05-19-24 The Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers

Okay, this is Disciples Ignited Bible Study, and it is May the 19th, Sunday, and we are studying from Jack Hayford's book, His Name is Jesus, and we are on page 111, but go down to where it says, The Peril of the Wicked Vinedresser. That's where we're starting. Okay. Towards the bottom of 111. Alright. Now we have already studied, this is, Jesus has cleansed the temple for the second time, and then we have gone into three very powerful parables, and we've already studied the first one, the parable of the two sons, and now we're into the second one, the parable of the wicked vinedressers, and that's where we will begin. So, the book says, Jesus tells this parable to the people, starting at Luke 20, verse 9, about their religious leaders, Matthew 21, 45. He exposes their attitude as that of an unwillingness to be accountable to the Lord God, not unlike Judah, similarly represented in Isaiah, chapter 5, verses 1-7. So, let's go back and read those verses. So, Jesus tells this parable to the people. Carol, why don't you read Luke 20, verse 9. Okay. He went on to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers, and went away for a long time. And this is really pointed to the religious leader. So, Jerry, why don't you read Matthew 21, verse 45. Right. So, it's kind of obvious that they know that Jesus is speaking to them. Okay. And it said, not unlike Judah, represented in Isaiah 5, 1-7. Are you going to read that? I can read that, which is the song of the vineyard. I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but he yielded only bad fruit. Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. I will take away its hedge and it will be destroyed. I will bring down its wall and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briars and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. We're supposed to stop and read Matthew 21, 33-46. So basically we're covering now the teaching that Jesus did in the last week of his life before leading up to the cross. Matthew 21, 33-46. Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed one, and stoned a third. Then he sent out other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. They will respect my son, he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, this is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance. So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Jerry, why don't you take the rest of it? The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to the people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. Anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. Let's stop there for just a second. The very fact that the Pharisees and the chief priests knew that Jesus was talking about them, what should their response have been? To totally repent? To ask for forgiveness? No, no, no, no. But their response was, get rid of him. Just get rid of him. But they were even willing to kill him, which would have been against God's law, but yet they're justifying themselves because Jesus is rocking the boat. Is not Jesus calling us as a people to repent? Is he not calling us to get our act together and come to him and begin to serve him as he desires to be served? But yet, if we're not responding with repentance, then we're really missing the boat just like they did. Well, that's happening right now because the Lord said prophetically through some prophets, but it's also biblical right here that if you don't change, he's going to reveal things. He's going to overturn things. We've heard overturned stones and the Lord is doing that right now more and more. It's like every week you're hearing of more ministers, even in spirit-filled churches that are into stuff they shouldn't be into and they're being exposed. And that's what the Lord said he was going to do. He was going to expose. So these guys are being exposed and they're fighting it. What about the people today in our day, the ministers that are being exposed? I just read a prophecy from somebody else that's very reliable that said that more of this, we're going to continue seeing more and more of this. And that we can't get discouraged because the Lord is going to have the final say. That's not good. That's not good PR. No, but that takes us back then to what the Lord told us at the beginning of the year. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith upon the earth? If you have put your faith in people, if you have put your faith in people, if you have put your faith in even leaders, then when they fall, if they fall, then will you stand? So many people do not because of their faith. Will your faith stand if those you have put your faith in begin to crumble? I've found, speaking of people, that their faith is not standing. If they were on the borderline, this is just not good for them. Well, one of those prophecies said that the Lord was cleaning his house, getting things out of the way, but that's what's happening. I know, of course, people that are not believers in the Lord, or they were, and they're wavering because of all these things you're saying, but what did Jesus do right here in this instant? He exposed where the religious leaders were at right in front of their people, and he wasn't worried about it because he was there standing at the truth. I believe that after this cleansing of the house comes, the Lord says that he's going to send his glory, and then people who really want him are going to come back, I believe. So, I think it's similar to