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. Hmm. What a joy it is to be here.
It really is, it's an unexpected. Surprise for me, the pastor and I were corresponding yesterday and He said, I'll see you in Pensacola this week. And I said, you're coming? He said, yeah. I said, well, we're We're looking forward to it.
My wife and I used to fly 60,000 miles a year. And she had One bad flight. And she was done. She went to bone fish. grill one time and had shrimp with Yes.
Salmonella in it? She's done with Trump. Mm-hmm. One time I said something I shouldn't have said, she's done with me. No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just. But uh, so she doesn't fly. I mean, it's been 15 years, so. We go to Trist Cole every year, and if she's with me.
Well, you drive, so I said to the preacher, will we? We're headed there tomorrow. And funny you said that.
So we always, when we go to Pensacola, and we leave on a Sunday. We always stop around Western Salem. It was in the plains and the pastor said, Well, today's an anniversary. For me. And it was a no-brainer for me.
And I want to publicly say, all jokes aside, how much I love you, Pastor. Uh he is. And I will not disclose how much he paid me to say that, but I do. I um I appreciate real friends. I said thank you.
I guess maybe four or four or five times last year or the year before, I said, I used to have a sign on my wall that said. I don't need a certain number of friends, just a number of friends I can be certain of.
Well, I got to Christmas morning this past Christmas, and I guess my wife got tired of me saying I used to have a sign on my wall, so she gave me another sign to put on my wall. And um If you have good friends, you better cherish them. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate him and his wife and his boys. They have They've been a blessing to me.
and an encouragement. What song was that? I mean, if you're going to put it on with the blackberry juice, you're at least make it wrap or something. I uh I really am and In September, I will celebrate 15 years. Pastoring.
And um It's a joy. It's been a real, real dream come true. Every time I've been at Kirwan, you all have been a blessing to me, and when I've seen members from here somewhere else, You've been a blessing. And I just want to tell you that tonight's not just a stop. just because it's an honor and a privilege.
And Pastor, I celebrate with you. The pastor is a gift from God to the church. And he gave some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. He's a gift from God to the church. You need a pastor.
Amen, amen. And since I can't say that to my people, I'll say that to his. But thank God. For the perfecting of the saints, you know what the word perfecting is the same word. applied to the disciples mending their nets.
Same Greek word. They were mending their nets after fishing. The nets needed repair. How many of you have come to church needing some mending and got it from the word, from the pastor? Mending the saints for the work of ministry.
The pastor is mending the saints. The saints are ministering to people and being mended by the pastor to minister to other people, they mature in the Lord.
Well, I'm just not growing. Find somebody to minister to. And we'll all start growing and growing something for the Lord. Thank you, Pastor, for letting me come. Just a few moments tonight from the book of Genesis.
Let me give you. I thought that's on my heart. And an encouragement to you. as God is moving you ahead. And moving this church.
Every time I'm here, I can see how God is moving and growing. My my my daughter Was saying, what church are you preaching at? And I have to describe. The building to tell her what church I'm preaching. There are two ways to tell our church, tell my kids where I'm going to preach, and none of them are little anymore.
describe the auditorium or talk about the food that we ate at, all right? And in some places that ain't always good, but at least it's memorable. And at this place, either one are great identifiers of where I was coming. And we're just riding in and sharing just to be here. And what a joy it is to be back.
Genesis 24, would you stand for just a moment? Let me read a couple verses. I know it's been a long day. But I want you to think about this. I'm at a stage in my life where stuff I used to preach on means different to me now.
This is one of those passages. 26 of 24, 26 of chapter 24, the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord.
Well, I wonder how many people went to a worship service today and didn't even worship.
Well, it was worship because we have it on the website that says worship service. That's like saying you're a doctor because you parked in a spot that said MD. Yeah. You didn't worship because it's on the website. You worship because you praise God for who he is.
We're watching a man worship the Lord. And listen what this worshiper said. Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who have not left destitute of my master of his mercy and his truth, I being in the way the Lord led me to the house of my master's brother. Listen, something happened in his life. That catapulted him into worship.
If the best days ahead, for Curran Baptist Church. are before you. I guarantee you, it's going to be some worshiping day. And I'm here to tell you, I don't care what's happening in the Middle East tonight, we got something to worship God about. Father, in the name of Jesus, would you touch me?
Help me to be a blessing to my friend who's been a blessing to me. And to these people who stand behind it. It's a church full of people. that were still in the middle of service. that have been praying that their pastor would get here to be a blessing to his friend.
