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2819 Church
ENTRY & END TIMES | Disruptive Action | Matthew 21:12-17 | Philip Anthony Mitchell
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You can be seated. Hallelujah.
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Jesus. Jesus.
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When I was in, in January last year, I was in. I was in Turkey touring the seven ancient cities of the churches that are mentioned in the book of Revelation. And I met a man there who became a big brother to me and poured into my life and a man full of wisdom. He is like a mentor to me and he's here today and I want to honor him. Would you stand up, Roger? Yeah. Roger leads a national ministry called Generation and Generate and just impacting the young generation all across this nation. And I'm so thankful for him and thankful for godly relationships, and we should never take godly relationships for granted. Family, I just want to just mention to you really quickly, for those of you who are new to our church and in the last month, the last week of this month, the month of love, the month of February, and our church, I mean 2819 is only two years old. And in the month of February, we take up at the end what's called a gospel expansion offering, where we just ask everybody to bring a gift that is sacrificial on that last Sunday of this month. And I'm asking everybody, all of our local disciples and digital disciples to join us in sacrificial giving. We believe in this year men to take that offering and put it towards the purchase of our very first facility. And I'm just asking that we will sacrifice together. Amen. So if you are a guest of 2819 and you are sitting in this room or sitting in the overflow, we welcome you to our gathering. To all of our digital disciples watching live right now in cities all across the country and around the globe, we welcome you to 2819. And if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, we know that you are in here. We know that you're probably sitting in that overflow. You're probably watching right now. We do welcome you to our gathering and just keep praying that a moment in time will come when you respond to the wooing of Christ and he brings you into the kingdom of God and aboard the ark of safety before time has run out on you. For tomorrow is not promised to anybody. Yeah, tomorrow is not promised to anybody. Today is the day of salvation. We are in week two of a brand new series called Entry and End Times, in which we are walking through Matthew chapter 21 to 25 together is what we're studying. And in this series, we will do two things. In this series, we will marvel over the final words of Christ in the final days of his life. His actions and we will marvel over the things he taught us are coming for the whole world in the end times. Whether people believe it or not, they will not escape the things that Jesus said is coming. And we are wise if we are informed and that we are learned by.
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The word of God, that times are.
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Going to change and the shift is coming for the whole world. And we don't want to get caught off guard. We want to be like the virgins who had oil. Amen. Anybody? Our text today is coming from Matthew 21, verses 12 through 17. And then we're just going to label this little periscope of scripture. Disruptive action. That's what we need in the culture right now. We need. Disruptive action is what we need in the church. We need men and women of God in the faith who are not cowards, who don't tuck their tail and run, who not afraid of standing up for the truth because we worried about cancel culture. You can't cancel a man who didn't.
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Care about your platforms to begin with.
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You can't take away from a man.
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That didn't care about your worldly platforms to begin with. And right now, in these last days, while time is running out, we need men and women with fire in their bosom and fire in their mouth and fire in their fingertips that's not afraid of the culture, that's going to disrupt the status quo for the name of the Lord Jesus. Because we ain't playing church. It won't go. I didn't got no time for that. We feel the wind of eternity on our necks and at the hand of the Savior is on the doorknob. And we let people talk trash and persecute while we serious about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Anybody? Man, I need to say this right here. And we ain't looking for none of your worldly crowns or your worldly platforms. He ain't dangling no carrot in front of me. My reward is going to be the crown I lay down at the feet of my Savior. Somebody give Jesus praise for the crown you're going to lay down if that is the highest reward, Christ himself and the crown we're going to lay down, then there is nothing they're going to take away from you in this life or manipulate you in this life to compromise or sell out. You don't have to invite me to your conference, don't need to be on your podcast. None of those things are going to be my reward. My reward is going to be my crown. And they can't take that away.
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So, eternal God and of a wise father, oh Lord, we feel your spirit in this room and those overflow rooms, across this camera, in these living rooms.
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Wherever digital disciples are gathered, Spirit of the living God, speak through this weakened.
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Earthen vessel, these eternal truths awaken, sons and daughters. Set fire to sons and daughters. Open the eyes of sons and daughters.
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And draw us to yourself as we.
