1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:05,560 Amen. I know you were more impressed 2 00:00:05,560 --> 00:00:09,160 the second time through, so that's why I did that, but Amen. 3 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,160 Take your Bibles this morning, if you will, and turn over to 4 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:14,600 Ecclesiastes chapter 8. Ecclesiastes chapter 8. 5 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:17,040 I never claimed to be a professional singer. 6 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:19,760 I just love to sing, especially when you're singing about Jesus. 7 00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:22,480 And I don't know, I don't know what you sing about. 8 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:24,640 I mean, I know the world has a lot of songs that they've 9 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:27,080 written, but I don't know what you sing about that'll get you 10 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:29,480 excited any more than singing about Jesus Christ. 11 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:32,080 And I tell you, if you're here this morning, you don't know 12 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:34,520 Jesus Christ as your Savior. You don't know what you're 13 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:37,720 missing. You don't know what real peace 14 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:39,680 is. You don't know what real joy is. 15 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:43,360 You don't know what life is like without Jesus Christ. 16 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:47,440 And I trust that you'll get that settled this morning. 17 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:50,600 I'm not necessarily going to preach a message on salvation, 18 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:54,000 but the whole Bible really revolves around the gospel, 19 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:56,720 really revolves around Jesus Christ and what he did on the 20 00:00:56,720 --> 00:00:59,560 cross for us. But Ecclesiastes chapter 8, if 21 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:02,360 you're still looking for it, it's right after Proverbs, and 22 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:04,840 that's right after Psalm. So if you can find the book of 23 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:07,000 Psalms, unless you have a New Testament in Psalms, then it's 24 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,520 going to be Matthew after that. But Psalms, Proverbs, 25 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:14,400 Ecclesiastes in chapter 8. This is a book that was written 26 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:18,960 by Solomon as well, but he says this in verse #1 Who is as the 27 00:01:18,960 --> 00:01:22,160 wise man, and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? 28 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,480 A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of 29 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:29,640 his face shall be changed. I counsel thee to keep the 30 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:33,080 King's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. 31 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:35,440 Be not hasty to go out of his sight. 32 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:39,120 Stand not in an evil thing, for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth 33 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:41,400 him. Where the word of a king is, 34 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:45,000 there is power. And who may say unto him, What 35 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,080 do is thou? Whoso keepeth the commandment 36 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:51,680 shall feel no evil thing. And a wise man's heart 37 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:54,520 discerneth both time and judgment. 38 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:57,920 I'm well aware of the fact that this is talking about an earthly 39 00:01:57,920 --> 00:01:58,960 king. That's who. 40 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:00,640 That's who Solomon is talking about here. 41 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:04,280 But this is back in the days when kings rule the land, and we 42 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,880 don't have kings anymore. I mean, we do, but most of them 43 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:09,440 are just symbolic. But it was a very heinous crime 44 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:11,120 to disobey the command of the king. 45 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:14,680 And if you valued your life, you didn't disobey the command of 46 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:16,760 the king. There's, there's places like 47 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:19,480 that around the world, I suppose that are still that way today. 48 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:21,880 You disappoint the, the leader or the ruler. 49 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:24,240 Maybe in some of these communist countries, they don't 50 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,720 necessarily sentence you to death, but you just disappear. 51 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:30,600 They, the kings back in that day had no problem sentencing you to 52 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:32,560 death if you disobeyed his command. 53 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,280 It was it was often up to the king to issue a punishment. 54 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:38,880 But in the case of a of egregious disobedience, many 55 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:41,960 times the punishment was death and they would just send him 56 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,400 right off to the executioner and by that evening he would be 57 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:46,480 dead. You did not disobey the command 58 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:49,040 of the king. The King's command was law, and 59 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:52,240 you did not want to anger him. Now, let me point you in a 60 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:54,880 couple verses. Point out a couple verses to you 61 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,280 that will hopefully point us in a little bit of a direction that 62 00:02:57,280 --> 00:02:59,240 we're going this morning. Turn over to Revelation chapter 63 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,040 1. Hopefully after we read a couple 64 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,280 verses here, you'll see the direction that we're going with 65 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,200 this this morning. But in Revelation chapter 1 and 66 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:11,960 verse #5 that's the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 1 67 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:13,760 and verse #5 the Bible says this. 68 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,200 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the 69 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:20,640 first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the 70 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:26,480 earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in 71 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:29,000 his own blood. Turn a few pages over to 72 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:33,960 Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17 and the 73 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:37,720 Bible says this and verse #14. These shall make war with the 74 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:40,000 Lamb. Capital L is talking about Jesus 75 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,960 Christ, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of 76 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:49,160 Lords and King of kings, and they that are with Him are 77 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:55,520 called and chosen and faithful. Chapter 19 of Revelation and 78 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:59,880 verse #16 talking about Jesus Christ again. 79 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:02,760 It says in the hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name 80 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:07,080 written, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 81 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:11,520 See, our Master is not just a king, He's not just a Lord. 82 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,240 He is the king of kings and he is the Lord of Lords. 83 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,160 We obviously don't live in an age when a king can sentence us 84 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:20,200 to death, but we have a king capital K that we are 85 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,320 responsible to obey. As much as the ancient 86 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:26,360 civilizations feared the repercussions of a disobedience 87 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:29,800 to their sovereign, we ought to feel the fear, the repercussions 88 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:32,800 of disobedience to our king. He's not just a king. 89 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,000 He is the king of kings and he's the Lord of Lords. 90 00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:37,680 Ecclesiastes chapter 12. In fact, if you will turn. 91 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:39,520 Over there with me. I should have had you keep your 92 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:41,960 finger, and now you got to find it again. 