January 24 2024
Come let us all to sing God is love let heav and Earth their praise ising God is love let every soul from sin each in his heart sweet music make and sing with us for Jesus sake for God is love God is God is love God is God is
Love come let us all sing that God is oh tell to us REM God is in Christ we have Redemption found God is his blood hased our away his Spirit turned our night to day and now and rejoice to say that God is love God is God
Is God is God is love come let us all to sing that God is love how happy is our portion here God is love his promises our spirit Che God is love he is our son and shield by day our help our hope our strength and stay he
Will be with us all the way our God is God is God is love God is God is love come let us all unite to sing that God is love God is God is love God is God is love come let us all unite to sing that God is love and I am
Beide what where when Waters pass and salvation flows asay Heim and guides me in his night way for his most holy name for the Lord my sheer of not he makes me down to in pastures green he Le me in P he me the quiet my soul he restore
Again and me to walk the way within the path of rightousness within the of rightousness he for his own s y though I walk in our yet will I Fe for thou art with me and th Ro for th me th and St me go first still my table thou in presence of
My my head thou dust with all down the we’ll see how it goes thanks I guess it’s time for us to get started they’ve turned the microphones on so glad to see everyone glad to see yall all made it here safely on this uh nasty foggy night
Um before we get into our study we’ll we’ll begin with a word of prayer soon as we soon as everybody gets sett settled down let’s pray together dear heavenly father we’re so thankful for this opportunity that you’ve given to each of us midweek to come together here as fellow Christians
To study from your word uh to learn more about your desires for us as your children dear heavenly father we ask you be with us tonight through our study that uh we’ll take the things that we learn uh apply those things in our lives that will serve you better in the days
Ahead than we have in the past dear heavenly father we’re continue to be mindful of many of our number who are sick or recovering from a variety of of illnesses and injuries we ask you to continue to be with them and those who are caring for them especially tonight
Dear heavenly father we want to uh remember uh sister ANZ Darnell as as she enters hospice care ask you to continue to be with her and those that are be caring for her in the coming weeks dear heavenly father we ask your blessings on all of those the the world
Over who are in positions of authority we ask that uh if it be your will they would turn to you in in the decisions that they make that uh the the things of the world that are evil would begin to change and uh improve from where they are
Today dear heavenly father we ask you to to we’re thankful for the spiritual blessings that you give to us for your son and our savior and for the sacrifice that he made on our behalf uh dear heavenly father we know that we do and leave undone things that
We should do do things we should not do from time to time we ask for forgiveness of those sins as we repent turn away from them and ultimately dear heavenly father we ask for a home in heaven with thee someday these and all things we ask in Christ’s name
Amen we will we will pick up our study in uh lesson number nine uh the rise of Catholicism and the the changes that were made as a result of that uh last week we discussed how straying from the New Testament pattern of the of the church especially Church
Leadership had led to a completely different looking Church um by the 6th Century it also resulted in the rise of the Pope and the Catholic Church um by about this same time uh we talked about this apostasy uh which was predicted in several places in the New
Testament uh and how we saw much of that come to pass uh we also discussed how the foundation for uh Catholicism Finds Its origin in this altered Church leadership uh how a certain combination of factors the influence of the Emperors uh the the elevated authority of the Bishops in the church uh the
False narrative that Rome was the seed of the the seed or the chair of the Apostolic Church these things combined to result in the appointing of one man as the universal head of the church and he was known as the pope we also looked at the claim uh that
Peter was the first pope and we showed by looking at scripture lots of different places how this could in fact not be the case U Peter was as we said last week he was just a man though he was an apostle he neither claimed uh nor
Was re was given or received any more Authority than the other Apostles uh and any claim that Peter was the head of the church uh goes completely against scripture which says that Christ is the head of the church finally as we were closing out last week uh we looked at how several different
Factors uh a couple of the important important ones were the very low literacy rate and also the changes in doctrines by the by the councils and the centralization of church Authority how these things had combined to lead to a standarded standardization of Doctrine throughout the church and during this time this
This standard this this Doctrine became be began to be referred to as universal or Catholic Jeff throughout this study we’ve seen men who who belied they needed to change what God had had already established as if the church and the doctrine as it was established by the Holy Spirit uh in the
Inspiration that was given to to the apostles and the inspired writers was somehow not sufficient for the church to operate for its governance uh for its worship uh but we’ve seen all all through this that whenever man tries to fix something when when they try when
