[0:00] Welcome. Thank you for choosing to listen to another destiny-changing word by David Entry from one of our Revival Seeking Youth Services. If you want to control your world, catch the word. Be blessed.
[0:14] Every society, every group of people, every community have things they celebrate and things that are important to them.
[0:34] For instance, when you go to Mecca, you won't have the chance to celebrate Christmas. When you come to Germany, they are big on Christmas.
[0:50] In China, that's what they celebrate. Every community have what they celebrate, they value.
[1:01] They have values and then they have certain things that they celebrate every now and then. And it might not be something that they even do every day.
[1:16] There are things they do every day which is part of their life and it distinguishes them as a community from other communities. But also, they have things that they celebrate every now and then that makes them distinguish.
[1:30] Like United Kingdom, what makes us very different from many other nations is anything that has to do with a royal family. Their death, their ascension, their marriage.
[1:44] Those things are big national events. Right? Because America can't do that because they don't have a royal family. But the British institution is built.
[1:59] The royal family is so central to the British institution. So, every community has what they treasure. Now, when you, migration can have a way of diluting the values of a community.
[2:18] I believe that there's this big argument and contest or whether it's argument or disagreement about Nigeria and Ghanai's which people's jollof is better.
[2:35] Do you want me to tell you the truth? Do you want me to tell you the truth? Some people say no, that devil is a liar.
[2:48] The truth is depending on who raised you. Who raised you and what you are used to.
[3:03] When you are cooking jollof and now you have brought maybe someone who grew up in China and is good in Chinese food to your kitchen.
[3:17] You end up adding oyster sauce to your jollof.
[3:28] If you are good with Chinese food and you are cooking nice fried rice or Chinese dish, you bring someone from Nigeria, you add a gushi to the fried rice.
[3:48] So, what happens is that when people come in, what you do, they also begin to add what they think is good. That's the purpose of the teaching of Colossians.
[3:59] That keep everything out. Christ alone. Christ alone is enough. Don't come and say, Christ plus. Let's add this. Stay posted. Keep everything out. Christ is the preeminent one.
[4:14] Both among creatures and with the creator. He is a creator and he is above everything. And even if you talk about creatures, he is the preeminent one. And in Colossians 3, 11, I think so.
[4:27] He said, Christ is all and in all. Wow! But Christ is all and in all. We don't need any other thing. And chapter 2, it talks about, I think verse 10.
[4:40] It says, you are complete in Christ. What? Can you imagine? You are complete in him. You don't need something else. Once you have Christ, it's everything. The whole package.
[4:51] Wow! So, it's not Christ plus something. It's Christ alone. Now, if we are not careful, because the church is a combination of different, different, different, different people.
[5:08] From different backgrounds. You understand? Different backgrounds. Different cultures. Different races. Different nationalities. The church is so heterogeneous.
[5:23] Heterogeneous. It's heteros. So many different. But we are so one. So then if we don't keep Christ as the main thing, your culture and your values and your community of doing things will end up becoming the main thing.
[5:42] So every community have what is main. But since the church community is a community of a combination of everybody, if we don't keep what the Bible keeps as main, we'll end up doing it based on culture.
[5:58] We'll end up doing it based on tradition. And we'll end up doing it based on national philosophy. So the church has a lot and everything to protect.
[6:11] When people are coming in, you have to be filtered through what the Bible says. If you come to church and you don't believe in what the Bible says, you shouldn't be given a say.
[6:24] You can have a say, but unfortunately, many declining churches have people who have a say, but they don't care what the Bible says.
[6:35] Some of them sadly are bishops. Some of them are art bishops. But very useless in the hands of God. Very useful in the hands of the devil.
[6:46] Against the church. So the church, are you learning something at all? This is important. The church must have its fundamental values, which is nothing but everything.
[7:02] Not some of the things. Everything scripture says. Everything. Tota scriptura. Tota scriptura. Scriptura. Everything the Bible says is what we stand by.
[7:16] We don't leave one out. Everything the Bible says. If you can't go by everything the Bible says, oh, the Bible can't say everything. There are other things that are also true.
[7:27] You don't know God and it's likely Satan will use you. Because Satan even attempted to go to the scripture. But he added a little bit more.
[7:38] Pastor, so what is it? I have not started preaching. So, now, because we are from different backgrounds and all kinds of things, we have to keep the main thing, the main thing.
[7:53] The main thing is the Word of God. Which might be taught in the context of pure truth of God's Word. Not in the context of culture. Not in the context of opinions.
