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. But anyway, We really don't judge people by the The color of their skin, we're judging by the content of their character. Amen. Dr.
Martin Luther King said that years ago. The content of their character. And may God help us in these last days to quit dividing over foolishness and start uniting over righteousness. May God help us.
So I'm looking forward to being there. Heard so much about the church. I appreciate the music tonight. I appreciate your testimony. What a wonderful crowd.
that there is on a Tuesday night. Thank the Lord, Kerwin Baptist Church. For a pastor, Who will lead you In two nights of revival. And not make you come back on Wednesday. I have some friends.
I've been trying to talk into that, and they think they're going to lose their salvation. I want to assure you: if you stay at home tomorrow night and do nothing, you will still be saved. All right? And so. It's not in the Bible that you have to come to church three times in a week, but I thank the Lord for these two days, and I thank the Lord for what God is doing, and we trust that God will do something tonight.
My plan was to preach out of the book of 1 Chronicles and the Lord has shifted. My spirit in conjunction with the pastor. Yeah. What all is going on in our hearts and minds.
So go with me to Luke chapter 8, if you would, and stand to your feet for the reading of God's Word. The Gospel of Luke chapter 8. How many think for what the Bible says amen? We're in Luke chapter number 8. And we're in verse number 22.
Are you there? Luke chapter 8. Verse number Twenty Two. The Bible says And that came to pass. On a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples.
And he said unto them, let us go over to the other side of the lake, and they launched forth. But as they sailed, He fell asleep. And there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled with water and were in jeopardy. And they came to him and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.
And they ceased and there was a call. And he said unto them, Where's your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this? For he commandeth Even the winds And the water. And they Obey him.
Let the church say amen. Our Father, we pray, God, tonight, that you will. Take me one more time as your vessel. That you would cleanse me of sin. That you would empty me of self.
and that you would fill me with your spirit. The arm of flesh will fail me. And I understand that in me, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. But Father God, I also know. That there is a God in heaven.
Who in spite of me can do great things in and through me.
So, Father God, I pray, God, that you would bind the forces of Satan, put a hedge of protection about this place. that the devil would in no way hinder the work of the Holy Ghost of God. And I pray, God, that you would get all the praise. And all the glory and all the honor that's due to your holy name from the preached word tonight. Watch over.
My wife and family. While I'm gone. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.
Thank you so much for standing. We laughed a few moments ago about the different kinds of areas where each of us is from. The areas of ministry where God has called us. I pastor three miles south of the Pentagon. It is not at all considered rural.
Everywhere you go, you're trying to find land to build a house. We're landlocked as a church. We've got a building with not enough parking, and there's nothing around us where we can really expand. There are people everywhere.
Sometimes I drive in towns where there's one light there, and the closer I get to the church, my phone goes out, and my gas is low on E. And I'm thinking to myself, if I break down, there's nothing in sight, there's nowhere close. And there are people in those towns, there are people in my towns, there are thriving communities that are building up and growing. There are other communities that are spread out. There are farm towns.
I tell you what makes all of these places common. In every one of those locations, people live. People live. And if I were to go down the road from my church in Northern Virginia and ask this question, or go where I'm going to be next week in the rural area and ask this question, or go to a farm town where there are very few people and ask this question, I would guarantee you, regardless of the kind of area where I ask the question, I would get some of the same answers. Here's the question: What is a Christian?
What is a Christian? In America, where we print in God, we trust on our money, I would get this answer. A Christian is a good person, I would get this answer. A Christian is someone who's been baptized, I would get this answer. A Christian is someone who attends church, I would get this answer.
A Christian is someone who's religious, a Christian is someone who was born in a Christian home, a Christian is someone whose good outweighs his bad. A Christian is a Catholic, a Christian is a Baptist, a Christian is a person who reads the Bible, a Christian is a person who does his best to live morally, a Christian is a person who does more right than he does wrong. These are popular answers, not in some third-world country that's grown up on paganism. I'm talking about in a country that was built on Christianity. You would ask the question, What a Christian is, and over and over, people who have access to the Word of God in multiple facets would answer in a way that does not line up with the Word of God.
