It's great to see you all have actually come out here this morning. We give you a very warm welcome on a cold day. It's very cold. And there's some people that I think is your first time here.
So we're really glad to see you. And we trust that today will be a blessing to all of our hearts. Before I open the scriptures, I'd like to begin with a word of prayer. Father, we come to you this morning in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we acknowledge that He is Lord. We acknowledge that your Word is truth. And that Jesus is the way, the truth. And the life.
And we thank you, Lord, that we have been brought into an abundant relationship with God through the cross, through the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus that has redeemed our souls to God. And by trusting in Him, we can enjoy and appreciate a personal relationship with you. I just pray that you would speak to our hearts today. No doubt that our needs are varied.
And we represent different backgrounds and different circumstances in our lives today. But I just pray that as we open the scriptures, you would meet us where we are and feed our souls and encourage us. And if there are some here today that don't know the Lord, I pray that this would be the beginning of their journey, their relationship with God. And so we ask your rich blessing and pray that you would guide my thoughts and guide our words and bless them today.
We ask in Jesus' name, Amen. All right. Well, the last two years have been, I would say, pretty difficult years. A lot of challenges in our lives.
And really my topics that I've been looking at in the times that I've been speaking have all surrounded the life and teaching and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I've been going through a series that's really been about two years on the topics of the life and times of Jesus Christ. And I'm about to change topics. I'm about to move into what I think the Lord is laying on my heart, more of a systematic teaching of a book.
And I think I'd like to take the book of Romans. And I'd like to go through some of the doctrinal teachings that I think is very real and relevant to us today. And before I do that, I wanted to have one last message to kind of wrap up the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so today I really want to speak to you about the fact that Jesus is calling all humanity unto himself.
And so this is a call from God that is very personal to all humanity, that Jesus is calling the world unto himself. Now I mentioned that the last two years have been quite difficult. You look back on the changes that have happened in this world over this pandemic. And we think of how times and changes have occurred so quickly that it's almost unthinkable where we are today.
And I really believe there's a sense in which the world is asleep. I believe that there is a sense in which the church is asleep. And I don't think that every one of us realize what is happening. I believe that there is a storm coming of the wrath of God, the judgment of God that will break on this earth and it is called the tribulation.
And I believe that the Lord Jesus is about to return. And those of us that have put our faith and trust in Him, we will be raptured. And this world will experience an amazing change. And I think that as we look around us today, we read our Bible, we can see things leading up to that that are moving quickly in that direction.
World economies are on the brink of collapse. And the political world is in turmoil. The financial world is in turmoil. There is a lot of instability and uncertainty.
And the world is reeling. And people are very fearful and uncertain about the future. And so in light of all of that, I want to give you today a message of hope. I want to give you a message of a wake up call from God and an opportunity for every one of us today to feel like personal call back to God in our souls.
There's a lot of people in the world today that are turning to drugs and alcohol to escape the issues of life. There are a lot of people today that have lost hope. There's probably more suicides that are happening than ever before. And there are people that are committing sin.
And there are people that are in despair. And really what the world needs is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The world needs to know God. The world needs to become awake to the message that God has for us.
And so I have entitled this message today. Jesus is calling all humanity to come to him. So whether you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you are walking with God or whether you are an unbeliever. And right now, maybe you're just curious.
You do not have a personal relationship with God. Well unbeliever and believer alike. This is calling all humanity to come unto him. And so I want to begin by reading in Matthew chapter 11.
If you have your Bible with you, just turn to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11. We're going to read of verse 28. Matthew 11 and 28. Jesus said these words.
Come unto me. All you that labor and are heavy laden. All of you that have burdens. Come to me and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I'd like to write across that passage. Jesus is saying, come unto me with your sin.
Come unto me with your burdens. Come unto me with your cares. I will give you rest. Let's go to John chapter 7.
And let's read at verse 37. John chapter 7 and verse 37. In that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if any man thirsted, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me as the scripture says, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.
This he spoke of the spirit whom they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. And I'd like to write over that passage. Jesus says, come unto me with your soul. With the very depths of your being that is longing for some type of satisfaction.
Jesus is saying, come unto me with your soul. I will give you lasting joy and lasting satisfaction. Let's look at Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6, we're going to read at verse 30.
Mark 6 and 30 and the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus. And he told them and told them all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And Jesus said unto them, come apart into a desert place and rest a while, for there were many coming and going and they had no leisure, so much even to eat. In this passage, Jesus is saying, come apart.
Come to me with all your weariness, all the issues, the burdens and the distractions of life. Jesus is saying, come unto me with your weariness and rest a while. I'd like to read one last passage in John chapter 14. John chapter 14 and we're going to read at verse 1.
I think these words are very fitting today. The circumstances of life that we are facing. Jesus is about to go to the cross. He's in the upper room and it's his last night with his disciples and he has just told them that he's leaving.
