"Brand New Sign, With Bright Red Letters" By Bob Heirtzler May 4th,
2014
I
am so thankful to be here today. I
am so
thankful for the baptisms that we have had, and the baptism that we’re
going to
have today. That’s
how we get into
Christ. I’m so
thankful to be part of
this ministry for many years now, and it gets sweeter and sweeter every
day. Bother Andy,
just so you know, Jim
Ottoson and I put that sign on top of the building, “Jesus Saves.” That was a long time ago. I’m thankful that it
worked, drawing people
out. I remember Jim
Ottoson and I cut
out the letters and put them up on the board there.
I’d
like to start out in prayer; if you could bow your heads with me. Jesus, I want to thank You
for giving us this
day, today, God. God,
I pray that we
wake up every day expecting a miracle from You, Jesus.
Another healing, God, or just an answer to
our prayer, Jesus. As
we’re reaching
out, maybe one of our loved ones, that You would bring them around
today,
Jesus. God, Father,
I pray that You
would continue to anoint the service today, God.
There’s been such a great spirit of worship
here, today. It’s
been such a great
spirit, Jesus; I can’t even imagine, Jesus, the couple of weeks
afterwards that
You rose form the dead of all the things that were going on around that
time,
Jesus. God, I know
it affected many
people’s lives; there were three-thousand people baptized in Your name,
God,
just a few weeks afterwards, Jesus.
God,
I pray that You continue to bless everything the rest of the day, God,
the
service, the sermon, the ushers’ duties, the musicians, to the
children’s
church that are teaching our young people Your words.
God, I thank You; in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Amen, amen, amen.
Today
is May fourth. Some
people are celebrating
today as “May the fourth be with you”—Star Wars. Tomorrow
is Cinco de Mayo. Someone
shared with me that’s
I
would like to start off with the Theme of the Month:
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore
if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold,
all things are become new. Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go
ye therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I
am with
you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
There
are a lot of action words in there:
First He said to go ye therefore, then He said to
teach, then he said to
baptize in the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost—we
know that’s Jesus—also, He said, “Teaching
them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with
you alway,”
so, God’s promised us that He’s going to be with us
all the way to the
end. It made me
think about a story that
happened in Luke, chapter 24: Luke 24:13-19
And, behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from
And
they continued to share about all the things that happened, and the
things that
Jesus did, and, of course, Jesus is listening to all of this. They don’t know who He is,
et, but He’s
listening to all of this. Luke 24:25
Then he said unto them,
O fools, and slow of heart
to believe all that the
prophets have spoken:
The words, “slow of heart to believe…” Sometimes it’s hard to
believe, and we take
our time getting there, but we get there.
These people were—a lot of stuff was going on, and
now Jesus is gone,
the sepulcher is empty, and there’s a lot of doubt going on. He’s reminding them: Luke 24:26-27
Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and
all the prophets,
he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself.
I
keep thinking about Phillip and the eunuch, and that Phillip just began
preaching Jesus (Acts 8:35). Here’s
Jesus, preaching Jesus. He
joined
Himself to two people that were talking about God.
As we continue on: Luke 24:28-31
And they drew nigh unto the
village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone
further. But they
constrained Him,
saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far
spent. And he went
in to tarry with them. And
it came to pass, as he sat at meat with
them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were
opened, and they knew Him;
and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did
not our
heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he
opened
to us the scriptures?
The
first thing that comes to my mind is, can Jesus walk up to our
conversations
that we talk now, and be welcome?
That
hits me pretty hard; makes me want to think about, what am I talking
about? I say I’m
having fellowship, but
I’m talking about football. I
say I’m
having fellowship, but I’m talking about fishing.
I say I’m having fellowship, but I’m talking
about a brother or sister in the church.
Can God invite Himself into my conversation, and
whoever I’m talking to,
and then bless it? The
Bible says when
tow or three are gathered together in His name, he would be in the
midst
(Matthew 18:20). We
already know that. Think
about your conversations throughout the
week—I know you’ve got to talk about your bills, and you’ve got to talk
about
things around the kitchen table, but God’s part of that, too.
