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. Coming.
Soon after that, you know, after a while, people get tired of you. And when y'all get tired of me, don't tell me. All right. I am thrilled to be here and I'm thankful for God's goodness and God's grace. We do serve a good God.
And without a doubt, is way better to us. Than we are to him. And so I'm I'm truly, truly Thankful. I'm thankful to have my wife with me. Last time I came through here, she was not with us.
She wasn't feeling well.
Well, I'm glad that she's here and she's made the trip. Honey, would you stand and let everybody see you? She's the most gorgeous thing in the world. She's put up with me for about 25 years and I guess she don't know nothing else, so she's decided to stick it out. Amen.
So. I'm really I'm really, really thankful. for my wife. I say to these young people, You better marry right. Amen.
I would rather go through life wanting something I never had rather than having something I never wanted. Uh Mm. Yeah, somebody say amen right there. I don't know. Hmm.
Of course, it's even better to get what you wanted, all right? I'm tremendously thankful. I'm especially thankful for my wife. Here is I think about My own life. I was talking to the preacher here as we were We were gearing up just a few moments to get ready to preach.
And ironically, this year in 2026 is Here's the first year that the days fall the same as they did in 2020.
So If you, you know, about every six or so. years or so or maybe seven, you get those dates to fall the same way. And of course, for me, 2020 was a life-changing. time for me and really for our whole world, right? And I was talking to our church this past Sunday, and it's been quite a sentimental.
month for me as I think back to 2020. And on now, six years now. And I'm just so thankful for my wife. I would not have made it without my wife. Me six years ago tonight, I was in the hospital fighting for my life.
And um my My wife was on the screen of my phone. You know, it couldn't have any visitors. in the hospital. And uh I just look at her. And I can remember.
day after day. She would sit there and coax me. while I was waiting for the medicine to kick in. I could get medicated every four hours. They came in the room every four hours, masked up, gowned up, gloved up.
never saw their faces. Doctors stood back far away from the bed. And I was shivering. with chills. I was 105 degree temperature.
And then I was aching. from my head to my toe. And then I couldn't breathe.
So I'm... I'm hoping that the medicine, and I would call her, and I'd call her, and when I called her, I'd call her shaken. And she could hear my teeth rattling and I was gasping for air. And she said, you're waiting for the medication to kick in on you. And she would sit there and talk to me.
Minute after minute, and say, it's going to be all right. Breathe, breathe, that medication is going to kick in, medication is going to kick in. And day after day she did that. By the grace of God. When I got home, Day after day after day.
How to lay in the bed? And my wife. Three times a day. brought meals up to me. She brought food to me in the bed three times a day.
She brought buckets with water to the bed and bathed me in the bed. She rubbed me to sleep when I was scared of wheezing and breathing and thinking I was going to go back to the hospital. She gave me my medication. She ran off. phone calls and guarded me with her life.
And I want to publicly, publicly say in front of You all, God, and everybody. How thankful I am, Bethany, for what you did for me. And how forever I'm indebted. Two. to her.
From You can lust after someone. Or get married to someone because you like what she looks like, or you like what he looks like. But only love will help you do that. And uh I'm glad that what God gave us wasn't something we got out of a cereal box. Mm-hmm.
And I'm glad that God spared my life. I think that's why I'm so driven. I'm Uh I think I feel like I have every reason not to be here. I buried church members. I grieved over friends that passed away.
When we got home, my wife was there. I met with the infectious disease doctor on Zoom. And she said, I have notes on my phone. Nobody. That was as sick as you were.
Lived. from what we've had thus far. And I don't know why God did it. Uh He didn't owe me anything. I could have very easily been out of here.
But he chose to keep me here and I promised him. I was going to make my life count. And tonight's a part of that. I can assure you. That this is not a gig to me.
Um It is not a calendar event. to get through and on to the next. Every single day That I live. I'm living in gratitude for what God did for me. The greatest need for mankind all across the globe is evangelization.
