I Would Never Be Just Okay Again

This is Pastor Dan. Just want to thank you for choosing this podcast by New Heights

Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo today. I hope that as you listen you'll be able to reach

New Heights in Jesus with us. Listen during the inspirational moment time for some exciting study

on behalf of a few different members of the congregation. Pastor Dan's sermon from First

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

Thessalonians chapter 2. Also listen for Undo Me as performed by New Heights Fellowship,

not of this world praise band. What a powerful worship experience that was this Sunday.

Thank you, God bless you, and enjoy.

We're spring to come this year. I was kind of getting tired of the cold and the ice and stuff

and we had a couple of good snows but I do I enjoy the snow too so I you know by fall you're

like okay we're gonna get some snow and by in the winter it's always yay for sun so you know they

don't get that down south and stuff they only get the yay for sun like almost the whole year

or they get they get snowed you know so praise God we get both and the variants and we get pretty

colorful trees uh changing the colors in the fall and get a ton of rain in the spring usually so

and the tomato farmers are real glad for that so we got some change going on we also got folks

that move they live in different places now and thankfully uh all nearby praise God for that and

um watching the story at the brister household is unfold to get your stuff set up and that's really

awesome and Tommy got moved into the apartment and we're sharing our domiciles now so Tommy's

living in the first result apartment so praise God for that and it's a good situation all right

you like it so far good awesome um so we're going to go ahead and pray together there are no meetings

or anything like that scheduled today but the pantry is open from two to three um and then uh

next week will be next week will be the membership meeting right that's next fourth week next week

you know all right and and rapidly approaching the crosswalk so it's supposed to be inviting

people to come and march with us it's okay they could stay at their church they're trying to win

away from their church and if I said they come represent their church wear their church t-shirts

their church youth group can make their own cross whatever if you think of anybody you could take

up some advice do that we're going to be doing the same thing through social media texting and

all that kind of stuff there will also be firing dates coming in the next couple weeks a couple

firing dates coming up so you can come out walk a little bit go around put the flyer in the

neighborhood and if you think of another way that you'd like to do something and if you approach

Alicia with it um she can help or I can help we'll get it started I got a little money if it takes

a little bit of money you know we want to get the word out about that event because that's really

glorifying God I looked at what somebody else is doing online on Friday and it was pretty cool and

so I'm excited for that I hope we'll have fun doing it nothing else we'll come out we'll glorify

the Lord by marching and recognizing what he did for us and that would be awesome okay and that's

the day before Easter which is the 17th of the 17th and 18th is Easter resurrection Sunday which

we celebrate resurrection every Sunday that's resurrection Sunday is the day of the we celebrate

the resurrection is coming up fast so you can be prepared for that okay I'm gonna pray real quick

and then uh I have no idea what song we're doing next we're going out onto the gates next is that

next great and mighty great and mighty oh that's what we just did and it's the 16th and 17th sorry

Saturday the 16th and Saturday Sunday the 17th is Easter would you pray for us then as we go on into

the service

recognize the freedom of religion pray for everyone here that we can be safe and healthy and not

unseated that's great for the status of the world right now and the all the scariness going on on

the other side of the planet and you would be there and help that resolve in the best way possible

your name I pray thank you thank you all right so if you could please stand up we're going to

do great and mighty next and then you're worthy of my praise after that

so

I'm gonna give you all my birthday I'm gonna give you all my praise

You are all I long for, world change You are the remedy of my grave

You are the remedy of my grave

I will worship with all of my heart I will never change you with all my praise

I will give you all of my praise

I will never fall apart, oh, all your ways

I'll give you all my birthday I'll give you all my praise

You are all I long for, world change You are the remedy of my grave

Oh, I'm about to kill you as me

I will serve you, give you everything I will lay my life at your door

And I will trust you, Lord, I trust in you alone I'll give you all my worship

I'll give you all my praise You are all I long for, world change

You are the remedy of my grave, remedy of my grave

I will worship you with everything I do

I'll give you all my worship I'll give you all my praise

You are all I long for, world change You are the remedy of my grave

I'll give you all my worship I'll give you all my praise

You are all I long for, world change You are the remedy of my grave

Alright, so right away we've been involved with our impact or focus on study

So I've been encouraging you to study

So this morning out of the blue I texted a few guys, just a few texts

If you didn't get my text it's okay

I know some people didn't respond, okay

If you see it later maybe look at it for next week or whatever

That's fine, and I didn't text everybody

But you may get one

So I asked a few people to maybe get a look at a verse

Write one sentence down about that verse

Or at least think of one sentence about that verse

And then come and share it with us today

So, who's got one ready?

Alright, Tom first then Ron

So he gave me Luke 24, 45

The verse is, then he opened their mind that they may understand the scriptures

I wrote that, I think this verse suggests that God is the one who brings the truth of his word to you

And when you study it's important to remember that

I kind of put it, what's the best way to receive wisdom

You need to understand God's word

I put James 1, 5, says ask God for wisdom and he will give it

So when we study we don't have to forget to stay open to God in humility

Amen, that's a good word brother

Listen, what he just did right there is a good example of study

And a lot of people do it a lot of different ways

But the bottom line is, there is no better

You can go to the store and buy a $20 study book

It will work you through an entire book

And what they'll do is what he just did right there

You write your own stuff

You don't have to spend money on other people's study books

You should have a Bible, or at the very least a Bible app

And if you don't, see me, I'll make sure you have a Bible

I can't make sure I'm buying that necessarily

But I can make sure you have a Bible

And you can do that

You take the verse, you look at it, what does it say, what does it mean

What are we supposed to do about it, that's basically it, alright

There are other methods and different ways that you can do it too

But there are no better methods than that

Just other methods, brother Rob

So, Pastor Dan gave me the verse, Philippians 1, 12

And he put it in the text message, but I would

But ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me

Have fallen out rather unto the brethrens of the gospel

I think you might understand that at first, so I wouldn't lift it up

Because of my Bible, and the NIV, and it was a little more clear to me

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me

Has actually served to advance the gospel

So, Paul's speaking as he's imprisoned and in chains

And I don't know exactly where

But maybe you can tell me, brother

I think it was Rick from the Philippine, I don't know

So anyways, basically he's letting them know that this is what was going to happen

And that it's being used for God's benefit

Paul did not give in to self-pity or complaining

He chose to see Christ in all situations

Which allowed him to see that through his imprisonment

The gospel of Jesus would not only be spread to those that he shared with

But also everyone whom they touched as well

That is in reference to verse 13, which the next verse says

As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard

And to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ

So, not only are the people that are directly over Paul

Being affected by his message

Everybody that they tell in the palace, which is the entire palace guard, is being affected as well

It's really interesting

You may think that what you're going through sucks

And that's probably a lot of times not a bad assessment

I mean, we know what's bad, right?

I got hit, I shared with a brother this week

It felt like I was being attacked so many times spiritually this week

It was like death in a thousand cuts, it was that bad

It wasn't anything huge, it was one thing after another after another

And then there was a couple of pretty big things

And sometimes you think what you're going through is bad

But remember that it can be used to do an amazing work

Between you and somebody else or whatever

We were just starting the worship today

Aww, she fell on her head

Anyway, as we were just starting the worship today

I was thinking about that first song that we sang

And I said out loud, but I don't know if anybody else heard me

I said, until you have sung that song weeping

Until you are broken over your condition

And still worshiping God

You don't necessarily know the meaning of the word

And I didn't really have that thought, it just kind of came out of my mouth

And so, I think we have to see certain things in our life

Through the eyes of difficulty and pleasure

We have to go through difficulty to understand some of what life is about

And know how blessed we are in Christ

Anybody else got one?

You're sending me the Luke 8-10

I'm not going to lie, I just looked at it like 10-10

It's okay, go

This is pretty positive, it doesn't take that long

It says, and he said

To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God

But to the rest it is in parables

So that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand

I'm looking back a little bit farther and it's after the parable of the sower

And his disciples were questioning him

And so one of the, I guess one of the things that really sticks out to me right now

Is how we have the knowledge, if we believe in God, we believe in Jesus

And have the Holy Spirit, we have that knowledge inside of us to understand

More about the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God

Other than people who are not seeing

So we have that ability in us

But yet there are so many times when we still refuse to see

We still refuse to hear

Because we have on this side, we have the world pushing against us

Saying that what we believe isn't true and what we believe isn't right

But deep down if we truly fully believe in Jesus

We know that that is not true

Although we still get stuck sometimes in those moments where we question

Whether or not something is real or not

Amen, that's a good word

That's exactly it

It's a painful thing actually when you stop and think about the fact that during Jesus' day

There were those who were around him, wait for it, who were not supposed to believe

We can't just explain the gospel to anybody and they might believe in Jesus and get saved

We want that for everybody, that's our existence now

Because Christ is our guide, Holy Spirit has come, the church exists as ministers of the gospel

That's what we do, we're supposed to be bringing people to Christ

So we always think, well you can share with anybody

And anybody at any point in time might get saved

But God is still over all that, God is still in control over all that

And there are people who are quote unquote ready to get saved

And there are people who are not ready to get saved

And it largely comes down to whether they understand and believe or not

And I'll never forget right before I got saved as I was actively

I had to go to my church to actively come to God

There were literally truths that the pastors, the people at church would preach

The pastor or whoever had come to preach were things I read in my Bible

And I'm going like, I can't understand this

I just don't understand, I could tell, I mean I did

I've been through school and read and studied and I knew what I knew and I knew what I didn't know

And I would read it and I'd be like, I just don't understand this, I can't get it

So if this works for you, if you're reading your Bible and you can read the Bible and understand it

Don't take it for granted, that is a gift from God

If you're saved, you believe in Christ, when you read your Bible you go, yeah I get that

If you actually do get it, you understand it, you can apply it, do not take that for granted

And if you're not going to take it for granted, then we're back around to study your Bible

Write something down and I would suggest share it with anyone who will listen

You literally could go, we leave here today, you could write something down out of the sermon

Or if you don't want to do that, then Monday morning you could write something down out of your study Monday morning

And then you could all week long, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

You could come up with a little question, like out of the verses that I already just read

You could go to everybody that's in your friend group, everybody that you work with

You're like, hey you know I did this little study the other day and I got to thinking about this

And now I'm polling my friends and my family and I want to see everybody, what do you think about this?

And you could say, out of that verse, do you think the Bible is hard to understand?

And they would answer you, because you know that, right? They know you by name, they don't care

Nothing is really at stake, so they'll answer you, yes I think it's hard to understand

No I don't think it's hard to understand, right?