The
other part I liked was, “Did not our heart burn within us…” Malcolm said a couple of
weeks ago—I think it
was Easter Sunday—Jeremiah said that His word was like a burning fire,
shut up
in my bones (Jeremiah 20:9). We
felt
that when we were seeking God! There
was
something drawing us—yours, Andy, was a sign saying, “Jesus
Saves,”—whatever it
was that God spoke to him, and he started seeking for it. Just when I hear
testimonies, people say,
“Something happened that caused me to seek God.”
That burning desire to find.
You’ve got to keep in mind that our testimony
shines and there are people that still need to come into the flock; to
be
baptized in Jesus’ name. Their
hearts
are burning, too, seeking for the truth.
We’ve got to be that light.
Also
remember when God opened the Scriptures to you.
Parrish said, I believe it was Easter Sunday, “When
Jesus got baptized,
the Heavens opened. The
Holy Ghost
descended in the form of a dove and sat upon His shoulder.” When you come out of the
tank today, sir, the
Holy Ghost is going to be all over you and in you, today. Every one of that are
blood-washed in Jesus’
name—baptized in Jesus’ name—we have that Spirit of God in us, we have
a
connection with God. To Be In Christ……
Let’s
go to Acts 2:37-42. Did
Peter do exactly
what Jesus told him to do? Some
people
say you have to be baptized in the name of the father, the Son, and the
Holy
Ghost. Matthew
28:19 is not a
baptism. That was
not a baptism service
going on. Acts 2:37-38
Now
when they heard this, they were pricked
in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles,
Men and
brethren, what shall we do? Then
Peter
said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins…
Remission—to
be remembered no more. Our
old ways—our
old sins—are all on the other side.
They’re not even around any more; God remitted them
all. Baptism,
coming out of the water—I’ll get to
that in a second. Acts 2:39-42
For the
promise is unto you, and to your
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall
call. And with many
other words did he
testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Then
they that gladly received his word were
baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three
thousand
souls. And they
continued stedfastly in
the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in
prayers.
They
got baptized and they continued in the faith.
I was raised that if I went to church on Sunday, the
rest of the week I
could cause all the trouble I wanted, as long as I was back next Sunday
at
eleven o’clock, and God could forgive me there.
I didn’t know about an everyday walk with God at the
time. Now I do;
it’s an everyday walk.
Let’s
go to Romans 6—still talking about how to get into Christ. Everybody encouraged today? Anybody thankful today? God’s done a lot of great
things for us. Romans 6:3-6 Know ye not, that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried
with Him by baptism
into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection: Knowing
this, that our old
man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that
henceforth we should not serve sin.
I
think abut that brother that’s going to get baptized today—he’s going
to rise
up out of that tank in newness of life.
God just changes everything.
He
changes your whole perspective about everything.
It’s a faith-walk, yes.
We’re going to make mistakes, yes.
But, we have access to God, now, that we
haven’t gotten from anybody else.
We
have direct access to God now.
The
last three weeks at work, I have been training about forty-eight people. “Back to Basic”
instruction, basically is
what the topic was. Some of our people were
getting a little lazy
or taking short cuts, and the process of what they were doing was
causing a lot
of problems down-stream. We
get lazy,
sometimes, as humans. We
don’t do
everything like we’re supposed to do, get slack sometimes, and God
sends reminders
to us. A brother or
a sister walk up,
and say, “Hey, you know, you haven’t been…
What’s going on?”
So, basically,
I am part of a team at work, that teaches Back to Basic Instructions to
get
everyone on the same page!
What
we have to realize is that we have the Word of God.
This Bible, or Basic Instructions Before
Leaving Earth, they say, the Word of God teaches us and reminds us what
we need
to do to stay on the path. Let’s
turn to
Colossians, chapter three.
