(upbeat music) Well, good morning, everyone. (bright music) It's good to see you today. Welcome to worship at First Baptist Atlanta. All those joining us online for livestream, welcome. Let's stand together and sing this as a prayer unto the Lord. Open up the heavens and show us Your glory, Lord. Let's sing together. (bright music) ♪ We've waited for this day ♪ ♪ We're gathered in Your name ♪ ♪ Calling out to You ♪ ♪ Your glory, like a fire, awakening desire ♪ ♪ Will burn our hearts with truth ♪ ♪ You're the reason we're here ♪ ♪ You're the reason we're singing ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We wanna see You ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river flowing from Your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ (bright music) ♪ Your presence in this place ♪ ♪ Your glory on our face ♪ ♪ We're looking to the sky ♪ ♪ Descending like a cloud ♪ ♪ You're standing with us now ♪ ♪ Lord, unveil our eyes ♪ ♪ You're the reason we're here ♪ ♪ You're the reason we're singing ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We wanna see You ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river flowing from Your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We wanna see You ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river flowing from Your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ Lord, this is our prayer. ♪ Show us show us Your glory ♪ ♪ Show us, show us Your power ♪ ♪ Show us, show us Your glory, Lord ♪ ♪ Show us, show us Your glory ♪ ♪ Show us, show us Your power ♪ ♪ Show us, show us Your glory, Lord ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We wanna see You ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river flowing from Your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ Open up the heavens ♪ ♪ We wanna see You ♪ ♪ Open up the floodgates ♪ ♪ A mighty river flowing from Your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ A mighty river flowing from Your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ ♪ A mighty river flowing from Your heart ♪ ♪ Filling every part of our praise ♪ Ah, give Him praise this morning. (congregation applauding) Lord, show us Your glory, that is our prayer. And as we continue to worship, we reflect on the great faithfulness of our God. Let's sing this great hymn together, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ O God, my Father ♪ ♪ There is no shadow ♪ ♪ Of turning with Thee ♪ ♪ Thou changest not ♪ ♪ Thy compassions, they fail not ♪ ♪ As thou hast been ♪ ♪ Thou forever wilt be ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Morning by morning ♪ ♪ New mercies I see ♪ ♪ And all I have needed ♪ ♪ Thy hand hath provided ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Lord, unto me ♪ (gentle music)
Oh, He's faithful this morning, isn't He? ♪ Pardon for sin ♪ ♪ And a peace that endureth ♪ ♪ Thy own dear presence ♪ ♪ To cheer and to guide ♪ ♪ Strength for today ♪ ♪ And bright hope for tomorrow ♪ ♪ Blessings all mine ♪ ♪ With ten thousand beside ♪ ♪ Oh, sing it now ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Morning by morning ♪ ♪ New mercies I see ♪ ♪ All I have needed ♪ ♪ Thy hand hath provided ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Oh, sing that again ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Lord, unto me ♪ Oh, aren't you thankful for the faithfulness of our God this morning?
(congregation applauding) (gentle music)
Morning by morning, new mercies we see. I don't know about you. I'm thankful for those new mercies. Our God is good, and He is faithful, and the fact that we're standing in this room this morning is just an attribute and the truth coming to life that God is good, and he's good all the time. (congregation applauding) Praise the Lord. We wanna teach you a brand new song this morning that simply says, all of our life, He's been faithful. All of our life, God is so, so good. And it simply talks about the goodness of God that chases after us. I've invited Emma to sing this song this morning and lead us. She's gonna lead us on a chorus and a verse, and then, we'll invite you to sing with us, as we continue to worship and reflect on the goodness of God. (bright orchestral music) ♪ And all my life You have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Oh, Your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ ♪ With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now ♪ ♪ I give You everything ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ I love You, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, Your mercy never fails me ♪ ♪ And all my days, I've been held in Your hands ♪ ♪ From the moment that I wake up ♪ ♪ Until I lay my head ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ Will you sing this with me? ♪ And all my life, You have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ I love Your voice ♪ ♪ You have led me through the fire ♪ ♪ And in darkest nights ♪ ♪ You are close like no other ♪ ♪ I've known You as a Father ♪ ♪ I've known You as a friend ♪ ♪ And I have lived in the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Sing it out ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ 'Cause Your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ ♪ With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now ♪ ♪ I give you everything ♪ ♪ 'Cause Your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ (gentle music) ♪ And all my life, You have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God ♪ (gentle music) Sing that again.