Then out of that you've begun a spiritual conversation with that person

See the disciplines work together, the study fuels everything else

I was in a men's pastor's group, which is redundant to say, but I was in a pastor's group about 10 years ago

And it was like 10am on a Thursday morning and we were sitting there

And we were going to pray together and stuff like that

And at that time I was doing what I'm doing now, what I've been doing for the last two months

Which is doing study every morning before I do anything else, praise God, all glory to God

But anyway, so every morning I was just about getting a sermon

You know what I'm saying, like this morning my study followed up on what I'm going to preach today

And so it added something to my thinking about the sermon

Last week on Thursday morning I got the entire sermon in less than an hour, right, studying my Bible

And I'm in this pastor's group and one of the guys says, I just want to be out in the open and put this out there and explain this

He said, sometimes I have a hard time writing a sermon

Like I'll read my Bible, I'll read whole chapters, I'll read a whole book of this or that or I'll just read vast stretches

And I can't find anything in there to preach on

And when he said that I was like, oh, that's so weird, that's so different from my experience

So what RJ just read, is there anybody in this room, and let's be really realistic

Is there anybody in this room, if he said what he just said, that couldn't go, well there are roughly three main things in there that really we need to hear

And you could do that, couldn't you? If you really had to, take these paper and a pen and go, well he said this

If I was going to tell somebody what he said, I'd say he said this, and he said this, and he said this

And then you pray over the three things and go, oh that was not that important, he did say this

And now you have three things, right? You're halfway to writing a sermon

The disciplines all work together, you're going to pray, right? You're going to pray for your family members

How many people in here, this is interactive, okay, it's us working together as a group to figure this out

I don't know the answer to this until I ask it, alright

How many people in here this week have prayed for somebody in your family, either outlawed by name or in your head?

Raise your hand

Okay, so take your hands down, hands down

Not the spiritual, you can put them down, okay, not the spiritual discipline impact on prayer

But let me tell you, you probably should be praying for your family, but so let's say you prayed for your family this week

Now if you did the study that we just heard about, any of these, right, so RJ's study on understanding

You pray for your family, like I pray for my wife like three to five times a day that her neck and shoulder will be healed, okay

But now I did that study, do I not now also need to pray that she would understand God's amazing grace

That she would understand the mysteries of God, that she would be able to live out the amazing that God's doing in her

Or, based on the study, if I did the study that Ron did, could I not, would it not be right to pray that God could use

What she's going through to spread the gospel, right, so you can do that and you just add it in

And if you just pray, I'm just being transparent, if all you ever do is just pray God heal those people who are sick in my life

Just pray God heal, nothing really wrong with that, but it's about like dipping your toe in the Atlantic Ocean

Anybody here ever go to an ocean and you got there and you didn't get in it at all, like you didn't get wet

You didn't get sprayed, you didn't put your foot in, you didn't take your shoes off and walk in the water, nothing

I mean, if you're going to drive 2,000 miles to go to the ocean or 1,000 if you're going east, right

If you're going to drive 500 miles to get to the ocean, you're going to interact with the ocean somehow

Well that's what it's like when we pray and the study fuels our prayer

Worship, how many songs, worship leaders especially, how many songs of the songs we just sung are based on Scripture

How many of the three that we just sung are based on Scripture, does anybody know for sure?

All of them

Alicia says all of them, do we concur on that? I think they all are

Now, based on all three of those songs, this would be easier if they were in order, but we've changed the order today

So I will enter as Gates, great and mighty, and you're worthy of my praise

All three of those songs are based on Scripture, now can anybody find any of the verses in their Bible that go with those songs?

The answer is yes, every one of you could do that, all you have to do is look up the word Gates

or great and mighty is actually a phrase that comes out of the Psalms, right, or worthy and praise

Just look those words up in your Bible and you can find them, and then you can study the verse

Now, if you happen to study the verses that go along with those songs yesterday, that was your study

and then you came in here today and sung the songs, would the songs seem different?

They would, you could look at them through a completely different lens, right

Our dance had a number of guys in our church, there's a bunch of guys in our church, right, that have had a bunch of training with cars

They've done all kinds of stuff, fixed all kinds of stuff, all that kind of stuff on cars, replaced stuff, fixed stuff, whatever

So when they hear the cars making a noise, their first thought is probably what the noise could be

When I hear cars making a noise, I don't have a clue most of the time

Because they were trained in cars, they know that kind of thing, so they might already have like three ideas in their head of what it could possibly be

And then they go, that's definitely this and you're out of luck, man, your engines are going out, your toast, that's what it's doing

But I'd be going like, maybe I just need an oil change, you know what I'm saying, or what I really need to do is get RJ or Tony or somebody to look at my car

So it totally changes the way you do the rest of the disciplines

It's the fuel, yet it's the governor, yet it's the steps, like how do you do it, it's all in there

I'll tell you right now, there is nothing that we do on a Sunday morning, nothing, not one thing

People will tell you otherwise, and if they argue that, they tell you otherwise, you need to be ready to correct them

There is nothing that we do on a Sunday morning that is not livable, nothing

Some churches all dress up, right, they all dress up on Sunday morning

We don't all dress up, is either of those things wrong?

Not really, right, they're not wrong, because God's really concerned about what you look like on the inside, that's really what He's about, that's just fine

Somebody will try to come and say, no, you have to go to church dressed up, that's biblical

And you can say, well, no, you show me where that's biblical because I know it's not there, right, and so on

Tithes and offerings, absolutely biblical, first 10% of your income goes to God, after that it's an offering

If you get 5% of your income, that's not an offering because it's not the first 10%, and it's not a tithe because it's not the first 10%

It's part of a tithe, it's part of a tithe until it's a tithe, that's biblical, it's Malachi 3, Jesus speaking of tithes, it's in the scripture

Singing praise, we have worship leaders, in the New Testament church they had worship leaders, but it wasn't structured

Right, in the early days, in Acts, they didn't have that, it wasn't pretty, they had some little girl or some guy who happened to be able to sing, had a nice voice

And he'd get up there and he'd sing, and he'd say, okay, now repeat after me, come on, sing the next verse

It's changed a lot, but it's the same exact thing, right, it's all biblical, and study fuels everything that we do

So quick

So on YouTube I found this video, there's this 5 year old girl that sung 10,000 musians, she did a song

And it's amazing what little kids like her could do when they don't even know what they're going to grow up to be

And if you think about it, you can find a verse that goes right along with what you just said

That's all I'll say, so maybe next week I'll do it again, but here was the object lesson of the whole thing, you don't need me to do that

I'll do it if you want to, I'll send out a few people every week, but we came in here last week, and we're not chastising, I think

We came in and nobody really had anything to share, so this week I made sure, I stacked the deck, I wouldn't say cheated, but I stacked the deck

And not everybody I sent to was able, and I did not send to everybody, there's a lot more people that could do it

But you don't need me to send you something, all you have to do is you literally could go like, okay, I'm going to have something to say about this

That's all you got to do, read one verse or a little paragraph or something, and think about what you would say about it

And then I encourage you to use it, like what we preach about today, brother Tony Tate does this, he's not here because he's having a little bit of a difficulty at the moment

But he may be here yet, but I would encourage you to that, whatever you study or whatever you hear in the sermon or whatever you do on Tuesday night

Which is Tuesday night, this Bible study, we're almost done with it, but it's been awesome, it's been amazing

Whatever you do, then that you can take to your friends and family, wherever, and they're like, well I know, the ABC is a salvation

I would love to go take the ABC is a salvation to every person who doesn't know Jesus and share them all the time

We all know that just doesn't work, right, but you need to have something to talk to them about, then we'll lead that conversation

Study something, make a little note for yourself, and then go ask them, what do you think about this?

Or get one question out of it to ask them, and then that's your conversation to lead to sharing the gospel

When we use the spiritual disciplines, we will see people get saved, that's the bottom line, including us

Including us, because it's required by the Lord

Alright, we're going to pray together, I would ask you to remember Miss Sherry

The pain today is in both of her arms, and so that's in relatively new development and not a good situation

And so, just pray for her, Amalia is sick, was throwing up, so remember her

As you can see, Carson is feeling much much better, but I'm sure Sherry whatever it was that he had with his mother

So that's kind of how that goes, and then Miss June has been going through a lot

And still really needs to free herself from smoking and be able to get the surgery that she needs for her back

And do the other things she needs to do, and Stacey has a thing in her head, physical, what they call it, a tumor?

Is that what it's called?

No, she's a, it really don't know the cause of it, she started having seizures, and soon after we moved in her house

And they would keep, she would have seizures at night when she sleeps, so they would change their medications around and stuff

So her head was like, she's like, whew

Okay, so pray for her, and then pray for Perry, because he's got blockages in his heart, and there are others as well

It's not an exhaustive list, but let's pray for one another and lift each other up

I feel wonderful today, man

Praise God, praise God

I walked into the church, it was like, what's going on?

Praise the Lord

No, no, look at that

Listen, I'm praying that this morning the Lord cleared the percentage of blockage in your heart, and this is what we like every day going forward

That's what I'm praying, I pray that's true

Alright, let's pray together

Father in heaven, you've heard these names as they are called

You've heard these brothers speak on your word

We ask you Lord to add blessings to the speaking of your word, add blessings to the people who come looking to you

We look in solidarity, we look in unity, we seek you together today

In this room there are the smallest children who have no clue what's going on

And the oldest, longest living of us

We're calm, and yet just under the surface lies that frustration

Because Lord, the world is not going in the way that we would like it to go

We're struggling with this or that or the other thing

We know that's all part of your grand design

You are infinite in living, power, knowledge, design, giving, loving

Lord, you are infinite in all good things

We also know that your wrath is a very real thing

For those of us who are going against you, not doing what it is that we should do

We understand that we are under chastising, for those of us who see it in the world

We see so much going on around us in the house next door, across the street, on the news

It's everywhere, Lord, that there is so much unrighteousness

And we can sit back and we can judge that and we can say, hey, that's at least a style

I'm not that bad, I'm not like them

Lord, but we realize that there is unrighteousness in our choices as well

And so we come confessing it to you and asking you to forgive us

And set us now on the path of holiness the best we can

We're never going to be like you completely in this lifetime

We can be like you as gifted to us by Jesus, your Son

We thank you, Lord, that we have so much

We thank you that we do so well

We thank you that we have so many opportunities to worship and give and share and study

Lord, I thank you that there are amongst us who have so much going on

That we say, well, I just don't have time to study my Bible

We know it's not true

We realize we're kidding ourselves, but

Lord, we thank you that we could ever be in a position that there's so much good in our lives

So many things in our lives that we're focusing on that that's not that high of priority

We do ask your forgiveness

But we thank you for our health such as it is

Even those of us who are suffering and struggling

We ask you to use the suffering and struggling that we're going through

For your glory to leave people to you

Father, we ask you to give us wisdom

Please open our eyes that we may understand your Word

That we may live according to your Word

I love that word understand because it means to stand under

Lord, help us to stand under your Word today

And be the church as you have us to be

Standing in this building that you blessed us with

On this corner that you blessed us with

In this city that you blessed us with

In this sunshine that you blessed us with

With breath in our lungs

Blood in our veins

Please Lord let us serve you

Let us follow you

Let us reach you in Christ Jesus today

Please Lord heal our suffering and hurting in these names who are called

And heal us too

That we might have unity not just amongst us

But unity with you

And we pray for this in Jesus name

Amen

You know where it is

So turn your head

And look at the other side

Okay

Maybe it's on the outside

So you can see it

Okay, sit

Okay

So you can see it

Okay

So you can see it

Okay

So you can see it

So you can see it

Okay

Come on now

Get in

Remember I think I missed something

And something I did was something I said

Don't mean to do you wrong

It's just a way of implementation

Woo

Sister I know I let you down

You've come a long way back

You'll never come around

You don't have to say a thing

I can tell by your eyes

Exactly what you mean

I'll take you down on my knees

And pray

Lord I'm doing it

The way the church has called me

To hold

To save you from what you've done

I do it

I do it

Come on

So I made you cry

But I never meant for her to

I never meant to lie

When the world should just end in shame

I let you take the blame

Brother I know you've lived so far too long

Yeah, yeah, yeah

But I've cut you down

And I left you on your knees

Well I know it must be

Yeah

Time to get down on my knees

And pray

Lord I'm doing it

The way the church has called me

To hold

To give you to me, boy

I am walking on me

You tear and break

Brother I just unholy unto me, unto me

I'm crying, what was the wine?