And I pray I will. Cleanse me, empty me, and fill me in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing.
It's right in the chapter before that Sarah dies. She's the wife of Abraham and they've been married for a long time. I'm sure there are some people in this building who've experienced this, I have not. I don't even want to think about the prospect of it. Trying to keep doing life without my wife.
to bury the one I love to. To press on without my soulmate, my help meet my My best friend. Eight or so years ago, we buried my mother-in-law. My father-in-law has been in that season of life. I can't imagine.
And yet, this is the scene for Abraham. His wife is gone, life without his wife. I can't picture what it would be like to be without my spouse, but in 24, verse number 1, the Bible says he's not only without his wife, but he himself is old and stricken in age.
So watch this now. He's not only facing life without his wife, now he's facing the prospect of death himself. I've not lost my wife. She's still standing with me in ministry. I can't fathom living life without them.
But I do have a little tinge. of perspective. on contemplating death. I well remember in my mind. My wife tells me we had about an hour conversation, and it took an hour because I gasped.
Between every Breath. And she says, I talk to her about dying and what to do about it. And I can tell you I may not be able to know what Abraham felt like not having a wife with him on planet Earth anymore, but I can tell you when you are lying in a bed and you are contemplating your life is going to end, pressing matters come to the surface. Petty things don't matter. When you're thinking about death, you're not worried about this or that or whether or not your coffee is hot enough or whether or not you catch a red light or whether somebody cut in front of you or said thank you for holding the door.
You're not worried about whether or not your name got announced from the pulpit or somebody looked at you funny who offended you. When you're lying on a bed and you're thinking about dying, important things really matter. For Abraham, I don't know if there's anything more important at this stage in his life contemplating death than finding Isaac a wife. Isaac is a big deal. He and Sarah got Isaac when parents shouldn't be having children.
God did a miracle. He did a miracle. He gave Sarah that baby. He gave Abraham that son, and that son was the promised seed through whom the promises of God would be made. I'm going to multiply you like the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky.
In these shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. I'm going to begin a nation with you, and not just any nation, the nation of Israel. It's a big deal to begin the nation of Israel because Israel is going to produce the Messiah. Oh, somebody you didn't hear me. I said Israel is going to produce the Messiah.
Listen to me, Israel was a big deal then. It's still a big deal to God now. It's a big deal, Abraham. If I'm going to get you to be able to get this thing started, then Jesus to come through the line as a lion of the tribe of Judah. You've got to have children that have children, that have children, that have children, that have children.
And I'm going to give you a child by the name of Isaac, and he's going to have children. Watch this now. He needs the right. Wife. It's a big deal.
So he's going to slay his eldest servant, Eleazar, to go find Isaac a wife. It's a big deal.
I'm going to assign you, I'm going to delegate you with the enormous task of finding not a wife, not just one of many choice, no, no, the right wife for my son. How'd you like to have that job? I don't know about you, I'm glad I got to pick my own. Yeah. I mean, I have a few suggestions for my boys, but I don't think I'm going to get away with picketing.
I have a boy that's kind of interested in my daughter right now and I told him with, you know, just as humbling and Christianified as I could tell him, I'll break every one of your things. No. He laughed too. I said, I'm not playing with you. Good young man.
I want you to go find my son Isaac. I mean, what is the criteria? I mean, this guy Eliezer does not exactly come from a family of matchmakers. It's not like his daddy used to pick wives for a living, and his granddaddy used to pick wives, and his great-granddaddy was the king of wife-picking. No, let me tell you something.
He's never done this before, and yet he has to do it. Watch this now, fare is not an option. This is not a time when you come back with, oops, what had happened? What I mean, I tried. He can't bring back five, let him date one for a day and pick.
No, no, no, no. Go bring her back. Go bring the right one back. And I'm going to tell you something. This is a fellow with a task that's bigger than him, and he's under more pressure than you can possibly imagine.
He cannot fail. He's never done this before, and he's assigned to do something he is incapable of doing without some help. He needs guidance, he needs direction, he needs a GPS system, he needs assurance, he needs somebody taking him somewhere he's never been before, doing something he's never done before, and he cannot get it wrong. This fella needs some help, he's under pressure. I tell you what I love about Genesis 24: in the middle of a desperate man looking for help, these words show up: The Lord led him.
The Lord, be careful. You read your Bible so much, phrases like this won't phase you anymore. Come on now. Come on now. I said, the Lord let him.
