A Ghost Forest | Dr. Ed Young | Woodway Campus

north carolina is one of the most beautiful states in the union north carolina has the greatest variety of trees than any other state in the union i lived there for 10 years part of the time on the eastern area toward the coast a part of the time in the west and some in the piedmont in the research triangle so i fell in love with north carolina beech mountains man the trees are unbelievable they have every variety of old white oak black oak blackjack oak water oak they have sassafast trees they have beach they have they have all kinds of trees and in the fall ladies and gentlemen in the fall about 5.2 million people go to north carolina to see the fabulous trees that are there it takes in about a billion dollars of income in three months beautiful magnificent colorful we call them uh tree peepers or leaf pickers when they would come and i lived there nothing else like it in america until 2015 a hurricane called irene hit the coast 125 mile an hour winds but what happened also more than any time we know in history the salt water went way inland way inland and it got down underground and got down in the roots of this beautiful beautiful forest and now you have what they call of nasa that's really recently photographed it a ghost forest it goes far 21 000 acres dead trees gray white the beautiful beautiful forest was gone that's what is happening in the united states today we have a hurricane flowing through our land and just like that salt water began to hurt the very roots of north carolina we're seeing today the basic fundamental principles upon which our nation was built the declaration of independence the constitution the bylaws the freedoms being totally thrown aside it seems like increasingly every day every day as the alien poison became begins to destroy the foundation of our land also what's happening in the west in different areas according to nasa photos the plates the tectonic plates are beginning to move and they also move underneath and it destroys it kills that which is above it so we see a hurricane sweeping through our land by any honest open objective observation and there are many of them let me just touch on one that relates directly to corinth because we're studying first corinthians and we're seeing the parallels that happen in the first century are so parallel to what we see happening in our nation and in our world in the 21st century and nothing could be clearer than the hurricane we're experiencing today that happened in corinth suddenly the romans control the the city of corinth and remember it was an international city people came all over the world for prosperity and for pleasure it was exploding affluent and the romans came and they taxed taxed taxed those corinthians like you would not believe and the military that was there made sure that everybody paid their exorbitant taxes and as the fluency increase from international people coming doing all kinds of work all kinds of enterprises all kinds of building all kinds of construction all kinds of trade the taxes went up the military force became greater and suddenly we see corinth the very roots of that city begin to die and it's a sad sad story what happened in ancient corinth economically what is happening today to us anybody who went to the first grade stay with me or anybody who's ever studied five minutes of economics know one thing for sure inflation is simply this you know this let me remind you of this you have a dollar today with the value of the dollar going down with more dollars hitting the market where you could buy something for a dollar today in a week it'll cost two dollars or ten dollars or a hundred dollars for the same item therefore everything anybody has here in property land or money or anything that's tangible in measuring your net worth and my net worth as inflation comes everything you save every security you have begins to go down in value that is an absolute law of economics now what's happening to us we're spending trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars and evidently there's more and more and more to come of money we do not have we're a nation that's overwhelmed with debt the relationship of our debt to our gross national product is getting totally out of balance and therefore what's the answer print money give more money away make more people dependent upon the government for the basic essentials of life now by the way this isn't a new thing remember what i told you cicero said he was very right he said if we do not study history and learn from history we'll remain babies our entire life ladies and gentlemen that ancient philosopher spoke absolutely clear truth and we keep printing money printing money look at history what happened a few years ago almost in japan well they got on the verge they're still recovering by the way uh what happened in venezuela put money print money and what happens as a result of hyperinflation and it goes on and on and on what happens first of all the value of everything goes down the second place you can't get things on the shelves you go to buy basic essentials in the grocery store do you remember what happens when we have a hurricane around here you know go to the grocery store what's that nothing's on the shelves you can't buy some have gone in there and bought all the toilet paper and we're going to what happened to it we didn't know there would be any more go to these countries that experienced hyper impressions you find the same exact same thing yesterday somebody who has family in venezuela communicated with me and said they can't get basic medicines they can't get basic essentials a company that that is in bankrupt or a country that is in bankrupt can't do