More times than fear I had tonight

Three nails and a cross to prove I hold my life

You turn into you, brother

Time to get down on my knees and pray

Lord I'm doing it

The way the church has called me

To hold

To give you to me, boy

I am walking on me

Wow!

Wow!

Woo!

Applause

In Christ alone

My hope is found

He is my life, my strength, my soul

This calm is strong

This silent crowd

Burnt through the fiercest trial and storm

What has to blow

What sets a fear

When fears are still

When strife is seen

My comfort zone

My all-in-one

Here in the paradise that stands

Here in the paradise that stands

In my soul

To a child of God

Who lives in my inner space

This is the life

That I write to God

By the one He gave to save

So long as hope

That dreams are tried

The breath of God

Was satisfied

For everything

My life was laid

Here in the paradise that stands

Here in the paradise that stands

There in the ground

This is how you make

The life of the world by darkness slain

As rising stars

Sing glorious praise

Up from the crazy world

I stand

As empty shoes

In victory

Since host and death

Since grief on me

For I am this

And He is mine

Watch as the crash

The sun

The flames

This life

From fear and death

Is the power of Christ in me

The life that's rising

I know right

Jesus commands my destiny

So far apart

I'll see my family

Never lost

In the distance

Losers or the cause beyond

I stand

To the

Losers or the cause beyond

Here in the

Paradise

I stand

From the highest

In the highest

In the highest

In the highest

Of the sea

The creation's revealing your destiny

From the colors of lost

In the fragrance of the stream

And the pageant

Of your song that it makes me

The strongest thing

Very despicable

The world's strongest

Kindest thing

My name

One day

Take me down

Oh, how I'm full

Of fear and

Lost in the

Losers or the cause beyond

Oh, my name

One day

Take me down

To the

Every light before the

Where is your name

Oh,

Oh, to the

Every storm

To the

Where is your name

To imagine someone

To change his life

To change his career

To save someone's life

To change his life

There's a sky

In the

From the

From the table

You will find

A sky

To the highest

You're all

The way you are

Oh, how I'm full

Of fear and

Lost in the

Losers or the cause beyond

Oh, my name

One day

Take me down

To the

Every light before the

Where is your name

One day

It's crawlable

I get terrible

In the face of stars

There's a sky

In the

The night

By the

Days and

Times

Oh, how I'm full

Of fear and

Anybody else want to take notes?

I've got three more passes.

That reference actually is first Thessalonians 1.8 through 2.12, so don't think you're getting

off like a 15 minute sermon or anything here.

We want to get your hopes up.

It's going to be good stuff.

So this is my thought process and I want to kind of get you on board with me.

The sermon is entitled, it was never going to be okay again, and the okay is like in

parentheses.

So I want you to think for a moment about how the world views okay.

This is what actually happened in my life.

So I'm saved and I know that.

I believe in my heart.

I don't expect you to believe it necessarily.

That's between me and God, that kind of thing.

But I believe I'm saved.

I believe that the Holy Spirit testifies in my heart that I'm saved.

I believe that I'm going to heaven when I die and I've been through some stuff.

Now I have not had a full blockage in my heart.

I have not had a problem with my neck where I've had pain down my arm.

I have not had pain every day while I'm working, although I did for a couple years, but then

it went away so I don't have that now.

I haven't lost a really close loved one like my wife or one of my kids or grandkids, praise

God, we've been very blessed like that.

But I've been through some stuff and when I've been going through some stuff, this is

what I've done for the last, I want to say, probably 10, 12 years.

When I'm going through some stuff, someone will say, are you okay?

And I'll say, yeah, I'm okay.

Because I know I'm mad, I'm hurting, I'm sad, whatever, but I also know that in the Lord,

I should be okay.

So for example, I went to my doctor when I was living in Parisburg and I was struggling

with some symptoms like depression and I later found out that my actual problem was more

physical and I had anemia, which is when you don't have enough red blood cells or iron

or whatever in your blood.

And so I was feeling weak.

And she said, is there any possibility you're depressed?

And I was serving the Lord at that time.

I think it was when I was a deacon, but I may have been, no, because it was after I

came back.

So I was called to preach the gospel and it was right about the same time, right after

we had started planting new heights.

And the doctor said, is there any possibility you're depressed?

And I said, oh no, I'm okay.

Because my logic was, and she said this and I understood what she was saying, she said,

well, it could be that you're depressed, you understand that, right?

Just because you're a Christian and called to the ministry or whatever like that doesn't

mean you can't be depressed.

And which is true, because we all can get depressed, anybody can get depressed.

And the real problem is not whether or not you get depressed, it's if you stay depressed

for too long, because once you get stuck there, it's hard to get out.

And it takes some process, some work, and sometimes some medicine, some counseling,

whatever to get out of being depressed if you stay there for too long.

But I was first operating under the principle you can't possibly be depressed if you've

got the kingdom of God, right?

And you're a child of God, can't possibly be.

And then she burst my bubble and said, no, you can be.

And I said, well, yeah, that makes sense, you can be.

And then after that, for however long it's been since then, I've always been operating

under the principle that you should be okay.

If you're a Christian and you're going to heaven, no matter what you're going through,

and I kind of get that out of Philippians 4, Paul's talking about, I have learned to

be content in all things, but I have much or I don't have much or whatever, right?

And he says you should be okay.

Well, I'm here to tell you today that that is a falsehood.

I was wrong.

In fact, the topic of the sermon is never going to be okay again.

All right?

So grab your Bibles, if you will, and maybe take a little breath in your lungs and go

with me as we go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

Thank you.

We have now committed ourselves into the hands of the Lord.

Whatever this here says, we're going to respond to it.

If you're here operating under some other principle than that, then I would ask you

to kind of adjust and join us as we go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, beginning in verse

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

8.

Now, it does begin sort of in the middle of the thought, but we're already reading quite

a bit, so I think we'll get the gist of it.

Verse 8 says, for or because the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only

in Macedonia and Achaia, and I probably mispronounce that, I usually do, but also in every place

your faith toward God has gone forth so that we have no need to say anything.

In other words, the people that had gotten saved there in Thessalonica, that's the name

of that city, the people that had gotten saved there were spreading the gospel amongst the

Thessalonians, the other people that lived in Thessalonica, and then from there it was

spreading out across the region, to other cities, etc.

Paul was aware of that, and so he says, I don't really have to say anything about that

because we're hearing how it's already spreading from you.

Just an aside, this is not the sermon, but just an aside, if we could be known as a church

that spreads the gospel and the love of Jesus, that would be the one and only chalk mark

that I would think would win the day.

If there are people who live in East Toledo who have met Jesus, who don't go to church

anywhere, they are waiting for, looking for, or they're hurt over something in the past,

or they're tempted and distracted by the things of the world, or whatever, but they're

waiting for, looking for, a church will come in, it really is the church of the Bible,

it really is doing what it is that God has called them to do.

Now I believe that we are at least on the cusp of that, if not already there as a church.

So don't think I'm saying that we're not.

But I also believe that people on the other side of Toledo don't necessarily know the

name, or well we may have people in South Dakota or Iraq that know the name, New Heights

Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo, we may not be reaching anybody in Indiana

or Illinois, right?

So this was, the regions were smaller, so that's a little unfair analysis, he wasn't

talking about the world over, they didn't have the world over then, it was just the

Middle East, right?

But he was saying that because we've seen it, it's happening, the gospel is spreading,

that's something I want for us, and maybe we get that out of the text overall, but it

isn't one of the points, okay?

So verse 9 then says, for they themselves report about us, so these are the people that

are hearing the gospel, right, these are other people that have heard the gospel from the

Thessalonians, follow this, report about us, what kind of a reception we had with you,

and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.

So attached to the gospel is the faithfulness of God's people, also not one of the sermon

points, but realize that as they were spreading the gospel from Thessalonica out across the

region, with it went the understanding that God's people was doing what they were supposed

to be doing, right?

That Paul and the others had come, shared the gospel with the people of Thessalonica,

and some of them had gotten saved and formed the church there, and that it then went on,

and they attached the story of God's people being faithful to the gospel.

It doesn't save, right?

It's not a saving part of the story, but it is a testimony about being saved, okay?

So your testimony, what you came out of, what you've done, is attached to the gospel now.

If you were, let's see, I'm trying to research from some of our history, if you were a brawler

in high school, or sneaking around behind your parents' back, or if you were a drug

dealer or a prostitute, or if you were violent and beating people up, or whatever, and now

you're not, you're saved following Jesus, if there's been that change in your life,

and that is now attached to the gospel, it makes a statement about the gospel, it is

a witness to the gospel, and it is attached to the gospel in the sense that if I go out

and talk about our church, and I don't name names, and you're probably glad for that,

but I don't name names, but I tell them that we have a drug dealer, I tell them we have

a prostitute, I tell them we have a registered sex offender, I tell them that we have former

military guys who have had in the past issues with anger, I tell them we have a guy who

went through high school, and I'm talking about me, of course, when I say this, but

I don't tell them my name either, but I'll tell them that we have somebody who used to

fight all the time, was in trouble all the time, that we have thieves and liars who are

saved and no longer those things, because that's the kind of church we are, and it's

attached to the gospel.

