Beanie Baby Faith - Greg Gay 4/17/07

Wonderful to see all those who could be here.

As we continue our meeting from night tonight.

I want to begin by asking you to recall the time when you perhaps

started a new job and that's kind of a traumatic event.

And there are some things you want to know.

That's been a long time since I started a new job in my day job,

as I call it, I work at a regular job and it Addition to

preaching and so I know what it's like to work all day and go

to church all night. Like many of you are doing this

week and even though I've been with that company since 1971 in

my day job I still remember what it's like to start a new job.

There are certain things you want to know.

You want to know who's the Boss. That just seems to help you you

know if you know who the bosses are or who the boss is, that's

going to work well for you, not that you'd behave any

differently in the presence of those who aren't but it's always

nice to know who the boss is. Our one time I was on the phone

in the midst of a serious discussion when my boss walked

in and I was asking the veterinary of trivia question.

Veterinarian. A trivia question about the

number of stomachs that a cow has and my boss didn't

appreciate that too much. He thought I should have been

paying more attention to what I was hired to do.

You can understand that I suppose you want to know who the

boss is. You also you want to know, what

are the rules? How do you find out what the

rules are and you also want to know.

Are they serious about the rules?

Do they really really mean the rules?

Now, if somebody says, all right, you're hired to be here

from eight to five. What does that mean?

Does that mean 924? 10-ish, 22.

What does it mean? You want to know are the rules

really the rules? Or are they just kind of

guidelines or are they for everybody else, but not for you

in your position? You need to know what the rules

are. And are they serious?

You also want to know? When's payday.

Now, we might start with that one.

Because you always want to know if I'm going to work.

When do we get paid? How does that work here?

When does that happen? And if you start a job, those

are some of the basics that you really really, really need to

understand What do you need to know?

When you come to a church. You know, I I'll present that.

I think it's kind of the same. You want to know who's boss

around here? What are the rules?

do you actually mean those rules, you serious about those

rules and When's payday. No, we can answer those in the

Lord's church as well. One thing I want us to remember

is that when we start our new jobs, it's really confusing to

figure all of this stuff out. In just a little while though,

we figure those things out. In my day job, I write what's

called an employee handbook and it's-- employees from time to

time and I say, you know, don't you have your favorite passage

of the employee handbook memorized like I do and they

look at me, like I'm nuts. They do that anyway, you know,

as you can imagine. But that's part of the rules.

It's part of the rules and so when we come to the Lord's

Church, it's hard. You know, those of us that have

been around the Lord's Church, all of our Lives.

We end up forgetting how much we actually know and we forget how

comfortable we are with the routines years and years ago.

I attended the New Year's meeting in Oklahoma City and

came time for communion. I was sitting on the front row.

I was a teenager house was full. And where I had been raised in

the church in Missouri, the one officiating at the Lord's table

would give thanks for the loaf and then he would hand it off to

a person who would then go help pass and another person would

help pass. And the one officiating at the

Lord's, table would just sit out on the front row.

That's what I was used to and I thought, well, that's the way

everybody is, of course. And so at this, this New Year's

meeting Huge, huge crowd, and this congregation at Moore.

Oklahoma, the person waiting on the table offered prayer for the

loaf and he came right over there and he handed it to me.

As I was sitting there on the front seat and I thought, oh, he

wants me to help pass communion today.

So I hopped up and did that actually what it was is at Moore

Oklahoma. In those days, the one

officiating, the Lord's table also helped pass everything

around. I didn't know what the rules

were. I didn't know.

It's kind of confusing when you don't know what the rules are.

Really is. And when someone comes to a job

for the first time, we understand that we see them

being a little bit halting and fumbling and hesitant we

understand that. Let's be as understanding when

someone comes to worship with us as well.

It's going to take a while it's going to take a while.

I've had the absolute privilege and honor of studying with a

bunch of folks through the years that have never been to.

Worship anywhere that have never had a bible, let alone opened

it, let alone to read a single word out of it and you know what

happens to them. A lot of times they're

embarrassed, they're embarrassed because they don't know.

