Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

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. The Church of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep property, notice if you would, in verse two, the use of the word their, their joy, their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. Verse three, four, to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves, praying us, notice the continual use of the pronoun, you know, their, and it's describing obviously that this isn't necessarily our power, it's their power. Notice if you would, verse four, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints, and this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God, insomuch that we desired Titus that as he had begun so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

So we're talking about they and then in verse six we're now talking to you. Verse seven, therefore, what a change, now in verses one through six we see what the grace of God did in the churches of Macedonia, and now we want to understand and realize what the grace of God could do with the church of Corinth. Now let me put it this way, in verses one through six it's what the grace of God did in those churches, but in verse seven and following we now deal with what the grace of God can do in your church. In verses one through six it's what God did through them, but in verse seven and following it's what God could do through us. You see we're given a great example in verses one through six as we dealt with last week how the grace of God was able to come into these churches and allow them to go beyond their power, and it was allowed them to do things beyond their ability and that's what the grace of God can do, and by the way at the risk of repeating myself, you and I need more than our ability, and we need more than our power because we just can't do it, and enough of you in this building know that because you've tried, and let me rephrase that. There's enough of us in this building that know that because we've tried. There have been some things that we've been able to handle on our own ability and our own power, but the longer you live and the more experiences you have and the more God does in your life, the more you will have circumstances and experiences in your life where you will realize I don't have enough. So we find in verses one through six this great example how they had joy in the midst of suffering and how they had joy in the midst of poverty, and they have joy in the midst of pain and trials and all these things, and we went through everything verses one through six last week, all the things that the grace of God produced in this church, and it's what God can produce in this church, and the things that the grace of God produced in their lives, and it's the same thing that the grace of God can produce in our lives, but in verse seven, therefore what does this mean to us, and I want to talk to us this morning or preach to us I guess I would say on the subject of over the hump.

May I say that what I often struggle with is not knowing what to do or knowing what's right and not even knowing what I should do, what I struggle with sometimes is doing it. Sounds like I'm setting you up for a diet seminar doesn't it? Trust me, we're not. Don't you hate when people lose weight? Don't you hate it? Now they can't wait to tell you everything, you know, and you don't want to hear it, you just want a Krispy Kreme doughnut and then to be quiet. I'm thinking I'm very proud of many of you that have. What I find that oftentimes Christians struggle with and what I have found through my short tenure and short term of whatever pastoring, ministry, whatever the case might be, is I can sit in my office and I can talk with people and I can show them verses and we can go over the things that they really need to start doing in their marriage. And we can go over the things that they really need to start doing to get off these addictions. And I can sit and I can talk with a husband and I can say these are things you are going to have to start doing for your wife. And I can sit with a wife and I can say man these are the things you're really going to have to start trying to change in your home. I can sit with teenagers and I can say this is the direction you're heading and you're really, these are the things, these are the verses, these are the principles from God's work, these are the things you're going to have to start doing or you're going to end up here.

This is the direction you're heading, this is the destination you're heading to. And you know what I can make a good point and I can give the verses and Lord knows sometimes you just want to bang your head against a padded wall. Because you can give people verses and you can show them things and you can go over everything. And sometimes you can actually look at them in the eyeballs and know they're not going to do it. And before I lose my patience and say well goodness gracious here I am giving my time to show you and I know you're not even going to start doing this.

There is a mirror in my office too. And I would have to admit that there are times in my life where I know what the grace of God can do and I know what Daniel Hotry should do. And I know the things that I should start incorporating in my life and I know that there's some victories that I should start getting. And I ought to quit feeling sorry for myself and get off my little pity party and start doing something for God.

We all know that but it's the doing of it that's hard. Do I have a witness? God we need your help this morning as I hope that all of us desire to get over this hump. Lord you certainly dealt with this in this passage and I pray that we would rightfully divide it in your name we pray. Amen. I want you to notice first as we come to this church. We heard what the church is at Macedonia and we heard all the things that God did there and then now obviously Paul's saying this is what we've got to deal with here. Now I want you to notice in verse six we see first the pastor's determination. In so much in verse six it says that we desire Titus that as he had begun so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

What same grace? What we've just been talking about in verses one through six. You see Titus was witness first hand to what the grace of God did in those churches. And now God had brought Titus here and then now obviously Paul is writing and he's saying listen what we desire is that somehow Titus would take all these things that he's seen and the experience and the knowledge of what the grace of God can do and how God can do these marvelous things. And we have desired that somehow he would finish you in this same grace and somehow he would be able to teach you this and to show you this. And I'm here to tell you and Paul is obviously here writing and he's saying listen I'm here to understand and to help support you to know that this is what God can do in your church. And this is what God can do in your life. But I'm here to tell you that as determined as a pastor can be the people have to do it. And it comes down the pastor has to be responsible for himself. And I know of some pastors that are determined to get people to do things that they don't even do themselves.