(congregation applauding) ♪ All my life You have been faithful ♪ Yes, He has. ♪ And all my life You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ (congregation applauding) You know what? Don't sit down yet.
(congregation laughing) Boy, I'm telling you, all of my life. Yes.
Amen. (congregation cheering)
(congregation applauding) Do you realize, all of your life- (congregation applauding)
All of your life. He's not just been good, He's been so, so good. I think we need to sing to Him again. Amen? Can we sing that to Him again? (congregation applauding) You wanna lead it again? (bright orchestral music) ♪ And all my life, You have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after me ♪ ♪ 'Cause Your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ ♪ With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now ♪ ♪ I give you everything ♪ ♪ 'Cause your goodness is running after ♪ ♪ It's running after me ♪ (gentle music) ♪ And all my life, You have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Oh, let's lift our praise again today ♪ ♪ Thank you, Father ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life, You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God ♪ Come on, give Him praise this morning for His goodness and His faithfulness.
(congregation applauding) Hallelujah. (gentle orchestral music) ♪ Through so many dangers and toils of this life ♪ ♪ I have already come ♪ ♪ And He keeps on giving ♪ ♪ The grace and the strength ♪ ♪ To just keep pressing on ♪ ♪ He's given a promise ♪ ♪ And I am gonna stand ♪ ♪ On every word ♪ ♪ His holy Word has said ♪ ♪ And holding His hand ♪ ♪ I'll never fear ♪ ♪ Whatever lies ahead ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it ♪ ♪ He's already said that I would ♪ ♪ I'll keep on trusting ♪ ♪ That He's working everything for my good ♪ ♪ He walks beside me ♪ ♪ And heaven is in my view ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm gonna make it through ♪ (gentle orchestral music) ♪ In spite of the good intentions I've had ♪ ♪ Sometimes, my strength can fail ♪ ♪ And though I have tried ♪ ♪ The very best that I could ♪ ♪ My weaknesses prevailed ♪ ♪ But then I remember the promise He made ♪ ♪ That in my weakness, He is strong ♪ ♪ And that's when I know ♪ ♪ Whatever may come ♪ ♪ His steady hand will lead me on ♪ ♪ And on and on ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it ♪ ♪ He's already said that I would ♪ ♪ I'll keep on trusting ♪ ♪ That He's working everything for my good ♪ ♪ He walks beside me ♪ ♪ And heaven is in my view ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm gonna make it ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make through ♪ ♪ Oh, He walks ♪
♪ Oh, He walks ♪ ♪ Beside me ♪
♪ He walks beside me ♪ ♪ And heaven is in my view ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm gonna make it ♪ ♪ He said I'll make it ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it through ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it through ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it through ♪ ♪ With his strength and his power ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it through ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it through ♪ (congregation cheering)
(congregation applauding) (gentle music) (hopeful, ethereal music) (bright hopeful music) (gentle ethereal music) You and I are living in a time when what is right or wrong is determined by the percentage of the population who respond to polls to questions that are strategically framed to assess what public sentiment is. And if so many people believe that something that used to be considered wrong is now right and acceptable, then the percentage of the respondents to the poll, if they're in the majority, then, it's declared out with the old, in with the new. And as a result, everything that has considered to be sacred, everything that's been considered sacred throughout time is up for debate. Everything is up for revision. The glossary of terms is being updated and revised continually, and you wake up every morning wondering what other word have they changed. You wonder, what other lifestyle has been sanctioned and approved and what else is going to change tonight when I go to bed and wake up the day after that? When I was a kid, I remember when the new television programs came out and you probably remember one of the people that made it famous, Phil Donahue, and he started going around with his microphone, and he would have someone on the platform and then, he handed the microphone around and it gave everybody in the studio audience the chance to say what they thought. And then, Oprah came along after that, and it kinda went downhill to Jerry Springer and things such as that.