Man tries to give God a a helping hand uh it it almost always results in problems right and I think one thing to to remember also it’s uh sometimes looking in the rearview mirror you know or looking at things in the past can help us understand uh better how how
Those things can happen and we can see the problems that uh came about uh because of some of these changes but remember we have the luxury of of looking in hindsight we have the luxury of all the history available to us to look at these things the changes that
Occurred and then see you know what problems arose from it which I think at least for me it it should make us appreciate God’s wisdom uh even more so uh because God’s plan for the church was was really perfect in its uh simplicity the the invitation of the Gospel was
Open to all uh the plan uh that God set forth could be followed just as easily for a person in the first century as it still can today uh it can be followed at any place in the world today just as it could then uh in any environment uh God
Can be worshiped in Spirit uh he doesn’t need assistance man doesn’t need assistance from any human mediators just Christ it was that simple uh and it was just like God wanted it to be uh and there wasn’t a need really for for man to to intervene and fix it but as you
Say when man always has a tendency to try to intervene uh as though God needed our help and and he doesn’t uh sometimes we saw that it was with good intentions they they did things and had good intentions in mind uh and yet still problems arose out of it sometimes it
Was wasn’t with good intentions sometimes it was selfish ambition that man made changes and and begin to stray from that pattern but in either case we saw examples of both where both of those eventually led to harm whether it was with good intentions or not sometimes uh
Another thing I think to remember is th those things did not happen uh overnight uh every change no matter how small it might have seemed to be at the beginning eventually LED to another which led to another which led to another and once you begin to do those things to add or
Take away or change something then really there becomes no stopping point as to where you how do you decide then if it’s okay to do this or that then why not that or this and and it really does that but here we are uh you know five
600 years uh after the church is established and and we’ve reached a point now where there is a great departure from the original pattern uh with with much of what’s being taught now at this point in history uh having very little resemblance to what it
Started out as in the first century so I don’t know how many generations that are for 600 years maybe 25 Generations or something like that and and it’s way way off course okay so let’s begin to look at some of the changes in worship some of the changes in doctrine that occurred
Um during this time period and and in the Years following so over the many years that we’ve already discussed and over the next couple hundred years let’s say from 600 to 800 or 900 the doctrines and the worship of the church would gradually change to a point that it
Would not it probably wouldn’t even be recognizable to to those in the first century uh they would they might if you took someone out of the first century church and and and place them in this they would say what in the world has happened here how and how have
We gotten this far off course uh and one of the biggest changes that we’re going to see is a priesthood is introduced into the church in the Old Testament priests were the ones who made intercession between man and God uh they offered sacrifices of the blood of bulls and goats for the
Forgiveness of sin uh they functioned uh pretty much much as a goet between man and God uh this changed in the New Testament we all know this when Jesus shed his blood for all people he became the chief priest of this New Covenant um going forward all Christians were to be
Priests there was no need for for a priesthood each Christian was a priest uh and the church was to be a royal priesthood uh each member could themselves offer prayers of repentance uh to God through Jesus Christ I I think it’s ironic that it is Peter himself who often writes that in
Fact all Christians are priests uh that we are chosen of God uh Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the only mediator for the New Covenant uh and according to Paul in 1 Timothy 25 he’s the only mediator that is needed between God and man uh we don’t need anyone else we I’m speaking
As Christians we don’t need anyone else to make intercession for the Forgiveness of sins other than Jesus Christ uh yet over this period of time we’ve been discussing a new priesthood is developed within the church uh this probably comes as a result of um Pagan influence in the church probably comes
From Jewish influence in the church uh there both of those religions had priesthoods in those um but whatever the case however it came about priests began to do things for the members that they were told they could not do for themselves um these things including making intercession for the Forgiveness
Of sins uh as well as several other things like ad ministering the Lord’s Supper in performing baptisms uh and that’s that’s good going to be a big change and Jeff’s going to talk about that here in just a moment so another area where changes begin to uh to creep in and and continue
Over time was with baptism so uh the examples of baptism that we have in the New Testament baptism was a a simple act in which one put on the blood of Christ uh by being immersed in water for the remission of sins and arose to walk in
In newness of Life uh baptism could be administered by by any Christian to to baptize someone uh but later baptism by this period in history you know 600 AD uh had become very ceremonial uh in nature uh at this point in time it could only be administered by an ordained
