ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS

if you have your Bibles tonight please turn with me to the Book of Jeremiah the sixth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah we're going to read one verse here tonight Jeremiah chapter six reading verse number 16 this verse can be looked at as an altar call given by the holy spirit to Judah powerful words and these words were not meant just for Judah but they're meant for the for the church today as well the Holy Spirit through Jeremiah would say thus saith the Lord stand you in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls but they said we will not walk therein and I want to use for a subject ministry just for a few moments tonight the words given by the holy spirit to Jeremiah to a backslidden nation or a backslidden people ask for the old paths ask for the old paths let's pray Heavenly Father we come before you tonight in the name of Jesus Christ we thank you for what we have experienced here in this camp meeting this resurrection camp meeting and Lord I'm asking that you would anoint us to minister a night anoint us to teach and notice to preach and anoint us to hear what you would have a saying what we ask that your words would be upon our lips and let us say exactly what you want us to say and we ask it all in the name of Jesus Christ given you praise and given you glory and everybody said amen in a man this past February I had the opportunity to minister to church in Spartanburg South Carolina truth Chapel a great church there in Spartanburg a church that preaches the message of Jesus Christ and in crucified when the Pastor Scott Corbin when he came to pick me up that Friday night for the service I was telling him how excited that I was about being a part of this service let me tell you you know whenever I travel and I mean this from the very bottom of my heart whenever I travel no matter where I go I consider it an honor because I have the opportunity to share with young people with adults the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified a message that has changed my life I consider it the highest honor in the world where they whether they be maybe 10 people which or maybe 10,000 doesn't matter which no matter how what the number is I do consider it an honor to preach this gospel and as I was there I was talking to him about the excitement that I had about the service he told me he says you know we're excited too he said we've had people coming since 5:30 just to get a seat in our church and service didn't start till 7 o'clock I mean an hour and a half before trying to get a seat and he said by 6 o'clock the place was full and he said we're having to sit out chairs in the lobby of our church because we've got nowhere else to put them and when I walked into that church it was about a 30 minute drive from the hotel where I was staying to the church when I walked in on that cold February night you couldn't fit another car in the parking lot as I walked in people were all over the place they were sitting in the lobby they were packed to the to the gunwale so to speak in the church itself and when I walked in I was greeting some fokin in their Lobby right off to the left there was a little hallway that went to some water fountains and closets some restrooms what-have-you and I just happen to be nearing that walkway or that hallway and I was turned around and I was talking to somebody greeting them and I just happened to make a turn to my left and my eyes met a lady you must have been in her 50s she stood there she must have been about maybe 4 foot 11 5 foot tall something like that and she looked at me tears begin to feel her eyes and rolled down her cheeks she said I can't believe it you're standing here in front of me and I kind of laughed and when I when I hear that I just don't think anything about it but I grabbed her hand shook it and I began to talk to her for a moment and she couldn't get words out she said you're going to have to forgive me but she said for years about oh crystal meth I was hooked on crystal meth so bad that I lost everything and in my little apartment where I was I made the decision that I was going to in my life I was going to commit suicide I made my decision I was going to lay down in my bed on the mattress that I had and just take some lighter fluid and some gasoline or whatever it was and pour it on and like that thing of blaze and set me off and I was going to kill myself but she said in just a moment's time haphazardly I just reached over and I turned on the television set and she said no listening before I say that let me say this every time that I hear something like this it thrills my soul when people come up to me and said that I was saved under your grand fathers ministry I was in Madison Square Garden in New York City in the 1980s and I gave my heart to Jesus Christ I've seen the letters and I've seen the testament that thrills my soul when I hear people say that I was baptized with the Holy Spirit in my car listening to sonlife radio as your dad was preaching on the Holy Spirit I had thrills my soul but when it happens to me whenever they say it was because of your ministry may I tell you I feel that big but she looked at me and she said when I turned on the television set I had it in my mind I was going to commit suicide but she said you were on