None of those answers are right. They may be popular. They may be prominent. They may be answers that people mention all the time, but none of them are the right answers because the only way to become a Christian, you've got to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to know that you're a sinner and that your sin will send you to hell, but you've got to know that God sent forth his only begotten Son to hang and bleed and suffer for the sins of mankind.
And then you've got to appropriate faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ and believe that your baptism, your church membership, your good works, your family background, your gene poo is not enough to save you because in us, our righteousnesses are as nothing but filthy rags. You've got to put your faith in the one who loved you and gave himself for you. And that very moment, when you confess with your mouth and you believe in your heart and you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you become born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You enter the family of God. You are passed from death unto life.
You are no longer a child of Adam. You are a child of Almighty God. Heaven is your home. God is your Father. Jesus is your Savior.
The Holy Ghost is your comfort. And the word of God is your guide. Death has no sting, the grave has no victory. You'll never be judged for your sins. You'll never spend a second in hell.
You've got the grace of God on your side. His mercy has held back his punishment on you. You're going to heaven. Nothing you do, nothing you say, nowhere you go, nothing you're around, no habit you pick back up will ever take away your salvation because he's given you eternal life and nobody can pluck you out of his head. Oh, I wish there might be one or two in the building tonight that know you're saved and you're glad about it tonight.
Well wait a minute now. That's just the beginning of being a Christian. That's that's not where it ends, that's where it starts. And I'm afraid we're living in a country that so clichés the word Christian. It has no distinction anymore.
I mean people claim to be Christians when they're getting awards for the most vulgar language. People claim Christianity when they're broadcasting their nudity and they're espousing to things that no Bible-believing Christian would never advocate. I listen to, but we've gotten so loose.
Somebody help me preach tonight. We've gotten so loose with the word Christianity, we can't tell who a Christian is. We are not the first generation that was confused and that was guilty of making common Christianity that it has no distinction anymore. Back in Luke chapter 8, we are watching the disciples living, if you would, in a crash course on Christianity. They'd been around Christ, they'd seen him do miracles, they'd seen him do what no one else did.
They watched him do what they could not do in themselves, and yet they did not quite understand Christianity until he brought it right before them. You remember right here in the scriptures in the same gospel, you're going to find Jesus feeding the 5,000, and there were multitudes that gathered around him because they loved what he did.
Somebody wanted him to feed. Their meals and pay their bills. And there he is, passing out catfish and cornbread, feeding 5,000 men beside women and children. The disciples are passing out hot sauce and tartar sauce, and everybody's eating. The boy comes back with 12 baskets when he only started with one bag.
And Jesus does a miracle. And then that same Jesus looks at them boys and girls and men and women and says, You ate this bread and ate this fish, and you're going to be hungry again. Your fathers ate man in the wilderness and they're dead, but I got a meal that's better than catfish and cornbread. I am the bread of life. Whoso eateth of this flesh and drinketh of this blood shall never die.
Believest thou this. And 5,000 men beside, women and children said, this is the hard saying. They left him once they found out he wasn't just feeding fish and cornbread. And they turned away and never came back because they wanted what Jesus could do for them, but they didn't want Jesus himself. And we're living in a society today.
where people are groping at Christianity for what they can get. I need somebody to pay my light bill. I need somebody to answer when I'm in trouble. I need somebody to bail me out when I have no answers. I need somebody whose phone line works when my cell phone is turned off.
I need somebody who can be a prefix to my cuss word. I need somebody's name I can call on when I stomp my toe in the middle of the night. I need somebody to show up for me when I'm lying on a hospital bed. I need somebody to be 911 when all my other friends ignore my phone call. That's not the Jesus of Luke chapter number eight.
These fellas are going to learn in just a few verses. If you're going to be a real Christian, you can't just run with Jesus when it's convenient. You can't just call him when you're down and out. You can't just be with him when it's cool. You can't just be around him when it makes you look good.
He can't just be a tattoo on your arm or a bumper sticker on your car or a bracelet around your wrist or just a few words in your song. No, no, no, no, no. When you're going to be a real Christian, You got to learn to stick with Jesus on the mountaintop, down in the valley, when things are up, and when things are down, when you got money, and when money gets funny, when you got friends, and when you're all alone, you learn something about Christianity. Christianity is not about what you say on Sundays, it's not just about the Bible that you carry, it's not just about the songs that you sing, it's not just about the church you're a member of. Christianity is about the Christ that you love, it's about the Christ that you serve, it's about the Christ that you're around.
