Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Great Divide (Luke 6:20-26)
9 Plays3 days ago
Sunday Message recorded 09 February 2025
by Senior Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church - Columbus, TX, USA
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Opening: Sincere Worship and Gratitude
00:00:06
Speaker
Wow, what a blessing. I know that you're just singing from your hearts and it was obvious to me. So thank you so much for just your worship. He is worthy, you know, of our worship. And so when we sing, we're going to sing it to him and just really say, Lord, here's my heart. I'm coming. I'm all in. So anyway, I'm so thankful for the opportunity to put our focus upon him.
Recognizing Leadership in Missions
00:00:29
Speaker
I do want to recognize Barry and Linda Barnett. They're here with us today. I appreciate so much you guys coming. They're the director of missions for the Colorado Baptist Association. So they're like, he's like a pastor to the pastors. And so appreciate him and appreciate Linda's leadership in the association as well among the churches. So just glad to have you guys with us today.
The Sermon on the Plain vs. The Sermon on the Mount
00:00:52
Speaker
Well, let me also direct your attention to Luke 6, verses 20 through 26. Luke 6, verse 20 to 26. Some refer to the sermon that Jesus gave here in Luke 6. It goes on beyond 26, where we're going to stop, verse 49, as the Sermon on the Plain. It's very similar to the Sermon on the Mount. Some say they're the same. Others say, no, they're they're different, two different messages.
00:01:22
Speaker
But Luke's condensed version only has about 30 verses, whereas Matthew's version is more comprehensive. His has 107 verses. But also, Luke's is more personal. And so I've been praying, even last night, praying that God would make the message today personal to you because when Jesus delivered it to the people that were gathered there in front of him, I believe he intended it to be personal. And so I pray that you will hear God's voice speaking to you. But there's nothing wrong with also being objective. And that's what Matthew was. He was more objective. You can see because Luke, listen for every time he uses the pronoun you.
Building Life on Solid Foundations
00:02:04
Speaker
But then if you were to read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel, it's a lot of they. And so it's interesting how objective Matthew was and how personal Luke was. Also, you'll notice if you are familiar with Matthew, that they both begin with Beatitudes. Matthew's version has non-Beatitudes, whereas Luke's version has four.
00:02:27
Speaker
But both of these two, Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Plain, they both end with buildings. Some of you enjoy building things. I'm hoping some of you will come to the Alaska Mission Team information meeting after Sunday School today. But both of them refer to someone building a house on different kinds of foundations. And there's only two. There's only two foundations. Either you're going to build your life, your house, up on the rock, or you're going to build your life.
00:02:57
Speaker
on the foundation of the sand. And so we have to decide, Lord, which one am I? And Jesus made it so clear that really, when you build on the rock in Luke 4, 47 to 48, it's the one who hears the word and obeys the word.
00:03:14
Speaker
And so if you're just going to hear it today and dismiss it, then that's not you. But the one that builds on the sand, they hear the word, but then they don't do the word. So I think that as followers of Christ, we're called to do the word, to put it into practice, to live it out in everyday life. Those who were listening were either Christ's disciples or they were just the curious. It was two groups. So he's about to contrast those on the inside of the kingdom with those who are still on the outside of the kingdom. And at the end of this message, you're going to see the Lord has done everything He can to let you know He wants you in the kingdom.
Spiritual Divides: Blessing and Judgment
00:03:56
Speaker
You know, there's a 6,000 mile mountainous hydrological divide that extends from the Bering Strait of Western Alaska. It goes through Canada, through the United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, all the way down to the Strait of Magellan. It's called the Continental Divide of the Americas. It separates the watersheds the watersheds draining either to the Pacific or to the Atlantic Ocean. And there's a spiritual divide along the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ that separates all of mankind into just simply two streams, two streams of all mankind. One stream is moving toward blessing and the other stream is flowing toward judgment. I want you to listen closely and think deeply
00:04:49
Speaker
about what Jesus is saying to you, what he's saying to us, what he's saying to everybody all around the world in Luke 6 verses 20 through 26. If you would, would you stand in honor of God's word? Here's what it says in Luke 6 verse 20. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
00:05:18
Speaker
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Blessings and Woes: Spiritual and Worldly Values
00:05:28
Speaker
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven and so their fathers did to the fathers.
