The Share Ep. 15 - Straighten Up and Walk Right

oh [Music] [Music] [Music] all the storms [Music] and sometimes it's hard to tell the night from day within israel [Music] as i keep my eyes upon the living i know [Music] and if [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when my friends have gone and left me by myself [Music] and the road seems [Music] but my god [Music] and my god will give me strength to fight the fight and make it through oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] i realized that sometimes in my [Music] [Applause] [Music] but in the world [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] my [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] right on king jesus [Music] no man can i handle me right on king jesus right [Music] [Music] no [Music] jesus [Music] christ [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the morning [Music] no man [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] anywhere [Music] oh [Music] jesus [Music] precious life for me he died [Music] [Music] oh [Music] talking about god's love for me [Music] [Music] [Music] love can cure the world [Music] and now salvation is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] you cried all night [Music] [Music] i woke up this morning with my mind stay jesus i woke up this morning with my mind my mind stayed stayed on the lord you know i woke up this morning with my mind my mind stage oh jesus hallelujah hallelujah i was singing and praying with my mind stage oh jesus i was singing and praying with my mind my mind stayed stayed on the lord you know i was singing and praying with my mind my mind [Applause] [Music] hallelujah hallelujah [Music] good morning i want to welcome you again to this 15th episode of the share and in honor of our fearless leader who is out this morning at a loved one's funeral what a day what a day what a day uh we have three fabulous speakers this morning that will be bringing forth uh the word and frank johnson who is going to be our first speaker and his subject will be entitled you are walking in a circle coming from jeremiah chapter 8 verse 5 deuteronomy 7 through 9 and exodus 32 our second speaker is going to be brother j.r moore and brother moore is going to be speaking from the topic don't run from your purpose jonah one through four chapters one through four we're certainly looking forward to hearing these two brothers and lastly we will have brother charles page and brother page is speaking from the topic the true and straight pathway matthew 7 verses 13 and 14 and also matthew 7 verses 21 through 24. i'm brother floyd smith your mc for today and we're certainly looking forward to a pretty exciting day we always have a lot of fun with the share after the presentations we will transition to the share and it is where we have really some exciting questions that we will delve deeper into answering those questions typically they're going to be based off of the subject matter that has been discussed this morning from our presenters and of course as you know we scour the world to find these presenters and to bring them here for the share so we'll learn a little more about that uh later on in this morning's activities we also have some pretty fantastic door prizes we'll have a total of 10 today at three different segments we'll give door prizes so we always have a lot of fun with that but next up i want to introduce to you the elder one of the elders that we have here brother otis eidelberg jr and he will come up and give us our welcome and opening remarks and then we will after him following him we'll have our first set of door prizes that we will uh bring forward and then we'll get into uh the speakers uh at that point in time and i'll come back up and and make our introductions at that point in time so brother eidelberg at this time good morning it's good to see those who have come out and in person are here with us for the 15th episode of the share and we want to thank you all who are tuned in uh to the share from your homes uh by way of our stream we're so delighted that you are tuned in as well the share is prepared so that it could be a source of of help as we do our open bible studies and it gives more information about the topics that we'll be discussing in our open bible study it is designed to to help our teachers to be able to better teach those who are who are in that open bible study and it's also good to to continue to help us to build up our knowledge of god's word which helps us build up our faith in his word and it helps us to be a light to to the world and so from our elders our ministers and our deacons here at the greenville avenue church of christ we are delighted that the 15th episode of the share straighten up and walk right is is underway as i thought about this share i thought about a passage in ephesians chapter 1 verse number 12 and 13. paul's letter to the ephesians is is helping them to see that that at one time they were the ones who are looking to gain more knowledge and to be uh blessed by the gospel of jesus christ and verse number 12 says that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in christ in whom he also trusted after that he and this what made the difference they heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that not only hearing it but then they believed it ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise it is my hope that as you as you listen to the share the presenters in the share that you will grab your bible and grab your grab some pen and paper and highlighters and that you'll follow through with our presenters and we we are hoping that it will generate questions that uh that will cause you to ask what must you do to be saved and it is that that is the intent and the purpose and hopefully your desire for the share let us pray good lord we thank you for this beautiful day we thank you the lord to see all of the plans that have gone in for this 15th episode of the share to come to reality the lord we're asking that you bless each and every presenter here the father i pray that you will bless them with a ready remembrance of those things in which they've studied and prepared for the lord and i pray that you'll bless those who are listening that they may be objective they may be open to hear what your word has to say in the lord i'm asking that you'll continue to bless each and every individual who sets out to learn your word to be obedient to and be added to your body and then those who will go out and teach the message we love you and we thank you so much for jesus christ and it is in his name that we pray amen praise the lord what a day what a day to be passing out some door prizes this is our first set and the first winner is rosslyn w3 is that right yes okay roxanne w and three second winner is sharon swanigan congratulations [Applause] the third winner is shelley farmer congratulations [Applause] everybody have a good day all right fantastic so we're off to a fantastic start at this point and looking forward to the day that we have planned for you our first presenter a little bit about him brother frank johnson came to greenville in 2002 with his sleeves rolled up brother's ready to go to work and he has been working ever since he's been here he has been a member of the church of christ for 25 years and is currently actively participating in multiple ministries while teaching several bible classes perhaps it is his vegan lifestyle that powers his energy uh he and his lovely wife tanya have been married for 19 years they have three children who are all members of the body and three grandchildren his mantra is it's all about the kingdom two of his favorite scriptures are first corinthians 13 and hebrews 11 verse number 6. so we're certainly looking forward to this first presenter who subject-wise will be discussing your walking in circles and so at this time we will have a song a verse or two of a song and the next voice you will hear will be that of brother frank johnson you are walking in circles i run this race oh lord help me to live right leave right while i run this race oh lord help me to live right live right while i run this race you know that i don't want to run this race in vain racing they will lord help me to walk right while i run this race oh lord help me to walk right walk right while i run this race oh lord help me to walk right while i run this race you know that i don't want to run this race in vain racing there good morning everyone i want to welcome everybody that is here in person um i think my mic yeah we're good and also those that have joined us on the stream i appreciate really i want to i want to thank a few people and before we do that i just want to take a moment uh you know this is september 11th uh this is the anniversary of 9 11 uh 2001 and i know we all probably remember where we were during that time and it's it's kind of appropriate for my message this morning are you walking in a circle because it shows how the events of the world can affect us and we're gonna we're gonna get into that a little more but let's just take a moment to think about the effects of that one event on so many lives over these past 20 years not only those that were lost on that day but also those who went on to deploy all those involved all those surviving family members and then the the health effects that affected so many after the fact and so let's just take a few moments all right thank you thank you i also want to thank our leadership here at greenville avenue for this event the share i want to thank our leadership especially uh brother eidelberg appreciate you being here appreciate that prayer uh and and the the faith that they put into our brother deacon tyrone jones who has kind of uh really presented and this is this is all his concept the share and what is this episode 15 and so you know we've we've had 14 previous episodes and every one of them has been phenomenal if you're like me if you have watched participated in the share just like the did you know programs that that come on on the stream you you find a lot of nuggets a lot of valuable information that helps us as we go out and try to evangelize i also want to thank my brothers that are here speaking with me today brother brother jr and brother charles uh it's an all-star lineup i'm i'm i'm down here in fact i i'm the setup man i just want y'all to know i'm the setup man i'm just here to kind of set the stage and then these brothers are going to hit the home run okay you know i want to thank brother alexander for lord help me to live right again this is when i know the spirits at work i didn't ask for that song but that song feeds right into my lesson are you walking in a circle and then though tyrone did not give it to me uh i added that question on the bottom why do we make it so hard why do we make it so hard and notice i have a little arrow on the side there saying promise land this way and it's as simple as that so just the idea of the circle and that straight line kind of tells you where i'm headed the text that was given to me was jeremiah 8 5 and deuteronomy 7 chapters 7 8 and 9 and exodus 32. i want to read jeremiah well we'll get to it later because it's going to be part of the lesson it was the shortest one that's why i was tempted to read it uh the the remainder of the text aren't complete chapters so we'll we'll get to it in its in its moment okay i knew this would happen there we go alright this is the outline for my lesson you are walking in a circle and what i would like each of us to do is kind of personalize and ask yourself that question throughout the lesson am i walking in a circle is that me um it's a two-part lesson and you can tell from my text we start in the old testament that's what was given to me uh we start back with god's people of yesterday and then part two of my lesson will bring us to us today and i think that's the setup but uh i want to look at these six points being in relationship to god god's promises the intercessor length of the journey to god's promise warnings for the journey and then some solutions let's first look at the relationship with god and we're going to be dealing with the old testament as you can tell from my text you know familiar text for all of us romans 15 4 and i'm reading from the new american standard it says for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope and i hope my lesson this morning kind of leads us to that hope there's there's still hope as christians we know we have hope uh when we look at the relationship that god had with the israelites i want to start in deuteronomy uh chapter seven yeah that's a typo take notes i want you to take notes but it's deuteronomy chapter seven verses six through nine i kind of transposed the letters and i saw that but deuteronomy chapter seven verses six through nine it says for you are a holy people to the lord your god now this is moses describing to the people how god feels about them they're holy people the lord your god has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth the lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples for you were the fewest of all peoples internalize that verse 8 but because the lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers the lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of pharaoh king of egypt as as a teacher uh as we go out and share the gospel there's an important fact here that this really didn't start with the israelites it started with the promises that god made to abraham isaac and jacob that's really where it starts that's the beginning of this journey and god made a promise to abraham that he was going to make him a great nation and here they are this this is who we're reading about the israelites but listen they don't get a free pass um in exodus 32 and just for context after moses had gone up to mount sinai and you all know the story the children he was gone 40 days and the children of israel decided you know that mo we don't know what happened to moses and they asked aaron to make them a calf to worship and that would be their god um after that those events were over and abra abraham i mean moses i'm sorry went back up to the mountain he made intercession for the people but look what god says he says but now if you will moses is asking god but now if you will forgive their sin and if not please blot me out from your book which you have written moses putting himself on the line i don't know if i could i don't know if i could say that to god block me out he might do it verse 33 the lord said to moses whoever has sinned against me i will blot him out of my book but go now lead the people where i told you behold my angels shall go before you nevertheless in the day when i punish i will punish them for