I was talking to a fellow about becoming a Christian , and he asked me why he should, what would change in his life? I responded that the issue was what happened after he died, was he headed for hell or heaven. He assured me that he had been a pretty good person, and was confident that God would let him in. I told him that the requirement was that he was perfect, never having sinned once, not even a little one. He scoffed at that as being ridiculous and unattainable by anyone. I told Him, yep, you are right, the only person who was perfect was Jesus, and that is the point. God put my sins on Jesus, all of them, and Jesus was punished by God the Father in my place, he paid my bill. He died on that cross, was buried and rose from the dead 3 days later. Our part in receiving forgiveness and eternal life from God is to acknowledge that we can’t save ourselves and accept the free gift of God by believing the gospel. He told me the most amazing thing, “I will just take my chances.”

The consequences of failing on those odds are very serious. Eternity in hell with no parole or second chances once you find out that your gamble didn’t pay off.

The fear of death has controlled most of the world for this last year, especially the United States. That fear has separated people and messed up many families, friendships, and churches. A great gift from God is freedom from the fear of death. We are celebrating that gift tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday at JBC.

Hebrews 2:14-15
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

The Apostle Paul was’t afraid to die, in fact, he was looking forward to it. Why would anybody who truly believes they are headed for heaven want to stay here any longer than they have to?

Philippians 1:21-23 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;

Jesus died on a cross and paid the penalty for our sins so that we could live forever with Him. We are celebrating His death tonight at our “Good Friday” service and His resurrection on Easter. If you would like the “hope” of eternal life to be part of who you are, I invite you to join us.

We are celebrating at Jefferson Baptist Church at 7:00 pm tonight, 7:00 pm Saturday night, and 9:00 and 11:30 am on Sunday morning. The “Good Friday” service and Sunday 9:00 am service will be on Youtube so you can watch it from your home.

Hebrews 4:12-13
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

The Bible gives us very clear instructions on how to be born again into the family of God, how to have eternal life in heaven with God. Jesus said that He was the only way into heaven, there aren’t multiple ways, there aren’t even two, just one way, only one.

Some have asked, “how do you know that the Bible is really the Word of God?” When a person who is seeking God or answers from God reads the Bible the Supernatural power of God works in their inner person, and their is an experiential proof that the “Word of God is living and active,” you just know that what is being read is true. The problem is that many don’t take the step towards being a seeker. God promised that if a person would seek Him they would find Him, God will see to it, He will become real to them and the Word will come alive as they read it.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

1 Chronicles 22:19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God;

1 Chronicles 28:9 for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him;

Year’s ago when I was still in High School a lady gave a testimony in our church right before she was baptized, and she said “I found God!” She then laughed and said, “He was with me all along, I just didn’t know it, so I guess what I mean is, I chose to follow Him and to obey Him as Lord of my life, and my baptism is a picture of my surrender to Him as Lord of my life. When I go under the water I am dying to self, that is, I am no longer in charge of my life, Jesus Christ is, and when I come up out of the water it is a picture of me being raised from the dead with Jesus Christ, and He is now in charge of every detail of my life.” At that point in my Christian life I had never chosen to be baptized, but that ladies testimony prompted me to choose to be baptized the next month. Every morning now I declare Jesus as Lord of my life. I remind myself of my baptism, I have died to me being in charge of my life, Jesus is king, I have been raised from the dead to newness of life. It has been an uphill battle ever since, but it has been uphill, I am growing closer to Him every day!

In the Middle Ages, governments had power and control over people and their rights, and the church also had much power and used it to control people. There was a constant battle between governments and the church over who was most in control. One of the doctrines that had evolved in the church was that a person had to be a member in good standing in their church to go to heaven. So the church began to use the threat of ex-communication, which was basically kicking people out of heaven to control them, especially government officials. The government used courts, laws, prisons, and the threat of death to control people, especially church leaders. If you read much history of this period you will read of people getting burned at the stake, drowned, hung, pulled in two by horses, thrown to animals, thrown off of high places, and starved to death. Executions were made public and cruel for the sake of intimidation and fear which was essential to controlling people.

Through the Reformation years, the struggle for power and control continued, and hundreds of so-called heretics were burned at the stake. In a number of recorded executions the children of those being burned were forced to light the fire that killed their parent. John Fox wrote his book, “Fox’s Book of Martyrs, ” in 1563 with many detailed descriptions of executions that were fully intended to put fear into those who watched and heard of the awful deaths of those who refused to be controlled by tyrants.

