04-28-2019 – Terry Joe Kee – Gospel Meeting (AM Sermon)

If I were listening, if I had been listening, like I should have been, I think it has been mentioned three times that there’s going to be a potluck meal as soon as we get through. And so I think that that was primarily for my benefit. Not because I’m going to eat that much, but simply because of the fact that it was a reminder to me to,

to not preach, not shoot the whole ward this morning. So maybe this the case I’m thankful to be here. And I appreciate the opportunity of being here and I appreciate you breathing and the work that you do here, and certainly you are in my prayers. And I hope and pray that the work here continues to progress. And I hope it continues to prosper.

And I appreciate the work. You do keep up the good work, never give up, never give in to Satan and to his influences. I simply this morning want to begin with basically three simple points that I want to make. And I want you to never forget. I’m afraid that we’re living in times when it’s easy to forget things. And sometimes it’s easy to forget who we are and what we’re doing here and where we’re going.

And so I want us never to forget at least these three things. And I want you to keep these in mind during this entire week. I want you not to forget them when the week’s over. I want you to remember them all the days of your life. And I want you to keep them in the forefront of your minds. As you look at life and live life in the days that God blesses you with to come.

The first thing that I want you to realize, and to keep in mind this morning is that our lives are not feudal great. And we’re living at a time when it seems that life has very little value to many people. There are Those who seemingly have no respect for life at all. That’s seen from the time Pre-birth to the time of Children and their abuses and The horrors they go through in many cases,

Talking about folks as life goes on to where we Grow up And we live our lives as if life has no Purpose. As if we don’t know what we’re doing here, we don’t know why we’re here. We don’t know where we came from. We don’t know where we’re going and we really don’t care. And Because people think that life is so futile has such little meaning.

It has so little value for me. It has little value for many who see life as being Nothing more than a moment in time. And they take it and throw it away in our children today. And those between the ages of 14 and 25, I read recently that the number one cause of death in 14 to 25 year olds is suicide. Because for whatever reason,

we’d gotten this idea, our young ones have gotten the idea that they don’t have a purpose in life. Don’t know what we’re doing here. Don’t know why we’re here. And so, because we don’t have any real reason for living. And I think also because we’ve been taught in many places that we’re nothing more than the product of a series of evolution.

And we really have no one to answer to in life. Here is over life is so valueless That we have no respect for it. And so the reason that you have for many just taking life and giving it up, It’s because of the fact that we see no value in it. And life has no real meaning. No real reason. You see,

in many cases We’ve not talked and we have those who have not been taught The value and the importance of life and the value of my life. There are three great questions that every person needs to ask himself that he is, where did I come from? What am I doing here? And where am I going? I would think that most of us who sit here this day,

we know where to go, to find the answer to those three questions. But I will also tell you that most people in this world today in our own country today do not know where to go Know, to find the answers to those three questions. Many of us have been taught from our childhood that the Bible is the word of God, that it has the answer to our problems,

to our troubles and to the word of God. We look for our answers. And so if I want to know where I came from, I look at the word of God to see where my origin he is. And I find my origin in God. And I take comfort in that. And there’s an importance to be seen and understood in that. And so recognizing The importance of life and where I came from then brings me to the question of,

okay, well, what am I doing here? And the only way I can know what I’m doing here Is for God to reveal to me what his will is for me in my life. I cannot know that I can know that there is a Supreme B if I am honest with looking at nature itself or the world in which I live the universe, you see the heavens declare the glory of God.

And the firmament shows Tandy work. The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 19. And so I know that there is a God, and I know that there is a creator. I know that we came from him, but then comes the question, okay, but what am I doing here? And if God does not reveal himself to us, if he does not tell us,

Then we have no way of knowing what we’re supposed to do or where we’re supposed to go, or what life is all about. But we do not have a God who hasn’t revealed himself to us. He has Many people. Don’t like the revelation. Don’t listen to the revelation and won’t approach and read it. But God has revealed himself to us in his word.

The spirit of God in first Corinthians chapter two has searched out the mind of God verses nine through 13 and delivered to us in words, the very mind of God, so that we could know what God’s will is for us in our lives, how we ought to Lille and what’s important, you know, Our lives and how we live our lives day by day.

If you want to know what I’m doing here, all I’ve got to do is go to the word of God. You know, that’s not A question that hasn’t been asked before. You know, Solomon’s asking that question in the book of Ecclesiastes, these, he goes through 11 chapters. I’m looking for why I’m here. And he goes through a series of things in his life and what he’s gone through in life.

