Dave McCracken - AM

Good morning and welcome to our Sunday morning service at the Baptist Tabernacle, if you would, please, let's go

ahead and stand, continue to make your way to your seats. Let's sing to God. Be the. Check.

Pouring rain, rain.

He gave us some. Moisy. But there is always. The people rejoice. Jesus, son, and give him the glory. He. Released. Brontë's. Raised. There is always race, horse race, the. And the people rejoice. Jesus. Done, good job singing on the last great. Strange things. And great rejoicing. Jesus. As we say, Grace, the. Boys.

Praise the Lord.

Jesus. Three great things he had done, wonderful scene this morning. That's where Jason Hilton

come up and lead us in an opening prayer. Thank you all for being here, this wonderful, beautiful Sunday morning. So the Lord in prayer.

Well, dear Lord, we just come to you this morning. We thank you for this time together. Father, we thank you for your presence. It's already here with us. We just love you. Well, we know we could do nothing good without you, Lord, I pray that you would open our spiritual eyes and ears this morning. Lord, you wouldn't let anyone leave here not knowing you. Father, I just I'm so thankful for this church and Lord, what you're doing here, what I pray that you will just move among us and give us a real personal experience with you this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

And Jason, you may be seated and glad to have you all here with us today. I hope that you have had a good weekend thus far. How many of you had spring break last week? So the parents are like, spring break, what's that, man? All right, well, it is good to have you here and hope you did have a good week and glad to have guests with us today. And if you are a guest with us this morning and then I hope you received one of our weekly bulletins as you came in the door. And if you did inside that, you'll find a connection card. If you wouldn't mind filling that out with just whatever information you feel comfortable with sharing. We don't use that to spam you with anything. But we would like to have a record of your visit here with us today. If you fill it out, you can turn it in and our welcome desk and they'll give you a little gift and show our appreciation for you being here today. I've said this before, but I really wish I could just distill everything that makes this church so special into one service so that when you left, you knew everything there was to know about why the Baptist Tabernacle is such a great place to be. But that'd be really hard to do. And so I hope that you'll come back and visit us perhaps on a Sunday night or Wednesday night. And as you'll see in just a moment, we've got different activities going on all the time. So please come back and join us at another opportunity. A couple of things going on I want to bring to your attention first, March. Twenty seventh. We do have a ladies night out. The ladies are going to be going over to trace our mottos over in downtown Collinsville. They're going to meet there at six p.m. and they have a room reserved there. And so they'll be meeting in the back banquet room just for a time of fellowship and good food together. And so hopefully you ladies will plan on being there for that. That is coming up this Saturday. And then also coming up this week on Friday is our monthly retreads and retreads is a great opportunity for our senior adults and those maybe who identify as senior adults. Wanting to identify as something else these days, so if you're younger and you want to identify as a senior adult, but you can come out and they're going to play some games together, they play a lot of dominoes and different things, it gets pretty competitive. But you're welcome to jump in to that. And then at noon, they'll have a potluck lunch and so make plans to be there for that retreads this coming Friday from 10 to one. Next Sunday night, we're going to have a church volleyball night and we haven't been able to use the volleyball net yet. So we're going to put that to use next week and we'll have pizza available for everyone. You don't have to play volleyball. You don't have to eat pizza. But we'd love to invite you to come and join us and just spend some time talking and visiting with some other folks in the church. And of course, those things will be available, if you would like. And then let's talk about Easter for just a moment. Easter weekend is obviously something we're very excited about looking forward to. Last year, we kind of got cheated, it felt like out of normal Easter weekend. And so we are ready to experience all of that this year, April 3rd, that's on the Saturday. We'll have our Easter egg hunt from 11 to one. Registration starts at ten forty five and the hunt will start at eleven o'clock. There's going to be lunch provided, hotdogs, chips and a drink. And then we've also worked out a deal. We're going to have a kettle corn trailer and a snow cone trailer that'll be here. And everyone will get a free bag and kettle corn and a free bag of free snow cones for being there. And so I think that'll be a lot of fun and excited for that. But we do need your help. If you're a church member here and you'd like to be involved with putting this on, we normally expect about three hundred people to come through at the Easter egg hunt. And if you would like to help us to be able to do this, this this event, there's a sign up sheet out on the welcome desk that you can sign up for different stations. We need help with registration set, not the Easter egg hunt, manning the kitchen cleanup, watching over the bounce houses, all that kind of stuff. If you would like to help. And we do need a lot of help, please go sign up after the service and let us know where you would like to serve. And then also, many of you have been ringing in your Easter egg, uh, donations with the candy inside. And if you continue to do that, we need thousands of eggs. And as I know, there's more coming in this morning. But so far we've only got five hundred. Five hundred thousands. It's a big jump, so I know they'll keep coming in, but if you haven't done that yet, please do so. And if you're going to work, please be at the church by nine forty five that morning. OK, then Easter Sunday, Easter Sunday. We're going to do what we've done in the past. We're going to have an early service at nine o'clock. We're going to have Easter breakfast for everyone at 10:00 and then we'll have our late service at 11:00. There'll be no Sunday school that day because of the two services child care for the early service. The nine o'clock service will only be for the choir members. So if you come and you're not in the choir and you try to drop your kids off for junior church, there won't be a junior church for them. But there will be in the second service. The second service is one. We'll have our whole children's program going. So if you have kids, probably best plan on come for that second service. And we're really looking forward to this. And then Sunday night that evening, because we're going to have church Sunday night on Easter Sunday is going to be a little bit different. We are going to have kind of a worship night where we're going to pick out we're going to do requests, but we're going to pick out probably two to three times the number of songs we normally sing and have some time just singing and singing praises to the Lord that Sunday night before the the message at the end. So a lot of things going on. I hope that you'll plan on being there for all of that as well. Trusties will have a meeting this afternoon at four thirty and then choir practices also at four thirty to night at this time last Brother McCracken, brother Dave McCracken is here with us. He's going to be preaching in our services this morning. And tonight he's got a few things that he has with him that I've asked him to tell you a little bit more about. MacCracken, want to come and talk about that.