[8:05] Drop your opinions, we are not interested. Preacher, tell us what God's Word say. Don't celebrate a preacher who has a lot to say more than what the Word of God says.
[8:21] You only appreciate them when you can tell that this man is preaching and now does good preaching. Now, having said all that, I started by saying that every community, every society, every groupings have things they do, they celebrate.
[8:49] So, like I said, Christmas is more for the Western culture. And then the other nations that have embraced the Western culture.
[9:04] Christmas is not so much a thing of Christianity as it is a thing of Western culture. That's why in this country, people celebrate, there are people who celebrate Christians more than some Christians.
[9:20] They are not Christians. They don't believe in church. But Christmas is important to them. So, you can't tell me it's a Christian thing. If it's just purely Christian, then atheists will frown at completely.
[9:34] But it's not purely Christian, it's more tradition. It's become a tradition, it's become a culture in almost all of Europe. Now, some people who have risen up against God, it's so because almost all of Europe has been built on Christian principles.
[9:50] Right, but Christmas is not in the Bible. So, Pastor, do you celebrate Christians? What do I lose if I do? Am I not a Christian? And the world is dedicated a day, or our world is dedicated a day to celebrate the birth of my Savior.
[10:08] I shouldn't be happy for it. What do I lose if I accept Christmas? What do I lose? They are celebrating Christ. Some people know about this. This is not about Christ.
[10:20] It's not about Christ. But is it called Buddha Mass? It's Christmas. Some people are trying to change their will move their Christ and do it X-mas. But you can understand why.
[10:31] Because the whole thing is a culture. It's just not a Christian thing. And those who don't like the Christian thing feel like, What's this all Merry Christmas about? Happy Holidays. Because we want to stay away from the Christmas.
[10:42] But some people still don't know, let's maintain the Christmas because that's the original culture. It's nice. They don't have Christ on their mind. But Christmas. And they have to have the nativity. Have you seen a nativity without Mary and donkey?
[10:54] And baby Jesus and Joseph? Sometimes you see this whole sculptor, baby Jesus, and Mary and Joseph.
[11:06] That's all. Just the three of them. And sometimes they put a sheep in front of it. Yeah. And they have to put it. And then you see that when they do the nativity, someone is sitting on their donkey, pregnant.
[11:21] Every time Mary has to give birth. Every year. Mary is the only one who every year gives birth. And Jesus is the only one. So long as the Catholic Church and all these traditions go, Jesus is the only one who dies every year.
[11:34] And resurrects three days later. And then next year he will die again. And resurrects three days later. Every year. But these are traditions that there's nothing wrong if we embrace that we don't have to embrace anything at the expense of Scripture.
[11:52] We don't have to embrace anything at the expense of our commitment to Scripture. If it doesn't frown on our commitment to Scripture, no problem. If it endorses our commitment to Scripture, even the better.
[12:06] So there are things that every community celebrates. And the redeemed community, Jesus gave us some things. Two things that we should celebrate regularly.
[12:17] Number one is communion. Communion is... And all these two things point to his death.
[12:31] So the communion. Christians are meant to be having communion. Every now and then. Sometimes, in some churches they have it every week.
[12:44] In certain churches they do it every day. Pastor, what do you think? Other churches they do it monthly like Carys. And some churches don't do it regularly. But every now and then.
[12:56] The Bible never told us the regularity. He said, as often as you do it. So it must just be often. But as often as you do it, you must do it in remembrance of Christ.
[13:08] And in what way? Remembering the fact that he died. So that's what we do. So one of the things that's passed on to the Christian community, the redeemed community, which we celebrate, which we do.
[13:22] And we are doing it to remember his death, is communion. The other one is baptism. It's a Christian thing. We just...
[13:34] Communion is a Christian thing. Baptism is a Christian thing. It's just a Christian thing. It's not a societal thing. I didn't talk about... I didn't say Christian.
[13:46] Christian is traditional. Baptism is Christian. You can't make a child Christian. You can't make everybody...
[13:57] You can't make a person Christian. How can you make somebody? Other religions, you can't make them. You can't even force them. Force them. You are becoming this religion.
[14:08] You are practicing. Yes, Christianity, you can never force anybody. Because it's in their heart. It says that if you shall believe in your heart... Come on. Somebody says, I don't want to believe you. How can you force somebody to become a Christian?
[14:21] Other religions, you can't force people. Because it's just surface. And it's the devil who forces people to do things. God has never forced anybody to do something. Even Judas who betrayed Jesus, who was needed to betray Jesus, was never forced.
[14:36] So then, if God has removed himself from the picture, like God's influence was not in the picture at all, and God didn't even plan for Jesus to die, Judas would have still killed him. So, it wasn't like God made Judas do it.