And the disciples in Luke chapter 8 are going to learn a lesson on real Christianity that every believer needs to learn tonight. Christianity is about sticking with Jesus. And I've never seen more perilous times. Where, unless you learn this. He ain't gonna make it.
It's becoming all too normal for us to go. He's not serving anymore. He's not pastoring anymore? She dropped out of church. She got pregnant.
He's not involved anymore. They're not married anymore. We start dropping our jaws and opening our eyes because those we thought that were lifetime appointed Christians don't seem to be serving God anymore. You know what we find out? They weren't serving Jesus.
They were serving the church. They were serving a ministry. They were serving a man. They were serving a movement. They were serving a phase.
They were serving a trend. Because if you're serving Jesus, you never retire. You never quit. You never drop out. Because when your friends are gone and your money's gone and the phase is gone and the pastor's gone, Jesus is still here.
Sticking with Jesus. Please draw your attention to Luke chapter 8 and watch these disciples get tested. Because tonight I'm posing the question to everyone in the building. Not do you go to church, not are you saved, not do you sing in the choir, not do you attend revival, not have you been around the church a long time, not do you know the Romans road?
Now, how many passages have you memorized?
Now, have you read through the Bible before? Those aren't bad things, those are good things, but those aren't enough to keep you serving God 10 years from now. I'm trying to ask you tonight: are you a real Christian? And have you learned how to stick with Jesus? Notice, if you would, it begins with.
The Savior's call. The Bible tells us in Luke chapter 8, verse 22: it came to pass on a certain day. If you study the text, Jesus had been telling parables. Nobody told parables like Jesus did. Nobody could.
You know why they couldn't tell a parable like Jesus could? Because a parable was a heavenly story, it was an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And there was nobody that could tell an earthly story with a heavenly meaning because nobody on earth had ever been to heaven.
Somebody help me preach.
So when Jesus told a story, he told it better than Mr. Rogers could. Mr. Rogers ain't never been to heaven. Jesus came from heaven and came to earth.
And when he told parables, it was like he was opening up heaven and bringing it down to earth so that finite man could understand what only God had conceived in his mind. And so when Jesus took those ignorant, simple people and started bringing them the very oracles from the mouth of God, their eyes got wide and their mouths dropped wide. And they said, We ain't never heard nobody tell stories like this. They were chewing it up, they were eating it up, they were entertained. They could take a whole bag of popcorn and fill it up and eat it and get another bag because it was just that good.
And then, after listening to all those. Stories all day long. The same Jesus that wowed them with his stories made this statement: Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. It may have seemed just like a shift in itinerary, it may have seemed just like an invitation to kill some time, it may have seemed like a field trip just to enjoy a beautiful day. But, ladies and gentlemen, Jesus making a statement is never insignificant because a statement coming from the mouth of Jesus is always a big deal.
When he said to them, Let us go over to the other side, he was extending a call. Notice the call came from the master. Notice the call came to the minority, and notice the call came for movement. Let me say it again: the call came from the master. Their mama didn't call, their wives didn't call, their governor didn't call, their friend didn't call, their master called.
He'd been teaching multitudes, but when he extended this call, he didn't call all the multitudes, he extended it to the 12. They were the minority. And when he did extend the call as the master to the minority, the call was for movement. He didn't extend the call to sit around and play cards. He didn't send this call to write and play, do things in the sand.
He didn't extend the call for us for them to just play patty cake on the seashore. No, no, no. He said, if you're going to go with me, we're going somewhere. Come on now. If you're going to go with me, we're going some.
Listen to me. If you're here in the building tonight on a Tuesday night in the month of September 2024 and you want to claim or espouse to be a real Christian, you better get your ears open. When you come to church, don't listen to the preacher. When you come to church, don't listen just to the choir. When you come to church, don't just listen to the one that's speaking.
Listen, they're a mouthpiece for God. They're a vessel for God. But the only way real Christians ever get something done, they better know the voice of God. I'll tell you why. It's since nine years old, I've been preaching and I'm still preaching.
