[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Amen. Well, it is an honor and a privilege to be back at Vision, to be at home again, to be with you, and I'm excited.
[0:15] I always enjoy question and answer night, though sometimes I never know what the questions are going to be. Jerry L. said he put a question in, and he said he put a Q&A in, and I wanted to know if he gave me the answer or the question.
[0:29] So anyway, and I will not be able to see that one back there, so throw us a question up there. We'll start with some questions. You know, I don't know anything at all about Peyton Manning's forehead, so I don't even know what that means.
[0:46] And, yeah, I'm pulling for Peyton Manning. Next. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross and not another way?
[1:02] Well, let me think here. The one thing, let's start with some basics. We know he had to die shedding blood. We know he had to die shedding blood. We're coming through the Bible.
[1:12] As we're reading the Bible, we see all the lambs dying. We see all the sacrifice. And so we know that he had to, we know his blood had to be shed.
[1:25] So that rules out banging him in the head, strangling him or drowning him. We know in Isaiah chapter 53 that he would go through major suffering and things.
[1:37] We know in Psalms that his hands would be pierced. His heart would give forth water and blood. I cannot give an exact verse for it.
[1:48] If you talk to me privately, whoever asked the question, there are verses that go through and share prophetically what's going to happen. When you read it as you came through the first time, you can't understand the Bible without reading all the Bible.
[2:03] And so when you read the New Testament and you see something happen, you have to look back and say, let me see what happened in the Old Testament. Let me see where those verses come from. And so you read the whole story. So there are stories in the Psalms where he is going to suffer.
[2:16] He is going to die and things of that nature. And you don't know that it's talking about him until you get the New Testament and see that it's there. He was not a bone was broken. Not a bone was broken. That was a promise in the Old Testament in the book of Psalms.
[2:29] And so he had to because of things that were written in the Old Testament. That was what God wanted. Next question. What was the difference between the Old Testament or the New Testament?
[2:43] Not much. I'd say that's about the same thing. I'm not sure. Often what we call carnal Christians and lukewarm Christians, can I just say often what we call them, are lost people.
[2:58] We call them carnal. We call them lukewarm. But they don't want Jesus to rule in their life and they don't want to serve God. And so I do believe there is place for carnal Christians.
[3:11] But did you know that the carnal Christians in 1 Corinthians where that's talked about, they were in church. They weren't people that weren't going to church. When he writes that to them, he says, I speak to you as carnal.
[3:23] I speak to you as babes in Christ. And when he said that, he said that to people who would be sitting there listening. If I said right now, you know, when I, as a young preacher, I often wonder when people didn't show up.
[3:33] When I had a low attendance, I preach about people ought to attend church. And the people sitting there were like, we are. And I'm like, yeah, I know, but I'm talking to them ain't here. And it's like, well, that don't make a lot of sense.
[3:44] You've got to be dumb and young like you to figure out that, you know, so preachers like to preach. So Paul was talking to carnal Christians. Jesus said lukewarm. That's the place I can think of where it's found in Revelation chapter 3, somewhere before verse 20.
[3:59] He talks about lukewarm. But in that place, he's really not talking about Christians. He's talking about people. He'd rather you be hot or you be cold. So I'm not really certain that there's an actual scripture reference on that one.
[4:11] But there you go. I think they're the same thing. Next one. I know they've got a bunch of questions tonight. There you go. Man, somebody quick on there. What are your thoughts on the earth for you about the nation of the earth for you?
[4:27] I don't think it matters what I think. How are you all going to like this one? And I know John Piper and Tim Keller and other big name people believe in an old earth theory and they're popular and they're famous.
[4:45] And I'm a moron. So when I read day, I figure it means day. And I know that there are times in the Bible where a day can mean a thousand years.
[4:57] But I've never seen an evening and a morning and that be the first day mean an evening and a morning and that be the first thousand years. So you want to know what I think. I'm going to tell you that I don't think it really matters what I think.
[5:09] The Bible says that he created the earth in six days. And I know that you've heard. So I don't know who asked the question. So I have to, in my mind, I have to run around the room and say, who could be asking that question?
[5:21] And you've heard that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are two different creation stories. That's bogus. That is not true. Genesis 1, he gives you an outline and tells you what he did.
[5:32] In Genesis 2, he just explains it in more detail. That's all he does. It's the same story. Some of them told you, Tim Keller, some of those guys, some of the famous people have let you have the idea that because it's told in two different ways and the type of literature it is, it's not important that God did it in six days and rested on the seventh day.
[5:56] But if that's not important, Jesus seemed to think the creation was real. And John seemed to think the creation was real. And the apostles seemed to think the creation was real. If you take the creation out, you destroy.
[6:08] If you pull the creation thread out of Genesis 1 and 2 and change it into an allegory or symbolism or a theistic evolution, you literally destroy the whole Bible.
[6:24] Jesus created the earth. Let me tell you how long it took him. Six days. You know what he did on the seventh day? He rested. You say, well, you're not a smart guy. You don't have a television program. And you don't write a lot of books.
[6:35] I know. I'm just a moron. I just read day and figure day means day. Next question. I'm really simple-minded. I am. There's a lot of people that are real smart and they've got the whole Bible figured out.
[6:48] And then when you read it, you couldn't figure it out unless they told you. That's a Da Vinci code in there. So I just don't think there's a Da Vinci code here. I just think it's Bible. What it says is what it says. And I'll just rest on that one.
