February 10, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Winning Walk with Doctor ed Young. Before
we get to today's message, we want to tell you
about an insightful sermon series from doctor Young called The
Church Awake. Our world is teetering on the edge of
disorder and disaster, and this series sounds an inspiring call
for the church to awaken and engage your culture with
clarity and conviction on important issues, standing confidently on truth
(00:26):
than bending.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
To the pressures of the world.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
This series is our thanks for your gift to help
keep the proven truth of God's Word reaching you and
others around.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The world through this program.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
So be sure to request your copy of The Church
Awake when you give Just call one eight hundred three
five oh Walk one eight hundred three five oh nine
two five five. Now let's get started with today's teaching
from doctor Young.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Elvis has left the building.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
That famous trees has been applied in these years in many,
many different situations a Major League baseball games, someone hits
it out of the park home run, and the announcer
might say, well.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
That ball has left the building.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I think we can say, in this moment of history
that we can accurately state that the Church has left
the building. The truth is the church was never a building,
but we have acted like it was. We'd say that's
(01:40):
the Methodist, Prebretarian, Catholic. We identify churches by buildings, but
a church has never been a building. And if at
this moment of crisis, when most of our worship services
are shut down, we know the church has left the
building by the way, that's what the church is always
(02:02):
supposed to do. We're gathered to worship and scattered to
evangelize and to serve. And now what are we to
do in this SOS moment in our history? This virus
that's overwhelmed America and the world, and so many people
(02:25):
asking questions, when's it going to end?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Will we ever have a cure? What am I to do?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
What's the best way to protect myself? And so these
questions go on and on until finally they say, you know,
it looks like God would would give us a sign.
And we ask, what is God doing at this moment?
Did God bring this pestilence on us? Did God cause
(03:01):
this pandemic to go across the world and affect so
many people?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
What's going on? Lord? Give us some kind of sign?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
And so now the church is scattered and a lot
of us who are part of the church, we would
like to have some kind of sign as well, to
try to figure out what God.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Is doing, what he's up to. This is not you.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
In history, in the book of First Chronicles, there's an
interesting verse that talks about the tribe of Zebulen. Zebulin,
you remember, was one of the sons of Jacob and Leah,
the night son and the family consolation.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And he was a very gifted man, and he had
gifted children.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And when they came out of Egypt and went back
to the Promised Land, there was that land, that special
place with these people. They were prosperous, they were wise,
and the sand Adrian tells us that those who were
in the Supreme Court from this particular tribe, they were
(04:10):
head and shoulders of everybody else. And finally there's that
little obscure verse we find it First Chronicles. It says
clearly that the people from this tribe could see the
signs of the times and they could instruct Israel as
(04:32):
to what.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
They needed to do.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
How we need people like that, wise people who can
understand the signs of the time. What is going on?
What does all this mean? What is God saying to us,
what do we need to hear from one another? Is
this a new moment, a turning point in all of history.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
We need people who can read the signs of the times.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Is and asked for all the way through biblical history,
all the way through all of history. We know there
that Jesus was teaching, and some Pharisees and Sadducees came
up to him, and they said, show the sign. Oh,
(05:20):
everything was coming down in Israel. The Romans dominated, poverty,
privation families, divided.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Very little worship.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Here are the Pharisees, the ultimate ultimate religious people. Here
are the Sadducees, totally secular, nothing to do with the supernatural.
The pagans and the religious people both came to Jesus, said, Jesus,
show us a sign. You're beginning something, a whole new era,
(05:50):
a whole new kingdom, a whole new understanding of our faith.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Show us something. Now. It's interesting to.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Me that Jesus had already, you know, the blind and
we're seeing the lane we're walking. The dead were coming
back to life, and now they want more signs. And
remember what Jesus said to them. He said to this
pagan group, and to this super religious group. You know,
you can tell signs of the weather. It's like, you know,
(06:19):
red sky at night, Sailor's delight, red sky in the morning,
Sailor's warning. Said, you could read the weather, but Jesus says,
you can't read the signs of the time. And he said,
the only sign I'm going to give you the sign
of Jonah. What was that sign? It was a word
(06:42):
of repentance. Jonah went to nineve Ah, unlikely person. He said,
simply repent. He said, that's the sign of the time
you need, and maybe that's what we need right now
in the world.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Jesus said, about these you are sinful and adulterous generation.
