Brave Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Pastor Jeff
Ministries is the Bible teaching ministry of doctor Jeff Swarzentro,
Senior Pastor of Brave Church in Denver, Colorado. Today, Pastor
Jeff concludes his message the Fomo in the Gospel from
the series The Greatest and calls you to respond to

(00:23):
Jesus before the offer of salvation is gone. Pastor Jeff
will get started in just a moment, but first I
want to let you know there's a wealth of resources
to help you grow in your walk at Pastorjeff dot com.
Visit Pastorjeff dot com today to find out more and
to sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails. Now
here's today's program.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
People that don't like the Gospel compare the world and
think that there's, oh, those criminals over there, oh those
pedophiles over there, are all those sexual and moral over there.
They're horrible people. But people like me, I'm better than that.
You've missed the gospel. You're dead, you're blind, you're going
to hell, and you need Jesus Christ to rescue you.
That's the message of the Gospel, and he's willing to

(01:08):
save you. But some people lack saving faith, and some
people strive in vain. But let me tell you about
a third group of people. You should fear missing out
because some people live with a hardness of heart. Some
people live with the hardness of heart. This takes it
one step further. If the first group of people they
agree to the realities of who Jesus is, they don't
want him to be the lord of their life. But

(01:29):
and the second group says, I know he needs to
be the lord of my life, but I don't want
that either. I'm just going to live my life and
come up with my own sense of spirituality or religion
and just hope it all works out in the end.
This third group is this They hear the gospel and
they reject it. They hear it and say, no way,
Jesus Christ is Lord. I don't want to hear another
word about it. Here's what the scripture says, that the

(01:52):
message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to those of us who are being saved, it's
become the power of God. I'll tell you this, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power
of God for everyone who believes. For the jew first,
and then also the gentile. These are people who you
hear about the gospel and they reject it, and because
of the passivity of acting by faith, their heart begins

(02:13):
to harden. As we talked about last week. So they
don't care what they hear. They will not believe it.
They don't care about it. They're not going to respond
to it. They have passivity in their hearts when it
comes to responding to the gospel. Some of these people
have heard the gospel over and over to a point
they've hardened their hearts. Don't talk to me about that
garbage anymore. And this is what he says verse seven.
He again fixes a certain day. What day is God

(02:34):
going to fix? What day do we need to get
right with God? When do I need to get right
with him? I don't know when he's going to come back.
So when he tells us today, well, I'll be thinking
about your message this week, pastor Jeb, don't think about it.
Get right today in this very moment. Get right with
God today. Make today the day of salvation, saying through David,

(02:57):
he's going to quot Psalm ninety five and Hebrews three,
and he said, through the Holy Spirit, so we see
the dual authorship of the scriptures after so long a time,
Just as has been said before. Today, if you hear
his voice, do not harden your hearts. Isn't that the
third time we've heard that? I mean, do you think
there's truth in repeating something over and over and over again?

(03:19):
When you hear this, don't harden your hearts? You say, well,
what does that mean? It means this listen. Because you're
hearing this message today. You're accountable to this message. Whether
you're listening to in person, online, in the radio at Westminster,
it doesn't matter. You're accountable to this message. And if
you don't respond properly to this message, you'll still be
hearing this message ten billion years from now in hell.

(03:41):
It's true. I love you enough to tell you the truth.
Pastor Jeff. Is this one of those fire and brimstone messages. No,
it's a message of truth and grace that God loves
you so much he doesn't want you to endure that.
He loves you enough he sent his own son to
be slaughtered in your place, and he's saying, wake up
up and come to me and quit hardening your heart,

(04:03):
quit suppressing it, quit pushing it down. Quit saying, Hey,
one day, pastor Jeff, when I'm old like you, I'll
think about these realities. You may not have a chance
to grow old like me. Today may be the day.
Today may be the last opportunity. We falsely believe we
can come to Christ any time we want. We'll just
choose No. The more you reject him, the hearter your

(04:23):
heart gets. And they'll come a time when you can't
even hear his voice. So if you hear his voice today,
do not harden your hearts. And knows what he says
in verse eight, For if Joshua had given them rest,
he would not have spoken of another day after that.
In other words, when we're looking at the Old Testament,
Joshua didn't provide rest for the people, I mean even
when they got into the promise, and they didn't have

(04:44):
total rest. And through Psal ninety five, which came after
that time of the Book of Joshua, he's saying, there's
a future rest coming, friends, There's a day coming for
those of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
whell there'll be no more fatigue or hardship or oppression
or so persecution or affliction or distress, or falling off
a bicycle and hitting your head and not remembering it.

