Reclaiming the Wanderer

SERMON: 2006-09-03--js0629--reclaiming-the-wanderer SOURCE DURATION: 00:53:33.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: Candidate 11 is the last segment containing spoken content related to the sermon's conclusion (a prayer or responsive reading). Candidate 12 ([Applause]) marks the first clear transition into non-sermon material. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:50:06.160-00:52:53.740, 00:53:06.860-00:53:23.380 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- We've been seeing together for the last couple of weeks that if our prayers are to be powerful and effective, they need to meet at least four conditions. Number one, they need to be made in faith. Number two, they need to come from a righteous heart, a heart that is righteous through faith in Christ. They need to be prayed earnestly, that is specifically focused and with persistence and with passion. And of course they need to be kingdom focused. That is to say, they must desire for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus put it this way, when his disciples came to him and said, "Lord teach us how to pray." He said, "This then is how you should pray." "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." God's kingdom comes whenever sinners repent of their ways, bow before his authority and begin to do his will. No wonder then, that is a background, that as James draws his epistle to a close, he closes with a message and a passion to reclaim those who have wandered away. Notice again how he puts it, "My brothers, we can add my sisters. If one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death, will save his soul from death and the original Greek and cover over a multitude of sins." And as we begin this morning to look more closely at those two verses, I want us to make three observations. Number one, there is such a thing as truth. There is such a thing as absolute truth. Notice again how James puts it. He said, "My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth." Wander from the truth. Now the truth, from God's point of view, is the way life really is apart from and outside of our understanding of it or our experience of it. And truth, from God's point of view, can be summarized like this. God is. He's always been there. He's eternally self-existent. Everything that exists in the universe comes forth from God and was created for the praise of his glory. When the world rebelled and fell into sin, God undertook the most grand rescue operation the universe has ever seen. He sent his son. And the message of Scripture is that as we repent of our sins, as we turn to him in faith, our sins not only are forgiven but in Christ we become a new creation and it now becomes increasingly possible to live from the heart according to the truth that God has established. One day the Bible says everybody that has ever lived is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Everybody is going to be judged by God's truth. And to the people on the left, he is going to say, "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil of his angels and to those in his right hand." He will say, "Come, beloved of my father, inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you from before the foundation of the world." You see there is a thing called truth. That truth is revealed to us in sort of a general fashion in all of creation. We call that theologically general revelation. It is revealed more specifically in the pages of Holy Scripture which theologically we call a special revelation, but it is revealed most clearly in the person of Jesus Christ who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." And Scripture says you want to see what God's like? You want to see what it is that God requires of human beings that he has created? You want to see what a relationship between humans and God should look like? He says then look at the person of Jesus Christ. He is the full embodiment of every truth. There is absolute truth in the universe that God has revealed to us in nature, in Scripture, and in the person of Jesus Christ. Now you say why I make such a point of that? I'll tell you why I make such a point of that. Because one of the characteristics of our age which we call the postmodern world is that that truth is not only no longer taken for granted, it is seriously challenged. Increasingly truth for people is not an objective reality that you conform to. Truth is what you make it. And if you want to believe in a God like that exists in Scripture, that's your business. If you want to make for yourself another kind of God, that is your business. If you want to embrace one form of religion or another form of religion, that's all your business. All faith claims are equal. You want to live in a marital relationship, you want to live outside of the bonds of marriage, you want to create alternative social structures, everything goes and there is no longer an absolute right or an absolute wrong. And if you think I'm exaggerating in that, you ought to see the front page of yesterday's Toronto Star. I don't know how many of you get the paper. It's called the back to school special. You see that picture in the center of the paper? The headline is "Toronto teens face first big quiz on sex and race. Board survey probes students' sexuality." And the students from grades 9 to 12, so far on a voluntary basis, are asked to fill in a survey that has questions like this. Please choose one. Gay, transgender, two-spirited, bisexual, queer, or lesbian, straight, not sure. Are you hearing me? This is grade 9 to 12 in one of the largest public district high schools in the country and you say what's the matter with it? Well it's driven by an agenda. And what is the agenda? The agenda is to demonstrate that alternative lifestyles are equally valid in our society and this is all done in the name of accepting each other. Oh but you say you're going way too far. Well I think not. Let me read you a quote. Board social worker Harvey Niggleberg says that even posing the question can help students see sexual orientation as an okay option to discuss. Seeing it included on a survey helps normalize the various options he said which is