Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today.
Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. It's going to be something. It's homecoming day. I was thinking about my favorite homecoming story. Years ago it was an old church. I think it was a sweet little Free Will Baptist Church.
They were having baptism and homecoming on the same day. Back in the day. I want you to imagine this. There's a hill where you are, where you're seated, and the people sit across the hills. At the top there are tables there. And on the tables there's all kind of food that the people have brought. You remember the old days when we used to do that?
I'm scared to do it today. But they're up on the top. And behind them was a lake, a pond where they were going to baptize.
A little murky water. But the preacher, Daniel, about your age, Pastor, he was getting about up here, you know, in the upper, up in those numbers, and he had lost his teeth. Had to get a new plate. He'd just got a brand new upper and lower. And it's his first time preaching afterwards. He'd put polygrip in there and everything else, but man, he got to preaching. And when he did, he turned to make a point, and as he did, those teeth jumped right out into that water. Oh, he was so humiliated. Pastor, he took his sleeves and rolled them up. He started slipping out in that water, feeling down, hoping it didn't go out too far. And a little old lady in the church who loved her pastor went, climbed the top of that hill where they were going to have lunch afterwards.
She went over to the table. She got a chicken leg, tied a string on it, came down, throwed it in the water, and he said, them teeth just came up just like that, and grabbed them just like that. Now, I don't know that to be fact. I don't know that to be fact. But you don't know it's not true either.
It could have happened. Boy, what a blessing to come home. I have so many memories in this room. In this very spot where I stand to preach, I sit on the bench and many at the basketball game right here.
You know that's true if you've been here a while. I'm excited and disappointed at the same time in that I miss seeing a lot of people. Some have gone to heaven that I love and respected out of this room. I see some familiar faces. But the Lord reminded me this morning when I woke up and started spending some time in prayer that it was 50 years ago, 1973, when we came here to Kerwin Baptist Church. My stepfather recognized when Arthur Justice, some of you remember him well, served as a deacon in this church. He recognized the church my mother had us in, and we loved, that your dad ended up serving toward the end of his life at Faith Baptist, helping them. That church was not the place where I needed to be. He felt like God was calling me as a young man.
He brought us over here, and boy, what a blessing it's been. And I'm going to tell a few of those stories as I walk through this text this morning. But I miss some, I'm a little disappointed, and missing seeing some of my classmates. There are a few of them that I saw. I got to hug a few of you, but I'm glad to see as many as we can.
But I'm also excited because of the new people that I see. Good heavens, some of y'all have no idea who I am. We've been gone this year. Terry was at 39, almost 40 years we've been in the town of Dunn. But I've always been connected to this church. This is where God called me. And this is where I was mentored by Pastor Myers, and a lot of good things happened in my life right here in this place.
Terry and I, we're talking about it. What is now Mills Hall down there was just a little old house back in those days. And when we got married, we had a little reception down there, and we were very small portions of who we are today. I'll tell you that. But it was great, and we loved every bit of it, and we thank God for the privilege to be here.
Take your Bibles to Acts chapter 2, and I'm going to preach on this simple little subject. And they continued, and they continued. You know, looking at some of you that have been here many, many years, and some almost from the beginning, in our 82nd homecoming day, something like that, around that, and there might be a few of you that have been around that long. I was blessed by hearing Carolyn sing. She sang when I was a little boy, I'll tell you that right now.
Or a young man anyway, but what a blessing. And I have great memories of those days. I remember when Ann Shull played the piano, and we sang in the choir back in the day. I do. I've got great memories of those early years, 50 years ago.
Some of the memories I can't share right now. It would not be appropriate here in the pulpit, but I'm so thankful for the ministry. And he's right. This church has continued in the things that they began in. The good news is, now you're positioning yourself to reach people in the future too.
And I'm going to talk about that because it's in the text. And I'm very excited about what I see Jesus doing. Students, I had the time of my life at camp with you all. Thanks for letting me come and hang out. We laughed and played and preached and sang and had the best time. I wasn't glad that the former guy that was scheduled couldn't come, but I sure was glad to get to come and hang out with you.