We are a sinful and adulterous world. And the message
I hear is repent the sign of the times. The
same kind of discussion was taking place in Matthew chapter sixteen,
and we know that they went to Jesus again and
(07:20):
they still began to talk to him about showing a sign,
showing a sign. But at the end of this same chapter,
you know what Jesus did. He took them way up
into an area outside of Israel, into Gentile country at
Cesarea Philippi, there in that pagan area where they believe
(07:43):
the god Pan was born, which became pantheism, God's and everything.
And Jesus took those apostles there to disciple them to
build the right stuff in their life. And while they
were there, he looked at them and said, I want
to ask you a question. What does everybody say about me?
(08:03):
Who does everybody say that I am? And the apostle said, well,
some say you're John, the Baptists, you've come back alive.
Some say Elijah and Jeremiah and Isaiah. And then Jesus
looked him and said, but I want to know who
do you say that I am? And Peter hoof and
(08:23):
mouth disease, always had his foot in his mouth, didn't he?
He spoke up and he said, thy art the Christ,
the son of Living God. And Jesus said, Peter, flesh
and blood, didn't tell you that the Father in heaven
gave you that word.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And then Jesus said, on this rock, what rock?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Not Peter himself, though he was nicknamed Rocky, but on
his profession of faith. Jesus said, own that profession of faith,
I will build my church and the gates of Hell
will not prevail against it. A modern translation says Jesus spoke,
(09:07):
I will put together my church, a church so expansive
with energy, not even the gates of Hell can keep
it out.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Isn't that a beautiful.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Translation of that, I'll build a church so expansive in
energy that even the gates of Hell cannot keep it out.
What is God's answer to this coronavirus? It is simply
the body of Christ, a group of individuals called out,
(09:42):
set aside to make a difference in this world.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
In every moment of history.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
This was the foundation of the Church, a profession of
faith that Jesus is Lord and he is Savior. And
upon that profession of faith that we have the Church.
We know the Church was born at Pentecost, and we
know on Palm Sunday Jesus went in with Hallelujah. Before
long it was crucified, he was executed on that cross, died,
(10:15):
rose again, and then the disciples went and they were
hiding in that upper room until the Holy Spirit came.
And then Peter stood up and preached that powerful sermon
of Pentecost, affirming.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
The resurrection of Jesus, affirming.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That he was in deed who he said he was
there at Cesarea Philippi thy art the Christ, the son
of the Living God. That is the birthday of the Church.
And look how the church proceeded. My wee could see
the development of it. Jesus had already put in baptism
(10:56):
his own example. He'd already, we know, proud of the Cross,
put in the Lord's Supper ordinance of the church. And
then we see the church is beginning to be formed
there in the Book of Acts, as Luke tells us,
this supernatural story of the ex explosive growth of the
Body of Christ in the Book of Acts. What an
(11:18):
amazing thing. And then we see what consists the church.
The church Ecclesea means called out one. It's mentioned one
hundred and nine times in New Testament. And then we
know in that church there is that fellowship that takes place,
There is that corninea that is there. And maybe you
(11:41):
need to think about all the one anothers that you
find in the church. You look at it, say one another.
We are to course, first of all, we are to.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Serve one another. Serve one another in the church.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
That's the mark of the growth of the Body of Christ.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
We're to serve one another.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Not only are we to serve one another, we're to
encourage one another. We serve one another. That's Galatians five.
