Confession

Alpha & Omega Ministries iconAlpha & Omega Ministries

2 views

The first portion of the Dividing Line for December 13, 2011.

0 comments

00:00
My eyes are dry, my faith is old, my heart is hard, my prayers are cold, and I know how
00:37
I ought to be alive to you and dead to me
00:50
What can be done for an old heart like mine?
00:58
Soften it up with oil and wine
01:04
The oil is you, your spirit of love
01:11
Please wash me anew in the wine of your love
01:36
What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love
02:33
What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
02:51
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love
03:33
What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
04:05
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
04:37
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
05:09
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
05:39
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
06:09
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
06:39
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
07:04
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
07:11
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
07:44
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
08:03
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
08:12
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
08:32
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
08:37
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love
08:53
What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love
09:11
What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
09:18
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
09:51
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
10:09
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
10:20
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
10:34
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love
10:44
What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine?
10:51
Soften it up with oil and wine of your love What can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine of your love And unlike the psalmist in Psalm 119 who talked about how his eyes flowed with rivers of water because of the fact that he saw
11:13
God's law being trampled underfoot and people showing disrespect to God's law
11:22
Unlike that psalmist, my eyes don't weep anymore for that because it's all around us
11:33
And I'm not saying that I know exactly how to find the right balance
11:40
But I know that if we try to find the balance in ignoring it and not thinking about it
11:56
That eventually leads us to apathy about these things And we don't communicate to the next generation
12:06
And that next generation then, well it's always been this way hasn't it? No, it hasn't always been this way
12:11
I think that's one of the things that's going on in our nation is that The generation that fought
12:18
World War II is passing away very very quickly Thousands dying each week as the last of those people pass from the earth
12:28
And the generations that have come after that don't know almost anything about sacrifice
12:38
For the freedoms and all the blessings of liberty that the United States of America possesses
12:45
Same thing in Europe, the generation that fought against totalitarianism and fascism
12:53
That generation has passed away And the next generation took for granted everything that had been given to them
13:00
And we did not communicate to the next generation, the current generation of young people The value of the sacrifice of those who went before us
13:09
We had it given to us, we knew the people, we still had some commitment to those things
13:15
But we haven't passed that on And so the ideas of our liberties, the freedoms that we have
13:23
And the foundations upon which they are built The moral foundations upon which they are built
13:31
We haven't communicated that to the next generation So the next generation thinks on the basis of Well, what
13:37
I deserve and what I am owed Nothing about self -sacrifice to get those things
13:45
It's all connected together And when we talk to the younger generation about the issue of homosexuality
13:54
How do they judge it? They don't judge it on the basis of viewing ourselves as creatures made in the image of God And that God has the right to determine what is and what is not appropriate sexual behavior
14:05
And there's such things as perversions It's all whatever makes you feel good And if that's what makes you feel good and happy, then that's good
14:16
And the result is the utter degradation of our view of humanity
14:25
We no longer see that we are creatures made in the image of God And as a result, we do not view
14:35
God's law as something that is good and honorable
14:42
And something that we should meditate upon and present to people And let's face it, the vast majority of evangelicals are embarrassed by God's law
14:52
It's that stuff in those books back in the Old Testament that I barely made it through When I did my one -time reading through the
14:59
Bible thing And so we don't talk about what the
15:08
Christian life should be about And that is the life of repentance Of course, we have some people amongst us that don't think repentance is even a part of the
15:15
Christian life And it's sort of hard to even understand how that's even a part of Christianity I don't think that it is But sometimes people say, how can
15:25
I live my life in such a way as to really stand out from the world? Well, it's not by dressing like the world and speaking like the world and acting like the world and everything else
15:37
I would suggest that the way to live your life in a way that is utterly unlike the world
15:42
Would be to live a life of repentance Because that's the one thing the world cannot even begin to understand
15:48
And cannot begin to do Now we look at this situation
15:56
And the United States promoting homosexuality around the world
16:02
Well, I'll tell you If you want to If the
16:08
Obama administration wants to give something to the Muslims To help them recruit people
16:16
To be jihadists Do that Just brilliant There's the great
16:27
Satan Over there promoting homosexuality There you go But the reality is
16:35
It's easy to become angry It's easy to become angry At something like this
16:41
But that doesn't Our anger accomplishes nothing And I can't repent for somebody else
16:50
I can only repent for myself I can only repent for my own attitudes And I can pray for my nation
16:57
But what do I pray for? A nation whose leaders are absolutely intent And spitting in God's face
17:06
Because that's what these people are intent on doing Why isn't anybody saying this? I guess it's because There are some people who say it
17:16
And then they do it in such a way That shows they've never really looked all that deeply at it
17:22
And we don't like the You know, the wild -eyed
17:28
King James Only guy Talking about how evil the United States is
17:35
But at the same time People who should be saying this Seem to be frightened Absolutely frightened at saying what needs to be said
17:46
And that is And this needs to be communicated To the leaders of this nation with clarity
17:51
If you promote that which is in direct opposition to God's truth You are engaging in evil
17:58
And you must repent You will be judged by God Not by me
