FIVE-A-LIVE ! TIME

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

This is my friend. I was just talking to Gene and Carroll. I said, look, World War II couldn't kill your father, but my sermon almost did. And was so glad you're at Randall. And if you were not here last week, I'm glad you're here this week. And this is Donald Tabb, one of my life heroes, top five of all time. And uh Donald's been a mentor to me and my family for many years. The opportunity to bring him up was couldn't pass up on it. So Donald is gonna preach from God's holy word to us today. Donald has a story that could keep us driveted for hours, but Donald's greatest claim to fame is that he loves Jesus Christ, been a faithful servant to Jesus for many, many, many years. He graduated from Texas AM. He went and joined the army and was a ranger, then he worked for Dawson Trotman and the Navigators, and then he worked for Billy Graham for many years, and then he started a church that I came from, the chapel on the campus in Baton Rouge, and God really blessed that work. And more people came to Christ every week than you could believe. It was just miracle after miracle, and God powerfully used Donald and his wife Mary, and it's been a pleasure to have them. So without further ado, thank you for being here, brother. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Introductions like those make me, I can't wait to hear what I'm gonna say. My beautiful wife is down here on the front. I want her to stand so that you can see why we have been married for 54 years. Boy, when I met her, I said that would make a bulldog break his chain. And I've never changed my opinion. What a beautiful church building you have here. Of course, it is just a building. For a number of years at LSU didn't have a building. We met in the theater at the outside the gates of LSU. We met at the old Jerry Lewis Theater, then we met in the Music and Dramatic Arts building, and then we met in the law school auditorium, then we met the theater at the student union, then we met in the Golden Gottight Ballroom, then we met in the Greek theater outside. They used to laugh and say, the chapel on the move. Find us if you can. So a building's not everything, but it's wonderful when you do have a great place to get in out of the mild weather that we've been having. At least that's what they told me. They said, Oh, you just need a jacket. Spring is here. Over 40 years ago, I came to Buffalo and spoke at a conference downtown Buffalo. When I was a little boy, that was a long time ago, I lived on a little farm with my grandmother and grandfather. My mother and father married and divorced each other twice by the time I was nine years old. Second time was worse than the first. But I loved being raised by my grandparents, and until I was nearly 13 years old, I lived with them. Little Eighty Acre Farm, which was just a side part of life. My grandfather was an entrepreneur in a number of areas and worked hard all his life. My grandmother taught piano seventy-four years, consecutive years, in the both in the school system and privately. Great folks, love the Lord. Little did they expect in their seventies to have me on their hands. But I had the free range of the 80 acres. I could go and do and be anything I wanted to be as long as I got home for supper. That's what we call it in the South. Breakfast, dinner, supper. I can tell you today that my grandmother's voice could carry to any of the corners of the eighty acres. Woo supper. And brother, I would come running because she was a great cook. And then after a sumptuous meal, I would clean up and put on my pajamas and get ready for bed and go sit in my grandfather's lap and have him read the Bible stories to me. Almost by heart. We'd read them so many times. I knew the story of Adam and Eve and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and King David and all the prophets and Jesus and the apostles. It had pictures. Almost every page had a picture on it illustrating the text. And I would remember the pictures in order. And as we'd come to the end of the of the close to the end of the story, I'd look up at my granddaddy and say, Turn the page, granddaddy, turn the page.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

God made us with a built-in anticipation. It's an adventure.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Sorry. A little of this good old buffalo water. Man, that probably came from Niagara Falls. Yet so many people get stuck in life. So many just seem to be in a rut, which is nothing more than a coffin with the ends knocked out. They go to work to get money to buy bread to get energy to go to work to get money to buy bread to get energy to go to work to get money to buy bread to get energy. Before you know it, life is gone. Somehow we missed the adventure if we're not careful. The anticipation of what is on the next page. Turn the page, granddaddy.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

