Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
I wasn’t a very attentive student when I was in elementary school. I guess a lot of us are like that, but I was probably one of the worst. Many children have a very short attention span and it can be very difficult to keep them on the task at hand. Many times I would like to visit with the person in the desk behind me, rather than focusing on the lesson that we are learning in class. Occasionally a teacher would come up to me and gently place their hand on top of my head, completely turning it around on my neck so that I was focused on what was going on in the front of the classroom. Sometimes children need to be redirected, turning them around and pointing them in the right direction to take.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
Many people in the world today are going the wrong way, but just like children, we need to turn them away from the error of their way, and point them in the right direction.
Acts 26:18-20 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.
The Apostle Paul was sent by the Lord to turn people away from sinful living. Each of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but to obtain eternal life we need to learn to go and sin no more. We have an incredible opportunity that is presented to us by what Jesus did on the cross, a chance for you to become a brand new person, completely different from the wretched sinner that you were in the past. All of us have done something wrong at one time or another, acting like stupid fools and involved in things that we should have never done. If anybody understood this, it was the Apostle Paul, who did things during his life that he greatly regretted later.
1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Rather than choosing highly educated and religiously trained Jews as His Apostles, Jesus hand picked men that a lot of society would have probably considered lower class sinners. Even the religious leaders found fault with the Lord just for sitting down and eating dinner with them. Remember that the Apostle Peter was a fisherman, who once told the Lord to depart from him because he was a sinful man, but Jesus wasn’t calling the righteous. He was calling sinners to follow him and do works meet for repentance.
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Jesus picked men who understood what they were; sinners. On the other hand, the religious leaders were so filled up with their own self-righteousness that they were completely blinded by their own sins.
John 9:39-41 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
John the Baptist was baptizing sinners out in the Jordan, but then who shows up? The religious leaders of the day who he rebuked for their own impenitence.
Matthew 3:5-10 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
In their carnal state, sinners will bring forth fruits of darkness, producing immoral and evil works. They are instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But rather than doing what’s wrong during our day, through Christ Jesus we need to turn around and do what is right!
Romans 6:11-13 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
At one time Peter was doing sinful things, but he turned around and became an Apostle of light
1 Peter 4:3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
There are many hours in each day, and rather than using our time pursuing the wrong things, we need to turn around and do what’s good. All the books that have ever been written could not contain all the wonderful things that our Lord Jesus did, and we too must be zealous for good works.
Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
The Christian life is about having a new purpose, a new function, and a new direction, and it all begins by……
………Turning Around
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.❤️
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Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 