Participants: Pr. Dwight K. Nelson
Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP011307
|
00:41 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow
00:47 Praise Him, all creatures here below 00:52 Alleluia! Alleluia! 00:58 Praise Him above, ye heavenly host 01:03 Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 01:08 Oh, praise Him! Oh, praise Him! 01:13 Alleluia! Alleluia! 01:18 Alleluia! 01:31 Holy Father, on this first Sabbath of 2007 01:35 with Moses we too pray. 01:38 Lord, you've been our dwelling place in all generations. 01:42 Before the mountains were brought forth 01:43 or ever You had formed the earth and the world 01:46 even from everlasting to everlasting You are God. 01:52 For a thousand years in Your side are like yesterday 01:54 when it is passed like a watch in the night. 02:00 Oh, God, our help 02:01 and ages passed our hope for years to come 02:04 teach us we pray even as we worship You 02:07 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ 02:09 teach us to number our days 02:13 that we may gain our heart of wisdom. 02:16 Amen. 02:55 O God, our help in ages past 03:02 Our hope for years to come 03:07 Our shelter from the stormy blast 03:13 And our eternal home! 03:21 Under the shadow of Thy throne 03:27 Still may we dwell secure 03:32 Sufficient is Thine arm alone 03:38 And our defense is sure 03:46 Before the hills in order stood 03:52 Or earth received her frame 03:57 From everlasting Thou art God 04:03 To endless years the same 04:11 A thousand ages, in thy sight 04:17 Are like an evening gone 04:22 Short as the watch that ends the night 04:29 Before the rising sun 04:50 O God, our help in ages past 04:57 Our hope for years to come 05:04 Be Thou our guide while life shall last 05:10 And our eternal home! 05:27 I am he that comforteth 05:33 Be not afraid, be not afraid 05:36 For I am thy God 05:40 I am he that comforteth 05:45 Be not afraid, be not afraid 05:48 For I am thy God 05:51 I will strengthen thee 05:55 Thy Lord will strengthen thee 06:04 For thy Lord will strengthen thee 06:11 See and behold white cloud 06:15 See and behold white cloud 06:18 That thou art afraid of a man that shall die 06:26 And forgettest the Lord 06:29 Thy Lord our maker 06:34 Who hath stretched forth the heavens 06:41 And laid the earth's foundations 06:46 The earth's foundations 06:51 Saith the Lord God of hosts 06:57 All the people are called for to 07:04 Be not afraid, be not afraid 07:11 For I am thy God. 07:17 Be not afraid, be not afraid 07:23 For I am thy God 07:30 Be not afraid, be not afraid 07:38 For I am thy God 07:48 I will strengthen thee 08:02 Happy new year to you. 08:04 I have a story today about a young man 19 years old. 08:08 Anybody here 19? 19 years old. 08:13 His name--Cameron is his name, Cameron. 08:17 Let me just take a little peek here 08:19 'cause this story happened just a bit a few day ago 08:22 but let me get his last name to make sure I had a Hollopeter. 08:25 Hollopeter as I-- I predict that 08:28 he pronounces it Hollopeter from Littleton, Massachusetts. 08:32 All right, Cameron, 19 years old. 08:35 Oh, Cameron says when I grow up I want to be a film, 08:39 movie director, producer. 08:43 So he is living in Massachusetts 08:45 but he says I'm gonna go to New York, the New York City 08:48 and I'm gonna go to a special film school 08:51 so that's what he did. 08:53 And he is in New York City 08:55 and he says oh, I need to go on the subway. 08:57 Now do you know what a subway is? 08:58 What is a subway? 09:00 Yes, sir, what is a subway? Train underground. 09:02 Train underground, train underground. 09:04 You got it right. Train underground. 09:07 When I was a boy growing up in Tokyo 09:09 we used to take those trains underground all the time. 09:12 So he said, I've got to get on the subway. 09:15 So he went underground, 09:17 the stairs go down, down, down, down, down, down 09:20 and you are underground. 09:21 And he is in the-- he is at the train station 09:23 now he is on the platform, 09:25 he is walking down the platform 09:27 when--oh, I'm sorry to report this. 09:30 When all of the sudden his body began to experience something. 09:35 Oh, no not here. 09:38 But it was right there, he began to have-- 09:41 now this is a--these are two big words, 09:43 an epileptic seizure. 09:47 That's where your body begins to go into a seizure, 09:50 the muscles begin to contract and expand 09:53 and you can't control it. 09:54 It just comes and sometimes it just happens. 09:57 But you can take medicine for it 09:59 and doctors can help you live through it. 10:01 But he started having the seizure 10:04 and because the muscles were now moving 10:06 and he couldn't control them 10:07 they were taking him closer and closer 10:09 to the edge of the track, edge of the platform 10:12 and before he knew it he had fallen on to the subway tracks, 10:17 four feet down below the platform. 10:20 And in the distance there was the sound 10:24 of the rumbling New York subway. 10:28 It just so happened at that split second. 10:32 There was the father name Wesley Autrey 10:35 and his two little girls of your age. 10:37 And the father was going-- 10:39 it's holiday times just a few days ago 10:40 and he was taking his girls on the subway. 