Official of the church so a priest or a clergyman or somebody who’d been a officially ordained in the church not just by another Christian uh by this point they had already gotten to the point where they actually only did baptisms a couple of days a year typically maybe Easter or Pentecost or
Some other holiday uh that they saw fit uh and they started to put other requirements on people that are not scriptural in the New Testament uh before they could be baptized uh they had to make anouncements of uh the devil they they sprinkled them with salt they
Had to drink milk and honey they had to wear white clothing they had to wear a crown or things of this type that begin to be added as part of the ceremonialism that had crept in uh and and none of those things you know are are referenced in scripture there there’s no reference
Of any of those things as being a requirement that you have to do before you can be baptized yep that doesn’t sound a whole lot like any of the baptisms that we read about in the New Testament clear clearly especially you know the ones in Acts that that you know
The convers conversion cases we see there’s no similarity at all correct th those things are not referenced at all if we if we look at all the examples in scripture we don’t see any of these things that they’ve man has added now as a a requirement and F changes continued
To follow with baptism uh sometimes they required multiple immersions for for for different reasons uh one for example each member of the godhead sprinkling and pouring crept in originally uh that came in as an exception for somebody who was critically ill for example who wasn’t able to be immersed wasn’t
Healthy enough to to be immersed but once it started again after that started as an exception over time it it became the the rule and and it became the the way that many people did it uh another thing that crept in was infant baptism and this came out of a number of
Misunderstandings and a number of other beliefs uh but it came in over many years so I don’t know that you could say any one of those things was totally responsible for it but uh that was something that had been practiced occasionally for quite a while but it
Became a very common practice around 450 ad was to baptize infants and uh one of the missionary who came here and visited us that we supported last year his name was Yan optit I don’t know if you all have ever watched any of his uh what they are podcast or something on the
Internet you can look him up but he has a lot of knowledge about the early church history uh he’s from France he he he knows Europe very well and a lot of the things that happened during this particular period but uh I saw where he
He had a very good uh cast on this at one point that I saw after he came here a year ago that stuck with me but uh he said that uh what happened with infant baptism is the the priest when he baptized a baby would fill out a certificate that became essentially a
Birth certificate there was no such thing as a birth certificate from a secular standpoint the government didn’t issue those but you got your baptismal certificate when you were baptized as an infant and so that became your citizenship wherever you were when you were baptized as an infant you had that
Paper and so if you were in you know a church in France you were French or if you were in Rome you were Roman and so even the reformers who came much later some of the most zealous reformers uh because this had become so ingrained in
Society were not anxious to take that on they realized that a baby has no sin to be for forg given for example and yet they were hesitant to call that out as an error because it served a purpose in society that wasn’t met by any other
Need and so you can see again where the combination of church and state really led to some issues that were very difficult to break once they became ingrained and once they took over for many years for several Generations it’s very hard to back back out of those
That’s the way a lot of changes are oh absolutely so uh one of the other areas where uh where some major changes occurred was the Lord’s Supper uh as established by Jesus in the gospels in 1 Corinthians 11 the Lord’s Supper served as remembrance of the sacrifice of the body and blood which
Was made on our behalf for the remission of sins uh and it serves the purpose of proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes back we’re told that 1 Corinthians 11 however after the time of the Apostles this began to slowly change like many things had done uh Justin and
Irus both wrote of the Lord’s suffering supper as an offering to God very similar to how the Jews offered incense to God uh at some point church members began to bring Bread and Wine as an offering to the bishop uh who presented it before God and blessed it and it was
Used in the communion uh a man named cyprien who was the bishop of Antioch added the idea that it reenacts the offering of Christ’s body and blood and this gave rise to the to the bread and the cup becoming what is not known today in the Catholic church as the Eucharist uh in
Which the priest takes the the place of Christ offers the blood the body and blood of of Christ for the remission of sins uh another Bishop uh man named Augustine who was Bishop of Hippo uh this is the man that uh we might know as St Augustine um he supported this idea and
By the time of the start of the 6th Century it was fully established as the sacrifice of mass uh at at some later point the idea emerged uh that the elements of bread and wine literally became the body and blood of Christ uh this is referred to as Eucharist transubstantiation uh the Catholic
Church requires this Eucharist to be taken at least once of year to to maintain membership but it recommends it to be taken every mass and every feast day and even each day for the Forgiveness of sins uh usually following a confession to a priest uh so so you
