Pastor Jentezen Franklin | Getting Back to God's Word

I want to preach to you for just a few moments this morning from The Book of Proverbs the 25th verse in the or the 25th chapter and the 11th verse what a beautiful group of people we have here today it's good to see you again it's good to be back home I've been preaching on the movie screen but it's good to see people here today God is so good to us isn't he and look with me Proverbs 25 and verse 11 quickly a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver a word fitly or rightly spoken in other words the right word at the right time in the right place can turn things can change things it was Solomon who wrote these words and he was surrounded with counselors and he must have been thinking about when they were discussing issues that someone would speak up and have that fit word that right word at the right moment that was just so clear suddenly there's a way out of this there's a solution to this words are powerful especially these fitly spoken words are like apples of gold and my little team is so sharp they just put it together for me after I preached in the nine o'clock but I don't know what I'm going to do with that there you go but but apples of gold in a silver platter is what he said it was like it's like that is just that is just the best when you have the right word in the right moment I thought about how that animals have ways to communicate but they can't use words but it's amazing to me to see the way they communicate they that you will have one aunt and if there's food there will be ten thousand of them within seconds you have one bird and the bird will warn every you know what I'm saying Mark Twain put it this way he said there's a diff the difference between a word and the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug I love that Richard Burton the actor said words are everything well the Bible said that God's word in Psalms 119 brings light God's word the scripture said gives understanding said in the Book of Romans that he framed the world with his words that before the world was he framed the world and upholds the world with his words God spoke and said let there be light and there was light it's really an amazing thing when you begin to understand how that words can change Darkness to light and I want to take you on a journey and I want you to lean in and I want you to focus clearly for the next few moments I promise I'm going somewhere it's called the Golden Age of Harvard University there's an article in the Smithsonian Museum that talks about how that at one time Harvard University was the gold standard for all universities it was founded by a preacher by the way and it was started as a Theological Seminary to teach and deepen people's knowledge of the Bible how far they've come from that and when you read and study about it they said it's not always possible to Mark when a golden age begins it's much easier to Mark when an institution rather begins its decline it's hard to Mark when something that became great blew up and became this Golden Age moment that it's just changing the whole world it becomes the Golden Age of that organization or that Empire or that Nation it's hard to know when you really when it's happening in what moment it started but he said as a historian that it's hard to harder to Mark a university or a nation when it begins but it's much easier to go to the time the beginning the spot where it begins to decline whether it's a nation whether it's an Empire whether it's a church whether it's a business whether it's a a a an impa a system in the world any system he said this and I quote the silvering of the gold is always done in the name of progress in other words when you start watering down the the main purpose for which the thing began what got it to where it reached a golden age when you start watering down the gold of an organization it's always done in the name of progress it's always done in we've got to get bigger and better and bigger and in the name of progress we're going to change everything we were ever about you can easily tell how a nation is in Decline according to this principle the world has witnessed several Golden Ages such as the Egyptian Empire they ruled the world now they're gone the Babylonian Empire Nebuchadnezzar they were powerful now they're gone then came the Persian Empire Greek Empire Roman Empire one time the Roman Empire covered the world and the British the British Empire was incredible and the Sun never said on the British Empire and then the reason I hurry through this and I'm I'm going somewhere is because according to historians the 20th century is the American Empire when America became the superpower after World War II regardless of how Empires rise and Empires fall it's hard to say an exact day when it started becoming great and having a golden age but it's easier to see when Empires are in Decline for example one of the greatest Empires that ever was was the Roman Empire and there's a day July the 24th 410 A.D when something happened that changed world history the British imp or the Roman Empire covered most of the world and they created roads and they took their language the Greek language and it was Universal almost all over all the world it was powerful and it drove the world but there were forty thousand Who Rose up at some point because the nation began to decline and they took the city of Rome and even though Rome had never been conquered and no Army could conquer the nation of uh the and and the Empire of the Roman Empire nobody could conquer them but but Rome was conquered easily because it was so divided that they walked in and took that beautiful city easily how did it happen Edward Gibbons a historian said the rise in the fall of the Roman Empire he wrote a book called The Rise of the Fall there were five reasons for the eventual destruction and decline number one the rapid increase of divorce and the undermining of the family that when you begin to see the undermining of the