Participants:
Series Code: TWH
Program Code: TWH000030A
|
00:48 It was not the path I would've chosen
00:55 I could see no hope from where I stood 01:01 Even though I knew What God has promised 01:07 I didn't see 01:08 how he could work it for my good 01:14 Yet that road where pain was my companion 01:21 Took me to an unexpected place 01:27 And standing in the middle of the darkness 01:34 That was where my heart would learn to say 01:40 I choose Christ 01:44 When everything around me says give up 01:50 I choose faith I choose to trust 01:53 To believe he is good 01:56 He'll come through like he said he would 02:01 Oh I choose Christ 02:07 I don't know the story he's unfolding 02:13 But, I know in his will he has a plan 02:20 So every day my prayer is to surrender 02:27 Even when it's hard to understand 02:32 I choose Christ 02:36 When everything around me says give up 02:42 I choose faith I choose to trust 02:45 To believe he is good 02:49 He'll come through like he said 02:51 He would every time 02:54 Oh I choose Christ 02:59 His grace is sufficient 03:02 whatever happens in my life 03:06 I've made my decision 03:09 no matter what the price 03:14 I choose Christ 03:19 When everything around me says give up 03:25 I choose faith 03:26 I choose to trust 03:28 To believe he is good 03:31 He'll come through like he said he would every time 03:37 Oh I choose Christ 03:42 I believe he is good 03:45 He'll come through like he said 03:47 He would every time 03:50 Oh I choose 03:53 Christ 03:57 I choose 03:59 Christ 04:05 I choose 04:08 Christ 04:27 Good morning and happy Sabbath. 04:30 I don't know about you but I choose Christ. 04:33 Amen. That was a beautiful song. 04:35 Thank you so much Celestine. 04:39 I know we prayed, didn't we prayed again. 04:41 But you know what, we're going to pray again. 04:43 Thank you Holy Father, 04:45 for this opportunity that You've given all of us 04:47 to come together this morning 04:49 and break the breath of life. 04:50 Father, I pray over this Word 04:52 that is already anointed 04:53 that it will go forth and it will produce mightily 04:56 in the hearts 04:57 and in the lives of everyone here. 04:59 Father, we just thank You 05:01 for Your presence in Jesus' name, amen. 05:04 Amen. 05:05 The power of the Word of God. 05:06 How many of you know Gods' Word is powerful. 05:08 Amen. 05:11 And I want to talk to us a little about the Bible. 05:17 I would remember 05:19 when Hal and I first got married. 05:20 He and I were talking about it this morning. 05:22 We had this big white Bible. Somebody gave us a Bible. 05:25 Anyone of you know what I'm talking about. 05:27 This where you put when you got married 05:30 and then all your kids and you fill... 05:31 I don't even know where that Bible is. 05:33 It laid on the coffee table. 05:35 I'm going to say for about five years 05:38 after Hal and I got married, 05:39 neither one of us ever opened it. 05:42 That was the only Bible in the house. 05:44 Now the Word of God is powerful. 05:46 But did that word 05:47 that was in that white Bible do us any good? 05:50 Why? 05:51 Because it was just lying there. 05:53 See the Bible... 05:56 My Bible, oh, I love it. See it's kind of fallen apart. 05:59 I got two, three others I could show you two 06:01 that are kind of fallen apart. 06:03 But this is merely words written down on pages. 06:08 And will do you absolutely 06:10 no good as long it shut up there 06:13 in the bookcase. 06:15 What's the only time this Word is profitable to you? 06:20 When you read the Word. 06:21 Have you ever heard the saying, 06:24 you are what you eat 06:29 or that... 06:32 What you feed grows and what you starve dies. 06:35 You've heard that? We are what we eat. 06:38 How many of you want to be conformed 06:40 to the very image 06:41 and likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, 06:42 that's your prayer? 06:44 Well, we are what we eat and as we feed on God's Word, 06:49 something amazing takes place in our lives. 06:55 And if we feed on God's Word where we gonna grow 06:58 just as if you feed on enough pinto beans 07:02 and mashed potatoes something is going to happen to us. 07:05 You got to have corn bread with butter. 07:09 And this time of the season, 07:12 oh, don't those sliced tomatoes go good with that. 07:15 But as we feed this flesh, something happens to our flesh. 07:18 What happens to our flesh? It grows. 07:22 The same is true in the spiritual. 07:25 What you feed grows, what you starve dies. 07:28 And what I want us to do today is look at the power 07:32 that is in God's Word to make us grow. 07:37 Did you know that this Bible is what God left us, 07:42 don't we appreciate it? 07:43 These words God left these to us 07:46 so that we might know Him. 07:48 The Bible is not God. 07:51 We don't worship our Bible but do you know 07:54 that as you read this Bible, you find out a lot, 07:59 an awfully hell lot 08:00 about the character and nature of God, do you not? 08:03 I have some scriptures 08:04 that I'm going to share with you. 08:06 I have so many today 08:08 that I've asked Mike to put them up on the screen 08:11 so that you don't have to flip through your Bible. 