Oyster Run

Anacortes Washington, Sunday, September 28, 2014

Much preaching, and handing out tracts took place, but most people valued sin and stuff more than there own soul.

It was sad to be dissuaded from preaching the Gospel and asked to leave by those in the supposed "Christian Motorcycle Association ".

Luke 12:15-21

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And [Jesus] said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

What is covetousness? Whatever it is, we ought to avoid it, Jesus says take heed, beware of covetousness. In other words, don’t just listen to what Jesus says, but act on His words. He says beware of covetousness, when you see a sign on someone's gate that says "Beware of Dog"; you heed that and stay out of there, otherwise you'll be bitten. Same thing with covetousness. It will bite you. So covetousness is a bad thing, but what is it? Well short answer is, it means desire, but it is desire gone wrong... Improper, inappropriate,  immoral, self centered, selfish. It's a desire that puts some thing, some temporary, material, worldly thing ahead what's more important, even eternal things.

16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’

this guy had a bumper crop. He had prospered. He'd done very well for himself.  He had so much he thought to himself, lets see, what are my options; I can rent a storage unit, or I can do a little remodel... That's it, I'll tear down my dinky, little, puny barn and build a bigger one.   Not just that, but he thought to himself, I'm going to retire, and drink margaritas. He was going to take it easy.

20 But God said to [the man], ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

So the day of reckoning comes for this guy, and he's not ready.

Psalm 19:7-10

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. [8] The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. [9] The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. [10] More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Psalm 119:127

Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

Proverbs 16:16

How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

Proverbs 16:25

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

There's a lot of chaos going on in this day and age. A lot of people say one thing, then there are others who say exactly the opposite. How can you discern what's true and what's not? 

John 17:17 Jesus said, Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. So if you know God's word, you know the truth. John 8:31-32 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; [32] And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

But, the flip side of the coin,
Jesus said in Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: [12] That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. [2] But his delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. [3] And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. [4] The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. [5] Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. [6] For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 KJV

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. [14] For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

http://youtu.be/rGVoBVqiGdo

Joseph and Unnamed

Walking Stella this afternoon, along the greenbelt trail, I overheard laughter down off the trail, behind a huge screen of branches.  I decided to go back and get some Gospel tracts, to try to give to whoever it was that I had heard.

When I returned, I noticed my target audience was still sitting where I had left them, so I approached them and gave them each tracts. They asked what they were and I explained they were Gospel tracts and I asked if they knew what that meant. They had no idea, so I explained how the tracts gave the message of  how to go to heaven when you die. I ask what they thought someone needed to do to get to heaven. One young man said "don't break any sins". I asked if he had lived up to that. He said no. So I asked specifics; had he ever lied, stolen, used God's name in vain, or looked with lust (after confirming their ages, which I learned was 15).

They started to get a little squirmy at this point, but I continued to explain the solution to our sin was Jesus Christ and the consequences of our sin was death. I explained that I no longer feared death. At this point I got Joseph's name, and his unnamed friend began to chuckle.  Joseph said he was afraid to die, and I said that's good, thats your will to live and I would call that into account. I asked if what I was talking about was funny, unnamed said we just wanted to chill. I said this is my neighborhood and I have just as much right as you to be here. He tossed down the tract and started walking away.

I told the unnamed one He was free to leave, if he didnt care about his own soul, but maybe Joseph was concerned about his soul. I quoted, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul.

The I told Joseph, here's the point; get a Bible, obey what you read and God will never let you down and you'll never be ashamed.

With the unnamed one still standing there, I said see, I wasn't going to take up that much of your time.  And I left.

God bless...

Cannibas Cup - Comcast Arena - 2014-09-06

We had many great conversations.

Thomas and I prayed for Nina who was having a really bad headache.   Later on, we saw her almost skipping along, smiling.   Thank you LORD for taking away her headache!

We spoke with Justin (the Jew) and his girlfriend.   He was an agnostic.  We had a very nice conversation, and he recognized we cared about his soul.   We tried, as best we could to answer his questions, but he was too in love with his sin.

We spoke with a young guy (who said he was a christian), while he was loading up a bong.   He too, recognized we cared about them, but he was unwilling to give up his idolatry of marijuana.

We spoke with several other people, young and old.

A funny encounter I had, was when I handed a young guy a tract.   He looked at it, through his bloodshot eyes, and said the lettering was too small for him to read.   He handed the tract back to me and said, "here, you read it to me."   Sweet!