Thank you. Are glad to be here. And I'll say more about that. Grateful he let me do this now. My sister as Anita I mentioned her school time. She has written a book called The Face Lord Will I Seek. It's a book on prayer and it's a precious book. My favorite thing about the book and it's in my opinion, it's the best book I've read on this book. Pawson, it teaches you how to get your prayer life going, it gives you the steps and gives you some guidelines and it's excellent for that. It's really well done. I'm really proud of her. And so the book is fifteen dollars. Five dollars of every book she sells goes to her daughter and son in law who are there working on to build a camp just south of Stillwater. And so they're using some of that to go for for the youth camp. Also, I want to tell you real quick, I call it I have two daughters, Angie and Becky. Becky's married. Someone answered the ad in the newspaper and Becky got married, so. She's been married now for 10 years and she has two children, Addie and Ryder and our other daughter, and she's not yet married. She we still want her to get married. And so no one's answered the ad if you know anybody's single between. We're going like now. Thirty six to sixty six just somewhere in there. We're interested in meeting them and her meeting them. So anyway, Angie's been teaching at a Christian school for 20 years and her and her, she has a roommate. They live together since college. And they were dorm roommates and now they live together. And so they, uh, started at a daycare and his roommate met this family. Three little girls. Uh, well, three little girls. And the baby, she was just a month old when she started coming to the daycare. And that became they helped with that family their mother has had trouble with. Drugs, and she's been to prison and jail and so on, and the dad is not altogether involved in it and so on. And so when they were just little toddlers, they would keep them over the weekend and keep them and every evening they could and so on. Because Angie teaches at a Christian school, and when I got to pre-K, Angie said, can the girls come to my Christian school in which they live with the mom? And mom said, well, I can't afford it. And she goes, no, it's a scholarship. We'll take care of it. And she said, OK. So they went to school for two years. The youngest one's name is Chelsea. Chelsea was defiant and rebellious and they couldn't control where she was on anyway. And they had all kinds of difficulty whether they'd come and get angry and say, hey, you got to take care of this kid, she won't behave. And she's only four years old and five years old. And I had the same kind of trouble with her. After two years, the two older girls said, we don't want to go to school there anymore. But the younger one, um, the mother said, do you want to go? Yeah, I want to go. So she started living with Angie Monday through Friday. And then one weekend she would go home to stay with her mom and two sisters. In the third grade, uh, she did not come to school for one year because of some things between second or third grade anyway, the mother put her on two different kind of medicines, uh, because she was defiant and rebellious and so on. And anyway, so when she came back, she goes to the third grade again and she started living with Angie Monday through Friday again. And she's taking care of her. In the fifth grade, the mother said, I think it'd be better if Chelsea just live with you all the time. And so she moved in with Angie full time in the fifth grade. Chelsea is now 18 years old. She's a senior in high school and God's right work in her life. I'm grateful, Angie, when she does the. Scholarship, she pays for school and she's put braces on her teeth and. Look closer, just like any parent would. But Angie has paid for her schooling since she was in kindergarten, I thought it was a scholarship. The scholarship does mean she got a discount. And so, you know, all Christian school teachers are very wealthy and so she's taking care of her and she's never one time asked me for help and I didn't know this. Anyway, we call Chelsea our granddaughter. There's no legal documents. We call our granddaughter. And we love her and we're grateful she got saved in the ninth grade at youth camp and it's just really a blessing. Last two years ago, right before her junior year, she surrender by a missionary. Chelsea is very gifted in drawing art. She drew this picture with a pencil. So you guys back here drew this picture with a pencil because her son, your school teacher, said, hey, Chelsea, why don't you draw something that we can put in our Sunday school class and hang on the wall? And so she drew the line in the sand. Ove. I'm in California, a fellow that used to work with Thomas Kincaid. He was in the financial department. I showed him the picture on my phone. This is what we love it where we're proud of it and all that. So a week later, he said, Chelsea sent me the original. I would like to see if I could do something with it with these people. I know. So they reprinted it and they made this poster is supposed to cost twenty five dollars. Twenty six dollars to make it about ten of them. He purchased ten of them and he said, I just want to help Chelsea get started. He also made Acambis one cost around thirty five dollars to make it. And then he made this aluminum one that it cost fifty five dollars to make this one. And the man who did this, he said, I just want to help Chelsea. And so. We did not plan this. We didn't expect to do it, but because of this guy's kindness, we now this is like our eleventh church, I suppose, that we set them on a table back there and tell people about them. And so the aluminum ones, one hundred dollars, the canvas, one sixty dollars, a poster is fifty dollars. But all the money that comes is going to help her with college. She's going the Heartland Baptist Bible College this fall to be a freshman. She's excited to live on campus like all the other big kids. And so, uh. We're thankful for her good spirit, our prayer is that God will protect her. There is a reality our parents and our grandparents genes come into us. And there's propensities that we have because of hereditary. God can overcome all that. And so we're asking God to protect. And that God would protect her from some goober man, our boy. Would not be who he wants her to have. And so I really am grateful to Pastor Boyd would let me do this and show you to you. And so thank you very much. All right. Oh, I got to tell you, Nancy, does the finances factor with that thing and she gets mixed up. So you can help her. OK. But anyway, if you're interested, she'll be back there. All right.