00:05:49
Speaker
the prophets. Now this is the current moving down the mountain toward blessing. But now listen as the Lord warns of the other stream of humanity rapidly, even forcefully, moving toward judgment. Notice the shift from pronouncing blessed to announcing whoa, whoa,
00:06:14
Speaker
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Let's pray together.
00:06:36
Speaker
Lord, thank you so much for your word. It's so powerful. Thank you for worship as we gather around the throne spiritually and just lift up the praises that you're worthy of. But I pray now that you would speak to us from your word. Lord, all of us in this room may not yet be inside the kingdom. Some may still be outside, but you want them to be inside.
00:07:01
Speaker
Part of that process is your Holy Spirit will convict them of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. They'll realize that they're in the wrong stream. And so they need to know that there's a cross ah across the great divide that will help them to go in the direction of your blessing. And so the Lord speak to each one of us today. If we are on the right, in the right river, then help us to realize that and to be encouraged and blessed.
00:07:29
Speaker
In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
Life's Journey: Spiritual Orientation
00:07:34
Speaker
Now before we dig into these seven verses, don't miss the view from the top. You know in Colorado there's a place called Cottonwood Pass. Some of you may be familiar with that place, but it's the highest paved mountain pass over the continental divide. The elevation is 12,126 feet.
00:07:54
Speaker
But I'm told from what I read is you can have a 360-degree view of both watersheds, that that's going toward the Pacific, that that's going toward the Atlantic. When you look at Luke 6, 20 through 23, we can overlook the blessings of those who have Christ in their life. But when you look at Luke 6, 24 to 26, we can observe the woes. Be careful.
00:08:22
Speaker
Danger is ahead for those without Christ. You know, Genesis chapter 2 verses 10 through 14 tells us that there were four rivers that flowed out of the Garden of Eden. There was the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates.
00:08:41
Speaker
we look We look closely today at four rivers that are going down the mountain of time. Do you realize that your life is being spent day by day, every day your life is spending a little bit more as it goes down the mountain? So the question is, where are you headed? God wants you to know where you're headed. The Christ-centered commentary series summarizes the content of these two directions succinctly with these words.
00:09:09
Speaker
One is about delayed gratification. The other one is about instant gratification. Do you have to have everything right now? You might miss something that God wants to do in your life.
King River vs. Worldly Desires
00:09:23
Speaker
I want us to look at these four rivers briefly. Would you look with me first at the river? I'm going to give it the name the King River.
00:09:31
Speaker
Because whoever's king is number one, they should have the highest priority in our lives. In Australia, there is the King River. I don't know why it runs through an area called Queensland. So it's like, okay, is the queen running things there or is the King River running? Maybe he's running for his life. I don't know what's going on there. All I know is At the disciple of Jesus Christ, he lives for a king. The one called King of Kings. Do you know four times in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the king of all the other kings. So he ought to be the Lord, the king. He ought to be the priority that is above all other priorities. Is there anything in your life that is outranking the Lord Jesus Christ?
00:10:23
Speaker
You know, I think the world is not like that though. You see, whereas those of us following Christ, we would say, I am living for my King. That's not the case for the world. So who's the world living for? I'll tell you who the world lives for. The world lives for self, my comfort. That's the difference. When you see in verse 20, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. We're living for a king and we're going toward a king.
00:10:54
Speaker
But then verse 24 says, but woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation so they're not living for the king. They're living only for material wealth in some cases.
00:11:06
Speaker
There's a song that we used to sing a lot years ago whenever the Passion Movement first got started. Some of you know about that. It's just like full throttle worship and it's students only. Sometimes Jody and I have said, man, would they take us like as maybe one of the people working the door, you know, punching tickets, would you go in? Because it's so good. But one of the songs that was sang several years ago when it first started was called One one pure and holy passion. Have you ever heard that song? Boy, that song will grab your heart. If your loyalty is to Jesus Christ, He will call you out. He will call it out of you
Eternal Rewards vs. Immediate Pleasures
00:11:48
Speaker
and you'll want to praise Him.