family when you begin to see the undermining of husbands and wives and Children and Families staying together and loving one another and being together it's one of the steps of the nation of on a decline is when you begin to see the rapid increase of the destruction of the family this next one blew my mind higher and higher taxes this is not a political sermon this is just history higher and higher taxes they said the spending of tax money for free bread therefore creating a worthless Society when you begin to build a culture that doesn't value work that doesn't value people who get up and go get it every day who take care of their families who love their families who fight for their families and stand for their families and then you create a society that expects free bread everything I'm not talking about people in need I'm not talking about people who have health issues I'm talking about well-bodied people strong people who just they're lazy and the Bible said if you won't eat if you don't if you don't work you can't eat that's not a fun scripture the third thing higher and higher taxes and a worthless Society does that sound familiar to anybody you know how hard it is to find people that will do anything number three a mad craze for pleasure this is where the Gladiators came from they became so pleasure-minded the decadence of the people the people were rotting away morally because all was about pleasure everything was about pleasure the decay of their of their faith went hand in hand with this Obsession the Mad craze for pleasure and entertainment at all costs thank God for this room this field this morning it's people saying there's something more important in our life than fun and entertainment God matters to our family God matters to our home God matters to our marriage this was an amazing one when the Real Enemy showed up it was their own people they were so divided in the Roman Empire that it was their own citizens that had divided and conquered and therefore the whole empire fell because of those who rose up from the bottom and said we're we're going to destroy everything good in this nation and they did it the decay of the nation the single one number one thing that led the world from that collapse Into the Dark Ages was illiteracy [Music] reading became a thing of the past at some point it didn't happen overnight but education began to get lower and lower and lower until there came a point during the Dark Ages that most of the kings in Europe could not read themselves education became weaker and weaker civility vanished people being agreeing to disagree and getting along and having a nation where you can have intelligent discussions and you can show honor and yet at the same time you can totally disagree but civility is gone and people are pulling into their camps and education becomes weaker and weaker and then they said Superstition superstitions swailed Grimm's Fairy Tales of Dark Forest and lurking wolves and witches and the Occult the whole world fell into such darkness that they begin to practice occultic things in the dark age as it's called in history began to take over the world declined Into the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome and what happened was there was a splintering and a a a separating of the different groups the Goss the Huns the Lombards the anglos the Saxons they all got in their little group and they pulled away from each other there was no Unity there was no communication between people who had different ideas it had to be my way or no way until they were completely separated in communities after the fall of the Roman Empire and if you don't believe me check history for yourself I'm not up here just preaching something I got something to say to you today they fell into what was called the age of barbarism the rotting away became so severe that witches and the Occult and violence begin to take over the whole world the Romans had built roads and the Greek language was known worldwide and they had traveled on those roads they still exist many of them in in Europe today you could they're still there that's how indestructible they were it's amazing that Christ came in that time so that the gospel could go all over the world in one language the Greek language but they became so splintered in that Empire that before the whole Roman Empire failed the medieval Villages during the were cut off and most of them were only 50 to 500 people living in little towns few ideas were there entire vocabularies consisted of 600 words and they lived their lives and they would only see maybe 200 people as they traveled from Village Villages away maybe as as close as 30 miles away there would be another whole dialect of people most didn't travel more than seven miles because the world had become so violent that when the night would fall you would be killed if you were outside of your own home chances of being murdered and were great and twice as likely to be murdered then die by accident violence began to increase more and more the chances of a murderer being caught and convicted during the Dark Ages was less than 100 to one chance a deterioration of Justice a deterioration of of of of of what is right of Law and Order it all began to happen the decline begins to happen less and less people really being educated really learning really reading really understanding really talking really discussing issues and and having a back and forth civilly it it's it was gone and there was nothing but but but but hatred and violence and ignorance and death and crime and looting and killing and raping this these are the signs of a nation in Decline an empire in Decline and this is no throw at the precious I have many many many precious family or our friends Catholic friends I know many of them love Jesus and they're they're our brothers and our sisters and they believe in Jesus Christ I'm going to let God sort out all the rest but this this is just history now I'm just talking about history during that same point in history the