And I'm here to tell you I've got a full time job worrying about Daniel Audrey. Because my spirit is often willing and my flesh is often weak. We see the pastors look at verse seven secondly we see the people's doctrine.

This is what had already been done. Notice verse seven. Therefore as ye abound in everything. In other words you've made a lot of progress and let me tell you what's already going on here. You're abounding in all these things. That means you're not just status quo.

You're doing really good in some of these areas. Notice this. In faith number one we see their faith in this verse. And let me tell you something to remind you when we talk about the word faith we're talking about moral conviction. The things that you believe that's your faith. But we're not talking about necessarily faith as an action. We're talking about faith as a substance. This is what I believe. And the Bible says that they were abounding in their faith and they believed certain things and they had been taught the truth.

Which is a pastor's job. Notice if you would hear secondly that they abound in everything. They abounded in faith and they abounded here in utterance.

Notice second their reasoning. That word utterance means to be able to reason. It means the ability to explain. It means that not only did they kind of know what they believed but they knew how to explain it. They knew how to describe it. They knew how to say well let me explain this is what I believe and this is the doctrine that I hold to.

And may I say this that even in our churches sometimes there are people that believe the right things but they don't know how to explain it. So these folks were doing well. I mean they were abounding in their faith. They were abounding in utterance. Notice this thirdly they were abounding in knowledge. I mean that means this they knew what they believed. They knew how to explain what they believed. And they knew where to take you. And they knew all the verses to prove it. They had the knowledge. And dear friend may I say that often times that you can get up and you can listen to teaching and you can listen to preaching.

And you can follow a program and you can get into a book and you can gain knowledge. Because these folks were abounding in it. Notice we not only see the people's doctrine but notice third their pattern of diligence.

Look at verse seven. They were abounding in faith. They were abounding in utterance. They were abounding in knowledge.

Notice this and in all diligence and in your love to us see that you abound in this grace also. Notice their pattern of diligence. We find first that they were diligent in learning. You say well how do you know they were diligent in learning?

Because they had their faith. They had utterance. They had knowledge.

I mean I'm going to tell you something. They were abounding. They were dedicated. Man they were learning and they were studying and they knew what they believed and they knew how to explain what they believed and they knew how to prove what they believed.

They had all these things done. They were diligent in learning. Notice second they were diligent in loving. Notice it says right here in all diligence and in your love to us. That means this that they loved each other and they were showing love to each other and they knew their faith and they knew how to explain it and they had all the knowledge. But notice here.

Number four. The possible danger that Paul saw. Notice this. Look at verse seven. See that ye abound in this grace also.

Now think about what he just said. He said you are abounding in everything. Faith, utterance, knowledge, diligence, love. But he said be careful that you make sure that you abound in this grace.

Well what was this grace? Well in verses one through six we're told that in the midst of poverty that they reached out and they gave and they helped others. They reached out of where they were and they helped those that were outside of their little Macedonian church group.

They reached to these other people. Notice remember the verses. Their power, their grace and they reached out to us and they gave to us. So here's a church that not only had the knowledge and not only had the faith and the utterance but now they took it and they began to reach out to others.

Paul said listen you're doing great. You got faith and you got utterance and you got knowledge and you got diligence and you got love to each other but you've got to be careful that you also continue in this grace. Look at verse eight. I want you to notice this. I speak not by commandment but by occasion of the forwardness of others.

And to prove the sincerity of your love. Notice this possible danger. Now look at verse nine. And I'm going to give you these points.

Now hold on to your seats okay. Look at verse nine. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich. What is this grace that he saw the possible danger that they weren't continuing in that grace. Paul saw that you know what I see that you're getting the knowledge and you've learned your faith and you've got your doctrine down and all these things. But look at me folks. Your faith and your utterance and your knowledge and your diligence doesn't do one thing for this unsaved world if you don't get out of the building and do something about it. It's not that we don't know we're supposed to.

It's getting over that hump. Now listen. Paul reminded them. Let me tell you what the grace I'm talking about. It's the grace that Christ became poor so you could become rich. It's the grace of giving that you know what I am going to give to those that don't even didn't ask that don't deserve it.

