3ABN On the Road

Don't Look Back Now

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: David Asscherick

Home

Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000804


01:00 Imagine with me the absurdity
01:03 of turning back from finishing the race
01:08 when the finish line is right in sight.
01:12 Let's just say for this purposes of our illustration
01:16 that you are running a marathon,
01:17 is that 26.4 or 24.6, I always get confused?
01:21 26.4 is it? Whatever it is.
01:27 Imagine with me that,
01:28 that you have just run this very long race,
01:30 whatever it is and you are within the last tenth of a mile.
01:36 And you are going to finish the race.
01:39 And more than that you are going to finish first
01:43 and then you just suddenly apparently, spontaneously
01:47 in a moment of what can only be describe as temporary insanity,
01:51 you stop and you don't finish the race.
01:54 Just imagine that.
01:57 Many Christian people are doing
01:59 and will continue to do this very thing.
02:01 I have seen it with my own eyes and it is happening even now.
02:04 People turning back from the race
02:06 when we are just about to cross the finish line.
02:11 Ellen White put it this way, she said,
02:15 "In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict."
02:20 How many armies? Two.
02:21 "Two armies in terrible conflict.
02:24 One army was led by banners bearing the world's insignia,
02:29 the other was led
02:30 by the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel.
02:33 Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust,
02:38 as company after company from the Lord's army joined the foe,
02:43 and yet tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy
02:46 united with the commandment keeping people of God."
02:50 Apparently just before the close,
02:53 apparently just before this thing wraps up,
02:55 there's going to be some wholesale,
02:58 wide spread changing of sides.
03:04 She saw company upon company
03:06 going from this side to this side
03:08 and tribe upon tribe,
03:09 incidentally tribes are larger than companies
03:11 going from this side over to this side.
03:13 So there's going to be a wholesale defection
03:15 on both sides just as we are about
03:18 ready to cross the finish line.
03:21 How do you know you are not going to be one of those
03:23 that defects from the Lord's side?
03:26 Please do not say what Peter would say
03:29 where he here do not say,
03:31 I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.
03:34 That would be of anything, prima facie evidence
03:37 that you just might change sides.
03:40 So how can you be sure that you will not
03:42 in fact be one of those defectors?
03:45 Well, I would do my very best today
03:47 to give you ten reasons why not to do that
03:49 and hopefully in light of this knowledge,
03:51 why not to turn back, why not to look back now.
03:55 We will see in this something that will give us the elixir
04:00 from turning away for the Lord Jesus Christ.
04:03 And so I present to you reason number one,
04:05 open your Bibles with me if you would to Luke 17, Luke 17:32.
04:11 One of the shortest verses in the Bible, Luke 17:32.
04:18 Our presentation is entitled "Don't look back now."
04:24 This is not the time for back sliding,
04:26 this is the time for forward sliding if you would.
04:32 Luke 17:32, this is really the verse
04:35 from which we derive our title, "Don't look back now."
04:39 Jesus said, right in the middle of this homily,
04:43 right in the middle of this sermon,
04:44 this discourse on end time events,
04:46 it says, though He pauses for just a moment
04:48 and He says in verse 32
04:50 by the way, "Remember Lot's wife."
04:58 Remember who, everyone? Lot's wife.
05:00 What happened to Lot's wife?
05:03 She looked back and in looking back
05:05 she turned into a pillar of salt.
05:08 So reason number one to not look back now
05:11 is you could turn into a pillar of salt or worse.
05:16 When she turned around it was not so much the physicality
05:20 of turning her body in that direction,
05:23 what she was demonstrating was that the intentions
05:26 and the desires of her heart were really back in Sodom.
05:30 So though she was walking in this direction,
05:32 her heart was back there
05:34 and she casts a furtive glance back to her homeland
05:37 because that's where her heart was all along.
05:42 Jesus in Luke 9, in fact we are so close,
05:44 we may as well just go there.
05:45 Look at the very last verse of Luke 9.
05:50 Luke 9:62 and here we find this very same concept,
05:54 the idea of looking back at the wrong time.
05:57 Luke 9 and I am reading in verse 62,
05:59 last verse of that chapter, "But Jesus said to him,
06:02 'No one having put his hand to the--" what, everyone?
06:07 "To the plough, and--" what?
06:08 Turning around and leaving the plough
06:10 and evacuating the premises?
06:12 No, no, no. And what?
06:15 "Looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'"
06:19 Two times Jesus says that
06:21 someone is actually headed in the right direction,
06:24 their body, their anatomy
06:26 is actually headed in the right direction
06:27 but they look back demonstrating that their affections
06:32 are really in that which they have left.
06:35 Reason number one why this is no time to look back now
06:38 is you could turn into a pillar of salt or worse.
06:43 There is no guarantee, young person,
06:45 if you backslide that you are going to live to tell about it.
06:51 There is a great danger in telling testimonies
06:55 and listen, I love to hear a good testimony
06:57 and I love to tell my own testimony
06:59 but we need to be very careful
07:01 in the Seventh-day Adventist church
07:02 that we are not communicating that the best or most important
07:05 or most remarkable testimonies are those
07:08 in which people were way out and then they came back in
07:12 because for every testimony that you hear of somebody
07:15 who was way out and came back in
07:17 there's another hundred people who were way out and died.
07:24 Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7:17,
07:27 "Why will you die before your time."
07:30 That tells us that you can die before you are supposed to.
07:34 If you are necessarily place yourself on Satan's ground,
07:38 you too some degree relinquish the protection of Holy Angels,
07:42 Heavenly Angels and you can be killed by Satan himself
07:46 or by one of his forces while you are outside of the faith.
07:50 If you turn back now, if you look back now
07:52 what guarantee do you have
07:54 that you are going to live long enough to change your mind?
07:58 The answer is you don't.
08:01 Now you are not just playing
08:02 with just a mildly risky proposition here,
08:05 you are playing with your eternal life. Amen.
08:09 If you go out to sow your wild oats
08:11 because after all you heard David Asscherick's testimony
08:14 and you heard Doug Batchelor's testimony
08:15 or you who heard somebody else's testimony
08:18 and after all they were out and they came back in,
08:20 that is not a guarantee that if you go way out,
08:23 you will even make it back.
08:25 As we said last night, if you were in a room
08:27 it is illogical to think that you must leave the room
08:30 in order to come back into the room.
08:32 Somebody say, amen. Amen.
08:34 So reason number one why this is no time to look back now
08:36 is what guarantee do you have that you will ever get back.
08:45 Reason number two, open your Bibles to John.
08:48 We go from Luke to John,
08:49 Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, John 6.
