2024-07-21PM- If There Is A God In Heaven

The speaker mentions upcoming events and encourages listeners to pray for those in need. He then shares a conversation with his wife about receiving texts saying "I'm going to pray," and explains that it is a way for people to let others know they are praying and to hold themselves accountable. He then reads a verse from Ecclesiastes about God bringing every work into judgment. He discusses the proper response to God's existence and the expectation for mankind to give account for their lives. The speaker expresses his desire to lead others to God rather than being followed himself. He emphasizes the importance of getting into the presence of God and following the instructions in the Bible. While the Bible does not provide specific guidance for certain aspects of life, following its principles is necessary to be led by God's spirit. It's getting into this Bible tonight, Ecclesiastes chapter 12, a familiar verse here I want to read tonight. I do want to remind everybody, of course, Brother Randy Webb is going to be over at Highway of Holiness Thursday night, Friday night, this week, this upcoming week here, and Highways Homecoming is coming up too. There's some special services going over on the HPC. What are those dates? August... I don't remember. That's alright. We'll catch up later. It's been sent out. So remember those and don't forget to pray for everyone, like Brother Ron mentioned, that whiteboard that we had with all those names that were put on it. Don't forget to pray for those folks in those situations. After the morning service today, we kind of stayed around. Sister Hannah Taylor was here talking to my wife. And I walked up just at a moment in time when my wife smiled and she said, well, there he is. Just ask him. Just ask him. And I thought, oh, what question am I in for right now? She said, I get these texts from people and it says, I'm going to pray. She said, what's that about? Why are people doing that to me? She says, there's got to be a back story behind it. So, of course, it thrilled my soul. And I tried to explain to her about the message that was preached here months ago. And it thrills my heart to know that there's still people that are praying and that they're telling people and responding to that message. And I told her, I said, it's kind of an accountability. Just saying, hey, letting somebody know I'm going to pray. You know that I'm going to pray. And of course, it helps other people to pray too. So thank you. Anyone who's texted her, she didn't know what it was about, but it got her curious about it. And thank you for continuing to pray, responding to the messages that have been preached here. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 14. But before I read there, I want to read just one phrase that I read this morning in the message this morning out of Daniel chapter 2 and verse 28. The words of Daniel to King Nebuchadnezzar was this, There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. There is a God in heaven. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 14. For God shall bring every work into judgment. Those are sobering words. God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Will you pray with me? Lord, thank You for our service tonight. Thank You for the songs which have been sung. Thank You for those who wrote these songs to give us a means by which we can worship You. And I ask as we enter into this portion of the service that You would move in ways that only You can. We're just mortals, just men here, very limited in ability. But I ask that You will move, touch hearts, make changes where they need to be tonight, and I ask Your help in this service. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I want to preach a similar title to what I preached this morning. This morning I preached that title, There Is a God in Heaven. Well, I want to preach for a title tonight, If There Is a God in Heaven. If there is a God in heaven. I read to you there out of Ecclesiastes chapter 12, God shall bring every work into judgment. If there is a God in heaven, He shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing. Whether it be good or whether it be evil, if there is a God in heaven. I want to tell you tonight, that if there truly is a God in heaven, if there really is an intelligent God with a purpose for the things that He does, He doesn't just do random things. If there really is a God in heaven, there is a proper response to that God that is expected from all mankind. Brother Cameron was talking about it here just a moment ago. If there really is a God in heaven, then there is a proper response that is expected of all mankind. God has said here in His Word that He shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing. Whether it be good or evil, Daniel said, there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. One day all the curtains will be pulled back. One day all the deceptions will be laid aside and everything is going to be put out into the open and the Bible says God is going to bring it all into judgment. If you have done right, if you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior and worked for His kingdom according to His Bible, there is a judgment that is coming for that. It is a right judgment. But if you have refused the goodness of God, if you have refused the grace of God, if you have refused Jesus Christ as the only remedy for your sin and lived in the wickedness of this world according to the Scriptures, there is a judgment that is coming for you too. If there is a God in heaven, now some may question, maybe that is not a word that you should use, if, as if it throws some shade of doubt. But I remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the Apostle Paul writing to that church. He said, look, there are eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He started naming them all. He even said over 500 people at one time. And he said, if there are that many, he launched into a bunch of ifs. So the Apostle Paul was not worried or scared of the word if. He said, if this is all happened, then how can you say there is no resurrection of the dead? And he said, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not raised from the dead. And if Christ is not raised from the dead, our preaching is vain and your faith is vain. And if Christ is not risen from the dead, we have no hope. If there is no resurrection, you are yet in your sins. But he was confident and he followed up with this. But now is Christ risen from the dead? So when I say tonight, if there is a God in heaven, just make an understanding