And they just presume that, you know everything because they

know that they they don't know anything yet.

Well, it's okay to not know anything at all about the Lord.

A church, it's okay to have not opened a Bible or to have read a

Bible. But you know, in order to learn

about God you got to start somewhere.

So this lesson is about Beginnings.

How do we start? Where do we go?

How do we figure some of these things out?

Because if I just simply say to someone, well here's what you

need to do, you just need to remember this book.

Oh, hmm. You know, there are a lot of

people that love to read and so if you tell a lot of people I'm

going to need you to read this book pretty quickly they're

going to say okay. But there's a lot more people

that never read or rarely read and hardly ever read a book.

And my day job, I do Management training once a year and I send

out a book for people to read and I've had folks tell me Greg

the only book I read all years. The one you send me And I've

told them one of these years, I'm going to send you a Bible

because you need that one a lot more than the ones.

I've been sending you on business but you know, if you

just tell somebody, okay, read this whole, that's a daunting

task. And so, where do we start?

How do, how do we get started with this?

Well, we kind of have to cut through some of the, some of the

fables, some of the tales, some of the, some positions.

And that's not, Always easy, but let me give you a few

experiences that I've had along the way.

Some years ago I had a weekly study at a lady's house and she

was a delightful woman, a member of the Lord's Church.

Her children were not and the children never would sit down at

the table and join in at the study.

They just never would they walk by?

You know, they'd walk slow. You could tell they were

listening but they really wouldn't get involved at all.

And so there was one daughter, one night that was there.

And it just so happened. We were talking about the word

of God and its Authority and and how we could know whether or not

we're truly following what the Lord wants, who's the boss of

the church and she happened to be walking by and she slowed and

she slowed and she slowed. And finally she stopped to talk.

I was thrilled. I was absolutely thrilled.

And she let us know that she used the Bible.

She used the Bible and she said, here's here's what I do.

She said, I believe in prayer. And I said that's great.

That's wonderful. Because the Bible tells us we

should pray without CC. The effectual fervent prayer of

a righteous man or woman availeth much, you know, our

prayers are powerful and effective as God's people.

So, whenever whenever people pray, it's a good thing.

It's a good thing in the direction of God, for those that

aren't Christians, you know, Cornelius was active in prayer

before he was a member of the Lord's church.

And so, it was a good thing for him to be praying, always Ways

that he might know the Lord's will and it's a it's a commanded

thing for those of us who are God's people to pray.

So she said, I pray a lot. I said, that's wonderful.

That's wonderful. She said here's what I do when

I'm faced with the situation. I pray and I pray and I pray and

I pray and then I just opened my Bible and wherever it falls,

open my eyes. Then, just land on a passage and

wherever that pass, wherever my eyes land, that's the passage

that guides me in the problem. I'm praying about And she says,

don't you think that's a wonderful way to use the Bible?

Now, you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, okay?

You don't want to belittle anyone, you don't want to make

fun of anyone in any way. But that's not an appropriate

use of God's word. That's not how God intended for

his book to be used. And I asked her for an example

of how that had helped her and she said that she was having

trouble in her marriage and She did this, she prayed, and she

prayed, and she prayed. She let the Bible fall open and

her eyes fell on a page. It happened to be Mark 5:19,

Mark 5:19

where Jesus was telling a man. Jesus suffer him not, but saith

unto him. Go home to thy friends and tell

them how great things. The Lord has done for the in

half, had compassion on thee. Now, that's a story of a man

that Jesus heal that was possessed with demons.

And he wanted to go with Jesus and Jesus said, no, you go back

home and you tell folks, what's happened to you, Well, when she

used this verse, in the way I described, she said the Lord's

message to her from that word. Verse was that she was to go

home and stay with her husband. And she said, don't you think

that's what the Lord was telling me?

I said no. She said you don't I said no I

really can't see that from that verse.

I said now there's other Bible verses that talk about marriage

and about how you're to be in your marriage, is a wife and how

your husband is to be, but this is not one of those.