what we're... Oh, they will. The Lord's promised that they will. Cleaning houses has never been easy. When Jesus cleansed the temple, it was very chaotic, but yet he was sending a message. But the very fact that he had to do it again at the end of his ministry just shows that people are like, we're going to build it back, bigger and better. But there is no building back anything bigger and better without Jesus. If he's not building what you're doing, then it's going to collapse, and he is going to remove it. Just a reminder, the Lord showed me at the end of last year that he is going to overturn the money changers tables, and I knew that that meant that he is going to turn the finances of the world upside down. It is going to be very chaotic, but yet this is the Lord's hand. It's not the enemy doing this. It is the Lord doing this. But why? It is so that we will begin to focus on him and put our faith in him instead of building our own thing. So, we have read Matthew 21, 33 through 46, and the book says, note the following, What does the landowner do when he has completed preparing his vineyard? Verse 33, why don't you read that, Matthew 21, 33. Let's see, he put a wall around it, dug a wine precedent and built an orchard. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place, so he rented it. Okay, absentee landlords were common in first century Palestine. The unspoken allusion to Isaiah 5 makes the landowner a God figure working through intermediaries like the Old Testament prophets, which Isaiah chapter 5, we read earlier, verses 1 through 7, which is really the parable that Isaiah has prophesied that Jesus is piggybacking off of. Now, how are the intermediaries treated by the vine dressers? Jerry, why don't you read Matthew 21, verses 34 through 36. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect the fruits. The tenants seized his servants, they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. They will respect my son, he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, this is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance. So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with those tenants? He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, they replied, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures, the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. How has this played out in history? Up to the time of Jesus when he's teaching this parable, how has that been played out in Judaic history? The Lord would bless them, and then they would turn away from the Lord. And they even killed his prophets when they came to tell him, hey, you're doing wrong, you need to turn back to the Lord. Okay, so he said in the parable that he sent serpents to get the fruits, and then that they, let's see, they beat one. Beat them. Okay, so who would that be likened to? People that were really preaching the word, people that were trying to bring Judah back to the Lord. They would be rejected, and then some, some he would beat, others would be killed. Who were killed? Well, Jeremiah was thrown down into a pit, and he would have died if it hadn't been for somebody that, you know, got him out. What other prophets did they kill? Is that what you're trying to say? Well, no, not specifically, but just that they did beat the prophets, they would persecute them, they would reject them, and then they would even kill them. Jesus mentions this when he teaches us the Lord's Prayer, where he said, listen, if they're coming against you, if they're persecuting you, they're just treating you just like they have the prophets of old. So they beat, they killed, and then they stoned to death. So he's just playing kind of a, giving them an illustration of their history. And this is how you've always treated those who have tried to bring you back, you know, to the Lord. Now, how did the wine dressers treat the son? Verses 37 through 39, which you just read, Jeremiah. How did they treat the son? 37. 37 through 39. Last of all, he sent his son. He said, they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, this is the heir, come, let's kill him and take his inheritance. So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. That doesn't even make sense. Why would you want to kill the son of the person that owns the property? They wanted to take his inheritance. And how did the Pharisees and the chief priests, how did they respond? They wanted to kill Jesus. Yeah, but they gave the answer though. Jesus asked them, what will they do to these people? And he said, he's going to come and kill them and give it over to others. So I mean, they gave the answer themselves, their very selves. Yeah. You know, so they really incriminated themselves. And they knew that that's who he was talking about. Okay, so Carol, why don't you respond to verses 40 through 41. You're asking, what are the results of the final rejection? Okay, so Jesus asked, and these were the Pharisees and Sadducees that answered. He will bring those wretches to a wretched inn and he'll rent the vineyard to other tenants who give him a share of the crop at harvest time. And it's saying, so he had no choice but to kill them, kill these bad guys. And he gave it over to others. Okay, so who is this parable given to? Who is Jesus pointing this parable to? The Pharisees and Sadducees. And the people in general. He's speaking to Israel. Right, he's speaking to his people that are called by his name. So he's not really addressing the Gentiles until the end. And that brings us to verse 43. Why don't you read verse 43, Matthew 21, verse 43, Jerry. Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. So who is he talking about? The Gentiles. He is going to take that which has been given to his people and he's going to take it away from them and give it to the Gentiles. How has this been played out, Carol? Well, it played out in the book of Acts. In the beginning, those who received the baptism of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, in the beginning just went to other Jewish people, bringing them to the Lord. But then eventually the Lord let them know, no, I want you to go out to the Gentiles. He did that with Peter and Cornelius. But then he saved Paul, who was the Jew of all Jews, but told him he wasn't going to be called to his people. He was going to be called to the Gentiles. And sure enough, Paul went all over the Gentile world at that time that they were aware of where the Lord led him. And he brought many Gentiles into the kingdom. And the focus of the church shifted from Jerusalem over to Antioch. Now, this was something that took place over many years. It wasn't overnight. But yet, Paul does deal with this in his letter to the Romans, where we see that the main focus of the Lord trying to bring his people to himself, they have continuously rejected him, killed his prophets, and even killed his son. And so he says, all right, I'm going to take that which I have done in sending all my prophets to you. I'm now going to turn my focus to the Gentiles. And so that's exactly what happened over a series of many years, but especially using Paul, who he called an apostle to the Gentiles. And Paul was used in dramatic ways, really, to turn the focus to that which was the New Covenant, to the New Covenant. Now, in Romans, he does tell God's wisdom in doing this, that this was going to make the Jews jealous and that they were going to turn back to the Lord in Mass. And so we were going to have now not only a Mass of Gentile believers, but we were going to have Israel return to the Lord. And what's God going to do? He's not going to have two different churches. He's going to have one church, which is the body of Christ, and they are going to be joined together as one in Jesus. And then Jesus prophesied to them the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So the Lord took everything away from them and scattered them again. He took the temple away from them. He took their capital city of Jerusalem away from them. And unfortunately, they got scattered all over until they finally came back. You know, there's always been some Jews in the Middle East, but the majority were not. They finally came back in 1948 and became a nation again. So let's look at this, though, in light of this is a parable. This is an illustration that Jesus is giving, but it's a prophetic parable. It's a prophetic illustration. Prophecies very rarely just happen overnight. They usually are played out over hundreds of years. It could be hundreds of years. And that's exactly what took place in this case. The Lord switched his attention to the Gentiles, bringing the Gentiles, the age of the Gentiles, many people call it. So, nowhere in the synoptics do we find a religious leader saying, Jesus is the Messiah. Come, let's kill God's Son. Their actions were equivalent to this, however, bringing upon themselves God's wrath and the transference of their leadership to others. So, Carol, why don't you read Matthew 16, 21, talking about this transference of leadership. Jerry, why don't you read after Carol, read Matthew 17, verse 23, and then I'll read Romans 11, 17 through 22. Okay, so Matthew 16, 21. Yep. From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Okay, Jerry, what about Matthew 17, 23? Matthew 17. Let me get to Matthew 17, 23. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life, and the disciples will be filled with grief. And then Paul later wrote to the Romans in Romans chapter 11, verses 17 through 22. If some of the branches had been broken off and you, though a wild olive shoot, speaking of the Gentiles, had been grafted in among the others and now sharing the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this. You do not support the root, but the root supports you. Who is the root? Israel. Israel, yeah. Israel. The root is Jesus. The root out of dry ground. So Jesus is the root. Jesus is supporting you. He supported Israel, but now you've been grafted in and the root is supporting you. So you're not all that. You weren't grafted in because you were all that. So the root supports you. You will save them. Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in. Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief. And you stand by faith. So that's the key. We weren't grafted in because of our righteousness any more than they were part of the root because of their righteousness. So it's all by faith. They were pruned off because of unbelief. We were grafted in because of faith. So do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you. Ho! He will not spare you either. Y'all, somebody needs to preach on that. If He did not spare the natural branches, speaking of Israel, then He's not going to spare the Gentiles either because it is all based on what? Faith in Jesus. Consider, therefore, the kindness and sternness of God. Sternness to those who fail, but kindness to you provided that you continue in His kindness. How do we continue in His kindness? Faith. Faith in Jesus. Otherwise you will be cut off. Boy, what a passage. Alright, Carol, why don't you take, had you never read in the Scriptures? I'm not understanding. How does Jesus support their self-condemning conclusion? Is that what you mean? Well, that's fine. Verse 42. Okay. And we were in Matthew what? 21. Okay. Going back into Matthew. Matthew 21, 42. Okay. Okay. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the Scriptures? The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done it and it's marvelous in our eyes. I mean, He is directing them back to Scripture. Oh, that's wonderful. Okay. So, have you never read in the Scriptures? Jesus said. Is Jesus' way of saying the Old Testament point to Him? Matthew 12, 3. And Jerry, why don't you get Matthew 19, 4. I'll read 12, 3. He answered. Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? What does Matthew 19, 4 say? Haven't you read, He replied, that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female. So, what's He doing in both cases? He's always pointing us back to what Scripture has said about Him. Now, the quote is from Psalm 118, verses 22 through 23. Carol, why don't you read that out. Okay. This is what Jesus is saying about the stone has become the cornerstone. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this and it's marvelous in our eyes. So, it's directly quoting from that. Yeah, from Psalm 118, verses 22 through 23. So, Jesus stands not only in God's premier place, but He is also identified in this parable in Matthew 21, 42. Jesus says to them, Have you never read in the Scriptures? Which was Psalms. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes. So, He is pointing. The cornerstone. He is the cornerstone. And He is saying, Listen, the Scriptures are pointing to Me. And y'all, He is speaking to Israel, but who is really listening here? The Pharisees and the chief priests. He says, The Scriptures whom you study all day long, the Scriptures are pointing to Me. Then in verse 44, Anyone who falls from the stone will be broken to pieces. Anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. Now, let's talk about those two verses. Verses 42 and 44, which talk about the stone coming and breaking people or tripping people or killing them. Or crushing them. This is taken from another Old Testament passage. Isaiah 8, verses 14 and 15. And Daniel 2, verses 34 and 44 through 45. So, I have Isaiah 8. Okay, Carol, why don't you read Isaiah 8, verses 14 and 15. He will be a holy place for both Israel and Judah. He will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem, He will be a trap and a snare. Many of them will stumble, they will fall and be broken. They will be snared and captured. Alright, now, so what is Jesus doing? Jesus is taking portions of Scripture. Some from Isaiah and now He's going to take some from Daniel. And He's bringing them together and He's also alluding to the Psalms. He's bringing them together in this parable. Saying, Listen, y'all. All of Scripture is speaking about Me. This is all pointing to Me. Now, Jerry, why don't you read Daniel 2, verses 34. And then I'll take verses 44 and 45. So, you do Daniel 2, verses 34. Daniel 2, verses 34. Yeah, Daniel 2, verses 34. Daniel 2, verses 34. Daniel 2, verses 34. While you were watching, a rock was cut out. But not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. And then, going down to 44 and 45, Daniel wrote, In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end. But it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of a rock cut out of a mountain. Not by human hands. A rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and His interpretation is trustworthy. So, this is so interesting, y'all. Way back in Daniel's day, hundreds of years before Jesus came to the earth as a man. This image of the Messiah being a stone that's going to cause people to stumble. It's going to crush some. It's going to destroy even nations. So, we see Jesus as this awesome rock that Daniel sees and envisions is going to endure forever. That's our Jesus. But now He's standing before the people, teaching this parable. He's teaching it to the Pharisees and the chief priests. And they want to really be the ones to get rid of Him. And so, they are really fulfilling this prophecy in their demented response. So, Leon Morris explains the meaning of Isaiah and of Daniel's prophecies. To fall on the stone or have the stone fall on them, in either case, means destruction. People may reject and oppose Jesus, but it is they, not He, who are going to suffer. The second part of the saying will refer to the future judgment. It will be their attitude to Jesus that will mean the final destruction of the people of His day. So, to reject the stone, whether you stumble, whether you trip, whether you are broken, it still speaks of destruction. So, the stone is not going to be destroyed, but those who reject it will be. Any comments, Carol? Well, I'm just thinking about how scary it would be to be them. But it just shows you how strong religious spirits are. Religious spirits are so blinding. I mean, they honestly thought they were God's children. They were sons of Abraham. That's what they kept saying. And so, when Jesus told them, no, their father was the devil, of course, they were very angry. But they were blinded, except for Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They were the only two that we read of in the scriptures that had a hunger and saw that, no, no, no, Jesus, He's got something here. I need to find out what it's about. So, Jerry, even the people that might be being discouraged, maybe they never really were followers