What Should We Do？

And there were some men who came to Him to ask Him what they should do. And Luke chapter 3 verse 12, it says, some tax gatherers or tax collectors came to be baptized. And they said to Him, Teacher, what should we do? And He said to them, collect no more than what you've been ordered to. And if you think about Zacchaeus, you know, 19 chapters later, Jesus finally came to Jericho. Now, to get to the Jordan River from Jerusalem, you had to go through Jericho to get to the Jordan River. And so, you know, this is where that they lived in that place. They lived in Jericho. And then they go through there to get down to the Jordan River. So the men in Jericho must have gone down to hear who this John the Baptist was. They wanted to hear this. And he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the for the remission of sins, but also to tell them that one who is coming after them. And it was to prepare the way of the Lord in their life. And so I believe Zacchaeus, he probably had some conviction at this point when he heard John the Baptist, but he probably didn't make a decision or react for many chapters later until Jesus came to the town. You know, here's Jesus coming through Jericho. Why would he come to visit me at this time? And so he was very eager in his heart to know the Lord, because I believe the the word of God and the Holy Spirit was convicting him of his sin. John the Baptist preached to them and said, collect no more than what you've been ordered to. And it's amazing that this was the thing that needed to get their life right. And sometimes we take more than what we should get. And we need to be mindful of that and have a conviction in our heart. Because this was the number one thing that he told them. He could have told them, no, you need to go and you need to perform some righteous act or you need to go and get your life right in some other area. But he talked to him very simply about the way that he dealt with money. And it had to do with collecting no more than what he ordered to. And then it says after this, some soldiers were questioning him saying, and what about us? What shall we do? And he said to them, do not take money from anyone by force. And both of these things had to deal with money. It had to deal with greed. It had to deal with the desire to get rich and to take advantage of people. It had to deal with it. And in order for the Lord to come and to meet with them in their life, I bet you he had to prepare his heart so that the Lord could come. The Bible says, John says, who are you? He says, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. I am preparing a path. He's making every crooked path straight. And this is what the Lord wants to do in our lives when he brings conviction is we have crooked paths in our lives. We have things that aren't right in God's sight. And we need to humble ourselves and repent and turn from those things so that the Lord can come and meet with us. It's true. The prerequisite of the Lord coming to meet with you is to have repentance in your life over the things that you've been doing that are wrong. And we need to examine our hearts and search our hearts and say, Lord. Lord, what is it in my life that's crooked, that's not right in your sight? I'm asking you. I'm asking you to show me. I ask this every day. Lord, show me. There's times where I have to apologize to people, maybe because of the way that I spoke to them. There's times where I have to humble myself and say, OK, maybe I need to be careful about how I'm billing out at the job that I do. I need to be mindful of these things because God is watching and God is watching each and every one of us. He's watching the whole world. Even today, we celebrate or some people have gatherings to talk about the birth or the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it's a reminder to us every single year of what God has done for us. And it should be that reminder every year that brings some conviction that there's something in my life that needs changing. Jesus didn't just die on the cross so that my sins would stay the same. He died on the cross so that my sins would be forgiven and I would be cleansed and I wouldn't live that same life anymore, that I would have remorse over the things that I've done. Alan shared this, that the worst thing that you can do is have sin in your life and have no remorse. You have no remorse over the way that you've done things that should bring conviction. It should bring a trembling in your bones. It should say, why is my attitude towards sin like this? I don't want to be like that. No, it's at that time sometimes that we need to hear a John the Baptist message. It's at that time that we need to hear and have some conviction in our spirits so that we can get our lives right and put those things away. And the Lord would come to meet with you. It's amazing that when he went through the city of Jericho, there were two men that he met with. The first person that he met with was blind Bartimaeus, and that was on the way to Jericho. You know, there was times in Jesus's life when he did a miracle that he actually gave people their sight back. John 9, there was a man who was born blind and his disciples asked him and they said, hey, was this man who did he sin or his parents sin that's caused him to be born blind? He said, no, this is so that the good, the goodness of God can be displayed in this man. But the man on the blind road at Jericho, he had lost his sight and he was crying out with a loud voice. And as the crowd was going with him, there