08:14 I think that would be a bit time consuming 08:16 but the Bible says, 08:19 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, 08:23 and the Word was God." 08:25 Now we go on, that's John 1:1. 08:28 We go on to John 1:14, the first part of that it says, 08:31 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." 08:36 So when we're talking about the Word, 08:39 what are we talking about? 08:40 The power that is in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 08:44 Amazing things happen to people 08:49 as they hear and read God's Word. 08:51 It has the power to absolutely change us. 08:56 What kind of change? An absolute change. 09:00 How many of you 09:01 before you made Jesus the Lord of your life knew 09:04 that you needed to change? 09:06 But we make Jesus Christ the Lord of our life, 09:09 we start feeding on God's Word 09:11 and the most amazing things happens. 09:14 And the reason it happens is Hebrews 4:12, 09:18 I think we've got that in the bulletin. 09:19 Hebrews 4:12, 09:21 "For the Word of God is" what's that Word? 09:25 "It's living in powerful." 09:27 Now in the King James and say I learned to quote 09:30 in The King James through the years. 09:32 The King James says, "The Word of God is quick, 09:35 that means powerful and alive, quick and powerful, 09:38 sharper than any two-edged sword, 09:40 piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, 09:44 and have joints and marrow, 09:45 and is a discerner of the thoughts 09:47 and intents of the heart." 09:49 So is this Word a powerful force? 09:52 We see that here is a powerful force. 09:55 Now I've shared this with you before, 09:58 but early on in my walk with the Lord, 10:04 Hal and I were on our way to Clarksville, Tennessee. 10:07 We had come off 10:08 of the interstate and back then 10:12 there was a country road going into Clarksville, 10:14 it's all built up now. 10:17 But as we rounded a curve going into Clarksville, 10:20 there was this church setting up on a hill. 10:23 And across the front porch... 10:27 entry way at the church, 10:29 it had something written in big black letters, 10:32 "The entrance of thy word gives light." 10:37 The entrance of Gods' Word gives light 10:40 that jumped off of that church and went right into my heart. 10:45 The power that's in God's Word, 10:47 if there is any darkness in you, 10:50 don't you want it to be changed to light. 10:53 And this tells us that this living force 10:56 that is the Word of God, 10:58 as we eat this Word, as we consume this Word, 11:02 as this Word goes down into us, 11:05 if there are areas of darkness in us, 11:07 this Word will shine on those areas of darkness 11:11 and will become light. 11:13 It goes on to say, 11:15 "It gives understanding to the simple." 11:18 That wasn't written over the church that I saw, 11:21 it didn't have the B part to that. 11:23 But isn't that encouraging to you? 11:26 It gives... 11:29 understanding to the simple. 11:32 Do you know this Word isn't biased at all? 11:35 This Word is powerful to changes, 11:39 it is powerful to change someone 11:42 that has got a double master in three doctorates. 11:46 All of them in the Word of God. 11:50 But the end and it's got power to change 11:53 the rich and the famous. 11:54 But you know 11:55 what it's also got the power to change? 11:58 We that have a very, very limited education, 12:01 it gives understanding to the simple. 12:04 You've even heard stories 12:06 of this Word changing people that had. 12:09 Oh, let's think of somebody 12:10 we know that had no more than a third grade education. 12:13 Do you all know anybody 12:14 that might fit that description, 12:16 "And what did she do? 12:17 Did she change? 12:19 Was she a powerful instrument in the hand of God? 12:22 Gives understanding to the simple. 12:27 If the Word of God is powerful 12:28 because it's guaranteed by God to be effective. 12:32 And I want us to... 12:34 We're going to have it on the screen, Isaiah 55:11. 12:38 The Word of God is powerful because it guarantees, 12:44 it is guaranteed by God to be effective. 12:47 Isaiah 55:11 says, 12:50 ''So shall my word be that goes forth 12:53 from my mouth, it shall not return to me how? 12:57 It's not going to return void, 12:59 but it shall accomplish what I please, 13:02 and it shall prosper in the thing 13:04 for which I sent it." 13:06 Do you know God sent His word? 13:09 Did He send anybody to the earth? 13:11 God sent His word and it's... 13:15 Psalms 107:20 says, "He sent His Word, 13:19 and did something to us? 13:21 What did that? 13:22 He sent His Word, and He healed us, 13:25 and delivered us from all of our destructions." 13:29 That is power that's in the Word of God. 13:31 And the Word of God has the power to transform. 13:36 Now how many of you want to be changed? 13:38 How many of you want to be transformed? 13:40 We're looking at the power 13:42 that's in the Word of God that will change you. 13:46 Romans 12:2, 13:48 we have that up, Romans 12:2. 13:50 And be not conformed to what? 13:54 To this world but be transformed how? 13:57 By the renewing of your mind, that's what you think. 14:02 I know this isn't applicable to anybody here. 14:05 But some people have stink in thinking. 