been to, God's word is testing the soil condition of your heart.

8:16 So, again, challenge to us all, what kind of soil will you be today? That's between you and the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your son. We thank you for all that we've been able to do thus far and using emblems to declare his death as he taught us.

8:36 Mindful, Lord, that he was the rock that was rejected. He was the one who we turned our face from. He was the one, Lord, that you put our sins on, and he is the one who bore them away. And we've had opportunity to proclaim his death once again on this first day of this week. And now as we turn our attention to your word to continue steadfastly in the doctrine that you gave us through the apostles, we would commit our time and ask your spirit to have freedom to access our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, Lord, for his honor and his glory.

9:26 And we pray in his precious name, Jesus Christ, amen. The king is coming, you know that. We're one shot from being perfect. Right? One shot.

9:45 One shot away. Don't care how you feel right now. In one shot, we'll all be in his presence. We call that the rapture. We're gone.

9:56 Twinkling of an eye, half a blink. And we'll be there in his presence. And we'll be there forever. Or he might call us individually. That's his choice.

10:14 He calls by name right off the planet. Whenever he wants us, our hearts beat at the pleasure of the king. When he wants us, he'll call us. And we'll leave. And we'll be gathered unto him.

10:27 And then we look forward to the day when we're all gathered. Amazingly, Recording the of stopped. It will not require your obedience. You will not be requested to submit to his will. To give in to him.

10:50 When he shouts to church off the planet, nobody's saying, not now. We can say that now. We deal with a lot of not nows with Christ and our walk with him now. We have a lot of explanation of why it's not now, Not at this point. It's I'm not ready for that.

11:12 We offer to him resistance because we can. We sang about it. His mercy. How merciful it is to let his people continue. As described by the prophet Isaiah, all we like sheep have gone astray.

11:34 Every one of us, we turn everyone unto our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Even the illustration we had this morning from the book of Exodus. Here comes the nation of Israel. Here comes Pharaoh running after him on the bed of the sea, walls on each side. How high?

12:06 I know high enough to drown everybody once they were let go. Right? But the point is, so you're you're you're literally there and you're going because Moses outstretched his hands as Jesus outstretched his hands. And we're going in the direction he wants us to go. Did anybody turn to the right?

12:32 Did anybody turn to the left? It was only forward. And I would love my Christian life to have been like that. You can only go forward Doug. Nothing else is survivable.

12:45 Then I insisted that there are times when I don't have to go straight. I can go left or right. No. And think that I can survive and still be a walking in the spirit, full desire, heart, wanting to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus. The one wayness of Jesus Christ is so strong, yet we find ways to ignore him.

13:12 The rapture, you won't ignore. His calling you off the planet, you won't ignore. And you can thank him every day if you want. They let you ignore him now if you want. You wanna thank him when you're giving thanks for his name that, oh, by the way, thanks for putting up with my rebellion because I'm admitting that I'm rebellious.

13:34 That's kind of sketchy prayer in my life. Thanking him that you can... He tolerates rebellion, resistance, opposition to his purposes. Luke nine verse one. When Jesus had called the 12 together.

13:57 And let's stop right there. The 12. A phrase. The 12. Right?

14:09 It was Tim, I think, who did Luke six. Let's flip back to the sixth chapter real quick. Interesting thing about the sixth chapter and I appreciate Tim using the version that read on the second Sabbath because that is a word that Luke can only use. Only Luke used, I think part of his insistency to get things accurate. So he gives us a time word about what time in the year.

14:44 And if you ever wanna challenge a Bible study, try to put Christ's life in order chronologically. And I don't mean to harmonize the gospels in chronologically that way as our chronological Bibles do. I mean, start on one day and see if you can... What happened the next day? Right?

15:00 But anyway, so Luke six begins with on the second Sabbath, which is the time phrase that only Luke used, and that's why most translations probably ignore it. And it means this first Sabbath after the Passover Sabbath. So we know what time of year it was. And that's Luke six verse one. But what part of Tim's passage is also starting at verse 12.

15:25 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountain to pray and spent the night praying to God. And when morning came, he called his disciples to him and he chose 12 of them, whom he also designated apostles. A very significant event in the life of Jesus Christ. Why? Because this verse clearly indicates that there are a lot of people who followed Christ.

15:49 And they came to him. He called them. But then out of that group he chose 12 and designated them as apostles. That's a distinction now. You see a distinction between being a disciple, which means to follow, and being an apostle, which means being sent.