And he asked himself the question he says, am I here for this or for this or for this or for this? And one after another, he begins to eliminate all these things until he gets to chapter 12. And then you get to the conclusion of chapter 12, Verses 13 and 14. He says, let us hear the conclusion, the whole matter,

fear God, and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or bad, We have a reason for being here. We have a reason for existing. My life is not futile because I’m somebody I’m Not just a dog or a cat. I don’t know how you are.

I’ve always loved pets. I’ve had pets. My wife and I have had pets. We found that it wasn’t always easy have a pet because whenever you were going to be gone, you had to get someone to take after it. And so we haven’t had a pet in a while, but I’ll never forget. And how much I loved old shorty, the first dog I ever had,

he wasn’t short. He’s a pretty good size dog. And I remember the little three and four year old I’d ride his back. He was my horse. I love that dog. My dad had a dog named flip. And so when I found my little beagle that I wanted, and I took that beagle, I named him flops. So we had flipped And flop and I love flop.

He’s a good little dog. He was good with my girls. And I loved that dog. He was precious to me, But when those dogs died, I had enough understanding even as a child to know that when that dog died, that was just the dog that died. And he was gone. That was the end of it, That he wasn’t going to live anymore.

Wasn’t going to live anywhere else. That That dog indeed had a body. And he had life with him for a while. But after time, that life departed from him and that body went back to the earth, but there was not one part of shorty or a flop that ever went anywhere else Except into the ground. And as much as I love them,

when they were gone, they were gone. But my life is much different than that. Of any animal, any pet I’ve ever had or anyone else has ever had Because you see, I know that my life is more than a life and a body because God said from the beginning, let us make man in our image. After our likeness and God did not make me like an animal.

And he didn’t make me to be an animal, but he gave to me a part of me that will never die. My life is not feudal. My life is not worthless. My life has value. I tell you, when I read the eighth Psalm and I read where the Psalm is says, what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visit just him.

I look at that question. I asked my father every day, father, why, why do you care about us? Why do you love us? So why would you care so much about us that you’d pay the price you paid for us? Who, who, who is, who am I Please, man, that God should even care that he should even concern himself with us.

And then I’m reminded of how much he loves me. I think sometimes we let people in the religious world take passages away from us. One of those passages is John three 16 because the world so abuses that passage. And so misuses that passage that we sometimes are afraid to read John three 16 or to talk about John three 16, which says God, so loved the world.

And when he says that God’s so that’s an adverb of degree when God so loved the world, the world, and that’s me that he gave his only begotten son. God loved me. I’m not just some piece of dirt. I’m not just some animal. I’m not just some creature that walks about on this earth. That’s not who I am. I have meaning my life has purpose And sold does yours.

Every one of us have a reason, but you know, we live at a time when people don’t see that. But then I started preaching 44 years ago and that’s a long time for a lot of us. But when I began preaching 44 years ago, I could go to almost any door of any house in any community where I was living and I can knock on the door and I would talk to people any favor I was invited in.

I would ask about a Bible study and I would say, you go, you take your Bible and everyone could go and get their Bible and they’d come and bring their Bible. And they would sit and we’d look at their Bible. I didn’t want them to think that I had some kind of a Bible that was somehow different than theirs. So I would always ask them to use their own Bible.

And in doing that, I could go into a home and I never can remember a time early in my life when I’d go into a home that they didn’t have. Bible cannot tell you how much things have changed. I can’t tell you how many times I knock on doors today. And I ask people, you know, do you have your Bible? And they said,

I don’t have a Bible. Don’t even know what the Bible is. I can’t tell you how many times you knock on the door and you’ll see little children. And you’ll start talking to mom and dad. And you’ll ask the little children things about basic Bible lesson. Yes, they’ve never heard of my wife teaches seniors high school. She teaches them English,

But in teaching them, sometimes they’ll come across some literature in which there is some reference made to some Bible story. My wife said, I asked them about Noah and the art. She said, I had students that asked me, Who is Noah and what Ark they’d never heard of. No one. She asked them about Jonah. They had never Heard the story of Jonah never.

And that wasn’t just one or two. That was several in the class that had no idea who she’s talking about. It’s not that they don’t come to the church of Christ. They have no religious training, no religious teaching. They don’t know anything about the stories that we basically have grown up with. And they don’t have a Bible and they haven’t read their Bible and they haven’t gone to Bible study and they haven’t learned these basic fundamental lessons.

