Episode Transcript
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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. 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, that
(01:14):
ball has left the building. 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
(01:34):
the church was never a building, but we have acted
like it was. We'd say that's 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
(01:56):
know the church has left the building by the way,
that's what the church is always 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
(02:22):
the world, and so many people asking questions on's it
going to end? Will we ever have a cure? What
am I to do? What's the best way to protect myself?
And so these questions go on and on until finally
(02:45):
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 this pandemic to go across the world
and affect so many people? What's going on? Lord? Give
(03:08):
us some kind of sign? 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 is doing, what he's up to. This is not you.
In history, in the book of First Chronicles, there's an
(03:31):
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. And he was
a very gifted man, and he had gifted children. And
when they came out of Egypt and went back to
(03:52):
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 head
and shoulders of everybody else. And finally there's that little
(04:15):
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 to
what they needed to do. How we need people like that,
(04:38):
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. We need people who
can read the signs of the times. Is and asked
(05:00):
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, everything was coming down
(05:21):
in Israel. The Romans dominated, poverty, privation families, divided, very
little worship. 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
(05:44):
to Jesus, said, Jesus, show us a sign. You're beginning something,
a whole new era, a whole new kingdom, a whole
new understanding of our faith. Show us something. Now. It's
interesting to 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.
(06:05):
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,
red sky at night, Sailor's delight, red sky in the morning,
(06:26):
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
of repentance. Jonah went the nineve Ah, unlikely person. He said,
(06:48):
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. Ladies and gentlemen. Jesus said, about these
you are sinful and adulterous generation. We are a sinful
and adulterous world. And the message I hear is repent
(07:09):
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 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
(07:32):
area outside of Israel, into Gentile country at Cesarea Philippi,
there in that pagan area where they believe the god
Pan was born, which became pantheism, God's and everything. And
Jesus took those apostles there to disciple them to build
(07:53):
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? 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
(08:15):
looked him and said, but I want to know who
do you say that I am? And Peter hoof and
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
(08:37):
gave you that word. And then Jesus said, on this rock,
what rock? 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
(09:00):
gates of Hell will not prevail against it. A modern
translation says Jesus spoke, I will put together my church,
a church so expansive with energy, not even the gates
of Hell can keep it out. Isn't that a beautiful
translation of that, I'll build a church so expansive in
(09:24):
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,
set aside to make a difference in this world. In
(09:47):
every moment of history. 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.
(10:08):
Before long it was crucified, he was executed on that cross, died,
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
(10:29):
of Pentecost, affirming the resurrection of Jesus, affirming 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
(10:51):
development of it. Jesus had already put in baptism 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
(11:15):
Body of Christ in the Book of Acts. What an
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,
(11:37):
There is that corninea that is there. And maybe you
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
serve one another. Serve one another in the church. That's
(11:58):
the mark of the growth of the Body of Christ.
We're to serve one another. 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
(12:22):
he says we are to 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. When we receive 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.
(12:44):
Look at all the names we have for the church.
My goodness, it's called It's well, it's like Israel in
a sense. 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
(13:05):
New Covenant. That's the church. It has a understanding a
background of Israel as a called out people, exclusive and
shut up to God, exclusive, for God. 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.
(13:28):
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 make a
difference in our world? The answer to the coronavirus is
(13:51):
the church. 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
(14:11):
not we who are in the church are actually living
out the assignment that Jesus gave to us. That's the
great commission. 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.
(14:31):
What's whoever I've commanded you? So what are we to do?
How do you find an authentic, 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
(14:53):
we find all of the world. If you'll go back
in history, you remember 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
(15:17):
to that church that was persecuted and began to reach
out into the Roman world. 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. What took place? Were there crusades was there's
(15:41):
a lot of evangelism. What happened, I'll tell you what happened.