The earliest of immigrants to America from Europe came seeking religious freedom and freedom from the fear mongering that was still the normal way of controlling people in Europe. Those who wrote our Constitution and the Bill of Rights which followed were very much aware of European history and wrote a document designed to maintain people’s freedom from oppression. It is said that no document that was ever written has the power to protect against despotic autocracy as our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights do.

The Bible is the ultimate document of freedom. It teaches the importance of not trying to control others, how to live in peace with others, how to live in freedom from fear, living free from the power and control of our own sinful nature, and how to be set free from the devil and the kingdom of darkness. It is worth reading every day, and following as a standard for living life in freedom.

When I was a teenager growing up an hours drive from timberline of Mt Adam’s, one of the unwritten but fully understood “life rules” was “climbing Mt Adam’s is hard, very hard, but that is why you choose to do it.” In our culture today there are still a few who operate by that principle, but we have steadily moved in the direction of “hard is bad and easy is good.” One of the main messages of Jesus was “if you want to follow Me you must pick up your cross everyday.” Crucifixion was the most torturous, painful death invented by man, and the cross was a symbol of that pain. When Jesus said, “you must pick up your cross,” He was saying, “following Me is hard, very hard!”

One of the main selling points used today to persuade people to trust in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior in America is “Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life.” In many countries in the world today to become a Christian is to be ostracized from your friends and family, to be guaranteed a life of poverty because no one will hire you, and very possibly to be martyred for your faith.

Why would anyone choose to convert to Christianity then? Because only those who are followers of Jesus will inherit eternal life in heaven. Life is a blink of an eye in length and heaven is forever. To choose hard here in this life to get heaven forever is the smartest move anybody can make. Part of the problem is that people confuse free with easy. Salvation is free, Jesus paid the price of our sin, we don’t have to reach a certain level of holiness to get into God’s family, but once in we are asked by Jesus to “suffer hardship” as we serve Him.

Most Christians in the United States don’t suffer much because they choose not to do much with their life for the Lord. One little example is prayer, prayer doesn’t require any straining, sweat, or effort, you just sit there. But those who enter into the kind of praying that changes other people experience “hard.” It is a mystery in what makes it hard, and a little, convenient praying isn’t really very hard, but the number who choose to spend some serious time interceding for others is small, and it is small for a reason.

JBC started our “Five Days of Prayer” this morning. We pray from 5:00 to 10:00 am each morning and 5:00 to 10:00 pm each evening. Many in our church choose not to come at all, some come for an hour or two, but there are some who choose the hard way and spend several hours each of the five days praying because they believe that it will make a difference in the eternal destiny of many.

I get a lot of questions from people about conflict with other people. They desire to resolve it and have peace in the family, at work, in the church, or with a neighbor. I regularly see people creating tension in their relationships because they don’t know how to manage differences of opinion. They tend to make their opinion and the rightness of it more important in the scheme of things than it deserves. There are a few opinions that are worth making a fuss over but not very many. A fool makes a fuss over differences that are not worth making a fuss over. When a difference causes a distancing to take place in a relationship it ought to be worth the cost of that relationship. A fool can’t seem to accurately determine if being right is more important than the unity and closness of their relationship with the person they are having the conflict with. This has become much more prevalent in our present culture, and many people are ending relationships over really stupid things. As I listen and counsel people I often think, they must not value their relationship with this other person much because they are willing to end it over a difference of opinion that really isn’t that big of a deal. It often appears to me that it isn’t the importance of a particular view, but the pride of being right that drives much of this conflict.

Proverbs 20:3
Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man,
But any fool will quarrel.

Proverbs 18:2
A fool does not delight in understanding,
But only in revealing his own mind.

Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

Relationships with other people are such valuable things, and it us so sad to see people almost flippantly ending relationships with people they have known for year’s over opinions on masks, political views, methods of doing things, and theological views that aren’t critical to eternal life. Relationships with people take years to develop and they shouldn’t be damaged over trivia, but so many do.

A couple of days ago, I wrote out some mottos that I like and use. Several months ago, I wrote out some of my favorite leadership mottos. I thought I would repeat the leadership mottos because they are very good and highly motivational to me.

Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader . . They set out to make a difference.

It is never about the role; it is always about the goal.

The greatest leader is not the one who does the greatest things, but he gets other people to do the greatest things.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

The true test of leadership is how well you function in a crisis.