their sin then the lord smote the people because of what they did with the calf which aaron had made there there god we don't have a god of free passes no he he is watching and we need to always remember that he is watching but look in deuteronomy 7 we talked about the love that god had for his people and that love demonstrated itself through love and physical blessings and i just want to read a few of those uh in deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 13 through 15 he says i will love he will love you and again this is moses talking to the people in deuteronomy they're approaching the promised land they're ready to go in and moses is recounting the law to them and all the events that have taken place and he says he will love you and bless you and she swore to you to your forefathers to give you you shall be blessed above all peoples there will be no male or female bearing among you or among your cattle the lord will remove from you all sickness and he will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of egypt which you have known but he will lay them on all who hate you do you want to know how the lord is those verses kind of sum it up when you when you're in relationship with god you don't need anything else you you don't need he will take care as long as we're here he will take care of us as long and in fact when you read those verses and i'm not going to read all the verses but take notes on those because those are all the blessings that god brings or promises to the israelites and it makes you wonder at least it makes me wonder how could they veer off from that straight path how could they do that the journey to god's promise make note of that first first line the length of the journey was 317 miles not very far it was an 11 day journey some some scholars suggest i'ma say give them 30 days they had plenty of cattle uh sheep all those things their families the little ones they didn't even they could take their time give them 30 days how long did it take y'all know 40 years internalize that though 40 years why did it take for what were they doing for 40 years walking in a circle walking in a circle for 40 let me think about that for 40 years walking in a circle and before they went into the promised land because the old testament is a shadow of the new there were requirements okay when we leave here it's on the glory their promised land they still had to follow some rules okay i'm not gonna go through all the scriptures but i'll read the statements they had warnings don't disobey the lord that was that was warning number one in fact i will read deuteronomy 7 verses 10 and 11. it says and it's speaking of god but repays those who hate him to their faces to destroy them he will not delay with him who hates him he will repay him to his face therefore you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which i am commanding you today to do them moses tells the people god god's not playing he expects you to do what he says do and look at what he told them to do when they go into the promised land destroy the seven pagan nations don't make any covenants with the seven pagan nations i know i got some bible scholars some old testament scholars they they know about what happened when they went in it didn't quite go they didn't quite follow the blueprint that god gave uh no intermarrying with foreigners that was a biggie that happened before they even got to the promised land they they intermarry with the moabites uh don't be lustful and prideful uh that's another one i do want to read deuteronomy chapter 9 verses 4 and 5. it says do not say in your heart when the lord your god has driven them out before you because of my righteousness the lord has brought me in to possess this land but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the lord is dispossessing them before you don't be prideful don't don't think it's you that's doing it it is not for your righteousness or for your uprightness of your heart that you're going to possess their land but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the lord your god is driving them out before you in order to confirm the oath which the lord swore to your fathers here it is again abraham isaac and jacob it didn't start with them did it hot now i've kind of set it up how do you think israel treated god during the journey uh let's let's look at a couple of verses deuteronomy chapter 9 verses now let me take a shorter one i know my time is limited that's nine through 16. let's look at exodus chapter 32. exodus 32 verses 8 through 10. and it says they have quickly turned aside from the way which i commanded them in context this is again when they first left egypt moses is taking them out it goes back to that moment of the calf when they had aaron make the calf he says they have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed it to it and said this is your god o israel who brought you up from the land of egypt can you imagine god hearing that what this calf brought them out of egypt look what he says the lord said to moses i have seen this people and behold they are an obstinate people now then let me alone that my anger may burn against them and that i may destroy them and i will make you a great nation god was ready to start over he said moses i i don't need these people i can start with you and make a whole new nation um that kind of carries us to the idea that israel needed an intercessor because as i continue that track in exodus 32 look at verses 11 to 14 then moses entreated the lord his god and said oh lord why does your anger burn against your people whom you have brought out from the land of egypt with great power and with a mighty hand why should the egyptians speak saying with evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth turn from your burning anger and change your mind about doing harm to your people remember abraham isaac and israel your servants to whom you swore by yourself and said to them i will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens and all this land of which i have spoken i will give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever look at verse 14. so the lord changed his mind about the harm which he said he would do to his people moses was an intercessor does that make us think of anybody close to us 40 years that was kind of the setup because that happened early but for 40 years they would walk in a circle in the desert until those who were not worthy fell by the wayside that brings me to part two i don't know how much time i got part two because i want to make application we we've seen how the israelites dealt with god or mistreated god interesting question do we do that but let's look at what god thinks about us today john 3 16 familiar verse forgot so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life romans 5 8. he says but god demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners christ died for us first peter 2 9 and 10. that one i want to read because i don't want to mess it up familiar text and i want you to internalize it because this is god talking to us today but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for god's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light for you were once not a people but now you are the people of god and had not you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy do you do you kind of see a repeat the israelites to us we read about the israelites how much god loved them it wasn't it was nothing you did it wasn't because you were so numerous in fact you were the least of the people i just love you and today he says you're my people you're the people of god because of seeing you were once not a people but now you you're my people a royal priesthood look at the promises that he gives us forgiveness of sin acts 238 i don't need to read it romans 5 1 just take notes especially those streaming take notes romans 5 1 because of christ we have peace with god before obedience to the gospel you were an enemy to god internalize that thought i do want to hit romans 8 because of so many look at all those scriptures i put in there for romans 8 8 1 there is there therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus internalize that verse 26 through 28 the gift of the spirit in the same way the spirit also helps our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we should but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he god who searches the heart knows what the mind of the spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of god verse 28 and we know that god causes all things to work together for good to those who love god to those who are called according to his purpose verses 33 to 35 and 37-39 i'm not going to read them but they're about no i got to read them i got to read them 33 to 35 who will bring a charge against god select these are like our rallying cries as christians who's going to bring a charge against me he says god is the one who justifies that's a legal term meaning being found not guilty you are justified he says who is the one who condemns christ jesus is he who died yes rather who was raised who is at the right hand of god who also intercedes for us i think i got that one up there first john chapter 2 verse 1. yes he says who will separate us from the love of christ with tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword drop down to verse 37 but in all these things we are overwhelmingly we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us for i am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels no principalities nor things present nor things to come no powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord so when i when i read about the israelites and the benefits they had the blessings they had you know to be fruitful we look at what we have and look how they squandered what they had that's our warning i'll get to the warnings um take notes on those first psalms one one through three how blessed is the man um how about the eternal blessings let me look at a couple of those john 14 verses one through three again familiar text for many do not let your heart be troubled he's talking directly to us do not let your heart be troubled believe in god believe also in me in my father's house are many dwelling places or many mansions as some translations say if it were not so i would have told you for i go to prepare a place for you and if i go and prepare a place for you here's the promise i will come again and receive you to myself that where i am there you may be also what a god we serve but listen you remember the 317 miles was was the israelites journey to the promised land ours is our lifetime but with the promises that god has given us we can endure he gives us some warnings some warnings along the way uh as we as we travel this journey this was one of the texts for the share romans 13 13 let us behave properly as in the day not in carousing and drunkenness not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality not in strife and jealousy the warnings you know just like just like the israelites had their warnings we have warnings first corinthians chapter 10 verses 6 through 12. now these things happen to us happened as examples for us paul is talking about the israelites that stuff that happened to them is an example for us so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play it was it was all about the play nor let us act immorally as some of them did and 23 000 fell in one day if i had time you know how many times through the israelite journey you get numbers like that the rebellion of korra i can't even remember how many how many died that day nor let us try the lord as some of them did and were destroyed by the serpents you remember that nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come that's who we are therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall that he does not fall suffering let me read a couple of those just two and please take notes on these first peter chapter 2 verse 21 saints for you have been called for this purpose since christ also suffered for you leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps and i want to drop down to verse 23 well let me 22 who committed no sin speaking of christ nor was any deceit found in his mouth and while being reviled he did not revile in return while suffering he uttered no threats but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously that's our key keep entrusting yourself to him who judges righteously god the father that's what jesus did uh familiar text james 1 verses 2 and 3 count it all joy when you fall into various trials or diverse trials and temptations count it a joy because god can bring you through i know it sounds counterintuitive when you read that what i love to suffer count it a joy how about chastening and that there's a there's a key statement in here that i love about chastening uh hebrews 12 verses 5 through 11. it says and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons and daughters okay this is inclusive of all of us my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord nor faint when you are reproved by him for those whom the lord loves he disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives i'm not even gonna read the rest that's enough when god when we when you find yourself in a position of discipline you usually know why if we all remember i got my share when i was growing up i deserved them i at the end of the day i just had to say ah yep i did that i deserve that now how do we treat god on our journey because just like the israelites did sometimes we find ourselves at odds with god first john chapter 2 verses 4 through 6. again take notes because i'm skipping through a lot of these verses for the sake of time it says the one who says i have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar yes john is indicting us if you're not keeping his commandments and yet you're running around saying oh me and god we we just like this man if you're not keeping his commandments he says you're a liar and the truth is not in you but whoever keeps his word in him the love of god has truly been perfected by this we know that we are in him the one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked that's our charge walk like jesus walk like he walked our need for an intercessor again write those write those scriptures down romans 15 3 and this kind of tells you the mindset of jesus for even christ did not please himself but is as it is written the reproaches of those who reproached you god my father fell on me that's jesus's attitude first corinthians 15 verses 1 through 4 the gospel the death the burial the resurrection of christ go back and read it i do want to hear hebrews chapter 4 verses 