93 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:48,800 But Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse #12 the Bible says this. 94 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,600 Now, obviously, we've established that it's important 95 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,840 for us to obey the king. And the king that we have is not 96 00:04:55,840 --> 00:04:57,600 just a king. He is the king of kings, and 97 00:04:57,600 --> 00:04:59,640 he's the Lord of Lords. And then we have this just a 98 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,720 couple pages over from Ecclesiastes chapter 8, where we 99 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,000 were just at. But chapter 12 and verse #12 the 100 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,200 Bible says this. Let us hear the conclusion of 101 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:13,720 the whole matter. Fear God and keep His 102 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:19,240 commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 103 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:22,280 Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the 104 00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:24,960 whole duty of man. What a tremendous responsibility 105 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,680 we have. We must obey the command of the 106 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,440 King of Kings, the command of the king. 107 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,440 That's the title of my message this morning. 108 00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:36,440 That's what I want to examine in the Word of God. 109 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:39,640 You know that in the Old Testament there are 613 110 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:43,800 commands, and in the New Testament there are 1050 111 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:46,280 commands. That means there's a total of 112 00:05:46,280 --> 00:05:50,960 1663 commands in the Bible. But I just want to look at three 113 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:53,280 of them this morning. And I think if we look at three 114 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:56,720 of those, these three really kind of encompass all the rest 115 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:58,680 of those commands. I think it's makes it much 116 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:01,480 easier for us to obey the rest of them if we get these three 117 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:06,440 this morning. 16163 is a lot of commands. 3 is not that bad to 118 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:08,120 try to focus on. Let's do that this morning. 119 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:09,840 Can we? Let's pray and then we'll look 120 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:12,120 in the word of God at a few of these different commands. 121 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:14,040 Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness this 122 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:16,080 morning. Thank you so much for how good 123 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:18,280 you are to us in the way that you just watch over us and. 124 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:22,120 Protect us and the way that you continually keep working on us. 125 00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:24,200 God, I thank you for never giving up on me. 126 00:06:24,840 --> 00:06:26,640 Thank you for continuously working in my heart. 127 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:28,520 I pray that you do that this morning through the message. 128 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:31,160 I pray that you do the same for everybody else that's here as 129 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:32,960 well. God, we thank you so much for 130 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:35,440 all that you do in Jesus name, Amen. 131 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:38,800 Turn over, if you will, to Mark. Chapter 12, I've got a couple 132 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:40,440 passages for you to look at this morning. 133 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:42,440 The commands that we're going to look at are in a couple 134 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:45,080 different spots in the Bible, all of them in the New 135 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:48,240 Testament. But Mark chapter #12 the first 136 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:52,800 command we find there in verse #30 and really, if we were to 137 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,800 follow this command, I think we could follow all the rest of 138 00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:58,600 them with no problem. But Mark chapter 12 and verse 139 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:01,960 #30 the Bible says this. And thou shalt love the Lord thy 140 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:04,720 God. Now that word shout means it is 141 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:07,080 a command. It's something that you don't 142 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:10,360 have a choice in doing. Now, I obviously, I'm a chaplain 143 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:12,680 for our Police Department. I do a lot of writing along and 144 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,320 I've asked a lot of questions about different laws and 145 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,320 different, different, different laws that are on the books. 146 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:21,120 And there's sometimes that says you may do this. 147 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:23,520 There are sometimes it says you shall do this. 148 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:26,840 If it says may, you can use your discretion to decide how you 149 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:30,360 want to handle the situation. If it says shall, you don't have 150 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,200 a choice. You have to do what that that 151 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:36,600 law says or what that directive says and he says. 152 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:40,280 This thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. 153 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:45,200 And with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 154 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,720 strength. This is the first commandment. 155 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:51,280 So the first one that we find here. 156 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:54,800 Then I think it would be hard to make that point #2 So it's #1 157 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,160 this morning. Love the Lord thy God with all 158 00:07:57,160 --> 00:07:58,840 thy heart. See, most Christians are willing 159 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:00,800 to obey with lip. Service. 160 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:03,840 If you were to ask most people, do you love God, everybody, I 161 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:05,560 think I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but if I 162 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:07,480 were this morning, I think everybody would raise your hand 163 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,720 and say, yes, I love God and I love God with all my heart, 164 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,240 right? When you they're willing to put 165 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:14,960 it on a bumper sticker on the back of their car. 166 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:16,960 I love Jesus. How many times you've seen that? 167 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,880 And then the guy you cut him off an accident, he runs by beeping 168 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:22,880 at you and you know, making gestures and all kinds of those 169 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:24,440 things. I love Jesus on the bumper 170 00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:26,640 sticker, right? That's the way most Christians 171 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:28,320 are today. Well, they'll, they'll, they'll 172 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:30,280 say it in Word. They don't have any problems 173 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:32,280 saying that they love God. But when you ask them to 174 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,840 actually put it into practice, now that's a whole different 175 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:37,799 matter all together. The truth is that most 176 00:08:37,799 --> 00:08:40,520 Christians don't love the Lord with all their heart and with 177 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:43,000 all their soul and with all their mind and with all their 178 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:45,680 strength. That's everything you have. 179 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:48,320 That's all of you. There's not. 180 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:51,280 There's nothing left after your heart and soul and mind and 181 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:54,040 strength. And can you say this morning 182 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:57,760 that I love the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, with 183 00:08:57,760 --> 00:08:59,800 all my mind and with all my strength? 184 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:01,760 If we did, it would change the way that we live. 185 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:07,040 It was a guy by the name of Russell Herman, died in 1994 186 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:12,320 when he was 67 years old. And he left a staggering will 187 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:14,720 behind him. I just a staggering set of, of 188 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:20,000 bequests in his will. He had $2 billion set aside for 189 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,600 distribution for the city of East Saint Louis, $2 billion, 190 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:27,720 another billion and 1/2 he gave to the state of Illinois to help 191 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:31,080 help them try to pay down some of the the debt that the state 192 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:33,160 had. He left 2 1/2 billion dollars 193 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:36,560 for the National Forest system and then on top of all of that, 194 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:39,360 he left $6 trillion to the government to help pay off the 195 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:42,320 national debt. But there was just one problem. 