Picture courtesy of myeverettnews.com

I preached the following:

Hi friends, my name is Keith.    I’m here to share some good news with you.   I’m your neighbor, I'm trying to be a good neighbor.   I was at hempfest a few weeks ago, and here I am today.    Speaking of hempfest, there was a story on the news about hempfest.   It showed a big stage with some band on stage playing music, and there was a big banner behind the stage that read, “Hate Free Zone”.    I’ve heard it said, “Don’t be a hater!”.   But let me ask you; is it ok to hate anything?   May I express my hate for anything?   For example, I would hate for someone to try to harm my wife or sons.   I hate child abusers.   Another thing I hate is disease.   Especially Cancer.   I guess I'm not the only one that hates cancer, last night almost every channel on TV was showing a telethon raising money for the fight against cancer.   I’ve had several family members die of Cancer.   Most recently, my mom died from cancer, just two months ago.   I pray that a cure is found for Cancer.

But until then, you wouldn’t try to treat cancer with a band aid would you?   No, in fact if you did, not only would a band aid not do anything to treat the cancer, it would hide it, cover it up, and it would be forgotten; all-the-while the cancer would still be growing and spreading throughout the body.

Turning the conversation to the spiritual, to use this as an illustration, Treating cancer with a bandage is about as effective as trying to get right with God by being a good person.   Or to say it another way trying to get to heaven through religion or good works is about useful as treating cancer with a bandage.   Nowhere... nowhere does Jesus say, “I have come to to start a religion”.   He did say, “I have come that you might have life, and that more abundantly”.   Jesus did say, “I have NOT come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”   Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and save the lost.   Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.   Jesus came bring a sharp sword of division between right and wrong.   Jesus came to draw a clear and crisp distinction between good and evil.

There is a true religion but its not what you think its for; its not to get you to heaven.  The Bible says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled is this, that you visit widows and orphans in their distress and to keep yourself unspotted from the world.   Man made religion stinks.   Man made religion produces pedophilic priests, wars, terrorists, abortion mill bombers.   Man made religion produces hypocritical, self-righteous, pompous money-grabbers.   Religion just covers up hate.   Religion covers up violence. Religion does nothing to solve the problem of crime and evil like fraud, rape, murder, and assault, even drug addiction...   Literally, all these things are just symptoms of a deeper problem.

The Bible says the problem is that our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it.   You can not, and will not be saved by any religion or any religious activity or affiliation, in fact if you think you can offer any good work to God to earn His favor, it is as if you are trying to bribe the Judge of the Universe, to turn a blind eye to your sins.   You might have heard the saying “All Roads Lead To God”... In other words what they're saying is that "all religions are equally valid".   I would have to agree, all religions are equally worthless.   It is true that all roads lead to God, because everyone will eventually stand before God.   We will all be made to give an account of our lives to our Creator.   But the question is; where will you go from there?

Jesus said he would judge the living and the dead, and some would go on to everlasting life and others would go to everlasting punishment.   His judgment will be so complete that He said that every idle word (or careless word) that we speak, we will be made to give an account of on the day of judgment.   As well, the Bible says God will render to every man according to their deeds.   And it says that God will judge the secrets of men’s hearts.   So God will judge not only everything you've ever done, but every word you've ever spoken and even every thought and motive of your heart and mind.

“The Day of Judgement will not be a court trial.   The Day of Judgement will be a day of sentencing.    If you find yourself before the Judgement seat of God, without having already received a pardon for your crimes (that's what your sins are, crimes against God), you will be made to pay for your crimes.   The wrath of God already abides on you.   When you stand before God, it will not be to argue your case, it will not be to lay good works at his feet, because all those are but filthy rags and nothing but an attempt to bribe the judge of the universe.   If you try stand before God in your own “self-righteousness” you will be made to pay for your crimes against God.   That’s means Hell and its for all eternity because of your sin.”   But, If you stand before the Judgement seat of Christ clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ you will enter into the joy of heaven/paradise.   

There’s a saying that goes, “A man who represents himself as his own lawyer has a fool for a client.”

So the question is, will you choose to embrace the truth or believe a lie?   Romans 8:7 The carnal mind is at enmity with God,  for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Ten Commandments

Gospel

Repentance

Faith

New life