anyway. But I believe that when Jesus really does come on the scene again with a great move of God, that the people are really hungry. They're going to see. Joseph did, and so did Nicodemus. But it's just scary to think that they could have the Son of God right in front of them, telling them the truth, and their religiousness just blinded them to it. It even made them angry enough to want to kill Him, just like He said in the parable. The stone is going to do three things. What were those three things? Stumble, fall, and crush. When you contact people, some people are going to stumble. Some are going to fall. Some are going to get crushed. And some are going to be totally crushed. Do we have to stumble? I don't believe that we have to, but it seems like we are constantly. We're stumbling over Jesus with not understanding, what are you doing? I believe we can tie that in to when Jesus comes, when the Son of Man comes to the earth, is He going to find faith upon the earth? Have we truly trusted in Him? Others are going to fall. Do we have to fall? I don't believe that we don't have to, but what is going to keep us from being tripped up? Faith. If we trust Him. What is going to keep us from totally falling? Trusting. Faith. But if we do fall, at least we can repent and get back to where we need to be. If we haven't been crushed. I think it's kind of the final one, that's it. I would say this. Do we have to be tripped up? No. But are we tripped up? Yes. Why? Because of the lack of faith, the lack of trust. Do we have to totally fall? No. But do we sometimes? Yes. Why? Because of a lack of trust, a lack of faith. Do we have to be totally destroyed? Absolutely not, but some will be. Even nations will be because they came against the stone of God, which is God's cornerstone. But yet, it's all really a response of doubt. It is a response of not trusting the Lord. So that to me, even brings the need for faith in these days that we're living in just so much more to the forefront. We must respond to Jesus. Is Jesus in control? Is Jesus the stone? Yes. Is the rock in control? Yes. Is Jesus in control? Mm-hmm. Is Jesus the stone that God has sent? That is going to cause some people to stumble, some people to fall, some people to totally be destroyed. Is he the stone that God has sent? Yes. So how must we respond to Jesus the stone? We must respond with trust. And we've got to remember the word says faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus and get in this book. We've got to stay in the word of God because the word of God is what stirs that faith up. Now, I'm guilty of it, too. I mean, there's times when I get my eyes off of my focuses in Jesus, but it's more on the circumstances. And then you start thinking it through with your own understanding, and that doesn't help. So when that happens, I'm thinking, I need Jesus. I just got to get back in the word and worship him and pray and seek him and keep my eyes and then my eyes get off of all those bad circumstances and then he can start speaking to me and showing me things from his perspective. And that's just so refreshing and so different. Well, I think that the other need is this. The chief priests and the Pharisees, they prided themselves for seeing. And in the Gospels, it talks about there's one section where they say, we do see. We do. We're God's children. And Jesus responded, because you say that you do see, then that shows that you are blind, even really, really blind. Our response to the Lord, if we respond to the Lord, Lord, I know, I see, you know. I think that that's not necessarily the right response. I think that the proper response is to be like David that says, Lord, create in me a pure heart. Renew a steadfast spirit within me, because as Jeremiah the prophet prophesied, the heart of man is deceptively wicked. Who can know it? And so, as long as we live on this earth, we have this sinful nature to deal with. God has given us a new heart, but we still have this sinful nature also battling against this new nature that God has put within us. And Paul says that there's a conflict there. Galatians chapter 5, verses, Galatians chapter 5, I'm not sure, 16 and 17, I think. Anyway, so as they live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature, for the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you don't do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under law. So there's this constant conflict. So I think that our response in walking with Jesus is not to come before the Lord and say, I say, but Lord, show me what I don't see. Lord, and help me to really see what you want me to see and that's going to bring us to repentance. Because if we don't see, then that means that the Lord maybe hasn't shown us yet, but when he does show us, it just brings us to repentance to continue to follow him with faith. So another key is humility. We have to come before him humbly. I had that yesterday. You know, as you talk, I had that yesterday. I was very confused. Things going on. And I prayed. Jesus, show me, you know, show me. Show me the light. Show me, you know, I'm leaving it to you. I'm leaving it to you. Show me. And I swear to you, it was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, like my mind just, it was different. Completely different. Like very calm, very calm. And all morning I was a wreck. Too many things going on. I said, please Jesus, please help me. Help me. Help me. Show me. And by 4 o'clock, I was clear. My head was clear. Well, praise God. Praise God. This is, I could