[6:59] Next question. Man, we are getting questions tonight.
[7:14] All right. But I would say to you that when you are witnessing to people, you don't necessarily need to say those words. I don't know that you ought to say to them you don't have to do anything.
[7:25] I think what you ought to say to them is you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're right. You don't have to do anything. What you mean by that is they don't have to be baptized. They don't have to speak in tongues. They don't have to quit eating pork.
[7:37] They don't have to jump a school bus. That's what you mean by that. And you are so right about that. But what I would do, I would say it as close to Bible terms as I could. And in the Bible, there are two things that I think are pretty clear for all of us that are involved in salvation.
[7:53] Number one is a repentance. It's realizing I have sinned against the Holy God. It's realizing I deserve to go to hell. It's realizing that there is nothing in me that would ever make God ever accept me or save me.
[8:05] And I turn from myself and what I am or was and what I believe, and I believe Jesus. Before I get saved, I believe Austin. After I get saved, I believe Jesus. And so I would word that.
[8:17] And there aren't any works. All we're doing is trusting Him. All we're doing is receiving a gift. That's all we're doing. And you're right. What you're saying is right. It's just like this. I hate it when I hear people say, once saved, always saved.
[8:30] And you say, well, you don't believe that? Well, I do believe that. But it just depends on which way you mean by that. Because a lot of people, when they say once saved, always saved, they mean he prayed when he was four. And he's lived like a stinking devil for the last 80 years.
[8:41] And he saved. No, he ain't. Something wasn't right at four. Something wasn't right at four. And so once saved, always saved could be twisted. So when you say you don't have to do anything, a person can't get saved that says this.
[8:55] I don't care what God thinks. I don't care what the Bible says about me. But I'll believe and pray that prayer if you want me to pray that prayer. They're not getting saved. Getting saved is I turn from me to Him.
[9:07] I trust Him. And there's no works there involved. Next one. You know, I actually used all of that this morning in Vision Baptist of Cobb County.
[9:40] No, the Bible never says Matthew was written to say this. But when you read it, it's obvious. As you read the book of Matthew, you see a genealogy that's leading to show His royalty.
[9:51] As you go through the book, you see what's happening. So that's not biblical where you can say, does the Bible say this in a verse? But it's clear as you read it and you study it.
[10:03] Let's look at John, which is where I happen to be preaching this morning in Cobb County. In John, it starts off and says, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I mean, that was pretty obvious that he was saying, in the question he was saying, in John, does it talk about Him being God?
[10:19] Yeah, it does. And Luke, and by the way, go look in Matthew about the King of the Jews. And Luke, you're going to see His birth, and you're going to see all the human side of Him.
[10:33] And Mark, you're going to see the servant side of Him. So it's something you see. It's just like this. You do know. Nobody should shock you when they say to you, the word rapture is not in the Bible. It's not. The word trinity is not in the Bible.
[10:45] So those are just ways that we understand and remember. By the way, 1 Corinthians 13 is never called the love chapter. We call it the love chapter. The Bible doesn't call it the love chapter. But it is the love chapter because it's about love.
[10:56] And so if you want to call it the charity chapter, that's okay with me. You can call it whatever you want to call it, but it's about love. And Hebrews 11 is about faith. And so somebody says, well, where's the faith chapter in the Bible?
[11:06] Well, they're all faith chapters. But there's one that sure talks a lot about faith. So it's not about is that specifically taught. That's not the way it is.
[11:17] Next question. What would you do if you want to call it the church? That's my favorite question.
[11:31] I like that one. You got to shoot a paper because I can be practical. I know that soon I won't be a pastor. By soon, I mean, I don't know, 10 years.
[11:41] I don't know when I will not physically be of use to you. And when you will say to me indirectly, hey, Austin, don't you think it's time to step down and let the younger guys take over?
[11:55] So let me just say this. I believe with all my heart, if I were not a pastor and I were a member of Vision, and I don't have anything written down, they did let me know you were going to ask that question.
[12:06] So just let me start. Number one, I'd be as faithful to church as I possibly could. It'd be like this is my home. This is where the team gets together. This is where the prayer happens. This is where the Bible study happens. And I would be at church.
[12:17] Number two, I would be a big giver. By big, I don't mean it's not a financial amount. It's a percentage. It is I will give as well as I can, as much as I can. It's not about do you give $1,000 a week or do you give?
[12:31] But it's more like I give 10 percent. I give 20 percent. I would become a giver. I would be a giver. I would give of. And by the way, when I was in Africa and I was told they couldn't afford to give, I said, I don't believe that.
[12:43] I didn't tell anybody over there that, but I'll just tell you this. I told the people talking to me. I said, I don't believe that. If you got 10 eggs, you can give an egg. You got 10 chickens, you can give a chicken.
[12:54] If your pig has 10 pigs, I know Jews didn't use pigs, but if your pigs have 10 pigs, you can give a pig to Jesus. Not a problem. So I would be a giver.
[13:06] I would be a giver. I would be a prayer. I would be in touch with the missionaries. I talked to Tyler Masters this morning. They've been having services several weeks now. There's only one Tunisian coming to the services, but they're excited and God's doing a work there.
[13:21] And he's preaching in Arabic in a different dialect. The guy learned Spanish. Then he learned Moroccan Arabic. Now he's learned Tunisian Arabic. They're so different.
