John Bradshaw - First Service - Fully Persuaded

good morning everyone hope you are well and blessed and encouraged in the Lord and anticipating uh God coming near to you today we are thrilled that it is camp meeting time blessed and privileged each one of us to be here in what today is God's house um yeah where do you go from there little ask for Words somebody suggested I should just pray the closing prayer and we'd all be uh we'd all be very blessed um two things one the young man traveling to New Zealand the new pastor Pastor Melo clearly a man of God clearly he's going to New Zealand I mean that's the evidence right there grateful for that very very very thankful to see a strong emphasis on evangelism in the Georgia cumland conference very thankful there's a reason we exist and if you hear at the second service you'll hear me say a little bit more about that one of the things that we are privileged at it is written to be involved in is evangelism and evangelism training everything we do perhaps with the exception of one television program is geared towards evangelism and that there's an asterisk by that remark that I just made evangelism and evangelism training you know that next year the North American division is gearing up for or next we are now gearing up for what next year will be Pentecost 2025 uh NAD has tapped us on the shoulder and said would you be one of the training portals or Outlets or agencies for Pentecost 2025 and we have said of course we would we' like to do that that's what we do so if even at your church if you would like somebody to stop by and spend just a little while uh talking with you about how to be effective in Outreach and Evangel ISM we have trained experts is in fact um it was referenced the the tremendous work I did in um Anchorage Alaska I I say that with a smile I was there for a few days and uh turned the meeting over to my associate uh our evangelism director Pastor West peppers and he carried that thing through and uh God blessed mightily when you can go to a small place a little Regional Village in the middle of absolutely nowhere and conduct a meeting in a tiny town uh they streamed what Wes and I did in Anchorage and four people are being baptized 10 more are studying with a view to being baptized uh those numbers will grow and that will that will live on so I'm blessed to work with a great team I have good people around me they're doing a wonderful work and uh please do pray for it is written I would appreciate that you know that we're a donor funded Ministry and I know that there are several people here today that God is using to support it is written thank you for that support it means an awful lot to us and if you would at the very least pray for what God is doing through it is written we would greatly appreciate it we've now brought up 68 years of ministry and uh by the grace of God our aim is to hang around until Jesus returns so thank you for making that possible we are blessed to be able to share Jesus in a variety of ways well let's pray shall we ask God to speak to us our Father in heaven we say thank you that you have brought us here to this place today we say thank you for your presence we are not going to ask that you would pour out your Holy Spirit you've done that you've done that we're here at your place your spirit is present what we are praying though is that your spirit would penetrate our hearts not that you would be present but that we would be present that we would meet here in this place Paul referred to the foolishness of preaching and we know that it can be nothing unless your Holy Spirit somehow brings conviction and awareness and a response so I'm praying again that you touch my heart that you might speak through me unencumbered even by the weaknesses of sinful Humanity that you'd speak to each heart don't let out dull senses prevent your Holy Spirit from cutting through what might even be the chaos of Our Lives the busyness of Our Lives cut through Lord and say to each individual heart through your spirit what needs to be said grant us Grace to receive it we thank you today and we pray your blessing in jesus' name amen when my son was still at Southern and our nephew his cousin was living with us the nephew came home with what was probably the ultimate student car I mean you knew that he had paid as little as possible as soon as you saw the vehicle and even then it seemed to us that he had probably overpaid a couple of things came with that vehicle that he was not anticipating one of them is strong odor he wasn't sure whether the car had been used as a place to stash the bodies or as a place where people hung out to smoke marijuana or just what but he knew he could not drive that car smelling like that so he approached my wife's auntie and said Auntie Melissa do you have anything do you know of any way that I could get that smell out of that car and she said oh yes her eyes lit up because this was her big moment you see years and years ago we were on on the road doing Evangelistic meetings and we were staying in a place that smelled something like that car and we mentioned that and someone at the church said I've got just the thing and they gave us they actually gave us a brown box about that size with a screen on the front and a plug you plug it in the wall and it wors into life and that will miraculously take every smell out of every space every smell you don't want it' be gone boom like that and so we tried it in the place we were staying and of course