television and she said I don't I didn't know you I never heard of you I have never heard of your ministry or of sunlight broadcasting but that was the first channel that came on the air when I turned it on and she said when I was sitting there getting ready to commit suicide you said in a message don't do that God loves you God loves you God loves you she said you pointed that fingers that you maybe wanted to commit suicide but Jesus Christ can change your life he can break the bondage of sin and change your whole world she says she's happy she's that I set there I stood up and she said oh god he's talking about me and she said I didn't know what else to do I just sat there on that mattress bound by crystal meth and I said yah she said God if you're real then whatever that man's telling me please I won't it please I want it please I want it if she said it on moments Tom you gave an altar call and she said I just I knelt down right in front of my television set and I gave my heart to Jesus Christ she said pastor gave my world has been changed I'm no longer bound by crystal meth but I'm bound by Jesus Christ I'm bound by Jesus Christ when I heard that I just couldn't help myself tears were beginning to roll down my own cheeks and I'll the only thing I could think of was this what would have happened if she would have turned on that television set and saw me promoting a hip-hop show what would have happened if she turned on a television set in her despair and she saw me talking about some only God knows what what if she saw me promoting a rock quote/unquote Christian rock show what would have happened I tell you what would have happened she would have died and gone to hell but thank God thank God when she turned on that television set she didn't see a hip-hopper she didn't see a rock and roller but she saw a young man who would say Jesus saved Jesus healed Jesus baptized it's quickl Holy Spirit and Jesus it's coming again the only thing I can think of is when she told me that testimony oh happy day oh happy day when he washed all my sins away what a day my lord what a moment in time before in just a few minutes you was a sinner bound by sin and in just a few moments later she was now a Christian a child of the Most High God with her name written down in the Lamb's Book of Life [Applause] thank God for the saving power of Jesus Christ thank God for the cross I got to share this one more illustration I have been all morning when I was asking the Lord about direction for this service he brought this story back to my mind I've shared it many times before but I'm talking about what this old path can do a man in Germany many years ago just like the dear sister that I related to just a moment ago made a mess of his life and he decided that if he was going to do the same thing commit suicide he loaded a revolver he looked down and stared at it he said now is the time and he made a decision that he was going to walk that walk through that little town of Germany where he lived and not too far from his apartment there was a bridge and he made his decision he was going to walk to that bridge climb over that railing take that revolver out and put it into his mouth and pull the trigger and let his body his lifeless corpse fall to the to the waters beneath that were rushing underneath that bridge there was two ways to get there there was a shorter route and there was a longer route and for whatever reason he decided to take the longer route to get there and through that route that he was traveling it went through town and as he was walking through town with that revolver tucked into his back pocket with every step he took the devil was telling him you can be blown it this is your time you need to die your time is over your life is a mess it's a wreck you've ruined it you've wasted it with that I can't I don't know what that's like ladies and gentlemen I don't know what that hell is like to know when Satan is constantly beating you down telling you you might as well give up you might as well quit you might as well just commit suicide you've made a fool of yourself one too many times but as he was walking through that town he heard some music playing off in the distance and it piqued his interest but he didn't really pay much attention he listened and then just kept on walking but as he got closer it was a little storefront Church where they were having service maybe 20 or 30 people and as that young man was walking closer to that building he heard the words being sung in German there's room at the cross for you there's room at the cross for you he heard though millions have closed there's still room for just one there's room at the cross for you and he stopped in his tracks that revolver in his back pocket he stopped and he looked and there was that door to the entrance of that church and he kept hearing at there's room at the cross for you there's room at the cross for you those millions have come there still room for just one there's room for the pride the cross for you he flung the doors open he ran down the aisle of that church flagging his hands saying stop stop stop his singers began to stop they stopped singing and he study stood there trembling and he said is that true is the song that you're saying is it true is there still room for one and the pastor looked he said young man yes there is room for one