14:08 And they need the way they think to be changed. 14:14 We are today a direct result of what we think. 14:19 Every decision you made is based on what you think. 14:24 Proverbs 23:7 says, 14:28 "For as a man thinks in his heart, 14:33 so is he." 14:34 So with the Word of God will change what we think, 14:38 goes on to say, 14:39 "Renewing our mind that we may prove 14:43 what is that good, and acceptable, 14:45 and perfect will of God." 14:47 If we don't change what we think, 14:50 we don't change. 14:52 Have any of you ever said, "You know, I'm going to change. 14:56 I'm not going to do this any more. 14:59 I'm going to stop doing something, 15:01 " and find yourself doing it again. 15:03 You know you can't modify your behavior, 15:07 you can make good decisions. 15:09 But we need the power and the help of Almighty God 15:13 to make us, to help us change. 15:17 And change isn't change until you change. 15:23 Sometimes we will say the right things, 15:26 will quote the right scriptures, 15:28 and we'll go right back into that very thing 15:30 that we said we were never going to do again. 15:33 Changes and change until you change. 15:35 And the only way you can change is to change your thinking, 15:39 the only thing 15:40 that can change your thinking is what? 15:42 It's the Word of God. 15:45 2 Peter 1:4 says, 15:48 "By which have been given to us 15:51 exceeding great and precious promises." 15:54 Where are those promises, 15:56 those great and precious promises? 15:58 Where are they given to us? 16:00 It's in His Word that through this you may be... 16:05 I love this 16:06 "partakers of the divine nature." 16:09 isn't that...? 16:10 And I'm sure I'll look at this again. 16:13 But over in Romans it says, 16:15 "We have been predestined to be conformed to something. 16:19 What have we been predestined to be conformed to? 16:23 We have been predestined to be conformed to the image 16:26 of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's our destiny. 16:30 And scripture also says that when Christ shall return, 16:35 we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 16:38 Now I don't know about you, 16:40 but I am not going to look like a Jewish man. 16:45 However this says that I have been destined 16:49 by Almighty God 16:51 to be in the image and likeness of His Son. 16:54 What is the only way that can transpire in my life? 16:58 How can that occur in my life? 17:00 See it's not the outward that it's talking about, 17:03 all we need on the outside, see this morning I got up, 17:08 and I bathed up, and pampered up, 17:11 and patted up, and... 17:12 up and put on. 17:13 Somebody tell me, 17:15 I look like 17:16 I was in my preaching clothes today. 17:18 So, see, I cannot outward for people. 17:22 But God don't look at the outward, 17:24 what does He look at? 17:25 He looks at us on the inside, 17:27 that's where that change needs to take place. 17:31 We partake of that divine nature. 17:35 And let me ask you this also. 17:40 We are what we eat. 17:41 If we eat God's Word, 17:43 then that's what we are going to become. 17:48 But also we become what we behold. 17:53 And that's 2 Corinthians 3:18. 17:56 I don't have that scripture, Mike, I'm sorry. 17:58 But that's when you look into the Word of God, 18:02 what does it say we're looking into? 18:05 A mirror. 18:07 And it's that Word as we take on the Word, 18:10 as we allow that change to take place 18:13 that we look more and more 18:14 like the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 18:18 It's as we partake of the promises of His word 18:22 that we become like Jesus. 18:24 It changes us from the inside out, 18:27 that's called transformation. 18:29 Transformation. 18:32 The Word became flesh and walked among us. 18:38 Now our flesh must put on the Word of God 18:43 and walk among men that Jesus may be seen again. 18:47 The Word became flesh and did what? 18:50 The Word, John 1:14, 18:52 "And the Word became flesh and He dwelt among us." 18:56 Now as we take 18:58 on the Word of God on this flesh 19:01 we are taking on the image and likeness of Christ. 19:04 So as we take that on and walk in this world, 19:08 then what we are doing is putting on Jesus. 19:11 You know I read this recently. 19:14 The statement was that out of a 100 men, 19:19 lost people a 100, 19:22 possibly one will read the Bible. 19:26 Do you know what those other 99 do? 19:29 They read us. 19:30 They look at the Christian and they read their life 19:34 whether you like it or not, 19:37 you are all of the Lord Jesus Christ 19:40 that some people may ever see. 19:42 So as we put on Christ, 19:44 we become instruments in the hand of God 19:47 that He can use for those other 99. 19:50 One may read the Bible 19:52 but the other 99 are going to read you 19:54 and your life. 19:55 So we take on God's Word. 19:58 I wanted to give an illustration. 20:01 In 1945, 20:03 when the American troops were on Okinawa, 20:07 they found a tiny village named Shimabuku. 20:13 And they later named it the village 20:16 that lived by the Bible 30 years previously. 20:20 So that would have been about 1915, 20:24 a missionary on its way to mainland Japan 20:29 had stopped long enough to make two converts. 