it didn't work it was never going to work it was a mythological thing but Melissa's eyes lit up she got a big smile yes we got something for you and my my brow sort of furrowed and I looked at her as if to say really because I'd been advocating throwing the thing in the trash for actually years act not exaggerating years there's a possibility we were up decades we were certainly be gone the decade and so Aaron took the extension cord plugged it in the wall plug the little magic box into the back of that put it inside his car slammed the door turned it on and said how long should I leave it I said a year maybe maybe longer his aunt said well just a few hours Aaron go back and see he went back he said no no no change this is after a few hours I said will try it tomorrow run it for a day at least I said he went back the next day no change he came to his aunt with the Box in his hand the extension CT trailing a confused look upon his countenance he said aunt Melissa does this thing work good question and that's the question that we want to ask today does this thing work do you remember a few years ago there was always somebody in your ch Church wearing a copper bracelet someone had told him it was going to take arthritis away it's was going to fix their frozen shoulder it would it would stop you from wetting the bed it was just a magic thing now if you're wearing one right now my suggestion is that you pull your sleeve down like that I don't want you to get hit but I'm about to shoot where you are standing everybody was wearing one of not everybody he was usually an old guy maybe he had good reason for it he was dealing with with some aches and pain someone at church said this is what you need Sid and so Sid took that thing and put it on and of course it made no difference unless it had some kind of placebo effect and then and then somebody I don't know who but it was the person who got in first or second made a mountain of money running around the church selling collodial silver you remember that oh yeah that was going to take away the warts that you had it would fix tonal fungus there'd be no more tontis everything you got to fix it all I don't know anything at fixed and I know to you know usually usually I I I have the closing prayer and walk down here not after saying that I'm going to run out the back door run a mile and after a mile there'll be somebody chasing after me with a bottle of codo silver you can't say that but I just did I don't know maybe it cured you cancer don't think so maybe it cued the ringing in your ears I mentioned that a moment don't think so the question we would ask about that is does that stuff work and and and and someone's going to say yes but those of us who tried it and I'm not one you know what I did drink I did drink that b grass you remember that yeah and if you're a health reformer of any kind then you know the worse something tastes the better it is for you B based on that I should have all my hair I should S I should be 6' 6 in tall I should be a polymath speaking a dozen languages I drank that stuff and suffered accordingly and so my wife came home with something she didn't tell me not that she was Keeping a Secret we don't do that but I opened up the dryer one day and I saw these round things a little smaller than softballs uh no a little smaller than baseballs spikes on them I said what are these she said they're called dryer balls and what do they do they get the clothes drier more efficiently I said no I don't think so but not not wanting to fight or fuss I mean what harm can they do I dutifully dried my clothes or our clothes with the dryer balls in there rattling around thinking to myself you just got had lady I cannot tell you how disappointed I was to Google dry balls and discover that they actually do increase the efficiency of your dryer I was crestfallen I asked the question do these things work evidently I mean you know when they tell you they make the dryer work 10 or 15% more efficiently I have no idea how they measure that it's just a claim plucked out of nowhere means that husbands like me can't debate with wives like mine there's something else I I'd like to speak with you about this morning you know my burden is not claudi or silver copper bracelets magic boxes that take away odors or actually don't remove odors I'm going to ask the question does this thing work and your response well that's really what's most important so what is it that I'm really concerned about today we want to do a little investigation ask the question question what is it we must be talking about I want to go back in time with you more than 200 years and here in the United States Presbyterians methodists and Baptists adapted what they'd learned from Christians in England and Scotland and they would come together to meet for very large gatherings in the outdoors all across the American frontier many years ago about that long ago there was a gathering a couple of hours from here in southern Kentucky a presbyterian preacher named John mccreedy described what happened at a large Camp Meeting way back in the year 1800 so we're talking really two and a quarter centuries ago I won't read you everything he said because the first few words really make the point he said no person seemed to wish to go home hunger and sleep seemed to affect nobody Eternal things were the vast concern here Awakening and converting work was to be found in every part of the multitude little children men and women and all gray-headed