196 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:46,120 When Herman died in 1994, the only thing that he actually 197 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:52,040 owned was a 1983 Oldsmobile. Grand pronouncements, but there 198 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:54,560 was no real generosity involved. There was nothing there that he 199 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:57,600 had behind that. His promises were meaningless 200 00:09:57,600 --> 00:09:59,120 because there was nothing to back him up. 201 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:01,680 And I wonder how many Christians act the same way toward God. 202 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:04,080 I'll do this for you and I'll do that for you. 203 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:07,160 And, and I would love to go to Africa and be a missionary. 204 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:09,280 I'd love to go to some other part of the world and be a 205 00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:10,680 missionary. If that's what you want me to 206 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:11,960 do. Hey, call me. 207 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:13,560 Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it. 208 00:10:13,560 --> 00:10:15,800 And then God calls. You and you say, well, on second 209 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,960 thought, maybe I'll do something a little bit different. 210 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:21,560 Hey, let's bring it a little bit closer to home. 211 00:10:21,560 --> 00:10:23,720 And God says, hey, I want you to go across the street and tell 212 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:27,040 your neighbor about Christ. Oh, I'll do anything, God, I'll 213 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:28,480 do anything. I want to live for you. 214 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:31,480 I love you with all my heart and all my soul and all my strength 215 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:33,320 and all my mind. Tell me what you want me to do 216 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:35,560 and I'll do it. Hey, get rid of this thing out 217 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:37,640 of your life. You know, that's holding you 218 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:39,040 back from being what God wants you to be. 219 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:41,160 Oh, well, that wasn't part of the agreement. 220 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:43,640 I was just talking about those things over there. 221 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:45,560 Right. How many Christians live that 222 00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:46,920 way? They'll say all they want you, 223 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:48,680 that they love God, but they don't really do it. 224 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:51,440 They promised to love Him, they promised to serve Him, but they 225 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:53,960 know they have no intention of actually proving that. 226 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:57,360 When the Bible says that we should love the Lord our Gods 227 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:00,440 with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all of 228 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:04,480 our strength, that means loving us, loving Him with everything 229 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:08,520 that we have. That little word all is a huge 230 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:11,600 word. There's a lot involved in all. 231 00:11:11,680 --> 00:11:13,920 That means all our desires belong to Him. 232 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:16,520 It means all our affections belong to Him. 233 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:19,720 It means all of our thoughts, all of our dreams, all of our 234 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,160 hopes, everything is directed toward God. 235 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:23,880 We. Have to give it to Him. 236 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:26,000 It won't be hard to live for him. 237 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:29,880 If we do see if we love God with all our heart, it won't be hard 238 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:33,960 to spend time in God's word. You love God with all your 239 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:35,000 heart. It's not going to be hard to 240 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:38,720 spend time with Him in prayer. Oh, how many times people say, 241 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:41,720 well, I've, I've sat down to pray and it's just, it's just so 242 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,120 hard because I get so distracted and I can only pray for about 5 243 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,360 minutes and my mind is wandering off in different things. 244 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,320 You love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul 245 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:51,760 and all your mind and all your strength. 246 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:56,040 It's not hard to pray. You love him with all of you. 247 00:11:56,040 --> 00:11:58,680 It's not going to be hard to stay away from the things that 248 00:11:58,680 --> 00:12:02,520 you should stay away from. Hey, how many people in this 249 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:05,200 world today and, and, and maybe even in this room today 250 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:08,440 struggling with pornography? And I'm not even talking about 251 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:10,200 the stuff that you go searching for on the Internet. 252 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:12,840 You can find it just about anywhere you're looking today. 253 00:12:13,560 --> 00:12:16,560 And no, I'm not on this website or that website, so I'm not 254 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:18,800 looking at pornography. But you're watching videos that 255 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:20,600 have all kinds of that stuff in it. 256 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:24,280 And because it's not that website, then it's OK. 257 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:27,120 It's on YouTube, it's on social media, it's everywhere. 258 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:29,480 What are you doing to protect yourself from those things? 259 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:32,720 I tell you what, it's not hard to stay away from that stuff if 260 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:36,200 you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul 261 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:38,600 and all your mind and all your strength. 262 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:41,560 It's not hard to talk right if you love the Lord with all your 263 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:43,520 heart. Not hard to listen to the right 264 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:46,440 kind of music and stay away from the wrong kind of music if you 265 00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:49,680 love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and 266 00:12:49,680 --> 00:12:51,320 all your mind and all your strength. 267 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:55,080 It's not hard to serve God in the ministries if you love him 268 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:58,240 with all your heart. It's not hard to give to to to 269 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:00,880 the Lord if you love him with all your heart and all your soul 270 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:02,600 and all your mind and all your strength. 271 00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:05,760 The problem is the reason those things are hard is because we 272 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:09,280 really don't love him with all of our hearts and all of our 273 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:13,960 minds and all of our strength. We say we do, and it's easy to 274 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:16,240 give lip service because you show up at church and you sit 275 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:18,960 there in the Pew and you sing out and you open your Bible and 276 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:21,600 you dress in a suit and you do all the things that Christians 277 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:25,440 are supposed to do. It's easy to say it, but then 278 00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:28,760 when he asks you to actually do something to prove it, it makes 279 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:32,720 a whole lot of difference. Very easy to do things for the 280 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:34,280 ones that we really love. Isn't it you? 281 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:36,880 Don't have any problem going out and buying something for 282 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:38,720 somebody if you. Really love them. 283 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:41,920 They don't have any problem going in and bending over 284 00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:44,240 backwards to do something for somebody if you really love 285 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:46,640 them. And isn't it amazing that that 286 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:49,200 we can do that for somebody in this physical life, somebody 287 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:52,040 that we just met or somebody even maybe that we birthed. 