This
is my check off list. What
are the old
ways? What became
new? Because the
old ways will try to sneak in and
destroy everything that the new ways were.
Satan remembers everything; he tries to use our past
to slow us
down. Here we go: Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen
with Christ…
Talking
about baptism… Colossians 3:1-2
…seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of
God. Set your
affection on things above,
not on things on the earth.
So,
my check-off list is, “Is my affection on things above, or is it
somewhere
else?” My check-off
list. I have to set
my affection on things
above. I have to
leave everything to
God. Colossians 3:3-7
For ye
are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify
therefore your members which are upon
the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence,
and covetousness, which is idolatry:
For
which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of
disobedience: In
the which ye also
walked some time, when ye lived in them.
So he’s saying, “You were
there, that’s the old way; I have you here now.”
Make sense?
But now, you still have to put some things off. Colossians 3:8-10
But
now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communication out of your mouth. Lie
not
one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
And
have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of Him
that created him:
We have to let go of the
past. Sometimes the
past will hinder
us. When we come to
the knowledge of
God—we might have come from a religious background, we might have come
from Joe’s
Bar and Grill, I don’t know—but we can’t dip into that and think that
that’s
the way, now, we have to get into the Word of God and find out what is
the
way. When he was
talking to the
Colossians, and when Parrish had us go over Galatians last year, Paul
had to go
back and re-fix some things to remind them of what they were doing
wrong. They were
only doing what they knew. They
had to realize that God had something
new for us to do. Colossians 3:12-13
Put
on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one
another…
That’s
hard to do, sometimes, forgiving one another, forbearing one another. That’s a challenge,
sometimes. But, if
I want God to forgive me, what do I
have to do? I have
to forgive. If I
want God to forbear with me, then I have
to forbear with others. Colossians 3:14-17
And
above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God
rule in your hearts,
to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in
all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns
and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in
word or deed, do all
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by
Him.
Paul
isn’t saying do all in the name of Paul, or Peter, or Mary… Do everything in
the name of Jesus. When
we give it to Jesus, Jesus just—we have
to have patience, as Parrish mentioned earlier today.
Sometimes it’s a hard thing to have patience;
“I want it now.” Put
it in the
microwave, hit the button, thirty seconds later, it’s done. Sometimes it’s a crock-pot
type dinner; it
just takes time to cook. Imagine
if your
favorite pie was in the oven for five minutes and you took it out and
started
eating it—it would not be done. You
would not enjoy it. You
have to wait
until it’s done and your aunt or grandmother put it on the windowsill
to cool,
and you can enjoy it later on. Sometimes
you have to be patient. God
doesn’t give
us things right away because maybe we can’t handle it right now. Maybe, if we took it right
now—you know, when
I was a kid, when my mom and dad got me something, I broke it,
expecting a new
one. By the way,
they said, “No.” Now,
if I want something, I have to save up
money, and buy it myself. It’s
amazing
how much more you appreciate something when you save up money and go
purchase
it, and don’t have it given to you just to break to get another one. Does that make sense? Do all in the name of
Jesus. So, here we
are, talking about the old ways
are not working anymore; you’ve got to let them go, let me instruct you. As I go to Timothy, verse
twelve, I am so
thankful that God called me to this ministry.
I remember in December of 1978, I was praying, “God,
if You’re real, I
need to know. There’s
got to be more to
life than just living, getting married, having kids, and dying. God, there’s got to be
more than this.” I
imagine there were people in this ministry
that were praying, “God, please send laborers that will do something
for
you.” How God
answered those
prayers! I was in 1 Timothy 1:12-13
And I
thank
Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me
faithful,
putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a
persecutor,
and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief.
You know, sometimes, the
unbelieving part here is that we try to do our own ways, but we then
realize
it’s not the right way, but God has mercy on us, because we did it in
unbelief. But now,
if you do it, it’s
sin, basically. Now
you know better, and
if you don’t do it… My
mom and dad would
say, “If you misbehave, you’re going to get a spanking.” I did it anyway, and guess
what
happened. I got a
spanking. My dad
said, “Why are you crying? I
told you if you did this, you’re getting a
spanking. You broke
the rules; why are
you crying? You
have to pay for
it.” You know? Make sense? 1 Timothy 1: 14 And
the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus.