I didn't say Muhammad led him, Buddha let him, Mary led him, the Pope led him, a priest led him, a cow that used to be his grandma led him. I said, the Lord let him. I'm talking about the creator of the universe who put the stars in space and the moon in place and the sun hanging on nothing that it never falls that took from the dust of the ground and formed man and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life. The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable, eternal, righteous, just, holy, pure, all together, lovely God. Boom, shaka, locka, locka, locka.
The Lord led him. Yeah. But I want you to notice something tonight, quickly. He wasn't a name out of a hat. He didn't get lucky.
He didn't get something scratched off the back of a lottery card. He didn't cross his fingers. He wasn't carrying a four-leaf clover. Watch this now. He said, I was in the way.
I was eligible for his leadership. I got to the spot. He found out there really is a spot. There really is a place. There really is a location.
There really is a zone. There really is a bullseye. There really is something I can do, someplace I can be, where if I get there, if I get there, if I get there, if I get there, God Almighty, God Almighty, God Almighty will lead me. And let me tell you something. I can say this unequivocally.
If God's leading, you'll never go the wrong way. Under the most pressure he had ever been in his life, he got the leadership from the only one who could, Almighty God, but he got it because he was in the way. Preacher, I was riding here tonight and I was thinking to myself, 14 years of pastoring, 15 years of pastoring for me, you and I both grew up under daddies who preached the word of God. And we did a lot of preaching before we did pastoring. And you're probably just like me.
It looked so easy till you had to do it. Oh, when I get there, oh, when I get there, boy, I tell you what, once I start implementing my ideas, this church is going to soar. And you sit at that seat. I I God has been good to me. I'd just like to testify, I don't even know you that well, and I'm all up in your business.
He's been good to you, too. I said, God's been good to me. I'm not just talking about waking me up and starting me on my way, and food on my table, and clothes on my back, and a roof over my head. I mean, God has been good to me. I said, God has been good to me.
It's just, just listen, a week from today will represent six years ago before I woke up at midnight with a headache and three days later was in the hospital fighting for my life. I could have been dead tonight. I'm sitting in a chair in Kernersville, North Carolina, because God has been good to me. Yes, indeed. We're in a country where what we're doing is nobody's standing outside waiting to arrest us.
Come on now. God has been, He's given me a Bible. Come on now. I said, God has been good to me. My lungs aren't what they used to be.
My lung capacity probably never will. But God was good enough to me to let me, in spite of my limitations, in 2025 preach 372 times. At this point in my life tonight. The 8th of March, 2026. Please listen, I'm going on record.
I have never, I have never, I have never enjoyed serving God any more than I do today. I ain't bragging on me. I'm just telling you, somehow he takes old crazy me and lets me work for him, and I'm having a time. I have never enjoyed serving God any more than I do right now. But watch you, please listen.
I have never felt under more pressure than I do right now. You text yesterday. I thought to myself, okay, well, I'm thinking about, oh, I'm going to preach at Pensacola next Tuesday. But I thought to myself, I'm just leaving West Virginia last night. I'm going home to acquire open house, and then I'm going to finish open house, and then I'm going to meet with somebody else, and then I'm going to do something else, and I'm going to go on a date with my wife, and I'm going to pack.
And I'm thinking to myself, I'm packing for PCC on Tuesday, but I got to preach tomorrow morning at my own church. And then we talk to him on Sunday night. And then on the way down here, one of my sons is asking me for advice. And the preacher's saying, This is, and a marriage is breaking up, and I got children in college, and I got another girl that's getting ready to graduate. And I got young men that don't have a daddy, and I've got people that are struggling with legal issues, and all of these things on my mind.
I'm going to tell you something. You look at the Pope at some time and go, there goes Superman, there goes who knows it all. There goes somebody that has no problems. If I had his life, I'd be just as happy as he is. Could I tell you something?
The only difference between him up here and you down there is that he's up here and you're down there. Neither one of us. Know anything. We need some help. We need some guidance.
We need some direction. And we're at the stage in our Christian life where failure is not an option. Too many are failing at marriage. They're failing at pastoring. They're failing at ministry.
They're failing at mentoring. They're failing at counseling. They're failing at spiritual victory because they're trying to do a task that's bigger than them on their own.
Well, I got on I-95 and I-85 and pulled into Kernersville, North Carolina, to tell all of us in the building tonight that although we're under pressure and failure is not an option, there is a spot, there is a place, there is a location. If we'll get there, God will lead us. And I don't want to fail. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, the daunting prospect. of mounting a pulpit.
with people. leaning on you for livelihood. is one that I can't describe if you've never had it. I preached all over the country to teenagers for years. preaching to all of them combined.
was not nearly as much pressure as raising my own.