[13:32] It's hard to even understand from one to the other. And he's done that. And God's used him. I'd be in touch with him just like that. So I would attend church. I would give. I would pray. I would be involved in trying to lead somebody to Christ.
[13:44] I would be involved in trying to lead somebody to Christ. I would be involved in discipling people. I would, I mean, all my life, church has been the center of my life. All my life.
[13:54] It's been the center of my life. When I was a kid, it was the center of our lives. Our world revolved around our church. It's a subculture. In Peru, we had a subculture.
[14:05] I mean, the Christians, man, of course, sit down there. They don't have anything else. And so they were at church a whole lot. So if I were not a pastor, man, I would be the right hand of the pastor.
[14:15] When Chris turned 18, he was very rebellious. And pastors' kids, missionary kids, under a lot of pressure to do what their daddy does.
[14:28] Everybody thinks because daddy's a preacher and son should be a preacher. And a lot of times preacher's kids rebel very harshly against all the expectations that are placed on them. And one night, we were having this massive fight.
[14:41] I know that never happens in anybody else's home. But if you ever raise an 18-year-old with a hard head like Austin, because he was my son, there are massive fights sometimes. So we were having this massive fight.
[14:52] And he said, you want me to be a preacher? You want me to be a missionary? You want me to serve God all the time? I said, part of that's right, I do. I don't care about you being a missionary.
[15:03] I don't care about you being a preacher. I don't care about you being a pastor. Does that serve God part? Yep, I do. I said, so here's what I said. I said, I will hire a doctor. I said, I'll pay him to let you work in his office and learn and go watch surgeries.
[15:17] Because I was in Peru and I had financial abilities and I had friends. I said, I'll pay Hugo Benevente to let you be in there. I will pay a dentist. We had a dentist friend. I will pay a lawyer.
[15:28] I got a lawyer. I can pay you to work in his office, be his assistant and learn any career you want. I'll help you do it. But here's what I ask. Number one, you don't ever miss church. Church ought to be first.
[15:39] Let's just say, let's say it be. I mean, Sergei just preached a good message. That's a reasonable sacrifice. Jesus died for me. I'll go to church. That's not too hard. And so I said, number one, I want you to go to church. Number two, I want you to be the best giver in the church.
[15:51] The best giver in the church. I don't, that's not about how much money. It's about how much heart and what percentage. And I said, I want you to be the best giver in the church. I want you to be your pastor's right hand. I want you to go visiting.
[16:02] I want you to study your Bible, read your Bible every day. I want you to, I want you to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as you can. I want you to disciple everybody. He looked at me and said, I'm going to do all that. I might as well be a preacher. And he's a preacher.
[16:15] But so I think if I were you, I meant I would get in. Several of you are kind of on the edge. I mean, you're like, yeah, we like vision and we're with it, but you don't really push in.
[16:29] I'd push. I'd push. I would push. When Betty and I got married, I just wanted to be in the ministry. At that time, I didn't know I would preach.
[16:42] I was in school. I was in pre-med. And I was going to be a medical missionary. And I was going to be a doctor. I was going to be a surgeon. I was going to go to the mission field as a surgeon at the Southern Baptist Convention.
[16:53] And I went to my first, our first, our pastor. First time we had a pastor. We got married and our pastor's name was Billy Kitchens. And he married us. And I went to Brother Kitchens.
[17:05] And I said, Brother Kitchens, I want something to do here in the church. There were 600 students in the college. And not a lot of them went to church. But some of them did. And I didn't go to church where everybody else went because I wanted to go to the church where not all the students went.
[17:18] So they'd let me. They wouldn't see me as a student. They'd see me as a person and let me do stuff in the church. And I went to him and I said to Brother Kitchens, I want a job. And I said, I don't care what it is. I said, I want to teach a Sunday school class.
[17:30] I want to sweep the hallway. I want to go visit with you. I want to do something. And every week he'd put me off. And every week he said, I'll get to it. I'll say I'm going to get you a job. And finally after weeks, I was angry.
[17:43] I was angry. And I had fully planned to say to him, I'm leaving. And I walked in. And to tell him I was leaving, I was going to go to church and let me do something. And he reached in his pocket, pulled out a card, a business card.
[17:55] He said, I ain't never seen anybody who wants to do so much as you. So this pastor is going to hire you to be on his staff. And that's what I've been working on. And I was like, thank you. And I left there.
[18:07] And I went to a church. And I became the youth minister of the church, youth director. Now, you've got to understand that this is a country church. They didn't know what they were doing. So I walked into the church.
[18:17] And Willard Willis was his name. He's in heaven now. And Brother Willis was a country preacher, never finished high school, never finished high school. He used to say, if you could be baptized in every river till every toad frog knows you by name.
[18:29] That's where I got that. Oh, Brother Willard. And he used to say, 50 drops of water will keep, five drops of water will keep 50 bad inside a church. Stuff like that. And I heard all that stuff from Brother Willard.
[18:41] So I go to him. I'm hired now. The church is going to pay me, I can't remember the first two months, they paid me $20 a week. Then they upped it to $40 a week the next year, I think, because I got hired in October.
[18:53] And so in October, November, December, I think I may have made $20 or $25. The next year, minimum wage was $65. He told me, he said, we will pay you well. So I assumed minimum wage.
[19:05] I assumed. Well, you don't assume when you're dealing with church people. When you're dealing with church people, that means we're going to rip you off. So I worked the whole year at $40, and I worked the next year at $60.