there is room for one and he sat there and he bowed his head and began to sob and he said but you don't understand what I've done and that pastor lifted his head and said no sir you don't understand what he's done you don't understand what he's done and at that moment just like the dear sister I meant mentioned just a moment ago what would have happened if they where he walked right on by and they were having some youth conference with boxes on their head and people dancing to shuffling what would have happened in a church and a youth conference they would have been playing secular music I'll tell you once again that soul would have been bound for hell but because the cross was the focus of that church they are though is a new name that is written down in glory there's room there's room I said there's room I said there's room at the cross you don't have to commit suicide there's still room at the cross for you you don't have to live a life of sin there's still room at the cross for you praise God thank God that we preach the cross thank God we preach the cross thank God we preach the cross I want to take you back a little further in time before my text about three thousand years ago Solomon had just completed the building of the temple all of Israel the nation of Israel the most powerful nation on the planet they were all there everyone was surrounding the temple it was a quietness their holy hush seven years it took to complete the building of the temple where God would resign his Solomon walked across a platform where there stood before him an altar with a sacrifice prepared you can read this in second Chronicles and I won't take the time to go into it but the Bible says in the seventh chapter he said as he made an end to pray as the altar was there the sacrifice was laid on it the fire of God fell from heaven consumed the sacrifice that was there as God accepted the sacrifice that fire was a fire of judgment that came upon Christ when he should have come upon you and I God had accepted the sacrifice and the Bible said that the glory of the Lord filled the house you see most people want the glory but they don't want the sacrifice now most say it again most churches want the glory but they don't want the sacrifice you can't have the glory until you first experience the sacrifice you can't have the glory filled this house until you first experience the sacrifice of Christ the glory of the Lord filled the house a little later Solomon offered a hundred and twenty thousand sheep for sacrifice in twenty-two thousand oxen for sacrifice he was telling Israel that our strength is not in our programs that our strength is not in how much money that we have our strength is not how many people that we have but our strength is relies on the shed blood of the Lamb he was telling them that our strength is coming from the sacrifice of one who is to come and I will say this now our strength of this ministry is not in the program that we have the strength of this ministry is not found in the all the junk that's going on but the strength of this ministry is found on one thing the shed blood of Jesus Christ I'm going to say this right now what has kept us afloat for 20 plus years was not our programs because we didn't have any programs I went to a church they had their celebrate recovery we didn't have that we don't have that we never have had that we know a celebrate recovery come down to an altar because when you come down to an altar and say Lord I can't do this myself I need the help of Jesus Christ I need the help of the Holy Spirit that's recovery I said that's recovery that's recovery all we had to go on was the faith our faith and even though we may not have truly understood it up until 1997 a year I graduated high school I now always remember that it's easy to remember but even though we may not have fully understood it until then we were not looking to man's ways we were looking to the way that God had set forth before us which was the cross which is the cross which ever shall be the cross of Jesus Christ but after the death of Solomon the nation of Israel split the Northern Kingdom of Israel otherwise known as Samaria or Ephraim they never had one godly King never had one godly king to sit upon the throne to lead them in to steer them in the right direction and as you've heard it said and the first time I ever heard it was on a Sunday morning when dad was ministering I don't even remember what it was but he made a statement and is stuck with me and it's never been more apropos than now as the church goes so goes the nation if the church is all based the nation will be all based but if the church is on track the nation will be on track and we can see that before our very eyes in the nation or in this northern kingdom as they never had a godly King and therefore they were led in a wrong direction idolatry and some 93 years less than a hundred years before my text Israel had suffered the fate of destruction and now Judah who had godly kings but right now at the time of my text during the ministry of Jeremiah the weeping prophet Judah was facing destruction herself and the reason was as I was studying this the reason can be found in who and word and this is what I believe as the Lord would look at you - and call her ways treacherous because she knew better the light that she had been given by God