Catholic church under leadership just begin to force their religion on those and it was conversion by force there are stories where they there was actual baptisms and and they would hold them down until they drowned them and I've had a few I felt like I might ought to do that but but I've never done that yet but my point is this there Came Upon a moment that brought such Darkness here we go now that the the the church the institutional religion of that time said we are going to Outlaw the scriptures first of all we're going to interpret it into Latin and the people are already uneducated they'll never be able to read it and we're going to take the ability to read the scriptures for themselves and we're only going to give a priest the power to interpret the scriptures there will be no arguing there'll be no um challenging of the of the uh of the scriptures of whether or not that is biblical or not whatever they say will go and so the first Bible was written in Latin and it was rarely challenged because nobody could read it but the priest and they had such indulgences that they would come up with things such as if you have a descendant who has died and gone to hell and lived a wicked life if you give me money we can spring them out of jail I mean hell we can spring them out if you've got enough money if you know that's not in this book but it's in some people's teachings and I'm not here to argue all that I'm simply giving you history before I get to what I want to preach it was at that moment that Martin Luther a priest in that church that institutional religion he stood up and he said this is the straw that breaks the camel's back there's no way you're going to tell me that I'm saved by works by how much money I have by how much power I have but how much influence I have God only lets me go to heaven if I'm saved by grace not by works he got that revelation and then he began to preach the priesthood of the believer that I don't have to go through a priest to Only God bless them anybody's preaching the gospel God bless them I'll take them I'll link arms with them and I'll do whatever I can do without compromising what I believe but here's the point that during that time that was a revelation that was light in 20 in 1229 it people were absolutely forbidden to own a Bible and people could lose their lives for doing it but here's what got me greatest thing that maybe begin to turn the corner and move the world out of the Dark Ages back into light was a man by the name of Erasmus of Rotterdam who wrote a book on civility in children he describes the difference between civil people and barbaric people and he simply said here's the difference people who have self-discipline are people who do not have self-discipline nation that has people who are civilized if they practice self-discipline if they are not practicing and upholding and lifting as a standard to that people of that Nation discipline decency and morality and good it's a matter of time before it all comes Crashing Down no self-discipline just whatever feels good do it whatever you want to do what has happened to that discipline you know a disciple is someone disciplined if you're calling yourself a disciple of Christ you just don't let it all go and do any and everything and it's not it's not legalism it's it's Freedom hallelujah it's freedom in Christ so barbaric that when he put this book out in Europe vast amount of people ate from Place With No utensils like animals use their hands to eat and pick up food and grab from the same plates on the food and if they got in disagreements they chopped each other up with their axes there was no law no order they urinated in the streets defecated in the streets it was just it sounds like a lot of major cities in America today what is going on I preached in Chicago not too long ago in the South Side in the church that I had had armed security guards and a barbed wire fence all the way around the parking lot because and when they got in they chained the thing and they had to let people in car by car I'm not making this up go to Los Angeles go and see what is happening we are a nation that is in trouble and we're in Decline but I didn't come with bad news I came today to tell you there is a way to turn it because if it's happened before it can happen again let me finish this the saddest part of all this is what messed me up this is why I'm preaching this sermon this is why I've been taking your time to get here and I won't be longer I've got eight more minutes and I'm gonna use them all saddest part of all is this is what the author said there were no children there were little people with children as children disappeared in that kind of culture of Darkness they were just smaller little people that were that were not separated from the adult community there was no reading of children's nursery rhymes and books there was no none of that they grew up in the same society that their parents did their parents didn't screen them didn't protect them didn't Shield their little minds and and the babies could could they they would walk and talk and they became little people not little children they talked like adults because they heard Mom and Dad cussing in vulgarity and this and that and the little kids suddenly that's their response to everything and they they saw their their leaders cutting people and fighting people and violent and they became violent they were not taught social do's and don'ts child at the age of seven shared the exact same world as their adults they played the same games they had the same conversations they heard the same stories they worked the same jobs as little children the same activities there was no transition from childhood to adulthood they were exposed to anything and everything and I just feel like sometimes that's exactly where we are when a eight-year-old child is told and and the and people in our leadership say they can they can figure out what gender they are you you don't understand that's a that's a conversation not