[19:18] And minimum wage is still going up. And I'm slowly going up. And I got up to like $75, and minimum wage had gone a little bit higher then. By then, I don't know what it was. And another church called me.
[19:28] But I go into Brother Willard's office, and I said, what do I do at church? He said, I don't know. I ain't never had a youth director. I said, well, do I teach a Sunday school class? He said, no, I don't think so. He said, all of them got teachers.
[19:42] I said, well, do I have a training unit class? He said, no, they all got teachers. I said, well, what am I supposed to do? He said, you're supposed to be the youth director. I said, well, what youth do I direct?
[19:52] He said, I don't know. He said, Brother Kitchens told me I need a youth director. He said, look, I'll preach. You figure out what you're supposed to do. I said, okay. So I went into the Sunday school class, and nobody ever came to that class.
[20:06] I mean, the Sunday school teacher was killing it. The last name was Barker. I went into that class, and so I said, can I make a suggestion? Can we plan some activities to get some young couples to come to church? Betty and I were 19.
[20:17] And she said, it was a lady teacher. Her husband was in there, but he didn't wear the pants. But anyway, she said, everybody knows we're here. Signs out. We've had it out for years.
[20:28] Says, welcome. Come all. We tell everybody to come. They don't let anybody come. And I said, would there be any way I could just, maybe you could let me teach the class for one month. At the end of the month, we run about 35 in the class, and she never asked for it back, and I never offered.
[20:42] I just kept the church, that class, for two and a half years. I went to training union, and it wasn't long before I was in charge of the training union class. I went to Monday night youth, they had a youth prayer meeting on Monday night. I went in, and it was two girls.
[20:54] And I said, this is a youth prayer meeting. And they said, yep. I said, okay. I'm a youth director, so I'll be in charge. And they looked at me and said, okay. Pastor's daughter was in there, and it wasn't long until we were running about 100 in that little group in that first church.
[21:06] And people were coming out. We divided it up. I had an assistant youth director. He didn't get paid. On Wednesday night, I asked him, I said, anyway, I could take some people out. So I was preaching four times a week. I wanted it.
[21:17] You want it, you'll get it. So what are the steps? You want to complete the vision. You've got to get back and say, all right, Austin's kind of laid out some groundwork of what we ought to be doing as we work towards getting it. We ought to be discipling.
[21:28] Then you should get involved in discipling. You say, well, I'm a little uncomfortable discipling people. Get over it. I'm a little uncomfortable about everything I do. Honestly, I'm a little uncomfortable about everything I do.
[21:41] So get over it. Say, I'm going to go disciple somebody. You say, I don't have time. Make time. Make time. It's amazing when we have something we want to do, we find time.
[21:52] You know, I have a hobby, an expensive hobby. And so I'm not knocking hobbies, but can you get up when you're going to go deer hunting? Yeah, you can.
[22:03] Can you drive a long ways when you're going to play golf? Yeah, you can. Can you do whatever it takes to go fishing? Yeah, you can. Whatever it is we want to do, we find a way to get it done. Tell the truth. And the reason we don't find time to get it done is it's not important to us.
[22:17] And when it becomes important, we'll do it. So if I were a member of this church, they would think I was on staff. They would think I was on staff. They would say, man, that guy's always around.
[22:30] He's always leading stuff. He's always doing stuff. He's like one of the leaders at that church, and that's who I'd be. But the major things. Disciple somebody. We don't teach the next generation.
[22:46] We don't teach the next generation. We're impatient with them. You know, look, my house is only as loud as I want it to be. I've got a mute button if I want to turn the TV on mute.
[22:59] I don't have one on Betty. But I can get up and go to the other room. Amen? We don't have any. When the grandkids come, and they all move in. When Stephanie comes with her kids, about two hours in, I mean, I'm exhausted.
[23:11] I mean, noise, the noise level when she brings eight kids into my house. I mean, you could be sitting in the living room, and literally they're fighting. They're jumping on top of each other.
[23:22] I think they're going to break everything in the house, and all I can think is, I'm about to punch one of them myself sometimes. I love my grandkids, but you get the idea. We're old. But you know what? If you don't share it with the next generation, we've got to share this with the next generation.
[23:36] There are some good, godly men in this room. And honestly, you are, there's not many people like you in the world. You're great. But if you don't teach other men to be like you, the next generation won't be like you.
[23:49] And we can look around, and if we're honest, in 2014, and we look at the young people in 2014, we don't see. You know, what newscaster wrote, the greatest generation?
[24:02] It was before my time. I mean, the greatest have already lived. The rest of us are not going to ever accomplish anything. But we won't unless we change that. And so I really think older men ought to be teaching younger men.
[24:13] Older ladies ought to be teaching younger ladies. I think everything that you could possibly complain about in this church, you could solve a lot of that if you just teach somebody else. First off, they'd teach you.
[24:24] They'd show you some of those things where you're wrong. Young people keep me young. They keep me thinking about stuff that I wouldn't normally think about. So get in the church. Get all the way in.
[24:34] Let it become your life. Let's build a church for His honor and His glory. I said this to the men, and I mean it, and I'll go to the next question. But I said this to the men. You know, the church is in Austin. I mean, I have a limited lifespan.
[24:47] I have been in several churches in my time. The church is how strong you men are. And it's how strong the men are that train the new men that come into our church. And the ladies and how you train the ladies.