people persons of every description white and black that's interesting for Kentucky in the year 1800 when were to be found in every part of the multitude crying out for mercy in the most extreme distress people would come to camp meeting in their thousands and many of those people would go away converted lives changed we held at 7th Day Adventists our first camp meeting in 18 68 on the farm of one eh wri no eh route in wri Michigan about 10 mi from Grand Rapids and since then we've held camp meeting virtually every year in virtually every corner of the vineyard you know that this conference was formed when Georgia and Cumberland came together in the year 1932 so the Georgia conference had been around longer than that and I did not do my research to find out when camp meeting began but I bet you camp meetings have been going on since just about about the beginning and you remember to coming to c meeting since you were a small child irrespective of how old you are now c meeting takes an immense amount of planning they utilize a huge reserve of energy a lot of money is is absorbed in the execution of camp meeting one conference right now having entered into a period of financial difficulty has made the very unpopular decision to cancel their really rather excellent camp meeting this year nobody liked that but of course the conference is saying we are in some kind of financial shortfall this is not this conference obviously another one three time zones away they're saying we have a financial shortfall something's got to go camp meeting costs a boatload of money let's cut that and many of the Saints are upset about that but what they fail to realize is that c meeting is a massive un taking a lot of work goes into this many of the staff at the conference office uh uh put aside everything else and zero in on Camp Meeting the pastors have come here from all around the conference they're helping out with this and that and the other and the primaries and the Juniors oh I'm not against it you know I'm not against it not at all but what we've got to realize is that camp meeting doesn't just happen on its own and like everything else in life it's not free and so I've got a question for you this morning which I think is a fair question the question is does this thing work I don't want you to answer out loud I'd like you to think about it because you're saying to yourself what does that even mean what would it look like if camp meeting worked again let me know let let me let you know I'm not asking from a position of doubt I'm a Believer i i i my answer is sure absolutely we got to have it but I I do want to awaken inquire in your mind this morning you might think our answer would of necessity be arbitrary but that is far from true so ladies and gentlemen what is Camp Meeting it's a spiritual convocation it's a time to come together and focus on the word of God what is the point you can hear a sermon any old place you don't have to come here to hear one you can meet people at camp or you can meet with you you go visit another church to see your friends you don't have to come here to hear them you can hear excellent music probably in your church every week now probably not going to hear anything as excellent as the Emanuel quartet or the Claret quartet but you're going to hear fine music and going to touch your heart you'll be blessed you don't have to come here for that I would suggest to you that the point of camp meeting is today just what it has always been being and that must be our transformation now you're thinking about that someone was going to say man they didn't I understand why it was probably a good thing if camp meeting is really for our spiritual growth I want you to do a little moral inventory right now and think back about how many camp meetings you've been to what you were like spiritually when you first came to camp meeting and what you like now no no no camp meeting can't do everything of course it can't do everything no thing does everything but has camp meeting helped you in your growth surely the point of camp meeting is that we grow in the grace of God surely it is that we become more like Jesus now I hope that some of youall are going to participate in the 5K tomorrow but the 5K which has become popular in recent years is not the point of c meeting some of you I'm sure are going home with with boatloads of books from the ABC and I hope you do what enough the ABC has a sale tonight if they do you need to go you ought to go and look on those tables of B and books but then go inside and buy a raft of of the most expensive books you can find and yes of course I'm trying to kiss up to the ABC manager but but that that's that's you don't need to worry about that but you ought to get over to the ABC the ABC is not the point of cat meeting though bulk purchases of Veggie food processed veggie food boy it's a good thing we don't eat [Applause] meat you got to take some of that home seminar classes during the day we've had some excellent seminars here sermons at night seeing old friends is that the is that the point surely it cannot be I was at a camp meeting just a couple of years ago they have an excellent tradition there one family has been putting on lunch not for everyone but for the the few the proud and the chosen for 60 years the the mom and dad started doing it long ago and they did every single you they put up a canopy and invite people not just their friends but certain others they cook fantastic 60 years mom and dad got