If you tell people I have accepted Jesus Christ, I'm living for the Lord, and you're living

and you're all kind of like clean now, then they're not going to go, oh, well, God really

did a mighty thing in that person, they're going to say, well, so, you're all that and

a bag of chips, I mean, I see you're up on cloud nine, you're set up on a pedestal,

you're so much better than anybody I know, so of course you're living for the Lord, but

then when you throw in the fact of what you used to be, that gives testimony to the power

of the gospel.

And what Paul was saying was, we have heard that testimony, not about the Thessalonians,

but about Paul and those who came to them, we've heard the power of what God did in the

testimony, okay, that's what he's saying.

Then verse, let's go back to the beginning of 9, for they themselves report about us

what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve

a living and true God, so they were worshipping false idols, they had other things that were

important put up on a pedestal like God, and they put those things away and focused on

God from that moment on, and it's in the testimony of the other people in the other parts of

the region that Paul says he hears this.

It says, a living and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from

the dead.

I'm going to say to you that the word wait there is probably the most difficult and challenging

word in the gospel.

I was putting Ariana to bed a few nights ago, and we were talking about when Jesus comes

again, and we were talking about how, and she said, well, you know, one day we're all

going to die and go to heaven.

I said, well, not necessarily, and she said, well, no, that's true, because if Jesus comes

again then we won't die, and she said, Teddy, I really want him to come.

She doesn't want to die, I don't want to die.

If you want to die, I suggest you see a psychologist, I might be able to help you a little bit by

introducing you to Jesus, but the bottom line is people don't want to die, I don't want

to die, I don't want to die.

And so I would like it if Jesus came again before I die, even though I know that that

will be an end to the people getting saved, and I explained that to her, and I said, well,

you know, Jesus really wants to see everybody get saved, and I said, he's not slow like

some count slowness, but he's patient that all men may come to repentance, and he's patient

with us.

So we're supposed to be living for Jesus so that others can come, all right?

And so the point is, we are waiting, and it's painful sometimes, and I get that, we've talked

about that, for Jesus to come from heaven.

That Jesus whom God raised from the dead, he says, that is Jesus who delivers us from

the wrath to come.

We remember the wrath to come.

Listen, ain't nothing you've been through that compares with what would happen if you

made it to judgment day and don't know Jesus, right?

And so I have saved for vacation, and when the first day of vacation come, I've had my

vacation canceled, even though I saved up money.

We had to get our refund, our deposit from our cabin in Tennessee during COVID, because

we didn't get to go, and it's saved, and we're all excited to get some time off work, get

out of town, it's beautiful in the hills of Tennessee, it's going to be wonderful, and

then to find out we can't go because of COVID, because the place is closed, everything's

closed, right?

But I also have saved for vacation and got to the first day of vacation, packed up the

vehicle, which is always a lot of work, and get in the vehicle and driving, and we turn

on 75 south, most of the times, we're usually going south, not always, but a lot of times,

and we're going south, and I sing, south bound and down, picking up and trucking, and they

all chuckle because they knew I was going to do it, and we go, and the sun is shining,

even as if it's cold outside, the sun is shining, it's always shining, and we go on vacation.

When we get to the day of judgment, you're going to be looking at what could have happened

that day, how bad it could have been, and you're going to look at your aches, your pains,

your struggle with lust, your temptations, your family broken relationships, the people

who lost loved ones that died, and you were mourning their loss, you're going to look

at all of that and go, oh boy, that's all over now, I made it through, and here I am,

and I don't have to face the wrath of God now for an eternity, and you're going to praise

Him, and that's what the Thessalonians had turned to, that's what Paul preached, and

let's be realistic, that is what we are supposed to be teaching and indeed living out today.

And the fact that we forget when we're in the midst of trials about that day that is

coming, if you're believing every day on the day of judgment, if you're believing every

day on Jesus coming again, then when things go badly, it should be in your mind, Jesus

may be coming again, or He could be coming today, or next year, or whatever, all I have

to do is get through this to that moment in time when Jesus comes again.

And it totally transforms your thought process because it should be with you every waking

moment of every day, because it is who we are, this is what we are claimed by, and it's

also what we do.

Now we're on chapter 2.

He says, for you yourselves know, brethren, that at our coming to you, I'm sorry, that

our coming to you was not in vain, and that just simply means it was not without effect.

It definitely did something.

And they've already talked a little bit about what the something was, but He says it definitely

did something.

If you've heard the gospel of Jesus and you cannot connect to it a number of things that

were changed after you embraced the gospel, if you can't find anything, I'm basically

the same person but now I believed in Jesus, then there's a good chance that your believing

in Jesus didn't actually do anything.

You say, but that can't be possible.

Yes it can.

The demons believe in God and now have seen Jesus revealed and they tremble at the whole

thing.

The legion begs Jesus, are you going to torment us before the time?

They know who God is and they know the end.

They see the judgment day.

They know that they're going to spend an eternity in torment.

And if you are not affected by your knowledge of who Jesus is, then you're probably not

saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, but after we

had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, and they were, Paul and Silas got

in trouble for preaching the gospel there and wound up in jail and chains.

That's that episode where they're in the stocks and it's midnight or later and they're singing

praises in the prison in the stocks and sore and hurting on the ground and haven't eaten

and the jailer is home with his family next door or whatever and they're singing praises

and there's an earthquake and all the chains fall open and all the lights go out and the

jailer comes rushing in a little bit later and he's going to kill himself and Paul says,

no, no, no, we're all still here.

We didn't leave.

Don't kill yourself.

And the jailer says to him, what must I do to be saved?

That whole incident.

He says, though we were suffering and had been mistreated in Philippi, as you know,

we had the boldness in our God to speak to you, the gospel of God, amid much opposition.

So even though they were suffering, they went through all that in Philippi, they didn't

come over to Thessalonica and they're able to preach again the gospel in Thessalonica

amid much suffering.

There was a lot of bad things going on even though it was getting really bad and they

were being threatened, believers were being threatened, people were persecuted in the

streets, whatever.

The persecution was breaking out in fullness.

Even though that was true, they had the boldness in their God to speak the gospel of God, to

lead those people to Christ, even though they might die for it.

Once you've seen God, known God, been in God, once he's been in you, the fear is of losing

that, not of having that and losing the world.

And Paul says, so we were able to come with boldness to you amid, it means it was going

on right then, much tribulation.

Verse three, four, because, this is another because, a lot of becauses in here, because

our exhortation, our encouragement, that which comforts us, exhorts us, the word basically

in the Greek has several meanings, but it basically means that that which was pushing

them forward to do what was right, for our exhortation does not come from error, that

means it's not wrong.

I'm going to come back and break these down in my point, so I'll just go on, you know

what error is.

So error or impurity, means uncleanness or badness, or by way of deceit, that means not

through trickery.

But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, in other words,

God deemed us worthy, he tested us and saw us as fit to receive the gospel, just as we

have been entrusted by him with the gospel, so we speak.

They had to, God realized they were going to be worthy, they were going to do what he

wanted, that's why he shared the gospel with them.

He entrusted to men that he knew, or to women that he knew would go and take the gospel,

he entrusted the gospel to them.

He says we speak then, not as pleasing men, but God.

Again, if you know God and you know what God has done, then there's no reason to be worried

about what people think with regards to what God has done.

Let them take it up with him.

He says God who examines our hearts, God's testing our hearts, checking our hearts, knowing

where we actually stand, right?

Verse 5, for we never came with flattering speech, there's no reason to praise people

and say, oh I see you're smart, I see you're so good about that, please listen to the gospel

that I want to share with you.

You don't have to do that.

They never came with flattering speech, it's not comfortable, in case you hadn't noticed

this my preaching is rather kind of annoying.

I figured that out early on.

I say things that chafe.

It's not me, I'm saying what I think God wants me to say and so that's why I'm okay with

it.

And that's what he's saying, what we're teaching.

We're okay with saying that which you don't necessarily want to hear because it isn't

about what we want to say or about what you want to hear, it's about what God wants to

say.

And God will examine our hearts.

So if I stand before you and I'm gentle with you to the point that I don't share the gospel,

I'm doing you no service.

If I would come in here every Sunday and preach a fun loving gospel, we might get a heck of

a lot more people to come, but I'm doing you no service.

There's no growth in that and Paul said that too.

God examines our hearts, verse 5.

But we never came with flattering speech as you know, nor with a pretext for greed.

It doesn't benefit me.

God is witness.

God knows this is true.

Nor did we seek glory from men.

I'm doing this so that lots of people will come and put me on a pedestal.

Either from you or from others.

There was no one that Paul wanted validation from on this earth, I'll say.

Now he had validation from the church and if he hadn't, he would have wanted it, but

he didn't need to want it because he had it.

Outside the church, there's no validation necessary.

And if he didn't have it and the church would never get it, he would still have been great

because he was serving God.

He would have still been doing exactly what God wanted him to do.

So then it says, back to the nor did.

Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles

of Christ, we might have asserted our authority.

Hear that phrase?

He's saying, I could have told you what to do.

I could have told you that you needed to buy me a house.

Or that you needed to buy me a car.

Or that you needed to show up and do this for me or that for me.

Or that you needed to praise me.

I could have done all of that as a gospel.

I had the authority to tell you what to do.

I could have asserted my authority.

And he didn't.

He's saying, but I didn't.

That was not the point.

Verse 7 says, but we proved to be gentle among you.

Now, it doesn't mean gentle as in it doesn't bother you because the gospel is caustic.

It means gentle as in I wasn't trying to control you.

I'm not forcing you.

I'm not manipulating you.

I'm not preaching the gospel so that you will be and do exactly as I prefer rather than

as what God would prefer.

So we proved to be gentle among you.

And he uses this illustration of gentle.

He says, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

Having thus a fond affection for you.

In other words, I really wanted what was best for you.

I really cared about you.

He says, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God.

And we'll start there.

Not only the gospel.

I really wanted to share with you the truth of the gospel of God because I saw you were

and I longed for good things for you.

I loved you and wanted you to do well.

So not only to impart the gospel of God, but also our own lives.

And you can read that back into there was persecution developing and he's like, okay,

maybe they'll kill me for sharing the gospel, but I'm not gonna stop sharing the gospel

even if I should die because I'm willing to spend my life that people might come to Christ.

And then he says, because you had become very dear to us.

For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be

a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

You are witnesses and so is God how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward

you believers.

Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you

as a father would his own children so that you may walk in a manner worthy of God who

calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Which is the end goal, essentially, is that we all, me, you, everybody, people wouldn't

even know yet, who might share the gospel with, that we might eventually walk in a manner

worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Okay, there's a few things I want you to see in here.

And the truth is this could have been a sermon series, but it'll go by pretty quickly.

So if you're writing down, get ready.

Okay, so the first thing is I want you to see that this passage of scripture lays out

for us one of or some of the defining characteristics of the real gospel.