But I'm going to give it to them and I'm going to give up the things that I do deserve so that they can have the things that they don't deserve. That's our example through Christ. And Paul said I'm afraid that you can get so much knowledge and you can get so much utterance. And you can get down to the fact that I know exactly what I believe and my face is in the book all the time. But the problem is we're not out where people are.

May I give you a couple things that Paul saw as a possible danger based on verses 7 the last part of verse 7 through verse 9. Now listen to me. I want you to get this. Please try to stay awake.

We're going to let you out plenty of time today as I always try to do. Notice if you would. Number one. You can be strong in faith and yet weak in grace. You can be strong in what you believe. But you can be weak in the doing of it.

Number two. You can know how to explain your faith but not be able to express your faith. It's one thing to sit down with a person at a coffee shop and explain why you believe what you believe.

But let me tell you what we often struggle with is to get out and love them and show what we believe. Am I a coon dog up the wrong tree or something? Am I right? I'm not saying hey folks this is what you ought to do. I'm saying this is what we need to change. Because we're so consumed with how I can explain something without getting the grace of God so we can go out and show people what we believe. They don't want to hear it. They want to see it. And when they hear it and don't see it then they don't care what they hear.

Number three. You can memorize but not maximize. Do you know you can memorize this Bible but not maximize it?

You can have it all right here. Look at me. But if it's not right here then you didn't further it. Listen to this.

Number four. You can work hard but not get much accomplished. You say preacher where are you getting all this? Well you can be strong in your faith. He says you're abounding in faith but weak in grace. Number two. He says you're strong in utterance. You can know how to explain your faith but not express your faith.

Number three. He said that you're strong in knowledge. You can memorize but not maximize. Then he said you're strong in diligence. You can work hard but not get much accomplished. And buddy if there's ever been one thing that describes the average Christian's life, the average ministry, the average pastor and yay even this one sometimes that we can work so hard but accomplish so little because we're trying to work so hard on our knowledge and our faith and our utterance and yet the grace of God is what makes the difference in people. Now you might not know it but I'm telling you this is good.

I'll tell you why. It didn't come from me. It came from God and I'm honest about that. Last you can love in your head but not love in your heart. He said all the love you've shown to us, look at me, to us, who's us? The church. It's easy to love in your head to the church but you've got to love in your heart to get outside of the church. And may I say that even nowadays it takes loving your heart inside the church.

We can't love people outside of the church because we've not even learned to love people inside the church. And it's true. Wow.

So much I'd like to say to that but I'm just going to let it say it for itself. Number five I want you to see in verse ten now we see Paul's directions. We see a pastor's determination, the people's doctrine, their pattern of diligence, the possible danger and now this brings us to verse ten. Notice, look if you would at verse ten.

I love this. And herein I give my advice. Paul's directions.

Having said all that here's my advice. Now may I say this and I'm not being sarcastic or trying to be ultra spiritual here but if there's anybody that I'm really going to listen to their advice it's going to be Paul. If there's anybody that would say you know what the guy's probably accomplished a little more than I have. He's probably a little more knowledgeable than I am.

This guy knows what he's talking about. He's experienced and exuberates the power of God. I need to listen to what this man has to say but I love how he says herein I give my advice which means Paul knew immediately some were turning him up and some were turning him off. That means you can give the Bible and I can say well you know what folks what I believe God wants us to do some turn you off and some turn you on. In other words some say I don't really you know I'm not going to be mean about it and I would never say this publicly but I don't really care what you say preacher.

If you proved your point it's not going to change what I do. You all know I'm right about that? That's what we do in church isn't it?

We love you. Oh yeah I like that guy. He's a bit heavy but he's feisty. And you can tell he's hungry. I like for him to preach when he's hungry because he gets kind of feisty you know.

It's entertaining whatever the case might be. But the truth is he could give me the verse and we could describe it and if he could make the point obviously clear that God wants you. Listen if I could come up with scripture to prove hypothetical.

Did you hear me? Hypothetical. If I came up with scripture that God wants you to sell your Honda and buy a Ford.

Not even going to get into the Dodge and Chevy thing. If I could come up with verses that make it obviously clear it wouldn't matter. There are some I don't care what you prove. I'll sit here and say yeah you're right that proves it.

And it's not going to change one thing in my life. That's where a lot of us are. And somehow someway in 2016. Brother Nick said he had trouble writing 2015. It's really easy you just do that little line from the bottom of the five.