about 45 years in and couldn't do it any longer and the kids said we got to keep this going so now they are pushing up close to 65 years now all of the things that I mentioned lunch with your friends and the sermons and none of it's harmful well hang on I did mention the the processed veggie food but but giving that the benefit of the doubt none of that's harmful in fact I'm sure it's all positively good we're going to go home from camp meeting with memories oh did you see the Joneses aren't they looking great did you see the Smiths oh he's he's put on wait he's lost hair he's he's aged or were you talking about the Brad chores you know I don't know that's all good it's great we come here to to to see and experience we heard the reports we've heard Dr Johnson swamidass at night we've we've looked at some of the history of what's been taking place here in Georgia cuming over the years we are thrilled but I want to tell you that if all you take home is a smile and a good feeling and maybe a renewed friendship and a box of fried chicken some books then you've missed out if that's all you've taken away and you're not taking away from camp meeting this year a greater closeness with Jesus camp meeting friend of God was given us by God that we might grow in our faith in God that we might be strengthened that we might be converted or converted again and so we have have to ask ourselves the question does this thing work it's another way of saying what are we doing here this week or this weekend you see we have not been called by God to be secular wolves in sheep's clothing we have not been called to Simply Be worldly people with a Christian sticker affixed to to the bumper of Our Lives no God has called us to so much more we are going to Romans chapter 12 Romans the 12th chapter and we're going to start at the beginning of that rather pointed chapter Romans 12 Paul says I beseech you therefore Brethren he didn't say Hey listen I speak by permission and not by command he didn't say uh greet this one and that one greet Phoebe and Hermes he he's not oh and by the way let me drop this in he begins a new thought he wasn't writing in chapters but he was certainly writing in blocks and thoughts and he introduces this new thought by saying I appeal to you it's a little bit like he saying I beg of you he's saying listen carefully to me hear me clearly ye Saints there in Rome I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God if you were if you were listening to the letter being read and you were zoning out and the reader of the letter had had said and now Paul says I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God you might you might have perked up a little bit oh what's he saying now what's the point here what's he trying to communicate to me right now this might have been the thing that that would have woken up somebody sleeping up on the third floor I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God what's he saying now that you present your bodies a Living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service now I want you to think about that with me is he talking about the health message I mean not on the surface no but certainly that's included in the idea you present your body present your life Paul wrote a lot about your members the various parts of your body what he meant was you you that's what he said so I am appealing to you Brethren by the mercies of God that you present yourself to God a Living Sacrifice oh they knew what he was talking about they were familiar with the sacrificial system the burnt offering would be brought killed and then and then consumed consumed you know some Bibles will translate that idea about the offering Holocaust now I know in 2024 as we look in the rearview mirror and and scan our history that's a word that leaves us a little bit unsettled for good reason but but it paints a picture that were using that word holocaust not with reference to the Holocaust but what it means is is to completely burn up and God is saying I beseech you therefore Brethren that you present yourself a Living Sacrifice totally consumed some type of burning bush where a fire it's doing its work but but you are but you you remain the difference being you are refined I plead with you Paul says that you don't play church I'm begging you Paul says do not roll in the camp meeting hey y'all God bless you Happy Sabbath and walk out unchanged don't go back to your life with the same hard heart the same dirty mind the same closed fist the same combative Spirit the the feeling like you've got the gift of Correction every time someone speaks or sings or proposes an idea we got to go back not to the old life we got to run from the old life and embrace the new life while we are here so that we don't make the mistake of slipping back into lukewarmness do you realize what a crisis we are in we Sleepwalk didn't you read what Jesus said you think you're alive but you're dead you think you're good but you're wretched miserable poor blind and naked come on ladies and gentlemen Jesus wasn't speaking to the person sitting in front of you or behind you he was speaking to you and I don't mean to cause offense if you I think I'm pretty good if you thought that there's evidence that you're not pretty good we don't have a whole lot of time Brothers and Sisters Jesus is coming back soon and if he's if if it's going to be a while look at the date on your driver's license do some calculations for most of us we got to acknowledge