And so the result of Betty is it. We have generation after generation that now has been raised and they don’t know God. And whenever troubles come, they don’t know where to turn. They don’t know how to turn data. They don’t have anyone to turn to Because they don’t know God. And they don’t know his word. They’ve never read it. They’ve never studied it.

And you start talking about Jesus and they may have heard of Jesus, but they really know nothing about him, Nothing about him. And they look at him as being nothing more than some fairy tale story. Like other fairytales that they’ve read or studied means nothing to them. What little Bible teaching or seemingly Bible teaching that somehow they’ve gotten off of television and watching some program on television last week,

the 10 commandments was on. Some people looked at the 10 commandments and thought, that’s exactly the way it happened. I’ve never seen that movie. You know why I tried watching it the first time. And every time something happened, I said, that’s not what Happened. That’s not right. I was trying to find the news. And I flipped over the other night.

It was closing off. And here’s Pharaoh standing, watching the army dying in the flood, died as the rivers, as the red sea came together. And he standing there watching it all and I’m going, that’s not right. I scream it at the television. And my wife said, what are you hollering at? And she said, do You think he’s going to jump in there and drown now because you’ve done all that hollered.

No, no, but he died in that. He was a part of that. I’ve read Psalm 89. I know where he was. He was in the flood. When those waters came together, Pharaoh died. Some people ever see it on television. That’s the way it happened, but they’ve never read it. They’ve never been to a Bible class.

They’ve never studied these basic fundamental lessons. Let me tell you something. Parents, grandparents teach your children. Well, teach them these basic fundamental lessons, teach them that their life is more than a body and a teach them that they have purpose in life, teach them that they have something to live for. You know, that we live at a time when we have so many people that have given themselves over to every kind of drug and alcohol,

trying to escape life, trying to escape the troubles and trials of life. We live at a time when 75% of all Americans have used alcohol or use alcohol to some degree, they drink it to some degree. We live at a time when 1% of all our, of all those who drink Or out and out alcoholics looking For a way to escape life Because they don’t see the purpose of life and they try to escape,

try to get away. The truth is that life is more than that. And the life that we have is a life that’s been given to us. And it’s valuable, Right? And what’s a man profited. If he should gain the whole world who loses his own solar, what’s an a man given exchange for. So there is a part of each and every one of us,

just one of us that is worth more than all the units, Worse put together all Of the riches and all of the world could Not compare to the value of one soul, just one. And God loved us to such a degree that he sent his son to die for us. And he still loves us. He still cares about us. Still has an interest in us.

And I have purpose. My life is not futile. I have a reason to live second lesson. You need to learn my failures. Aren’t final. And sometimes people fail and sometimes we fail miserably. I mean, we just do. I mean, sometimes we just, we just do things. We often harder. We leave undone something we ought to have done.

And we just, we failed miserably. And there are times and occasions in our lives where we just do. And every one of us do there, none of us, I don’t think that look at ourselves and say, well, I don’t ever fail because all of us do preacher, do y’all find this hard to believe, but you know, preachers are human.

That’s hard to believe. I know, but they are. And sometimes preachers fail. Sometimes we don’t do everything. We should. Sometimes we, we have our own weaknesses and sometimes, sometimes we just fail sometimes It’s of our own doing. And sometimes it’s because Of circumstances beyond our control, but there are times and occasions in our lives when we fail.

Failure is not the end of failure. Doesn’t have to be final just because we have messed up. Doesn’t mean we have to stay there. Do you realize that Abraham twice might told the same lie? Abraham, Do you know what old Testament character is mentioned? More times in the new Testament than any other old Testament character Abraham. And what he’s mentioned in the new Testament,

he is mentioned over and over as being the father of the faithful. He’s mentioned over and over as an example, that we all have to follow and have the kind of faith that Abraham had, but he failed twice. He failed rather is not enough that he’s lied about it. Once he went and told the same lie, the second time after God had already caught him in it and condemned him for it.

And when the second Time came along, he told the same lie. And yet when we think of Abraham, when I think of Abraham, that’s not the first thing I think of because Abraham’s failures, didn’t have to define him. And Abraham’s life is not defined by his failures. Any more than ours has to be a, Have to define ours. Brennan did Jacob ever sin?

Jacob is the father of these 12 tribes. His 12 sons make up the 12 tribes of Israel. His son, Judah is the one through whom the seed is going to come. Did he ever fail? Brittany lied to his father. He deceived his father into believing. He was East hall in order that he could steal the birthright and in doing that,

he failed, But he wasn’t final. And I’ll tell you again, most times when we think about him, that’s not what we think about. Moses. Moses delivers the children of Israel out of their bondage. Moses lives 120 years in the first 40 years of his life. He lives in Pharaoh’s courts. The second 40 years of his life, he’s in the land of medium tending to his father’s father-in-law sheep.