Well, I preach to teenage. Bless God, girl. That boy comes over to you, young lady, and mess with you, you bring him over to me. If you're too scared to break up with him, you bring him to me. I'll buy you a bill to bear.
You'll squeeze it, and it'll say, hit that road, Jack, and don't come back. And I'm up there preaching at them girls. Yes, praise the Lord. I'm going to step here and target.
Now I got two daughters of that age. And I don't feel like preaching, I feel like shooting somebody. You want to talk about pressure raising kids? You preach a message for 30, 30 minutes to somebody else's kids, that ain't pressure. When you got to raise your own for 18 years, that's big-time pressure.
Jimmy, I need some help. I need help. He and I will be talking to pastors. The hardest group of people to preach at. How are you going to teach somebody who thinks they know it all?
You don't want to think, you know what he and I are doing for the next two days? Trying to find something that nobody's ever heard. And that's the danger of preaching to pastors. That's what most of the time they do. Let me find something I've never heard.
You know why nobody's ever heard it? Because it's not in the Bible, dummy. And then they up there, I'm going to show you something you've never seen before. I just heard you say it, I still don't see it. Can I tell you it doesn't matter whether I'm a pastor or you're sitting in the building tonight, we're all living under pressure.
And for just the next few moments, I want to give you a formula to know whether or not you're in the way. Because I'm going to tell you something, you go do life. You flash your Kerwin Baptist Church card at the devil and think that's going to scare him. You go do like, you can't make it through life successfully because you go to this church because Dan Hartrey is your pastor, or Kenny Baldwin blew in on a Sunday night. You know what it's going to take to raise your kids, to lead your marriage, to find your life's mate, to live out in this crazy world?
You know what it's going to take to keep you off of clicking on pornography, CERN? You're going to have to have somebody leading you that knows where he's going. He said, I'm in the way. Write this down. There's submission in the way.
There's submission in the way. I don't have time. It took me about six weeks to teach this to our people. But listen, there's submission in the way. You're going to find in Genesis 24 that the servant's going to put his right hand under the thigh of the master and basically swear, I'm going to do what you told me.
You know why a lot of Christians aren't in the way? They don't want to do what they're told. Boy, if God's going to do something in Curran Baptist Church, we need to make sure we know we're servants and he's the master.
Somebody helped me preach tonight. He put his hand under his thigh and basically swore, said, Abraham, you're my master. Can I ask you a question? Have you forgotten who your master is? Come on now.
He purchased you. Come on. I said, He purchased you. He redeemed you. He saved you.
He sustains you. He's given you food. He's given you family. He's given you fortune. He's given you fulfillment.
The next time you wonder why you're not getting direction from the master, why don't you start with submission to the master? To his what? To his words. You see, the scripture says, Abraham said, Abraham said, Abraham said. The servant could not do the job if he didn't submit to what the master said.
Could I ask you, how's your Bible reading? How in the world are you going to live life for your master if you don't even know what he said? To his words, to his will. Go back to where I'm from. It's in the text.
Go back to where I'm from. What if he said, well, it's a whole lot closer for me to find a girl for him right here? Yeah, but I'm the master. And if I tell you I want a wife for my son from where I'm from, you need to go where I told you. Maybe the reason why you're struggling with information from God is because you've not obeyed what He's already given you.
To the master's words, to the master's will, to the master's wishes.
Now, once you locate her, I'm not sending Isaac to her. I want you to bring her back to him. Could I tell you something? If you want to be in the way where God leads you, why don't you make his wish your command? There's submission in the way.
Notice secondly there's supplication in the way. Hmm. Verse 12 says, He said, Oh Lord God of my master Abraham. You know what that is?
So prayer, I pray thee. Why is he praying? I'll tell you why he's praying. Because it's happening something like this. All right, now here's what I want you to do.
I want you to go back to my homeland. I want you to locate a woman. The exact right woman for my son. And bring her back here. And oh, no pressure at all.
The rest of the whole Old Testament, all 38 other books, hinge on your decision. And also, the whole bloodline of the Messiah and the hope of the entire. The whole human race is cooked if you get your answer wrong, but no pressure at all. And this Joker says, yes, sir. And you know what he did?
Probably did right after he walked out the house and said, Yes, sir. He said, I just signed on something. I don't have no clue how I'm doing it. You ever come to church and made a commitment on the altar and got home and thought, how am I going to do it? I said I would.