I’m
letting the Word of God speak today.
These are the Scriptures I go to when I go through
some things—I’ll talk
about them later. These
are the
Scriptures I turn to when the old ways try to get to me; I have to turn
to
God. We’re given
orders: 2 Timothy 4:1-2I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, who
shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
Preach the
word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all
longsuffering and doctrine.
The
way I looked at this, one time, letting my lifestyle wasn’t. I had to be put in my
place lots of times,
because I thought the old ways were still better for me. Somebody had to preach the
Word to me. Somebody
had to be instant in season and out
of season with me. Somebody
had to
reprove me, rebuke me, exhort me with all longsuffering and doctrine;
they had
to put up with me. So,
the only natural
thing is I have to do it with others.
We
have to put with each other. We
have to
go on beyond—that’s where charity kicks in.
2 Timothy 4:3-5 For
the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts
shall they
heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn
away
their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all
things, endure afflictions,
do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
There’s
people that really love fables, and they love to be pampered, and they
love—but
it’s not the will of God. People
say,
“All you’ve got to do is believe, and you’ll be saved.”
I can’t find that…
“All you’ve got to do is confess, right at
the last minute of your deathbed repentance, “Okay, God, forgive me.” I don’t see that. This takes work. This takes prayer. This takes studying. This takes getting along
with each other in
this ministry and working things out and praying things out. We all came from different
backgrounds, and
yet we all sit together and we’re proud to say that we’re brothers and
sisters
in this room. All
different backgrounds,
from barroom fighter—that’s what I was—to whatever you were in the
past—I don’t
want to say anything out loud. Think
about how God changed our lives, and put us together, and kept us in
place. What Can You Do When The Old Tries
To Come Back?
What
can you do when the old ways try to come back?
Let’s go to James chapter 4—I’m on the home stretch
now. James 4:1-3
From
whence come wars and fightings among
you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye
kill, and desire to
have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye
ask
not. Ye ask, and
receive not, because ye
ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Sometimes
we get religious while we’re here, and we expect things from God when
we don’t
put anything into it. All
of the sudden
your walk—I’m talking about my walk—my walk gets all shaky. God’s not answering my
prayers. I have all
these battles I’m fighting, and
wars going on in my head. I
start
asking, but I don’t really believe it’s going to happen. You know what I’m saying? “Ah, if it happens, it
happens. If it
don’t, it don’t” That
is a dangerous place to be. So dangerous
a place to be in. Let’s
keep reading
here. James 4:4
Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
That
tells me, adulterers and adulteresses, you love something besides God. We allow something to come
between us and
Jesus. Whatever
that is, we can’t have
that. We have
straight to God—there’s
nothing between us anymore. There’s
no
priest, there’s no sitting booth, there’s no—I’ve never heard a
preacher in
this ministry (and I’ve been here thirty-five years) I’ve never heard a
preacher in this ministry say, “Come to me; I can forgive your sins.” Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah,
nah. They never
said that; they always said, “Go
to Jesus.” They
also said, “Don’t
believe me, read it for yourself.”
I
never had a minister tell me that before.
I was taught that the preacher had to read the Bible
to me. I didn’t
know you could read the Bible. When
the pastor turned the Bible, and pushed
it to me, and said, “Read it yourself,” I thought I was doing something
wrong. I said,
“Man, I never saw that
before.” It was
about baptism in Jesus’
name. “You mean,
God can forgive me my
sins? Really?” “Yes.”
“Okay, I want to get baptized.”
“Don’t you want another Scripture?”
“Nope.” I
believed it right
there. “I don’t
need a two-hour Bible
study. I got it.” You know?
Then I couldn’t wait to get to the tank.
I couldn’t wait.