See here the Lord’s Supper uh has taken a completely different form and and and for a different purpose than it was in the first century Jeff I don’t even hardly understand how this dramatic of a change could have happened uh from from the first century and and been accepted
For the first time this happened uh how was it accepted by Christians well I I think again if we if we go back to the simple instructions uh in scripture and the historical practices that we know were in place uh in the early church again God and his wisdom uh establishes
The Lord’s Supper to be taken on the first day of the week with the most basic and simplest of all supplies bread and and wine which almost anybody in the world would have had access to uh and nothing else was required uh but now this change has become something that
Requires again a member an ordained official to administer and it reminds me a little bit I think of in the Old Testament the priests and the Levites put up as much resistance against Christianity as anybody uh at the time and I think probably in large part because uh it was going to directly
Affect their livelihood right they they’re the ones that no longer are people going to be supporting them no longer are people coming to them to offer sacrifices on their behalf uh what the the the purpose that they served under the Old Testament is going out and
So they’re very opposed and yet here we see the church going back to a practice that’s very similar to that right now instead of just a simple uh scriptural method of partaking of the Lord’s Supper where it’s available to anybody to to take with the simplest of supplies now
We’ve got it back to where you’ve got to have an ordained official to administer that again and and it puts them back into a a system where they’re dependent upon clergy member maybe not an Old Testament priest or a levite but somebody else now uh to intervene on
Their behalf before they can even take you know some of the simpler acts of worship baptism and now the Lord’s Supper two of those original things and and now they’ve got to have somebody else as an intermediary before they can even do the things that they’re told in
The New Testament it’s almost like a self-perpetuating cycle that once it begins there becomes a need for them to to to to have need so they introduce other things for them to do and that’s exactly what happen so the next thing that we see are the increase of of sacraments so
Originally uh you know uh the these baptism and and the Lord’s Supper were two of the first things that were kind of taken over and they said you got to have an ordained official now to to administer these but uh you know the New Testament gives us a number of physical
Actions that we are to do to become spiritually close to God we we practice those as acts of worship uh prayer singing uh baptism observing the Lord’s Supper giving our means the things that we do in worship those things bring us together uh spiritually uh get us as
Close to God as as as we can be upon this Earth but as the as the priesthood developed and expanded they developed this need to support that just like you had in the Old Testament with the Levites and and the priests at that time now we’ve we’ve developed this overhead
That uh is in the church that we don’t find in scripture but it has to be supported so they started to add other sacraments you had the Lord’s supper and baptism which now requires one of these officials to do but other uh things began to be added so the definition of a
Sacrament is a a sacred ritual that has to be performed by one who is ordained so in other words a priest or a member of the clergy now this idea of that uh came in very early on telium I think which was first or second century maybe
Uh began to talk about sacraments mainly the Lord’s supper and baptism back early on um but uh these group through now and and we begin to add others Augustine uh around 450 uh beginning began to use this term Sacrament for a lot of different things not just baptism
And not just the Lord’s Supper anymore uh and his definition of that was that a Sacrament was an outward sign of of an or of an invisible Grace uh and so these two sacraments baptism and the Lord’s Supper that they originally revolved to as the priesthood continued to expand
And support was needed for that they they began to expand the number of sacraments and by the sixth Century uh there were up to seven things that were required you had to have a member of the clergy or a priest to do these things
For you uh in order to for them to be able to to get money for doing them to to support uh that that overhead and uh a lot of those are still in place by uh a a large number of of different religious organizations even even today I think it’s interesting
Um you know typically when we have a baptism it’s it’s usually the preacher that that performs the baptism but that’s not always the case uh we’ve had several times here where a father might administer baptism or or some some other situation it’s it’s definitely does not
Have to be one of the elders or or one of the preachers to do to do these things uh we’re going to talk about AUST Augustine a little bit later um as well uh in this lesson but before this study I had never really known where the description of baptism as an outward
Sign of an inward Grace had come from I think we’ve we’ve all heard that I had no idea where it’s origin came from but I think that we can see clearly here that it began with viewing baptism as a symbolic sacrament of receiving Grace and and that’s not what that’s not what
Scripture describes it as uh so I hope I hope we’re all pretty clear on that all right the the other five just just as a point of information because some of these are going to really begin to grow as we talk about uh as as we move ahead
And in history but uh the other five sacraments that were added uh one was confirmation so with infant baptism for example now being an accepted practice and was the norm people recognize that an infant doesn’t know anything about what he’s doing when he’s baptized so uh