288 00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:56,800 But the one who gave us eternal life, the one who gave us 289 00:13:56,800 --> 00:13:59,480 everything, the one who gives you the very breath that you're 290 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:03,360 breathing this morning. And he asked us to do those 291 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:04,960 things for him. And we say, well, that's a 292 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:07,040 little bit too much. You're asking of me. 293 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,320 You want me to go do that? That's a little bit too much. 294 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:13,760 This is my life, remember? Who gave you the right to tell 295 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:16,200 me what to do? Who gave you the access to my 296 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:18,760 life? And the truth is, God gives 297 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:20,240 every single one of us a free will. 298 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:22,920 We can choose whether we're going to accept or reject the 299 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,360 gospel of Jesus Christ. We can choose if we're going to 300 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,120 accept or reject the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. 301 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:31,200 We can choose if we want to accept Him as our Savior or not, 302 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:35,200 but once you make the decision to accept Jesus Christ, you have 303 00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:37,840 the choice to decide if you're going to live for him or if 304 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:39,320 you're going to live for yourself. 305 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:43,200 Oh, if you're, if you're saved, you're on your way to heaven. 306 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:46,040 You know that your your eternal destiny is settled. 307 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:48,880 But what are you doing for Christ? 308 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:51,120 That's why he left us here on this earth. 309 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:56,080 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all 310 00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:59,120 thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. 311 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:03,600 That's not an option. It's a command, and if we would 312 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:05,680 follow that command, all the rest of them would just fall 313 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:08,320 right into place. It's not hard to do it if you 314 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,560 love him. It's not hard to do it if you 315 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,760 love him. It's very easy to say when we 316 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:16,720 get to the reality of it, it's a lot harder to do. 317 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:22,800 Turn over to John chapter 14, the command of our king. 318 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:25,360 Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. 319 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:28,680 The second one we find here in John chapter 14. 320 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:34,520 This goes right along with that last point. 321 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:37,280 We should love him. Love him with all our hearts, 322 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:39,800 love Him with all our soul, love Him with all our mind, love Him 323 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:41,680 with all our strength. And he says this in John chapter 324 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:47,320 14 and verse #15 If you love. Me, keep my commandments. 325 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:51,720 If you love me, keep my commandments. 326 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:56,400 Well, there's 1663 of them. How can I keep all the 327 00:15:56,400 --> 00:15:59,760 commandments? Hey, love the Lord your God with 328 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:01,120 all your heart and it's not hard. 329 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:03,240 He tells you to do it. You're going to do it. 330 00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:06,800 The way you prove your love for God is to obey Him. 331 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:09,560 Again, easy to say, but hard to do in some ways. 332 00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:12,520 Then in other ways it's we really love God. 333 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:13,760 It won't be that hard to obey Him. 334 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:14,960 It won't be that hard to serve Him. 335 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,640 Obedience is naturally going to flow out of a heart of genuine 336 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:22,040 love. What the first point, and this 337 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,400 one comes down to really, is a strong desire for holiness. 338 00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,000 That's what we're lacking in most of our churches today, and 339 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:32,280 what most Christians are lacking in their hearts today is a 340 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:36,320 strong desire for holiness. I will get to a certain point in 341 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:39,040 my Christian life and don't ask me to go any further. 342 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:43,360 It's amazing to me when somebody gets saved and God changes their 343 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:46,680 life, God changes their heart completely, and you see them 344 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:50,600 just do a 180 and they're going in this direction and you can 345 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:53,440 tell that God did something in their hearts and they turn 346 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:55,640 around and they're going a completely different direction. 347 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:57,520 That's what repentance is, by the way. 348 00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:00,520 I was going this direction. I was following the devil's way. 349 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:03,560 I was doing all the things that He wanted me to do, but when I 350 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:06,240 got saved, I turned around and I went the opposite direction. 351 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:08,800 Right by their fruits you shall know them. 352 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,319 There ought to be a difference in your life when you accept 353 00:17:11,319 --> 00:17:13,640 Jesus Christ as your Savior. There ought to be something 354 00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:15,839 different about you. Therefore, if any man be in 355 00:17:15,839 --> 00:17:19,359 Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. 356 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:20,760 Behold, all things are become new. 357 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:23,440 There ought to be something different about you, but it's 358 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:26,240 amazing to me to watch that change happen in somebody's 359 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:28,000 life. They were going this direction, 360 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,760 doing their own thing, living their own way, and they turned 361 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:33,840 their life around and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. 362 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,560 They got their sins forgiven. They know they're on their way 363 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:38,400 to heaven and they start making progress. 364 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:40,000 They get rid of those old friends. 365 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:41,680 They they get rid of those old habits. 366 00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:44,320 They stop doing the things that they know are displeasing the 367 00:17:44,320 --> 00:17:46,760 God and they start doing the things that God is pleased with. 368 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,680 And they start walking down that way and they get excited, and 369 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:51,760 everybody's excited because they're growing in their 370 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,240 relationship with Christ. And then they get to a certain 371 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:58,720 point and they say, no further, I'm done. 372 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:02,040 I gave you all of that, all of that. 373 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:06,480 You can have all of that stuff. These things, these are mine. 374 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:10,600 And they were willing to give him all of that. 375 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:13,280 And they watched all the blessings that came from 376 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:15,720 obedience. They watched God change 377 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,320 everything about them. And in in many cases he watched 378 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:20,720 them change their family and everything else. 379 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:24,200 They get here and they say. That's enough. 380 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:28,360 No more. I've given up enough already. 381 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,920 You can't have that. That holiness. 382 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:37,320 That desire for holiness. That's what'll Dr. you that 383 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:41,560 extra step, that's what'll push you past all of those things 384 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:44,040 where you say, God, this is going to cost me so much. 385 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:47,000 This is going to cost me my reputation. 386 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:49,880 This is going to cost me who knows what. 387 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,000 Oh, God, I, I want more than anything to be holy the way that 388 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:58,240 God is holy. And I know it's difficult, but 389 00:18:58,240 --> 00:18:59,880 I'm going to take that step a little farther. 