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good evening everyone welcome back to Fergus Baptist Church if you were not here this morning just a couple of announcements in review there is going to be a lady's coffee morning next Saturday and are visiting Pastor hoers his wife Karen will be speaking at that that's at 10 A.M please contact Carla or Leslie to RSVP let them know that you'll be coming if you're planning on being there next Saturday at 10 A.M the fellowship hall other than that again Pastor ogalla is going to be here that's a ways down the road October 1st but he's coming from Kenya if anyone wants to have him for a meal or her time of Fellowship that may be arranged I'm not sure how long he's going to actually be here in Chilliwack perhaps Mr Lawson knows better but you can talk to Mr Lawson about that so we look forward this evening again to hearing the word of God from Pastor horist spoke this morning from Luke chapter 7. and we look forward to hearing again from Luke this evening for our call to worship please turn to Psalm 1. the very first Psalm in the psalty in your Bible someone blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of Sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose Leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper the ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind drives away therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the Judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly Shall Perish amen for our first hymn this evening this evening will turn to 212. him 212 just a couple of comments before we start this is a wonderful Hymn of the faith that's been passed down for some 250 260 years extolling God the father in verse 1 the work of God the son in verse 2 the work of the holy spirit in verse 3 and then the doctrine of the trinity in verse 4. a tremendous encouragement to the people of God Through the Ages and you'll notice that we do not know who the author of this hymn is it just says Anonymous around the year 1757. aren't you glad that in some things in the Christian faith God has left it Anonymous I mean it is wonderful to sing some of the hymns written by say Martin Luther who we all know was a great reformer and it's wonderful to follow his life and then when we sing those hymns we have more of a basis for understanding this one we don't know who wrote it we just know that God has preserved it it has been a blessing to many many people and whoever this Anonymous was We Trust is in the presence of God rejoicing this day it's a wonderful thing it reminds us that we don't have to make a name for ourselves that's not the point if God should put you in a place like CH Spurgeon where you are loved and hated by many that's well but if God should not give you a name you can still be a blessing let's stand and sing 212 Come Thou Almighty King grandma [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] I wanna understand [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] let's go to the Lord in prayer gracious Father in heaven we thank you for this opportunity we have once again on this glorious day to meet with your people in your house on your day to worship you thank you that you have given us this privilege of corporate worship thank you that we have brethren here in this place with whom we have something in common far more important than our careers or our outlook on politics but the fact that we have been purchased by the blood of Christ the fact that we look forward to heaven the fact that we are on this road together in the Faith Lord we thank you that you have a great multitude from every age right back from righteous able to this very day you have been Gathering a multitude of people and redeeming them and saving them and calling them your own and adopting them into your family so that one day we with them may stand before your throne and worship the lamb who gave his life and Spilled his blood on our behalf thank you for these mercies I pray oh God that even this day even now you would cleanse us from all sin and unrighteousness for even though we are redeemed we still sin against our conscience and sin against our Lord and we pray that you would forgive us we pray that you would cleanse us we pray that our worship would be acceptable in your sight this day Lord we thank you for fellowship and camaraderie with other churches thank you for our brother and sister that have come here from La Mirada California we pray Lord that you'd be there and bless the work that they have left behind in the hands of other capable men thank you that you've blessed them with several elders and deacons to lead that work and we pray oh God that you would bless that church encourage them cause the families of that church to be strong and to be a light and a and a and a witness in their Community we pray God that you continue to give them Unity continue to give them a blessed blessedness together as a congregation Lord we thank you for their prayers and for their fellowship and we pray o God that your blessing would rest upon them we pray o God for the other churches in our in our fellowship here the our daughter churches in Surrey in Armstrong the work that has begun in dried in Ontario we pray oh God that you would bless these offshoots and that you would continue to bless them with unity and with strength and Lord we do pray that there would be men raised up to come alongside of the pastors of each of these congregations even our own Pastor here we pray oh God that you would bless us with capable men other Elders that would sustain and support Pastor Butler Lord we do pray that you would raise up other men to be sent forward as well we long to see the gospel preached all across this land we know that there are many other churches besides our little Fellowship of churches we thank you that there are churches here in this city of Chilliwack that are preaching the gospel even now even this day and we pray your blessing would rest upon them Lord we do pray that there would be a Revival in the Church of Jesus Christ in this nation and we pray that there would be an Awakening in the streets of this nation to