20:34 The name of the converts were Kenan and Nakamori. 20:37 So he was going to mainland Japan, 20:39 stopped on the island of Okinawa, 20:42 and he made two converts in 1915, 20:46 30 years previously. 20:48 He taught them, 20:49 the missionary taught them a couple of hymns 20:52 but then he gave them something. 20:54 Guess what he gave them? 20:56 Written in Japanese, gave them a Bible, 21:01 and encouraged them to live by it. 21:05 The villagers patterned 21:09 their lives on Jesus. 21:12 And the Sermon on the Mount became 21:15 their guide to social conduct. 21:18 They took the Ten Commandments as their legal code. 21:22 Wouldn't you have loved to live in that environment? 21:26 The Bible was the main literature 21:29 in their school. 21:31 Every day, every child had to read from the Bible, 21:34 it was in their classrooms. 21:37 The result was that for years that village had no jail, 21:44 had no brothel, had no drunkenness, no divorce, 21:49 and there was a high level of health and happiness. 21:52 Actually the soldier that was going 21:57 through the countryside in Okinawa 22:00 had noticed many villages. 22:03 But they were very poor, very disharmonious. 22:08 But when he came to this village 22:11 what it attracted his attention 22:13 so quickly was that it was well manicured, 22:17 it wasn't a rich village, 22:18 but it was a prospering village 22:21 that he could tell just coming into this village, 22:24 there was something different 22:27 about the people in this village. 22:29 Time had dimmed the Shimabukun's memory 22:33 of the missionary 22:34 neither Kenan nor Nakamori could recall his name. 22:38 They did remember his parting statement 22:41 as expressed by Nakamori, it was study this book well. 22:47 It will give you strong faith in the Creator God. 22:51 And when your faith in God is strong, 22:55 everything is strong. 22:57 And you know what these two converts did? 22:59 They took him at his word, they believed what he said. 23:03 And these people became what they beheld. 23:08 The Word of God can de-transform them. 23:12 And the same power 23:13 that's in that Word can transform every one of us. 23:17 The Word also has the power to bring faith. 23:21 I mean there are so many things the Word has the power to do. 23:25 Word has the power to transform us. 23:27 I think that's the first thing we all need is transformation. 23:31 Do you not agree with that? 23:32 We've been transformed out of the kingdom of darkness, 23:35 we are now in the kingdom of God's dear Son, 23:37 we're in this process called the sanctification process. 23:42 And that's a lifelong process that we are going to begin. 23:47 And it's through the power of God's Word 23:49 that we're changed into His image 23:52 and into His likeness. 23:53 Now, my next topic is the word 23:59 has the power to bring faith. 24:01 But I want to say this, 24:03 and so and I'm talking to myself. 24:05 I've got right now all the faith I want. 24:10 Y'all think 24:11 that's a true statement for you? 24:12 Right now do you have all the faith 24:14 that you won't donate so one way or the other 24:17 'cause I don't want to embarrass anybody. 24:19 The Word says, 24:20 "So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. 24:26 If you want more faith, what do you have to do? 24:30 Spend more time in the Word of God. 24:34 Spending more time in the Word of God 24:36 will build your faith. 24:38 Much word, much faith. Little word, little faith. 24:43 So right now we've all got just as much faith as we want 24:48 because if we wanted more, what would we do? 24:51 We would act on the Word of God. 24:53 Faith comes by hearing and hearing 24:55 by the Word of God. 24:57 Do you know that you are also just as, 25:00 how many of you want to be righteous now, 25:02 we can all raise our hands to that. 25:04 And thank God for 1 John 1:9. 25:07 "If we confess our sins, what is He? 25:10 Faithful and just to forgive us of our sins 25:14 and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 25:17 If the Lord cleanses you from all unrighteousness, 25:20 what does that make you? 25:22 The righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 25:24 Right now you've got just as much righteousness 25:27 at work within you as you want. 25:29 And here is my proof of that. That would be Matthew 6:33. 25:34 "But seek ye first the Kingdom of God 25:36 and His righteousness, 25:39 and all these things will be added unto you." 25:43 Matthew 5:6. 25:46 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 25:49 for they shall be filled." 25:52 So if you are hungering 25:54 and thirsting for righteousness, 25:56 you will be feeling that those of you 25:57 that are in my Sabbath school class, 25:59 you know that every lesson, 26:01 most every lesson, 26:02 I always want to be going somewhere 26:07 where we're going to pray for everybody. 26:09 And so at the end of this lesson... 26:13 I want to pray for every one of you 26:14 that want this prayer. 