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. Went to a youth camp that I preached years ago, and just his extended family we've known, but we got to meet him back when he was just a teenager and to see what God has done in his life. Josh, come on up here if you will.
And we're just so glad to have Josh Burkholder. Maybe sometime we'll get to meet his wife and children if it could work out. Let's give Brother Josh a hand tonight. We're so glad he's here. Should be good to go.
Thank you.
Well, good evening. Thank you, Pastor Autry, for allowing me to open up God's Word. I just want to say a few comments about your worship time here today. What I observed last year It's amazing. Do you realize how good you have it?
I mean, I don't think you do. Listen, I go to a lot of different churches.
Sometimes I go to a lot of times more smaller churches, and their music programs just do not compare. And that's to be expected. But I go to a lot of larger churches, and I'm just telling you. This place is alive. And I absolutely love being here.
It's so encouraging to me.
So keep up the good work and don't blow it. You know, I feel like I have a part in this church now because I'm one of your supportive missionaries.
So, hey, keep up the good work. And thank you for supporting me in my ministry. I must admit to you, it's a little odd for a church that doesn't have any other interaction with me other than just me personally.
Okay, a church typically will support our camp ministry because there's a vested interest for them. They get a reciprocal benefit out of that. And so it's a little unique for you to be supporting me. And I don't know what I think about that because I want you to experience it. I want to prove what we're doing for you because you're invested into me and the camp.
And I'm happy to report to you that this last year was incredible in terms of just summer camp. We had 50 decisions for salvation. We had many more decisions for spiritual growth. We were able to complete a building project. It was just a dream of mine to finally get done.
It was a housing project for adults.
So it's a nice place for adults to come to the camp. And while the kids are staying in the cabins, the adults can relax and enjoy themselves. I've said that it's a bougie place that really connects with Gen Z, but it's for adults.
So the Lord has just been so good to me and our ministry, and I'm happy that Pastor's gonna come out this fall and speak, and then he also will do a week of teen camp next year in 2026.
So thank you for including me for the prayer advance as well as Justin. I enjoy hanging out with you and most of your staff. I love these guys. They've been so good to me. And you might be remembering Justin spoke here last year on a Sunday night, right?
And so some of you are like, maybe disappointed that it's not Justin. And listen, I got some good news and some bad news. Since I'm a little shorter, the bad news is you'll have to adjust your eyes down. to my level. The good news I should be easier on the eyes.
That's subjective. But we'll just roll with it. He's probably listening and going unbelievable.
Well, if you would, turn to your Bibles to Matthew chapter number five tonight. Perhaps many of you at the beginning of the year, you made some new resolutions. How many of you made a New Year's resolution this year, this month? Nobody? Are you still?
How many of you made a New Year's resolution?
Okay, there you go. There's just a handful of you. You know, it's good to do that from time to time. It's good to set goals for yourself. You know, maybe you set a goal to get healthy this year.
Or maybe you wanted to improve your social life or achieve some personal thing in your life. Uh each and every one of us should be setting spiritual goals. You know, we ought to be growing. We ought to be getting deeper into the Word of God. We should be...
conforming more to the image of Jesus Christ. And so I want to encourage you about setting a goal for yourself maybe this year. When you do that, there's really two things that ought to direct your focus. If the Bible says that we ought to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and body, and strength, and we ought to love our neighbor as ourselves, then that gives us kind of a focus and a barometer on what we should shoot for.
So when it comes to loving God, I should grow in my Bible reading. I should get more involved in church. I should be sharing the gospel. When it comes to loving my neighbor, I ought to be improving myself so that I could be a better representation for Jesus. And so I want to emphasize that tonight in Matthew chapter number five.
And we're going to start reading in verse number 13. And if you could, and if you're able to, why don't you stand as we read these four verses, 13 through 16, Matthew chapter number five. And by the way, as a way of context, this is the greatest sermon that was ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus began this sermon by emphasizing the blessings that it is to be a Christian. Is it not a blessing to be a child of God?
Hey, listen, I don't know about you, but I was pretty poor. I had no resources on my own to merit salvation. But by faith, I am now an inheritor of the grace of God, the kingdom of heaven. It's a blessing to be a Christian.
Now, when we get to verse 13, he's going to give us a description of what the followers of Jesus ought to be and what they ought to do. Verse 13 says, Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Now, when we get to verse 16, this is kind of a conclusion of this section.