This is not a verse that applies.

In this particular way, we can apply it to things, but not to

the way you did. And she said, I'll tell you,

I'll tell you how you could know for sure that I'm on the right

path, that God approves of everything.

I do, she said she was praying and praying and praying.

About whether or not her daddy was in heaven because he had

died. Not too long before, and she was

praying and praying and praying about that.

And one day she was shopping for a beanie baby and she said the

beanie baby that she picked up just as she was praying about

her daddy. You know, beanie babies have a

birth date. All of them have a birthday.

She said, the beanie baby. I picked up had my birth date.

she said, now that doesn't that prove to you that my daddy's in

heaven and that the way I use the Bible is correct And I said

no, it proves that there's lots of dates that you could look at

that, would give you a similarity and a coincidence,

but I don't think that's how God speaks to us.

And so if we're just going to use the Bible as a book, that

falls open at a random spot. And we're only going to confirm

that by a date that may happen to be coincidence in a Beanie

Baby. Is that really is that really

the rules of the Lord's Church? You see if it is then we need

more Beanie Babies. Okay?

If all we need to do by following the rules of, just let

the Bible fall open and do it then then we're okay.

But I wondered what she would have done.

Had she read about those verses of JL, driving a tent stake

through the man's head. I wonder what she would have

done at times. Had she read about when Judas

went and hanged himself. I don't think that's going to

work for us. I don't think it's going to work

well, and I don't think that's how God intends for us to use

his word. Now, with that said, we may look

at that and say, the very idea that somebody would try to use a

Beanie Baby to confirm their faith but understand, at least

she was trying to use the Bible. You know, of anybody that never

ever ever uses the Bible for anything.

I do lots of them, A buddy of mine at work.

He'll say it's so confusing. It's just so confusing.

I just don't know where to start, and I'll say so start

somewhere. Now, it's just so confusing.

I don't know where to start. After all, if you do get the

courage to open the Bible, it's not real simple.

Is it? if you look for the chapter on

worship, there's no heading just like that.

If you look for the chapter on how to be saved, There's no

heading like that. It can be very confusing to go

through the word of God. It can be very confusing to know

where to start. So if you'll allow me I will cut

through some things and just simply do some do some things

regarding the Lord's church and his rules and whether or not,

he's serious about them and what our response is to be the boss.

You might say, in the Lord's church is the Lord's.

Lord. And of course, by the Lord,

we're referring to God, who is God, the father and the Son, and

the Holy Spirit, all of those are referred to as God.

And we read about them in various passages, particularly

in the New Testament. And in one particular passage

when Jesus was being baptized, we have the voice of God, the

father from heaven, we have the Holy Spirit descending upon On

Jesus in the form of a dove and we have Jesus himself there,

being baptized and so we have God, the Father God, the son,

and God the holy spirit. All one God And that is the Lord

God of the Bible. Now we may look at that and say

you, but you say there's one God but there's three well, it's

kind of like a husband and a wife or one flesh.

The Bible talks about that to their their distinct separate

entities and yet they are Wang. And so the boss is the Lord, the

boss is God. The rules are the Bible And yes

God is serious about his rules. He always has been.

We see that from the very first people that ever lived upon the

face of the Earth, God told them to leave a certain trees fruit

along. This is in the Book of Genesis.

The very first book of the Bible said, leave it alone.

They didn't do that. What happened?

Did they get do-overs? No.

Did they get To hit restart? No.

Had they saved where they were and get to restart from that

point, like, some favorite games here and there?

No, they did not get do-overs, they had to suffer the

consequences of having disobeyed the law and hopefully we

understand that an art shocked by that, you know, if a boss

says, I need you here at 8:00 and I cannot have any exceptions

to that for any reason. And if we show up at 8:30 and

get fired, would we be surprised?

Should we be surprised? We shouldn't be and are we going

to say, what why did you do that?

Would we say, why did you do that?

You're firing me. I Was Here by 8:30.

Yeah, of course. We'd say that, of course, we

would so did Adam and Eve. Yes, we did this.