15 and 16 because it speaks directly about our high priest jesus it says for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has been tempted in all things just as we are yet without sin here's our encouragement therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need i i indicated first john 2 1 before um we have an advocate with the father seated at his right hand insert your name oh don't worry about frank he had a momentary lapse in judgment dad he's gonna be okay who doesn't want that why would you want to walk in a circle why the question because the title was you are walking in a circle it was more that was what was giving me that was more of an indictment you are walking in a circle i'm going to ask a question are you walking in a circle there are some solutions if you are remember how god sees you i'm not going to go back and look at those verses god so loved you yeah i know it says the world you part of the world you okay romans 5 8 while you were yet a sinner christ died for you and me first peter 2 9-10 royal priesthood that's how god views us this can you see him having the same conversation with satan he had about job have you considered my servant jr i'm not wishing nothing bad on you have you considered my servant and that's all of our names have you considered my servant are we walking the straight line remember we got work to do see and this this is part of the issue if we don't focus on our work that's when we get distracted by the world because satan's good at his job he's very good but we need to be good at our jobs let me visit a couple of these ephesians 210 is one of my favorites for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand think about that you didn't accidentally stumble upon the good work that god has for you to do he created these beforehand for you to walk in them what an amazing god we serve matthew 28 18-20 you know the commission mark 16 15-16 the same commission go out preach teach the gospel seek and save the loss mark 40 10 42-45 you remember the apostles would always argue amongst themselves about who's going to be the greatest behind jesus that was that was their issue well which you know i'm doing more than you peter i where were you yesterday i was at the soup kitchen feeding the homeless and jesus told them the greatest will be the one who serves he says because i came to you as a servant i came to serve that's got to be our mindset and the last scripture i'm going to read galatians 6 9-10 again familiar scripture let us not lose heart in doing well for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary so then while we have opportunity let us do good not to some people to all people even one that kind of treating you a little bad do good to all people and especially those who are of the household of faith and while you're working you know what you should be thinking about while you're working the promises the promises the mansion jesus said he's coming back to get us that's what that's what our focus is just remember the promises we have a whole old testament of god fulfilling promises god god is good for his word everything he promised even including the prophecies of the coming of christ came to fruition that's why we got this book this book is all about jesus and god's promises are you walking in a circle stop simple as that stop that's my lesson i hope you got something out of it i hope you took notes especially those streaming out there and streaming land i'm going to turn it back over to you floyd thank you fantastic job awesome job and brother frank has gotten us off to a rousing start i just love this title for the 15th episode straighten up and walk right pretty plain and simple but effective our next speaker is going to be brother j.r moore and a little bit about brother moore j.r moore iii a native of dallas was raised in the city of garland he has been married for nearly 17 years to caitlin kathleen moore and they are blessed with five phenomenal children he earned his bachelor of arts in english from texas a m university commerce and he currently instills wisdom as a senior english teacher at garland high school he proudly shares teaching is what i do at greenville avenue he has taught the 11th and 12th grade bible classes for almost 15 years my heart is in teaching young people and helping to guide them past the mistakes i made at their age and so after a verse or two of a song the next voice you will hear will be that of brother j.r moore and the title of his message this morning is going to be don't run from your purpose don't run from your purpose just a little talk with jesus i once was lost in sin but jesus took me in and then the light from heaven filled my soul you know that it bathed my heart in love and wrote my name above now just a little talk with jesus made me whole [Music] let's have a little talk with jesus tell them all about our troubles hear our faintest crime answer by and by feel a little prayer for yearning heart unto heaven is turning finally talk with jesus makes him right i may have doubts and fears my eyes be filled with tears but jesus is a friend who watches day and night you know that i go to him in prayer he knows my every camp and just a little talk with jesus makes him right now let us have let us say know that he will hear i believe he will let her buy it but now when you feel oh as your heart then you will find with jesus makes him rise don't you know it's all right it's all right it's alright it's so right and just a little talk with jesus makes it right don't you know it's alright so right all right all right and just a little talk with jesus makes him right all right so my topic this morning is don't run from your purpose don't run from your purpose this was a um this job was very helpful for me personally it's one that through my study i was able to have a significant amount of growth and studying it um it's kind of funny you know god doesn't do anything on accident it's always on purpose and so as i'm studying this and and trying to uh get my mind where it needs to be and studying not running from my purpose personally um it just so happens that i had an opportunity to have a conversation this morning uh with my wife who uh helped me to see what my purpose needed to be and where my focus needed to be um so i'm i'm very very blessed um she's right almost all the time so and so i appreciated the conversation we had this morning uh and every once in a while i get to be right too all right so uh i'm i'm very very grateful for the opportunity to speak uh with you guys especially as it pertains to the share it's a it's a blessing and i'm so so very very grateful just to to have an opportunity here so we're going to go through a couple different verses i don't have as many as frank i'm so sorry um i don't have as many slides or verses uh no i'll just listen with you frank frank did a phenomenal job and i appreciate it uh listening to that lesson but i'm gonna tell you this um you said that we were gonna knock it out of the park i need you to temper your expectations just a little bit they probably should have put frank last but um no i'm just kidding but don't run from first purpose so we're gonna look at jonah uh chapters one through four and then matthew uh 13 47 through 50 and then uh we'll look at a couple of other verses as well so don't run from your purpose all right so let's uh i guess think about what our purpose is um we define our purpose in a few different ways okay we focus on our jobs our careers okay we have specific purpose there we focus on our role as a spouse we focus on our roles as parents we focus on our the roles that we play in our communities right but our struggle often comes when we are expected to articulate our spiritual purpose a lot of times we get hung up on that we know that there is a specific purpose that we have but then we struggle to articulate what that purpose is exactly and so we're going to explore that a little bit today so that we can uh make sure that we focus on that purpose so because we sometimes struggle with that spiritual purpose we find ourselves behaving in ways that act uh you know basically counter-intuitive to what our purpose is right we work directly against our purpose and the reason for that again is because we don't understand what it is so we'll talk about that a little bit today so let's jump right into it and define what our purpose is okay so this is a simplified version of it right this is given to us we call this the great commission um matthew 28 18-20 okay jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in heaven and earth go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you and lo i am with you alway even unto the end of the world this is our purpose it's what we're here to do right so when i teach the 11th and 12th grade class here um you know i'm an english teacher by profession so we uh we end up having a little bit of grammar class in there as well and that's okay though i tell them i say focus on the verbs same thing i tell my students when i'm teaching them english focus on the verbs what are we expected to do the first thing we see in verse 19 go all right who's going you're going right next thing we see teach who am i teaching everybody right and then after i teach them what am i supposed to do baptize them go teach baptize that's your purpose that is what we're here to do okay and so we go through this and i help them to understand what our purpose is um you know in the 11th 12th grade bible class and i'm hoping that by the end of this message uh we'll all have a better understanding as well all right so let's talk about what running looks like all right so let's look at jonah chapter one let's turn to jonah chapter one and verse number one and we'll read a few of those verses says now the word of jonah came unto the word of the lord rather came unto jonah the son of amitai saying arise go to nineveh that great city and cry against it for their wickedness i'm sorry for their cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me but jonah rose up to flee to tarshish from the presence of the lord and went down to joppa and he found a ship going to tarshish so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them into tarshish from the presence of the lord all right this is what running looks like right jonah he received some instructions right i want you to go to nineveh i want you to preach to those people okay instead jonah hopped on a ship heading in the opposite direction right um of course there was a brutal storm that came up it threatened to uh you know kill everyone on board so instead of being responsible for the deaths of everyone on board jonah said well just throw me over lord you know just let me you know be tossed to the side and you know whatever happens out there happens to me um but god had prepared a great fish okay and uh when with that great fish inside that great fish rather jonah was able to collect himself he was able to have that time that was necessary to reflect okay sometimes we need that time to reflect is that right sometimes negative things happen to us and where we have our backs pushed up against the wall and when that happens there's nothing left for us to do but to reflect right we got to think about what am i doing why am i doing it okay and so this is where jonas was and while he was able to collect himself then he decided okay i'm gonna go ahead and fulfill that task that the lord gave to me now he finally goes to nineveh right to preach to the people but then jonah turns around and gets mad because the preaching was effective right so we're going to talk about what that was all about as well as we're speaking of trying to understand our purpose all right so why do we run why do we run now the reasons of course are numerous we can have a dozen different reasons why we run from our purpose why we don't fulfill the purpose that god has given to us but if we're honest about it there are two main reasons that we do not work to fulfill our purpose now i had to put that in there that part about being honest it's uh that's very important to me um and it stuck with me since i was a teenager i was uh teaching and having bible class with a another young man when i was probably about maybe 19 years old 18 19 years old and so uh you know sometimes i would get stuck we would get to a place where we might get stuck you know and i'm i'm trying to develop my teaching and and whatnot and so i would often go to my uncle lloyd or i would go and talk to brother gibbs well this time i wouldn't talk to brother gibbs and i said i'm kind of stuck right here i said we keep going around and around in circles see kind of like frank was talking about i said we can't we can't make any headway so i asked he said okay what what what are you guys talking about where are you where's the sticking point so i told him where we were and what we were stuck on and he said he said well jr just go tell him he said next time y'all talk tell him just be honest do you see it or not he said ask him that he said and then tell him if you're not going to be honest our studies aren't going to go any further than this because we're going to be running around in circles there's nothing left to do and so i did just like you told me to i said they said you got to be honest do you see it or not and just like brother gibbs said he he he said yeah i see it and i said that's all i had to do was tell them be honest goodness gracious so so that's what i'm asking today just be honest be honest with yourselves if you're looking at your purpose or trying to discover what your purpose is or why you run from your purpose be honest okay you got to be honest especially as it pertains to the gospel so the number one reason um that we run from our purpose is because we don't truly understand what our purpose is okay so imagine going to a job you know your first day on this job you kind of understand what you ought to be doing but no one's really filled you in on the policies of the procedures right what protocols are supposed to follow and every time you ask somebody a question they don't have any good information to give you so you just kind of sit around like what do i do with this job you know wondering what you're supposed to be doing you know what you're going to do start immediately looking for another job you are going to run from that place you're not going to sit around looking confused every day right because you don't understand your purpose so one of the main reasons that we run from our purpose is because we don't truly understand it okay and the other reason or one of the other reasons that we run from our purpose is that our heart is just not right okay so let's talk about understanding our purpose so