We encourage one another, that's first Thessalonians five. And then
he says we are to accept one another, and that
is Romans fifteen. And then he says we are to
(12:24):
forgive one another. That's Colossians three. And then in John thirteen,
we're to love one another. In other words, Jesus built
this body of Christ, and there's baptism.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
When we receive.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Him, there's reminder of what it taught, what it took
for us to be saved. And then we see the
church is growing these relationship. Look at all the names
we have for the church. My goodness, it's called It's well,
it's like Israel.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
In a sense.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Israel was the foe gleam of it the First Covenant,
and then we have the New Covenant, and we see
in the Church all the predictions, the ideas, the philosophies
we find in Israel are fulfilled under the New Covenant.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
That's the church. It has a understanding a background.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Of Israel as a called out people, exclusive and shut
up to God, exclusive.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
For God.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And then we see also it's called the Tabernacle of God,
it's called the People of God, it's called the Bride
of Christ. It's called the Body of Christ. And this
moment of extremity right now in our world, what does
the Body of Christ do? What are the signs of
the time that the Body of Christ can go and
(13:41):
make a difference in our world?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The answer to the coronavirus is the church.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Just like in every moment, every crisis, every sos, it
has been the Church who has been there. Well, how
do you know a church is authentic? How do you
know a church is really the body of Christ. We
see how it is functioning. We see whether or not
we who are in the church are actually living out
(14:16):
the assignment that Jesus gave to us.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
That's the great commission.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Go you, therefore all the world, make disciples, baptizing them
and name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
What's whoever I've commanded you? So what are we to do?
How do you find an authentic.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Real church. It's a church that reaches and a church
that teaches. This is a wonderful moment for the body
of Christ. God has designed his people for this kind
of crisis in which we find.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
All of the world. If you'll go back in history,
you remember.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
That the Church, which was a little fledgling offshoot of
the Synagogue of the Jewish religion, and it was thought
sort of in a backwoods kind of place, didn't do
anything for ten years, stayed primarily in the Jerusalem area
for over ten years. What happened to that church that
was persecuted and began to reach out into the Roman world.
(15:24):
What took place that by three hundred and twelve AD,
the Church was declared by the Emperor Constantine to be
the official religion of all the empire.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
What took place?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Were there crusades where there's a lot of evangelism.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
What happened? I'll tell you what happened? Two plagues.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
The first plague that took place was in one sixty
five a d. Marcus Aurelius was the caesar there, and
we know he himself even died the plague. And in
this first plague, one third plus of the Roman Empire died.
(16:08):
They could not stop it. One third died about eighty
plus almost one hundred years later, In two sixty five
they had another plague, and this plague swept over the
Roman world. Another half to one third of everybody who
lived in the Roman world died. For example, they said
there were days in which over five thousand people a
(16:31):
day were carried out dead in the city of Rome alone.
Alexander and Egypt they lost half of their population. Now
what was going on. There was a famous doctor in Rome, Galen,
famous medical and you read in medical journalists today about
what Galen did. But when that first plague came, guess
(16:51):
what he did? He ran, He went to an estate.
What did all the pagan priests do? And all the
synagogues that were there that were pagans, they left town,
they ran, They went into heidi, they went into exclusion.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And we see the pagans.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Who could They ran, All the leaders ran, all the
phony priests ran, and all the idolaters land. And the
Christians remained in the first plague and the second plague.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And what did they do.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
They nursed one another, and they nursed the pagans who
were left behind. The nobody's in the kingdom. And guess
what in the plague, if they are nursed, they're given
soup and prayer. That's what they offered, soup and prayer,
water and bread. Two thirds of those lived, they survived.
(17:46):
So therefore, when the first plague was over all the
pagan worshipers, all the pagan temples were disenfranchised. The priests
came back, and they had no ground up on which
to stand, because now it was the Christians who said,
I am my brother's keeper. The Pagans knew nothing of that.
(18:06):
I'll lay down my life for a friend. The Pagans
knew nothing of that. And those Christians who died, they
had hope and confidence in the resurrection of Christ.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
So there's a whole.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
New understanding of death. And you see people begin to
see these Christians are legitimate. This God they worship is
the true in living God, this Jesus who conquered the grave.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I want him in my life.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
So there was an explosive growth of Christianity all over
the Roman Empire until that was when Constantine said, we
are a Christian people. Opportunity. The answer to COVID nineteen
is the church. Now, what we've done in our church
(18:53):
is just a small thing in metropolitan Houston. First of all,
we did we begin to call all of our members,
and we've called about three fourths of them now and
we ask two questions. First of all, how may we
help you? Secondly, what can I pray.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
With you about? You'll not believe the response.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
It's been overwhelming, and the members are saying, I need this,
or let me help and serve in some other way.