08:53 Reason number two is that you may become
08:55 so jaded by the world
08:57 that you will never turn back to the correct path.
08:59 I am in John 6 and it is coincidently amazing to me
09:05 that John 6:66 says what it does.
09:09 That would be John 6:66.
09:13 John 6:66 and of course we know
09:15 that the versification was added much later
09:17 but it is nevertheless a remarkable coincidence
09:21 and perhaps God even had His hand in it
09:24 that John 6:66 should read this way,
09:29 From that time Jesus had been in the temple
09:32 discussing with His disciples
09:34 began to say some things that they didn't understand
09:36 and frankly some things that sounded counter and two
09:39 and even outright repulsive to them.
09:41 He began to say things like, "Except you eat the flesh
09:43 of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
09:44 you have no life in you" and this was revolting to them.
09:47 This was disturbing to them.
09:49 And Jesus, when He sense
09:50 that there was a murmur among the people,
09:52 He actually intensified it and the Bible says in John 6:66,
09:57 because of those words from that time
09:59 many of His decuples went back and walked with Him no more.
10:05 Now according to that verse the people that walk away
10:09 and never came back were disciples.
10:13 They were what, everyone? Disciples.
10:15 They were-- isn't it remarkable that
10:16 that's what John 6:66 should say? Yeah.
10:19 From that time many of His disciples
10:20 walked with Him no more.
10:21 These were people who had been following Jesus,
10:24 who believed in Jesus.
10:25 The Bible calls them disciples and they walked away from Jesus
10:29 and what John says is, they never came back.
10:34 Reason number two why this is no time to look back now
10:37 is you could become so jaded and disenfranchised by the world
10:43 that you never even think to come back to church.
10:47 There's this amazing thing called deception.
10:52 Have you ever heard of deception before? Yeah.
10:55 Yeah, deception is exceedingly dangerous
10:57 and what makes deception so very dangerous is that
11:00 the very essence of deception is that you are unaware,
11:03 you are being deceived.
11:07 Nobody who is being deceived
11:09 thinks of themselves as being deceived.
11:12 If you are sitting there this evening
11:14 thinking to yourself, well, I am not deceived,
11:16 the problem is, is that is exactly
11:18 how deceived people think
11:19 because no deceived person thinks they are deceived.
11:22 The essence of deception is you don't know it.
11:26 I've used this illustration before
11:27 but as I am repeating its little bit like sleeping.
11:30 Have you ever noticed
11:31 that you didn't know you are asleep until you wake up?
11:36 And after you woken up, then you have context
11:39 with which to evaluate your former slumber
11:41 and you can say, "Oh, I was asleep"
11:43 but the only reason that you know
11:45 you were sleep is that now you are awake.
11:48 You can go out into the world and you can literally start
11:51 buying in to the world's paradigm,
11:54 the lust of the flesh,
11:55 the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
11:57 You can become so jaded, loose a biblical worldview
12:00 that you wouldn't even know you were lost.
12:05 Reason number two, according to John,
12:09 he says these disciples turned away and never came back.
12:14 Now reason number three, we will stay here in John 6.
12:18 Reason number three, why this is no time to look back now
12:21 is really, I mean frankly, honestly,
12:27 what are you going to go back to?
12:31 Amen. I mean, be real.
12:38 What are you going to go back to?
12:40 The ashes and vomit and aimlessness
12:44 of your pre-Christian life? No way.
12:49 I am in verse 67 of the same chapter.
12:51 Then Jesus said to the twelve
12:53 as Jesus was watching the other disciples walk away,
12:56 He turned His attention to the twelve
12:58 and he said, "Do you also want to go away?"
13:03 The heart of Jesus is breaking.
13:05 He turn His attention to the inner sanctum, to the core
13:09 and He addresses them and He says,
13:11 "Do you also want to go away?"
13:13 And in verse 68, Peter speaks up on behalf of
13:15 the rest of the apostles and I love Peter's response.
13:18 Simon Peter answered him,
13:19 and said, "Lord, to whom shall we go?
13:24 You have the words of eternal life.
13:28 And we have also come to believe and know."
13:32 Believe in what, everyone?
13:34 Not believe and hope, "believe and know
13:37 that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
13:41 Think about that for just a moment.
13:42 The other disciples are walking out,
13:44 Jesus turn His attention to the twelve
13:45 and He says, "Do you want to go too?"
13:50 And in that moment, in that unusual, awkward,
13:53 poignant moment, Peter turns to Jesus
13:56 and says, "Lord, if we left, where would we go?"
14:01 That's the question I have for you.
14:02 Where are you going to go?
14:04 Really, where are you going to go?
14:09 Peter says basically You are the only show in town.
14:13 We don't understand everything You say.
14:14 We don't understand everything You do
14:17 but we believe that You have the words of eternal life
14:19 and we have come to know and to believe
14:20 that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
14:22 Where else you're going to go beloved?
14:28 Back to the vomit and aimlessness of your old life.
14:33 Do me a favor, do not make
14:34 eternal decisions about your welfare,
14:38 do not make eternal decisions about your spiritual experience
14:41 while you are watching a sitcom. Amen.
14:46 Sitcoms and beer commercials and Must See TV is not reality.
14:53 You are not choosing between
14:56 Seventh-day Adventism and some sitcom show.
15:00 That is not reality.
15:01 If you really want to know what you are turning to,
15:04 just spend a little alone time, a little quiet time,
15:06 turn off the mp3 player, turn off the cell phone,
15:10 Lord have mercy and sit and be quiet.
15:15 And start to think about the confusion, the questions,
15:19 the forebodings, the doubts that were in your mind
15:23 before you became a Christian.
15:25 Think about the despair
15:27 and the depression that you know you had,
15:29 the great and grand questions that plagued your every day
15:33 before you came to faith in Jesus.
15:35 Get that picture in your mind,
15:36 that's what you'd be going back to.
15:39 You are not going back to some artificial world
15:41 that's been created by some charlatan in Hollywood.
15:44 You are going back to despair.
15:48 Only in Christ do you find
15:50 origin, meaning, morality and destiny.
15:53 Only in Christ is your life even make sense
15:56 and so Jesus says to you today, where are you going to go?
15:58 I mean, really, where are you going to go?
16:04 If you are struggling in your Christian experience,
16:06 if you don't have all the answers join the club
16:11 but in those difficult, sometimes depressive,
16:14 sometimes frustrating moments please, please, please
16:17 do not chose between that and some artificial option
16:21 that doesn't really exist in the real world.
16:24 Take some time alone and remember
16:26 what it was like before you came to Jesus.