But and there were consequences to their behaviors.

And so the Bible is God's rule book.

God is serious about all of his rules and PayDay comes in the

form of the final judgment whenever we will.

Hopefully Be rewarded with heaven.

But if we are not approved by the Lord, we will be rewarded

with that horrible place called hell.

Now, we don't want to go there, so we want to concentrate on how

to get to this place by doing what he wants according to his

rules. Okay.

At this particular point. hopefully, everything is okay

with anyone that has The faith to acknowledge that God is who

the word of God says that he is, hopefully we can have agreement

on these points up to this time. Now if we're going to sort

through these rules, how are we going to interpret these rules

so that they can apply to our lives in an appropriate way.

And this is the study of what is called hermeneutics and you You

can buy books on this subject and it's quite interesting but

let's never get away from the simple facts.

That God is he rewards those that diligently seek Him and we

have to turn to his word for what the rules are.

Let's not forget that and going through some of these concepts

of hermeneutics, Romans chapter Romans, chapter 10, and verse 17

Romans 10 · chapter mention

reminds us. So then faith.

Cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Now, this is basic, and this is fundamental that if we are to

have faith in the Lord, God of the Bible, then we have to read.

We have to hear about the word of God.

We have to hear about God from his word.

We have to read those words and have them under explain to us so

that we might have understanding Faith cometh by hearing.

By hearing and hearing by the word of God.

So if we say, well, I've got a Bible, but I don't want to open

it. I don't want to pay any

attention to it, but still, I want to be a person of God.

Sorry, faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of

God. The word of God is where we all

have to go. We all have to go there.

Well, once we decide to do that, it starts with Genesis and it

runs through the book of Concord ants in my Bible.

It actually runs through the Book of Revelation.

The last book that is revealed as the Book of Revelation, but

it starts with the Book of Genesis, and let's just simply

say that for time sake, we will go about in the middle to the

end of the Old Testament, which is this many books Genesis

through Malachi constitutes, What's called the Old Testament.

The old Definite, the reason we know this is called the old

Covenant is because words in the New Covenant says they're old.

That's how we know now. So our books Genesis through,

Malachi have an important purpose.

All of them are intended to point in a certain direction.

They're intended to point to Jesus Christ, and him crucified

that was the purpose of God's creation and Revelation and the

purpose of Israel and the purpose of the Nations.

And all that was done in Old Testament times under What's

called the Ten Commandment law. And that usually is a very

familiar law to people who even have not ever read the Bible.

Oil, but they have the purpose of bringing us to Jesus.

Now, that is the Old Testament in a nutshell.

Someone may say, well, I heard a religious program the other day

and they were talking about the importance of Israel today.

Well, Israel has no more biblical importance because

their purpose was to bring Christ into the world.

And once that was accomplished, there is no more place for or

purpose for National Israel, there is a spiritual Israel, but

anyone from Any Nation Under Heaven can be part of spiritual

Israel. Now, we then have the New

Testament. And remember, the reason we know

that is a new testament, or a New Covenant is because that's

what we're told in the Bible to remember, Faith cometh by

hearing and hearing by the the word of God.

And in the first part of the New Testament.

From Matthew through John, we have the story of the life and

the death and the burial of Jesus Christ.

And also the story of his resurrection from the dead for

books. Matthew Mark, Luke and John

repeat the each giving different facts about Jesus Christ and

about his birth about his life. About his death, burial,

resurrection and Ascension. Now averse, I've looked at

several times already in John chapter, 20 tells us these

Written that. You might believe that Jesus is

the Christ, the son of God. Why do we have Matthew Mark,

Luke and John for writers telling us the same story

because we're slow Learners. Well, aren't we?

There was different purposes to those books.

I faked. But you know, God wants us to

really get this thing called faith in Jesus down.

Doesn't he? So if you start with the New

Testament and you read Matthew, if you Wade, through the

genealogy, you're going to get to some good stuff.

All about Jesus. And then you say, well, here's a

book of Mark. What's that all about Jesus?