So he's using two metaphors: salt. And light, they are a contrast to the world.
So, salt is a contrast to a decaying society, and light is a contrast to a dark world. And then, if we look at the concluding verse, he says, Let your light so shine. You could also put the application of salt into this verse because it's a conclusion verse: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and watch this. Glorify your Father which is in heaven. God wants you to be a conduit of the glory of God.
He wants to shine in and through You.
So with that thought, I want to talk to you about being a channel. Of God's glory. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this time for us to worship. And we've already been encouraged with the wonderful music.
But I pray that we would give attention to the word. And that we would apply these principles to our life. We give you all the glory in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, and God's people said. Amen. You can be seated.
By the way, that amen was a little weak. I'm not going to lie. This is North Carolina, folks. Aren't there shouting Baptists around here? I believe I did this.
Last year on a Wednesday, but this is a full crowd here, okay?
So. Let's do an amen exercise. This will encourage me to let me know that you're paying attention. I need a lot of affirmation.
So I'll say something true and You just say amen.
Sound good? All right, the Lord is good. See, doesn't that feel good to get that out of you?
Alright. Today was wonderful to be a Christian, to be a church. The music's good! The preaching was great! Tonight's preacher's handsome.
There were a few deep voices out there, I'm not gonna lie. And I appreciate it. Thank you so much. To illustrate what I mean about being a channel of God's blessing, I want to share with you a personal story. Three years ago, I went for a routine checkup.
was an echocardiogram. I would get these every two years. because they discovered in my late 20s I had a defective heart valve. Which wasn't a surprise because this runs in my family. A lot of Burke older men, they've had valve replacements.
My dad, my uncle. Uh my great-grandfather died at 51 from a heart attack. My grandfather died at 52 from a heart attack. Most likely, it was probably from a rupture of an aneurysm near. The aorta.
So what do you know? It hit me as well. I'm in my late 20s, I find out I have the same leaky defective valve.
Now at that time, the doctor said, you know, we'll just kind of keep an eye on it. If you watch your blood pressure, really watch your health, we might can defer any type of procedure, maybe to your 50s. And if you do a really good job, maybe even beyond that.
So at that moment, I'm telling you, I was motivated because I didn't want to fall prey to all the problems that my dad and my grandfather and all my uncles had. And so I worked really hard on it, but then in 2018, around the time that my youngest daughter was born, I went for an echocardiogram and the doctors called me within a few days and they said, hey, listen, we want you to know we discovered an aneurysm developing near your aorta.
Now your aorta measured in diameter should be 3.5 centimeters. And so I was measuring a 3.8. And in the medical world, if you hit the size of a 5, then they believe you are liable for a rupture. And if your aneurysm bursts, your chances of survival are pretty slim. And so they needed to keep an eye on it.
They said, nothing to worry about now. And I felt fine. I didn't feel bad at all. I mean, an ageurism's just there until it blows. And it's described as kind of like a garden hose.
And if there's a bulge on that hose, the lining begins to get weak as it expands. And then that's when it can tear.
So they have to watch that.
So this first year, it's measuring 3.8. The next year, I go in for the ultrasound on the heart, and it's reading 4.2. And the next year I went in and it was reading 4.6. And then the next year I went in. Oh, actually, I didn't go in.
You know why? Because it was COVID and we didn't do normal things.
So I had a 16 month span before I went back in 2021 for an ultrasound on the heart.
So I'm sitting there on the table and they're putting the machine on my chest and I'm thinking, oh yeah, I have an aneurysm. And I said to the technician, hey, why don't you measure that aneurysm? What's the numbers on that? I'm kind of curious. And I'm looking at the screen and it said 5.2.
And all of a sudden, my emotional heart sank because the doctors always warned me: as soon as it hits five Josh, you're gonna have to have surgery. There's no medicine, there's no therapy to reverse an aneurysm. The only solution is surgery.
So I've always had this fear, and I see this number 5.2, and I'm thinking, that can't be true. I mean, I feel so good, I don't have any problems, I'm watching my health. Why on earth would it? Would this be happening to me? I remember I called my father as soon as I left that ultrasound room and I said, Pops, I got this aneurysm and it read 5.2.
I think I'm gonna have to have surgery. And he said, I wouldn't worry about that. You know, they always want you to be cautious and you're young, you're healthy.