10:43 And as he was walking with his girls down the track 10:47 he saw Cameron had the seizure 10:51 and fall down on to the track 10:53 and father Autrey looked around and say, 10:56 okay, well, somebody is going to do something now I'm sure, 10:59 'cause the subway is coming, the boy will be killed 11:02 and everybody were just, just frozen like this. 11:06 And suddenly father Wesley said, 11:09 if anybody is gonna do anything it's gonna have to be me 11:13 and without thinking he pushed his girls back 11:15 and he jumped down the 4 feet on to the track 11:19 by the--19 years old boy by his body 11:22 and he is saying, okay, now the train is coming, 11:25 train is coming I've got to get him up on that platform 11:28 and he start to lift that. 11:30 You know, 19 years old is pretty big. 11:32 So he started to lift that 19 years old boy 11:34 and said, I'm gonna get you up, four feet up. 11:35 I'm gonna get you up. 11:37 He realized I'll never be able to get him 11:40 up on the platform on time 11:42 because now the lights are shining 11:44 the train is coming around the tunnel corner. 11:47 And he realized they both be gone if he tries to wait. 11:51 He said, what am I gonna do 11:53 and in that split second 11:55 number two he made another decision 11:57 and grab Cameron and he throw him, 12:01 pushed him down between the subway railway tracks, 12:07 those iron tracks that the underground trains ride on, 12:10 between them is a trough, 12:12 it's a ditch where water and cigarette buds 12:15 and gum wrappers are all thrown. 12:18 It's a ditch and he said, this will-- 12:20 I hope and pray this will work 12:22 as he shed Cameron down into the ditch 12:25 and then he threw himself right on top of that 19 year old boy. 12:32 And in that third split second boom! 12:37 There came the subway roaring over the top of them. 12:42 That's the subway engineer 12:44 saw at the last second he slammed on his brakes. 12:47 There were sparks as those iron wheels 12:50 against the iron tracks skidded to a stop. 12:56 The crowd was screaming. 12:58 They had seen it. 13:00 They knew what had happened. 13:02 The two are now dead 13:05 when suddenly a voice came up from underneath the train. 13:10 We're both okay, can you get us out. 13:15 Ah. Oh, my. 13:19 When they pulled Wesley Autrey and Cameron Hollopeter up 13:25 the whole crowd erupted in a cheer. 13:29 Everybody is walking up to Wesley 13:31 and giving him a hug and pounded him on the back. 13:33 You are a hero. 13:37 You saved that boy's life. 13:41 I'm no hero, father Autrey said, 13:44 I just did what had to be done. 13:47 I want to show you a picture of father Autrey 13:49 and his two little girls. 13:50 We'll put it on the big screen too. 13:52 There they are. 13:54 There they are outside the subway station. 13:58 They are calling father Autrey now the hero of Harlem, 14:03 the man who would have risked his life 14:07 to save that 19 year old boy. 14:10 Now I want to show you another picture 14:11 because this was taken just a few days ago 14:13 because all of the New York City is celebrating. 14:16 The Mayor said, Mr. Autrey, you now receive the bronze medallion 14:22 that's given to famous people like General Douglas Macarthur. 14:27 You are a hero to New York City. 14:29 And Donald Trump, have you ever heard of him? 14:32 I'm sorry you have. All right. 14:35 Donald Trump, Donald Trump said bring that man in. 14:39 They brought him in with his little girls, 14:41 he gave him $10,000 and a trip to Disneyland 14:47 and the subway company said, 14:49 we're gonna give you a free years riding on our subways 14:53 and the film school that little Cameron was going to they said, 14:58 we're starting a $2,500 scholarship for your girls. 15:04 Oh, what a hero that man is. 15:10 You know, when I heard that story this week, 15:11 I said, hey, timeout, wow, wow, wow. 15:15 Wait a minute. 15:16 This reminds me of somebody else who is watching 15:20 and he saw all of the earth children 15:23 thrown on to the railway tracks of sin 15:26 and he said, they are gonna die 15:27 and somebody else jumped down on to those tracks to save us. 15:34 Oh, I thought--what is His name that I'm thinking of? 15:38 Jesus. 15:39 I'm thinking of God, I'm thinking of Jesus. 15:41 You are absolutely right. 15:43 And you know what, He said I'm-- 15:46 because you know that train I forgot to tell you this, 15:48 the train pass within two inches, 15:50 two inches of the man underneath. 15:53 But when the train went over Jesus, hit Him. 15:57 Jesus was killed because He came to save us from our sins. 16:03 Oh, my. 16:04 I tell you that's the real hero. 16:06 And you know what, 16:07 if you accept the hero as your savior 16:09 you are not going to Disneyland, 16:10 you are going to heaven. 16:13 Oh, hallelujah he is right. 16:15 How many want to put one hand up and say, 16:17 oh, how thankful I am for the hero of heaven 16:20 who jumped down to save the whole world. 16:23 And now with your other hand how many want to say, 16:25 this New Year I want to follow Jesus every step of the way. 16:31 Oh, let's pray together. 16:33 Dear Jesus, You jumped down on the track, 16:37 in front of the roaring train 16:39 that would have killed us and You saved us. 16:42 Oh, Jesus, one hand says we love You, 16:46 and we thank You forever 16:47 and the other hand says we want to follow You not to Disneyland, 16:51 we want to follow You back home to heaven. 16:53 Bless these boys and girls, 16:55 make 2007 the best year ever in their lives. 17:00 Because of your love we pray in Your name, amen. 17:04 As you go quietly now and reverently back to your seats 17:07 you can be saying that in your heart 17:09 oh, thank you Jesus, 17:11 thank you Jesus for jumping on to the tracks and saving me. 17:17 God bless and happy New Year to you. 17:25 And that's why we gather to do today Father, 17:28 a new song, we're tired of the old song 17:32 we're ready for the new one. 17:36 Please set the pitch for the song that we shall sing. 17:42 And let the melody of its refrain be locked in our hearts. 17:46 What we learn this morning 17:50 lock it within for the rest of the journey. 