Words of Jesus Podcast - Come To Christ Bankrupt

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

 "If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably not true."   Consider the premise, "Salvation is free."  While it is true salvation cannot be obtained without the gift of faith and the sacrifice of Jesus; it is also true that Christianity is costly.  To gain new life, we must lay down our old life.  We must submit to the commandments, to the authority of the Spirit of God, and to Jesus Christ of Nazareth as our ONE teacher.  The path of redemption is narrow. This fight, this faith, this race, presents all the challenges one would expect when searching for a new life, as eternal goal, a God worthy of worship and honor. Worship not in words, but in humility and action. It is recognized as obedience. ***57: The Mission And Success Of The Seventy Disciples Of JesusLuke 10:1-24JESUS APPOINTED seventy disciples in addition to the twelve. He sent them before him, two by two, into every city and place through which he would pass. When they were gathered around him, he sent them forth with these instructions: “The harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. Go your ways. Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes, and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it; if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give; for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, ‘The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.’ But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same and say, ‘Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you.’ Notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable that day for Sodom, than for that city. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to Heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.” When the seventy were with Jesus again, they were much elated and said to him: “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” Jesus answered them, saying: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your name are written in Heaven.” In that hour Jesus rejoiced and prayed to his Father, saying: “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father; and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” Then he turned again to his disciples and said to them: “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris from Think Red Inc. Ministries, Pytown, New Mexico. If you ever thought about writing to us, you should do that now. I'd love to hear from you. You can write to our post office box if you're a letter writer. If there's still any of those left.

PO Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827 is our address. And if you're an e-mailer, you can write to me, don at thinkredink.com. If you have a general concern, something you see on thinkredink.com that you'd like us to send to you. You can do that at info at ThinkCreating.com. Just ask for what you want. Send us your address and we will send it to you. We've been talking from the book, The Words of Jesus, about Jesus' insistence upon his followers, his disciples, us, that we are willing to, and in many cases,

even actively pursue the subtracting of our lives in many different cases, many different ways. By that I mean that we have a tendency to, I don't know if it's an American thing, perhaps it's just a human thing. In America, you know, we're really in love with things here. And many people own many things. And so ownership has kind of become a status. You know, if whatever it is you own is is good or or desirable in some way that it puts you

into a different status of other people you got a better car than they do better house than they do you dress better than they do you got a better job or whatever else um it what it does is it tends to put an artificial importance and subsequently it's even an artificial desire. It is an artificial desire that we have certain things. But this all stems from the fact that we are incomplete human beings that have a serious problem. You've heard me say it before. There's something wrong with you.

And one of the things that is wrong with us is the fact that God, His influence, His power, His spirit, the things that were intricately a part of us and our creation are now missing. And we have a tendency to fill spiritual void with physical things. And sometimes emotional things. There are people who have trouble in the area of falling in love because they need somebody to complete them. There is some truth in that, but there's also a sinister, I don't know if it's a sinister plot, but there's a sinister side of that

in that a man's wife can fill so much of his life that it spills over into the area of a man having spiritual needs of a God to fill that lacking in his life. It's certainly true of women that are seeking a marriage situation that will fill a void in their life that they, you know, they need love, they need companionship, they need children. There are children born to people who have, you don't have a lack of children in your life you have a spiritual void that you're trying to fill we've some people fill this spiritual void with food some with the cigarettes some with alcohol some with drugs some with possessions of cars and such as possessions of things and toys

and money and job security and we have I, I mean, it's all the aspects of life, isn't it? And there is a bankruptcy. There is a place where, well, you know, I use maybe crude, but I always hear in my mind, you know, people's butts need to hit concrete, it seems, before they realize how depraved we actually are. And it is the removal of those things, the removal of the props that makes us topple. And, I mean, nobody that thinks about this for five minutes is going to say