And this is what he says, let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.
And where I go, you know. And the way. You know. I promise it unto him.
Lord, we don't know where you're going and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. In this passage, Jesus is calling all humanity to come unto them, him with their whole being, their heart, their soul, all that they are and just trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so I want to focus today on these four verses and I want to bring you to a scene that I remember so vividly that spoke to my heart in one of my visits to Israel a number of years ago. I stood on the Mount of Olives. And this is a picture that was taken at the very top of the Mount of Olives, looking west and you can see the Valley of Kidron and the city of Jerusalem. And Jesus stood here one day and it's recorded in Luke 13.
It's recorded in Luke 19 and it's recorded in Matthew 24. And Jesus stood at the very top of that mountain and it says that Jesus wept. He wept. It was the beginning of the Passion Week and it was right at the time when his triumphal entry was going into the city and he looked over this beautiful city and the people of that city that he knew had rejected him and he said these words, I would have gathered you together.
I longed to gather you together. And he gave that little analogy as a hen gathers her chicks underneath her wings, but you would not. What a picture. It's a picture of a storm that is coming.
It's a picture of danger that was approaching and these people that Jesus had had been amongst for three and a half years, he taught in their streets. He showed them compassion and love and mercy. He healed their sick. He gave them words of hope and still they rejected him.
They would not come to him. Jesus said in John chapter five to the religious leaders to the Pharisees, you would not come to me that you might have life. And so Jesus one last time is standing at the top of Mount Olivet and he knows that this nation has totally rejected him and he calls out to them and he says, I would have gathered you, but you would not. And then he said these words.
He said, you did not know the time of your visitation. You didn't know the timing. You missed your opportunity. And so as I think about this today and I think about where we are right now, there is a spiritual wake-up call to this world.
Jesus is calling the world to come to him and the world largely has rejected God and rejected Christ. And I feel this very keenly in my soul when I go downtown on the streets and I start telling people about the good news of this gospel message and people are largely not interested. They really are disconnected. They're busy and distracted and focused on other things.
And there's a storm coming. The world is going to change quickly. And there is danger ahead. There is judgment that God is going to afflict on this world and everyone needs a shelter.
Everyone needs a hiding place. And Jesus is the shelter. He's a hiding place from the storm. He's that hen that calls those chicks to come to him.
He will give them security. He will give them shelter. He will give them peace. And so I just feel like we're living in a world that needs the gospel message.
And believers need to come to Christ. Believers need to feel that soulless, that solitude, that connection with the Lord Jesus Christ, especially now. We are facing some pretty big challenges that are coming and the world needs to spend time in the presence of God. Yet one thing that I'm aware of and hopefully you're aware of it too, I believe it's common to all humanity.
I want to present to you today for your thinking that there are four flaws in our nature. Four flaws in our nature that only Jesus Christ can correct. And these four passages that I have read to you today relate directly to these four flaws. We have inherent depravity in our nature.
Now you may not be familiar with that word, but I want to share with you that every single one of us are corrupt. We have sinful natures. And because of this sinful nature, we go astray from God. The whole Bible teaches this.
Wherefore as by one man's sin entered into the world. And so it takes us back to the Garden of Eden when God created man in his own image and gave us free will a choice. And man chose to turn away from God and to pursue sin. And as a result, sin and its nature and its effects and its consequences came into the human race and all humanity are experiencing this inherent depravity.
It's in our very nature. Folks, we are corrupt by nature. All of us have sinned and all of us have gone astray. All of us have turned to our own way.
That's what the scripture teaches. And so with this inherent nature of depravity, we naturally don't seek after God. But here's the good news. We have a God that is full of mercy.
We have a God that is full of grace. We have a God that is calling humanity to come unto him. You know that in that passage of Matthew chapter 11, it says that then Jesus says, that then Jesus began to upgrade the cities wherein his mighty works were accomplished. Capernaum and Corazon and Bessena where he taught in their streets.
He healed their sick. He showed compassion, yet they would not believe in him. And as a result, he stood that day and he said, come unto me. All you that are burdened with your sin.
All you that labor and are filled with weariness. I will give you rest. Let me stop and ask this question. Is there anybody here that's burdened with your sin?
Is there anybody here that feels a sense of weariness, that feels the burdens of life? Jesus can give you rest in your soul. Jesus can take your sin away. Jesus can heal you.
Jesus can give you peace and joy and rest that nothing in this world can ever give. And so it's an invitation. Folks, it is not limited. It is to the who so ever will.
Any single person can come today to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive rest in their soul. Can receive peace in their heart. Can have a personal, intimate relationship with God. And I want to tell you that nothing else in this world can equal that personal satisfaction of knowing Jesus Christ.
