In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of repentance and the dangers of complacency in the Christian life. He highlights the message of John the Baptist, who called people to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The speaker warns the church to wake up from their spiritual slumber and recognize the vices that are robbing them of their inheritance. He reminds them of the consequences faced by cities that rejected repentance and urges them to continually seek God's grace and allow the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts for purification.

We're not going to speak today on the attributes of God. We're going to take a little break. Just a little thing here the Lord revealed to me I want to share with us. I believe it has vast worth to be able to share with the local church. There's two reasons that I take breaks from series like this. One reason is to give you a break from such weighty and powerful truth. And when you're talking about the sovereignty of God and the faithfulness of God, the goodness of God, we're talking about truths that are so deep and so weighty and so glorious that it's heavy, it weighs heavy on us. And also too, not only do you need a break, I need a break. And so yesterday I took, when I'm studying for these things, it can take from morning till night just to study and prayer and preparation. And it is absolutely exhausting. And those of you that don't know, I work seven days a week and don't ever get a day off. And sometimes my physical body is so fatigued I can barely, I can barely get through the day. And so sometimes it's important for me just to withdraw and to rest myself, to recover, for me to take a little break and then to re-engage. And we're going to re-engage. And when we're talking about the attributes of God, the revelation of the person of God, it's not something that can be covered in a couple of weeks. Now we taught upon, upon the importance of doctrine and it took us from March until October to get that completed. And how much more the God of the doctrine. Amen. And so how much more. And so, and again, I don't want us to become dull or to say, oh, not another one. Become weary with such wonderful truth that's been so robbed, I think, robbed from the church in the last century. So the bringing back of these glorious and imperative truths to me is just a wonderful shining glimpse of God's glory to the local church. And I see that the need of it is imperative. But today we're going to talk about something else. And I think that we're going to benefit from this. Let's pray together. Father, as we sang this morning, Lord, that you are the potter and I am the clay. And Father, I just desire that your will be done here on earth, Lord, most certainly within the body of Christ, Lord, as it is in heaven. Father, I pray that today, Lord God, that you would work the work inside of our lives and hearts. Father, that our desires, Lord, would be changed, Lord, that our desires might be overridden, Lord, and that we might begin to delight ourselves in the desires of the Lord. Father, I pray that you would give us a desire to learn. A hunger and a thirst, Lord God, for truth, a hunger and a thirst, Lord God, for the revealed word of God, a hunger and thirst, Lord God, for the powerful preaching of the gospel hunger and thirst, Lord God, to know you. And Father, give me the ability today to share from the gospel with the people that you've purchased with a very high price of your own blood. And Father, we give you praise in Jesus name. Amen. We all know these two scriptures, three actually, so well. But I want to talk to them today and teach these in context with the flow in which they were given and written and which I've not seen until last week. And I've preached and taught upon these truths for nearly 20 years, not seeing the rhythm in which they were given. In verse 28, Jesus says this. Come to me, all of you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. These are three very powerful and yet significant truths that are spoken that are a great comfort to the to the child of God, great comfort to those who have been calling of darkness into the glorious light of this gospel dispensation of the new of the new birth. But in reading these and in preaching these for nearly 20 years, I've not seen these in light of. Of the flow in which they were given, the purpose in which they were given. And for us to see that, we have to go back to the beginnings of the of the passages in this chapter and to see the theme is a theme of repentance. And then we see Jesus talking about John the Baptist, whose message was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And we also see Jesus talking about cities that great works and mighty manifestations of his of his miracle, working power and his grace that were manifest within that rejected repentance and continued as they've always continued. And so within that paradigm of light, I want us to read back in verse 20. The word of God says that he began to rebuke the cities. In which most of his mighty works had been done, had been done because they did not repent. And then it goes in verse 21, he says, Whoa, under you, Chorazin, whoa, to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works which were done and you had been done entire and sitting, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and in ashes. Of course, you know, we can read and shallowly skim the surface of that passage in verse 21 and miss the whole