16:29 Think about the ashes that your life was
16:32 before you came to faith in Christ.
16:34 That's where you would be going back to
16:35 and don't kid yourself about it.
16:38 Someone say, amen. Amen.
16:43 You think you are going to freedom,
16:44 you are really walking headlong into bondage.
16:48 That's reason number three not to turn back now.
16:52 Where are you going to go? I've just got to throw this in.
16:59 Now this will be a little sophisticated
17:00 for which I don't apologize.
17:07 As we said in our opening presentation,
17:09 there are only two kinds of universes possible.
17:14 You think with me just for a moment philosophically.
17:17 There are only two possible kinds of universes.
17:22 We either live in a theistic universe
17:24 that is a universe in which God exists and is real
17:27 or we live in a non-theistic universe,
17:29 that is to say in a natural universe in which
17:32 everything you see around you is simply matter in motion.
17:36 You have two fundamental components
17:37 that make up everything you see around you,
17:39 from chairs to people to pianos
17:41 and that is matter and energy. Okay.
17:45 These two world views could not be further apart.
17:48 On this side you have a personal creator
17:50 that has fashioned you in His own image
17:52 and on this side you have matter in motion
17:55 and these two world views are totally antithetical.
17:58 If what I am saying makes sense say, amen.
18:00 Amen. Okay.
18:02 If you go over into this world view,
18:04 where all you have to work with is matter and energy.
18:07 You are not allowed to take the ladle
18:09 and dip into that world view
18:11 to take the things out that you like.
18:13 In this world view you don't have God,
18:16 so you don't get any of the benefits
18:17 or blessings or amenities that come in a God centered universe.
18:22 You are stuck with matter and energy
18:26 and are winning in philosophy, you are stuck with it.
18:29 Now what does life look like?
18:32 Well, let me tell you what it looks like.
18:37 All of the things that you consider to be virtuous
18:39 just immediately evaporated.
18:41 There is no such thing as virtue in this universe.
18:46 We do not laud Martin Luther King Junior
18:49 or Mother Teresa or any other great person
18:52 for the wonderful things that they have done
18:53 because in this world you only have matter and energy
18:56 and in a world of just matter and energy,
18:58 there is nothing such as virtue in the transcendence sense.
19:03 In this world view there is no difference
19:05 between caring for your neighbor
19:07 and killing your neighbor and cutting his head off.
19:10 In this world view everything that you think of,
19:13 the dreams that you have, the passions that you have,
19:15 the sense of honor that you have,
19:17 everything that the movies really make their money off of,
19:21 all of that virtue and joy and honor
19:24 and the guy gets the girl, it disappears.
19:29 You cannot sustain that kind of a moral world view
19:32 when all you have to work with is matter and energy.
19:37 If you want those niceties, if you want those amenities,
19:39 you got to step into God's world view
19:42 because God alone as a moral figure
19:44 can create a moral context
19:47 with which to make sense out of life. Amen.
19:49 So if you are over there, you are not allowed
19:52 to dip the stick in over here and still hope for things
19:55 like virtue and wise and meaning in life.
19:59 It's gone. But so much more is gone.
20:03 You are gone because you think that you exist.
20:09 You think that you are a person that has personality
20:12 and desires and hope and ambitions,
20:15 you believe that you exist but guess what, over here
20:18 you are only what you think is you is only illusory.
20:24 You are nothing more than a bag of biological stuff in which
20:29 physiological and physical processes are taking place
20:32 that creates the illusion of personhood
20:35 but you are not a person in the most emphatic sense.
20:41 In fact the love that you feel for your sweet someone,
20:43 the love that you feel for your spouse,
20:46 the tenderness that you might feel toward your children
20:48 or toward your mother,
20:49 all of that is not one bit different from gas or diarrhea.
20:58 They are just physical processes
21:00 taking place in a physical organ.
21:02 We attach happy feelings to one,
21:04 namely love and all of those things
21:06 and unhappy feelings to the other
21:07 namely gas and indigestion
21:09 but they are physical processes taking place in a physical being
21:12 and they are essentially, quantitatively,
21:15 qualitatively the same in a physical universe.
21:19 Now tell me that's how you are living your life.
21:22 Tell me that when you see your spouse,
21:25 you don't attach very different feelings to that
21:27 then when you have indigestion.
21:33 Now we kind of chuckle but beloved,
21:35 I want you to think about this.
21:37 In this universe when all you've got to work with
21:40 is matter and energy you cannot get the niceties and amenities
21:45 of living in a moral frame where you can't get them.
21:49 Beloved, if you get rid of God,
21:50 you don't just get rid of some old bearded man
21:53 living on a cloud in the sky,
21:55 your whole life breaks down as you presently understand it.
22:00 By the way, what makes you, you?
22:04 I am going to venture a guess
22:05 that you actually believe that you have a mind.
22:09 That you have a what, everyone?
22:10 Mind. A mind.
22:12 And I am going to hazard a guess that you believe
22:14 that you are actually a person that actually exists
22:19 but in a physical, in a strictly physical world over here,
22:22 minds do not exist, only brains do.
22:28 Now there is a difference you understand
22:31 between a brain and a mind.
22:33 Amen, yes or no? Yes.
22:35 Okay, so you could cut my head open,
22:36 I hope you don't choose to do that but you could do that
22:39 and you can take out my brain and you could look at my brain.
22:42 You could weight it, you could measure it,
22:43 you could smell it, you could touch it,
22:45 you could throw it, you could--
22:46 you have a physical object that you could manipulate
22:49 and weigh but I could never show you my minds.
22:54 But I couldn't reach my pocket and say,
22:55 let me show you my mind, right.
22:57 When we say, I've lost my mind,
23:00 you didn't really loose it,
23:01 it's not like it's under the couch.
23:05 Now think about this for just a moment, where is your mind?
23:10 Your mind is not your brain, they are different things.
23:13 The brain is a physical organ
23:15 that is subject to physical processes.
23:17 It is true that the mind has its seat in the brain
23:20 but the brain and the mind are not synonymous.
23:22 Are we all on the same page, yes or no?
23:24 Yes. Have you ever seen a mind?
23:29 Has anyone in this room ever seen a mind?
23:32 Okay, how many people in this room believe that minds exist?
23:37 Okay, so every one of you believes
23:38 in something that you have never seen.
23:42 Every one of you believes in multiplied millions of minds
23:46 and yet you have never seen a single one, guess what.
23:49 In this world over here, in this world view over here
23:52 where all you have is matter and energy,
23:54 immaterial things cannot exist in a material world.
23:59 Non-material things do not exist in a material world.
24:02 What are you going to make a mind out of? Carbon?
