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Table of Contents<br />
Past Host Churches / Officers 2-3<br />
Church Information 4-7<br />
Messengers 7<br />
Ordained Ministers / Licensed Ministers 8<br />
Deacons 8-9<br />
Church Song Leaders / Pianists 9<br />
Church Statistics 10<br />
Resolutions Committee Report 11<br />
Friday Mid-day Agenda 11<br />
Missionaries Supported 12-19<br />
Memorial Report 20<br />
Proceedings 20-25<br />
Sermons, Presentations & Devotionals 25-72<br />
Missionary Reports 72-73<br />
Financial Report 74<br />
Articles of Faith 74-77<br />
Statements of Cooperation 77-79<br />
By-Laws 79<br />
Order of Business 80<br />
Photos of the Association Meeting 80-84<br />
1
Past Host Churches / Officers<br />
Session:<br />
No. / Year<br />
Host Church/ Pastor Moderator / Assist Clerk-Treas / Assist<br />
1 1932 Roseville/ none J Pruden/ no data Winnifred Paddock/ no data<br />
2 1933 Roseville/ none AF Simmons/ no data J Pruden/ no data<br />
3 1934 Oroville/ Robert Dennis AF Simmons/ no data J Pruden/ no data<br />
4 1935 Roseville/ JL Whetmire AF Simmons/ CB Rogers J Pruden/ Lois Pruden<br />
5 1936 Ducor/ AF Simmons AF Simmons/ no data Woodrow Young/ no data<br />
6 1937 La Habra/ Silas Hill AF Simmons/ no data Albert Owen/ no data<br />
7 1938 Roseville/ EJ Polson AF Simmons/ no data Albert Owen/ no data<br />
8 1939 Pomona/ Eugene Dowdle WE Dowdle/ Lee Dowdle Albert Owen/ Eugene Dowdle<br />
9 1940 Corcoran / Lee Dowdle WE Dowdle/ GM Workman Clarence Hardin/ CE Hunt<br />
10 1941 La Habra/ WE Dowdle CE Hunt/ Lester Noles Clarence Hardin/ Ezra Blake<br />
11 1942 Salinas Hebron Hts/ no data CE Hunt/ no data no data/ no data<br />
12 1943 El Nido/ no data CE Hunt/ no data no data/ no data<br />
13 1944 La Habra/ no data CE Hunt/ GW Crawford EE Crawford/ Frank Wallace<br />
14 1945 Pixley/ Joe Shutz HR Cline/ Jesse Scott Harold Blalock/ Luther Cooper<br />
15 1946 Taft Ford City/ LE Hatfield HR Cline/ Jesse Scott Luther Cooper/ Clara Blalock<br />
16 1947 Brentwood/ Ted Cooper Jesse Scott/ Allen Adkins Luther Cooper/ Clara Blalock<br />
17 1948 LA New Hope/ Luther Cooper Allen Adkins/ CC Middleton Charles Crouch/ Art Harris<br />
18 1949 Antioch First/ Allen Adkins CC Middleton/ Art Harris Charles Crouch/ WS Goulding<br />
19 1950 Corcoran/ Martin Canavan CC Middleton/ Art Harris Charles Crouch/ WS Goulding<br />
20 1951 Redlands/ Norval Ketchum CC Middleton/ Art Harris Charles Crouch/ Travis Hubbard<br />
21 1952 Pixley/ Jesse Scott Art Harris/ Jesse Scott Charles Crouch/ Millard Rogers<br />
22 1953 La Habra/ Art Harris Art Harris/ Jesse Scott Art Tabor/ Arvle Moore<br />
23 1954 Taft Ford City/ Fred Shuffield Art Harris/ Arvle Moore Art Tabor/ JW Lovelady<br />
24 1955 Brentwood/ Ted Cooper Art Harris/ Troy Mize Arvle Moore/ JW Lovelady<br />
25 1956 La Habra/ Arden Johnson Jesse Scott/ Les McCalister Arvle Moore/ Merton Canfield<br />
26 1957 Hagginwood/ MB Hubbard Jesse Scott/ Les McCalister Arvle Moore/ Merton Canfield<br />
27 1958 Tulare Kern St/ Clint Wilkins Jesse Scott/ Leroy Gable Merton Canfield/ Clint Wilkins<br />
28 1959 Modesto Airport/Richard Harless IRichard Harless I / Randy Rudd Merton Canfield/ Lloyd Dickerson<br />
29 1960 Taft Ford City/ Norval Ketchum<br />
Richard Harless I / Norval Ketchum<br />
Merton Canfield/ Lloyd Dickerson<br />
30 1961 LA New Hope / RJ Rudd Norval Ketchum/ Bill Ames Merton Canfield/ Lloyd Dickerson<br />
31 1962 Pixley/ Bill Ames Norval Ketchum/ Bill Ames Merton Canfield/ Lloyd Dickerson<br />
32 1963 San Pablo/ Floyd Ingram Jesse Scott/ Ora Hollaway Merton Canfield/ James Taylor<br />
33 1964 Redding/ Art Tabor Ora Hollaway/ Richard Harless I Merton Canfield/ James Taylor<br />
34 1965 La Habra/ Troy Mize Ora Hollaway/ Herbert Schuh Merton Canfield/ Fay Wersky<br />
35 1966 Taft Ford City/ Norval Ketchum James Taylor/ Norval Ketchum Merton Canfield/ Fay Wersky<br />
36 1967 Modesto Airport/Richard Harless IJames Taylor/ Art Harris Merton Canfield/ Fay Wersky<br />
37 1968 Whittier/ Fay Wersky Art Harris/ Fay Wersky Merton Canfield/ Tim Westbrook<br />
38 1969 Pixley/ James Taylor Fay Wersky/ Leonard Buttram Merton Canfield/ Tim Westbrook<br />
39 1970 Roseville/ Leonard Buttram Leonard Buttram/ Fay Wersky Merton Canfield/ Bob Jack<br />
40 1971 La Habra/ Jesse Scott Leonard Buttram/ Fay Wersky Merton Canfield/ Bob Jack<br />
41 1972 Taft Ford City/ Bill Whala Fay Wersky/ Bill Whala Merton Canfield/ Rick Harless II<br />
42 1973 Coachella/ Shady Burdette Richard Harless I / Bill Whala Merton Canfield/ Bill Wallace<br />
43 1974 Yuba City/ Albert Runyan Richard Harless I /Vencil Moore Merton Canfield/ Bill Wallace<br />
44 1975 Carmichael/ Noel Brown Rick Purdue/ James Taylor Merton Canfield/ Rick Harless II<br />
45 1976 Pedley/ Ora Hollaway Rick Purdue/ James Taylor Merton Canfield/ Bill Wallace<br />
2
Past Host Churches / Officers<br />
Session:<br />
No. / Year<br />
Host Church/ Pastor Moderator / Assist Clerk-Treas / Assist<br />
46 1977 Yuba City/ Albert Runyan Fay Wersky/ Jim Weathers Bill Wallace/ Albert Runyan<br />
47 1978 Salinas/ Art Harris Fay Wersky/ Jim Weathers Bill Wallace/ Albert Runyan<br />
48 1979 Whittier/ Fay Wersky Albert Runyan/ Art Tabor Bill Whala/ Cass Rogers<br />
49 1980<br />
Fresno McKinley/ Ron Loyd<br />
Dinuba/ Bill Roberts<br />
Albert Runyan/ Bill Brown Bill Whala/ Gene Plaskett<br />
50 1981 Yuba City/ Albert Runyan James Taylor/ Wayne Ivett Bill Whala/ Gene Plaskett<br />
51 1982 Brea/ Odis Gayler Rick Harless II / Wayne Ivett Bill Whala/ Gene Plaskett<br />
52 1983 Roseville/ Leonard Buttram Rick Harless II / Vencil Moore Bill Whala/ Gene Plaskett<br />
53 1984 Bakersfield/ Art Tabor Albert Runyan/ Vencil Moore Bill Whala/ Gene Plaskett<br />
54 1985 Redding/ Vic Carter Albert Runyan/ Vencil Moore Bill Whala/ Gene Plaskett<br />
55 1986 Modesto Liberty/ Jerry Waymire James Taylor/ Albert Runyan Bill Whala/ Gene Plaskett<br />
56 1987 Rialto/ Jed Winkelman James Taylor/ Fay Wersky Gene Plaskett/ Bill Brake<br />
57 1988 Tulare Grace/ Tim Westbrook Jed Winkelman/ Lane Lawless Gene Plaskett/ Bill Brake<br />
58 1989 Whittier/ Fay Wersky Jed Winkelman/ Lane Lawless Gene Plaskett/ Bill Brake<br />
59 1990 Tulare Grace/ Tim Westbrook Mark Cox/ Keith Hill Gene Plaskett/ Bill Brake<br />
60 1991 Modesto Liberty/ Rick Howard Mark Cox/ Keith Hill Gene Plaskett/ Bill Whala Jr<br />
61 1992 Rialto/ Jed Winkelman Rick Howard/ Don Kallner Gene Plaskett/ Bill Whala Jr<br />
62 1993 Yuba City/ Albert Runyan Rick Howard/ Don Kallner Gene Plaskett/ Bill Whala Jr<br />
63 1994 Salinas/ Robert Hobbs Albert Runyan/ John Coleman Gene Plaskett/ Bill Whala Jr<br />
64 1995 Oroville/ James Taylor Albert Runyan/ John Coleman Bill Whala/ Garry Browning<br />
65 1996 San Fernando/ Rick Harless II Tim Westbrook/ Steve Miller Ron Whittemore/ Bill Brake<br />
66 1997 Rialto/ John Hughes Tim Westbrook/ Steve Miller Ron Whittemore/ Bill Brake<br />
67 1998 Whittier/ Fay Wersky Tim Westbrook/ Steve Miller Ron Whittemore/ Bill Brake<br />
68 1999 Citrus Heights/ Jim Burks Steve Miller/ Tim Westbrook Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
69 2000 San Fernando/ Rick Harless II Steve Miller/ Tim Westbrook Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
70 2001 Rialto/ Steve Waters Jim Burks/ Fay Wersky Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
71 2002 Modesto/ Rick Howard Jim Burks/ Fay Wersky Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
72 2003 Tulare/ Richard Carnes Jim Burks/ Fay Wersky Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
73 2004 Rialto/ Steve Waters Richard Carnes/ John Coleman Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
74 2005 Citrus Heights/ Jim Burks Richard Carnes/ John Coleman Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
75 2006 Arlington/ Erik Cooper Dan Cardona/ Steve Waters Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
76 2007 Whittier/ John Hughes Dan Cardona/ Steve Waters Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
77 2008 Citrus Heights/ Jim Burks Erik Cooper/ Justin Burks Ron Whittemore/ Blane Caskey<br />
78 2009 Rialto/ Steve Waters Erik Cooper/ Steve Waters Henry Reed/ Dave Barnum<br />
79 2010<br />
Carson 1st Filipino/ Richard<br />
Perfecto<br />
Steve Waters/ Ron Cook Henry Reed/ Dave Barnum<br />
80 2011 Modesto/ Rick Howard Steve Waters/ Ron Cook Henry Reed/ Dave Barnum<br />
81 2012 Citrus Heights/ Jim Burks Ron Cook/ Tom Brassfield Erik Cooper/ Dave Barnum<br />
82 2013 Rialto/ Steve Waters Tom Brassfield/ Steve Waters Erik Cooper/ Corey Keirns<br />
83 2014 Tulare/ Tom Brassfield Tom Brassfield/ Steve Waters Erik Cooper/ Corey Keirns<br />
84 2015 Whittier/ John Hughes John Hughes/ John Coleman Erik Cooper/ Corey Keirns<br />
3
Church Information<br />
ARLINGTON<br />
Antioch LMBC<br />
Church Address 5911 Picker St, Riverside CA 92503<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. John Coleman III<br />
Phone (951) 941-9645<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Cynthia Miller, ryanccmatt@att.net<br />
Mailing Address 2725 Calle Loma Roja, Riverside CA 92503<br />
Email<br />
johncolemaniii@gmail.com<br />
CARSON<br />
First Filipino MBC<br />
Church Address 503 E 220th St, Carson CA 90745<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Richard Y. Perfecto<br />
Phone (714) 209-6976<br />
Clerk Sis. Annette Leviste, 310-525-7525<br />
Mailing Address 10401 Colgate Dr, Cypress CA 90630<br />
Email<br />
Perfecto_richard@yahoo.com<br />
CITRUS HEIGHTS<br />
Trinity MBC<br />
Church Address 7697 Sycamore St, Citrus Heights CA 95610<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Francisco Yanes<br />
Phone (916) 747-0683<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Laura E. Duncan, lauraeduncan@sbcglobal.net<br />
Mailing Address 2242 Misty Hollow Ct, Rocklin CA 95662<br />
Email<br />
Francisco.Yanes@dhcs.ca.gov<br />
DOWNEY<br />
Downey Central MBC<br />
Church Address 13444 Bixler Ave, Downey CA 90242<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. K.D. Ward<br />
Phone (562) 630-1493, (562) 881-7512<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Ginger Macias<br />
Mailing Address 13448 Bixler Ave, Downey CA 90242<br />
Email<br />
info@downeycmbc.org<br />
4
Church Information<br />
HUGHSON<br />
Hughson MBC<br />
Church Address 2200 Second St, Hughson CA 95326<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Ron Cook<br />
Phone (909) 263-7152<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Whitney Keirns, i_heart_music19@yahoo.com<br />
Mailing Address Po Box 512, Hughson CA 95326<br />
Email<br />
pastor@hughsonmbc.com<br />
MODESTO<br />
Liberty MBC<br />
Church Address 341 Claratina Ave, Modesto CA 95356<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Rick L. Howard<br />
Phone (209) 345-5430<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Tara Quilici<br />
Mailing Address<br />
same<br />
Email<br />
rickhoward@charter.net<br />
PALMDALE<br />
Landmark MBC<br />
Church Address 2646 E Ave Q-4, Palmdale CA 93550<br />
Pastor<br />
None<br />
Phone<br />
None<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Shelly Mount, mountfam5@verizon.net<br />
Mailing Address 40616 Royal Lytham Ct, Palmdale CA 93551<br />
Email<br />
degonzalez2@att.net<br />
POWELL RIVER<br />
Powell River MBC<br />
Church Address<br />
6992 Kamloops St, Powell River BC Canada V8A-1M4<br />
Pastor<br />
None<br />
Phone (604) 485-6223<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Ruby Rash<br />
Mailing Address<br />
same<br />
Email<br />
ruby_75@hotmail.com<br />
5
Church Information<br />
REDONDO BEACH<br />
Grace MBC<br />
Church Address 2217 Belmont Ln, Redondo Beach CA 90278<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Steve Miller<br />
Phone (310) 505-4754<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Bobbi Miller<br />
Mailing Address<br />
same<br />
Email<br />
stvmlr@att.net<br />
RIALTO<br />
Mt. Vernon LMBC<br />
Church Address 1397 W Etiwanda Ave, Rialto CA 92376<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Steve Waters<br />
Phone (951) 264-6909<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Alyssa Little, alyssa2cheer@yahoo.com<br />
Mailing Address<br />
same<br />
Email<br />
swaters001@roadrunner.com<br />
SAN FERNANDO<br />
Liberty MBC<br />
Church Address 503 N Workman St, San Fernando CA 91340<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Rick Harless III<br />
Phone (661) 312-1535<br />
Clerk Sis. Gretchen Zavala,(661) 212-8011<br />
Mailing Address<br />
44261 Dahlia St, Lancaster CA<br />
Email<br />
rickharless@gmail.com<br />
TULARE<br />
Grace MBC<br />
Church Address 445 N H St, Tulare CA 93274<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Tom Brassfield<br />
Phone (559) 685-0828, (559) 799-6837<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Carolyn Roberts<br />
Mailing Address<br />
same<br />
Email<br />
tbtularegmbc@gmail.com<br />
6
Church Information<br />
WHITTIER<br />
Bethel MBC<br />
Church Address 13426 Beaty, Whittier CA 90605<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. John Hughes<br />
Phone (714) 686-5417<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Shirley Pounds, chief125@verizon.net<br />
Mailing Address 13720 Lukay St, Whittier CA 90605<br />
Email<br />
landmrkr16@verizon.net<br />
YUBA CITY<br />
First MBC<br />
Church Address 1724 Hooper Rd, Yuba City CA 95993<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Albert L. Runyan<br />
Phone (530) 673-3579<br />
Clerk<br />
Sis. Ame Middleton<br />
Mailing Address<br />
same<br />
Email<br />
fmbcalbert@earthlink.net<br />
Messengers<br />
ARLINGTON<br />
CARSON<br />
CITRUS HEIGHTS<br />
DOWNEY<br />
HUGHSON<br />
MODESTO<br />
PALMDALE<br />
POWELL RIVER, BC<br />
REDONDO BEACH<br />
RIALTO<br />
SAN FERNANDO<br />
TULARE<br />
WHITTIER<br />
YUBA CITY<br />
Eld. John Coleman III, Deacon Bob Miller, Bro. Ryan Miller<br />
Eld. Richard Perfecto, Sis. Nicanora Perfecto, Bro. Ezekiel Perfecto<br />
Eld. Dave Barnum, Bro. Braden Barnum<br />
By Letter<br />
Bro. Chris Keirns<br />
Eld. Rick Howard, Bro. Steve Howard, Sis. Karen Howard<br />
Deacon Armando Gonzalez, Sis. Debbie Gonzalez<br />
Sis. Ruby Rash<br />
Eld. Steve Miller, Deacon Ron Whittemore, Bro. Taso Stavropoulos<br />
Eld. Steve Waters, Bro. Rick Lile, Bro. Blake Weldon<br />
Eld. Rick Harless III, Sis. Jennifer Harless<br />
Eld. Tom Brassfield, Bro. Chris Butler, Bro. Walter Day<br />
Eld. John Hughes, Eld. Fay Wersky, Eld. Jed Winkelman<br />
Eld. Tim Westbrook, Sis. Barbara Westbrook, Bro. Johnnie Dollins<br />
7
Ordained Ministers (Not Pastoring)<br />
CITRUS HEIGHTS<br />
Eld. Dave Barnum (916) 725-0778<br />
Eld. Jim Burks (916) 989-0401<br />
MODESTO Eld. LD (Doug) Purdue (209) 523-8093<br />
RIALTO Eld. Bill Brake (909) 709-0432<br />
TULARE Eld. Erik Cooper (661) 345-6650<br />
Eld. Ron (Dean) Pounds (562) 587-8560<br />
WHITTIER<br />
Eld. Fay Wersky (909) 261-3614<br />
Eld. Jed Winkelman (909) 920-6802<br />
Eld. Nick Winkelman (661) 600-7965<br />
YUBA CITY Eld. Tim Westbrook (530) 632-3011<br />
Licensed Ministers<br />
ARLINGTON Bro. Ryan Miller (909) 771-8870<br />
CARSON Bro. Ezekiel Perfecto (714) 742-1900<br />
DOWNEY Bro. Steven Keeler (562) 272-7387<br />
HUGHSON Bro. Chris Keirns (909) 855-0168<br />
PALMDALE Bro. Doug Johnson (661) 373-4795<br />
REDONDO BEACH<br />
Bro. Jim Morton (818) 808-6826<br />
Bro. Taso Stavropoulos (310) 922-6534<br />
Bro. Chris Butler (559) 991-6688<br />
TULARE<br />
Bro. Walter Day (559) 358-6346<br />
Bro. Corey Keirns (805) 328-8155<br />
Bro. Ken Lansdale (559) 782-3465<br />
YUBA CITY Bro. Johnnie Dollins (530) 740-3353<br />
Deacons<br />
ARLINGTON Bro. Robert Miller (951) 689-0241<br />
PALMDALE Bro. Armando Gonzalez (661) 860-9780<br />
REDONDO BEACH Bro. Ron Whittemore (562) 647-3037<br />
SAN FERNANDO Bro. Blane Caskey (818) 416-2063<br />
8
Deacons continued<br />
YUBA CITY<br />
Song Leaders / Pianists<br />
ARLINGTON<br />
CARSON<br />
Bro. Leonard Pelfrey (530) 671-5998<br />
Bro. Ron Sanderson (530) 673-0358<br />
Bro. Angel Gomez Song Leader (951) 500-2941<br />
Bro. Ryan Miller Pianist (909) 771-8870<br />
Bro. Joel Perfecto<br />
Bro. Ezekiel Perfecto<br />
Song Leader<br />
Pianist<br />
(714) 688-6883<br />
(714) 742-1900<br />
CITRUS HEIGHTS Bro. Dan Ford Song Leader (916) 833-0446<br />
DOWNEY<br />
HUGHSON<br />
MODESTO<br />
PALMDALE<br />
POWELL RIVER<br />
REDONDO BEACH<br />
RIALTO<br />
SAN FERNANDO<br />
TULARE<br />
WHITTIER<br />
YUBA CITY<br />
Bros. Ralph & Sam Macias Song Leader (714) 491-7157<br />
Sis. Ginger Macias<br />
Pianist<br />
Bro. Jon Rudd Song Leader (209) 631-4554<br />
Sis. Melissa Cook Pianist (951) 522-4739<br />
Bro. Steve Howard Song Leader (209) 996-2218<br />
Sis. Jolene Howard Pianist (209) 863-1906<br />
Bro. Doug Johnson Song Leader (661) 373-4795<br />
Sis. Sarah DeVoe<br />
Pianist<br />
Bro. Hilton Bartlett Song Leader (604) 485-5692<br />
Sis. Ruby Rash Pianist (604) 485-6223<br />
Bro. Taso Stavropoulos Song Leader (310) 922-6534<br />
Sis. Sharon George Pianist (714) 742-7092<br />
Bro. Rick Lile Song Leader (661) 345-1969<br />
Bro. Rob Winkelman Pianist (909) 376-8125<br />
Bro. Ryan Caskey Song Leader (818) 325-5558<br />
Sis. Jennifer Harless Pianist (661) 810-1676<br />
Bro. Chris Butler<br />
Sis. Carolyn Roberts<br />
Bro. Steven Winkelman<br />
Sis. Cheryl Winkelman<br />
Song Leader<br />
Pianist<br />
Song Leader<br />
Pianist<br />
(559) 991-6688<br />
(559) 686-0566<br />
(909) 964-1964<br />
(909) 394-1747<br />
Bro. Zack Dollins Song Leader (530) 491-9220<br />
Sis. Christy Maxwell Pianist (530) 218-2022<br />
9
2015 Statistics<br />
INCREASE<br />
DECREASE<br />
Prior Membership<br />
Baptisms<br />
Letter<br />
Statement<br />
Restoration<br />
Total<br />
Letter<br />
Exclusion<br />
Death<br />
Total<br />
Ending Membership<br />
Net Change<br />
Home Missions<br />
Foreign Missions<br />
CHURCH<br />
ARLINGTON 16 0 0 0 1 1 2 1 0 3 14 -2 $2,715 $0<br />
CARSON 22 6 0 0 0 6 0 4 0 4 24 2 $0 $3,855<br />
CITRUS HEIGHTS 36 3 0 0 2 5 0 3 1 4 37 1 $6,850 $22,968<br />
DOWNEY 22 22 0<br />
HUGHSON 12 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 12 0 $5,040 $0<br />
MODESTO 47 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 5 43 -4 $4,200 $4,200<br />
PALMDALE 8 0 0 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 11 3 $1,020 0<br />
POWELL RIVER 5 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 2 6 1 $2,483 $6,116<br />
REDONDO BEACH 29 1 5 0 0 6 6 0 0 6 29 0 $6,573 $10,642<br />
RIALTO 45 2 5 0 0 7 0 3 1 4 48 3 $1,250 $1,350<br />
SAN FERNANDO 14 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 16 2<br />
TULARE 52 1 0 0 1 2 3 4 1 8 46 -6 $1,800 $1,800<br />
WHITTIER 51 5 5 0 0 10 3 0 0 3 58 7 $4,030 $5,172<br />
YUBA CITY 76 5 1 0 0 6 0 1 0 1 81 5 $302 $2,800<br />
TOTAL 435 27 16 3 5 51 17 19 5 41 447 12 $36,263 $58,903<br />
AVERAGE 31 2 1 0 0 4 1 1 0 3 32 1 $3,022 $4,909<br />
10
Resolutions Committee Report<br />
Resolutions not available at time of printing.<br />
Friday Mid-day day Agenda<br />
Friday March 27, 2015<br />
1:30 Bro. Brian Lawless from FMBC Bellflower to give a presentation on enhancing<br />
music worship services<br />
Submitted by Elds. Steve Waters, Nick Winkelman, & Bro. Braden Barnum<br />
11
Missionaries Supported By The<br />
Old Calif<br />
Missionary<br />
Location<br />
Missionary<br />
Contact Info<br />
Missionary<br />
Mailing Address<br />
Mongolia<br />
Rich Heart Alti New Testament<br />
Baptist Church,<br />
Choir<br />
Phone:<br />
9919-8221<br />
Email:<br />
Mail To:<br />
Altangadas (Agii)<br />
team@mongolianteam.org<br />
Madilvine Badilles<br />
Philippines<br />
Tagum City Calvary Baptist<br />
Church, Tagum City<br />
***************************<br />
Firstborn MBC, Davao City<br />
Phone:<br />
xxxx-xxxx<br />
Email:<br />
madllvln@hotmail.com<br />
Mail To:<br />
Madilvine M. Badilles - c/o<br />
Tagum City Calvary Baptist<br />
Church, Inc.<br />
Purok Katuparan, Teacher's<br />
Village,<br />
Barangay South, Tagum<br />
City<br />
8100 Davao del Norte,<br />
Philippines<br />
Dennis Carrell<br />
Mongolia<br />
Chingeltei Baptist Church<br />
Chingeltei, Mongolian<br />
Bible translation<br />
Phone:<br />
9919-8221<br />
Email:<br />
team@mongolianteam.org<br />
Mail To:<br />
Philippines<br />
Parkland MBC, Danac<br />
Bunga, Botolan,<br />
Zambales<br />
Gilbert Dullas<br />
Japan<br />
Phone:<br />
xxxx-xxxx<br />
Email:<br />
cw_elkins@yahoo.com<br />
Carlton Elkins<br />
Japan<br />
Phone:<br />
xxxx-xxxx<br />
Email:<br />
Nathan Elkins<br />
cw_elkins@yahoo.com<br />
12
Sponsor<br />
Rich Heart<br />
New Testament Baptist Church,<br />
UlaanBaatar, Mongolia<br />
Sponsor<br />
Contact Info<br />
Phone:<br />
9919-8221<br />
Email:<br />
team@mongolianteam.org<br />
Support From<br />
Old State Churches<br />
Modesto: Liberty MBC<br />
Calvary MBC, Hazen AK<br />
*************************<br />
Tagum City Calvary Baptist Church,<br />
Tagum City , Philippines<br />
Citrus Hts: Trinity MBC<br />
Rich Heart<br />
New Testament Baptist Church,<br />
UlaanBaatar, Mongolia<br />
Park MBC<br />
Quezon City,<br />
Philippines<br />
Phone:<br />
9919-8221<br />
Email:<br />
team@mongolianteam.org<br />
Modesto: Liberty MBC<br />
Carson: First Filipino MBC<br />
Redondo: Grace MBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC<br />
Citrus Hts: Trinity MBC<br />
Citrus Hts: Trinity MBC<br />
13
Missionaries Supported By The<br />
Old Calif<br />
Missionary<br />
Location<br />
Missionary<br />
Contact Info<br />
Missionary<br />
Mailing Address<br />
Erdenebayer<br />
Mongolia<br />
Uginoor<br />
Baptist Church<br />
Uginoor<br />
Phone:<br />
9919-8221<br />
Email:<br />
team@mongolianteam.org<br />
Erdenebayer (Egii)<br />
Mongolia<br />
Rich Heart<br />
New Testament<br />
Baptist Church<br />
UlaanBaatar<br />
Phone:<br />
9919-8221<br />
Email:<br />
team@mongolianteam.org<br />
Constancio Famerong<br />
Philippines<br />
Faith Baptist<br />
Church,<br />
San Antonio,<br />
Zambales<br />
Bro. Gage<br />
Philippines<br />
Edwin Jardinal<br />
Makati City,<br />
Philippines<br />
Southern CA<br />
Street<br />
Ministry<br />
Phone:<br />
562-272-7387<br />
Email:<br />
Steven Keeler<br />
USAneedsJESUS@att.net<br />
Mike Maney<br />
Missoula, Montana<br />
Web Design<br />
Ministry<br />
Book Printing &<br />
Outreach Supply<br />
Phone:<br />
406-546-2172<br />
Email:<br />
mikeamaney@yahoo.com<br />
14
Sponsor<br />
Rich Heart<br />
New Testament Baptist Church,<br />
UlaanBaatar, Mongolia<br />
Landmark MBC<br />
391 Arthur Rd<br />
Martinez, CA 94553<br />
Park MBC<br />
Quezon City,<br />
Philippines<br />
Sponsor<br />
Contact Info<br />
Phone:<br />
9919-8221<br />
Email:<br />
team@mongolianteam.org<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. William K. Gurnett<br />
Phone: 925-228-2580<br />
Email:<br />
b55gur@yahoo.com<br />
Support From<br />
Old State Churches<br />
Modesto: Liberty MBC<br />
Modesto: Liberty MBC<br />
Carson: First Filipino MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC<br />
Rialto: Mt. Vernon LMBC<br />
Yuba City: First MBC<br />
Downey Central MBC<br />
13444 Bixler Ave<br />
Downey CA 90242<br />
Missoula LMBC<br />
3803 Brooks St<br />
Missoula, MT 59804<br />
Pastor Eld. K. D. Ward<br />
Phone: 562-630-1493;<br />
562-881-7512<br />
Email:kdward2@juno.com;<br />
info@downeycmbc.org<br />
Phone:<br />
406-546-2172<br />
Email:<br />
mikeamaney@yahoo.com<br />
Citrus Heights: Trinity MBC<br />
Modesto: Liberty MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
15
Missionaries Supported By The<br />
Old Calif<br />
Missionary<br />
Location<br />
Missionary<br />
Contact Info<br />
Missionary<br />
Mailing Address<br />
Australia<br />
Immanuel MBC<br />
Mt. Druitt<br />
Email:<br />
Israel.marquez@yahoo.com<br />
Mail To:<br />
Israel Marquez<br />
New Zealand<br />
The Lighthouse Baptist<br />
Church<br />
Green Island, Dunedin<br />
New Zealand 9018<br />
Email:<br />
gandcmax@xtra.co.nz<br />
Mail To:<br />
Gary Max<br />
Philippines<br />
Independent Park<br />
Baptist Church<br />
San Felipe Zambales<br />
Email:<br />
fred_montero08@yahoo.com<br />
Mail To:<br />
Fred Montero<br />
Philippines<br />
Independent Park<br />
Baptist Church<br />
Olongapo City<br />
Mail To:<br />
Edwin Orcino<br />
Philippines<br />
Landmark<br />
Baptist Mission,<br />
North Fairview, Quezon<br />
City<br />
Mail To:<br />
Alfonso Pacpaco<br />
Philippines<br />
Independent Park<br />
Baptist Mission,<br />
Mangan Vaca, Subic,<br />
Zambales<br />
Mail To:<br />
Gregorio Perfecto<br />
16
Sponsor<br />
Immanuel MBC<br />
503 E 220 th St<br />
Carson, CA 90745<br />
Sponsor<br />
Contact Info<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Clifford P. Creel<br />
Phone: 951-377-3916<br />
Email:<br />
imbc@carson_baptist.com<br />
Support From<br />
Old State Churches<br />
Citrus Heights: Trinity MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Rialto: Mt. Vernon LMBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC<br />
Landmark MBC<br />
391 Arthur Rd<br />
Martinez, CA 94553<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. William K. Gurnett<br />
Phone: 925-228-2580<br />
Email:<br />
b55gur@yahoo.com<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Park MBC Quezon City, Philippines<br />
Park MBC Quezon City, Philippines<br />
Carson: First Filipino MBC<br />
Citrus Heights: Trinity MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Rialto: Mt. Vernon LMBC<br />
Tulare: Grace MBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC<br />
Carson: First Filipino MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC<br />
Park MBC Quezon City, Philippines<br />
Carson: First Filipino MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC<br />
Park MBC Quezon City, Philippines<br />
Carson: First Filipino MBC<br />
17
Missionaries Supported By The<br />
Old Calif<br />
Missionary<br />
Location<br />
Missionary<br />
Contact Info<br />
Missionary<br />
Mailing Address<br />
Carson, California<br />
First Filipino MBC<br />
Phone:<br />
714-209-6976<br />
Mail To:<br />
Email:<br />
Rick_perfec2@yahoo.com<br />
Richard Perfecto<br />
Philippines<br />
Independent Park<br />
Baptist Mission<br />
Cabangan, Zambales<br />
Mail To:<br />
Rolando Rodriguez<br />
Paraguay<br />
Mail To:<br />
Roger Sanders<br />
Mail To:<br />
Pablo Sevilla<br />
Jackson, California<br />
Jackson Landmark<br />
Miss. Baptist Mission<br />
Phone:<br />
209-418-5867<br />
Email:<br />
Mail To:<br />
Jerry Smith<br />
Jerry_bow@yahoo.com<br />
Mail To:<br />
Ed Sullivan<br />
Whittier, California<br />
Retired, Writing<br />
Email:<br />
don@windowsetc.com<br />
Mail To:<br />
Fay Wersky<br />
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Sponsor<br />
Immanuel MBC<br />
503 E 220 th St<br />
Carson, CA 90745<br />
Sponsor<br />
Contact Info<br />
Pastor<br />
Eld. Clifford P. Creel<br />
Phone: 951-377-3916<br />
Email:<br />
imbc@carson_baptist.com<br />
Support From<br />
Old State Churches<br />
Arlington: Antioch LMBC<br />
Modesto: Liberty MBC<br />
Palmdale: Landmark MBC<br />
Rialto: Mt. Vernon LMBC<br />
San Fernando: Liberty MBC<br />
Tulare: Grace MBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC<br />
Park MBC Quezon City, Philippines<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC<br />
Citrus Heights: Trinity MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Mt Olive MBC<br />
1752 South B St<br />
Stockton CA 95206<br />
Pastor Eld. Gabe Rivera<br />
Phone: 209-464-7830, 209-406-<br />
0172<br />
Email:<br />
MountOlivebc@sbcglobal.net<br />
Hughson: Hughson MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Bethel MBC<br />
13426 Beaty<br />
Whittier CA 90605<br />
Pastor Eld. John Hughes<br />
Phone: 562-941-6506<br />
Email:<br />
landmrkr16@verizon.net<br />
19<br />
Citrus Heights: Trinity MBC<br />
Palmdale: Landmark MBC<br />
Redondo Beach: Grace MBC<br />
Rialto: Mt. Vernon LMBC<br />
Whittier: Bethel MBC
Memorial Committee Report<br />
I Thes 4:13-18<br />
Paul was writing this letter to encourage those at Thessalonica. They were<br />
concerned about their loved ones who had passed away. Paul was reassuring<br />
them, that those who die in the Lord will be resurrected. It was OK to grieve but<br />
not as those that have no hope in being resurrected and reunited with loved ones.<br />
From verse 18, there is a correlation between the knowledge of the Word and<br />
comfort.<br />
The following have gone on to be with the Lord in the past year.<br />
Citrus Heights: Bro. Robert (Bob) Duncan<br />
Modesto: Bro. Louis Howard, Sis. Alberta Cooper Harless Perdue<br />
special mention: Sis. Ruth Browning, mother of Bro. Garry Browning Sr<br />
Rialto: Sis. Joy Brake<br />
Tulare: Sis. Estrella Strubble<br />
Submitted by Elds. Dave Barnum, Tom Brassfield, & Rick Howard<br />
Proceedings<br />
Thursday, March 26, 2015 — 7:30 pm<br />
The pre-association services for the 84th annual messenger meeting of the Old<br />
California State Missionary Baptist Association hosted by the Bethel Missionary<br />
Baptist Church of Whittier opened with Bro. Steve Winkelman leading the congregation<br />
in singing Majesty.<br />
Eld. Tim Westbrook led in prayer. Host pastor Eld. John Hughes welcomed<br />
everyone to this year’s meeting. He opened nominations for the evening sermon.<br />
Eld. Steve Miller was nominated; motion & second to elect him by acclimation;<br />
motion carried. The congregation sang I Will Sing the Wondrous Story. Bro. Noah<br />
Lockwood from Shiloh MBC Bakersfield sang The Old Rugged Cross. The congregation<br />
sang He Lives & Great is Thy Faithfulness. Bro. Ryan Miller led in prayer.<br />
Eld. John Hughes introduced Eld. Steve Miller, the evening preacher. A Whittier<br />
quartet sang Then I Met the Master. Eld. Miller started his sermon defining worship<br />
as reverent devotion & allegiance, expressed in our meeting together in the<br />
Lord’s house. Worship denotes worth-ship; Jesus is worthy of our worship. In<br />
Rev 4:1 a setting of worship is described, v 8-5:14, the Father & the Son are worthy<br />
of our adoration & our commitment. If we have good standing with God &<br />
salvation, it’s only because of Jesus lowering Himself to go to the cross & rise<br />
again, ascending to glory, proving His worthiness. In Php 2:5-8, the eternal<br />
Christ, equal with the Father, left it all to give His life a ransom & redemption for<br />
us. Being saved from condemnation is wonderful, but Jesus didn’t stop there.<br />
From Rev 5:10 we have the opportunity to become priests & kings to our God.<br />
From 1 Pet 2:1-3, there are some natural desires that should come to you if you<br />
are born again. It’s natural for babies to want to be fed v 4-5, there is no priesthood<br />
outside the temple, & today the church is the approved temple where He<br />
brings us together for us to offer our acceptable sacrifices of worship to God.<br />
From v 6-10, are you part of God’s people? We will one day reign with Christ on<br />
the earth. From Rev 5:13 all creatures in heaven & earth praising Christ sends an<br />
exciting chill. It should humble us. Sacrifice is part of worship. How worthy is<br />
the Lord in our heart, our life, our sacrifices, where does the Lord rate? A sacrifice<br />
was to be perfect, representing Christ & God being worthy of our best. From Rom<br />
12:1-2, nothing short of your whole body is reasonable. Coming forward for bap-<br />
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tism & church membership is how we present ourselves. The Lord through Malachi<br />
condemned sacrifices that come short. He’s worthy of our best & all, not the<br />
leftovers, the first not last, Sunday morning, evening & Wed night. Sometimes we<br />
don’t associate that with what we‘re doing or with our worship service, but Jesus<br />
is worthy. We’re called to serve each other, but we come to worship God with our<br />
lives, our money, care of our carpets & pews, care for the lost. In Matt 15, the<br />
Pharisees worshiped in vain by teaching the commandments of men as if they<br />
were doctrines of God. Jesus was worthy to open the seals as we look to His return.<br />
Opening the seals starts the events that establish His kingdom. Jesus has<br />
the right to open those, to be served, honored & glorified; no one else was found<br />
worthy. His own people weren’t ready for His first coming. Mankind is not going<br />
to destroy this world as we know it, Jesus will. What a blessing to rule & reign<br />
with Him. People worry about calamity without turning to Christ. Are you ready?<br />
Have you esteemed Him as He is due? Have you put Him on His throne? From<br />
John 1:6-13, if you have not been born of God, you are not ready, but you can be<br />
by placing your faith in Him, becoming a child of God, saved by His grace, then<br />
presenting yourself a living sacrifice in his church, because He is worthy. What’s<br />
your need tonight?<br />
Bro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation singing the invitational song Is Thy<br />
Heart Right with God.<br />
Moderator Eld. John Hughes opened the floor for nominations for the morning<br />
devotional. Bros. Chris Butler, Ryan Miller & Braden Barnum were nominated for<br />
the morning devotional. Bro. Braden Barnum was elected (runoff?).<br />
Bro. Chris Butler closed out the service in prayer.<br />
Friday, March 27, 2015—9:30 am<br />
The 84th annual messenger meeting of the Old California State Missionary Baptist<br />
Association opened with Bro. Steve Howard leading the congregation in singing<br />
Marching to Zion.<br />
Eld. John Hughes welcomed everyone to the meeting. Eld. Tom Brassfield led<br />
in prayer.<br />
Eld. John Hughes introduced Bro. Braden Barnum, who came forward to bring<br />
the morning devotional. His text was Num 13:26-33, no cowards in the kingdom.<br />
God had promised the land over 430 years earlier. A year & a half after the exodus,<br />
Israel was hesitant & sent spies on ahead. No one’s ever been saved thinking<br />
of what comes next. The promised land was as God had promised. The difference<br />
between the two & the twelve spies was “nevertheless.” There’s no such<br />
thing with God, then or now. God makes His people great. There’s a lot His people<br />
have had in common, seeing God work firsthand, that He’s with us, as Paul<br />
writes in 1 Cor 10. But Caleb said we are well able to overcome, like the promises<br />
in Revelation. There are giants in our life, sick families, lost jobs, family members<br />
leaving church. Caleb & Joshua looked higher to see God. From Isaiah 40:21-23,<br />
God sees all earth’s inhabitants as grasshoppers like the spies felt among the giants.<br />
From Num 14:1-4, complaining is dangerous. Complainers become victims,<br />
who become unproductive, who get bad ideas. From v 6-9, while others complained,<br />
Joshua & Caleb led. The ten spies forgot God & became irrational. The<br />
two remembered the promises while standing in Hebron where the promises were<br />
given. The exodus is just a type & shadow of what Jesus has done for us, so we<br />
should have more faith facing our giants. From Heb 3, the people provoked the<br />
Lord, may we never do the same. There are no cowards in the kingdom, not by<br />
our might but our mighty Lord. Jesus is the great equalizer. We’re here for the<br />
inheritance God has for us, as were they. See God, not giants. Know you are His<br />
people.<br />
Moderator Eld. John Hughes declared the 2015 messenger meeting in session &<br />
called for the reading of the church letters for representing. There was a motion<br />
& second to read the following portions of the church letters: church name, pastor,<br />
the names of the church messengers, current membership, the number of<br />
baptisms performed during the year, missionaries supported, total amount of<br />
money given to missions, & any remarks on the church letter. The motion carried.<br />
After the church letters were read, there was a motion & second to seat the<br />
messengers & record the church letters. The motion carried.<br />
21
The moderator asked if there were any churches petitioning to join, there were<br />
none.<br />
Bro. Westbrook brought a report on the northern camp. Motion & second to<br />
adopt; motion carried.<br />
The moderator appointed to the memorial committee Elds. Dave Barnum, Tom<br />
Brassfield, & Rick Howard.<br />