thesis of it. But you must understand that tire and sit in were two of the most corrupt and wicked cities that were known. In fact, if any self-respecting Jew would have stepped foot on those grounds, they would have been absolutely disconnected as it might be from the acceptance of their brethren to vile cities. And it's talking about, well, unto you, Chorazin and Bethsaida. It says worth the mighty works which were done in you had been done entire and city, and they would have repented. We're talking about about two cities that were very unrepentant. But yet not having received the gospel grace that was received by the two former cities that were mentioned. He says, I say to you in verse 22, it will be more tolerable for you entire and city and in the day of judgment than for you and you can pernium who are exalted to heaven. You'll be brought down to Hades for the mighty works which were done and you had been done in Sodom. It would have remained even unto this day. Of course, you can understand something Jesus called several of the disciples out of Capernaum. You talk about a manifestation of light and truth and grace. Capernaum was a city to where Christ came and spoke and preached and even called out from among them those that he had closest to even to his own side. He says that Sodom in the day of judgment is going to be better off than Capernaum. And it's talking about light being revealed, but light not being responded to, but the opportunity for repentance being revealed, but the opportunity being shunned. The grace of God being made known or being made revealed unto all men, but yet not all men responding. Too much is given shall also of him be much also required. What the Lord is saying is that I opened the door. I gave a revelation for the great work of a repentant heart to be wrought in you. But yet you resisted the Holy Spirit. You resisted the work of the Holy Ghost, which is to bring men unto repentance. Beloved, the chief work of the Holy Ghost in this hour is to convict the world of sin, to convince of sin and righteousness and judgment that is to come. Beloved, that is the chief end of the Holy Ghost of God is to convince, to convict. But yet the Holy Spirit was at work revealing the lack of a heart that was stubborn and unbelief and unrepentant by nature. But yet opportunity under repentance was available. But yet they resisted great works of grace, great miracles of the favor of God was done in those in those cities. But yet it didn't bring them into a state of repentance to where they turned away from their lewd and wicked and abominable ways of life and turning unto the one that gives fresh and new life and new desires from within and a brand new beginning in Christ where we might live and walk or even live and move and have our very being in him. And what he's addressing in the following and subsequent verses is that you're still in your chains and you're still wearied by sin, even though great works and great revelation has been brought to to your awareness. You have not been brought to your knees because of it. You have the word of life, but yet you're not trembling at the word of God. You have before you the very manna that comes from heaven, but yet you count it as a common thing and not a holy as you trample upon the blood of Christ underneath your feet as as a common thing. The great revelation of the man of sorrows, the one that is acquainted with grief, a great revelation of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ has been revealed, but yet you've not been moved by it. You count it as a common thing. And you're still shackled in the very chains, in the very bondages of sin. And you've not been benefited by the great things that have been done, the great revelation of Christ, the great grace of God that's been manifest has been made available unto all men. You've not been benefited. You've not been changed. You've not been challenged. You have become and stayed as you've always been, even though Christ has come and revealed himself and exemplified greatness among you and done great miracles in spite of your undeservingness, done great things, but yet you've not been brought into repentance. And he's crying out, come unto me because they're a city, cities as it is that are still bound, that are still wearied by sin, that are still underneath the dispensation of of sin and death and law that have not yielded themselves unto the favor of the Lord, that have not yielded themselves to the dispensations of grace. And this is really a rebuke. And I've never seen it in such light. As the Lord revealed it to me this last week, come unto me, those of you that are heavy. Look at this passage here. Come unto me, all of you who labor. But this is not a labor with hands. This is a labor that is on the inward most part that leaves a person totally exhausted concerning any spiritual strength. It is the work of darkness within your members. It is something that is that is on the inside of you that leaves you with without any ability to do those things which Christ has perfect for purpose for his church. You're weary because of a chain or a yoke that is about your neck or chains about your bosom that keeps you bound in the fetters and the shackles of sin. I have come to set you free, but you would have me not. Amen. And we see the continuum. Of what he's been formally talking about in a rebuke for the unwillingness of the people to respond to the dispensations of the gospel's grace and the continuance in the