16:15 Alright? So we have this distinction clearly that our brother brought to our attention. Alright? Now, quickly, you can leave Luke six, keeping a finger in Luke nine and go quickly to Mark's gospel and read the parallel passage in Mark's gospel, which is Mark three starting at verse 13. Parallel passage, same event, different gospel writer.

16:44 Mark who also wasn't there in the life of Christ, writing perhaps because Peter taught him. Verse 13, Mark three, same event. Jesus went up on a mountain and called to him those he wanted and they came to him. And he appointed 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Same event.

17:14 Only Mark doesn't use the word he designated him as apostle. He uses the verb. And he apostled them. He sent them out. Same group of people.

17:24 Same purpose. Time wise, one year different. One year different. The difference between Luke nine and Luke six is one year. Because we know in Luke nine, the feeding of the 5,000 as captured in John's gospel is during Passover.

17:45 So that's one year difference. One year after He chose the 12 with this purpose, as Mark records, that He might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. In Luke nine, He finally does it. He finally does it. But there's one more detail I find rather interesting and that's in Mark three.

18:07 As long as you're in Mark, we'll go back to the first chapter real quick. I know I'm going backwards, don't worry. We'll get it front to front. We'll get it. We'll get it.

18:39 I mean, these are the details that I try to put in order. It's not that I'm writing my own bible, but I'm trying to put things chronologically in order so that they're very, very real to me. These aren't just a collection of stories. So here comes Simon Peter and Andrew, and they follow Christ. But then in Mark one, Simon Peter's mother-in-law is sick.

19:04 They spend all day healing people, they end up in Peter's house. There can be no place better than describe your life that I got Christ living in my house. Right? Revelation three, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open, I will come in and I'll eat with them, and they with me.

19:27 That's a great promise. I'm knocking to get in. Here's Christ in Peter's house. He couldn't have it no better. The same Peter who said, Depart from me, I'm evil.

19:39 I'm a wicked man. Depart from... And now he's in his house. We got him. We got him right where we want him.

19:47 He's upstairs sleeping. We got him. He's in our house. Couldn't be a more assured blessed position to be in than to know that you have Christ in you and in your house. And please don't misunderstand anything I'm saying in relation to what we call eternal security.

20:05 I don't go in that direction. It's a total lie that you could lose your salvation. Anybody who wants to defend it, I'll be happy to do it immediately afterwards. You cannot lose your salvation because it's not yours to lose. It's Christ in you.

20:23 Alright? A lot of people think they have, but you can't lose what you don't have. If you got Christ living in you, he's living in you. Right? You've been born of him.

20:36 You can't be unborn. I know there are those who are persuaded, that's alright. They'll know at the shout. They'll get it. Alright?

20:48 They'll get it. I don't have to argue. I don't have to... Anyway. So here we have Christ in Peter's house and I'm saying this is a whooping hollering time.

21:01 Hallelujah, Christ is here. Verse 35, very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up and left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. And verse 36, Simon and his companions went to look for him. What an experience. When you...

21:27 Right when you think you got Christ where you know where he's at, you wake up and you're... I want the bed assured of his presence. I woke up. Where is he? And then, I got to go find him.

21:43 I got to go find him. And that unfortunately is an experience. I'm not talking about if you're saved or not. Listen, this is not that detail. This is a simple account of a man who thought he had Christ in his house and the next when he woke up with that blessed assurance, he realized Christ wasn't near.

22:04 Hallelujah, at least he realized that. You know how many parents don't know that they don't, they have no contact with Christ? They've been professed Christians all their life. They have no relationship with Christ that they can speak of. They have more relationship with a book than they have with a person.

22:26 Or a building than they have with a person. And that is sad. That's deadening. Well, know what I believe. You have more relationship with your beliefs than with the person that you believe in.

22:43 But hallelujah, Peter knew. Where is he? And if there were more adults like that to realize suddenly I don't have a sense of Christ in my life, without having to argue about eternal security. That's the first thing you want to argue about. They want somebody to teach them they're assured.

23:30 I taught them how to feel safe. I taught them how to feel good. Not how to obey. That's the command. And why would we call it the great commission?

23:43 What's great about it? We call it the great commission. The bible doesn't by the way. We do. It's the only commission.

23:52 There's no other instructions. There are no other instructions. Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them to obey.

24:04 Not to feel. Teach them to obey. Alright? And hallelujah. Jesus Christ was findable.