(05:05):
Those days are gone. They'll be gone. There's a day
of rest coming. But presently we can experience His rest
in this world. Presently we can experience the fact we
don't have to strive to get God to love us.
God already demonstrate how much he loved us when he said,
has only begotten son for you. Don't to strive anymore.

(05:26):
If you receive Him as your personal Lord and savior,
you can cease striving, and you can know that He's God,
and no matter what comes in your life, you can
have that inner rest, knowing no matter what happens circumstantially,
all the things I can't control, all the things I
was hoping I could control, I can still have rest

(05:46):
on the inside. And one day I'm gonna have an
eternal rest. Friends, there's a utopia coming for those of
us who believe that's unlike anything we've ever experienced, and
more than we could ever dream about. We think we
can have it here. I think if we vote for
the right political leaders, or we have the right school
board chairman, or we have all these different things that
everything's going to be perfect, and I'm like, no way,

(06:08):
it's never gonna happen. We do need to get involved
in that process. We do need to push back the darkness.
We do need to preserve it for one reason and
one reason only, because friends, this world is like the Titanic.
It's going down, and we're preserving it for more time
so that we can share the hope of Jesus Christ
with more and more people. Amen. That's the purpose of
the gospel, and that's what God wants. God wants us

(06:31):
to understand that some live with this hardness of heart.
Some of you have heard the gospel of Brave Church,
but you've kind of waited, and you've waited, and you've waited,
and you've waited, and hey, when it's just right, I'll
get make today your day. Quit waiting today. If you
hear his voice, do not harden your heart. Now listen
to this. Some people have lack of saving faith. Some

(06:52):
people strive in vain. Some people live with the hardness
of heart. But notice this other reason that you should
fear missing out in the gospel, because some people actually
pursue the Lord Jesus Christ zealously. I mean, here's a
positive one. Some people actually believe what I'm saying, that
Jesus Christ is Lord and pursue him with everything they have.
Notice what he says in verse nine. So there remains

(07:14):
a Sabbath rest for the people of God. There's coming
a day where we're gonna be able to enjoy the Sabbath. Now.
I don't know about you, but when I grew up,
I thought Sabbath was you just kind of take off
the whole day and do absolutely nothing and sit around
and are bored, and then God gets happy with you. Now,
Sabbath is a day where you take one day a
week to celebrate all the good things God's been doing

(07:35):
in your life. It's to worship him. It's to refresh,
it's to thank him for the world that he gave us.
It's to honor him. It's to do things that you
enjoy to let the Lord know, Lord, you provided all this,
and you're so good. And there's coming a day of
Sabbath rest where all day long, every single day, we'll
be able to tell the Lord personally to his face,
just how wonderful he is. Verse ten says for the

(07:59):
one who has entered it rest has himself also rested
from his works, as God did from his just as
on the seventh Day, God rested from his works and
created a world so that we could be rightly related
to him in every possible way. When you're rightly related
to God through the person of Jesus Christ, when you've
turned from your sin and turned to Jesus Christ as Lord,
guess what, you can rest from your works as well.

(08:20):
You can rest from your striving. See some of you
have heard me wrong today and said, well, no, you
just talked about works. That seems like a lot, because
if I come to Christ, I got to do all
this stuff. I'm not telling you to do anything. I'm
telling you if you turn from your sin and come
to Christ, he'll live in you and he'll do all
these things through you. You just bear the fruit. You're
just the house for his seed to grow. Friends, I'm

(08:41):
not stressed out about my works. I don't sit down
on Monday morning after I preach a message and say, oh,
I got to preach one more time. I know I'll
do it. Lord, I'll do it for you because you're
making me preach. This is not a half to this
is a want to. When God gets a hold of
your heart, they'll be want tos because of your love
for God. They'll be a want to in some way

(09:02):
with somebody else. I want to encourage them. I want
to share the gospel with them. I want to show
them comfort and compassion. I want to be there when
they need somebody to cry. And I want to because
I love God and I know God loves them. That's
the change that happens. That's the work that happens. And
some of us are pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ zealously.