Every person on planet Earth needs to be saved. That was a good place to say amen. Every person on planet Earth needs to be saved. The greatest need for the church? It's revival.
Yeah. We need something fresh from God. I am so fed up with stale Christianity. I'm so tired of leftovers. Mechanics.
Christian bots. We have practiced this church thing. We've rehearsed our Christian life. We have gotten so good at performing like Christian actors. We have managed to pull it off without him.
There comes a time in every Christian life. Where that flesh won't Cut it. And these marriages are dropping? These kids are walking away from God. These young adults are quitting church.
These preachers are proving They weren't real. Nobody sets out to fail. Nobody gets up in the morning and says, I want to blow it for God. I want to make a mockery of God. Nobody decides they want to let their marriage down and ruin their life and destroy their testimony and get everybody running them out.
Nobody sets out to do it. But let me tell you something: just because you don't set out to fall don't mean you won't.
So I'm encouraging you the next couple days. I get it. Everybody's tired. Everybody's busy. Everybody's got a lot on their plate.
We come here tonight. We're bearing burdens. We're carrying heavy loads. Sickness in our body, trouble in our homes, relationship issues.
Some of you have prodigal children. You have financial woes. We could sit here tonight and have a competition over who's got more trials, and somebody's going to one-up the next person, even if the trials aren't real. But for three nights, we've got to set it aside. We've got to get what God has for me.
If you came to revival to get what I have for you, you're cooked. Listen to me. I don't have anything for you, but I know a God who does. And I want to be a channel. I decided a long time ago I wasn't going to manipulate invitations.
I wasn't going to. I wasn't going to play the game. I wasn't going to plan the A package that I bring in here with the Wednesday night, the Thursday night, the Friday night, start and end with a bang and give them my best thing, pull out my sugar stick and give them what impresses people. Fooey, fooey, fooy, fooy, fooe with impressiveness. You need something that when you leave this building tonight, you hit that wicked job tomorrow morning, and these kids go to this school where they're bombarded with temptation and they witness hypocrisy, and they're out in that devil's world where the gender lines are blurred and the confusion becomes the narrative.
They need something when the bombs are going off on the Middle East and politics are run them up. We need something that will transfer to spiritual victory in this present world. And only God has it. And I'm just as much in need of this service tonight. As you are.
So that's in one accord. Ask for God to give us what we need. Let's accept it. The greatest Christians I know. The greatest Christians I've ever been around.
I left them in Northern Virginia to be here with you. Tonight up the road about four and a half hours right now. Probably coming to a close. We end about 8 o'clock. As a young man that 10 years ago walked into our church as a Muslim.
He didn't come for Jesus, he came because he was in love. And she went to church and he followed her. And instead of just getting a girlfriend, he ended up with a Savior. I discipled him personally, merit them. And then one day in our discipleship time, he said, Pastor, I need to come up church and see you.
And I said, What in the world's going on? He said, God called me to preach. He enrolled in Veritas. Bible College, graduated. I preached his graduation.
He's a deacon now, heads up our children's ministry, enrolled in his master's right now at Veritas. And I'm in North Carolina. He's filling the pulpit. Don't you tell me God's not real.
Now if he can do that up there, you tell me he can't do something down here tonight. Take your Bibles and turn to 2 Kings chapter 6. I'm aware of the clock. I will not take much time tonight. I hope the big preacher preaches.
Yeah, they might have to be able to do that. I'm so thankful for God. The devil told me I was done. And then I said, no, I'm not. I'm preaching.
And then he said, well, They won't listen to you. If you sit, they won't listen. It's like God retorted back right after the devil said they won't listen to you. It's like God came chiming in. From heaven.
They ain't listening to you anyway. They're listening to me. Listen to him tonight. 2 Kings 6, would you stand just a couple minutes if you can? Don't stand up if you can't.
Don't worry about that. I ain't standing. Mm-hmm. Talk about the classic hypocrisy. And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold, now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us.
Let us go, we pray thee unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make a place there where we may dwell. And he answered, next two words, saying with me, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, next three words, I will go. Huh.