Well, he was wrong. Because the next week I went to see my cardiologist. My wife Jacinda and I were waiting and he enters the room and he had a A mask and a shield. Probably tell you what Well, never mind.
So he looks at me and he says, Josh, you saw the numbers. You know what this means. You're going to have to have surgery. I gotta go make a phone call. I'll be right back.
I couldn't believe it. Here I am in my mid-30s and now I'm facing open. Heart surgery.
So they got me an appointment with the cardiac surgeon the next week and I met with him, they did an MRI to get an accurate reading on what was going on. And so he told me, he said, Well, we need to repair this aneurysm. In fact, it's reading 5.5. It's pretty large. At this moment, we don't believe we need to replace the valve.
It's got a leak, but I would describe it as a mild leak.
So, what we're going to do is we're just going to repair the aneurysm.
Now, when we open you up and we see the situation differently, we might replace the valve. And if that's the case, we would give you an artificial valve.
Now, that statement right there is in one ear and right out the other. And the reason why is because I was always preconditioned by my family that if I was ever facing a scenario where I'd have to have a valve replacement, that I should always choose a flush valve. which comes from a pig or a cow, and it just functions normally, just has a shorter shelf life. The other option is a mechanical valve, and there's a lot of problems that come with that.
So my uncles, they always say, Josh, don't get the mechanical valve.
So whatever this guy was saying, I didn't even pay attention to, nor was I worried about it because I'm getting an aneurysm repaired. December the 13th, I showed up at the Kansas University Hospital at 5:45 a.m. You know what AM stands for? Almost morning. There were six other people along with myself to have a procedure that day, and so the hospital checked us in.
And then they sent us up on the third floor to the Priop. And it was all quiet because we're all about to face surgery. And so we're right in the elevator, and I break the ice. I looked at the guy next to me and said, So, what are you here for? He said, well, I got into a bad accident a few years back.
I had to have a heart transplant. having some complications and so they're gonna do an experimental procedure on me today. I said, really? He said, yeah. He opened up his shirt and says, look at this.
And I'm telling you, there was a big hole, a big crater right there in his chest. He was an Iron Man without the iron. And I'm looking at it, I went, oh no, that's what I'm gonna look like. I'll never be able to take off my shirt at the pool. Oh, I'm gonna look hideous.
The nurses came into the lobby to take me into the pre-op. I said my goodbyes to my wife, and I go to the last room at the end of the hallway. And then these nurses, they were all business. They started putting needles in me, putting in fluid. moving fluid, asking all kinds of questions.
They then asked me to get in the hospital gown and then they shaved me from the neck to the toes. I've never had that happen before. But you know Nurse was shaving me, she goes, you know, you really got nice legs. Really? It's gonna be a good day after all.
And then things got interesting. The nurse practitioner came in and she said, Mr. Burkholder. I got a chart here to go over some information about An artificial vowel. I said, excuse me?
She said, this is the information on your new artificial valve. I said, I thought I was here for an aneurysm repair. She said, yes, of course, but if the doctors, when they open you up, which I don't even like that phrase. When they open you up and they determine that you need to have it replaced, they're going to do so with. a mechanical artificial valve.
I said, oh, okay. I said, so this is just in case. She said yes. I said, well, in that case, Why don't you scratch out artificial valve and you put flesh valve? Because that's what I want to do.
She says, well, Dr. Downey put down artificial valve. I said, well, I want to put down a flesh valve. She said, Well, you better talk to him. I said, Well, why don't you tell me what it's like?
I mean, if he wants me to do it, you tell me. She said, Well, with an artificial valve, you'll have to take a blood thinner for the rest of your life. She said, You'll have to watch your vitamin K levels because if they're off, you might have a stroke. And then she said, you'll have this tick. Clock sound.
in your chest, but most people say they get used to it. I said, you're a horrible salesperson. Why would I ever choose that? I mean what's going on here? It's like I'm going to the mechanic for an oil change and getting a whole new engine.
She said, well, I'll let you talk to Dr. Downey. Moments later, Dr. Downey came in, and he's an incredible human being. I really love this man.
In fact, I wanted to be a real gospel witness, and I've been praying specifically for that.
So Dr. Downey comes into the room. He says, Joshua, I understand. That you're choosing to have a flesh valve as opposed to an artificial one. I said yes, and I explained my reasons.