spiritual truths not to spirituality of any sort but to the one true and living God creator of Heaven and Earth who sent his son into this world to redeem Sinners to himself we thank you for the good work that you are doing all across the world and we pray o God that you would be merciful to those churches and those saints that are Anonymous and some that are suffering for the cause of Christ we pray Lord for those who are in prison because they have held fast to the gospel and we pray you'd be merciful to those that are suffering for your sake grant them peace in their hearts and joy in their Outlook and Grant them even freedom from their chains should it be your will Lord we thank you again for this congregation and pray your blessing would rest upon us we thank you for the families that you have assembled here we thank you that there are so many children and young people that are under the sound of the Gospel Sunday in and Sunday out but Lord we pray that your spirit would do a work in their hearts that they would not only hear the gospel but that they would believe and Lord we pray that you would gather a great multitude to yourself even here and that we would see a future generation serving the lord most high we ask these things in Jesus name amen for our second hymn we're going to sing Psalm 9 from the psalter hymnal Psalm 9 selection b as in bravo the refrain to this hymn is taken from um Franny Fanny Crosby's to God be the glory and the tune as well so please stand and sing with me a familiar tune foreign [Music] I praise the Lord priority Glory Merry Christmas [Music] [Applause] [Music] Our Lives [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Lord praise the Lord [Music] praise the Lord [Music] foreign oh Christine [Music] because I want to go Justice boys [Music] thank you [Music] my Mercy Awards forever foreign [Music] [Applause] good morning please take your Bibles and turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 4 for our evening scripture reading Deuteronomy chapter 4 it's a longer chapter so we will split it into two sections and read from verse 30 verse 1 to verse 31 today and we will complete the reading of this chapter next Sunday evening Deuteronomy 4 beginning in verse 1. this again is Moses speaking to the children of Israel reminding them of The Commandments of the Lord now Israel listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you you shall not add to the word which I command you nor take from it that you may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you your eyes have seen what the Lord did at bail-pure for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of pior but you held fast to the Lord your God are alive today every one of you surely I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should act according to them in the land which you are which you go to possess therefore be careful to observe them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us for whatever reason we make all upon him and what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself lest you forget the things your eyes have seen unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life and teach them to your children and your grandchildren especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb when the Lord said to me gather the people to me and I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and that they may teach their children then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven with Darkness cloud and thick darkness and the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire you heard the sound of the words but saw no form you only heard a voice so he declared to you his Covenant which he commanded you to perform the Ten Commandments and he wrote them on two tablets of stone and the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess take careful heed to yourselves for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure the likeness of male or female the likeness of any animal that is on the Earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the Earth and take heed lest you lift your eyes to heaven and when you see the sun the moon and the stars all the hosts of Heaven you feel driven to worship and serve them which the Lord your God has given to All Peoples under the whole Heaven as a heritage but the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace out of Egypt to be his people an inheritance as you are this day furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance but I must die in this land I must not cross over the Ordon but you shall cross over and possess that good land take heed to yourselves lest you forget the Covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you for the Lord your God is a consuming fire a jealous God when you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke him to anger I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess you will not prolong your days in it but will be utterly destroyed and the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and you will be left few in number among the Nations where the Lord will drive you and there you will serve Gods the work of men's hands wood and stone which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell but from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul when you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the latter days when you turn to the Lord your God and obey his voice for the Lord your God is a merciful god he will not forsake you nor destroy you nor forget the Covenant of your fathers which he swore to them amen let us pray our gracious Father in heaven thank you that in your mercy you give us warning you give us ample admonition to keep us on the straight and arrow and yet we all go astray we all have these Idol factories in our hearts if we do not serve the true and living God we serve that which is created and which brings nothing but curse Lord I pray that you would help us to love you to serve you we know that we can only do this because of what Christ has done on our behalf and we thank you for his work we pray these things in Jesus name amen for our last hymn we'll