(09:23):
Notice what he says in verse eleven. Therefore let us
be diligent. That word means eager, or make haste quickly
with great devotion. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter
that rest so that no one will fall. That means
to experience somewhat suddenly. What is bad through following the
same example of disobedience, don't follow an example of those

(09:46):
who aren't following Jesus Christ as Lord. That's what he's saying. See,
some are pursuing the Lord. And here's the reality. When
you pursue the Lord. Did you know when you pursue
the Lord, you are his witness even when you're quote
unquote not witnessing. You can't not be a witness if
you love the Lord. I mean in First Corinthians. I'm sorry,

(10:06):
Second Corinthians chapter two. Here's what he says about us
as believers. He says, for we are a fragrance of
Christ to God among those who are being saved and
among those who are perishon.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
This is Pastor Jeff Ministries with doctor Jeff swarzentraup and
today Pastor Jeff is sharing his message the Fomo in
the gospel from the series The Greatest, urging you not
to delay your response to Jesus because the time to
respond is now. We'll return to Pastor Jeff in just
a moment, but before we do, we want to help

(10:39):
you live differently, to think clearly, to pray powerfully, and
to walk wisely every single day with Pastor Jeff's battle
tested wisdom a ten day prayer journey for real life decisions.
This resource is our thanks for your gift of support
to help reach more people through Pastor Jeff Ministries. To
request your copy, simply go to Pastorjeff dot com and

(11:00):
give a gift to keep teachings like this one today
going strong through Pastor Jeff Ministries. Again, that's Pastorjeff dot Com.
Now let's return to today's teaching.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Don't follow an example of those who aren't following Jesus
Christ as Lord. That's what he's saying. See, some are
pursuing the Lord. And here's the reality when you pursue
the Lord. Did you know when you pursue the Lord,
you are his witness even when you're quote unquote not witnessing.
You can't not be a witness if you love the Lord.

(11:34):
I mean in First Corinthians, I'm sorry, Second Corinthians, chapter two,
here's what he says about us as believers. He says,
for we are a fragrance of Christ to God, among
those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
Some of you have air freshers in your car. Some
may have air freshers in your house. If you have
teenage boys, you have air fresheners in their room. You know,
air freshener is a way of changing the scent in

(11:57):
the environment that you're in. Become the aroma of Christ,
both to those who are saved and those who are
not saved. Do you realize that that everywhere you go
when you're pursuing Christ, you're in aroma. You're an air
freshener for everybody. Now, what are you an air freshmaner? Like?
Verse sixteen says to the one in aroma from death
to death and to another in aroma from life to life,

(12:20):
And who is adequate for these things? Friends? With some
people you get around, you're the aroma of life. People
see things in you, and God uses it to draw
him to himself. People see you and they say, if
that's what it means to be a Christian, I want
what you got. Let me have what you have. How
do I get that? And for others, being the exact
same person, you're in aroma of death. To them, you're

(12:41):
a stension their nostrils because of the hardness of their heart,
and they want nothing to do with Christ. Just you
being around them irritates them and aggravates them. You know
that's true in our world, right There's some people you
could be your normal, loving, kind, sweet, gentle self, and
guess what, they'll still reject you no matter what because
you're one of those. And then there's other people where

(13:04):
you're just your normal, gentle, kind, loving self and people
seek Christ in you and say, how can I have
what you have? You're an air freshmer everywhere you go, right,
And that's what he's saying. Some of you should fear
when you're around Christians if you don't like them, because
you're not a Christian. I'm gonna say it again. If

(13:28):
you're a Christian, you love the people of God. You
don't have another choice. If God loves the world and
he loves everybody in it, and you're a believer, then
who should you love everybody, especially those in the household
of God, especially those in the household of God. Yeah,
but Christians are weird. Yes you are. We're all weird.

(13:53):
There's nobody perfect. We serve the perfect one. None of
us is perfect. All of us have flaws, and all
of us have weird to our personality, and all of
us are just a little bit out of sorts and
not I'm not trying to draw people to me. I'm
trying to let people know about the God who saved me,
and we should love the people of God. If it
bothers you to be around Christians, that should be an

(14:15):
alarm bell that goes off in you say, am I
really one of them? Because I listen to people say, well,
I'm a Christian, I don't go to church because you
know what, they're all like, Yeah, they're Christian and you
don't like them, and Jesus died for them, and so
what's that say about you? Do you hear this message?