hardness of heart when the Lord came to make a new heart within us. But yet we've not responded to him by faith. These cities had a witness and a revelation of the greatness of God, the power of God, the magnificent of the glory of his only begotten son that was that was manifest among them. Doing great things, healing all that are sick and oppressed of the devil because God is with him. But yet they counted it as a common thing, they counted it as only a familiar thing and not a divine or a hallowed in so much that God, by his grace, they were removed and respond and repent of their sin, repent of their idolatry, to repent of their casualness, to repent of their shallowness and to allow the God of all great dispensations of grace and power and authority to unravel them at the very core and to rebuild them in the very nurture and admonition of the Lord. Amen. Take my yoke upon me or upon you and learn. He says, take my yoke as a replacement for a yoke that is upon you that is heavier than you're able to bear. The yoke that the Lord gives us is not a yoke to where we're left without rest, but it is a yoke only by which we can enter into his rest. But he's rebuking and saying, but you would not have it. You would not have it. You would not respond. I came offering grace, but yet you chose to stay under law. You chose to resist against the work of the Holy Spirit. You've not repented and relinquished the control of your life to the sovereign that has called you by name. The one that has called you out, you've not you've not responded. The pastor was has got to do with us. This is talking about them. You know, this is a continuing plea with the people of God. He's done great things in our lives. You know what? He who trods among the seven golden candlesticks has made an awareness into our lives and our hearts of his glory, of the authenticity of his lordship, of the demonstration of his power, of the awesomeness of his splendor. But yet many of us, we've heard such powerful dissertations upon the greatness of God, upon the revelation of Jesus Christ, and we've not been moved. We're still underneath the bondages of sin. We've heard plea after plea many times. Come to me. Come to me. Jesus is all that we need. He's he's all that we need. He's everything that pertains to life and godliness. But yet we turn, we turn away many times. The Lord, our God is trying to draw us or to woo us into a deeper awareness of his greatness, his sovereignty, his omnipotence, his salvation. He's wanting to lead us into a more intimate life that is yielded more, more fully unto himself by a more deep and thorough work of repentance within us. But yet we resist and many times not even being aware of our doing or being. I think sometimes that we fall after these lies or misnomers that once we've repented, we no longer have need for repentance. But listen to me, with every new revelation, with every new outpouring of God's grace to bring us into a, a deeper awareness of his greatness and his, his majesty to where God matures us, to where we mature and grow up into him and all things that that work will never be accomplished without an equal repentance for going it. We think, Oh, those people are in a terrible predicament. The above had not yet seen that we are in this very seat of scorn as well, not seeing it because the Lord has done a work of grace in our heart, but yet wants to continue with a deeper work of grace within us that can only be accomplished by a deeper work of repentance within us. But yet we sometimes shun or turn up an ear away from, or turn our back on what God is wooing us by his Holy spirit unto to bring us under that work. And beloved, there's a responsibility it's affixed to it. And the responsibility is affixed unto us. And without that responsibility, if we don't yield to that responsibility, beloved, there's, there's the punitive side of the characteristics and attributes of God. The disciplinary side is awaiting us. I'm not saying that God's going to cast us away as, as reprobates that God is not going to strive with us any longer, but love of what we're seeing is if we're not responsive to the workings of the grace of God, that he's purposed in himself for us, if we're unresponsive as his children, if we're becoming stubborn, if we're becoming hard hearted in regard to the drawing of the wooing of the Holy spirit for the grace of God to being a deeper work in our life, beloved, there is a punitive work of grace that is awaiting us. Y'all know what the word punitive means? It's punitive. When you spank your children, punishment is the chastening or the chastisement of the Lord. Amen. And I think sometimes we read these scriptures in light. Oh, come into me. That's talking about just to those that are outside of the covenant of hope to bring them inside. The beloved is also brings us under the very light of this very spectrum to where God is dealing with our hearts as his own beloved people. And there are very, there are issues or, or, or chains that we still have in our lives and our heart that God is calling us to be delivered off that a powerful work of grace to be wrought in our heart and our life that is only to be done as we respond to him with repentance within our lives. And I sometimes that we push away when we feel the drawing of God, the conviction of the Holy ghost, that our hearts are being dealt with in a way that brings about these feelings that are not as pleasant as what we would like to feel feelings about our lives, things