that this is a good thing that we would that we would remove the props in our life and fall over um but somebody who has indeed done as jesus instructed us to do to fall upon that stone. Do you remember this? We talked about this once that Jesus said that, you know, I am that I'm, I'm a stone. I'm, I'm that rock that if you fall on this rock, you will be broken. He didn't say you may be, he said you will be but here's what you need to understand that you will either fall on this rock and be broken or it will fall on you and grind you to powder now that may sound you know like threatening language and you may be you know prompted at that point to say not my jesus but uh look your jesus can't save anybody i've met that jesus i served that jesus and uh it's just not the jesus of the bible this jesus is saying you will forsake all and follow me you're a fool if you think that you're going to make a change of being a downcast and degraded human being

and change to a child of God, and it not cost you anything. This is going to cost you everything. And this is the Jesus of the Bible speaking. It's going to cost you everything. You might say to yourself you know i don't really remember a time in my life when i was as you say bankrupt do you know what you might be seeing is the lord god himself explaining to you showing you by example by the voice of his prophet by the the words in your ear by the understanding in your head,

he might be showing you that you've never really come to Christ the way Jesus intended for you to come. Now, that is a sobering thought. I've told you before, I don't understand people who come to Christ, not the Christ of the the bible and avoid the commandments of god you can't find a not a not a scrap of scripture anywhere not a scintilla of information comes from the scriptures that says you're allowed to avoid the commandments of god and be a christian there not a bit as a matter fact, in one of the books

that states this so clearly that the American Bible Society decided that you didn't need to know this is found in, gee, I think it's Sirach 1515. And he makes it very clear that I'm not going to be able to turn to it, am I? But, oh, maybe I am. He was saying very clearly that God has not given anyone a license to sin. Nobody. And that doesn't sit right it certainly doesn't uh bolster some of the doctrines of today that we're all sinners and there's nothing we can do about it well let's see where is this it here yes it is um here listen to this uh this is so good if you don't have the apocrypha in your Bible, I encourage you to get it

because it is full of information. I don't care what the American Bible Society has to say about it, but it's full of really, really good information that we should add to our lives and certainly add to our Bible reading. If you choose, you can keep the commandments

and to act faithfully If you choose, you can keep the commandments. And to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water. Stretch forth your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death. Man, this is obeying the commandments are not obeying them do you understand this this is serious business before each person are life and death and whichever one chooses will be given his eyes are on those who fear him, and he knows every human action. He has not commanded anyone to be wicked.

He has not given anyone permission to sin. Now, if we don't have permission, and it is indeed a matter of our choice, don't you think you need to be very careful when you say that we sin every day? I sin every day. We all sin every day. It's just not scriptural we need to not sin every day and i think that we can do that of course you can look at the ten commandments

tell me which of those commandments you can't keep well the reason that we have a lot of these problems and and the reason that even what I'm saying today, although it's in Scripture, although this Apocrypha, this Apocryphal Bible was in everyone's hand until about 150 years ago, the King James Bible contained the Apocrypha. If you're out there and you say, I believe in the King James Bible, that's the first thing i'm going to ask you does your bible have the apocrypha in it that's the first thing i'm going to ask you because if it doesn't it's not a king james bible so shut up so what what i'm trying to say is the reason these things are a surprise to us the reason these things are new to us not necessarily because we've been being indoctrinated improperly is is a big factor i get that but you know in a lot of cases we're just not prepared to hear the voice of god in

our lives because we have so much stuff making demands upon us so many things that we're protecting so many things that are important to us that ought not be important jesus is teaching us that there is a bankruptcy that precedes salvation absolute bankruptcy bankruptcy not poverty mind you bankruptcy and um he's telling us that you have to be willing to give it all away now here's the wonderful the wonderful thing that has been it's been messed with by the prosperity ideas and that is you don't give anything away unless you get 60 fold return you know get it all back and you know it was it's not a big problem you give everything away but you get it all back usually they're talking about your money but uh the the fact of the matter is is that we give

as jesus said expecting nothing in return you know we we ought to give these things up knowing that fully aware that there's a chance that you know god might take my talent as a as a drummer and and if and if i turn that down and turn that away walk away from that in response to and in obedience to his words that we are to actually uh uh to bankrupt ourselves to not willing to to um or to be willing to give up these things in order to have a relationship with God? We have to understand that there's a chance that you may never pick up a drumstick again, no matter how much you like it, no matter how much talent you have.