24:19 That he didn't walk away from Peter and disappear in the middle of the night while Peter was resting on a comfort of knowing that he has Christ in his house? That Christ got up and went on? No, he got himself in the position where prayer Peter knew right where to go. And he took the companions with him. I gotta go find Christ.

24:39 Is that your quiet time? Is that the urgency of your quiet time? I gotta go get with Christ wherever he went. I'm gonna go get with him. I don't care if it's only in the next room.

24:54 I don't care if it's across the river. I gotta go get with Christ. Now I know your schedules don't allow that. Right? Because you got commitments to your employers, your employees, your family.

25:10 Jesus Christ had already changed Peter's employment. You follow me, I'll make you a fisher of men. Forget the fish. Forget the fish. You follow me.

25:23 And all these little truths about these disciples, these followers, suddenly in Luke six, I'm designating you now as a disciple, as an apostle, excuse me. And now it's three years into it. First year, Mark one. Second year, mark three. Third year, Luke nine.

25:48 Yeah. Developmental. Where were you last year? Where were you the year before? The year before.

25:58 And so you've got normal growth as a believer, where you started out being a follower until some point where Christ said, but now, but now I'm gonna send you. I know we got that designation apostles and nobody wants to tread on that fear of what the Roman Catholic church said to all these words and all those church fathers who dissected all these words and made them into titles and offices and all that. What a bunch of malarkey. You follow? I qualify you and I send you.

26:32 That's the plan. That's the plan. You follow me. I'll qualify you and I'll send you. Alright?

26:43 And these designations, I mean, think about the embarrassment. Well, not the embarrassment necessarily, but I'm going say this to you and you might find it embarrassing or offensive, for which I apologize. In Acts 16, we meet Timothy. And we find out immediately Timothy's life. Right?

27:32 And he is well spoken of amongst that little pocket of assemblies there, those little local groups of Christians that Paul was successfully building a church in his first mission trip. Now he's back and he meets Timothy. And he has a good reputation. And the other Christians recognize him. Excuse me.

27:52 And he's by Luke, the spirit of God identified as a disciple. His mother is a believer. His father is a a Greek. What's that mean? Well, we have to consider he's an unbeliever.

28:11 Yeah. How embarrassing. The mother was unequally yoked. Married a man who wasn't of truth, didn't live in the truth, didn't acknowledge truth, didn't walk in the truth. And from their relationship they bore a son, and that son was Timothy and he became a disciple.

28:29 But the mother was just a believer, she just couldn't get up and walk away from her husband. We know what Peter had to eventually teach about wives who have unbelieving husbands. But you can be a believer. And nowadays, unfortunately, we got mothers who are disciples and kids who are just... I'm a believer.

28:50 They have no interest in walking with Christ. And that's our generation. It didn't happen overnight. But now we have mothers who weep because they wanna follow Christ and they follow Christ to the best of their ability, but they know well that they've led their children to the Lord at a young tender age and they prayed and wrote it in their bible and yet they have no desire whatsoever to follow Jesus Christ. Can't do it.

29:16 They don't believe enough. And the only way they can deal with the pain and the guilt of the Holy Spirit convicting them is as if they profess themselves as a non believer. I don't believe anymore. What they mean to say, I can't believe anymore because I won't follow. That's what they mean to say.

29:33 They just don't know that. They just don't know that. So, we have this distinction between disciples and believers and I think it's wonderfully made because you know perfectly well evangelists can see believers come to know Christ. We would pray even in this room this morning that anybody could receive Christ at this moment today before leaving. We'll fill the pool.

29:58 We'll baptize you. We'll do whatever we gotta do. And if they're not, we'll go to the lake. It doesn't matter. The point is that doesn't make you a disciple.

30:07 A disciple is when you start to follow. And obey. And baptism is the first step. Get in the water. Get in the water.

30:21 And you'll grow and you'll know from Paul's church letter to Ephesus that first he gave apostles, then he gave prophets, then he gave evangelists, then he gave teachers, then he gave shepherds. All these different men gifted to do things for the benefit of what? Because Christ is building his church, as a brother read this morning. I will build my church, nothing will stop Not you, not me, not the lack of... No, nothing.

31:11 At least they're a believer. Jesus had called the 12, disciples that he chose and designated as sent ones or apostles. He gave them the power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases. That's our qualifying savior. Not gonna ask you to do anything he didn't give you the power to do.

