From the Rooftops

Get them out. If you don't have your Bible, bring your Bible to church. Keep it, give it away. I don't know. You need to be using God's Word and be sharing God's Word.

And that's where we're going to be this morning. Matthew 10, beginning in verse 27. And what we're sharing this morning with our work. Matthew 10, beginning in verse 27.

And I'm going to ask if you found that. I'm going to ask if you would stand, if you're able, as we read through verse 39. This is what Jesus shared.

What I tell you in darkness, that's. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul.

And shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are numbered. Fear you not, therefore. You are of more, I confess also before my Father, which is in heaven.

But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I on earth deny. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man up and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of the cross. And follows after me is not worthy of me. For my sake shall find it.

Let's bow our heads as we pray together. Lord, just pray that it would work within each one of our hearts and minds today. I pray that we would be at meals or whatever it is that we think about.

But I pray we'd spend this time focused on you as to use it, to live it out in a way that is pleasing to you. So speak to our seat this morning. All right.

I'm going to go around and I'm going to stomp on all your toes. I got my boots on. Some of you ladies, we need it from time to time. I mean, does anybody ever want their toes to be stepped on?

Is that because it can be painful? It can be something we don't really want to happen. But as Travis said, when we think about having our toes stepped on. Correction? Is it okay if God's word hurts your feelings?

This day school this morning, they were talking about, it was in Jeremiah. And it was talking about how the prophet needs to repent. You need to change your ways. Did people want to hear it?

That's how much they did not want to hear the message. However, because the message hurt their feelings. Would that message have been good for them? Yes. So often when we look at God's word, the proof for correction, for instruction and righteousness, it says it is valuable for us.

Every word fills us with hope. It fills us with a sense of just completeness, of knowing God's love. Good. Those are good feelings. Nothing at all wrong with that. However, there are other...

Wake up. You need to change this area of your life, or you need to do better in this area. When you are talking about a wake-up call, not always a warm, fuzzy feeling.

You know, we understand. You're not making it. You need to pick it up. You need to do a better job. That doesn't matter. God's word, we often... Those kind of scriptures, we want to kind of skip over or not really think about.

It is vital that we look at it. And really, as we look at this script... And again, Jesus was talking here to His disciples, the men He had called to follow Him. And He was talking about what they needed to do.

Now, first of all, we need to establish, do you think this message was just for the 12? Was it just for those 12? No. It was for Jesus' disciples. No, it includes us.

What is a disciple? A disciple is someone who follows, someone who is learning, someone who is trying to... You are a believer. If you are a Christian, that makes you a disciple.

And say, you're a disciple. Now, tell... That last part I added in there. But you are a disciple. If you're not a believer, that means you...

The Bible says you are lost. That when you die, you will die in your sin. If you haven't accepted Jesus, make that decision today. If you have accepted Jesus, yeah, it means you're good.

It means your name's written in the book of life. But that does not mean that you're... For all disciples. And this is, as Jesus was telling His disciples, and I want you to look in the first verse, disciples to you and I, He says, what I preach you upon the housetops.

Go. Do we need more specific details in that? You know, as we look at this, there's a few things I think that we need to make sure that we understand about this. First of all, that's what this is, right?

Word of God. What God says, not... Finish this sentence. We need to make sure that what we're sharing is... Do you know what that is? It's an opinion. Raise your hand if you have opinions.

Stop going there. Stop. I just... It was not... We're going to talk about the weather. You got an opinion. And we think with our opinion, aren't you always right?

And mine aren't always right either. That's why Jesus, about anything else, He says, what I tell you, God, the teachings of God, what I tell you, speak...

Light. What does that mean? Tell the truth. Be honest. It's not being kept secret. It's out there for everyone to see.

The message, His words for the world are windows and lock the door and put things on the windows so nobody can see what God's word and God's word is for who? It's for this... Everybody know it. That is what you hear in the ear.

In other words, Christ is saying, I'm going to ask you what the ears. Don't be ashamed because your voice... House tops are singing.

House tops are singing. You know, this week, we're talking about things that sometimes preach on the housetops. All of us. And you know, we do as we live in today.

What does it look like? That's not common for us. But... Access it. So you can get up there. Often people would get up there to make announcements so that everybody could see them, so that everybody could draw their attention, so they could hear what was being said.

We still do that same thing to an extent today, don't we? Don't we? Why am I taller than you right now other than you're sitting down?

All right. So if this was our Sunday experience all the time...

Can you turn the microphone off for a minute, Chris? Uh-oh. I'm sure...

I mean, I'm higher than you for a reason. You can see me, right? You more easily can hear what I... We have a sound system. What if I... What if I did this?

I mean, can you see me better? Can you hear me better? Yeah. Now this would be a little odd, but it's the point that's being made. Preach on the housetop. He's saying, don't be afraid of being seen.

Don't... We're afraid of the message in an age, and it was the same then, that people need to hear the message that we have. Period. They need to hear it. Does that mean they're always going to lie?

No. No. No on your toe moment. But do you want an answer to this question, but I want you thinking about it. Are you preaching it from the housetop in your life? Are you showing it? Are you standing out?

That's the question. Are we preaching it from the housetops? Are you preaching it from the housetops? That's the better question. Am I preaching it from the housetop? Jesus then answers the question of why we often don't do that.

Because sometimes we don't. Sometimes we fail to preach it from the housetop. After telling them to do this is he addresses fear. Fear, folks, is the primary reason we do not preach God's word from the housetop.