They they began to realize it was NE necessary to have something when a when a child reached the age of knowing right for wrong and and realized what sin really was so they there was another ceremony that was performed uh called confirmation and that became then a a
Sacrament where again a member of the an ordained official of the church uh had a a u a ceremony where uh they uh confirmed someone at the age of accountability even though they’ve been baptized as as an infant uh another one that becomes big very big later on uh as
Christians fell into sin repentance and confession of sin for for forgiveness uh was deemed insufficent icient you couldn’t pray to God as the Bible teaches for forgiveness when you sin you had to have a priest or an ordained official to to do that on your behalf
And they begin to add uh Penance and we talked about that early on it was introduced very early on uh but this is where uh you had to give something or give something up in order to have this prayer uttered for you to to give you
Forgiveness of sin and uh as a result of that this really empowered uh the priesthood because now they have the the ability uh if you don’t follow and and do your Penance and and and give something or give something up or say certain things or memorize certain
Things then uh they can hold you out of the church and and if you do your Penance and do as they wish then they can admit you back in so they begin to exert a lot of power over the individual members uh with this particular uh Sacrament um and and this expands over
Time we’ll see when we get to the Crusades and other things that this this is really misused horribly uh going forward uh the ordination or holy orders is a ceremony to get somebody ordained as an official uh unction uh you’ve probably seen this on television a lot
But uh it held that a priest or an ordained official could convey special Grace to to somebody by simply praying over somebody just before they passed away or anointing them with oil uh they had the ability to have all that person’s sin forgiven regardless of
State uh before that and and again we we don’t see anything about that we hear that talked of as uh giving the last right last rights many might also be what you’ve heard that called and then the last one is matrimony so to to to be married you have to have an ordained
Official to conduct a ceremony to to marry you so you had you went from 5 to seven but you can see all these things now require an ordained official to become involved for you to do things that most of which were either not required period or you should have been
Able to do yourself uh with just what’s given in in scripture so somewhere um during the years that followed 600 um maybe up to as late as 1,000 um we saw we see changes begin to come to music and the worship of the church uh in all of the early writings that we
Discussed back a few weeks ago more importantly in the New Testament there are many references to Christian singing as worship no indication at all of the use of mechanical instruments in worship um it’s clear that in the first century um and before Harps and horns were well known but they were not used
In the early church um because they were not commanded by God there is some indication that some some proposed to use mechanical instruments Worship in the church as early as third or fourth centuries we know that because some of these early writers uh made cases against it and it
Doesn’t seem like that it was a practice that was accepted at the time time um most there are several of these early writers apologists that we talked about who condemned it uh in many different ways we know both Jewish religion and both and uh Pagan religions used mechanical instruments in their worship
And this is probably where some of these initial desires uh for instruments and worship came from where it originated uh a man named John chodam who was Bishop in Constantinople in about 400 wrote The Following uh I don’t have my book open hold on one sec here got it
154 it was the ancient custom and and is still with us for all to come together and unitedly to join in singing The Young and the old rich and poor male and female Bond and free all join in one song All worldly distin ANS here ceased and the whole congregation formed one General
Chorus uh I think you can see here that that was the standard uh of the time around uh 370 uh just before that was probably probably written early church Church Father Basil condemned the desire to use mechanical instruments as depraved uh in in nature uh simply because it was associated with the
Worship of of Pagan idols and there are several references U by writers in the fifth and sixth Century which also condemn the use of these mechanical instruments uh as being in the custom of pagan worship now the first recorded use of instrumental music occurred according to history in
670 uh when an organ was used by one of the popes uh Pope Balian in his private worship not in public worship uh though there’s very little written record of of these things occurring it seems most likely that mechanical instruments were not widely used in in worship until much
Later uh there’s a man named Everett Ferguson some of you may have uh read books by this man he he is a a scholar on church history Gary I would bet you probably read something by him he he’s written extens ly uh he he wrote a book
Uh called Acappella music and the public worship of the church uh I ordered this book off Amazon a few weeks ago um it’s very interesting his study uh if uh I’m going to finish going through it but when I get done I’m going to put it in
The church library uh if anyone would like to read about that one of the things that he wrote uh and this would be sometime I think you probably wrote um sometime in the 70s or ‘ 80s recent studies put the introduction of instrumental music even later than the dates found in some
