24-0225a Transcript

Preacher: Tom Freed

(1:25) Good morning. Good to see everybody. (1:29) My sermon title is, I Need Thee Every Hour.

Thanks, Wally, for singing that. But we do need God (1:36) every hour sometimes. One thing every single person has in common that has ever lived (1:43) is that your life will be full of problems and struggles.

(1:48) But it doesn’t matter if you’re the poorest or the lowest person in the world, or the richest (1:52) and most powerful. You’re still going to have struggles and issues to deal with throughout (1:57) your life. So even the most wealthy, famous, powerful, and most popular people on earth still (2:05) have a lot of struggles and bad things happen to them.

Many people in Hollywood, or the music (2:12) industry, or politicians, they’re more depressed and miserable than people living a regular life. (2:19) So we see these movie stars, you know, these singers and rappers, and they’re on all kind of (2:25) drugs and antidepressants and all kind of stuff. You know, we think they have the perfect life, (2:32) but a lot of times they have more problems than normal people.

(2:38) Same if we look at the poorest nations on earth. A lot of them are much happier us here in America. (2:46) You know, think about all the people on, same way, on antidepressants, on some kind of drug.

(2:54) You know, a lot of people in America aren’t happy, and we’re the most richest nation that ever existed. (3:01) The money can’t always buy you happiness. (3:05) So I’ll quote one of the greatest rappers ever lived, Biggie Smalls.

(3:11) Mo' money, mo' problems. Probably didn’t expect a Biggie Smalls quote, but you know, a lot of times (3:18) the cases, you know, the more money you have, sometimes the more problems you have. The more (3:25) things, you know, the car you have to worry about, all these car notes, people only wanting (3:31) to be friends with you for money or be in a relationship with you for money, you know.

So (3:39) doesn’t always solve everything, but some people do seem to have everything in life, (3:45) but you don’t know what kind of issues they’re dealing with. You know, you might look at (3:49) somebody and think they have a great life, they are worry-free, but you know, every single person (3:55) has some problem. They have some, you know, something they’re dealing with in life, something (4:00) they’re struggling with.

On this service and in the world, everyone’s going to go through some hard (4:07) times, deal with adversity, and have pain and suffering in their lives. Even Jacob, who’s one (4:14) of the greatest patriarchs of the Old Testament, said this, Genesis 47 9, and Jacob said to Pharaoh, (4:22) Pharaoh, the days and years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days (4:29) and years of my life, and they have not attained the days of the years of the life of my father, (4:36) the days of their pilgrimage.

But if you read the Bible and look at Jacob’s life, (4:42) you know, it seemed like he had a good life, but according to him, you know, he lived 130 years, (4:48) but according to him, they were few and evil, his days. We’re not going to live to 130 years, but he (4:56) thought, you know, that was a few years, you know, so sometimes that’s how it seems to be, (5:05) the older we get, you know, the quicker time goes and the shorter it seems life is. (5:13) You know, and he was blessed by God, but see, he still had many problems to deal with.

In the Bible, (5:21) you know, every, you know, tells great stories, and all these stories, it was about struggle or (5:27) about overcoming something, you know, so it could seem like, especially as you get older, (5:37) once one problem ends, another one pops up. I don’t know how it is even with me, it seems like (5:43) I get a small injury or something happens or something’s going wrong in my life, (5:49) that maybe that ends, you have a couple days of peace, and all of a sudden you have another problem (5:53) and something else to deal with. So, you know, especially as you get older with more sickness and (5:59) health concerns, you know, it seems like every time you turn around, you have something plaguing you.

(6:07) So Job said the same thing Jacob did. (6:10) Man who is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble, Job 14.1. Life isn’t easy (6:19) for any of us, we all deal with different struggles on a daily basis. You know, whether (6:24) you’re a teenager going to school, middle-aged with a family to take care of, or you’re advanced (6:29) in age and struggling with your health, you know, there’s plenty of problems headed your way.

(6:37) There’s some issues and difficulties we also bring on ourselves from our own actions, (6:44) but others we have no control over. So think about how many problems we bring on ourselves (6:49) through sin and, you know, making mistakes, and a lot of times we blame those problems on God. (6:58) We sin and we say, oh God, why did you do this to me? It’s like you did it to yourself.