And we have three or four hundred our members who
are just calling other members asking those questions. And out
of those questions many needs come out, food, medicine, clothing, transportation, children, masks,
(19:39):
all kinds of needs. And we've sought to step out
and meet all of those needs.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Wherever they are.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Worried about job in vocation, we've been there. Sometimes they
have emotional problems, we put them online FaceTime with godly counselors,
and so we see here the church, we're just simply
trying to reach out and say.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
We care for everybody.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
We're trying to live up to that which the early
church did when they had that kind of growth. Matthew
twenty five, Jesus said, I was hungry, You gave me bread.
I was thirsty, you gave me water. I was a stranger,
you took me in. I was sick, and you came
unto me. This is what the church is. This is
(20:26):
what the church does. It's a wonderful opportunity, and we
know God will do wonderful things. The Church in this
crisis should be stronger, more powerful, deeper, and wider than
it's ever been in its history. What is the answer?
The signs of the times, Oh, they're so dark. But
(20:48):
the Church needs to be there with the light and
the love and the therapy and the touch and the
generosity of the Body of Christ.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The Church is to be the hands and the arms
and the eyes of Jesus. Jesus is not here. He
left us here. Empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Jesus said, I will put together my church, a church
so expansive with energy that not even the gates of Hell,
not even coronavirus can keep that out. It will go
and destroy and heal in touch. Nothing can distrap the church.
It is marching on and on soul. How do you
(21:28):
know a church is authentic body of Christ? First of all,
it is reaching, and it is ministering, and it is
loving and is introducing people to Him who gives life
meaningful here and life meaningful forever in heaven. What's the
second thing. We also teach. We reach and we teach,
(21:51):
We teach families and homes.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And what a wonderful time of teaching we have now.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I can't tell you how many families have said, it's
been great to be with my kids. It's been great
to go to school with my kids.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
What a moment. First Corinthians eleven thirteen.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
But now by it in faith, hope, love, these three,
But the greatest of these, so ahead of everything else,
is love. Have you ever eaten a bread and jelly sandwich,
jelly in the middle and bread on each side. If
you just ate the bread without the jelly, it would
probably be a little dry and tasteless. By the same token,
(22:36):
if you just ate the jelly, it might be delicious initially,
but soon you decided it was just two too sweet. Right,
That's what I think Paul is saying a First Corinthians
twelve through fourteen. Chapter twelve tells us about the spiritual
gifts every Christian receives, and chapter fourteen tells us how
to use these gifts to edify, to magnify it, to
(22:59):
build up his church.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
In between is chapter thirteen, that beautiful portrait of love.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
What Paul is saying is that you can have spiritual gifts,
but unless their exercise and atmosphere of real agapy, that
sacrificial love, they could be unappealing.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
As bread without jelly.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Love also is meant to be released as it flows
through your life or my life.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
We can't keep it to ourselves, can you.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
We're to love others as God loved us with an unstoppable,
unquenchable love, and He just keeps on keeps on loving
us unconditioned. First Corinthians thirteen read. It is the jelly
between two pieces of bread that tells us clearly what
(23:54):
love is all about.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
We hope today's message has encouraged you to build your
life on the proven truth of God's word, and we'd
love to encourage you even more by sending you Doctor
Young's eight message series, The Church Awake. This powerful series
will help you understand cultural trends and the threat they
represent to marriage, to family, and to a biblical worldview,
and equip you to courageously take your stand against the
(24:26):
forces that seek to silence you and compromise your witness.