let's look at matthew chapter 13. matthew chapter 13 and we'll start at verse number 47. matthew 13 starting at verse 47. so let's let's learn about what our purpose is a little bit deeper and the bible reads again this is jesus speaking the kingdom of heaven is likened to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind which when it was full they drew the shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels but cast the bat away so shall it be at the end of the world the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of the fire of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth now the problem that a lot of us have when it pertains to fulfilling our purpose is that we don't know which part we're supposed to play part of the reason we don't understand which part we're supposed to play is because we have a grandiose vision of ourselves okay so when we're looking at these verses many of us might look and say you know what i'll probably be the one separating the good from the bad because that's how i see myself right or we might even say you know what um i think i might be that fisherman right we heard we heard jesus say you know i'll make you fishers of men we said that's gonna be that's gonna mean that i'm the fisherman [Music] in this situation we are the net we understand that we are the tool we are the instrument there is nothing pretty about us we aren't separating anything we aren't gathering in ourselves we are the net and we've got to understand that if we're going to try to make sure that we understand our purpose and do better all right so it tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like a net all right the kingdom of heaven in this instance is not the location okay it's not the location we're not talking about glory not yet okay but this is specifically talking about the church that jesus would eventually die uh to uh to build and then to preserve okay and we can look at matthew chapter 13 verse number 37 it'll help us to understand that as well um verse number 37 of matthew 13 he says uh he answered and said unto them he that soweth the good seed is the son of man the field is the world he's talking about the world right here okay the good seed are the children of the kingdom that's us the tares are the children of the wicked one okay that's anybody on the outside of the kingdom and he says the enemy that sold them is the devil the harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels right and so then he talks about how there's going to be a separation at the end of the world so when he's talking about the kingdom of heaven in this situation he's not talking about that place he's talking about the kingdom right here the church okay so we need to understand what our position is here in the church now this is uh the net there we go this is the net i want to give you a visual representation of what this looks like okay there's nothing fancy about it nothing pretty about it okay falls to the bottom and drags and picks up everything it doesn't matter if it's good if it's bad because that's not the next job to worry about whether it's good or if it's bad it drags along and it picks up everything and if you're lucky you get a nice little uh supply fish coming like this one on the right but often you know we might come up with some other things that may be a little bit less desirable all right so why are we gathering everything now that we understand where the net what is it about um what is it that uh you know god wants us to do as far as gathering everything why gather everything so look at uh second peter chapter three verse number nine this is why we gather everything because the lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness right but his long-suffering trustworth not willing that any should perish not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance that's why we are together everything because it's our job to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to hear the gospel our purpose is to be that vehicle not the fisherman not the one who does the separating our purpose is to be the vehicle that gathers everyone in so that they will have an opportunity to come in contact with the gospel that's our purpose god wants everybody to be saved he doesn't play favorites that's what we do right that's what we do we're going to talk about that as well so let's get back to jonah for a minute let's talk about jonah's heart problem jonah had a hard problem okay so when the heart isn't right then we'll end up running from our purpose uh because we can't focus on the job because we're too focused on ourselves well your heart's not right you're not focused on other people you're focused on you and that's a problem so we think about the uh the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son right and the you know one son leaves and you know waste all is living and then comes back while another son stayed behind and presumably did all the right things the whole time right but when the other son comes back he gets a ring put on his finger right put the robe on him let's have a party let's have a feast you know because the sun has returned you know and the one that stayed behind the sun that was sticking around doing the right thing his heart wasn't right otherwise he would have been happy to see his brother my brother is alive the world didn't utterly destroy my brother right but instead his response was why we having a party for him i've been here the whole time focus on himself i've been doing right the whole time what's the problem you didn't have a party for me right celebrate me for a little while okay that was his thinking so um jonah had a similar thinking right he was focused on himself and how good he had been doing and jonah knew that if he were to go preach to these people and the preaching was good right that these people would have a change of heart so let's look at jonah chapter four and verses uh one through three get to jonah four and let's look at verses one through three so after he preached uh god decided not to not to do the evil right that he had planned to do to them to destroy them and so uh in chapter four and verse one it says but it displeased jonah exceedingly and he was very angry and he prayed unto the lord and said i pray thee oh lord was not this my saying when i was yet in my country he said therefore i flared unto tarshish that's why that's why i ran to tarshish right because i knew that you are a gracious god and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and you would repent of that evil he says so now god i just want you to take my life he said lord i beseech you to take my life from you for it's better for me to die than to live goodness gracious how how selfish right lord i i knew that you were going to save these people i knew that you were going to allow them to live i knew that you were going to extend grace and mercy unto them well how does jonah know that because he's had grace and mercy extended to him now i want we got we have to think about this what is it about us that makes us feel like if we help someone else to receive the grace and mercy from god that we're going to lose in ourselves right it's good enough for me but not for you i need to hold on to that for myself as though we're going to lose it right instead of saying let me help you to experience what i've experienced let me teach you what i know let me expose you to the love that i've received right but when our heart is not right and we're focused on self then we start doing things that are counterproductive and we start start trying to withhold the gospel from people who need it most all right and jonah didn't think they were worth saving he didn't think that they were worth saving at all and of course his heart was wrong um and he was wrong now let's talk about our heart problem okay we can we can talk about jonah all day right we say shame on jonah shame on you jonah these people needed to hear some good preaching right how dare you withhold this information from these people now but don't we don't we also have some information that people need so that they can be safe will the people not perish eternally if we withhold this information from them so then i think we need to start looking inward and say shame on us if we do the same thing that jonah did shame on us if we withhold this information when the people need it most all right um we're no better than jonas if we are forgetting that our purpose is the net that our job is to gather of every kind right so let's talk a little bit about this every kind okay see because we like to play favorites right as i said earlier that's not what god does but that's what we do he wants us to gather every kind and we want to gather the kind we like right and people that go fishing they know about this right because there's some fish that i don't want to catch right and if i catch it i'm throwing it back right there's only certain kinds that i want i want the kind that i want okay and that's how we are as it pertains to the gospel i want to talk to the people that i like and i want to tell them about the gospel because i believe that they will be productive in the kingdom right we check we decide that we're going to do the separating right we decide no that's my position is up here we need to go ahead and lower just a little bit right we need to lower ourselves just a little bit humble ourselves just a little bit because our position is not up here our job is to be that net together of every kind so i want you to think about this now when it comes to every kind we need to start thinking of every person we come in contact with as an opportunity to say something that will help them to know god better to help them to experience to get on the path to experiencing the love of god so that their soul might be saved and that goes all the way across the board it does not matter who it is so we've got to get out of this uh get out of this mindset of playing favorites i mean i'm talking rich poor black white gay straight right we got to get over ourselves because our job is to gather of every kind now if we left it up to ourselves if we're being honest about it and we left it up to ourselves we would always decide which ones we felt like could be used in the kingdom i can see this person being a great bible teacher this person oh that's going to be a great elder one day right this person here oh you hear that voice gonna be a wonderful song leader right and so we pick the ones that we like best and we say oh yeah we're gonna bring them in let's bring them into the fold because i like them right and all the while we are over here excluding people who might actually be a great gospel preacher right who might actually be able to be a great song leader right who might actually wind up being an elder or a hard-working deacon right because we like to play favorites okay now i want us to think about this like if if it were up to us there are certain people that we wouldn't allow in the kingdom people in this book that we wouldn't allow in the kingdom now in hindsight now that we got to read the stories right we got to read all about them oh yeah i definitely would have had them in here no let's be honest about it adam and eve wouldn't have made it no no right you're ushering in sin where sin didn't exist look at you right we were everything was just fine he had to mess it up no i'm not going to have nah they can't come to worship with me right come on now talk about what about noah no but you know lo and i would like to drink a little bit so i don't know if we're going right come on now let's talk about it what about judah [Music] judah went looking for a a woman of the evening there we go at night all right thought he found one laid with her found out later on it was his daughter-in-law she had twins right uh fairies and zera okay now we no judah you can't not judah you can't come see you and if you come you got to sit in the balcony right you can't sit down here with us okay let's let's be honest about it now what we don't understand is that one of those twins fairies that came from judah right would down the line uh would give us uh boaz who would give us obed who would give us jesse who's jesse the father david the king uh-huh right right the man after god's own heart right um but we would have cut him out a long time ago right no not not you judah okay missing out on some things right we would have left him way back there would have never got to david the man after god's own heart and let's let's talk about david a little bit let's be honest right now when david was young right we're cheering for david go david yeah slaying goliath look at him look at him he's a good man right and then dave got a little older and then david started doing some things that well i mean by today's standards would be downright illegal right watching a woman while she bathed right and then you know coercing her you know he's the king she can she can she really say no i won't come and lay in your bed coercing her right to lay with him right finds oh she's having my baby now where's her husband okay now we have to kill him are you killing me are you kidding me david is stacking up felonies do you think we don't have david sitting next to us on the pew no we're not inviting david as far as we're concerned he is not useful in the kingdom but we also understand that down that line of king david is what brings us the messiah we would have talked ourselves out of christ because that's what we do but that's not how god operates that's not how he plays we play favorites he does not so as it pertains to us running from our purpose we need to start focus focusing on what our purpose actually is we are not the separator right we are nothing but that filthy net and our job is to catch as much as we can as we pass through this life that is it and then once it's gathered in we will allow the true fisher of man the master fisher of men the master teacher to decide what is useful and what is not we will allow him to give the increase and do what he does best which is to save the souls of mankind thank you all for your attention i appreciate it wow what a fantastic presentation so brother frank johnson got us started with you are walking in a circle and as brother ben meyer says uh all the time brother j.r moore has set the plow a little deeper with don't run from your purpose just excellent presentations i want to thank both of these brothers for their preparation we're going to pick up the speed just a little bit we're going to skip this next song that'll put us back on track time wise and so i want to introduce at this time to you brother charles page and brother page is going to be speaking to us from the subject the