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Lean into these eternal words that have been perverted for us preserved in these holy scriptures. I ask for help now in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And all of God's people said family. A couple days ago, my wife and my children and I were sitting at the bar in our kitchen, and my daughter Israel, who is my oldest daughter, pulled out a video from 2012 of her and my youngest daughter, Abigail sitting in a house, the first house we lived in when we moved to Atlanta. And in that video, Izzy was trying to sing and lead Abby in a worship song. And Abby couldn't talk yet. And so she's just smiling at Israel and she's banging the table and she's trying to engage in worship, but she could not talk.
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And my wife and I are watching.
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This video and we're kind of just laughing at Abby as she's smiling at Israel.
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And after some time of laughing, those.
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Laughter turned to deep tears of sorrow.
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As my wife started whimpering amongst the children and everybody got quiet, and then.
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My children started crying as my wife.
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Started remembering and recalling, man, the immense difficulty we had when we first moved.
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Here to the city of Atlanta in 2012.
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She remembered, man, the troubles we had and the struggles we had, how we live way beneath the poverty line, how.
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We was on government assistance, food stamps.
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Wic, Medicare, all the things. And she remembered how we lived in a small house that was 800 square feet. It had one room, just the kitchen and the living room connected together. And in one bedroom was my wife and I, and in another bedroom was all of my four children, and another bedroom was the first church office. And all six of us lived in that house together, man. And we would struggle in those days for food. We would struggle to pay bills. My kids had holes in their shoes, and we had to put them in school where they wore uniforms because we couldn't afford clothes. And people would come to our door and bring us groceries. I mean, we would barely be able to survive. We had weeks when we were choosing between gas and groceries. And it was a very difficult season for us. And for me personally, as I Was thinking this week, man, that that season was even more intense for me because for me, I was wrestling with something far more tragic. And I was wrestling with the terminal illness of my father, who lived right down the street from me with my mother. That I was wrestling with the complex emotions of death juxtaposed Life. That in 2012, my father was dying of cancer. And in 2012, we was getting ready to start the church that we first led, the church that we gave birth to, that we led for 10 years before we founded 2819.
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That's only two years old.
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And at one thing is dying in my life and bringing me sorrow. At the same time, something is being birthed in my life, bringing me joy. And is this not the Christian life? How in many seasons we hold joy and sorrow in the same hands. We hold trouble and mountaintops in the same hands. And I'm wrestling with the sorrow of my father. And I recall this week how my father, man, said one final thing to me before he died. He made me a promise that I would not forget it. He promised me. He said, promise me, son, that no matter what happens to me, you will keep this prayer gathering that we do every week. We had this small gathering in my parents home that we did every Wednesday night for one hour called access. And it would just be my parents and myself and a few people from the ministry. And we would gather in my parents home and we would pray for one hour. And we hijacked that from the book of Acts when the two disciples went up to the temple for the hour of prayer. And my father made me promise him in his final days not to let that thing fall to the floor, but to keep access going, to keep that prayer gathering going. And that's why after 12 years in my ministry, we still keep access going. We still do that hour of prayer after 12 years. And I thought about how my father never got a chance to see what his son would become for our ministry. Started in October. He transitioned to glory in December. He died on a Saturday and had to get up and preach on a Sunday. But to this day, I honored his request. Why? Because his final words were very important to me. In the same way for those of us who truly love the Lord Jesus Christ and that we have an affinity for him in our hearts. Hear me. And we adore him in our hearts. Hear me. In the same way, we who love the Lord Jesus Christ should take very seriously his final words and his final actions. So when the Lord said to us his final ministry instruction, all authority in heaven and Earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, ethos of all people groups. That was his final instruction to the church. So we're going to be serious about the Lord's business that it does not matter if we do conferences or podcasts or write books or even do church. If we're disconnected from his final instructions, we are wasting our time as the body of Christ. And since that was the final thing he told us to do, man, the people of God should take that serious. Hear