00:11:51
Speaker
You know, I think about Jesus, and did Jesus have a lot of money when he was here? Did he have a lot of houses and a lot of property? Did he go around in big chariots and so forth? No, actually he did not. He said on one occasion, in Luke 9.58, that he didn't have a place to lay his head. You know, in 2 Corinthians 8.9, he says, why did that happen? He said, you know what I did? I gave up all my riches.
00:12:17
Speaker
to come down here. That's why he came to live basically a poor life. But out of his poverty, because he died on the cross for us, we can have spiritual riches untold. We don't know what heaven will be like when we get there. It'll be far greater than anything we've ever seen on this earth. And so that's why he goes on to say, through his poverty, he offers us his wealth. You see what he's talking about here?
00:12:45
Speaker
This one who lived it, the example of Jesus, is saying, I'm offering you an exchange. Maybe because of your decisions and your commitment to Christ, you won't be offered the highest positions in this world and by this world. But he said, you know what I'm offering you in exchange for your life? The kingdom. The kingdom.
00:13:07
Speaker
Will you say yes to the kingdom? But then you read on to verse 24 and you see some people it's the opposite. And Maybe they got a lot. But do they have Jesus? Are they living for a king?
00:13:34
Speaker
That's the question that really makes all the difference because even though they may have extravagance without Jesus, there's one thing they might overlook that's mentioned in verse 24, the expiration, the expiration of all the extravagance, the expiration of all the riches and all the wealth and all the accolades and all the trophies.
00:13:57
Speaker
It won't matter. Verse 24 says, but woe to you who are rich, for you have received past tense, your consolation. The idea is it won't be waiting on you in the next life. I mentioned that song, one pure and holy passion. The reason I like that song is because of the words. The words of a song tell it all. And here's what it says. Give me one pure and holy passion. Give me one magnificent obsession. Give me one glorious ambition for my life to know and follow hard after you. Speaking of Jesus, to grow as your disciple in your truth, this world is empty, pale, and poor compared to knowing you, my Lord. Lead me on. I will run after you. You see what I'm saying?
00:14:52
Speaker
It's like for anybody that's a genuine follower of Christ, it calls you out. It calls you out and it says, you know what? I'm not going to live for this world. This world cannot buy me. The first river is the King River. What's number one in your life?
00:15:08
Speaker
Is it making money? Is it material things? Have you gotta have those things? What if living for Jesus means you don't get those things? Would you choose Jesus or still choose for the things? That's the question. Let's move to the second river that's flowing down the the Great Divide. You see, the first one asked us the question, am I living for the king? Or am I living really?
00:15:34
Speaker
for my own comfort. I just want to make more and make more and make more. I don't care about my family. I don't care about souls. I don't care about missions. I don't care about church and ministry. All I care about is I want more. That's the first river, the King River. But the second river is the river of satisfaction. It's whenever we're living for either God's pleasure or we're living for our own personal satisfaction.
00:16:02
Speaker
See, as we move into the second beatitude and the second whoa, we notice the insertion of something. Did you catch it? A timestamp. There's a timestamp on this. And the timestamp is the word now. Now. Blessed are you who are hungry now in this life, right now in this life. For you shall be satisfied.
00:16:27
Speaker
Woe to you who are a fool now, for you shall be hungry." So it's going to be opposite. So right now they don't have things, but they will later. They're going to be satisfied later, but others have a lot of things maybe, and they have a lot of pleasure. They're living for pleasures and so forth, but they're going to be so hungry later, and they're going to wish they'd have made a totally different decision. Now, do you understand why the Christ-centered commentary said,
00:16:53
Speaker
that it's all about either delayed satisfaction or instant gratification. Those who say, I'm waiting on eternity, I'm waiting on being with Jesus, I'm going to live as His follower now, even if others reject me, even if I don't live for my own personal satisfaction, I'm going to wait because I want to honor God. I want to please Him in everything I do.