turn to 446 in our hymnal 446 beat out my vision please stand with me again as we sing prior to the sermon [Music] everybody else Jesus Christ [Music] yes please remember this is [Music] always birthday one word noises [Music] foreign [Music] thank you well it's me again take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 9. and I realize I have a couple of jobs to do the first one obviously is to preach the word of God for you and that is I should make it understood and my target is everyone even the kids here I have you in mind when I preach so it might make sense to you as well as to all of us and it should be able to make sense so that's that's my job I see that as my job it should be compelling as well I'm not reading from a phone book and then the other thing is I understand that it's the latter part of the day most of us I'm sure have had a very good meal and you might be actually tired that's okay it's on me to keep you awake if you fall asleep that's my fault not yours remember uticus he did fall from the second floor I think when Paul was preaching too long Paul didn't reprove him he raised him from the dead so Luke chapter nine I'm going to read a very short section in your hearing now in verse 51 I'm sorry verse 51 through 56 now it came to pass and the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent Messengers before his face and as they went they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him but they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did but he turned and rebuked them and said you do not know what manner of spirit you are of for the son of man do not come to destroy man's lies but the saved lives and they went to another village now I want you to do some work tonight metaphorically speaking if you could have a backpack and I'm going to give you three things to hang on to and then as I'm preaching through this passage I want you to pull those things out of the backpack because it will help make sense of the of the passes that we're looking at the first thing is something I mentioned this morning the Bible principally teaches two things if any of you know anything at all about the Westminster catechism what is the scriptures primarily teach they primarily teach what Duty um what managed to believe concerning God and what Duty God requires of man so I want you to put that in your backpack and pull it out when we need in other words what is it that we are to believe what that we are to do it should be expressing God's word especially what it is that we are to do second thing I want you to keep in mind is that there was a great Prejudice between the Jews and the Samaritans a great difference a great controversy a great Prejudice between them so much so that you had the Samaritans which were in the northern part of Israel and they were called half breeds and they adopted many of the false religions of their of their land and then you have the Jews that were down in Judah they worshiped at Jerusalem and so you had this great Prejudice they it got to a point where they didn't even talk to each other okay and the third thing which is closely related is light of this is that there were two places of worship one was Mount garazem which is where Israel worship and Samaria and then of course Jerusalem which was in Judah that's where the Jews went to worship so take those things stick them in your backpack when I tell you to pull them out like an energy bar will pull it out and hopefully will be of Hope to us now I think it's important for us to look at this in its context and the context is that our Lord has had a goodly amount of Miracles he's also healed many people of their sicknesses and so he has become well known as a prophet but he's also been opposed by the religious leaders in this particular chapter James and John and Peter go up to the Mount and our Lord is transfigured there okay when he comes down in Mark's account he sees the scribes arguing with the disciples because they couldn't cast out a demon from a boy so there we already have fussing and fighting going on right there our Lord heals the boy and then although it also predicts of his death and then you have the disciples getting into an argument about who was going to be the greatest so they're fussing and fighting about who's going to be the greatest then you have John coming to our Lord saying we saw someone who's casting out a demon he doesn't follow us should we forbid him to do that again he wants to get into a little fight with this guy because the fact he's casting out demons in Jesus name and he doesn't follow him and our Lord forbids him to do that that's the arena that we're in the atmosphere of the day is that there was just a lot of bickering and complaining and fighting going on and it would appear that James and John have been affected by that and we will see later on about that but that's the that's the uh the atmosphere that's the only word I can think of right now it's just one of contentions people were always at each other verbally as well as physically now verse 51 our Lord is on a mission as he has an appointment to keep and that is the will of his father and that was his suffering and his death which is found in verse 44 of the same chapter says let these words sink down into your ears for the son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of the man but they did not understand this saying it was hidden from them so our Lord knows that he has a mission he is going to have to suffer the wrath of almighty God in order to help him with that he has two blessings in his mind the first one I can we can see that from other scriptures because of the fact that he was going to bring many sons to Glory that was a blessing to our Savior that's one of the reasons why I went to the Cross there's many other reasons as well but there's a second reason too the reason why he was going to the cross and that is he was going to ascend he was going to ascend now it came to pass when the time had come from him to be received up Mr Hendrickson I like him a lot for commentaries he writes that this can be translated instead of being risen up he ascended he is going to ascend and