that God is beginning to reveal to us sins, attitudes, likes or dislikes, prejudices, things that we have that are on the inside of us that are, that are, that are keeping us from abounding and experiencing the victory or the maturity in Christ that he's called us up into himself to be in the, to receive. And God begins to deal with us by convicting us of those blockages of those idealisms that we have, those mindsets that we have, these practices that we're so often bound by and the Lord saying, no, come unto me, even to, even to us, come unto me, come unto me, because you have this heaviness about you. You have this, this unrest within you. And let me give you rest. Is it talking unto those that, that no, not of the grace of God? Yes. But it's also talking to those that are, that have experienced the grace of God, but yet sometimes beloved, we plateau, we plateau. And for us to go in, to begin to mature and to grow up into Christ with even more of an effectual burning on the inside of us, that the Holy Spirit is at work dealing with our hearts. And sometimes we become stubborn and begin to resist the will of God, begin to resist the graces that are employed on the, on the part of God for our growth, on our maturity. And because of that, we're plateaued. And the burden sometimes began to bind us once again, the heaviness begins to press down upon us once again, and the Spirit of God begins to convict us. And sometimes even the chiefest among us can become obstinate in regard to the dealings of the Holy Spirit. And we can begin to resist the will of God, resist the workings of God. And the Lord's saying, come back to me. Let me work with you in this area of your life and your heart. Surrender to me fully. The whole, look at me, friends, the whole of the Christian life, the whole sum of the Christian life is a continuum of God revealing himself and also God revealing yourself. And beloved, there's a work of grace that goes from grace to grace and from glory to glory throughout your whole life. You never come to a place to have finally arrived this side of eternity. And the Spirit of God is constantly working, preparing your heart to be chased before God, pure before God. And sometimes we are very resistant to that because we want to camp out in comfort land. We want to be like Christian and Pilgrim's Progress. There's been a small cliff upon the journey that goes up and traverses the mountain. It's a very worrisome and a very constricted and narrow path. And there's a small place aside the journey where weary, weary pilgrims can rest. And we fall asleep there and make it a monument instead of a temporal short rest and then continuing on in our journey. And we want to stay there. And sometimes the Holy Ghost, by such wonderful outpourings of grace, is awakening us and awaken us and awaken us. And we're saying, go away, I want to sleep. And the longer that we stay there, the more power we give to the enemy to bind us and to keep us from traversing the mountain to go higher and higher into more of a fullness and an awareness of the knowledge of Christ. The longer that we stay there, the longer that we sleep, the more chains that we find about us and the more abilities that we find to be removed from us, to be able to traverse those type of treacherous slopes, those intense uh degrees, the intense climb that God has before us. And sometimes God's trying to deal with our hearts and our lives because there's no way we're going to make it to the top of the mountain with the weights that we have on on top of us or within us. It talks about it in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, the weights and the sins that beset us. It's talking to the church, the Hebrew Christians, the weights that beset us, the weights that are upon us, the weights from within, the weights from without, that there's something that God has set before us that we'll not be able to overcome unless they be shed, unless they be delivered of us. He said, come unto me, come unto me, O body of Christ, come unto me, O people of God. Don't be like those that I've spoken of in the impenitent cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida. Don't be as they were. They had many great works manifest among them, but yet they never were able to come into repentance. Don't be as they were. Don't be as they were. They found the challenge too great. They found the mountain too high. They found the obstacles too numerable and they're unwilling to repent. But yet they continued in their chains. They continued in their heaviness. They continued in their, their ineffectiveness in regard to the kingdom of God. They continued to live a life of unrepentance before God. And you know what? And you see the judgments of God coming up on those cities. In fact, it began, it began to get worse and it began worse and it began worse and it began worse and it began worse and it began worse and it began worse until it came to the nucleus of the pinpoint that God said, Sodom and Gomorrah, we'll find it more tolerable on the day of judgment than you. That's scary, isn't it? You know, we all point our fingers at Sodom and Gomorrah, but Sodom and Gomorrah didn't have the light that we have. Sodom and Gomorrah didn't have a Bible. We've got the revelation of Jesus Christ, the revelation of the counsels of God, the revelation of God himself and the word of God. But are we giving ourselves to the things of this life, to the pleasures and the pursuit of the things of this world and of this