So we went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they came, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe had fell into the water. And he cried and said, Alas, master, for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, where fell it?
And he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither. And the iron did swim. Therefore said he, take it up to thee. And he put out his hand and took it. Let the church say, Amen.
Father, in the name of Jesus, would you take me, cleanse me, empty me, fill me, use me? Speak through me. Do it only you can. I don't want to go back to the room the same way I came tonight. I pray that you'd help.
Thank you for this church, the accommodations, the meals, the snacks, the hospitality, the kindness, the sweets, the smiles, the hugs, the encouragement. I know, I know, I know this church six years ago was praying for me. And I know what prayer did. I pray God. That I would not waste Your grace tonight But that I would be a testimony of what you did for me six years ago by what I'm doing for you tonight.
Watch over our children while we're gone. All of them where they are. In Jesus' name. Amen.
You may be seated. Thank you for standing. The scripture here tonight is introducing us to a group of men known as the sons of the prophets. They are training under the tutelage of Elisha. Young men training for ministry.
And by the way, we still need young men training for ministry under experienced men who know what they're talking about. Unfortunately, in America, among Christian people, we deal with a shortage on one of the other ends. We either have young men who aren't willing to listen, or we got experienced men who aren't willing to teach. If you know what you're doing, you ought to be willing to teach someone who doesn't. And if you don't know what you're doing, you ought to be willing to learn from someone who does.
I wish somebody's saying, Amen. And this is what's happening here. The only problem is where they're doing it, it's not big enough. It's too straight. That's the language there in verse number one.
So the request to Elisha is that they may go to the Jordan. cut down beams or chop down trees and make a bigger place. I'm not setting you up and I'm certainly not trying to trick you. Don't you think that it's a good thing to go to the Jordan, chop down beams and trees and build a bigger place to do the work of God? If you think that's a good thing, would you say amen?
Absolutely. Elisha says, go. And then one says, will you go with us? He says, I will go.
So here he is. He and the sons of the prophets headed to the Jordan River to chop down trees and beams to build a bigger place to do the work of God. And we've agreed by saying amen, it is a good thing.
Well, they get there fully intending to do a good thing, wash this out, a bad thing happens. Ask your question, is it possible to be intending to do something good and a bad thing happened? Absolutely. They didn't go down there trying to do something bad. They didn't plan on it.
They're trying to do something good, and a bad thing happens. He's swinging the axe, and while he's swinging the axe and felling a beam, cutting down a tree, trying to build a bigger place to do the work of God, the axe head falls into the water. Is that a bad thing? I said, is it a bad thing? Sure, it is.
You can keep on swinging. You can burn calories. You can do cardio. You can make a nice TikTok video swinging without an axe head, but you can't cut down no tree. And he didn't just lose it, he lost it in the Jordan River, just about as stinky and smelly, as dirty and as unfindable of a place that you could lose it.
The Jordan River overflowed. It was the same river that Naaman was appalled that Elisha had sent him to dip in. After all, couldn't you pick a nicer place for me to dip instead of the Jordan River? Listen to me. You didn't go to the Jordan River with the elites in town just to get a little relaxation and dip in the river.
This is the place where the axe head has been lost. Listen to me. Practically speaking, it's as good as God. There is no way, humanly speaking, you can find an axe head in the Jordan River. It's done.
It's gone. And his chance at doing what he's gone there to do has been lost. What a wait a minute now. Except for one thing. And God gets involved.
Now listen. Listen, we're going to come to the end of this story, at least this section, and you're going to find out that the axe head got lost in a place that was virtually impossible to locate it. But somehow, oh, somebody help me now. God is in the business of doing the impossible. And somehow, though he could not find it on his own, God gave him his axe head back, and he was able to get back to doing what God intended him to do in the first place.
Now, here's the message, and I want to say it to you quickly so that you get it tonight, because this is happening all over when it comes to Christian people. They're setting out intending to do something good. Live for God, read their Bible, have a thriving marriage, raise their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Go to the marriage altar pure, live for God, have a right kind of language, have a pure thought life, do what's right in this world, have a ministry that's on fire for God. This is what people are trying to do, but somehow, in the midst of trying to do something good, bad things happen.
