“B.I.B.L.E.--Believer's Instructions Before Leaving Earth” By Bob Heirtzler August 4th,
2013
I
am super excited today about living
for God. The Scripture
Theme
for the month of August: Titus
1:9
Holding
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by
sound
doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
I want to thank God that He called
me to this ministry. I
want to thank Him
that He called me out of the miry clay, out of the sin that I was in,
and
placed me upon the Rock. The
Rock is
Jesus Christ. He
called me to this
ministry long before I was born. There
was a baby dedication that my family had for me, and they have told me
that
they wanted me to be used of God, and that came to pass. I come from a lineage of
preachers on my
dad’s side of the family (and singers, and actors, and scientists, and
history
teachers). I thank
God for that as I was
reflecting over that. Today’s
sermon is
on B.I.B.L.E—Believers’ Instructions Before Leaving Earth; most people
think
that stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, or Basic
Information
Before leaving Earth, but I’m using Believers, because the true
believers are
the true worshippers (John 4:23-24), and are Christians!! There’s a false doctrine out
there that
anybody can be a Christian, but they don’t follow the Word of God to
the ‘T’,
and to the dotted i’s (Matthew 5:18).
A
true Christian—they were called Christians at Acts
11:26
...And
the disciples were called Christians first in
If
you read about the early church, they went
through a lot of things to be able to worship, to pray, to be able to
be called
that title. A lot
of people just put that
title on themselves today, “Yeah, I’m a Christian,” but they say a lot
of
things that are contrary to the Christian belief in the Bible; their
lifestyle
doesn’t match up with the word of God.
There are a lot of people that are
pretending—they’ve heard about it,
they know about it, but they don’t know how to obtain it. Thank God that we, as the
family of God,
we’ve crossed that threshold; we’re believers in Christ. We’re blood-washed in
Jesus’ name, baptized
in the river. We’ve
just had some
baptisms recently. When
we came up out
of that water, all of our sins were remitted.
Everything was gone; our past was erased, no longer
to be brought up by
God. Now it’s a
day-by-day thing to walk
with God, to seek God’s truth. That
was
just a little extra of the message.
I’d
like to share Titus 1:9 again. We’re
going to break down this Scripture a little bit. Titus
1:9
Holding
fast
the faithful
word as he hath been taught... Holding
Fast–Did
you ever
see somebody holding a hot cup of coffee or tea to their desk or to the
counter? Their
focus is looking right at
it. They don’t want
to spill that hot
liquid on their hand. They’re
looking
right at it. Their
attention is holding
that cup, keeping it steady; holding fast.
Or, you’re driving down the road and hit an ice
patch. What’s the
first reaction? Both hands on the
steering wheel. Right? and you learn to turn into
the curve when you
hit that ice patch. You’re
holding fast
to the steering wheel. What
about a newborn
baby or infant? you see mom and dad rock the baby, holding that
precious jewel
that God just gave them; holding fast to it.
Then I thought of another one: -
Dan
Connolly, offensive lineman, ran a 71 yard kickoff
return–12/19/2010–against
Packers! He has the
record of the
longest kickoff return for an offensive lineman. If
you watch the video, he is holding onto the
ball. He is a big
guy, and he’s
running! He made it
to the four yard
line. He was like a
bowling ball,
bouncing off of all of the pins, and they were trying to take him down. Sometimes we’re holding
onto what God has,
and everything is being thrown against us, but we just plow right
through
it. He got knocked
down; the good news
is, he got back up, and he kept going on with the game.
-
Vince Wilfork–defensive lineman,
intercepted a ball. He
was another big
guy, and he ran He
ran as far as he
could before he got taken down. It
just
shows me that we all have something
that God has for us to do, regardless of
our size, our age, our nationality, our background...
God has something
for us. Those
two guys were New England Patriots players, by the
way. I thought I’d
throw in a little
rooting for the Patriots. They
were
focusing on what was at hand at the time—that hot coffee, that tea, the
newborn
baby, the infant, the football, the steering wheel... whatever was at
hand,
they were focusing on, right?