(14:36):
Are you sure that you're sure that you're sure that
Jesus Christ is the lord of your life? That's the question.
Some here lack saving faith. Some here are still trying
to strive on their own to get right with God.
Some people here today are living with a hardness of
heart where they're bothered by this message. And some people

(14:58):
who are here pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ zealously are
demonstrating that Jesus Christ is exactly who he says that
he is. And it bothers some of you. If that
bothers you, that Christians are going after God and you've
always got to make judgment calls about every single Christian,
there should be alarm bells going off in your heart
this morning saying why am I bothered by the people
Jesus Christ loves the most? Why they're pastors that do

(15:23):
things differently than I do. There are churches that do
things differently than we do. If they're Christian, I love them,
I love them, I'm four of them. Right. Isn't that
what we should all have in our hearts. That's the
Holy Spirit of God inside of us. And let me
give you a final one of why you should fear
missing out in the truth of the Gospel. If you

(15:47):
think this is a hard message so far, it only
is going to get harder. And it's because of this.
We've talked about some people. Some people lack saving faith,
some people are striving. We've talked about the fact that
some people have hardness of hearts, and some people are
pursuing the Lord. But here's the truth. Let me tell

(16:09):
you something about all people. That's you. All people will
be completely exposed by the Word of God. Everything I'm
telling you is entirely true, and you will be exposed
by this truth one day, he says in verses twelve
and thirteen. He tells us to be diligent to enter
the rest, so no one will fall through following the disobedience.

(16:31):
Why for the Word of God is living and active
and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing as
far as the division of both soul and spirit joints
and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and
intentions of the heart. What's the word of God like?
It's like a sword. The sword it's talking about now
is not one of those big long swords. It's like
a six inch dagger. When the Word of God is read, studied, proclaimed, faithfully, heralded,

(16:55):
and taught, it's as if a dagger is coming forth.
And what does this dagger have the ability to do?
This dagger alive, This dagger is living. That's why this
Bible is not just any ordinary book. It's unlike any
book you could ever read. You know why, because this
book is alive and it will read you. This book
will speak to you. This book will talk to you.
Doesn't have pictures, but it's got a living voice. It's living,

(17:19):
it's active. Active means it's powerful. This book is powerful.
You say, well, how powerful is it? Well, it's sharper
than a two edged sword. It's sharper this morning than
if I was holding a dagger one inch away from
your heart and starting to move it around. And what
does it have the ability to do? It has the
ability to pierce as far as the division of both

(17:40):
soul and spirit and joints and merrill and is able
to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. If
you had heart problems and you went to a cardiologist
or a thoracic cardiosurgeon and they opened you up to
do a heart transplant, that'd be a pretty big deal.
That's a pretty important job. The Word of God says,
I do heart surgery all the time. Talk about your mind.

(18:03):
Somebody's going to open up your head and a neurosurgeon
is going to go in and do some things on
your brain. That's a pretty big deal. Just says. This
dagger is able to do scalpel work on your brain.
It can divide both soul and spirit joints American to
judge the attitudes and intentions of your heart. I mean,
Jesus knows why you're here today. He knows the motivation
you came with. You can fake everybody else out, but

(18:25):
Jesus knows. You can fake everybody out at work or
at school saying here's why I'm doing this, and you
can lie about it or pretend that Jesus knows. He
knows every single thing about you. It's why if you're
under the faithful preaching of the Word. It's imperative for
a believer. I've heard people in the last twelve years
tell me I've already read the Bible. I don't need
to go to church. Yes, you do. You need preaching

(18:47):
in your life if it's faithful preaching of the Word.
You don't need stories. You don't need to go here
cleverly told tales. You don't need that. But you do
need the Word of God being heralded in your life.
Because if you hear the Word of God heralded in
your life, there will be times where God says to
you you need to stop that, you need to change that,
you need to start doing that differently. Hey, I'm talking

(19:08):
to you. Are you listening to me. That's what the
Word of God does in your mind, in your heart,
in your soul, at the deepest recesses of who you are.
I've had people bring friends to Brave Church and you know,
it's the first time they've ever been in a church,
and they leave the church and they'll say to the friend,
did you tell that pastor about me? Because he was
like telling me everything about me that only you knew. No,

(19:31):
that's the word of God, that's the Holy Spirit, that's
where he comes in and he convicts us. That's why
the word of God is so powerful. It makes judgments
on how we're living. And notice verse thirteen, maybe the
scariest verse in the entire New Testament. Are certainly a contender.
And there is no creature hidden from his site. But
all things are open and laid bare to the eyes