Let's go ahead and stand with continue the service singhania.

Let's bring it out to for Jesus, let me always. Very. And this way. He is. Is working hard and making. And so they will say what's was best for. By giving up, would you? Yes, I can make you want. But things are hard and. It's nothing new here, so you will say. Will now see on the last words you and his team. A place like. Would you any service labor always that your best friend is his? He is I can make you watch him on TV is what can you. So then you will see. Husband. That's what we

want here this morning for God to have his way in our life.

Let's continue singing. Me, my vision

won't be in your head, but to be on

the screen. Bierbaum. Not me. Oh, well, to me say. Now, my first thought. Day or night I wake. Sleeping in my presence. I. I believe that Albi is. Bear with me, Lord. Great father. Saw that with me twirling and I with one. And hiking of. Hegde. But may I raise your voice? So. Autobio. Before. Still be my vision. Oh, Ron. Oh, let's

sing that first verse again, but let's sing so the last first, last verse again, let's sing that a cappella. We'll get the first and we'll go into it.

I came up and when victory is won, may I reach heaven choice? Albright Hamsun heart of my own heart would ever be for. I'll still be my vision for the.

Oh, praise the Lord.

Has come forward at this time, just a quick reminder, we do have invitations to Easter on the welcome desk and then it's been a big hit. We do have more Easter baskets prepared for if you have children, families with children that you're trying to invite. We've already gotten 60 of those out. We've given out over five hundred of these cards. And so if we run out, we'll order more. That's not a big deal. But we have 10 more baskets available in the fellowship hall. And so if you have not picked one of those up yet and you have a family you'd like to invite, or maybe you've already given out the ones that you picked up before, go grab some more. Literally, we have hundreds of baskets, so we're not going to run out. We want to get as many of these out as possible. But they're available in the fellowship hall on one of the tables. You can grab one of those after the service. I'm going to ask Brother Paul Helfenstein there in the back if he doesn't mind to pray, ask God's blessing on the offering. And then once he is done, then you may be seated. Amen. Thank you, may be seated.

Or higher ground this time will have Miss Shannon cause sing for us.

Lost or saved, find the. So. Ukraine. All I can tell. Finishing. Athersys. Out of Ukraine. Haastrup. Of like.

He has to.

Site. Mark. Chingy. Live Twitter. Pays Gregan. Oh, we. Finestra. Some. Out of your great.

If you. Yes.

McCrimmon. I say. Margaret. Chief. Said that he had left. Pays. Making. Defending. Jason. Hi. Lifted up from. You praise your great.

Amen, thank you for that, ladies, appreciate that good song. Good reminder this morning about what we're here to do is lift up the name of Jesus and excited for what God's going to do in the service this morning. It's been a while, uh, since we've been able to have Dave MacCracken here at our church. The MacCracken and his wife have been coming here, he said, for over 30 years. And it's been five years since they've been here. And of course, over the last five years, many of you know, our church kind of has gone through a couple of different things, a bit of a transition. And so now that things are seem to have settled a little bit, I was glad when we were able to make this meetings scheduled and to make up for what we're going to have him back later this year in December. And so since it's been so long, we thought let's get two in this year. And so I'm excited for this. And I've only heard you preach a couple of times in person. I've heard, um, podcasts and stuff that people would post of preaching. And I always enjoyed it. But the Dave MacCracken was my wife, Alisha's pastor, for many years when she was a child. And we were just talking about a little bit about that the other day and, uh, just how he was there for her and her family at a very important time in their lives. And just what a great blessing they were in their ministry and the influence that they had on my wife's family. So I'm grateful for that. But he's going to come now and preach to us this morning. And so get your Bibles out and the MacCracken, you handle the invitation however you see fit.