The moderator announced the appointments to the resolutions committee as<br />
Elds. Steve Waters, Nick Winkelman, & Bro. Braden Barnum.<br />
Bro. Chris Keirns dismissed in prayer for a break.<br />
After the break, Bro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation in singing It Is Truly<br />
Wonderful & Heavenly Love. Bro. Rick Lile led out in prayer.<br />
Sis. Joni Hughes sang Beulah Land.<br />
Host pastor Eld. John Hughes brought the annual sermon. Beulah means married.<br />
There will be a new heaven & earth & Jerusalem. Jesus will return in glory<br />
& reward the faithful with covenant blessings. As we see by faith, we’re motivated<br />
to act by faith, to claim the promises & live accordingly. We rejoice for being<br />
reunited with those who’ve served & gone on ahead of us. From Rev 19:1-6 there<br />
is true worship & false worship. Those in the presence of the Lord fall on their<br />
faces in worship. Do we have to see Him in our presence to do so today? Christ<br />
told Thomas those who do so in faith without seeing would be more blessed.<br />
There is something about coming together as the Lord’s churches & singing true<br />
praises to the Lord together. Song books are not the Word of God, some songs<br />
are powerfully so. It was an honor to sing Beulah Land with you. That’s real.<br />
Some songs in the world are not. When I proposed to Sis. Joni, I sang to her.<br />
The Lord likes it when we sing from the heart to Him. From v 7-10, it is God we<br />
worship for His promises are so great that He wants to fulfill in our lives. We are<br />
recipients of His mercy & grace who deserve nothing, so we praise, honor & glorify<br />
Him. The faithful will be part of the bride of Christ. The garments represent<br />
lives of following & glorifying the Lord. From Eph 3:21 unto Him be glory in the<br />
church, not all the saved who never assemble. Jesus is the head, we are members<br />
of his body. He is the cornerstone upon Whom we‘ve been built. The Bible<br />
is clear the antichrist will be worshipped, the devil desires worship, much false<br />
worship takes place. Too often it is too short a journey from glory back to false<br />
worship, spiritual fornication that rightfully angers God. Today’s atrocities in the<br />
name of religion are false worship. Part of our worship is staying faithful to our<br />
Savior through thick & thin, in support of each other, encouraging each other.<br />
Some of our songs are sorrowful, but our Savior deserves our faithfulness. From<br />
Rev 6:9-11, the 5 th seal, there is a fear that near generations will experience martyrdom.<br />
We need to preach this reality & being strong. From 18:20-24 Islam<br />
seems to be part of spiritual Babylon, upon which God takes vengeance for His<br />
suffering saints. Karma’s a lie, judgment is not. God’s people, Old Testament &<br />
New, have been persecuted, but God will avenge, ending false worship. Millions<br />
of our brethren were slain in the dark ages. We have it good today, but days like<br />
those are still ahead. What causes strong faith in the face of this? Knowing Jesus,<br />
there’s no one else to lift up, no true heroes in this world. The Bible is clear<br />
& true, this world is confused. We already have a hero to be proud of & proclaim.<br />
He is greater than all gods & heroes man can invent. Jesus never fails, is perfect<br />
& is with us. Everything said at Christ’s introduction at the 7 th trumpet is true, a<br />
glorious appearing as King of Kings & Lord of Lords. How would you introduce<br />
Christ to someone? Among many things, Jesus is Jehovah, the great I AM Who<br />
always is, as He proclaimed in John 8, the Messiah Who is coming back, the perfect<br />
Savior, worthy of our falling on our faces in worship without seeing Him. Is<br />
He our Savior as well as Lord of our lives, Whom we’ll follow to the end? He deserves<br />
all our honor, glory & praise. Find strength in Him to continue in Him.<br />
Bro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation singing the invitational song The<br />
Solid Rock.<br />
Eld. Fay Wersky led in prayer dismissing for lunch.<br />
Friday, April 11, 2014 – 1:30 pm<br />
Eld. John Hughes welcomed everyone back from lunch, introducing the topic of<br />
22
enhancing music worship services. Bro. Brian Lawless from FMBC Bellflower presented<br />
the topic.<br />
Bro. Armando Gonzalez dismissed in prayer for a break.<br />
After the break, Eld. John Hughes opened nominations for the evening preacher.<br />
Nominations were Bro. Johnny Dollins, Eld. Jed Winkelman, Eld. Winkelman<br />
was elected.<br />
Eld. John Hughes led discussion on this year’s topic.<br />
Bro. Taso Stavropoulos led the congregation singing Revive us Again, Immortal<br />
Invisible God Only Wise, The Lily of the Valley. He read Psalm 36. The congregation<br />
sang Grace Greater Than Our Sin, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, His<br />
Name is Wonderful.<br />
Bro. Steve Howard led in prayer.<br />
Packets were distributed for southern camp.<br />
Bro. Chris Keirns read Eld. Jerry Smith’s mission report for Jackson CA. A motion<br />
to adopt was made & seconded, spoken to by Bro. Chris Keirns, motion carried.<br />
Eld. Richard Perfecto presented his mission report. A motion to adopt was<br />
made & seconded, spoken to by Elds. Perfecto & Steve Miller, motion carried.<br />
Motion & second for offering to be split between Elds. Richard Perfecto & Jerry<br />
Smith; motion carried.<br />
Eld. Dave Barnum dismissed in prayer for the evening meal.<br />
Friday, March 27, 2015 – 7:00 pm<br />
Bro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation in singing To God Be the Glory.<br />
Bro. Joel Perfecto sang I Know Who Holds Tomorrow accompanied on guitar by<br />
Eld. Richard Perfecto. The Redondo Beach church sang Because He Lives. The<br />
congregation sang O That Will Be Glory.<br />
Led in prayer by Bro. Blake Weldon.<br />
The evening offering was taken up, coming to $480.00, to be split as $240.00<br />
each for the two reporting missionaries, Elds. Richard Perfecto & Jerry Smith.<br />
The Whittier church sang Love Love Love. Bro. Noah Lockwood, Eld. Tim Westbrook<br />
& Bro. Zack Dollins sang Just a Little Talk with Jesus. Bro. Nick Waters<br />
sang Be Still. The congregation sang How Great Thou Art. Eld. Rick Howard led in<br />
prayer.<br />
Eld. John Hughes introduced Eld. Jed Winkelman to bring the evening sermon,<br />
entitled hanging between heaven & earth. From 2 Sam 14:25-26 Absalom was<br />
praised for his appearance. From 15:19-21, newcomer & foreigner Ittai chose<br />
loyalty to David. Loyalty & faithfulness yield blessing & reward. It’s not entitled<br />
or automatic for showing up. From 18:1-9, David promoted Ittai & asked gentleness<br />
for his son Absalom. Absalom got stuck in a tree, caught between heaven &<br />
earth, & Joab easily killed him. If you’re not in God’s camp, you’re in the world.<br />
If God’s on your side, the odds are irrelevant, the enemy is always at a disadvantage<br />
because our power is not in us but in the Lord. David knew that in dealing<br />
with Goliath. We don’t want a form of godliness that’s denying its power. The<br />
Lord told His church to wait to carry out the call until they received His power.<br />
We all needed salvation by grace, so we cannot boast over those who need that<br />
today. It will never be easier to be faithful than right now; these are the good old<br />
days. Every day more challenges to service arise. We need to produce the<br />
toughest generation yet. Our prior generation spanked & knew when to stop before<br />
breaking us. It won’t be long when the choice will be made for us, the fence<br />
will be too tall to straddle. From Matt 27:45-50, Jesus was not in a pleasant place<br />
when He was suspended between heaven & earth, but He was there for us, actually<br />
forsaken of the Father in our place. The Father was not displeased with Him,<br />
it was us in our sin. From John 12:27-31, Jesus knew what He was going to experience,<br />
even when He asked why on the cross. The crisis of all time was resolved<br />
at the cross. How can we ever be arrogant in light of our sins, for which Jesus<br />
became our substitute? We’re covered by his blood. Our guilt is gone, now we<br />
rejoice for what is. The work of Jesus was for a purpose & by design, for us to be<br />
placed in a position to be part of His bride. Christ counted this plan a joy. The<br />
weight of our sin & being forsaken by His Father was foreign to Him. We don’t<br />
23
serve to pay back the load of debt. Service is not a challenge. Salvation was a<br />
free gift of grace to us, but not free to Christ. His humiliation began with taking<br />
on our flesh. Our hope is in Christ paying our price, hung between heaven &<br />
earth so we never have to be. It is personal. Don’t treat Christ as an inconvenience;<br />
come to Him to resolve your issues now.<br />
Bro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation in an invitational song, Jesus Paid It<br />
AllĖld. John Hughes opened the floor to nominations for bringing the Saturday<br />
morning devotional. Bro. Dollins was nominated. Motion & second to elect Bro.<br />
Dollins by acclimation; motion carried.<br />
Eld. John Hughes opened the floor to nominations for the Saturday morning<br />
preacher. Bro. Ryan Miller was nominated. Motion & second to elect Bro. Miller by<br />
acclimation, motion carried.<br />
Eld. Nick Winkelman dismissed in prayer.<br />
Saturday, March 28, 2015—9:30 am<br />
Bo. Steve Winkelman led the congregation in singing Wonderful Grace of Jesus.<br />
Eld. Rick Harless led in prayer.<br />
Assistant moderator Eld. John Coleman introduced Bro. Johnny Dollins to bring<br />
the morning devotional. His text was Job 19:21-27. The oldest book in the Bible<br />
declares our Redeemer lives. Eph 2:8-9 also continues to v 10, where Christ’s<br />
works through us are displayed as He works in us. In John 8:58, Jesus said,<br />
“Before Abraham was, I AM.” Fortunes & fame are fleeting; Christ is eternal. John<br />
14:6, 11;25, 1 John 5:12, Rom 1:3-4. Claim victory over Satan, resist him as<br />
Christ did in the wilderness & he will flee. 1 Cor 15:3-4, we may have moments of<br />
failing each other, but Christ never fails us. 2 Tim 2:8. Christ will make us whole<br />
& we will see Him. He wants to be more than your Redeemer, He wants to be<br />
your Lord, to call you a faithful servant with whom He is well pleased.<br />
Eld. Erik Cooper read the minutes. A motion to adopt was made & seconded;<br />
motion carried.<br />
Eld. Tom Brassfield read the report from the memorial committee consisting of<br />
himself, Elds. Dave Barnum & Rick Howard. A motion to adopt was made & seconded;<br />
spoken to by Eld. Rick Howard, Bro. Steve Howard, Bro. Ron Whittemore,<br />
Eld. Tom Brassfield, Eld. Steve Waters, Eld. John Coleman; motion carried.<br />
Eld. John Coleman led the congregation in singing Precious Memories.<br />
Eld. Steve Waters read the report from the resolutions committee consisting of<br />
himself, Eld. Nick Winkelman, & Bro. Ryan Miller substituting for Bro. Braden Barnum.<br />
Motion & second to adopt invidiually, motion carried.<br />
A motion & second were made to adopt resolution # 1; spoken to by Elds.<br />
Steve Waters & John Coleman, motion carried.<br />
A motion & second were made to adopt resolution # 2; spoken to by Elds.<br />
Steve Waters & John Coleman, motion carried.<br />
A motion & second were made to adopt resolution # 3; spoken to by Elds.<br />
Steve Waters & John Coleman, motion carried.<br />
A motion & second were made to adopt resolution # 4; spoken to by Elds.<br />
Steve Waters & John Coleman, motion carried.<br />
A motion & second to include memorial tributes in the minute book, motion<br />
carried.<br />
Bro. Corey Keirns presented the treasurer’s report, motion & second to adopt,<br />
motion carried.<br />
Eld. John Hughes opened the floor for nominations for office of moderator;<br />
Motion & second to retain all officers; motion carried.<br />
Eld. John Hughes presented the southern camp report.<br />
Dismissed in prayer for a break by Eld. KD Ward.<br />
After the break, Bro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation in singing His<br />
Name is Wonderful.<br />
Bro. Zack Dollins sang More than a Mansion.<br />
The Rialto church sang Come Thou Fount.<br />
Bro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation singing Victory in Jesus.<br />
Bro. Scott Pounds sang Come Lord Jesus.<br />
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Bro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation singing It Is Well with my Soul.<br />
Bro. Blane Caskey led in prayer.<br />
Eld. John Hughes introduced Bro. Ryan Miller to bring the closing sermon. Worship<br />
is one of those things that can make or break us, that involves us in what<br />
we’re doing, we’re investing & visitors see our hearts regardless of style. From<br />
Luke 9:28-35, a glimpse of Christ’s true form in glory was seen, as we should see<br />
as our churches assemble, always growing the more we do so. Each body, even<br />
in sufferings, proclaims God’s glory. We sometimes need confirmation that God is<br />
real & He is working & is worthy of our praise. As Peter said, it is good for us to<br />
be here. People’s hearts are turning hard, complacent & dull. Why are so many<br />
with us but not fully with us? There’s a lack of spiritual vision, full attention to<br />
Christ & His glory. Worship should be a natural result of meeting God. From Psa<br />
103:1-2, our worship must be theologically rich like the Psalms. David experienced<br />
the whole range of life, writing praises to God all along. We praise the Lord<br />
with all that is within us because of all that He is. Serving God we have a peace &<br />
stability that others just can’t know. We are to be like Weebles who may wobble<br />
but do not fall down. Rom 8:28 is in motion. From Psa 103:8 & 10-12, God gives<br />
us love in place of anger. From Rom 5:8 while we were yet sinners, Christ died<br />
for us. We get mercy & peace in place of wrath & death. Now we have hope.<br />
Know that God loves you, drawing us to Him, to trust & call out to Him. You can<br />
be saved & join us in praising Him together with all that we are. How can we be<br />
silent? From Psa 103:13-18, He has compassion for our frail humanity. We pray<br />
our children are well informed for when the Lord convicts & calls them unto salvation.<br />
As parents we need to be faithful examples for them. From v 19, God is on<br />
His throne over all, connecting emotion with theology, so be thankful for being<br />
moved. Put God first & watch Him work. He’s still saving souls, building His<br />
church, empowering His church with His Spirit. From v 20-22, angels are messengers,<br />
& God’s most satisfying praise comes from His church. No goals matter other<br />
than honoring our Lord. Just worship the Lord with all that is in you, He’s worthy<br />
Ḃro. Steve Winkelman led the congregation in an invitational song, Amazing<br />
Grace.<br />
A motion was made & seconded to adjourn; motion carried.<br />
Eld. John Hughes led the congregation singing Beulah Land.<br />
Eld. Ron Whittemore dismissed in prayer & asked the blessing on the noon<br />
meal.<br />
Sermons, Presentations & Devotionals<br />
Sermon audios are available here:<br />
Thursday evening sermon<br />
Eld. Steve Miller, Grace MBC Redondo Beach<br />
Good evening. Thank you Brother John for those kind<br />
words. I’d like to say how much I appreciate the church here at<br />
Whittier for hosting the Saturday school and being so diligent<br />
about it. Sister Pounds especially and Sister Joni always providing<br />
such good refreshments for us. They do a lot to help the<br />
effort and continue the effort. It’s important. I think it’s an important<br />
thing to be involved in and I appreciate the opportunity.<br />
I appreciate the opportunity tonight and I’ve already felt uplifted, felt a blessing<br />
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from the song service. It seems obvious to me that the church has been preparing<br />
and getting ready for this meeting concerning worship. I could tell. You know, I<br />
think it was really coming from the church here, just a vibe in the choice of songs<br />
tonight, in the song service that there has really been some thought and some<br />
prayer about this subject of worship and praise to God. And knowing that, I decided<br />
to talk about worship tonight. I don’t know who all will be speaking on the subject<br />
or what’s already been decided but, so I apologize if I trample all over your<br />
message.<br />
Interesting word, the word worship. It means reverent devotion and allegiance<br />
pledged to God. Also the rituals and ceremonies by which reverence is expressed.<br />
So we come to church services to worship God, don’t we? That’s primarily why we<br />
come. Hopefully it’s not to impress each other with our new clothing, you know,<br />
so don’t feel guilty if you have new clothing for Easter. I think that’s kind of traditional,<br />
right? But we don’t come here for other reasons, we come here to study<br />
the word of God and by studying the word of God we are magnifying God, we are<br />
magnifying Jesus Christ who is The Word. We’re here to worship. We come together<br />
tonight to worship God and so a reverent devotion, showing our allegiance.<br />
Do we have an allegiance to Jesus Christ? I hope we do. And these rituals or ceremonies<br />
by which this reverence is expressed. Obviously if you here tonight, Thursday<br />
night of the associational meeting, I’m probably speaking to the choir, but do<br />
we revere God enough to take seriously meeting in his house enough to worship<br />
Him?<br />
I like this word worship. I did a little research. It’s an English word. Worship<br />
comes from an old English word: worth - ship. Worth, a word which denotes the<br />
worthiness of the one receiving the special honor or devotion. Jesus is worthy of<br />
our worship. He’s worthy.<br />
I’m going to Revelation, the 4th chapter, in verse 1. John is having a vision. He<br />
says in verse 1 of chapter 4:<br />
“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And<br />
the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come<br />
up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.’”<br />
I just wanted to read that for the context. Some things are described, thrones,<br />
24 thrones. 24 elders, 7 lamps burning with fire before the throne. It goes on and<br />
talks about these creatures. And in verse 8 it says:<br />
“The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and<br />
within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,<br />
who was and is and is to come!’ Whenever the living creatures give glory<br />
and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever,<br />
the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship<br />
Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne,<br />
saying: ‘You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For You<br />
created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.’<br />
And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside<br />
and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming<br />
with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?’ And no<br />
one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to<br />
look at it.<br />
So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll,<br />
or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of<br />
the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to<br />
loose its seven seals.’<br />
And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures,<br />
and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain,<br />
having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out<br />
into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him<br />
who sat on the throne.<br />
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twentyfour<br />
elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full<br />
of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:<br />
‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and<br />
have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people<br />
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and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign<br />
on the earth.’<br />
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the<br />
living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times<br />
ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: ‘Worthy is<br />
the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength<br />
and honor and glory and blessing!’<br />
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth<br />
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and<br />
honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb,<br />
forever and ever!”<br />
Then the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the twenty-four elders fell<br />
down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.”<br />
Let’s bow our heads. Lord, we thank you again for this time we have to come<br />
and worship you tonight. We pray that our hearts be in tune with you Word. That<br />
the message would go forth in the power of Your Spirit and touch our hearts as<br />
we have need. We pray that You will be glorified in this service tonight and in the<br />
following days, Lord, and that You will bless this church for her efforts. In the<br />
name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.<br />
Worthy. Our God is worthy. He is worthy of our worship, of our adoration, of<br />
our commitment, of our love. He is deserving of all the glory, all the power, all<br />
the riches that exist. He is worthy. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God is also worthy.<br />
Why?<br />
Fifth chapter, verses 9 and 10 really tell us why. And they sang a new song.<br />
Why is it new I thought? A new song, I hadn’t really thought of that before. But,<br />
it says they sang a new song. Well, we’ll talk about that in a minute. First of all, it<br />
says, “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals for You were slain and<br />
You have redeemed us to God by Your blood.” Jesus died on the cross of Calvary.<br />
Jesus shed His bleed for our salvation, our redemption. If we have a standing<br />
with God, a good standing with God, if we have salvation, if we are going to escape<br />
the judgment of God, it’s only because of what Jesus did on the cross of<br />
Calvary. Jesus is worthy.<br />
But in order for Jesus to come here to be slain, to provide redemption for us<br />
He first had to be willing to give up His equality with the Father, to lower Himself<br />
and come to this Earth, didn’t He? So there was a change. God took on flesh and<br />
became the man Christ Jesus. So there was a change. I think that’s why it says a<br />
new song. Jesus is as worthy as God the Father and has proven Himself to be<br />
worthy through His life and actions. His resurrection, His ascension into glory.<br />
He’s proven to be worthy.<br />
Philippians the 2nd chapter, verse 5, it says:<br />
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form<br />
of God …”<br />
In the beginning, in the eons of ages before time began, Jesus or the Son was<br />
equal with the Father. There was a oneness. But the Son became flesh.<br />
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form<br />
of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no<br />
reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of<br />
men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became<br />
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”<br />
I wanted to point out, I think we all know, but I wanted to point out through<br />
the scriptures that Jesus, that the Son of God, existed in eternity prior to Him<br />
taking flesh becoming the man Christ Jesus. He had an equality with God. He was<br />
in Heaven. He was adored. He was worshiped with the Father as God, but He<br />
decided to come here and give His life a ransom for us, for our sins.<br />
You’ve redeemed us to God. Our salvation is in Jesus Christ. He came from<br />
Heaven. He took on the form of a servant. He came in the likeness of men. He<br />
lowered Himself without reputation, became obedient even to death, even the<br />
death of the cross. Surely, Jesus is worthy of our adoration, of our love, of our<br />
devotion, our worship. He is worthy because of what He has done for us, because<br />
who He really is. But it goes on. It would be a wonderful thing to be a lost person<br />
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condemned and then to be saved from that condemnation. It is a wonderful<br />
thing, but the Lord did not stop there in His blessings upon mankind.<br />
It goes on to say, in verse 10 of Revelation 5:<br />
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and<br />
people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall<br />
reign on the earth.”<br />
We have the opportunity to become priests and kings to our God. He has<br />
blessed us so abundantly.<br />
First Peter, the second chapter talks about this. In the first verse, it says:<br />
“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil<br />
speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may<br />
grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”<br />
I like that verse. You know what it kind of says to me? There are some things<br />
that should come naturally to you, some natural desires that you have if you have<br />
been born again. If you have no desire for church, no desire for God, no desire<br />
for commitment, no desire for the Word of God, there’s something wrong. There’s<br />
something wrong.<br />
Maybe your just backslidden as a child of God, but it’s possible you’ve never<br />
been saved by God’s grace. As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word.<br />
It’s pretty natural for babies to want to be fed. I saw one here tonight. The Waters<br />
have a new baby, right? Does it wake up at all and cry? You know, I never<br />
personally went through that, but I’ve seen so many parents come to church or<br />
come to work at my secular job. They’re all worn out. I hardly got any sleep last<br />
night. Your baby’s waking up every two hours, right? Ya, I know that, I’ve heard<br />
it from others. Yeah. So tired. Why? Because they want to be fed.<br />
Natural desires come with being spiritually regenerated by God. Coming to Him<br />
as a living stone, we need to come to Christ. Okay, He made you alive, now you<br />
need to come to Christ. The living stone rejected indeed by men but chosen by<br />
God and precious. You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house,<br />
a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus<br />
Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture.<br />
You need to come to Christ. You need to dedicate yourself as that living stone<br />
to the body of Christ, to the temple of the Lord Jesus Christ wherein you become<br />
a priest to God. I’ve heard this thing of priesthood of the believer. You know, the<br />
only priesthood I know of exists in the temple as it says here. We’re not supposed<br />
to be running around. In the Old Testament the people would get stoned to death<br />
for running around offering off their own altar in their own place. There was a<br />
designated place.<br />
In fact, if you remember, when they possessed the land, they went in and took<br />
the land, there was that tribe that stayed on the other side of the river. They decided<br />
to build a monument to remind their kids we’re connected to those people<br />
on the other side, and to that altar, and to that temple. And the other guys got all<br />
excited and started to go to war with them. You can’t make another altar! Oh, oh,<br />
oh, wait, misunderstood. We’re not offering any sacrifices on it.<br />
We have a priesthood as part of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s<br />
where we are to offer our sacrifices of worship to God. It’s the approved one. It’s<br />
the one that’s outlined for us here in the Scripture. We need to come to this living<br />
stone because He’s going to take us living stones, us children of God, us born<br />
again children, as it talks about in Verse 1, He’s going to bring us together as a<br />
holy temple. Built up, a spiritual house. What is a spiritual house? It’s the church<br />
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does the word church mean? It means an assembly<br />
Ȧ holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are what? Acceptable. You<br />
can make unacceptable sacrifices. In fact, you can be in the house of God and<br />
make unacceptable sacrifices, but your chances of having the, be acceptable are<br />
far less if you’re not part of the house of God. He’s made us kings and priests.<br />
They’re acceptable by the way, this is very important, to God through Jesus<br />
Christ.<br />
“Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,<br />
elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to<br />
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shame.’ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,<br />
‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,’<br />
and ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’ They stumble, being disobedient<br />
to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen<br />
generation, a royal priesthood …”<br />
Royalty, indicating a kingly priesthood. He’s made us kings and priests.<br />
“… a holy nation, His own special people …”<br />
What do we have the right to do?<br />
“that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into<br />
His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God<br />
…”<br />
Are you part of the people of God? You know what? You’re my people, you’re<br />
my people. I like some of you better than others, but you’re all my people. We’re<br />
bound together in Christ. We need to have that kind of identity. We need to have<br />
that kind of understanding. It’s not just church like us. Those are God’s people.<br />
Those are my people. We’re the people of God who had not obtained mercy but<br />
now have obtained mercy. Oh, we all needed God’s mercy. We all need it on an<br />
ongoing basis as well. We were gentiles out there in darkness. God had a special<br />
people but He turned to us gentiles who were far from him. And now look. We’re<br />
part of the people of God and He has made us kings and priests to God. Oh, worthy<br />
is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. We will one day reign with Christ on the<br />
Earth. He is worthy. He is worthy of our worship.<br />
There in Revelation 5:13 it talks about all of heaven, all the angelic hosts<br />
breaking forth in worship and praise to God. Doesn’t that just send a tingle up<br />
your spine? It does. I think of that. I think of when Jesus was born and the angels<br />
came and told the shepherds in the field that the Christ had been born, and<br />
go to Bethlehem. And they were talking, and all the sudden the angelic host<br />
breaks forth. Man, that just gives me a chill. Doesn’t it? Can you imagine being<br />
out there? Whoa! There’s some angels! And then BAM, all the heavenly host singing<br />
praise to the Lamb! Man, it should humble us. It should bring a chill to us.<br />
He is worthy. He is worthy. All creation, it mentioned the heavenly host but<br />
then:<br />
“And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth<br />
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and<br />
honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb,<br />
forever and ever!’”<br />
Every creature singing out in praise to God the Father and the Lamb. Wow!<br />
Wow! He is worthy of our worship and, brethren, sacrifice is part of our worship.<br />
Sacrifice. How worthy is the Lord in your heart? Where does He rate in your<br />
heart? In your life? In your sacrifices that you make in your life, where does the<br />
Lord rate? The Lord commanded the children of Israel when they brought a sacrifice,<br />
they were to bring a sacrifice first of all without blemish, without spot. Perfect.<br />
Choice. That was partly because it represented Jesus Christ and His sinless<br />
nature, but it was also partly because that’s what God is worthy of. He’s worthy of<br />
our best. He’s worthy of our all.<br />
He tells us in Romans, and I think this is a very important verse of Scripture.<br />
Seems like I’ve been going to it a lot lately. Romans the 12th chapter, verses 1<br />
and 2:<br />
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present<br />
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable<br />
service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing<br />
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect<br />
will of God.”<br />
So nothing short of your whole body is reasonable. A living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable<br />
to God, and it says to present it. I think I made this point last Wednesday<br />
night in our Bible study, and this may be a little bit simplistic, maybe a little<br />
bit, well, simplistic. But I believe when someone accepts Christ as their Savior,<br />
and they walk down before the church, and they say I want to be baptized and<br />
become a member of this church, they’re presenting themselves as a living sacrifice<br />
to God. And if you haven’t done that, you haven’t presented yourself to God<br />
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as a living sacrifice yet, not one that will be offered on the altar in the temple that<br />
will be acceptable to God. Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy. Holy. Acceptable.<br />
…which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but<br />
be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that<br />
good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”<br />
The Lord condemned Israel in Malachi for offering the lame and the blind sacrifices.<br />
Sacrifices that were not up to par. I pray that we all have a conviction to<br />
offer God the best. To esteem Him and His work the top priority in our lives. Why?<br />
Because He is worthy. He’s worthy of our best! He’s worthy of our all! He deserves<br />
not the leftovers of our lives, but the best, the first fruit not the last and left over.<br />
He is worthy of Sunday morning. He is worthy of Sunday afternoon. He’s worthy<br />
of Wednesday night. He’s worthy. And if we count Him as not worthy, where are<br />
we?<br />
Sometimes we don’t associate what we’re doing or the worship service with the<br />
Lord’s worthiness. We might associate with different things. I don’t like the teacher;<br />
he’s not teaching me much. You know what? Maybe the teacher is not worthy<br />
of your attendance, but Jesus is. Jesus is worthy. I go to church not for you, well I<br />
do a little bit. I like to be a servant to my brother. We’re taught that. So, I do go<br />
to church for you but primarily I go to church for the Lord. First for Him. Second<br />
for you, right? And when I come to church, I’m serving you. And when you come<br />
to church, you’re serving me. And when we come to church we’re worshiping God<br />
because He’s worthy. He’s worthy of our monetary offerings. He’s worthy for us to<br />
tithe on what we make in this world. He’s worthy of new pews. He’s worthy of<br />
new carpet and new paint. He’s worthy of the best! He’s worthy that we witness<br />
to those that are lost and we have a burden for those that don’t know Jesus as<br />
their Savior.<br />
I do not want to be like the Pharisees. Jesus taught in the New Testament<br />
about those Pharisees who only had an outward worship. It says Matthew 7, Verse<br />
6, “Do not give...” That’s not the right verse. Try one more. Well, I should know<br />
this but I wrote down the wrong verse. It’s probably right here close but, I’ll just<br />
tell you what it says. I know you’re familiar. It says, “That in vain they worship<br />
Me, teaching for commandments, the commandment of men.” We can talk about<br />
our worship for God. We can have this facade of Christianity, a facade of love for<br />