And I'm glad so many of you are here. And boy, the students make up a big part of your choir. I was blessed by watching that and choir.
I was blessed by the singing and every special touched my heart. But the Lord gave me a little verse here, I want you to look at it, beginning in verse 38, Acts chapter 2. Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. You want to see yourself in the book of Acts?
I'll show it to you. You ready for this? For the promise, this promise, I'm going to preach on that promise in a minute. For the promise is unto you and unto your children.
Now if you look at the verse before, the gift of the Holy Ghost is what he's talking about, the outpouring of the Spirit. He said that's for you. This promise is unto you, now he's talking to them Jews standing around, and to your children. Now here's you. You want to see you in the text? Look at your Bible. And to all that are afar off, that's you.
You might want to underline that. Remind yourself, there I am right there in the text. And to you that are, everybody that will ever get saved, this promise is for them. Every blood bought, born again, child of God, this is to you, those that are afar off. I love that.
I was afar off then. But look at this. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Father, we are so thankful to be here this morning. And Lord, I'm so humbled and grateful that I get to stand. And Lord, you know, during the years that I was here, just as a boy, I made so many blunders. And I sinned.
You forgave me and restored me. They sang about it this morning, Lord. Thank you for using some of us that were a mess and are still a mess. And Lord, pray you touch your servant this morning and use this time together to bring glory to your name. And further your kingdom in the strong name of Jesus Christ our Savior, we pray.
Amen and amen. Well, I was reading, I love to read the book of Acts anyway. And I was reading these verses beginning when Peter started to preach in chapter 2, the Bible says about verse 14. Peter, standing up with the eleven, lift up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea and all that dwell at Jerusalem, be it known unto you and hearken to my words. For these, when the disciples started speaking with other languages, known languages, people around them thought they were drunk.
They didn't understand what they were saying. He said they're not drunken as you suppose, verse 15, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this manifestation, this power, this glory that happened on the day of Pentecost is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And here's my text.
Look at it real close. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaids I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And then I want to show you something real unusual. Look at the next verse. He ties this promise of the outpouring of the spirit.
He ties it. Look at verse 19. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. Now let me ask you a question. Those of you that know your Bibles and study your Bible, in the book of Acts, when the spirit came as a rushing, mighty wind, when that happened, does anybody remember any blood and vapor, smoke and fire coming? No, you don't.
You know why you don't? Because God was tying this outpouring to the end time. In other words, He's reminding us of something that I'm getting ready to say in just a moment. And before I forget it, I want to tell you I was listening to everything. And I heard things better in here than I've ever heard, and I don't know what all you've done, but the sound in here is crazy good. I even heard the strings, David.
I heard while they were singing the background stuff and the instruments all coming together. I hope you can make me sound as good as you made everybody else sound back there in that soundboard. But I want you to notice something here in the text.
Number one, I'm just going to give you three thoughts. Nobody ever said on homecoming day, man, I'm glad that guy came and preached an hour. You ever heard anybody say that? You never have. Now, I'm not going to go long, but I want you to see this.
It's life changing. Look at verse 17. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh.
Let me ask you a question, Bible students. When did the last days begin? Did it not begin at the cross? The last days began at the cross.
And when will it end? The last days are over in the rapture when we're caught up to be with Him. If you believe that, say amen.
Now watch this. If that's true and the last days began at the cross and we'll wrap up in the rapture, then we are right now living in the last days, right or wrong. If that's true, then I want you to look at verse 17 one more time.
And I want you to tell me what it says. It shall come to pass in the last days. Listen, this part, saith God. This ain't me talking. This ain't the pastor talking.
God said it. I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh. That means every generation from the cross to the rapture until he that ascended, descended and the one that descended ascended. When we go up, the Holy Ghost, I believe, is going with us. However, I want us to look real close at that promise and see if it might not mean something to you.
Think about that. The same power that fell. I wish I had time to preach the whole text, but you read chapter two. They were in that upper room praying, getting right with God, dealing with a little business. And then all of a sudden they start praying and fasting, getting right with God. And then that appointed moment in Acts chapter two, the spirit of God came in an unusual way. You'll remember, of course, that the Holy Ghost was working in the Old Testament as well. He was present in creation.