good. We live in a day and age where our teenagers in their struggle to find out who they are are encouraged to explore many forms of sexuality and therefore many forms of relationship. Now God's Word says there is a standard that is revealed in Scripture that comes from the heart of God and those values are being jettisoned, attacked, and thrown aside faster than you and I can shake a stick at. And most of us don't even know that it's happening. And you know the practical implications of this are? The practical implications are that if you see somebody wandering off into what we call sin, if you see somebody embracing a lifestyle that we know from Scripture brings forth the disapproval of God, whatever that might be, not just in areas of sexuality, and you try to win people back, you become increasingly socially unacceptable because who are you to judge my lifestyle and who are you to sit in judgment of me? And the irony then is you end up in a society which for all of its talk about tolerance discovers there's one category of people that it cannot tolerate and that is those who will not buy into the lie that truth is relative and the truth is what you make it. You stand up for Jesus, you stand up for biblical truth, and the persecution that we've seen in the past in our society and our culture will but pale compared with what we're going to see. And you better know it and we better get ready for it because it's our job to let our light shine. There is a thing called truth. Jesus said, "Continue in my word and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." So there is truth and then James goes on to point out that we can wander away from the truth. My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth, the Bible and history are both filled with people who one day knew the truth, walked the path, and then wandered away from it. Think of Cain of old, think of Esau, think of King Saul, think of King David. You don't have to be an unbeliever to wander from the path. Nobody is immune. Think of the whole Old Testament nation of Israel. How many times they turned their backs on the true and the living God and they embraced the bales of their neighbor nations. Then when you go to the New Testament, you not only have Judas who betrayed Jesus, you not only have demons who left the Apostle Paul because he fell in love with his present world, you have even the Apostle Peter who had a pride and out of arrogance thought he'd never fall, fell flat in his face, denied Jesus. And think of all the movements, all the institutions, all the organizations throughout the course of history, as well as all the individuals who one day followed Jesus faithfully and who subsequently turned away and turned their backs on him. If you've read my book Blessings and Curses, The Key to Lasting Change, then you will know that I tell the story there of Mr. Templeton, Charles Templeton, contemporary of Billy Graham, had a marvelous conversion and for a season traveled with Billy Graham on the Youth for Christ preaching circuit, an amazing preacher. Eventually went on to become a minister of the gospel, built a church, 1,200 people would attend those services regularly but there were areas of his life that couldn't square the gospel with his intellectual understanding and so he came to a point where he rejected the Bible as biblical revelation, God's way of truth. Tried to take Billy Graham with him, Billy Graham resisted, Billy Graham chose to believe the Bible says as God's self-revelation, Charles Templeton fell away from the faith, quit the ministry, became a commentator and a novelist and spent most of the rest of his life trying to critique the faith that he had once defended. And you can multiply stories like that over any number of times, how many people don't you know, how many people don't you know that one day we're part of this faith community who for one reason or another have turned their back on the God who saved them and for all practical intents and purposes no longer serve him today. You see that happening, ask yourself the question why and of course there are many answers but I can think of three offhand that I think we all need to pay close attention to. The first is carelessness. Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 says to his disciples take heed or take care that no one leads you astray. Take care, take heed that no one leads you astray. Satan of course is the great enemy of our souls, he hates God, he hates the coming of God's kingdom and he's always trying to drive wedges between ourselves and God. And while there are many ways in which he does that one of the ways that he is probably the most successful at is playing on our pride, trying to convince us that we are more mature than what we are, that we can handle more than what we really can handle and that we are stronger than what we are. And so he encourages us to step into places that are dubious that begin to sow seeds of destruction so we watch the movie that we ought not to be watching. We soak up the literature that takes us away from God rather than towards him. We hang around the friends that ultimately are in good for the salvation of our souls. We become part of the social scene that drags us away from Jesus and all the while we're telling ourselves I can handle this, this won't hurt me, I know what I stand for, I know what I believe and for a season that's probably true. But you see it only takes a little carelessness before the seeds are sown in our hearts and those seeds left unattended will grow to maturity until all of a sudden the temptation comes along, all of a sudden the wind blows and we got knocked off our socks and we don't know how it is that we got there. That anybody who thinks that he stands says Jesus or says the Apostle Paul take heed lest he fall. It was Peter you will remember who so proudly said to Jesus when Jesus said you're all gonna forsake me it was Peter who said though everybody else forsake you Lord I will not. And all it took was a couple of questions by a simple peasant girl aren't you also with Jesus of Nazareth and Peter not only denied him but he cursed him and he denied him three times take heed lest any who thinks that he stands