(congregation laughing) But let me tell what all that was the precursor of. It was the precursor of saying what matters most is everybody's opinion, and now, social media has taken it to an unprecedented level, because the real purpose for social media is not to edify and encourage one another. It is to give everybody on planet Earth a microphone to spout their opinion. And so, when you and I look at things that are changing, we look at the world around us, and it's coming close to home now, and we wonder what is certain? What is unchanging? Everything is based on what someone thinks, and today, I want to talk to you about the most important opinion that matters, and that is what God thinks. [Congregation] Amen. What God thinks. And I want you to open to the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, if you will, Isaiah chapter 55, as we look at this subject of what God thinks, because we're going to talk about the thoughts of God, literally, what God says about His own thoughts. And in Isaiah chapter 55, if you have a copy of the Bible with you, I encourage you to turn there, and if not, of course, I'll display these words on the screen as I read from God's Word. But in Isaiah chapter 55, for some of you, these words will be familiar. For others of you, this may be the very first time you've heard them, but Isaiah, the prophet, was preaching to a wayward people, and of course, he was not only giving them insights into the future, but he was calling them, as all prophets do, as every prophet in the Old Testament, he was calling them to come back to God, to turn from their way and embrace God's way. And he says these words. Look at it in verse 6. "Seek the Lord while He may be found. "Call upon him while He is near. "Let the wicked forsake his way, "and the unrighteous man his thoughts. "Let him return to the Lord "and he will have mercy on that person. "Let him return to our God, for God will abundantly pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, "nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, "so are my ways higher than your ways, "and my thoughts than your thoughts." And we'll stop there. We'll look at a few verses after that in just a moment, but I want us to think about this idea of what God thinks, because the truth is, nobody's really asking that question except for people who know that is the question of the day. Because the truth is, I don't care what NBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, I don't care what everybody on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and TikTok, I don't care what corporate America has to say, I don't care what the commercials are telling me, I don't care about all of the subtle messages we're getting through advertising and through billboards and through pop-up ads. I don't care the way television has gone to the cesspool and the way the internet is like asking the local sewer to back up to your house and pump in all of the filth and swill they can get. What I wanna know is what does God think about the situation?
Amen. Because that's all that matters. (congregation applauding) So I want us to go through this passage of scripture and we've got several points from the passage today, and the first one is based on verse 6, which is this. There is a limited time for finding God. There's a limited time for finding God. And this is important for us to remember today, because so many people who even have a consciousness of God who've either grown up in church, and have forsaken what they were taught, or those who have been witnessed to, somebody has shared with them about needing to turn to God, so many people, especially younger people think, I've got all my life to live, and one day, I'll come to the Lord, one day, I'll consider all of this stuff because that's really for people who are older. Younger people aren't supposed to think about God, and think about getting serious about life. What they do not understand is that there is a limited time for finding God. In verse 6, he said, "Seek the Lord while He may be... [Congregation] Found." Found, and the implication there is that there will come a time when He is no longer able to be found, not that He is lost and needs to be found by us, but what Isaiah is saying, that Isaiah understands that we don't just come to God when we are ready. We have to come to God when God is calling us. That's right.
Amen. That's what he's referring to here. So this passage of scripture is saying, first of all, we are to seek the Lord. Isn't that what he says? Seek the Lord. That's an imperative, it's a command. Every person is commanded to seek the Lord, whoever they are. It doesn't matter what religion they are. There's only true God, it's the God of the Holy Bible, the God of the Hebrew people who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the God who is to be sought. So we're to seek the Lord. But there's a time when He can be found or discovered and then (claps), at a time when no man or woman knows, it's over. The opportunity is no longer. The window has shut. And then, notice in the last part of verse 6, it said, "Call upon him while He is near." Now when we read the Bible, we know one of His characteristics is that He is in all places at all times. We call it the omnipresence of God, but we also know that God manifests Himself in a special way through the Holy Spirit when He's at work in someone's life. So yes, God is everywhere, but God drawing near, in verse 6, is a reference to when God has his eye on an individual, and God is pursuing that individual and what this verse tells us is that God will not always pursue someone. You say, well, when does God give up? None of us knows the answer to that question. There's certain things that are reserved for the counsels of God, for the wisdom of God. We don't know, but the Bible makes it clear, there will come a time in every person's life when He will no longer be able to be found, isn't that what verse 6 says, and when He will no longer be near. And those two expressions in that one little verse are very troubling, or at least, they