Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church with us again unto a lively hope.

We talked about that earlier this morning. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time wherein ye greatly rejoice. Rejoice in what?

The things we just talked about. In these things is where we rejoice. Though, look at that word in verse six, though, now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.

And we're gonna look at these things but in other words in verses one through five we have a number of things in which we are to rejoice. But that doesn't change the fact that sometimes in our life there comes things that bring heaviness. That bring difficulty. It's hard to bear.

It's heavy on us. Notice if you would at verse 13 he gives some thoughts in verses seven through 12 talking about these temptations. Talking about the trials. But in verse 13 he picks up okay this is what we're supposed to do about it. He says wherefore.

In other words this is here because this deals with what we've talked about. This heaviness that we have to bear sometimes. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance. But as he which hath called you is holy. So be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Look at verse 18. For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Wow. Preacher what are we talking about today?

This really helped me and I hope that will help you. Lord we love you. And Lord we have folks certainly in our congregation right now that are in a season of heaviness.

There have been things that have transpired or have been in their life for a while that has been very heavy for them to bear. And Lord we all have different seasons in our life and sometimes this season finds itself upon us. And God as you have given us instruction not only why it's there but what to do about it. Lord I pray that you would help us today as we endeavor obviously to rightfully divide your word. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. What is interesting in verse 6 he says this where in ye greatly rejoice.

That means this. No matter what is going on in our life and we're going to talk about that in a minute. We as Bible believers those that have put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ we have a number of things to rejoice about. And in a church of five to six hundred people somebody should have said amen right there. Let me rewind that and we'll just start all over again okay.

Okay. Go back to here. We that oppose our faith and trust in Christ have a lot to rejoice about. Amen. Now he lists a number of them.

Now notice this and this is the encouraging part really the first part. He says where in these things where in ye greatly rejoice. Notice if you would in verse 3 number 1 I see first we have abundant mercy. God has given us abundant mercy. Look at verse 3 blessed be the god and father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy.

What does that mean? That word abundant means there's plenty. There's more than enough.

It's sufficient. That means whatever you face whatever you've done whatever mistakes you've made God has enough mercy for you. It's abundant.

Today you might sit here with regret and things that maybe have transpired in your life and relationships and things and difficulties and you think man I really made a mess out of that and boy I really blew it here and I blew it there. But there's abundant mercy with Christ. Notice he says there's a lively hope.

Look at verse 3. He said his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. That means this you and I have something to look forward to. We have something to hope for.

But my favorite word is the word lively. That means this we don't have a dead hope but we have a living hope. We have an alive hope. Our hope is in Christ and he is not in a grave somewhere.

He is in heaven alive and well. We have a whole lot of people and a lot of religions we're not criticizing other churches or people don't get me wrong. We have a lot of people that believe in a dead god a dead leader or a dead founder. But you and I have a lively hope because our hope is an alive savior.

Notice the third thing he mentions here in verse 4. He says to an inheritance incorruptible. That means we have abundant mercy to rejoice about.

We have a lively hope to rejoice in. Third we have an inheritance incorruptible. That means we have an inheritance that cannot be corrupted. That means an inheritance that I'm getting it. I'm part of the family now.

When I get saved, Christ is not only my savior, but God's my father, and now I'm part of the family, and I have been promised an inheritance forever in heaven. Now listen to me, what does this mean? It means first we have a promised inheritance.

He said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. So it's been promised. Second, it's protected. He said it's an inheritance incorruptible.

It's protected. Notice, pure. It's incorruptible, and second, it's undefiled. Look at verse four, it's an inheritance incorruptible, protected, undefiled, it's pure.

Notice third, if you will, or last here, it's permanent. He said reserved in heaven for you, but before that, he says that fadeth not away. It's not just promise. It's not just protected.

It's not just pure, but it's permanent. I have an inheritance that's coming to me, and it will be for an eternity. That means whatever's going on in your life right now, you ought to rejoice in that. You can walk out of here knowing, I've got heaven as my home.

I have an inheritance that's been promised to me. Notice the fourth thing that he mentions here in verse four. It is a reservation in heaven.

Notice that. He said it's reserved in heaven. Do you know what reservation means?

It means that your name has already been applied to it. If I call a restaurant and I get a reservation, they'll say, who is it, and I'll say, Mr. T. Since we're thinking about Mr. T. today, been thinking about him ever since Frank mentioned that. See me coming in with a mohawk.

Can you see my mohawk? Wouldn't that be something? Listen, when I call a reservation, I say, Daniel Hotry. And that means I now have a reservation.

Whether they honor it or not, you'll never know. But I have a reservation with my name on it. But listen, we have a reservation in heaven. That means this, that it's already been lined up.