Do you know him? Do you know him personally? Do you have that personal relationship with him? It's the most important thing in life.
And it's the purpose that he came. It's what he offers you, the gift of eternal life. And if you don't have it, I just implore you today. You better get ready because there's a storm coming.
There is judgment that's going to hit this world. This world is going to get ugly. It's going to get nasty. And you need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to have that safety, that certainty, and that security in your life.
And he offers it to you. There is inherent desire. And I've called this a flaw in our nature. And I don't know if any one of you have really experienced this or you can relate to it.
But let me paint this picture. Once we grow up and we are exposed to life and all that's out there and the temptation of sin and the temptation of power and money and prestige and relationships and a life of glory that all of us naturally are seeking after. There is this desire inside of every one of us to have personal satisfaction. Some people are trying to find it in business.
Some people are trying to find it in sports or in music or in popularity or in fame or in prestige. And so we live lives on this endless journey seeking after something to satisfy our inward nature. This is a flaw in our nature. And Jesus says, if any man thirst.
Thirst is this longing desire for something that will satisfy. It's an allegory and it speaks to our very nature. You know what I've called it? The thirst of the curse.
When the curse came into this world, there was an endless desire of seeking after something to satisfy the longing of our hearts. And so a lot of young guys and young girls, when they do, they go out every weekend and they party and they go down and they get into drugs and alcohol and pleasures and sexual immorality and they just can't get enough because the next weekend they go back and they do it all again and they just can't get enough. And the next weekend they do it again. Why is that?
Because inside of every one of us is a thirst for something. We're trying to feel a void. How many famous people do you know that naturally speaking appear to have it all? Money, popularity, fame and they're dissatisfied.
I've spent a lot of time with people in business at a high level that are completely dissatisfied. I remember speaking to one man. He was a multi-multi-millimeter. He couldn't count how much money he had.
And he said to me, John, he said, I've got everything. But he said, you know what I realized? He said, when I get there, he said it's empty. He said, it doesn't satisfy.
He said, what do you have in your life that's different than what I have? And you know what I said? I have Jesus. I got Jesus.
And he satisfies my soul. You know what Jesus said to this woman at the well? He said, if you knew the gift of God. If you knew what I could give you, you would ask of him.
He would give you living water and it would satisfy you. You know, we are in a world of 8 billion people that are on an endless quest for satisfaction. It's a flaw within our nature. And the answer is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the only one that can satisfy our soul. And so while these religious festivities that were going on in John chapter 7, people were following these religious festivities and it was empty. Sometimes religion is empty. It's just going through the motions of trying to satisfy a guilt that you have and you're going through a ritual.
Folks, you don't need religion. You need Jesus. You need something that's real that will satisfy your soul. And the only one that will satisfy our hearts and souls is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so that day Jesus stood and he cried and he said, if any man thirsted, let him come unto me, I will give him living water and out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Have you tasted? Psalmist said, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. You know, for me personally, there's nothing better than to sit down alone with my Bible and God and the world shut out and say, Lord Jesus, feed my soul.
Let me know your presence. Let me feel the joy of personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We have inherent desire that activity, pleasure, money, power will never satisfy. There's a lot of disappointment in this life and there's a lot of endless pursuit for empty bubbles that will never satisfy.
You take a man called Nicodemus. He had it all. He had religion. He had power.
He had place. But there was something missing. He needed to be born again. And Jesus said to him, except a man be born again, he'll never see the kingdom of God.
How about this man called Zacchaeus? He had a lot of money. Probably had a nice house. He'd ripped a lot of people off.
He had a lot on his conscience. And one day he said, I got to see Jesus. And Jesus stood at the bottom of that sycamore tree and he said, Zacchaeus, you come down today. I'm going to your house.
And he said, this day is salvation come to this house. Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, all of these people were changed by an encounter with Jesus. Jesus Christ. Have you met him?
Do you know him personally? Can you relate to personal joy and satisfaction in knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior? Inherent desire. He says, come to me with your sin.
There's a lot about our lives that we wouldn't want anyone else to know. There's a lot about our past that we want to bury and forget. But yeah, Jesus said, don't bury it. You come to me.
I'll take it away. Jesus is able to take away guilt, shame, sin in our past. He's able to restore us. He's able to justify us.
He is able to wash us, cleanse us from all sin. And he has a universal invitation. He says, come on to me. Anyone who feels this burden.
Anyone who's not satisfied. I'll give you joy. I'll give you peace. I'll take your sin away.
I'll bring you into a personal relationship with God. There's nothing better. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can satisfy longing hearts. Here's another one.
I've called this a flaw in our nature. It's inherent distraction. We live in a world that is totally, totally distracting. It is absolutely insane.