00:17:15
Speaker
And so verse 21 is saying someone like that that's having delayed satisfaction, they're going toward fullness later. That's what it's all about. For you shall be satisfied. But the other the other ones in verse 25, they have to have instant gratification right now. I gotta have it all right now. I don't care about eternity. I don't care about honoring the Lord and pleasing Him. I want to please me. I guarantee you there's a lot of people who live that way.
00:17:44
Speaker
You know, there's a spiritual hunger and a thirst for God that David spoke of in Psalm 42 verses one and two, where he said, my soul is like, it's like a deer that pants for the water broke. It's like a deer that's been running and he's so thirsty. And he says, I'm just so thirsty for this water in this brook, in this stream.
00:18:09
Speaker
And David says, that's the way I am, Lord, my soul thirst for God. No wonder Psalm 23 verse one says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. It's talking about contentment. It's talking about someone who says, my contentment is with the Lord in what he has. Oh, but let me tell you, the appetites of the flesh long to satisfy self.
00:18:36
Speaker
If you were to read 1 John 2 16, you would see that in this world, there are a lot of people who have the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. No wonder Jesus said in the parable of the sower in Luke 8 14, that it's like sometimes we're sowing the seed of the word and it gets choked by these briars and these thorns. What are those representative of in real life?
00:19:05
Speaker
Jesus goes on to explain it. And he said, I'll tell you what those are, the cares and the riches, and get this, the pleasures of life, pleasures of life. Those are the things that can steal it all away from you if you're not listening to Jesus. No wonder Jesus said to a woman that was from Samaria sitting at a well, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.
00:19:32
Speaker
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. Yeah, that's what we're talking about. It's like, you know what? I'm not satisfied with the things the world gives because I am so satisfied with what God gives.
00:19:48
Speaker
You know, it's almost like maybe on our cell phone, on the otter box that protects it, maybe you should get a sticker or I should get a sticker and put on the back of it and write these words. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. Man.
00:20:09
Speaker
Jesus is where it's really found. Don't miss it. That's what this life is all about. And that tells you you're in the right stream whenever you're saying, I just want to live for him. I don't care what happens to me. I want to listen to what Jesus is saying. And so I want to honor him. But the other stream is saying, no, you know what? I want to honor me. I want to please me. I want to have everything and I want it right now. Well, let's move to the third river.
00:20:38
Speaker
The second river is the River of Satisfaction, the first river is the King River, but the third river is called the Weeping River. Does anything in life ever break your heart, or are you just so hard, nothing breaks your heart? I think that God sometimes can use circumstances in our lives to break our hearts.
Weeping River: Compassion and Joy
00:20:58
Speaker
Do you know that there's a river in Nebraska?
00:21:01
Speaker
called the Weeping Water Creek, Lewis and Clark discovered that river July 21, 1804, and wrote it in their journal. But the story that is circled among Native Americans is that one time there was one tribe that stole a little girl, a daughter, from the other tribe.
00:21:21
Speaker
And so the two tribes gathered to have it out at this body of water that came to be known as the Weeping Water Creek. The Omaha and the Otoi tribes fought. Their warriors fought bravely for both sides. And you know what? Every single warrior died that day. Every single one. And so the women and the children and the grandparents gathered around that water and they whipped, they whipped over what had taken place there. You know, the reversal is easy to see, isn't it? Because it says that on the blessed river, blessed are you who weep right now, you're weeping now because you've got the compassion of Christ flowing through your heart.
00:22:10
Speaker
But then it says, but you're gonna laugh later. Woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn and weep. So it's like the opposite. Those who are on the Woe River are gonna not be laughing later. They laugh now, but they won't be laughing later. And so which one are we? Which river are we using? You know, Jesus wept three times in the New Testament.
00:22:37
Speaker
And I got to thinking, why? So I looked those three passages up in John 11, 33 to 35, Lazarus had died, and so it says that Jesus wept. Some of you, that's your number one memory verse. I got that one. I'm with you. But you know, I think the reasoning wept is because of the the separation, the separation that sin causes. Do you know why we're separated? Do you know why death happens?
00:23:06
Speaker
Don't blame it on God. God didn't want us to die. That's why He gives us another shot at it through Christ, that we can live eternally with Him. But you know, He stood there and He thought, you know what, these two sisters really miss their brother. And so I believe that's why He wept.