[24:59] So that's what I'd say. Next question. Okay. I think it meant God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
[25:12] But let me tell you the story. Let's back up and get the real picture of human history and everything that goes on.
[25:24] You do know that there's a line that goes out that way. You remember in school when you had the infinite line? You drew a line that had arrows on both sides. And that meant it never ended that way, and it never ended that way.
[25:37] And a segment was a finite line that had a dot on this end and a dot on that end. And everything happened in those two places. Well, let me explain to you real quickly that God existed ten gazillion to gazillion years ago.
[25:50] This kid that goes to our church down there, he's probably, I don't know, mid-twenties. I'm not sure how old he is. He came up to me this morning after church. He goes, Pastor God, are you telling me God didn't have no beginning?
[26:06] I said, no. He said, we got a beginning. He ain't got no beginning. I said, he ain't got no beginning. He said, man, that's awesome. He said, that's awesome. I said, he ain't got no beginning.
[26:18] He goes, so he's God. Like, his kid's got it. So watch. You've got to consider there's a 7,000-year period, basically, is all the whole Bible's about and all the human history's about.
[26:32] Less than 10,000 years. 7,000 years. And so starting at this point right here where we'd say creation happened, 10 bazillion years past that, God was already here. He looked at me and said, so he didn't have no beginning.
[26:45] I said, no. He said, so it's just him and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I said, yeah. He said, what was they doing? I said, I don't know. He said, he just kept believing. He said, man, that's awesome. That's awesome.
[26:57] And then 7,000 years later, it's over. Do you realize that we're a bump in the road of eternity? I mean, we take up this little bitty speck. So whenever you read in the Bible and it's like God knew what was going to happen tomorrow, God says, there's a tomorrow?
[27:12] This is what God says. Tomorrow, there's no tomorrows. God says, my name's I am. He told the Jews, he said, before Abraham was, I am.
[27:25] Now, that's a poor use of English. Or, he ain't got no past. That's good English right there. And he ain't got no future. He just is.
[27:36] And so, you know, all the way back 10 billion years ago, if you just said, God, he said, I am. 10 billion years in the future, he'd say, I am. So everything that happens on the planet, it's like he sees it like it was yesterday, because there's no yesterday.
[27:51] I mean, there's no time. God's like way up here, and we're this little blimp in the road. So, but in the Bible story, because I know where you may be going, I will show you, if you go read it, God knows what Pharaoh's going to do.
[28:05] He knows everything you're going to do. There's not a thing about you or your future that God doesn't already know every bit of it. Fact is, he knows how many hairs you have on your head.
[28:15] And he knows when a bird falls. You say, how do you know that? It says it in Matthew chapter 6. Pharaoh hardens his heart when you read the story. As they write it down for us to see it, Pharaoh hardens his heart.
[28:27] But God already knew he was going to harden his heart. Pharaoh hardens his heart. And there's a couple of times when Pharaoh hardens his heart, and the rest of the time, God says, all right, that's why I brought you here. I'm fixing to use you to magnify myself. But you need to understand that you are responsible to make your own decisions.
[28:42] God is not the author of evil. He is not the author of sin. He never sins. He never does wrong. And just so you know where I stand, I don't believe there's one person, and I don't believe that, I don't believe, I do believe there are people in hell that Jesus died for.
[28:58] A strong Calvinist would say to you, no, there's nobody in hell that Jesus died for. So I'm not one of them at all. I believe people go to hell that could have gotten saved. They refused. They rejected Jesus. Pharaoh could have gotten saved.
[29:09] Pharaoh rejected Jesus. He said, well, God said he hardened his heart. You keep doing wrong, he hardened yours. God's in charge. He's in charge. You do wrong, and you can get to a point where God said, that's it, I'm not working with him anymore.
[29:23] And the only reason you and I do rights is working us. That makes us strong. So don't get scared when you see that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And think to yourself, well, God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and so Pharaoh never had a chance.
[29:36] When Moses goes in there the first time to talk to him, you remember what he said? They said, there's a couple of guys out here who want to see you. And he says, I'd like to take our people and go three days out in the wilderness to worship our God.
[29:47] And Pharaoh's response was, I don't know him. Pharaoh thought he was God, didn't expect him to be God. I preached about that to you not long ago. And so Pharaoh rejected and God hardened.
[29:59] And if you continue to reject God, oh, let me tell you this. You can start on a divergent path. You can get off God's will, and you can mess up bad enough that you won't be turning around.
[30:09] I mean, you can get to a place where you're not going to change and turn around. So God didn't harden his heart like in the sense of, well, God just made Pharaoh so he could burn him.
[30:19] That's not the teaching of the Bible. Our God is a God of mercy and love. A good, strong Bible teacher of that is Nineveh. Jonah said, a lot of people miss the real story of Jonah.
[30:31] The real story of Jonah isn't the whale. It's really not even important to the story. The real story of Nineveh isn't that even Jonah's rebellion. It's not the real important part of the story.
[30:43] The real important part of the story happens in about Jonah chapter 4 and verse 2. And Jonah is over there, and he's mad. He is mad at God. And he says, was this not what I said to you while I was still in my homeland?
[30:58] I knew you was too good and too nice and too merciful, and you'd forgive them. And that's why I didn't want to preach this in the beginning. You told me to come over here and tell them it's all going to go to hell. It's all going to get destroyed.