that's for adults that's for people who have their full uh maturity in their thinking not an eight-year-old don't talk and tell my children that they're more I'm gonna preach it like I want to I'm tired of trying to walk the road there's mail in there's female let don't don't tell them that they need they need to castrate themselves chemically at the age of 15. what are you doing what are you teaching this is insanity this is insanity I don't want my children to hear about Mommy has two daddies or whatever I don't want that's your business Live and Let Live but listen to me much the children they their minds they should be in a safe place well if you're gonna ever clap you better start doing it because people are getting more and more no it's time for the church to stand up and say this will bring the light back this will bring help back this will bring hope back this will bring our young people out of the pandemic out of the depression out of the addiction out of the hopelessness we've tried that route we see what it has produced look around you look at the children that are dying vocabularies became so sexually vulgar [Music] I wrote this in my notes and God help the person that speaks up and out against it well that would be me yes I'm gonna brace myself the typical peasant house during the Dark Ages think about this Lord help me to get this across consisted of one a one-room house a peasant house the bed was in the middle piled high with straw pallets was seething with vermin everybody slept there regardless of age sometimes hens and pigs and if a couple chose to be intimate everybody in that room in that bed was aware of every movement these little children grew up exposed at a very young age to everything just like what's happening on the internet what's happening on Tick-Tock and Instagram and Twitter everything little it used to be you know you had to worry about the 13 year old saying a vulgar word now it's a six-year-old you blanket I saw one the other day where a kid was cursing out a police officer and he looked like he was about it couldn't have been more than seven blanket he blank blanket it and I'm like well that what how does this happen foreign sermon isn't it I said all that to get to this point something happened that began to cause the light to shine the apples of gold is the fiddly spoken word and what happened two things that changed everything in the climate and brought us out of the Dark Age number one in the 1400s there was the printing press that was invented [Music] and I'm not making this up it's a it's a fact it's a historical fact the first book printed on the gutenberg's printing press was the Bible the Bible and at the entrance of the word there it is that's the golden apples that's it if you're gonna give your teacher an apple give her one of these this year and say do you know the b-i-b-l-e it'll help us in math it'll help us in Reading it'll help us in leadership it'll help us be excellent it'll help us be productive citizens it'll help us in work it'll help us in ethics it'll help us in family and marriage in child rearing it'll heal the society we're in if we would just go back to the b-i-b-l-e the art of those periods the art of the day was had Village festivals and they showed pictures of drunk men and drunk women and drunk children all of them groping unbridled lust even the children and I'm sorry I hate to say this but has anybody noticed in this nation the rise of sexual child abuse and the absolute trafficking of children little children my God what are we allowing what are we doing has anybody noticed in this nation that children are losing the Innocence the innocence of children is just being wasted away because we're not shielding and guarding it's not a small thing listen to this that we have old children we have the old children who at Young ages they they shouldn't experience such hard things they shouldn't have to understand why mommy and daddy are not together they shouldn't have to understand these things life is hard enough when you get up 13 15 17 18. you got to make to handle life and deal with it but my goodness little old children knowing what an alcoholic drug addict is little old children knowing what violence is knowing what beating mother is bleeding children are we're not in a game anymore church the church has got to be the church if ever we have to be the church we have to be the church we have to ask ourselves are we contributing to the delinquency of minors [Music] little old men little old women because they've been exposed to so much so early I want to thank God for the church I want to thank God for kid pack I want to thank God for our preschool that starts this week I want to thank God for our youth ministry I want to thank God for our summer camps I want to thank God for our volunteers and the forward conference that had 10 000 young people I want to thank God I want to thank God for free chapel I want to thank God for other churches like it that will stand I want to thank God for people who will defend the right to life like many in the Catholic church I'm not here to put anybody down I'm just here trying to say I recognize we're in a decline but it doesn't have to end this way we've got the light of God's word and when his word enters lightinners I'm done Saint Augustine came into a pagan World Turning towards Christianity but one writer said we are now coming into our kids being born or coming into a Christian Christian Christian world is turning towards paganism we've moved from a reading Society to an illiterate Society to a visual Society it's all on the screen now I'm not against technology but I'm simply telling you that there's something powerful about mothers and parents and fathers who stand in their place and say we're going to read in this house I'll introduce you to something called a book Charisse used to drop the kids by when they were having a bad Saturday Courtney's sitting down here and when they were not acting right and I was studying on on Saturdays