24:06 What are you going to make a mind out of? Helium?
24:08 Guess what, in this world over here
24:11 your very personality, your mind what makes you, you is gone.
24:19 Only over here in a biblical world view can we make sense
24:24 out of immaterial things like minds and spirits and God.
24:30 Now here is the point.
24:31 If you've been able to stay through with this,
24:32 the point is this.
24:33 If you decide to leave God,
24:35 you are not just leaving an old bearded man in the sky,
24:38 you are leaving intelligible life
24:40 as you know it and understand it.
24:43 And guess what?
24:44 Even atheists who believe
24:47 their philosophy intellectually cannot live that way.
24:53 If an atheist is-- if an atheist has his wife murdered,
24:57 he has a sense of justice,
24:59 he has a sense of vengeance, why? Why?
25:05 There is nothing like justice in his world view,
25:07 there is nothing like honor in his world view,
25:09 there is nothing like punishment in his world view,
25:11 there is nothing like wise in his world view.
25:13 All he has is carbon and helium
25:16 and energy and that's it, matter.
25:22 Reason number three why this is no time to leave is simply this.
25:25 When you get rid of God, you are getting rid of a lot
25:28 more than a bearded old patriarchal figure in the sky,
25:31 you are getting rid of life as you know it
25:33 and understand it and love it.
25:38 If that make sense say, amen. Amen.
25:40 We need to be teaching this by the way
25:42 to our young people in the schools.
25:43 We need to be teaching that Christianity is fiercely,
25:47 philosophically, intellectually credible.
25:51 They need to understand that the bankruptcy of materialism,
25:55 they need to understand the bankruptcy
25:57 of a strictly materialistic view of the universe.
26:00 They need to see that Christianity is not just
26:03 a fuzzy-woozy feels good stuff, it's true. Amen.
26:08 So that that if they are turning from--
26:09 if they are turning from Christ, if they are turning from faith,
26:12 if they are turning from the biblical world view,
26:14 they are in my estimation
26:16 and I think many philosophers have made a good case for this,
26:18 they are turning from rationality itself. Amen.
26:24 Number four, reason not to turn back now,
26:28 Jesus is coming soon. Amen.
26:31 This would be a bad time to look back.
26:35 Two hundred and fifty plus thousand people are swept
26:40 into oblivion and non existence by a single tsunami.
26:45 My Bible says in the Gospel of Luke
26:47 that the waves of the sea would be roaring.
26:51 Earthquakes and false christs and false prophets,
26:54 a state of confusion in the religious world,
26:57 the United State just increasing, increasing,
26:59 increasing in its political potency and power
27:02 and do I need to say anything
27:04 about the first beast of Revelation 13,
27:06 gaining influence, gaining influence not just
27:09 over the Christian churches but also over Islam
27:12 and reaching out his hand in variety of different directions.
27:14 The Lutheran church just ready now
27:17 to step back up under the banner of mother Rome
27:19 and of course the Methodists are doing this and others.
27:23 It's all happening.
27:24 Our whole end time scatological picture
27:27 is being fulfilled right before our very eyes. Amen.
27:31 Everything I see communicates to me
27:34 in the plainest language that Jesus is coming soon,
27:37 that our end time picture which incidentally
27:40 Ellen White communicated in the book, The Great Controversy,
27:42 some hundred plus years ago and she did not have
27:46 the perspective of history that we do today.
27:47 I mean things that she said in that book
27:49 were so plainly prophetic.
27:51 In my estimation you have to be a fool
27:53 to deny the prophetic significance.
27:55 Amen. They are happening.
28:00 Jesus is soon to come.
28:02 As we've already suggested the post 9/11 world
28:04 looks nothing like the pre 9/11 world
28:06 and it's only going to intensify.
28:08 Now don't ask me to put a date on it.
28:10 I don't know if Jesus is coming in five years or in 10 years
28:12 but I will tell you this,
28:14 everything is in place for Him to come. Amen.
28:17 Everything, every single time prophecy has been fulfilled.
28:20 The 1260 fulfilled, 1290 fulfilled,
28:22 1335 fulfilled, 2300 day prophecy,
28:25 the longest time prophecy in all the bible was fulfilled in 1844,
28:28 that was a 150 years ago, the time prophecies are done.
28:31 We are waiting on nothing. Amen.
28:37 Jesus is soon to come.
28:38 It's not just a cliche, it's true. Amen.
28:44 This is no time to be looking back.
28:49 What guarantee that you have that Jesus won't return
28:52 while you are out sowing your veritable wild oats?
28:56 Reason number five, open your Bible with me to Luke 14.
29:02 Reason number five why this is no time to look back now.
29:05 Others will mock you
29:07 and potentially be lost by your poor example.
29:10 Now I know that's not happy fuzzy warm feelings
29:14 but the reality is that the religion of Christ
29:17 will loose significant credibility
29:19 with those within your circle of influence.
29:22 Luke 14:28, Jesus said it, not me,
29:28 "For which of you, intending to build a tower,"
29:31 intending to build what, everyone? Tower.
29:33 "A tower does not sit down first and count the cost
29:37 whether he has enough to finish it."
29:38 Verse 29, "Lest after he has laid a foundation
29:41 and is not able to--" what, everyone?
29:43 "Finish, all who see it will begin to--" what? "Mock him."
29:49 Jesus says this is a story of a man who begins to build
29:53 but he's not able to finish the building project
29:55 because he didn't have enough resources,
29:57 he didn't count the cost.
30:01 Beloved Jesus has been
30:02 unequivocal about what the cost is.
30:06 He who seeks to save his life will lose it,
30:09 the cost is everything.
30:11 The cost is taking up your cross,
30:13 the cost is giving up your life
30:16 so that you can find your life in Christ.
30:18 So you can never say, oh, I didn't know what the cost was.
30:20 The cost is everything.
30:22 If Jesus gave everything for you,
30:23 what makes you think that you can give any less to Him.
30:27 Amen. Amen.
30:30 And so one reason why not to turn back
30:32 is that others within your circle of influence
30:35 will mock you and then will potently be lost
30:38 by your turning back.
30:39 Look at verse 34 of the same chapter,
30:41 salt is good but if the salt has lost its flavor,
30:46 how shall it be seasoned?
30:48 I could say Christianity is good.
30:50 Christians are good but if the Christians
30:52 has lost its Christianity, how shall it be seasoned?
30:56 "It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill,
31:00 but men throw it out.
31:01 He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
31:06 If you are on fire for Jesus
31:07 and you are living for Jesus and talking for Jesus
31:10 and preaching for Jesus and all of the sudden you stop,
31:14 do not tell me that, that will not have
31:16 a reverberating and redounding
31:18 decidedly negative influence on those around you
31:21 who saw you as a Christian person.