Again, here's the Book of Luke, that's all about Jesus again,

here's the Book of Job. What's that all about Jesus?

Again, you think Jesus is important?

Oh yeah. We just never get over Jesus.

We never get past him. We never do.

We can never forget him. We can never forget that when we

read the Gospels it is, as though we are there with him, as

he does, all that he did, including dying on the cross for

our sins. And so when we go from Matthew,

Mark, Luke and John into the book of Acts, We then find that

there was something that occurred.

Very early in that book. There was something called the

church that emerged and people were doing certain things to be

able to be members of that church.

Now, reckon whose church that was.

Well, who have we just spent four books?

Reading about. Hmm Christ Christ and so it

shouldn't surprise us that early in the book of Acts, we find

information about the Lord's Church, the Church of Christ and

how people were added to it and how they were saved.

You know what they needed to do, they needed to have and this is

already a familiar word. They needed to have faith.

Remember where faith comes from Faith, cometh, by hearing

hearing by the word of God, they needed to repent of their sins.

They needed to confess that Jesus was the Christ, the son of

God, and they needed to be baptized for the remission of

their sins. And then they needed to live a

holy life because those are the rules.

So, we find that very early in the New Testament.

Matthew Mark, Luke John acts the rest of the books have different

purposes, but some of them are to remind people.

Don't forget the rules here. Here's the rules in some

instances, people have been going astray.

Now, within the word of God, we have these things in hermeneutic

studies that are simply well. Hear the terms, they're called

commands examples and inferences and through a study of those we

can determine what is appropriate for us to do.

There are commands or precepts that are in the word of God.

Such as Acts 2 and verse 38 where the Apostle Peter said

repent and be baptized. That was a command to be obeyed.

So God commands individuals, then there are those times when

there are Burrs of what individuals are to do and those

examples become things that we are to follow.

First Corinthians 4:16, wherefore, I beseech.

1 Corinthians 4:16

You be ye followers of me. Paul said, for this, cause I by

Senator you timotheus. Who is my beloved, Son?

And faithful in the Lord who shall bring you into remembrance

of my ways, which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every

church. So, he saying, here's what I do

and Timothy follows me and you follow me.

As I follow Christ, you thought of Timothy is he follows me.

Follow us as we follow Christ, those become examples for us to

follow. Then there are those things that

are implied and those are a little tricky and this seems to

be really nitpicky. But in order to understand this,

let's go to a conversation that Jesus had with some people,

Matthew 22 verse 29. Jesus was answering the question

Matthew 22:29

of somebody. And Jesus answered and said you

do earlier, you're making a mistake not knowing the

scriptures nor the power of God, then in verse 31, he says, but

as touching this is Matthew 22 verse 31.

Matthew 22:31

But as touching the resurrection of the Dead, have you not read

that? Which was spoken unto you by

God. Saying now, there were

individuals questioning Jesus. They did not believe in the

resurrection of the dead and they were questioning God, they

were doubting the word of God and Jesus said, have you not

read? So what did Jesus have them?

Do he had them go to the book. He had to go to the Bible and

this case, they would have gone to the Earth Testament for proof

of what he was saying. And so in religious issues, we

always need to go to the book, the word of God to fight, or

what the answers are. And here is Jesus saying, have

you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying I

am the god of Abraham and the god of Isaac, and the god of

Jacob. Now, there's a little word here

that So she used that is very key to this entire discussion.

It's the little word am Jesus said I am the god of Abraham.

He said, have you not read in the Old Testament where it says

I am the god of these people. Now, what's the issue?

The Sadducees said there is no resurrection of the Dead.

Jesus is saying, when God said I am the god of Abraham.

He was using the present tense of a word.

Word, meaning, they were still alive.

God didn't say, I was the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He's saying, I am the god of those people.

And so de small words, make a difference in the rules.

Yeah, they do they do and so we can't just pick and choose which

of these things we would like and which we wouldn't we have to

be very, very careful and Those are necessary inferences.