17:54 To keep the song new, we pray in Christ Jesus name, amen. 18:02 I hold here in my hands the report, fascinating, 18:07 fascinating bit of research. 18:09 Report that just came out three weeks ago 18:12 published in that preeminent scientific journal 18:15 called Nature. 18:16 You've heard of Nature. I know you have. 18:18 This is the Associated Press's report 18:20 just came out three weeks ago. 18:22 Here's the report and as it would happen 18:24 also datelined New York. 18:26 Let me read to you just a line or two. 18:29 "In a discovery," listen to this, 18:32 "in a discovery that could lead to better painkillers," 18:37 all right. 18:39 "Scientists have identified a genetic defect in children 18:43 who cannot feel pain. 18:47 Sound like a blessed way to live, it is not. 18:51 The article goes on, listen now. 18:52 In today's issue the journal Nature, 18:54 "Scientists have found the defect described 18:57 in six related children who have never felt physical pain 19:01 because of the very rare disorder. 19:03 The children come from three families 19:05 with roots in Northern Pakistan, all right. 19:10 Now the reports was on to note 19:12 there is nothing neurologically wrong with these kids. 19:15 Now as they can feel warm and cold, 19:17 they can feel pressure, they can be tickled, 19:19 there is nothing wrong with their brains, 19:21 they just cannot feel pain." 19:25 Incredible. 19:26 Now listen to the effects of this. 19:30 "Because the children felt no pain 19:32 from biting themselves, for example. 19:36 All six had injuries to their lips 19:38 some later requiring plastic surgery, 19:40 two had lost one third of their tongues." 19:45 Isn't that awful? 19:46 I mean, do you ever bite the inside of your mouth 19:48 when you're eating-- you're so excited to eat? 19:51 And then that thing that little bite gets the biggest the swell 19:53 and you keep biting it over and over 19:54 and you are in agony for months. 19:58 No pain, they don't know that they are bitten. 20:02 Listen on. 20:04 "Most had suffered fractures or bone infections 20:06 that were diagnosed only later on 20:08 because of limping or the lack of the use of the limp." 20:10 What's the matter with your arm? 20:11 Well, I don't know I just can't use it anymore. 20:13 It was broken. No pain. 20:16 "Some also had been scalded by boiling liquids or steam, 20:19 or burned from sitting on radiators, 20:21 said C. Geoffrey Woods, a geneticist 20:25 at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in England. 20:28 He and colleagues wrote the Nature report." 20:30 Now here is one little sad ending. 20:31 "Woods had been asked to see another patient, 20:33 a boy who took advantage of the condition 20:35 by performing street theater, 20:37 piercing his arms with knives out on the sidewalks, 20:39 walking on burning coals. 20:41 But the boy died before Woods saw him, 20:44 after jumping off the roof of a house on his 14th birthday." 20:49 Had no idea this would hurt. 20:52 That's the moral of the story here. 20:55 Summation here 20:56 "Their experience illustrates 20:57 that pain is an important warning of injury, 20:59 disease or danger that signals people 21:01 to save themselves from further injury. 21:03 Life without that signal, the report shows, 21:05 life without that signal is dangerous." 21:10 So here's the question. 21:13 If pain is good for us, all right, 21:16 if pain is good for us 21:17 how much of pain shall we take into this New Year? 21:22 I'm not thinking about physical pain, 21:24 God bless those six children. 21:26 I'm thinking about the pain of the heart, 21:29 the pain of the emotions, the pain of the spirit, 21:32 pain over past memories, pain for memories, 21:38 pain over past failing, past falling. 21:44 Come on guys, 21:45 don't be looking at everybody else in this church, 21:47 we all carry, do we not, 21:49 we all carry that pain, come on. 21:52 Pain over a past decision, 21:55 or choice, a past sorrow, 22:00 a past sin, a past guilt, painful past. 22:06 How much of it do we carry into the New Year 22:08 that's the question, I mean if it's good for us? 22:14 Painful memories of last year 22:16 and for some of us are like a ball 22:17 and chain clasped to our ankles. 22:22 I mean, can you imagine how much pain 22:24 they must have dragged that ball and chain the two of them. 22:27 I tell you what-- if it had been me 22:30 and I have to wake in that morning after 22:34 with that awful, awful grief hangover 22:38 I would not have the strength 22:39 to crawl out of bed that day, impossible. 22:41 Do you ever have great mornings like that 22:43 where you just don't want to get out of bed? 22:45 I mean, maybe it all been a nightmare, 22:48 maybe we here only been dreaming, 22:49 but they knew that they had not been dreaming 22:51 because of the carved out pain, 22:54 terrible and awful pain deep within their hearts. 22:58 And so early the next morning 23:00 just to make sure two grownups, 23:04 grownup children hand in hand 23:06 race back through the morning mist, 23:08 across that wet green carpet. 23:09 And they are gasping for air, 23:11 they stand outside the front door of their old home, 23:15 old home barred and blacked 23:21 by the truth of the Orange Sword. 23:28 Open your Bible with me please to the Book of Beginnings. 23:30 I can't take you a better place to begin, 23:32 when you're beginning a new year than to the Book of Beginnings. 23:34 Go to the book of Genesis please. 23:37 Relive with me for a moment. 23:39 What had to be excruciating pain over the past in their hearts, 23:45 talking about Adam and Eve of course? 23:48 If you didn't bring a Bible you have to see this for yourself. 23:51 Take the pew Bible in front of you, 23:52 It'd be the same translation I'm using New Kings James. 