A good leader can get a group of people who are different in every way to work together in unity.

Good leaders inspire people to dream more, attempt more, and become more.

True leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders.

Good leaders convince people that together, they can accomplish anything, but separate, they can achieve nothing.

Great leaders paint a picture of a better tomorrow with the power of vision and inspire others to help them accomplish it.

Successful leaders know that they must first lead themselves successfully before they can lead others.

The best leaders are not just pursuing a vision, they are inspiring others to grow as they follow the dream.

Leaders who accomplish great things with their life are humble enough to know that they need help to do it, they learn how to inspire others to help them, and they give those who helped them the credit for the accomplishment.

Leaders are strong, they know that all great accomplishments take time, and they endure to the end, they never give up.

A good leader takes more than his share of the blame, and less than his share of the credit.

Good leadership is all about influence not about authority. Good leaders don’t boss people around.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, but I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

I don’t believe that we will go through the Tribulation as described in Revelations, but that we will be raptured at any minute, receive a glorified body and head off to heaven with Jesus. But let’s pretend that we do go through the Seven year Tribulation as described in Revelation chapter 6 through 19. If we are in the Tribulation it will be fairly easy to see where we are on the time line described in Revelations with the seven seal judgments, the seven trumpet judgments, and then the seven bowl judgments being clearly explained along with the mark of the beast and other events.

So now, pretending that we are in the Tribulation how will we pray? Will we pray that God will make everything good, and take away the hard times? Why would we pray that when it is clearly prophesied that the hard times are planned by God? What we should pray for is strength to endure the hard times and that we would be a good witness.

If we read Revelations we will see that the antichrist is a major player and that he is the worst tyrant the world has ever seen, and that he persecuted severely all who do not obey him. What are we going to pray for? That God fixes the government and changes things so that the Republicans are in charge? Why would we do that when we can see clearly what God has planned?

So, maybe what we should pray for is strength to endure and to be a good witness for Jesus.

So, back to the present, how should we pray? That God fixes things, takes away the COVID thing, opens up schools, takes things back to normal? The worse things are the more people turn to Jesus as their savior. People coming to Jesus is far more important than things being normal. What we should be praying for is that those who identify with Jesus are strong, not whiners, not afraid of viruses, joyful, not critical of others, whether they wear a mask or not.

How are you doing as a follower of Jesus?

A motto is a sentence which summarizes a belief, a commitment, or a philosophy of life that you don’t want to forget.

I am personally a big believer in mottos. They help me remember what my commitments and values are, and also to teach them to others. I am continually collecting new ones that I hear and those I write for myself. Here are a few of my favorites;

-Read the Bible everyday, everyday, everyday.

– You don’t have to act the way you feel.

– Everything rises and falls on leadership.

– Feel angry over every injustice you see, but don’t act or speak in anger, not even a little bit irritated, it changes nothing.

-Being a servant of Jesus is all about influencing people and changing things for the better, even if just a little bit.

-If certain behavior doesn’t change anything for the better, stop it.

-much prayer much blessing, little prayer little blessing, no prayer no blessing.

-If anything in life is important, make a goal to get better at it.

-Measure, count and keep track on paper of anything and everything that matters.

-If you don’t keep track of how much you pray, you won’t pray much, if you don’t keep track of how much you read the Bible, you won’t read the Bible much.

-A goal isn’t really a goal if it isn’t written down, it is just wishful thinking.

-Every year learn a new skill, skills are like tools, the more you have the more you can do.

-Every year choose to do something you have never done before, experience is the foundation of wisdom.

-Every year plan to go someplace you have never been before, the world is God’s textbook for knowing Him.

-The more you read your goals the more apt you are to accomplish them.

-I will love everybody God sovereignly brings into my life, no matter how difficult they may be to love.

-To love a person is to honor them and to honor them is to pay sincere attention to their words.

-Our memories are short, write down every experience worth remembering.

-Stories are the key to memorable teaching, but only if they are short and well told.

-The self-disciple to delay gratification according to wisdom is the most significant measure of maturity.

-Leaders are readers.

-Without regular and honest self-examination change and growth will be minimal.

-Every conflict with another person is an opportunity to discover a blind spot in my life.

-Quitting something because it is hard is what wimps do.

-I can accomplish just about anything if I get enough counsel and help from others, only a fool insists on doing it by themselves.

-God sees everything I do, hears everything I say, and knows everything I think.