so it came to pass in the time to come for him to ascend now we know what that is that's after his death after his resurrection when he's received up into Glory our Lord has Us in his mind to be a help to him to be a blessing to him to strengthen him remember our Lord while he is fully God he's also fully man same weaknesses as us I mean think about our death I'm sure we're not exactly rejoicing that except for the fact that in the death of the Christian we have a refuge but still there's that human factor that we have to die they're suffering and death there's just no way of getting around it our Lord takes it a step further because all of the sins of God's elect are going to be on our savior that's quite a burden to bear tough enough for us that when we come under conviction of sin to bear that sin but now to Bear the sins of the elect our Lord does it though but he knows he has a mission as he sets out for Jerusalem if you want uh some references in regards to Ascension which verify I think this is his essentially that he's speaking of Mark chapter 16 talks about him being received up into heaven 1619 acts 1 2 he was taken up into heaven and of course First Timothy 3 16 when you're looking at the attributes of Our Lord one of them was that he was received up into Glory so now we're going to verse 52 as my pattern is I like to explain a text and that's what we're going to do we're going to go verse by verse here verse 52 is even though the Final Destination was Jerusalem our Lord sends Messengers to find lodging in a Samaritan place okay I'm going to want you to give me a little bit of Liberty here and I think it'll make sense as we get to the latter part of this verse but I I think that when they went there it appears that the messengers were successful in securing a place of refreshment a place they could spend the night get some food and continue on to Jerusalem I think they got permission to do that it was our Lord's custom to send men ahead of a village that they're going to obviously the one that comes to mind is when our Lord goes to celebrate his last passover with his disciples he sent two disciples to make the room ready I think he does the same thing and I'm pretty certain it's James and John that go ahead and and get permission from the leaders of that Village they could stay there and get refreshment okay but something happens in verse 53 the Samaritans changed their mind they are not going to allow Peter James John the other disciples as well as our Lord to stay there and I think it's because of the temple issue I think that's the reason why first of all in John 4 20 you can turn there or just listen remember our Lord needs a Samaritan woman at the well and they get into a discussion about worship and in verse 20 the Samaritan woman says is our fathers worship on this mountain that's mount garizum and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship so the controversy of where to worship was still alive and well however our Lord's face was set for Jerusalem he was going to go to Jerusalem if Jesus and his disciples would have worship at Mount garazim it would have given validity to mount garissim's place of worship because Jesus is a prominent teacher he's a prominent healer of a prophet and if he and his disciples would have stayed there and worshiped that that particular Temple it would have brought controversy to his ministry which our Lord is approaching a Time where that is eventually not going to be very important word of worship because he says to the Samaritan woman John chapter 4 there's going to come a time it's not going to matter where you worship because God is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and in truth obviously what I'm saying here is that you're not supposed to go look for other places of worship your members here you should be here worshiping God if you're away you're away but I'm saying all that to say that there was definite controversy in if our Lord and his disciples had decided to stay there it would have been a there's no need to get involved in secondary issues which our Lord did not want to so as a result verse 54 James and John are upset when they saw this they said Lord you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume this Village that's why I think it's I'm pretty certain it's James and John they probably went they got permission they find out that is Jesus coming oh maybe we can get him to go to mount garizam and worship there and then we can gain some more validity our Lord doesn't get involved that because he has his face set for Jerusalem James and John get upset with these Samaritan leaders and in the spirit of their day they ask our Lord you want to command fire to come down from heaven and consume this village now where did they get that we all see it from Elijah I'm curious do you know where that where that's at by any chance if not that's no no great sin but it's in second Kings chapter one it's during the time of the Kings of Israel continue to fall away from the Lord and his name is King ahazia he happens to be the son of Ahab and Jezebel ahab's already died a hazard has adopted the religion of Jezebel he is an idolater following the god of ekron Bales above he's on his roof he falls and he's injured seriously so he calls his Messengers to say can you go and find out if I'm going to recover from this injury so The Messengers they are going to go to the prophets of Bales above the god of ekron and Elijah is on a hill somewhere and an angel of the Lord comes to him and says this has happened to ahasia we want you to intercept we I want you to intercept The Messengers and ask him is the reason that there's no God in Israel that's why you're going to inquire of Bales above and tell them thus saith the Lord the king will not recover from his fall so Elijah intercepts The Messengers does exactly what I've just brought out the messengers turn healed and they go right back to their King King said what are you doing here so quickly it's taking you so long I mean what took you so long to get back here so to speak I'm using sarcasm there they said well there's a man that told us the reason are we going to the god