So, let’s
take this next section of Scripture: Holding
Fast The Faithful Word–They were hanging on the
Word of God!! How
do we hang onto the Word of God? Titus
1:9
Holding
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught... 1
Timothy 4:11–16
...Let
no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers...
It doesn’t
matter who we are, how old we are in the faith or in the flesh, we
can’t allow
anybody to stop us from doing what God wants us to do.
It doesn’t matter young or old, they’ll
despise our youth. Timothy
was a young
man at the time. It
said to be an
example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in
spirit, in
faith, and in purity. If
you’re holding
onto the faithful Word of God, you’re going to an example in your
words, your
conversations, your charity, your spirit, in faith, in purity. They’re going to see
something in your life
that stands out. They’re
going to see
something that, “There’s something different about him or her. They’re always happy. They are the happiest
person on Monday and
the rest of us are mad. What
happened
this weekend?” They
might find out what
happened this weekend.
As
brother Greg shared, fellowship is important.
We have to share our needs one to another, about
prayers, about things,
about, “How do you deal with this?”
It’s
more than just sharing recipes and who won what game.
“When this came at you, how did you deal with
that?” We have so
many examples here of
so many people going through so many different things.
I already know who to turn to, who to talk to
if I’m going through the same thing.
I’m
going to ask them how they dealt with it.
I can ask a faithful brother or a faithful sister,
“How did you deal
with that?”
That
Scripture (“...the
laying on of the
hands of the presbytery...”)
always reminds me of a
baby dedication; I don’t know why.
I’ve
seen a lot of families bring their young people to the altar, over the
years
that I’ve been here, dedicating their son or daughter to God. God continues to bless
them—I was talking to
a sister yesterday, and what she does, she and her vice-principal, they
anoint
the door of every classroom in their school, and they pray over it. Every door.
They pray for the teacher, and they pray for the
students in that
class. She shared
how that when they did
this, it was a great year. God
saw that,
and God honors that. Nobody
at that
school probably knows that these two ladies went from door to door and
prayed
over them. Isn’t
that amazing how that
God just blessed that year?
God
has a calling. You
have to have been
doing something for people to hear you.
How do they hear you? through your word, your
conversation, your spirit,
your charity, your faith, and your purity.
They see that.
Amen? Titus
1:9
Holding
fast the
faithful word as he hath been taught... Been
Taught
–Study to Show
thyself
How? Been taught, by Study to
show thyself
approved unto God!!
We’re instructed to study the Word
of God. We all went
to school,
right? We had to go
to history and
science and biology classes, math and English.
We had to learn all that stuff to do what? to go to
the next grade. Bianca
just received her diploma for
graduating—twelve years of school.
You’ve got that piece of paper that says, “I did it!” That piece of paper will
take you to
places. We
understand that we have to
study, to continue. Your
daughter just
got her bachelor’s degree. She
had to
continue to go to school, to get that piece of paper.
If we understand that, why don’t we
understand how God wants us to learn.
How are we going to learn anything new, if we can’t
handle what he’s
given to us so far? So,
if He teaches
us, then we go on to the next lesson.
The last lesson will be the trumpet.
We’re going to learn something all the way up to our
last breath,
wherever we’re at when the trumpet sounds.
Titus
1:9
...as
he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound
doctrine both to
exhort... Titus
2:1
But
speak thou the things which
become sound doctrine:
We’ll stop right there.
What are we talking about?
What are we sharing?
Are we sharing the horoscopes?
Are we sharing gossip?
Are we sharing things that we’re not supposed
to be sharing about? It
says to share
sound doctrine. You
don’t realize, when
you say good morning to your co-workers, or your students at school,
how much
of an impact that God can make that have.
Just saying good morning, and know that you mean it. Do you ever see people
walk to their desk and
they say good morning, and they don’t even look?
They just walk to their desk and back. I did that one time, and
God said, “You
didn’t look anybody in the eye, when you walked by and said hello.” Now, I’ve learned to look
people in the eye. It
has a bigger impact than just going about
your normal routine. Look
them in the
eye when you say hello. Titus
2:2-5 ...The
aged women likewise, that they be
in behaviour as becometh holiness...