irrespective of when the second coming is he's coming back pretty soon for us and so Paul says I am appealing to you the old life has got to be gone you got to go into the fire like Daniel did no no no Daniel went into the lion's den you got to go into the fire like Shadrach mhach and Abednego did the fire licked around them and blazed around them and the Babylonian stuff the ropes were burned up they came out without a shred of everything any anything Babylonian on them that's what we've got to beg God to do for us let the fire burn us Lord our God is a consuming fire uh same writer wrote and we've got to ask God to do that consuming work for us lest we live a lie and call for the mountains and the rocks to fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb he said present your body a Living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God and by the way I'm just going to make this point this is a whole sermon but I'm going to shrink it down to a point good people don't go to heaven holy people go to heaven you understand that right very big difference no one's good enough no one will ever be good enough you got to be holy where does holiness come from you tell me it comes from Jesus that's right acceptable unto God and notice what he said now it sounds like the preacher is pushing this a little bit too far maybe he's a little bit fanatical maybe now if you're thinking that God help you but but maybe but Paul is not being fanatical here he says I want you to I want your life to be as though you're a Living Sacrifice and then he says holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service wait a minute you you're talking about almost going overboard with this as though Jesus is going to be your whole life as though as though I ought to be happy going to church and maybe I ought to attend a prayer meeting and maybe I ought to share my faith with somebody and maybe I ought to give even more than the bare minimum maybe what Paul says it is your reasonable service that word reasonable it translate as rational friend of God to be Allin with Jesus is rational to not be all in with Jesus is irrational to be in the world and in the church that's irrational to fail to be committed to the one who died for you it's irrational have a hard heart in the light of what happened on Calvary where Jesus suffered and bled that's irrational but to say Jesus take my life take my heart that's rational in the words of the Bible writer verse two and be not conformed to this world man that's harder than ever isn't it be not conformed to this world now that we got social media begging us to to to to forget God we're living in a hateful World a mean-spirited world where all of the Traditional Values have been have been attacked yet Paul says You must not be conformed to this world well how in the world Paul he says be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God you see that's what camp meetings for transformation no I don't mean it's like a car wash you just drive drive through and come out sparkling on the other side but here we got to be listening for the convicting voice of God here we've got to be able to look to Calvary and see Jesus hanging on an Old Rugged Cross here we got to take to heart the things that we're learning we have so much Theory we could marinate in our religious Theory but if we somehow don't transfer that from Theory to practice if we don't experience the person of Jesus in our lives that theory will rise up and condemn Us in the Judgment something will say you knew better you knew Jesus on some level maybe you knew about Jesus God offers us so much more and here we are in the arena of God's grace I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercy of God and yet and yet and yet the culture threatens to eat the life out of us you know what to do when culture and the Bible disagree with each other stand on the Bible don't make excuses well well and listen I'm going to be careful enough to skirt some of that right now don't make excuses for the culture you don't have to understand why certain things are certain way you just need to understand what the Bible says and stand on that there is coming a time where God's people are going to say yeah well maybe it's just not that important after all maybe all these people can't possibly be wrong uh uh maybe a little compromise wouldn't be a bad thing you got to remember when Shadrach meach and Abednego were out there on the plain of dura when everybody was asked to bow down they did not they made a decision up here the Holy Spirit locked their knee joints down there and they could not would not bow down they made a stand and God is asking you to stand today stand for truth stand for Jesus stand on the word now don't don't be mean don't be a crank don't be fanatical about this but be biblical about this that's what God is calling us to Saul the persecutor was arrested by God on his way to Damascus and his heart was changed the jail Keeper in Acts 16 a man who undoubtedly had shed much blood in his time had an encounter that he couldn't deny with the real and the Risen Christ and his life was changed right there changed in an encounter he was baptized that night after an extensive interview with Paul and Silas believe on the Lord Jesus Christ he was sold you will be saved the same may be true for your household do we go away from camp meeting having encountered the spirit of God are we praying every day Lord fill me with your spirit speak through that preacher