It's already been secured. God's already getting things prepared because it's been reserved. We don't have to wait and wonder if he's gonna have room for me. And we don't have to get there and just say, well listen, we're kind of full tonight. We have to break.

We have a reservation. And we should rejoice about that. Notice the next thing, I love this. Look at verse five. Who are kept by the power of God. You know what we have to rejoice in? Because we have abundant mercy, there's a lively hope. There's an inheritance that's incorruptible.

We have a reservation in heaven and forth. We are kept by the power of God. Aren't you glad you're not kept by your power? Aren't you glad you're not kept based on your performance?

Because if it was based on our performance, we would have failed a long time ago. Because may I tell you, I'm a pastor here and I get up here at this pulpit, but I sin just like you do. None of us are perfect. All of us have things in our life. And if you have anybody tell you something different, then you need to walk away from them. Go find you another church.

This is a good one, by the way, in case you wanna come. Can I tell you something? We're all sinners. But what's wonderful is we are not kept by our ability, our performance, our purity. We're not kept by any of that. We are kept by the power of God. We are limited.

His power is limitless. I love that. So we got a lot to rejoice about, don't we? Man, if we just stopped right there, came in this morning, we just heard that. Hey, we got, you know, God's given us abundant mercy. We have a lively hope. We have an inheritance that can't be corrupted. We have a reservation in heaven.

We are kept by the power of God. This is great, preacher. Let's get out of here.

Let's go to lunch. This is wonderful. And you would love that, wouldn't you? But as much as all those things are true in our life, it doesn't change the fact that sometimes in our life, there come seasons of heaviness. Look at verse six. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, that's true, though, now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptation.

What are we talking about here? He's talking about circumstances that come into your life. And that word manifold temptations, we're gonna talk about this, but it's things that if you're not careful, they're hard to bear. They're difficulties, they're trials that come into our life.

And if you're not careful, it can really tempt you to get a wrong spirit, a wrong attitude, and have wrong actions in your life. Yeah, there's a whole bunch of wonderful things to thank God for. Hey, I'm on my way to heaven, but that doesn't change the fact that the doctor just said I had cancer.

And yeah, I'm gonna tell you something. I got a lively hope, an eternal home, but I'm gonna be honest with you, it hurts to think I might lose my family. And I'm gonna be honest, God says, hey, we have an inheritance coming that's incorruptible, but that doesn't change the fact that I just lost my job. May I say that all of us sometimes have seasons of heaviness. It bears us down.

And I love this, I love the honesty of God's word. There's these things that we are to rejoice in, but now for a season, you're in a season of heaviness. Now, I got some things to say about this, and this word heaviness in the Greek here, obviously, it means this. It means distress, grief, sorrow, or sad. And you know, there's some things that come into our life that distress us and bring stress, and there's some things that bring grief in our life, and there's some things that bring sorrow in our life, and there's some sad things in life.

And we've had different folks from outside of the church that have had horrible things happen to them that we've been praying for, and this young man that works at the Rescue Mission and brand new wife just gave birth to this little girl, and the wife died, and he's got this little baby now in the hospital, and his wife went home to be with the Lord, and he's got victory, and he's been a wonderful testimony, Brother Preston Ward, but I'm gonna tell you, it doesn't change the fact that your wife's not gonna be there in the morning. And as much as I have reason to rejoice, right now, it's heavy. Let me read you a couple of times in the Bible that men of God talked about heaviness.

Just listen, I'm just gonna read these to you. Ezra, chapter nine, verse five, Ezra says this. At the evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness, and having rent my garment, my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever been there, I got all these wonderful things because I'm saved and I know it, but it doesn't change the fact that sometimes I gotta get down and lay prostrate on the floor and spread my hands out to God because this is heavy on me. Think about Job nine, Job says this, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness and comfort myself.

Job said, I got these things and nobody's here to comfort me, so I guess I'm just gonna have to comfort myself. Psalm 69, David said, I am full of heaviness. Psalm 119, David said, my soul melteth for heaviness. Solomon, in Proverbs 10, says a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. We have parents right here. It's heavy.

Boy, they want their children to serve God. It's been breaking their hearts. Solomon said in chapter 14, even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that muror is heaviness. Romans chapter nine, Paul says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

Have you ever been there? You say, well preacher, thanks for the encouragement. This all started out so good.

I heard all these wonderful things and I heard you say something about Mr. T and it went downhill after that. May I say in verse six, this has some things that really help me and I just wanna share this with you. Notice the first thing about these seasons of heaviness that you and I go through in our life. Notice number one, I want you to see that it is sometimes needed. In verse six he says, though now for a season, if need be. That means sometimes that this heaviness that we go through and the burdens that we bear and having to trust God and serve God in the midst of these hard, difficult things on our world and on our life right now, sometimes it's needed. If need be. I don't know about you, I sometimes can't see any need for some of these things.