I'm not still preaching today because my daddy's a preacher. I'm not still preaching today because my brother's a preacher. I'm not still preaching today because I grew up going out to eat with preachers. I'm not still preaching today because I've hung a lot around preachers. I'm not preaching today just because I have preachers' names in my Bible.
I'm not even preaching just because my grandmama said my head was shaped like a preacher. I'm telling you, I'm preaching tonight because as a nine-year-old boy, just as sure as I'm here sitting here breathing tonight, I heard the voice of God. You better know what that voice sounds like. God help us today that we're raising a generation of teenagers that know better how to measure how high their blouse is, how long their skirt is, than they know how the voice of God sounds. And I'm not against modesty because it's in the Bible, but you better know what the voice of God is when you can't find a scripture verse, you can't find a church standard, and you can't find a pastor that'll answer his phone at three in the morning.
You better know how to hear the master's voice and you better know how to be the minority.
Somebody's got to get up tonight and say, I'm going with Jesus, even if my friends don't go. I'm going with Jesus, even if my wife doesn't go. I'm going with Jesus, even if my husband doesn't go. I'm going with Jesus, even if my teammates don't go. You know what these 12 had to decide?
We got to leave my boys. We got to leave the girls. We got to leave the crowd that's sitting by the seashore. And we got to go with Jesus, even if it means we're the minority. And then we got to go for movement.
We're going to the other side. I've come to ask you tonight: if you're a real Christian, is your Prayer life going anywhere? Is your Bible reading going anywhere? Is your soul winning going anywhere? Is your worship going anywhere?
CC, riding with Jesus is always moving somewhere. Don't tell me you're sticking with Jesus and your Christianity is defined by being stagnant. Christians are growing, they're moving, they're going, and they're glowing. And God give us Christians in these last days who know how to hear the Savior's call from the Master to the minority. four movement.
Number two, The servant's commitment. Look at verse 22, would you? And They launched forth. That's commitment. And you know what you You know what's weird about Luke 22?
is that it's hard to find Christians committed like that. And I want you to notice, look again, look at verse number 22. He said unto them, let us go over to the other side of the lake to the disciples. And then it says, and they launch forth.
Now, I put my glasses on. I've looked very closely. I've compared scripture to make sure that there was nothing left out of the text in Luke 8, 22. And every time I look with great scrutiny, I can't seem to find in between, let us go over to the other side of the lake. And they launch forth.
I don't ever see where Jesus gave them details. He didn't tell them how long the boat ride was. He didn't tell them how cushioned the seats were. He didn't tell them he was giving them peanuts and crackers and a soda. He didn't tell them what the weather was.
He didn't tell them what they were going to do on the other side. He didn't tell them they were going to have entertainment. He didn't tell them if there was a movie that was going to be playing on the boat. He said, get on the boat. And they got on because he said, so, God, give us some Christians who don't need Jesus to explain himself, who don't need Jesus to figure it all out, to map it all out, to spell out your financial provisions, to tell you how it's going to go, to tell you it's going to turn out good, to give you the good health diagnosis.
Where are the Christians today that need one prerequisite to get on the boat? Jesus, if you're on the boat, I'm on the boat. There are some Christians in the building. That have yet to board in some area of your life because you're too busy calculating. You haven't added up in your budget why the command of God is worthy of your obedience.
It doesn't make sense in your budget. It doesn't make sense logically. And if Jesus would just do a better job explaining the validity of his command, you might just get on the boat. Could I tell you something? If my mama didn't have to explain herself to me, then my Savior sure don't have to explain himself to me.
My mama used to tell me, Boy, if you ever ask me why, I will beat the devil out of you. If you ever ask me why, I will tan your hide. If you ever ask me why, I will kill you and turn myself in. If you ever ask me why, I will take you up out of this world. If you ever ask me why, I will knock your teeth out.
You know what she was saying to me? There's something wrong when you have to qualify the validity of my order. You have forgotten I am not your friend. I'm not your homie. I'm not your partner.
I'm not your road dog. I'm your mama, and you are my child. Mamas don't, that's what's wrong with this generation of children. I'm getting a little perturbed. I'm getting a little perturbed about parents that are standing in a grocery store and trying to negotiate their.