Jesus uses a necessary inference to prove that there is life

after death and he did. So based on a two letter word at

least in English and that is very amazing to me to see the

Lord himself. Using a hermeneutical concept of

necessary, implication or necessary inference.

Now here's how some of these things can work.

Let's look at at Mark chapter 16 and verse 16, Mark, 16 and verse

Mark 16 · chapter mention

16. Jesus says he that believeth and

is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be

damned now. What is inferred in that

passage? What is inferred in that

passage? At least among other things?

Is this whoever is going to be baptized and needs to be old

enough to believe You see that? So if somebody says well I was

baptized as a baby. Well were you able to believe?

No couldn't do that then. Okay then you just got wet,

someone may have meant it for religious statement.

May have meant it for your salvation but the inference is

until someone can believe they should not be baptized.

And so you'll not see us baptizing.

APS. We dare not do that because it

is inferred that all those who are baptized need to be of the

ability to reason acts 2 and verse 38, Peter said repent and

be baptized, what is inferred there.

We have to be mature enough to understand the difference

between, right and wrong and to be able to make a commitment to

do. What's right?

And until we're mature enough to do those things.

Then we are are not ready for baptism.

Those things are also inferred within those things that are

commands. There are those things that are

that are General in nature and specific in nature.

Let me give you an example of one of those in the Great

Commission. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19 go,

Matthew 28:19

ye therefore and teach All Nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of

the Holy Ghost and So, we understand that Jesus is telling

us to go into all the world to preach the gospel, and we

lovingly and gladly do that. Understand when Jesus said go,

ye that is a command. However, it is generally nature

because he doesn't say how to go.

I am so thankful he didn't say walk you there for All right, is

still been trying to get here from Sacramento?

Frankie wouldn't have been back from the Philippines yet Go, ye

therefore allows us to take a walk or a train, or a plane, or

a bus or an automobile and that is simply okay with the Lord.

Now, as we look to all of these things of a religious nature,

there is a difference between those things that we may use as

expedience, those things that are AIDS vs.

Those things, that would be considered Sinful additions to

the Lord's. Well and we have to be careful

about these as well. Now we are not to forsake the

assembling of ourselves together.

Hebrews 10 and verse 25, the disciples came together on the

first day of the week to break bread.

So we know that assemblying is authorized when we assemble, we

could assemble under a tree somewhere or just out in the

open without That a tree. If you would, then we could

assemble in a building. And a building is simply an

expedient that aids Us in. Observing the command for us to

gather for worship in one place. Now, an expedient can't violate

a command. It can't violate how a command

was exemplified or else. It becomes sinful.

Now, within our building we happen to be seated in pews,

okay? Does having a Pew keep us from

being able to worship God? No, it doesn't.

It really doesn't? There are some religions around

the world that don't have pews in their buildings.

They make everybody stand up the whole time and That could be

quite interesting as a whiteboard used to put

Blackboard but they're not chalkboards anymore.

But oh right board is simply an expedient in teaching which is

part of our worship whenever we have the collection on Lord's

Day, a bag or a basket, becomes an expedient that does not

violate that in any way we have a baptistery to help with as an

aid to baptism but again it Not violate baptism in any way.

We have songbooks to Aid with the commanded singing that we

are to do. All of those things we can say,

in no way, violate the commands, the inferences, and the examples

of how we are to worship and serve God, they do not.

Now, there are many other religious things that people do

that are a violation of the commands, the examples of the

inferences of the word of God, some of those Those have to do

with different assemblies. Bible classes are Sunday

schools, different ways of worshiping god with multiple

vessels or loaves having musical instruments.

Having multiple communion times for a congregation and I put

down here having pie suppers only.

I realized that most folks no longer know what a pie supper

is. But by that I simply mean the

Lord's church is financed by the voluntary contributions of the

members are whenever the time forgiving is observed on Lord's

day. And so we are, we're not engaged

in other businesses or other ways in which to gather funds.

And so in the Lord's church today, We want to be very

careful for what we do to make sense.

We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

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Please email us at info at her Church of Christ

Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays

at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.

Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

honored guest.