You can’t (7:03) blame God for everything, but other times you have no control over what happens. You might get a (7:08) disease or cancer, somebody might, you know, you might be a victim of a crime, but one way or the (7:16) other you’re going to have a lot to deal with. So what are you going to do when you have problems (7:21) in your life to overcome? You know, like I said, you may have something embarrassing at school (7:27) happen, or you’re being bullied, you might have lost your job or having financial problems, (7:34) or you may have lost a loved one or going through cancer or heart problems.

The prayer list in this (7:41) congregation is about equal or more than, you know, we have attendance here. I think I read the, (7:48) how many people are on the list? It’s like 20 people. It seems to be growing, you know, so many (7:54) people here gone through sickness, disease, life struggles and hard times.

So, you know, none of us (8:02) are strangers to difficulties in life. When life gets tough and takes a turn for the worse, you (8:10) have a choice to make. You could turn away from God and blame Him for all your problems and deal (8:16) with the issues on your own, or you could turn to God and ask Him for help and forgiveness (8:22) and look to His strength to get you through whatever you’re dealing with.

(8:26) Psalm 105.4, seek the Lord in His strength. Seek His faith always. (8:34) That’s what we need to do as Christians, which I’m sure, (8:38) I would assume all of us do.

You know, look to the Lord and cast our cares on Him. (8:45) You know, it’s tough to deal with everything yourself. It’s great to have a God that we (8:49) cast our cares upon, who we know is going to take care of it for us.

(8:56) But life isn’t all that, you know, all bad all the time, but it definitely has its ups and downs. (9:03) Even though we mainly have a majority of good things and blessings in our life, (9:08) like I said, you’re also going to have hard times. (9:12) Life doesn’t discriminate.

You know, bad things happen to us all, (9:17) especially if you’re a child of God. The devil will come after you especially hard. (9:23) You know, the devil, the last thing he wants is somebody to be saved.

It’s like a (9:28) someone who has a life sentence in prison. You know, if you went to prison and somebody was (9:34) serving life and never getting out and he saw you only had a couple of months or a few years, (9:42) you know, he might think, well, why should this guy get out and I’m stuck here? (9:48) You know, a lot of people in that situation would want you to (9:52) have to sit, you know, spend life in prison along with them. (9:57) But since the devil cannot stop you from becoming a Christian, (10:01) he’ll do all that is in his power to make you frustrated and miserable and turn away from God.

(10:08) We can take an example from Job. Look what he did to Job, who was blameless and upright. (10:13) He feared God and shunned evil.

He had 10 children and thousands of livestock (10:21) and was the greatest man among all the people of the East. The saying claimed that he only loved (10:28) the Lord because God put a hedge around him and blessed everything he had done. (10:34) Remember from Job, you know, all the angels met and God said, (10:41) consider my servant Job.

The devil said, he only loves you because (10:46) how you’ve blessed him and taken care of him. He said to God, let’s stretch out your hand and (10:53) strike everything he has and he will surely curse you to your face. Job 111.

The Lord said to Satan, (11:03) very well then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger. (11:09) And Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. (11:13) So we can see that God is ultimately in control.

(11:17) But he doesn’t give Satan power to afflict people on earth. (11:20) But Satan is powerful, the Bible says. He’s the prince of this world.

(11:24) That’s why we can see how much evil there is in this world. (11:29) But God still has ultimate authority on what he can do. (11:33) But he has given him power for whatever reason.

And here, you know, Satan had to ask him permission (11:40) to afflict Job. So Satan, being the person he is, killed all his children and either destroyed (11:49) or stole all his livestock. But Job didn’t curse God.

Instead, he fell down and worshiped him. (11:56) Job 120 through 22. At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.

(12:05) Then he fell down to the ground and worshiped and said, (12:10) naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord taketh (12:15) away. May the name of the Lord be praised.

