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Vital Signs – Don Doss, Message – July 16, 2023 (I definitely had to reduce these notes for the sermon, this would have lasted 2 hours!)

Well Good Morning!

Wow… the last time I was asked to preach in this sanctuary was about 12 years ago and wasn’t asked back for whatever reason, and most if not all the people that heard it are not hear any more so I’m baaack!  Really, it is an honor to be asked… and if I’m still around in 12 years, who knows!!

So I started thinking about all the things I like to talk about… the history of the Hebrews, King David, worship, all the music in worship… so much… but nothing felt right. I’ve been a Christian for over 60 years – not granted maybe not the best disciple in those early years, but I can tell when the Lord is pushing me a certain direction or when to turn around and go the other way.  If I don’t share with you what I feel the Lord is leading me to, then I’m not doing what I’m supposed to. The message today is not one of those soothing ‘everything’s all good’ kind of message – this one may indeed step on some toes, it has mine for sure.

WHY?  So let me start with a simple question, and the answer will start our journey this morning.  I’m not sure that we will get to the answer quickly so I’ll Help with the answer so we aren’t still here at 2:00!

Why do you come to church?  What is it about church that draws you through the doors every Sunday or more? Most common answer is to worship God – and that is a great answer, but not what I’m looking for so let’s go on…

Why do we worship God? Well he’s the Creator of the Universe and we owe him our worship – again very true, but still not there

There’s umpteen thousands of answers here, but eventually we will get to this…  because he sent his Son to die for our sins.

Why would He do that? Because He loves us that much!  True, but what is the end game… what is our expectation and hope we have because of his great gift to us? We’re almost there… For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

There it is… isn’t the underlying ‘elephant in the room’ reason that most of us come to church because of God’s promise to us of eternal life… to go to heaven when we die?

Oh oh Don, Don – you shouldn’t be that pointed you shouldn’t that direct!!  Wait, I’m just getting started!

BAD WORDS  Over time, I believe that our super educated sophisticated society we live in has softened the gospel message so much that no one really knows what it is.  Case in point… there are some words that we don’t use any more in conversations and most churches. Most everybody stops reading after 3:16 – but there is a second part to that verse that we hardly EVER hear: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to ______ the world through him. John 3:17

Now when you are ‘saved’ from something, it usually is something pretty bad, or painful, life-threatening like drowning or a burning house – saving someone is moving them from a very very bad situation back to being safe away from harm. John 3:17 says the Son would SAVE the world through him… saved from what?

HELL  Here’s where it gonna get just a little dicey, you’re about to be uncomfortable.  Jesus talked about hell more than he talked about heaven… why do we not talk about it?

* Luke 16 he calls it a great chasm that no one may cross.

* Matthew 25 people separated into two groups, one goes into his presence and the other into eternal fire.

* Mark 9:43 an unquenchable fire

* Matthew 13:42 where people will gnash their teeth because of the torment

* Matthew 7 the difficult path through the narrow gate leads to life, the broad way leads to destruction.

* Luke 16 the parable of the rich man and the beggar… no return or communication across the void, even to warn relatives.

* Matt 10:28 calls it Gehenna where trash is burned forever and maggots abound.

It’s real but we don’t want to talk about it – ‘well it’s just not appropriate in our sensitive modern society’.  But if we don’t realize the truth of the eternal torment in hell, how can we possibly understand the glory of God’s sacrifice for us? Where is God’s grace if there is no Hell?? And if hell is really not that bad or it doesn’t last for eternity, then where is the magnitude and purpose of God’s grace?

One more verse to look at, 3:18… Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. You see 3:17 says Jesus didn’t come to condemn the WORLD, but 3:18 says if you do not believe, you’re condemned already – but the difference between being condemned or being SAVED from condemnation is simply believing in Jesus. So there’s a choice – and it’s totally up to you and I, and it needs to happen while we are alive here on earth!  You are or you’re not.

Over half of chapter 3 in the Gospel of John is an account of a conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. Being a Pharisee, Nicodemus had to talk to Jesus at night so no one could see him. He begins… “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

But the first thing out of Jesus’ mouth was this: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are ____  ____.” John 3:3  Why do we not speak these words anymore? They’re the words of Christ himself but the world has turned them into a negative connotation, so that anyone that uses them is thought of as some low-life backwoods hick or a crazy religious nut.

So are you saved? Have you been born again?