Every one of us has had a
grandmother that prayed for us. A
grandmother’s prayer seems like...
My
grandmother prayed for me. My
grandfather prayed for me. They
prayed
for my mom to be able to raise me the right way.
She was taught by the best, her mom.
As a family of God, there’s a lot of moms and
dads, grandparents in here. We’ve
got a
lot of new people, some of whom got baptized, they need our father
figure, our
mother figure, our grandmother figure, our grandfather figure, to be
that
example. There’s no
cousins in here;
we’re brothers and sisters. There’s
no
brothers-in-law or sisters-in-law; we’re brothers and sisters and
children of
God. I have distant
cousins that are
preaching a lie, but they’re not part of my family, the family of God. Titus
2:6-7 Young
men likewise ...
In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works...
So, as young men, we have to show an
example, and anybody below a hundred and twenty is young. Those guys back then lived
eight or nine
hundred years, so we’re all young.
Titus
2:8
Sound
speech, that cannot be condemned...
Your
speech is sound. When
people accuse you, they will realize
that your testimony is so strong that people won’t even believe it. I gave the example before,
I was checking in
products from Titus
2:9-11 ...
For
the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
So, everybody.
It has appeared to all. I’ve got a story a
little later on—some people that give us a hard way to go—we might be
surprised
to see them again. They
have a hard
testimony; they found the truth later on in life, you know? Titus
2:12-13 ...Looking
for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God...
One day, the trumpet’s going to
sound. We’re going
to look forward to
that day. Don’t be
on the other side of
the dollar where your scared to death to go to God.
Be happy to see God, as Greg Bozarth said,
“Let God be happy to see you, and you’re going to be happy to see Him.” Get things right now,
while you’re on
Earth. As that
brother shared in the
prayer, earlier, get things right now; get things behind you, get them
covered
by the blood, whatever it is:
Frustration, aggravation, sins, or whatever the case
may be. Titus
2:15
These
things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man
despise
thee.
Don’t let anybody stop you from
doing what you want to do for God.
Titus
1:9
...
by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince
the gainsayers. I
had to look up these Scriptures. Brother
Malcolm, I don’t know if you looked at my notes—there are people that
argue
about everything. “You
look nice!” “Oh,
I didn’t look nice yesterday?” “Hey,
you
got a haircut!” “Got
it three weeks ago,
Bob, where you been?” At
least I
acknowledged it, but he didn’t care, right?
From G473
and G3004;
to dispute, refuse:—answer
again, contradict, deny, gainsay (-er), speak against. gain·say geɪnˌseɪ,
geɪnˈseɪShow
Spelled [geyn-sey, geyn-sey] Show
IPA verb
(used with object), gain·said,
gain·say·ing. 1.
to
deny,
dispute, or contradict. 2.
to
speak
or act against; oppose.
The Word of God says that by sound
doctrine, we’re going to be able to exhort and to convince the
gainsayers. There
are going to be people that just want
to give us a hard way to go, but living a testimony—maybe it’s not the
words
that we say, but the life that we live—will change them. That’s happened in this
ministry, over and
over and over... There’s
one sister, she
got baptized; her two sisters gave her a hard way to go about it; now
both of
them are in church with her. And
she
taught a Bible study. Praise
God on
that!
My own family told me that “God is
OK with you (speaking to me) but, I don’t need God.
Everything is going fine for me.”
I have to share with you guys today a nugget
of gold: Maybe,
because of her
lifestyle, she doesn’t see the need of God at this time. That blew me away when you
said that, Andy; I
went home and I thought about that last night.
Maybe God’s just waiting for the right time for her
to receive it. I
was eighteen when I got saved. People
older than I was are getting saved,
and people younger; God would meet the need right there on the spot.
People today are putting the Word of
God down on the table, or on the book shelf and turning to things that
are not
sound doctrine… I
hear of people reading
their horoscopes, how their day would be that day.