18:07
I don't have the right to judge you I have the right to vote against you As long as I still have that right
18:13
As long as I still have my freedoms There's a lot of people A lot of people Who would like to see a totalitarian system of government
18:21
That guarantees free speech for only one side We already see this happening in Europe And it's heading our direction, folks
18:27
If you're not seeing it, it's coming But the reality is
18:33
We need to be proclaiming God's judgment God will not be mocked If you sow these things
18:42
You can only reap what you have sown And if you promote that which is directly in opposition to godliness
18:49
You will reap death Eternal death, separated from God It seems a lot of Christians have confused the
18:58
Bible and the Constitution Well, actually, not even the Constitution A post -constitutional concept
19:05
Separation of church and state Which, in their mind, becomes Separation of what
19:11
I do in my culture And God's law And what's right before God So that, oh, a politician isn't going to be judged for what they've done?
19:23
Really? You really think that on the judgment day Those people who made it possible
19:30
For us to swim in the blood Of innocent children
19:35
Murdered in the womb When we know more about the humanity of the pre -born child
19:41
Than we have ever known in the history of mankind Folks, if the amount of light determines punishment
19:50
Then all those people Who kill little children in the dark ages Well, they'll be punished
19:57
But what about us today? We have all watched videos
20:02
Of the development of that little child in the womb We have no excuse at all
20:10
We know that's human We know that if you don't go in there And kill it with salt
20:15
Or rip it apart with a knife It's going to be a human being With separate DNA A separate genetic code
20:22
A unique individual We know that We have no excuses None Zero And yet we become apathetic
20:36
There's just too much No one can keep up with it all And so like I said
20:43
I read this story Sorry about the sermon But I read the story And I moved on And a few days later
20:49
I heard somebody mention Oh, I heard It might have been the next day or the day after I forget what it was
20:55
When Al Mohler Mentioned the same thing In the briefing That is a
21:03
That is a webcast, by the way That you need to subscribe to I certainly do
21:08
I listen to it every day Well, I listen to it every day When he's doing it, anyways He mentioned it as well
21:14
And I started thinking about it You know, I read that story And I just I just passed over it
21:21
And I did not You know, in the back of my mind You know, all the
21:27
All the theological truth is there But I just passed over it
21:35
And so maybe you, like I Need to Need to confess That it's It's become far too easy
21:41
To find a means Of accommodation A way around Having to Face The cultural
21:58
Suicide That our nation And western culture as a whole Seems to be Absolutely intent upon committing
22:08
And I'm not sure where the balance is there But I know that I would rather continue to be
22:17
Sensitive To God's truth and to God's law Than to be comfortable
22:24
In this Present evil age It's not that we're the first people to live In an evil age
22:30
How did Jesus describe this age? Is this present evil age? But there does seem to be
22:39
Such a A A present reality
22:44
Of the evil In the sense of The The access we have to it
22:51
That we can see it right in front of us Unlike any time in the past Maybe it was a mercy from God That news of evil
23:04
Could only come to us at a certain speed In the past Now it's instantaneous And it's just all around us
23:11
It's just all around us So I confess I read that story And it didn't
23:17
You know I added it to the I have a bookmark folder
23:24
In Chrome On my Mac I think I called it cultural decay
23:31
And I may have even dragged it in there I don't know Sometimes I get tired of it Just dragging stuff in there
23:38
There's so much But I confess I just passed it by And I shouldn't have done that I have to say
23:48
That I've often More and more lately Considered What must it have been like Day to day life in Sodom And Gomorrah Would we
24:02
Ever look back And consider that There might have been those who say
24:07
God bless Sodom And Gomorrah When I hear politicians
24:13
And others get up these days And say God bless America I wonder Is that appropriate any longer?
24:22
Is that a reasonable Request? Well obviously
24:29
Remember September 12th 2001 Uh We were on the air that day
24:38
And what I said was Not what most people were saying And in fact if I recall correctly
24:45
Carla even made a T -shirt from what I said And that was
24:50
God bless America With a Heart rending soul shaking
24:57
Repentance Because I think that is the only Blessing That we can pray for our nation
25:04
I don't know how we can look at a nation That will take its money to promote Godlessness around the world
25:09
And say God bless us with more money To do what with? To continue to spit in your face?
25:15
Well you wonder Was Lot even a voice in Sodom anymore? Or was he just He was known
25:24
And the way they turned on him So quickly Who are you A foreigner to judge us?
25:30
I'm sure they had observed his life And when they observed his life They felt conviction
25:36
But he had had to have come To a point of accommodation There was no question his wife had And in fact even at that The angels literally had to drag him out of there
25:47
Um And you would think that Someone with a righteous soul
25:52
Would have been so Well Hebrews says he was vexed But did he find a means of accommodation? I don't know we have to be careful of it
25:59
It just I wanted to raise the issue for folks And to think about it
26:05
Because I would imagine that Almost every person in this audience Has Seen those stories over the past week
26:14
And like me Just moved on Because The feeling is what can
26:20
I do about it? And it's true I can't You know I mean I can do what I can do As a citizen
26:28
I certainly pray And of course the way we pray The way we pray
26:33
At Phoenix Foreign Baptist Church Is not the way that I was Taught to pray
26:39
When I was younger Um and what I mean by that Is um
26:45
We pray that God would protect us From evil leaders And if That God would be pleased to either
26:52
Change their hearts or to remove them from office But protect us from evil leaders And I led the pastoral prayer
26:58
Sunday morning and I prayed about this very issue Confess Our nation has done this
27:03
We cannot ask for your blessing upon our nation Unless We repent
27:10
Unless we are repentant That is absolutely All we have to do
27:15
Let me close with that text from Psalm 119 Then um Maybe we'll just go ahead and take a break
27:22
And uh then we'll Come back with uh The Diya Muhammad debate and The Bart Ehrman We'll continue those uh those series
27:30
But that text is Psalm 119 136 The 136th verse of the 119th
27:37
Psalm My eyes Shed streams of tears Because people do not keep your law
27:44
My eyes Shed streams of tears because people do not Keep your law
27:51
Well I don't Want to I don't want to become a person
27:58
Who doesn't understand What the psalmist was saying there I want to be a person who
28:04
Does Have a sensitivity to God's law And holds that As a much higher standard