31:36 He's not going to ask you to do anything he himself did not give you the power to do. Are you a powerful Christian? Do you consider yourself powerful? I don't mean powerful speaking, raise your voice, get excited. That's not power.

31:59 Power to be faithful, to stand fast, to stand firm, unwavering. Right? He gave them power and authority and if he's not in authority, I would just ask who is? If Christ hasn't given you authority to send you out and do things, what who is your authority? Well, I I just do whatever I want.

32:28 Yeah. Yeah. We get that. A world filled with people doing whatever they want. Doing whatever they want.

32:39 Determining God's will by how blessed they are. And I I I text my son-in-law. I have a son-in-law, you know. I have a son-in-law. A brother, and he's a student of the scriptures.

32:57 He he loves... And he's he's just a man after my own heart. So I text him. Not that some of you aren't, but I text him. Right?

33:07 And I say, listen, I'm doing loop one nine one two nine. I know I'm springing this on you, but if anything... Because you got a young mind. I got a old curmudgeon type mind. If anything jumps out of you, shoot it to me.

33:26 Within seconds, he writes back. He says, take nothing for the journey. Verse three. Because anything you take, he says, people will misconstrue as that's what you're offering. You're offering what you got.

33:54 Look what I got. I brought this with me. This is what you get. Take nothing. And all you can offer is Jesus Christ.

34:04 That's precious thought from... He's your younger brother. He's not my age. My son-in-law. That's a precious thought.

34:16 Because we advertise Christ with how many additives? Hoping that we can get at least one carrot in front of everybody. That at least you'll nibble one carrot. So here, you'll get an extra cloak. How about a better job?

34:31 How about a new house? How about a fence with the house? And so we have what we call the wealth and health gospel. Let's present Christ so that everybody knows that if you are on His side you are going to win in the end. And you are going to get rich, and you are going to have prosperity, and you are going have this.

35:16 Cannot. Not you won't be despite your best efforts. You cannot. He qualifies you and disqualifies you. If you don't pick up your cross every day and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

35:32 His rules. He's the director of admissions to this bible school that he has. So, the instructions go on. And are they specific to the culture in that generation? Maybe.

35:48 Maybe. I don't know if you've ever left your country to go to another country to preach the gospel. Have you? Even for a week? Well, you gotta try it.

36:01 You gotta try it. Go get a passport. Get a flight somewhere and just go live a month, you know, and and go out on the streets and preach Christ to people and see what it's like. Just try it. I think you'll enjoy it.

36:21 Under his authority, of course. I'm not suggesting you do anything contrary to his mind and purposes for you. But some of these seem specific about the dust and shaking and going and... But let's get to conclusions so I can finish my portion. Verse six, so they went out village to village, exactly what he told him he was gonna do in Mark three.

36:43 You're gonna go. Exactly what he told Peter when Peter found him. I gotta go to other villages. Back in Mark one. I gotta go to other villages.

36:50 It's not enough. You 12 aren't enough. We gotta share it. We gotta spread it. We gotta give it.

36:55 We gotta go. Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. He was perplexed because some were saying that this is John the Baptist who was raised from the dead. Others said it is Elijah that appeared. So others, one of the prophets of long ago have come back to life.

37:15 Herod knew he had John beheaded, so he was perplexed. And he tried to see him. He didn't try hard. He didn't do his best. We know that Herod didn't really see him until the night that Pilate had him crucified.

37:31 So no pretending on Herod's part. But he did get the attention of the government. He got their attention. These people got their attention. And it was all pointed to Christ.

37:46 And that's my passage. Those are the truths that are on my heart about being a disciple. I'm sorry about all the other details that are kind of loose, and I'm somewhat relaxed on them and I am. I wanna know. No, I'm sorry.

38:04 I don't wanna know. I want you to know. Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Every effort. Is partial effort good for you?

38:21 Is it that lukewarmness that Christ warns us about? Is it okay to be half and half? I'm kinda. I'm full hearted for an hour on Sunday at the Lord's Supper. Every effort or some effort?

39:14 Father, we thank you for your son. Thank you for his patience with us. We admit, Lord, that we don't take every effort. We don't. But we want to.

39:26 We wanna be so convicted, Lord, that these truths are revived in our heart for the purpose that we would go forth determined to make every effort every day. Lord, every conversation, every time to pray with each other, to love each other, to minister to each other, Lord. And so that end, we commit ourselves until that shout, Lord, when you gather us to yourself. Commit ourselves in Christ's name. Amen.