Thank you, Nancy, and I are thrilled to get to be back and, uh, I have to I'm going to be with you again. It is truly a blessing and it's hard to believe over 30 years ago. I can't I don't know for certain if it's thirty two or thirty three, but it's right in that neighborhood. And, uh, the second revival that I ever preached was right here. The first one was up in, uh, Bartlesville. And then, uh, the second one, Pastor Kate. Asked me to come and, uh, so. A revival and. I was working a secular job at the time also. And anyway, after it was over, he goes. Well, could we look in February, four years from now? Do you have that open? Uh, yes, I have that open. Well, I'd like to put your name down right there, and I came every four years while Pastrick was here and grew up. I grew up with you here. And it's just a blessing that he would have me come. He said, I do it every four years. I have four speakers we like to have and I do it every four years. I'll be sure to get them when I want them. And so I kept coming here and I'm grateful for his friendship and the friendship of this church. And of course, this church is well aware that you loved us and helped us, ministered to us in every way. When Nancy and the tragic accident was in the hospital a long time, you were such a blessing to us and my daughters. Remember some of you, in fact, I mentioned to Miss Nancy, remembered her by name. But you remember some of you by sight and by name, that how you were a blessing to us back, uh, during that time. So, anyway, just glad to be here. I get to come back tonight, too, so I really want you to come back tonight. I know I help. And a blessing to you what we're going to try to cover and not be tonight at five-thirty. But this

morning, if you have one of

these ribbon. Thank you, Bob. It's a marker.

If you would put it in, um,

two Corinthians, Chapter five, two Corinthians, Chapter five. My intention is that we will turn there to conclude the message. If I don't turn there, it's just because I felt like that we didn't need to do it, but my intent, I know, tells me to go there and I plan to. So, uh, anyway, uh. Romance. I'll tell you then to turn to romance. OK. It's my memory only lasts somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 seconds to 60 seconds. Sometimes it's shorter than that. Some of you are old enough that, you know, you got up out of their chair and you only walked a few steps and you go, I forgot what I was going to do. Is there something I should do while I'm standing up here? I can't think of it, you go back down so. Romans did already say that Romans one, chapter one. That's where we're going to start. If you are able to ask if you would please, to stand with me. For. A long time, nearly 30 something years, I've been asking people to stand. Just to remind all of us, the Bible doesn't require us to just to remind that I do believe we should give reverence and honor to the eternal, infallible, inerrant. It's the perfect, preserved word of God. And that's why I ask folks to stand. Romance one, verse 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first and also to the great look of our 17 for their in there in is in the gospel for and

the Gospel is the righteousness of

God revealed from faith to faith as it is written in the chest, shall live by faith to go the next book of the Bible. One Corinthians, please. Chapter one. One Corinthians. Chapter one. Verse 17. We're certainly not to baptize. But to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none, a fact like a verse 18 for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved, it is the power of God. Chapter two now, please, and I bretheren when I

came to you, came not with excellency

of speech

or of wisdom, declaring unto

you the testimony of God, I determined

not to know anything among you,

save or accept Jesus Christ and him crucified. I would like to pray if you would bury your head with me. Our great God. I come to you again. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for letting us. Thank you for proving that you love is. Thank you for another Lord's day that we can assemble. I'm grateful for the friendship and love that Nancy and I get to have with this place. We're grateful for what I ask you to bless the time right now. We want you to be honored and glorified, and we're surely asking you, would you touch our hearts, would you speak to us? If we needed admonish us, encourage us. Lord, we just want you to be glorified also for any that are listening, that are here this morning, that are not forgiven. Of theirs, and they're not ready for eternity, please touch them. Brain conviction to their heart and their soul that they understand their need and pray, they would say yes to you. So we love you, Jesus. Thank you for letting us thank you for proving that you love is. We sure do look forward to when we get to see you and send your mighty and holy name, we pray Christ, amen, and you may be seated. And when you hear the word Christianity. Own. I am. I don't. Can you hear me OK? Bring the green light.

Sorry about that.

Can you hear me now? Did I do something to the deal? Somebody changed the batteries, but they're green, so it works. I got to remember, while I was at the beginning, it wasn't a. When you think of Christianity, when you hear the word Christianity. What do you think would be the centerpiece? Of Christianity, what would be the centerpiece? The focal point of Christianity. If you were going to say this is the center of Christianity,

many people in this room, and

if you just walked around with the. Outside the city and you asked about, hey, when you hear the word Christianity, what do you think of most people?

And many people would say Christ? He is the center of it

is Christianity a man,

and so he is because we have Christianity because of Christ. But I want to say this the birth of Jesus

would not be the centerpiece of Christianity.

That manger in Bethlehem. That's a beautiful scene. It's a wonderful it's precious,

but that's not the centerpiece of Christianity.

His prophecies that

Jesus fulfilled

while he was here on the planet and then his fashion week, the last week

of his life that we're getting ready to celebrate

the past week. A, he said

he believed there were three hundred and thirty three first three hundred thirty three

passages in the Old Testament that were fulfilled and that last week of Jesus life on the on

the Earth

and the prophecy being fulfilled, though they are not the

centerpiece of Christianity.

The miracles that he did,

they remind me they were wonderful, they were spectacular, they

were unbelievable and the miracles are there, but they're not the centerpiece. The miracles are there. They are valid. But what they did was validate that he is who he said he was. But they're not the centerpiece. His followers, us, the disciples, as followers of

Jesus, we're not the centerpiece of Christianity.