true and straight pathway and a little bit about brother page charles has been a member of greenville avenue for almost for about 20 years after high school he attended ut dallas and started worshiping at greenville avenue church of christ after accepting a free ride to service from brother and sister lorenzo jackson in parentheses often accompanied by free lunch so because he felt welcomed by the congregation he stayed and put his talents to work for the lord he has worked in worship service the singles ministry missions finance and communications ministries and teaches wednesday evening bible classes although he has always enjoyed brother gibbs's preaching the best thing he's received from his time at gacc is his beautiful wife keisha who has blessed him with seven wonderful children professionally he is interested in technology business and investments his favorite scripture is second timothy chapter one verse number seven without any further delay the next voice is brother charles page all right thank you brother floyd appreciate the introduction and also appreciate uh again just want to give more shout out to the leadership and for brother jones for helping put this on and the two brothers who came before me my goodness setting the bar high uh brother frank brother j.r really appreciate that very inspiring message and i'm going to try not to drop the baton as we speak before a live audience this is uh this is fantastic i've been talking to a webcam for so long you got to get used to speaking before real people again so the topic that i've been assigned was the true and straight pathway and we find that in matthew chapter 7 verse 13 and 14. and we're going to start off and we'll just read that and it says enter by the narrow gate for white is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and few there are who find it now when we think about the true and the straight pathway um i would really appreciate what brother jr did when he started talking about the action right start looking at the verbs uh what we're going to do is actually go down to that verse and we want to take a look at the uh some of the questions we would ask so in the who who is it that's supposed to go down this straight pathway the answer is you and i apologize also the streaming team told me that i made this powerpoint too small so if you can't read it that's my fault jesus invites everyone who hears these words of mine as he would say later on the chapter to join god's family so the who is us and the what is to enter and that gets in again to the verb what are we supposed to do we're supposed to answer so the first word in this text is a call to action kingdom citizenship is not a spectator sport you must actively participate so once we come into this kingdom and we get on this straightness narrow pathway don't expect to just sit down on the sideline again just like that net we have to come in and we have to be useful where are we supposed to enter and that answer is the narrow gate jesus instructs us to enter the narrow gate and then informs us about where the other path leads so there's a lot of instruction just in this one verse where jesus is giving us key information why should we go down this narrow path you know what's what's the the whole reason for doing this in the first place the answer is everlasting life the narrow path is the only one that leads to everlasting life nobody wants the path that leads to destruction but we're taught that unfortunately that is the path that most people will choose how do we get on this narrow path through difficulty jesus says the way is hard that leads to the narrow gate so don't expect for this journey to be a cakewalk so we got you know the key questions answered the who what when where why how and he sets us up so that we can know what we're about to endeavor in now when we get to the sermon on the mount uh which is where we are in matthew chapter seven this is really at the end of uh jesus's most famous sermon it starts in matthew chapter five and concludes in matthew chapter seven and as he's concluding this sermon you can listen in for key points because normally when you hear people uh conclude a sermon that really sums up the conclusion of the whole matter right so everything that jesus has been talking about for the past few chapters is summarized and wrapped up right here in this sermon and he gives us this in matthew chapter seven two paths and we also see that there are two trees with two different types of fruit a additionally we see that there are two confessions and there are two builders so jesus is making it very clear that following him is an either or proposition there's no middle ground you are either pursuing the kingdom of christ or you are pursuing the kingdom of satan when we look at this dichotomy and we see once again two and as jesus wraps up the sermon you're either going to go this way or that way oftentimes in our society being a part of the narrow path is considered to be something that's negative right they put a negative connotation behind the narrow mindedness or you take a certain viewpoint and they'll say that's such a narrow-minded view well for us it's actually a compliment take it as a compliment say okay well that makes me like the lord because the lord had a very narrow-minded view so when we talk about again pursuing the kingdom of god or pursuing the kingdom of satan it's interesting to say pursuing the kingdom of satan it sounds like such a harsh thing to tell somebody so we're going to take a look at this guy named joe by the world standard joe is a good person in fact here are some facts about joe joe has a good career joe has never cheated on his taxes joe helps those who are in need he volunteers at the soup kitchen and feeds the homeless joe does not have any misdemeanors or felonies joe doesn't even have a speeding ticket that puts joey ahead of me i had a few of those joe mentors at youth centers and joe gives to charitable organizations joe sounds like the kind of guy you want your daughter to bring home and you look at joel's life and you look at all of his accomplishments and all the great things that he uh does and you say how could we say that joe is pursuing the kingdom of satan how does this even begin to make sense to take a look at people who are doing good things and put them in a category of pursuing the kingdom of satan well you have to ask yourself who sets the standard in first corinthians chapter four verses three through four he says but with me it is a very small thing that i should be judged by you or by human court in fact i do not even judge myself for i know nothing against myself yet i am not justified by this but he who judges me is the lord so we want to take a look at things from our own viewpoint and we want to judge people based on the way that we think that they should live we want to set our own standards and think of good and bad according to the way that we want to think about it but paul tells us i don't even judge myself we are not fits we are not qualified to sit in judgment and in matthew 12 30 jesus says this the one who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters despite all of joe's good deeds despite all the things that he's doing and i'm not saying that joe shouldn't be doing those things he should absolutely do those things we should all try and strive to do good works but understand that if you are not doing them for the cause of christ jesus says you are a scatterer again romans 3 11 says none is righteous no not one no one understands and no one seeks for god none of us god views our acts of altruism very differently than we do we have our standard and we say the good things that we do must have us on a narrow path and we judge ourselves by ourselves but god is a righteous judge god is a true judge he's the one who determines what's really good and what's really bad he is the one who sets the standard therefore he has to be our standard if we go by what man says and what society says we will end up like the church at laodicea in revelation chapter 3. look at what it says in verse 17 for you say i am rich i have prospered and i need nothing not realizing that you are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked this is the epitome of uh self-deception the church at laodicea is interesting when you take a look at their history they were in a uh economic banking center they had lots of wealth they were very prosperous in fact there was a disaster that took place in ad60 and it took out an earthquake took down damage of the city and rome as you do in a kingdom or a country they had sort of their version of fema where they sent relief to help them rebuild the city and the church of laodicea sent it back we don't even want roman money because we have our own they were so self-sufficient they were so entitled they felt like they had everything in line and jesus said you're pitiable poor blind and naked this is the danger of what can take place when we find ourselves thinking that we're on the narrow way when we're really walking on the broadway so we have to be self-examining we have to make sure that we pay attention to what we're doing so that we're not setting our own standards and it strikes at the core issue behind why so many choose the broad way instead of seeking a higher authority for righteousness we choose to define it for ourselves you're not going to find many people who feel comfortable living a morally reprehensible life right most people have a sense of consciousness they uh they don't want to have guilt and burdens as they should right nobody wants to go around carrying guilt or burdens or shame so it's uncomfortable but in romans 2 15 we see this they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them so in the world as we try to define what's the righteous standard where's the narrow path where's the broad path everybody thinks that they're on the narrow path and when you feel a sense of guilt it says their conflicting thoughts accused when my thoughts are conflicting and my conscience is accusing me what am i looking for relief i don't want my thoughts convicting me i don't want them accusing me so the next part is to excuse me guilt is heavy so when you look at this guilt is like a burden and when you hear a passage or you read a passage it's like a boulder that weighs on your mind when you know that you're living foul when you know that something is wrong what do you try to do how do you deal with sin when sin is in your life how do you deal with guilt when you know that guilt is on your conscience well you can ignore or suppress it that's one thing that people do if i have a guilty conscience or i'm feeling bad about something i don't want to carry the guilt so i'm going to try to just push it down push it out the way ignore it suppress it maybe it'll go away or you can just convince yourself it's okay you know there's this thing that i'm feeling guilty about uh my conscience may not necessarily be right on this one the world says it's okay other people it's not harming anybody it's all good and you just try to talk yourself out of it you try to talk yourself into thinking that everything's alright you could also try to cover guilt by doing righteous deeds and i put you know quote unquote righteousness so i'm gonna try to do some good things to cover up the bad again i have to deal with my guilt i can't just let it sit here and weigh me down it's too heavy for anyone to bear so do righteous deeds another thing you can do is seek validation through consensus if everybody else is doing it it must be all right majority rules right you remember some of the ads that have been run you know throughout television history and they say 10 million people can't be wrong when they want to try to get you to try a product of some sort 10 million people have tried this and everybody you know so it must be right it must be something that's okay and if all of america is doing it it's gotta be okay right if everybody in my school is doing this thing it has to be okay right you go to some of these college campuses and you see things that go on commonplace so it's got to be okay right everybody's doing it the bible makes us aware of our guilt and that's one of the issues that we're having in society right now is that people are being made aware of their guilt they don't want the guilt so what do they do attack the messengers it's not all bad news because not only does the bible make you aware of your guilt it also shows you how to get rid of it we try all these things we know these things don't work ignoring it trying to convince yourself deceive yourself trying to cover it with righteousness or seeking validation through consensus we've tried all these things and we know that they do not work at the very best it's a quick fix that might make us feel good in the moment but ultimately that guilt will pop its head back up so what do we do what does the bible say about how we get rid of it first john 1 9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so those boulders they feel like pebbles after you take the time to confess to god so this uh pastor talks about confessing our sins to god and then james comes back in james 5 16 says therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working confessing our sins to god confessing to one another does a whole lot of good when you can get that guilt off your chest the boulder begins to weigh like a pebble and this is just one of the things that we need to do to try to help get the guilt now the question is will the world confess some will but most won't this is not surprising because jesus already declared that the path to the narrow gate is difficult it's much easier to excuse a sinful lifestyle then admit that it's wrong if you're gonna tell me that i have to confess my guilt and i have to admit that the lifestyle that i'm living is wrong [Music] no i'm not ready for that one not ready to make those types of confessions so rather than me uh trying to conform to god i'm going to try to have god conform to me we see this far too often where people want to make the god in their own image if this church won't allow this sin we're going to go find another church that will accept this sin notice they don't just abandon god altogether some do but many they don't want to abandon god because again you got this conscious thing you got this guilt thing so i can't stop worshiping i can't give up on god i just got to make it fit in my lifestyle well you may not want to confess now but philippians 2 10-11 says that at the name of jesus every knee shall bow those in heaven those on earth those under the earth and every tongue shall confess jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father so we're going to