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with (12:22) wrongdoing. Well, how many of us could do the same thing? When we have something go wrong in (12:29) our lives, do we blame and curse God or do we fall down and praise him? You know, Job lost (12:38) in one day all his family, everything he owned, everything got burned up or stolen. (12:44) All his kids killed and he still didn’t blame or curse God.

(12:50) So since Job was still faithful, the devil went after him even harder. Job 2, 4 through 8. (12:59) Skin for skin, Satan replied. A man will give all he has for his own life, but stretch out your hand (13:08) and strike his flesh and bones and he will surely curse you to your face.

The Lord said to Satan, (13:15) very well then, he is in your hands, but you must spare his life. So Satan went out in the (13:21) presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to (13:27) the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself within as he (13:36) sat among the ashes.

So you can see what a miserable lot he had at this point, (13:43) what everything he had taken away and his health too. When Satan gets the chance, (13:50) you can see here that he’s going to do everything in his power to make your life miserable. (13:55) He’ll destroy everything you have.

He’ll take away your health. He’ll take away anything (14:01) to make you curse God. So one creature I know said, you know, all that the devil left Job (14:12) with his wife so that she could nag him.

I don’t know how true that is, but his wife said to him, (14:20) are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die. So that’s, I’m sure what (14:27) he needed to hear, you know, instead of his wife encouraging him, she said, curse God and die. (14:34) So, you know, you finally, you find out who’s on your side when you’re at your lowest.

(14:39) A lot of people, a lot of friends, you know, when you’re down in the dumps, they’ll turn their back (14:47) on you. You know, you’ll find out who’s truly on your side when you have nothing. But I think (14:56) David Coates made a different point where he gave her credit because she stayed with him (15:02) through the whole time too.

So you can’t, you know, she wasn’t all that bad, I guess, but (15:09) Job remained faithful through all this and still did not curse God or sin against him. (15:15) Job 2.10, he replied, you are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and (15:22) not trouble? And all this Job did not sin in what he said.

So even his three friends (15:30) came and argued with him, telling him he must have sinned and done something evil to have so (15:37) he truly couldn’t get any lower. And he questioned God, why did this happen and how unfair it was. (15:44) Well, in the book of Job, there’s a long discourse between Job and his friends, (15:50) arguing back and forth about the reasons all these things happened to him (15:57) before God finally stepped in.

So his friends were telling him, oh, you must have done wrong. (16:01) God wouldn’t do this if you hadn’t sinned. And Job was saying he’s innocent and he’s unfairly punished (16:09) and unfairly judged.

And then at the end, God shows up in a cloud (16:17) and God questions Job and asks him if he was there when the world was created, (16:22) and if he took care of all life on earth. He put Job in his place as a tiny human who has no idea (16:31) how powerful and wise God truly is and that he has no right to question him. Job 40, 1 through 5. (16:40) The Lord said to Job, will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? (16:46) Let him who accuses God answer him.

Then Job answered the Lord, I am unworthy. How can I (16:54) reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer.

Twice, but I will say (17:03) no more. That would be an intimidating thing if God came down and questioned you. You know, he (17:11) questioned him if he was there when the world was created

and created all these things and put (17:16) together the whole universe with all the laws and all the great things.

And Job, you know, (17:23) had to realize he didn’t have an argument. He couldn’t say a word. You know, he couldn’t answer (17:29) God.

So we should come to the same conclusion Job did when bad things happened to us (17:35) in life. We really have no right to question God when anything happens to us. (17:40) Sometimes we question God, why is this happening to me? We blame God.

(17:46) We think how he rules the world isn’t right. You know, you can look around at all the sickness, (17:51) disease, all the suffering, and a lot of people won’t believe in God because they say, how could (17:56) God let this all happen? But we don’t have any idea what God thinks. He’s so much higher above us.

(18:04) You know, he’s so much more wise. We’re like nothing. (18:08) So, you know, we have no clue what he thinks because his thoughts and ways are (18:12) so much higher than ours.

Isaiah 55, 8 through 9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, (18:19) neither are my ways your ways, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. (18:25) As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts (18:31) than your thoughts. We can’t see what God sees, you know.

With Job, he couldn’t see (18:39) what happened with the devil and God arguing and God allowing him to do this. (18:44) You know, it was for our purpose too because, you know, it’s in the Bible now. We can read, we can (18:50) see what he experienced.