And I said, you know, I wasn't prepared to make a big decision today, and you're about to wheel me in there. And so it's kind of against my ethics to make last-minute decisions unless I just know it's the right thing to do. He said, Well, this is what you should take into consideration. He said, the flesh vows have a 10-year shelf life. He says, and you're young and you're active.
He says, you know where you'll be in eight to 10 years? I said no. He said right back here. here. Man, that was heavy.
I said, well, what am I supposed to do? He says you need to make a decision. I was overwhelmed and I looked at him, I said, Well Can I pray about it? He said absolutely. There were six other people in the room and Right then it got really.
Quiet. And I prayed and it was pretty informal. I was like, God? What is going on? It's already bad enough that I have this trial in my life, and I've come to terms with that, but now you gotta throw another layer.
Lord, this is tough. I don't know what to do. I need the spirit of wisdom. God, I need you to show up right now for me. I pray that you'll be with everybody today.
I pray that nobody makes a mistake. That was a little joke, but it's true. I didn't want anybody to make a mistake, and I said, I pray that you would. Bless. Me.
Pray this name, Lord Jesus, amen.
Now it's hard for me to describe this moment. But I knew exactly what to do. It was as if I had an instant download. And so I looked at the doctor, I said, Dr. Downey, I said, you know.
I didn't choose this for my life. I said, I didn't even choose you. The insurance company has signed you to me. Say, God, put you in my life. And I don't know why I'm facing this, but it seems to me.
that God wants me to trust him. And God wants me to trust the doctor that's been put in my life. If that's what I need to do, it's the artificial valve, I want you to know that's what I'll. I'll decide to do I'm telling you, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. They wheeled me into the operating room.
Hours later I woke up, I said, what happened? They said. You had a lot of holes in that Aortic valve, we had to replace it. I said That's fine. And I went back to sleep and I'm telling you, I've had zero Regrets.
Now, you need to understand in that story that God showed up in my life. And God wants to show up in your life. And it's not anything special about Josh Burkholder. No, you need to understand it was in my state of weakness when I was dependent upon him and I had nothing to do with myself. I needed God and when I asked for him and I yielded to his spirit, he showed up.
And he shined his glory in that room. And God wants to do the same with you if you will consider being a channel of blessing, as the Lord has laid out for us here in this passage. And we see these two metaphors of salt and light, and then this concluding verse. And I want to just encourage you in three ways: if you want to be a channel of blessing, you want to be a conduit of God's glory, then, first of all, number one, you need to be a virtuous Christian. You need to be a virtuous Christian, which is where we get the understanding of what salt was and how it was applied in Jesus' day.
Jesus says, You're the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, what's it good for? Basically, it's only good for secondary usage when it is thrown out onto the road to thaw out the ice. I can observe three things about what it means to be a virtuous Christian using this metaphor of salt. Number one, if you're going to be a virtuous Christian, that That means you will be an impediment, a preservative to the corruption that's all around you. Remember, salt is a contrast to what we see as the world as it is decaying, as it is pining away.
And that's not rocket science. We understand with the second law of thermodynamics, things are gradually getting worse. The things are not becoming more complex, they're coming into chaos. And that's because we are in the cursed world, all because of our sin. But the Bible wants us to be encouraged that even though the king is yet to return, I love that theme.
We can still experience the kingdom of God here because the church is here. Only he that now lets will let. But soon he'll be taken out of the way. The church will be raptured out. The Holy Spirit's presence will not be here.
And then all hell will break out on this world in the great tribulation. But until that day comes, the Lord wants you to be encouraged as you occupy until he comes. He is still at work. He is still powerful. I don't know about you, but the Holy Spirit is still alive and he's still moving today.
And if you will yield yourself to him, you will be used of God to be an impediment, a roadblock to the corruption and the evil that is all around us. Hey, it was a preservative. That's how salt was used in Jesus' day. You know, today we have refrigeration, so we don't use it in that way. But we do use it in the second way, and that is with flavor, the savory things of the salt.
So, number two. If you're gonna be a virtuous Christian, that means you'll be an impediment to the moral decline. And then, secondly, you'll be an influence for good, a positive influence, something that's tasty, something that's attractive. Hey, you ought to be attractive in this world. There should be something about your life that people go, wow, I don't know what it is, but I want it.
I want to know what's going on because what they have is exactly what I need. God wants you to be a tasty Christian. Hey, if you've lost your savior, then what are you good for? Oh, well, you're still used as something, but it's for the stuff that goes out on the road where people just walk and trample over. Hey, I want this salt that goes on my food, amen.