me. But not only his final instructions. Listen to me. But also his final grievances. We should take serious. The things that made him angry, the things that made him frustrated, the final things that pissed him off, we should take very seriously, hear me. The final grievances of the Lord Jesus Christ. That what we have in Matthew, From Matthew chapter one to Matthew chapter 20, we have three years of the life of Christ. But in Matthew 21, until Matthew 28, we have the final days of the life of Christ. And in his final days, we should not only take his final words serious, we'll get to the Great Commission, Hear me. But if we love him, listen, we should take his final grievances. That is the thing that made him the most upset. We should take that serious just the same. This is the drama, and this is the grievance at the center of our text. One of the most important texts in this final life of Jesus, one of the most important texts in these final chapters of Matthew. You recall from last week, I taught you that Jesus is walking from northern Israel all the way down to Jerusalem in the south. You remember that? You recall that he traveled with his disciples a hundred miles from the north to Jerusalem in the south. You remember that? You remember that? Right outside of Jerusalem, about a mile before he entered the city, he stopped in a suburb called Bethphage. You remember that? You remember? Instead of walking the last mile, he gives a command to his followers, go get this donkey that's tied and bring it to me. You remember that? You remember that? He did that to fulfill scripture that was written in Zechariah, chapter 9. And that he spent that last mile riding on that donkey, coming to them as the King of peace. You remember that? You remember? As he came into the city, the people on the outside of the walls were shouting, hosanna, Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest, which is a declaration of who he is, his messianic self. They're shouting, hosanna to the Son of David. Hosanna to the Son of God. You Remember that? And you remember when he entered into the city, that the whole city was stirred up. The whole city was in an uproar. You remember that? And then right after Matthew writes that Jesus entered the city, the very next thing that Matthew records is right here in chapter 21 and verse 12, Matthew writes, and Jesus entered the temple and he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. Look, this is savage. Jesus, this is angry. Jesus, this is serious. Jesus, this is not. Now he lay me down to sleep. Jesus. This is not Jesus in a manger. This is not meek and gentle, this little child. No, Jesus, this is furious Jesus, man, God forbid, the Lord was alive in our generation where every fool has an opinion because of social media, that if the Lord was alive and did something like this, right now, man, they'll be saying all kind of nonsense about him in the comments, but let any of his representatives behave the same way. And you persecute them on social media because you don't read. You love sermons, but you don't like scripture. So you have no knowledge that the Lord acted like this in his ministry, but let somebody like this act like that. Now they show you too over the top. You too. You too aggressive, man. You too harsh. You too this, you too. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, man. Praise God for social media, man, that technology allows us for the proliferation and the spread of the gospel. But man has given a platform for fools to have a voice. So the Lord goes into the temple. Watch the text. And he overturned the tables. Watch the text of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. Now everybody pause. Now, if you just read Matthew's account with a cursory eyes, he would make it seem to the reader that as soon as Jesus entered the city, he automatically went to the temple. But Mark, another Gospel writer who was not an immediate follower of Christ, but was a disciple of Peter, he makes the same account, but gives us a detail in his account that Matthew omits. So in Mark, chapter 11 and verse 11, listen to what Mark says. About the same moment he says, and he, that is Jesus Christ, when he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. Watch this. And when he had looked around at everything, the Lord comes into the city, he goes straight to the temple. And then Mark writes, he looked around at everything as it was already late, he went out of the city back to Bethany with the 12 important detail in the text, that the Lord comes into Jerusalem on what is believed to be a Sunday. On that Sunday afternoon, he goes straight to the temple. He surveys everything that's happening in the temple. Then he leaves and he goes back to Bethany, a suburb, for the night. So what the Lord does. Listen. He comes into the city. Pay attention. And the first place he goes is to the house of God. Watch. He comes into the city and the first place he goes is to where the people of God gather. Watch. He comes into the city and the first thing he's concerned about is the spiritual condition of his people. He doesn't go straight to a restaurant. He doesn't go to the mall. He comes into the city and his primary concern is the spiritual condition of God's people. He comes into Jerusalem. He goes straight there. Watch this. And then he goes home for the night. Watch. He has time to meditate on what he saw. He has time to think about what he saw. And as he sat all night and probably thought about what he saw and meditated on what he saw and thought in his heart about what he saw, what does he do? Now Matthew tells us he comes back on Monday. Watch. With righteous indignation in his heart. He comes back with. Watch this word holy anger in his heart. And he goes back to the temple and he drives out the money changers. He