life? Are we delighting ourselves in the culture? We're delighting ourselves in the pursuit of this comforts and the pleasures of man. When God's calling us on up the mountain, we have the graces available from our God, through the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for us to mature and to grow up into him, for us to traverse this pilgrim's way. But are we choosing, instead of suffering affliction with the children of God, are we choosing to entertain ourselves and to embrace ourselves and to circumference ourselves by the temporal delights and the pleasures and treasures of man and thereby forfeiting our right, forfeiting the grace of God that would draw us up into, listen, that would work in our hearts, that would make us even more presentable, the grace of God that would make us more fit for the kingdom of God. Sometimes we start strong, but in the midst of the journey that we find ourselves very weary, we start out in a run, we find ourselves soon falling into a slower gate, we soon find ourselves coming into a slow walk in these graces because we give ourselves more and more to things down at the bottom of the mountain than to the calling of Christ, which is on top of the mountain. We fix our eyes upon things below and not things above. And the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, don't you see? Don't you understand? I've done great things amongst you. I've even done great things within you. And I'm calling you to higher things. I'm calling you to higher heights. I'm calling you to more of an awareness and an intimacy with myself. Come unto me. You have become weary. You've become heavy laden with burdens. I am calling you into a rest with unity with myself. But your feet have gone back down the mountain. Your eyes are fixed lower. Your eyes are fixed downwardly, but not upwardly as they once were. And you have gone back into the chains from which you have come out. You've seen great miracles. You've tasted the goodness of the Lord. You've drank of the cup. You've partaken of the body. You've experienced the good things of God, but you've not repented. Your life is absent of the elements of repentance. I'm calling you upward to the top of the mountain, but upward to the mountain will never be attained and achieved until you go down to the bottom and lose yourself and lose your life that you may inherit mine. Beloved, the most dangerous thing in the Christian life is plateauing. The most dangerous thing in the Christian life is the sense that I have climbed and I have fought and I will now live the rest of my life in rest. The Bible says, woe to those that are at ease in Zion. Woe to those that are at ease in Zion. The word of God says in Isaiah chapter 30, let me read this passage as in the verse 15, for thus sayeth the Lord God, the Holy one of Israel, in returning and in rest, you shall be saved. In returning and in rest, you shall be saved. I see that directly correlating to Jesus and his plea in the 28th and the 29th and in the 30th verses in Matthew chapter 11. It's a call unto himself. It's a call unto the surrender. It's a call unto repentance. This whole theme is up on repentance. John the Baptist came preaching, repent. Jesus preached repentance in these cities and they would not repent. We see a call unto repentance and we see an admonition to those that are yet unrepentant for the Lord to say, come unto me in repentance. Come unto me lowly and contrite. I think one element in the Christian life is the element that David so gloriously, I think, described in the 51st Psalm that my sins are before me day and night. Beloved, where are our sins? Are they before us day and night? Or we count them as a slight, oh, I don't see the sinfulness of sin. I think sometimes in the church we don't feel the sting of sin anymore. We've become so intoxicated by it that we've lost our sense of perception in regard to it. We no longer feel the sting of sin. And that's just the thing. The more that you expose yourself, the more that you yield yourself to sin, the less powerful the graces of God, the less you respond to them. The graces are always powerful, dispensational graces, but I think the less responsive that we are, that we keep sin, we begin to, in our own lives, we almost become immune that the conviction that we used to feel is not as intense. Have you experienced that before? I have. You know what? Just that very thought that this sin is not as convicting to me as it used to be brings me to my knees. Oh God, don't let your Holy Spirit leave me. God, don't let your Holy Spirit, Lord God, convict me. Lord, I pray that my heart be broken and contrite before you. The sin that I've committed used to bring me to tears. I used to find that I would weep and wet the pillow cover of my bed in regard to the sin that I committed, but now it's not before me as it used to be. Oh God, let my heart be broken in regard to the sins. And listen, there's times when I come to Jesus and I know you do too. And we should always keep this in mind. Lord, help me to see this sin the way you see it and help me to repent of this sin in the way that you have given me into repentance. Help me to respond. Now, I remember times when I would talk in a negative light about someone. You know, in the moment, whenever I was doing it, you know, I might find acceptance by man. Whenever that acceptance by man left me, and the Spirit of God began to deal with me, it was a consuming confrontation by the Spirit of God and such a conviction to