You know, he not only suffered and came out better for it, but we also (18:56) could read and, you know, nobody’s going to be attacked like Job, I don’t think. If he could get (19:02) through, we could see that we can. So God also rebuked Job’s friends and he had them make a (19:10) sacrifice for forgiveness, and Job also prayed for them.

Then God prospered Job and gave him (19:18) twice as much as he had before and blessed the latter part of his life more than the first. (19:25) So how many of us could have gone through what Job did and not cursed and sinned against God? (19:31) I know that I probably wouldn’t be as nearly strong as Job. (19:36) You know, I would have a way worse attitude.

I don’t know if I totally, completely turn my back on (19:43) God, but I’d definitely be better, be upset. You know, I struggle and get frustrated now when I have (19:49) way less things happen to me than what happened to Job. So, you know, he might have been the only (19:56) person that could have gone through all that and God knew it.

That’s why he allowed it to happen. (20:02) So we can learn a lot from how Job handled the situation. (20:07) And we can feel, you know, that if he made it through all those struggles that we can, we can (20:12) do the same with ours.

We can also see from the story that God isn’t to blame for all the bad (20:19) things that happen to us. The devil is the one that caused all these evils to happen to Job, not God. (20:27) So why don’t we ever blame the devil when evil comes our way? We always blame God.

(20:34) You know, we should be blaming the devil because he’s the one a lot of times that brings these evils (20:40) in our lives. You know, we can see with Job, everything that was evil that happened to him (20:45) was from the devil. But God tests us.

The devil tempts us. The devil tempts us to try and make (20:54) us sin and turn away from God. But God tests us to make us stronger and bring us closer to him.

(21:02) Proverbs 17, 3, the crucible for silver and the furnace for gold is for gold. (21:09) But the Lord tests the heart. So just like gold and silver are refined to separate (21:17) them from the drop and make them more pure and valuable, God tests the heart, our heart, (21:24) through sorrow, sickness, temptation, and other struggles that our soul may emerge from the (21:30) trials pure as gold, fit for his use.

We can see that these, you know, gold and silver are refined. (21:40) They’re heated up to make them, you know, get rid of the impurities. (21:45) God does that with us with these trials and things that happen in our lives.

(21:51) And we should, you know, if we get through it, come out stronger and purified on the other side. (21:58) We can see we’re all going to be tested and go through trials. (22:02) In our life, especially if you’re a Christian, life doesn’t get easier.

It’s easier to become (22:08) a Christian, but it’s hard, difficult to live the Christian life. You know, you have to just (22:15) obey God’s word, you know, hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized. (22:23) But then, you know, as you become a Christian and try to live the Christian life, (22:26) it’s very difficult.

It’s difficult not to sin. The devil’s going to make it easy for you to sin. (22:32) If you want to turn away from God, he’s going to give you everything you want, (22:38) and he doesn’t want to see you make it to heaven.

(22:42) But sometimes we suffer and have hardships also because sins we have committed. (22:47) Like I said before, other times it’s out of our control. (22:51) But we have to, we have a choice to make when our hearts are tested in the furnace of affliction.

(22:58) You know, we could turn our backs on God or endure it and come out the other side purified. (23:06) But Job could have cursed God and died like his wife suggested and the devil expected him to do. (23:13) Instead, he fell on his knees and worshiped God.

(23:17) So when hard times come our way and the way of the world’s on our shoulders, (23:22) we don’t have to carry the load. We can fall on our knees and pray, (23:26) letting God take care of it for us. (23:29) Fall 55-22.

(23:33) Cast your cares in the world on the Lord and he will sustain you. (23:37) He will never let the righteous fall. (23:40) First Peter 5-7.

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (23:47) So we do have a great option by turning to the Lord. (23:53) You know, by putting all our burdens on him for him to take care of it for us.

(23:58) Sometimes we face smaller problems that are easily overcome with minimal amount of suffering involved. (24:06) Other times our problems can be overwhelming and feel like it’s too much for us to bear. (24:11) I’m sure we all, if you’re old enough, (24:15) I’m sure we all experience that.