23:54 It's page three in the pew Bible. 23:57 Genesis, please, the truth of the Orange Sword. 24:03 Genesis Chapter 3, 24:06 very last line of this heartbreaking chapter. 24:08 You know, what happens in this chapter, 24:09 the human race falls, it's over, curtains. 24:13 The very last line of this chapter 3 verse 24. 24:17 So He it would be God, the Creator. 24:22 John 1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1 24:24 very clear this is the pre-incarnate Christ. 24:27 This is their forever friend. 24:29 "So He drove out the man and the woman, 24:34 and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, 24:37 and a flaming sword which turned every way, 24:40 to guard the way to the tree of life." 24:44 Did you catch that? 24:45 A flaming sword which turned every way. 24:50 The bitter truth of the Orange Sword, 24:53 four words long, you cannot go back. 25:00 You cannot go back. 25:04 Listen if you've ever been a parent of a first grader 25:07 you'll learn that lesson way too quickly. 25:12 We had the joy of having our children home over the holiday. 25:15 So we're pulling out some of the family photos, 25:17 some of these were going to pass on to the kids 25:19 and all my to the memories come flooded back. 25:22 Now I'm gonna talk a certain segment of you, 25:24 the rest of you listening 25:26 you know that your parents went through this. 25:28 But do you remember the snapshots 25:30 you took of your child's first day at school, remember those? 25:36 We took them in the same place 25:37 always on the stairs in front of the house, 25:39 first it's Kirk, first with dad, 25:41 then with mom, we didn't have any self timer 25:43 just chuk, chuk, chuk, chuk. 25:44 Six years later then Kristy, 25:45 first with dad and then with mom, 25:46 chuk, chuk, chuk, chuk. 25:49 By the way that was back before digital cameras 25:52 which guaranteed that you got 25:54 your pictures develop for posterity. 25:57 I tell you what, we're losing folks, side. 25:58 I don't want to get distracted here 26:00 but digital cameras there must be a billion photographs 26:03 on this earth that will never see the light a day. 26:07 Nobody's print them off. 26:09 And I'm saying that to you young parents, 26:11 hey, hey, you better print those prints off 26:13 because nobody is gonna put a computer disc, 26:15 nobody is gonna ask for your laptop 26:17 when that child's growing up you better print them off. 26:20 Don't get me going. 26:25 Anyway, there is your child, 26:27 you remember that picture of your child. 26:29 Some of you wore the picture. 26:30 You remember that picture there is your child 26:33 in what appears to be an oversize backpack 26:36 hanging way down the back. 26:38 Inside that backpack stuffed are new crayons, 26:43 new pencils, a new notebook 26:45 and a lunch lovingly crafted by mother 26:49 for your first lunch away from home. 26:53 Yeah. 26:54 But here's the point, here's the point, 26:56 ladies and gentlemen, 26:57 when you say goodbye at the classroom door, 26:59 'cause the first day you took them all the way in. 27:03 When you say goodbye at the classroom door 27:05 to that little tiny first grader you knew didn't you? 27:09 Come on I know you knew, you knew, 27:12 I know you knew because 27:13 I know I knew even that we didn't know 27:15 that we knew at the time. 27:18 You knew something is passing away today, 27:24 something is gone. 27:26 And when he comes home, when she comes home, 27:29 the story is changed just a little forever. 27:36 A door what's happen here a door 27:38 that old love song the theme to the days of wine and roses, 27:43 a door--how does that song described it. 27:45 "A door marked nevermore, that wasn't there before." 27:50 There it is. 27:51 Never knew that door was coming but it's there. 27:56 The door marked nevermore like, 27:57 because you cannot go back. 27:59 The growing up of a child, the passing of an innocence, 28:02 the loosing of your own innocence, 28:05 the death of a spouse, the diminishing of a friendship 28:11 you can't go back, it's gone. 28:15 For the thousand tugs at our hearts from yesterday 28:19 it's the truth of the Orange Sword, you cannot go back. 28:25 No matter how deeply you long to, 28:27 no matter how hard you try to, you cannot go back, 28:29 not to joy, not to sorrow, not to success, not to failure, 28:32 not to a friend, not to an enemy, 28:34 you just can't get back period. 28:36 Oh, it's true, we try, oh mercy do we try. 28:39 We spend billions of dollars trying. 28:44 We dye our hair. 28:47 Why do people dye their hair? 28:48 I don't. 28:53 Why we dye hair 'cause we don't want to look like we really are. 28:57 I want to look like I was. 29:00 We shave our faces. Why we shave our face? 29:01 Because you know if you leave that on 29:02 you look terribly old, get off. 29:07 We spend billions on wardrobes 29:09 because we got to get rid off those wide lapels 29:12 and those leisure nylon suits. 29:14 We don't want to look who we are. 29:18 You can't go back. You can try. 29:22 The nation mourned this last week 29:25 the death of the 38th president of the United States. 29:29 A fellow Michigander like us Gerald R. Ford there he is. 29:34 I have to say this by a way of inside. 29:37 I don't recall ever hearing such a unanimous outpouring 29:43 and admiration and respect for a political leader 29:45 as we heard this week across the board. 29:49 There has to be a lesson 29:51 somewhere in that for us, doesn't there? 29:54 Anyway, I'm watching the talking heads this last week 29:58 and they share a statistic. 30:00 This statistic blew me out of the water 30:02 and I have to share with you so that you suffer with me. 30:05 Forty percent of Americans alive today were not alive 30:07 when President G.R. Ford became president. 