26:16 Here's what I want to pray, Father, 26:18 increase our hungering 26:20 and thirsting after righteousness, 26:23 turn that up in me. 26:25 You know, right now I spend just as much time in the Word 26:28 of God as I want to. 26:30 You know, that's just a fact and you can say, 26:32 "Oh, they just have more time." 26:34 We do with our time 26:35 what we want to do with our time. 26:37 We do basically we do what we want to do. 26:41 So I'm a procrastinator. I can't begin it. 26:46 Oh, and you know the best time 26:48 in the world to study God's Word is when? 26:51 First thing in the morning, why? 26:52 You're mind's fresh. 26:54 So to study God's Word first thing in the morning, 26:57 what do you have to do? 26:59 Get up earlier to spend... 27:02 So we can ask God by the power 27:06 of His Spirit in the early morning 27:08 before it's your normal time to get up, 27:10 to wake you up 27:12 that you'll spend time in His Word. 27:13 How many of you would like for the Lord 27:15 to start waking you up earlier, 27:17 don't raise your hands. 27:18 So you can spend more time in the Word 27:20 because remember you spend 27:22 just as much time in the Word right now 27:24 as you want to. 27:25 But if we study God's word early in the morning 27:29 that early morning season with the Lord, 27:31 you know, it sets the tone for our whole day. 27:34 So He that hungers and thirst 27:36 after righteousness will be filled. 27:40 The Word has the power to heal and deliver us. 27:43 I think we read this scripture a little earlier. 27:45 He send His word and healed them, 27:49 and delivered them from their destructions. 27:51 That's the power that's in the Word. 27:54 And I love Romans 8:1, 2. There is therefore what? 27:59 Now how much condemnation any of you ever think 28:03 that you're living under condemnation? 28:05 You know that feeling that we have the words 28:08 is there is therefore now no condemnation to those 28:12 who are in Christ Jesus, 28:14 who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, 28:18 for there is this law at work. 28:20 The law of the Spirit of life 28:22 and Christ Jesus has done something, 28:25 He set us free from the law of sin and death. 28:28 That law of death can no longer work within us 28:31 because of the power in the Word of God 28:35 given to us by Almighty God 28:38 to set us free from the law of sin and death. 28:44 And the law has the power to fight the enemy. 28:48 The Word has the power to fight the enemy. 28:50 It's God's Word that transforms us 28:54 from defenseless ordinary people 28:56 into powerful warriors armed and dangerous. 28:59 You know, that's what I want the enemy to say 29:02 when I get up in the morning 29:03 "Oh, look at she's awake again. 29:06 Look at that, 29:07 she's spending time in the Word. 29:09 She's getting stronger and more powerful in the thing. 29:13 You know greater is he that is in us, 29:15 than he that is in the world, 29:17 and God has given you absolutely everything you need 29:20 to be an overcoming victorious Christian, 29:23 free from the weight of sinfulness, 29:25 the weightiness of the world. 29:27 And you don't have to, 29:28 I'm not saying he's given you prosperity. 29:30 How many times have you heard of men and women 29:33 and just watch this program we have on 3ABN Free Indeed. 29:38 Where are these people that are free indeed? 29:41 They are in prison. 29:43 See it's not your circumstances that determines 29:46 that you have power over the enemy 29:49 that determines your happiness, 29:51 it is what is in you that makes that determination. 29:55 God's power is made available to us 29:57 through His word just like power 30:00 from the electric company is made available. 30:04 If we don't flip the switch, 30:06 there's some switches around here. 30:07 Lord, there are so many switches 30:09 in this building y'all would not know, 30:11 you have to just go looking for the right switch sometimes, 30:14 there are so many switches. 30:16 But let me ask you something, 30:17 if somebody knew where the switch was, 30:19 if they flipped it off, 30:21 what would happen to all of these lights? 30:23 Would be sitting here in darkness, 30:26 would we have to, 30:27 would it be necessary for us to be sitting in darkness. 30:31 All you have to do is flip the switch 30:34 and here the light is, 30:36 the same is true with the Word of God, 30:38 the entrance of God's Word does what? 30:41 It gives us light. 30:42 If we don't study God's Word, and become acquainted with it, 30:47 and live by its precepts and concepts like the people 30:51 of Shimabuku did, 30:53 you know, 30:54 it's absolutely worthless to us. 30:56 It's just like that big old white Bible 30:58 that was on my coffee table for years 31:01 when Hal and I first got married. 31:02 That book never did me, 31:04 even, even a particularly pretty book. 31:05 I don't know why? 31:07 I think I guess I left it on the coffee table 31:09 cause us trying to make somebody think 31:11 we were righteous or holy or something, 31:13 believe me we weren't. 31:15 But there was that big old Bible, 31:17 you know, it's the Word that you fight the enemy with. 31:20 I guess it was big enough if I threw it at the enemy, 31:23 surely it would have hurt him, 31:24 but it wouldn't have been coming out of my heart 31:29 that's where the power is. 31:30 When that Word comes forth out of you, 31:33 it had accomplishes that thing which God send it to, 31:36 but it has to be in you. 31:39 I'm going to read Ephesians 16-13 31:42 just 'cause it's too good not to. 31:45 "Finally, my brethren..." 