390 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:04,160 And then God says, all right, now I can bless you. 391 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,280 You did what I need you to do. But here's something else. 392 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,280 And you say, God, I already took that step. 393 00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:15,120 Look what I gave up. And I know, I know I got the 394 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:18,240 blessings from obedience and I know I got the the the things 395 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:20,200 that you wanted to give me because I followed you. 396 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:24,000 But that's a hard step you're asking me to take. 397 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:30,840 God says just trust me and take the step I, I, I. 398 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:33,280 Want to be right with God, but that that you're asking me to 399 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:36,680 give up so much. Say, all right, God, I'll trust 400 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:38,720 you. You take that step a little 401 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,480 further. And the more you take that step, 402 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:45,760 the closer you get to the holiness of God. 403 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:48,680 And we'll never reach that level of the holiness of God. 404 00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:53,920 But he says. Be ye holy, for I am holy, he 405 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:55,160 tells us. We ought to be trying. 406 00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:59,280 And what you'll find out is that the the the farther along you go 407 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:03,200 in those steps, the closer you get to the holiness of God, the 408 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:05,800 easier it becomes to just give up those things because you 409 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,040 realize. Man, I was holding on to that. 410 00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:11,040 That's what I wouldn't let go of. 411 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:13,840 Why would I not just let go of that? 412 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:15,640 Why didn't I do that 10 years ago? 413 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:17,840 Why didn't I just give it to him? 414 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:21,960 But that's what's lacking in many of our churches, in many of 415 00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:25,480 our in many Christians life, is that desire for holiness. 416 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,560 Long as I'm not asked to give up something that I feel is 417 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:32,560 important to me, as long as I can claim to be a Christian and 418 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:35,160 keep living my life the way that I want to live it, I'll be a. 419 00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:38,520 Christian all day long. But when God says, all right, 420 00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:40,960 you're a Christian, you're saved, you're on your way to 421 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:43,120 heaven. But now I want you to start 422 00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:46,080 taking steps forward. Long as it doesn't cost me 423 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:47,560 anything, then I'll commit to being holy. 424 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:49,760 See. A holiness that doesn't cost you 425 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:51,800 anything. A holiness that doesn't require 426 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:53,920 sacrifice. A holiness that doesn't pull you 427 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,320 out of your. Comfort zone is not holiness at 428 00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:58,800 all. That's right. 429 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,640 True holiness is going to put you into a very uncomfortable 430 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:05,320 position, but it's going to put you in a position where you will 431 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:09,880 love every minute of it. It's mediocre Christianity at 432 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:13,160 best, and at worst it's a slap in the face to the God who 433 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,160 requires obedience to his commandments to. 434 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:17,920 Prove our love. True holiness is true 435 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:22,920 unconditional obedience. True holiness is true 436 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:28,560 unconditional obedience. It is not holiness if it's not 437 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:32,440 obedience if God tells you to do it and you say no. 438 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:36,400 It's not holiness. It can't be. 439 00:21:37,120 --> 00:21:39,720 It can't be because God's holiness and obedience to His 440 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:44,600 commands go hand in hand. There's a animal that lives in 441 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:47,400 the forest of eastern of Northern Europe and Asia. 442 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:50,600 Lives it's, it's a little animal called an ermine. 443 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:52,960 And maybe you've seen it, it kind of looks a little bit like 444 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:56,040 a maybe like a ferret, if you know what a ferret is. 445 00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,520 But the thing about the ermine is that his his fur, his coat is 446 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:04,400 pure white. And that ermine will do anything 447 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:08,120 to keep that coat white. It will not go anywhere close to 448 00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:09,720 mud. Do you know how they catch 449 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:12,320 ermine? They don't have to set a trap 450 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,440 for the ermine. What they do is they find out 451 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:19,600 where his little Burrow is and they they coat the whole edge of 452 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:23,720 that hole with grease and then they stick the dogs on it and 453 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:26,040 that thing takes off run and it goes back to his hole. 454 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,440 But when it gets to the hole and sees the grease around the edge, 455 00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:31,840 it will not run through that hole because it doesn't want to 456 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:35,000 get its coat dirty. And so it just sits right 457 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,120 outside of that. And the dogs catch it and that's 458 00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:40,240 how they kill those army. Isn't that amazing? 459 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:42,760 Wouldn't it be great if some Christians had that same 460 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,160 mindset? I would rather die. 461 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,000 I would rather die than not be clean. 462 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:51,360 I would rather die than not be pure. 463 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:53,240 I would rather die than not be holy. 464 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:58,280 Oh, there's a lot of Christians that would 100% give me the 465 00:22:58,280 --> 00:22:59,200 filth. I'll take it. 466 00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:03,640 I got to preserve my life. What a picture. 467 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:08,880 You will not be pure, you will not be holy until it is more 468 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:14,040 precious to you than life. What do you think it is that 469 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:18,400 allowed those martyrs to go to the stake and be burned? 470 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:23,600 Oh, don't think, don't think. Oh, I would gladly give up my 471 00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:25,960 life. I'll stand for the truth. 472 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:28,800 If they tell me they're going to burn me at the stake tomorrow, 473 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,080 I'm going to be the one that stands up for what's right. 474 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,760 Tell me you'd be willing to be burned at the stake for it when 475 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:37,560 nothing is even on on the line and God's asking you to do it 476 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:40,760 and you won't. What do you think it is that 477 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:43,120 allowed them to be drowned or drugged through the streets 478 00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:45,160 behind horses? And. 479 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,840 You start reading through Fox's Book of Martyrs and you see some 480 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,360 of the things that they did to those Christians because they 481 00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:55,120 would not bow and they wouldn't bend on God's Word. 482 00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:59,080 It's amazing. What some of those Christians 483 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:01,600 went through, and you say, well, I think I would be one of those 484 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:03,960 Christians. I'd be willing to to have all 485 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,640 four of my limbs tied to four horses and have them run in 486 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:08,800 every different direction. Let them pull me apart. 487 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:10,920 Nothing's going to take me away from God's Word. 488 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,680 Nothing's going to make me. Bend except Satan. 