Christ, but we really demonstrate how worthy we feel God is by what we do. By<br />
how committed we are to Him and His work.<br />
The third point I want to make tonight is -- it said He is worthy to open the<br />
seals. Jesus did not come to Earth and then leave never to return again. We are<br />
looking for Him to return. The opening of the seals will initiate the events of the<br />
end of the world as we know it. The opening of the seals is the prelude to the<br />
ushering in of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Jesus has the right to a kingdom. He<br />
has the right to come back here and destroy the kingdoms of this world and to set<br />
up this kingdom and to rule as King. And He will.<br />
He has a right to be served, He has a right to be honored, He has the right to<br />
be glorified. It said the Lamb is worthy. He was found worthy and there was no<br />
one else, no one else found worthy.<br />
I don’t believe the world is ready for Jesus to come back. They weren’t ready<br />
when He came the first time. The world, certainly, but not even His people were<br />
ready. They didn’t even recognize Him and they crucified their Messiah, their King.<br />
Now, we see a certain nervousness in the world today, don’t we? Man has their<br />
concerns about the end of the world. The problem is they think we’re going to end<br />
the world. We’re not going to end the world. Christ is going to do that. Christ is<br />
the one that’s coming back. They’re worried about global warming or I guess it’s<br />
climate change. I don’t know, it’s pretty warm here this winter. Did we have winter?<br />
But I think the rest of the country was freezing to death most of the time.<br />
Literally. So, there was climate change. They’re worried about that.<br />
How many shows are there on T.V. that are about the end of the world? Just<br />
around the corner, right? You got all these guys, these doomsday preppers, right?<br />
What are they gearing up for? The end of the world as we know it. And they are<br />
feverishly trying to negotiate peace throughout the world and that’s really working<br />
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out well for us, isn’t it? Christ is coming back and He’s going to set up His kingdom.<br />
I want to rule and reign with Christ. He’s going to set up His kingdom and<br />
He’s going to rule on this Earth because He’s worthy!<br />
And those who are redeemed by His blood, and those who follow Him that<br />
have the blessedness of being a part of His kingdom ruling with Him and being a<br />
priest in His kingdom. Oh, what a blessing. People sense the coming calamity but<br />
they are not looking for the One Who will solve the problems. They’re not looking<br />
for Jesus but He’s coming. I pray, I pray tonight, if you’re not ready, if you haven’t<br />
esteemed Him highly enough in your life, if you have not put Him on the<br />
throne of your life where He belongs, I pray, you’ll repent. Let’s put Jesus on the<br />
throne, let’s realize His worthiness, and let’s worship Him with our lives. If you’re<br />
not ready, you can be ready. You can get ready. There’s still time.<br />
I want to read one more verse of Scripture tonight. John 1:6:<br />
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a<br />
witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was<br />
not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light<br />
which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and<br />
the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to<br />
His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them<br />
He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His<br />
name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of<br />
man, but of God.”<br />
If you have not been born of God, you are definitely not ready to meet the<br />
Lord. You’re not worshiping Him with your life. But you can change that tonight.<br />
Come to Jesus. He died for your sins on the cross of Calvary that you might be<br />
saved by His grace. If you’ll put your faith and trust into Jesus for your salvation,<br />
you will become a child of God. You’ll be saved by God’s grace. And then you<br />
need to present yourself as a living sacrifice and live a life that brings honor and<br />
glory to God. Why? Because He’s worthy. Won’t you come tonight as we sing a<br />
verse of invitational song.<br />
Is there a need this evening? Is there one here that doesn’t yet know Jesus as<br />
your Savior? Do you need to be saved? You can leave tonight with the security in<br />
your heart that you’ve become a child of God. Are you a child of God, and you<br />
realize that you just haven’t put Christ where He belongs in your heart and in<br />
your life? You haven’t really counted Him worthy of your best, your all, and you’ve<br />
let yourself slip, backslide, get cold. Maybe you need to come to the altar. Whatever<br />
the need is, won’t you come as we sing?<br />
Friday morning devotional<br />
Bro. Braden Barnum, Trinity MBC Citrus Heights<br />
Good morning. It’s a blessing to be here. I appreciate the<br />
church for hosting this very much. Enjoyed the breakfast, although<br />
I didn’t eat much of it because I’m really waiting for lunch. I appreciate<br />
the menu you have up there so we can see. It’s nice.<br />
I’m going to be in Numbers chapter 13. Numbers 13.<br />
Brother Waters nominated me. And I figure since he nominated<br />
me, I can steal his sermon title. I don’t know if it’s his title today,<br />
but it’s the title of his sermon a long time ago. The title of it is “No Cowards in the<br />
Kingdom”. And I heard the title and that is a great title for a sermon or devotional.<br />
It’s so true.<br />
So, we’re going to look at the story of the twelve spies starting in Numbers<br />
chapter 13, verse 26 through the end of the chapter. It says:<br />
“Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation<br />
of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought<br />
back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the<br />
land. Then they told him, and said: ‘We went to the land where you sent us. It<br />
truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who<br />
dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we<br />
saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the<br />
South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and<br />
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the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.’ Then Caleb<br />
quieted the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once and take possession,<br />
for we are well able to overcome it.’ But the men who had gone up with him<br />
said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than<br />
we.’ And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had<br />
spied out, saying, ‘The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that<br />
devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of<br />
great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the<br />
giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their<br />
sight.’”<br />
So, we have a point of time where Israel is right on the border of the promise<br />
land. 430 years earlier God had made a promise to Abraham and then subsequently<br />
made a promise to Isaac and Jacob. You know, I was thinking about that.<br />
430 years earlier. That’s a long time, you know I kind of say that flippantly and<br />
we talk about it. You know, like I don’t know why these people are so unfaithful,<br />
right? 430 years ago. And I’m like what was 430 years ago.<br />
Well in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent his first expedition to the United States. I<br />
wonder how many people actually understood the promise and really realized it<br />
was to them. Or was it just a broken promise God made to their grandfather and<br />
my grandfather was crazy, right way back when. I don’t know, but it’s not having<br />
faith over 430 years. That’s just not just a simple thing. That promise made to my<br />
grandfather, it’s going to hold true and God is going to do something for me.<br />
But it’s been about a year and a half now since they left Egypt, because they<br />
just had the second Passover, so there’s a year. And it’s at the time of the first red<br />
grapes. Just say it’s about a year and a half because Passover is during barley<br />
harvest. Grapes are a few months later than that.<br />
So they’re sitting at the edge of the land. If you read all of chapter 13 it makes<br />
it sound like God tells them, “Hey, go spy out the land and see what’s in it.” But if<br />
you read Deuteronomy 1, you’ll get a better idea that the people get to the edge<br />
of the land, and they’re like, well, we better go see what’s in it. We don’t want to<br />
be taken by surprise. Yeah, God said it was the land flowing with milk and honey.<br />
Yeah, God told us who’s in there. But we’re going to go look at it on our own.<br />
You realize that’s kind of dangerous. I don’t think this was God’s will. God is<br />
allowing them to do this because they want to do this, and God has a plan in<br />
mind. But we need to walk by faith and not by sight. I think that’s the definition of<br />
it. And I realize I don’t want to walk by sight, right? I was glad that when I surrendered<br />
to the ministry that God didn’t show me everything that was going to<br />
happen in my ministry, because that would be dangerous, right? Because if I<br />
knew, then my wife would know that I know, and then she – I think – what did<br />
Samson say? Delilah vexed him sore because she wanted to find out his secret.<br />
My wife would pull that secret out of me, right. But the Lord works in increments.<br />
He even told the children of Israel, hey there are these people there and I’m going<br />
to drive them out bit by bit by bit so the land doesn’t get full of wild beasts<br />
and you’re going to be overcome by the wild beasts and not the people.<br />
I think that’s the way the Lord works with us, right? He helps us out bit by bit<br />
by bit. I don’t think anyone’s ever been saved while thinking about what comes<br />
next. Meaning, you know, they’re not worried about okay, if I get saved then this<br />
happens. They’re thinking, man, I am a sinner, right? They’re thinking I am not<br />
right with God and I want to get right with God. They don’t worry about what’s<br />
coming next. If you start worrying about what’s coming next, then you don’t get<br />
saved. Right? If you start worrying about what’s comes after your baptized –<br />
there’s a lot of people who don’t want to get baptized because they know what’s<br />
coming next. They’re like, I’m going to have to change my life. It’s like, well, just<br />
get baptized. The Lord wants you to get baptized. Get baptized. We’ll worry about<br />
that stuff later. The Lord wants us to take steps by faith, not by sight.<br />
But unfortunately, they went into the land of Canaan and they spied it out. And<br />
actually the spies did a great job. They found out exactly what Moses told them to<br />
find out. Which, hey, what’s in the land and who’s in it? They found out, that the<br />
land is full of milk and honey just as God told Moses at Mt Sinai, and at the burning<br />
bush, and God told us. And hey, these are the people who are in the land.<br />
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Yes, they’re great, just like God told us before. So they didn’t really find out anything<br />
new. But they found out exactly what Moses wanted them to find out. But<br />
as kids you sing that song, right? Twelve spies, ten were bad and two were good.<br />
So what’s the difference between these ten spies and these two spies? Well, if<br />
you look, there’s a couple differences in the reading. You know, in the middle of<br />
the spies report in verse 28, they spend a short time on hey, the land’s flowing<br />
with milk and honey, just like God said. And then there’s this key word in there<br />
and it’s “nevertheless”, right? Ouch! “Nevertheless.” There’s no “nevertheless”<br />
with God. Hey, God said it was full of milk and honey, and He was going to give it<br />
to you. There’s no nevertheless about it. But they were already defeated before<br />
they went in. They were done. They were mentally gone at the moment they said<br />
nevertheless. I often wonder how many times do we say “nevertheless” in our<br />
church services about our size, right? I know Brother Waters has pointed out in<br />
his sermons, he doesn’t like, you know, when you talk about your church. You<br />
say, oh, I go to that small Missionary Baptist Church over there, right? We like to<br />
reference small, just so they understand what we’re talking about, even though<br />
they don’t know what a small church is. But it’s like – but we are a mighty church.<br />
We are a great church. I don’t care how many people we are. There’s no<br />
“nevertheless”. There’s no small. We’re a great church because God is there. We<br />
have the truth. We have the Spirit. We have all these blessings that this covenant<br />
people had. And I need to talk about that.<br />
Before I even talk about the differences, I should have mentioned there are a<br />
lot of similarities here between the ten spies and the two spies. I’m not going to<br />
turn there but in 1 Corinthians 10 it talks about they all had the same spiritual<br />
food. They all had the same spiritual drink. All went through the Red Sea, you<br />
know, which is a symbol of baptism. So all these people had all these blessings of<br />
God for the last year and a half. They were dependent on that promise 430 years<br />
ago. They had seen God work in their lives firsthand. And I know the Bible tells us<br />
to try the spirits but, you know, the Spirit had been tried at that point. They<br />
should have realized that God was with them.<br />
So they all had the same spiritual food, they all had the same spiritual drink.<br />
We know that the Red Sea crossing is a picture of baptism, right? It tells us there<br />
in 1 Corinthians 10. We understand that the Passover, the applying of the blood of<br />
the lamb, that is a picture of salvation, right? And after salvation, that picture of<br />
salvation, what do they do? They showed meat or fruits of repentance by leaving<br />
the land, right? There was some repentance there. They were no longer slaves.<br />
They were leaving. They get baptized in the Red Sea and they go out to Mt. Sinai<br />
and they get the law, which, I think most of you probably know this, but Jewish<br />
tradition states that the law on Mt. Sinai, when God spoke the Ten Commandments<br />
down from Mt. Sinai to the people of Israel that is the same day as the<br />
Feast of Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks.<br />
All this represents what we go through in our lives, right? The salvation, the<br />
baptism, the repentance part, and the giving of the spirit to his covenant people.<br />
So all these people sitting there on the edge of the land are covenant people. And<br />
even after seeing all this the spies say “nevertheless”, right? “Nevertheless”<br />
there’s giants in the land. There’s great people. But what does Caleb say?<br />
Verse 30 says:<br />
“Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once<br />
and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.’”<br />
Where the ten spies said “nevertheless”, Caleb says, “We are well able to overcome<br />
it.” That “overcome” is a key word right there. Your mind automatically goes<br />
to Revelation. All the promises God gives to those who overcome. But what was<br />
Caleb trusting in, right? Well, Caleb wasn’t trusting in his own might. Although,<br />
you know, when I picture Caleb, obviously Caleb’s a great character in the Bible.<br />
When I picture Caleb – I’m glad the Bible tells us he was Jewish. Because I think<br />
of an old Irish man, you know, going up to take the mountain. Give me this<br />
mountain. This guy from – I know Brave Heart’s not Irish, they’re English. But I<br />
picture the old guy who’s been in a ton of wars, who, you know, he’s got scars on<br />
him, just going up to take this mountain. But obviously he’s not Irish, he’s Jewish.<br />
I also like Caleb because, you know, we all know Joshua and Caleb. Can anyone<br />
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name one of the ten spies here? Anyone name one of the ten spies, right? They’re<br />
listed there in this chapter. I’ve read them five times while studying for this and I<br />
still can’t remember a single name of theirs. And there’s a reason for that, right?<br />
No one remembers the people who are doubters, who don’t actually take action.<br />
They remember the people who have faith, who take action, who do something.<br />
Not the people who sit there and go “nevertheless”.<br />
But anyway. So why was Caleb able to say, hey let’s go up? Well, first off,<br />
we’ve got to look at why the other people said they weren’t able to go up. They<br />
said they weren’t able to go up because there were giants in the land, right?<br />
There’s giants there. And we like to scoff at them and I’ve already scoffed at them<br />
a little. But, you know, there are giants in our lives. I think we understand that.<br />
My kids are sick right now. They have minor issues. But if my kids were ever really<br />
sick, that would be a giant in my life, right? If I lost my job, that would be a<br />
giant in my life. That would be hard for me to deal with. If my parents ever left<br />
the church that would be a giant in my life. There’s lots of things that would<br />
shake me. And, you know, we scoff at these people seeing these giants, but these<br />
giants are nine feet tall and they’re living behind big walls. And, you know, yes,<br />
they should have had faith, but, you know, we all go through the same things in<br />
our lives where, man, we don’t just walk up to every situation and go the Lord’<br />
going to deal with it. I’m completely, mentally okay with this situation. Usually it<br />
takes us a while to get to that point where we realize okay, wait. God’s in control<br />
and we can deal with this. But where Caleb -- where these people saw giants,<br />
what did Caleb see?<br />
Now, I have to catch up with myself in my notes. Caleb, in verse 7 of chapter<br />
14, and it says:<br />
“…and they spoke to all the congregation” (they being Joshua and Caleb) “they<br />
spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel saying: ‘The land we passed<br />
through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He<br />
will bring us into this land and give it to us …’”<br />
Right? If the Lord delights in us. Where everyone else saw giants, Caleb and<br />
Joshua they saw “if the Lord delights in us” right? Everyone else looking at the<br />
giants. Caleb and Joshua look up a little higher and see God.<br />
We have to go to Isaiah 40 real quick because it ties in well. Isaiah 40, starting<br />
in verse 21 it says:<br />
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the<br />
beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He<br />
who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,<br />
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to<br />
dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.”<br />
I love that. So these ten spies see themselves as grasshoppers in the sight of<br />
these giants. But God says, “Hey, all of the inhabitants of the Earth are like grasshoppers<br />
to Me.” So it’s just your matter of perspective. Caleb and Joshua had had<br />
perspective on the matter. They saw the giants, yes, but they realized God is in<br />
control. He can take the situation and work it in our favor.<br />
So the ten spies, they said “nevertheless”. They saw the issues, they saw the<br />
giants, they didn’t see God in the situation. And then what did they do? They do<br />
what comes naturally to us. In chapter 14, verse 1, back in Numbers it says:<br />
“So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept<br />
that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and<br />
the whole congregation said to them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or<br />
if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to<br />
fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not<br />
be better for us to return to Egypt?’ So they said to one another, ‘Let us select a<br />
leader and return to Egypt.’”<br />
So they said “nevertheless.” They saw the giants and they complained, right?<br />
We like to complain a lot. Complaining is very dangerous. Just a few chapters ago<br />
in Numbers you read of Miriam and Aaron complaining against Moses. And I used<br />
to think of that, yeah, they are complaining against Moses. Why are they complaining<br />
against Moses? Well, It sounds like they’re in their tent complaining<br />
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against Moses talking about their sister-in-law. I’m like man, I do that all the time.<br />
Right? But, obviously, Moses had a position of power. And then it says the Lord<br />
heard it and that shook me. When I’m in the car on the way home and I’m saying<br />
something, as it was mentioned last night. You might not always like the lesson<br />
on a certain given night. You might say something about it. But you got to be<br />
careful about what we say in our complaints cause the Lord hears them. The Lord<br />
obviously heard these complaints of the children of Israel. Right? So they were<br />
complaining and when you’re complaining they lost sight of reality, right? They<br />
became irrational in their thoughts, it looks like. And they start changing history in<br />
their minds, right? “Oh, those leeks, those fish, those melons that we ate in<br />
Egypt”. You don’t remember all the other things that were going on in Egypt?<br />
What’s the deal? And then, you become a victim, right? So they’re complaining<br />
and now they’re victims. Victims that have never done anything productive. We<br />
should not be victims.<br />
There’s this radio show I listen to, and it says, the motto is “I am not a victim”.<br />
And that is so true. We should not be victims. We’re children of God, we are covenant<br />
people, we are not victims of this world.<br />
And then they start having bad ideas, right? They complain, they become victims,<br />
they become irrational, and they have bad ideas. “Let’s choose a leader and<br />
go back to Egypt.” Obviously, God had already decimated that land. Were they<br />
going back to take that land instead, or were they going to become slaves again<br />
in Egypt? And then I start thinking, who are they going to select for this job,<br />
right? “Hey Mom they just selected me to lead the people back into slavery in<br />
Egypt.” I mean, how hard could that possibly be. But obviously God was not well<br />
pleased with these people. But where these people were complaining, what was<br />
Joshua and Caleb doing?<br />
Let’s go back to verse 6 of chapter 14, it says:<br />
“But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among<br />
those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the<br />
congregation of the children of Israel, saying …”<br />
And I’ve already read this:<br />
“The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If<br />
the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land<br />
which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the<br />
people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from<br />
them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”<br />
I love that line, you know, I’ll get to it. But where everyone else is complaining,<br />
what are Joshua and Caleb doing? They’re leading. They’re saying, hey, look, we<br />
can take this land. They’re trying to convince them we can take this land, and we<br />
can go into it. And what do they say about the giants? “They are our bread.”<br />
Right? What a great statement that is. Gives a whole new meaning to “Come and<br />
Dine”. We sing that song a lot. “Come and dine, the Master calleth. Jesus has His<br />
table spread where the Saints of God are fed.”<br />
But, they realized that God had put this obstacle in front of us, right? And we<br />
are going to grow by that obstacle. We are going to build a nation. And God is<br />
going to do mighty things and we are going to grow by this nourishment that God<br />
has given us. They are our bread. Right? Don’t you see an Irishman saying that?<br />
They are our bread. Anyway, they had a great attitude. Yeah, it’s an obstacle but<br />
it’s an obstacle that we are going to grow by. And we need to be thankful, you<br />
know. We always say we need to be thankful for the trials but it is so difficult<br />
when you’re standing there looking at this giant of a trial to be thankful for it.<br />
Hopefully we have perspective at some point and time during the process.<br />
Another thing that these ten spies didn’t do is they didn’t remember, right?<br />
They became irrational and they totally forgot about what God had done previously.<br />
But I can picture Joshua and Caleb. Where did they say they went too, in verse<br />
22 of chapter 13? It says: “And they went up through the south and came to Hebron”,<br />
right? And they came to Hebron. You can see them going out to spy on the<br />
land and then taking a stop off and Hebron and going this is where the patriarchs<br />
are buried. God, I remember 430 years ago, right? God gave these patriarchs a<br />
promise, and He is going to fulfill that promise. And it would be like -- and they<br />
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emembered. What does it say right here? “Do this in remembrance of me” What<br />
do we do? You know, once every month or two months. We take the Lord’s Supper,<br />
right? And the Lord said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” There’s a reason<br />
for that because when you remember what the Lord has done for you, right, you<br />
realize what the Lord can do for you in the future. It keeps you on a straight path.<br />
I had a thought and I just lost it. Man! So we have to remember what the Lord<br />
has done for us because I already stated what this -- what the whole process of<br />
leaving Egypt was all about, right? It was all a type and a shadow of what Christ<br />
was going to do for us, right? Christ died on the cross, just like the Passover lamb.<br />
He led us out from being slaves of sins to being slaves of righteous, just like it<br />
says in Romans 6. He baptized us into His congregation, His children of Israel, His<br />
assembly. And then He gave us His spirit. So what we need to realize is that we<br />
always look back at the Exodus as such a great event and it is a great event. But<br />
it is a type and a shadow, just a shadow of what Jesus has done for us today,<br />
right? The great work that He has done for us today is better than what He did for<br />
them. At this point in time, it is a type and a shadow.<br />
So, how should we be when we come against the giants in our land, when<br />
we’re walking through this land? Right? We need to have more faith than these<br />
people had. What did God -- what did Psalms call this situation? I got this from<br />
Brother Winkelman, right? He called it -- man, my mind. I’m just going to have to<br />
turn there. Hebrews chapter 3. He called it the provocation. Right? The provocation.<br />
You guys were thinking it and I forgot about it. He called it the provocation,<br />
right? So if they provoked Him at this point in time how much more can we provoke<br />
Him at this time, trampling under the blood of Christ, right? When they were<br />
just trampling these types and shadows. Obviously they were great works, but we<br />
are in a position to provoke the Lord.<br />
Anyone happen to know what day the Lord pronounced judgment on Israel<br />
after this? Just curious if anyone? There is a date the Jews have. They say the 9th<br />
of Av is when this happened. When the Lord pronounced judgment, and said hey,<br />
you’re going to wander the land of Israel or the land of Egypt for 38 years. And I<br />
know this is not Biblical, but this is Jewish tradition. So on the 9th of Av, this is<br />
what happened when they provoked the Lord. God pronounced judgment.<br />
What else happened of the 9th of Av according to Jewish tradition? The first<br />
temple was destroyed. What else happened? The second temple was destroyed<br />
on the 9th of Av according to Jewish tradition. What else happened? They were<br />
expelled from England. I forget the date on the 9th of Av. What else happened?<br />
In 1492, I think we all know that number. In 1492, Jews were ejected out of<br />
Spain on the 9th of Av. That was the date they had to leave by. Interestingly<br />
enough, Columbus left a day later because -- there’s interesting speculation, and I<br />
think it’s true, that he was a Jew who was trying not to get caught, right? Two of<br />
the financiers of his trip were Jewish, they were conversos, which were Jews who<br />
converted to Christianity so they didn’t die. But anyway, all these bad things happened<br />
on the 9th of Av.<br />
And I’m not saying it was because of this one incident but this is the provocation,<br />
right? We need to be careful how we treat what the Lord has given us. How<br />
we treat the salvation that He’s given us, how we treat the baptism, how we treat<br />
the Spirit that He’s given His churches because we are in a position to provoke the<br />
Lord and we need to take it seriously.<br />
What did I call this sermon? I haven’t even touched on it really. There are no<br />
cowards in the Kingdom. Now, now we are not not cowards because we are<br />
mighty men, right? We didn’t stand in the middle of a barley field and defend it<br />
and kill hundreds of Philistines. But we understand that the Lord is mighty, right?<br />
We remember. We have many of our churches -- many members in our church --<br />
I was thinking about this, they live on the fringes of society, if you know what I<br />
mean. They’re not – you know, people don’t want to be their friends, you know, in<br />
general society. They’re little widow women, right? Whose husbands have taken<br />
care of them their whole life, and now they have to get a job, and they are making<br />
things work. But you know what, I think about that and they amaze me because<br />
they have faith, right? They are mighty in the Lord. They are not cowards,<br />
right? Now they may be scared of this world in lots of instances, but when it<br />
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comes to the Lord they have faith. And I think man, Jesus is the great equalizer,<br />
right? You have these old widow women who have faith and they are mighty in<br />
the Lord’s sight. Where, you know, there’s some mighty men who have no faith<br />
and they are cowards.<br />
And what are we looking for? We are all here today hopefully looking for the<br />
same thing. Obviously we want to be uplifted, but we want to get that inheritance<br />
that God has for us, right? That’s all these people were looking for. They were<br />
looking for their inheritance that God had told them they were going to have. And<br />
if we want that inheritance, if we want to be heirs of the kingdom, we have to not<br />
be cowards. We have to remember, we have to not say “nevertheless”, we have<br />
to see God instead of the giants, and realize that we are in a great position we<br />
are His covenant people.<br />
Friday morning annual sermon<br />
Eld. John Hughes, Bethel MBC Whittier<br />
Music does so much to cause richness to our worship.<br />
We’re going to be talking about that this afternoon. I understand<br />
I probably didn’t do things exactly as the association has<br />
dictated. I’m the pastor of the host church, and I’m the moderator,<br />
and I would have been putting together the resolution<br />
committee, politically speaking, to do what it is we were wanting<br />
them to do anyway. So we’re going to do a program this<br />
afternoon that has to do with considering and nurturing our<br />
song services, our music, the way that -- challenge ourselves on<br />
the way that it is that we worship and music. And it’s all going to be, hopefully,<br />
just amazing.<br />
But, I tell you what. When that song was being sung and we’re singing about<br />
such a subject as Beulah Land, and then all of our voices together, couldn’t you<br />
just see it? The truth of Beulah Land, which means married. Which is where we’re<br />
going to start talking about in the sermon this morning, about some amazing<br />
things that the faithful have before them. Promises. There is going to be a new<br />
Heaven and a new Earth. Jesus is, as Brother Miller preached last night, going to<br />
return. There is going to be a new Jerusalem. And there are going to be those<br />
that have served God faithfully that are going to be rewarded with covenant<br />
blessings. Those are facts. We have the opportunity to be a part of all that. And<br />
as we see things by faith we then get motivated to act by faith and grab onto<br />
those promises and make them ours and be motivated to live accordingly.<br />
We all have loved ones that have gone on before, and we really rejoice about<br />
those that served God. And we really think about the future and being reunited.<br />
Ultimately what it is that the Lord promises us and has promised us are things<br />
that are almost, probably not correct to use this term, but almost unbelievable.<br />
Because -- I say unbelievable because so many people don’t believe it. Is it because<br />
they’re so great that it just can’t be possible, or is it that our God is so<br />
great that it really is possible, we just, in our weakness, have trouble grabbing<br />
hold of it?<br />
Whatever the case might be, let me say this, the facts are there is going to be<br />
a new Heaven and a new Earth. There is going to be a New Jerusalem. Jesus is<br />
going to return in glory. And there’s going to be the faithful that are going to be<br />
with Him in the sense of the Bride of Christ.<br />
Revelation chapter 19 is where were going to start. Again, I don’t want to refer<br />
constantly to Brother Miller’s sermon last night. But the Book of Revelation talks a<br />
great deal about worship. Both true, honorable worship of God and Christ, and<br />
false worship of that which is of the devil of unrighteousness, the Antichrist, etc.<br />
And let us be clear there is that kind of worship and it’s going on in the world<br />
today. Constantly. In fact, probably in greater number than those that worship<br />
God in truth. We’ll touch on some of those things in a few moments.<br />
Look at verse 1 on Revelation 19 :<br />
“After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,<br />
‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God! For true<br />
and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who<br />
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corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of<br />
His servants shed by her.”<br />
Kind of keep that verse kind of in the back of your mind. We may not read it<br />
again, but I want – another point we’re going to make. He, capital H, referring to<br />
Jesus. “He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.”<br />
“Again they said, ‘Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!’ And the twenty<br />
-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on<br />
the throne, saying, ‘Amen! Alleluia!’”<br />
Do you know how many times the Book of Revelation talks about these 24 elders<br />
falling down and worshipping? Do a study for yourself. Have a little fun with<br />
this. Look at all the different people that have been in the presence of God in the<br />
Bible, and see what their consistent reaction is. They fall on their faces and they<br />
worship. And that’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to worship. And you know<br />
what? By faith, we need to worship right now. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you<br />
have to have Him be in your presence in order to honor Him, or can you by faith<br />
see Him right now and you can worship Him, and honor Him, and bow before<br />
Him?<br />