I said I would, but I can't pull this off. I remember when they voted me in as pastor. I was so excited. I finally get to do what I dreamed to do. And then I sat down and thought, I can't do this.
She looks so beautiful in that wedding gown. I do, I do, I do. I'll speak for her. She do too. And then you take your tuxedo off and put the wedding, and then you start doing marriage, and you find out a beautiful wedding does not make a beautiful marriage.
What do you do when you commit to do something you can't pull off? You better learn how to pray. Oh Lord God. I just made a promise to my master. I don't know how to find this girl.
I've never been here before. How am I going to know which one's the right girl? How am I going to know that when I bring her back, she's the right girl? But I can't fail. I can't fail.
Listen to me. What do you do when you don't know how to lead a marriage? What do you do when you don't know how to raise your kids? What do you do when you walk up on a situation where you don't have the answer? You don't have any files in your book.
What do you do when your business takes a turn and you don't have the know-how whether to go right or left or up or down? I'll tell you what you do. You call on somebody who knows what he's doing. How's your prayer life? You want to thank God you got a praying pastor?
There are 30 things you can get and preach on in the pulpit, but when you love your people, you don't want to preach a sermon from your briefcase. You want to preach the word from the Lord. Supplication in the way. I want to be in the way where the Lord leads me. You better learn submission.
I want to be in the way where the Lord leads me. You better learn supplication. I can promise you, you're not in the way if you don't have a prayer life. Number three, there's success in the way. We're going to find out right in the text.
You look at it, exactly what he prayed for, God answered. I'll tell you how you can know you're in the way when you get your prayers answered. I worry about Christians who never get prayers answered. They never get prayer secured. They never get promises supplied.
They never get protection sustained. They never get provisions that are supplemented. They never experience success. I'm not saying that every day is going to be a great day. I'm not going to say that storms won't come.
I'm not saying that challenges don't happen, that mountains don't appear. But I'm telling you, when you're following God, you should be experiencing spiritual success.
Something should be happening in your marriage. I'm not saying your kids are going to be angels. There's no such thing.
Well, minds are, they're fake. Listen to me, there's no such thing as angels. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. God never requires that our children be spiritual in order for us to be equal. It says they are to be in subjection.
That's what it says about a pastor. You can't regulate spirituality, but you can regulate subjection. I can't tell you to love God, but I can tell you to get up out this house. My mama used to say, I'll kill you and turn myself in. You think about it.
You're following the Lord. Delight thyself also in the Lord. He'll give thee the desires of thine heart. Listen to me. If your prayers are never getting answered, maybe they're the wrong prayers.
There's submission in the way, there's supplication in the way, there's success in the way. Let me tell you something. You follow God long enough, He'll meet your needs, He'll keep gas in that car, He'll make sure those bills will get paid. There'll be times where you could say, I don't know how I was going to do it, I don't know how I'm going to put this tithe in the offering plate and still pay those bills. But you said, God, if I submit to you, you said, God, if I do, you said, Prove me now here with if I'll not open up the windows of heaven and pour y'all a blessing.
There'll be times where you go, I don't know how God did it, but I know He's the one that did. Ma'am, may I have some water? She says, I'll give water to you and the camels. Ding, ding, ding. You know what he said?
That's exactly what I prayed. There's submission in the way. There's supplication in the way. There's success in the way. I'm moving.
Watch this now. They're shouting in the way. Look at verse 27. Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham. Verse 26 tells us what he's doing.
He's worshiping the Lord.
Well, I'm in the way. I'm in the way. I'm walking in the perfect will of God. Why? Because I said so.
I'm the most spiritual person I ever met. You ever hear people share testimonies and their testimonies are all about how great they are for God? Yeah. The Lord, I want to tell you what the Lord did for me. And you never hear the Lord doing anything.
You hear what they're doing. Yeah, you can't.
Well, don't be a judge. Don't be a judge. You don't know whether I walk with God. I tell you what, I know you n you don't walk with God if you're not a worshiper. And I'm not talking about whether how high your hand is raised or how loud you clap or how on beach you stomp.
I'm saying when you know that you couldn't have done it unless God did it in you, you ought to worship him. I don't know. What is he doing? You know the first thing that comes to my mind when it says, and he worshiped the Lord? First thing comes to my mind.
Where's the worship leader? Where's the organ? Where's the piano? Where's the orchestra? Thank you for listening today.
We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web. at Kerwin Baptist Church.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app.
Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today. God bless you.