489 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:20,280 He came along this morning and I bent Don't think that you're 490 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:22,200 going to be one of those ones that standing for Christ if you 491 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,120 can't even do it now when nothing is at stake. 492 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,920 He demands holiness out of us. He demands righteousness, He 493 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,880 demands godliness out of us. And how do you know when you've 494 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:33,680 reached that true level of holiness? 495 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:37,000 Well, as much as we try, we're never going to be perfect in 496 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,320 this life, but we're going to be well on our way to looking more 497 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:41,160 and more like our King every single day. 498 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:44,960 I heard a story about a father and a son. 499 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,160 They were going to a small western town. 500 00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:50,320 And this guy that the father was looking for his uncle, he had 501 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:52,640 never met his uncle before. He had heard many stories from 502 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,600 his father about his uncle, but he had never actually met him. 503 00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:58,760 And so this is back in the day before Internet and everything 504 00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:00,960 else. It was just this, back in the 505 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,600 day when there was a lot of Wild West towns and things like that. 506 00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:05,800 And that's where the uncle was. And he'd gotten word that his 507 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,440 uncle was in this little town. He went over there to look for 508 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:10,520 him, didn't know how he was going to find him. 509 00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:12,920 He figured he would just kind of ask around and see if somebody 510 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,400 knew him or recognize his name, knew where he might be staying. 511 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:19,920 But this man and his son walked into the town and just as they 512 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,040 walked into the Main Street, the father said, that's my uncle 513 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:25,800 right there. And the little boy said, how do 514 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:27,280 you know that your uncle, you've never seen him? 515 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:29,120 He said he walks exactly like my father. 516 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,680 Isn't that the way that it should be for us as Christians? 517 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:36,800 If we walk in the Spirit, if we're living in true holiness, 518 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:39,320 the world should know us by our walk. 519 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:45,840 We should look like our king. We should walk like our king. 520 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:50,760 We should talk like our king. Hey, he's given us commands. 521 00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:53,440 Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. 522 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:55,760 Keep my commandments. The last one I want you to see 523 00:25:55,760 --> 00:26:03,960 is in Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16 and verse #15 524 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:13,440 Mark 16, 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, 525 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:16,200 and preach the gospel to every creature. 526 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,160 If we're loving God with all of our hearts and all of our soul 527 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:22,360 and all of our mind and all of our strength, and we're proving 528 00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:27,160 it by following His commands, then the natural step next is 529 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,480 going to be to tell everyone we can about Jesus Christ. 530 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:33,680 You know that they were doing some renovation on the 531 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,280 Washington Monument and they actually found some graffiti 532 00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:40,360 from the 1800s. And when we say graffiti, I 533 00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:42,520 mean, normally you think of the painting, you know, on the side 534 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:45,800 of a train or on the side of a bridge or something like that. 535 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:47,120 Graffiti is just anything that's. 536 00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:49,640 Carved in a place or written in a place that it shouldn't be. 537 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,120 And they found some graffiti inside the National Monument 538 00:26:53,120 --> 00:26:58,560 there, the Washington Monument, and it said this Whoever is the 539 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:03,440 human instrument under God in the conversion of one soul, he 540 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:06,240 wrecks a monument to his own memory more lofty and enduring 541 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,360 than this. How different the graffiti was 542 00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:14,120 back then than it is today. But it was signed BFB. 543 00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:18,480 Nobody has any idea who BFB was. But you think about that. 544 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,240 Whoever is the human instrument under God, in the conversion of 545 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:26,200 one soul, he wrecks a monument to his own memory more lofty and 546 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,240 enduring than this. What an amazing thing that is. 547 00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:32,600 J Wilbur Chapman, old preacher of the past, said it this way. 548 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:35,960 If to be a Christian is worthwhile, then the most 549 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,920 ordinary interest in those with whom we come in contact with 550 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:40,960 prompt us to speak to them of Christ. 551 00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:44,000 If the New Testament be true, and we know it is, who has? 552 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,360 Given us the right to place the responsibility for soul winning 553 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:51,200 on other shoulders than our own if they who reject Christ are in 554 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,360 danger, is it not strange that we who are so sympathetic when 555 00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:57,600 the difficulties are physical or temporal, should apparently be 556 00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:01,040 so devoid of interest as to allow our friends and neighbors 557 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,400 and kindred to come into our lives and pass out again without 558 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,520 a word of invitation to accept Christ, to say nothing of 559 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:09,960 sounding a note of warning because of their peril? 560 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:13,560 If today is the day of salvation, if tomorrow may never 561 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:16,640 come, and if life is equally uncertain, how can we eat, 562 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:20,000 drink, and be merry when those who live with us, work with us, 563 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:23,360 walk with us, and love us, are unprepared for eternity because 564 00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:27,520 they are unprepared for time? If Jesus called his disciples to 565 00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,480 be fishers of men, who gave us the right to be satisfied with 566 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,720 making fishing tackle or pointing the way to the fishing 567 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,000 banks instead of going ourselves to cast out the net until it be 568 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,960 filled? If Jesus himself went seeking 569 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:42,920 the lost, If Paul the apostle was in agony because his 570 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,080 kinsmen, according to the flesh, knew not Christ, why should we 571 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,480 not consider it worthwhile to go out after the loss until they're 572 00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:51,880 found? If I'm to stand at the judgement 573 00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:54,760 seat of Christ, to render an account for the deeds done in 574 00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:58,720 the body, what shall I say to Him if my children are missing, 575 00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,400 if my friends are not saved, or if my employer or employee 576 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:05,000 should miss the way because I have been faithless? 577 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,800 If I wish to be approved at the last? 578 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:11,560 And let me remember that no intellectual superiority, no 579 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,880 eloquence in preaching, no absorption in business, no 580 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,040 shrinking temperament, or no spirit of timidity can take the 581 00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:22,560 place of or be an excuse for my not making an honest, sincere, 582 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,280 prayerful effort to win others to Christ. 