In fact, the teachings of Jesus and how precious they are and how broad they are, they are not the

centerpiece of Christianity.

The centerpiece of Christianity was invented about three to four hundred years before Jesus was even born. The Persians invented something called the crucifixion. They came up with the most horrific way to do capital punishment, that when anyone to experience anybody who saw that said, well, I never want to be there. When the romance came and took over from the Persians, they said,

well, we like this, we're going to keep doing it. And so crucifixion

was continued and the Romans

time and when Jesus was here and of course, he was crucified.

So I'll say this, the centerpiece of Christianity, the focal point.

Insults cross.

The cross of Jesus. The very reason we have something called Christianity

is because the cross.

And Jesus Christ, if you and I could travel with the apostle Paul, he's the one that

wrote the Book of Romance and the one of one Corinthians, if

we could travel with him. Only had a few stops would have to that we have to make with him that we would realize that Paul's main message, his message was the cross. I'm Jesus Christ. He wanted everyone to know who Jesus was and what Jesus did and his first coming. So when Paul got to Corinth, if you would look again, I hope you're still in chapter one, I want to show you something just interchangeable, if you'll look at it with me. Verse 17 again,

chapter one of one Corinthians

corrosively not to baptize, but look what he said, but to preach the gospel. So Paul said that my number one thing, what I what I came here to do was preach the gospel. Now, look what he says in the same verse, that wisdom of words lost the cross of Christ should be made of. Matter of fact, I know if you're getting this not, I want to point it out to you when he says I want to preach the gospel, the same thing he is saying, I'm going to preach the cross of Christ. That's what he's saying. It's interchangeable. You get the next word starts acting and also says is for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But that's what you're saying. That's the power. God. So when Paul preached across his preaching the gospel, when he preaches the gospel, he's preaching the cross. I'll even include this when he preached Jesus Christ, he's preaching the gospel, when he preached Jesus Christ, he's preaching the cross. Look at chapter two again. Look at two when he says. I determined verse two, he said, I determined not to know anything along you say Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul's main message is the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus. Just pretend like you're all. Please, please, just pretend like you're all on the same page with me and say, Oh, man,

hey, man, that's nice of you. Thank you very much.

And we went with Paul. We would notice that he's preaching the cross, the crucifixion, he's preaching Jesus Christ is preaching the gospel, we would notice that. Watch this. When he got to Corinth, he didn't go do a survey to see what they thought about religion. He didn't go there to find out what their needs were to say, you know, I just want to try to meet your needs and see what you like and what you dislike about religion. No, he didn't go from city to city and customize his message, and that's just what he preach here. And, you know, I need to change it a little bit here. He didn't customize his message for any group of people. It didn't matter how religious they were and how idolatrous they were. It didn't matter how how brilliant they were and how much university education they had. It didn't matter how lonely they were, didn't matter how wicked they were. He did not change his message

when he went from place to place.

No, not at all. He didn't care what their culture was, the spotlight was not on the apostle Paul. The spotlight was on Jesus Christ

and him crucified. Can somebody say, hey, man,

that's what the message is about. The cross is the most important message. It is the core, it's the heart of Christianity. Did Paul preach about other things? Did he talk about other things?

Well, if you've ever read your Bible, you know he did. He talked about a lot of other things. He talked about the church.

And how we should behave in the church. He told us he helped us with what the responsibility of the church is, this is what you need to be doing. He showed us and told us Church Politti. Another way for that is church government. This is how the church should exercise and this is how the church should behave. And this is what it ought to do. And financial decisions and church decisions and and taking care of the sick and the widows and the fatherless. Everybody with me, they gave all kinds of instructions. He talked about how that, you know, how often we are to come, you know, like a couple of few times a year. It's probably good enough. Or maybe he said it like this whenever they assemble. Whatever that church resembles, maybe that's when you ought to

show up, hey, man,

how often should we adore the savior? How often should we worship him? How often should we gather and try our utmost to hear from him? As often as you do it, as whenever the church assembles, then we know the first day of the week, it's the Lord's day. Hey, man, that's why we worship him. We assemble on the first day of the week. It's the day heroes hallelujah. And Paul gives instructions about that. He tells the church's responsibility that we're supposed to go into all the world and tell the whole world that Jesus is the savior. A man he talked about. He talked

about government. And how that you should hate it. Whenever you can do an insurrection, do it. No, in fact, he said we're supposed to obey the authority. That's crummy. Then he said, God is the one that put him over you. That's hard to believe that God had anything to do with that. And yet he gives us instructions how we should behave toward them, we're supposed to be compliant. Doesn't sound right. But wait a minute, we're only complicit up to. If they say this is what you're going to do from now on and the scripture says this is what you do, from now on, we're going to do what the scripture says or undo what God says, not what they say. I don't care how many doctorate degrees they have. And how much authority and power they might be the king, they might be the potentate, they might be the president, I might be the speaker of the House. Or something. By hearing me, I'm

still going to obey God rather than man. That's our only time that he gives

us license to. To tell them no. Amen. Absolutely.