confess one way or another you're going to confess that jesus is lord and you're going to see the truth walking that narrow path enables us to be able to see the truth accept the truth now while we have the chance because by the time this event happens your confession is going to take place but you're not going to get the same credit for it this point is too late so it's best for us to try to deal with it and find this narrow way right now isaiah 53 6 says all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way my way doesn't lead to righteousness and yours doesn't either all of our paths lead to destruction this is a bit of a dilemma because again we're talking about the narrow way and we're trying to find what is this narrow path and in some translations you'll see the straight path so the straight and the narrow straight actually means the same thing it's synonymous for narrow notice the way straight is spelled in that verse it's s-t-r-a-i-t uh which means to be narrow or constrained you can hear the phrase sometimes people use i'm in dire straits that means that i'm in a tight spot i'm in a difficult situation okay so the straight path and narrow path uh we're saying the same thing but there's only one narrow path that leads to righteousness despite all the other ways that i'm gonna try that don't leave there so when you see this image on the screen it's a man being amazed and he's trying to figure out the one way that gets to the end and brothers and sisters this is life for us there are so many paths that we can pick there are so many ways that we can choose and we come to this world without a instruction manual and we do have one but you come in and you you know you're growing up and especially as you if you can think back for some of us it's been a while but you go back to your adolescent years and there's so many paths that are chase uh put before you pass going this way past going that way and we're trying to determine which one is right and even getting into adulthood we're trying to determine which path is right but it's like this maze jesus is the waymaker the one path that actually leads us to the destination we're trying to get to we see it in john 14 6 jesus says to him i am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me so the narrow path has one narrow savior who leads you to that narrow gate and this is not a world that the message or a message that the world likes to hear because it goes contrary to the thoughts of our day how can you say there's only one when i see so many what makes you think that you're the one there's this other path over here and there's millions of past well when jesus entered the world when he was born there were millions of options when he came into the world and he said he felt sorry for people because they were like sheep without a shepherd the leaders who were supposed to be leading them on the straight path were leading them down the broad road to destruction nobody knew where to find it jesus carved out a new path which led to a previously undiscovered gate this narrow gates nobody could find it jesus was the only one who was able to lead us there so if we're one of the ones who understands the way to this path going back to jr's lesson on purpose we must help we must be the ones and this is the evangelistic uh arm of this particular lesson we must be the ones to help show other people where that path is if you consider your life in your situation nobody was born into the church nobody was born into god's kingdom everybody had to be shown where it was romans 10 14 says how can they call on the one they have not believed in and how can they believe in one whom they have not heard and how can they hear without someone preaching to them so you and i we must open up our mouths and we must declare where this path is whether the world wants to hear it or not you will be rejected some people will say it's foolishness some people will laugh at you some people will scorn but again it doesn't matter my glory isn't just being the net my glory is just being the mouthpiece of god and making sure that i told you one of the most convicted songs you'll hear you never mention him to me every time that song is sung it it convicts me anew because the whole song is just about somebody that you knew and you had an opportunity to be a net to there was somebody who you had the opportunity to show what the narrow path was you saw day by day and knew that they were straight yet never you don't want to stand before god and see that soul who was never shown the narrow way and you sat right next to them and never opened your mouth so we need the preaching and as um us we have to be the ones to show again most people are going to be unwilling you can get that in your spirit right now all right there's there's no 100 success rate right here scattering seeds the parable of the soil what are we told the soil went out to scatter right scatter seeds some fell on rocky thorn a rocky ground some fell on hard soil some fell on thorny ground and some fell on good soil and that's the way it's going to be when we tell people about this narrow path not everybody's going to receive it it's not our job to determine where the good ground is that's above our pay grade scatter the seed preach the message tell somebody first corinthians 1 21 says for since the wisdom of god through the world its wisdom did not know him god was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe this message will be considered foolish by most but the scripture tells us this pleases god this is the way that he chose the foolishness of preaching satan is the master of deception he's built up all of these different paths right so just like that maze and when you look at the broadway the broad path it's lit up like the las vegas strip there's lights there's bells there's whistles there's billboards and everything about the broad path makes it appear that it's going to a good place the path that one little path that jesus carved off does not look as glamorous it doesn't appear to be as glamorous but it is the only path that leads to righteousness and eternal life so there's dual encouragement for us that i hope that we take from this lesson number one in your own life make sure that when you see these broad roads in these pretty paths and they look so inviting and they look like they're actually going somewhere do not be deceived that narrow path that you have been taught that first love that christ put in your heart that is the one that is the one true path doesn't mean that we won't sometimes detour this is one of the things i try to remember with the scripture in proverbs it talks about training up a child and the way he should go when he's older he won't depart from it doesn't mean that he won't veer off he or she to the right and to the left every now and then the general concept of this is that they'll get where they need to be okay so you and i if you find yourself kind of veering to the left and veering to the right it's okay the narrow path is still there you know where it is you can get back to it so an admonishment for us is to make sure that we stay on the narrow path and if you fall to that broadway come back the second admonishment is again the evangelistic part there are some people who literally have no idea where it is if you get off the path you can find your way back home you know where it is there are some people who have no idea where it is do not leave and go out into this world and interact with people on a day-to-day basis and let them walk away from you not knowing where the path is if you knew where a million dollars was you telling people about that if everybody was hungry you know where to get some free groceries you would tell people about that if there was some sort of physical need that somebody had and you knew what the solution was you would tell people about it what about their souls what about the spiritual destination do not let people at least not know where the path is if they refuse to accept it your blood is on your own hands but we cannot be like jonah and be reluctant preachers so i want to close with this and leave you with this scripture it's in hebrews chapter 12 verses 1-3 it says therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every way in every sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking unto jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endure the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of god consider him who endured from sinners such historic hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted that's the encouragement for us the narrow way is the way and we need to stay on it our brothers and sisters who have gone before us who stayed on that narrow path they're cheering for us we will get to see them again we're running you can just imagine in your mind moses who finished the race david who finished the race abraham who finished the race paul john peter all these people throughout history who have finished the race and we want to get there we're still running we're still breathing just this week a dear brother here finished the race as we came and memorialized him and just celebrated the fact that he finished the race i know we're hurting and we miss him but in some ways we can be jealous with a godly jealousy because he finished his race we have to finish and we have to stay on the narrow path thank you [Applause] well i would honestly say that the door of episode 15 shares just been shut excellent excellent job from each one of our speakers and brother page thank you very much for your preparation and each of our speakers have just done a phenomenal job in addressing straighten up and walk right and so at this point in time we're going to begin our transition to the second part of today which is the share and it is where we have a bevy of questions that each of our panelists will weigh in on i do have our fourth panelist that three of the panelists you've heard from and our speakers and then i will introduce our fourth panelist that will be participating in the share here shortly but we're going to bring up at this time we've got a north another set of door prizes where we're going to give out three more door prizes as we transition now into the share so hang around just a little bit longer and we're going to tee things up again after this set of door prizes we'll have a medley of songs until we're ready to move forward into the share part of the activity so thank you very much for tuning in being with us today here we go again maybe i'll get called this time our first winner is karen chapman or nothing our first winner would be janet treadgirl threat guilt that's me you gotta put that in a frame okay let's choose someone else okay the second one is i need uh anita banan yes buy it by we have mike henderson congratulations to you mike okay she wants to give hers away you want to give it to me okay and the third fourth winner by special gift brother ron brown hi see you later lord the people praise you [Music] we'll lift you up and raise you for you are the holy one sin you're the one you're the only one and lord the people love you we place nobody above you for you oh the holy one [Music] [Music] lord all the glory do you for you are the holy one we say you're the one you're the only one we say hallelujah lord all the glorious do you for you are the holy one you're the one you're the only one [Music] you're the one you're the only one one more time you're the one you're the only one and you're the one you're the only one only one if the sky's above your grave you are feeling so blue if your cares and burden seems great all the whole they threw there's a civil line that shines in the heavenly land look my face and see my friend trust in his promises graham sing can you be happy today press alone to the goal to rest in him leadeth away he is keeping your soul let the world know where you belong look to jesus and pray [Applause] lift your voice and praise him and song sing and be happy today after we fail to see the rainbow up in heaven fell sky and when it seems the fortunes of earth frown and pass us by there are things we know that are worth more than silver and gold if we hope and trust me stay we wish to have pleasures untold so you are the same can you be happy today press [Music] your soul you've got to let the world know where you belong look to jesus and pray lift your voice and praise him and song sing and be happy today well get her don smith is here once again for another episode of the share and we have our panelist in place as you know typically we scour the world looking for these panelists and three of the presenters have graciously uh accepted the invitation i'm gonna give you uh details as to where we found these hard fighting soldiers on the lord's battlefield here in just a minute but i do want to introduce to you our fourth panelist and that is sister beatrice greenwood and sister greenwood has been a member of greenville avenue church with christ for more than 30 years she is an active member in several ministries beatrice has been teaching in the gacoc education ministry in preschool in the preschool department for the last three years she thoroughly loves spending time with family and friends her motivational scripture is jeremiah 29 11 about being invited to the share or to share in the share she says i feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to share god's word and so sister beatrice woods and you know sister woods as as implied she's a very busy soldier and it took some efforting to really finally reach out to her people and have her people to reach out to our people and to to really confirm her availability for this september the 11th 2021. she is a hard fighting soldier and really we found her own location in lima peru lima peru and so she's a peruvian sister winning souls and so again our next panelist i think you took two red eyes to get here frank if i'm not mistaken uh from doha cutter uh brother frank johnson um brother frank johnson and and and as well we spent time searching high and low uh you know this brother as he mentioned by profession he is an english teacher and uh he's very very proficient in the english language and sentence structure when it comes to god's word and so we caught up with him his people called our people and stated he he would be available today but he flew in from boa vista brazil brazil and the the pandemic is the numbers are coming down a little bit right okay all right lastly brother charles page uh very committed brother as you saw how he closed the show today for us um brother page graciously accepted our invitation and really you know this is this is through telegram we couldn't no phone service uh but through telegram