There is a gospel that is the real gospel and then there is a gospel that is altered

slightly to not be true or there is a gospel that is altered to be a complete falsehood.

Right?

There is a gospel in the world today which lots of folks, I don't usually do this or

use these words very much, but called the prosperity gospel basically says if you follow

Jesus then you'll have everything you want.

He'll take care of you.

And it's a big deal.

It's in mega churches all over the world.

Right?

There's a gospel that says unless you can speak in tongues, unless you can babble in

tongues in the worship service, you're not saved.

The Holy Spirit is not coming to your life unless you can speak in tongues.

That's a false gospel.

Okay?

There are other false, there's lots of false gospels, but there is a real gospel and this

passage of scripture lays out some of the characteristics for us of the real gospel.

First of all, the real gospel is boldly delivered.

If somebody comes to you meekly or if they come to you by way of manipulation or whatever

means and they're sharing the truth of Jesus Christ and they're not bold about it, they're

not sure about it, they're not firm about it, they act like well I think this is true,

right?

I want to talk to you about Jesus but I kind of don't know, whatever.

That's not the gospel.

That's a problem because we all know in this room, I hope you did if you haven't because

we talked about it just during the inspirational moment, that we're supposed to be sharing

what we learn about a disciple as somebody who learns from Jesus, not learns from Dan

or Pastor Bob or some guy in Texas doing an evangelistic show on TV or something, but

learns from Jesus and then takes what they learn from Jesus and shares it with other

people and I submit to you that if it is the gospel, if what you're learning from Jesus

is attached to the gospel, then you will boldly share it and if you cannot boldly share it,

then you need to go back and ask yourself if what you learned was the gospel of Jesus

Christ.

And that's a problem because I see a lot of lack in ourselves and in others of boldly

sharing the gospel in the world today.

So I'm wondering, are we coming to the point in time where Jesus is going to come again

very soon because he's going to go, well we're pretty much at the point where the real gospel

of Jesus isn't being shared that much so people aren't really going to get saved and so once

nobody else is going to get saved, may as well end it, right?

Call it.

It's done.

The gospel is boldly delivered, always.

You don't say, I think Jesus came to save our sins.

You say, I know Jesus.

You don't even have to say I know.

Just say, Jesus came to save us from our sins.

Period.

Or exclamation point, depending on the argument that you're in or our discussion you're having.

Whatever.

Just Jesus came to save us.

Not only that, but he definitely did do that.

He became sin for us.

He who knew no sin became sin for us.

That we might become the righteousness of God through him.

I know that.

I can say it.

When I was in high school I was writing essays and I would write in my essay, I think.

I know.

It is my point or my conclusion that.

My teacher came up to me and she said, listen you don't have to do that.

This is a personal essay.

Everyone that's reading this essay knows who wrote the essay and they know when you say

something that it's your opinion.

You don't have to say, in my opinion, Jesus was in heaven before he came to earth.

He came down to earth and was revealed among men.

The angels recognized him.

He was eventually proclaimed in the nations.

Believed on by men.

Rose again in glory.

You don't have to say those things like, that's my opinion.

I think it's true.

I know you disagree but, no you just say it.

When they say to you they don't believe it, you still just say it.

You say, well I get it.

I understand that's not what you think.

I also understand you're wrong.

And I know.

Because I have met the risen savior.

He lives within me.

You stop going it's my opinion or I think.

You may have to ask them what their opinion is.

But once they've told you what their opinion is, you just tell them what the truth is.

Have you read what the bible says about that?

It says, this is what's true.

I know it's true because this is what's happened to me.

The gospel is delivered boldly.

Gospel is also delivered gently.

You're going to run into some people who just don't agree with you.

You know?

And they'll say don't talk to me about it anymore.

I had a good friend of mine who did that.

And for five years I obeyed his wishes and didn't talk to him.

And I wrote him a letter and I said, I'm writing you this letter explaining you to the truth

about Jesus because you asked me not to talk to you about it.

I apologize in advance that this letter offends you but if you have some response I'd love

to hear it.

A couple days later he said, get this.

I read your letter.

We can talk about that some more.

See?

It was delivered gently.

If they don't want to hear it, they don't have to hear it.

But if they've never heard it and they don't want to hear it, they do have to hear it.

You say, I understand you don't want me to talk to you about Jesus but I need to tell

you just one time.

I don't want to hear it.

Okay.

Then listen.

If you're not going to even hear it just one time from me, if you will not understand or

care about what I believe in at all, then you and I are done.

Shake the dust off your feet and walk away.

But if they'll hear it one time and disagree with it, then you can come back again and

again and gently deliver the truth.

And treating them to accept the truth.

Not your opinion, but boldly, simply put, this is what's real.

This is the reality.

Will you believe it?

The gospel is also gently delivered.

In other words, when you're talking to a sailor on the port side telling them about Jesus,

you don't cuss like he does.

You say, but he may not understand me.

No, he'll understand you.

Okay.

He'll wonder why are you not cussing at him probably because everybody does it.

But you just explain gently the truth and ask for a decision.

You may say to somebody that's a perfect stranger, like I would never do this, but you just might

want to do this because it's exactly what God called us to.

You're talking to them for a few minutes and they said, listen, I love you.

I would be remiss if I didn't explain this to you.

I know you think we're just having a professional conversation or we're talking about whatever

here, but if I don't explain this truth to you, I am remiss.

I will not have been doing what God wanted me to do.

So I'm asking you, please just listen to me and treat them.

I recently had a confrontation with a brother who was a Christian and I couldn't figure

out how to handle it.

I didn't handle it well.

I didn't.

And after the fact, a couple of days later, I said to the Lord, I said, Lord, I did everything

I could do to get this person to understand what I was talking about.

I tried to explain it to them.

And the Lord said, no, you did not.

And I was like, but Lord, I tried to explain to them.

I used all my guile and all that, everything I could.

And I prayed to you for wisdom.

I asked for everything.

And he said, you didn't get down on your knees.

And I realized that had I gotten down on my knees in front of that man who was virtually

a stranger to me, now I hadn't talked to him in almost 10 years, but had I gotten down

on my knees in front of that man, he would have listened to what I said.

He might not have agreed.

It might not have gone well.

But had I got, I was in a public, in a restaurant, and had I gotten down on my knees in the restaurant,

and I said, please just listen to me for a moment.

I do not want this rift between us.

Had I done that, at the very least, he would have said, now get up.

You're making a scene, at the very least.

But I was still stuck, still too prideful, still too arrogant.

He said, no, that's not me.

And I don't think of myself that way.

And the more you don't think you're prideful and arrogant, probably the more you are.

But I never even considered it.

But if I had gotten down on my knees in that restaurant, in front of him, our problem would

be resolved now.

But I didn't do it.

The gospel is delivered gently.

The gospel is delivered faithfully, on and on and on.

It's in your mind all the time.

I'm saved, freed from the day of judgment, inhabited by the Holy Spirit all the time.

Literally everything.

It doesn't matter if you're cranking on a wrench or pushing a broom or watching TV.

The gospel should be in your head.

It should be there.

You're thinking about it.

It's in your heart.

It's being risen up by the Holy Spirit.

He literally witnesses to the gospel and against sin in the hearts of all people, including

the saved.

The main difference is in the saved.

We know what's happening.

I know you don't want to hear that you're screwing up when you're screwing up.

Nobody does.

I don't want to either.

But he's there all the time.

And so he should be there all the time.

If you're more worried about what you're ordering than whether or not your server's going to

hell, don't go to a restaurant.

If you're more worried about paying the right amount for your groceries than whether the

cashier is going to hell or not, don't go to a grocery store.

Pretty soon you'll be a recluse.

And it'll be the opposite of what Jesus called you to because he said, my power will come

upon you and you will go and be my witness to the nations.

The gospel is faithfully delivered.

You know somebody who has said they don't want to hear it and you've not talked to them

about it for a long time or they just clearly live in a lifestyle that's contrary to the

gospel.

You're not talking to them about it.

But the gospel is faithfully delivered.

You might have to say something like, well you know what Jesus would say about that.

And they'll go, yeah, yeah, I don't want to hear it.

But at least you brought up the name of Jesus.

You did something.

What is going on with this gospel of ours?

We are supposed to be faithfully, gently, and boldly delivering it all the time.

That is the nature of the gospel.

And any gospel that is some kind of gospel that you have that's not boldly, gently, and

faithfully delivered is not the gospel that Paul preached.

And Paul only preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so by correlation and substitution, if your gospel is not gently, faithfully, and

boldly delivered, you might want to reassess and start back from ground zero and build

something that will last for an eternity.

And our gospel exists and remains true in the middle of and over top of opposition.

So you're hurting today.

The gospel is the same gospel today as it was yesterday.

So you're headed for trouble today.

You see it developing.

Oh man.

The gospel is the same today as it was yesterday.

You lost a loved one.

You're hurting in your heart.

You're aching in pain.

You don't know if they were saved or not.

Join the club.

You don't know if I'm saved.

I don't know for sure you're saved.

Nobody knows who's saved.

Only God knows that.

There's a wide spectrum.

Well, I'm pretty sure they weren't saved because they live like a piece of dirt wrapped up

in drugs and alcohol and violence all the time.

And I've had families come to me and ask me, I don't do funerals for people who are not

connected to the church.

But I've had families ask me that, will you come do this funeral for this person?

And he was a dirt bag.

And he's definitely not saved.

But my family will be there and I want them to hear the gospel.

And I'll say, I'm sorry, I don't do funerals for folks who are not attached to the church.

So you need to be in a church.

Have your pastor do it.

Well, I'm living for the Lord, but I'm not in the church.

Well, you know what Jesus says about that, don't you?

Well, yeah, I know what he says, but I don't go to church because I don't need that.

And I'll say, for all I know, the person you're talking about that was a dirt bag wrapped

up in drugs and alcohol is just as saved as you are.

Because you're telling me you're not in the church.

You're telling me he's not in the church.

But you're telling me about his sins.

Shall we talk about yours?

This is bold.

I try to be as gentle as I can.

And the truth is sometimes I don't say it because I'm a coward inside other than in

Christ when Jesus speaks through me.

The gospel is boldly, gently, faithfully delivered in the middle of all opposition and over top

of all opposition, or it ain't the gospel.

And this chastises me as much as it might anybody because I've gone to the grocery store

in the middle of my most difficult days and never mentioned how blessed I was, never mentioned

Jesus, never mentioned God, never shared the gospel.

I need to get my stuff ready.

I'm going to get paid.

Okay.

Put your car in the machine.

Okay.

I couldn't tell you the hair color of the person who rang me out.

Because I've been in the middle of opposition and I have dismissed the gospel offhand.

And having seen this in the text, I'm telling you right now I have repented and I pray it

never be so.

Because the gospel of Jesus Christ is boldly, gently, faithfully delivered in the middle

of and over top of all opposition, or it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Maybe it's the gospel of Jesus Christ from Mexico.