583 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:30,920 Hey, the same things that we talked about in the first one. 584 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,480 We can say all we want to love God with all your heart. 585 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:34,840 Yes, I love God with all my heart. 586 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,280 Keep his commandments. Yes, I'll keep his commandments. 587 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:39,840 Go be a witness. Yes, I'll go be a witness. 588 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,000 A. Lot of Christians, they will say 589 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,120 that they believe that, but very few actually do it. 590 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:47,840 Hey, we're putting a huge emphasis on getting these gospel 591 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:49,840 tracts out with a gospel video on it. 592 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,880 How many of you given out? How many times have you shared 593 00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,800 the gospel with somebody, especially if it was somebody 594 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,680 that you knew and somebody that you loved, Somebody that if you 595 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,320 don't share the gospel with them, they're going to die and 596 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:09,880 spend an eternity in hell. This is not something where they 597 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,160 just go for a short little bit of time and oh, there's a little 598 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:15,320 bit of punishment. You spend a few years there and 599 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:17,440 when all of that's said and done, then you get out. 600 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:22,920 No, Hell is for eternity, and when you really start to think 601 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,760 about how long that is, they're never coming out of that place. 602 00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:30,840 How can we not warn every single person that we run into? 603 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,000 How can we not warn especially those that we claim to love? 604 00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:39,240 How can you not give them the gospel if you truly believe that 605 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:41,360 hell is as horrible as the Bible says it is? 606 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,400 If you truly believe that, it's for eternity, If you truly 607 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:48,080 believe that they're never coming out, how can you not tell 608 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:50,480 them? That that's where they're going. 609 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,040 Pretend that everything's fine. Well, I'm just, that's just not 610 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,680 my personality. I just, I just don't want to 611 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:02,120 make them feel bad. I'm just, I'm shy. 612 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:07,720 How much do you have to hate somebody to know that that's 613 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:09,840 where they're going and you don't tell them how they can get 614 00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:13,920 out of it? Oh, I love them too much to hurt 615 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:16,200 their feelings. I, I just, I just don't want 616 00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,080 them to feel bad. No, you don't love them. 617 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:21,800 Not if you won't tell them where they're going, Not if you don't 618 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:24,280 tell them what's coming without Jesus Christ. 619 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:27,640 You cannot claim to love somebody that's on their way to 620 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:29,600 hell and not tell them how they can be saved. 621 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,000 It's easy to say that we'll be a witness for Jesus Christ. 622 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:35,560 It's easy to say that we'll go and do those things. 623 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:37,640 But when it when the rubber meets the road, when it comes 624 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,760 down to the beautiful feet of them who spread the gospel, we 625 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:42,360 get cold feet and we don't do it. 626 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:47,760 Find excuses. Or why they can't actually talk 627 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,000 to somebody about Jesus Christ. This poem is called A Voice from 628 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,280 Hell. You live next door to me. 629 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,200 For years we shared our dreams, our joys and tears. 630 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:00,680 A friend to me. You were indeed a friend who 631 00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:04,560 helped me when in need. My faith in you was strong and 632 00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,840 sure. We had such trust as should 633 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:09,360 endure. No spats between US ever arose. 634 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:13,040 Our friends were like. And so our foes with sadness. 635 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:16,880 Then my friend defined that after all, you weren't so kind. 636 00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:20,400 The day my life on earth did end, I found you weren't a 637 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:23,240 faithful friend. For all those years we spent on 638 00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,440 earth, you never talked of second birth. 639 00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:29,120 You never spoke of my lost soul or of the Christ who would make 640 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:32,520 me whole. I plead today from Hell's cruel 641 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:37,480 fire, and tell you now my last desire, You cannot do a thing 642 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:38,840 for me. No words. 643 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:42,960 Today my bonds will free. But do not air my friend again. 644 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:48,240 Do all you can for souls of men. Pray with them now, quite 645 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:53,440 earnestly, lest they be cast in hell with me. 646 00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:59,840 Let's make sure that we're doing everything we can as Christians 647 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,320 to not just be a Christian who is a Christian in name only. 648 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,680 There's a lot of those. In fact, I think a lot of them 649 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:09,960 think they're Christians and they're not. 650 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:14,360 But there's a lot of Christians who truly do know Jesus Christ 651 00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:17,760 as their savior, but they're just Christians in name only. 652 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:24,680 What is a Christian? A Christian is a little Christ. 653 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,360 That's what Christian means. It was meant to be a derogatory 654 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:31,920 term to those at Antioch because they were little Christ's 655 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:37,880 running around. Hey, you accuse me of being a 656 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:39,200 Christian. That's the best thing you can 657 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:39,960 accuse me of. Amen. 658 00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:45,880 I want to be a little Christ. So many people are just little 659 00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:49,240 Christs in name only. They don't represent him, They 660 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:51,960 don't look like him, they don't act like Him, they don't talk 661 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,680 like Him, they don't live like He does. 662 00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:01,400 We've been given commands in the Word of God by our King, by our 663 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:05,760 King of kings. As with an earthly king, there's 664 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,719 great joy in obeying the commandments of the King, 665 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,159 because you'll find out that when you disappoint the king 666 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,920 doesn't go so well. But when you do the things the 667 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,960 king wants you to do, man, the blessings and the benefits are 668 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:32,360 so big. In the Middle East, the Arabian 669 00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:34,520 horses are trained out in the desert, many of them. 670 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:39,760 And obviously they, I've spent a lot of money on most of these 671 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:41,280 horses. And so they're keeping an eye on 672 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:42,560 them. They're being very, very careful 673 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:44,080 with this. But the way they train them is 674 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:48,199 that they teach these horses to fully obey their master 675 00:34:48,199 --> 00:34:51,639 completely. No, no option to not do it. 676 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:56,639 So they take these horses out into the desert areas and they 677 00:34:56,639 --> 00:34:59,280 spend several days out there with them and eventually the 678 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,520 horses get very, very thirsty. By the time they're done, they 679 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,000 turn those horses loose and let them run for water. 680 00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,440 But just before they get there, they blow the whistle. 