she she would get so frustrated we had five of them that's enough to frustrate anybody and and she and they were two years apart like like doorsteps and and she would just drop them off sometimes over no where my office is and and she would just knock on the door and leave and they would all be standing there looking at me and you know what I would do this is she's sitting right there I'd go in my study and I'd hand pick books and I'd come out and I'd say Well since you've got nothing but this hall right here for the next four hours at least because these people want me to preach at Free Chapel so you're gonna pay the price and here's a book you're going to read this book and if you don't know the stuff in this book because I've read these books and if you don't be able to tell me what's in this book I'll know you haven't read it and then I'm gonna have to whip your little behind I know that's against him but but but but you got a choice I'm trying to give you Purgatory here come on now I'm trying to get you out of hell you're gonna get the belt but if you if you read the book I'll give you a break [Music] come on what's wrong with that why don't we go back to educating our children why don't we quit trusting everybody and everything and I thank God for the I'm not an enemy of the school systems I believe in education believe in our teachers so many are doing such critical important work a teacher changed my life a teacher saw something in me and encouraged me and saw a gift in me in playing the horn he said you're not normal and I want and I said I know that but but but he said no you have a unique talent that was a big day in my life [Music] I don't know how to end this except to say stand to your feet I'll quit while I'm sort of a little ahead throw your hands up and say God help us say God we repent God we turn back to you come on dad come on Mom come on come on are We raising little old children I don't want them to grow up in a home hearing arguments I don't want them to grow up in a home they're here in cussing in profanity and bulgarity I don't want them to grow up seeing nudity on the screens I don't want them to grow up in that world God help us that's why we're going to anoint our children and those who have learning uh challenges we're going to believe with you and those who are still trying you know I read an article about um the pandemic within the pandemic it's very interesting and they are warning of a tsunami of mental illness coming out of the pandemic with young people suicidal and becoming just lost and can't find their way out and become so anti-social they can't make friends and they can't find any life to worth living my goodness that's a little old person oh we're going to pray for them we're going to anoint them and today at every campus our pastors are coming but I want you to lift your hands up and I want to say to our online campus we ask them to send in the names of their children we have uh twelve thousand fifteen thousand fourteen thousand members on our online campus they've actually gone through church membership we have a full-time Pastor that takes care of them amen but they sent 250 students from the online campus can we give them a warm welcome and let them know and they're going to throw their names up and we're going to pray over them I'm going to ask you to pray for them while we pray for your kids and while we worship but let's pray right now come on let's cover our schools with angels of protection let's believe that the light is going to hit our children and they will go forth in the power of God's word like never before review [Music] [Music] [Applause] my family let's sing together the Lord bless we sing [Music] [Music] come on we sing amen Mommy [Music] we say the Lord blessed you thank you [Music] Praise on you and give me come always [Music] Mommy [Music] [Music] come always [Music] your family and your children and their children that's [Music] generations with your family your children their children [Music] Generations [Music] without you all around [Music] here for you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] Generations [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'll be all the world [Music] see things [Music] [Music] Give Me Wings to see things [Music] [Music] [Music] I love you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] come on [Music] [Music] there is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] come on [Music] [Music] [Music] I will be [Music] there [Music] [Music] let me down [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] good words [Music] right you are good [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] You're Never Gonna Let Me Down [Music] You're Never Gonna Let Me Down [Music] [Music] [Applause] you're never gonna show me [Music] hallelujah praise [Music] Hallelujah [Music] my life [Music] [Music] [Music] see it's time to pull off Jesus Christ [Music] [Music] Jesus Christ [Music] your hand and if you're still viewing online we just speak this over your children over your families and over all of you who are here and those of the children that have walked through Bible said God told Moses he said in the 14th chapter of numbers pray for the children of Israel in this manner may the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord make his face shine on you may the Lord be gracious unto you and lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace in Jesus mighty name are you glad you came to church today God bless our schools God bless our children God bless our instructors it's going to be a great year we love you all we'll see you next Sunday I'll be right here preaching with singing doing everything we do for the glory of God don't miss it we love you so much God bless you [Music] thank you

Channel: Following Him

Views: 2,387

Keywords: Free Chapel, Christian, Church, Jesus, Jentezen Franklin, Gainesville, Georgia, Atlanta, faith

Id: 3-Vpe2mtz78

Length: 55min 14sec (3314 seconds)

Published: Tue May 09 2023