He tells us how we're supposed to treat our family, all the apostles covered whole. He tells her husband how to love his wife, Mercy. I don't know if you know what he covered there, but he says he says, hey, husband, you're supposed to love her the same way that Christ loves his church. Looks like a lot. Christ provides for his church. He protects his church. He blesses and enhances his church on. As a husband, we're supposed to do all we can to protect her, provide for her, give her attention, enhance her, Ayman. No, he talked about how I'm supposed to behave toward the husband. That's incredible. Since you brought it up, I

hate to say this out loud in church, but it is true he never tells the wife to love her husband. You can't find it. But he does it in a kind of a back door manner. The wife is supposed to teach the girls how to love their husband. So evidently, this is supposed to take. But really, he spent some time on that she's supposed to realize who he is. That he is the husband. He has responsibilities that she doesn't have.

Uh.

That's not politically correct. Well, it's biblically correct. Hey, man, well, there's so much I could go there, but. We do have another part of the sermon to get to, but he does tell the children how to behave toward their parents. Tells parents how to behave toward their children. We're not supposed to provoke them to read. What does that mean? I don't have a clue, but we're not supposed to do it. But we are supposed to teach them, train them to honor the Lord, a man. Be submissive to the Lord, be submissive to authority, hey, man, we're not supposed to be undermining one another as we train the children. Well. Oh, there's so many things he talked about, others do one more, he talked about that Jesus is coming back. That is a hallelujah, I'm telling you, people that are breathing air today, right now in this room, when someone says Jesus is coming back, that ought to be like exciting because he's coming soon, man.

And Paul the apostle said he was coming. St. Paul, the apostle, said he was coming soon. And Paul thought that Jesus, let's call the.

Imminent return, imminent means like. Any second.

Paul the apostle, thought Christ could come back any moment if Paul thought he could, certainly we ought to think he could. And when we have more scripture than Paul did, we have a revelation that Paul did, mercy sakes, where when someone says Jesus is coming back, we're going. Yes. And it may be today a man in our life that we believe

I'm getting too carried away. I'm just saying that Paul talked about other things. Other than the crops, other than the crucifixion. But I don't know if you heard this or not. The most important thing. The number one thing. Was Jesus Christ and him crucified? We're not going to turn there evidentally since I'm the one preaching, but in Chapter 15, he said, I delivered unto you, first of all, that what you also receive, how that and he gives them the gospel. Christ died for our sins according to scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.

Paul the Apostle

said, I deliver to you. First of all,

you know what the number one and I determined not to know anything. When you say accept Jesus Christ and him crucified that number one thing, Paul preach. The first thing he preached was Jesus Christ and him crucified. He preached the gospel to them.

I don't want to get this the gospels, the main thing. I don't know who said it first, but lots of people said we're supposed to keep the main

thing, the main thing. Imam. If it's the main thing, it

should still be the main thing. Or I should say like this, that is the main thing, even if we don't make it the main thing. I know how I'm pronouncing it, I'm saying thank. That's how you're supposed to. The main thing. I grew up in Kentucky. We say thank. It's a dear friend of mine. She graduated from western Kentucky State University in Bowling Green. That's where I grew up. She she grew up there, too, and she went to college there and she got a master's degree in education. And she's teaching some third graders and they're having a spelling bee. They moved from Kentucky to Missouri and her house was in college, and anyway, she's having a spelling bee and hey, you need to come. I've got to leave. Would you take over the spelling bee? She came up to go with spelling, gave a few words. She got to the word thang. These little children, third graders, you said Thang, I don't have a thing to wear. This is her own testimony. I don't have a thing to wear. Three children misspelled it. Another teacher came up to her and said, Mr. Carson, we say hang.

Paying.

Miscasting, look, you're right about that. That's what I said, bang.

It's still the main thing today.

Somebody say, man. Mersea.

The cross is the one message that the

world out there cannot duplicate. The gospel they cannot duplicate.

If a church is not careful, a church could begin to emphasize we need to actually alleviate human suffering. People are hungry. People need help. People are sick and we need that needs to become prominent in our ministry and what we do. And ladies and gentlemen, the Bible makes it plain that we are supposed to help the poor. If you don't think you're supposed to help the poor and the indigent, the people stand on the street corner. Don't read the book of Proverbs many times in the Book of Proverbs. It tells us that we're supposed to help the poor, feed the poor, give to the poor, assist the poor mercy.

But what she said, if you give a cup of cold water in my name to one of the least of these, you've given it to me.

So we're supposed to help the poor, but that's not the main thing and the church is not careful. They make that the main thing and they begin to be benevolent and helping others. But they've left off they've gone off message because the message is the cross is the gospel

of Jesus Christ. Hey, man, if a church is not careful, they get all politically wrapped up in stuff. And we've got to help save America. We've got to

get America back to God. We've got to get America back to go get back to our roots, get back to where we were. And there's nothing against us. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. In fact, in our great nation, you can run for office and you can try to make an impact. Or you can stick your head in the sand and just ignore it all, but we have opportunity to make impact if you don't start it.