[31:09] I'd have been happy with that. But I knew who was sending me. I know how you are. They'll repent. You'll forgive them. I knew that. I knew that when I came over here. And God said, what in the world are you doing to get us aggravated?
[31:20] You got aggravated over a gourd, remember? Here's the story. You God's a great, wonderful, merciful, loving, kind, generous God who is so long-suffering in mercy you can't understand it. So whenever somebody paints a different picture, they haven't read the whole Bible yet.
[31:33] Next one. Okay. You say the same, 3rd John 3, 8 in the morning. Let's say, he that committed sin to the devil, and the devil sent him to the devil. For this purpose, the son of God of the man, that he cannot destroy the works of the devil.
[31:48] Whosoever is born of God, does not commit sin, for which he remains in him. And he cannot sin, because he is done with heaven. Okay. Open your Bibles. Let's look at that. That's a good verse.
[31:59] If in the margin of your Bible you ought to write the word practices. He that practices sin. The guy that has the habit of committing sin. That's what's going on here. He that has the habit of committing sin is of the devil.
[32:12] Now, and I'm going to show you how we can know that. Go with me to 1 John 2 and verse 1. 1 John 2 and verse 1, if you would.
[32:22] Let's see what it says. 1 John 2 and verse 1. Look what God, it's all in the same book. There's no thought in the Bible that you won't sin.
[32:37] So when it says in 1 John 3, 8 and 9, he that committed sin, it's not like you did one sin and that's it. You committed one, you told one line, you're going to hell, you're of the devil.
[32:48] It's talking about a lifestyle and a practice. Because look what he told us in 1 John 2, 1. My little children, these things write unto you that you sin. I don't want you to sin. You ought not sin.
[33:00] Sin is not who we are. That's not who we are. But if any of you sin, if any man sin, we have an advocate, a lawyer with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
[33:15] And so here's the beautiful truth. The beautiful truth is if you have the habit and lifestyle of sin and you continue living in sin, you are not saved if you get away with it.
[33:28] Hebrews chapter 12, verse 8 says, Everybody who is a child of God, a true child of God, will receive discipline, chastisement. And if you don't receive it, then you're an illegitimate child.
[33:41] You're not born of the Father because he disciplines all of his. And you shouldn't go around judging other people. You just need to be judging yourself. If you're a born-again Christian, if you're a born-again Christian, as you sin and you do wrong, God will deal with you and you'll know it.
[33:56] And he'll call your attention. He'll spank you. Any word you want to use for it, he will call your attention. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, they were weak, sick, and dead because they took the Lord's Supper without paying attention to it.
[34:09] And God made them weak. God made them sick. God made them sleep, is what the King James Bible says, or be dead. God actually killed them. And so when we live in sin, God deals with us.
[34:21] If you belong to the Father, you get spanked. So if you have a lifestyle of doing wrong, you're not saved. But that doesn't mean you'll never do wrong, or you wouldn't have put in the very same book, 1 John chapter 2 verse 1, which said, chapter 2 verse 1 said, I write these things to you that you sin not.
[34:45] But if you do sin, I got you a lawyer. And it's Jesus. Now go with me to 1 John 3. 3. We're not all we ought to be yet.
[34:57] Okay, excuse me. Go to... Let's just start in 1 so I don't miss it. We'll read down to verse 3. Says, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.
[35:12] Can you believe... This is what it says in Hillbilly. Can you believe it? God loves us. Can you imagine it? That the great God of heaven loves us, and He calls us His sons. That's why the world doesn't know us, because it knew Him not.
[35:25] Verse... Oh man, y'all are flipping verses on me, and you're messing me up. All right. Hold on. Stay on 1. Go back to 1. Go back to 1. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God, for therefore the world knows us not.
[35:39] Verse 2. Beloved, how are... Now are we the sons of God? And it does not yet appear what we shall be. We're not what we're going to be. None of us have arrived.
[35:50] We're all still growing. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. And then the very next verse says a very unusual thing.
[36:03] If it wasn't possible that you still had some bad attitudes, and you were rude to your husband or wife today, or you cut somebody off in traffic. Look at what it says in verse 3. Every man who knows He's the Son of God, hath this hope in Him.
[36:17] He purifies Himself. You know what we do? We're working at getting pure. We're working at being... We want to please the Father. So we're confessing our sin. We're cleaning up our life.
[36:28] We're learning Scripture. We're changing our thought life. Because we want to please Him. It's not our habit. All liars go to hell, but we're not liars. That doesn't mean we wouldn't ever tell a lie.
[36:39] But it's not our habit to tell lies. If you have a... If sin is your lifestyle, it's a good, good indicator that you are not a born-again believer.
[36:51] Now, I need to say one more thing before I leave that verse. That doesn't mean that you couldn't go out and have a period of sin and be an idiot. If you might go out and have a period of sin and be an idiot, but God will deal with you and bring you back if you're one of His.
[37:04] And if He doesn't, bring you back or take you out, there's a good chance you're not saved. But if you're sitting here tonight and you want to be in the house of God, I'd say there's a good chance that you are saved.
[37:15] Next one, sir. This, uh... How you read like I do there, Andrew? Hey, everybody's watching you, buddy.
[37:29] I appreciate you. I appreciate you guys back there and all the work you do. Uh, um, it was, it was a, it was a good morning. We had Sunday school. John Voris taught. Um, Peter came, uh, who's a young man with a son who's not married.