should be. And what it clarifies for us is that all of us are responsible for failing to respond when God is near, and when God is calling. And I wonder how many people are in this room today or someone is listening to me right now, how many of you, do you even realize that the reason you're here and the reason you're listening online is because God is drawing close to you, God is on your path, not to beat you down, but to lift you up? God's arms are outstretched, but that moment will pass. God, eventually, has a line that we should never cross when it comes to resisting His invitation to be His. And so, keep that in mind based on verse 6, but this is what I want us to progress to. The second thing, based on this passage is, God's thoughts are not our thoughts. We think differently than God thinks. Yes, He made us, but our thoughts are different than God's thoughts, and this is one of the first steps to following God and giving your life over to God, is to acknowledging the difference between how He thinks and how we think. And there are a lot of ways that we appreciate this difference and we grow to understand this difference but one of the simplest ways to acknowledge what it means to come before a holy God with the disposition that we are to have is to acknowledge that his thoughts and our thoughts are different, but that's not enough to say they're different. Here's what it means. It means we say, God, You are always right. [Congregation] Amen. I may not understand everything about You, there may be things in the Bible that do comport with our culture, and with my family upbringing, and with my background and my opinion and my felt needs, and my emotions, but what it means to follow God when the Bible says to make God the Lord of your life, and to make Jesus the Lord of your life, Lord means the One who's always right. And this is acknowledging what He is saying here. "My thoughts," in verse 8, "are not your thoughts." And here's the thing. Many times, we think our thoughts are better than God's thoughts. We think that God needs to be our student so we can inform Him of what He needs to reconsider. But I want us to think, for a moment, about a word that you don't hear very much anymore, but it's a word that Jesus used a lot in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, where His words are recorded. It's also a word that the disciples used after Jesus went back to the Father, after His resurrection. The whole book of Acts is about the apostles preaching and this word was in the preaching of Jesus and this word was in the preaching of the apostles, and it is a very antiquated, outdated, old-fashioned word. It's the word repent. Repent. In fact, I just wonder if we could say that together. [All] Repent. And the word repent literally means a change of mind. It's not just giving up a habit. You know, many times, you hear the word repent, and it means dropping some old habit and living addiction-free, or repent of that smoking, you bum. Give up those cigarettes, and so, you repent means I lay down those Marlboros. Whatever it might be. Repent of that drinking. I'm putting up the Seagram's 7. Whatever it happens to be. No, repentance begins with the way you think. Repentance means I have to acknowledge that my thoughts are contrary to the thoughts of God. Repentance means I'm gonna come into agreement that what God says is always right. [Congregation] Amen. That's what repentance really means. And when I consider the word repentance meaning a change of mind, this is, if someone is going to be saved, repentance is the prerequisite. You can't just get saved and say, God, please don't let me go to hell, but I'm just gonna keep on living the way I wanna live because I believe what I'm doing is okay. That's not repentance. Repentance is agreeing with God. In fact, when we talk about confessing our sins, that's what 1 John 1:9 talks about, the Greek word confess is literally a preposition and a verb put together to make one, and it means to speak together with. To speak together with. Now think about it. Usually, we think to confess just means to break down and spill the beans, but confession literally means that I'm going to speak together with what God speaks. It is an alignment of thought, an alignment of words. So when I confess my sin to God, I'm saying, God, I am speaking together with You that what You have said is wrong, I agree is wrong and I'm guilty. That's confession. It is coming together with God and agreeing with God that He is right. But you see, no one can repent of sin that is no longer sin. And we are living in a time, folks, where every sin, in fact, you know, think about the position that a pastor in today's society is in. You have every generation out in front of you, watching online, and you have a lot of people who are middle age adults, and we have a lot of people who are senior age adults, and you have different worldviews out there, and you have to tailor your message to try to keep in mind everybody out there who's listening just to, not to assume that everybody's hearing the same thing, right? You see what I'm saying? You have to pull people along to the same perspective. But to just disregard where everybody is, that's poor communication. So I'm always thinking about, okay, when I say this, what will this generation think I'm meaning, what will this generation think I'm meaning, what will this generation think I'm meaning? I'm all, those little wheels, do you ever see my wheels spinning up here? Because I'm trying to make sure that I'm stating things in the most effective way as possible. But here's the thing. Older people, one of the reason they're so valuable, one of the reasons it's so meaningful to be around older people and I used to say, around them, I'm gonna put myself in there, 'cause 51 is older now, is because we were brought up under a worldview, a system of values, for the most part, that even if your family was not what it ought to be, even if there were problems in the life around you and in your community, you knew that the Bible was God's Word. You just knew that.