where I felt lower than a slug, slimier than a slug. But then, you know, the years roll by when we don't repent, actually repent, insomuch that we turn away from it and turn unto Christ. That we find ourselves yielding to that same sin and that same sin and that same sin. And we find ourselves during the course of the years entering into that same sin without the conviction that we used to experience and to feel. Still in chains, but yet in some kind of a sick way, finding some sort of a measure of comfort in the chains that we're in. Lord, don't let that be me, Jesus. Lord, don't let that be me. Don't let that be me. But I break the covenant that I've made with my eyes. Oh, Lord, don't let me grow complacent and cold in regard to a conviction that grips and convicts and causes godly sorrow to well up on the inside of me to the point that tears gush forth. God, let those graces stay powerful and working in my life. Lord, that I bring these sins back before Thee, O God, and lay at Your feet and wet them with my tears and wipe them with the hair of my head and look up to You and cry out for mercy. Let me respond to Thy plea. Come unto me, O sin-weary child. Then the day of Thy counsel that they might look and say, look, this child responded to my opportunities of repentance and I embraced him with the warmth and the cloak of mine repentance and restoration. I will give Thee rest, which is the foundation of our word restoration. I will restore you in this great day of salvation. He's talking about we are being saved, being saved. Are we being saved from our snide remarks? Are we being saved from our unforgiving hearts, our judgmental pessimism? Are we being saved or have we grown adaptive towards it? Have we adapted it as a behavior that we've claimed as our own? Have we yielded to it and allowing it to assert its power? Are we hating it with the grace of God? Are we hating it with the heart of God? Are we coming to Christ with it, with the burden of it within our heart and allowing the sin-bearer of the world to deliver us and to free us and to give us rest and to give us a burden that is light and crosses the power of God to those who are being saved? Some of us need to be saved from the cleft of the mountain where we fall asleep. Some of us can't even worship God with uplifted hands any longer because we're so asleep. Listen, you may not be living in a world of pornographic fantasy, but you're asleep on the mountain and you might as well be. You might as well be. Just as that little quaint saying that was read from that great Puritan pastor, I think sometimes that we see these little sins and we exempt ourselves as they're being normal, falling asleep, not treasuring Christ above all things, not striving to enter in at the straight gate in the quest of climbing the mountain that we have fallen asleep in that cleft that's been provided for weary Christians, but yet we've made camp there and it's sin and we've plateaued and we have no, we have no desire to go on up. We are comfortable where we're at. We're as high as we need be. We're not giving ourselves to these vain things that we once were, the beloved, the camping out and the rest of our life on the cleft of the rock on the side of the mountain is as in the eyes of God, a vain thing as where you were in the mire of the bottom. But we're comfortable there because we're halfway up. The beloved halfway up is still halfway down. It's halfway down and he's called us up and to himself. He's done great works that we may believe. He's done great works within us and before us and amongst us that we may believe that we may go up, up, up, but the while we're asleep in the sleep on the side of the mountain, we're filling ourselves with every vile and unimaginable thing. We're comfortable to watch perverse television shows. We're comfortable to read books that talk about demons manifesting themselves as vampires and all types of sorcery in our homes. We're asleep on the mountain and we think that it's okay. The reason that we think it's okay is because we're asleep. These become chains. We warn against them because they become chains. They are a snare. They're a sign that we're asleep because those that are awakened in the truth and righteousness do not entertain devils. We read things we shouldn't read. We look at things we shouldn't look at. We place ourselves in positions that we should never place ourselves in. We push away things that are beneficial in our, in our maturing in Christ. We receive unto ourselves things that are detrimental into the growth of grace of Christ. We entertain things we, or we, or we ignore things even the holy callings of Christ. We once again began to affiliate ourselves with things that are, that are of this temporal world and not giving ourselves unto the thoughts that come of God from above as in a revelation of his word. And while we're asleep on the side of the hill, the enemy is robbing us unawares. The pockets were when we, we have been laying up great treasures and graces. The enemy is there while we're asleep and robbing them each, never one, one by one. And we feel secure halfway up the mountain, halfway up the mountain, but asleep, plateaued, no longer striving, no longer climbing, no longer exerting, no longer asserting, no longer, no longer sweating, no longer pushing a sound asleep. God promised us a short rest. We have fallen into a sleep that's become a stupor and that sleep has become the chains that sort the circle around us. Once again, while