drives out those who are selling. He drives out those abundant. What is he? He's mad and furious about what he sees is a glorified flea market inside the temple. An idolatrous flea market inside the temple. The Lord saw one night. He went and he thought about it. He meditated. And then what came up in his heart as he saw and thought about what he saw was righteous indignation. He comes back. Watch. And he disrupts everything in the temple. He disrupts the status quo. He does not see and stay quiet. He does not see and do nothing. He does not go down his feeds, see and do nothing. Man. He responded to this crap with disruptive behavior. With disruptive action. He comes and he turns everything upside down. Where in the temple? Watch. The place that was the house of God. Pay attention. The place that was supposed to be set apart for worship and proclamation. Watch. The place that was consecrated to be holy. But now what he sees as a flea market inside the house of God. Why is the Lord vexed, man? Because according to history, it is the priest that is responsible for that flea market. And what was happening in that flea market. Now everybody pay attention. This is happening during the feast of Passover. Watch this. Pay attention. And during the feast of Passover, all the Jewish families had to sacrifice a lamb. I told you last week, 250,000 sacrificed. Now, if you had to sacrifice a lamb. You went to the temple, and then you had to purchase your lamb to be sacrificed. And since the temple did not take Roman money, you had to go to the money changers. Watch. To exchange your Roman money for temple money. And then you would take that temple money and buy your lamb. But because the priests, or watch this, the pastors of the day, were morally corrupt, they would jack up the price on these animals with great interest. Watch. To fleece God's people from their money. See, this is like you buying a cheeseburger outside of the airport for $5. And then you get behind TSA and it's 25 for a burger. This is. You gotta pour out your two dollar water at TSA checkpoint. And then you get behind TSA and it's fifteen dollars for a bottle of water. They gonna fleece you because they got you. You have no other option but to be fleeced. And then for families who came to Jerusalem with their own animals, they had inspectors at the temple. So they would inspect your creature and if they found anything on your animal that was a blemish, would say, this animal is not credible. You got to buy one of our animals. And so what we see happening in the market is a fleecing of God's people, right? This ain't new behavior. But your $1,000 line and your $50 line and your $100 line. And I feel like the Holy Spirit is saying to me, there's 25 people in here that need to bring me $40,000. Oh, I thought at least the black people knew about that. Fleecing God's people. Line up everybody and bring me a thousand dollars right now and lay that. Listen, this ain't new behavior. This is the priests who set up the market. Fleecing God's people, raping God's people. People exact an interest from them. Why? To pad their own pockets. Profit working for profit. Prophets preaching for profit, fleecing God's people. And the Lord is mad about this. So watch. When he sees the corruption in the temple, man, he comes the next day on Monday, man. And he comes in there, he disrupt that market. He drives out the money changers, he drives out the sellers. He turns over the tables. He is angry, he is broken, he is frustrated. He surveys, he sees. He's full of zeal. Now watch. He should be, because this ain't the first time he's had to do this. John, chapter 12. No, John, chapter two. You read your Bible, Elder Milton. John, chapter two. Watch. This is at the beginning of his ministry. Verse 13 the Passover of the Jews was at hand. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem and in the temple he found those watch who were selling oxen in the temple watch and sheep and pigeons and money changers. And they were sitting there and he made a whip with cords. Yeah, why don't you. Yeah, post that on your social media. He made a whip with cords and he what? He drove them out. That's what he did. He was in there driving them out is what he did. He made a whip with cores and he drove them out. He. He's driving them out. He's beating them on their back. He's telling them, get out of the temple. Watch. Yeah, imagine having Jesus on your phone doing that. And you post that to social media. They going to say, oh, he too over the top. He too wild and crazy. What kind of behavior is that for a man of God inside the church? The Lord wouldn't even survive in the culture we live in right now where every fool has an opinion about every man or woman of God. Right? But let somebody behave the same way. Let a real minister drive out nonsense from a church and they say, oh, that minister is over the top. That minister is too aggressive. That minister got a big mouth. We talk like that because we have not read. So we full of sermons, but not full of scriptures. The Lord has a cord in his hand. Pay attention. It's like me taking over the belt and beating people in the room and saying, get out. Get out of the gathering. Get out. Do you know what kind of hate I would get in the comments if somebody had me doing that? Right? And we get hate because you don't read and he drives them out. He said, take these things away and do not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. The Lord is fulfilling scripture right here. Watch. He cleanses the temple in the beginning of his ministry, and now he comes back and cleanses the temple at the end of his ministry. Watch. The Lord sees. He's frustrated, he's angry. He surveys what's going on. Watch. He does something about it. Shouldn't we not do the same family? Come on, man, I'm serious. Don't