Thomas said, “I don’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead,” putting it in my<br />
words. “I don’t believe it, and I’m not going to believe it until I see it.” And then<br />
Jesus showed Himself to Thomas. Remember? Doubting Thomas then said, “I<br />
believe,” when he saw it. “I believe.” This is what I just think is awesome for us<br />
today. Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are you Thomas for having seen you believe.”<br />
I think that’s true. You know how many people that were in the presence<br />
of Jesus during His ministry that didn’t believe? It’s amazing to me. I’ve thought,<br />
man, if I’d lived during that time and saw His miracles I would believe! I criticize<br />
those who don’t. But there were a lot of people who didn’t believe in Jesus even<br />
though they saw Him. Even though they saw what He did.<br />
He said to Thomas, “Blessed are you for having seen you believe, but more<br />
blessed are going to be those that believe not having seen.” That’s us. We haven’t<br />
seen Him, but we believe. Right? I hope you do. And not only do we believe that<br />
Jesus was a historical figure, but we believe not only that but what it is that He<br />
said. We believe what He preached. We believe what He taught. We believe what<br />
He did as far as the death on the cross and the rising from the grave. We believe<br />
those things. And so we, as God’s people, we worship.<br />
These people who are in the heaven, whoever the 24 elders – we have a young<br />
lady in the church who texts me all the time, and I love it. Don’t you pastors love<br />
it when people of your membership call you up and they have Bible questions?<br />
Well, I’ve got to back up. I used to like that. She’s asking tough questions. She<br />
says, “Pastor John, who are the 24 elders?” So jokingly I name some names. Fred<br />
and Bill, you know. Give me an easy one. Okay. Who’s the two witnesses? I’m<br />
studying Revelation. Who’s the two witnesses? Okay. So I used to like questions.<br />
I don’t take questions anymore. 24 elders, not just here, but we read last night,<br />
fall down and worship Jesus. Fall on their faces.<br />
Verse 5 says:<br />
“Then a voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants<br />
and those who fear Him, both small and great!’ And I heard, as it were, the<br />
voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of<br />
mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!’”<br />
Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that awesome? One of the most fun things I think that<br />
I experience, my personal preference of calling things favorites, is when we have<br />
association meetings and we get a good crowd and we sing together. This verse<br />
talks about a great multitude. And I think all over the world there are a lot of<br />
faithful people, and there will be a great multitude one day. But I love getting<br />
together with all of you. I love getting together with the churches of our state and<br />
singing praises unto God. Not just going through motions, and not just singing the<br />
songs we’re supposed to sing. Did you notice we’ve got a second song book now<br />
that we had just gotten recently? We’re enjoying learning some songs. You know<br />
what I notice? Some of the songs that I know from the book of the Heavenly<br />
Highway Hymn Book is I know those. I don’t even need to turn to the page.<br />
Right? You’re like that too, I’m sure. Don’t even need to turn to the page. I know<br />
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what it is, I know what the words are. And I’m not necessarily too invested in<br />
what I’m singing sometimes. I’m just singing it because that’s what we’re singing.<br />
Do you know what I mean? Just singing it because that’s what we’re singing.<br />
And I notice that when we started singing some – when Brother Steven leads<br />
us in some of the songs I’m not familiar with, I’m looking at the words. And I’m<br />
more involved, and I recognize that I’m singing these things to God. You know.<br />
We’ll be getting into some of this a little later today. But just as a preview, the<br />
song books they’re not the Word of God. And some of our songs in the song<br />
books, you know, it’s okay not to sing some of those songs. I used to make fun of<br />
– I heard somebody sing it recently. But the song that talks about a prayer wheel<br />
turning. I used to make fun of that until Brother Jed or Sister Cheryl showed a<br />
picture of Jed next to a prayer wheel. If you haven’t seen it – I don’t know if you<br />
have that in your wallet, but Jed has a picture of himself at a prayer wheel. So I<br />
quit criticizing that song because it’s a real thing. I just thought people were making<br />
that up. Prayer wheel turning, artistic liberty with words.<br />
Brother Howard and I were talking in the parking lot about some of our Heavenly<br />
Highway Hymns. There are some good songs in that book. There are some<br />
songs that if we don’t have a song leader to lead those we ought to just close up<br />
shop. Ain’t it a shame? Ain’t it a shame that song is even there? I love it. Isn’t it a<br />
shame to lie on Sunday, when you got Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday.<br />
You’ve got all these other days. Why are you doing it on Sunday, praise the Lord!<br />
I don’t know how exactly how that’s worship. Right?<br />
Lord build me a cabin in the corner of glory. What? It’s in there. Sounds quaint,<br />
you know, kind of like camping. It also sounds kind of like outer darkness, you<br />
know, if you’re not careful, you know. You don’t want that.<br />
So I think with all things that we do as we worship, we should be careful not to<br />
get into a rut and just do what we do. Sister Joanie asked us all to sing Beulah<br />
Land. That hit me in my heart. It was an honor to sing that with you. What a<br />
promise! Beulah Land. That’s what these verses – we haven’t gotten all the way<br />
there yet, but that’s what these verses are all about. Longing for something that’s<br />
incredible. Longing for something that is real. Some of the songs that we sing in<br />
the world, they’re just fantasy stuff. This is – we’re talking about real things here.<br />
Real promises. And we ought to sing about them. And we ought to talk about<br />
them. We ought to preach about them.<br />
A number of years ago there was a situation where there was a man who said<br />
that he had never preached on some of the promises of the Bible. Man, we ought<br />
to be talking about those things, encouraging each other, singing about them. It<br />
ought to be something that we just get to where we’re serving one another as a<br />
result of that.<br />
Do you want to hear something really funny? Just before I proposed to Joanie,<br />
we were on a beach at Huntington Beach. She had cooked great food. We were<br />
going to picnic out there. And I was going to propose if the food was good, and it<br />
was. But I was so moved I sang. Almost put everything at risk. But I sang and she<br />
cried. Easy on the judgment on why she cried. But it’s one of the most special<br />
times of our lives together was that day when I proposed, and sang, and we were<br />
– our hearts were knit together. She, as you know, said yes, and we were married.<br />
What it is that we do, is we worship. What it is that we do, is we sing together.<br />
What it is that we do, is we read God’s Word as it builds us up and lifts us up. And<br />
it causes us to go to a place where we’re not normally at. I don’t know if you sing<br />
all day long. But I know that sometimes on Monday or Tuesday, I’m singing the<br />
songs that we sang on Sunday. And it does me good on those days. It helps me<br />
to pray and remind myself of what I’m all about, because, you know, we can get<br />
bogged down with life. We can get to where it is that we forgot about God until<br />
we get back to church, you know, and get built up again. But I don’t think the<br />
Lord wants us to be on that kind of a rollercoaster all the day. But He wants to<br />
have us have a consistent loving relationship with Him. And I think as I sang to<br />
my wife, I think the Lord is blessed when we sing to Him. Even if it isn’t the best<br />
in the world. The Lord likes it when we are singing from our heart to Him, not just<br />
going through the motions. But when we’re really involved in what it is that we’re<br />
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doing with Him.<br />
So what do we have to sing about? Verse 7:<br />
“‘Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb<br />
has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ And to her it was granted to be<br />
arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of<br />
the saints.<br />
Then he said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage<br />
supper of the Lamb!’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true sayings of God.’ And I<br />
fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that! I<br />
am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.<br />
Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’”<br />
This is a similar experience that others in the book of Acts had, where there<br />
were those that wanted to worship some of the apostles, in this case John. John<br />
quickly points out worship God. Worship God. But you know what? The promise<br />
that John was talking about here was so great they wanted to fall and worship at<br />
his feet. And I want to say to us, there are a lot more Baptists that have been<br />
keeping the Word of God for all these years that let us stay faithful to the Lord,<br />
because there are many, many promises that the Lord wants to fulfill in our lives.<br />
Let us find ourselves faithful unto Him, and understand that there are some things<br />
that the Lord has that are so great that sometimes it’s just a matter of we just<br />
sing to Him about it. We just praise Him. We just fall before His feet. Because the<br />
facts are we’re recipients of God’s grace and His mercy, and we deserve none of<br />
this. So as a result we sing. You’re giving me what? Let’s sing praises to our God.<br />
You’re offering me what? And we honor Him and we glorify Him because it’s all<br />
because of Jesus. It’s all because of God and His grace and mercy and His love.<br />
These verses are talking about a special fulfillment unto to the faithful that they<br />
will be part of the Bride of Christ. It says, and my aim isn’t to spend a lot of time<br />
on these verses, but it says in verse 8 – verse 7 says:<br />
“ …for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself<br />
ready.’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for<br />
the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.’”<br />
The fine linen – what it is that the Bride is wearing exemplifies the faithful life<br />
that she has lived. Of course that’s giving God glory, but let us understand that we<br />
are participants in the process. The Bride isn’t going to be made up of just a random<br />
group of people. It’s going to be made up of those that love the Lord and<br />
follow Him. Not only are they born again, but they have followed Him, and they<br />
followed His word, and they followed His teaching, and they live a life that gives<br />
glory to the Lord. Ephesians 3:21 says “Unto Him be glory in the church.” I know<br />
that’s not popular in today’s Christian world, but the church is the called out assembly.<br />
It’s not made up of all the saved all over the world. They never assemble.<br />
It defies the very definition of the word.<br />
The church is the body of Christ, of which Jesus is the head, and we are members<br />
individually. The church is a temple in which Jesus is the chief cornerstone,<br />
the capstone, and we are living stones connected together built up as a spiritual<br />
house. So easy to understand, but those things honor Jesus. If Jesus is the head<br />
of the body of Christ, and the body is not doing anything, Jesus isn’t being honored.<br />
So what’s our reaction? We need to honor the head, Jesus. Certainly we’re<br />
thankful for our salvation. We’re certainly thankful for what Jesus did on the cross.<br />
But the work doesn’t finish there simply because we’ve been born again. Jesus<br />
has a whole life for us to lead.<br />
Alright. I don’t know why I have to look at the clock, right? I have to look at my<br />
wife. That’s what I have to look at. When the food is ready. See I get brave sometimes.<br />
I want to make a point that the book of Revelation – I’m going to skip a couple<br />
of verses here. I hope you’re inspired to look at some things that are connecting<br />
to the verses that we will look at. The book of Revelation talks a great deal about<br />
worship, both worship that is true and worship that is false. The Bible is clear that<br />
the antichrist one day will come on the scene and he will be worshipped. The Bible<br />
is also clear that the devil, Satan, desires to be worshipped. It is clear that there<br />
are many in the world that do worship false gods. We see that in the beginning of<br />
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time. We see that 1500 years after the creation of Adam and Eve, that God wanted<br />
to start over with Noah and his family. Things had gotten bad, just in 1500<br />
years. Brother Braden was talking about 430 years. It’s not a real long time. We<br />
look back at our history as a country, and we’re talking about 245 – 50 years<br />
somewhere around there that, you know, we look back at our forefathers and we<br />
say, “That was way a long time ago,” George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.<br />
You know, our history way back. It’s not really that long ago. It’s not really that<br />
long ago.<br />
We find in the Old Testament constant battles as God’s people were often times<br />
falling into false worship. Idol worship. We see that as in Brother Braden’s sermon<br />
this morning, that it was a short time after the ten plagues, a short time after the<br />
parting of the Red Sea, that Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and the children of Israel<br />
went back into false worship. As Aaron explained to his brother that “we threw<br />
these jewels into this fire and out came a golden calf” and they worshipped it. A<br />
year and a half, not a long time. They went back into false worship.<br />
God’s people have always been challenged with going into false worship. But<br />
let us be clear, it was worship. And it is clear that God’s aroused anger was as a<br />
result of that. He wasn’t just nitpicking. He was upset that His people had left Him<br />
for another god. And it was akin to spiritual fornication.<br />
We see this going on in the world today as well, that there are many that are<br />
worshipping false gods. And I want to deal with this just for a moment with the<br />
reality of what it is that we’re seeing in the world today, and that one day we may<br />
very well face it in the United States and in California. And it may happen sooner<br />
than we expect. My heart fails me when I think of the 150 souls that died in the<br />
airplane crash a couple of days ago. And to find out that the co-pilot very well<br />
may have been a new convert to the Muslim religion, in which they seem to believe<br />
that if they act in a certain way and destroy other people’s lives that they are<br />
worshipping their false god.<br />
We saw not too long ago there were 21 Christians that were beheaded on a<br />
beach. I think it was 21. 21 Christians that were beheaded on a beach. I was having<br />
a conversation with one of our brethren. He said, “Yeah, well, but they may<br />
not have been of the same faith as we are in all of their practices.” You mean the<br />
Muslims didn’t ask them what they believe on all kinds of things, issues in the<br />
Scriptures? Of course not. All they cared about was, “Are you going to bow before<br />
Allah or not?” That’s all they wanted to know. “Are you going to bow before Allah?”<br />
And when they said no, they lost their heads, they lost their lives. This is the<br />
world that we’re living in.<br />
We saw it with 9/11 and we don’t see it stopping or slowing down. And I want<br />
to make sure that we understand that part of our worship is that we stay faithful<br />
to our Savior through thick and thin. That we stay faithful to Him in the good<br />
times, when we’re getting together and we’re singing Beulah Land together. And<br />
also that we stay faithful in support of each other when things aren’t going so<br />
good. When maybe some of our brethren are being persecuted. And maybe there<br />
are some people that are having to face some terrible things, that we encourage<br />
each other.<br />
Some of the songs that we sing are worshipful, uplifting, we’re excited to sing<br />
about them. Sometimes they’re songs that are sorrowful. There are songs that,<br />
you know, we kind of wish the Lord would hurry up and come back, you know.<br />
Though we stay faithful because our Savior deserves our faithfulness through<br />
thick and thin.<br />
So I wanted to read a few verses here in the book of Revelation. First I want to<br />
start in chapter 6, verse 9. This is the fifth seal. And it says:<br />
“When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who<br />
had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And<br />
they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You<br />
judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’”<br />
You know, there are some people that think the God that is the God of this<br />
Bible -- that probably this type of a question would be wrong. That we’re just supposed<br />
to be victims, as Brother Braden said. We’re just supposed to be victims<br />
and not, you know, worry about revenge, or in this case the word is avenge. But<br />
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they ask the question as they’re under the altar. “How long Lord until you avenge<br />
us?”<br />
It says:<br />
“Then a white robe was given to each of them …”<br />
Make that connection with chapter 19.<br />
“…a white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them that they<br />
should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and<br />
their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.”<br />
I speak with a heavy heart, looking at our future, and thinking there is a possibility<br />
that our people, and maybe even this generation, or at least maybe even the<br />
next generation, may face such things as is being talked about here. Martyrdom.<br />
Being killed for our testimony in Jesus Christ. Souls that have been slain for the<br />
Word of God and for the testimony which they held. We need to develop a strong<br />
people of faith. We need to not only develop that within ourselves but within our<br />
next generation. A people that loves the Lord and are willing to stand with the<br />
Lord through thick and thin. We have a Savior which we can lift up, and the<br />
teaching of that would be rather easy because we understand who Jesus is, but<br />
we need to teach it. We need to live it. We need to preach it. That there is a possibility<br />
that some rough times are ahead, and that we need to be strong for those<br />
rough times. So they said, “How long?” And the Lord said, “No, just a little while<br />
longer.” In other words, it’s going to happen.<br />
Let’s go over to chapter 18. Chapter 18 is Babylon the Great being destroyed.<br />
One of the great celebration chapters in the Bible. About 30 years ago I knew<br />
exactly who Mystery Babylon was. I’m not sure who it is any more. I just think<br />
I’ve expanded what I think it is. I used to think some other things, but I think<br />
certainly Islam is part of it. Now whether you think that or not it’s okay, but it’s<br />
definitely an enemy of God and His people. It’s definitely someone or something<br />
that is a force, that has been a force, against the ways of God and righteousness<br />
for a long, long time.<br />
And chapter 18, without reading all the verses, I want you to read these on<br />
your own. We find that Babylon is destroyed. It says in verse 20:<br />
“‘Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has<br />
avenged you on her!’”<br />
How long – remember the verse we read in the fifth seal? How long before you<br />
avenge us? A little while longer. Chapter 18, Mystery Babylon has been avenged<br />
on you. You have had this situation taken care of. God has answered and He has<br />
judged. And Babylon is destroyed.<br />
Now sometimes people look around and say how is it that unrighteousness<br />
prevails? How is it that that which is wrong prevails? Sometimes people will come<br />
up, and one of my little pet peeves is karma. People say they’re going to get<br />
theirs, you know, karma. Well, karma is a lie. Karma is not the truth. Karma –<br />
there are a whole lot of people who are doing a whole lot of bad things that aren’t<br />
getting punished. They are not facing bad experiences as a result of karma. But I<br />
do know what is true. There is going to be a judgment. Everybody is going to<br />
stand before the Lord and answer for their lives. That’s – well, if you want to call<br />
it karma, that’s real karma.<br />
Look, you don’t have to study very much into history to understand that God’s<br />
people, Old Testament and New, have been persecuted and harmed and martyred<br />
for their faith for six thousand years. And God’s going to take care of that one<br />
day. God’s going to avenge, and He’s going to make things right.<br />
And so, as we read on, it says in verse 21:<br />
“Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and thrown into the<br />
sea, saying, ‘Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and<br />
shall not be found anymore.’”<br />
Do you know what? We can preach that to people. If you don’t believe in<br />
Christ, if you don’t believe in the God of the Bible, one day you’re going to stand<br />
before judgment, and God is going to avenge your unrighteousness. Get your life<br />
right with the Lord. He’s going to deal with all of this.<br />
It says in verse 22:<br />
“The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in<br />
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you anymore.”<br />
You know, there is a lot of worship, a lot of celebration, a lot of things going on<br />
and false worship today. A lot of happiness going on. God’s going to put a stop to<br />
all unrighteousness one day. And even those that worship false gods, are not going<br />
to make any more sounds that really end up mocking our God.<br />
Verse 23:<br />
“The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom<br />
and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the<br />
great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. And in<br />
her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the<br />
earth.”<br />
There are estimates by John Christian and others that perhaps as many as 5<br />
million, maybe more, faithful were slain especially in the Dark Ages for their testimony.<br />
We have it pretty good today. But God is going to avenge. We have it pretty<br />
good today, but those things can change.<br />
I look back to those, and as I read about the testimony and books such as Martyrs<br />
Mirror, the Christian Book of Martyrs, etc., and I look back fondly at those<br />
testimonies, and I’m so thankful for the pattern of those that stayed faithful even<br />
as they were trying to get our brethren to renounce their faith in Christ. But they<br />
wouldn’t do it.<br />
And so recently as I was reading about a particular man and his testimony, and<br />
as they were doing unspeakable things to him, I couldn’t help but think what<br />
causes this man to be so strong in his faith? And it just became crystal clear to<br />
me. It was simple. He had great faith in Jesus Christ. There was nowhere else to<br />
go. There was no one else to believe in.<br />
I want you to think about that for a moment. We are bombarded in the news<br />
all the time about certain heroes that we have in this world, or people that are<br />
lifted up as heroes. Whether they be politicians who end up constantly disappointing<br />
us. I can’t help but every time we have an election, start talking about Jesus<br />
as the King of Kings. You know, what it is that the world has to offer is not providing<br />
any hope. They give you all kinds of promises and then things continue on a<br />
bad path. There are no heroes in this world, the world of politics. They get all<br />
constantly lifted up and we’re supposed to honor these men and women in this<br />
world, and even though they’re trying to make things change dramatically as far<br />
as what we understand is righteous in the world.<br />
Let me just go on just for a moment. We’re living in a time where just in the<br />
past few years, Bible is clear, right is wrong and wrong is right. I would not want<br />
to send my son or daughter to a school and have them deal with boys and girls<br />
not understanding their identity and going into the wrong bathrooms. I don’t want<br />
my kids dealing with that. Wrong is right, and right is wrong. I don’t want to deal<br />
with – in my family, and my church, and my life, I don’t want to deal with all the<br />
confusion about what is a family. What is marriage? I don’t need to have the<br />
world try to redefine everything. The Bible is clear. But yet, we constantly face<br />
these things.<br />
Look, I’m absolutely against racism. I think the Lord’s church ought to be made<br />
up of every color that we can produce as mankind. There should be no problem<br />
with the Lord’s church about a person’s race. But a lot if what is called racism<br />
today has nothing to do with the color of somebody’s skin, it has to do with politics.<br />
We’re seeing people protest and make heroes out of people that are criminals.<br />
You hear me, right? Hands up, don’t shoot. We got Congress people going –<br />
on the floor of Congress, making statements about things that are trying to lift up<br />
a criminal. That guy that they said raised his hands and asked not to shoot, he<br />
didn’t just rob a convenience store. Why are we making him a hero?<br />
What’s my point? We already have a hero. We already have one that we can lift<br />
up and constantly be proud to say that’s my God. That’s my Savior. That’s who it<br />
is that I worship. And by the way, we can spread the message to everybody.<br />
Right.<br />
This wasn’t a case where I had a whole year to prepare, I just had a couple<br />
months to prepare, and I’ve got way too much information that I want to share.<br />
But let me get to my final point.<br />
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The Bible says that Jesus was coming back. We have a hero, we have a Savior,<br />
we have a Messiah. We have a God that is greater than all of the gods that mankind<br />
had come up with. He’s greater than all the heroes that the world can come<br />
up with. We have one that we can lift up and absolutely be proud of all the time,<br />
never ever having any kind of worry that He’s going to fail. We have a Savior Who<br />
is perfect, and sinless, Who is constantly with us, and there for us, Who is faithful.<br />
And the Bible says that He’s going to come back one day. And you know He’s going<br />
to have an introduction. And this is where I want to go in closing is Jesus’ introduction.<br />
Sometimes I think maybe the world gets a little crazy about introducing<br />
somebody that’s going to come on stage, or make a speech, or what have<br />
you. And they say all kinds of things. And you’re thinking, is half of that true? The<br />
introduction of Jesus is going to be something that all of what is said about Him is<br />
true.<br />
The Bible says that the introduction of Jesus is going to be the blowing of the<br />
seventh trumpet. That’s going to be some sound. The Bible says that His coming<br />
is going to be like the lightning that flashes from the east to the west. And so I<br />
imagine that trumpet sound is going to be absolutely amazing. I don’t want to get<br />
into anything other than what it is the Bible talks about as His glorious appearing.<br />
His glorious appearing is going to be absolutely amazing. The God that we’re singing<br />
about today, the God who we are praying to, the God that we’re reading about<br />
today, His Son Jesus is coming back, and He’s going to come back, as the Bible<br />
says, as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And the introduction for Him is<br />
going to be this trumpet sound.<br />
But I wanted to bring up some other things that could be said about Him. You<br />
know, sometimes with people you can say, well, let me introduce you to our<br />
speaker. Let me introduce you to this person. And we might say a few things<br />
about that person. I remember in fifth grade. Brother Steve might remember this.<br />
We went to fifth grade together. Were you in Mr. Kasmar’s class? You were in the<br />
other class? They had to talk slower and write bigger words. We’re going to have<br />
open house. You know, the parents, of course, are going to meet the teachers,<br />
which is, you know, a nerve wracking experience for kids. We’re going to meet my<br />
teacher, and we’re in trouble. But Mr. Kasmar had us all come up to him and we<br />
practiced this at school. We had to shake his hand. And we had to then say, Mr.<br />
Kasmar, this is my mother and father. We had to say their names. This is Mr.<br />
Kasmar. He taught us how to do an introduction of somebody. And, you know,<br />
you’re kind of nervous about all that because it’s your teacher, and he might tell<br />
all of what you did in class, or, you know, when you got in trouble. But some important<br />
people, your parents. And I remember Mr. Kasmar saying when you introduce<br />
them, and you shake my hand, I want you to shake my hand, and I want<br />
you to look in my eye. And I always tease the kids. Give me a handshake. Shake<br />
my hand. Shake my hand. Sometimes I’ll do that to her and she’ll look at me like<br />
what are you doing? He taught us shake my hand and look me in the eye. I always<br />
think about that with the kids.<br />
Introduction was important. And I found in just that little bit of teaching that it<br />
was important to introduce people the proper way. So I was thinking about Jesus’<br />
introduction back into the world. And, of course, it’s going to be something that<br />
there’s no question about who He is. He’s going to be coming from the sky, right?<br />
And there’s going to be this trumpet blowing. There’s going to be evidence – His<br />
glorious appearing, everybody is going to see who He is.<br />
But I always thought what would you say about Him if you were to introduce<br />
Jesus? What would you say about Him if you were going to introduce Him to the<br />
world? And then I thought what would you say to Him if you were going to introduce<br />
Jesus to your friend that hadn’t heard about Him? What would you say about<br />
Jesus to get other people to think that He’s great, just like you do? What would<br />
you say about Him?<br />
I started going through the Scriptures, and there’s a whole lot to say about<br />
Jesus. In fact, you might have so much to say that the person you’re introducing<br />
Him might be overwhelmed with all the things that you would say about Jesus.<br />
I’ve mentioned a few. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the King of<br />
Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Beginning<br />
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and the End. He is the Faithful One. And that’s just the beginning.<br />
We can continue on, and as we’re telling people to quit believing in your false<br />
god, believe in Jesus, we can continue on and talk about all of His character traits.<br />
He is the Prophet. He is the Creator. That’s a fun one with global warming as was<br />
brought up. Jesus is the Creator of all things. And by the way, even when it<br />
comes to nuclear types of things. We’re not going to destroy the Earth. It would<br />
violate Jesus’s Word. He’s going to take care of all that (2 Peter). He’ll take care<br />
of it. There will be a new heaven and new earth one day, but we can go on and<br />
on about Jesus.<br />
The Bible says that Jesus is the Almighty. Jesus is the Almighty, Revelation<br />
chapter 1. He is the Author and Finisher of Faith. He’s the Bread of Life. He is the<br />
Bridegroom. He is the Chosen One.<br />
One of my favorites is that He is Jehovah. John chapter 8, Jesus talked about<br />
Himself as being Jehovah, the great I AM. I love that definition. I come to appreciate<br />
that term for Jesus as I’ve gotten older. Jesus always is. His state of being is<br />
always in existence. He’s always been, He always will be. It’s a great title for Jesus,<br />
Jehovah.<br />
They said how is it that you’re not yet 50 years old and you know about Abraham?<br />
And Jesus said to them, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” And they took up<br />
rocks to stone Him, because they looked at that as blasphemy. But it wasn’t blasphemy<br />
because it was the truth. Jesus is the Shepherd. He’s the Great Shepherd.<br />
We can go on and on, can’t we?<br />
We can say about Jesus so many things that will absolutely overwhelm somebody.<br />
The heroes of the world, you can start picking them apart after a couple of<br />
descriptions. With Jesus, we can go on and on and on. And that’s why we can<br />
sing about Him. That’s why we can pray to Him. That’s why we can worship Him<br />
over, and over, and over again with everything that the Bible has to say about<br />
Him. It never gets old. We’re talking about the Messiah. And that He’s coming<br />
back one day. And it’s going to be a great day when Jesus returns.<br />
We have this ability to sing about a Savior who is absolutely perfect and righteous.<br />
We have a Savior who is sinless and has made no mistakes. There is no<br />
fault found in Him. Even in His crucifixion, He was found – we so understand – to<br />
be perfect and sinless. That they had to drum up charges in order to kill Him. We<br />
can go on and on about our Jesus.<br />
And we can sing all day long about our Jesus. He is worthy of our worship. He<br />
is worthy of us falling on our faces even without actually seeing Him with these<br />
eyes. Jesus deserves all honor, and glory, and praise! I pray this morning that<br />
everyone here today already has Jesus as your Savior. But as this is an association<br />
meeting, I also pray that all of us have made Jesus the Lord of our lives, and<br />
that we have made a commitment within our hearts and in our minds that we are<br />
going to follow Him until He takes us home. We’re going to follow Him until that<br />
seventh trump sounds, and we have the opportunity to be in His presence.<br />
There is so much more that we can say about Jesus. This is just the tip of the<br />
iceberg. Jesus deserves all honor, glory, and praise. Is He getting that from you<br />
and your heart? Is He getting that from your life? Do you put Him first with your<br />
particular set of circumstances? We serve an awesome God. We have an awesome<br />
Savior. Let us find strength to continue to honor Him. Let us never fall short<br />
of giving Jesus the honor that is due Him.<br />
I would like to ask Brother Steven to come and let us have a song of invitation.<br />
If there is anyone that would like to come and pray, even right now. If you have<br />
never accepted Christ as your Savior, we invite you to come, even at this service<br />
to ask Jesus to be your Savior. But also if you’d like to talk to the Lord about<br />
some sort of need in your life, or some sort of situation where you want to follow<br />
Him, right now, as the Word has been preached and as we sing together, won’t<br />
you come? Let us stand together.<br />
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Friday presentation<br />
Bro. Brian Lawless, First MBC Bellflower<br />
Thank you, it’s been a great afternoon. When I was<br />
driving up with my mom and dad, I drove into the parking lot<br />
and I saw this full parking lot and I thought, “Man, this is great.<br />