I believe with all my heart. As Robert Browning wrote, the secret to the happy, successful, productive, obedient, to be rewarded.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Life is found in the person who has linked his life with the loving lordship of Christ. He's hitched his wagon to that star. As Browning wrote, Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be. The last of life for which the first was made. Our times are in his hands, who said a hole I plan. Trust God, you see but half. Trust God, see all, and be not afraid. And so what I've come to talk to you this morning a little bit about is a little practice that I've gotten into, and I'm not asking you to do that. It's just that I've gotten into the habit of in the mornings reading the newspaper and the Bible. I believe it was Charles Haddon Spurgeon that said, preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. The newspaper gives you yesterday's problems. The Bible gives you the exciting edition of God's answers for the future. When I read the paper, I see these headlines in one particular section. Coming attractions, future events. Of course, that just means that they are scheduled. They don't necessarily know how they're going to turn out. As the people who were waiting at the finish line in Boston the other day had no idea that it was not just the finish of the race, but the finish of life on this earth. For that reason, I believe Teddy Roosevelt gave me one of the most dynamic quotes that I've ever heard, apart from the scripture, and he said, Weasel words from Molly Coddles will not do. So that the outcome is certain. Because the future is coming.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

The question is, how can we handle it? First of all, we know that we must acknowledge it.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Things are not gonna stay the way they were. Just like anything. I enjoyed the wonderful choir this morning. But as you've noticed in later years, we've added. The sound is off. We've had the organ, we've had the piano, we've had the guitar, we've had the drums, we've had the choir. All are in flux. In my opinion, they're all good. To some of us older ones, we wonder at times. How did contemporary music, if you call that music, they say, invade the church? Give us the old hymns, they say.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

That's not bad. The old hymns are great. The new choruses are not bad.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

The new contemporary music with the drums. It's a little harder to take for some older folk, but hey! They're all praising the Lord. Singing and making melody in their hearts and praising to God. The flux is the experience. It's not gonna be the way it was forever. It's gonna be the way it is. And the way it's happening. Yesterday is a canceled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is money in the bank. So we learn to live today in the light of the prophetic word of the Bible, the word of God, that allows us to see the path ahead and not go stumblingly and haltingly into the future. Not filled with anxiety because of anticipation of what God is going to do. Sometimes I get so excited I wake up early in the morning and I can't go back to sleep because I can't wait to see what God is going to do today.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

No boy.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

That's the way it is. That's the way it is. So I acknowledge and accept the fact that each moment of the future is rushing upon me. Earl Nightingale used to sign off his radio program every day with Time is a bird. And the bird is on the wing. Oh, we could acknowledge that I have just a minute, only 60 seconds in it, didn't seek, it didn't choose, it forced upon me, can't refuse it. I'm a suffer. If I lose it, give a counterfive abuse in just a tiny little minute. But eternity is in it. And so each moment that I approach, I approach with the wonderful anticipation of what God is going to do with me today. And the idea that, as the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 50, verse 4, the sovereign Lord has given me the tongue of the learned that I might know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakens mine ear to hear, he awakens mine ear to hear, as the learned. As my old mentor Dawson Trotman used to tell me, you take the word of God and hide it away in the quiver of your heart like arrows of a mighty hunter. And you bow before the Lord and you pray and ask him to guide you that day, and he takes you to the right place at the right time at the right person in the right moment. And the Spirit reaches into your heart and takes an arrow and places it to the bow of your lips and pierces a sinner's heart with it. That's the conscious acknowledgement and understanding that God holds your appointment book in his hand, if you'll just let him.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

If you'll acknowledge it.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

And if you'll accept it, his word becomes a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. And if you do accept the fact that there is a great future ahead of you, then you understand that you must not only accept it and acknowledge it, but that you must prepare for it.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