lest he fall. And then there is willful disobedience the verse you've often heard me quote Hebrews 312 take care brethren or sisters lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. You know as well as I do this morning that just because we've come to Christ doesn't mean that all areas of our lives are yet subject to his authority. There are many areas where we remain caught up in patterns of disobedience and part of the whole process of sanctification part of the whole process of growing in Jesus is that as we receive the word and as the Holy Spirit applies the word to our lives then what God does is he flushes out those places the old places that need to be put on and he invites and he encourages us to step out into those new places where we need to live before his face. Many times that process is automatic and many times God gives us grace to yield to that and we follow him with joy. But you know as well as I do this morning that every so often the Holy Spirit will find a place in your heart and in my heart that falls into this category of evil and unbelieving. A place that really isn't interested in trusting God. A place that isn't really interested in obeying him. A place that remains stubbornly defiant even when all the other areas of our lives bow down in worship and want to serve the Lord our God with all of our heart soul strength and mind. A place of rebellion and sometimes that rebellion focuses on a besetting scene. Some activity that I look to for comfort some activity that I engage in that gives me pleasure and joy and God can have everything else in my life but don't you dare touch this place because this is my secret life. For some of us it's an aspect of character. Something about ourselves that we like that we believe makes us us and God don't ask me to give this up because if you ask me to give this up I'll become something other than what I am and what I like and you're not gonna have that and so we fight him there. For some of us it's a cherished belief. Something that we have bought into in our growing up years that defines reality for us and that gives us license to be who we are or to do what we do and Lord don't come along and make me measure that belief system over against the belief system of your word because then my whole life will fall apart and so we prefer the lie over the truth and for some of us that's relationships. Somebody who fills a need in my life who makes me feel wanted makes me feel cherished makes me feel beautiful makes me feel strong. Somebody that I can look to instead of you to give purpose and meaning to my life and you can multiply the list on and on and on all I can do is tell you this morning or whatever it is if you're serious about your walk with Jesus he will find it and when he finds it he will you will be engaged in the battle of your life because the question then is will you choose to obey him and trust him or will you choose to hold on whatever it is that you want to hold on to and I've said many times the difference between those who go on with Christ and who really go on to bear fruit and who can be powerfully used of God and those who get stuck and wander away is the choice they make at that moment and that doesn't mean that if we you know have a battle with the Lord and dig in our heels he's just gonna come along and throw us aside no he's incredibly patient he's incredibly long-suffering he doesn't wish that any should perish but scripture does teach that if we stubbornly and rebelliously harden our hearts play games with God there comes a point where he says look you're a lost cause and he'll throw us away the book of Hebrews puts it this way it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift who have shared in the Holy Spirit who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away to be brought back to repentance because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace very hard words many different interpretations given to it but surely what it means is this we need to be very careful lest there be in us an evil and an unbelieving heart better to fight it out with God better to be honest with him better to say Lord this is how I feel I don't know how to get out of this place don't let me go give me your grace I remember as a child lying in my bed one night crying out to God don't ever when I get older let me turn away from you because I know the power of a sinful and a rebellious heart we can wander away from the truth sometimes because we're careless sometimes because we're willfully disobedient and sometimes simply because we're hurt or we're disappointed Jesus said to the messengers from John the Baptist who came to see him blessed is he who takes no offense at me see John the Baptist was in jail John the Baptist had been the forerunner of Jesus and John the Baptist I'm sure had his own ideas of what the coming of the Messiah would look like and what the kingdom of God would look like and I can guarantee you he didn't count on sitting in jail getting ready to lose his head and so he sent his disciples to Jesus and he said are you the one that is to come or should we look for another and I can guarantee you that if you're gonna be serious about following Jesus and you give him your heart and he doesn't deliver quite what you thought he should there will be times when you are hurt and you were disappointed and you're gonna want to say to him Lord are you the one that is to come or should we look for another and I'll tell you something else the more open your heart has been to God and to others the more likely you to you are to experience hurt and disappointment and the easier it is for you to allow a root of bitterness to develop in your heart been talking the last couple of weeks a little bit about Charles Finney remember the great revivalist preacher in the early 1800s in the state of New York how powerfully God used him and how whole areas of the country came under the sway of the gospel God's presence in his life was so strong there were times he would walk into a factory and people would be overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit and they would give their lives to Jesus that is revival now you'd think would you not that if