of econ because there's no God of Israel here and this man also told us that you will not recover bahasia just says okay I'm gonna get a captain 50 men go get him he says by the way what'd this guy look like he says a hairy man with a with a belt and he said that's Elijah he sends his captain with 50 men and only when a king sends a captain of 50 men it wasn't to invite you to dinner it was he's going to harm Elijah so the captain of 50 men they arrive there at the hill Elijah's up on the hill and he calls out the captain says man of God come down the king command you to come down Elijah says if I'm a man of God May Fire come down from heaven and consume you which it does ahazia doesn't even get phased by it he sends another Captain with 50 men they do the same thing the same thing happens again ahazia he he does it again it's like he's going to keep sending people there's no one left in the in the land of Samaria but he says the third Captain this third Captain humbled himself before the king not before Elijah and he said spare my life we come peaceably please come down God tells Elijah he's not going to harm you go down and tell that King he's not going to recover Elijah does that the man dies the issue is is that Elijah did indeed call fire down from heaven to consume that 50. James and John were very much aware of that story and they thought like many people think today hey if it's in the Bible I can do it hey if Elijah called fire down from heaven I can do it a lot of people say that these days hey if it's in the Bible I can do it you know I can if I can speak in tongues and it happened in the New Testament I can do it great Peter walked on water go walk on the Pacific Ocean God hasn't commanded it now let's pull that thing out of our backpack has God commanded Us in any time to command Fire come down from heaven did he ever command James and John to do that no however somebody's too strict on James and John at least they ask permission even though I think their intention was definitely sinful so now our Lord is going to rebuke them he's going to correct them by advising that do not understand the ministry of Salvation and life as opposed to judgment and death salvation for lives and souls that was the ministry of Our Lord look at the amount of people that he healed look at those who are relieved from demon possession look at how our Lord forgives sins his ministry was not one of Destruction of men's lives but to preserve their lives he fed four thousand he fed five thousand our Lord's Ministry was so different than the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious leaders when our Lord raised Luke from the dead what did those religious leaders do not only were they plotting how to kill our Lord they were plotting how to kill Lazarus this was the atmosphere of the day and you can see in our context they come down from Mount from the mount that our Lord was transfigured on Sadducees are arguing with the disciples later on the disciples are arguing about who's going to be the greatest later on John is upset as someone is casting out demons it's just they've adopted part of the ministry of the Sadducees our Lord is saying you do not know but manner Spirit you are of as a result our Lord is very long-suffering and he teaches them this is not my Ministry of Destruction my Ministry is one of salvation and the greatest blessing is that he has Authority at this time on Earth to forgive sins and he has Authority in heaven to forgive sins through his shed blood his resurrection from the dead his Ascension this is the blessing of our Lord's Ministry he came during a Time of great violence and he is the Prince of Peace what a difference what a difference our Lord was and he shows it right here now getting back to James and John I'm not going to let them off that easy they had Pride they had Revenge they did not have a holy humble gracious spirit but they were sinful and though they may have called it Zeal for the Lord they were not imitating our Lord's Ministry they had been with our lord for a few years they had not learned that part of our Lord's Ministry and I've got to ask the question can it be that that Samaritan Village later on here's the word of God from Philip and is converted I'm only asking the question if you go to your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 8 and I think I'm kind of a positive guy what I mean is I'm not living in a Fool's Paradise where everything is roses but I I want to believe that at times when people rejected the gospel God had mercy on them later on in Acts chapter 8 verse 5 and 6 then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them and the multitudes with one Accord heated the thing spoken by Philip hearing and seeing the Miracles which he did I'm simply asking the question can it be that some of those here maybe all of them here that had rejected our Lord did not allow he and his disciples to stay that they heard that word from Philip and were converted she just doesn't hurt to ask that question can it be that they were converted could be could be but I like the way that this our story ends here no fire fell from heaven look at that it says and they went to another village now my Bible right or wrong all of our Lord's words are in red okay so you have all this fire so to speak from his disciples you want to call fire now from Heaven our lord said you know he gives them command and then there's a contrast there and it says and it says and they went to another Village I love that they went to another Village our Lord doesn't consume them he doesn't rebuke the Samaria hey you said that we could stay here it doesn't do any of that you he goes to another Village you see the I say this with all reverence you see the courtesy of Our Lord the kindness of Our Lord he doesn't Bend to the opinion of James and John but they just simply go to another Village our Lord is not argumentative he's not contentious he has good manners if you will there's a time when our Lord to dig his heels in with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the herodians but here he shows Mercy to an ignorant Village an ignorant Village and what do they do