31:25 Amen. Amen.
31:27 Be responsible about your Christian witness.
31:30 It's not all about you.
31:32 If you chose to turn away, this will not only affect you,
31:36 it will have reverberating consequences
31:38 for those around you.
31:40 Amen. Amen.
31:44 Now you might not like that and you might not like that,
31:46 oh, here comes the big "R" word, responsibility.
31:51 But beloved, here's something never forget this.
31:53 Your salvation is wrapped up with other people's salvation.
31:59 Who you are and how you live
32:01 and the decisions you make are not only yours.
32:04 You are not some autonomous, isolated island unto yourself.
32:08 If you chose to live for God, then you can reverberate
32:11 and send out good vibrations
32:12 if you will to those around you
32:14 and if you chose to turn from that,
32:16 it will redound not to the glory of God
32:19 but to the glory of Satan and people will be influenced
32:22 and even horror of horrors potently lost
32:25 because of your negative influence.
32:31 Reason number six is very similar to that.
32:35 Others could be lost
32:37 but you could have been instrumental in helping to save.
32:42 Ezekiel 33, go there with me if you would.
32:46 This is not happy scripture but it is true scripture
32:56 beginning in verse 1.
32:59 Ezekiel 33:1, reason number six,
33:01 others maybe lost that you could have been
33:04 instrumental in helping to save.
33:09 Ezekiel 33:1, "Again the word of the Lord came to me,
33:11 saying, "Son of man, speak to the children of your people,
33:13 and say to them, 'When I bring the sword upon a land,
33:15 and the people of the land take a man from their territory
33:17 and make him their watchman,
33:18 when he sees the sword coming upon the land,
33:20 he blows the trumpet and warns the people."
33:21 Verse 4, "Then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet
33:24 and does not take warning, if the sword comes
33:26 and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head.
33:29 He heard the sound of the trumpet,
33:30 but did not take warning, his blood shall be upon himself.
33:33 But he who takes warning will save his life.
33:34 But if the watchman sees the sword coming
33:36 and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned,
33:38 and the sword comes and takes any person from among them,
33:41 he is taken away in his iniquity,
33:43 but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.'
33:47 "So you, son of man.
33:48 I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel,
33:49 therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth
33:51 and warn them for Me.
33:52 When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man,
33:54 you shall surely die!'
33:55 and you do not speak to warn the wicked man from his way,
33:57 that wicked man shall die in his iniquity,
33:59 but his blood I will require at your hand."
34:04 The Apostle Paul said in Romans 1
34:06 that he was a deader to both the wise and to the unwise,
34:10 to the Greek and to the Barbarian,
34:11 he was a deader.
34:12 He was a what, everyone? Deader.
34:14 What he meant by that is he knew the truth
34:16 and now he was duty bound,
34:18 debt bound to communicate the truth
34:21 to others in whatever way he could.
34:27 Now that does not mean--
34:28 and I want to be crystal clear about this,
34:30 that does not man you have to be a Mark Finley
34:32 traveling around the world with a veritable you know,
34:36 or made of satellite technology
34:39 but what it does mean is in you little sphere of influence,
34:43 you can tell others what you have come to know
34:45 about God and Jesus and salvation. Amen.
34:50 You are responsible.
34:52 God has entrusted this to you,
34:55 now you need to use it to the glory of God.
34:58 Amen. Amen.
35:00 People say, oh, pastor, oh, that's that a guilt trip.
35:03 Oh you are going to give them a guilt trip, pastor.
35:06 Let me tell you something.
35:09 If somebody accuses me of being a drug trafficker,
35:12 somebody says, Pastor Asscherick is really a drug trafficker,
35:14 all of his national, international travels is just--
35:17 it's a cover up for drug trafficking, right.
35:20 You can accuse me of that, you can put me
35:22 in front of a high court, you can accuse me of that.
35:23 You know what, I would never ever feel guilty about it
35:27 because I am innocent.
35:29 Have you ever noticed if there is a direct correlation
35:31 between having a guilt trip put on you
35:34 and actually being guilty? Are you with me?
35:41 I can't put a guilt trip on you.
35:44 If you are guilty you know it, that's the point.
35:46 The Holy Spirit is the one that says to you,
35:49 be more responsible with the gifts
35:50 that I've entrusted you.
35:52 Someone say, amen. Amen.
35:53 It's not a guilt trip, it's the truth.
35:56 A metallurgical engineer who had zero charisma,
36:01 zero charisma is the one who studied the Bible with me.
36:05 His name was Josh and he talked very slow.
36:15 And I remember the first time I ever met Josh,
36:16 I had been going into this vegan vegetarian restaurant
36:19 and I just enjoy their food and as I've already said,
36:22 I had purple hair, blue hair, long hair,
36:24 no hair, dreadlocked hair, crazy hair.
36:25 I was a punk rocker and I told,
36:27 I thought these people were weird
36:28 because they call one another brother and sister,
36:30 they were just weird people.
36:32 And I would ask questions about the Bible
36:34 and I was kind of curious about you know,
36:36 how biblical people thought.
36:37 Frankly I thought these people were naive
36:39 and just uninitiated.
36:40 And it came up, the lady that on the restaurant,
36:44 Mary, she said, would you like Bible studies
36:46 and I thought well, it's a novel idea, sure.
36:49 And so I made the arrangement to have Bible studies
36:51 at the restaurant and when I came in,
36:52 I thought I was Bible studying with Mary, right?
36:57 But she did the switch rule
36:59 and I ended up Bible studying with Josh.
37:06 And from the moment that I met Josh,
37:09 I was so frustrated by him
37:10 because I wanted to finish every single one of his sentences.
37:16 And we would sit down and in our Bible studies
37:19 that should have taken every bit of 45 minutes
37:21 would some times take two hours or more.
37:33 But that brother in his own armor
37:37 with his great big lack of charisma
37:40 and he would not mind me telling you
37:41 that he is a wonderful godly Christian man.
37:43 He was a student, he was in school,
37:46 he wasn't studying theology, he was studying engineering,
37:49 he was not a great charismatic,
37:52 eloquent person but he took time.
37:56 He took what? Time.
37:58 He took time to sit down with the purple haired freak
38:01 and explained the gospel to him. Amen.
38:04 And hallelujah, that purpled haired freak believed
38:08 what was communicated
38:10 and today he is a preacher. Amen.
38:12 No my friend Josh, it is highly unlikely,
38:14 though all things are possible with God,
38:16 it's highly unlikely
38:17 that he would ever stand up in front
38:19 as I am today making a presentation like this, right?