You know, in the first when America first started that here, you know, where all the public speaking was taking place inside the church. That's where the biggest gatherings were, that's where most of the information was given out. There's nothing wrong with that. The separation of church and state

is just some other people's idea that separation of church and state is just that. The state doesn't tell the church what to do. The church doesn't tell the state what to believe. But let's assume we're not far we're not far from our state telling us this is what you can say and this is what you cannot say. We're not far from that. I never thought it would

happen in my lifetime. But if I make it a few more years, it's probably going to happen. And then the man of God going to have to make the decision, am I going to do what God says or I'm going to do what what man says? About. But if a church isn't careful, I know churches that have got so wrapped up politically

that they've left the main message. Although they're really good at all that political stuff, but they've got the main message, the main message is Christ and him crucified. Somebody say, man, nothing wrong with education, Christian education. I'm for it. I believe in it. I want it. I think we ought to do that, do the best we

can at that. But it's not the main thing. It's not the main thing at all.

The main thing is the

gospel of Jesus Christ or the cross or Jesus Christ.

There's only one organization that God gave the responsibility to, gave the authority to, gave the means to, to get the gospel out, and that's

his church, the Church of Jesus Christ. Somebody please say a man. He gave the plan. He said the gospel supposed to be preached. But it's not enough to preach it and say that Jesus is a man. He was a man that experienced

all the human challenges of life. He knows what it's like to suffer and knows what it's like not to have. He knows what it's like to be a need. Oh, yeah, he was a man. It's not enough to say that he was a man because he's

more than just a man. He is God in the flesh, too. He's the God man. Hallelujah.

But it's not enough

just to preach that he was a carpenter. His identity was never, oh, he's that carpenter, but his identity was his that carpenter son and we know him to be a good son. He was an obedient son. Certainly he helped. Joseph in the carpenter shop. It's the first born, he's the oldest he's helping out there, but he's more than just a carpenter.

He was a great teacher and he is a good teacher and he was the greatest teacher of all time, but he's more than

just the teacher.

It's not enough to say that he's a prophet and he is a prophet. He's God's prophet. He's our prophet. He has much to say to us, but he's more than that. He is God in the flesh. He's the God man. He's not man. He's not God in man. He's not man in God. He's the God man. Somebody say, Hey, man, watch and ask the God man. He died upon a cross. Wow. Lane up on him cell. All. Of our. He took our place. He died our death. Burying the punishment, listen to these words, bearing the punishment of his own wrath.

And our place. Well. Any religion, any ministry, any minister, any church that does not have. The cross, the crucifixion, the gospel as its center. I'd say it's not a religion of Christ. Not really the Church of Christ, it's really certainly not doing what Christ has commissioned her to do. Return turn with me to two Corinthians, where you, Goldmacher, is. I don't know if you were listening a while ago. That means we're almost done. Two Corinthians. We're just going to reverse twenty one, I'm feeling a little bit and we'll be finished like at twenty one two Corinthians, chapter five. I meant the I got mixed up there. Five twenty one. For he had made him to be send for us. Those pronouns were valuable there for he, that's God. The father made him that's Jesus Christ to be sent for us. Who you reckon us is? That's all of us and right here. Look what it says. He made him to be sent for

us who

knew no sin or who is who or who's not us. Because we're all sinners, they man,

so you can't say I said no, no, I'm a sinner. You have trouble with that? We can help you realize.

Oh, yeah, you're a sinner, too. You've come short of the holiness of God, the grace of God, the righteousness of God. You've come short of vitamin a man. For God has made Jesus to be sent for us,

who knew no sin? Why that we who's we, we as us. A sentence that reads like we made the righteousness of God in him, Jesus Christ died on the cross and on the cross, he became sin. Who then did he become? Utzon's.

Oh, my, every sin I've ever committed. Everything that I will commit. Jesus became Sen.. Why did he have to become every one of my friend, because every one of them need to be paid for. Christ. Died on the cross. Here's what it says in one Corinthians, 15 died on the cross for our sins. He became sent for us. Why? That we might be made the righteousness of God. What is righteousness or righteousness is no sin. Means clean. Pure. For me to get the righteous is how I hope you heard that, that we might then you might give us the righteousness of God. I don't have my own righteousness. My forgiveness before God is not in my standing, in my righteousness. I don't have any, but I have the righteousness of God and he who paid our