(19:52):
of Him with whom we have to do, or with
the eyes of Him of whom we're going to give
an account. So no creature, not you, not me, no
creature is hidden. What does that mean? You can't hide
from God? Do you remember when Adam and Eves sinned
in the garden what they tried to do. They tried

(20:15):
to play the first game of hide and go seek,
and it didn't go very well. Friends, you cannot hide
from God. You can be sure your sin will find
you out. God not only knows everything you've done, he
knows all the motivations with why you've done it. He
knows your true heart, He knows your true self, He
knows everything about you. And notice what it says, all
things are open and laid bare. Open literally means naked.

(20:40):
I mean some of us don't like going to the
doctor or the hospital because they make you wear that
gown that doesn't even cover yourself up, and it's embarrassing,
and it's like you put yourself under the covers because
in case you have guess, you don't want to be seen. Like,
what is it going to be like when you're laid
naked before the Lord? So to speak metaphorically, when all
of your sin and all of your life is completely
known by him. That's what it means to be opened

(21:02):
before the Lord. And you know what laid bear means.
It means this. He was doing a study on this
word and it terrified me this week. It's a wrestling term.
It means to take by the throat. You ever seen
a wrestler get somebody up under the neck like that?
That's what it means to be laid bare. Can you
imagine me in naked and laid bar like that? Another

(21:25):
definition said it's to have the neck of a sacrificial
victim twisted and thus exposed for slaughter. It means to
have one's neck bent back so that the throat gapes
when cut. That's mean you'll be totally exposed. Now, some
of you don't have the right picture of Jesus. You
picture Jesus as this meek and mild little guy that
walked around and kissed babies and did all that. You

(21:46):
need to read the Book of Revelation Revelation one, Revelation nineteen.
I mean, here's Jesus, eyes of fire, sword coming out
of his mouth, all tatted up, king of kings, lord
of lords, coming in full authority to take the world
that is going to be open and laid bare before him.
It's this picture of him taking you by the throat

(22:06):
and holding your neck up before Almighty God, saying he
never believed in me, she never trusted in me. I
came for them and they rejected me. That's the picture
we see here. You say, well, why is this a
big deal? Because the truth of this message that I'm
preaching to you will echo in your ears for all eternity.
If you're a believer and you know Jesus Lord, here's

(22:29):
what you're thinking in your heart. This is awesome. I'm
so glad there's a church that actually preaches the truth. Amen.
But if you're not a believer, you probably golf clapped
on that just to say I don't like this message.
I don't like what I'm hearing. This message requires me

(22:52):
to turn from my sin and turn to Jesus. And
I don't know that I'm ready for that. Friend, you
are ready for that. And here's the deal. When you
come running to Jesus, he'll meet you. He'll come running
towards you. He wants to forgive you of all of
your sin. He wants to be the lord of your life.
And he's a good lord, and he's a good master.
And he's the one who designed you with everything in you,

(23:13):
and he's the one that can fulfill your deepest desires
and hopes and dreams. And he's the one who can
usher you into eternity with him forever and ever. He's
the one that can give you that rest, that rest
for your soul that you're just craving. It's in him
and him alone. So I'm going back to my first question.
Are you sure that you're saved? Because if you're not,

(23:35):
one day you will stand before him and as he
has you by the throat for those of you who
don't believe, and you start going through your rehearsed speech
about what you tried to do on this earth, or
how you weren't ready to make him lord, or how
you were kind of rejecting his lordship, and how that
sounded really harsh. He'll say, silence, depart from me, you

(23:57):
worker of a Niqui. I never knew you get out
of here. You had your chance. I gave you the message,
you wanted nothing to do with it. That's why I'm
here to tell you today. If you hear his voice,
do not harden in your heart.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Thanks for listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. That was Pastor
Jeff with his message, the Fomo and the gospel from
the series the Greatest urging you not to delay your
response to Jesus because the time to respond is now.
Before you go, be sure to request Pastor Jeff's battle
tested wisdom, a ten day prayer journey for real life decisions.

(24:35):
When you give a gift in support of Pastor Jeff Ministries.
To request your copy, go to Pastorjeff dot com and
give to help reach more people through these teachings. And
while you're there, remember to sign up for email updates
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Thank you for joining us today,