was already a huge crowd. So Jesus was going to Jericho. There's already a massive crowd with him. And he's going to an even bigger crowd in Jericho. And there's two people that he chose to talk to that are examples for us in the Bible. The first one was a man who had lost his spiritual vision. It's blind Bartimaeus. He once had a vision of God. He had a softness towards him. He had conviction in his spirit. He had a trembling and a love for Jesus. He had a love for God. There wasn't anything that he wouldn't do for him. And his relationship with God was probably good. This is my image of him. And here's a man who who maybe got distraught all the way. Maybe he went off track. Maybe he went down to the world and the things of the world. And because of that, he lost his spiritual vision. And as he's going by with the loud crowd, this man hears that Jesus is walking by and he's crying out, Jesus, have mercy on me, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me, son of David. And the people tell him, you'd be quiet. You just lose that fervency. You just need to calm down. No, he knew his spiritual condition was not good. He was blind. He knew that he had lost his sight. And then he's crying out and he says, no, I'm going to cry out even louder. I don't care what men say to me. I'm going to cry out even louder until I get a touch from the Lord. And so he went in there and he cried out even louder. And the Lord came over to him and he says, what do you want me to do? He says, I want to regain my sight. I want to regain my sight. Some of us here have had a touch from the Lord at times past. Maybe we've gone through some difficulties. Maybe things have overtaken us. Sin. Maybe we've gotten our eyes off of Jesus and we've lost our spiritual vision. What's really of value? And we thought that the things of this world have things to value. And there's nothing there. In all your pursuits, I want to ask you, in all the things that you've chased after, how much satisfied are you? How satisfied are you? Where has it left you? It hasn't left you with a satisfied heart. It's left you with an empty heart. It's left you tired and weary. It's left you sick and tired of life. But there's something greater than that. There's Jesus, and we can look again to him. We can look up and we can say, Jesus, have mercy on me. Son of David, have mercy on me. Help me to get my life back with you. I'm calling on your name. And ain't nobody going to stop me from calling on your name. The Bible says anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And you know what's going to happen? We're going to call on the name of the Lord. John the Baptist preached this. I'm going to baptize you with repentance for sin. So you turn from those things that he's convicting you of. You stop doing it. You say, I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm going to put it away. I'm not going to live that life anymore. I'm going to put away the things that God convicts you of specifically, one by one. Did you know that when I first got born again, I was a drug addict? I was living on my sister's couch. I had no money. I had $30,000 in debt. I was a bum. I was. But the Lord didn't leave me in that place. But he started to convict me of things that I was doing. I was living an immoral lifestyle. I was a liar. I was a cheat. I did everything wrong. Everything. But God didn't condemn me in that place. I humbled myself. I acknowledged and I said, it's true, Lord. It's true. You know, the devil used to condemn me and say all these condemning things to me. And I would fight him. And finally, I just said, you know what, Satan, you're right. It's true. And you know what happened after that? He stopped accusing me. You're right. And I started on my knees. I'm like, Lord, everything he says about me is right. I acknowledge it. And you know what? The condemnation, it left. It left and the Lord poured out his love on me and poured out his spirit in my life. And I had tremendous conviction at my time in my life. And I started to put away things that the Lord was convicting me about. One by one, whatever it is, those tax gatherers don't collect no more than you're supposed to. Those other guys don't don't steal money from people by force. Number three, don't don't don't do things that are that are wrong, that you know are wrong and you're living that life. You need to stop doing it. And you know what? As I walk with the Lord, there's other things now that the Lord wants to deal with. Some of us here have been walking with the Lord for a long time, but now we're dealing with spiritual pride. Now we're dealing with rebellion. Now we're dealing with the monotony of life, grumbling and complaining. Deeper things that come from the heart. We need the Lord to cleanse us of those things. Some of us here say, well, I don't have those same sins that Dan did. You know, Dan is a pretty bad guy. You're right. I was a pretty bad guy. But so were you. And without Christ, we're all bad guys and girls and we need Jesus. And so we need to have some remorse. We need to have some conviction. And we don't want to lose that. We don't want to have that grumbling and complaining. We don't want to have that backbiting, that gossiping, that judging of your brother. You don't want to have that. We need to learn to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit until we come to what a mature man, mature in Christ, where we can dwell with each other, where no matter what position and stature you are at spiritually, you can learn to live with each other. You can learn to love