Third, 40 years of his life. He’s delivering the children of Israel out of their bondage. And when I read the life of Moses, I can imagine why, what happens in chapter 12 of numbers happens When he smites the rock. Instead of speaking to the rock, when God had said speak of the Rocky, took his rod and he smoked it.

Not once, but twice. He called them rebels. He seemingly was up to here with them and they’re complaining. They’re whining, they’re bickering. And he’d had it. Moses. Wasn’t a failure. He failed when God told him to speak to the rock and he smoked it. He failed, but he didn’t end his life a failure. Brenda, you won’t talk about David David failed.

I’m going to tell you when the Army’s out in battle, David, the King should have been out in battle with them. He shouldn’t have been on his house top And he shouldn’t have been peeking in the window, looking in the window or Bathsheba. Now I’ll agree. We, you, she should have had the curtains pulled, but he’s looking through the window.

And after the sin, he tries to cover it up. Not enough that he’s guilty of fornication, but he takes your ride and brings him in from battle tries to get him to go home to his wife. He lies to him and deceives him. He ultimately has him put to death. He hasn’t put in the front of the battle and has everyone to withdraw from him,

leaving him out there to be sure that the enemy is killing. David takes Bathsheba as his wife thinks he’s covered everything up. But Nathan comes to him and says, thou art, the man David failed, But he wasn’t a failure. He wasn’t a failure. Peter, Peter failed Brethren. When he told Jesus, I will never, Oh, there’s me.

But not me. When Jesus said this night shall Bel deny me thrice. He did. And when he saw the eyes of Jesus, looking upon him, he went out and wept bitterly. But Peter failed and Peter didn’t just fail once he failed twice, because again, he’s eating with the Gentiles. But when he sees the Jews coming, he goes out the back.

He’s afraid he’s going to be caught eating with Gentiles. And so he leaves and he has Apocrypha. The Bible calls him hypocrite in his Apocrypha. He takes Barnum was with him. I say, Barnabas followed him. Barnabas could have stayed in. He chose to chosen to, but he doesn’t. Peter failed. Peter failed, but bread. And Peter,

wasn’t a failure. Every one of us, at some point in our lives, we failed some point in our lives. We just haven’t. We haven’t been where we should have been and we haven’t done what we should have done. And we haven’t lived like we ought to and we failed. But Surely is none of these layer lives had to end up failure.

TRIBEr don’t have to end as a failure. Yes, there are problems and troubles that we’re going to face. And they’re going to be difficulties along the way, but your life doesn’t have to end as a failure. I’ll tell you what, if you just look back over the past few months and ask yourself, have I ever failed? I’m going to tell you most of them.

Yeah. There’ve been some times in the last few months when I failed, when I could have done better, I should have done better. And I failed What we have to do in those occasions. Those times we’ve got to do what these others did and we’ve got to get up, seek God’s forgiveness and go on and keep, keep doing what he’s Irish to do,

continue to do. What’s ours. Our lives don’t have to end in failure Britain just because you failed. And I don’t care what the failure is. I don’t know Cure how severe you may think or how horrible you think you failed in lie. It doesn’t matter. Britain. Those in the first century had killed the son of God. They failed. They did not search the scriptures to see if Jesus was indeed the son of God.

And they crucified him. They failed When they were crying out, crucify him, crucify him. They failed. But I’m going to tell you that on the day of Pentecost, there were those that cried out men and pray. Then what shall we do? And they were told to repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ,

for the remission of sins, you shall receive the gift of the Holy ghost for the promises unto you, to your children. All of them that are far off. Even as many as the Lord, our God shall call with many other words. He testified, exhort them saying, save yourselves misentered generation. They did gladly received his word were baptized the rat into them that day,

about 3000 souls. And I’m going to tell you that there were about 3000 people there that day who had been failures, but they changed their failures into success because they obeyed the gospel. And then your sins washed away in the blood of the lamb and that blood that they saw shed on that cross. They now were washed in that blood and had forgiveness and their lives didn’t have to end his failure Any more than hours to do any more than hours to finally,

death is final. We think that one of these days I’m gonna get my life together. And one of these days I’m going to, I’m going to come back home and I’m going to, I’m going to live the life that all who is a Christian, and I’m going to put the Lord first in my life and I’m gonna live for him every day.