31:46 That's talking to every one of us. 31:48 "Be strong in the Lord, in what? 31:51 The power of His might put on the whole armor of God 31:55 that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, 31:59 for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, 32:01 but people, we wrestle." 32:04 You wrestle not with flesh and blood. 32:06 What do you wrestle with? 32:07 Principalities and powers, 32:09 rulers of darkness and high places, 32:12 and spiritual wickedness, and the heavenly places." 32:16 Therefore the word says, 32:17 "Take up the whole armor of God, 32:19 that you may be able to stand in the evil day, 32:23 and having done all to stand." 32:26 Galatians 15 and more tells us that we are to stand fast. 32:31 Now I'm reminded of this young man, 32:35 took his horse to the Kentucky Derby. 32:38 Have you ever seen 32:39 the running at the Kentucky Derby? 32:41 Boy, those horses are amazing, aren't they? 32:44 And anybody had ever seen the movie Secretariat? 32:47 Oh, man, 32:48 I like big red in that movie, didn't you? 32:50 He was a beautiful horse. 32:52 But this young man took his horse 32:55 and he was proud of his horse. 32:57 And he was taking it around to the stables 33:00 where these magnificent horses were. 33:02 And his horse on the other hand had a swayback 33:08 and it just kind of shuffled along. 33:11 It wasn't very pretty. 33:13 But when one of the jockeys asked him, 33:16 "Son, well that horse run very fast?" 33:23 And he said, 33:24 "No, but it sure can stand fast." 33:27 You know, sometimes God's not asking us 33:29 to do great feats for Him. 33:33 He's just asking us to stand after doing all to stand. 33:39 Now I'm going to use myself as an example. 33:45 And I was noticing the other day, 33:47 it seems like I just say the same, 33:49 give the same testimonies over and over. 33:51 You know why I do that? Only got one testimony. 33:56 I mean, you have to start making up stuff if you got. 33:59 So I just have to tell the same things over and over. 34:03 Well, several years ago, 34:05 I went through a difficult time. 34:07 I've been at 3ABN, now I'm going on 23 years. 34:11 So it was like over 23 years or what probably 23 years ago, 34:15 I went through a really difficult time. 34:18 And so I, what I wanted to do was just quit, 34:23 go back to Alabama, get my job back, 34:26 get me another job 34:27 and because it was hard to hold your head up. 34:33 Sometimes it was hard for me to hold my head up, 34:36 and continue moving forward. 34:39 I shared this the other day, 34:42 I think I just shared it with Jill and Shelley. 34:44 I don't think 34:45 I've even shared this in public. 34:47 But I think I'd forgotten it. 34:49 But I remember one time 34:51 in the midst of all the real hard issues 34:55 that I was going through that I went to a beauty shop 34:59 in West Frankfort to get a perm. 35:01 Well, you know when they put your head up 35:03 in those rollers and put that stuff, 35:05 I mean, you sit there. 35:06 I mean, you can't just get up and leave. 35:09 And, you know, all of a sudden in this beauty shop 35:12 and the people I had never been 35:13 to the beauty shop before. 35:16 I don't think anybody in there evidently 35:17 they must have known me 35:19 because they started talking about it. 35:22 And if I could have, 35:24 I'd layoff but you can't leave 35:27 with perm solution on your hair. 35:30 And they had it all wrong 35:32 and they were telling this big hotel 35:34 and they were talking about my husband, 35:36 and my church, 35:37 and my friends 35:39 that's who they were talking about. 35:40 You know, those were hard times. 35:42 I didn't want to have to walk through a situation 35:45 where people knew my personal business 35:47 and it wasn't good business. 35:49 I just thought, 35:50 "I'll just take Jeremy and sneak out of here, 35:53 when load up me, are you hauling, 35:54 go back to Alabama." 35:56 And the more I thought about doing that, 35:59 of course, that wasn't God's plan, 36:03 thank goodness that somebody that... 36:07 Has a hand and a heart for mending broken people 36:11 call me and told me 36:12 that if you find yourself in a position 36:14 that you just can't handle it any more, 36:16 let me know I'll put you to work. 36:18 So I called one time and said, "Today any... 36:23 I can't take it anymore." 36:25 And he put me to work. 36:26 Now to me that was God, 36:28 but I just want you to know that during that time 36:32 when what I really wanted to do and I could have justified it. 36:36 No, nobody would have faulted me for that. 36:38 I wanted to run, God wouldn't allow that, 36:41 He had me to stand. 36:43 Now, how did I stand in the midst of all that? 36:47 It was because of the Word, 36:50 the power that was in God's Word 36:52 that I had planted in my heart. 36:55 What does the Psalmist say about planting 36:57 the Word in your heart? 36:58 I put your word in my heart, why? 37:02 That I wouldn't sin against you. 37:03 You put God's Word in your heart. 