Amen. But you see, when talking to a new generation today, they haven't had the benefit of being raised in that kind of a background with a solid foundation of what is right and wrong, what is good and bad. So when you just throw out rhetorical things, sometimes, you're missing out a lot of people, you're missing your audience. Where I'm going with this is when I grew up, marriage was the union of a man and a woman. That's what the Bible teaches, and that's what it always has been from time immemorial. We've changed that. When I grew up, little boys were taught to be boys. And you know, there was probably a lot more than was too stereotypical for that, you know, that little boys wore cowboy boots, and little girls wore patent leather shoes, and little doilies and dresses to church, and that kinda thing, and I understand that some of that stuff is arbitrary, and a lot of it is cultural, but would you agree with me, we've come way too far in the other direction? Because what we're saying now is that there's no such thing as a little boy and a little girl. There's just an it. There is an it that is an amorphous blob that can move in the direction of one's emotion or one's cultural influences and you can count there to be no lines. When I grew up, it was binary gender. There were only two. Now there's 2,029, I'm just making that up. (congregation laughing) Again, I'm not trying to be unkind, because remember, when you're talking to a younger generation, these are some of the things that they've just been taught to believe carte blanche are true. And I could go on and on down the list, but where I'm going with this is to tell you that when you change all of the definitions, nobody knows what to repent of anymore because nothing is wrong anymore. Everything that you feel and think and want to do is a-okay, and this is why, when we come back to this passage in Isaiah 55, when He says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, "My ways are not your ways," when we come before a holy God and by the way, you can come to Him now or you'll come to Him later, but either way, you're gonna stand before this God, and you will say it now or you will say it later. God, You were right, we were wrong. It's not a matter of if you're gonna tell God He's right. It's a matter of when we're going to tell God that He's right. But I have come to tell you today, up in the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia, God is right.
Amen. God is always right.
(congregation applauding) And the reason His thoughts are different than our thoughts, first of all, He's infinite, we're finite. Would you agree with that?
Yes. I mean, God is eternal. Think about this, the God we worship today, there has never been a time when He was not. [Congregation] Yes. He always has been, and there will never be a time when He ceases to be. He always will be. He is infinite. We are limited. And here we strut onto the scene of history, like we've got a corner on the market of truth and wisdom and authority, and do you realize, as important as we think we are, we're just a blip on the screen? We may live to 70, we may live to 80, maybe with a few daily doses of apple cider vinegar, you'll live to be 90 or however old it is. I've heard all kinds of elixirs and homeopathic stuff to give you longevity. Here's the thing. No matter how long you live, you're still a blip. But the God we worship has been on the job for millennia and millennia and millennia and millennia and millennia. In fact, He existed before time, because hHe created time.
Amen. And so, here, we're gonna just strut onto the scene and we're gonna say, God, I take issue with what you think.
(congregation laughing) I mean, the unbridled arrogance of it all, and I'm telling you this 'cause I've done it to Him. Thank God, I've often said, thank God for not striking me dead for the many times I've protested and argued and second-guessed. Oh, don't let me go out here on this limb by myself today. (congregation laughing)
Yeah. But you know something else? Listen. He is the creator, we are the created. Yes.
It, Psalm 100 says, "It is He that hath made us, and not we are ourselves." So how can the one who's been created by this awesome, infinite God, look up as a creature of the creator, and say, you don't know what You're doing? The very notion is absurd, is it not? And then, I think about this. Hey, hey, it comes down to this. He is holy. We are sinful. He is holy and we are sinful. So how do you know what the thoughts of God are, if we're sinful and He is holy and He says, in verse 8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts." In fact, they're so different, He says, "My thoughts are as high as the heavens are over the Earth, distinct from your thoughts." So if there's this chasm between my thinking and His thinking, He's always right, how do I know what he's thinking? (chuckles) That's a great question, and the Bible tells us that God has taken His thoughts and He has etched them onto the pages of every human heart before a person is ever born. And it is what we call a conscience, where God writes his laws on the human heart through a conscience. His laws are His thoughts, and I love this verse, Romans 2:15 says, "The Gentiles who don't know God, they show the work of the God's law," written where?