business because they have nothing to trade with nobody knows they will stand behind that which they commit themselves to you got it this is where we are inflation inflation lose the basic essentials well i'm not going to give the total answer to all of this because it is beyond my pay scale but i'll tell you some things that are happening i think that are bringing this hurricane on us and there's a lot of blame to go around how many in here just for curiosity pay federal income tax would you lift your hand high hands down now wouldn't you think that the big affluent profitable corporations in america would help us with all of this economic crisis in which we find ourselves let me give you some facts first of all let's just look at uh there's plenty of play let's look at amazon that's a good company amazon in the last three years by the way of all places this is from the new york times so it may or may not be accurate but i think it is in the past three years amazon three years 2018 2020 brought in 44.7 billion dollars that's more zeros than most of us can write their tax rate was 4.3 percent huh that seems a little strange to me general motors oh we know about them they haven't paid u.s income taxes for years and don't know when they'll pay any ge doesn't pay ford rarely does both get fat refunds here's why this is what the government is going to pay to these three or four corporations in the next few years u.s steel they're going to give 303 million to general motors they're going to give 104 million to amazon they're going to give 129 million to good year is going to get 15 million from this government now let's just look at some of the fortune 500 companies now here's a whole list of some of the most affluent countries companies and these they published enough information to show they were very profitable in 218 219 220 and these companies let me list some of them there are plenty duke energy fedex ever heard of these people uh nike uh there's a whole list of them here advanced mere devices uh i mean there's a whole list of companies corporations we know on these pages and and they were plenty profitable here's one made 13.9 billion another made one point two one one made and they go right down four million nine million billion i mean six billion i can't say the word and these companies let me read it to you had a total effective federal income tax rate of zero no taxes in the past three years and you go back you'll find it more than three years now we know how this happens and and you were in a board meeting or a ceo of a company or corporation at stock this is how they avoid it r d research and development going green they get benefit for that investment in equipment stock options but there's something else in here why so many of the major major major major corporations don't pay taxes they get all these benefits but there's another factor who writes the tax laws for america anybody want to guess it's the congress oh okay so on top of that here's a corporation who have all the lobbyists who are there and they hire literally hundreds and hundreds of accountants cpas experts on the law and they are assigned with this corporation paying the least that it can and i don't think any of these corporations have broken the law they have paid taxes according to law and nobody wants to pay more than they should pay but these corporations have a different deal working folks they have these other built-in benefits also they have little writers and little fine print on bills that they write in law and they give special credit and overlook and write tax benefits for that which they are doing and our elective representatives they write in these little exceptions to keep these big corporations from paying money on the fabulous income that they have coming in well why do they do that i want to make a wild guess they give to their campaign through pots through pools to all sorts of mechanisms so i can be re-elected again and therefore there's this other side and so we have our legislative people not all of them get in bed with the giant corporations and the end result is you have billions and billions of profits made as we do business with them in our current economy and they don't pay taxes on the profits that's virtually wide scale activity in the united states of america today i've talked to some people who've been on major boards for many years some international corporations some state corporations and the few that i have asked i brought up the question i said look these corporations i don't believe have done anything illegally but they've made a big mistake and my judgment morally and i asked some board members not many and some have sat on big big big boards for years and years and years asked the question or one voluntarily told me you know in all of our board meetings hundreds of them we never discussed morality it didn't come up ethics oh maybe to comply with the law didn't come up you see what happens to a country or a nation we pay federal taxes these who are the most powerful have tremendous influence but you've got big big big corporations in bed with the elected establishment and what's going to happen in the very near future everybody's tax rate in this room is going to go up flash no laws are broken but i think a moral law and this is a part of what is driving us as it has in countries throughout history to becoming socialistic what happened in corinth same thing same thing different situation a little different entree a little different power structure rome was a power here is current and therefore current today strategically located cart in a operating hub of that whole part of the world let's look at what current looks at looks like right now today you want to see a