you did a follow-up study on that you would think that subsequent generations in that area of the country so impacted by the gospel would continue to bear good fruit for God wouldn't that be the reasonable thing to expect unfortunately a survey of history will indicate the opposite not only have the fires of revival in many of those places died out in subsequent generations people in fact have become more resistant to the gospel and are further away from God in subsequent generations than they were before the revival hit you see it in Rwanda you've heard of the genocides in Rwanda a lot of people don't realize that most of that fighting and bloodletting that took place over there took place among people who were professing Christians and back in the 1930s amazing revivals swept through Rwanda and Uganda and all those nations and yet 50 60 70 years later they're killing each other in cold blood you say how in the world is that possible well it's possible in part because obviously Satan fights the coming of God's kingdom and in fighting the coming of God's kingdom he plays now listen to me real well he plays on the vulnerability and the openness of the human heart because you see there is nothing like the presence of God to to help you drop your facade to help you drop your coping mechanisms and to start really living out of the heart isn't that true I mean most of us we got walls built all around us God comes along with his gentleness and with his power and with his Holy Spirit and we learn to trust him so we let down our guard and we start living in hopes and dreams and aspirations we start connecting with longings in our heart that most of our lives we have learned to push away because they're too dangerous to own that makes us vulnerable that makes us not only vulnerable before God but it also makes us vulnerable to other people we now become like a lobster without its shell fully dependent on God for his protection and fully dependent on one another and in a world that is broken where Satan reigns he knows how to set us up for disappointment and so now I'm praying for things that I never dared pray about before I put my whole heart into it and God doesn't answer my prayer what does that do to my heart or I've confessed my sins to you I've laid my vulnerabilities on the line and we have become community in a depth that we have never experienced before but now you turn around and you betray the trust that I have shown you what happens to my heart can you see why sometimes revivals are followed by a backlash that says I'll never go there again it is too dangerous and too painful Satan uses hurt and disappointment and he wants to convince us that therefore it's too dangerous to live with our hearts open and that we cannot love God above all and we cannot love our neighbor the way that we love ourselves the antidote is not to build those walls back up and to shut down our hearts the antidote is to learn to live in those places and to know that God in Christ is big enough to walk us through there so that we can live authentically before his face with our hearts wide open before him and our hearts appropriately open before each other because God delights in creating a people that are truly alive that truly can live passionately that can feel passionately not only the good things that God gives us but also ache passionately with the pain that is in this world that's why it's much harder to be a church that is alive than a church that is just sort of plateauing because the more alive you are the more opportunities there are for hurt and disappointment but the more critical it is to create in Christ a safe place so that hearts can prosper and flourish and all God's gifts can be set free see people say why pay that price I'll tell you why you need to pay that price because only hearts that are fully alive can love God and can love their neighbor and be an alternative to the deadness that is in the world today by this old man will know that you are my disciples if you have loved one for another there's not only truth and it's not only possible to wander from the truth but contrary to what Cain said in the Old Testament we are our brother's keeper my brothers my sisters if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back remember this whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins Paul writing to the Galatians says brothers if someone is caught in a sin you who are spiritual should restore him gently if God so loved the world that he sent his son that none should perish if God's passion is for people to come back to himself back to the truth and back to his kingdom and if he was ready to pay the highest possible price that he could pay in order for that to be happen and how much more when the spirit of Jesus lives in your heart in my heart are we to have his care and his compassion for those who are oh it's so easy to point fingers it's so easy to say well you know I knew they wouldn't last I knew they couldn't do it why invest myself emotionally in somebody's life they're only gonna throw it back in my face now what will happen if God did that to you do you think he'd be sitting here you who are spiritual should restore such a one with a spirit of gentleness you say how do we do that some practical suggestions it begins by being aware of their condition you know it's possible to be part of a church community like this wipe out in faith be gone from services be going from Christian community and there are times nobody will have noticed and that is not a very good thing because one of the first indications that somebody is struggling at least one of the first public indications is that their hearts become cold towards God and cold towards Christian community you've probably experienced that in your own life you've drifted away whether out of carelessness or willful disobedience or because God or somebody else has hurt you what's the first thing that happens well you start staying away from God you might still mouth your prayers and live your Christian disciplines but your heart has long been gone and you might still come to church but you come erratically and you start looking for excuses to stay home you feel guilty the first time