But it ain't the gospel of Jesus unless it's boldly, gently, faithfully in the middle of

and over top of all opposition delivered.

And I will not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus because in it is the power of salvation.

Secondly, in this text, that was just the first one.

The real gospel.

Secondly, we keep going gently and boldly because, need a little encouragement, don't

we?

After that first one, God's got to help me.

Because next week I'm going to be having a rough day and I'm now committed to share the

gospel or talk about being, like I always use the, I'll say, how are you doing today

and I say blessed.

And I've had people go right from there to, let's talk about Jesus.

Saved and unsaved people both because they know the word blessed is a Bible word.

It's like a trigger, right?

One old lady, she's probably like 75 years old, but she was working as a receptionist

at the dentist or something and I said to her, she said, how are you doing today?

And I said, I'm blessed.

And she said, oh, I like that answer.

I like that answer.

Let's talk about that.

Just like that.

And it turned out she was already a professing Christian and saved and she's a member of

something something Methodist church or whatever and we agreed to meet at the tree when we

get to heaven.

We keep going gently and boldly because, number one, our encouragement to us and from us has

these traits.

Number one, it is not based in error.

Listen to me, I'm going to say it.

I probably never said it.

This is the simple truth.

When there was no mediator for men, when there was no one who could go to God and say, forgive

them for what they have done, no one was left.

Moses did it.

Abraham did it.

But now no one is left.

There was no righteous man anywhere on the earth left that could go to God and say, please

forgive them for what they had done.

God himself came in the flesh as Jesus Christ the son, lived a sinless life, died on the

cross, a sinner's death, though he was found not guilty by the only person who legally

could have put him on the cross.

He washed his own hands and said, I will not be guilty of the blood of this man because

he has done nothing wrong to deserve crucifixion.

But he turned him over to what should have been his own people.

You think you got proud with your own people?

People look down on you, people give you trouble, people make a space between you and them.

His own people took him to the cross.

He's in the guard that had been assigned to the temple, Roman soldiers, and they crucified

him until to take a breath, he had to push up to exhale so he could get another breath

as his ripped open back ground along the cross.

I get it's crucifixion.

Jesus died on that cross 100% absolutely certain.

To be sure when they came and checked him, normally they'd break your legs so you couldn't

breathe anymore and you die pretty quickly after that, like within a minute or two.

But they didn't have to break his legs because he was already dead.

He's a Roman trained Roman soldier who knew he was already dead.

But because he could not risk because if that man comes out of that cross and it's somehow

resuscitated that Roman soldier sacrifices his life.

Because he couldn't risk it, he ran his spear through his side into his heart and penetrated

his heart and out flowed blood and water.

Water first and then blood.

And the doctors of that day couldn't have explained it to you, but we know it's because

around your heart when you're under extreme duress, water develops.

And so when he punched that spear into his heart and pulled it back out, the water came

out first and then the blood in that order, in the text, because they couldn't know why,

but that's what happened.

He died on the cross, not when he stabbed him in the heart, he was already dead.

Then Joseph of Arimathea came, claimed the body.

They took him to a grave that he had set aside for himself and buried him there, put him

in the tomb, but it was getting dark and going into the festival Sabbath and they couldn't

do any work to put him in the grave.

They didn't stay in the grave.

On the third day, he rose again, came back to life, was seen by many hundreds, thousands

of people teaching at one point in time, 500 people at once, staying with the disciples

for 40 days, teaching them everything they needed to know to start the church.

Then ultimately in the garden, they stood there and they watched him arise into heaven

until he was blocked by a cloud, the scripture says.

While they were standing there still gazing into heaven, two men dressed in dazzling white

clothes came and said to them, why are you standing here staring up in the cloud?

Don't worry about it, just as he left, he's going to come back.

It's going to be a big deal.

You don't have to stand here and wait, it ain't going to be right now.

Go do what he told you to do.

And then they went and they hid in the upper room because they were afraid themselves of

being crucified or persecuted to that point and they hid.

But then on Pentecost, they came out and they preached to a crowd of people of all kinds

of mixed people who had different languages from all over the place and couldn't possibly

understand them.

They said, this is what happened.

They told the truth.

And all those people who didn't speak common, which would have been Greek, they didn't speak

a language that could be understood like English and American, now spread throughout the world.

They didn't have that language.

They understood in their own language.

And that day, three thousand people were baptized, men plus how many other women and children.

And then they went back to cities all over, because they were there for festivals.

They left there and they went everywhere.

And they started to share the truth of Jesus Christ, that he was God of the flesh, died

on the cross, rose again, proved once and for all the death of sin.

And sin itself was dead.

Rose again to prove that there is resurrection.

Listen to me.

That's all true.

It's all true.

A little bit of it and more.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, we keep sharing it faithfully, boldly, gently, in the middle

of opposition and over top of opposition, first of all, because it is not based in error.

There is nothing wrong with the truth.

And if the world is trying to do away with it, that only proves how valuable it is.

The truth is the truth.

If you want to take the gentle out of it and be a jerk, if you want to take the boldness

out of it and be a coward, if you want to take the faithfulness out of it and be lazy

or distracted by the world, you're too busy, you want to go camping, you want to go to

Cedar Point, you want to go to auctions, you want to go to flea markets, you want to go

to the gun show, you want to go to work on your car some more, put on some new tires,

you want to, you got things you got to do other than share the gospel.

That gospel is in error, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is not.

The truth is the truth.

That gospel is also, and therefore we can proclaim it this way, not based in impurity.

I mean, let's get real.

I want to say this to you about me, about Dan Stevenson.

Only everything except for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fruit it has fostered, everything

except for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fruit it has fostered that's in me is

in impurity.

Left to myself, I would have ruined my marriage.

Left to myself, I would have spent years wrapped up in pornography.

I would have been with other women.

Odds are I would have gotten wrapped up in drugs or alcohol.

I would have pursued money and the freedom that money offers.

I know because I was doing that.

Dan Stevenson outside the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fruit that it makes in me is

a worthless piece of dirt doomed to go back into the dust and soul rot in hell for eternity.

That's who I am if it were not for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the effect that it has

had in me and he has had in me.

If you can't boldly understand and faithfully proclaim and gently deliver, you need to understand

you still think it's something about you is good.

You still think it's something about you is worthy of eternity.

I'll tell you what about you is worthy of eternity.

It's the love of Jesus Christ.

That's what about you.

God made you, started you, you're intelligent.

Yes, you're capable.

Yes, you can fix it.

Yes, you can break it.

Yes, you can do a lot of things but it ain't none of that any good outside of Jesus.

Jesus said outside of me, you can do nothing.

Until you figure that out, you're still thinking about some kind of gospel that's just blessing

you because you're a pretty good person.

The gospel, the truth of Jesus, that synopsis I just gave you, His Holy Spirit coming to

live in the church, the church being called to minister the gospel to other people, all

of that is absolutely true.

There is no error in it and it is not based in impurity.

You just can't do what you would otherwise want to do but you can do everything He wants

you to do.

You're able and He will make you able beyond your wildest dreams, ultimately for an eternity.

This gospel that we're talking about also did not come by way of deceit.

That means we were not deceived, tricked into believing what we believed.

We actually believed it because it was actually true.

It didn't come by any way of deceit.

There are those who will pay you, they will literally pay you money to be saved.

They'll flatter you.

They'll literally encourage you and tell you how beautiful, how strong, how smart.

Now we should be encouraging one another all the time using those kinds of words toward

each other and that's all good but they'll do that in order to get you to come to Jesus.

There are people, you know how many times the Jehovah's Witnesses have said they knew

the exact date and time when Jesus was coming back?

Their order grew because they put out the date.

They knew they had discovered and could argue for how they knew that Jesus was coming back

on a certain day.

They did that either two or three times.

In apprehension of that date every time, many people got saved in their halls.

Not in their church because they're not the church.

And if somebody watches this video or listens to our podcast later, I'll stand in front

of you today and tell you that the Jehovah's Witness religion is a cult and anybody who's

wrapped up in it has bought into a false gospel.

I'm not trying to be political but I'll tell you it's a fact.

Just look at what they believe.

It's a lie.

It stands in contrast to Jesus Christ.

So they get people to come.

Years ago, Josh, if you remember this, Josh was working at a little grocery store downtown

in Toledo.

There was a guy who came in and was talking to him and he was interested in things of

Christ but really he was in a bad spot.

He didn't have anywhere to live.

He needed some help.

That's basically his profession.

So Josh called me up and he said, you know, he's going to come in again tomorrow.

He's been coming in day after day.

What do I tell him?

And I said, well, first of all, you tell him we'll help him.

We'll figure it out.

Share Jesus.

Tell him about Jesus.

Whatever.

But the next time he came in, he had run into two Mormon guys who were living downtown.

And those guys brought him with them to live in their apartment.

They put a roof over his head.

And they told him about their version of the gospel.

They told him about Mormonism, which is not the gospel.

But he believed it because they did something for him.

Because they showed him compassion for their version thereof.

And unfortunately, if he believes the gospel, that is what the Mormons teach.

That means he didn't, he's not going to heaven.

He's not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

He's not become a follower.

Now, that doesn't mean there can't be a person who calls themselves a Jehovah's Witness wrapped

up in that false gospel that saved or the person who calls themselves Mormon, but they're

actually saved.

It can happen.

And those religions are false religions.

They're cults and they're teaching lies.

A warped version of the gospel that does not lead people to Jesus.

But amazingly, they have continued to faithfully and boldly proclaim it in the middle of opposition.

Even gently.

But they've left out the truth.

It's in error.

And people are led to it out of their desires to be part of something.

The gospel that we preach, the gospel that we teach is boldly, gently, faithfully delivered

in the middle of an over opposition.

That gospel is not in error and it is not of impurity and it does not come by way of

deceit.

That's why it's so important that if you're witnessing somebody and they ask you a question,

they say, well, what about this?

If you don't know the answer, you don't make it up.

And you don't say, I think it's this.

You say, I'll help you find the answer and we'll be sure.

Because our gospel doesn't come by way of deceit.

Also, our gospel, and the last thing on this list, is not fruitless.

Those who believe and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, those who come into relationship

with Him and He comes and lives in them through God's Holy Spirit, will be affected.

They will be changed.

They will deliver a fruit into their lives that could not have otherwise been there.

It will be not a fruit of impurity, not a fruit of deceit, not a fruit in error.

It will be good things, love, peace, patience, kindness, and you know the list.

Or you can look it up, Galatians 5.22.

I could probably do the whole thing, but you get the point.

God is doing a work in His church.

And if God is not doing a work in you, then you need to go back and look at the gospel

of Jesus Christ such as it was delivered unto you.

Make sure that it was delivered not in error, not in impurity, not in deceit.