30:10 Forty percent. 30:13 Talking about making you feel 30:14 oh, Karen I got married while he was vice president. 30:19 We got married in June he becomes president in August 30:21 and we're coming back to the theological seminary 30:23 for the very first time in our lives 30:26 and we're going through Canada went on a Sunday morning 30:29 it is announced on the radio 30:30 he has pardon the previous president. 30:33 Talking about feeling, oh. 30:35 It stats like that. 30:37 And by the way if this were chapel 30:38 and this is the-- the kids are all back 30:40 and this is chapel you know what I could say, 30:42 100% of you were not alive back there. 30:47 Man, it stats like that that keep you and me 30:49 so earnestly spending energy and capital to feel young again, 30:54 we call it a midlife crisis. 30:57 We self medicate our minds, we Botox our faces, 31:05 we plastic surgery our bodies, 31:09 some buy expensive toys to feel young again, 31:12 others turn to sexual exploits 31:14 just to prove they are still virile. 31:17 But we can't go back, it's for nothing. 31:22 It's a truth of the Orange Sword, you cannot go back. 31:27 I wish you would write that down 31:28 and never forgot it for the rest of your lives 31:30 because what we're about to learn from this truth 31:32 is it has way more serious implications 31:35 for the life of the Spirit as you know it in just a moment. 31:37 Take your new study guide out please. 31:39 Let's jot it down the truth of the Orange Sword. 31:43 It's in your worship Bulletin, thank you ushers 31:45 right now it would be a good time 31:46 for you to begin distributing these. 31:48 Hold your hand up if you didn't' get a worship bulletin. 31:50 There is a tiny little piece of dynamite in this 31:52 that you want to keep for the rest of your life. 31:54 So hold you hand up, make sure you receive it. 31:56 Those of you watching on television 31:58 let me put our website on the screen for you. 31:59 You can get the same study guide 32:01 there it is www.pmchurch, 32:05 pioneer memorial, www.pmchurch.tv 32:08 click on to the teaching 32:10 "The truth of the Orange Sword." 32:12 This is a standalone. 32:13 By the way, I don't know where you gonna be next week on earth 32:17 but you must be here as we begin a brand new series 32:20 called "Mercy came a running." 32:21 We will never be the same again. 32:24 Trust me, because of this study on mercy. 32:28 Be here next week when we begin it. 32:29 But this is a standalone. 32:31 We might take it on to the series 32:32 as a prequel, the truth of the Orange Sword, 32:35 you see study guide right there 32:36 click on study guide on your computer screen boom, 32:38 you'll have the same one. 32:40 Okay, everybody has the study guide. 32:45 Very good. Let's fill it in please. 32:47 What is the truth of the Orange Sword? 32:49 Fill it in, you already know it. 32:50 "You cannot go back." 32:54 Genesis, right in the book, Genesis 3:24. 32:59 In fact let's read Genesis 3:24. 33:02 Read it again, you got your Bible still open. 33:04 Genesis 3:24 read that last line again. 33:08 "So He" the loving creator, 33:11 "He drove out the man and woman," Adam and Eve, 33:15 "and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, 33:18 and a flaming sword which turned every way, 33:21 to guard the way to the tree of life." 33:26 Keep your pen moving. 33:27 Which makes this, it has to make this, jot it down. 33:30 "A God truth." 33:32 It has to be a God truth for our human good. 33:35 Come on, can you imagine God doing anything bad for us? 33:39 It can't be--a divine angry action that's bad. 33:43 It's got to be good. 33:44 That angel with the drawn Orange Sword 33:47 standing and guarding the gate 33:49 that's truth of the Orange Sword 33:50 it has to be a good truth for us. 33:54 For human good, because let's face it. 33:59 An untutored and that's the key word right here 34:02 an untutored conscience. 34:06 We all have consciences and untutored, 34:09 untaught conscience forever rattles 34:12 at the gate marked nevermore. 34:14 Have you noticed, always. 34:17 And it is precisely here. 34:19 I've lived a few years on this planet 34:22 and I've listen to a lot of people talk and I'm convinced. 34:26 Ladies and gentlemen, I'm convinced 34:28 that the deepest pain of the human heart 34:32 is not a death pain, 34:35 it's the pain over the past. 34:40 I'm thinking about moral falling or failing, 34:43 pain over sins that have passed. 34:44 In fact we have a name for this pain. 34:46 Listen carefully. The name is guilt, guilt. 34:53 But I want to be quick to insert here 34:55 I don't believe that's the most painful guilt. 34:57 Here's the most painful guilt of all, of all, 34:59 of all and that is the guilt. 35:03 The recurring-- returning guilt 35:05 even after you have confessed 35:07 and forsaken that sin in the past 35:10 it still comes back to you 35:11 and it still hurts and that's the killer. 35:14 That's the killer. What do we do? 35:18 Even we who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, 35:20 have you noticed what we do, 35:22 we all of a suddenly want to become 35:23 like the kid in the children story. 35:25 We all want to become Hollywood film directors, all of us. 35:29 And what do we do when we are film directors? 35:31 We attempt to go back to the scene of the crime, 35:35 the sin, the fall, that moral transgression 35:37 that our conscience for some reason 35:39 will not let us forget. 35:41 Why do we want to go back? 35:42 Because we want to re-shoot the scene, 35:46 sans, without our sin in it. 35:51 And thus we attempt to fool ourselves. 35:52 That's how we're doing. 