So call now to request The Church Awake is our
thanks for your gift to reach more people with the
proven truth of God's Word. Call one eight hundred three
five oh walk. That's one eight hundred three five oh
nine two five five. Thanks for being with us today
(24:46):
on the Winning Walk Tunda next time as doctor Young
shares more proven truth from God's word
Welcome to the Winning Walk with Doctor ed Young. Before
we get to today's message, we want to tell you
about an insightful sermon series from doctor Young called The
Church Awake. Our world is teetering on the edge of
disorder and disaster, and this series sounds an inspiring call
for the church to awaken and engage your culture with
clarity and conviction on important issues, standing confidently on truth
(00:26):
than bending.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
To the pressures of the world.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
This series is our thanks for your gift to help
keep the proven truth of God's Word reaching you and
others around.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
The world through this program.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
So be sure to request your copy of The Church
Awake when you give Just call one eight hundred three
five oh Walk one eight hundred three five oh nine
two five five. Now let's get started with today's teaching
from doctor Young.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Elvis has left the building.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
That famous trees has been applied in these years in many,
many different situations a Major League baseball games, someone hits
it out of the park home run, and the announcer
might say, well.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
That ball has left the building.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I think we can say, in this moment of history
that we can accurately state that the Church has left
the building. The truth is the church was never a building,
but we have acted like it was. We'd say that's
(01:40):
the Methodist, Prebretarian, Catholic. We identify churches by buildings, but
a church has never been a building. And if at
this moment of crisis, when most of our worship services
are shut down, we know the church has left the
building by the way, that's what the church is always
(02:02):
supposed to do. We're gathered to worship and scattered to
evangelize and to serve. And now what are we to
do in this SOS moment in our history? This virus
that's overwhelmed America and the world, and so many people
(02:25):
asking questions, when's it going to end?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Will we ever have a cure? What am I to do?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
What's the best way to protect myself? And so these
questions go on and on until finally they say, you know,
it looks like God would would give us a sign.
And we ask, what is God doing at this moment?
Did God bring this pestilence on us? Did God cause
(03:01):
this pandemic to go across the world and affect so
many people?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
What's going on? Lord? Give us some kind of sign?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
And so now the church is scattered and a lot
of us who are part of the church, we would
like to have some kind of sign as well, to
try to figure out what God.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Is doing, what he's up to. This is not you.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
In history, in the book of First Chronicles, there's an
interesting verse that talks about the tribe of Zebulen. Zebulin,
you remember, was one of the sons of Jacob and Leah,
the night son and the family consolation.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And he was a very gifted man, and he had
gifted children.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And when they came out of Egypt and went back
to the Promised Land, there was that land, that special
place with these people. They were prosperous, they were wise,
and the sand Adrian tells us that those who were
in the Supreme Court from this particular tribe, they were
(04:10):
head and shoulders of everybody else. And finally there's that
little obscure verse we find it First Chronicles. It says
clearly that the people from this tribe could see the
signs of the times and they could instruct Israel as
(04:32):
to what.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
They needed to do.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
How we need people like that, wise people who can
understand the signs of the time. What is going on?
What does all this mean? What is God saying to us,
what do we need to hear from one another? Is
this a new moment, a turning point in all of history.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
We need people who can read the signs of the times.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Is and asked for all the way through biblical history,
all the way through all of history. We know there
that Jesus was teaching, and some Pharisees and Sadducees came
up to him, and they said, show the sign. Oh,
(05:20):
everything was coming down in Israel. The Romans dominated, poverty,
privation families, divided.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Very little worship.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Here are the Pharisees, the ultimate ultimate religious people. Here
are the Sadducees, totally secular, nothing to do with the supernatural.
The pagans and the religious people both came to Jesus, said, Jesus,
show us a sign. You're beginning something, a whole new era,
(05:50):
a whole new kingdom, a whole new understanding of our faith.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Show us something. Now. It's interesting to.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Me that Jesus had already, you know, the blind and
we're seeing the lane we're walking. The dead were coming
back to life, and now they want more signs. And
remember what Jesus said to them. He said to this
pagan group, and to this super religious group. You know,
you can tell signs of the weather. It's like, you know,
(06:19):
red sky at night, Sailor's delight, red sky in the morning,
Sailor's warning. Said, you could read the weather, but Jesus says,
you can't read the signs of the time. And he said,
the only sign I'm going to give you the sign
of Jonah. What was that sign? It was a word
(06:42):
of repentance. Jonah went to nineve Ah, unlikely person. He said,
simply repent. He said, that's the sign of the time
you need, and maybe that's what we need right now
in the world.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Jesus said, about these you are sinful and adulterous generation.