play around with me. Shouldn't we not do the same? How do we say we love the Lord but we turn a blind eye to the foolishness in the church, the foolishness of pastors, the foolishness of spiritual leaders. You see us doing foolishness and you don't hold us accountable. You don't Say anything. You keep showing up, you keep giving, man. How do you see all of this mess and it not break your heart? How do you see transvestite pastors and it not break your heart? How do you see drag queen pastors and it not break your heart? How do you see the government try to redefine marriage and it not break your heart? If you don't care about the nonsense in the church, if we're not broken, about who's going to fix all of that? And God forbid any real woman of God, there's one right there, or any real man of God stand up and say anything about the foolishness in the church. They want to crucify you, they want to cancel you. They want to not invite you. They think you're over the top. No, you too lukewarm. What are we talking about? That's the problem with America right now. We made lukewarm Christianity, normal Christianity. And then we keep having all these services you call revival with no power, no presence of the spirit spirit, no souls being saved, no lives being changed. We keep talking like we got it and we don't have it at all. Meanwhile, there's revival in South America and revival in Africa. And, man, we watching for revival in America. But we don't like repentance. We don't like gospel preaching, we don't like conviction. We don't want to deal with sin. I'm getting sick and tired of us. Keep taking the word revival, smacking it on a service, and the church remains dead. Our sermons are dead. Our conferences are dead. Our podcasts are dead. Our books are dead. Our preaching is dead. We need to be awakened. Should it not be on us? Watch this. Watch the body of Christ. To not see foolishness in the church and be grieved in our heart. If the body is connected to the head, how do we not feel what the head feels? How do we not have the same righteous indignation? How do we not have the same anger? Because we do. Church disconnected from the head. Too much church, not enough Christ. Too much preaching, not enough Christ. Too many podcasts, not enough Christ. Too many books, not enough Christ. Too many programs, not enough Christ. We have a whole body disconnected from the head when we should feel what he felt. Look at me, man. Look at me. We should be grieved over what grieved him. We should feel his pain. We should feel his indignation. Pray that if it's not in there, Lord, let me love what you love. Watch I pray this every day. And let me hate what you Hate. Watch. Starting with me. First my heart. First my darkness, first my sin. First let me hate it. You want to be gangsta? Pray that. You want to be thugged out? Pray that, Lord, let me love what you love and give me eyes to hate what you hate. Then you'll be going like this and your heart will grieve. You'll be going like this. You'll shed a tear. You'll be going like this and you will get angry. Let's go deeper. You'll be going like this. And you say, oh, Lord, you get down and you pray. Watch. And what is the source of his frustration? Matthew tells us in the next verse 13 why is the Lord mad? He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer. But you, you corrupt preachers have made it a den of robbers. Now, I want to draw your attention to three things in this verse, and I'm going to move really quickly. First, I want to draw your attention to the words. It is written. You know why the Lord is upset? Because he knows what's in the word of God. And because he knows the Lord's standards and he sees the corruption in the temple. He's grieved because he knows what is in there is disconnected from what he sees. Shouldn't we be that way? We should read and be burned. We should be reading and upset. We should be reading and awakened. See, some of us, we read it. Either we either we don't read or we read and we don't care. And listen to me carefully, man. Listen. This is why I keep telling y'all, stop listening to everything we say and stop believing me every time I'm up here. Why don't you go behind us and read for yourself? Stop believing everything we say. Why don't you go home when the sermon is done and open up the Scriptures and read for yourself, man. I challenge all of you. Homework for the week. Pick one letter from the New Testament, a short one that you could do in 20 minutes. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Galatians, Jude, Philippines. First John, read it in 15 minutes and then come up for air. And then listen and tell me if it sounds like American preaching. Does it sound like the sermons we hear every week? Just do your. Do it for yourself. Just read one small book. Fifteen minutes. Just read it and then come up and say, does it sound like anything I'm hearing in the culture? Watch. We should read and be burned. Read and be stirred. Read greed and be angry. Watch. The Lord is mad because it is written and then watch what he says. He says, what is written? My house shall be called a house of prayer. He's quoting Isaiah 56, the word of God. He said, but you have made it a den of robbers. He's quoting Jeremiah 7, the word of God. So he quotes two verses of Scripture to them. Isaiah 50:6, Jeremiah 7. My house should be a house of prayer. You've made an ident of thieves. He's mad because he sees the drift in the culture from the word of God. He sees the drift from the priests from the word of God. And the Lord is mad. He said, watch. My house should be a house of prayer. That the Lord said it shouldn't be a market, it shouldn't be a platform to showcase talent. It shouldn't be a place for worldliness. It shouldn't be a place for corruption. He said, my house will be a house of