To that last curve. It's easy to make a six out of a five. Now next year he's going to have a very hard time.

But you're going to see a lot of weird sixes for the first month of this year by the way. Look at me. Somehow in 2016 we've got to get over this hump. From the knowledge to the doing of it.

Now we're almost there. Paul's direction look at verse 10. Herein I give my advice.

For this is expedient for you. Don't you love how Paul puts it? Let me put it in real plain redneck vernacular.

You're dumb if you don't listen to me. That's how my dad would have put it. Now when I met with brother Joe. Brother Joe would say brother Daniel this might be a really good ideal if you did such and such kind of a thing whatever.

I've told people when I worked here for brother Joe. We'd sit and we'd meet in his office and really about an hour and a half into it I would realize he's chewing me out. He's chewing me out. He's smiling and laughing but he's getting on me.

And I never saw it coming. I operate way different. It might be counterproductive but you come in the office if I got. I'll be like Nick now listen I'm just talking about that.

I'll be like listen you're not going to like this meeting. I'm going to get this out so you can get the wounds over and we'll go on and serve God. Brother Joe is just so nice how he did it and so gentle and that's how I would do you know staffs different but you I'd be like oh God bless you you know kind of a thing. My dad would say Daniel now I'm going to tell you something and if you don't listen to me you're dumb. Paul says herein is my advice for this is expedient for you.

What does the word expedient mean? It's what's best. What does he say? For you who have begun before not only to do but also to be forward a year ago. He said you have begun before. You've started. You've gotten to that point that you know I need to do such such or I need to whatever.

You've begun before. Look at verse 11. Now therefore perform the doing of it. That as there was a readiness to will so there may be a performance also. Out of that which ye have for if there first be a willing mind it is accepted according that a man hath and not according to that he hath not. What are Paul's directions here? Number one I want you to see the preparation. Paul said that you have done well to prepare your heart in a sense in other words this.

Notice if you would these key phrases. In verse 10 he says you've begun before. Verse 10 he says a year ago. Then obviously we find the word in verse 11 there was a readiness to will. What is a readiness to will?

In other words this. That word readiness is so interesting. It means that it is literally it made my heart to where I could feel something. There was a readiness. You've begun before. In other words you've gotten to this point before.

Watch me. Where you were moved. Where you were motivated. Where you have this desire to do this.

We've been there before. Because you have your faith and you have your utterance and you have your knowledge and you have your diligence. It's gotten to the point before that you saw what needed to be done and you realized what would be the best thing.

And I'm here to tell you Paul says this is my advice because this is what's best for you. Because there was a point where you began before and because there was a time a year ago when you were motivated. And because there is a readiness to will now you've got to do it. So there must be a preparation to where you can even be motivated. Notice second the processing. He says there was look at verse 11 that there was a readiness to will.

What is interesting I looked up that word will in the Greek and that word will means this it means impulse. Listen. He said you get to that point that you get this impulse. I should do this.

I need to do this. It's like the preacher will be preaching and all of a sudden that Holy Spirit just kind of gives that impulse. You should start doing that. You should add that to your life. That verse was right.

We've got to get this out of your life. There's that impulse. There's a readiness to will. In other words all of a sudden now my heart was ready and I felt that impulse. That conviction of the Holy Spirit.

I know what I should do and I know what I need to do and I know I need to do something. And Paul says that's great because your heart can feel it and now you've got this impulse. But where 99% of Christians lose it they have the impulse but they never do it. You say prove it preacher. Some of you had impulses last Sunday morning that you have not acted on this week.

Some of you God just yeah you need to start doing this. I've had quite a few people. I didn't know it until I finally got a phone yesterday. I've not had a phone since December the 28th.

It's been heaven. Don't take that wrong. Oh we're bothering you.

That's not what I'm saying. But I finally got a phone set up yesterday and if some of you tried to contact me or text me or even email me I couldn't get it. I was out of town this past week and I didn't have a phone so all those good things.

But as I got it set up and retrieved some texts I had quite a few people text. Last Sunday night preacher you were right. It's time for a new song. It's time to do something new for the Lord. Daniel wasn't right. The Bible's right. But last Sunday night there might have been many of you that's like you know what that impulse.

I need to do something new for God this year. And while that impulse was there, there was never the performance of it. This is what Paul's talking about. He said there's that readiness to will.

There's that impulse. Now therefore notice third there's the preparation, the processing and third there's the performance. Now therefore perform the doing of it. He's saying this, you've done everything else except do it. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.