you do it but it's a lot less guilt the second time around and after a while you have found other things to occupy your time and then eventually you start breaking off contact with those who are part of the family of God and you gravitate towards those who are out in the world and gradually ever so gradually your heart becomes cold and you have lost your first love for Jesus we are our brother's keeper and we need to be concerned about one another's spiritual well-being because in so doing we bring we save somebody's soul from death and we will cover a multitude of sins we need to be aware of their condition and that ought to lead us to prayer because when all is said and done it's never your clever persuasion or mine guilting or arm-twisting that will truly bring someone back to faith it has to be the work of God's Holy Spirit and sometimes God just has to let people go exploring all the alternatives there are to Jesus in the way of the cross because they aren't yet convinced that they can have life in Jesus alone and so the father in the story of the prodigal son interestingly enough in that story doesn't go chasing after the son though he stands at the end of his driveway always waiting for his return because he knows see God doesn't want you coming back just simply out of a sense of duty or not of a fear going to hell God wants people coming back because in their heart of hearts they know there is life in none other but Jesus and sometimes we just need to do a lot of praying that God will just bring people to the end of themselves that all the things that they hope for all the things they cling to all the the fountains from which they drink that are outside of Jesus will just dry up until in desperation they bend the knee what is it profit a man says Jesus if he gains the whole world but loses his soul we need to be aware of their condition we need to pray for them and we need to pray particularly for discernment discernment to understand why they are where they are now once you listen to me really well because people don't wander away from the truth arbitrarily they don't just one day wake up and say well I'm gonna quit believing in God and I'm going back to my old lifestyle may look like that people wander away because somewhere along the line they've made a decision to wander away from Jesus and to no longer follow him it may be because they've been careless it may be because they're willfully rebellious it may be because they've been hurt it may be because they have a thousand other reasons but somewhere along the line along the way as they were walking on the path they began to veer off the path until they were far gone and lost now again listen to this our temptation and our tendency is to think that if you find somebody out here you can drag him back to the road up here it doesn't work that way like that mother you have to go back to where they go and find them and bring them back that is to say you have to go back to the place where they left the road which means you got to understand what was it that made them turn away from Jesus and you got to help them as we'll see in a few moments to remake that choice because without going back to that choice and remaking it their return to Jesus will not really take what did the prodigal son have to say to the father when he came back home he said father I have sinned against heaven and before you I'm no longer worthy to be called your son he had to go back to where he got off the track are you tracking with me here because this has some interesting implications because you see most people don't know where they got off the track because one of the characteristics of being lost is that you don't know where you are or how you got there and so they honestly don't know how to find their way back if they knew how to find their way back they wouldn't need you to get them back not only that but many times people that are lost out there if they do know why they are out there they're not about to tell you because they're too ashamed they've been too badly battered and wounded and they feel ridiculous and foolish because often what gets people off track is not some big sin or some big temptation no it is a jab from a fellow brother or a fellow sister something that pierced my armor that cut me to the core in a place where I was that didn't have my shield up and now I feel really stupid and foolish about this but I can tell you but deep down in my heart and really ticked at you because if I tell you it'll seem so stupid and ridiculous but I'm gonna keep it to myself do you understand what I'm saying yet that has to come to the light and the good news of the gospel and what makes church such an uncomfortable place for sinners sometimes is that when God's people gather in the presence of Jesus God gives us his Holy Spirit and when the Holy Spirit lives in your heart and you are being led by the Spirit in trying to reclaim a wanderer he gives you an ability have you ever noticed this he gives you an ability to see right through them and they know that you know what is really living in their heart and the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you and you can help them come to grips you can help them come to grips with the places in their lives that are they that they're hiding behind can begin to tell you how many times over the years I have seen in the context of ministering to somebody in the context of praying the Holy Spirit coming along and revealing the secrets of the hearts of sinners Paul talks about that at 1 Corinthians 14 he says when unbelievers enter and the church prophesies that is to say speaks the word of God with the authority of God's Holy Spirit their sins are uncovered they fall flat on their face and what do they do they acknowledge that God is among you very uncomfortable sometimes but incredibly life-giving because it means that God is bigger than you and if God is bigger than you then he's bigger than your heart and he knows how to take care of you we need to pray for discernment now please distinguish the gift of discernment from the gift of suspicion because there are some people who are suspicious about everybody and everything and they think they've got it by the