we're asleep in the comforts of being halfway up the mountain coming to me, coming to me, it's a call of repentance. Come into me. It's a wake up. It's a clarion cry of the spirit of God. Come into me. Come unto me. It's the voice of the spirit of God unto the church of the Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Come into me. Wake up. Oh, sleeping bride. Wake up. Oh, sleepy church. Oh, wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Don't you see these vices that you were entertaining are robbing you of an inheritance. Don't you see that they are marring your, your visits? Oh, don't you see? Don't you see? Do not take fire into your bosom without being burnt by it. Can't you see you fall asleep? You're slumbering the race that you are running. You're failing out again. You're slumbering. You're asleep. The chains that have been broken are coming up on you again. But yet in this, in this situation, it's much more dangerous because you're not as aware as used to be. You're not aware because you're asleep. You're not aware because you're asleep. Come into me. Remember Chorazin. Remember Bethsaida. Remember, remember them, the great works that I did there. Shall I go down in history? Remember this group of people? Remember this family? Remember this man? The head of this house that was in a straight going in the straight gate, but yet was discomfited. Remember this man that Christ did a great work in his life, but yet he fell asleep. Remember that life destroyed. Remember this unrepentant soul. Remember, we'll all be the testimony of your name. Remember, I say unto you that it'll be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. So come to me. All of you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy one of Israel, in returning and in rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. And he says regarding the Jews, listen to this. And you said, no, for we will flee on horses. He says, therefore, you shall flee. And we will ride on swift horses. He says, therefore, those who pursue you shall be swift. One thousand shall flee at the threat of one. And at the threat of five, you shall flee till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain, as a banner on a hill. And we see this in returning and in rest, in quietness and in confidence, your salvation, your strength, your confidence. But you said, no, sounds just like Bethsaida, the beloved in the chronicles of our lives, what will be said of us. It is already written what has been done. It has already been written that which has been spoken about Capernaum. It's already that which is written concerning Bethsaida. It's already been written about Chorazin. But what about us? What about us? My concern is that we're plateaued. We've been on an upward climb. We've been pressing. We've been inserting, exerting our strength by the grace of God alone. But yet in the weariness of the climb, we've taken the cleft to have a little bit of rest. That's turned into a lot of bit of sleep. Let's put us back in chains. We're confident because we're halfway up the mountain, not realizing halfway up the mountain, it's halfway down the mountain. And Christ has called us to the top, not the side, not three quarters up, but he's called us unto himself. And he's the one that's in a high and a lofty place. He's not camped out on the side of the mountain. He's calling us. He's willing us. He's equipping us to come unto himself, come unto me. And he is in a high and lofty place. And beloved, my concern is that the church is asleep on the side of the mountain. And comfortable in her sleep. I'm going to say this in a loving way, so please take it in the love that it's given him. Sermons like this used to bring many of us to our knees in tears. And it's not doing that anymore because people that are asleep feel no remorse. The most godly among us should be on their knees with this kind of a message in tears. The most godly. But sometimes our sockets are dry. And I'm saying this in love without any sense of hyper exaltation on my part because I'm with you. I'm with you. We're our tears. We're our tears. Tears only flow from those that are awake. Because when you're in a state of sleep, everything looks better than what it really is. In a state of sleep, you dream. There's bliss. There's visions of grandeur. There's exaltation of life. But we all in this room know that dreams are surreal. They're not real. The beloved, whenever you're sleeping, you're dreaming. And the effects of sin can become surreal as well. I'm sorry that you had to come here today and listen to me preach to myself. Because this message is for me. It's for me. I'm not up here preaching down at you. I'm up here preaching to myself and you happen to be here listening to it. I'm speaking this in truth and sincerity. This is for me. Wake up. Wake up and re-engage and climb. Wake up. Re-engage. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Listen, not coming to Him by works that we do, but coming to Him simply at the response to His voice that gives the invitation, that walks to the door that He has opened before He closes it and no man can open. Come unto me. I want to take a moment and just pray. Church, it's yet early, kind of, but this is you. This is spoken to you. I want us to get off our chairs and come up here and kneel down and let's cry out to the Lord. Touch our hearts again. Lord, touch our hearts again. Brother Mark, could you just get some worship music? Cody, would you dim those lights down?