38:23 He just wouldn't do it.
38:25 But the point is this, every soul that I win
38:28 is a star in that brother's crown. Amen.
38:30 You see, you might not be a Paul
38:32 but maybe you could win a Paul,
38:35 you might not be a Peter
38:36 but may be you could win a Peter.
38:37 By the way Peter was won by his brother Andrew.
38:41 Andrew is the one that brought Peter
38:42 and it's so interesting because every time
38:43 you read the Bible it says,
38:45 it says Andrew and then it says,
38:46 Simon Peter's brother.
38:49 It's really funny because you know
38:50 you know nothing about Andrew.
38:51 If I give a piece of paper
38:52 and I said write down 10 things about Andrew
38:54 you couldn't do it.
38:55 But you could write down a hundred things
38:56 about Peter, right.
38:58 But who won Peter?
38:59 Andrew brought Peter to Jesus
39:01 and so may be you are not a Peter,
39:03 may be you are an Andrew. Amen.
39:07 Do not think for a moment
39:09 that you have to go to some school,
39:10 you have to have some kind of a degree
39:11 or whatever it is in order to be able to share the gospel,
39:15 start sharing what you have.
39:17 God has entrusted the truth to you
39:18 and just start sharing, God will open doors. Amen.
39:24 That's reason number six, why not to turn back
39:26 because others that you could be
39:27 instrumental in saving and by the way
39:29 I just got to say this because I am here at south--
39:32 where am I? Southern Adventist University.
39:36 I knew it was an educational institution,
39:39 I just couldn't remember which one.
39:43 And then I just suddenly remember
39:44 it was the best one. So then it came to my mind.
39:57 We do not always have to steer
39:59 the most spiritual kids into theology.
40:04 I think that we do need to take some of our best
40:07 and encourage them to go in the direction of theology
40:09 but we are sending a subtle message
40:13 that goes something like this.
40:14 If you are spiritual and you are on fire
40:16 and you love the Lord
40:17 and you have the gift of communication,
40:19 you have the gift of preaching, become a pastor.
40:21 Okay, there's nothing wrong with that
40:22 but beloved, we need some of the most
40:24 spiritual people to be doctors too.
40:27 We need some of the most spiritual people
40:29 to be accountants too.
40:31 We need some of the most spiritual people
40:32 to be nurses too and to be bankers too.
40:34 Are you with me, everyone? Amen. Amen.
40:36 And so let's not create this unnecessary
40:38 almost papal dichotomy
40:40 that the clergy are the ones who study Bible
40:43 and the clergy are the ones who give Bible studies
40:45 and the clergy are the one who know
40:47 the inner oracles of the God.
40:49 No, no, no, as a doctor,
40:50 just for example you have an inner avenue
40:54 into the lives of people that a pastor will never enjoy.
40:59 I mean, you are a doctor, people know you are smart.
41:01 They think of you as smart and they trust you.
41:04 So you say something about Jesus,
41:06 you have a prayer with your patient,
41:09 you mention something about what God has done in your life
41:12 and it means so much more coming from a doctor. Amen.
41:17 Are we all together, yes or no?
41:19 We need spiritual pastors, of course we do
41:21 and I am not in anyway diminishing that, no doubt.
41:23 We also need spiritual bankers,
41:24 we need spiritual pastors, we need spiritual doctors,
41:27 we need spiritual plumbers, we need spiritual carpenters,
41:30 we need spiritual people
41:31 who see that their vocation in life
41:34 is simply an avenue to get them access to people,
41:38 not just to put money and zeros in the bank account. Amen.
41:42 And I'm hoping and praying and I hope and believe it
41:45 by the grace of God that,
41:46 that sense of spiritual urgency
41:48 and infection will saturate Southern.
41:53 That's what you need.
41:54 You need a spiritual urgency in every department.
41:58 Not just in the theology department,
42:00 of course especially there's reason number six.
42:02 Reason number seven, let's do this more quickly,
42:05 one reason not to turn back,
42:06 reason number seven frankly is the terror of the Lord.
42:12 You will be judged more severely
42:14 if having knowledge of the truth
42:15 and of Him who is the truth you turn back.
42:19 You don't believe me, look at Luke 12
42:21 if you would very quickly, Luke 12.
42:27 These are the words of Jesus not the words of David,
42:29 Luke 12 beginning in verse 41. What verse, everyone? 41.
42:33 Luke 12:41, "Then Peter said to Him,
42:35 "Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?"
42:38 Then the Lord said, verse 42 of Luke 12
42:43 "Who then is that faithful and wise steward,
42:45 whom his master will make ruler over his household,
42:47 to give them their portion of food in due season?
42:49 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find
42:51 so doing when he comes.
42:52 Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler
42:54 over all that he has.
42:55 But if that servant says in his heart,
42:57 'My master is delaying his coming,'
42:59 and begins to beat the male and female servants,
43:01 and to eat and drink and be drunk,
43:03 the master of that servant will come on a day
43:04 when he is not looking for him,
43:05 and at an hour when he is not aware,
43:07 and he will cut him in two
43:08 and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
43:10 And that servant--" now look at this carefully here,
43:12 "who knew his master's will,"
43:16 that servant who what, everyone? Knew.
43:17 "knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself
43:20 or do according to his will, will be beaten with--"
43:22 what? "Many stripes."
43:24 Verse 48, "But he who did not know-
43:28 he who did not know,
43:30 yet committed things deserving of stripes,
43:32 shall be beaten with--" what? "Few.
43:34 For everyone to whom much is given,
43:36 from him much will be required,
43:38 and to whom much has been committed,
43:39 of him they will ask the more."
43:40 What Jesus is saying is simple,
43:42 your condemnation should you be lost
43:44 will be in direct proportion to the light that you rejected.
43:48 Did you get that?
43:50 Your condemnation should heaven forbid
43:51 you'll be lost will be in direct proportion
43:53 to the light that you rejected.
43:55 That only make sense, that's the only way
43:57 that the justice of God could make sense.
43:59 If God punished everybody absolutely equally
44:01 that is an unjust system.
44:03 Our punishment is tied to what we turn away from.
44:06 Incidentally this is why Lucifer,
44:08 Satan's punishment is the most severe
44:10 because he dwelt in the very presence of God.
44:13 Are we all in the same page here? Yes.
44:16 Beloved, it's not going to be pretty,
44:18 when Jesus uses the language,
44:19 weeping and gnashing of teeth,
44:21 He's not painting a hallmark card picture.
44:25 It's going to be hideously ugly and terrible.