tail and they're totally out to lunch because they're speaking out of places of their own wounding we need to be aware of their condition we need to pray for them we need to exercise discernment and then of course we need to help them find the way back how do we do that by helping them to understand where they got off track by helping them to confess their own sins because you see the temptation and the tendency is always to blame somebody else God circumstances somebody who hurt me problem is I can control any of those and the root of bitterness in my life will destroy me I'm not responsible for what they did wrong but I am very much responsible for what I've done wrong and if I've wandered away from God and if I've carried grudges and hatred in my heart then simply I am wrong and so we need to take them by the hand and we need to give it over to Jesus and say Jesus I'm so sorry I so wandered away from you and I have brought so much this honor to your name then we have to help them to remake the choice Lord I rededicate myself to you I want to get back on track I want to live in community I want you to work in my life to heal in me what is broken to strengthen that which has become weak so that with all of my heart soul strength in mind I may increasingly love you the Lord our God and my neighbor is myself and James says whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins Lord willing next time we come back to that we're gonna look at that in more detail in the meantime I want to leave you this morning with two questions first question is this are there places in your own heart where you have wandered remember you don't have to be quote unquote a sinner to wander nobody wanders by just immediately making 180 degree u-turn on the road you don't just one day travel this way and the next day you're traveling the other way most people don't even made right angle turns no the biblical language is we drift away it begins with a moment of carelessness a moment of willful disobedience a moment of entertaining our hurt and our disappointment and listening to the voice of the enemy and you cannot be alive in Christ you cannot live with your heart wide open without being disappointed in God or being disappointed in community as I said outwardly you might continue to go through the motions for a season but inwardly already your heart is closing let me ask you this morning is there a place in your life where you've begun to wander from the truth or you've begun to entertain you've lost your passion for Jesus and you've begun casting longing eyes at the furrow behind you having put your hand to the plow none of us is immune I'm not immune I'm keenly aware of places where I can be careless where I could be willfully disobedient and where I can mull over my own hurt and my disappointment I have many reasons to be hurt many reasons to be disappointed but you know that will either drive us closer to Jesus or it's gonna drive us the other way and scripture says be ware lest there be any of you a root of bitterness by which many get defiled that's my first question my second question is this assuming that you're walking on the path not perfectly but you are abiding in Christ you're repenting of your sins and you're learning to grow in his grace then ask yourself this question is there somebody in my sphere of influence who God places on my heart a wanderer that needs to be brought back maybe a son or a daughter who's not serving the Lord maybe a husband in an unequally yoked marriage or a wife who's not on the same page as you are an uncle and aunt a father a mother a brother a sister a neighbor a co-worker is there somebody that you rub shoulders with that doesn't follow Jesus and that is not living by the truth please understand the seriousness of the gospel message if what we believe is true only those who through faith in Jesus are made right with God are going to inherit a new heaven and a new earth and will hear the invitation come blessed of my father inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you from before the foundation of the world all others no matter what you want to believe no matter what your neighbor wants you to believe everybody that is not in Christ on that final day a judgment are going to hear those terrible words depart from me you workers of iniquity into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels you know why Jesus hasn't come yet because he doesn't wish that any should perish but they're all should reach repentance let me ask you is there somebody in your sphere of influence who was on the road to hell because they're not walking on the road with Jesus well if there is then as God to stir a passion in your heart about the things that cause him to be passionate and then learn to cry out of him learn to build relationships learn to love them learn to look for opportunities to find out what makes them tick not because you want to scalp in your belt but because you don't want to see them lost you want to see them in the kingdom of God and then wrestle it out until they either clearly indicate they want nothing to do with it and they walk away from it and that becomes their responsibility or they bend the knee and they bow before the authority of Jesus because James says whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:50:06.160; remove through 00:53:33.000] [Instrumental Music] Lord my heart can grow so far away and cold Yet for thee her love is silver said Lord, I bend my knee in awe and fear of thee Head bow down in prayer to your name I lift your name, your holy name The home of God, Elohim The great I am, the risen land My comforter and King Lord, my heart's desire is to be filled with fear and fire My purpose is to worship you alone Open up my soul to worship and adore To be afraid and soft with you, your throne I lift your name, your holy name The home of God, Elohim The great I am, the risen land My comforter and King I lift your name, your holy name The home of God, Elohim The great I am, the risen land My comforter and King [Applause] [Instrumental Music] [Instrumental Music] [Instrumental Music] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:53:33.000; resume after this marked segment]