35:53 We attempt to trick ourselves into reliving 35:56 what in fact cannot be relived 35:59 for it is on the other side of a door that marked nevermore. 36:04 You can't go back. And yet we try. 36:08 Oh, how hard we try. 36:12 Bearing the pain of a guilty conscience. 36:14 Get this, tormented by a virtual reality 36:18 no longer accessible to the human race, 36:21 it isn't even real anymore, the past, it's gone. 36:26 But we try to get back to it, how sad. 36:30 No, no, no, no the word is not sad, how painful. 36:35 I know of what I speak. 36:42 Intellectually oh, come we're a bright university parish. 36:45 Intellectually we know we can't 36:47 but emotionally we still try, 36:49 how many thousands of times do you suppose 36:51 Adam and Eve attempted to go back 36:53 and relive that fateful day 36:55 when they ate the forbidden fruit. 36:57 If only I hadn't, if only I hadn't. 37:04 Like amateur film directors 37:06 attempting to re-shoot the scene of our crime 37:08 minus the crime this time. 37:11 Even when we've confessed 37:14 and forsaken that sin 37:16 why is it that for some of us the memory still lingers 37:19 and the pain of its guilt still throbs inside of us, why? 37:27 That's because we either never learned it 37:31 or we have never believed it the truth of the Orange Sword. 37:35 You can't go back, you cannot go back. 37:40 And it is only feudal self medication. 37:42 And by the way, self is the operative word 37:46 and that's my problem. 37:47 I'll tell you really cannot be honest with it, 37:50 that's why I deal with pain. 37:53 Because somehow I think in my mind-- 37:57 look at boy you are a big boy 37:59 you can handle this, deal with it, 38:01 get it, kill it this time. 38:05 Somehow I think self-ego pride 38:08 I can self medicate my conscience. 38:12 This time around you can't, 38:15 you can't, no possibly, impossible. 38:22 You know, what's happened? 38:24 We believe the subtle hiss of the garden serpent. 38:28 You will be as God. 38:31 And so with all the might doomed might we try so hard to be God. 38:36 I can extricate this because you see what, 38:39 you see the reality is I don't want to be helpless. 38:44 I don't want to be hopeless. 38:45 I want to be able to set the terms for my life story. 38:51 And it drives me crazy 38:53 that there is some place beyond my touch 38:56 I cannot get back to it but I keep trying. 38:59 You keep trying and the pain keeps eating your heart out. 39:05 Even those of us who call Jesus Lord and Savior 39:08 and so the pain of that unresolved guilt festers on 39:10 we pound, we plead, we cry and that door marked nevermore. 39:15 Thinking that even if we could get back to the past 39:17 we can heal it, we can't, we are humanly impossible. 39:21 Because did you notice by the way 39:22 the truth of the flaming sword 39:24 is that it turns every way that angel is a fencer. 39:27 You ever watched fencing in the Olympics, fencing? 39:28 No matter which you go, go, go that sword is blocking your way. 39:34 Every effort, every route blocked. 39:37 You cannot, you cannot go back. 39:39 But hallelujah write this down, will you? 39:41 The good news, hallelujah, is that you don't have to. 39:45 Write that down please, write now. 39:47 Keep your pen moving. 39:48 Why don't we have to go back. 39:49 "Because the God who locked the gate to the past," 39:51 write it in, "is the same God 39:53 who has unlocked the door to the future." 39:55 Write that in. And how did He do it. 39:57 "He did it by planting," write this in, 39:59 "another tree of life." Hallelujah. 40:03 Not in the garden this time, 40:05 this tree planted just outside the garden 40:08 and up the hill called Calvary. 40:10 And on that tree this God did what? 40:12 He has decree we shall not do. 40:16 He went back. He went back. 40:19 He went back to the very first sin you ever committed, 40:21 He went back to my very first sin 40:23 and He took all of our sins from the very beginning 40:26 and He board in His own body 40:28 and He buried those sins 40:30 on the top of the mountain called Calvary. 40:32 Hallelujah. 40:34 That's the point of the ancient prophet 40:36 and a little minor prophet Micah 40:39 that now be let us in reading just a moment ago. 40:42 Scribble this down in your study guild please. 40:44 This New Year Scripture who--Micah 7:18, 19. 40:48 "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity 40:51 and passing over the transgression 40:52 of the remnant of His heritage? 40:54 He does not retain His anger forever, 40:56 because He delights in mercy. 40:59 He will again have compassion on us, 41:02 and will subdue our iniquities." 41:03 And here it comes and I love this. 41:05 "You will cast" and this is the key word "All" write it in. 41:11 "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." 41:17 Every shred of evidence from the past, hallelujah, 41:22 has been buried at Calvary. 41:24 Ladies and gentlemen, that is the everlasting gospel. 41:27 Do you understand that when Jesus died on the cross 41:29 God forgave the entire human race, pardon the race, 41:32 acquitted every sinner to ever be born? 41:34 That's the everlasting Gospel, buried. 41:37 And because He buried it, God through Isaiah cries out. 41:40 You got to write this down. 41:42 Isaiah 43:25 God cries out 41:44 "I even I, am He who blots out 41:47 your transgressions for My own sake, 41:49 and I will not remember" write that down. 41:52 "I will not remember, I will not remember your sins." 41:59 Hallelujah. 42:02 I will not remember your sins. 42:06 Hallelujah. 42:08 You know what that means, ladies and gentlemen. 42:11 If He offers to bury our sins 42:15 and to remember them no more 42:19 then surely He must be inviting us to do the same. 42:22 Don't you supposed He wants us do the same? 42:25 For each others sins by the way, for each others. 