37:07 And that Word was the only thing 37:10 that sustained me. 37:12 And then there's Romans12:11. 37:15 "And they over came him," how? 37:19 "By the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony 37:22 and they loved not their lives until then." 37:25 Are we overcomes? 37:27 Are we victorious? We are overcoming victory. 37:30 I think we live below 37:32 what Christ accomplished for us at Calvary. 37:35 He gave us total victory, 37:37 we don't need to walk in defeat 37:39 or we're going to go through difficult times, 37:41 nothing in God's Word will ever tell you 37:44 that you're not going to go through a difficult time. 37:47 As a matter of fact, God's word says, 37:50 "That if you don't produce fruit, 37:52 what's He going to do to you?" 37:54 He's going to prone you. 37:55 Actually, the word was purge. 37:58 Y'all have had any purging in your life? 38:00 It is not a pleasant thing. 38:02 So he says, if you don't produce fruit, 38:06 I'm going to prone you, purge you, but you know, 38:09 what He goes on to say. 38:10 And if you do produce fruit, 38:13 I'm going to prune you so you produce more fruit. 38:15 You know what that's telling us. 38:18 We're pruned if we do and we're pruned if we don't. 38:21 Nobody gets out and getting pruned. 38:23 But what is the purpose of this? 38:25 So we'll produce more fruit. 38:28 And right now I want to go off on, 38:30 we are fruit producers in the kingdom of God, 38:33 but it's what God works in us, 38:36 what God affects in us. 38:37 Okay. 38:39 The Word gives us courage, not to compromise, 38:42 don't y'all just hate that word compromise. 38:45 What is compromise? 38:47 It's insidious, 38:48 it creeps up on us before we know it 38:50 and you know what we find ourselves doing, 38:53 things that we never thought we'd do because of compromise. 38:59 It takes courage to stand for the truth. 39:03 You know, we adults, the older we get, 39:07 I'm going to say that the easier 39:10 it is for us one thing should be 39:13 because we've got more Word in us. 39:15 But I think about our young people 39:17 that are facing things 39:19 that, you know, we never had to face. 39:21 I didn't even know about drugs until I was in my 20s. 39:26 And there was some other things 39:28 I had never even imagined possible 39:31 that I've found out in like in the big cities 39:35 were doing it all the time. 39:36 And this same sex thing and all that. 39:39 I didn't even know 39:41 I was raised on a farm in Alabama. 39:43 There's just not much like that were known out 39:45 there in the country I assure you. 39:47 And so it was easier maybe for us to stand 39:52 and to stand true to the Word of God. 39:54 But, you know, it's harder for our children. 39:57 And so it takes courage to stand. 40:00 And we can only do it through the power 40:03 that's in the Word of God. 40:06 In the early 1970s, 40:09 the Iraqi government arrested a group 40:13 of American college students on trumped up charges, 40:18 the Iraqis wanted confessions, 40:21 and to elicit 40:22 the desired admissions of guilt, 40:25 they began to torture these college students. 40:30 The prisoners were told that if they confessed 40:35 they could go free, 40:37 compromised the truth, admit a lie. 40:42 The promise of freedom became irresistible. 40:46 One by one as the pressures and the pain mounted, 40:50 every prisoner confessed to crimes 40:54 he didn't commit. 40:56 Every prisoner except one. 41:00 For this one man the torture intensified, 41:03 the loneliness of isolation became unbearable. 41:08 And he came close to breaking, 41:11 then his captors announced 41:13 that they were finished with his case 41:16 that he could simply confess or die. 41:24 to his head and cock the hammer, 41:27 and started to count down. 41:29 He'd heard executions along this line from his sail, 41:33 so he knew what was about to happen. 41:36 Sign your name he was told and you will live. 41:39 But he refused. 41:41 He couldn't and wouldn't lie. 41:46 He closed his eyes, grimaced, and prepared to die. 41:51 They pulled the trigger. 41:54 When he heard the click, he thought he was dead. 41:57 The gun however had not been loaded. 42:01 He was eventually released. 42:03 He discovered afterwards that there were other 42:07 that every other student who had confessed to the lie 42:12 had been hanged in the public square, 42:16 only he survived. 42:18 Now, what are we to learn from that? 42:21 What would we learn from that? 42:25 The compromise represents 42:28 a far greater risk than courage. 42:33 Compromising with the world, stand on God's Word. 42:38 It's far greater risk if we compromise. 42:44 As difficult as it is to stand for truth, 42:47 it's much harder to live 42:50 with the consequences of failure. 42:52 How many of you have read the story of Martin Luther, 42:55 not know about Martin Luther? 42:57 On October 31st, 2017, 43:02 it will be 500 years 43:04 since Martin Luther took his stand, what stand? 43:08 You know he was a monk, 43:09 and he got his hands on the Word of God. 43:14 You know what the church had done 43:15 at this time? 43:16 They had taken the Word from the people 43:19 and had put it in the churches 43:21 and then the only way the people 43:25 would be through the church hierarchy, 43:27 and did they always handle the Word accurately? 