she knew better and yet she still went or whoring after idols now I want you to listen to me very quickly what I'm going to say here in just a moment is it may be a little strong but it has to be said when you look at the surrounding heathen nations surrounding Israel very rarely do you ever see or would you ever read that they would change gods unless they were defeated by another Kingdom they would very rarely ever change gods because they were worshipping demons spirits but you will read in the Bible over and over of Judah or of Israel changing God's going from Jehovah to mullah going from Jehovah to Bale going to from Jehovah Tasha going from Jehovah to another God to Hobart to another God the church is doing the same thing now the world is already worshipping Satan so why in the world will the church want to try to hold the hand of God and play footsies with the world why in the world with the church who has like given to her want to try to emulate or copy the ways of the world why in the world will we want to say hey they're doing hip-hoppers we should do something just like that because it will reach the young people I've said this before so please y'all just bear with me but I want us to understand something where would you find in the Bible where Jesus Christ Himself said well I've got to change the way I do things to reach young people [Music] you won't find it and I'm gonna say something else and y'all just bear with me some of you are saying y'all are beating a dead horse well we're going to keep beating until Jesus says otherwise I am sick and I am tired of that Church allowing this foolishness to go amongst our young people to say oh it'll just reach it no he won't it's sending young people to hell I'm sorry I don't want secular music in my church I'm sorry I don't want that junk in my church I'm sorry I don't want truss fire to see that as long as I'm here we will do one thing three Jesus Christ and him crucified I'm sick and tired of our youth pastors shutting this book and open the book of somebody else man's ways leads to destruction God's ways lead to eternal life and we'll say it one more time the basis of this thing called rap music rock music punk metal ska whatever you want to call it they're all the the basis is the same it is inspired by demon spirits I [Applause] let me just harp on rap music just for a second please just let me just get on my soapbox Chris work just for a second I'm sick and tired of people emailing me and say oh it's a cultural thing I'm sick and tired of people saying oh it's their culture it's a cultural thing turn to Genesis you won't deal with culture go ahead just just keep sending me the emails please some of you are getting mad right now that's just because the Lord is convicting you talk about culture it's a call to think Genesis chapter 12 verse 1 it says now the Lord had said unto Abram get thee out of your country and from your kindred and from your father's house unto a land that I will show you his culture Abraham's culture was that of idolatry his culture was that of idol worship his family were Idol makers wealthy individuals and yet God told Abram get out of your culture because your culture is that of sin and he says come on to a new culture that I will show you and it's found a few chapters later let me read this a few chapters later Genesis 15 verse 6 talk about a new culture and he speaking of abraham believed in the lord and he the lord counted it unto him as righteousness oh you're not getting this I can tell you're not getting this the Lord saves us out of something and brings us into something he saves us out of sin and brings us into Jesus Christ so come on just send me the emails about culture your culture is full of sin we ought to come out from among them and be separate saith the law I am sick and I am tired of the church coddling to the things of this world it's got to stop it's got to stop it's got to stop I'm I am sick and tired of praise and worship leaders telling me oh you don't know what you're talking about I've been raised in this I may not be a musician and I know I may not be able to sing but I can tell what's right and I can tell what's wrong as one of my Twitter buddies Michael Trucks Lee told me he said pastor Gabe I have to be honest with you when you started dealing with music I didn't like it because you were talking about rap and rock and those are my favorite two genres I'm a drummer but he said as I started to listen to you the word began to come back to me try the spirits and he said I had to try the spirits and he said I had to come to the conclusion that the Spirit of God see that's what we're talking about we're not talking about genre we're talking about the Spirit of God he said I had to come to the conclusion that the Spirit of God was not old skillet it was not on the crank it was an old disc group or that group but the Spirit of God is only old that with the Holy Spirit anoint I know when I mentioned the crane some of you like who in the world is that I'm not going to well say it this way people email me what about lecrae his lyrics even though he's a rapper his lyrics listen to the lyrics you've heard me share this absolutely absolute in here but I'm not gonna repeat what he said because it's right he but he's right I know what this rap music can do it was inspired by demon spirits to