00:23:25
Speaker
Maybe he wept in Luke 19 verses 41 to 44 because he realized the price of declination. Have you ever received an invitation to something and you had to decline it? Maybe ah you had a schedule overlap or something was going on and you couldn't, so you had to decline it.
00:23:42
Speaker
Well, that's what Jerusalem was doing. Jesus came to save the people, but so many of the Jews were saying, nah, I don't need that. I'm okay. And so it says that Jesus just wept over the city of Jerusalem. Is he weeping over your declination, over your refusal, your rejection every single day, every single week?
00:24:04
Speaker
And he said, you know what? If you only knew what I was offering you. Hebrews five, seven through nine mentions the third time that Jesus wept. I wonder if he was weeping there because of the price of salvation. We have no idea why he was sweating great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. You see, for all eternity past, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, they had always been one. But for the first time,
00:24:33
Speaker
The first time when our sins were placed upon Jesus, he knew what was coming. He knew that the father was going to say, I'm going to have to turn my back on my son because the sins of the world are placed upon him. And so then after he died, the father said, my son doesn't deserve death. He deserves life. And he raised him from the dead. But there was that moment there and Jesus knew it was coming. What would it be like to suddenly be separated?
00:25:02
Speaker
from your son. Now I want to make it clear that there's nothing wrong with laughter that's good and healthy and so forth. You know, Proverbs 1722 says a joyful heart is good medicine. Ecclesiastes 3-4 says there's a time to weep and there's also a time to laugh. But the problem is the world laughs at the wrong things. And so we have to say, am I laughing at the right kinds of things?
00:25:29
Speaker
I've got a list up here. Sometimes you ought to Google the top 10 benefits of laughter. You know, manage your hormones, nice internal workout. That wouldn't really hurt my feelings because I go to the gym. I try to do the rowing machine. I try to get on the elliptical and the um the treadmill and so forth. And it says here under nice internal workout, whenever you laugh, it says It even provides a good workout for the heart. Here's what it says, laughing a hundred times is the equivalent to 10 minutes on the rowing machine or 15 minutes on the exercise bike. And I thought, give me a break. Why am I even paying those monthly fees? Man, I just need to laugh. So there's nothing wrong with laughing. It's just, what am I laughing about?
Living for God's Reward vs. Worldly Applause
00:26:18
Speaker
Well, let me quickly go to the fourth river and we'll close the river of reward.
00:26:23
Speaker
You know, the Oxford dictionary gives two definitions of watershed. What do you think of when you hear the word watershed? Perhaps you think of the hydrological version, a ridge of land that separates water flowing in two different rivers.
00:26:41
Speaker
An event or a period making a turning point in a course of action, state of affairs. That can also be a watershed. This morning could be a watershed moment for someone in this room who doesn't have a personal relationship with Christ. You're gonna realize, man, I'm going down the wrong way. Because this fourth river, this this river of reward reminds us that we can either live for God's reward or we can live for our own reward by popularity. I wish that I could say to teenagers, to students, please don't live for popularity. It'll kill you. I heard someone saying the other day, the destructive power of of social media, it can be used for good things, godly things even, kingdom things. But if you soak in those things they say about you on social media that are destructive, that are wrong,
00:27:40
Speaker
that are hurtful, then it's going to take you down. But when I see the river that's running toward blessing in verse 22 and 23, I think, oh my goodness, look at that. You know, I may be repudiated by people in this life, verse 22.
00:27:56
Speaker
I can face it with courage, I can face it even with joy, because later there's a celebration in verse 23. And there's also remuneration in verse 23. And there's authentication in verse 23. Whenever I realized, you know what, the prophets in the Old Testament, they were rejected too. The river that runs toward judgment has a lot of applause. Yay, way to go.
00:28:24
Speaker
Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Agilation, man. But then I think about the deauthentication that's coming later, that they don't realize. Maybe everybody on the whole planet is clapping for you. But what will God say? Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
00:28:52
Speaker
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these words, you know suffering is the badge of true discipleship. I believe he got that because 2 Timothy 3, 12 says, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. You can count on it. If you're going to really be a stand-up Christian, stand-up disciple, follow him all in, somebody's going to reject you somewhere down the line. They're all not going to be saying, yay.