42:29 This New Year for God sake quit remembering her sins, 42:35 quit remembering his sins. 42:40 It's been buried. It's gone. 42:44 How many marriages have been buried 42:48 because one or the other or both of them have refused to forget? 42:55 And by the way, not only the sins of others, 42:57 it has to mean I have been given freedom 43:00 to quit remembering my own sins. 43:04 If God says hey, boy, I've taken your sins 43:05 and I've buried them in the depths of the sea 43:07 and I remember them no more, 43:08 I'm sure that that is license for me 43:11 to remember them no more. 43:17 If God has buried them in the depths of sea 43:19 should we not just leave them there and forgot it. 43:22 Come on. 43:26 Which I must warn you 43:28 that leaving and forgetting 43:30 is more than a wishful prayer and wishful thinking. 43:33 And here's what I have learned and I'm still working on it. 43:39 It requires, listen carefully now, 43:42 this could be the key for you in 2007. 43:45 It requires the intentional act of the will, 43:50 the mind, and the heart. 43:52 You have to choose. 43:53 Would you write that down? 43:54 We must choose to forget. 44:01 Just like a mighty sinner turn saint what's his name? 44:04 Paul. 44:05 Paul who cries out Philippians 3:13. 44:07 Jot it down "This one thing I do, forgetting." 44:11 I want you to see that word forgetting, 44:13 the verse forgetting this one thing I do, 44:16 forgetting that which is behind, 44:18 re-passed and reaching forward on to that 44:21 which is ahead re-future I have chosen to forgive 44:24 and forget, I have chosen to forget 44:30 because to live without the pain of the past 44:33 is an intentional choice. 44:36 And I got to tell you this. 44:39 Listen carefully, it's a choice 44:41 you will have to intentionally make every day of your life. 44:53 Which means the next time that demon comes to your mind 44:57 He knows where your conscience is, 44:59 he knows all about your mind, 45:01 he knows every hot button you own. 45:03 The next time that demon comes to your mind 45:05 and he says. I want to remind you, 45:08 I want to remind you about that little fall part 45:11 that was huge and he cites chapter and verse. 45:17 By the way, let me hit the pause button. 45:21 If you have confessed and forsaken your sin 45:25 trust me it will not be God coming to you 45:29 and reminding you of the past. 45:31 Haven't we just read that He buries it in that-- 45:33 He remembers it no more? 45:35 If you have confessed and forsaken your sin-- 45:37 let me hit the pause button again. 45:39 If you have not confessed, 45:42 if there is something you are carrying into the New Year 45:46 that better be confessed, then it isn't a demon, 45:52 because he don't want that confessed. 45:54 That would be your forever friend 45:56 who saying there is a little something here 45:58 between you and me and a wonderful New Year. 46:01 I need you to let go over it come to me. 46:04 If we confess our sins I'm faithful 46:05 and just to forgive you your sins 46:07 and to cleanse you from all unrighteous 46:08 just give it to me, I'll take it away and bury it, 46:10 I'll never remember, I'll never bring it up again, 46:12 but you have to give it to me the first time. 46:16 Assuming that you've already done that. 46:19 If that voice comes to you 46:23 then you know from whence that voice comes 46:25 three sources, could be the demon, 46:29 or I can tell you this 46:30 'cause the demon doesn't always know what's going on your mind. 46:32 It can be number two, an untutored conscience 46:35 that is still attempting. 46:37 Number three, self-medication. 46:39 I'm trying to get this taken care on my own. 46:42 Either way you must do what Paul did. 46:45 I want to tell you something if you want to talk about 46:47 somebody who had about the worst memories 46:49 any Christian could have and it was with him 46:52 his whole life, it was the Apostle Paul. 46:54 Write this down, will you? 46:55 It's right there, it's in your study guide. 46:56 1 Timothy 1:15 this is a sure saying worthy of acceptance. 47:01 "Christ Jesus came into the world 47:03 to save sinners of whom I am the worst." 47:07 Write it in, the worst. 47:11 So the next time that demon comes to you and says 47:12 boy, girl, I remember something about you, don't I? 47:18 You declare to that demon Christ Jesus. 47:21 Yes, you remember. 47:22 Oh, thank you for reminding me of the gospel. 47:23 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners 47:26 and I want to tell you something demon 47:27 I am the worst of them so bug off. 47:31 I got covered by that tree of life. 47:34 And my past has been buried and you may bring it up 47:36 I refuse to touch this. 47:38 You can take it with you to hell 47:44 because that's where He sent the sins, all right. 47:49 Forgetting those things which are behind. 47:55 You got to forget. 47:56 Ladies and gentlemen, it's the good news of the gospel, 47:59 it's the choice of the gospel. 48:01 Listen to this, bad news, 48:04 bad news you cannot go back. 48:11 Good news, you cannot go back. Hallelujah. 48:17 Can't go back, can't go back and don't have to. 48:23 You never have to go back again 48:26 because the only one who could did 48:31 and because He did it's taken care of 48:35 that unrelenting conscience sin, 48:37 those unforgiving memories God says 48:41 move them, I've already buried that boy, leave it there. 48:47 Now here's a little piece of dynamite 48:48 that I hope you keep forever. 48:52 That little book Oswald Chambers book 48:54 My Utmost for His Highest. 