In their hearts. "Written in their hearts," and then he has a comma there, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them." So think about what he's saying there. God's thoughts are written in their hearts and then, He puts a comma and says, their conscience is what bears witness to His laws in their heart, meaning that this innate, encoded sense of right and wrong, it doesn't matter where a baby's born in the world, what culture, what religion, what ethnicity, every creation of God, which is what every child is, every creation of God, human being, has God's law encoded into their heart through a conscience, but unfortunately, the conscience can become contaminated, can it not? For instance, when the apostle Paul was talking about this controversy in the Corinthian church about whether Christians should be allowed to go to the back door of a pagan temple and buy the discounted meat because it had been sacrificed on a pagan altar and chanted over, and a pagan priest doing rituals on this thing. And so, you could go buy a rack of ribs half price down at the temple.
(congregation laughing) And so, a lot of Christians said, no, we should not go buy that cheap meat, because it's had demonic prayers said over it. And then, somebody else in the church said, it roasts up just fine on my Big Green Egg out in the backyard.
(congregation laughing) So there was this controversy, but what he was saying is, if we're not careful, by telling someone that something they believe is wrong is right, we can defile their conscience. In 1 Corinthians 8:7, it says, "There is not in everyone the knowledge that some people have, because for some, with the consciousness of the idol, until now, they eat it as a thing offered to an idol," meaning you're telling them they should eat something that has been offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled." Now I'm just using that as an example to say that it is possible for experiences in life to defile our conscience. For instance, when a child is violated at a young age, their conscience can be defiled, and they lose that moral grounding through no fault of their own, and it is so tragic, and then, there are other things that can happen by being promiscuous as a teenager. Your conscience can be defiled, and then, I really believe to my sadness and sorrow that children with phones have their consciences defiled at younger and younger ages because they're being exposed to so many things that you used to have to go off to college to experience, and now, at younger and younger ages, if they've got a phone with a connection, let me tell you, they're being exposed and their consciences are being defiled. So what happens is, our conscience, while God did a great job writing and encoding his thoughts into our heart, it can become contaminated and altered. That means that you and I need a more reliable source, by which to know what God's thoughts are because our conscience is not always reliable, and therefore, that leads me to this point. According to this passage, God's Word reveals God's thoughts. [Congregation] Amen. God's Word. Now let me ask you a question. When I say, God's Word, do you know what book I'm talking about? [Congregation] Yes. What book am I talking about? I'm talking about the Bible, that is God's holy Word. When he says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, My thoughts are higher than your thoughts," it's one thing for God to say to us, you know, you and I, we think differently. It's another thing for Him to say, I'm always right, but then, we get back, and we say, but how do we know what His thoughts are? Okay, Lord, I'm willing to say You're right, and everything I believe, and everything I've thought and everything I've been taught, I'm going to, I'm willing to lay it all out on the table, if You're my infinite creator, God, who's always right, Lord, I'm new at this, but I wanna be right and I wanna be pleasing to You, what do I need to do? And the first thing is to acknowledge that God never needs us to advise Him. We're always the ones in need of advising. In Romans 11, this is one of my favorite passages from Romans. He says, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable areHis judgements, and His ways past finding out." And look at this question in verse 34. "Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become God's counselor? "ho has first given something to God, and God needs to repay them for what we gave him?" You see the question here. This is God's way of telling you, you may think you're the psychiatrist, but I will never lie down on your couch. (congregation laughing) Because I don't need the advice that you have to give me. I am God almighty, and I love the question He asked Job, when Job was saying, God, what are you doing, what are you doing, what are you doing? And God said, boy, where were you when I created the world? Where were you when I flung the stars and the moon and the sun into space? Where were you? You were not even a blip on the screen, and your parents weren't even around. Who are we to think we can advise God? But God gives us access to His thoughts through His Word, and so, if you're ready to lie down on God's couch and say, okay, God, I'm all yours, size me up, diagnose me, and tell me which way to go when I walk out of here, look in verse 10 of our passage in Isaiah 55. He says, "As the rain comes down, and as the snow from heaven comes down, it doesn't return there but waters the Earth and makes it bring forth and bud to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater." Look at verse 11. God says, "So shall My Word be. It goes forth from My mouth," and you and I know, it got written down in the Bible. "It shall not return to Me," what? [Congregation] Void. Void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." So you see, He goes from verse 8, talking about His thoughts are different than our thoughts. We say, okay, well, where can we find Your thoughts? He tells us in verse 10, "My Word." My Word, that's where you find My thoughts. So think about this. The Bible is the mind of God revealed. It's the mind of God revealed. Now not everything in the Bible are the thoughts of God, but everything in the Bible will give you God's thoughts on what is in the Bible. Does that make sense? Like when David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, that wasn't the thought of God, but God pronounced His thoughts on that act. So the Bible is the revealed mind of God. It is God's thoughts on print, which means it does not change. And see, this is where, if we don't wake up, people, I am disturbed by the tendency of denominations to move away from the Bible and the tendency of nondenominational churches to move away from the Bible and what is happening today, in my humble estimation is, more and more emphasis is being placed on some type of feeling and mood and experience created in a worship service that is cool and hip and causes people to have goosebumps, and that kind of thing, but there's very little preaching of the Word of God. Let me tell you something. Satan is taking churches right down the road where he wants them to go. He wants them to have a rock concert, he wants them to jump up and down, he wants them to feel goosebumps, but no Bible. So you can walk out having a good feeling, but remember, if the Bible is the mind of God revealed, you had an experience and never heard God speak. You had an experience and were never exposed to the thoughts of God that He says are higher than our thoughts. That's right.