44:28 Now someone here some softy is bound to say,
44:31 oh, you are using fear
44:33 and fear is not a legitimate motivator.
44:35 That is patently untrue.
44:37 Fear is a legitimate motivator,
44:39 it's just that it's not the only motivator.
44:41 Amen. Fear works.
44:45 In fact the Apostle Paul,
44:47 he said, knowing the terror of that Lord,
44:49 2 Corinthians 5:11, we persuade men.
44:52 He also said it's a fearful thing
44:54 to fall into the hands of the living God.
44:56 Fear is a proper motivator in its proper sphere.
45:00 It's not the only motivator but let' be honest,
45:02 God employs fear as a mechanism
45:05 not the only mechanism
45:06 and not even the primary mechanism
45:08 but as a mechanism to arrest the attention of people.
45:11 Someone say, amen. Amen.
45:12 I do it with my kids. Right.
45:18 Most of the time I say, "Landon, come talk to papa."
45:21 Right we have a little-- there he goes right there.
45:22 So, Landon, come talk to papa.
45:25 And sometimes we can have it out that way.
45:28 You know he's five now and he's getting it.
45:29 You know, I am able to reason and we are working on that
45:32 but sometimes he finds things like screwdrivers
45:35 and he wanders around the house
45:37 and tries to find places to poke them.
45:39 And one place that he might want to poke them,
45:40 I've seen him trying poking is into the light socket.
45:43 Well, that's not a time for, you know, sweet niceties. Amen.
45:48 No! That's a time for outright panic, right.
45:52 And so I run to Landon and I grab him
45:55 and he of course is absolutely totally terrified
45:58 and I pick him up and I throw him,
46:00 no I am just kidding, I don't throw him.
46:03 Just want to see if you are paying attention.
46:04 I pick him up and I say, "Landon, don't ever put
46:08 a screwdriver in a light socket.
46:10 You will die, your brains will be fried
46:12 inside of your head." And he is just...
46:20 and then I will say, "Are you clear on that?"
46:22 he say, "Yeah, yeah."
46:23 I say, "All right, let's go outside."
46:26 But let me tell you it works.
46:29 Now that is not the only motivator
46:31 but it is a motivator. Amen. Amen.
46:36 I mean go read the Psalms
46:37 if you think that fear is not a motivator.
46:39 One of the things I love to do is to read the Psalms
46:41 and the reason is that more than any other book in the Bible,
46:44 the Book of Psalms gives me a sense of a biblical worldview.
46:49 I mean you have David saying things like Lord,
46:51 let the righteous dwell in your presence forever
46:53 and let the wicked be eaten by jackals, right.
46:59 We are bunch of softies, like we've gone so soft,
47:01 God has become nothing more than
47:03 the big teddy bear in the sky.
47:04 Go read the Psalms,
47:06 David had a biblical worldview and the reality is,
47:08 is that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him,
47:11 God loves people but God has no time
47:14 for those who consistently and obstinately
47:16 reject His offers of mercy and grace.
47:19 They are dooming themselves and it's not going to be pretty.
47:24 That's another reason not to turn away,
47:26 it's not going to be pretty time,
47:27 happy time, it's going to be ugly.
47:31 You don't want to be there. Amen.
47:34 Reason number eight
47:37 when you turn back you are not turning from a belief system,
47:43 you are not turning from Adventism,
47:45 you are turning from a person
47:47 and that person is the man Jesus Christ,
47:48 the great lover of your soul.
47:52 Remember what Peter said,
47:54 "How could we leave You, how could we leave You.
47:56 You have the words of eternal life."
47:57 Think of it this way, if you leave, if you turn back
48:00 you are not leaving a church you are leaving your savior.
48:04 Now my wife is right over there.
48:10 I married my wife and we are engaged in this thing
48:13 called the institution of marriage.
48:16 Are you with me?
48:17 Follow this, the institution of what?
48:20 Marriage. Marriage, okay.
48:21 If I walk away from my wife, if I just decide today
48:25 and I am madly in love with my wife
48:26 more so today than I've ever been
48:28 but if heaven forbid,
48:29 I just change my mind and walked away.
48:32 Follow the analogy here,
48:33 I am not leaving primarily an institution,
48:36 I am leaving a person. Are you with me?
48:40 If you leave the church,
48:42 you are not leaving primarily an institution,
48:45 you are leaving a person that heads that institution
48:47 and it's not any person, it's Jesus Christ. Amen.
48:53 That's another reason
48:54 that this is no time to turn back, beloved.
48:56 You are not leaving a culture, you are leaving Jesus.
49:02 Reason number nine, it is absolute folly
49:04 for you to turn back,
49:05 you are guaranteed to finish the race.
49:10 philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this very thing,
49:13 that he which hath begun a good work in you will--" what?
49:16 "Perform it or complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."
49:19 You are not turning away from the potential of salvation,
49:22 you would be turning away from salvation.
49:25 You are going to finish this race
49:27 as we communicated this morning.
49:28 If you keep getting up and you stay with Jesus,
49:31 getting up and stay with Jesus, you stay on that ladder.
49:33 Let me say it in the plainest possible language.
49:35 Let me be a Baptist here for a moment,
49:38 you will be saved.
49:42 It's okay to say that by the way.
49:45 You will be saved
49:47 if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.
49:51 Is that plain enough, you will make it to heaven,
49:54 you will be saved
49:56 if you put your faith in the Lord
49:57 Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.
49:59 So if you turn away, you are not turning away
50:01 from the potential of salvation,
50:03 you are turning away from salvation. Amen.
50:07 That's number nine.
50:09 And finally, number ten, the last reason
50:12 why this is no time to look back now
50:14 is that you are robbing others.
50:16 Listen to this carefully because I can almost guarantee
50:18 that many of you have not thought about this.
50:22 Reason number ten, why this is no time to turn back now,
50:24 you are robbing others of the privilege
50:26 and uniqueness of your personality throughout eternity.
50:31 Think of it. You will be gone.
50:36 Terminally, irrevocably gone.
50:42 Your mother will never hold you again,
50:46 you will never laugh with your friends,
50:50 you and your children will never run together
50:53 holding hands again,
50:54 you would be selfishly robbing others,
50:57 my self included of the beauty of knowing you
51:00 as a close friend throughout the ceaseless eternal ages.
51:04 Chiefly, of course you would be robbing God,
51:06 your maker of your own unique personality.
51:09 You are the only you that has ever been or ever will be.
51:13 In eternity, I can be the best friend
51:15 of every person in this room.
51:18 Isn't that right?