here. There is a God in heaven. But since there is a God in heaven, there are answers that are going to have to be given one day. All of us shall give account for the lives that we have lived. Now I want to say something that came to me in prayer not too long ago. As pastor of this church, I do desire to be a leader, but I don't want to be a leader that gets you or convinces you to follow me. I think there's already been far too much of that kind of leadership that has gone on in this world throughout the centuries. I'm not particularly concerned of whether I get a reputation of being a good leader or not. But here's what I do want to do. I certainly want to direct you to the true God of heaven. That's my goal. I really want you to look past who I am and get to where He is. That's my goal. And if I'm going to be successful as a leader in this church, that's what I'm going to do. I just want to be a voice that guides you closer to God Himself. Because if you get to the place where you're dependent on me, when I fail, then you'll fail. But if I'm standing in the way, and the only time you hear from God is when you hear it from me, you're only going to get as good as I can hear. And you won't get everything that you need. But I'd just love it if you would just run right past me and get into the presence of Almighty God. I mean, just skip right on by where I am, and if you can do that, get past me and get into the presence of God, I'll feel like I've done what I should have done. I have led you in the right way. I will be successful in the eyes of heaven if I can convince you to get into the presence of Almighty God for yourself. This church will be successful, not when the leadership has good ideas and implements those ideas successfully. And that is a part of it, but it's not all of it. Personally, I don't even think it's the most of it. I don't think it's a major part of it. But this church will be successful when we as a group of people will humble ourselves before God in the sight of the Lord and allow Him to lift us up where He wants us. When we allow Him to direct our paths, that's where we can consider ourselves to be a successful people. Now, pretty much most of the direction that we're going to get in our Christian lives are going to come from this book right here, from the Bible, from the Word of God. This in itself is the universal set of instructions. You need guidance? There are answers here. It's where it all begins. In this Bible, there are things that are written concerning morality. There are laws. There are laws that are concerning how to conduct business. There are laws regarding family. There are laws in here that will instruct you how to be a proper and contributing citizen in our society. There are things that are written in this book as a law and instruction for how to worship God. Now, all of us want to know the will of God for our personal lives. And there are things that we'd like to get to. We want to know that we're in the will of God. We're doing what He wants us to do for a living, a career. We want to live where we feel like it's God's will for us to live. It's our desire that we're in the will of God when we make investments, when we get into relationships, and when we go into ministries. We want to be in the will of God. But you'll never find in this Bible God telling you who you should marry. Not by name. By principle, you'll find it. But there's not going to be that name that's found in it. You'll not find the address of the house that you should buy and live in, not in this Bible. So there are things that we want that are kind of outside and, you know, the Bible isn't going to tell us what you should do in particular for a living, for a career. But we want the will of God. Can I tell you that if we don't follow what is written in the Word of God, how can we ever expect to be led by His Spirit in the things which are temporal, in the things which are personal in our own activities? So we can seek the will of God for where we should work. But if we can't put away lying, if we can't get away from adultery, if we can't be a people that don't steal, if we can't be a people that don't follow this Bible the way that it's written, I'm just going to tell you, don't even bother looking and asking, God, what house should I buy? Because this Bible is a thing which we follow very first. And if there is a God in heaven, and if this is His Word, mankind is in a lot of trouble right now. Because man has been violating the words that are written in this Bible. God has taken great care to record this Bible and to preserve it so that it would be here for us today. God has servants who have suffered in the past so that we could have this Bible. There are those who have been persecuted just so we would have the opportunity to read God's Holy Word. Now there have been scalpers who have risen up and they've argued against the Bible. They have said things like this, you know, that Bible has changed over the years. You can't know that it's true. And you cannot count on it as being reliable. It's been handed down decade after decade, century after century, to where what we have today isn't really the Word of God as it came out in the beginning. Now my first thought is to throw up my hands and say, wait a minute, I don't think so. But I've got to step back a little bit and confess that man has done a lot of meddling with this Bible. And there have been a lot of changes that men have stepped up and decided that they were going to make alterations to the Word of God. There is such a great diversity today of so-called modern language renderings, versions they call them, that it's no wonder that the skeptics stand up with boldness and they say that it cannot be and make these claims against the Word of God. But this one thing I'll say tonight, the Word of God is settled in heaven forever. This Word of God, the real, honest, true Word of God. And so when we go looking for convenience, when we go looking for things that fit our lifestyle, when we look for things that are going to make us feel better, I'd rather have something that nails my sin. I'd rather have something that when I open it up, my eyes pop open and I say, I'm guilty, God, and it's time for me to repent. And that's what I find in my good old King James Version Bible. It's been changing lives for centuries now. And I'll still count on it. If you don't know what thee means, it's you, okay? And I've just solved a lot of the problems of the King James Version. Now, that's you too. All right? So there we go. There's a lot of the problems with the King James Version right there. God's Word is forever settled.