easter island chile is is we finally reached him almost pony express kind of like but but at any rate we're going to transition and thank you once again for this portion we have our our questions here and let's just delve right in on this episode 15. so the first question is panelists i want to change my life my family does not support me i feel like i'm alone i want to change my life my family does not support me i feel like i'm alone how would we really give some words of encouragement to this individual in this question based on our studies that we've had this day you know um i don't know why all of a sudden this just reminded me i've been looking at this question and for some reason it just reminded me of a part of a dr seuss book that i read uh you know and it says uh whether you like it or not alone is something you'll be quite a lot and i don't know why that just hit me just now however i think that some of the advice that we might be able to give this person is to get comfortable with being alone because sometimes in the kingdom if you're not around your kingdom brothers and sisters you're going to find yourself being very alone but i would also say that if you feel that your family does not support you that's okay because we are taught um in luke chapter 14 uh verse number 26 that jesus says if a man comes to me doesn't hate his father and mother his uh wife children brothers sisters uh even his own life he cannot be my disciple so we are expected to be willing to leave everything behind and so if your family cannot come along for the ride you got to understand this is a uh this is a path that you have to take by yourself right this is a road that you might have to travel by yourself and that's okay um and then later on in that same chapter of luke 14 it talks about the preparation right so you need to maybe start preparing yourself for the struggles that you're going to have to deal with always keeping the end in mind because a struggle for a little while is okay because joy comes in the morning right and that's what we're focused on so we will go through the struggles here on earth so that we can experience some glory so i hope that helps a little any other panelists i would like to just say to this person you are not alone because you have your church family here to support you i mean you have to remember that when you anytime you walk with christ you're going to leave some people behind everybody's not going to want to walk with you and so i was reminded of what christ said in john chapter 15 verse 18 when he said the world hated him so as christ we know the world hated him he didn't do anything wrong he had all just did what he needed to do he loved us but the world was not comfortable with that so if they hate christ we are much we are not even as good as christ at all so we're going to expect to have some hatred some people are not going to walk with us and we just have to understand that we have to make provision for ourselves when it comes to that we need to come to the church and be a part of the church where you can get that support and you can get that encouragement from the church and just remember just get involved in the church ministries and just start being active in the church you get around friends and family that will help you to not feel alone so i just want to encourage that person you are not alone you have your church family yeah to just add to that um one of the things that they said was i want to change my life amen right that was the first thing so i'd like to say that not being alone is it's not always created equal if somebody doesn't want to be around you because you don't brush your teeth you know that's one thing but if somebody doesn't want to be around you because you're wanting to change your life you want to get better and you're wanting to improve that's actually a good thing yeah so within that you want to like jr said kind of get comfortable being alone but you're not really alone so in matthew 10 34-36 jesus says this do not think that i came to bring peace on earth i did not come to bring peace but a sword for i have come to set a man against his father and against a daughter against his mother a daughter law against mother-in-law and a man's enemies will be those of his own household now jesus is not trying to teach that we intentionally declare civil war in our families but at the same time he recognizes that when you choose to walk down this path some people will not agree with it it's just a simple fact of the matter so he was preparing us that if that does take place if people are abandoning you because you're trying to change your life and do what's good to be ready for but just as sister greenwood said in ephesians chapter 1 verses 4 through 5 we see this just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons of jesus christ according uh to the good pleasure of his will we have been adopted into the family of god so if your old family your natural physical family chooses to neglect you you're not alone because now you just have a new family the family of god so we are here whoever may have submitted this question and anytime anybody feels like they're alone for pursuing trying to change their life your old crowd may not want to be with you anymore but then you have a new crowd who absolutely wants to be with you you have a new crowd of people you have a new family so to speak uh joining in with everybody else who has been adopted into god's family so they're definitely not alone you're just kind of transitioning from an old lifestyle to a new lifestyle which means quite possibly leaving some of your old family and friends and joining with your new ones that's right and i know it's hard to to leave family and i'm kind of struck by what they said also in wanting to change their life uh and they're not they're not getting that family support uh i'm thinking of romans 12 when when we're you know romans 12 is dealing with application for christians and how we should uh apply this new lifestyle that we've come into and in romans 12 starting at verse 10 it says we're to be devoted to one another in brotherly love giving preference to one another and honor so you you actually gain a family and and not just a family but a family that is trying to be christ like we we are we are actually and and listen just like any family we have our we have our shortcomings you know we but but we're we're new creatures in christ if anyone's in christ you're a new creature in christ not only that uh the spirit in uh romans 8 16 it tells us that the spirit testifies with us that we're the children of god and so we you actually gain and we as as charles said we you may lose some things you may have to step away from the old crowd but you've gained a new kingdom you've got family it's a good question very good question i you know i'm i'm reminded of when my my mother passed and we had several discussions about uh the truth the church and um you know grew up as a as a methodist and easter sunday and mother's day was you know just monumentally important you come back in town you know you stand and you make that presentation and when i understood the truth and i ended up leaving the church of the the methodist church for the church of christ because of the truth it was an individual personal decision and i like what brother charles has said in his message you got to pass the narrow or broad is the way and and and it really came down to and i think that this is this is a choice for all of us is christ going to be predominantly important in my life or my mother am i going to be more afraid to disappoint christ or my mother and as we had those discussions you know it it really came down to her really beginning to understand that no there you won't be seeing me at mother's day and easter to worship just for those who were very instrumental in my life growing up because it is not the right place it does not teach the truth and just to put it out there plain and simple that was my choice um so it's about truth yeah either we're going to straighten up and walk right uh or we're just we're we're going to miss the vote because our allegiance and i remember telling my mother i said you know mom i love you to death but you don't have salvation that you can give me and that's really where it's at we're in this for making eternity spending eternity with christ and uh we can't afford to miss that because of not being afraid to to make those tough decisions or to be alone like you were saying yeah we're not alone i really appreciate your responses there okay so uh over the past few months second question i've gotten involved in some things that are life-threatening i don't know how to get myself out of the situation over the past few months i've gotten involved in some things that are life threatening i don't know how to get myself out of the situation any one of our panelists we're going to go around to each one of you so whichever one wants to jump in all you'll have a bite at it for sure i'm going to start with the the practical because there's a there's a lot of question in the question life life-threatening uh i mean we we don't really know exactly what the individual is involved in and it may require some outside intervention to get them out of this life-threatening situation uh one thing i do know and they say they don't know how to get out of the situation so that that kind of screams to me that they need some outside intervention to help but but i i think whenever we involve ourselves in life-threatening situations intentionally it it brings to my mind that we are not our own we we belong to god every every human being put on this earth belongs to god and as a christian we're familiar with uh first corinthians six where it says we were bought with a price and so if if christ came and and again for this individual just the thought that jesus loved him so much that he came and gave of himself so that they can have a relationship with god why would we get ourselves into a life-threatening situation and that and i'm not trying to minimize that idea uh because again we don't know exactly what what this situation is you know i um when i looked at this question it it reminded me not ex not not exactly but in some way it reminded me of when god told abram to leave get away from these people right your father your kindred go and sometimes it's not the easiest thing to do but sometimes when we find ourselves in tough circumstances like that we've got to find an exit we've got to find a way to just go and that might be very uncomfortable and in some cases it's pretty unfeasible but i know that there are uh resources that uh the church might have to be able to offer so i would encourage them to start asking for that outside intervention some help you know let some people know what you're dealing with and see what they might be able to offer so that you can get away from that situation right in and of ourselves we find that we're often uh not capable of doing the things that need to be done right but then when we reach out then we start finding resources and help that we didn't know was there in the first place so i would encourage them to get in contact with some people that might be able to help out get in contact with some of your brothers and sisters some of the leadership and see what they might be able to do to help you and you might just need to go i agree with what they're both saying that's great great things to do i was going to piggy back off what jr said because life is valuable and sometimes it does require drastic action so if you're in a life-threatening situation you need to be ready to do whatever you need to do to preserve life and life is is really twofold because we have physical life and we have eternal life okay and the things that we do in our physical life can affect our eternal life so saving yourself saving your physical life gives you an opportunity to continue in the lord's kingdom and in second timothy chapter 2 26 it says this and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do their will and obviously this is a spiritual connotation right but you can apply it to the physical part as well come to your senses and escape escape the snare of the devil escape whatever it is that's causing you to be in a life-threatening situation and jesus also says in matthew 5 30 if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and cast it from you for it is more profitable to lose one of your members than for your whole body to perish and again a spiritual talk jesus is not necessarily talking about maiming yourself but what he's saying is you have to cut off a situation that is threatening something that is spiritually threatening to you you have to be willing to take drastic measures and do what you have to do cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye he's going to the extreme to show how valuable life is and the extremes that we might have to go through to respond in order to save ourselves so whether it's you know obviously on the physical side and on the spiritual side we need to be ready to do whatever we have to do cut off the situation i mean if it means moving getting out of your comfort zone getting you know into a different city and we don't know the specifics so you can't go into that but i would just say be ready to do whatever you have to do to make sure that your life is preserved amen all right very good um okay so our third question i am of the methodist religion and do not understand why sprinkling is not considered the same thing as baptism i am of the methodist religion and do not understand why sprinkling is not considered the same thing as baptism i'll just can't take a stab at that um when i read this question it brought to my um the acts and all the acts of worship acts of baptism ultimately that was first shown in acts so i found the scripture acts 8 26-39 and it it was just these are examples of conversion so i don't know we can really know how we're supposed to uh obey god he's going to give us examples and so in acts there's several examples of conversion you know you hear believe repent confess and be baptized those are acts those are your steps into the church so when you look at those different steps you have to see how many times are these references and given to how we are to obey how we are to be saved so when i went to acts 8 26-39 i i read the um scripture about the ethiopian the treasurer well you know he was on his way and he was converted by phillip i'm called ethiopian eunuch so when you read um in that scripture you find that peter on top of that philip is the one that's taught to eat the eunuch okay and so when he taught the unit there was a pattern in that conversion you know first he taught him the