Marriages. Split up. People mess up. A girl gets pregnant. A young man walks away from God.
Somebody falls out of church. A preacher messes up and ends up out of the ministry. He wasn't trying to. He wasn't planning to. He didn't think he was going to.
Yet it happens even though he didn't intend it. And so many times people throw their hands up in the air and say, It's good, it's gone. I'll never get back where I was. I'll never read like I once did. I'll never pray like I once had.
I'll never serve God like I used to before. I'll never stand up and lead people like I once thought I do for the rest of my life because it's too dirty. It's too deep. It's too impossible to get my axe head back. I'm here to tell you: God is in the business of doing the impossible.
And He brought you to Kerwin Baptist Church on a Wednesday night to tell you, You're not too far that God can't bring you back. You're not too gone that God can't use you. You didn't quit too long ago that God can't still employ you. You haven't messed up too big that God, listen, you haven't read so far a long ago. That God can't get you reading today.
And I don't care whether you're in church three times a week or whether you're here for the first time in a long time. Every single one of us tonight ought to want to leave here and live for God like we used to in our best days. It ought to be that we want to love this book. We want to pray more. We want to worship right.
We want to lead people to the Lord right. We want to be faithful. We want to be the right husband. Want to be the right wife? Want to be the right kids.
You can't find it on your own. The preacher can't give it back to you. The world can't show you how to get it. But I'm here to tell you, God can give you your axe head back tonight. How'd he get it back?
How do you get it back? I tell you, first of all, he got it back with a sober reaction. A sober reaction. In the text, quickly, notice the Bible says he was felling a bean. Verse 5, the axe had fell in the water.
Notice the reaction. And he cried. I'll tell you why most people never get their accent back. They're too cool to cry. You ain't gonna find it if it doesn't bother you.
You're not going to get it back if it doesn't bother you that you lost it. You know what the problem is? Your wife wishes you used to read the Bible like you used to. You read your Bible like you used to, but you don't wish it. Your parents are disappointed in how you drifted, but you're not disappointed.
Your pastor's bothered by your spiritual failures, but you're not bothered by your spirit. Listen to me. Somebody's got to come to the altar tonight, not because your parents are disappointed in you, because the preacher's disappointed in you, because your spouse is disappointed. You got to get to the point that it bothers you you lost your accent. Oh, he says, I have a broken spirit.
Alas, alas. That word alas is an archaic term, which simply means he expressed sorrow and grief and pity. It bothered him. Does it bother you you don't read your Bible like you should? Does it bother you you don't tithe like you used to?
Does it bother you you haven't led anybody to the Lord in a long time? Does it bother you that you and your wife aren't on the same page? Does it bother you that your relationship with your parents is not where it should be? If it doesn't bother you, you ain't gonna get it back. Oh, there's a broken spirit.
There's a blundered stewardship. Notice the blundered stewardship. Alas, master, watch this now, for it was borrowed. It's bad enough I lost it. It's even worse I lost it and it wasn't even mine.
I mean, good gracious alive. You don't want to get in an accident in your car, but you certainly don't want to get an accident in somebody else's car. Huh? I mean, you go to the amusement park and you can't find your child. That's a bad thing, but it's even worse when you lose somebody else's child.
It was all my goodness. Oh my goodness, I lost it and it wasn't even mine. What do you mean? It wasn't even mine.
Somebody loaned it to me, loaned it to me. What happens when I lose something that's not mine? First of all, I have an idle consequence. I can't chop wood without the accent. Secondly, I have intended care that wasn't kept up.
I didn't properly take care of it. And thirdly, I have an inevitable consequence. I've got to go back home and face the one that loaned it to me and explain to him why he loaned me something that I didn't bring back. I didn't take care of properly. He said, It's a problem when I blunder my stewardship because they expect me to take care of something that's loaned to me.