They’ll go to sooth-sayers, or fortune
tellers; it’s amazing how these
places
are packed. They’ve
even got a show
coming out, on A&E, I think it is, about a sooth-sayer that
helps people
out. I’m thinking,
that’s not a good job
title to have when you go to God, you know?
My question is, if these sources are teaching that
you don’t need God,
who will take care of you? I
heard
somebody ask this question, “How come the god of Alcohol doesn’t come
to your
rescue when you’re drunk driving and you strike a tree or another
person? Where is
the god of Alcohol helping you in
that situation? How
many people treat
alcohol as a god, or a drug as a god, but when they need help, they
don’t even
show up?
Your style of living may be GOOD to
live by, BUT is it GOOD to die by?
You’re
taking a gamble with your soul that you are right!!
That was just the introduction; I’m
starting the sermon now. This
leads me to
my 3 points that I what to share…… I.
Our
Foundation We
have to check our foundation. The
GOD doesn’t sway; God
doesn’t move (God’s a stubborn God!); He’s a Rock; He doesn’t budge!! We sang the song about the Rock
this morning (I Will Call Upon the
Lord).
He’s
talking about
a rock that does not move, and
that
Rock is Jesus. He
doesn’t sway (not even
six inches). He’s
solid. Matthew
7:21–25
...I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a
rock...
I’ve
heard people pray about things, “God, I need the money, let me win the
Lotto,”
“Let me get that car.” “Let me get this...”
But they never ask for a closer walk with God. They’re saying Jesus,
they’re saying, Lord,
but God doesn’t even know who they are.
Make
sense? God may
allow things to happen,
to cause them to draw near to God, but they still need to come to God. They have a form of
godliness, but they deny
the power of God in their lives (2 Timothy 3:5). That
Rock (mentioned in the parable) is God.
We’re going to go through daily trials. We’re going to be like
those linebackers
running the race like bowling balls.
Satan’s going to throw everything at us.
We’re going to keep focus on the touchdown line,
which is Heaven’s
gates. We’re going
to make it
there. It’s not
going to be an easy
journey. We can’t
just sit and say,
“Okay, God, I’m ready.” There’s
got to
be some work with it. There’s
things
that we’ve got to do. Romans
8:35–39
Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ?...
Some days you feel like you’re in
the midst of Hell, walking in the fire, and everybody’s taking shots at
us. Satan’s got his
best forces out
there against us. There’s
nothing that
can separate us from God. If
we’re
committed to Him, He’s going to protect us.
He’s going to be there for every curve in the road,
every bump in the
road, every way that we have, He’s going to be there with us. It might not feel like
that at times, but
those might be the growing times in our lives.
Times when He wants us to just step out by faith. Peter was on the water,
“Okay, God, if that’s
You , let me walk out there!” “Okay,
come one.” Okay,
Peter took the first
step, now he’s on the water. “Wow!” Then what happened? he
sunk because he took
his eyes off of Jesus, and when he cried out to Jesus, then Jesus was
like,
“Hmmm. I’ll wait
until the second or
third bubble. Eh,
I’ll wait until he
gets to the bottom.” No,
He was there
immediately, and pulled him up. So,
we
know that if we cry out to God, God’s going to hear us.
He’s watching us, he’s just waiting for us to
say His name!
The second part of that story…
about the Foolish Man Matthew
7:26–28 ...shall
be likened unto a foolish man,
which built his house upon the sand...
In
This next scripture talks about who
built bigger barns. Some
people share
how “I Got This, God! I
don’t need you
any more. I’m
settled. I’ve done
my twenty years in the ministry, my
thirty years in the ministry... I’m
just
going to sit and ride the tide. I’m
going to stock things up, so that I can wait until the trumpet sounds,
and I
can step right on in.” Luke
12:16–21
...thou
hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat,...
If he had more than he needed, he
should have given it away. This
is
teaching us that you can’t out-give God.
The more we share with people, the more blessings
that God gives us. We
can’t just stop: “Okay,
I’m full of the Holy Ghost, I can stop
now. It’s 11:25 and
I’m good for the
rest of the day.” Oh,
no; we need God
all the time. We
can’t see what’s around
the bend; God does. We
don’t know what’s
ahead. When I’m
going to work in the
morning, I stop thinking about crossing the threshold of my office
door; I
think about where I am in the moment.
