Justin R. Lester warns that on the great day of the Lord, every knee will bow. You can choose to humble yourself and follow Jesus now, or be forced into submission later. He uses a story about special-menu dishes to show why Jesus should be your priority always, not just in crisis.
Chapters
The great day of the Lord. There's going to be a day, Paul says, where every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess. Here's I want us to see. Those of us who are in Jesus will be caught up to be with the Father. Those of us who are not in Jesus will encounter Jesus and he'll say, depart from me. I don't even know you. No matter who you are. There will be a day where your knees gonna buckle. There will be a day where that trumpet's going to sound. Jesus's name is going to be shouted and your knees are gonna make you fall on the ground. Your mouth is gonna open and cry out, lord, Lord. But as I said earlier, if you can't give Jesus 10 minutes on Earth, how are you going to worship Him 24:7 in eternity? Paul says, the great day is coming. Which group are you going to be in? Are you going to come down from worldly accolades? Are you going to come down from worldly accomplishment? Are you going to come down from everything that you've gotten in the world to make sure that when that day comes, you don't fall down, but you, you get down because you know of the power of that name. What side are you going to be on? And I'm not doing this to make anybody scared. I'm not trying to get anybody. This is the truth of the gospel. There will be a day where his name is going to be shouted. And is God going to have to break you down to get you down? Or are you willing to be on your knees to be with the Father? This is the calling of repentance. This text teaches us today that it's going to happen. I'd much rather make a choice to be on my knees than to be forced and broken on my knees. Where are you today? What places? Are you so high that Jesus has to break you down to get your attention today? Get off the ladder. What areas of your life is the name of Jesus makes you frustrated? I don't want Jesus, you know, we're going out to eat after work, worship. When I go out to eat, I like going to places where the stuff I like to eat. I like cooking. And so I don't like cooking food. I don't like buying food that I can cook at home. I like getting food out to eat that I can't. I'm talking like chicken been marinated in duck fat and white wine in like a weird reduction. I just want to eat it even if it's bad. I just want to Say, I ate it, right? And I'm just that weird guy because I can cook a lot of stuff. My nickname is Chef Homeboy rd. If you all didn't know that, that's my nickname. And so when I go out to get out, like, getting that. So when I. When I go to restaurants, I don't ask them for what's on the menu. I ask them, what are your specials? And they begin to tell you. The chefs are so excited. Oh, yes. We got this special today. We got this special day. I grew this in my garden. Like, all these crazy things that Chefs don't, because Chefs get excited about what's on the special menu. That made me think about, is that the way that people find out about Jesus in some of our lives, he's not on our normal menu, but when we're going through something, he's on our special menu. When life breaks us, he's on our special menu. If I know you, he's on my special menu. But if. But if I'm dealing with something, I'm not gonna tell you about our specials. We ran out a little while ago because I ran out of mercy two weeks ago. I ran out of grace when my mom passed away. I ran out of possibility when life broke me. What would happen if the only thing on your menu was Jesus? When you see me, you see me trying to imitate the one who saved me. When you see me, you see me trying to be. And I don't get it right every day, but every day, I'm taking another step down the ladder. Every day, I'm taking another step down the ladder so that when his name is shouted, it is not a hard fall for me, but I made a decision to be on my knees.