If you go over to the salt mines and Salina caves, you can go deep down into the caves, and they're processing the salt, but it's not been purified. That's the salt that goes on the road. You wouldn't put that salt on your food, and God wants you to be the salt that goes on food. He wants you to be tasty. I remember when I started this health journey, the doctors were like, hey, watch your sodium.
You know what? That's some advice I never adhere to. You know why? Because I tried it once and it tastes bland. The food is horrible.
Yeah. You know, I watch my sugars more than that, but I, let me tell you, it didn't take me long at all. I was getting that salt shaker right back out and I was peppering and putting it all on my food because it tastes better with salt. God wants you to be a tasty Christian. He wants you to be a positive influence.
He wants you to be attractive. He wants you to be an impediment to the moral decline. Number three, if you're a virtuous Christian, then now you're an instrument for purification.
Now, it's not said directly in the text, but we can infer that based off what salt is, based off what the element of salt does. If you put salt on a wound, what happens? Oh, it accelerates the healing process. It's an agent of healing. It's a balm in and of itself.
I used to struggle with canker sores a lot. And every once in a while I'll still get them as an adult. My wife will say, well, Josh, just put some salt on that. And I was like, oh, well, I'll try putting some salt on it. And I put a little salt on it and I screamed.
Because it burns. To me, you're trying to kill me? She says, Calm down. She says, In just another day or two, it'll be totally gone. And she was right.
Now I still am a big baby when I put salt on that, but I'm telling you, salt. purifies the wound. It brings healing.
Well, if you're that type of Christian, just imagine when God can use you. into the broken lives of people around you. I'll never forget when Our church in Simpsonville, South Carolina, set up a Thanksgiving praise service, and we were in the gym, and we set up tables, and we had a nice meal. Then they had an open mic for people to come up and just praise the Lord and give a testimony about what God has done in their life. And so person after person would stand up, and they would just talk about all the good things that God's doing in their lives.
Well, out in the audience was a man named Nathan Shallis. Nathan was invited by one of our friends, and Nathan was a roommate of another guy in the church, and he was a drinker, he was into drugs. drugs and someone said, Hey, you want a free meal? Come over to the church. We're doing this praise service.
And so he's like, yeah, free meal. I'll show up. And there he is, sitting out in the audience, and he's listening to the stories of people whose lives have been dramatically changed because of Jesus Christ. Even people like himself that have struggled with alcohol and with drugs and they're saying, I have been liberated because of the grace of God. Oh, I'm so thankful he has healed me of these problematic sins.
And Nathan's sitting there and he goes, I don't. I don't know what it is, but that's what I want. More that night? Nathan got saved. Boy, it's interesting because Nathan did a complete 180.
The next week he was passing out gospel tracts downtown Greeville, South Carolina. The next year, he signed up to go to Bible college up in Wisconsin, and today he's a pastor in Illinois. Because there were some salty Christians. Putting some salt on his wounds. Hey, listen, if you're gonna be a channel of blessing, you need to be a virtuous Christian.
Follow with me on the second one with the second metaphor. If you're gonna be a channel of God's glory, you need to be a visible Christian. Visible Christian, this is where we get our second metaphor. And remember, the contrast with the salt was in a world that's decaying. With the light, we see the contrast in a world that's very dark.
It's a dark world. And the world that is dark. Creates confusion, it creates chaos, and the only thing that penetrates it is the light, the truth of Jesus and His Word and His gospel. And God wants you to be a visible Christian. You know, there's no such thing as a being a nominal Christian.
There's no such thing as that you either are a Christian or you're not. Hey, you either have the Spirit of God in you or you do not.
Now there are times we are grieving the Holy Spirit because we're not living the way we should. But God wants us to be visible. He says, you are the light of the world. A city that's sat on a hill cannot be hid.
So there's this hill that's set up. If you were to visit Israel, you would see a lot of, the topography would be a lot of hills and valleys and mountains. And so in Bible days, they would build their cities right up on the top of the hill because that way you could see it. It'd be a natural defense system. And it was accessible.
It was a reference point.
So if I don't know where to go, I'd look up on the hill, I'd see the city, and I would know how to find my way. 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 the sin nature.
Romans 3.23 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 any one. 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 Curlin 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.