[14:50] He did what he would have done anyway. But what he would have done anyway fulfilled the purpose of God. That is what, in theological terms, is called the providence of God.
[15:03] Providence means that you are doing whatever you do. You are killing this one. You are doing it. But it's fulfilling to the T. Everything God has planned.
[15:14] Yet, he doesn't. He never influenced anybody to do it. Never violated anybody to do it. He let people to do it. And they were like... Like how Joseph was sold. Joseph was sold into slavery.
[15:26] You remember? God didn't inspire them. They just did what they would have done. But what they were doing was fulfilling the plan of God.
[15:37] You see, providence is stronger than miracle. Providence is stronger than miracle. How they decided, they teamed up to kill Jesus.
[15:49] But when they were doing it, they were actually fulfilling God's plan, which he has planned before the world began. And yet, the beauty is, if God had not planned it, if God had not arranged it, these people, given the same conditions, they would have still done this thing.
[16:05] So God never influenced them. God never influenced Judas. Even though he said, somebody betrayed Jesus. And Judas was a necessary factor in our salvation, the journey to our salvation.
[16:19] So, you believe. You can't be a Christian without... You can't be a Christian without believing. And you can't believe without knowing. You must know something.
[16:32] So, knowing something means hearing something. You have to hear something to accept what you have heard. Then you believe what you have heard. That's why the gospel is meant to be preached.
[16:45] So, how shall they call on whom they have not believed? How shall they believe on whom they have not heard? You can't believe if they have not told you about what you are supposed to be believing.
[16:58] So, the gospel is meant to be heard. Then when you hear it, you believe it. Now, how on earth can a child who is an infant, who doesn't understand anything, he just like that, yeah, only sleeps, eat, cry, eat, sleep.
[17:19] That's their full-time job. How can an infant believe? You can't... The fact that your father is a bishop doesn't make you a Christian.
[17:30] You come to a time where you decide, this Jesus thing, I have committed my heart to it. So, in Romans chapter 10 verse 10, it says, With the heart, man believes unto righteousness.
[17:43] And with the mouth, confession is made. There are people who are confessing it, but they have not believed what they are confessing. They are saying it because Christians say it. And you happen to be around Christians.
[17:55] So, you are saying it. People are saying it, so you are also saying it. But Christianity starts from the heart. How about the heart? You believe it. You believe in Jesus.
[18:06] You believe in Jesus. He's your savior. He died to save you from your sins. I believe in it. That's all. You don't have to behave it first. You have to believe it first. It's not your behavior that saves you.
[18:17] It's your believing that saves you. Come on. It's your believing. It's your believing. This is a fundamental fact about Christianity. So, on this note, how can you force someone to be a Christian?
[18:30] You can't Christian a person. Anyway, you can by preaching to him. And if you believe, you have Christianed him. So, back to the point I'm making.
[18:42] Communion and baptism are two essential necessary aspects of what we do or the traditions or the practices we have in the Christian community.
[18:57] community. So every time people get, every time we are going to do communion, we have to take it better than we take Christmas. Handle communion with more seriousness than you handle Christmas.
[19:12] And every time we are about to get baptized or baptize people or celebrate people who have been baptized, we have to take it very serious. Because these are things that only the church can do.
[19:25] It's only the church. It doesn't matter where you come from, what religious background you have, wherever you come from, we can't change because baptism is of God. It's a sign that somebody has passed through the cross. You can't be baptized if you are not born again. So when you are born again, you are going to be baptized, which shows that you have died, you are dead and buried with Christ at the cross. And now it's a new person. You are a new man. You are, whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, I'm a new man.
[20:04] That's baptism. So if you have not been baptized since you became born again, you have to register quickly and get yourself baptized. Other than that, you are walking in disobedience. And I don't think disobedience brings the favor of God. One of my motivations is I don't want people to be ignorant in church. So that everything we do in church, if you are doing it, at least have a biblical understanding and biblical appreciation. That you understand it from the scriptures and you know it's reasonable from scripture to do what we do. It shouldn't be, oh, we do it in our church as we are doing it. No. It is good to have a biblical understanding. Is that okay? Praise the Lord.
[20:56] God bless you for listening to this powerful message. May the power of God be evident in your life. Don't forget to like and subscribe to Karis Church on YouTube and listen to more messages from David Entry on all relevant streaming platforms. You can also connect with David Entry and our youth ministry at Karis Face 2 on Instagram and TikTok and at Karis on Campus on Snapchat so you are always up to date. Be blessed.