Reference books it was perhaps as late as the 10th century when the organ was played as part of the service this makes instr instrumental music one of the late Innovations of the medieval Catholic Church when introduced in the Middle Ages the organ was still not part of the
Liturgy proper that’s what we would call the formal the formal public worship uh that is it did not initially accompany the hymn service um but was a separate item in the service so even when instruments were first brought into the church uh it was probably used as what
We might refer to now as a call to worship or something like that uh the term a capella in itself is an Italian word I think we talked about this earlier uh which refers to singing without mechanical instruments in the style of the chapel or in the manner of the
Church also around U probably around the 4th Century a little bit earlier another change that happened was that in some Churches was the introduction of a special group of singers who were appointed as a class of officers within the church uh and they became known as
The choir uh so that’s where that began that’s where we see these things starting to take place years and years after the first century church again we go back we see the New Testament Church very simp Simple Thing wherever Christians May gather on on the
First day of the week whether it be in someone’s house uh wherever wherever it might be they can get together and worship God in song uh yet here we see these things becoming more and more ritual ritualistic more ceremonial in in their practice right and and again going back
To the Simplicity of of God’s instructions to us one of the reasons that we we have to believe that that was given is because a group of Christians of any size you know where where two or more of you are gathered together uh they could come together at any place uh
And to sing to pray uh to study God’s word to to observe the Lord’s Supper uh and and they didn’t need anything else to be pleasing to what God instructed them to do when you start adding other things in an instrument an organ or something like that all of a
Sudden you can have an impact right I don’t know how many of us would have to get together you know before we could find somebody who might even be able to play an instrument or an organ uh you know it would limit the ability to have a a small congregation many many places
In the world right now wouldn’t there’s no way they could have that where they worship you know the facilities are not there they wouldn’t have the money to to have that it’s not a requirement that’s set out in the New Testament and so you know why would you want to add to uh
What God has has set up in Simplicity that singing is pleasing to God that we all can do whether it’s it sounds beautiful to us or not it it does to God and so we need to be careful about again trying to help fix something that that
God has given uh to us uh by doing something that really is more I think about uh being pleasing to the will of man rather than to the the will of God and usually when you hear Arguments for using instrumental music it’s like well I don’t think God cares I don’t think
God would care um who’s to say what God cares about other than God himself we know he is happy with us singing singing praises to Him why anyone would take a chance uh the same chance that naab and Abu took in the Old Testament offering strange incense Strange Fire before God
Why anyone would take that chance to be rejected by God uh when you know you can do the other thing and be safe just makes no sense whatsoever we’re built for what yeah okay so we didn’t quite get done we got a little bit more to do uh next week
And we will have a lesson 10 next week come let us all to sing God is love Earth Praises bring God is love let every soul from s each in his heart sweet music make and sing with us for Jesus for God is love God is God is love God is God is
Love come let us all un sing that God is love oh tell to Earth God is love in Christ we have Redemption found God is his blood hased our sins away his Spirit turned our night to day and now we can Rejoice to say that God is
Love is God is love God is God is love come let us all unite to sing that God is love how happy is our portion here God is love his promises our spirit Che God is love he is our son and shield by day our help our hope our strength and stay he
Will be with us all the way our God is is God is love God is God is love come let us all unite to sing that God is love God is God is love God is God is love come let us all unite to sing that God is
Love sweet the song the song I’m singing today I’m singing today I’m redeemed I’m redeemed I’m redeemed ieem trouble and sorrow trouble and sorrow have vanished away have vanished away I have been I have redeemed redeemed I’m redeemed I’m redeemed my love divine my love divine Glory Glory Christ is mine Christ is
Mine Christ is mine all to him to him I now resign I now resign I have been I have been rede great is my joy great is myy I I I redeemed I’m redeemed I’m redeemed I’m redeemed all the way home all the way
Home my prais shall my pra I have been I have been redeemed rede redeemed I redeemed I love divine I love divine Glory Glory Christ is mine Christ is mine Christ is mine all to him to him I now resign I now resign I have I precious indeed precious indeed my
Saor to me myor to me I’m redeemed I’m redeemed I’m redeemed happy and Glory happy and Glory somay I shall be somay I shall be I have been I have redeemed redeemed I redeemed I redeemed my love divine my love divine Glory Glory Christ is mine Christ is M
Christ is mine all to him all to him I now I now res I have been I have been they B the hands of Jesus in the garden where he pray they him through the street and shame they SP upon the Sor so pure and free from sin they said CR ify