48:56 My mother-in-law, it's her birthday this weekend 48:58 so I can kind of brag about her 49:00 she is here in the audience right now. 49:01 She gave me probably the most 49:04 impacting Christmas gift I've ever received. 49:06 She gave it to me back in Christmas in 1987. 49:09 I've read it ever year since except for the year 1991 49:12 which now I read it in 1991. 49:15 It is a great book, Oswald Chambers New Year prayer. 49:19 It's in your study guide, 49:20 you keep your study guide just for this. 49:22 I want to read it out loud to you. 49:24 God's hand, Oh, this is something, 49:25 "God's hand reaches back to the past 49:29 and makes a clearing-house for conscience." 49:32 Isn't that great? 49:34 "God's hand reaches back to the past 49:36 and makes a clearing-house for conscience. 49:38 It is true that we have lost opportunities 49:42 which will never return." 49:44 Yep, can't change that fact. 49:48 "But God can transform this destructive anxiety 49:54 into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future." 49:57 And now here comes, I love this. 49:59 "Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ. 50:04 Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out 50:08 into the Irresistible Future with Him." 50:15 Isn't that dynamite, forgetting those things 50:19 which are behind. 50:23 All right, remember your transgressions no more 50:26 I have buried them, I have buried them 50:30 in the depths of the sea. 50:35 I was visiting a few days ago with one of our members 50:37 whose parent has Alzheimer's. 50:40 Can't remember, you know, Alzheimer's, 50:42 everybody knows Alzheimer's. 50:43 Now, can't remember. 50:45 My dad had a similar form of dementia. 50:48 But I'm gonna say this and I hope I'm not misunderstood here. 50:52 I'm gonna say that the upside of memories lost 50:55 is the absence of pain associated with those memories. 50:59 If you can't remember the pain is gone 51:02 from that memory. 51:06 Dispose that's why God allows our pain 51:08 over the past in the first place. 51:10 Not to keep driving us back, back, back. 51:12 God knows we can't go back, 51:13 He not gonna drive us back, 51:15 no, no, no, no but rather to compel us 51:17 through that attendant pain to seek Him 51:20 who by healing our past can fade the memories 51:23 and sooth away the pain. 51:26 I tell you what? 51:27 Maybe those scientists in the journal Nature were right. 51:30 And pain is good if it leads us to help. 51:37 Capital H, Help. 51:41 Well, I have buried your sins in the depths of the sea 51:45 and I will remember them, halleluiah, no more. 51:52 I don't suppose God has Alzheimer's. 51:57 But whatever He has I hope He keeps it. 52:02 And I'd like to have it to this New Year. 52:05 Wouldn't you? 52:07 Oh, Father, it is an Alzheimer's, 52:11 it is a heart that loves your children 52:13 so much including Adam and Eve 52:19 that You have made provision 52:22 to get back to where we cannot go back to 52:26 and because You've planted that other tree of life 52:30 and took all of our sins 52:32 and buried them at the foot of the cross, oh, Father. 52:37 No wonder they call it mercy, 52:41 no wonder we speak of grace. 52:47 Oh, God, freely we have received, 52:50 freely let us give to others 52:54 who need our forgetter and to ourselves 52:58 we need the forgetter most of all 53:02 You have buried our sins and You will remember 53:05 our transgressions no more as with joy 53:10 we go for with you into this journey uncharted. Amen. 53:52 Is this a day of new beginnings 53:58 Time to remember and move on 54:04 Time to believe what love is bringing 54:11 Laying to rest the pain that's gone? 54:20 How can the seasons of a planet 54:26 Mindlessly spinning round its sun 54:33 With just a human name and number 54:39 Say that some new thing has begun? 54:48 Yet thro' the life and death of Jesus 54:55 Love's mighty Spirit, now as then 55:01 Can make for us a world of difference 55:09 As faith and hope are born again 55:18 Then let us, with the Spirit's daring 55:24 Step from the past and leave behind 55:31 Its disappointment, guilt and grieving 55:38 Seeking new paths, and sure to find 55:47 Christ is alive, and goes before us 55:53 To show and share what love can do 55:59 This is a day of new beginnings 56:07 Our God is making all things new 56:23 And now onto Him 56:25 who is able to keep us from falling 56:29 and to present us before His throne 56:31 with great joy to the only wise God 56:35 our Savior be glory and majesty dominion and power 56:39 both now and forever more. Amen. 57:05 Before you go I wanted to take 57:06 one more moment to let you know. 57:08 How glad I am you share this hour worship 57:09 and Bible teachings with us. 57:12 Living in the world that we do now, 57:13 a civilization surviving on the edge 57:15 of constant prevailing change. 57:18 I'm grateful that we have the bedrock 57:19 hope of Jesus, aren't you? 57:21 And I'm thankful that you and I 57:22 can partnered together to reach this generation 57:24 the world over through the satellite telecast. 57:27 So please know that I thank God 57:29 and you for the generous way you partnered with us. 57:32 Your tax deductible gifts are been multiplied 57:35 all across the earth for such a time as this. 57:38 If you'd like to order a DVD or a video tape copy 57:40 of this teaching today or make a donation on your credit card 57:43 please call our friendly operators 57:45 at the number on your screen. 57:46 There it is 877-HIS-WILL, 57:48 just the two words 877-HIS-Will. 57:51 And I promise you we will invest 57:53 every penny of your generosity in God's mission 57:56 to reach this final generation now. 57:58 Thank you for that partnership. 58:01 And I'll see you here again next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17