You need to ask yourself, is it a boldly proclaimed, gently delivered, faithfully delivered, in

the midst of opposition, overtop of opposition gospel, or is it not?

This will lead them to us and we will have to do a little less hunting to find somebody

because they will see the difference, they will know the difference, and they will come

looking.

The third point then is that we were able to do this.

We are able to do this because, number one, we were approved by God to be entrusted with

this message.

If you are here today and have never truly accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,

the fact that you are receiving the invitation today means that God is checking your heart.

He is deciding, are you able, worthy, in me, with my help?

All the time I do marriage Bible study with husbands and wives and I ask the husband to

look at the woman by lesson four and I say, I want you to look at her, the husband to

be, I say I want you to look at her and decide, with God's help, can she be the woman for

you?

Now, I look at her and I say, with God's help, can he be the woman for you?

It's believing in God, it's trusting in God, but it's trusting in God if they are going

to use that person.

And it's the same way.

We have been approved by God to be entrusted, if we have become followers of Jesus Christ,

with this powerful message that meets these characteristics and more.

If you were entrusted with it and then you put it in your closet, kept it in your wallet

or under your dusty Bible, then you are betraying the trust with which you were entrusted.

We are approved by God to be entrusted with this Gospel.

And to do so not as pleasing men.

In other words, you can proclaim the Gospel, tell people about Jesus, this truth about

Jesus.

It is very, just go try to tell a Muslim that Jesus Christ died on the cross.

They don't believe in Jesus as Lord and they don't believe that he was the Son of God.

They think he was a prophet like Mohammed, but they deny that he died on the cross.

Not because the body of Jesus, they say, and correct me if I get this wrong, but I think

I got it right, they say that Judas' soul was transported into Jesus' body on the cross.

And so it was Jesus' body, but it was Judas who died.

Because they can't believe that a prophet of God would die on the cross.

You follow my logic?

Just go try to tell them Jesus died on the cross.

It will be a sticking point, it won't be the only one, there will be many.

We are approved and trusted with the Gospel, we need not worry about pleasing men.

It doesn't have to be something you like, that if you don't follow Jesus you'll spend

hell and eternity.

You don't have to like that.

And delivering that part of the message is usually not going to be gentle, you shouldn't

go there until you really know God wants you to go there.

And treat them to heaven.

I do the evangelist cube and it shows heaven on the top and hell on the bottom and there's

got Jesus' hand helping the guy to get up to the top, you know, to get up to heaven.

And I say, and that's what we believe, and Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, we'll go

to heaven.

And then I say, and if not, there's the alternative, and I just tap the fire.

I don't say you're going to hell if you don't believe, I just say, but if not, there's the

alternative.

They already know.

There's not a human on the face of the earth that doesn't know.

They may disagree with it, they may not like it, not be pleased by it, but there's nobody

on the face of the earth that doesn't know.

Because if they were treated the way they treat other people, they would want that person

to suffer.

They would want that person to be corrected, to face justice.

And so then if they really would examine the way they have acted, they'd say, well, I know

what I deserve.

You don't have to tell them they're going to hell.

They already know it.

The fact is, if they are not knowing Jesus to some degree, they're already living the

beginnings of it.

Because they're without God, which is what hell will really be, an eternity without God.

It's not going to be pleasing.

It's not going to be pleasing to your kids, it's not going to be pleasing to your friends,

it's not going to be pleasing to your coworkers, it was not pleasing to me.

It's still not pleasing to me to think that if I had not accepted Jesus Christ, I would

be in hell for eternity when I die.

We don't have to worry about pleasing people, we have to worry about saving people.

Never ever deliver this with flattering speech because it is clear and simple.

Don't say, look, I know you're smart enough to understand this, what I'm trying to tell

you today.

Don't say, I know you'll get it, give yourself a little time, you're going to come around

to this truth.

No, just tell them the truth and ask them to believe.

Let's stop playing games.

We were approved to be entrusted with the gospel, we must not add or subtract anything

to it or from it.

Also, you cannot preach this gospel with a pretext for greed.

Entrusted with the gospel such as it is, we cannot benefit by it.

Do you understand me?

We do.

We can do about it, but it's got to be totally in the Lord's hands.

If you think you're following Jesus to get healed, to feel better, to help your relationships

so you'll do better, I can't tell you how people come to church and they go, I really

need God in my life.

Yes, you do.

Not the way you think, not what you're saying, not as a protector or provider to give you

a bunch of stuff, but you need God in your life.

Ultimately, He is the only thing you need, but we're not there yet.

Don't do it because you love them more than you love somebody else.

The saved need Jesus.

There is, Jesus said, the resources are in the harvest.

Our church will be blessed and grow and be financially successful.

We will do well.

There will be more money in the deacons' fund, which means if you can't pay your rent, there

will be somebody to pay your rent for you.

If you go tell more people about Jesus, there's a bigger safety net.

It's more comfortable.

The room will be more filled.

You'll have more authorization, more authentication.

You'll know that the gospel is true because there will be more people coming.

So there are 2,000 people that sit in the megachurch that preach the prosperity gospel.

That has nothing to do with Jesus.

They don't even mention the name of Jesus for six, nine months at a time.

Their gospel is more authenticated, right, because they have more people.

No, that's a lie.

That's what the world would teach you.

You cannot deliver this gospel into the world believing that you will benefit by it.

Otherwise, you are a sorcerer, not a Christian, and you're still going to hell.

But if you will deliver the gospel because it's who we are and what we do and what we've

been entrusted with, because it's not based in error, not based in impurity, not by way

of deceit, not fruitless.

It changes people, affects people, makes them possible.

It brings to life the dead.

You'll do it for that reason.

Seeking no glory from men, then maybe you're actually saving and sharing the gospel.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the one that could save everybody.

It starts with one man telling as many people as possible, and then every one of them tells

as many people as possible, and everyone of them tells as many people as possible.

And this is the plan that Jesus had for saving the world.

And he is patient with us that all men may come to repentance.

The last one on this list, and then we're in the conclusion, is not asserting authority.

I sat with a man and a woman in their living room, and I was trying to share the gospel

with her, and she was having what was considered to be schizophrenic episodes.

She was hearing voices.

But the voices were always telling her things, mostly about God, or about the Bible, or about

her husband, or about their marriage, or whatever.

She was hearing all these voices and it was affecting her.

And so her husband, who was a professing Christian, but not truly a walker of the Lord, called

me to their house to witness to them, especially her.

He really wanted her to get saved because he couldn't stand her the way she was.

So I'm sharing it, and every time I'm trying to share it, he's trying to talk.

I'm talking about what the Bible says, and every time I would talk, right in the middle

of the sentence, he'd start talking.

Yeah, that's that.

Yeah, it's this.

He doesn't actually say this, or where is it?

That's in the book of sons.

Finally, I looked at him and I said, listen to me.

And he said, yeah.

I said, I want you to sit there and shut up.

Just like that.

Now that's bold, but I was beyond the point of gentle.

I had tried cautioning him a couple of times before I got there, but I said, I want you

to sit there and shut up.

From that point on, you know what he did?

He sat there and shut up for roughly 20 minutes.

She and I, and whoever was affecting her, talked for about 20 minutes through the gospel.

But ultimately, she prayed to accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

Later, he would tell me that he felt somehow spiritually compelled to be quiet.

So then I explained to him that it was probably because he wasn't walking with the Lord, and

it was evil spirits that were affecting him, trying to get him to talk up so it would stop

his wife from getting saved, because all I was trying to do was share the simple gospel.

I had nothing at stake.

She had everything at stake, and he kept chiming in.

I could tell you three more stories just like that.

Perry and I went witnessing to a guy who had evil spirits in his house.

I'll share this one very quick.

While we were there, he had claimed to be a Muslim, which is why I took Perry with me.

About halfway through the conversation, Perry said, you ain't no Muslim.

The guy said, well, my family is, and if they found out I became a Christian, I'd be in

all kinds of trouble.

He wanted us to rebuke the demons in his house, which we'd already done twice.

Tim Mitchell went with me once, and somebody else went another time.

We'd already done it twice, and they kept coming back.

I said, dude, the problem is, you're not saved.

That's the problem.

You're not saved.

I said, until you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, they're not going to leave

you alone.

You're at their whim.

You remember this conversation?

Yeah.

He ultimately prayed to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

He then called me about two months later and tried to pay me $28,000, to which I said,

no, I wouldn't take it.

I said, I can't do that.

That would be like me taking money for explaining the gospel.

I can't do that.

I said, if you want to donate that money to the church, you can.

Bob O'Hara was the treasurer of the church at that time, back when we were on Main Street.

I said, what I'll do is I'll call Bob, the treasurer, and you and him can meet at the

bank, and you can give the money to him, and it'll go to the church and proceed.

Kingdom of God will be advanced, whatever, buy your money.

I said, that's what you want to do.

You can do that.

That's completely on you.

He said, I'll get the check right now.

I said, no, I'm not going to take a check from you.

I won't do it.

So you can give it to the church, but you can't give it to me.

He didn't.

But the point is, we got to the moment where I had authority in his house, and I was able

to say, listen to me, you will do this, or you will face this over and over again.

If you're in this room and you're following some kind of gospel, other than that, if you're

wondering why there are evil spirits roaming your house, it's because you're unwilling

to boldly declare, unwilling to gently deliver, unwilling to faithfully deliver, unwilling

to stand up in the midst of trials and oppositions and overtop of trials and oppositions, because

your gospel is a weak gospel, probably delivered to you in error or in impurity or by deceit,

or it's fruitless in you, and you need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior

and walk into your house and say, Jesus rules here.

In the movie Prayer Room, the woman comes out of her prayer room and she found out that

her husband was right then, at that moment, meeting with a woman that he was planning

on having an affair with, and they'd been fighting.

And so she prayed, said, God, don't let him do this.

Don't do it.

And she had already gone through her house and said, get out of here, Satan.

And she literally rebuked Satan in the name of Christ and kicked him out.

And so she's in it, she's in it praying for her husband, said, don't let him do this.

And he's at dinner, all of a sudden he starts getting upset.

And he's like, oh, man, he goes to the bathroom, he's like, I'm going to have to pass on this.

And he goes back to the woman, he says, I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well, I'm going to

pass on this.

And then the next day he loses his job.

And he comes to his wife and he says, I lost my job.

And she says, God's going to take care of us, we're going to pray about this.

And he's like, why aren't you coming at me?

Why are we not fighting and arguing like we always have done?

And she said, because God is in charge here.

God is in charge of me.

I am a Christian.

And I love you.

And I want what's best for you.

I had a young man who was coming to church here and he wanted to meet with me.

And so I met with him and he said, well, I've got these three problems.

I'm supposed to do this, this, and this, I've got to deal with.

What should I do?