Then, we got to
the church, and they had a horse trough—I call it a horse trough—in the
basement of the church; it had a layer of ice on it.
There was five of us getting baptized that
day—ice, at the end of October. I
said,
“Man, it does get cold, here in the James 4:4
Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God.
I do not want to be an enemy
of God. He’s a
whole lot bigger than
me. He could squish
me like a bug. James 4:5-6
Do ye
think that the scripture saith in
vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith,
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
I think about those two
people praying. “God,
I am thankful that
I am not like him,” and the other said, “God forgive me; I’m just a
wretched
man.” (Luke 18:9-14) Humble before God. What a big difference,
because pride ain’t
going to get nowhere. James 4:7-10 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye
sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your
laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the
sight of the Lord,
and he shall lift you up.
When
we’re going through the battles of the past, draw nigh to God. Draw nigh to God. He’s not going to say,
“Ah, no,” He’s going
to be right there. Before
you even say
it, He’s right—He already knows what you’re dealing with. He already knows, He’s
just waiting for you
to call. You know?
One
of the things is—the biggest thing I dealt with before I got saved was
loneliness. Loneliness
will cause—it’s
an ugly feeling, when we fell alone.
I
used to seek companionship with Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Johnny
Walker,
thinking they could help me in my loneliness.
But, I realize, there’s somebody else whose name
starts with a ‘J’ that
can answer all of my prayers, that can take me out of miry clay, that
can set
my feet on a firm foundation… You
know,
He has went to the cross for me, He got baptized to be my example, He
went through
all things as a kid, as a teenager, as a young adult, and was faithful
all the
way to the end, to the cross. His
name
is Jesus. When I
needed Jack, or Jim, or
Johnny—they weren’t even around when I was dealing with things. They weren’t helping me at
all. I thought they
were helping me, but they made
things worse. Then
I heard about
Jesus. Wow. When you say, “Jesus,”
what happens? every
demon in Hell leaves, they scatter.
When
you say, “In the name of Jesus…” everything is gone.
Every demon runs because they do not like
that name. They
don’t want that
name. Draw nigh
unto God, and He draws
nigh unto you. So,
when I feel lonely
now, what do I do? I
start singing. “I’ve
Got A Brand New Sign, With Bright Red
Letters.” Andy,
that was the first song
I heard when I got saved up here, back in ‘79.
“Hey, I’m a Believer Now” was the other one. I start singing the
praises of God. I
start singing songs like, “Jesus Is a
Way-maker,” when I feel lonely. OR
I
sing, “Call Him Up.” Sometimes
I pick up
the phone and I call somebody, because I need to talk to somebody. Jesse and I were talking
just before service,
sometimes I have to go to Bass Pro Shop to find somebody just to talk
to
somebody. Maybe
we’re talking about
fishing, but God has given me the ability to turn fishing into
fellowship, and
fellowship into Scriptures, and I wind up sharing with somebody.
My
dad was going through cancer surgery the day before Christmas. I dropped him off at the
hospital, my mom’s
home, my sisters… You
know, it’s my dad.
My mom said, “Hey, why don’t you go get the mail;
let’s just go on. Business
as usual. That day,
Parrish, two feet of snow fell on
the ground in
We
had a great time Wednesday night, didn’t we?
We were at It’s All Good with Cindy and her husband. I love your title that you
made for the Bible
study. What was it
again? Keep it
simple? No, “Be
Nice.” Church, as I
close here, if you feel
loneliness, or something coming against you, seek out prayer. Look for somebody, because
Satan’s going to
try everything he can to bring our past to us to slow us down. Because, when Satan says,
“You can’t do that,
because of what you used to do. How
can
you tell people to live that way when you used to not live that way?” I remind Satan, “I’ve got
freedom, you
know. I got
baptized in Jesus’ name, and
that was prior to my baptism, so I’m washed in the blood, so get thee
hence.” You know? Thank you, everybody, I appreciate it. God bless you. |
|
|
|