picture of it here he is you say well that'll never happen here i wish i were a gambling man and you'd take that bet we stay on this path we stay on this path ladies and gentlemen and you may be looking at i tragically pray that there'll be a reversal of revival of coming to god and coming to christ all across the board from from from washington to seattle to portland to new orleans to las vegas that's the only hope to houston that's the only hope we have ladies and gentlemen and in the situation in corinth the apostle paul sees what is happening in the culture of corinth and the culture of corinth had bled over with its salt water and all of a sudden the church was becoming more like the culture than the culture was becoming like the church and folks we must not let that happen in the body of christ because the deadly poison will come in and destroy the foundation upon which we stand paul speaks to this and says well what do god-fearing people do in this sos moment in the history of current it applies what we are to do in this sos moment in the united states of america here's what paul said to do he starts off at the end of first corinthians chapter 2 with the last verse he says talk about the christians and the church at corinth we have the mind of christ whoa did you get that now paul is about to deal with deep moral questions in the life of the people who are in the church at current he is going to come at them as clear as zigzag lightning naming people chapter verse with how low the church had sunk and moved away from their christian moorings he's going to deal with it but first of all he does something else he says i want you to remember who you are and i want you to remember what you have and that's where we have to start before we get all out in the super negativity let's as christians remember who we are and remember what we have and paul says you've got the mind of christ listen these are that we dealt with this in chapter one and chapter two he ends up we've got the mind of christ gosh if you and i have the mind of christ and we're christians that's really something but having the mind of christ and using and developing the mind and the mentality of christ is two different things is it not having the mind of christ means that as christians we have great potential potential means you haven't done it yet that's what potential oh they've got great potential okay let's see some of it we could have the mind of christ and not trigger that mind in we'll discover through the power of the holy spirit when they said you have the mind of christ so paul is really challenging and thrilling the church before he gets down to deal with deep deep moral problems in the church and those moral problems came from the culture in which the church found itself sound familiar so you have the mind of christ chapter 3 he says and i brethren brothers and sisters could not speak to you as spiritual men by the way the word men there means mankind men and women don't get caught up in all the gender silliness but as to men of flesh as to infants in christ he said i gave you milk to drink not solid food for you not able to receive it what's paul saying let's go back and understand this it's important there's three words translated flesh or fleshly there in these first verses paul is saying you were flesh means you were human and i came to you and i fed you milk that's what we feed the babies okay we feed milk we don't say boy we're gonna have a steak tonight no we feed them milk it's okay and what was milk milk was simply christ came and died for your sin that's milk that's salvation that's the first step that's received in christ praying the prayer my savior that's milk but he says i want to feed you meat but you're still like a natural person like someone who's never known christ that's the way you're living but i fed you milk then but four plus years have gone by he's writing back to the church he said you still on a milk basis and that means christ saved us in a situation where he died for our sins meat would be i saved you from your sin follow me very subtle listen milk salvation i died for your sin meat now you begin to move from your sin the sin appetite is taken away you're grown up see the difference they're still in kindergarten and they need to move on up through adolescence and become mature but they stayed right there all this time and then he goes on and talks about meat he said i gave you milk to drink not solid food for you were not yet able to receive it baby's arm it's even today you're not able he said you are still fleshly another greek word is used flesh okay when your baby fleshly means you're still thinking like a child you're living the word is a carnal life for since there is how do you know you're fleshly there's jealousy there's strife and you are fleshly you're not you're walking like mere men and there's division and when he says i am of paul and other i'm of apollos are unite like normal men and he says what then is apollos verse 5 and what is paul servants to whom you believe even as the lord gave opportunity to each one what's this all about he's saying you're still children and you should grow up the proof that you're still children is all the debating the jealousy the fraction so i like paul and maybe paul remember maybe paul was a roman maybe he had a different color of skin you think and then peter another one of their heroes maybe he was jewish he would think a different color maybe skin and background and language and he said here's somebody else his apology was egyptian and man is still another flavor and he's saying you're still partial you've divided the church into groups i like this one i like that one and he says no this is not how the church