We see that in Genesis 126. But he came upon people in the Old Testament. He would come upon someone to blow a trumpet, sound an alarm. He would come upon Gideon. He would come upon the prophets.
But here we see a brand new promise. Not only occasionally would he be available to come upon, but he promised a last day's promise. I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh. Now, I would love to have been like a fly on the wall standing there when Jesus said that for that religious crowd. The Pharisees and the Sanhedrin and some of that bunch. Wouldn't you have loved to see their eyes when they hear that? You mean not just the priest, not just the Levites, not just the men, but the slaves? You mean the women can have the power of the Holy Ghost on them too?
Hey, that freaked them out back in that generation. But I want to tell you I'm thankful to God for some spirit-filled women in this church. And in all the churches I go in that are full of God and know how to pray the glory down. I'm thankful for that. But here's that promise. It's a promise for this generation.
Somehow we've begun to believe that the best days are behind us. And we forget that the Lord made a promise of something that I like to call a perpetual Pentecost. What happened on the day of Pentecost was wonderful.
You know what W.A. Chris Wells said about it? One of my favorite preachers of the past who's long been in heaven from the First Baptist Church of Dallas. He said after the Jerusalem Pentecost, there was a Samaritan Pentecost. The Lord poured the spirit out down there and about the whole town got saved.
Read it in Acts chapter 8. He said after the Samaritan Pentecost, there was a Caesarian Pentecost. And then there was an Ephesian Pentecost. And then there was a Corinthian Pentecost.
And you keep naming it. And God's plan is this. That in our churches we continue to experience the outpouring of the Spirit of God.
Do you believe that or not? Now He promised it. I'm not promising it.
I'm telling you He promised it. The other week I was preaching somewhere in revival up in Ohio. The preacher sent me this song.
It's kind of a modern song. Did you know you can even get blessed listening to a modern song? He was saying something about God is up to something. He is up to something. He is saving someone.
Some of y'all heard that song and you're grinning at me right now. He is healing someone right now, right now. And I got to thinking, did you know God's doing something all over the world right every minute? The Holy Ghost is at work all over this world. And right now when you woke up this morning and you lay your head down because of time zones, God's going to be working all over the place. He's up to something by the power of His Spirit.
That's a promise for this generation. If you're not enjoying the fullness, it's not God's fault. If I'm not enjoying the fullness and the outpouring of the Spirit in my class and in my ministry and in my family and in my marriage, it ain't God's fault.
It's my fault. And it ain't enough just to come and check the box and come to church on Sunday morning when He's made a promise to me like that. You say, really prove that to me. Well, go back to Acts chapter 1 real quick and I'll show you a few words that bless me and then I'll jump on my last two points. Number one, look at Acts 1 verse 1. There's one word, I circled it in my Bible.
It meant so much to me about this promise. Look at Acts 1 and verse 1. Have I made old Theophilus of all that Jesus, the next word is what?
Began both to do and teach. Jesus just got it started. He said Jesus began.
Well, who's going to finish it? Let me show you this. Something jumped out at me on this text. In verse 4, He said now, the disciples were being together with them, commanded them. Jesus said, I will tell you something. Boys, you cannot do this in the energy of your flesh.
You need the power of the Holy Ghost. Look at this. And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem.
Look at this. But wait for the what? Promise of the Father which saith he, you have heard of me. Now, who knows what the promise is?
That's what we're talking about in verse 17. The outpouring of the Spirit is the promise. The Holy Ghost coming is the promise. The Holy Ghost filling is the promise. Look at verse 8 and tell me if this makes sense. But ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses. Now, he's talking to the disciples now. Both in Jerusalem and in all Judea. Look at this. And in Samaria, this next part was the one that troubled me.
And the uttermost part of the earth. Now, let me ask you a question. Teenagers, look at me. I want to tell you.
I want to ask you a question. Some of you I remember from camp. I saw you.