43:31 When Martin Luther, 43:32 he knew some of the things in the church 43:34 just couldn't be right. 43:35 And he is translating the Word of God, 43:39 he found the truth. 43:41 And he did something he found, 43:43 well, we know that at least 95 things he found for, 43:46 he'd look in the Word and look in the church and say, 43:49 this is how it should be, and this is how it is. 43:51 And you know that though the church hierarchy 43:54 didn't appreciate him doing that. 43:56 The 95 tenets, 43:59 then what did he do with those 95 tenets? 44:02 You remember what he did? 44:03 He nailed them to the church house door 44:05 so everybody could see them. 44:08 Now, the church did something 44:12 as it though the church 44:14 put a gun to his head and told him recant 44:18 or we will excommunicate you. 44:21 And you know what excommunication meant, 44:24 would mean at that time? 44:26 Not only did you get kicked out of your church 44:28 but understanding the deeper meaning 44:31 was not only were you 44:32 not be able to fellowship in church 44:34 but you won't get to go to heaven either. 44:36 But here is what Martin Luther said, 44:39 and you know the stand he took, 44:41 is it affecting us even here today? 44:43 Here's what he said, 44:46 "My conscience is captive to the Word of God." 44:51 Righteousness by fate, justification by a faith. 44:54 He got into Romans and Galatians, 44:57 and he found that it's not going 44:59 through another man, what is it? 45:01 Only through the Lord Jesus Christ, 45:03 faith in Christ and Christ alone. 45:06 My conscience is captive to the Word of God. 45:09 I cannot and I will not recant anything, 45:15 for to go against conscious is neither right nor safe. 45:18 Here I stand, I can no other, 45:21 God help me, he took a stand. 45:24 Did he suffer for that stand he took? 45:26 Was he persecuted? 45:28 But if he hadn't taken that stand, 45:31 where would we be today? 45:32 No way of knowing, 45:34 the power of God's Word gave him 45:36 the courage not to compromise. 45:39 And we are all affected by his stand that he took. 45:45 So I want to encourage us. 45:47 When your marriage is hard, stand on God's word. 45:52 I know none of you have 45:53 ever had difficulties in your marriage. 45:56 But should you ever have difficulties 45:58 in your marriage, stand on God's Word. 46:01 Parenting children. 46:03 I know none of you've 46:05 ever had any problems parenting your little precious children. 46:09 And probably not when 46:10 they were little precious children 46:11 but what about the time they turn. 46:13 Well, I won't tell you the age. 46:16 But it just seems like 46:18 they can become difficult at times. 46:20 And sometimes they don't improve it 46:23 for a long time. 46:24 So when you have difficulty parenting your children, 46:29 what is the only thing that we can do? 46:31 Stand. 46:33 When your wedding vows could so easily be broken, 46:37 stand on God's Word. 46:40 God will reward your faithfulness. 46:43 Amen. 46:45 We are what we eat, what we daily feed is growing, 46:50 what we daily neglect is dying. 46:55 And again 46:58 I want to pray over all of this. 47:01 The scripture tells us blessed are those 47:04 who do hunger and thirst for righteousness, 47:07 for they shall be filled. 47:11 So I'm going to pray 47:13 and then we're going to go to our closing hymn, 47:15 it's page 272, give me the Bible. 47:18 How many of you would like for God 47:21 to just increase your hungering 47:24 and thirsting for the things of Him. 47:27 God by the power of His Spirit to touch us and set us on fire. 47:33 Remember when you first made Jesus Christ 47:35 the Lord of your life? 47:36 Any of you 47:38 when you first came out of darkness and into life? 47:40 There was a fire in you. 47:41 You had all this zeal, not a lot of wisdom. 47:45 Now we got a lot of wisdom I mean, and not much zeal. 47:49 And I don't think 47:51 one's much good without the other. 47:52 So let's pray and ask God to fill us with His zeal, 47:57 all zeal to excel in the things of God, 48:04 after the things of God that we won't be satisfied 48:07 just to skim a passage every now and then, 48:10 but we'll get into this Word and will devour it. 48:13 How many of you want God to do a work on your heart? 48:15 Okay. 48:17 Holy Father, we come before You in the name of Jesus. 48:19 And I praise You and I thank you Holy God 48:22 for the power that is in your Word 48:23 to change us from... 48:26 Into Your image and into Your likeness. 48:29 Thank you, Father, that You, Word goes into us. 48:34 And it brings light in the darkened areas. 48:36 Now Father, we ask that as You increase 48:39 our hungering and thirsting after You. 48:42 Lord, You will give us the opportunity 48:43 and the willingness, Father, 48:45 all of that stand before you today telling you 48:48 we are willing for You to make us willing. 48:51 Use us, oh, God, fill us with Your presence, 48:54 draw us by Your Spirit 48:55 into that right relationship with You 48:58 is my prayer in Jesus' name. |
Revised 2017-10-16