operates and we'll see that so we understand where we are we have the mind of christ potential but we still in the low low levels we just come to christ we haven't matured and grown up in our faith in our walk with the lord and we stay back here and paul says you need to be up here and i prove to you that you're still a child because you're divided you're jealous and there's strife among you that's the beginning and then paul does something speaking to the church there and he's speaking to all of us so we can get it we see pictures you know jesus taught in parables he would tell a story and it would it would illustrate a profound truth that was his primary method of teaching was it not and so jesus said i want to tell you a story and then paul uses the same picture here not in parable but he does it with a metaphor a metaphor means this is like that so we'd get it this is like that and now he's telling that church as he's telling us in 21st century you know who you are told them what they had the mind of christ he said now let me tell you who you are and look at these verses look at verse six he said i planted apollos water but god was calling the growth and we're going to discover he's saying we are god's field f-i-e-l-d so then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but god who causes the growth now he who plants and he waters are one but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor for we are god's fellow workers he's saying we are god's field now remember where we are we're in a culture and we're in a church and the church is becoming more like the culture and here we are in all of our divisions all of our strife we're mimicking the thinking of the world and by the way all the way through this section paul is talking about this is wise and this is foolish remember this is wisdom this is foolishness this is right this is wrong this is god's wisdom this is man's wisdom and he's contrasting all of this and now he said guess what all of you in the church you're god's field you're god's field and he said paul said i came along and i planted the truth of god the good news he said apollos came along he watered he watered the field you and i challenged to grow up and and paul is saying look it doesn't matter who plants and who waters it is god who calls the growth the maturity it's god who's behind all this a seed is the word of god is planted there but god takes and explodes it so where god's field i thought about the parable in matthew 13. remember jesus got out of a boat and he looked up in the side of the mountain and he saw i'm sure somebody's sowing seed and jesus looked up there and said let me tell you something we are god's field and the seed of truth how to live the life in this moment in time is sold but look how people respond to it by the way when i was at seminary one of the first things we did in class early on they gave us this very scripture my professor virgil morefield who later became a missionary to italy incidentally and virgil morefield said i want you to read this and tell us what it means i'd never written a sermon in my life so this is the very scripture he said what's going on here by the way jesus tells this story and then later on the chapter he tells the those who are listening exactly what he's talking about isn't that interesting he said don't miss this so it must be very important he said scattering seed and that's the seed of truth what happens to the seed he said some of it falls in the road he said in the road that's people don't get it ever talk to somebody you talk about god christ church and he goes they don't get it they just miss it it's it's blurred out they don't want any part of it not interested boring silly crazy ridiculous then they tell you well i know somebody who's a christian i mean it's ridiculous it's like the road the truth is just stamped out it's not interested it doesn't apply don't understand it he said you sow other seed out there it falls on stones stony ground what kind of happens that when the truth come to somebody we've seen it here is a rock it's covered by soil and somebody comes to christ man i have a new life a new beginning i'm forgiven i'm excited about god and christ the church and they're running around here on fire for god and we say in this wonderful but the roots of their profession hit the rock they just flame out burn up lose their passion and here paul just said that happens to us we get excited and bang shallow doesn't grow down anywhere rocky soil then he said there's another thing the truth of god goes out and and the word goes into thorns into all kind of thorns and and the truth of god doesn't grow up in the life like that because those thorns were so wrapped up in the world then i've seen a lot of people come to christ and couples and they have children and unfortunately become successful which is a tragic thing in a lot of lives and then they get involved in this and that and travel and activities and games and sports and education and all the homecoming of all the colleges and universities and family and all of a sudden all the concerns of life looking after all the stuff that surrounds you and surround me and it's thorny ground and the word of god never develops and permeates all those aspects of life see we've got too many things a multi-zillionaire has to cover all these things my goodness gracious i don't have time oh god in churches over here you know you got to hatch match and dispatch folks remember hatch when the baby is born church want to be a far match is when you get married all the church comes in and dispatch when you die it's a good time to call the church in then too by the way so we got all that group and the thorns just choke out god's true revelation