We are a sinful and adulterous world. And the message
I hear is repent the sign of the times. The
same kind of discussion was taking place in Matthew chapter sixteen,
and we know that they went to Jesus again and
(07:20):
they still began to talk to him about showing a sign,
showing a sign. But at the end of this same chapter,
you know what Jesus did. He took them way up
into an area outside of Israel, into Gentile country at
Cesarea Philippi, there in that pagan area where they believe
(07:43):
the god Pan was born, which became pantheism, God's and everything.
And Jesus took those apostles there to disciple them to
build the right stuff in their life. And while they
were there, he looked at them and said, I want
to ask you a question. What does everybody say about me?
(08:03):
Who does everybody say that I am? And the apostle said, well,
some say you're John, the Baptists, you've come back alive.
Some say Elijah and Jeremiah and Isaiah. And then Jesus
looked him and said, but I want to know who
do you say that I am? And Peter hoof and
(08:23):
mouth disease, always had his foot in his mouth, didn't he?
He spoke up and he said, thy art the Christ,
the son of Living God. And Jesus said, Peter, flesh
and blood, didn't tell you that the Father in heaven
gave you that word.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And then Jesus said, on this rock, what rock?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Not Peter himself, though he was nicknamed Rocky, but on
his profession of faith. Jesus said, own that profession of faith,
I will build my church and the gates of Hell
will not prevail against it. A modern translation says Jesus spoke,
(09:07):
I will put together my church, a church so expansive
with energy, not even the gates of Hell can keep
it out.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Isn't that a beautiful.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Translation of that, I'll build a church so expansive in
energy that even the gates of Hell cannot keep it out.
What is God's answer to this coronavirus? It is simply
the body of Christ, a group of individuals called out,
(09:42):
set aside to make a difference in this world.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
In every moment of history.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
This was the foundation of the Church, a profession of
faith that Jesus is Lord and he is Savior. And
upon that profession of faith that we have the Church.
We know the Church was born at Pentecost, and we
know on Palm Sunday Jesus went in with Hallelujah. Before
long it was crucified, he was executed on that cross, died,
(10:15):
rose again, and then the disciples went and they were
hiding in that upper room until the Holy Spirit came.
And then Peter stood up and preached that powerful sermon
of Pentecost, affirming.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
The resurrection of Jesus, affirming.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That he was in deed who he said he was
there at Cesarea Philippi thy art the Christ, the son
of the Living God. That is the birthday of the Church.
And look how the church proceeded. My wee could see
the development of it. Jesus had already put in baptism
(10:56):
his own example. He'd already, we know, proud of the Cross,
put in the Lord's Supper ordinance of the church. And
then we see the church is beginning to be formed
there in the Book of Acts, as Luke tells us,
this supernatural story of the ex explosive growth of the
Body of Christ in the Book of Acts. What an
(11:18):
amazing thing. And then we see what consists the church.
The church Ecclesea means called out one. It's mentioned one
hundred and nine times in New Testament. And then we
know in that church there is that fellowship that takes place,
There is that corninea that is there. And maybe you
(11:41):
need to think about all the one anothers that you
find in the church. You look at it, say one another.
We are to course, first of all, we are to.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Serve one another. Serve one another in the church.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
That's the mark of the growth of the Body of Christ.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
We're to serve one another.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Not only are we to serve one another, we're to
encourage one another. We serve one another. That's Galatians five.