I don't see how that could possibly be needed. But sometimes it is. I want you to notice secondly here that Satan will try to use it. What's interesting is that God obviously with infinite wisdom uses, look at verse six, he says if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, temptation. That word temptation means this, that you know what, that burden that is heavy might not necessarily be sinful or bad, but Satan wants to use it to tempt you. Satan wants to use it to bring up feelings and opinions and actions that go against God.

Are you looking at me? It's not an evil thing when a doctor gives you a bad report, but old Satan wants to use that to blow up your trust in God. May I say this, that sometimes it's, you know, you can't help it if one of your family members has just gone off the deep end and gone off into sin, whatever the case might be. You can't help that, but I will tell you, Satan's sure we're gonna try to make that change you.

He's gonna fight you tooth and nail, tell you all these things, how rotten a parent you were, how much of a waste of time it was teaching all these good things. Old Satan will try to tempt you through that. Satan will try to use it, sometimes it's needed.

But old Satan's gonna try to use it. Notice thirdly, Satan will use different tactics. It's interesting, in verse six he says that this will happen through manifold temptations.

Manifold means diverse, means different, it means various. And I want you to understand that sometimes in our life, listen to me, I want you to get this. This is when you and I are real susceptible. This is when you and I become real fragile and Satan knows it, when we're down, when we're out, when we're carrying these heavy burdens, when things are just heavy and we're in a season of heaviness, old Satan knows our strength is down, our victory is down, our positive thinking is down, and everything else is down, and we're just having it rough and old Satan crawls right up on that shoulder. And boy, he tempts us in so many different ways. Do you know Satan can take one thing and tempt you 20 ways with it.

See a preacher, well I don't wanna take the time to explain, I've gotten written down, but just say a marriage. Say you're married and trying to serve God and you find out your mates cheated on you. Now let me tell you how Satan will use that.

Number one, he'll tell you, see you've been wasting your time in church, look what it brought you. Second, then it's gonna tempt you to start trying to do wrong in your life. And I could spend another 10 minutes telling you every angle that Satan will use one thing to try to get you and change you.

Manifold temptation, notice this next, I want you to get this. Various burdens can come simultaneously. You see usually just one thing is not horribly heavy, although there are some major things that come into our life, but let me tell you where you and I come through seasons of heaviness is when Satan just keeps piling it on.

I'm already a little bit low because I'm going through such and such and right about then, such and such will happen too. And then right about then he's gonna throw this on that and that on that and what I love is the way God uses this word manifold, temptations, plural. It means this that all of a sudden you can get a whole bunch of things that come crashing down at once. We have people in our church even the last few months that all of a sudden man, the husband's going through something, the wife's going through something, husband's got surgery over here, wife's got surgery over here, this and that happens. We've got families that hey man, the water heater went out over here, then the air conditioning unit went out in the house over here and then they drive the car, the transmission fell out.

Man, now I'm fixing a car, I'm fixing a house, I'm fixing this. All of a sudden everything's come crashing down at once and all of a sudden now we've got heaviness in our life and old Satan loves to use it. May I say this last, and please, and I do that, hear this if you don't hear anything else, please. Look at verse six. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Now let me tell you how I've always preached this. I've always said, hey, good news is it's a season of heaviness but seasons don't last forever. Well they do if you're in Florida.

Go try Ecuador, see what seasons they have. You see, listen, I want you to get this. What he said was not that the temptations or the trials will only be for a season. What he said is that the heaviness will only be for a season.

Now I want you to get this, please get this, please, please, please, please, please. The trial may stay but the heaviness doesn't have to. God says this, you're gonna have things happen in your life and right now you might have a season of heaviness but dear friend, I'm here to tell you, we always say, but that trial didn't come to stay, you're just going through this, you might have it the rest of your life.

Do you know a lot of people got a bad report from the doctor and we say hey, this is just for a season, and it ended up taking their life eventually. So what do we say to that? May I tell you this, that things are heavy on your life but they don't need to stay heavy. May I say trials can get you down but they don't have to keep you down. That means this, that that trial may come and it may leave or it may not.

And this difficulty might leave my life eventually or it might be that way the rest of my life but it doesn't have to always weigh me down because God can give the victory. I don't think you get it. I really don't think you get it. Do you get it, say amen. Or are you just starved and you're anxious to get to C and H or whatever. Why would you sit in church then have to go stand in line? Go somewhere where they serve you or something like that, you know. Y'all are a tough crowd today, I'm a tough crowd.