(24:18) We have problems that seem overwhelming and too much for us to handle. (24:23) They pretty much crush us. (24:25) That’s all we think about and worry about.

(24:28) It might be cancer, heart failure, a horrible accident, (24:34) you know, a divorce, the loss of a loved one, (24:37) or many other problems that come our way in life. (24:41) Or maybe our pain and suffering is caused from our own sinful choices we have made like David. (24:47) He committed adultery and murder and suffered greatly for it.

(24:53) He lost his kingdom for a time. (24:56) His child was Bathsheba and he lost his honor and dignity with the people. (25:02) You know, all his problems, you know, a lot of his problems are brought on by himself.

(25:06) You know, he’s the one that committed adultery when he had everything in the world. (25:10) And God called him out on it and punished him for it. (25:15) He could have gave up and quit, but instead he prayed and asked God for forgiveness.

(25:20) So he wrote about the forgiveness and mercy of the Lord, Psalm 32, 1 through 5. (25:27) Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. (25:33) Blessed is a man whose sin the Lord does not count against him, (25:39) and in whose spirit there is no deceit. (25:42) When I kept silent, my bones wasted away, through my groaning all day long.

(25:48) For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. (25:52) My strength was sapped as in the heat of the summer. (25:55) Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.

(26:00) I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (26:07) So we can see how merciful the Lord is. (26:11) You know, we will have to be punished a lot of times for our sin, (26:15) but the Lord is willing to forgive us if we remain silent and hold in our sins.

(26:23) We can see from Job it causes pain and suffering. (26:27) You know, even our bones waste away. (26:30) You know, sin does affect us, not only mentally, but physically.

(26:35) But if we confess our sins to God, He will forgive us. (26:38) 1 John 1, 9. (26:40) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, (26:45) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (26:49) So we can see from David is a great example of how merciful, you know, and how forgiving God is.

(26:57) I can see from my own life. (26:58) I make mistakes all the time. (27:01) I mean, every day it seems like I’m repenting for something.

(27:06) And the Lord is merciful. (27:07) He, you know, He will forgive us. (27:11) What did He say? (27:12) 7 times 70.

(27:13) But basically, you know, He forgives us unlimited. (27:21) But last but not least, who can forget about the pain and suffering (27:25) that Jesus had to go through on the cross? (27:29) He did literally have the weight of the world on His shoulders. (27:33) Every sin that was ever committed before and after Him, He had to atone and be punished for.

(27:41) We can see in the Old Testament, they had to give animal sacrifices for sin, (27:47) for the coming Savior, what Jesus would do on the cross. (27:52) And then all the sins that people would commit after. (27:57) So, you know, He had to be punished for every single sin ever committed.

(28:03) What we should have been punished for. (28:06) Well, that is too much of a burden to bear for anybody but God Himself. (28:11) To have the strength to do, you know, and to go to the cross.

(28:18) We can look and see that some of the problems are minor. (28:21) We pray for them and God takes care of it right away. (28:25) Other issues we might have to pray for every day.

(28:28) And how, you know, God helps us through it and gives us forgiveness. (28:33) But when the weight of the world is on your shoulders, like what Jesus had to face (28:37) with His suffering and death on the cross. (28:40) Sometimes we need God every hour, every minute, and sometimes every second.

(28:46) So we can see that we’re never going to have to experience what Jesus did. (28:52) But sometimes our problems do feel crushing. (28:56) Sometimes they are too much to bear.

(28:58) I mean, we sometimes turn a smaller problem into a bigger one and worry too much, which I do a lot. (29:07) But it still, you know, affects us greatly. (29:13) And sometimes we need to go to God like Jesus did in the garden every hour, every minute.

(29:18) You know, He was praying to God. (29:21) He had so much pain and anguish with the upcoming crucifixion and death (29:28) and separation from God that His sweat was like drops of blood. (29:33) Luke 22, 44.

(29:36) And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. (29:39) Then His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. (29:44) I had a preacher saying that even if you have that much anxiety, (29:48) that much stress, that you might even have blood in your sweat.