Amen. And it's where so many churches are headed now. And if we're not careful, the denomination we belong to, the great Southern Baptist Convention, is trying to go woke on us, they're trying to go down this woke path, and there is an alarm being sounded right now, and the Baptists are meeting this week in Nashville, Tennessee, and you know, I just look at that and I think, these people know better than some of the things they're saying, and thank God what I believe with all of my heart, which is true in most denominations and that is, you have these leaders that'll go liberal on you, but the people down in those seats coming on Sunday morning don't believe the way a lot of the liberal pastors and preachers believe.
Amen. (congregation applauding) I remember, as a college student, coming back to my hometown in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and the big United Methodist Church right off the town square was having Student Day, and the students were leading the services. Well, you know, my dad had grown up in that church but I had never been in that church, and they very graciously invited me to come preach. I was off at Bible college and I came home to my hometown and I preached at the First United Methodist Church, and I'm telling you, I thought I was in a big ol' cathedral, 'cause the pulpit is off to one side, you know, so you have to kind of walk up here, and you have to go up these steps and get in this little stall, you know, and walk in there. Anybody know what, you ever seen? And man, I'm telling you, I thought I was Jonathan Edwards. I was ready to preach "Sinners in the Hands of," but I just preached a simple message about the Gospel and after it was over, my grandparents were there and different people came up, and some of these precious Methodists came up to me, several of them relatives, my great-uncle Ralph came up to me, and little ladies came up to me, and they say, "Son, you're a good preacher. "We just hope seminary don't ruin you." (congregation laughing) Now I have reflected on that for all of these years, and I wondered, why would they say something like that to me? You're a good preacher, we just hope seminary doesn't ruin you. Because they'd been sitting there, watching what was happening in their denomination, just like Baptists have watched what have happened, and Episcopalians have watched, and do you see where I'm going with all of this? They've seen these guys come through these seminaries and get polluted and contaminated, and they get away from preaching thus saith the Lord. [Congregation] Yeah. Let me tell you something. Little stories and little illustrations, and little feel good, self-help, motivational pop psychology speeches do not get lost souls out of hell into heaven. Preaching the Word of the living God gets people to heaven.
(congregation applauding) And folks, I'm just telling you, I don't have time for this play time. I don't have time to be dilly dallying around with people who wanna preach a woke Gospel instead of the Gospel of the blood of Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's cross. I don't want, my purpose as an evangelist is not to have somebody apologize for what their ancestors did. My purpose is for all of us to apologize to God for what we've all done. (congregation cheering)
(congregation applauding) For what we've all done.
(congregation applauding) This is what it means to come into alignment with God. It means you don't submit to a humanistic philosophy. You submit to the revealed mind of God, which is scripture. That's the Gospel we preach.
Amen. And so, with God as our helper, we're gonna stay the course around here. We're gonna stick with the stuff around here. (congregation cheering)
(congregation applauding) Nothing thrills me like studying this book, nothing exhilarates me like walking up to a table, a podium, whatever, it does not matter what, give me a cardboard box. I don't care, I can do it in blue jeans or I can do it in a suit. I don't need the lights. I don't need the cameras. Nothing exhilarates me like opening this Bible and preaching it for what it is, and seeing what God will do with it. (congregation cheering)
(congregation applauding) God will do with it.