Children to put back a candy bar on the rack that the child can't have because mama said they can't have it. And I'm watching this fiasco of dysfunctionality in front of me as the mom says, Johnny, put it down. And Johnny says, no. And she says, Johnny, put it down. And he says, no.
And then she says, Johnny, Isaac, Alexander, I'm telling you right now, put it down. He says, no. And then she says, Johnny, I'm going to count to 10. One, two, three, four, five. And Johnny goes, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
And right about that time, I start getting flashbacks. The triggers, the triggers in my anxiety start to come back full circle. I can see my mama at 77 years old in the middle of the Harris Teeter line, our four, saying, Boy, pull your pants down with all the cameras in all of the world watching me. I can see her. I tried to tell her one time, I'm running away.
She said, I'll pack your bags. I said, I'm calling the cops. She said, I'll dial them for you. I'll tell you what's wrong with. We got parents afraid of their children like they, like the children have the leverage.
And I tell my kids all the time, I ain't scared of you. You don't pay no bills. You don't have no cell phone in your name. You can't spell mortgage. You got a pair of kids with signs up on the door, no parents allowed.
I told my son, you ever put a sign up on your door, no parents allowed. I will knock the door down and make you pay for it because you're not going to tell me in my house which room I, God, help us when the man who put the stars in space and the moon in place and took from the dust of the ground and formed man and breathed in the man's nostrils the breath of life. If it wasn't for Jesus, you'd be on your way to a devil's hell. If it wasn't for Jesus, you'd be lost and undone. If it wasn't for Jesus, you wouldn't have breath.
You wouldn't have life. You wouldn't know mercy. You wouldn't know grace. You wouldn't have a home in heaven. He saved you.
He changed you. He healed you. He filled you. He woke you up this morning. He started you on your way.
He put food on your table. Clothes on your back, a roof over your head, good gracious, alive. If he says, get on the boat, Get on, cause he said something. It's commitment. I like it.
It bad. Number three. There's a Savior's call. There's a servant's commitment. Number three, there's a stormy crisis.
Wow. Here comes the storm. And interestingly enough, about the storm. Yeah. Jesus asleep.
Look at me, look up in here, look up in here just a moment. You serve God long enough, you're not only gonna go through a storm, but you're gonna go through a storm, and it's gonna seem like the person that invited you in the storm is sleep. God, you told me to take this job. You told me to make this choice. You told me to go to this place.
Told me to get on this boat, and you know the weather before I get on the boat. And now it's storming on this little boat, not carnival cruise ship, this little boat, and you're sleep. Listen to me, serve God long enough, you're gonna feel like Jesus set you up.
Somebody said to me just a few moments ago when we were praying, For Caden.
Someone said He just can't catch a break. You know what that person was saying? In our humanity. We just don't understand why somebody in the thick Of living for God has to keep going back. Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, you're going to have to learn something about Christianity.
It is not entitled to jive with your logic. And there are gonna be some times when Jesus is gonna put you on a ship and you're gonna be at the top of the ship facing the lightning and the thunder and he's gonna be at the bottom of the ship knocked out like it really doesn't matter. The storm struck the obedient ones, the ones who stayed on the seashore listening to stories. They weren't the ones on the boat rocking. The ones who got on the boat and obeyed Jesus.
Listen to me, you're gonna go up to the altar one Sunday and get right with God. And Monday morning, it's gonna seem like all of the devil and his demons are attacking you. You're gonna dedicate your children to the Lord. And it's gonna seem like the ones you've tried the hardest on are the ones that go astray. You're gonna pour your life into someone and the one you invest in the most is the one who's gonna stab you in the back and you're gonna become disillusioned.
You're gonna say, I obeyed you, I obeyed you, I prayed, I did what you said, and yet I'm in the middle of the listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. Do not equate the storm with being out of the will of God, just as clear as the call was, just as clear as the commitment was. The crisis is too, and yay. 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 three twenty three says For all have sinned 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 salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept him as our Saviour.
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 Saviour. Romans ten nine 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 Kerwin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times.
We hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless you. Mm-hmm.