We encourage one another, that's first Thessalonians five. And then
he says we are to accept one another, and that
is Romans fifteen. And then he says we are to
(12:24):
forgive one another. That's Colossians three. And then in John thirteen,
we're to love one another. In other words, Jesus built
this body of Christ, and there's baptism.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
When we receive.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Him, there's reminder of what it taught, what it took
for us to be saved. And then we see the
church is growing these relationship. Look at all the names
we have for the church. My goodness, it's called It's well,
it's like Israel.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
In a sense.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Israel was the foe gleam of it the First Covenant,
and then we have the New Covenant, and we see
in the Church all the predictions, the ideas, the philosophies
we find in Israel are fulfilled under the New Covenant.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
That's the church. It has a understanding a background.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Of Israel as a called out people, exclusive and shut
up to God, exclusive.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
For God.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And then we see also it's called the Tabernacle of God,
it's called the People of God, it's called the Bride
of Christ. It's called the Body of Christ. And this
moment of extremity right now in our world, what does
the Body of Christ do? What are the signs of
the time that the Body of Christ can go and
(13:41):
make a difference in our world?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The answer to the coronavirus is the church.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Just like in every moment, every crisis, every sos, it
has been the Church who has been there. Well, how
do you know a church is authentic? How do you
know a church is really the body of Christ. We
see how it is functioning. We see whether or not
we who are in the church are actually living out
(14:16):
the assignment that Jesus gave to us.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
That's the great commission.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Go you, therefore all the world, make disciples, baptizing them
and name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
What's whoever I've commanded you? So what are we to do?
How do you find an authentic.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Real church. It's a church that reaches and a church
that teaches. This is a wonderful moment for the body
of Christ. God has designed his people for this kind
of crisis in which we find.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
All of the world. If you'll go back in history,
you remember.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
That the Church, which was a little fledgling offshoot of
the Synagogue of the Jewish religion, and it was thought
sort of in a backwoods kind of place, didn't do
anything for ten years, stayed primarily in the Jerusalem area
for over ten years. What happened to that church that
was persecuted and began to reach out into the Roman world.
(15:24):
What took place that by three hundred and twelve AD,
the Church was declared by the Emperor Constantine to be
the official religion of all the empire.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
What took place?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Were there crusades where there's a lot of evangelism.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
What happened? I'll tell you what happened? Two plagues.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
The first plague that took place was in one sixty
five a d. Marcus Aurelius was the caesar there, and
we know he himself even died the plague. And in
this first plague, one third plus of the Roman Empire died.
(16:08):
They could not stop it. One third died about eighty
plus almost one hundred years later, In two sixty five
they had another plague, and this plague swept over the
Roman world. Another half to one third of everybody who
lived in the Roman world died. For example, they said
there were days in which over five thousand people a
(16:31):
day were carried out dead in the city of Rome alone.
Alexander and Egypt they lost half of their population. Now
what was going on. There was a famous doctor in Rome, Galen,
famous medical and you read in medical journalists today about
what Galen did. But when that first plague came, guess
(16:51):
what he did? He ran, He went to an estate.
What did all the pagan priests do? And all the
synagogues that were there that were pagans, they left town,
they ran, They went into heidi, they went into exclusion.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And we see the pagans.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Who could They ran, All the leaders ran, all the
phony priests ran, and all the idolaters land. And the
Christians remained in the first plague and the second plague.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And what did they do.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
They nursed one another, and they nursed the pagans who
were left behind. The nobody's in the kingdom. And guess
what in the plague, if they are nursed, they're given
soup and prayer. That's what they offered, soup and prayer,
water and bread. Two thirds of those lived, they survived.
(17:46):
So therefore, when the first plague was over all the
pagan worshipers, all the pagan temples were disenfranchised. The priests
came back, and they had no ground up on which
to stand, because now it was the Christians who said,
I am my brother's keeper. The Pagans knew nothing of that.
(18:06):
I'll lay down my life for a friend. The Pagans
knew nothing of that. And those Christians who died, they
had hope and confidence in the resurrection of Christ.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
So there's a whole.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
New understanding of death. And you see people begin to
see these Christians are legitimate. This God they worship is
the true in living God, this Jesus who conquered the grave.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I want him in my life.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
So there was an explosive growth of Christianity all over
the Roman Empire until that was when Constantine said, we
are a Christian people. Opportunity. The answer to COVID nineteen
is the church. Now, what we've done in our church
(18:53):
is just a small thing in metropolitan Houston. First of all,
we did we begin to call all of our members,
and we've called about three fourths of them now and
we ask two questions. First of all, how may we
help you? Secondly, what can I pray.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
With you about? You'll not believe the response.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
It's been overwhelming, and the members are saying, I need this,
or let me help and serve in some other way.