(congregation applauding) And there's all this talk, well, if you preach out of the Bible, the millennials won't come. Let me tell you something. I'm not responsible for who comes. I'm responsible for preaching the truth. (congregation cheering)
(congregation applauding) (chuckles) You have no idea. I just wanna run up this aisle right now. (congregation laughing) Because, you know, we all know this. We all know, it's easy to say we believe it, it's easy to say, amen, it's the Word of God. The hard part is to live it out. [Congregation] Amen. And the world does not just need us pounding and saying, it's true, it's true, it's true. They need to see it, they need us to live it out, they need to see the Jesus in us manifesting Himself to them but what they don't need to see is for us to sell it out. Yes.
That's right. There's a difference between living it out and selling it out. And if God will give us the strength, we will never sell it out. And this is why guess what? We want people who don't know God to come to our church. I do, I want them to come. We want, don't we? We want people who don't know Christ to come in our doors so we can tell them about Jesus. And they may not know to bring a Bible when they walk in the door, but give them some time. The Holy Spirit will work in their life. I'm telling you, this is a kind of church where we're gonna always need a copy of the Word of God.
Amen. Because when we stop preaching this, we might as well call ourselves a country club and close the doors.
Amen. 'Cause this is what sets us apart. That's right.
From every other organization out there, is that we are God's people and we are people of this book. (chuckles) And you know what? When you're a person of this book, you ain't going woke.
(congregation laughing) I'm just telling you, because just about everything that's in the mantra and the tenets of wokeness ideology is an assault to the holy Word of our God. And so, if you wanna go woke, I can recommend a few good churches for you. (congregation laughing) Amen? But if you want to be a believer who says to God, God, the difference between You and me is You're always right, and the way I know You're right is because Your thoughts are revealed in this book. And so, today, I repent of thinking I'm right. That's what repentance means. I repent of doing it my way, and I yield my thoughts to Your thoughts and that's what it means to follow God. He's right, I yield my thoughts to His thoughts and the question I have today is, is there anyone here who wants to do that? It's a first step for someone who's never trusted in Christ. And it's not your fault you've never heard this before. It's not your fault nobody's ever explained to you that repentance is that simple, it's saying God, You're right, I'm not. Please forgive me for my sin. And if you're here today or watching online and you would like to give your heart and your life to Jesus Christ, through that simply act of repenting, of saying, you're right, Lord, and He was so right that when He sent His Son down to the Earth, His Son, our Lord, never sinned one time, and that's what made Him worthy to punish for those of us who are very guilty. And Jesus took the blow of God's judgment so you and I could escape God's judgment. And God raised Him from the dead in order to offer you this gift of eternal life. And did you hear me at the outset of this message? I said everybody is gonna tell God He's right. It's just a matter of when. Now or later? And today can be your now. His arms are extended, and the Bible says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found," and today is the day He's calling. Father, I pray that for everyone listening to me right now, who feels a tug at their heart, maybe an uneasiness, that they would question, is this God speaking to me, that they would forget about me talking and just think about You, Lord. Is this God speaking? And Lord, I pray that the power of your Holy Spirit would draw them, will appeal to them, will let them know this moment will come and go, this moment we may never have again, and to seek You while You may be found, and to call upon You while You are close by. Oh, may someone say today, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, be my Lord and Savior. Jesus, You are right and I follow you. Jesus, I love you. In Your name I pray, amen. And if you would be so kind to let us know that you prayed with me just now, or that you need to pray, but you need someone to help you in a more personal way, one on one, I want to ask those of you in this room and those watching to text the name Jesus to the number on the screen, and it'll get the conversation going, and one of our team members will respond, get in touch with you, and we'd like to help you take this most, it's the most important step any man, woman, boy, girl, can ever take in all of life. Is it not?
Amen. Is to agree with God that He is right, and that you need Him and that you will receive the gift He offers. Thank you, dear people. We have had such an awesome service today, and I want you to think about God's goodness, (congregation applauding)
God's goodness, running after you. Don't forget that David said in Psalm 23, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." So even as you leave, His goodness is running after you. God bless you.
(congregation applauding) (bright organ music) (bright organ music continues)