they simply went to another Village crisis averted if you will well there's some points of application and the first thing is the blessing before our lord of his Ascension helped him to go forward to the cross the blessing of Heaven of our sins forgiven our future the blessedness of being in Christ of having the righteousness of Jesus Christ will help all of us in our daily walk it will give us that shot in the arm we were talking with brother I think it was on Friday night one of the blessings of the Lord's day is that let's you know it's for six days it's difficult that's why it's good for us to read our Bibles to pray to have those family devotions but the Lord's day was meant for God's people because we are affected by unbelief it does indeed have an effect upon us and when we come into this place the blessing of being in Christ of having our sins forgiven of God being for us and not against us him loving us with an everlasting love helps us in our day-to-day struggle with temptation and sin our sickness and our death seven years ago I had cancer I did not do very well I wish I could say oh yeah it was great I was Victorious and came out of it I was I crumbled to a piece of bread is what I did it was not easy it was just simply not easy but the thing that helped me get back on my feet get back in the Pulpit after years of struggling with it was the blessing of Jesus Christ I have loved you with an everlasting love I have saved you from your past sins again going back to where I was and I'm sure some of you have that same story as we were headed for Destruction and yet he had mercy on us and for us to receive up into glory to see our Lord face to face helps us in our day-to-day walk remember this Brethren when the Lord Jesus comes back these old bodies that we have that will eventually go into the ground we get resurrected bodies no more sin no more remembrance of sin and no more consequence of sin and as you get older some of you young guys don't understand this yet as older guys do everything hurts that's just the bottom line it's part of the curse of Adam but we now as we've gotten older realize that these bodies that we lay down we will get glorified bodies when the Lord Jesus comes back if we happen to die before he comes back we get to go and be with our Lord absent from the body present with the Lord see his face we will see his face and so that's the thing to encourage us and to help us in our daily walk as our Redemption draws near when you get up in the morning if you can do this try to remember this kid you need to do this too when you get up in the morning say one day closer you're one day closer to Eternity we all got up one day closer to Eternity now for the Christian we say with a smile on our face the unbeliever he doesn't because he thinks this is all that he has is this life so he's got to take life and suck everything out of it that he can because this is all he has is this life that's why they say after their their friends die well you know we got to make the most of the day most everything that we can of this day let's take it and grab it and hang on that's all they have is this life but we say calmly with a smile upon our soul knowing that God is for us another day closer another day closer to Glory another day closer to Eternity thankfully another day closer of leaving our remaining sin behind us that dead body of ours behind us that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to take care of our bodies we should our bodies are a stewardship that God's given to us we should do what we can to be in you know reasonable shape a better quality of life you will enjoy things more that way but we want to glorify God in our bodies secondly we are not in this life to desire to destruction and Judgment of the ungodly but we are to desire their salvation Christians are not to be persecutors let the governing authorities bear the sword of wrongs done in society but let not the church but not the Christian practice vengeance May Christ's Ministry of reconciliation by his death his resurrection his Ascension him being king of kings and Lord of lords may that be our message we have been saved from so much and think about how gracious God has been to us and as a result think about the one before you came to Christ about how kind they showed the kindness they showed to you my brother Jim came to me and I was probably the last person on Earth that someone would think this guy is going to be a Christian one day he's going to be a pastor one day you would not recognize me 44 years ago but my brother showed kindness to me and witnessed to me and he just had to say a couple of words God used it and I was Off to the Races after that I had to flee from my sin and flee to Jesus Christ many of you I'm sure have stories like that about how kind people were to you even just to invite you to church give you a Bible give you a track even preach to you Jesus Christ we've been saved for much and as a result Christians should not be persecutors we don't win them with a sword we win them with love love goes a long way and if they don't hear you go to another Village move on to the other person or to be ready to give that answer for the hope that lies within you with meekness interfere and with fear so take your time if even if they may not hear you you keep going to them if there's a door that's open you're not to be contentious and you're not supposed to get into fist fights with people my youngest brother Mike fell away he made a profession of Faith he fell away every time I talked to him he just said back off his wife dies tragically he contacts my brother Jim and I and he talks to us every night and he wants to talk about the Lord and the only advice I could give him when he made his confession he was confessing his sins I said Mike it's great you're confessing your sins but go to the Lord for that you've sinned against him you see and he just said I just don't know what to do I said start reading your Bible and if you start reading your Bible and I was thinking I know he will be reading his Bible because he'll have questions I mean you read your Bible you've got questions and he did and he