51:19 Because I can spend the first 10,000 years with you
51:22 and then you will get tired of me
51:24 and I can spend the next 10,000 years with you
51:26 and then you get tired of me and then,
51:27 I mean, there are going to be millions saved
51:30 and so just think about it, you can spend 10,000 years
51:33 and cycle through all of the saved.
51:35 And by the time you cycle through all the saved,
51:37 then you can start back with that person
51:39 that you were with multiplied millions of years ago.
51:43 You literally have the time to get to know
51:46 everyone in a very powerful,
51:48 very profound, very intimate way.
51:50 One of my favorite things about life
51:51 is this thing called friendship. Amen.
51:54 But the difficulty of life is that
51:56 you only have so much time, isn't that right?
51:59 I guarantee there are people in this room
52:01 that under different circumstances
52:03 could be your very best friend in the world.
52:05 Why aren't they?
52:07 Time limitations, space limitations,
52:09 geographical limitations, I mean they are just--
52:11 but in heaven that disappears because time is limitless.
52:15 If you are not saved,
52:17 we'll never have the privilege of knowing you.
52:20 The only you that has ever been or ever could be
52:22 and most terribly, God.
52:26 You will be absent from the very heart of God.
52:28 There will be a vacancy,
52:30 a void in the very heart of God that only you could fill.
52:39 If it's going to break your mother's heart,
52:44 how much more would it break your heavenly father's heart.
52:50 Reason number ten, why this is no time to turn back
52:52 because you would be robbing others
52:56 of your unique, inimitable,
53:00 wonderful personality. Amen.
53:11 God loves you and He wants you to be saved.
53:17 Jesus is coming soon.
53:20 There are myriad of reasons to not turn back
53:29 but the chiefest of reasons is Jesus.
53:37 Jesus loves you,
53:40 He lived for you and He died for you.
53:45 That's not just a nice children's story,
53:47 it's not just something we sing,
53:48 Jesus loves me this I know
53:50 for the Bible tells me so, it's true.
53:54 Jesus loves you and He wants you to be saved
54:00 and He wants to spend eternity with you in heaven.
54:02 Do you want to spend eternity with Him? Amen.
54:05 Then stop entertaining these
54:07 ridiculous notions of turning back.
54:11 Turning back is indefensible and totally illogical.
54:17 You are not just turning from a church,
54:19 you are not just turning from a culture,
54:20 you are turning from your maker and your savior.
54:23 Disabuse your mind of these thoughts right now.
54:26 Say, Lord, I am going to stick it out with You,
54:28 I am going to believe Your Bible promise
54:30 that You will complete the good work
54:31 that You have begun in me
54:32 and by Your grace I am going to stay with Jesus. Amen.
54:37 I am not perfect man, I am not a perfect woman,
54:39 I might make mistakes, I might fall down.
54:41 It is likely that I will need to repent again
54:44 and still again but I am going to stay with Jesus. Amen.
54:48 Make up your mind.
54:50 You are the only one that can do it.
54:52 I can't make up your mind for you.
54:54 You can choose today to be saved.
54:59 You can choose today to know Jesus
55:02 as your personal Lord and Savior,
55:04 not just once but for the rest of eternity
55:07 you can choose today.
55:10 This is no time to be looking back
55:12 or even thinking about what you have left behind.
55:14 What did the Apostle Paul say,
55:16 forgetting those things that are behind,
55:18 I reach forward into those things that are before,
55:20 pressing on toward the mark of the prize
55:22 of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
55:24 Press on.
55:28 What are you turning to if you turn away from Jesus?
55:32 Vomit, aimlessness, despair, depression,
55:37 the sitcoms have lied. The beer commercials have lied.
55:41 They do not portray reality.
55:43 If you turn from God, you don't just turn
55:45 from the patriarchal bearded figure in the sky,
55:48 you are turning from life,
55:50 meaningful, emotive, wonderful, glorious life.
55:57 The Bible says, in Him is life.
55:58 You turn from life and death automatically ensues.
56:02 What are you going to turn to?
56:06 Stay with Jesus.
56:09 Are there going to be difficult times? Perhaps.
56:12 Are there going to be questions you don't have the answers to?
56:14 Likely but stay with Jesus.
56:20 All the hypocrites in the church,
56:22 yes, but if you leave it only means that there's one less.
56:27 Are there inconsistencies in the church?
56:29 Yes, but beloved, your devotion is primarily to Jesus
56:33 and Jesus is the head of the church.
56:35 Let Jesus take care of the church
56:37 and you take care of you. Amen.
56:42 God wants to do great things through you, young person.
56:46 Do not limit God.
56:47 One of the first things I tell people
56:48 when they come to ARISE is,
56:50 the greatest single limitation of what God can do through you
56:55 is your own conceptions of what God can do through you.
56:59 God has huge plans for you, limited only by your belief
57:04 and your ability to embrace those great promises
57:06 that God has for you.
57:09 And so I plead with you on behalf of Christ
57:11 and frankly I suppose in a moment of vulnerability,
57:14 I am pleading for you on my own behalf
57:17 because I love to get to know you
57:19 and spend eternity with you.
57:20 So won't you choose Jesus?
57:25 Don't look back now.
57:28 This is no time to look back.
57:33 The finish line is just before us.
57:37 Jesus is soon to be here
57:40 and I want you and I want to be one of those
57:43 who will look up into heaven
57:45 and say, "Lord, this is my God.
57:52 I have waited for Him and He will save me." Amen.
57:59 Isn't that what you want? Amen.
58:04 As we close this week of spiritual emphasis this weekend,
58:11 we've already made the impassioned appeal,
58:13 we've been down that road.
58:17 This is an appeal from the very Lord
58:19 of your heart into your heart.
58:24 He says, "My son, give me your heart.
58:27 My daughter, give me your heart.
58:31 I love you, I made you, I own you, I want you.
58:35 I want to walk with you. I want to live with you."
58:42 He is the great desire of your heart,
58:45 don't turn from Him.
58:48 Embrace Him, receive Him,
58:52 believe on Him and live forever.
58:58 God is awesome, amen. Amen.
59:02 The spirit of God has touched your heart,
59:03 I want you to raise your hands
59:04 and say, Lord has touched my heart.
59:09 You want to turn back?
59:10 Anybody here who want to turn back?
59:15 Me neither.
59:19 Beloved, I commend you the Bible
59:20 and I commend you the God of the Bible.
59:22 He is real, He is alive, He is powerful, He is awesome,
59:28 get to know Him.
59:30 Not only does your salvation depend upon it
59:33 but a meaningful life in here and now utterly depends on it.
59:37 God has great plans for you.


Home

Revised 2014-12-17