There’s nothing better than a full church parking lot.” That was<br />
great. I happened to miss some of the music but I did come in<br />
at the tail end of The Beulah Land. So I had this kind of emotional<br />
-- I had a really busy hectic morning. There’s nothing like<br />
a hectic morning in the world, and you step into the house of<br />
the Lord and you hear God’s people singing about Heaven. It’s a<br />
great thing.<br />
I have the same problem that Bro. John had in trying to get all this information<br />
funneled down into just a few moments because it’s a lot of things to talk about<br />
when you talk about music in the church. I’ve been in music all my life.<br />
So just to kind of introduce myself a little bit, give you some background of me.<br />
I’m Brian Lawless, I’m Joni’s brother, and my mom and dad, Connie and Lane are<br />
here. I’m presently a member of FMBC in Bellflower. I’m a deacon, and I’ll go<br />
ahead and proudly say that. We used to make fun of deacons growing up, and<br />
now I wear the title proudly. I do the best that I can to help my pastor. I’m on<br />
the mission committee as well. I’m one of three song leaders. We call them worship<br />
leaders, but I’m one of three song leaders. So we kind of alternate, so I’m<br />
not on every Sunday. The kind of the venue that we have, in the music that I do,<br />
is we have a combination of hymns and some praise choruses that we do. So I<br />
kind of weave those in and out. It’s been a long process in getting those in, the<br />
praise choruses in with the hymns, because we have a wide mixture of members<br />
in our church. But we’ve always held true to the concept and true to the Biblical<br />
doctrines of what music and what worship is, because it’s always about building<br />
on tradition, not doing things in place of tradition or in place of this or that. And<br />
it’s always measured by what the Bible says about this and that, and that and<br />
this. So all of these elements that we do and any changes that we have.<br />
So music is just a powerful thing in our society. It has shaped cultures through<br />
the years. It can unite and it can divide a people, and even a church. It can divide<br />
a church. I’ve been in many, many heated discussions about worship and<br />
about music, to a point in the last 12 years that I’ve really dedicated some time in<br />
exploring this whole concept about worship. Because, as you know, our society<br />
and some of the secular or some of the commercial, what I’ll call some of the<br />
commercial churches of today, have really adopted a lot of things that the world is<br />
doing. And they have absorbed the culture of the world instead of just enhancing<br />
God’s worship. There’s a big difference in that I think.<br />
Music is a vehicle to help us to refocus on God and His greatness, and I think<br />
that’s the key to worship. The problem is that there’s always been this dichotomy,<br />
this battle between holding on to the tradition and keeping out those new things<br />
that our next generation keeps bringing up. You always hear the parents every<br />
generation say the same thing, “I just don’t understand kids’ music today. I don’t<br />
get it” I realize that. I’ve got a 16-year old, and she listens to some of the music<br />
and I shake my head. Some of it’s actually not that bad. Actually I use it for<br />
some opportunities. I forgot the name of the song, but the words kind of reminded<br />
me of a Scripture in Proverbs. So I told my daughter, I said, “Hey, that’s the<br />
25:11 rule.” She said, “The 25:11 rule?” I said, “Yeah Proverbs 25:11 A soft word<br />
is apples of gold in baskets of silver” and she goes, “Ah.” so it kind of gave me an<br />
opportunity to kind of talk about that, the philosophy and the principles that song<br />
is trying to bring into the lyrics. There’s nothing worse than a teenager seeing<br />
their parents just rocking a song, one of their favorite songs. I remember my<br />
daughter was getting ready, she’s in the restroom. I hear – she’s got her iPad or<br />
iPod, whatever it was, doing some song. And I come prancing down the hallway<br />
singing Katy Perry, “I’ve got the eye of the tiger.” She looks at me and she just,<br />
“Dad, stop. No, please. Put me out of my misery.”<br />
But you know this whole battle of music, from generation to generation, it’s<br />
nothing new, right? It has been on and on and on. In the early centuries, musi-<br />
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cal instruments and accompaniment wasn’t even allowed in the church. The belief<br />
was it’s not mentioned in the New Testament. It is in the Old Testament.<br />
Lots of instruments in the Old Testament, but nothing in the New Testament that<br />
talks about actual instrumentation. It talks about hymns, praises, and songs. We<br />
see in Ephesians 5:19, that we’re to edify one another, speak to one another, in<br />
psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. But you don’t see anything about instrumentation.<br />
So the early centuries said no musical instruments in the church. Even the organ<br />
was considered as loud, clanky, noisy -- has no place in the House of God.<br />
We’re going to quote the Psalms, we’re going to quote the Scriptures, that’s the<br />
traditional, that’s the sacred music of today. That was centuries ago.<br />
Then the popularity of opera came up. Opera hits the scene. People like that<br />
opera, so now, OK, so we see some soloists start singing in the church. Then<br />
pretty soon a choir is developed. You’ve got to remember when you say music<br />
back in the early centuries, it was a monotone tone. There was no variation of<br />
notes. It was just. “Oh Lord, duh duh duh.” So that was common. The choir was<br />
the ones that were “spiritually anointed” to do the music in the church. Then they<br />
went a little bit beyond and got the congregation involved in music. Now again<br />
that battle came up. “The congregation has no business. This is a sanctified position<br />
where the choir should be singing, not the congregation.” Then pretty soon<br />
they brought in an actual organ and piano. That’s when Mozart and Haydn and<br />
Beethoven became popular on the scene. Now you’ve got instruments in the<br />
church. There’s that battle between now we’ve got instruments and no we need<br />
to get those instruments out because we need to hold true what’s sacred. We<br />
need to hold true the tradition of music in the church.<br />
Then in the 1200’s, especially in France I think is where it began, you start to<br />
see a variation of melody. Not only a variation of melody, now the choir started<br />
singing harmony, two-part harmony, three-part harmony. Now you’ve got the<br />
soprano, and you’ve got the alto, you’ve got the baritone, you’ve got the tenor.<br />
Don’t forget the tenors. You’ve got the tenor. It’s all this. And you see quotes in<br />
history that talk about, “Oh, the choir is so noisy we can’t hear the words, because<br />
the choir is so loud and so noisy and so chaotic.” And what they’re talking<br />
about was that four-part harmony. Now I know we all love four-part harmony. But<br />
back in the 1200’s and 1300’s it was new to the church and they said, “Nah, we’ve<br />
got to get rid of this.”<br />
But time went on, things were accepted. And then in the early 1900’s, when<br />
radio hit the scene they started playing gospel quartet music. That was a huge<br />
battle at that moment. So we’ve got soloists and duets and trios and quartets.<br />
There was kind of this bouncing. Now they’re not doing the old traditional music<br />
which was the Isaac Watts, Fanny Crosby, “Blessed Assurance”, “A Mighty Fortress<br />
Is our God”. These were marches and waltzes which were adapted from<br />
Mozart and Beethoven and that era and the era of opera. That style got infiltrated<br />
into the church. Now we’re doing four-part harmony, quartets, and it’s a different<br />
– it’s this four-four time. There’s some six-eight in there, but it’s a four-part harmony.<br />
It’s a strange noise.<br />
If any of you, when you’ve watched music, and then you listen to a particular<br />
venue or a style, and then you go to another style. How many here listen to jazz,<br />
anybody listen to jazz? I didn’t think so, not many people do. I like it for about<br />
7.3 minutes and then I’m done. I go, “OK, that was kind of cool.” Now I like the<br />
jazz style in some of the songs that we sing. I’ve heard some arrangements of<br />
hymns that had not completely jazz but had a little jazz flavor in it that kind of<br />
spiced it up. I enjoyed that.<br />
But anyway so here we are in the 1900’s. Quartets are being sung and played<br />
on the radio and sold. These songs that they had were all collections from Fanny<br />
Crosby and Isaac Watts, and all this thing, and these are the books that they’re<br />
singing. Now a new book came out. A whole collection of all these songs, all<br />
these quartet songs that they’re hearing on the radio. In 1956, one of the great<br />
landmarks, a songbook came up. I tell my church, I jokingly tell my church, it’s<br />
the anointed hymnbook, and that book is the Heavenly Highway Hymnbook. It<br />
came up in 1956, and that got into the churches. Now churches started singing<br />
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these songs that I see in the pews today, the Heavenly Highway Hymns. So now<br />
you start hearing songs, “By and by when the morning comes.”<br />
What are some of the favorite Heavenly Highway Hymns that some of you like?<br />
Anybody, come on, confession is good for the soul. “I’ll Fly Away”. That’s a good<br />
one. “He Set Me Free”. That’s a good one. “Heaven’s Jubilee”. There was this<br />
whole four-part harmony and then you’ve got all these parts, talk about a lot of<br />
movement. The Heavenly Highway Hymn Book has a lot of moving songs in it.<br />
One of my favorites is “Farther Along”, I like that one. “Farther along we’ll know<br />
all about it.” You know that one? Sing it with me.<br />
“Farther along we’ll understand why. Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine.<br />
We’ll understand it, all by and by.”<br />
One more time.<br />
“Farther along we’ll know all about it. Farther along we’ll understand why.<br />
Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine. We’ll understand it, all by and by.”<br />
Amen. These songs became tradition in the church. I was born about five<br />
years after that, in 1961, so I grew up with these songs in the Heavenly Highway<br />
Hymn Book.<br />
A few years later I remember when I was about six years old, my mom or my<br />
dad, one of them said, “I want you to go up there and sing with those kids.” And I<br />
said, “I don’t want to do that.” Of course that was my first mistake. Before I<br />
knew it, I’m standing on stage, contemplating the attitude adjustment that I just<br />
received, and I’m singing the song with a bunch of other kids and a couple of old<br />
people, they’re singing, too. I remember the song, “A Sunbeam”. “A sunbeam, a<br />
sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam<br />
for Him.” Some of you knew that. I could hear you singing along. After I<br />
got done singing that, you know how, when little kids -- I do it today, when little<br />
kids will sing a song, you come up and you encourage them. You say, “Man, you<br />
did a great job.” I felt really good after I sang that song. I thought, “Man, I’m<br />
not too bad at this.” You know, pride kind of kicks up a little bit. All these people<br />
are telling you how wonderful you are. So, okay, there must be something to this.<br />
So every time I was asked to sing, guess what? There were two reasons why I got<br />
up to sing. One was that I really wanted to, but the other one was that if I said<br />
no, I knew what the repercussions of that would be.<br />
Anyway, I thank God for my parents who encouraged me to always be involved<br />
in music, and that has always been my passion. I thought, after trying to collect<br />
my thoughts on all this, you know what? I’m just going to share my testimony<br />
and, kind of maybe, give you the road that I have traveled in my life and how God<br />
has used what He has given me, in music and in the church, and the things that I<br />
have learned, and maybe give you some practical mechanical things. You know.<br />
Bro. John’s message this morning, I can’t add to that. There are a lot of pastors<br />
and preachers and teachers in here that can do the topic of worship in the<br />
church a lot better of a job than I could. So I thought I would just kind of share<br />
my testimony of the music that I grew up with and then kind of give you some of<br />
my thoughts on practical things that churches can do to enhance church music.<br />
There’ve been three defining moments in my life. One was that moment in that<br />
little church in Witten, Washington, Breezy Point, Wenatchee, singing that special<br />
when I was about five years old. When I was about twelve, we did some mission<br />
work. My dad was at a mission in Eureka, just right below the Oregon border, in a<br />
little city called Eureka. A small church, not a whole lot of resources among the<br />
people. We needed a song leader. So Mom says, “I want you to lead in music.” Of<br />
course I said, “There’s no way I’m doing that.” I said that in my head, I didn’t say<br />
that out loud. I said, “Well, okay, but I’m not waving my arm around. That just<br />
makes me look silly.” But Mom said, “No, here’s how you do it. It’s a four-four, a<br />
three-four time, and you’re set. You’re ready to go.” I said, “Okay.” Through the<br />
years I was doing that.<br />
And then one day, I was an associational meeting. And we’re getting ready to<br />
start services and the singing was going to start, and Mom pulls me over and says<br />
to me, “We’re going to start singing, I want you to sit down. See that pulpit up<br />
there? I want you to watch that man lead music. He knows how to lead music<br />
and you can learn some things by watching him.” I said, “okay.” So I looked up<br />
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and there’s this elderly gentleman, and he’s leaning up against the pew, and he’s<br />
got the songbook in his hand. He’s got this toothpick in his mouth because we<br />
just got done eating dinner. This was at night time. And he goes, “All right, everybody,<br />
I want you to turn your books to page so and so, da da da da da.” And I’m<br />
watching him and I wasn’t really too impressed at the moment. Then he gets up<br />
and pulls that toothpick out of his mouth, the piano does their introduction, and<br />
he lays into the song, and I just stood there in awe. That was Ted Huckabee. He<br />
was the -- for those of you who may or may not know Ted Huckabee, he went to<br />
the Stamp-Baxter School of Music where they taught song leading, and they<br />
taught piano playing, and they taught shape notes. That’s how we got the shape<br />
notes in the Heavenly Highway Hymn Book. A lot of people were learning how to<br />
do music in the Heavenly Highway Hymns with the shape notes. So he led and<br />
that was great. So after services, I went over to him and we talked a little bit. And<br />
he spent a few moments with me showing me what he learned about leading<br />
music.<br />
So I took some tools that I could take back to my church, and how to take<br />
command of the congregation and really lead the music, and do it with passion<br />
and pride. And think little bit more about the songs you’re going to do and the<br />
services you’re going to have. It’s not about coming in on Sunday morning and<br />
just folding the pages down on a few pages and then leading some songs. It’s<br />
about hey, get with the pastor, “What are you going to preach about? What are<br />
some thoughts that I can use to help refocus the people from when they come in<br />
to focus on God? What are some of the songs that I can do?”<br />
Music is very, very involved, there’s a flow in music, there’s a rhythm in music.<br />
A set of songs that are songs from the hymns, when you sing them in succession,<br />
they don’t work as well as if you do other songs of different lyrical, melody, tone<br />
and rhythms. There is an aesthetic enhancement when you do particular songs.<br />
So there’s this, I don’t want to call it a science, but there is a feel about that. So<br />
he said, “You’ve got to give this thing some thought. And when you get up, if<br />
you’re going to lead music, lead music. You’re not just up there to stare at your<br />
book and sing, and even if you’re going to wave your arm, wave your arm. Put<br />
some passion in it. You are leading God’s people in worshiping the King of kings,<br />
and that is an important role as a song leader.” I said, “Ah, okay.” I sparked a<br />
new passion. So I went back to my church and that’s the way I started leading<br />
music. My mom was always a great mentor to help me out with many things. So<br />
I did a lot of song leading and I still do it today.<br />
One other defining moment in my life is, I’m sitting in Oakland, California, and<br />
we go into a concert. We’re going to watch and hear sing the Blackwood Brothers,<br />
the Florida Boys, and the Kingsman Quartet. Sound familiar to anybody? When<br />
the Florida Boys came out, Daryl Stewart who’s the piano player at the time he<br />
has these red socks. He sits down at the pew and he pulls up his pant legs and<br />
there’s these bright red socks. That was his trademark. I’m sixteen at the time<br />
and I thought, “Okay, I’m not wearing red socks, that’s just not cool. I want to<br />
play like him, but I’m not wearing red socks.” So when he played, my jaw just<br />
dropped. It just sparked a passion in me.<br />
Then the Kingsman Quartet came up. Their piano player, when he sat down, I<br />
thought, “He’s my age. That kid’s my age.” When they introduced him, they<br />
introduced him as the youngest piano player in the southern gospel venue. His<br />
name was Anthony Berger. I looked and I looked. And if you don’t know who he<br />
is, if you’ve never read his biography, he passed away a few years ago. He had a<br />
stroke while on stage with the Gaither Vocal Band. He died serving God in music.<br />
When he was little, he fell into a heater and burned the forefronts of his arms.<br />
The doctor said he would never have full function of his hands. I think God had<br />
different plans for him because he was an excellent piano player. If any of you’ve<br />
never heard him, look him up, Anthony Berger. Anyway, he was 17 at the time,<br />
I’m 16, I’m looking at this. Now, I’m really going, “Ah, that’s what I want to be. I<br />
want to be a gospel piano player, and I want to play just like that.”<br />
Now, when they had intermission at concerts, right in between the sets, they<br />
would go out in the foyer and sell their cassettes and their 8 track tapes and their<br />
records. Google it if you don’t know what an 8 track tape is. So I’m standing<br />
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there watching and waiting because a lot of people are coming up to them and<br />
telling them how much they enjoyed his music. And so I’m a shy kid. So I get this<br />
courage to walk up there, and I said, “Hi, I really enjoyed your piano playing.” He<br />
said, “Thanks”. And I could tell he was about as introverted as I was. And I said,<br />
“Man, where’d you learn to play like that?” He said, “Lots of hard work.” He must<br />
have read the disappointment on my face. Really, is that the answer that you’re<br />
giving me, lots of hard work? I was expecting the secret ingredient of “Do this<br />
and you’re going to be a great piano player.” He must have sensed that because<br />
he kind of chuckled a little bit. He said, “Nah, I went to the Conservatory of Music<br />
of whatever.” I didn’t even pay attention. All I heard was Conservatory of Music<br />
and I said okay, that’ what I want to do. So now I’m on a mission. So I’m like,<br />
“Mom, I want to go to the Conservatory of Music.” She said, “Which one?” I said,<br />
“Anyone, I just want to play like Anthony Berger, that was just great.”<br />
I had already been playing a little bit. I was sitting at the piano. My mom came<br />
up and said, “Would you like me to teach you some songs?” and I said, “Sure.”<br />
And so she taught me some chord, octave, chord, octave, chord, melody lines. My<br />
first song “No Tears in Heaven”, my second song was “Farther Along”. From that<br />
point on I started seeing some mathematical things. You’ve got the I and the IV<br />
and the V, and how the music always flowed and always came back to home<br />
base. If you’re in the key of C, you go to the F and you go to the G then you’re<br />
back to the C. I started seeing this pattern and some of these inner phrasing<br />
things you can do. I started hearing things. So I would sit for hours at the piano<br />
and just learn new songs that I would hear in church and before I know it I’m<br />
playing in church, I’m playing for offerings, I’m leading music, and soon and so<br />
forth.<br />
Those are kind of the three defining moments. God really taught me some<br />
things. He taught me to really be serious about my ministry in music because<br />
that’s what it is. It’s a ministry of music. And if God has given you a talent to be<br />
involved, whether it is playing an instrument or leading in music or singing, your<br />
vocal is your instrument. You want to utilize that for worshiping and praising God<br />
and giving Him the glory.<br />
When I got back, this was years ago, so now I’m a member at FMBC. I’m still<br />
worshiping, I’m still, you know, leading music. I would either play or lead, I<br />
wouldn’t do both. The pastor at the time said, “Brian, you should lead music from<br />
the piano.” I resisted that. I said, “No, that’s too much work,” because if any of<br />
you ever play an instrument and sing, there is a lot going on in the brain. You’re<br />
trying to get the guitar players, right, Taso? You’re trying to get these chords and<br />
then you’re thinking about the lyrics. Then if you’re trying to lead music as well,<br />
you’re thinking, “Man, that’s just – this is tough.” So but I went ahead and I tried<br />
it. I found some benefits because not only am I trying to control my piano player<br />
and my organist, I’ve got control now. So if I want to repeat a chorus, I don’t get<br />
these blank looks, like, “That’s not the way we practiced it, Brian.” I get that all<br />
the time, they get frustrated with me. I go to the blanket answer to that, “Well, I<br />
was led by the Spirit,” when in reality I just forgot the words to the second verse<br />
and so we just went, “Aw, we’ll just repeat the chorus and we’ll do good.”<br />
I think in terms of practical aspects of this. I was at the library and I saw a<br />
book and it said How to Play Piano Despite Years of Practice. That caught my attention.<br />
How to Play Piano Despite Years of Practice. That’s kind of a little rebellious<br />
to the musical industry and I like that. So I said, okay, I grabbed that book<br />
and I checked it out. And I liked it so much that I found it at a book store and<br />
bought it. Any of you piano players who have been traditionally trained, I encourage<br />
you, if you’re wanting to do something to kind of add a little bit of something<br />
different in your music, I would suggest that book. How to Play Piano Despite<br />
Years of Lessons. It shows you about the 2’s and these slash chords and so on<br />
and so forth. For you musicians out there, you know what I’m talking about. So I<br />
got that and I learned a lot about how to make 2 chords and how to make the<br />
songs a little more contemporary sounding.<br />
But one of the greatest lessons I learned is about a refocus on worship in the<br />
church. Because worship in the church – God is not this passively -- His presence<br />
is not just passive. His presence is active in our lives. And He’s continually working<br />
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in us, and helping us to grow in spirit, and in His knowledge and in wisdom and in<br />
grace. I think that it’s important that we understand that when we come into the<br />
church, we’re bringing with us some baggage. We’re bogged down by the world.<br />
Jesus told His disciples, “Be careful not to be bogged down by the world.” So<br />
when we come in, it’s not necessarily that we do anything wrong, it’s that we<br />
have brought in some baggage, anxieties and worries and fears and frets and<br />
unbelief, and had a bad week, had a bad day. Had a bad Sunday morning on my<br />
way to church. Had to yell at my teenager or you know, me and the Mrs. had an<br />
argument on the way to church, and you are in no spiritual mood to come in and<br />
worship God. You just want to kind of sit there and sulk. I think what music does<br />
is help us take our focus off of that and focus on God.<br />
What that does, when you start refocusing, that ushers us in to the presence of<br />
God. It’s not that God just all of a sudden shows up, it’s that we show up. God’s<br />
always been there. It’s our minds that haven’t focused on Him, on God. I think<br />
Philippians 4:8, “Think on these things, whatever is praiseworthy …” think on<br />
these things. And sometimes when we’re not thinking on those things, and we’re<br />
thinking on our problems, and all those things that we bring into the house of the<br />
Lord, it’s tough, and there’s no awareness of the presence of God.<br />
But music, and just like -- in a prime example, when I came in this morning.<br />
And I had this real rough morning with work and people yelling and da da da. I’m<br />
in the air conditioning business, by the way. So you can imagine, in this heat, a<br />
lot of stuff is going on. And I finally, “okay.” When I was coming in, I shut my<br />
phone off, and I said, I’m done with the world, I’m going to come in. So here I<br />
walk into and I get refocused. I get refocused from what I just walked out of, to<br />
what you were all just witnessing here this morning when you were singing about<br />
Beulah Land. That’s what worship is. It’s not a mechanical thing where you go,<br />
“Okay, we’re going to come in. We’re going to sing one song, and we’re going to<br />
have a devotion, and we’re going to do this, and we’re going do that.” That becomes<br />
too mechanical. Worship is something about kind of going with the moment.<br />
It’s nice to have a plan, but sometimes plans, they change.<br />
I love when pastors will get up and say, “You know what? Let’s sing that verse<br />
one more time. Did you guys just pay attention to the verse you just sang?” The<br />
pastor kind of interrupts my worship set. I had it all planned out. I mean, from<br />
9:15 to 9:30 we’re going to do this set of songs, and then we’re going to have a<br />
Scripture reading, or we’re going to have this, and we’re going to have that. Then<br />
the pastor gets up and interrupts that whole thing. I mean, I had this cool intro<br />
all set and ready to go, and he just came up and interrupted it. That happened to<br />
me last Sunday as a matter of fact. Pastor comes up and he spent a little bit too<br />
much time in a presentation, and the next song I was going to sing was four<br />
minutes, and we’re over time because we’ve got the Spanish congregation that<br />
comes up. And we don’t want to interrupt their services, so we try not to be disrespectful<br />
of that. So I’m thinking, “Augh, do I cut this song?” But I want it to go<br />
just right into the sermon. I like to have what I call the buffer for the pastor, so it<br />
gives the pastor some time to meditate. And I’m kind of thinking, what do I do,<br />
what do I do? So I said, “You know, we’re going to sing one or two choruses of<br />
some old hymns, just to get people refocused.” Just to get people refocused. So<br />
we went from here.<br />
And there was nothing wrong with what the pastor’s doing, he was recognizing<br />
some servants in our church. That’s perfect, that’s worship, isn’t it? All these ladies<br />
and men that work down there serving us and the hospitality, that’s part of<br />
worship. Worship is not just singing music. Worship is speaking, listening, and<br />
doing. When you’re listening to what I’m saying, you’re listening to what the<br />
preachers and pastors are saying. Listening is part of worship. When your speaking<br />
and your singing testimonies about God, to God, that’s worship. I think it’s<br />
very important that we understand it’s not just music. It’s things that we do. So<br />
that aspect of worship, now fold it in to, “Okay, Brian, you’ve got it. Now what<br />
are you going to do?” So I did that set, and it worked, as far as I was concerned<br />
from my perspective. We just kind of -- I dismissed the band, I dismissed the<br />
singers, it was just me, and I just did this thing. It was something different, but it<br />
enhanced and refocused everybody from the moment we just came from into<br />
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we’re about to enter one of the most important aspects of the church service, and<br />
that’s the preaching of God’s Word.<br />
And we want to focus on that all the time, I think it’s very important that we do<br />
that. So I think we need to understand that that’s part of -- a lot of times we<br />
think of, worship or services as okay, the song service, they’re going to get done,<br />
okay. They’re going to do their thing, and then boom, we’ll get up and do our<br />
Sunday School. The when Sunday School gets done with their thing, we’ll have<br />
some more music. And when they’re done with their thing – and okay, now it’s<br />
time for the pastor to preach. And now he’s doing his thing. So it’s everybody –<br />
it’s their own little thing. And that’s not what it’s about. The whole service is one<br />
big flow of worship. And I think we need to think of it that way, don’t we? It’s not<br />
them doing their thing, and, okay. I look at the clock, and you’re not even participating<br />
in the singing because you really have no investment. It’s not – it doesn’t<br />
involve you. But yes it does involve you.<br />
So I would encourage you as church members to think of it that way. As a<br />
church, it’s one flow of one single thing, and that is worship. The greeters that are<br />
greeting visitors in, that’s worship, when you’re coming in and saying, “Hi.” Sometimes<br />
when I get up and we’re going to open up in a song, I’ll just, “How’s everybody<br />
doing? It’s good to see you. You know, I was reminded of a verse coming<br />
in.” I kind of share a verse or a passage of Scripture, something that God laid<br />
upon my heart. Maybe sing a little chorus before we get into the first song we’re<br />
going to sing. We do like a Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Kind of<br />
do that. It’s something different so because it kind of helps with the flow so you<br />
go from there. So you’ve got to think of it that way in your church, that it’s all one<br />
all one big involvement, and everybody’s involved one way or the other and it’s an<br />
involvement of worship.<br />
If you’re going to introduce new songs, you know there’s a lot of praise songs<br />
out there that in my opinion -- I guess I should have started out with here’s a<br />
disclaimer, that everything that I’m saying is not endorsed by your hosting church.<br />
It’s not endorsed by FMBC. It’s just me. I’ve got the censors over here who are<br />
going to make sure that I’m saying things that are all okay. They’re marking up<br />
the page, you know. Edit this in final edit. There’s a lot of praise songs out there<br />
that are very, very good. There’s some that I thought was an old hymn. How<br />
Deep the Father’s Love for Us,” “In Christ Alone.” If you’re kind of tied into that,<br />
you know what those titles are. When I first heard those songs I thought, man, I<br />
got to look that up, that’s an old hymn. And it wasn’t. It was 2005 when it was<br />
written. And I’m going wow! That’s great that those kind of songs are still being<br />
sung. That was kind of like an Isaac Watts or Martin Luther song. They took that<br />
style and the deepness of the lyrics.<br />
There’s a place for very deep doctrinal lyrics and there’s a place for just simple<br />
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, because Israel did that. They just -- they sing<br />
Hallelujah. Didn’t really know quite what to say except just Hallelujah, because<br />
they were just -- Isaiah said, “I’m undone,” in the death of King Uzziah. He said,<br />
“I saw the Lord seated on the throne,” and when he came into the presence of<br />
God he just said, “I’m undone, I don’t know what to say.” And that’s kind of the<br />
reaction that we get when we’re in the presence of God. We just don’t know what<br />
to say sometimes and we just get overwhelmed with this feeling.<br />
So again I’ve said this before, if you’re introducing new worship and praise<br />
songs, it’s not in place of the hymns. I’ve been to some churches where they’re<br />
anti-old hymns. Get the cobwebs, we’ll cater to the old people, and they’re hanging<br />
onto their emotions and their tradition. And we’ll get the hymns out and sing<br />
them every once in a while. I’m thinking shame on you. You guys need to be<br />
building upon your tradition. Those are some of the heated arguments I’ve had<br />
with some of the contemporary churches. And I’ve been in them. Out of curiosity,<br />
I went to services at some of the largest, 80,000 members, and been in their worship<br />
service just to kind of find out where are they coming from, because I don’t<br />
want to be judgmental. Maybe what they’re doing is -- maybe pick some things<br />
out that they’re doing great that I can take back to my home church and enhance<br />
the worship. Bring people back and refocus them on worship. And some of the<br />
things that they do are very, very, good but you still have some things that are<br />
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just they’re tickling the visitors that come. They want to be seeker sensitive and<br />
all that whole philosophy. I personally don’t think there’s any place in that.<br />
So I want to do something a little different at the piano. I want to take advantage<br />
of -- if you don’t mind if that’s okay Pastor, of about 4 or 5 minutes and<br />
kind of give you an illustration of what I’m talking about when I’m talking about<br />
doing something a little bit different. And what it is, is you’re taking what we already<br />
do, the hymns, and then maybe doing them just a little bit different. And<br />
kind of like give you an example of what I did last Sunday, just doing kind of a<br />
series of choruses, maybe a verse of some hymns. And so I’m going to kind of<br />
ask you to kind of help out a little bit in that. So if you’ll indulge me and sing<br />
along. I think what I’d like to do is start with a song we sang this morning, the<br />
invitation we did “Solid Rock”, “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.” I think that’s a<br />
great song and then we’ll take it from there. So but please join in and sing with<br />
me. You’re going to know the songs, I’m pretty sure. And again, it’s not endorsed<br />
by Whittier Church.<br />
[PLAYS MEDLEY].<br />
That gets me in trouble sometimes when I do that. I’ve actually been in some<br />
churches and they go I don’t like that hippy rocky stuff. So I took a chance. I<br />
don’t know if – so okay, we’re going to go for it. You guys were so gracious and<br />
you were singing very, very well. There’s nothing more satisfying than to hear<br />
God’s people. You know a lot of people think, and it can be very tempting trust<br />
me as a musician, you can easily get up and all of a sudden it’s about me and<br />
how great I’m playing and I’m singing and I’m doing this and the congregation is<br />
reacting. And we start -- our ego gets in the way, and we start thinking, ah,<br />
they’re singing because of how great I am. God has a great way to humble you<br />
and to refocus your thoughts on -- Brian it’s not about you. And I’ve had some<br />
very significant incidents during worship and before worship and during song sets<br />