(29:53) But Jesus was sweating so profusely, it was like drops of blood falling down. (29:59) I mean, He was, you know, definitely going through a lot of anguish with what was facing Him. (30:08) Even though He was God, and we think He had it easy, (30:12) He was still 100% human, and He suffered in His anxiety like anybody else.

(30:19) So He prayed to God to take the burden away. (30:22) Luke 22, 41 through 42. (30:26) And He was withdrawn from them a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed saying, (30:32) Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me.

(30:35) Nevertheless, my will be yours be done. (30:40) So He would like there to be a different way. (30:43) And I’m sure every single one of us here would have felt the same way.

(30:48) But He put His Father’s will above His own. (30:53) And somebody once said He wasn’t worried as much about dying and suffering as He was about (30:57) being separated from God. (31:00) You know, because God had to look away from Him when He was on the cross and had the sin on Him.

(31:08) So we need to be the same way as Jesus was and understand that (31:14) not every prayer will be answered the way we want it to. (31:18) And we have to go through pain and suffering, sometimes for a reason that we don’t understand. (31:24) Jesus understood the reason.

(31:26) He knew that He had to die for us to have salvation. (31:31) But we don’t always understand why we have to suffer. (31:35) You know, just like with Job, we can’t see what God sees.

(31:38) He’s in the spiritual realm. (31:41) So Jesus had to die and suffer on the cross so we had a chance to be saved. (31:46) Romans 5, 15.

(31:49) But the free gift is not like the offense. (31:52) For if by one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God (31:58) and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. (32:04) So if there is one action, all of us have a chance to be saved.

(32:08) And all those that went before Him who did what the Lord had commanded were saved also. (32:15) By His stripes we are healed. (32:18) First Peter 2, 24.

(32:21) Who bore Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. (32:26) That we having died of sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes we are healed. (32:32) So we can see that Jesus went through a lot.

(32:35) You know, He suffered greatly. (32:38) He’s God. (32:40) He didn’t have to do all this.

(32:41) He could have came and lived whatever life He wanted. (32:44) They were expecting a king like David. (32:46) A powerful warrior, you know, who would conquer physically.

(32:52) But Jesus came in a way that nobody expected. (32:55) And people on earth still, you know, don’t look to God. (33:00) A lot of people don’t respect God because Jesus did come as a lowly person.

(33:06) He was humble. (33:08) You know, He was mistreated and spit upon and crucified. (33:14) But He did all that so we could be saved, you know.

(33:17) And He looked to God. (33:18) He prayed all the time. (33:21) He prayed in His darkest hour.

(33:22) He prayed when things are going good. (33:25) So you’re going to go through many trials and temptations and pain and suffering in your life. (33:30) The good news is we don’t have to be anxious for anything in life.

(33:36) We know that God will take care of our problems. (33:39) Philippians 4, 6 through 7. (33:42) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, (33:48) let your requests be known to God. (33:51) And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, (33:54) will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

(33:58) So I feel bad for those who are not Christians (34:01) and don’t have the option of going to an all-powerful God to help them through their struggles. (34:07) You know, the world is a crazy place. (34:10) In this country, it keeps getting worse and worse.

(34:14) You know, those that don’t believe in God and don’t have Him to turn to and lean on, (34:20) you know, I don’t know how they get through it (34:24) with all the trials and tribulations we have. (34:28) I feel even worse for them when they have to face God on the Day of Judgment (34:33) and hear the words that nobody wants to hear. (34:36) And then I declare to them, (34:37) I never knew you.

(34:39) Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. (34:42) Matthew 7, 23. (34:46) You know, so there will be a Day of Judgment.

(34:49) And God will judge us for what we’ve done. (34:53) You know, we can see in this country before our very eyes, (35:00) you know, how it’s changing when people turn away from God. (35:04) How much pain, suffering, confusion, hate, (35:07) anger, depression, and evil come when man goes his own way.

(35:11) You know, like I said, all of us here, (35:15) you know, through our lives, the older you are, (35:17) the more you see that this country was a Christian country (35:20) and people followed, you know, God’s Word. (35:25) You know, we can look at it. (35:26) If I looked at my grandparents' generation, (35:31) you know, the divorce rate and everything else was really low.