Anything could come out and hit my car; a deer, a
coyote... I’ve got
to think about I am now.
Don’t worry about where you’re going to be; I need
to focus on now. Right?
II.
How do we
get the POWER and SOUND DOCTRINE in our lives? John
14:25–26
...He
shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance...
So
here’s the core: we
need to study, pray,
have fellowship—so that we have a memory bank of what to do. Acts
1:8
But
ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you...
This
power is going to cause us
to be a witness. How
do we get this
power? Acts
2:37–41 ...ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost...
Peter
did not say, “Go down to the III.
NOW WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS SOUND
DOCTRINE? 2
Timothy 4:1–9
I
charge thee ...Preach the
Word;
be instant in season, out of season...
What’s
a charge? orders or
instructions... It
says preach the Word, in season and out of
season. What does
it mean by being in
season and out of season? Two
weeks ago
it as forty degrees in July. that’s
like
fall-type weather, or spring-type weather (it might be a winter-type
weather). God wants
us to be ready at
all times. You
might be at work, and you
might walk to the lunchroom, you’re in season at work, but somebody
walks up and
asks you, “Tell me about your God.”
That
would be out of season, wouldn’t it? but you have to be ready to
receive that,
ready to hear those... If
we’re not even
seeking God that day—God’s already has people that are going to cross
our path;
He’s already planned that all out already.
we just have to be ready to receive it.
We
know a lot of people that hear the truth and run away, because they’re
afraid
of it. You’ve got
to keep in mind that
God is still continuing to deal with them.
If there is breath, there is hope.
If they’re still breathing, there’s hope. Keep praying for them.
Keep seeking in their
behalf.
We
all have a ministry in this ministry.
Your ministry is wherever God takes you every day,
Monday through
Sunday. That’s your
ministry; make full
proof of it. Do
whatever you can do for
God fully that day. It
might be saying,
“Good morning,” it might be a co-worker that’s coughing and you give
them a
cough drop or a glass of water, it might be that you saw something
fall, and
you went and retrieved it and helped them out.
It’s the little things that minister to people. It’s the little
ingredients that you put in
stews and chilies that make a big difference in the taste. The little things that we
do make a big
difference.
So,
in verse six, Paul is singing the song, “Inside the gate” He knows his time is over. He had confidence that he
was going across
that line. It’s not
just for him, it’s
for all of us. 2
Timothy
4:14-16 ...At
my first answer no man stood with me, but
all men forsook me...
In
verse 14, Paul shared that Alexander the coppersmith did him much evil,
but he
said, the Lord reward him according to his works.
There’s going to be people that give us a
hard way to go. You’ve
got to let it go
and let God take care of it. I
had a man
tell me yesterday, “You know, I was angry at God for four years, and I
had to
let it go. I didn’t
want God to judge
me, because I as judging other people.
I
don’t want that relationship with God.
I
want God to be happy, and if I hold something against somebody, then
God’s
going to hold something against me.”
It
was amazing how he just opened up and talked.
I wasn’t expecting it; he just shared. 2
Timothy 4:17-18 ...
the Lord shall deliver me from every
evil work, and will preserve me...
God
going to deliver us. You’re
going to get accused; God will make a
door for you to walk out of. Satan’s
mad
that you’re taking his people and you’re sharing with them; they’re
getting
baptized in Jesus’ name. Satan’s
mad at
us, because we’re doing that. I’m
glad
he’s mad. I don’t
want him to be happy
with us.
A friend of mine posted this poem,
and I thought, “It’s really powerful.”
It’s about how we judge people. BEST
POEM IN THE WORLD But
it was
the folks in Heaven There
stood the kid
from seventh grade Bob,
who I
always thought I
nudged Jesus,
'What's the deal? 'And
why is
everyone so
quiet,
JUDGE
NOT!!
Amen,
thank you.
Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
|