Fear of what? Whether it'll be accepted. Fear of what other people think. Some countries have a legitimate fear. Fear of what your friends and neighbors will think.

Maybe that you're one of these religious fanatics. Fear is a powerful thing. And I think that's why Jesus addresses it. And he says, fear not them which kill the body, but are...

All right. Let's look at it. Fear not them which... They can. Whatever form of weapon you want to choose, they can kill the body.

But what does he say? Don't fear them. They can only do something to you that's temporary. You realize that? That's what it's saying. We think that being killed is permanent. We say instead, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body and health.

Heaven or sons to hell according to whether we have Jesus Christ in our heart. It says that he's the one that we should fear. Shivering and quaking because God loves us. It means...

In your life, the only opinion that should really matter isn't somebody else. Whoever. The only opinion that should matter in your life is God's.

And who is the one that's going to judge you? God. John's funeral service before we left, my mom's younger brother. And actually, it seems like he had a thing written in one of his diaries of his experience accepting the Lord.

And I pray his funeral service. You know the only thing that really mattered at that point in time? It's the only thing. God's is the opinion that matters.

Preaching it on the housetop. His is the opinion matters. Do we ever make excuses for things? Preacher, if you don't know that, she's taught high school for 30 years.

You ever get excuses when kids don't have their homework done? Just once or twice. How many of you have given an excuse? Remember back when you were in school, how many of you gave an excuse when your homework wasn't done? Quick to give excuses.

And I could highlight a dozen other areas not just in school but out of school. The Bible actually tells us that perfect love casts us out fear. It's not given us a spirit of fear but power, love, and a sound mind.

So when fear stops you from preaching on the house to us from doing what God wants us to do, the devil wins. There's some motivation after this. Before we get into this verse, there are a couple or we can be motivated by rewards.

God knows this. Even in the book of Jude, that's the consequence for them to accept Jesus Christ, that fear. Because the pastor talked about hell.

Yes! It motivates understanding the consequence. We use that all the time in life. Get back on that chair or you're going to... The other way that we can be motivated is in Jude it says save some by fear.

You accept Jesus Christ. Your name is written in the book of life. So either a consequence or a reward whosoever shall deny me before men. This is the comment before men. Deny.

Is that a frightening consequence? It also. And Jesus says make sure we're not denying Him that we're sharing Him. Here's the reward. Confessing Jesus Christ before men.

Him will I confess. That's getting to heaven. You're in front of God. What list is it? Okay, let's all look at each other and share all our sins. But... Yeah, I...

Separated from us is... Consequences. From the housetops. How much of a priority. And that's something that Christ uses is...

Family. How important is family? And I just... There are 16 of us there. I loved it. We call it beautiful chaos which is exactly what it is.

But I love it. But I need to love that less than my God. That needs to come in second. Because look at the words that He shares.

He says in verse 34, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword. In other words, some time a variance against God will cut. The father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

Now that's not God's desire. But He's saying sometimes that may happen. Why may it happen? Because your own family might not like the message that you have.

Your own family might not like this whole God and Jesus thing in your life. But if it comes to me, He that loves father or mother more than me, this is hard, is not worthy of me.

And He that loves son or daughter, and this is even harder, more than me, man, that's big, isn't it? To the moon. That's big.

But Jesus is saying I need to come before that. And it makes sense. Who gave us our sons and daughters? God gave them to us in the first place. It needs to come first.

And Jesus knew, He later on, He told His disciples, go share this with my people, with the people of Israel, with the Jewish people. And you know what? As many Jewish people accepted their faith as Christ, many times.

They disagreed. Yeah, they disagreed. And guess what? Disagreement then meant you were shunned. You were pushed out of the community. You may lose your livelihood. You may lose your...

If it comes, you may lose your... You need to choose me. Is that hard? You bet.

You bet. Folks, have never said that Jesus in your heart, He forgives your sins. That part is not complicated. It's simple. But being a disciple is not easy.

Jesus... Anywhere? A matter of fact, He closed... Well, the last verse that I read, verse 38, He shares more after that. But look at verse 38.

He's talking about taking your cross. Is a cross an easy thing? No. No. He isn't saying people may make fun of you. They may make fun of you. They may think you're off your rocker.

But what are you going to choose? What are you going to... All of our toes stopped on this morning. Because no matter how much you're doing, you know what the reality is? This morning, the question I really hope that we think about, are you preaching it from the rooftop in your life?

Have other people stopped you? Here's the message, and it's not complicated. Preach it from the rooftop. It means who will house and see you up on your roof reading the Bible.

Not what it means. It means if there's somebody, a neighbor that you've not talked with but it's crossed your mind before, say something to them, go say something to them.

They may look at you like... Whose opinion matters more? Theirs are God's. God's. Share. No matter how old you are. If you're in junior high, share.

If you're in high school, share. If you're in middle age, I'll put myself in that group. As long as I live to be 112, I'm middle age. If you're middle age, share.

If you're in the elderly category, who I'm not going to say who is and who isn't, let's be faithful in doing what God wants us to do and share His Word. His Word is what this world needs.

I pray, Lord, that not one word that's been shared from your Bible goes in one ear and out the other but it's thinnest and we just can't let go of it. That it convicts us, that it pushes us, that it's not.

But, Lord, I pray we're faithful in doing it because, Lord, we're talking about life and death. We're talking about the gospel message of Jesus Christ, a message that is full of hope. Amen.

Amen.