The preparation. The preparation.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Over three hundred and sixty-eight times in the Bible, it talks about the great and colossal moment in the history of the world when Jesus Christ will step forth from that point in glory and reestablish himself in the earth with the destruction of the old earth and the old heavens and the immediate manufacture of the new heavens and the new earth. That is the event that's next on the calendar of the Lord. We don't talk about it much. We seem to think that that's such a something that's in such an offing. We like to listen sometimes to prophetic preachers who give us the exact time and date. The hour when the Son of Man cometh. They're still there, and and as my old friend Vance Habner used to say, I'm not listening for a I'm not looking for a sign, he said. I'm listening for a sound. Why did he say that? Because the Bible says that the Lord shall descend from heaven with the shout and with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him and the Lord in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

Paul wrote again. For we must all be changed. For this mortal must put on immortality.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

leaned on his shoulder. He said, I'm the one that Jesus loves. And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Have you ever given that any real thought? The fact that the Bible unequivocally claims that every person who has made the wonderful discovery of knowing Jesus Christ personally through faith in his resurrection, through faith in his crucifixion and his resurrection and his ascension into heaven believes that he's coming back and that one day we're gonna have bodies that are just like the one he had when he came out of that grave. Oh, I won't have the Medal of Honor holes in my hands, or the hole in my side, or the prince in my brow. Of course, there are many Christians who were martyred just as horribly as the Lord Jesus was, but I believe he'll wear those particular marks for eternity. But we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and that is a tremendous promise. And if that doesn't give you anticipation, what does? As you look it in the mirror and realize that you're not like you were, that this whole flesh is deteriorating. My grandmother said in her 92nd year, and I was with her, she was still teaching music up until her 93rd year, and I was standing there with my arm around her shoulder, and she's looking in the mirror. She said, That's not me. She said, I don't feel any older than my student.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Oh, I got news for you. This isn't me.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

This isn't you. You're gonna be changed. In a moment. In the twinkling of an eye, when the last trump shall sound. And therefore, why would you not anticipate the return of the Lord? Jesus is coming. Well, then, if you're anticipating it and you agree with it and you accept it, how are you preparing? Did you realize that a great many of Jesus' parables were all about preparing for his coming? Man, did you ever think about it?

SPEAKER_03 22:49

The ten virgins, the talents, the wedding garments, they're all about his return. They're all about either being prepared or not being prepared.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Have you ever noticed that in the New Testament and the letters of Paul and Peter and of James and Jude, that they point toward the return of Jesus Christ and of the reward waiting for those who are looking for his return. I suppose my favorite verse is Luke 12, 37 along that line when it says, Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he comes shall find watching. Verily I say that he will say to them, Come forth and he will serve them. He will gird himself. Yes. The scripture tells us to be prepared. Be ready. Jesus said, For you know not the hour when the Son of Man cometh. Be ready.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

There is an alternative. It's not being ready. I find that that's where a great many people are.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

And it's what causes so much turmoil in your life.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

A panicky present is the product of a planless past. And there's a great deal of anxiety that is an undercurrent to most people's lives.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Of course, the scripture says, be anxious for nothing.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Instead, pray about everything. Tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for the answers. If you do this, God's marvelous peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand, will keep your hearts at rest as you quietly trust in him. Is that a practice of your life? It can be. As you prepare for his return. Now, what is it that you would like to see at his return? What are the signposts and what are the steps of preparation? Well, for one thing, I'd certainly like to really be able to recognize him, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_03 26:10