Two plagues. 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
(16:06):
Empire died. 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,
(16:27):
they said there were days in which over five thousand
people a 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
(16:50):
that first plague came, guess 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. And we see the pagans who
could They ran, All the leaders ran, all the phony
(17:12):
priests ran, and all the idolaters land. And the Christians
remained in the first plague and the second plague. And
what did they do. 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
(17:35):
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. 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
(17:57):
on which to stand, because now it was the Christians
who said, I am my brother's keeper. The Pagans knew
nothing of that. 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.
So there's a whole new understanding of death. And you
(18:20):
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. I want him in my life.
So there was an explosive growth of Christianity all over
the Roman Empire until that was when Constantine said, we
(18:41):
are a Christian people. Opportunity. The answer to COVID nineteen
is the church. Now, what we've done in our church
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
(19:04):
we ask two questions. First of all, how may we
help you? Secondly, what can I pray with you about?
You'll not believe the response. 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
(19:25):
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, all
kinds of needs. And we've sought to step out and
meet all of those needs. Wherever they are worried about
job in vocation, we've been there. Sometimes they have emotional problems,
(19:49):
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 we care for everybody. We're trying
to live up to that which the early church did
when they had that kind of growth. Matthew twenty five,
(20:09):
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
what the church does. It's a wonderful opportunity, and we
(20:31):
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
the Church needs to be there with the light and
the love and the therapy and the touch and the
(20:55):
generosity of the Body of Christ. 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. 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.
(21:20):
It will go and destroy and heal in touch. Nothing
can distrap the church. It is marching on and on soul.
How do you 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.
(21:44):
What's the second thing. We also teach. We reach and
we teach, We teach families and homes. And what a
wonderful time of teaching we have now. 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. What a moment. First Corinthians eleven thirteen.
(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. In between is chapter thirteen, that
beautiful portrait of love. 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.
(23:20):
As bread without jelly. Love also is meant to be
released as it flows through your life or my life.
We can't keep it to ourselves, can you. We're to
love others as God loved us with an unstoppable, unquenchable love,
and He just keeps on keeps on loving us unconditioned.
(23:45):
First Corinthians thirteen read. It is the jelly between two
pieces of bread that tells us clearly what 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. 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, that
(01:14):
ball has left the building. 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
(01:34):
the church was never a building, but we have acted
like it was. We'd say that's 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
(01:56):
know the church has left the building by the way,
that's what the church is always 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
(02:22):
the world, and so many people asking questions on's it
going to end? Will we ever have a cure? What
am I to do? What's the best way to protect myself?
And so these questions go on and on until finally
(02:45):
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 this pandemic to go across the world
and affect so many people? What's going on? Lord? Give
(03:08):
us some kind of sign? 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 is doing, what he's up to. This is not you.
In history, in the book of First Chronicles, there's an
(03:31):
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. And he was
a very gifted man, and he had gifted children. And
when they came out of Egypt and went back to
(03:52):
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 head
and shoulders of everybody else. And finally there's that little
(04:15):
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 to
what they needed to do. How we need people like that,
(04:38):
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. We need people who
can read the signs of the times. Is and asked
(05:00):
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, everything was coming down
(05:21):
in Israel. The Romans dominated, poverty, privation families, divided, very
little worship. 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
(05:44):
to Jesus, said, Jesus, show us a sign. You're beginning something,
a whole new era, a whole new kingdom, a whole
new understanding of our faith. Show us something. Now. It's
interesting to 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.
(06:05):
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,
red sky at night, Sailor's delight, red sky in the morning,
(06:26):
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
of repentance. Jonah went the nineve Ah, unlikely person. He said,
(06:48):
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. Ladies and gentlemen. Jesus said, about these
you are sinful and adulterous generation. We are a sinful
and adulterous world. And the message I hear is repent
(07:09):
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 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
(07:32):
area outside of Israel, into Gentile country at Cesarea Philippi,
there in that pagan area where they believe the god
Pan was born, which became pantheism, God's and everything. And
Jesus took those apostles there to disciple them to build
(07:53):
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? 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
(08:15):
looked him and said, but I want to know who
do you say that I am? And Peter hoof and
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
(08:37):
gave you that word. And then Jesus said, on this rock,
what rock? 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
(09:00):
gates of Hell will not prevail against it. A modern
translation says Jesus spoke, I will put together my church,
a church so expansive with energy, not even the gates
of Hell can keep it out. Isn't that a beautiful
translation of that, I'll build a church so expansive in
(09:24):
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,
set aside to make a difference in this world. In
(09:47):
every moment of history. 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.