Look at me. The trial may stay forever and it might not but you don't have to carry the weight of that the rest of your life. The trial can be there but you don't have to be under heaviness. God says cast your burden on the Lord and He'll sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

You say preacher, how do you know? What about Paul? Paul went to God on three different occasions and Paul had what we know the Bible says is a thorn in the flesh and Paul asked three times, God would you please take this away out of my life? And as far as we know, Paul had it till the day he died. But those three times Paul said, God would you please take this out of my life? It was heavy, it was a burden.

But near the third time he asked God, Paul said but I got to the point that I thank God for it because your grace is sufficient for me. The trial may be there but the heaviness doesn't have to stay. So we've seen the source of our happiness, the seasons of heaviness. Notice thirdly, I want you to see this, the strength of our hope and we'll let you go today. So what do we do about this? We got all these things that were saved, we ought to be rejoiced in and they're wonderful and we're thankful but that doesn't change the fact that we go through seasons of heaviness in our life. So what do we do, how do we handle it? What's the purpose of all this? Notice if you would, verse 13. Wherefore, how do we handle it? How do we get where this season of heaviness, this trial, how do I get to where it's not so heavy on me?

How do I get to where it doesn't bring me down in every area of my life? What do I do to get to the point that it doesn't have victory over me but I have victory over it? He tells us, verse 13, I love this, look at verse 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind and be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And we all said, what? What does that mean? Notice number one, the renewing of our mind. He says first, the way that this heaviness, you get victory over this, notice number one, he says you gotta gird up the loins of your mind. What does that mean? Can I tell you this mind, our mind does not have loins. Now I'm not gonna draw a diagram. But do you know that our mind does not have loins?

Hello, you aware of that? Our body does, what is the word loins, what is it referring to? That word loins means our reproductive process. Those organs in our bodies that create life. Of course, life is created through God obviously. But it's talking about that area of our life that where things are created, where birth comes from.

Are you looking at me? I want you to get this. I about had a fit and I shared it with somebody this week in the office, I about had a fit when God showed me this. What we're being told is that you have got to gird up, that means tighten up, that means watch, that means strengthen, that means strengthen the loins of your mind. It means that area of your mind that gives birth to things. Do you know every bad action in our life and every bad decision started with a bad thought. And God says the way you get to the point that that trial doesn't have heaviness over you the rest of your life. You gotta go right back in that mind to where all those bad things give birth, all those bad thoughts start. And you've gotta gird up your mind and don't let it happen. You cannot let yourself give birth to those negative unbiblical thoughts.

You know what we often do, look at me, you know what we do at church, what we do, listen, why don't you get this, we're always trying to fix the outside of people. Well this is how we know you're a good Christian, when you don't wear that, you don't do that, you don't say that, you don't go here, you don't go to the fair, I go to the fair, I used to, I can't stand it. Because when I go to the fair all I wanna do is eat. I don't wanna go pet no animals and get some kind of disease.

I don't wanna go on some ride and throw up on somebody. I wanna go to the pickle barrel, isn't that what it's called, the pickle? How many of you ever eat the pickle barrel at the fair?

Oh, you all are missing out, when you go to the fair, find the pickle barrel, and I won't be going this year, I don't really go to the fair a lot because I just got no reason to, because I'd only go during the day and I'm working during the day. We just sit and we wanna look at the outside of everybody's life, and can I tell you something, God says where you get the victory over this, is way back there in your mind before the whole thing even gets started. You get your mind to the point that you don't let it give birth to this junk. Don't let your mind even start saying, God, you don't care about me, and God, you wouldn't let this happen if you love me.

Don't even let that get started. You get that birthing process of that thought and you go right to the beginning and you cut it. I know, I'm the one that preached it, but boy, that was really good, preacher.

Because I didn't come up with it, God did. You gotta gird up the loins of our mind. That word be sober means take it serious. Stay on top of it, don't even let it start. You know how marriage problems can stop?

If you stop them before they get started. Notice number two, not only are we to concentrate on renewing our mind, but second, we are to be resting in grace. Look at verse 13, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you. Do you know God's made grace available? And our hope is in the fact that God is gonna give me grace through this trial. It doesn't have to bear me down in my life because I know tomorrow that trial might still be there, but God's grace is already there first.

This doesn't have to bear me down forever because I know I've got a hope in the future. God's grace is already there and God's grace was already here before that trial ever showed up. We've gotta rest in God's grace. I know that seems like a generic term, but folks, grace is all these wonderful things that God just bestows on us because we're now his child.

We have been given access to all spiritual blessings, the Bible says, that's grace. It means this, that I don't know how I'm gonna handle it tomorrow, but God's grace is gonna let me handle it. God's grace is gonna keep me strong. God's grace is gonna protect me and so I'm not gonna let it bear me down today because I know God's grace is sufficient.

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 kerwinbaptistchurch.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. God bless you.