I saw what some of you all were doing too. And I'm going to tell you mamas and your daddies. Watch this.
Just joking. I wouldn't tell them. I'm sworn to secrecy. What happened at camp stays at camp. You hear me?
Watch this. Did the disciples go to Jerusalem? We're there at Jerusalem right now.
So nod yes or no. Disciples at Jerusalem? Yeah. Did they go to Judea? Yeah.
How about Samaria? Yeah. Did they ever come to Kernersville? Did Peter ever make his way to Kernersville? The answer is no. How about Matthew?
Bartholomew? Either one of the Judases? No.
They didn't? Well then, is the Bible true? Is Jesus true?
Of course He is. Then how in the heavens is He going to get to the uttermost part of the earth? How did He get here?
How did He come to done North Carolina? I'll tell you how He came. By the power of this promise of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. In other words, the promise just wasn't for them. Now come back over there to chapter 2 and look at what I said earlier in verse 39. He said, this promise, verse 40, no, verse 39, for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off.
Now does that make sense? You see, God said, I'm going to send the Holy Ghost all over the world and Pastor Daniel, I'm going to send it right here and I'm going to send you men who will preach to you truth but those men will be mere agents of the power from heaven called the Holy Ghost. And if you'll love them and follow them and they'll cast vision and you'll make those things happen, then the Holy Ghost will do a work in our communities.
My wife says sometimes when we go in places, I wonder if they've welcomed the Spirit because it seems like He's a million miles away. We must welcome Him. We cannot grieve Him with our sin. We cannot quench Him with our old flesh wanting to have our way.
We cannot vex Him. I got a little sermon on that but I want you to notice, number one, the promise for this generation. Number one, the promise for this generation. Did you see it in verse 17? I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh. I hope there's somebody sitting here right now that's saying, you know what, I kind of forgot about that promise and I've been a daddy or a mom or a granddaddy or I've been a Sunday school teacher or I've been a deacon or I've been a leader and I haven't had the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God in my life. And every day from this day till I breathe my last, I'm going to ask God to empty me of myself and of my sin and fill me all the way with the power of the Holy Ghost to do what He's called me to do.
If you don't know it, you're over your head. You can't do what God's calling you to do. We can't take this Gospel to this city, to this generation. We can't do it. Only God can do it, but He put together a plan called the Holy Ghost to bring that through us. I just remembered a story. I'll tell it quick.
Set an old man down in the flatlands where I live. He had lived back kind of up in a holler by himself, a loner all those years. His kids wanted to do something for him. They tried to get him a car.
He wouldn't have nothing to do with it. Only some relative died and left him one. Real nice car. They brought it in on the back of one of those car haulers, backed it in his driveway. Man, he was proud of that thing. Every now and then he'd get out and he'd look at it. Sometime he'd push it a little bit, put it out of gear, just push it around, clean it up. He had that thing for years and finally one day his youngin said, you know Dad, have you ever drove that car? He said, no, don't drive it.
Well, I never wanted a car, never left that little holler. They said, well let me show you something. They put the key in it and cranked, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, cranked it up. He jumped back. You see, he had loved it and enjoyed it all along, but he didn't know that there was a motor in that thing. They got him in there and showed him how he could put it in gear and it would move.
Put it in reverse and it would back up. You see, a lot of Christians don't know that God put an engine in your salvation. I want to tell you the power of the Holy Spirit will take you places and drive your ministry and your work and your church and the gospel in your family beyond what you and I could ever imagine. Number two, let me hurry and I'm going to meddle just a little bit just because I'm home and I can get by with it. Number one, I want you to see the promise for this generation.
Number two, look at the second thing. It's the power of the past generation. If you're 55 plus, I want you to really zoom in. I want everybody to hear this because you're going to be there one day if the Lord tarries, but if you're a little older, I want you to listen to this real careful because there's power in the past generation. Did you know, I thought when I got older, as I got a little older, I knew my wine was getting old.