Him to BL he could have 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set him free he could have 10,000 angels but he died alone oh for you and me upon his precious of 19 if you’re going to the song book Lord shall the Lord In in Lord on the Heart with thy gra sing praise to sing th praise Know blessing th the God the S the next song we’ll do is uh leaning on the Everlasting Arms uh 394 and after this we’ll have uh brother Kevin with our opening prayer What Fear the All Our Father in Heaven as we approach that home we come thanking for blessings that we receive in life thank the for this opportunity we’ve had to come out tonight Word Worship the in song prayer Pray for all those who are unable to be with us those who are recovering at home those
For whatever reason unable to come out tonight pray for those recovery th will we ask father forgive us of our sin do the things the Bible those things way of we pray for this congregation spre wordful be successful safe in their Endeavors pray for this country for the world governments they
Would seek peace and allow the gospel to be spread in their countries these things we pray in Jesus name amen you would turn in your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 5 I’ll read from there in just a second but EU is still on my mind we had a
Great trip a couple couple weeks ago and every year at EU we’re we’re treated with with what they call a core class and what that is is they give you and your youth group a new ministry or a new plan or a new Bible study tactic to you
For you to take home to your congregation and for you to implement there and this year was a little different I don’t know if it was a repeat uh but it was still very impactful and still very powerful um and it was no new ministry but it was one
That began over a decade ago by Philip Jenkins at Mount Juliet it began after Philip came across this news story in 2008 and implemented it into his Bible class one Wednesday night the news story breaks in Brooklyn about a woman named Esmond green where she had traveled to
Kings County Hospital after after having some health complications and sat in a waiting room for over 24 hours during that 24 hours no one checked on esmin Green video surveillance shows that early in the early morning hours Miss green struggles Falls to and dies there in the hospital waiting room it’s
Another hour before Hospital staff try to wake her it’s a difficult video to watch but it’s one that hopefully opens all of our eyes to those in need that we pass by every single day if you stop and think about it esmin green was exactly where she needed to be somewhere where
She would find help in a hospital waiting room but sadly no one came to her Aid and she passed away Philip would go on to talk about esman Green in Bible class that Wednesday night and how we all have esmen green that walk in our church building or in this
Spiritual hospital every week and it’s our job to see those people and make sure that they are served and they they are saved and after that class The Lunch Ladies program began in their youth group ensuring that everyone who came in was served just like a lunch lady would
Make sure and then we read passages like Matthew chapter 25 starting in verse verse 31 where Jesus says when the son of man comes in his glory all the with him then he will sit on his glorious Throne before him he will be will be gathered all the nations and he will
Separate people one from another as a Shepherd she separates the sheep from the goats and he will place the sheep on his right but the goats on the left then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you
From the foundation of the world for I was hungry and you gave me food I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was stranger and you welcomed me I was naked and you clothed me I was sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came
To me then the righteous will answer him saying Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you and when did we see you sick or in prison
And visit you and the King will answer them truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me then he’ll say to those on his left apart from me you cursed into the Eternal fire prepared for the
Devil and his angels for I was hungry and you gave me no food I was thirsty and you gave me no drink I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick or in prison and you and you did not visit
Me and then then they also will answer saying Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or impr prison and did not minister to you and he will answer them saying truly I say to you as you did not do it
To one of the least of these you did not do it to me and these will go away into Eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life is often said that the first step of effective change is awareness so may we always be aware of the opportunities to serve Christ and
Serve his people may we never fall victim to those who do not give food or clothes or Comfort or a welcome helping hand and may we never ignore Esmond green when she makes her way into our Auditorium doors and so if you’re in need tonight like we all are in need of
A healing and helping savior if we can help you in any way why don’t you come right now as Together We Stand and as we sing watch are l thank you so much for worshiping and being here with us tonight um God bless you and we’ll be closed with prayer from
Brother dear God we thank you for the day and we thank you for many blessings that we enjoy brother we pray that you’ll help us to make it safely home now and be aware of the fog outside father help help us to serve you better help us to always look to your
Will and not our own put others for ourselves and help us here to be the light in this community that you want us to be father please forgive us of our sins we know that we fail you and we fall short