to feed my soul are we looking for opportunities to pray praying with each other are we drinking in the word of God and receiving the spirit of God friend experientially Christianity is a challenge we've been told that the hardest battle you ever have to fight is the battle against yourself we understand that but Christianity is simple you just say Yes to God yes to God yes to God here comes sin Yes to God why would you do that because long ago the Son of God the Divine son of of God who had been joined with his father since all eternity left heaven and came to Earth lived in the midst of a sinful world can any good thing come out of Nazareth evidently the answer is yes and there was Jesus carrying his cross there was Jesus having been spat upon and beaten there was Jesus covered in blood there was Jesus with much of his beard ripped out there was Jesus telling you that God loves you that much that heaven would send its best gift so that you and sin don't need to live together you can live separated from sin you and your corrupt heart don't have to stay welded together God can break those chains you can live with the hope hope Beyond this world you can live with the Assurance the Assurance of everlasting life friend of God you got to go away from c meeting knowing in your heart I'm a Child of God Jesus died for me the cross stands there on Cal for me and I will accept what Jesus accomplished there and believe that he changes my life and gives me a new heart conferences wrestle with budgets and finances making ends meet uh you know if we didn't have camp meeting we probably put 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 more workers in the field I don't know the number more workers in the field and so so the calculation is done this is so important am that will sacrifice workers in the field to do camp meeting for what I'm I'm not against it I'm challenging you you do not want this to be a waste of time energy and resources some of you have driven hours to be here this weekend you're spending money to stay wherever you're staying we say thank God for that let there be a return on the investment and you know I'm speaking more about camp meeting more than about Camp meaning your faith in God are you going through the motions you mustn't are you living a lie you don't need to you don't need to does this thing work it must work does faith in God work if anyone is in Christ that person is a new creature old things are what passed away how many things become new all that's right a man named Nicodemus an important man came to Jesus one night oh Rabbi we know that you are a teacher who has come from God you do so many wonderful things Jesus didn't even condescend to address that statement he spoke to the heart of this ruler and he said you must be born again and Nicodemus said uh what do you mean and he got into righteousness by stupidity you mean that I got to be entered into my mother's womb no Jesus said anyone who is born of water and of the spirit shall see the kingdom of God anyone who is not will not Jesus said 2,000 years ago to a man named Nicodemus you must be born again and he says the same thing to us today you're at camp meeting this year because God wants to change your heart I'm not telling you you're an awful rotten sinner but I am telling you you're a sinner you're here this weekend because God wants to change your heart now listen to me I said because God wants to change your heart you heard me wrong you heard me say you're here at camp meeting so you can go home and try harder I didn't say that somebody heard me say you here at camp meeting so that you can go home and succeed where you've been failing uh I didn't say that either you he at camp meeting that you can be born again and be made a new creature in Christ how does that happen it happens through the operation of the Holy Spirit of almighty God in the the Old Testament Brethren and sisters in the Old Testament Jesus said a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away or out of your flesh that Heart of Stone and I will give you a heart of Flesh so this is what God will do if you will let him this is what God will do if you will demand he does it this is what God will do through some almost unbelievable Miracle of Mercy he will look down and he will say I will change your heart when I was a church pastor my head Elder was just the loveliest kindest most gracious man and he told me once that before he met Jesus he was hard and mean and rough I didn't believe that I felt like he meant you know just just not quite as nice as now I had the uh Bittersweet privilege of speaking at his wife's funeral service and you know at the typical funeral service there's the the slideshow that plays recapping the deceased's life and as I looked up there and I saw Nancy just beaming much much younger and next to her my friend Larry with a Stern disposition and I looked at that it was a man I'd never seen before I looked at those pictures I said wow that that's a guy I would not want to meet in an alley or in a bar or frankly any place mean you could tell by looking at him but as a slideshow played and Nancy was getting older and obviously Larry was getting older as well suddenly you see next to Nancy this whole new man he was clearly a sweet man and a loving man it just radiated out from him and I knew that was when it happened I spoke to Larry after the funeral I said Larry tell me about that I saw this guy i' never seen before never met before meaner than sin