The Cost of Reformation

Providence Baptist Church

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The warning is from my own past experiences and from the

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Bible. Not everyone is going to be willing to walk this road. Now, it's my great hope that I don't lose a single friend, that we don't lose a single visitor, that we don't lose a single member, that the community doesn't begin calling us a cult.

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I genuinely hope that none of these things happen, but there have been many people outwardly associated with the things of God who have said the same things as the

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Jews here in verse 16. But they said, we will not walk in it.

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We've got to figure it out. We know what's going on. We don't have to walk that way. This is nothing new.

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This has been going on for thousands of years. The cost is too great for some, giving up friends and killing idols and looking and living differently.

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It is too much. The community will think that I'm weird. I'll be different. If I'm consumed with Christ and His mission,

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I'm going to be an outcast and I won't be able to be friends with certain people. It's just too much. The cost is too great.

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Maybe even some of you in this room, the ancient path, beloved, is not the crowded path.

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No traffic jam on the ancient path. Again, I want to reiterate.

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I want everyone to go with us. I want us to link arms and I want us to walk this ancient path together.

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But I know that for some it's going to be too hard and this breaks my heart. But here's what you need to know from your pastor today.

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I am resolved. I am going to go this way. I'm resolved to listen to the head of the church.

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I'm resolved to walk the ancient path. I've been scared in my past. I've been timid.

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I've been cowardly. I've been too slow. And I know, yes, in some ways I understand patience and pastoral care and all that's important.

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But I'm confessing to you this morning that I've been too timid. But not anymore. I'm resolved to walk this path, no matter the cost.

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If there's departure, I don't desire it. But we cannot alter our course. If they call me names, so be it.

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I've been called names before and God has proven faithful, even in the hard times. We are at a crossroads.