each other and you can learn to distinguish between a man who serves God and a man who does not serve God. We need to have that attitude. The second man who was in Jericho was the man Zacchaeus. And the Lord in all the crowds decided to choose a man who had some conviction in his life. And so much that he went, he prepared a feast. That's the greatest feast ever, I think. He went and prepared a feast, the Feast of Repentance, the Feast of Repentance. I bet you that that that meal was so good. I don't know about you, but I've gone to many family gatherings and there's not a lot of repentance. There's a lot of good times. We're eating our Pascha, you know, my Easter bread. Right. We're eating all these things and we're having a grand old time. But there's no Feast of Repentance. There's nothing. When Jesus had the meal with his disciples, you know what he did? He washed their feet. He humbled himself and he served them. And he says, I've longed to have this meal with you guys, because after this, you aren't going to see me. I'm going to lay down my life for you. And the Lord desires to come and have supper with us in the same way. That fellowship. He wants to have that with us. He wants to. And he says, yet one of you among you is a devil. One of you among you is a devil. He even said that. Can you imagine? And every single one of them, what did they say? They said, is it I Lord? I don't know about you, but I've asked that question. Lord, is it me? I don't want to be that man. Help me, Lord, to repent, to turn from most things and help me to humble myself and have that conviction. But there's hope here, guys. There's blind Bartimaeus and there's Zacchaeus. There's hope that if we have that attitude in our hearts, you know what the Lord's going to do? He's going to come and meet with us. He's going to do something great for us. But let's have that conviction and ask the Lord to continue to pour out his spirit in our lives. Let us not grow weary of doing good, brothers and sisters. For in due time, you shall reap fruit. The Lord desires to come that we would bear fruit and bear fruit abundantly. And the only day that that's going to happen is a period of time where the Lord refines you. He prunes you. He sanctifies you. And he prepares you for that day where the sweet fruit of all the dealings that he's been doing in your life is going to come and you're going to be a blessing to others. Allow the Lord to work in our hearts that way and let us not grow weary or discouraged. Let's not grow weary or discouraged. Let's allow the Lord to refine us, to prune us, to cleanse us so that we can be a pure and spotless bride, I guess you would say, a pure and spotless church so that when he comes, you can say, well done, good and faithful servant, you endured. Last verses in here, it's in James, chapter five. Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets its early and late rains. You need to be patient, be patient. Don't rush ahead. Young men stumble and fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. When I had cancer, that was my number one voice that I had. It was my verse. It was on my bed. It says those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. And I said, Lord, I need to wait on you at this time. I don't need to run around and try to make issues. I need to wait on you or try to find a solution. This is when I was sick, when I was 20 years old. But I'm telling you, you need to wait on the Lord. Young men and young women who have lots of plans, they are going to stumble and fall because they go ahead of the Lord's will. You need to learn to cease. You need to learn to rest. Enjoy the time with your family, with your children. Some of us want to do great things for the Lord. But you know what? The Lord sometimes says, I want you to enjoy this time because there's a day coming when that time will not be there. That time will not be there. You need to enjoy it now. I encourage fathers, mothers, families to enjoy the time that you have with your families now, because there is a day coming when it's going to get more difficult, especially for Christians and believers. You to be patient, strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is hand. Do not complain, brethren, against your brothers. Don't complain about your brothers. Don't. So that you may not be judged, some of us are saying, why am I being judged? Why am I being judged? It's a good question to ask ourselves. Why am I being judged? It's because I'm complaining about my brothers in the Lord. I'm complaining about them. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. We have to be careful about the things that we say about our brothers and sisters. We need to be mindful of that. And you know what happens when we do those things? The Lord starts to deal with us. And that's not a fun place to be. I don't know about you, but I hate being judged by the Lord. But the Lord has a fun way of doing that in my life because he wants to perfect me, to cleanse me. And you know where it starts? We need to stop complaining about our brothers. Because the judge is standing at the door and he's listening to all the words that you say. He may start to deal with us in such a way so that we stop doing that and we start to look at ourselves first before we point the finger at our other people. It says, remove the log first from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck that is in the brother's eye. We need to first look at ourselves, and then the Lord will clearly give us wisdom on how to deal with situations that are around us.