you told me about that version of yourself yep and then there was this photo you were new you got converted right in between those two photos didn't you he told me yes he did that was when he prayed to God and said God I want you to give me a new heart I'm sick of being hard I'm sick of being argumentative I'm sick of being comp of I know exactly where it's leading me and I want you to make me new he said I prayed that prayer and it was a miracle suddenly I was a new man and I knew I was if Larry could have that experience then you can too I I I don't know what you're facing I have no idea some of you came in here today on good terms with the almighty thank God for you that's good most of us we did not we brought in here our meanness and our hardness we brought in here our cantankerousness we brought in here our our tendency to be selfish and dishonest maybe our dirty mind maybe an addiction of some kind maybe a moral failing you don't have to stay there this camp meeting time can be the the the the the pivot point of your entire Christian experience you know what it takes a decision you know what it takes believing that God loves you and wants the best for you believing that God is for you and not against you believing that God is not done with you but is still willing to make you new and keep you new what did Paul say I appeal to you College Dale camp meeting by the mercies of God that you present yourself a Living Sacrifice that is you've given everything to God the old you is dead and a new you has been raised up to live this new life Paul says I beg you College Dale camp meeting he's a appealing to us that we present ourselves what does he say not conformed to this world but transformed by the Rene of your mind what would convince you brother sister what would convince you why don't we just why don't we look away from ourselves to a moment and imagine I don't mean imagine imagine but imagine if you wish a hillside can't tell you exactly what it looks like but it's somewhere in Israel there are three crosses set up on there the one in the middle is for the one who created wood and they would nail him to a cross the only sinless one who has ever lived on this planet and he's dying there for you now if that one was too difficult lift your eyes up again you know it's good when you lift your eyes up and look beyond the ceiling of this place into the most holy place of the Heavenly sanctuary and in that place right now there is a savior with Scar and His Hands his hands are stretched out before God and he is appealing to God saying my blood my blood pleading his blood for you this is greater than any get out of jail free greater than any bail you could post greater than any deal you could broker dat greater than any any bartering you could enter into Jesus says I know all about your sin it has been bought by Heaven paid for by Heaven if you will accept the reality of that transaction then you can go from this place your heart made new and when you stumble cuz you're inevitably will you're you're still going to look towards the heavens and you're going to say he's still there and he's still there for me and when someone calls you a hypocrite you're going to say okay maybe I'm a hypocrite but I got a savior in heaven and I have been saved by the blood that he shed for me and when you feel like a failure cuz the devil is going to accuse you you're going to look towards the heavens and you're going to say thank God he's still [Applause] there had a disturbing dream one T night I was years ago I don't remember the circumstances of my dream but in my dream I dreamed that my wife had died boy it got to me and I woke up in the morning feeling like I I'd just been in a funeral opened up my eyes and there she was right next to me and I said to I shook her and I said thank God you're still here she said what you're still here I'm sure she rolled over and went back to sleep sinner I want you to look up towards heaven with me and look by faith in the most holy Place Jesus is still there and as long as he's still there you may have the assurance that he is working in your life that he's making a new creature out of you that heaven is yours and that when Jesus comes back he's going to take you among the redeemed to dwell in that glorious Place forever does this thing work it does will it work for you it will work if you make the decision to surrender your life to Jesus would you do that we're going to pray that we're going to pray that prayer right now bow your head with me we are praying our heavenly father we are here at this wonderful event you have gathered together musicians that bless us and and and guests that Inspire us and administrators who Focus us and Lead this work in a way that that Thrills our hearts you brought together people from all points of the compass for what so that we can look to calvary's Hill and see that Jesus is there on an Old Rugged Cross now father we have faith we choose by faith to believe that Jesus died for us now do the work in our heart that must be done take away our Heart of Stone give us a heart of Flesh so that when somebody asks us how was camp meeting our answer can be it still works because it's working for me we thank you for Jesus our lord and savior and we pray in Jesus name please say Amen for

Channel: Georgia-Cumberland Conference

Views: 3,892

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Id: 673fXsH2mzU

Length: 47min 27sec (2847 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024