Can I tell you, your life is not your own? You've been loaned your life by Almighty God. And when you're not on fire, you're not in this book. You're not praying. You're not reading.
You're not worshiping. You're not giving. You're not going. You're not serving. You're not faithful to church.
Listen, you've got an idle consequence. You can't do what you purpose to do. You've got an intended care. You didn't take care of what you were loaned, and you've got an inevitable consequence. You've got to go back and face Jesus.
Jesus, who loaned your life to you, and at the judgment seat of Christ, you're going to have to tell him why he gave you a life and you didn't take care of it properly. I think that ought to be motivation for some of us to get right with God tonight. Yes, ma'am. Amen.
Well, there's a sober reaction. Notice secondly, there was a strategic return. Alas, Master. I'll ask Master, verse number 6, and the man of God said, How do you have a strategic return when you lose what you used to have? How do you get back to where you used to be?
How do you get back on fire? How do you get your zeal back? How do you get back to where you should be with God? It requires a strategic return. How do you have a strategic return?
Well, you got to have accepted support. You've got to be willing to get help from people when you can't help yourself. Alas, master.
Sometimes people are so full of pride. I don't want to ask the preacher. I don't want to tell people I'm having marital problems. I've had couples tell me, I don't want to come to counseling. I don't want you all up in my business.
Well, the whole world's in your business when you get divorced. You let your pride? You're gonna let your pride keep you from getting help? Alas, Master, by the way, he didn't call out to anybody. He called out to somebody who was in tune with God.
I'm always blown when Christian people mess up and they reach out for counsel from people who are messing up too.
Well, I haven't been faithful to church.
Well, who you been talking to?
Somebody else who's not faithful to church? Come on now. I mean, if you want to cross the street and you're blind, you don't go find another blind person to help you get across the street. Listen, if you're not right with God, you better find somebody that's faithful to church, that loves God, that reads their Bible, that's serious about the things of God. You can't get help from somebody who can't even help himself.
Oh, there's accepted support, and there's an acknowledged spot. Notice the response from Elisha: where fell it? Alas, Master, it was borrowed. I lost something that wasn't mine. Here's his question: where did it drop?
Can I ask you a question? Is it really that deep? of a concept If you want to know where to find something, you might want to look where you dropped it. Oh my gosh. Pastor, you have an office here?
You do. Mm-hmm. Have I been in it? I've not been in your office. I certainly didn't go in it tonight.
You saw me when I pulled up. I went into a room that was a room where there's a storage room, I put my microphone on, came out of that storage room, walked straight into the auditorium, and sat right there, correct? If By chance, service is over tonight, and I cannot find my keys, which is a very common occurrence. It's not going to happen tonight because my wife is with me. Even when she's not with me, she has an AirTag on my keys so that when I lose them, I have to call her back in Virginia to find out where my keys are.
I don't even have an iPhone. I can't even read an AirTag. That's how bad I am. But if by chance the service finishes tonight and I say, Pastor, I can't find my keys, and you say, Oh, I hope you find them, and then I say, let's check your office. You have a problem with me going in your office?
You don't have a problem. You you would let me go in your office. If I said to you, let's look for my keys in your office, what would you say? What's that? It doesn't make sense to look in your office.
Why? I wasn't there. When you lose your joy because you quit coming to church, when you're trying to get it back, stop scratching a lottery card and get back to church. When your finances go down and you quit tithing, stop looking for a third job and start giving God what belongs to him. When you have no peace at night because you're doing stuff that you shouldn't be doing, stop looking for a cup of coffee and signing up for a session at yoga and start doing the stuff that you used to do when you had somebody help me preach tonight.
If you lost it, you might want to go back the way you dropped it. That's good. I like that. God help us. Where'd you drop it at?
Let's go back to the spot. Let's go back to the place. Listen, we don't need a new Bible. We don't need a new game plan. We don't need a new manual.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways and seek my face, then will I heal from heaven and then will I heal their land. Listen to me. The answer is still the same. Let's go back to where we got on our face. 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.