prayer. Watch. And if a house is a house of prayer, he said every church, every gathering, his house where people are should be a placement that they prioritize God. They are dependent on God so that everything flows out of the dependence man. Community flows out of prayer and worship flows out of prayer and proclamation flows out of prayer and outreach flows out of prayer. We are praying and being intimate and everything is flowing out of that. So ministry flows out of intimacy with God. He said his house will be a house of prayer. Not a house of commerce, not a house of corruption, not a house to showcase talent, a house of prayer. And what Jesus does here in this second act in the city watch. He reminds everybody in Jerusalem that God's house will be a house of intimacy with him through prayer. That's just like wife watch. This fall, while we're going to remind the whole city of Atlanta that God's house is going to be a house of prayer when we take over State Farm arena for access Watch. I said in October of this year we gonna take over State Farm arena for prayer. You ain't heard me. 20,000 of us local discip digital disciples packed in to State Farm arena crying out to God in prayer, crying out for our families, crying out for the nations, crying out for souls, crying out for the world. Watch. And when we take over that arena, we ain't taking over that arena with no celebrities on the platform. The only celebrity that's going to be on the platform that day is going to be the Lord Jesus. Now just imagine what's going to happen in October this year when 20,000 digital disciples and local disciples are pound in heaven all at the same time. Signs Wonders, miracles, healing. The city is going to shift in the name of Jesus. Somebody give him praise in this house right now. Hallelujah. They could keep talking junk all they want. We're going to be serious about the Lord's business. October this year, 20,000 of US State Farm arena for access. As we cry out to the God who has never let us down, the God who has never failed, the God that hears our prayers, the God that moves on our behalf, the God that performs miracles. They gonna remember the day a church took over arena for nothing else except pray. Get a venue, put a celebrity on a platform. Everybody come get a venue. Put a worship artist on the platform. Everybody come call a prayer gathering. We're going to remind the whole city this is what the Lord intended for his house, that his house would be a house. Somebody shout prayer. Somebody give him praise right there.
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Coming for the Ben Stadium next year in Jesus name.
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I said we. Coming for the Ben Stadium next year in Jesus name. Call God's people back to what the house is supposed to be. Wait till you sit in a room.
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With 20,000 people crying out to the.
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Lord Jesus, my Maranatha, come quickly, Lord. Marriage is going to be restored. Sick bodies going to be healed. Cancer going to run out of that room. Demons are going to tremble. Principalities are going to get nervous. Eyes are going to be open, people are going to prophesy. Fire will be sent to the hearts of men. Somebody shout fire.
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Verse 14. And the blind and the lame, they came to him in the temple and he healed them. That's powerful, because in the first century, the sick couldn't come into the temple like that. But Jesus breaks tradition. And now because he's present in the temple, they come to him. So you see that there is a purging, and then there is presence, and then there is power and people are healed.
- [44:01]
B
There is a purging of the temple. There is the presence of Christ in the temple, there is power in the temple, and then people are healed. That transformation happens after purging, after presence, then there is power. Sometimes we don't have power because we don't have presence. And we don't have presence because we don't have no purging. If we would have holiness, we would have presence, and if we had presence, we would have power. And he heals them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple, hosanna. Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. Why were they mad? What did Jesus do that deserved for them to be indignant? Matthew said he did wonderful things. What he do? He purged the temple, he preached the Scriptures, he healed the sick, he got rid of corruption. Those are wonderful things. And they're mad at him for doing these wonderful things. Is Christ a problem or is envy the problem? Is Christ the problem are these blind people. The problem that the only blind people was not the people Jesus healed. These men were blind too, that they couldn't see the Son of God. And notice they said the children was crying, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna. To the Son of David, which is a messianic term, to the Son of God. How would they know that? As children, they heard just the day before a crowd, and their parents, when they saw Jesus yelling, hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. It's so powerful. Don't read over that in the text. Why? Because children don't only do what you tell them to do. They do what they see you doing. So you can't be mad. When our children are crazy and they never see you read, they never see you pray, they never see you come to church and you're wondering why your children are crazy. But, man, when they see you reading and when they see you praying and when you're bringing them to church, then you have a teenager later on a life that says, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna. And they said to him, do you hear what these are saying?