started calling my brother and I all the time with all these questions and the Lord saved them we don't give up we pray for their good regardless of how contentious they may be how angry they may be be careful there's no need for you to cast Pearls Before Swine and you don't tell them that but you don't cast your Pearls Before Swine but if need be just simply go to another Village go to another person and see if maybe an acts 8 happens to them where they hear that word gladly sometimes they simply will not hear us maybe they will hear another person that's okay that's fine we desire for their good but we are not to be persecuted there has been so much destruction done by those who make a profession of the Christian religion and they murder people imprison them just look at the history of those who claim to be you know God's people and they're persecutors when you take a look at the Protestant Reformation when Mr Luther had to escape I should tell you something the Roman Catholic Institution is an institution of blood they've been like that for years they've changed now they're a chameleon they will continue to change my dear brethren let's pull out that backpack what has God commanded us what has he commanded us to believe what has he commanded us to do we are to be kind gracious compassionate just as God was kind and compassionate towards us so hopefully if we ever burned a bridge let's try to go back and repair it if you will I had I was a black sheep of my family my family threw a party when I left home but I was an ungodly man and um things did not go well with my parents and I when I became a Christian things changed I went to them told them I was wrong I should have obeyed them they were the authority that God had given to me and I asked them to forgive me and they did and we patched up sad thing is is that because the fact we were no longer Roman Catholic they eventually kicked us out of the family happens but that doesn't mean I closed the door on them doors open and then my dad saw that I was not the man that I used to be I had my wife I loved her we have kids we were raising them they couldn't argue with the results that was going on in our family and so he opened the door we gladly came in even though I think I rejected that my wife said we should go back I was real upset with my parents because they had kicked me out of the family because of my religious convictions and then I just said I don't want to go back there again and my wife said you should go back I disagree with her let's go talk to our pastor I know what he's going to say so remember them he said you should go back and be reconciled to your parents and I did and I'm thankful that I was but God's word teaches us about being Winsome he who wins Souls is wise so we want to have wisdom and being of help to one another our interaction with others is not to be physically harmful not to be calling names I do not go on social media I just every now and then I pirate Karen's account but what I see that goes on is an embarrassment guys fussing and fighting over things in a public Arena oh you shouldn't do that they're obnoxious and contentious they should just go to another Village stop the fighting stop the bickering especially among Brethren or sometimes books are are published and it's because one teacher has a vendetta against another one I think we do a lot better when we're United and even though we may have differences if those differences Aren't Enough to lose a flea over let them go let them go then you'll find that with family you'll find that with friends and we want to be gracious to them we want to be that one that they come to if need be because we've been kind to them we've been gracious to them we should make the main truth be the main truth and don't get involved into debates I am against debates I'm against any public Arena where you allow your opponent to spew his filth out of his mouth and then you come in afterwards and try to disprove it I just don't see debates being commanded from God's word I just don't see it I think there's a lot of harm doing it granted some may be converted by it or some that do believe may fall away from it but I don't want to give a false religionist the platform to spew out his filth his mouth should be closed we should preach we should teach we should be ready to give that answer that's within us I think our Lord's example here is phenomenal there is that prejudice we pull that thing out of our backpack again the Prejudice between the Jews and the Samaritans in my country the Prejudice is against the Democrats and the Republicans it's amazing what goes on there those prejudices should be put asunder it's it's not an issue of the Gospel at times it is but we need to be very very careful of fighting fight for the right things but make the main truth the main things especially the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so we turned them and rebuked them and said you do not know what manner of spirit you are of here's the blessing the son of man did not come to destroy man's lives but to save them and they went to another Village let's pray our heavenly father we thank you for how you have changed our heart you've given us a new nature and you've granted unto us the righteousness of Jesus Christ in heaven our account is blessed we are blessed we thank you for the righteousness we thank you for his wonderful work of regeneration within us oh Father we at times fall over our words out of thankfulness for how kind merciful and gracious you have been to us day in and day out even when we sin O Father we sin against great life we acknowledge our sin before you and trust you will forgive us and Grant unto us a new spirit hear our prayers Grant unto us a blessed week preserve your people from Temptation and sin save our young our children have mercy upon their souls and we pray O Father that the word that we have heard this day morning and evening would remain within us that we might grow in your grace and knowledge to begin form more and more to your son's image hear our prayers answer our requests for your glory and for the good of our souls for we pray in Jesus name amen foreign