sin now has the ability to

give us God's righteousness. Wow. Praise this holy name. So here we go. If you don't know for sure that you're forgiving of your sin. You can. Bible, once your God wants you to know, you're forgiven. It's a hell of a. He wants to forgive you, Christ died, he died for all your sin, but you have to be willing to acknowledge that you need him. And you ask him to forgive you, to save you, and it's never turned down anyone. In fact, he said he'll give you his righteousness. Well. You can stand before God righteous, oh, no, no, not because of you, but because of Jesus. Christ and him crucified the cross is the centerpiece. If you do not know for sure, you're forgiven of your sins. Today I want to encourage you. I want to beg you, why don't you just admit it so you don't know? If you would admit that, you can be forgiven. How do you do that you trust Jesus Christ, so I'm not sure how to do that. I don't know what to do. If you'll let us help you, we'll help you. We're not going to embarrass you. You don't have to give a speech. But if you'll let us pray with you and help you, we'll show you simply how the scripture, how you can be forgiven that Christ died. For years and now you receive that. My friend. It's a hallelujah day that I stop, I already already I'm saved, I've already received Christ, I go, hallelujah. I'm glad you have. Let me just ask you, since you brought it up, are you living like it? Are you behaving like that you have his righteousness? Oh, there's all kinds of instruction in the scripture of how we're supposed to live. I ask you to stand with me. Thank you, thank you for listening. You would stand with me, I'd like to pray with you if we keep our heads for prayer. Four great God in heaven, I come to you again, I want to say thank you again, Mercy. Thank you for loving us. Thank you, Christ, for what you've done for us. Thank you for the instruction from the scripture that the main thing is the gospel is the cross is Christ. God, I pray for hearts in this room if they don't know for sure, they're forgiven. Would you bring conviction to them and understanding awareness? That they just acknowledge. They don't know they're forgiven. And God, if they would turn to you by faith, believe, receive is how your scripture says, receive the gospel, receive the what Christ did for them. They can be forgiven today. Would you give them that kind of desire that they would be willing to even step from their seat and let us help them? I know it's. Anxious nervousness. I pray they say yes to you today. I wouldn't put it off. There's believers here today that it's obvious they know. They know in their soul they're not living how they should live. I pray that there will be a rededication of hearts. Our heads are bowed. I'm going to ask you to play as she plays. If you would like to spend some time and. Prayer and dedication surrender. If you want to be sure you're safe, you're forgiving of your sin. Asteroids near the front I'm here will be happy to pray with you, we'll help you. For the match going to begin to sing as he sings, if you want to sing with him, you're welcome to. But if you need to respond, you and the board know that. Why don't you say yes for the man? Go right ahead,

search me, Hoca. Hey, man, what about today? Oh, my oh. To the. Uh, try me or say. Save your money where the Lord wants you to be, my thoughts, I pray.

Your dedication and commitment to Jesus,

if there be. Some wicked weather. Hand me. Claire. If you don't know, the most important thing you do know

is that you're forgiving of your

sins, uh, you're receiving the gospel faricy, right? Uh. I praise the Lord. Good for cleansing, Mr.. Francis. And for fell by. And make me your with. And fill me with my. Well, one sideburn, which is. Bred by desire to magnify the fine.

Amen. Thank you for that good challenge this morning for the MacCracken task, if you would, please, to be seated for just a moment. This morning, a couple of weeks ago, Miss Welney, younger, came forward and told the church that she had accepted Jesus Christ as her savior. And today she is going to get baptized there in the back, getting ready where the man is going to come. He's going to lead us in a song while I go get prepared. And then we'll be back in just a moment for a very special baptism here this morning.

Remain seated, hymn number twenty three, our first song this morning, to God Be the Glory

to God, be the glory, great things he had done so loved the world that he gave us his son, who he still did his life to atone man forcing and open the life gate that all may go away and praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the Earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. O come to the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory. Great things he had done. Oh, perfect redemption. The purchase of Lord to every believer. The promise of God. The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus support and receives. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my dear, there is always Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. O come to the border through Jesus the sun and give him. Way thinks he has done great things, he taught us great things and done. Rejoicing through Jesus, son. And great will be. Transport and tasers, we say raise the. Praise the Lord. There raising. Resorts. Let the people rejoice. Come to the. Through Jesus, son, and give him the glory, three things he had done. All right. Jim.

Right there, she can come all the way over here. You want mommy to. Look, there's a step right here. Here you go. All right, you want to wave to everybody? So how did Granny know? All right, well, like I said, Winnie has accepted Jesus as her savior, and so today she's going to get baptized. And she asked if she could wear her Elsah goggles. And I said, of course. So those of you that are a little worried about getting baptized goggles will help you. We're OK with that. So when you've accepted Jesus as your savior, you trusting in him alone to get you to heaven, then go and hold your nose then. All right. You ready? You've been practicing. I know upon your profession of faith, I now baptize you, my little sister, the name of the father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of his death. Go raised in the likeness is resurrection, all God's people said. John. I hope you don't ever get tired of that, it is so awesome to see God working in young and older lives and have people coming to know the Lord and then getting baptized. Let's all stand and we'll be dismissed. I'd like to ask brother Mrs. McCracken if they would mind. Go ahead and make their way out to the FOIR. That way you can go by and greet them and take a look at the stuff that they have on their table. And please do be back tonight at five thirty for our service trustees at four thirty, four thirty. But our service will be at five 30 and looking forward to another great service together here in the Lord's House with the mile our service. And then after you're done, you'll be dismissed.

Let's go Lord in prayer. Thank you Lord, for just the wonderful day you've given us the preaching of your word. Lord, thank you. That you died on the cross for our sins. That we have a way to heaven, Lord, because of you. I pray, Lord, that there is someone here that has yet to trust you as Savior would do so today to talk to one of us so they can know for sure that heaven is their home. Lord, continue to bless the day. Bless those as we go our separate ways and bring us back together tonight. Jesus name. I pray all those people said amen.

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