cause rebellion and our young people if they're dead throw my lord if they say it's Christian rap well we might as well just go ahead and take cigarettes and stay just just mark Marlboro off and put Jesus burro we might as well just take our beer just erase Michelob and just put Jesus low but whatever because they all say oh it's nice nothing wrong with yes there is something wrong I'll put it to you this way just as Michelob just as nicotine will kill you rap music will kill your spirit I've seen and I've been I was invited to a rapture one time and I went and the guy was rapping about Jesus he rapped about Jesus he rapped about the cross he rapped about God but what shocked me was the reaction of the audience because the reaction of the audience was not worshiping the Lord the reaction of the audience was bumpin and grindin upon each other with some other find in hotel rooms right after you can't tell me that that's going to glorify God come on now you can't tell me that Jesus Christ gets honor out of that mess now somebody would sit there this was coming from these they would say all their just old fuddy-duddies you can see the hair is a little white or except for a couple of them and one of them doesn't have any hair true story when Mike lived in Mississippi he came down to Baton Rouge to do our FCA revival at the school and he was staying with me and he was I was just showing around a little apartment that I was in and I looked and said well Mike if you need any shampoo I got some here he looked at me said does it look like I need shampoo that's one of those ones when you said it you really want to have him back but if it was coming from them they would say all we expect that from them but it's coming from a young person some of them would sit there and say well they're not up with the times they're a little old fashioned if you think that you can turn me if you think that you sit there and say well he's young he can adapt his ways to this you don't know much about me do you because of this I am cut from the same cloth of these gentlemen aren't up here now I'm going to say I don't mean to bring glory to them but I'm cut from the same cloth from a man who stood up in front of the whole Catholic Church and said to just shall live by faith and so more Catholics safe than any Protestant probably in history to add to that and this one makes some of you mad I'm cut from the same cloth from a man who would stand up and say to these prosperity pimps who is stand up and said the love of money is the root of all evil you need to come back to Jesus Christ and him crucified now just say this about my grandmother I'm cut from the same cloth of a woman with the solid steel backbone that won't put up with anything from anybody that will tell you point-blank you're a fool and you're going to hell I Love You Mimi so you think you can turn me I don't think so I don't think so I know in whom I have believed and I know that this old path still works today and Judah was facing a crisis and God would raise up Jeremiah he would raise him up the weeping prophet who had cried over the state and condition of Judah as he would see them constantly trying to adapt to the methods and the ways of this world let me say this real quick and I believe this with my whole heart young people you're in this audience young people you're listening to me I want you to listen to me very carefully youth pastors listen you cannot use the methods of the world to reach the world you can't do it you can't do it I said you can't do it I want to say one more time quit trying to hold the hand of God while playing footsies with the world it don't wear what nowadays the church is not even playing footsies with it they're just already complete without hold man they've already done apostatized and they have just embraced the ways of the world as I showed my grandparents I showed my dad of a video of a youth conference and I had half the mind to say where it is and what it is but I won't do it because I don't want to give them any publicity but to sit there and to see the beginning of a youth conference whether playing a secular song called every day I'm shuffling and young people are going nuts and going crazy in this you got guys and girls and boxes on their heads doing a dance routine the church is trying to entertain our young people when I want to say this and I want to say it very exciting some young people over here I'm gonna say it right now I am NOT in the business of entertaining anybody I am not in the business of entertaining our young people it's my business and responsibility to give them the word of Almighty God now I got a hurry some of you got to leave and some of you are getting hungry and Jeremiah was brokenhearted to see the state of Judah The Book of Jeremiah is one of the most haunting books in the Bible because you could feel the urgency of the Holy Spirit trying to get them to turn around he would talk route to them stands you in the ways that means to orderly seek the way of God but the bottom line is the church is not seeking the way of God they're seeking the ways of men and he said ask for the old paths that word asking is to implore it means to beg ask all you've got to do is ask thank God you don't have to jump through a bunch of Hoops just like when I'm interested as I said those stories of illustrations just