where God reminded me. I’m not as in control and as talented as I thought I was.<br />
And I thank God for that. I was very, very humbled – very, very humbled from<br />
that.<br />
So really quick to kind of just wrap this up and just land. We’ll come in for a<br />
landing so to speak. Three things that I learned. Number one, take my ministry<br />
seriously in music. Something that God has given me. It’s a talent. I’ve got to<br />
stop giving God my leftovers. My leftover time, my leftover practice. If I’m going<br />
to be a piano player, if I’m going to be a song leader, if I’m going to be a guitarist<br />
if I’m going to play the kazoo, whatever it is that you’re going to play, do it to the<br />
best of your ability. And you do that by taking it seriously. I think Paul told the<br />
church in Philippians, Chapter 2, he just got through talking about let this mind be<br />
in you that was also in Christ Jesus. When He came to earth He was humbled, He<br />
was a servant, and He was obedient. That’s the mindset that we should take as<br />
servants. That’s that same mindset that Christ had. And he went on to say, “Work<br />
out your salvation with fear and trembling.” That word fear and trembling means<br />
with all seriousness. Don’t take it for granted. If you’re going to get involved in<br />
the service of God, and if you believe God is Who He says He is, you’re going to<br />
dive in 100%. If you don’t believe it, stay at home. God, He doesn’t want talent.<br />
He wants availability and that’s important. So if you’re going to do it, do it right.<br />
As a song leader. you cannot lead God’s people to where you’ve never been. If<br />
you’re not living a life in your own personal life and in your growth, you haven’t<br />
been there. How are you going to lead God’s people into worship? You’ve got to<br />
prepare your heart. You’ve got to prepare and practice, and study and practice,<br />
and study and give it some real good thought about what you’re going to do in<br />
the song service.<br />
And then, of course, work hard. Something I learned from Anthony Berger.<br />
When I first asked him. It’s funny. Just a few years ago I started reflecting on<br />
this. And those words that Anthony Berger told me, I honed in on the Conservatory<br />
of Music, but that really wasn’t the lesson. The lesson was lots of hard work.<br />
And so here I am. I’m 53 years old, and I come to the realization that what God<br />
was trying to tell me through Anthony Berger is not go to training and go here.<br />
It’s lots of hard work wherever you’re at. It’s not about being like Anthony Berger.<br />
It’s not about being the best piano player and being the best musician. It’s just<br />
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about being better than you are right now. That’s all God wants. Are you better<br />
than you were yesterday? Are you better than you were last month, last year? If<br />
you’re the same, you need to step it up. God doesn’t need my leftovers. He needs<br />
my all in all. And so I’m going to strive to always continually be better. So if you’re<br />
a piano player and you can play simple notes, then that’s good. Learn harmony<br />
and then learn the chords. Learn the rhythm. And then you know, just keep learning.<br />
Guitar players keep learning. Whatever instrument that you’re getting involved<br />
in, just keep at it and work hard.<br />
The third thing and last thing is keep showing up. Somebody asked me one<br />
day, how’d you get, you know, because they asked me that same question. How’d<br />
you learn all of that? How did you get to where you are in church now? And I said<br />
I had no plan. I mean, trust me, I’m not that kind of a guy. I’m the right brain<br />
thinker. I had no specific plan. I just – I’m going with the flow, wherever God<br />
leads me. I just kept showing up. Sometimes I didn’t feel like showing up. Sometimes<br />
I didn’t show up. There are days you don’t feel like showing up for church.<br />
And there’s moments, you know, depending upon where you’re at in your life and<br />
the circumstances that you’re involved, you don’t feel like showing up. You don’t<br />
feel like serving God. You don’t feel like giving it your all. That’s human nature.<br />
That’s going to be there. You need to work through that, and just keep going<br />
through the motions. Keep showing up. If you do that, God’s going to bring you<br />
back around. I guarantee it because He did with me. I shifted off a little bit. God,<br />
He brought me back. And I get back on track. And so I take my ministry seriously.<br />
I work hard and I keep showing up.<br />
And that’s it in a nutshell. Real quick on music, and this is kind of an end to my<br />
notes. And it’s interesting. You start studying. I start going over my notes. I saw<br />
something on YouTube it’s called “Music is a Language”. It was by the bassist<br />
Victor Wooten. For anyone who may or may not know him, he’s an educator<br />
who’s also a Grammy award winning bass player. But to hear him play “Amazing<br />
Grace” on a bass guitar, I mean the melodic line and everything, it was really<br />
great. It’s just a great thing. But he said, “Music is a language, we need to treat it<br />
as a language.” In other words, when you learn language you weren’t told don’t<br />
talk until you learn the basics of ABC. You, as an infant, you’re just sitting there,<br />
and when you finally – you’re around it all the time. You’re around the language,<br />
and you’re hearing the language all the time. And then you start speaking, and we<br />
start making mistakes and mispronouncing words. And nobody really corrected<br />
you. Actually they kind of copied you, because they thought it was cute. And so<br />
that’s how you learn language. And you got very proficient at language before you<br />
even learned the ABC’s and grammar, and so on and so forth.<br />
Music is kind of like that way. And I think for us as mentors and leaders in the<br />
church, as our kids, it was great. I see all these guitars around. I go that’s great,<br />
that just warmed my heart. And I think we need to encourage our kids as they’re<br />
learning, to just let them strum that guitar. Let them, you know, beat on the<br />
pews, or whatever they’re doing, just to kind of get, you know, rhythm and the<br />
music in them, and the piano and the organ, and so on and so forth. And if one of<br />
our kids show an interest in music, get them around it. Get them playing with<br />
other very good musicians. There are a lot of good musicians in the churches. And<br />
that’s how I learned. I grew up in the Heavenly Highway Hymn Book. I grew up<br />
around music. And I played with some very, very good musicians. As young infants<br />
learning how to speak, they’re not told, now you go speak with the babies.<br />
They hung around the adults and were talking around adults.<br />
To put it in a music vernacular, they got to jam with the professionals in the<br />
language, right? So they’re speaking with the adults. They’re using these big<br />
words. And they’re struggling and trying to use these words. But gradually they<br />
learn the language even before the mechanics was there. The mechanics of music<br />
is important, but it’s not the essence. I think the essence is just being around<br />
music, and just getting the youth involved in singing. Get them up here to sing<br />
specials. Get them up. If they show an interest in the piano, cultivate that interest.<br />
Get them involved. Don’t say you need to go get lessons. No, get them up<br />
there, and start pounding on the piano. They’re not going to damage the piano.<br />
Get them up there pounding on the piano. Get them up there singing, doing the<br />
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est that they can. And then just kind of spark that interest and mentor them,<br />
and they will get into it. And then the mechanics can come later. Because you’ll all<br />
notice in musical families, kids that grow up in musical families, they become very<br />
proficient musicians. That’s because – not because they’re being taught music,<br />
they’re around it and it’s being absorbed naturally by just being around it.<br />
So in the house of God and among God’s people, and our kids and our next<br />
generation that’s coming up, try not to -- I think what we need to do is try to be a<br />
little bit more mentor and pulling them into services. Anyway I’d better stop because<br />
I’m going to ramble. And we’re going to have a Q and A. So I think that’ll<br />
be good. May be can talk a little more about that. But look. Take your ministry<br />
hard, seriously, work hard, and keep showing up. God will bless. And it’s helped<br />
get us all refocused and in the presence of God. Thank you. I appreciate your<br />
time.<br />
Friday evening sermon<br />
Eld. Jed Winkelman, Bethel MBC Whittier<br />
I’ll be in the book of 2 Samuel 18. So Bro. Corey, how<br />
did we do on the offering? And counting. So be honest, if we<br />
had done a better song, or a better job on the song, would you<br />
have given more money? Just asking. Cause I wouldn’t want<br />
anyone to have to apologize to Bro. Perfecto later. We’ll sing<br />
better next time.<br />
So I know when I’m honored. I’ve never been hesitant<br />
to acknowledge an honor when it’s been bestowed upon me so<br />
I thank you for choosing me tonight. I think it might have had<br />
a lot to do with the apron that I wore all day. Which you have<br />
to know, those of you that know me better than others, must<br />
appreciate the fact that I had an apron on. But for the guys, please understand<br />
that it was Duck Dynasty mossy oak. So I hope there’s some redeeming quality in<br />
that, at least a little bit. But I did have to tell the ladies they can call me Jed and<br />
they can call me Don. They can call me Bro. Winkelman but no more of this girlfriend<br />
stuff. That was brutal down there. Anyway, that may have led to this.<br />
2 Samuel chapter 18. The title of this message, “Hanging Between Heaven &<br />
Earth.” Not a good place to be. I can’t think of any occasion where someone was<br />
suspended between heaven and earth, and it ended up good at least for them.<br />
So we’re going to look at the rebellion of Absalom for just a few minutes tonight.<br />
And I will primarily be addressing people who know the Lord. I think more so<br />
those that are members of the Lord’s churches that are here tonight just because<br />
of the occasion. So I won’t wait until the end to address the needs of the several<br />
of you that are here that are lost without Christ as your Savior. I don’t know who<br />
you are but you do and so does God. And it is our desire out of our love for you<br />
that you come to know Christ as your Savior tonight, before tomorrow. I know<br />
that it’s a pretty comfortable thing to be assured that you will wake up tomorrow<br />
and the next day and the next day. I don’t know, but I do know this. It’s a lot<br />
more fun to live in a world with Christ and with His brethren than it is without<br />
them. And in the meantime the security and the knowledge that your eternity is<br />
secure and that it’s already taken care of.<br />
The closer I get to retirement and that feeling of – well, you know, as a matter<br />
of fact, I did retire. I remember I told you I retired when I turned 65. I retired<br />
from my job on Friday. I took part of Monday off and then went back to work. So<br />
it was short lived but I got bored in that short time.<br />
But we’re not going to lie to you. And the reason we won’t lie to you that are<br />
lost is because we do love you and we want our joy to be full by you having the<br />
same joy that we have. It’s a sharing thing. It doesn’t matter how many people<br />
are saved. It doesn’t do anything but make it better for those of us who know the<br />
Lord. The more the better. We don’t lose out on anything. We just have greater<br />
fellowship and more brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re not going to lie. If you<br />
don’t know Christ as your Savior, you’re lost. If you’re not sure, you’re lost. That’s<br />
the safest place for you to think in your mind. If you’re not certain, then you’re<br />
lost. Just go from there, trust me.<br />
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Now it might be from time to time we get a little bit uncertain about our experience<br />
of grace. I’m not too sure why. I know that we live in a world when the<br />
gospel message has been weakened so, that everyone and their dog is a born<br />
again child of God. But the fact of the matter is we believe that God convicts sinners<br />
of their sin, and when they are brought to the point where they repent and<br />
turn to God and put their faith in Jesus they will be born again. And without that,<br />
you may be in trouble if you’re here tonight. And we say these things. It isn’t<br />
meant in a derogatory way. It’s not in a judgmental way. Everyone here that<br />
knows Christ as their Savior was lost and without hope, just as you are. So we’re<br />
not ever in any position to look at somebody as if we are something.<br />
We were saved by God’s grace and there will never be a moment in time when<br />
we can boast of anything. Not to get it, nor to keep it. And when we stand before<br />
God, it will still be a matter of grace, something we haven’t earned. You don’t<br />
deserve it, but nevertheless Christ died so that you might have everlasting life.<br />
And we’re going to get to that in a more extended sort of way to remind all of you<br />
that are here of what Christ did for us. I never get tired of being reminded about<br />
it. I realize somebody said earlier we’re probably preaching to the choir.<br />
When I talk about being suspended between heaven and earth, an uncomfortable<br />
position, I think a lot of us might find ourselves in that place, figuratively<br />
speaking. Okay, well, a couple of you are like, “Yep, yep,” and everyone else is<br />
like, “What?” Maybe I’ll be able to explain it later.<br />
My point is this: how grateful I am that you have been faithful to the Lord and<br />
have been an encouragement to me to be part of you. I hope I’ve been an encouragement<br />
to some of you as well. But the fact of the matter is we are living in<br />
a time when it’s easy to be faithful. In fact, it will never be easier than it is now.<br />
These are the good old days. I’m reminded of a passage of Scripture -- and yet<br />
sometimes we find ourselves struggling a little bit. And I’m reminded of a passage<br />
of Scripture when the writer, I can’t even remember where it was, he said if you<br />
have contended with the footmen, or if you’ve run with the footmen and they<br />
have wearied thee, how will you contend with the horses? Or if in a time of plenty<br />
you have struggled or been weary, what will we do at the swelling of the Jordan?<br />
In other words, if we’re having any difficulty today serving God, if there’s anything<br />
at all that doesn’t allow us to fully commit to the Lord, if we can’t do it today,<br />
what are we going to do if it gets troublesome to be a child of God? I might<br />
just restate that and say what are we going to do when it becomes troublesome?<br />
Cause that day is coming and it’s going to be here, and we’ll be going, “When did<br />
this happen?” And it’s happening right now, every day. The evidence and the<br />
proof if it is standing in our face, and we need – and again someone else pointed<br />
it out earlier or it might have been Bro. John. We need to produce a generation of<br />
Landmark Baptists that are going to be the toughest yet, as we watch the faith<br />
weakened, diminished, people more concerned about flirtation with the churches<br />
of the world and protestant doctrine. It’s time that we turn out a generation of<br />
Baptists that will stand finally. I hope you young men and women do better than<br />
we did.<br />
Now this is not to diminish what we’ve done. The evidence of what we’ve done<br />
is here. And of course we don’t take credit where we must give all the glory and<br />
honor to the Lord. And we’re not trying to do that, but we’ve done well. It wasn’t<br />
easy, but I hope you young people do better.<br />
I remember our older brethren, most of them gone on to be with the Lord, and<br />
sometimes they were hard on us. Sometimes they were very hard on us, but they<br />
loved us. And when they spanked us they knew when to stop before they damaged<br />
us. And they could spank pretty hard. It’s one thing to be disciplined by<br />
somebody that loves you, and by somebody who’s jealous and doesn’t want you<br />
to succeed. And these brethren wanted the young men to be successful in the<br />
service of the Lord. And they disciplined us and then they stopped before they<br />
broke us.<br />
I remember standing in a line with Cheryl. We’re in a long food line, and three<br />
or four of the pastors were notorious. No longer with us, but they were notorious.<br />
As soon as we broke for lunch, boom, right out the door, down the aisle, into the<br />
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first of the line. And I’m standing in line with Cheryl. And so Richard Harless walks<br />
up, Bro. Richard. And he grabbed me right around the neck, literally bent me over<br />
and did this to me, and I’m thinking, “What did I do?” And then he says, “You see<br />
those guys up there?” I go, “Yeah,” And he said, “Don’t ever do that,” And that<br />
was when he wasn’t upset with me. He was upset with them. “Don’t ever do<br />
that.” Believe me, trust me, I never did. To this day you probably saw me standing<br />
out there with my plate until my gravy glazed over like wallpaper paste waiting<br />
for Cheryl to get out of the kitchen.<br />
I will be addressing us as if to say we don’t need to be mostly committed but<br />
we need to be fully and totally committed to the Lord. Well, and here’s the easy<br />
part of this sermon. It won’t be long and the choice will be made for us. We’ll no<br />
longer have the option of trying to have one foot on one side of the fence and<br />
one foot on the other side of the fence because it’s going to be too tall of a fence.<br />
The world doesn’t want somebody that’s even remotely attached to Christ. And<br />
they’re going to drive it out of you or me. They’ll get it out of our children. They’ll<br />
get it out of our wives. They’ll get it out of anyone they can, and that’s why --<br />
well we see it on TV, anyone that has any identity with Christ they’re going to<br />
humiliate, degrade and disgrace if they can.<br />
Did I ever go to our passage of Scripture? No? Well, let’s go there. 2 Samuel<br />
chapter 18. Absalom was King David’s son, and he rebelled against his father.<br />
When David was king, Absalom rebelled. In fact, instead of going to the 18th<br />
chapter, skip back. I want to read something about Absalom real quick in the 14th<br />
chapter, verse 25. This is a description of Absalom:<br />
“Now in all Israel, there was no one who was praised as much as Absalom for<br />
his good looks.”<br />
In all of Israel, King David’s son Absalom was the best looking guy.<br />
“From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in<br />
him.”<br />
Now I already don’t like him. I know that’s not right. It’s not fair, but I don’t<br />
like him already. I think I’ve known a few people that even though they weren’t<br />
quite that good looking they believed they were and I did not like them.<br />
“And when he cut the hair of his head—at the end of every year he<br />
cut it because it was heavy on him—when he cut it, he weighed the hair of his<br />
head at two hundred shekels according to the king’s standard.”<br />
That’s common currency. So Bro. Winkelman, would you tell us how much 200<br />
shekels are? I don’t know. I didn’t have time to look that up. I don’t know, but I<br />
know this. In the course of a year you could put all the hair I cut off of my head<br />
in a sandwich zip lock bag. Two hundred shekels because his hair was starting to<br />
weigh this guy down. And I don’t know if he had dreadlocks or it was the bushy<br />
look. You see those college football players, they have the helmet on, it’s real<br />
tight, and then you have this whew coming like that. I can’t help but imagine<br />
what is it like when he takes that helmet off. I mean does it lay weird like a German<br />
helmet or just go woof like one of those chia plants? Two hundred shekels of<br />
hair.<br />
But this guy was good looking. And I think, you know what, when we’re<br />
blessed with almost anything being human we allow it to get to our head and<br />
affect the way we think. We actually start to believe we’re special. And so here’s<br />
Absalom. He goes, “Dad, I gotta go up here and worship. I made a covenant with<br />
God. I gotta go worship.” And actually when he left to go worship he sent his<br />
spies out, told everybody he had taken over the kingdom, and most of the people<br />
rushed over to his side. Good looking guy. And so there was rebellion, and David<br />
literally had to flee the city of Jerusalem and thousands of other people fled with<br />
him.<br />
So in the 18th chapter:<br />
“And David numbered the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands<br />
and captains of hundreds over them.”<br />
There were a lot of people on David’s side, and he’s having to go to war with<br />
his own son.<br />
“Then David sent out one third of the people under the hand of Joab (his primary<br />
general) one third under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s<br />
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other (so his nephew had a third) and one third under the hand of Ittai the Gittite.”<br />
So he split his army into three divisions. And this guy, by the way, Ittai is an<br />
interesting person here. I might just make mention of him. Look quickly, hold<br />
your place and look quickly over to the 15th chapter, verse 19. They’re evacuating<br />
Jerusalem. Absalom’s coming with his army. They’re evacuating Jerusalem and<br />
David leads the people out. And he gets up on the hill on the outskirts of town<br />
and he stops, and he watches all these thousands of people parading by. And<br />
among them was this guy named Ittai.<br />
“Then the king said to Ittai (in Verse 19) the Gittite, ‘Why are you also going<br />
with us? Return and remain with the king. For you are a foreigner and also an<br />
exile from your own place. In fact, you came only yesterday. Should I make you<br />
wander up and down with us today, since I go I know not where? Return, and<br />
take your brethren back. Mercy and truth be with you.’ But Ittai answered the king<br />
and said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place<br />
my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also your servant<br />
will be.’”<br />
He had been with David one day, and the next day David got run out of power,<br />
and he was fleeing with the people. And Ittai, he sided with David, and David was<br />
amazed by him. You’ve only been here one day. And Ittai said whether in life or<br />
in death, I’m sticking with you. There’s something to be said about loyalty and<br />
faithfulness.<br />
And so later on David divides his army up and he goes, oh yeah, I remember<br />
him. Ittai, come here, you’re in charge. You’re a general. It comes with blessing<br />
and reward. Loyalty and faithfulness come with blessing and reward. We live in a<br />
day and time when everybody believes they’re entitled to blessing and reward just<br />
for showing up. Those sort of things come with dedication and being devout,<br />
having some character and knowing right from wrong. No, my friend, this business<br />
that everything is automatic because we accepted Christ as our Savior and<br />
the rest is all going to be poured down on everyone equally, it’s nowhere, nowhere<br />
in the Scripture. Bro. Miller preached about that to us all night yesterday.<br />
It’s not there. That is the creation of modern Christianity. There’s no difference<br />
between one and the other.<br />
Well I was uplifted by the song service, got my heart ready, that’s what I think<br />
it’s all about. Get you ready, so the bride of Christ can be intimate with the Bridegroom<br />
through the preaching of the Word of God.<br />
So David appoints Ittai the Gittite, but verse 3:<br />
“The people answered, ‘You shall not go out. For if we flee away they won’t<br />
care about us, nor if half of us die they won’t care about us, but you’re worth ten<br />
thousand of us now. For you are now more help to us in the city.’”<br />
They told David just stay back out of the battle; we don’t want you to die.<br />
“And the king answered them and said, ‘Whatever seems best to you I will do.’<br />
So the king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and<br />
by thousands. Now the king had commanded Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, saying,<br />
‘Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.’ And all the people heard<br />
when the king gave all the captains orders concerning Absalom.”<br />
I think only a father can understand this. Absalom is out to destroy his dad.<br />
And as David’s army is going out he takes his three generals aside and says, hey,<br />
take it easy on my boy.<br />
“And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains orders concerning<br />
Absalom.”<br />
So the word got out. The people went out into the field against Israel, that is<br />
Absalom and Israel …<br />
“And the battle was in the woods of Ephraim. The people of Israel were overthrown<br />
there before the servants of David, and a great slaughter of twenty thousand<br />
took place there that day.”<br />
Absalom’s army was massacred, twenty thousand killed.<br />
“For the battle there was scattered over the face of the whole countryside, and<br />
the woods devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. Then Absalom<br />
met the servants of David. Absalom rode on a mule.”<br />
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I mean he’s making his escape on a mule.<br />
“The mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth tree, and his head<br />
caught in the terebinth; …”<br />
Now but for the seriousness of it, don’t you find that a little amusing to picture<br />
in your mind? Some guy getting his head stuck in a tree. And he’s swinging there,<br />
and he was left hanging. And this is the title of my message, “Hanging between<br />
Heaven and Earth”, and the mule. I so appreciate the writer, and he speaks of<br />
the mule. And the mule under him went on. The mule went on. It’s like, I don’t<br />
know, shall I circle around and come up behind Absalom and get under him<br />
again? He’s going along, getting kicked in the ribs, hurry, hurry, hurry, and all of<br />
a sudden Absalom’s head is stuck in a tree, and the mule’s going OK and he just<br />
went on. That’s all it says, he just went on.<br />
But picture Absalom. A certain man saw it and told Joab, and it goes on and<br />
on. The bottom line is General Joab comes up, and he goes, you know, I can’t<br />
stick around here all day, Absalom. And he put three spears in his heart.<br />
So being suspended halfway between heaven and earth is not a place of safety.<br />
It’s not a convenient place. It’s not a place where you have much control over<br />
what happens to you. And the image that I see, and I’d like to portray for just a<br />
few minutes more, is the way we find ourselves sometimes torn between God and<br />
this world. Neither place, you know, and yet Jesus Himself said you can’t do<br />
both. You can’t serve God and the world at the same time. It isn’t tough. He didn’t<br />
say it’s difficult. He said you cannot do it. Why? Because if you’re not in God’s<br />
camp, you are in the world. And I can say the same in reverse. If we’re in the<br />
world, we’re not in God’s camp even if it’s every Sunday morning.<br />
Difficult decisions to make in our life. And as I said earlier, I believe some of<br />
them are going to be made for us in the not too distant future. But I wouldn’t<br />
want to be in the wrong place. I wouldn’t want to be toasting marshmallows in<br />
the enemy’s camp when the Lord comes back.<br />
Elijah said it to Ahab and his crowd a little bit differently when he challenged<br />
Ahab, at least the false prophets of Baal and Jezebel’s crowd, nine hundred of<br />
them. He challenged them, nine hundred false prophets against one man of God.<br />
And I want you young men to appreciate this, and understand this. If God is on<br />
your side, the odds are irrelevant. They make no difference. You’re like David<br />
going down against Goliath. Goliath’s making all this show and kind of acting<br />
contemptible to David. And David’s attitude is, you know what, you can’t talk like<br />
this about God’s people and live. You’re gonna die today. Young David, I guess<br />
he was a strong young man, but Goliath was a lot stronger and a lot bigger, but it<br />
didn’t faze him. That wasn’t the point. Goliath needed to die and David recognized<br />
that. And he went down there with that confidence and faith. And I think<br />
too when he picked up the five rocks his attitude was when I take care of you,<br />
Goliath, I think I’m gonna have to kill your brothers, too. They were all as big as<br />
him, some bigger. And it didn’t matter because the enemy is always at a disadvantage<br />
when you’re surrendered to the will of God. Always it is to our advantage<br />
not because of our ability but because we have none but our power is in<br />
the Lord.<br />
I spoke with others earlier about the description of the world, many involved in<br />
the work of the Lord. The Word describes that as having a form of godliness but<br />
denying the power. Denying the power. I don’t have any power, do you? If you<br />
think so, we’ll find out differently real quick. You’ll be like Samson waking up after<br />
his locks were sheared thinking – he didn’t know anything was wrong. He didn’t<br />
know, he didn’t have a clue.<br />
Our power is in the Lord. And He even told our churches, when He told the<br />
church at Jerusalem, I want you to go into the whole world to preach the gospel.<br />
But wait, wait right here. Don’t go anywhere yet. Why? Wait for what? Wait for<br />
power. And you’ll be immersed in power. And that’s the power that’s become repugnant<br />
to Baptists in the world today. They don’t want to hear about the Holy<br />
Spirit. They don’t want to hear about the Lord empowering churches to do His<br />
will. They’re frightened of it. A form, but no power. But some will go forward in<br />
the power of the Lord in victory.<br />
Okay, well, skip two and three, and go to four. Suspended between heaven<br />
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and earth was even a bad place for Jesus. Now I understand that there was a<br />
purpose for all of that, but so did Jesus. Nevertheless, the anger and the hate and<br />
the contempt that was poured out on Jesus when He was suspended between<br />
heaven and earth. When He was in a place where His enemies could take advantage<br />
of Him. Now mind you. He never stopped being God for a second. I mean<br />
after the whole thing, He finally at the end says, “Father, into thy hands I commend<br />
my spirit.” At the end of it all, He had the authority to say, “I give up my<br />
spirit,” something that we don’t have any authority over at all.<br />
Go with me if you would to the book of Matthew, chapter 27. In verse 45, Christ<br />
is on the cross dying, suffering, suspended between heaven and earth:<br />
“Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the<br />
land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli,<br />
lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’”<br />
I want to tell you, my lost friend, that the answer to that question, if you ponder<br />
it, and you come to appreciate the answer, it will change your life tonight. It<br />
will change your life forever.<br />
I was saved and baptized here at Whittier in 1959. ‘59 was the year that followed<br />
a really good year, ‘58. All the car buff guys are out there, yeah, ‘58 was<br />
nice. It might have been ‘58. Somebody is going to have to do the math. I can’t<br />
tonight. I don’t know how long it’s been. But I cannot read this verse without getting<br />
chills even now. “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me.” And to think<br />
about it. Some of those who stood by thought this man was calling for Elijah.<br />
“Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and<br />
put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, ‘Let Him alone; let<br />
us see if Elijah will come to save Him.’ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice,<br />
and yielded up His spirit.”<br />
“My God, My God”. It isn’t that Jesus imagined that. It actually happened. Jesus<br />
asked that question out loud because He had been forsaken by His own Father.<br />
Bear with me. And yet, was His father really displeased with Jesus? This is the<br />
same Father who at His baptism descended in the form of a dove and lighted upon<br />
Him, the Holy Spirit, and said, “This is My Beloved Son”. And what was His<br />
comment? “In whom I am well pleased.” Yet on the cross, He forsakes Him.<br />
And that was not the only time He said that. The Mount of Transfiguration.<br />
There was Moses, Elijah, and Jesus transfigured before the brethren’s eyes. Of<br />
course, Peter runs up. “You know what I want to do? I want to build three altars. I<br />
want to build an altar to Moses, and another one.” Moses would represent the law.<br />
Another one to Elijah, the prophet, and another one to Jesus. And God spoke<br />
again, and He said, “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I’m well pleased.” And then<br />
with regards to Moses and Elijah, God said, “Hear ye Him.” He fulfilled all of that.<br />
Listen to Him. God was pleased with His Son.<br />
John 12, verse 27. Just before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, Jesus said these<br />
words:<br />
“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this<br />
hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”<br />
Did He say, “Why hast thou forsaken Me?” because He didn’t know what was<br />
going on? Here He said, “I came into the world for this very hour.” So Jesus wasn’t<br />
ignorant about what was taking place. He knew exactly what was going on.<br />
The question is very much rhetorical if you want to know the fact of the matter.<br />
“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” And yet He says here, “For this<br />
purpose came I, unto this hour.”<br />
“Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have<br />
both glorified it and will glorify it again.’”<br />
The Father loved His Son. The Father was pleased with the work of Jesus<br />
Christ.<br />
“…the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said,<br />
‘An angel has spoken to Him.’ Jesus answered…”<br />
This is a response to His Father, the voice of His Father, explaining to the brethren.<br />
“This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.”<br />
And I think that’s the reason why He cried on the cross, “My God, My God, why<br />
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hast thou forsaken Me?” I think He cried that out for our sake. Jesus now in verse<br />
31:<br />
“Now is the judgment of the world.” (speaks in Aramaic)<br />
This means now is the crisis of the creation. The whole creation hangs in the<br />
balance right now.<br />
I get amused at watching the news on TV because everything is a crisis. Everything<br />
is a crisis. But the crisis of all time, the crisis of all of creation, was solved<br />
one moment, in one day, by Jesus at Calvary. Nothing you will confront in this life<br />
will be a crisis compared to what Jesus resolved for us.<br />
Now is the crisis of this world. Why did Jesus cry out? Why did God reject Him<br />
for that moment in time? Because He was glorified again. And the Father did receive<br />
His spirit up. Satisfied. I shall see the travail of his soul and I shall be satisfied.<br />
So He was satisfied with it, but this is what we must come to. When God<br />