but then he says there's a fourth kind of ground and by the way all of us could mostly identify with those three pretty much but he said when the word of god and truth comes into life and they receive christ and that little ground is fertile it is watered and it grows and you see maturity in other words about 1 4 right 25 make it right really understand it and rejoice in it what paul is saying he said we're all god's field we're god's garden it's an agricultural picture what happens to the truth of god when it comes to your life in my life that's the bottom line and then he goes on and gives us another metaphor and it's it's beautiful he said we're not only god's field but let me tell you what else we are look at it there in chapter nine chapter three of one corinthians he says we're god's building we're not only a female building he said according to the grace of god which was given to me like a wise master builder he's saying i'm an architect paul says i'm i'm a contractor he said i laid the foundation and another is building on it for each man must be careful how he builds on it no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is christ jesus in other words we can say jesus is our foundation okay it's that rock upon we stand what is that foundation it is on jesus christ and jesus christ we are if we are on his foundation really you know what that means everything in your life and my life runs through the grid the grid of jesus we got the mind of christ we didn't develop and begin to think about eternal things and it spills over into our practical life and we're on that foundation and everything the grid goes through jesus christ that's the foundation and then paul just says here's the foundation it's jesus christ he said now if any man builds on the foundation with gold silver precious stones or wood hay or stubble he says each man's work verse 13 will become evident for the day will show it because it is to be revealed by fire whoo and the fire itself will test the quality of each person's work if any man's work which has been built on it remains he'll receive a reward what's this all about so here we are we receive christ we make christ the grit of our life it is our foundation and then the foundation is important isn't it but what's more important what do you put on top of that foundation that's you and that's me what kind of materials do we use the foundation determines how high the building can go a foundation on jesus christ man that building can go all the way to heaven right it's because we first built jane elder building we we built a foundation for three stories some of us in a meeting said let's build a foundation case we want to put three more stories on it in the future a lot of them in the building committees oh no we'll never need to do that some of us prevailed we built a foundation with three more stories and guess what later on we put those three stores up because we needed it but you got a foundation jesus christ the sky heaven is the limit so you got a foundation for really a life that means something and you put a chicken coop on top of it what's going to last gold silver precious stones what what are we building with apollos put up a wall and paul put down the floor and peter put on the sea what what what what what is gold silver i don't know that's what's going to last forever we leave this earth what's going to last when we graduate what's going to be there gold silver precious stones gold i thought of the golden rule many things do unto others as you'd have them do unto you christ gives us the power to do that and that's gold isn't it that's going to be here after we leave this earth what does that really mean the golden rule it means whatever you need that's what you give i need somebody to comfort me comfort somebody i need somebody to listen to me listen to somebody i need somebody to care for me care for somebody what you need is that what you give bread on the water works every time so that's gold that's going to last as we leave this earth with the practice of the golden rule what is silver by the way silver is a valuable commodity silver reflects light better anything i know silver is a conductor of power of energy so if we reflect something of the image of christ that's he is building in us to other people that's the silver isn't it and in that silver it conducts the life the mentality of christ to others that's silver that's going to last and what about precious stones put precious stones in fire what happens to a diamond it gets brighter anything that's on it true of most precious stone emerald sapphire my goodness they they just catch fire when the fire goes out it enhanced they stand that's what's going to be here these intangible things after we leave this earth but what's going to be burned up the wood that we built on top of our life what would be wood i looked up the word wood there it had to do with a stock it's the kind of wood that you know you put your head in you're bound i think a lot of people in the church live their life on the basis christianity is all of this that i do not do i don't do this i don't do that i don't do that and i don't do this and that defines christianity that's wood silly not biblical and then what is the hey wood hey hay is what you would take and you would fill in cracks wouldn't you you know if you got a crack you can take some hay put some mud with it fill in the cracks it'll work for a while it's temporary it keeps the cold the wind out hey what happens when fire comes to hay burns up we fill in the cracks i've got a problem in my life and we put a band-aid on it it's not healed before god and his grace and we would abandon it burns up what about what about stubble that's there wood haze