(35:34) They strived to be, you know, following God’s Word. (35:39) Today, you know, even in a short period of time, (35:43) we can see how much things have changed, (35:45) how much crazier it’s gotten. (35:46) It definitely hasn’t gotten better.

(35:48) When you turn away from God, things don’t turn better. (35:53) You know, they always turn for the worst. (35:55) So Proverbs 14, 12.

(35:58) So there’s a way that seems right to a man, (36:01) but it ends as a way of death. (36:04) So these things seem right to people. (36:08) You know, let people have abortions.

(36:12) You know, let people choose to, you know, (36:16) sleep with whoever they want, whenever they want, (36:18) to change from a man to a woman, (36:20) to, you know, have relationships of the same, (36:26) you know, have homosexual relationships and everything else. (36:29) But to God, that’s sin. (36:32) That’s, you know, that’s wrong.

(36:34) That’s evil. (36:35) And we can see when you let these things run wild, (36:38) how it affects everybody else, how it changes the world. (36:42) You know, we have confusion.

(36:44) We have, you know, craziness going on. (36:48) So many people think they’re doing the right thing (36:50) and headed down the right path in life, (36:54) but they are dead wrong and they’ll suffer eternally for it. (36:58) So life is not a game.

(37:00) You won’t get a second chance. (37:03) Hebrews 9, 27. (37:06) And as it is appointed for men to die once, (37:09) but after this, the judgment.

(37:12) So whether you believe it or not, (37:15) I guarantee you one day that you’ll stand (37:16) before the judgment seat of Christ. (37:19) Second Corinthians 5, 10. (37:22) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, (37:25) that each one may receive the things done in the body (37:30) according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

(37:34) Those who have done good to the resurrection of life (37:38) and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. (37:42) John 5, 29. (37:45) This is just like I was talking to my friend the other day about (37:50) religion and Jesus.

(37:51) He said he believed in Jesus, (37:52) but not everything the Bible says, (37:55) that he’s not the only way. (37:57) But if you believe in Jesus, (37:59) Jesus said I was on the only way to heaven. (38:03) There is no other name by which man must be saved.

(38:07) You know, and like many other people, (38:09) they believe in different things. (38:12) They believe that, you know, (38:15) either any way is right and they’re all going to go to heaven (38:18) or there is no heaven. (38:20) But no matter what you believe, (38:21) it doesn’t matter what you believe, honestly.

(38:23) You can believe whatever you want. (38:25) But the bottom line is you’re going to have to face Jesus. (38:29) You know, anybody could believe or think anything they want in life, (38:33) but that doesn’t make it reality.

(38:36) So don’t be like the rich fool who only thought about life on earth. (38:42) Luke 12, 20. (38:44) But God said to him, (38:45) fool, this night your soul will be required of you.

(38:49) Then will those things be which you have provided. (38:54) But just like the rich fool, (38:56) your life could be required of you today. (39:00) You have to make sure you’re prepared to stand before God (39:04) with your sins washed away.

(39:06) Acts 22, 16. (39:09) And now are you waiting? (39:11) Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, (39:14) calling on the name of the Lord. (39:16) So it doesn’t require much from us (39:20) because God has done all the heavy lifting.

(39:23) You know, he did all the work. (39:25) Jesus came, he died for us. (39:26) He was punished for our sins.

(39:30) All you have to do is obey his word and live a faithful life. (39:34) Salvation is only a step away. (39:39) So, you know, if you’re not a Christian and want to be a Christian, (39:43) everything is prepared, (39:45) even though water is warm, according to Jim, (39:48) and he’ll have baptism, which is surprising.

(39:54) But, you know, like I said, we’re here to help. (39:59) You want to become a Christian? (40:01) And there’s no reason not to. (40:03) You know, it’s the best life.

(40:05) You’ll have God to lean on and to pray to, (40:09) help you with all your struggles, (40:10) and you’ll have heaven eternally. (40:12) You can’t have a better deal than that. (40:14) So you want to become a Christian (40:15) or either pray to a congregation, (40:18) now’s the time to come forward. (40:20)