a moment ago those individuals didn't have to do a tenth step or a twelve step program all they had to do with ask ask for the old paths have word old when you think of the word old you think of these gray heads I heard the keys he's I think he's gonna get him walk out on me on this one but even though the word old means ancient I'm kidding but that word old means everlasting that word old means everlasting it means that even though it was done before the foundations of the world even though it in the mind of God the Lamb of God was slain before the foundations of the world it is ever lasting mean it will never stop working that word everlasting means it will continue from yesterday to today for tomorrow for next year for next month or for the next ten years for the next 20 years for the next millennium it is ever lasting it's called an everlasting covenant it's an everlasting covenant it doesn't wear out it doesn't go away it doesn't change with the times it stays firm it stays true and it stays right on course it means everlasting it's an everlasting path it is a path that which it leads us to the cross art was painful and given by Jesus Christ through what he did at Calvary now I know some people will sit there and say that all roads and all paths lead to the same God no they don't some of you got a fly out tomorrow I'm going to ask you to try and do this once you get through security just go pick a plane and see if it will take you home come on now just go and try when you leave this building to go back to your hotel instead of taking a right take a left and see if that will take you back to your hotel you're gonna be lost as a goose time to figure out where in the world you are saying goes if you said annoy we saw a new path or a different path that's not proscribed by this book you don't be lost as a goose trying to find out where in the world you are but let me stop here and say that while you're on that wrong path all you've got to do is turn around and ask and God will bring you back in the right path leading to the right direction ask for the old paths youth pastors it's time that we start asking for the old path he said stand in the way that were stand means don't move from it that means don't walk away from it that means stand firm Paul would say stand fast and the Liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled in the yoke of bondage again ask for the old paths and the Holy Spirit would say in that old path it's a good way because it's the right way I like what it has been said over and over everything that God does is a come on church you can do better than that everything that God does is good it is a good way because it is the right way the right way even though it may be difficult at times it is a good way because in this good way he said walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls that means rest means what I was doing this afternoon on my couch do you ever wonder how to get a good nap trying to light down and put on golf I'll put on the golf masters 2df put on the Masters today and I looked at it and next thing you know I'm out I was resting rest means I'm not doing this myself but I'm resting in what Christ has done for us that path is the path of the Cross we're about we can rest that the Holy Spirit that works through the called overt works through the cross causes us to rest Isaiah 28 rest now singers as issues make your way back home rest for your souls you'll find salvation you'll find peace you'll find rest you'll find happiness you'll find joy unspeakable and full of glory but the indictment by the Holy Spirit against Judah was this last phrase but they said we will not walk therein and despite the fact that Jeremiah would plead with Judah she would lose her way and be destroyed the church is finding themselves in the same condition or will they say but we will not walk therein or will they turn around and I like what that word was given last night I'm measuring the church for a blessing I'm measuring the church for blessing everything we need to know is found in this book and we must ask for the old pat stand your feet everybody's standing we're going to close out this camp meeting I want us to gather around this front here if we can everyone that can before we dismiss and I want us right now I want us just to begin to just worship the Lord just for a moment and just begin to thank him for everything that he's done for us as they sing whatever it is they feel lesser sing Oh Josef uh good now just thinking that just rejoice just thank you might now for those old hat watching by television by radio listeners just rejoice with us as we close out the Jesus that keeping me alive well it's the power of [Music] ah hee hee hee my god she's a keeper [Music] one more time if you can't let's go you speak [Music] we play we be merry which the whole notion [Music] what boy this yours Oh keep that knee and that he is hey baby big old ago he bet me [Music]

Channel: Gabriel Swaggart

Views: 2,838

Rating: 4.6610169 out of 5

Keywords: Gabriel Swaggart, Crossfire Youth Ministry, The Cross, Gospel, Gabe Swaggart, Pastor Gabe, GSRally, Holy Spirit, Christianity, The Comforter, God, Jesus Christ, The Cross of Christ, CrossLife, The Message of the Cross

Id: xiDmIGZZwjk

Length: 52min 45sec (3165 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2017