(10:08):
Before long it was crucified, he was executed on that cross, died,
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
(10:29):
of Pentecost, affirming the resurrection of Jesus, affirming 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
(10:51):
development of it. Jesus had already put in baptism 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
(11:15):
Body of Christ in the Book of Acts. What an
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,
(11:37):
There is that corninea that is there. And maybe you
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
serve one another. Serve one another in the church. That's
(11:58):
the mark of the growth of the Body of Christ.
We're to serve one another. 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
(12:22):
he says we are to 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. When we receive 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.
(12:44):
Look at all the names we have for the church.
My goodness, it's called It's well, it's like Israel in
a sense. 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
(13:05):
New Covenant. That's the church. It has a understanding a
background of Israel as a called out people, exclusive and
shut up to God, exclusive, for God. 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.
(13:28):
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 make a
difference in our world? The answer to the coronavirus is
(13:51):
the church. 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
(14:11):
not we who are in the church are actually living
out the assignment that Jesus gave to us. That's the
great commission. 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.
(14:31):
What's whoever I've commanded you? So what are we to do?
How do you find an authentic, 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
(14:53):
we find all of the world. If you'll go back
in history, you remember 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
(15:17):
to that church that was persecuted and began to reach
out into the Roman world. 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. What took place? Were there crusades was there's
(15:41):
a lot of evangelism. What happened, I'll tell you what happened.
Two plagues. 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
(16:06):
Empire died. 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,
(16:27):
they said there were days in which over five thousand
people a 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
(16:50):
that first plague came, guess 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. And we see the pagans who
could They ran, All the leaders ran, all the phony
(17:12):
priests ran, and all the idolaters land. And the Christians
remained in the first plague and the second plague. And
what did they do. 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
(17:35):
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. 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
(17:57):
on which to stand, because now it was the Christians
who said, I am my brother's keeper. The Pagans knew
nothing of that. 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.
So there's a whole new understanding of death. And you
(18:20):
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. I want him in my life.
So there was an explosive growth of Christianity all over
the Roman Empire until that was when Constantine said, we
(18:41):
are a Christian people. Opportunity. The answer to COVID nineteen
is the church. Now, what we've done in our church
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
(19:04):
we ask two questions. First of all, how may we
help you? Secondly, what can I pray with you about?
You'll not believe the response. 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
(19:25):
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, all
kinds of needs. And we've sought to step out and
meet all of those needs. Wherever they are worried about
job in vocation, we've been there. Sometimes they have emotional problems,
(19:49):
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 we care for everybody. We're trying
to live up to that which the early church did
when they had that kind of growth. Matthew twenty five,
(20:09):
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
what the church does. It's a wonderful opportunity, and we
(20:31):
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
the Church needs to be there with the light and
the love and the therapy and the touch and the
(20:55):
generosity of the Body of Christ. 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. 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.
(21:20):
It will go and destroy and heal in touch. Nothing
can distrap the church. It is marching on and on soul.
How do you 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.
(21:44):
What's the second thing. We also teach. We reach and
we teach, We teach families and homes. And what a
wonderful time of teaching we have now. 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. What a moment. First Corinthians eleven thirteen.
(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. In between is chapter thirteen, that
beautiful portrait of love. 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.
(23:20):
As bread without jelly. Love also is meant to be
released as it flows through your life or my life.
We can't keep it to ourselves, can you. We're to
love others as God loved us with an unstoppable, unquenchable love,
and He just keeps on keeps on loving us unconditioned.
(23:45):
First Corinthians thirteen read. It is the jelly between two
pieces of bread that tells us clearly what 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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