cry. It's beautiful. Thank God for our answer prayer. Amen. Thank God he does answer prayer. That's true, that's humility, because you needed his help. Instead of thinking, I can do this all by myself, I can't. You can't. You can't. You can't do it by yourself. You can't. That's why a lot of these Pharisees and Sadducees didn't see the truth, because they were so prideful. They found out. You really can't. Yeah. We could go on, but I think that we need to stop here. I want us to spend some time in prayer. This is such an important part in church history, where the Lord does seem to be bringing the church to the end. We know that we're in the last days. We've been in the last days for almost 2,000 years. But it seems like we're in maybe the tail end of the last days, where Jesus is bringing things to a close. The need of the hour is, you know, so many people, they think that the need of the hour is just new politicians in office. That's not the answer. We need Jesus. We need Jesus. Our need is faith as people. We need to be able to trust him, that no matter what happens, if, which I believe it is, it's not an if, but it's a when, when the tables of money are turned over globally, when everything, with a bubble burst, and everything falls apart financially, are we going to trust in the Lord? This isn't anything that nations haven't gone through. I was watching a commentary about the Great Depression and how difficult and horrendous my parents went through that. I guess you might have. I did too. Yeah. So it was a very difficult time. So it won't be anything that the nations haven't gone through before, but I think that that which the Lord is speaking of this time is going to be much more difficult than that which has been experienced in the past. So why don't we spend some time in prayer and just asking the Lord to give us grace to truly trust him, to put our faith in him. So Father, I thank you. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for your word. Thank you that you are speaking to us. And Jesus, just as you spoke this parable, Lord, in the hearing of the Pharisees and the chief priests, and their response was not one of repentance, not one of humility. It certainly was not one of faith, but it was one of self-righteousness. It was one of total blindness. Lord, I'm asking you, Lord, be merciful to us, Lord, in ways that we may be blind, in ways that we, Lord, think we see but don't see. But I pray, O God, please create in us a pure heart, renew in us a steadfast spirit. Lord, may we turn to you, Lord, with humility, with repentance. And Lord, may we, O God, receive from you, Lord, the grace that we need to truly, in times of hardship and difficulty and disillusionment, Lord, to just trust you. Lord, to trust you. Jesus, to trust you. Jesus, to trust you. Lord, for all those that are falling away from you, Lord, for leaders, Lord, that are turning their backs on you and making a big proclamation about it. Lord, and those that are falling away because of it, Lord, I'm asking you, Lord, help us, help us as your people, Lord, to stand steadfast and to put our trust in you. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Lord, we just pray that you will help us to stay humble, to keep our eyes fixed on you, and Lord, that we will stay in the word because faith comes from hearing the word of Christ, Lord. You are the walking, talking, living, breathing word of God. May we keep our eyes focused on you, and may we stir up our faith, Lord, and may we not let thoughts in our mind that exalt themselves against you. May we cast them down, Lord God, and instead focus on Jesus. Help us to keep our eyes on Jesus, the wonder and perfecter of our faith, Lord. So help us to do so. Lord, help us to resist every demonic power and temptation to try to give us a wrong heart, a wrong attitude that would cause us to stumble or fall, or certainly we don't want to be crushed, Lord. Please have mercy on us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Lord, it just came to my spirit, Lord, this parable that you taught and how you were speaking to those that loved you as well as those that were totally rejected of you and wanted to kill you. But Lord, not a one of them, I'm sure not a one of them understood that which this parable was really saying, that you were going to turn your attention to the Gentiles. Oh! Jesus! And how every one of them, Lord, would stumble over this. Lord, may whatever you have planned, oh God, for the future, if we think we understand, if we think that we got our heads wrapped around it correctly, Lord, whatever really takes place, Lord, I pray, oh God, that we will not stumble and fall and fall apart, but Lord, I am asking that we are just going to continue to put our faith in the solid rock, Jesus Christ, and that you, oh God, are going to be our cornerstone, our rock of offense, our rock of stability and strength, our rock, Lord, upon whom we can stand. Lord, as your word says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are saved. May we run to you, Lord, and put our faith in you and find safety. In Jesus' name, amen. Oh, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus, in the days ahead, Lord, when everything seems to fall apart, Jesus! May we see, Lord, that this is the large way of accomplishing His will! Hallelujah! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! I'm sorry I see you, Jesus. Do you mind if I see that little booklet that I wrote in this press? I just want to look at it one more time. Because I'm going to order it.