rejected Christ for that period of time, it wasn’t for anything that Jesus had done.<br />
Had He ever sinned? No. He was tested in all ways like we, yet without sin. Why<br />
then did God, according to Jesus, forsake Him? And this is something that each<br />
one of us needs to understand or remember, be reminded of at all time. When<br />
God looked down at that point in time, He did not reject Jesus. He rejected me.<br />
That was me that He saw. That was my sin. It is that He bore our sins in His body<br />
on the tree. It was me that disgusted Him, and it was you too. How can we ever<br />
get arrogant as a born again child of God? How can we ever think somewhat of<br />
ourselves when that’s what God saw? Jesus was me because Jesus was my substitute.<br />
I used to have substitutions. I played high school sports all my life. I didn’t ever<br />
want to come out of the game. And once in a while they’d rotate everybody out. I<br />
did not want to come out. But I’ll tell you what. I am glad that Jesus became my<br />
substitute at Calvary and died for my sin. As a result of that, now when God sees<br />
me He sees the righteousness of Christ. He sees the blood that covers me, and<br />
not the wickedness that disgusted Him so much. We must be careful having come<br />
from that point in time, when Jesus became – I think it probably happened in the<br />
garden when He took upon Himself our sin. But I wasn’t there so I don’t know.<br />
But had He not done that, and this is for you who that don’t know Christ as your<br />
Savior, had He not done that, I would have died and gone off into eternity with all<br />
that corruption and wickedness still there. And I would have stood before God,<br />
that which revolted Him.<br />
So have I got you all feeling pretty bad about yourselves now? Have I succeeded<br />
in that? Thank the Lord that’s gone. That guilt is gone. And I don’t want to go<br />
around all the time thinking badly about myself because of what was, but rather<br />
rejoicing for what is. Having been delivered by His grace. We now need to be<br />
reminded that work of Jesus was for a purpose, and by design, and He did so<br />
according to the will of His Father. Not only born again children of God, but<br />
placed in a position to be part of His Bride. Now who deserves that? From lost<br />
sinner to being a joint heir with Christ, if we identify with Him in this lifetime.<br />
The jury is still out on all of us, whether we know that or not with regard to<br />
that promise. But the issue of our salvation is once and forever resolved, and<br />
gone and done. Christ didn’t seem to cry out over His mission. He volunteered.<br />
The Bible says He stood as a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. In<br />
fact, there’s another passage that talks about Him being delivered up by the determinate<br />
counsel and foreknowledge of God, which simply means Christ was part<br />
of the decision process that provided Him as our substitute. He was in on it from<br />
the beginning.<br />
And as such, He wasn’t objecting at all. Counted it a joy. He counted it a joy.<br />
And yet on this occasion, bearing our sin, taking our sin, I think almost literally<br />
killed Him. It almost literally killed Him. It was absolutely foreign to Christ to be<br />
guilty of anything. And again, just so the record is straight and certain, He was<br />
never guilty of anything of His own doing, but of mine. So my guilt was the only<br />
guilt that He ever bore. Except wait a minute. You too.<br />
But at that point in time, when He felt forsaken by His Father, that is when He<br />
cried out. “My God, My God, why have thou forsaken Me?” And if we can ask that<br />
question now, and not be grateful, ever grateful for what He did on our behalf, so<br />
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much so. Even as David said at the end of the 23rd Psalm, “Surely I will dwell in<br />
the house of the Lord forever.”<br />
What Jesus went through for me, I will never pay back. And I think sometimes<br />
that might be why we struggle with serving God so much, because we’re in that<br />
payback mode, you know. We’re trying to pay off the credit card. Isn’t that something.<br />
I don’t know about you, but up until recently anyway, I lived with a perpetual<br />
car payment because I would go five years, finally be able to pay off that<br />
debt, and I go, hey, we have some free cash. Let’s go buy another car. So I was<br />
always making a payment. And if you try to serve God with that mentality, it’s<br />
going to be struggle for you. It’s going to be a struggle for any of us. Payback,<br />
no, because that’s never going to happen. It will be always doing, and doing, and<br />
doing, and never paying back. And everybody gets tired of that. Everybody gets –<br />
even sometimes people get resentful. Serving God becomes that ball and chain<br />
that we drag around for Sunday school. And that’s our martyrdom.<br />
No, that’s running with the footman, the horses are up next. Going to church<br />
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday, and extracurricular stuff like this, is<br />
good, but it really isn’t a test. It shouldn’t be a challenge. And if we’re challenged<br />
by it, maybe we’re in payback mode, that frustration of never, ever, ever getting<br />
to pay it off. But the fact of the matter is, our salvation was a gift of grace, free.<br />
Free to you, free to me, but amazingly costly to God.<br />
I think sometimes we think about the free gift of life, and we forget. You know<br />
what, that’s only to me. You know, it’s only free to me and you guys. Because we<br />
think about how free it was, we’ve got to be reminded, no, it wasn’t actually free.<br />
It just didn’t cost us anything. But it cost God a great deal. The moment Jesus<br />
became a man, the moment God left His heavenly place and became one of us, is<br />
the moment His humiliation began. I know that we think we’re all like Absalom,<br />
good looking and good hair. Maybe we should have titled this “Absalom has a Bad<br />
Hair Day”. I’m going to start making notes on those things.<br />
If you’re here tonight and you haven’t accepted Christ as your Savior, I want<br />
you to know this. You stand guilty before God, and accountable to Him. And I<br />
know that we live in an age of non-accountability. We live in a time when people<br />
don’t want to held responsible for their behavior. But the bottom line is, we’ll<br />
stand before God. And there’s one thing that you need to understand. If you<br />
stand before God without Christ as your advocate, you have no hope because<br />
your adversary is Satan and he’ll be there too. And he’s good at his work.<br />
And we would like you to be saved. But does not Christ going to the cross<br />
prove to you that He wants you to be saved too? He took your sins with Him to<br />
Calvary and paid the price for us, that we might be free. Free of guilt, and stand<br />
before God as a born again child of God, washed in His blood. But most of you<br />
already are saved. Most of you are baptized. Most of us are members of churches<br />
– New Testament churches. And it would behoove us all to not find ourselves<br />
hanging between heaven and earth, hopeless, helpful, vulnerable, and eventually<br />
to be destroyed by our enemies. Let’s make a commitment to the Lord. It’s the<br />
best one, by the way, and it’s a safe place to be. It’s like joining David’s team. It’s<br />
the right place to be. And it’s a safe place to be.<br />
So if you know Christ as your Savior, next time you read Him crying out from<br />
Calvary, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” understand that was for<br />
me. And you can make it very personal because it was. It was very personal for<br />
you and for me. And so it may not be a struggle next time it seems inconvenient<br />
to do the right thing for the Lord.<br />
So if you’re here, and I’m going to ask for a song leader and our piano player<br />
to come forward for a verse or two of song. If you’ve never been saved, what a<br />
change can happen to you right now if you come forward and put your faith in<br />
Jesus Christ as your Savior and the issue will be resolved immediately, and forever.<br />
You’ll no longer wonder.<br />
I was speaking earlier of my salvation experience as a young man. I’m one of<br />
these fortunate ones. I don’t know why, but God has blessed me with this from<br />
that day. I mean I was terrified. I couldn’t sleep, I was sick in my stomach. I was<br />
under conviction, badly under conviction. And then it kind of went away a little<br />
bit. And then it came back. And then, you know, along came revival season. Mis-<br />
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sionary Baptists used to have revival season. It started right when we got out of<br />
school. Great it’s summertime and that’s when the revival started. Now sometimes<br />
for a little kid that’s not a lot of fun. I tell this to the Whittier church. When Whittier<br />
had ours, Placentia had theirs, La Habra, and then Bellflower, we were going<br />
everywhere. Everywhere. All summer. But I was deeply convicted, and it kind of<br />
wore off a little bit. And then I went to a revival. And Bro. Madden, D.S. Madden<br />
was preaching. I wouldn’t hardly bear it. And he had to catch an airplane back to<br />
Texas or somewhere, and he said, “I am going to sing one verse of song and if<br />
you don’t respond then you can just go to hell.” If you know Bro. Madden, then<br />
you know what I said is true.<br />
I was standing there, one verse of song, I’ve never heard of that before in a<br />
Baptist church. I go, I’m going to wait for two or three. I was negotiating with<br />
God like I had so many times before. One more verse, and then I’ll do this. You<br />
know, it’s a funny thing what your brain started doing when you’re under conviction.<br />
You start negotiating with God, terms and conditions. And so the one song,<br />
I’m hanging on. And he quit. He did exactly what he said and he left. I couldn’t<br />
hardly bear it.<br />
And then the next, I think Monday, was when we started revival here at this<br />
church, although it was out in the parking lot. I mean the church building was out<br />
in the parking lot. And Bro. Banks had come out – maybe he was the one from<br />
Texas. He came out to help start the school. When we started the school at the<br />
Bellflower church. And Banks was there and he was preaching. And I’m telling you<br />
what, when he said we’re going to have the invitation now, I hit that aisle. I mean<br />
I hit that aisle like I couldn’t wait to get down there. And I think somewhere between<br />
about the fourth row and the altar bench I was saved because I was<br />
thanking God by the time I got there. That old altar bench, Bro. John, is downstairs<br />
right now. It’s all that’s left that we have, I think, of the old building. But it’s<br />
just a piece of wood, but I hope no one throws it away. Give it to me. That’s<br />
where I knelt down and thanked the Lord for saving my soul. I took care of business<br />
because the Lord was convicting me.<br />
I didn’t read a passage I meant to. I’m not going to read it now. But earlier the<br />
Lord was talking to the Jews about their rebellion. And he said, you know, it’s<br />
gotten to a point that there’s no turning back. I’m not going to turn back. The<br />
Babylonians are coming, and I’m not going to turn back. I hope you don’t get to<br />
that point where you reject Christ, and reject Him, and reject Him, until God says<br />
okay and He stops. If you’re under conviction won’t you come? Let’s stand.<br />
Saturday morning devotional<br />
Bro. Johnnie Dollins, First MBC Yuba City<br />
I think the commitment is riding with Brother Tim<br />
Westbrook all the way from Yuba City. Now that’s commitment.<br />
I want to thank the churches to give me the opportunity to<br />
stand before you. I find it humbling when I feel like there are so<br />
many of you that I would rather set and feast on because I’m<br />
full. And I’m not talking about food. I’m talking about the Spirit<br />
and the Word of God. It’s been an outstanding meeting. I just<br />
want to thank the church of Whittier and Brother John for doing<br />
an absolutely wonderful job.<br />
But I get excited when I get to present God’s Word.<br />
I’m trying to contain myself a little bit, but please bear with me<br />
because I’ve already been told that there’s a hook that takes me off at a certain<br />
time. Better than the Live Oak Church, they told me they have a trap door that<br />
just “poofs” and you’re gone. So at least I know that. I tend to go long, but I’m<br />
going to try to keep it short today.<br />
Please grab your Bibles and turn to Job chapter 19. Just a little beginning at<br />
Luke 24:27, Jesus tells his disciples, after He’s been crucified and He’s back alive.<br />
We know that Jesus is alive. Well, He starts pointing to all of the Scripture that<br />
referred to Him. And this is one of those Scriptures. Job believed in Jesus. And I’ll<br />
tell you this morning, anyone that’s in heaven is there because of Jesus. Adam, all<br />
the way to whoever the last man is going to be, or woman, it’s always because of<br />
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Jesus.<br />
Let’s look at – starting with verse 21. The Bible in chapter 19, verse 21, says:<br />
“Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God<br />
hath touched me. Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my<br />
flesh? Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!”<br />
You know, He got his wish here. Did you ever notice that on this, that it’s forever.<br />
And it’s been preached for a long time now. It’s printed in a book, brothers.<br />
“That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! For I<br />
know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the<br />
earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I<br />
see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another;<br />
though my reins be consumed within me.”<br />
You know, he’s talking about Jesus here. His Redeemer. I’m telling you right<br />
now that this is probably the oldest book in the Bible. This predates Moses. And<br />
the Redeemer liveth. And if you’re going to ever stand before God at the great<br />
white throne, it’s because you don’t have a Redeemer. I know I’m talking to Baptists,<br />
most of us here. Thank God, He’s our Redeemer. But He’s our Redeemer<br />
because of Jesus and what He did. Nothing that we could do.<br />
That’s why I love Ephesians 2:8 and 9. I love Ephesians 2:8 and 9, “For by<br />
grace are you saved.” Nothing that we can do, right? But you know there’s a<br />
verse 10. There is a verse 10. Baptists we need to know that. We’re His workmanship<br />
created in Christ Jesus, because it don’t stop at salvation. Salvation is free<br />
and it’s a gift, but if you want any rewards after that you’d better be a workman<br />
because that’s where it starts. That’s where the race even begins is at salvation.<br />
And He would have us all be about His work.<br />
In John 8:58, it says:<br />
“Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I<br />
am.’”<br />
You know, this Jesus was the one that talked to Moses on the top of Mt. Sinai. I<br />
believe the same Jesus was the one who walked with Adam and Eve in the garden.<br />
You know, the whole Bible points to Jesus. It’s all about what Jesus has done<br />
for us and nothing about what I’ve done. I really, really enjoyed the message last<br />
night, Brother. I preached that, but I’ve never quite looked at it that way, that<br />
when God looked down and couldn’t – and had to turn His back on Jesus, and not<br />
look at Him, because He was disgusted with my sin. Wow! I’m going to start using<br />
that Brother. I’m going to borrow that from you. Wow! What a message last<br />
night.<br />
You know, with Jesus He’s always here. He was here – we know He was the<br />
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He was here. And He’s going to be<br />
here in eternity after. Jesus always is. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever.<br />
We know that. So I wonder about us Baptists sometimes. We worry about our<br />
fortunes, but they come and go. We worry about fame, making our mark on the<br />
world. That’s going to fade away. Finances and fun. You know, there was a time<br />
that seemed like vacations were once a year if you could even afford that. Now it<br />
seems like we go on four or five vacations a year. You know, fun is great, but it’s<br />
not greater than God. And our lives committed to God.<br />
In John 14:6 it says:<br />
“Jesus saith unto him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh<br />
unto the Father, but by me.’”<br />
John 11:25:<br />
“Jesus said unto her, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in<br />
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live…’”<br />
Why? Because Jesus lives. It’s all about Jesus. That’s why. Christians, He’s the<br />
life of us. He’s our life. It’s all about Jesus.<br />
1 John 5:12. He is the life of a Christian. It’s because of His life why we live.<br />
In Romans 1:3-4, it says:<br />
“Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David<br />
according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according<br />
to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead …”<br />
Jesus is the resurrection. See there were other times there was some resurrec-<br />
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tion. Remember Lazarus and others? Even in the Old Testament. There were<br />
times that things happened. But Jesus is the resurrection. It is because of Jesus<br />
that that happened. And Jesus died on the cross. But Jesus took up His life again.<br />
And He’s alive and well this morning because He had the power over death. He<br />
had the power over the grave.<br />
You know what? He also has power over Satan. But we Baptists tend sometimes<br />
to get too much involved in the world. And we think that Satan is more<br />
powerful. But you know what? He’s not. I wholeheartedly believe that if we follow<br />
His example – remember when Jesus was tempted He used Scripture. And I<br />
wholeheartedly believe that if we use Scripture on Satan and we tell him to flee<br />
from us he has no other choice. He has to flee. Because Jesus is more powerful<br />
than Satan. The victory has already been won. Why aren’t we claiming it? We can<br />
claim that in our lives because of the power of Jesus.<br />
You know, His life is the gospel. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 15:3-4, it says:<br />
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ<br />
died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he<br />
rose again the third day according to the scriptures…”<br />
It’s all about the Word of God, and the promises that He can keep. Brother, you<br />
better not weigh too much on my promises because every once in a while you’re<br />
going to be mad at me because I’m going to break one. I’m going to have a backache<br />
or a headache or something, and I’m not going to be able to follow through.<br />
But Jesus follows through every time. You can depend on Jesus.<br />
And He said that He will give you life, and He’s going to give you life. I don’t<br />
understand people that believe that they can take away their life. I don’t know<br />
about you, but I wholeheartedly believe that Jesus said we’re in His hand, and<br />
He’s in God’s hands, the Father’s hands, so how can I have the power to take<br />
myself out of His hand. I don’t get that. I believe that when God gave us eternal<br />
life He meant it. I believe what the Bible says.<br />
In 2 Timothy 2:8 it says:<br />
“Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead<br />
according to the gospel …”<br />
You know, His life was sacrificial. The Bible says that He was the propitiation for<br />
all our sins. Not just my sin, but for the whole world. That includes you. He was<br />
the perfect sacrifice. The perfect payment that was required to cleanse me and<br />
buy me back. And you know what? He’s got enough love that bought you back<br />
too. You don’t have to worry about it, because it’s promised from Jesus.<br />
His life was substitutionary. And this is where I always went with that Brother,<br />
but now I understand that He was disgusted in my sin. And because He was disgusted<br />
with my sin He couldn’t look upon Jesus. And Jesus did that for me. Oh,<br />
what love. You can’t find greater love than that. Because I was at enmity with<br />
Him. What have I done for Him? But He loved me enough to purchase me anyway.<br />
Wow! What an awesome God!<br />
I say this morning, just like Job, that my Redeemer liveth. And with these very<br />
eyes, no one else’s, Brother Johnnie Dollins is going to see Jesus. And I look forward<br />
to a great, no hurt, don’t have to use glasses, I’m going to be perfect one<br />
day because of Jesus. You know what? You’re going to be perfect one day if you<br />
trust Him and you put your faith in Him. You’re going to be perfect one day too.<br />
Not because of what we’ve done, but because of what Jesus did for us.<br />
What a wonderful, awesome, Redeemer. Baptists, it’s great to own Him, it’s<br />
great to own Him as your Redeemer. But it goes further than that. Do you know<br />
that? It goes further than Him being our Redeemer. He wants to be your Lord. He<br />
wants to be your Lord. Now that’s going to make some changes. You’re going to<br />
have to do some changing. See you’re going to put Jesus first in your life. And<br />
when you put Jesus first in your life, it will work out everything else. It will be in<br />
the right order. Put Jesus first and you’ll be the kind of child that He’s going to say<br />
one day, I look forward to this, enter in my faithful servant. I’m waiting for those<br />
words. Because I believe that some get to go in the city and some don’t. Read the<br />
Bible. I want to please my Master. I want to be inside the city.<br />
Thank you for listening to me.<br />
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Saturday morning sermon<br />
Bro. Ryan Miller, Antioch LMBC Arlington<br />
It’s a great honor, I will say that, to be countered worthy<br />
to stand before you to bring a portion of God’s Word. And<br />
it’s the most serious thing and most important thing in my life<br />
that I do my best to show honor to the Scriptures. So thank<br />
you. Thank you for the honor. Thank you for allowing me to<br />
stand before you.<br />
I was talking with my life coach, Jason Pelto, and he<br />
asked me if I was nervous. And I said no, I think I’m okay. Oh,<br />
you’re so arrogant. God giveth grace to the humble, but He resists<br />
the proud. I hope you remember that. Thanks, thanks a<br />
lot. I think I made a bad choice asking him for advice.<br />
It’s been a great meeting. I can literally stand up here and say amen, and sit<br />
down, and that would be sufficient. Just all that we’ve experienced. All that we’ve<br />
talked about. Such an important topic. Such a vital topic to our churches. And one<br />
that’s close to my heart. We’ve heard great things. I’m pretty sure every church is<br />
going to go home and have worship classes and meetings about their worship.<br />
We’re going to talk to our song leaders, and we’re going to try brush up on some<br />
things because it’s that impactful, it’s that important, the things that we’ve heard.<br />
And rightly so. We should do that, because God is worthy of it.<br />
Worship is one of those things that can make or break us. It helps keep people<br />
here because it helps involve you in what we’re doing. When you’re singing like<br />
we’re singing here, and we’re singing these words from the bottom of our heart,<br />
we’re becoming invested. It’s becoming a reality to us. If it’s not important to us<br />
in our worship, then it won’t be important to us in our heart. It’s one of those<br />
things, how can we not be concerned about it.<br />
Visitors see it. They come into our bodies and they see that this worship is real<br />
to us. It doesn’t matter the style. Doesn’t matter what type of songs we sing, but<br />
they see it in our hearts that this is real to us. This is our reality. That helps attract<br />
them as well. It helps the spirit to work in their heart.<br />
We’ve seen great things. We’ve heard great things regarding this. We’ve seen<br />
the book of Revelation in the light of worship. What a wonderful book that proclaims<br />
worship over and over. I think that we’ve seen great things.<br />
I say thank you to Whittier. Thank you to all of the speakers who have stood<br />
before us. It’s had an impact on my life, and I’m ready to go now. Hopefully all of<br />
you are as well.<br />
I would like to turn your attention to Luke chapter 9 for a short time this afternoon.<br />
Luke chapter 9. We’re going to look at the transfiguration. Brother Winkelman<br />
referenced it last night in his sermon. He actually took care of a couple of<br />
points, so I don’t have to go down to it. Hopefully you were listening and paying<br />
attention. We’re going to look at this wonderful event that happened in Luke<br />
chapter 9, verse 28.<br />
“Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and<br />
James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance<br />
of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold,<br />
two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and<br />
spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter<br />
and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became<br />
fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the<br />
men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good that we are<br />
here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah’—<br />
not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed<br />
them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice<br />
came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!’”<br />
We’ll go ahead and stop there.<br />
It’s a wonderful event. Christ takes Peter and James and John up onto the<br />
mountain and what they see is they see a stripping away of His humanity and a<br />
restoration of some of that glory that He left when He came down to be with us.<br />
They see Him in His true form. They see His glory.<br />
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You know what? This is something that should happen to us each time we assemble<br />
with God’s people. We see the glory of Christ. We see it revealed to us.<br />
Certainly in church as we praise Him and as we hear the Word spoken, and as we<br />
worship Him we begin to see the glory of Christ revealed. Hopefully in a greater<br />
detail than we knew before. Always knowing more and more and more about<br />
Christ. Getting into a deeper and a deeper relationship with Him. That’s what’s<br />
expected of us.<br />
So every time that we come close, we begin to see that same kind of a vision,<br />
the glory of Christ shining through whatever it is and revealing Him. I feel it. I see<br />
it when we come to meetings like this. The teachings that we receive and the<br />
fellowship that we have helps only to show me more of Christ’s glory. Christ’s<br />
glory in His church. Christ’s glory in the salvation that He has provided for us. It’s<br />
a wonderful time. That’s why it’s so important and it should be dear to our hearts,<br />
meetings like this and times like this. All the fellowship, all the brotherly love, all<br />
of it centered around one person and that is Christ.<br />
We see how the bodies have done. And we talk about how our churches have<br />
done through the year, and it helps to proclaim God’s glory, working in each individual<br />
body. We see how each body has grown. Or maybe how each body has<br />
suffered. And it still proclaims the glory of Christ. We sing together and man, what<br />
a better worship service! Singing with all of God’s people.<br />
We see these things and we see Christ’s glory revealed to us. It should wake us<br />
up. How the disciples are always sleeping at important times I don’t understand.<br />
Because one of those things. You look back at Israel, and how could they see the<br />
Red Sea, how could they see the plagues, and still not believe? Well the disciples<br />
did it here. They’re going up to a very important place and they fall asleep. That’s<br />
humanity, we’re not that smart. We like to think we are, but we’re not that smart.<br />
We’re falling asleep or we’re drifting off at the times that we shouldn’t be. But<br />
when they saw the glory of God they woke right up. I’m not tired no more, check<br />
out what’s going on.<br />
Sometimes the world bogs us down, doesn’t it? And we get pretty heavy. We<br />
get pretty focused on other things that really don’t matter, but it’s times like these<br />
that help wake us up. What’s really important in our life? What really matters in<br />
our life? Meetings like this and subjects like this help confirm that. Sometimes I<br />
need to confirm that God is real and God is working in it. It’s not a fantasy. It’s<br />
not a nice theological thought, it’s reality. God is real. He’s working, and He is all<br />
worthy of our praise. I know that I will take home a full heart, a full cup, and I will<br />
try with all my might to spread to all the others who couldn’t be here. Try to give<br />
our visions of glory.<br />
Listen, this is what I heard, and we try to get people excited about what we’ve<br />
experienced. Even though it’s the understatement of all time, we can say, just like<br />
Peter said, “Master, it was good that we’re here.” It is good that I came. Regardless<br />
of what I had to put off. Regardless of if I’m tired or the kids are cranky, it is<br />
good that I’m here.<br />
We’ll leave inspired. It should inspire the whole work up and down the state,<br />
but yet there are some that don’t care. They don’t care to come. It’s not important<br />
to them. They don’t care to contribute. They don’t care to invest themselves<br />
like this. And there’s something we’re facing now, in the here and now, is<br />
people’s hearts turning hard. People’s hearts turning complacent. Too busy with<br />
other things. I find myself asking why, what’s going on?<br />
The association to some extent is weakened. There just aren’t as many members<br />
coming to these meetings and contributing, and being a part of it. Why is<br />
that happening? Why is our body suffering at times? Why is the body stagnant at<br />
times? Why are hearts dull? Brother Winkelman said, “They’re hanging between<br />
heaven and earth.” That’s a lot of people in that state right now. They’re not fully<br />
committed, but they’re not fully out. They’re just there. Why is that going on?<br />
What’s the problem?<br />
You know what I think it is? And I find this in my life, and I think it affects all of<br />
us. It’s a lack of spiritual vision. The disciples saw some great things. They saw<br />
the glory of God revealed. It woke them up and they were instantly paying attention.<br />
I think a lot of us – me at times, I’ve grown sleepy in the spirit. This be-<br />
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comes something that’s normal. I just go to church, and I just do what I do. And I<br />
really don’t invest all of my time, and all of my energy, and all of my being into it.<br />
And my vision gets muddied up with the world. It gets foggy.<br />
You ever have those mornings when you turn on the windshield wipers and you<br />
can have them on full blast but the windshield won’t clear up, so you’re driving<br />
head out the window or a little place that you’ve made on the windshield? Sometimes<br />
I feel like that in my spiritual life. My head’s in a fog. I just can’t get it clear.<br />
You know what the problem is? I’m not fully devoting my attention to Christ and<br />
His glory. Times like these or in church when I’m worshipping or hearing the Word<br />
spoken, I see God’s glory and I wake up. I wish that more people would see His<br />
glory and get out of the fog.<br />
You notice Peter’s reaction. He wants to worship, doesn’t do it right, but he<br />
wants to worship. It’s a reaction of seeing God’s glory. Encounters with God,<br />
whether it’s a church, whether it’s our own personal study or meetings like this,<br />
worship should be a natural reaction that comes from us because we want to give<br />
praise back to God for what He’s done for us and for His glory. It should be a<br />
product of meeting God. And you know what the best book for that is, it’s Psalms.<br />
Turn over there if you would. Psalms is just a necessary book in our study. A<br />
necessary book in our preaching. It’s a window to the soul. You see through the<br />
writing of David and the other writers just the whole gamut of human emotions<br />
from high to low. There’s even Psalms that are called imprecatory. That’s when<br />
David or somebody else is asking God why is this happening? Why aren’t you doing<br />
this and why are the wicked prevailing? That’s where we get sometimes, don’t<br />
we? I can see myself in a lot of these Psalms. The Psalms are theologically rich.<br />
Our worship must be theologically rich. We’re praising God for a reason. We’re<br />
praising God for His character. We need to proclaim His character. The Psalms<br />
does that.<br />
David knows the whole range of life. He’s been close to God. He’s been away<br />
from God. He’s been on the run for his life. He’s been king. And at every point, we<br />
see him writing and praising to God. You know, it doesn’t matter what state my<br />
life is, I always have cause to praise God. And there are people who go through<br />
some hard things, man. Things that my heart just breaks for them. And you see<br />
them worshipping and praising God. That can only come from Him. That can only<br />
come from a relationship that is grounded in God.<br />
I want to turn your attention to Psalm 103. Psalm 103, David’s writing this.<br />
And in verse 1:<br />
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”<br />
What more can we say? Bless here means to praise and has the idea of kneeling<br />
before somebody and worshipping. And that is exactly what we do. We praise<br />
Him. We kneel before Him. And we praise Him with all of our life, all of our self,<br />
all of our desire, all of our emotion, all of our passion. We’re vested in what we<br />
are doing here. All that is within me, bless His holy name. You see the source of<br />
worship is God. It’s not me. It’s God. I worship Him because He is God. I worship<br />
Him because of His holiness and His love and His care for me. If it was up to me I<br />
would never worship. But the more that I see of Him, and the closer I get to Him,<br />
I realize His holiness deserves my worship. His love deserves my worship. His<br />
mercy and His grace deserve my worship.<br />
So as my heart is drawn to Him, as our hearts are drawn to Him, we cannot<br />
help but worship. And say the same thing as David. It says:<br />
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless<br />
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits …”<br />
It is good to serve God. We have a peace and a stability that no one in the<br />
world can know. Such a relationship and walk with Him, as we walk with Him in<br />
the church, it’s indescribable. It’s hard to put into words what we are blessed<br />
with. Don’t forget His benefits. A lot of people do. It becomes common to them. It<br />
becomes passé and their mind starts wandering other places. But yet He gives us<br />
joy unspeakable, doesn’t He? He gives us life. He gives us love. He gives us peace<br />
in all circumstances.<br />
You know the story behind that last hymn we sing? It is Well with My Soul. It<br />
was written by somebody who had lost their family. His wife and his daughters.<br />
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And as he’s sailing by the place where their ship sank, he writes that hymn. It is<br />
well because I know God’s in control. To our human mind it doesn’t make sense.<br />
But to our spirit, we know exactly what He’s talking about, don’t we? We praise<br />