On an intimate basis. I mean, really? To see him as he is.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Well, the way you do that, in my opinion, is to practice the golden spiral upward of Jesus' instructions and the word of God. In John 14, 21, Jesus said, He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him. Now watch this. Somebody comes and shares with you, or as a little child, or Sunday school, or church, or on the street, or wherever, somebody comes and shares with you the gospel. And you realizing that the gospel demands a decision in your life, you hear the word of God, you're going away from the word of, you're going away from God. Someone, something stops you, and you are presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the promise that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how can they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how should they believe on him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? For blessed are the feet of those who come on the mountains bringing good tidings. And you hear the word of God and you say, Yes! And so you repent. A good word. Repent, it means having a change of mind that results in a change of direction. And you come to Christ by trusting in him, and the moment you trust in him, the Spirit of God comes in to dwell in your life, and you're born again. I knew about God for 20 years, but I was not born again. And therefore, I did not understand the blessings of God. I did not understand the things of God. Because the Bible says, natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, and they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, for they're spiritually discerned. So it wasn't until that moment that I prayed and received Christ that the Bible began to make sense because the Spirit of God took the word of God and applied it to my heart. And my life was slowly changed. As Jesus said, He that has my commandments and keeps him here is that loves me, and he that loves me shall be loved to my Father, and I will love him and will reveal more of myself to him. Now, watch this. That happens when you become a Christian, and when you get into the Word of God, and when you begin to pray. And Jesus becomes a real person to you because he is real. He's revealed to you or manifest to you or shown to you. And he says, when you walk in my word and apply it to your life, you realize how much I love you. More of my love is revealed to you. And so when you obey my word, I reveal more of myself to you. And I see him in a brighter and clearer way, and I love him more. And so I want to do more of what he says. And so when I do that, he reveals more of himself to me. It's the golden spiral upward. And I think that the greatest anticipation in the world is to think that the moment you see Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, coming in power and glory, that you recognize him immediately as a friend, as one that you would run to and hug. My friend, I've called you friends, Jesus said. How bad would that be if when you get to the first meeting with Jesus, he has to pull out his pocket diary and say, Now let's see, who is this? No, it's not gonna be that way. Malachi 3.16 says, They that loved the Lord and spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book was of remembrance was written for them before the Lord, for them that love him and thought on his name, and they shall be mine, says the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him. What a meeting that's gonna be. That's why we should get into the word of God and get in little groups and study the word and apply it to our own lives and learn to walk in it. Because every time you do that, the Lord says to the recording angel, get that down, get that down. Look at Sarah, look at Bill. Hey, they're studying about me, they're talking about me, they're talking to me, get it down. So a whole volume is written about your life, and it will never be erased. That's what it's talking about when it says, and the books were opened. That's what it's talking about when it says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every man may receive the things done in his body according to his whether he be whether it be good or bad.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Wow. Question Are you ready?

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Can you say with great anticipation? Turn the page, granddaddy, turn the page. I can't wait. Because you've come to know him, because you've walked with him, because you've gotten into his word, because you've let yourself be available to be one of his obedient servants in this world, ambassadors for Christ, incarnations again of the word of God, little Jesus is walking about on this earth, drawing people to the living God. May the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The scripture says that one of these days, if I go to be with the Lord before he comes, he's coming on a white horse.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

And on his thigh is written the word of God, and he'll be the king of kings and the lord of lords. And I'm coming with him on a white horse.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Will you better mount up today and learn to ride?

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Let's pray.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have made it possible for us to be part of your forever family. Knowing that so much is at stake, Lord, we pray at this moment about our own lives, just us and you. And so I ask you, congregation, while the head is bowed and the eyes are closed, why should God accept you in his heaven? Why should you be allowed to return to earth with him, to the new heaven and the new earth, and occupy it forever with him? If you can't tell me, I beg of you this day that you give your life to Jesus Christ. That's what it takes. It takes saying yes to God once and for all, saying, Lord Jesus, I want you to be my Savior. If you're not sure or you've never done that, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand right now. Every head's bowed and every eye is closed. I just want to ask you to raise your hand and acknowledge that you want to receive Christ as your Savior.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

It's the most wonderful thing in the world. I'm going to have a word of prayer with you after you do that.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

So just lift it up right now. Anyone? Yes, sir. God bless you. Anyone else?

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Quietly, quickly.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

Raise your hand. Yes, God bless you. Anyone else? Don't be hesitant. Be ready if the Lord should come.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Can you face eternal years free from doubt and fears? Are you ready?