I asked Jesus to come into my heart when I was 6 years old.  Six is kind of young, and that caused some doubt to creep into my head and grow through my childhood. Was I a Christian? Did I know what I was doing at 6 years old?? Through high school I did a lot of research with some friends on recent archeological discoveries that backed up biblical accounts.  I studied an abundance of non-believing writers and historians: Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Trajan, Tacitus, Suetonius, Thalles, Phlegon, Galen, Tertulian, and more. Jesus – his birth, life, miracles, ministry, death on the cross, his followers, his church years after his death – all of this is historically documented, it was true.

But even after all of that, it was these two verses hit it home… Mark 15:23- Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” AND Proverbs 3:5- Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

John 10:27-29 – My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 

I went to my first time church job as a minister of Music & Youth and took a big group of teenagers to Falls Creek.  Anyone ever heard of Falls Creek? They would schedule a great preacher to do each of the weeks and that year they had the pastor at the largest Baptist Church in Oklahoma – this church would baptize hundreds of people each week!  And I found out why! When they offered the invitation with 5,000 kids – it was like a Billy Graham Crusade with hundreds of kids flowing down the aisles for the invitation.  This preacher would say something like “you have to know that you know that you know you are a Christian… if you don’t remember the date you were saved then you probably weren’t!!  If you have ANY doubt that you have become a believer, you need to settle it tonight right here.”  My heart sank, I knew the confusion this would cause.

I was a counselor to half a dozen kids that came forward, and I had to unpack what the preacher had done and start back at the beginning.  “Do you remember ever asking Jesus into your heart?” Most would say yes –  “Did you mean it?” Most would say yes… “Do think that the righteous God of the Universe would lie to you?” Most would say no…  “Can you trust in the Lord?” Most would say yes.  That should answer your question… if you know you asked Jesus to come into your heart and you meant it – you should trust the Lord that he heard you.

Then when I got back to our cabin I found lots of my own youth in turmoil about what to believe, there is an eternal consequence so I have to make sure they understood.  How can I reasonably tell a teenager that they are or aren’t going to heaven? 

Share my story – that’s all I knew.  

So what about you?  Are you saved?  Are you born-again?

While serving at Atoka First Baptist Church I occasionally had the privilege to take a group of senior adults out sight-seeing! A fun group to be around and talk with! One of these precious ladies, Iva Stanphil was part of this group. She was the epitome of a perfect lady in everything… incredibly smart, knew the Bible inside and out, very nice, funny, eager to help in any way she was asked. She asked me just before we took off on a trip to the Tallamina Drive (it was fall) if her son-in-law who was visiting could come with her. We had room and I could not tell her no, so of course I said sure.

This was a trip I will never forget.  Turns out that I talked with Gene most of the trip about church stuff, ministry, he was easy going and very interested in my work and how I planned and prepared – and one thing that came up strangely enough was ‘assurance of the believer’. I told him about my Falls Creek experience having to reteach the kids about their salvation. Eventually I found out that this Gene guy was also known as Dr. R. Gene Reynolds who at that time was a pastor of a pretty large Baptist Church in Arlington… and had a book published entitled Assurance!

Anyone here ever had to be hospitalized or taken to the ER?  They start hooking things up to you!  These nurses and doctors need to watch the monitors to check up on how well your health is doing… Pulse / heart beat… pretty important! Blood Pressure… need it.  Respiration… got to breathe. Body Temperature…not too hot not too cold. Pupillary Reflex… iris contracting when shining a light into it shows brain sensitivity.

It’s important to understand that these signs are just the indicators, they don’t cause the problems they just report the status.

It’s mostly my story – how with God’s help I worked through some difficulties that I think everyone at some time goes through, we all deal with the same thoughts that run through our heads and each of us then makes a decision that has eternal significance… and if you remember anything about the choir’s Christmas presentation, you know that eternity, forever, everlasting is a very very long time. We are so interested and in pursuit of the here and now – eternal things are for later and we just put off, we kick the can down the road.

Youth ministry, indeed ALL ministry is leading each person to a deeper level of discipleship no matter where they come to you.  So the main push is to first of all lead them to a belief in Jesus and then begin the discipleship process. That moment of belief is important – it’s something that should be remembered and begin a change in the person’s lifestyle and understanding of how they fit into the world with their  belief in Jesus.

The Lord knew I needed Gene at that time, he was sent just for me to have an answer for my youth group. And the Lord also knew ahead of time that his flock would have questions about their eternal condition and despite very direct verses from his Word about it, there would still be questions.