[37:44] Uh, but he came today and he's been coming. He was here at the men's meeting. Some of you would have met him the other night at the men's meeting. And an older gentleman, probably 80 to 85 years old came, used to go to the church that was in the building, had been there 20 years and that's all that was unusual.
[37:58] Uh, every service that we have down there, Bo preaches 10 minutes if I'm there. And then I preach, uh, later. So we start the service off like we do here. We have two songs and word of prayer, shake hands. And then Bo comes and Bo preaches 10 minutes because I want Bo to be the pastor.
[38:12] Uh, and I want the people down there to love him and respect him. And so I don't intend to stay there. I want to get here and actually go start another one somewhere else as soon as possible. And so Bo preaches for 10 minutes. Then we have a young man, uh, who comes up and, uh, Cannon has been doing a offering devotional.
[38:27] He does that. And then I come up and I, and then I come up and I preach, uh, I preach the rest of the service. It went great. Uh, but the only people that were there were the regular ones. But today, how many did we have this morning here?
[38:38] Chuck again? One 69. There were 20, at least 25 down there. And they all would have been here except for Peter and his son and the old man. There's three that wouldn't have been there.
[38:49] And, uh, so, uh, I think it's going good. We're asking God for 75. Our celebration Sunday is on like March the 16th, I believe it is. And we're having their celebration on March the 23rd, which is going to be the big launching day, the big opening day.
[39:03] I want to pack the parking lot. I want to get us, I want people from here to go if they would. That's going to be our big day as we launch the church. And, uh, Matt Smith is doing a great job leading singing. Bo is doing a great job.
[39:16] John and Sam are fantastic. Cole and Victoria. Uh, everybody's doing, we got a, we got a, uh, uh, uh, we have a Filipino down there. I just love that. God gives us Filipinos everywhere we go.
[39:26] We have a guy named Josh who's married to Jonah and Jonah's a, uh, she is a Filipino lady and she loves Jesus. I think her family is some, I think her family were, um, maybe not missionary, but in the ministry or something in the Philippines and she loves Jesus and they're, they were there this morning and they didn't come for Sunday school.
[39:44] That's pretty much how it went. It was a great day, but we didn't have any visitors yet. We've got one or two more questions, maybe Max. Jerry, where's the answer, buddy?
[39:57] Okay. Uh, you're not going to like my answer on this one and this from Jerry, but I think it'll do all of you good to hear this one. You know, you know, if I were y'all, I wouldn't get into arguments about whether or not the Bible was true.
[40:11] It's just not an argument I ever get into. It's never a discussion, never a thought. The Bible has so much self-evidence that it's the Word of God. And as a Christian, you know, people ask me a lot of times, tell me how to convince a person that the Bible's the Word of God.
[40:29] I don't ever try to do that. I just say, stab them with it. If you stab them with it and God convicts them, they'll get saved and then they'll believe the Bible. But for me, just some wild things that are my favorite one I would tell a Peruvian.
[40:43] There's just some really wild things in the Bible that are just so funny when you consider the world we live in. They were told when they marched in the wilderness under Moses, they were told to carry a shovel with them all the time.
[40:59] So when they had to go to the bathroom, they would dig a hole. He said, you dig a hole, you do your business and you cover it up. That's in your Bible. I don't think it's called a shovel in the King James Bible.
[41:11] I think it's called a paddle. But just go look at it. It's a shovel. There comes Lamar. Walk along. Clap, clap, clap. What's that? That's his shovel. He does when he does his business. That's what he does.
[41:22] That's what that is. And God said, I walk around in your camp and I don't want to get my feet dirty. Now, you know, New York City was dying and London was dying because they didn't know what to do with all the mess.
[41:34] But Moses knew what to do with all the mess. That's pretty astonishing. How did a guy walking around in a skirt and leather shoes know about that stuff and it took 4,000 years for scientists to figure it out?
[41:45] Somebody told him. God. That's pretty good stuff. How about this one? It was the 1800s before they figured out that meat didn't breed flies. And they were told, they told him, I can't remember the scientist's name, but he, Lemsky maybe was the name.
[42:01] That's the name that pops in my head. He put a cloth over the top of this dish that had meat in it and they found the, they found the maggots growing on top of it but not in the thing. And so the meat, it wasn't coming out of the meat.
[42:14] It was flies coming by and depositing it. Guess what Moses told them? He said, you cover every dish you got. You put a cloth over it if you got food in it.
[42:26] Now, nobody knew that in Europe. All them, all them rich, white people, supposed to be so smart, they're dumb as rocks. And brown people down there and Jewish people, they knew that. You know how they knew that?
[42:37] God told them. How about this one? One more, that's it. There's tons of paths in the sea, paths in the air. Did you know, did you know the jet stream? The Bible already knew about that. Nobody, nobody knew about that. We didn't even know about airplanes in the 1900s.
[42:50] But God already knew about the jet stream. So the book, it's beautiful. But, they washed their hands. If they touched a dead body, they were to touch nothing else.
[43:00] Wash your hands and stay out. You're unclean. You know, they figured that out, didn't they? Scientists did. Like in the last hundred years. And God knew about it and told Moses.
[43:11] Here's Moses and Aaron wandering in the wilderness. They don't have a, they don't have indoor toilet. They don't have air conditioning. They don't have, they don't have airplanes. But you know what they got?