Problem number one, what am I supposed to do?

And I said, well, that's not how this works.

And he said, I just want you to tell me what to do.

And I said, that's not who I am.

I said, first of all, I'm not your pastor.

You're not part of my church.

So I'm just here as your friend today.

So you want me to tell you what the Bible says, I'll tell you.

And we'll figure it out together.

And he said, no, that's too much work.

I just want you to tell me.

There is a church in the city of Toledo, and if Tony Tate was here, he'd witness this because

he's been in that situation, where they'll tell you what to do.

So if you want to follow Jesus and you need somebody to tell you what to do, you can go

to that church.

It's not the gospel.

You probably aren't saved.

You probably won't get saved there, but you can go there and they'll tell you what to

do.

And it's not just one church.

The churches like that all over the world will tell you what to do.

But guess what?

I'm not going to tell you what to do.

I'll tell you about the gospel.

I'll tell you what God wants us to do.

Now you decide what you're going to do.

That's what our invitation is all about.

I don't stand up and I say, OK, Aaron, you've been going through some stuff.

Come on, come respond to the invitation.

And many times I stand up here and there's nobody to respond to the invitation.

And if there isn't, there isn't.

If you don't need to respond, don't.

But if God puts it on your heart to do so and you don't, then you answer to Him.

I have no authority over you.

However, God has measured my heart and has entrusted to me the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And I'm entrusting it to you because I believe that He's called you to do and be what it

is we're talking about.

And you need to respond.

But I'm not going to call you out and tell you to respond.

I'm not going to make you feel guilty if you don't.

Lots of churches, because they don't want to do that, they just cancel the invitation

altogether.

But if there's no invitation, there's no gospel.

The conclusion is simple.

It's this.

Once affected by this truth and the God-given encouragement that they're talking about, which

comes not based on error, not based on impurity, not by way of deceit, not fruitless, boldly,

gently, faithfully, that God-given encouragement that comes, you will never be okay again.

That's what I figured out.

Since what happened to me, I started attending East Luton Baptist Church.

I went there for six months and I started thinking what they were saying was true.

But then I realized on Sunday morning I couldn't be anywhere else because the truth was there.

So I always came to hear the truth.

Something was affecting me, but I wasn't saved, so I didn't know what it was.

And I started saying, I've got to do something.

Because I know this truth, if I don't respond to it, I'll never be okay again.

Finally, after six months of sitting in the back pew, and I said, I've got to do something.

It was like something was pushing me up out of my seat.

Something had grabbed a hold of my heart and was pulling me forward to tell the church

that I would live for Jesus.

When I turned my foot out, I was so afraid of going up there, I didn't think I could

walk down the aisle.

But as soon as I turned my foot out, the next thing I know, and I've rehearsed this in my

mind now for 26 years, the next thing I know, I was standing nose to nose with the pastor

like this telling him I wanted to live for the Lord Jesus Christ.

I didn't have to walk the aisle because as soon as I went like this, I was there.

You say you don't believe in teleportation?

Well, I blacked out or something, and I was there.

Because I knew, as long as I knew this truth about who Jesus was and what He had done and

what He wanted to do in me and through me, I would never be okay again unless I responded.

Unless I did what it was He was calling me to do.

And so I did it.

And then I started living it, and then this is what happened.

I'm being transparent here.

Bad things happen.

I'm in a position, I'm in a difficulty.

Things fell apart.

Things didn't go the way I wanted them to.

This last week, twice.

This last week, twice, I was so angry, I was literally ready to hurt someone or something

twice in one week.

One of them had to do with a dear friend of mine, it was a difficult spot, and I felt

like that person had been betrayed, they betrayed themselves, and I was ready to hurt somebody.

And I had to call and confide in a brother, and I'm sure he heard it in my voice and would

testify if I gave him permission to, of what I was saying.

It was a confidential conversation.

And then there was another time, and the other time I confided in my wife.

And I told her, I said, you don't understand, I am so angry right now.

I am literally ready to hurt, I'm like going to explode.

I have to say this, you have to hear what I have to say, and we have to try to figure

out what we're going to do about this because it is an injustice and we've got to fix it.

I was so angry.

But in the midst of that, I thought, well, but I'm okay.

But that's not in the gospel.

The world of God is in the gospel.

Heir and joint heir of Jesus, that's in the gospel.

Headed for eternity in heaven, that's in the gospel.

Saved from the judgment that will come on the day Jesus returns again, that's in the

gospel.

None of those things sound like okay.

If at the beginning of the football season, the coach came and he said, listen, I know

for a fact.

I had a time machine, I traveled to the end of the season.

I saw us winning state.

We went all the way through the season, good enough record, whatever that was, and we went

to the playoffs and we won, and we went to state.

I read the headlines.

I know for a fact, I've just come back from a time machine, I know for a fact that I have,

this team, the team that's right here in this room, we won state this year.

I know it because I was there and I saw it.

Can't be changed.

If the team believes in, they can't be okay after that.

Right?

They're not going to go, oh, you know, we just gave up a touchdown, but we're okay because

at the end of the season, we win state.

They're going to go off the field, you know how they like shake their finger in the fist

of another player.

They're going to say, yeah, but we win state, baby.

Not okay.

Right?

If we win in the end, we're not okay.

We're great.

If Jesus is actually building a mansion for you in heaven right now with the color furniture

you like, you're not okay.

You're not okay when you're dying.

You've heard the song, Eyes of the Storm, possibly, if you haven't, look it up.

Arianna and I were singing it like two days in a row, singing it, we sang it like 40 times

and I still can only remember like 10% of the words, but when he's singing, I can do

more.

You get that notice that there's nothing more they can do, that it's not going right and

there's nothing you can do to change it.

And you're just like, oh, if only I could just elevate myself to be content like the

Bible says I should be right now.

Maybe that ain't the gospel of Jesus.

The gospel of Jesus is you are a child of God.

You're Lord and master Jesus paid for your sins.

You will never see the burning of hell, but you will see the glory of heaven for eternity.

You're not okay.

You are soaring above the tribulations.

You are better off than anybody else could be who doesn't know Jesus, even if they were

billionaire sleeping with a different person every night, flying their private jet to 20

different mansions in the world, buying and selling companies to make another hundred

million dollars today.

You're not okay.

You're better than that because ultimately they're going to stand in front of the judgment

and be sent into hell for an eternity and you're going to go into heaven.

You're not okay.

This gospel that we're talking about, if you hadn't accepted it, you could never be okay

because it would always be rattling around in you trying to have its work, trying to

have its way.

You'd always be pushing it away and you just get more and more chasing, more and more hard

away from God.

So you can never be okay.

So the truth is once meeting this gospel, you can never be okay again.

If you are saying the next time you face opposition, but I'm okay, hear me saying you're way better

than that.

You're way better than that.

You're amazing.

He's awesome and he's in you and nobody could ask for more unless of course they don't know

him.

Do you know him?

Then the next time it's broken or it's running out or it's falling down or it's not there

when you want it or the words aren't right.

If you know him, praise him for the afflictions, for the tribulations and deliver this gospel

boldly, gently, faithfully in the midst of that opposition, not based in error, not based

in impurity, not by way of deceit and definitely not fruitless.

Ain't nobody ever starved who had fruit, nor will you nor will I.

God help us.

Choose your side today.

This gospel that Jesus has called us to and entrusted us with or some other.

In fact is that the others are pretty good by earthly standards, but they're nothing

by God's standards.

That's illustration and I'm through.

Friend of mine, I don't know, friend, he's a friend on Facebook.

An associate of mine posted a text message on Facebook this week.

He said, today I was present and ministered to a woman in my congregation whose husband,

young husband, 23 I think, had climbed up in a tree to trim some branches and he fell

and he broke his neck.

And the pastor happened to be there at that time and they ministered to him CPR until

the paramedics arrived and said that he was dead on the scene.

23 years old, two kids.

So I encouraged her the best I could, the best I knew how.

Then he said, I had to go home and finish my sermon for Sunday on how the deacons of

our church should love the congregation and serve them.

After pumping that guy's chest for six or seven minutes until the paramedics got there,

over the years serving in the Heights Fellowship Baptist Church, previously the Heights Fellowship

of Mission of East Little Baptist Church, I've had people make promises.

I've had people and break them.

I've had people respond to invitation, didn't do what they said they were going to do.

People say, I know God's calling me to this ministry only to start it, only to later to

decide to not.

I've had people that I trusted with my life come to me and say, you know, I've been thinking

I'm going to go to a different church.

People get saved and baptized and we dump them in the water and they come out and they're

not sure it's the next Sunday.

And then I go talk to them and they're like, yeah, we're not going to go to church right

now or we're going to go to church at a different church.

People in our church say, I need this.

Can you do this for me?

Yep, I'll get that done for you.

A week goes by, a month goes by, six months goes by, still not done.

So I do it myself.

It's not about me.

What I'm saying to you is, I'm going to be here, faithfully, gently, boldly, through

opposition, over top of opposition, proclaiming this gospel that I know to be without error,

not out of impurity or deceit.

If you realize you accepted some other gospel, I'd ask you today to accept Jesus Christ as

Lord and Savior in earnest and become a student of the gospel, the real gospel, the gospel

of Jesus.

If you're here today and you realize you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,

but you haven't thought about what he called you to, that you're a minister of the gospel,

that you're reconciling people to him, that you're sharing the truth, just how vital that

truth is.

And you can lose it every time you face opposition and you go, oh, what was me?

No.

No more what was you.

Not ever.

Then if you realize that's where you've been, then you say, I repent today and I'm turning

back to the Lord to become a bearer of that which he gave me to bear, this gospel.

I ask the praise team to come forward, lead us in this final song, but this is your opportunity

to respond.

Do not respond out of guilt, do not respond out of deceit.

If the Lord is looking into your heart, then you can respond.

You can just raise your hand right where you are, you don't have to walk and just say,

I got to say, I know this to be true.

And tell us the truth.

And that's all.

But we are truth bearers and truth sayers.

We are people of the truth.

We're ready?

Stand with us and sing if you're able.

Just as I am in love with God, God and the God, the share of me and the dog that's me,

I'm ready to come to the old lamb of God.

Thanks for joining us for this podcast from New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East

Toledo.

A word of encouragement to you today.

I hope you really enjoyed and grew from this podcast.

And then please check us out online at churchtoledo.com and also download our app now available in

Google Play Store and on the iOS app system.

Harvey say that.

Anyway, so download it.

It's Life, the number four, Toledo.

Life for Toledo.

That's the name of the app and there's opportunities on there to serve and also opportunities to

be served with groceries if you happen to be a need in the Toledo area.

Just want to know what's going on.

Please download that app.

Then if you like it, give us a nice review and pass it on to all your friends and let

everybody know about it because we want to get as many people in that community as we

possibly can.