I don't know if you feel it or not, but I do. Just try to sit down and turn your phone off and not be bombarded with the distractions of this world. It is a ploy of Satan to distract you and keep you occupied with little toys of nature that will bring you farther and farther and farther away from God. There's so much coming and going.
It's so busy you wake up in the morning and you've got 37 emails in your inbox and you go to bed at night and you have another hundred and it just doesn't stop. You turn your phone on and you get beeped and you get texted and you go to work and you have this going on and that going on and you come home and then you have these issues and it's just endless, endless distraction. God wants to cut through all that distraction. And just like Jesus said in Mark chapter 6, there's much coming and going, so much business that's happening.
You don't have any time to come apart. It's calling you today to cut through the distraction of nature and come unto him. Tune the world out. Shut yourself in with God.
Listen to his voice and let him speak to you. For the disciples that day, there was a lot of uncertainty in their path ahead. They were wondering what's going to happen in the future and Jesus said, just rest. Just rest and enjoy the presence of God.
I think that's very fitting for us as Christians today. Our mind races as we look forward and we say, well, what's going to happen here? What happens when this happens? What happens when that happens?
What happens when this change comes or that? He say, no, just rest. Rest in his presence. God's not taken up by surprise.
None of this COVID stuff has taken God by surprise. It's all in his perfect timetable. And he says to believers and to all the world, just come to him, rest in his presence. Come apart.
Come find solitude and rest for your soul. My last point here is inherent dependence. We like to be independent. But if we're totally honest, we are inherently dependent on other people and other things in order to exist.
God is the only one that is truly independent. He is the I am, which literally means the self-existing one. We depend on God for life, for breath, for every heartbeat, for everything that we eat, for our rest, for the functioning of our body, for the sustaining of our family. We depend on God for everything.
We are in a fallen nature that is experiencing the gravity of sin. We are in a nature that really has taken us away from God. And God is calling the world to come to him and to experience true relationship with God. Now get this, folks.
Not religion. True relationship with God. Do you have a personal, true relationship with God? You can have it by coming as a sinner to Jesus.
Let me tell you what Jesus did for you. He died on the cross. He shed his blood. He paid the debt of our sin so we could be forgiven, redeemed, and restored.
And Jesus said to his own disciples, don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God? Believe also in me. A statement of divinity.
He is on the same plane as God. Jesus Christ is God. And he says, don't fear the future. He says, don't be insecure.
You're feeling uncertain. There's times of trials. There's persecution ahead. There's spiritual darkness.
Yes. The path ahead is unclear. They're thinking, where is he going? What's going to happen when he's gone?
How am I going to survive? He says, don't be afraid. You know where I'm going. And you know how to get there.
And Thomas says, Lord, where are you going? How can we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way. I am the truth.
I am the life. We are fully dependent on God on the Lord Jesus for the way, the truth, and the life. The words in this book are the words of God. They are living.
They are trustworthy. They will endure beyond time. And at the last day when heaven and earth has passed away, Jesus' words will never pass away. You can trust him.
You can trust him with your life. You can trust him with your soul. You can trust him with your eternity. And he is our way to God.
No man cometh unto the Father, but through him. It's Jesus. And he's calling the world to himself, to come, to believe in him, to trust him, to enjoy personal connection and solitude with him every day. You know what Jesus is saying?
He's saying, I got you. I got you now. And I got you for all eternity. He's saying, I am preparing a place for you.
And you're going to come home with me. And you're going to enjoy my presence, Jesus, saying, in my Father's house forever. What a blessing. You know what the world needs?
We need Jesus. Jesus is calling this entire world of humanity to come to him, to experience his presence, to know his joy, to put your faith and trust in him as your personal Lord and Savior. And so as you go through the bumps and the turbulence and the issues of this world, don't worry. Just believe in Jesus.
Put your faith and confidence in him and you'll be safe both now and forever. Jesus is the way. He is the truth and he is the life. And so as I wrap up, you know, a couple of years of study in the life and times of Jesus Christ, I just wanted to share with you this message.
He is your all. He is my all. He is everything that he said he was and that we can just rest our entire lives and our souls destiny in his presence. And so let's pray.
I hope that everybody has a great day. We're going to do some singing and we appreciate you joining us today. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you Lord that he has given us abundant grace and he's come into this world to show us the Father, to give us life and to give us rest in our souls.
He satisfies the longings of our heart. He takes away the destruction. Lord, we thank you that he renews us and he justifies us and because of his death and resurrection, we can have peace and joy. We can rejoice.
We were reminded this morning that Jesus lives and he is alive forever. We look forward to that time when we'll spend eternity in his presence. And so as we just share these thoughts today and as we sing and enjoy your presence, help us Lord to be rejoicing as we leave this place today, trusting in Jesus. We give thanks for him and ask your blessing upon us the remainder of the day in his worthy and precious name.
Amen.