And I’m, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do that one of these days. But when death comes, all of that’s passed, There’s no more coming back. How you feel about death? What do you think about when you think about death and dying? Most commonly, what we do is we fear it. We fear it because we haven’t been there having avid,

having gone through it, once something, if you’ve gone through it once and you’ve seen your way through it, and you’re now back, we know what to expect. Most people fear death, because I’ve never been there. I haven’t gone through that. I haven’t experienced that yet. So We fear it. And for some, we have reason to fear.

It TRIBErs nine 27. It says it’s pointed down. The man wants to die. And after this, the judgment, There’s coming a day. When I’m going to give a count, there’s coming a day when I’m going to stand before the Lord and give account. Now that day may come because the Lord returns, but it also may come. Cause death comes and death has coming.

Listen, I don’t know when desk’s coming. You don’t either. I can tell you just a few weeks ago, I had three funerals in one week. I had a 54 year old who didn’t know she had a problem in the world. Didn’t know she had one thing in this world, wrong with her and had gone to the doctor and had been given some medication.

And he calls her insurance. Wouldn’t approve certain tests to be done until she’d gone through a process. She went for about four weeks. They’re going through this process of getting everything ready. And by the time she’d gone through the four weeks and finally had the test she needed. She found out that she had cancer. It was an aggressive had eaten her up.

I was there the day after they’d come in in the hospital and told her there was no hope. And by the day I got there the day after she had found out that news, she was gone. Not only She was, she had passed, but I mean, she, at that point at 54 years old Who a month and a half earlier had been out doing and just living her life,

not knowing she had a problem in the world. And now There’s short time later, the doctor has come in and said, there’s nothing more we can do. And the cancer is spread into most, every organ in her body. By the time I got there to see her the day after she’d gotten that news, I was there to see her. And she was already to where she could not even communicate.

She was, she was so out of it, 54 years old and gone. And I can tell you that six weeks earlier, she didn’t know she had a problem in the world. And all of a sudden she was gone the same time. I had a funeral for an 80 year old. Well, you kind of expect that three score and 10,

four score. The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 90 verse 10. So you kind of expect that. And then we had one brother that just has been a joy to know was 99 years old. And he kept asking me to please pray for him that he could make it until July where he could hit a hundred. He just wanted to be at a hundred.

We didn’t make it. The thing you can be sure of. He’s a death scene. And if you die, you’re not coming back for another opportunity to see about making things, right? He looked 16. There’s a man that dies. He’s all concerned about five brothers. He’s gotten, he’s got it. He’s concerned because he doesn’t want those brothers to die lost.

And he knows the condition they’re in. And he wants somebody to go back and teach them, send Lazarus, send somebody. If they wouldn’t hear Moses, they wouldn’t be persuaded. If one Rose from the dead was the answer, bread and desks going to come. One of these days to every one of us that sit here, I hope it’s a long time off for you.

I hope you continue to enjoy good health. And I hope you live to be a hundred and beyond, but I also know how quickly life can be taken and how short it is. And I’m reminded over and over the passages that talk about the brevity of life. And the thing I do know is that if you’re not ready for death, when it comes,

you will not have an opportunity to make things right later, deaths final. That’s the end. And if you don’t have things in your life where they need to be, and you’re not living like you all, if you’ve never obeyed the gospel, you’ve never been washed in the blood of the lamb. You intend to one of these days, but death comes and takes you away.

Let me tell you, there’s no more opportunity after death. It’s too late. If you’re one of God’s children, you wonder why you hadn’t been living like you all. You’ve done things to bring shame and approach upon the church upon Christ himself. You need to repent of it, confess it. You need the prayers of your bravery, that you might be forgiven and you need that because one of these days you’re going to die.

Just like I am. And if this world stands there, won’t be a one of us. That’ll escape, death, not a one of us. And no one of us knows when it’s coming. We don’t know. We’re not told that on a certain date, your life’s going to end, but I can tell you on a certain date, your life’s going to end.

I don’t know the Bay, but I do know that death’s coming. And when it comes, that’s the end. If you’ve been righteous and upright, if you’ve been following the Lord, that day will be a joyous occasion. And you can be like those that I’ve known and been with when they were at the last moments of their life. And you can be ready for that day and waiting for it.

If you need to make things right, you have today, you don’t have tomorrow. And death is fine. And if you’re prepared, it’ll be a great day. And if you’re not, they’re not words to describe what it will be. But while he’s calling for you to come, we begged you to respond to his invitation. While together we stand at the scene.