stubble that's something else another kind of hay you get in a barn and we have somebody here who cleans a horse barn every morning i'm looking at them and when you clean it all up there's still a stench so you may put some hay down to cover it up right bring a little better order in there right but when fire comes the hay burns up the stubble burns up the wood burns up it doesn't last that's temporary panacea kind of things we do even in our christian life and he says you go to heaven but it's such as by fire by the hair of your chinny chin chin using biblical terminology and then he says not only are you these two things you're god's building you're god's field he says an amazing thing here verse 16 do you not know that you are a temple of god that the spirit of god dwells in you and if any man destroys the temple of god god will destroy him for the temple of god is holy and that is what you are we are the very temple of god and the picture there is in the holy of holies in the synagogue for the shekinah dwells when we receive christ we become temples holy different satisfied set aside unique holy a temple we're not only a field we're not only a building but we're a temple a place where god dwells what happens quickly everybody here we are body spirit and soul body soma this is our body not going too fast anybody else this is our body this is our body and we have a spirit newmar greek word and that is in genesis the hebrew word roa and here is a body and god breathed into the nostrils of mankind of human beings the breath of spirit so everybody has a body and has a spirit right whether you're in christ or not and the soul many definitions are used for it even biblically but i think it covers the whole of it it's all of it it's the mind it's it's it's the uniqueness of you just think about it nobody has ever lived on the earth that's like you are like me and nobody will ever live on the earth just like you and like me it is our uniqueness we are uniquely made in the very image of god himself that's our soulish part of us when we receive jesus christ now that spirit which everybody has is invaded by christ and the holy spirit and now there's the holy spirit in dwelling in you and in me and that's the part as we grow and mature in our faith because we're on that foundation so there is that spiritual part that is renewed and that is the soul that will last forever this body won't but thank god we'll get a brand new resurrected body the prototype was the resurrected body of jesus christ and our soul will reside there forever because we've received christ and he's redeemed us and he's taken that human spirit and he's made it into a sanctuary a temple for god almighty see paul is telling them this is what you have and this is who you are and then he moves on and he does a very fabulous thing here at the end and i'll skip over some verses in verse 30 he said the lord knows the reasoning of the wise that they're useless but let no man boast for look at verse 21 chapter 3. paul says for all things belong to you whether paul or apollos or cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all things belong to you because you belong to christ and christ belongs to god you need anything this whole thing belongs to you i can go to a mountain in colorado and look over there and i don't own a foot of dirt in colorado but i look out there and say look at the beauty man that belongs to me that belongs to me oh belongs to you the present the future it's all ours in christ because we belong to christ and christ belongs to god i mean what an inheritance we have therefore in the church as the culture begins to bleed into much of the church we don't want to become a ghost forest and we will not if we understand who we are and what we have and then there's a very tremendous verse at this time is so timely for you and for me it's found in first peter chapter number two verse listen this present value listen carefully then is for you who believe family of faith but for those who disbelieve outside the stone which the builders rejected this became the very cornerstone and the stone of stumbling a rock of defense offense but they stumble because they're disobedient to the word the seed that has been sown and to this doom they were also appointed now here's the verse listen carefully this is the reason we don't have any divisions in the true body of christ the church we don't have this is the affluent this is another fluid this is the super educated this is the barely educated this is those who speak this language and those who speak this language this is those who are this color and this is those who are not this color and we don't have any of that in the body of christ and peter says it's so clear he said you are a brand new race a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation people for god's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light folks that's who the body of christ is this is what we have this is what we can do and understand that we're all just bricks bricks in the church the church is the very body of christ in the 21st century and we are all in the church in christ we are a brand new race you got it don't let anybody mess with it because that's a fundamental basis against the way the body of christ can penetrate the culture and stand for the word of truth when everybody seems to entertain big blatant lies as the hurricanes flow upon us paul said to corinth this is what you do this is how you live and god's saying the same thing to all of us right now in this moment of his history

Channel: Second Baptist Church, Houston

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Length: 49min 33sec (2973 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021