If you know that text, you know what I'm talking about. I knew that I thought to myself, they won't nobody call me to preach at a camp again. I'm too old, they're not interested in what I have to say and I turned down some camps. This was years ago and Clark Bossier, who's been to this church, who's my friend in Texas, he said, Tom, you're getting ready to make one of the worst mistakes of your life.
I said, what do you mean? He said, this is the generation that was raised without an active father or grandfather. He said, you're getting old, you're right. But he said, they're interested in hearing what an older man has to say. Now, I didn't get that at first, but when I looked in the eyes of your students and the other camps where the Lord let me go this year, I was reminded that God, get ready, here's a good place for old people to say amen.
God's not done with us when we get 65 or beyond. Listen to me. There's a work for you to do. Now, I did a little research on this. I thought when I first read this, the idea was behind old people, because you know how we all like tell the stories of the past and the grandkids end up saying, yeah, we know granddaddy, we heard that story. You walk to school, no shoes in the snow, uphill both ways. I mean, we get that.
No, that's not what this text is talking about. Old men, old women, listen to me now, older men, older women, here's our opportunity to dream our dreams over the next generation. You know, when I was a boy, I came here at 13, 50 years ago, 1973, and I remember just like it was yesterday, I remember the names of so many people that influenced my life, and I can't tell you all of them, but some of these people dreamed dreams over me. They believed God had his hand on me, and they told me so. They would pray for me. They would encourage me. They would give me stuff. I mean, honestly, through the years, God has placed mentors in my life that have done nothing different than what this text is talking about, dreaming their dreams over my life. I remember Linus Newsome, I remember oftentimes his ministry in my life.
He would look for opportunities to say something to me or to shake my hand and put a little something in it. I'll never forget the time when he came back, y'all were on vacation or something, and he was coming back from the beach or something, and he came by Central, and we were positioned, some of y'all remember that came down there, and some of the seniors came down one time, and we ate together and saw our first little shotgun building, but we were right beside an old car lot. I may have told this before, but I don't care. Some of y'all hadn't heard it. You didn't need to hear it again.
We had an old junk car lot that people would buy and pay by the week, right beside our storefront building, and there was like 50 cars in that parking lot, and we had a little storefront building with an alley, and then we had like eight cars total when I first started, eight cars in that little storefront building. Linus came by one time, and the next time I came, he saw it. It was too late. He said, when he saw me the next time I came up here, he said, look, I was running late, and the service you'd already started, and he said, Tommy, actually he said it like this, Tommy, he said, son, that parking lot, he said, was full of cars. He said, I was so proud of you.
I'm thinking, he's thinking about them old junk cars, that guy's trading. I should tell him, I should tell him, they're not people that were in the church. We only had like 22 that day, but I couldn't do it. My flesh would not allow me to do it, and so somebody said, what did you say to him? I just said, well, praise the Lord, you know, so I said, I didn't lie to him, really, kind of let him believe that, but I remember him saying, I remember when I went off to Bible college from this church in 1978 when I graduated, people saying, hey, we're praying for you. I remember a businessman pulling a pen out of his pocket and giving it to me, and saying, when you write with this, you remember that you have a home church, and people are praying for you. I remember through the years, people encouraging me along the way. I remember brother Joe, I remember the times that he poured into me and spent time with me just as a teenager. I had a terrible car, you've heard me tell this story before, but I had a 1973 Plymouth Cricket, and the Motor Trend Magazine said it was the worst car ever made. That's no joke, but the day before, everything was running good, and like the day before I left, something happened to it.
We brought it down to the old bus garage. He got on. The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally.
Would you take a moment to hear this today? Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3 23 says, for all of sin, and come short of the glory of God.
No matter how hard we try, we're not good enough to obtain God's glory, or to get to heaven. Because of that, sin carries the penalty of death. Romans 6 23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God, but it's only through God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept him as our savior.
Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt. The Bible says in Romans 5 8, but God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ by faith as your savior. Romans 10 9 says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner, believing that Jesus is the only way, and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever, that's anyone, can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this. Would you accept Christ as your savior? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192, or visit our website at corwinbaptistchurch.com, or visit us at person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless you.