681 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:14,200 And that whistle to the horse means you stop and you turn 682 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:18,160 around and you come back. And the ones who have been 683 00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:24,440 trained the best stop and they turn around and they come back. 684 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,800 Overcomes that strong desire for that water, overcomes that 685 00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:31,720 strong desire for their own will, Overcomes that strong 686 00:35:31,720 --> 00:35:34,720 desire to do just exactly what they want to do. 687 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:39,000 And even though they're so close and that whistle means they stop 688 00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:43,800 and they turn around and they come back, and that's how those 689 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,200 trainers know if they've been successful at training their 690 00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:50,000 horse, of course, then they give them all the water they can 691 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:53,440 handle and they let them drink, and then they're taken very good 692 00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:54,960 care of for the rest of their lives. 693 00:35:56,840 --> 00:35:58,200 Love the Lord with all your heart. 694 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,320 Keep His commandments. Share the gospel. 3 simple 695 00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,960 commands that most Christians will rarely do throughout their 696 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,840 lives. Doesn't seem like it should be 697 00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:14,160 that hard to love him, does it? But so few Christians really do. 698 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:17,280 Doesn't seem like it would be all that hard to keep his 699 00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:20,880 commandments, does it? So Christians rarely do. 700 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:25,760 Doesn't seem like it's all that hard to share the gospel, does 701 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:28,880 it? A few Christians rarely do. 702 00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,320 Will you be one of them? Will you be one of the 703 00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:38,240 Christians who is going to follow his commands? 704 00:36:38,240 --> 00:36:40,360 Or are you just going to be one of the ones like most of the 705 00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:43,720 rest of the Christians in the world, especially in America, 706 00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:48,080 who just live their lives the way they want to live it, live 707 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:51,680 their lives in a way that's pleasing to them, with no 708 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,760 thought of whether or not God is pleased? 709 00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,480 Are you truly striving for righteousness? 710 00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:03,520 Are you truly striving to be holy the way that God is holy? 711 00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:06,960 Hey, it's probably going to probably going to take a few 712 00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:09,600 things that you have to give up that you just think you can't 713 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:14,120 let go of right now. But I can promise you, if you 714 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:19,200 give those things up and you live all out for the Lord, 715 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:24,480 you'll find a life that you never even dreamed was possible. 716 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:27,960 That doesn't mean you're going to have all the money you can 717 00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:29,160 handle. Doesn't mean you're going to 718 00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:34,160 have all the things that the world typically use this as a 719 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,440 measure of success, but one of these days you're going to stand 720 00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:43,760 before God. He's not going to say wow, did a 721 00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:47,200 great job with that business. She made a lot of money. 722 00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:50,480 That's great. No, you ain't going to say that. 723 00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:53,600 He's not going to say wow. You had you had a lot of 724 00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,400 connections. You were very well connected and 725 00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,520 on earth, great job. A lot of people liked you. 726 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,240 That was tremendous. Love the way that you did that. 727 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:04,680 He's not going to say that either, is he? 728 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,880 I want to hear him say well done, thou good and faithful 729 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,520 servant. But you know how you hear him 730 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:17,160 say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. 731 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:24,000 You Live Today so that at the end of today he'll say that, and 732 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:27,360 you live tomorrow so that the end of tomorrow he'll say that. 733 00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:30,360 A lot of Christians think I'm going to get to the end of my 734 00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:32,480 life and hear him say, well done, no good and faithful 735 00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:33,960 servant. I want to hear him say, well 736 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:35,360 done, no good and faithful servant. 737 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,120 But you live every day as if he doesn't even exist. 738 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:43,320 You live every day for yourself. If he can't say it at the end of 739 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,720 today and at the end of tomorrow and at the end of the next day 740 00:38:46,720 --> 00:38:48,800 and the next day and the next day and the next day, then don't 741 00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:50,440 expect that you're going to stand before him. 742 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:52,440 He's going to say. Oh, you did such a good job for 743 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:58,800 me. I want to hear him say well 744 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:03,840 done, How do you do that? Love the Lord thy God with all 745 00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:08,240 thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and with 746 00:39:08,240 --> 00:39:12,000 all thy strength. And if you love Him, then keep 747 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:14,920 his commandments. And if you love Him and you keep 748 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,680 his commandments, then you can do everything you can to share 749 00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,240 the gospel with the opportunities and with the time 750 00:39:20,240 --> 00:39:22,520 that we have left. Time is short. 751 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:27,120 Everything that we see going on in our world today doesn't look 752 00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:28,400 like we got a whole lot of time left. 753 00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:34,040 I'm excited about it, but that means we better get busy with 754 00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:36,880 the time that we have left because you may not have 755 00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:39,080 tomorrow to go tell that person about Jesus Christ. 756 00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:43,360 You may not have next week to share the gospel with your 757 00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:46,160 coworker. You may not have next month. 758 00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:48,960 When you're going to see that person to go talk to him, you 759 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:56,280 may not, you may not. Are you going to follow the 760 00:39:56,280 --> 00:40:01,840 command of the King or not? Because I tell you this, he's 761 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:03,960 worthy. He's worthy. 762 00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:07,040 Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so 763 00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:10,480 much for your goodness to us. We thank you for the opportunity 764 00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:12,120 that you've given us this morning to be here. 765 00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:15,600 Every single person is here for a reason. 766 00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:18,840 Whether this is somebody's first time or whether it's their 767 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:22,680 hundredth time or even more, we're all here for a reason this 768 00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:25,240 morning. You knew exactly what I was 769 00:40:25,240 --> 00:40:26,720 going to preach. You laid it on my heart to 770 00:40:26,720 --> 00:40:29,720 preach it. You knew exactly who was going 771 00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:30,960 to be here and who needed to hear it. 772 00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:37,520 So God, I pray that whoever this message was intended for that 773 00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:41,640 would reach its target, that you'd work in our hearts, that 774 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:45,000 you'd give us a great desire to live for you. 775 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:48,520 You used the message this morning. 776 00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,600 We thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name. 777 00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:54,200 I'd like to ask you to stand at your seats with your.