SPEAKER_03 36:31

Beyond a shadow of a doubt. If not, raise your hand. Come on. Anyone else? Not gonna prolong it, just give you that chance.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

For those that raise their hands, I want you to pray this prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I repent of my sins. I turn to you, and I receive you right now. The Lord Jesus Christ. Come into my heart as you have promised. Thank you for saving me. And for the rest, the majority, would you pray this prayer? Dear Lord, help me get serious about preparing for your coming. Help me to intentionally get into the word of God. Help me to lay the word of God on my heart. Help me to get involved with people in the in the business of bringing other people to Christ. Help me to apply this to my life starting today. In Jesus' name. Amen. We have in the in the Church of Jesus Christ, by the way, I love to refer to the Church of Jesus Christ, not just Randall Baptist Church, but you know, the Church of Jesus Christ is the only organization in the world where the disqualification of the candidate is what qualifies him for membership. You got to be a sinner to get in. And to remind us of that day by day and week by week and month by month, and year by year, the Lord gave us this wonderful object lesson call where we remember what he did for us. On the night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread and broke it and said, This is my body broken for you.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

And they ate that bread.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

And he said, Do this as often as you meet in remembrance of me. And then he took the cup. It was the Passover cup, but he took it nevertheless and said, This is my blood shed for the remission of sins. Drink it. I'm not gonna eat or drink with you again, he says, until I come again. But you do this in remembrance of me. And so today we ask the elders, the deacons, the elders, whoever it is that serve this marvelous fellowship meal to come. And we hold the bread until we all take it together. So just contemplate in your hearts now what it means to remember his death, his burial, and his resurrection. Father, we pray that you would allow this small token of bread to remind us that your body was broken on Calvary's cross to pay for our sins. Amen. No matter what the age. I remember that when I first went to Baton Rouge, there was a professional gambler. And I had the privilege of leading him to the Lord. On the golf course, by the way. That was fun. And he and his wife brought their two little children to the church. They were all dressed so wonderfully, beautiful, right out of the bandbox.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

And I remember those children after a few weeks taking the communion.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

First, they looked to their father and he said, because old Paul Fasilla was not a professional gambler anymore. He was a saint of the living God. And he had led his children to faith in Christ. And he wanted them to partake of the communion. I remember they took the bread. And we we broke French bread. It was rather delicious, actually. Not like these little skimpy crackers that you serve. But both of them represented the broken body of Jesus. And then we served the cup. And I remember little Fasula when he took the cup. And he drank the cup. And then he tilted his head back and he put the cup on his tongue. And he twirled it around for the last drop.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

What can was show away my sins? Nothing but the blood Jesus. What can make me a lot of people? We all got something.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We remember how He broke it for us. We'll all partake together. You know, my good friend George Beverly Shea, his body is going to be interred this afternoon at three o'clock. I'm sorry I can't be there, but I'm so happy that I'm with you. But he and Cliff Barrows, another good friend of mine, taught me this chorus. I think it's so apropos to communion. The words are learning to lean, learning to lean. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. Finding more power than I ever dreamed. I'm learning to lean on Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

Learning to lean. Learning to lean. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. Finding more power than I ever dream. I'm learning to lean on.

SPEAKER_05 49:00

And through offering, and I know the ushers are going to come forward. And for those that made the wonderful decision of joining God's Forever Family, please mark that on that connection card so we can get to know you. Please tell, come grab me or Donald afterwards. We'll be at the back there. And if you need any prayer, put your prayer request on there. If you want to join a community group, anything to communicate, please put that on that connection card. Drop it in the offering plates. Please don't forget to sign up for the disaster relief. We live in a crazy time where we as the church need to be ready to be the church. And it really primes us with this type of training to where we can get behind the lines where no one else will get to go. We'll be there, we'll be Red Cross certified. So please pray about joining us next Friday, Saturday. It says you've missed the deadline for registration, but have no fear. Registrations were meant to be broken or deadlines. So may we continue to worship through giving to support the wonderful mission of the Church of Jesus Christ. And we are so thankful that you are here to worship our resurrected Lord with us today. Thank you.