Him. We don’t forget His benefits.<br />
It can get pretty hard in life, can’t it? There are some things that can try to<br />
knock us over. You ever heard of a toy called Weebles? Weebles wobble but they<br />
don’t fall down. You know what? Somebody whose feet are grounded in the<br />
Word, that’s exactly what happens. We may be knocked around by some pretty<br />
hard things. Maybe knocked around and knocked senseless at times, but if our<br />
feet are standing on the solid rock of Christ we’ll never fall because He’ll be there<br />
to catch us. That’s what 2 Peter says, right? If you do these things, you shall never<br />
stumble. Maybe get knocked around, but we’re not going to fall. And we worship<br />
Him for that, because that can only come from God.<br />
Just don’t forget His benefits. He goes on to list a couple here in verse 3:<br />
“… who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your<br />
life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you<br />
with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.”<br />
All these verbs are continuous. It means that He’s forgiving our iniquities. He’s<br />
healing our diseases, redeeming our life from the pit. God is working in us, and<br />
He care about us, and He’s looking out for our good. Romans 8:28 is not one of<br />
those kitchen plaque versions. And that’s where it stays. He is working things<br />
together for our good. God wants our good, and if we look at it God has been<br />
good to us, hasn’t He? Don’t forget His benefits.<br />
Look at verse 8. This is the reason we worship.<br />
“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast<br />
love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever.”<br />
I’m thankful for that because I make Him mad sometimes. My kids make me<br />
angry because they do things they’re not supposed to. And I’m pretty sure that I<br />
do that to God a lot. But it says that He will not always keep his anger. He will not<br />
always chide.<br />
Verse 10:<br />
“He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our<br />
iniquities.”<br />
You know what He gives us? He gives us love. He gives us life.<br />
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love<br />
toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does<br />
He remove our transgressions from us.”<br />
Oh, the boundless love of God. You know, I must be getting old. I’ve never<br />
cried so much in the past couple of days in my life, as we sing, and we proclaim<br />
the love of God. What’s wrong with me? You know what it is? I was thinking<br />
about that last night. That’s the Spirit touching my spirit. We sing about salvation.<br />
We sing about His love for us. May it never stop touching my heart that that’s<br />
what I worship Him for. He doesn’t deal with me according to my sin. Do you<br />
know what my sin deserves? Wrath and death and hell. Instead He reaches down<br />
and He offers salvation.<br />
One of the greatest expressions in Romans chapter 5, verse 8, it says that<br />
“while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” That’s love that we can’t comprehend,<br />
but it’s a love that I’m thankful for. It’s a love that I praise and I worship. I<br />
worship Him, I praise Him. You worship Him, you praise Him. Why? Because He<br />
saved us. That’s reason number one. We worship Him because He saved us.<br />
Without Him I’ve got no hope. Without Him I’m hell bound. Because of my own<br />
sins. My sin deserves the wrath of God. My sin causes me to stand responsible for<br />
the payment, and that payment is death. But God so loved the world that He died<br />
for me.<br />
Instead of wrath I get mercy. Instead of death it’s peace, it’s joy, it’s eternal<br />
life. I know what David’s talking about here. Does not deal with me. Instead as<br />
far as the east is from the west, that’s how far He has removed our sins from us.<br />
Not north to south, east to west, because if you go north you’d be going south<br />
again. If you go west, you’re never going to go east. If you go east, you’re never<br />
going to go west. That means they’re gone. My sins are gone because of the<br />
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lood of Christ. That’s what we praise Him for. That’s what we sing to Him for.<br />
Because now I have hope, now I have salvation, now I have peace. I hope that<br />
you have that peace. I hope that you have been saved. I hope that you know that<br />
your sins have been taken care of on the cross of Calvary. I hope that you know<br />
that God loves you. And if you don’t know, you can. That’s the wonderful thing<br />
about God. He reaches down to us. He draws us to Him. If you don’t, I pray that<br />
you would trust in Him and call out to Him. Do what the Bible says. Believe in your<br />
heart, confess with your mouth, thou shalt be saved. I like that word. It’s not an<br />
iffy situation. It’s what’s going to happen. And then you can join us as we praise<br />
Him for the very same thing.<br />
We praise God with all that we are, not only for salvation but for baptism in the<br />
church and a relationship where we walk with him each day. That demands nothing<br />
less than all that we are. You know what? When the song leader stands up,<br />
how can you not open a book and sing? How can you not? He deserves everything<br />
that is within us. How can we be silent when He has given His life for us?<br />
Look at verse 13:<br />
“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion<br />
to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are<br />
dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;<br />
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the<br />
steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear<br />
Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to those who keep His covenant<br />
and remember to do His commandments.”<br />
I’m thankful He knows I’m human, because I mess up all too often. But God is<br />
a God of compassion. He’s a God of mercy and He looks down and He knows. He’s<br />
been through what we’ve been through. That’s what Hebrews tells us. He was<br />
tempted in all points, just like us, but He did it without sin. So He knows exactly<br />
where we can fall. He knows exactly how we can mess up, and He’s there to help<br />
us. It’s what it says, so we can come boldly before Him to find help in our time of<br />
need. He remembers our frame; He knows we’re just dust. So He knows we need<br />
help.<br />
That mercy and that compassion causes me to want to do more for Him. Not<br />
only has He saved me, but He continues to lead me. He continues to speak into<br />
my life when I still don’t deserve it, and it causes me to want to just do more for<br />
Him. Lord, what can I do? It says here, and I pray for this everyday:<br />
“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those<br />
who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children …”<br />
I hope that my kids are kept by the righteousness of God. There’s one goal I’ve<br />
got as a parent, to raise them up to when it comes time that they have to make a<br />
decision, they’re as well informed as possible. That they’ll know, even though they<br />
don’t know Him as Savior, they’ll know who Jesus is. They’ll know that He died for<br />
them, so when it comes time, I pray it makes it that much easier for them to submit<br />
and call on the Lord to save them. But that can depend greatly on me being<br />
faithful.<br />
It says:<br />
“… His righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant …”<br />
There’s a stipulation there. To those who are faithful to Him. To those who stay<br />
close to Him. And I need God’s mercy and I need God’s grace to do that. And I<br />
worship Him because He gives me the mercy and He gives me the grace to be the<br />
best parent that I can be.<br />
Verse 19:<br />
“The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules<br />
over all.”<br />
I like verses like this because it reminds me who’s in control. In the midst of<br />
worship, David says, hey, don’t forget, God is God. He sits on the throne and His<br />
kingdom triumphs over all kingdoms. The strength of worship is it gets our spiritual<br />
vision right, we see the glory of God, and we know and we are reassured that<br />
He is God. Not this world, not our jobs, not money, not anything else. God sits on<br />
His throne and His kingdom rules over all. Do you know what it does? It connects<br />
our emotion with our theology, and that must happen. We can believe and teach a<br />
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lot of high and lofty doctrines which are straight out of the Scripture, but if they<br />
don’t impact us and they aren’t true to our heart they become ineffective in our<br />
witness.<br />
I can believe the church is the Bride of Christ, and the church is His special<br />
people, which it is. But if I don’t act like that, and I don’t proclaim that to those<br />
who are around me, it becomes ineffective in my life. That’s why worship is so<br />
important that it be with emotion and with theology. That we praise Him for who<br />
He is, but that I praise Him with all that I am. Songs should move us to tears or to<br />
joy. It’s okay to have fun singing a song in church. God gave us happiness for a<br />
reason. God gave us joy for a reason. And I’m pretty sure, whether you want to<br />
admit it or not, there’s been times when your foot has been tapping. It’s almost<br />
dancing, be careful. And I may not know – I may say something really crazy right<br />
here. There have been times the hands of my heart have been raised whether or<br />
not my physical hands have been raised. I’m not advocating anything. I’m just<br />
saying.<br />
There are times I have been so moved to tears or so moved to joy and I’m<br />
thankful for that because that’s when I’m closest to God in my worship. And it’s<br />
when I realize, hey, He’s in control. All these things I’m worrying about, they don’t<br />
matter because God is on the throne. It causes a change. It causes me to wake<br />
up. So it did to the disciples. Look at what I’m a part of. Look how I’ve been<br />
blessed by God.<br />
And there’s a lot of hindrances all around, but I’m reminded of the story of Jehoshaphat.<br />
The Ammonites and the Moabites are coming and he goes and he<br />
says, “Hey, Lord, I don’t know what to do.” Do you know what the Lord tells him<br />
to do? First of all, don’t worry, this battle is not yours, it’s mine. Do you know<br />
what I want you to do? I want you to go out and I want you to sing some songs<br />
to me. I’ll take care of the rest. Do you know what they did? They went out. They<br />
bowed their face on the ground, they worshipped Him, and got up and sang and<br />
the Lord took care of everything else.<br />
Do you know what? We do the same and watch Him work in your life. You worship<br />
Him for who He is. You give your all to Him and just watch God work. It<br />
doesn’t matter the hindrances that we face. And some of them are pretty strong.<br />
The universal church and its pull is strong. It appeals to a lot of people out there,<br />
and it can get pretty overwhelming at times, can’t it? I’m witnessing to a lot of<br />
people. Having people at Bible studies that don’t attend our church, they attend a<br />
megachurch. And sometimes in my heart I think, oh, I don’t know if they’ll ever<br />
come. You know what, that’s not my battle. I worship God and I let Him do the<br />
work. There’s hard hearts. I can’t change people’s hearts. I can’t – though I’d like<br />
to, slap them upside the head and say wake up. I probably would be hitting Peter<br />
and James, and saying come on guys, look. It’s not my battle. That’s the Lord’s<br />
battle.<br />
The situations I face I don’t want to be in them, but you know what? I kind of<br />
let God do His work. Because I believe that God is still in the business of saving<br />
sinners. And I believe that God is still in the business of building His church. I believe<br />
God is still in the business of filling His church with the Holy Spirit. I believe<br />
God is still in the business of being the power behind the great commission. That<br />
will stand until His kingdom comes again. Whether I believe it or not. Worship<br />
helps me to believe it more. It helps make it my reality.<br />
We worship Him for His salvation. We worship Him for His church. We worship<br />
Him for His continual working in the church.<br />
Verse 20:<br />
“Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying<br />
the voice of His word! Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers, who do His will!<br />
Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my<br />
soul!”<br />
It is His angels here. Certainly there are angels that do that around the throne.<br />
They’re called seraphim. Visions of heaven show that. That’s their sole purpose of<br />
creation. Holy, holy, holy. They’ve been saying it for eternity. They will continue to<br />
say it for eternity. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. It can’t be proclaimed<br />
enough. Do you know what angels mean? The word angels mean? Messengers. I<br />
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think God’s greatest and His most satisfying praise comes from His church. He<br />
desires our worship. And when we worship it pleases Him.<br />
“O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His<br />
word!”<br />
That’s what we’re all about. That is our life goal, isn’t it, to obey God, to obey<br />
His word, and do what He wants us to do. I pray that my life is governed only by<br />
the word of God and His Holy Spirit. I pray that my life’s goal is only to be in His<br />
will. Does it matter my job? Does it matter my status? Does it matter my bank<br />
account? None of that matters. I hope that my goal is only to do what God wants<br />
me to do because He’s worthy of it, isn’t He? He deserves nothing less. Although I<br />
give Him less time, and time, and time again.<br />
But He remembers my frame. He knows I’m just dust. And He has mercy on<br />
me. Bless the Lord, O my soul. What else can we say in light of all of God’s grace<br />
and all of His love?<br />
I hope that you listen carefully to the lessons and to the sermons over the past<br />
couple of days. I hope that we take it home. I hope that we use it. I hope that we<br />
crank up our worship services. I hope that we make the rafters ring in each building<br />
because the Lord is worthy of it. With all that we are. Like I said, it doesn’t<br />
matter the style. A wonderful song that you sang Brother, praise and worship<br />
style. Man, I love that because it’s raw and it’s real. Just as much I can be blessed<br />
with an old hymn, out of the Heavenly Highway, or even older. It doesn’t matter<br />
the style. It matters that my heart is in it, and I’m turning my heart, and I’m singing<br />
from my heart to the Lord.<br />
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let’s take home these things that we’ve learned and<br />
that we use them, and give all of yourself. You don’t have to play an instrument.<br />
Sing from the pew. You don’t have to sing tenor or alto or bass. Just sing.<br />
Certainly we’ve had greater glimpses of glory haven’t we? We’ve seen the glory<br />
of Christ revealed in this topic. We see that He’s worthy for it. That my eyes have<br />
been enlightened to some things. We’ve been fed spiritually and I’m stuffed. I’ve<br />
learned much. It’s given me cause to worship God with all that is within me. I<br />
hope that that’s what we leave this meeting with. He is worthy. Why hold it back.<br />
I hope that you say, Lord and Master, it is good that we are here.<br />
Let’s go ahead and stand if you would. Song leader and pianist come forward. If<br />
you need a heart of worship, He’ll give it to you. If you need a re-firing of desires,<br />
because I need that every so often. Times like this are great. You get fired up and<br />
go home, and light the rest of the church on fire. If you need to be saved, I pray<br />
that you would come as well as we sing.<br />
Missionary Reports<br />
Eld. Richard Perfecto, Missionary Pastor<br />
First Filipino MBC<br />
Carson CA<br />
Report not available at time of printing.<br />
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Eld. Jerry Smith, Missionary<br />
Jackson LMB Mission<br />
Jackson CA<br />
To the messengers of the California Association of Missionary<br />
Baptist Churches, greetings from Jackson, CA.<br />
2015 has been a great year here for us with the building<br />
99% complete. We are looking toward having our final inspection in<br />
a few weeks. We have been meeting in the building since August on a temporary<br />
permit and it will be nice to finally have it complete.<br />
Since being in the building we have had many first time visitors and we<br />
are working with several others on showing them the Lord and what it means to<br />
be part of the church Jesus built. During this time we have added 5 new members,<br />
and are presently averaging 13 in service.<br />
I ask for prayer for my wife and I as we endeavor to do God’s will here in<br />
Jackson. This has been a year of ups and downs for both my wife and I. Satan<br />
has done his best to derail us but our faith has brought us through. After the<br />
doctor told me I had cancer and the prognosis looked bleak, after all the tests and<br />
surgeries there was no cancer found. My wife still has a job, but her shifts have<br />
changed. She is no longer working graveyard, but she has a day shift where she<br />
is at work on Sunday mornings. There is another shift in the wind in the next two<br />
weeks and we are not sure what will happen. Twelve hour shifts will be gone but<br />
the probability of mixed shifts is likely. Eight hour shifts five days a week are predicted,<br />
but Kathleen is 4th in seniority and anything is possible. The silver lining<br />
to this cloud is that our God is greater than all and will see us through all that<br />
transpires.<br />
Support is always needed, so if you or your church would like to know<br />
more about the mission, please contact me or my pastor, Gabe Rivera, at Mt Olive<br />
Baptist Church in Stockton.<br />
I would like the thank the churches, brothers and sisters that gave generously<br />
to help us build our church.<br />
In His love,<br />
Jerry Smith, Missionary to Jackson, CA<br />
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Financial Report:<br />
INCOME:<br />
Host Church $2,814.76<br />
Clerk/Minutes $1,491.19<br />
Special Offering $480.00<br />
Total Income $4,785.95<br />
DISBURSEMENTS:<br />
Bethel MBC, Whittier (host church) $2,814.76<br />
Eld. Erik Cooper (Clerk / Minutes) $1,491.19<br />
Missionary Support (Elds. Richard Perfecto, Jerry<br />
Smith)<br />
Each $240.00<br />
Total $480.00<br />
Total Disbursements $4,785.95<br />
Articles of Faith<br />
THE BIBLE TEACHES:<br />
Article I<br />
INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE<br />
Holy men of God wrote the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy<br />
Spirit (2 Pet 1:21). The Bible, as originally written, is perfect & completely inspired<br />
& is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness<br />
(2 Tim 3:16,17; James 1:17).<br />
Article II<br />
TRIUNE GOD<br />
There is only one eternal God (Deu 6:4; Isa 45:5). The Father is a Spirit<br />
never seen by men (John 1:18; 4:24). Jesus Christ, the Son, is also eternal. He<br />
was sent to earth to be the Lamb of God, to die for the sins of the whole world &<br />
was raised on the third day. He then ascended to the right hand of God as High<br />
Priest over the House of God (Matt 16:21; Mark 16:19; John 1:29; Heb. 3:1; 7:16;<br />
10:21). The Holy Spirit represents the Father & the Son to man, convicting of sin,<br />
& is a special Comforter to the church, to dwell in her & to teach her the truths of<br />
God (Matt 28:19; John 14:16,17; 15:26; 16:7-15).<br />
Article III<br />
SATAN<br />
Satan is & has been a real & active force opposing God & man in every<br />
age (Isa 14:12-13; Matt 4:1; 1 Pet 5:8). He continues to influence the wicked & to<br />
tempt the righteous in these times. He faces a sentence of 1,000 years in the bottomless<br />
pit followed by eternity in the lake of fire (Rev 20:2,3,10). He will give his<br />
power to the soon coming man of sin (Rev 13:4).<br />
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Article IV<br />
ORIGINAL SIN<br />
Adam disobeyed God & became dead in sin (Gen 2:17; 3:6). All men are<br />
descendants of him & are also dead in sin (Rom 5:15-19; Eph 2:1-3).<br />
Article V<br />
SALVATION BY GRACE<br />
Sinners cannot be saved by any work of their own. Salvation of the depraved<br />
sinner is only by grace through faith (Eph 2:8,9). The gospel of Christ’s<br />
death, burial, & resurrection is the only power to change sinners & give them life<br />
(John 10:10; Rom 1:16). Jesus laid down His life, giving His precious blood for the<br />
propitiation of the sins of the whole world (1 Pet 1:19, 1 John 2:2). Jesus is the<br />
Lamb of God & His shed blood is the only cleansing agent able to wash & take<br />
away the sins of all men (John 1:29, 1 Cor 5:7, Rev 1:5). The blood is applied the<br />
very first moment a lost sinner repents toward God & is saved by grace through<br />
faith (Rom 3:25, Eph 2:8). This salvation occurs before baptism & church membership<br />
(Acts 8:36,38). At the moment of faith in Christ as their Savior, they are born<br />
of His Spirit (John 3:5-8). This birth of His seed remains in them & it cannot sin (1<br />
John 3:9). The Holy Spirit then witnesses with their new spirit that they are the<br />
children of God (Rom 8:16). This salvation cannot be lost (I Cor 3:15). No saved<br />
person can or ever will go to hell or the lake of fire (Rev 20:15). God would have<br />
all to be saved (1 Tim 2:4). Jesus invites all to come unto Him (Matt 11:28). All<br />
who remain in their condemned state do so because they will not believe (John<br />
5:40).<br />
Article VI<br />
GREAT COMMISSION<br />
The gospel of Christ is to be preached to every person until the end<br />
(Mark 16:15). The gospel is the power by which God works all good things toward<br />
man (Rom 1:16). Because of the gospel, we obtain salvation, the keeping of our<br />
life, the services of God in truth (Php 1:27), the revealing of mysteries (Eph 6:19)<br />
& a partaking of the glory & kingdom of Christ (Matt 4:23). Thus, the gospel is the<br />
good news from God concerning how we can be brought back into wholeness &<br />
fellowship with Him, starting with faith & ending with faith, all by His grace.<br />
Article VII<br />
CHURCH ORDINANCES<br />
All believers are to be baptized & added to the church (Acts 2:41). Baptism,<br />
being a burial, is therefore only by complete immersion (Rom 6:4). The authority<br />
of baptism is by Christ through His church (Matt 28:18,19). The church is a<br />
body of baptized believers living faithfully unto Christ. The church’s ordained offices<br />
are pastors & deacons (Acts 6:1-7; 1 Tim 3:1-13). The ordinances of the church<br />
are baptism & the Lord’s Supper (Matt 26:26,27; 28:19). Baptism is required for<br />
proper service, as a symbol of the purification of the flesh & the hope of the future<br />
resurrection (Rom 6:1-4). The Lord’s Supper is restricted to the members of that<br />
local church & is a confirmation of our relationship to Him in the new covenant<br />
(Matt 26:26-29; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 10:16,17; 11:27-34). Baptism & the Lord’s Supper<br />
present a complete picture of the gospel; the death, burial & resurrection of<br />
both Christ & His people.<br />
Article VIII<br />
CHURCH ORIGIN & PERPETUITY<br />
The church is built by Jesus & began during His personal ministry on<br />
earth (Matt 16:18). Jesus was & is the only person ever having the authority to<br />
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start the church. He is the rock & only foundation on which the church is built (1<br />
Cor 3:11). His churches are local & visible & in no sense universal or invisible (Gal<br />
1:2; Rev 1:4). Not all the saved are in the church. Not all assemblies claiming to<br />
be His qualify as Scriptural churches. True churches may lose their identity as His<br />
(Rev 2:5; 3:16). False churches cannot progressively improve to become His. The<br />
true church has never been out of existence. It has continued from the day Jesus<br />
began building & will continue until He returns (Matt 16:18; 28:20; Eph 3:21). This<br />
continuance has been by one church separating members from their local body<br />
unto another assembly unto this day (Acts 8:14-17; 13:1-4).<br />
Article IX<br />
TITLES OF CHURCH<br />
His church is called His house (1 Tim 3:15); His body (Eph 1:22-23); His<br />
temple (1 Cor 3:17); His branches (John 15:1-5); His sheep (John 10:1-18). He<br />
receives glory through His church (Eph 3:21).<br />
Article X<br />
OFFICES OF CHURCH<br />
The Lord gave His churches pastors & deacons (1 Tim 3). Pastors, also<br />
called bishops, are set in their office by the Holy Spirit to oversee & feed the flock<br />
of God (Acts 20:28). A strict life of righteousness is required. Deacons are chosen<br />
by the church to fulfill a material need (Acts 6:3,4). Their lives are to be impeccable.<br />
These offices can only be filled by men.<br />
Article XI<br />
ETERNAL PURPOSE<br />
God knows & foreknows all things (Isa 46:10; 1 Pet 1:2). He elects (John<br />
15:16; Rom 8:33); predestines many things (Eph 1:5,11); & this is all according to<br />
His good pleasure. These are all the right, power & authority of a sovereign God<br />
(Deu 32:39-43). God has an eternal purpose with His creation, which is accomplished<br />
through Jesus (Eph 3:11). This eternal purpose was planned by God Himself<br />
& is explained progressively in the form of covenants, especially the Abrahamic<br />
& the new covenant. Thus Christ was chosen as the seed of Abraham, through<br />
the line of David, & had to be such to be the proper carrier of the promises (Matt<br />
1:1; Luke 1:32,33,72,73). One role of the church today is to help bring people into<br />
these promises (Gal 3:14).<br />
Article XII<br />
SANTIFICATION<br />
Sanctification begins in regeneration & is ever progressive. It is the process<br />
by which we are made to partake of God’s holiness & are made into the image<br />
of Christ (John 17:17; Acts 20:32; Eph 5:26; 1 Thes 5:23).<br />
Article XIII<br />
ETERNAL SECURITY<br />
God is able to keep His saints from falling & present them faultless before<br />
the presence of His glory (Jude 24). Saints are holy people who shall judge the<br />
world & the angels (Rom 1:7; 12:1; 1 Cor 6:2,3; Col 1:2,22).<br />
Article XIV<br />
DAY OF ASSEMBLY<br />
The first day of the week was set by our Lord to worship Him & it replaced<br />
the Sabbath day of the law (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2; Col 2:14-17).<br />
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Article XV<br />
CIVIL OBEDIENCE<br />
Christians are to obey the laws of the land when those laws do not conflict<br />
with God’s commands (Acts 5:29; Rom 13:1-4).<br />
Article XVI<br />
CHRIST’S KINGDOM REIGN<br />
Jesus will return to earth again as King (Acts 1:11; 1 Tim 6:15). The<br />
church shall be presented to Him sanctified, cleansed, washed & without spot or<br />
wrinkle, as His bride (Eph 5:25-27). His bride shall walk with Him in righteous<br />
robes of white (Rev 19:8). He shall reign forever & of His kingdom there shall be<br />
no end (Luke 1:33). The New Jerusalem shall descend from God & righteous<br />
saints that do His commandments shall have the right to enter (Rev 21:24-27;<br />
22:14). All others, living then, are without the city & have no right to enter neither<br />
will they have any portion with the bride (Rev 21:27; 22:15).<br />
Article XVII<br />
TWO RESURRECTIONS<br />
Blessed & holy is he that has part in the first resurrection, they shall be<br />
priests of God & Christ & reign with Him a thousand years (Rev 20:4-6). There is<br />
also a second resurrection wherein Christ sits on a great white throne & whosoever<br />
is not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-<br />
15).<br />
Statements of Cooperation<br />
Therefore we believe these things.<br />
Statement 1<br />
We do hereby agree as Missionary Baptist churches to associate ourselves<br />
together, to be known as the California Missionary Baptist Association.<br />
Statement 2<br />
The object of this association is to cooperate in carrying out the great<br />
commission of Christ to His church in Matthew 28:19-20.<br />
Statement 3<br />
Each church cooperating in this association is entitled to three messengers<br />
& two alternates who are members of the church they represent. They are to<br />
bring letters showing their election by their church, which letters are to give a report<br />
of the work for the past year.<br />
Statement 4<br />
The business of this association is to allow sister churches of like faith &<br />
practice to come together for the edifying purposes of fellowship, prayer & support,<br />
all for the promotion of the gospel & kingdom of Jesus Christ. The association<br />
exists as a servant of the local church & it cannot exercise any authority or power<br />
over any church. It acts solely in an advisory position.<br />
Statement 5<br />
We agree to be governed by the laws or rules of order as given in the<br />
minutes.<br />
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Statement 6<br />
It will be the duty of the messengers to elect from among their members<br />
a moderator, assistant moderator, clerk & assistant clerk: the clerk to serve as<br />
treasurer also, to handle funds for printing of the minutes, etc. These officers are<br />
to be elected by nomination & open standing vote. If there is but one nomination,<br />
that one may be elected by acclamation. These officers are to serve until their<br />
successors are elected.<br />
Statement 7<br />
Churches in harmony with this association will be received by unanimous<br />
vote of the messengers. Any messengers failing to make it unanimous must state<br />
their reason. Such reason must be Scriptural. The objecting messengers will be<br />
asked to withdraw their objections. If they fail to do this they (the objecting messengers)<br />
will be refused seats at this session & the petitioning messengers seated.<br />
Statement 8<br />
It shall be the duty of the clerk to read the minutes at the close of each<br />
day for correction or approval. He & his assistant shall superintend the printing of<br />
the minutes & distribute them to the churches as soon as possible.<br />
Statement 9<br />
In the event of any church failing to represent by letter or messengers for<br />
more than two years, it shall be the duty of the clerk to write & find out if they wish<br />
to remain with us. If not they shall be dropped.<br />
Statement 10<br />
Visiting brethren in sympathy with our work are to be invited to sit in<br />
council with us, but not permitted to vote.<br />
Statement 11<br />
The churches of the association are to meet annually at 9:30 AM on the<br />
Friday preceding Palm Sunday & continue through Saturday.<br />
Statement 12<br />
The association will not create nor employ any committee for the purpose<br />
of funding missions or missionaries; rather, missionaries will receive monetary<br />
support directly from local churches. Any church may recommend a mission or<br />
missionary through its letter to the association. Each recommended mission or<br />
missionary will be listed in the minutes along with the name of the sponsoring<br />
church. Each missionary present at the annual meeting will be allowed to give an<br />
annual report.<br />
Statement 13<br />
The messengers have no authority over the discipline of any church but<br />
have the right to refuse messengers or visitors who are unsound in the faith, but<br />
no church shall be withdrawn without a fair hearing & statement of faith which will<br />
show they are not in fellowship with us.<br />
Statement 14<br />
The moderator is to have charge of keeping order & of appointing committees,<br />
& do all things which are the duties of a moderator. When he wishes to be<br />
absent or rest from his duties the assistant moderator is to fill his place.<br />
Statement 15<br />
This association will recognize those who wish to report & discuss the<br />
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work of this association. The reports when approved by the messengers are to be<br />
printed in the minutes.<br />
Statement 16<br />
These statements, articles of faith, & by-laws may be added to, amended,<br />
or abrogated by a two-thirds vote of churches of this association at the regular<br />
meeting of the messengers when the announcement of such action has been<br />
made in writing & submitted by a church of this association to all sister churches<br />
two months before the messengers meet. The churches will send their vote either<br />
by letter or instructed messengers. Changes shall be approved by two-thirds of the<br />
total votes received from the churches at the messenger meeting.<br />
Statement 17<br />
The place of the next meeting will be chosen by the messengers based<br />
on invitations from churches. If there are no invitations, the first church to notify the<br />
clerk will be host. Speakers for the evening & closing sermons will be by nomination<br />
& majority vote of all members present from representing churches. The host<br />
pastor will preach the annual sermon, or he can choose to appoint another speaker.<br />
The resolutions committee may suggest the next year’s Friday afternoon agenda.<br />
The next resolutions committee, along with the host church, will then work<br />
together to implement or revise & finalize the Friday afternoon agenda for adoption.<br />
Statement 18<br />
If a conflict occurs among churches of this association, or among pastors<br />
of churches of this association, each party should make every effort in the Spirit of<br />
Christ to reconcile the issue & restore peace & fellowship on their own. If assistance<br />
is needed, any party may call for a special council of the association’s elders<br />
to hear the issue & then give spiritual advice to the churches or pastors. The recommendations<br />
made by the council should be given prayerful & serious consideration.<br />
Ultimately, the decision should lie with the churches or their pastors to accept<br />
the recommendation since the association has no authority over them. This<br />
authority belongs to the churches, & the pastors are accountable only to the<br />
church they pastor.<br />
By-Laws<br />
1. Before coming together for business the association shall spend one-half hour<br />
in devotional exercises.<br />
2. Each sitting shall be opened & closed with a prayer.<br />
3. Visiting brethren may unite in discussion of all subjects before the association,<br />
but will not be allowed to vote.<br />
4. No subjects may be discussed without a motion first being made & seconded.<br />
5. Anyone wishing to speak shall rise to his feet, address the moderator & be<br />
recognized thereby, & when recognized, shall proceed in a courteous manner,<br />
& shall confine his remarks to the subject under consideration.<br />
6. No one shall speak more than twice on the same subject, unless permitted by<br />
a vote of the messengers.<br />
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Order of Business<br />
1. Opening session of the association<br />
2. Reading of the letters<br />
3. Reception of the new churches<br />
4. Preaching of the annual sermon<br />
5. Report of the missionaries<br />
6. Election of officers (after the noon meal Saturday)<br />
7. Miscellaneous business<br />
8. Treasurer’s report<br />
9. Closing exercise & adjournment<br />
==================================<br />
SPECIAL THANK YOU:<br />
SIS. KRIS LASSEN - PICTURES<br />
ELD. MIKE MANEY - ASSIST FORMATTING , PRINTING<br />
Scenes from this year’s meetings<br />
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More meeting photos are available here:<br />
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