[43:22] They got a God that told them scientific facts hundreds, hundreds, hundreds of years before people would figure it out. It's a great book. But let me say this. You don't need to defend it.
[43:33] You don't need to defend the Bible. You just preach it. I went down to Peru and people said, how are you going to convince the Peruvians the Bible is the Word of God? I'm just going to preach it. And I did and they got saved. And you know what?
[43:44] You go to, when they go to China, they don't have classes on before we explain what the Bible says, we're going to show you that it's the Word of God. They just stand up and say, the Bible says you sinned. And people go, well, that's trite.
[43:56] Because people know. So you don't have to defend it. Is that it? Because it's five after. Maybe one. Especially when they come back to vision, like on Thursday night.
[44:24] I'll just throw two or three big things in there. Even for furlough or for when they're overseas. Once a missionary leaves to go on deputation, he feels completely divorced from his home church.
[44:37] It takes him three months. And after three months, he's coming in the door. New people are in the church that don't know him. And he doesn't feel like he belongs. He feels like a stranger in his own church.
[44:49] I know that feeling. And so, they can stay close to me because they're on an email range with me. We talk text and we voice talk a program called Hey Tell.
[45:02] I'm regularly in communication with them. But when they come home to vision on Thursday night, you know, somebody meets them, shakes their hand, says, I want to sit with you. I want to talk to you. I want to find out what's going on with you. I do a whole lot for them.
[45:14] They feel disconnected. They feel disconnected from us. They feel like maybe you don't want them and they don't belong. And you say, how do you know that? Because I felt that way for 20 years.
[45:24] I felt that way. I didn't like going to my home church. I did not like going to my home church. Because I walked in and I don't know, I can't tell you how many times I've been treated like a visitor.
[45:35] I've had somebody come up to me and act like, hey, first time here? I'm like, no, I joined in 1986. And you wasn't here. I remember when you joined.
[45:46] So, let them feel a part. Being on the phone with them, some wild and crazy stuff happens to them. What Kyle had his, and I only know this because of Facebook and somebody told me.
[46:01] But, you know, he had his wallet stolen. I think that guy's had more trouble. I think he left a wallet one time. If they have somebody they can call, somebody they can talk to, they got family, so it's a little bit different.
[46:12] Going and spending some time with them. Some of you have been really great with them. Deputation is a time when they get lots of, they do. After they get over a hump, it takes about somewhere between six months and a year for them to get over a financial hump.
[46:26] Once they're over that hump, deputation becomes very easy. The first three months, six months, a year is very hard. Financially, they may literally be on the verge of starving. They don't know where their money's coming from.
[46:37] They don't know how they're going to live. They don't know if they have enough gas to get home. They may run up credit card bills because they're traveling from churches. churches and a pastor will say, I'll mail you the check. That usually means you ain't getting it.
[46:50] So, you know, in those first few days of their own deputation, if you could be a help to them and a friend of them, that would be a big help. And when they come, let them make sure they feel at home. Talk to them regularly. Call them on the phone.
[47:05] Thursday night, Joe Gibby was very excited about reporting on the Holtz. But can I tell you, I don't know that Joe Gibby was as excited about being reported, about reporting as, as Jason was on Joe reporting.
[47:21] Because Jason's like, I can't believe that, man. That's fantastic. I like that. They want to feel like they're apart. They love vision, but they've been gone a long time. And, you know, so there's a lot of rough stuff goes on.
[47:33] Well, I think that's probably enough. You don't have any more questions anyway, do you? You do, but we can hold them for next time. Probably got Jerry. I probably wrote, I think he told me he had three and we've only answered one, but we'll catch it next time. Thank you so much for coming.
[47:47] Man, leave here knowing this. Man, you serve a fantastic God. Don't you ever let anybody make you think that our God is anything but the Jonah 4-2 God.
[47:58] That's who you serve. The Jonah 4-2 God. That's who you serve. And, don't let, don't ever worry about whether or not your Bible is right or not. I promise you this. It has stood the test of time.
[48:09] They tried to get rid of it in the Old Testament, and they couldn't. It always stood. They've tried to get rid of it for the last 2,000 years, and it always stands. It's the Word of God. So, somebody comes up to me and says, it's like, I have a .40 caliber pistol out in my car.
[48:22] If somebody starts breaking in, I'm not going to explain to them, it's a .40 caliber pistol. It has a bullet in it. The fact is, it's got like 15. And when I pull this trigger, it's going to kill you. I don't go do that. I'm just going to, and then after that, I was like, sorry, that was a .40 caliber.
[48:38] For Evan, for Evan, I'm going to tell this joke. I saw a guy put out a blog, and he said, so you'll know what kind of gun to carry, 9mm, .40 caliber, or a .45.
[48:50] And he shows this guy, and the guy comes up with a 9mm to rob him, and the guy said, slap the gun away, and said, get rid of that little toy. And the guy come up with a .45, I come up for a .45, and the guy got scared and ran away.
[49:01] Came up for the .40, and they both danced off like lovers, and said it was a funny boy's gun. So that's what I got out in the car. Let's have a word of prayer. Boy, that stunk. That's the second joke I've told, in the last two days, that nobody laughed at.
[49:18] I quit. Father, thank you for the goodness of, being with your people. Thank you for the chance to talk to them. Bless us as we serve you. We love you. In Jesus name, Amen. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia.
[49:31] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com, where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
[49:42] Thanks.