00:29:24
Speaker
Perhaps as we've observed these two rivers of humanity separated by their response to the gospel of Christ, you've realized that you're floating with the world. You're floating in the wrong direction. I was at a conference one time and I heard a man named Henry Blackaby. He wrote, Experiencing God.
00:29:43
Speaker
He said at a conference we were at in Canada that, are you satisfied with what you're getting in exchange for your life? He said, you do realize that your life is sort of like currency, right? Like money. So every day you're spending a little more and a little more, you have less and less and less. Unless you invest it right. Are you investing your life so that you're getting something back for the kingdom and for the Lord, for the King?
00:30:13
Speaker
You know, Jesus challenged us in Matthew 6, 26, and Mark 8, 36 to 37 with words like this, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul, or what shall a man give in return for his soul? So what he's basically doing is he's setting down there this scale, like one of those scales, the old timey scales that balance, and he's saying, over here you can put all the world's wealth and all the gadgets and all the accolades He said, on this side, you can put one soul. And God says, your soul outweighs it all. It weighs more to him. It's more valuable to him. One day I was reading Isaiah 43.4 and I thought, that's that's the rest of my life right there. That verse right there. Isaiah 43.4 says, because you're precious in my eyes and honored and I love you, I will give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. What do you want in exchange for your life?
00:31:13
Speaker
Is it anything spiritual? Is it anything about God's kingdom? Anything about the Lord? There was a man named Jim Elliot. He and some other missionaries went down to Ecuador to reach the Wawidani. And they were killed, all of them, all five of them. And he said, earlier in his journal, he wrote these words down. I've seen it before on a picture that was from Jim Elliot's journal. He said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep.
00:31:43
Speaker
to gain that which you cannot lose? What about you? Are you living for things that are going you're gonna lose someday? Going back to Christ-centered exposition commentary, here's another quote from there. It said, the happiness of everything minus Jesus is just temporary. If you don't have Jesus, it's all temporary. But then it goes on to say, the joy of Jesus plus nothing Is he turned? Well, I thought that was well put. No wonder Jim Elliott concluded, man, you know what? You're not a fool if you give up that what you cannot keep in order to gain that what you cannot lose.
00:32:29
Speaker
Many years ago, there was a point of grace was the name of the group. They sang a song called The Great
A Call to the Path of Eternal Life
00:32:35
Speaker
Divide. It describes how sin separates mankind from God. Over here, you have God, holy, you have righteous, you have pleasures, unending joy in heaven. Over here on this side, you got hopelessness, you got people feeling alone, unable, they can't they can't help.
00:32:57
Speaker
And in that song, here's what it says. There is a bridge to cross the great divide. A way was made to reach the other side. The mercy of the father cost his son his life. His love is deep. His love is wide. There's a cross.
00:33:17
Speaker
to bridge the great divide. Yeah, there is a cross. The cross of Jesus Christ. He wants you over there. He wants you in that river of blessing. He doesn't want you to be in the river that's called woe, that's headed toward judgment. He would rather you be in the other side, but you know what? He's gonna say to you, I've provided, now will you trust him. Will you trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross? Will you turn in repentance from sin and turn in faith toward Jesus Christ. That's what it takes. So that's what this invitation is all about. I will stand down front. the The musicians will come at this time to prepare to lead us in a song. And during that song, if you want to come and trust Christ as your Lord and Savior, we'll be glad to help you to do that. Why don't you stand? I'd like to pray.
00:34:10
Speaker
I'd like for God to work during the invitation. I'd like for Him to help each person to know who they are and where they are. Which river are you in? Are you in the river of blessing? Or are you in the river of woe? One's headed toward eternal life in heaven. The other one is headed for judgment in hell.
Conclusion and Prayer for Blessing
00:34:28
Speaker
So I'm praying that today you'll say, you know what? I'm in the wrong river. I want to switch over. I want to go across that cross that's across the the canyon of separation by sin. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you so much for this time. Bless our time together. During this invitation, we put it in your hands. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:34:53
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.