And we have three or four hundred our members who
are just calling other members asking those questions. And out
of those questions many needs come out, food, medicine, clothing, transportation, children, masks,
(19:39):
all kinds of needs. And we've sought to step out
and meet all of those needs.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Wherever they are.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Worried about job in vocation, we've been there. Sometimes they
have emotional problems, we put them online FaceTime with godly counselors,
and so we see here the church, we're just simply
trying to reach out and say.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
We care for everybody.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
We're trying to live up to that which the early
church did when they had that kind of growth. Matthew
twenty five, Jesus said, I was hungry, You gave me bread.
I was thirsty, you gave me water. I was a stranger,
you took me in. I was sick, and you came
unto me. This is what the church is. This is
(20:26):
what the church does. It's a wonderful opportunity, and we
know God will do wonderful things. The Church in this
crisis should be stronger, more powerful, deeper, and wider than
it's ever been in its history. What is the answer?
The signs of the times, Oh, they're so dark. But
(20:48):
the Church needs to be there with the light and
the love and the therapy and the touch and the
generosity of the Body of Christ.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The Church is to be the hands and the arms
and the eyes of Jesus. Jesus is not here. He
left us here. Empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Jesus said, I will put together my church, a church
so expansive with energy that not even the gates of Hell,
not even coronavirus can keep that out. It will go
and destroy and heal in touch. Nothing can distrap the church.
It is marching on and on soul. How do you
(21:28):
know a church is authentic body of Christ? First of all,
it is reaching, and it is ministering, and it is
loving and is introducing people to Him who gives life
meaningful here and life meaningful forever in heaven. What's the
second thing. We also teach. We reach and we teach,
(21:51):
We teach families and homes.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And what a wonderful time of teaching we have now.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I can't tell you how many families have said, it's
been great to be with my kids. It's been great
to go to school with my kids.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
What a moment. First Corinthians eleven thirteen.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
But now by it in faith, hope, love, these three,
But the greatest of these, so ahead of everything else,
is love. Have you ever eaten a bread and jelly sandwich,
jelly in the middle and bread on each side. If
you just ate the bread without the jelly, it would
probably be a little dry and tasteless. By the same token,
(22:36):
if you just ate the jelly, it might be delicious initially,
but soon you decided it was just two too sweet. Right,
That's what I think Paul is saying a First Corinthians
twelve through fourteen. Chapter twelve tells us about the spiritual
gifts every Christian receives, and chapter fourteen tells us how
to use these gifts to edify, to magnify it, to
(22:59):
build up his church.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
In between is chapter thirteen, that beautiful portrait of love.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
What Paul is saying is that you can have spiritual gifts,
but unless their exercise and atmosphere of real agapy, that
sacrificial love, they could be unappealing.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
As bread without jelly.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Love also is meant to be released as it flows
through your life or my life.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
We can't keep it to ourselves, can you.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
We're to love others as God loved us with an unstoppable,
unquenchable love, and He just keeps on keeps on loving
us unconditioned. First Corinthians thirteen read. It is the jelly
between two pieces of bread that tells us clearly what
(23:54):
love is all about.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
We hope today's message has encouraged you to build your
life on the proven truth of God's word, and we'd
love to encourage you even more by sending you Doctor
Young's eight message series, The Church Awake. This powerful series
will help you understand cultural trends and the threat they
represent to marriage, to family, and to a biblical worldview,
and equip you to courageously take your stand against the
(24:26):
forces that seek to silence you and compromise your witness.
So call now to request The Church Awake is our
thanks for your gift to reach more people with the
proven truth of God's Word. Call one eight hundred three
five oh walk. That's one eight hundred three five oh
nine two five five. Thanks for being with us today
(24:46):
on the Winning Walk Tunda next time as doctor Young
shares more proven truth from God's word
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