- [46:36]
A
Talking about the little children?
- [46:38]
B
The question means, tell them to shut up. Don't let these children worship you. You're just a man.
- [46:44]
A
You're just a Jew.
- [46:44]
B
How dare you let these little children.
- [46:46]
A
Call you the Son of God.
- [46:47]
B
The question is trying to imply, shut these little children up. How does the Lord respond? And Jesus said to them, have you never read? Always correct them.
- [46:57]
A
With the word of God.
- [46:58]
B
Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise. Watch that if prideful adults won't praise him, the Lord will get his praise in the earth. Either rocks are gonna cry out or children gonna cry out, but either way, he is gonna get his praise in the earth. So we will not shut up these children. He will hijack the mouth of a little child just to give him. And leaving them the last verse, he went out of the city to Bethany and he lodged there. So powerful that we see the Lord left. That site teaches us that you got to know when to rebuke a hater and when to ignore a hater, when to engage in a battle and when to walk away from a battle. And I just want to call you, man to the heart of the text. Hear me, man, that the Lord sees the debauchery and the sinfulness and the brokenness of his house and he's moved to do something about it, man. He's moved with disruptive action. And then should we not the body, be moved just the same when we see the blasphemy of Christ and the foolishness in the church, should we not be moved just the same to do something about it? Should we not have disappointed disruptive prayers and disruptive posts and disruptive proclamation against the foolishness that is corrupting the church? If the people of God don't have broken hearts for the state of the church, especially in the west, man, who's going to cry out? Who's going to proclaim? Who's going to post? Who's going to stand? What is your podcast going to be worth if you're afraid to take a stand for Christ? What is your book worth if you're afraid to take a stand for Christ? What is your social media following worth in the afterlife if you're afraid to make a post about Christ? What is our proclamation worth if we're afraid to preach about Christ? Man, do you know how powerful you are? You know how anointed you are, man? You have the spirit of God on the inside of you. You are the body of Christ, man. Man, the Lord's fire is in you. His heart is in you, man, we gotta be the ones to raise up a standard against the foolishness in the American church. Who you waiting for? Ain't nobody coming behind us. And that's my prayer for you, is that we will stop being cowards, your Christianity will stop being boring. And that you would have a fire in you, that you'll be thumbing through social media and be grieved. You'll be on social media and you cry, you pray with intensity. You post with intensity, you preach with intensity. You do podcasts with intensity, man. You teach your children with intensity, man. You hold down the line for the Lord Jesus Christ. We need believers with disruptive action all throughout the culture, on campus, in locker rooms, on football fields and basketball courts. We need believers everywhere in society who got disruptive action against the foolishness. That is a blasphemous thing against the Lord Jesus, man. If we go downstream with culture, God helps society. At some point in time, enough people got to wake up and turn their back on this foolishness, man, and raise a standard for the Lord Jesus Christ. Let it be said of 2819 that we was a church of disruptive culture. And so, Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray that you would burn the lips of your sons and daughters. You would burn the hearts of your sons and daughters. You would deliver us from being handcuffed to people addiction and people pleasing. You would help us to see that time is running out. I pray we will be like the sons of Issachar that rightly discern the times and we knew what to do about it. I pray you set fire to our fingers and fire to our knees and fire to our proclamation that we will be a people that is full of your fire, your love and your hatred. And we will respond to foolishness in the culture with disruptive action, disruptive prayers, disruptive posts. We'll take a stand for you. Burn your sons and daughters. Shake us right now. I pray this over the church that you have response that you have given me that I'm responsible for. I pray this over the church in America. I ask this in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If anybody receives that, would you shout.
- [52:01]
A
Amen and put your hands together?