unit heard the word he believed and then we needed to be baptized he said here's water what prevent me from being baptized it was an urgency there was a way to beat us a method to be saved so that was the water baptism and we showed that in verse verse 36 that paul both philip and the unit went down into the water there was no i mean if they didn't if he didn't you know if he had to say well i have a cup of water just sprinkle me he will not say here's water what prevent us from me from being baptized which means that he knew that they needed to go down into the water and so the scripture does say both philip and the unit went down into the water so we know when you go down you are you have submerged so we're not seeing patterns of sprinkling we see more patterns of submerging so that was a good example in acts that i read that that i would tell someone look at the pattern how people are converted i'd like to add that language is important that's right uh we've got an english teacher language is important and and oftentimes the the bible has been translated and man will put his spin of understanding on it and actually change the language when we look at that word baptism the original word means immersion the word itself means immersion and so sometimes and this individual may not even know that because as as we uh learn and grow and we find out those things and and begin to explore them and i and i love the question because if that's all they've seen or if that's all they've been taught they may think well why what what's the big deal about sprinkling that's what we do but but to learn that the actual word means to be immersed which means to go down up under the water to be covered with the water and and then i couple that with um the scripture from from second peter three or first peter three about baptism is the answer of a good conscience it's a command in acts chapter 2 when when peter finished preaching to the brethren that were there and they were it says they were preached to their heart because they they heard and understood who jesus was and they asked him well what what can we do what should we do about this and he told them to repent and be baptized you gotta go down up under the water be immersed in the water for the remission of sin and though people may question the requirement i go back to first peter three but it's the answer of a good conscience if god said go do it if your conscience is really pricked you're going to try to fulfill whatever god told you to go do and so if god said to go get immersed or buried up under the water that's that's what we should do that's it that's it yeah and it was uh that was good and you know frank sac he's absolutely right when it comes down to baptism right it's immersion um just to add to that one of the things that i think because he talks about not understanding why sprinkling you know is not considered to be real baptism and you have to ask yourself as we get involved in certain practices and do certain things where do these things come from this is sort of a key question to kind of have in your mind anyway when it comes down to anything that you do in life you know why am i doing this or where did this come from because the origin tells the story we see in mark chapter 7 verses 7 through 8 it says and in vain they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men so these commandments of men there are some traditions that come into our lives and there are some traditions that come into our worship and not all traditions are bad i can recall a time where years ago we used to take communion after the sermon and then the leadership decided to move it before the sermon we changed the tradition but there was nothing wrong with changing that tradition because there's no scripture that indicates when the lord's supper should happen only that it should happen so we we honored it on the first day of the week this was a tradition that was able to be changed and you know no harm no foul but when it comes down to baptism immersion is the way that it was always practiced as sister beatrice said all throughout the new testament you see all these examples of baptism and they all have to do with immersion there was no sprinkling there was no pouring preachers often use this illustration so you've probably heard it before but there was a husband that went up to his wife and he said why do you cut off the ends of the roast and she said well my mom cut off the ends of the roast so that's why i do it so they went back and asked the mom and they said why did you cut off the ends of the roast before you you cook it and she said that's what my mom did so they went and finally tracked down the grandmother and asked her why did you cut down the ends of the roast and she said baby my pan was too small so the tradition was passed down from generation to generation and they had no idea why they were still cutting off the ends of the roast wasting that good meat for no reason so i actually did a little bit of diggings i said you know what's what's the research that we have on this and i found this back in 253 a.d there was a man by the name of novation who was laying sick in bed on his deathbed he believed that baptism was necessary for his salvation so because he was unable to leave his death bed this you know last minute he went to the end of his life and decided he needed to get his life right so he asked a local bishop to substitute pouring of water in place of immersion baptism and the bishop allowed it this was recorded by the church historian eusebius and is the first known example of something other than immersion in water baptism so we go back to 253 a.d and we see the origin of where this new practice started of porn and it's of a man who was not able to make it to be immersed and just like the daughter and the granddaughter who carried on the tradition of cutting the ends of the rostov we have find that many religions have carried on traditions of sprinkling and pouring and other things never going back to the original source and figuring out why we're doing this in the first place absolutely and one final thing i'll add is um that we're giving examples in romans and in colossians uh and the language is very similar that we are buried with him in baptism and if anybody has ever been to a funeral we understand how burial takes place it's not a piece of somebody you don't just throw a little bit of dirt we understand you go all the way in right and so if that is a burial then we have to be all the way in as simple as that you know this question i was looking forward to uh to getting uh getting to it coming out of that same uh religious background i remember having a discussion one of the many that i'd had with my mother and i remember you some of you may remember we had someone that wanted to be baptized and they were confined to a wheelchair and the brothers brought this individual to the baptismal pool and we baptize them in with that with them sitting in that wheelchair we took everything underwater and i i recounted this story to my mother and she says y'all put the whole wheelchair how insensitive and um i said well mom you know it's about being true to that word uh sprinkling to your point is covered in the disciplines of the methodist it's a guidance book and that's kind of like cutting off that the ends and that's where it's found and it is for convenience sake it is really why it's why it's being done uh which is the same thing the brother brother charles had alluded to it and just one other point as we close out since this is such a teachable moment from the religion that i came from so we had a discussion about communion first day first sunday in the month as opposed to first day of the week and um well what is the purpose of communion it is to be reminded of what christ did for us him dying on the cross and i said well you know i said well mom you know 12 times a year versus 52 times a year 52 weeks every every week has a first day which one do you think you would be put in most remembrance constantly of what christ did for us well i understand that but that's just not the way we do it and so again it really speaks to this title of that we have this morning of straighten up and walk right i mean either we're going to you know follow what the bible says and it's there i mean there's there's there's no such example of sprinkling in the bible uh as sister greenwood said the perfect example is is the conversion of the ethiopian eunuch which she uh shared with us this morning and so again we always get to this point and we leave questions unasked because we are out of time and we want to thank our panelists this morning for a great job well done i really appreciate your participation in the questions part and also the presenters you've done a fabulous job and we can't thank you enough uh for your participation as well and so we're going to have at this time our final set of door prizes which will be our grand prize and there will be four door prizes that we will uh give we want to thank the audiences with us those of you that have been with us out in streaming land we can't thank you enough for uh staying tuned in and participating this morning and supporting this 15th episode of the share so we'll have our ladies to come up to do our door prize and then we'll have our closing remarks and our closing prayer by our elder brother otis eidelberg jr again thank you very much what a beautiful day for crisis i'm going to get momentum i'm keep in mind if i do and the first one is elaine adams congratulations elaine [Applause] we have beverly fisher chick wins every time don't you oh okay congratulations okay we have larry washington [Applause] and last but not least my grandmother used to say the last mohegan ryan hopper congratulations everybody what a day what a day what a day what a wonderful time we've had today in the 15th episode of this year and i want to thank all of the presenters brother frank johnson brother j.r moore and brother charles page and we are so thankful for the lovely edition of sister beatrice greenwood i'm so glad to see you up there these men are handsome but you take with your beauty it takes them to a different level wonderful thank you so much we've heard some very good messages uh here at greenville avenue and in the church of christ we'd like to extend the invitation uh and that invitation is to to all of you that are watching who who may have heard something that that have pricked your heart you first have to hear the word and our presenters have done an excellent job at presenting god's word in the simplest way that they could and then you ought to believe it um you ought to believe what you've heard and then you are to repent of your sins and then confess that great name jesus is the christ the son of god and after that we will baptize you we will take you down into the water and bring you up out of the water and in baptism baptism washes your sins away and it adds you to the body of christ and it gives you the gift of the holy spirit and then you go on and live faithfully till the end and the lord will will add you at the time of judgment to that heavenly home where we will not no longer be uh subject to this body and to this world and to the struggle of trying to live faithfully and we will live with the lord and with his son and with his holy spirit forever and so we're hoping that that it that would be your choice let us not forget that on tomorrow all of our members on tomorrow we will have our ordination service for our three ministers and we're asking that everyone adhere to all of the service group assignments that we passed out we just will have two services tomorrow that will be at eight o'clock and a ten o'clock service and then our ordination uh ceremony will begin at 3 30. i want to send a special thanks to all those who participated in this year today i want to thank brother kobe mayberry for catering our breakfast this morning and he will have our lunch for this afternoon we want to thank him for his efforts and i want to give a special thanks to uh brother floyd smith uh brother tyrone jones could not be with us this morning because he had death in the family and we're definitely uh praying for his say travel him and his and vanessa as they travel to to be at the funeral of isaan but brother fellow smith has worked very closely with brother tyrone and all of these shares and i should say aka get her done because because he had a dual personality but we want to thank him for for his dedication and and so when tyrone needed this moment uh brother brother floyd smith was already prepared to step in and do an excellent job i believe that takes care of everyone uh to you out there we thank you for tuning in to our members we love you and we pray that the lord will continue to bless and god and guide each and every one of you let us pray the lord was so thankful for for what our eyes have seen and our years have heard the father we're so thankful for your word the lord in its simplicity and how it instructs us on what you would have for us to do in order to please you in all things i pray that we will be honest with ourselves as brother jr said and i pray that we will not wrestle with the fact that it is you that sets the standard and allow us to be humble enough to accept what you are asking us to do father i pray that you'll continue to bless all of our presenters the father and i pray that you'll bless their families and i pray that you'll continue to bless their efforts to bring your word to a dying world and not only their efforts but all of our helpers all over the world who are members of your body these and many other blessings i pray in your son jesus name amen announcement i need to make um regarding uh activities going forward our lunches are just delayed a smidget he's still in the process of cutting up brisket he's cutting up brisket so if we could give him some time the packages are just almost ready and we didn't get a chance to break for the snack because everything was going so well so you can just pick up lunch and a snack on your way out but it's going to be in the atrium over there and for those that won gift prizes they will be in your emails uh the end of this week so be looking for those uh email gift prizes the end of of this week all right so if you could hang on for about she said 10 minutes or so i think brother kobe will have us ready to rock and roll and again he he's he's cutting up brisket he's trying to finish with the brisket you

Channel: Greenville Avenue Church of Christ

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Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: z4uYFJ8glwI

Length: 173min 17sec (10397 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021