You see, you're moving from being autonomous to being a servant of God. You do what he says to do. That doesn't appeal to you? Well, you're looking at the reason why marriages are breaking up all over the place because that idea of not being autonomous and not doing your own thing,

not subjecting yourself, it's absolutely destroying the attitude of women all over the country. All over the world. And so therefore marriages break up. What are you going to do? When I tell you that that's the reason Christianity is not working either. He has no servants. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he send forth servants into his vineyard.

Well, you can pray it if you want to. Where is he going to find them? Where is he going to find men that are willing to do what they say they're going to do? Where is he going to find people willing to do what he says to do? He can't get us to do nothing. I explained in the last show that's not a double negative. He can't even tell us to do nothing i explained in the last show that's not a double negative he can't even tell us to do nothing we won't obey him no matter what he says it's it's amazing just i mean our attitude is hey just save me bring me to heaven and just stay there and keep your mouth shut

we don't we don't we will not oh jesus told a parable one time where the servants in the vineyard said we will not have this man to reign over us we don't care how much money we're making we don't care if we're you know good servants bad servants good employees bad employees none of this stuff matters we don't care if the vineyard prospers we don't care if if you know we're all you know in a profit sharing program what so what's the problem authority we do not want this man in authority over us friend you're going to give up your authority you're going to give up your autonomy there's no other way into the kingdom of god there's no other way to be what you call saved

unless you give of your authority you want to give your authority to a preacher oh you're in luck there are millions of those out there millions of them that'll tell you that i don't know what i'm talking about but um the problem is is that uh i didn't learn it from them that's the problem i can't find their doctrine in the bible or i'd follow it i can't find their rules in the bible or i'd follow them i can't find the lord saying what they say matter of fact i find the lord saying what are these people running around saying thus saith the lord i didn't say that well how are these people saying god said to me god said to me god said to me i didn't say anything to them i've had a dream i've had a vision i didn't give them a dream or a vision this is the way we hear the lord speaking about his prophets not much has changed friend not much has changed well here's the good news amount of transfiguration jesus standing there

elijah representing every prophet that ever lived moses representing all the laws that's ever been written and he says poof poof they go away this is my beloved son in whom by the way i am well pleased and he is the one i want you to listen to that has not changed either our intention at this ministry is for you to realize who your teacher is i'm sure you know there's people that are pleased with this ministry, with this telecast. They tune in, they listen, and they tell their friends, I found a new Bible teacher. He's wonderful.

Okay, there might be a few of them. But nevertheless, they are introducing me to their friends or they think in their own mind that I'm their Bible teacher. Friend, I got one thing to teach mind that i'm their bible teacher friend i got one thing to teach you i'm not your teacher jesus christ is your teacher and if i can do anything for you if i can do anything at all if i can please my god in the ministry he's called me to do it is that i am going to take you to christ and leave you there. I can give you some hints along the way. I can give you some of the sassy remarks that I made.

I can show you some of the mistakes that I've done. I can help you that way, perhaps with my experience. But when it comes down to it, one is your teacher, one is your guide, one is your rabbi, even the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And all of us us all the pastors all the deacons all the elders all the people of the church no matter how many bars they have on their robe sleeves no matter what parking place they have in your church no matter what kind of

car they drive all the way down to the the poor slob that has to come in and clean up the candy wrappers that your unruly kids left in the floor at church last Sunday. Everybody that is involved in the body of Christ, all of you, are brethren. There's the hierarchy of God. One's your teacher. And so that's my ministry. If I can get you in touch with him,

I don't have to worry about a thing. I don't have to sit here and bark about false doctrine and bark about what do you mean that's what i do um well i don't have to sit here and point out every little thing that people are doing wrong or that you're doing wrong or anything else i get you in front of the teacher you're going to hear these things for yourself i my prayer is that you do as you're told my prayer is that you you do have what it takes to stand up to mom stand up to dad and your uncles and all your favorite preachers and all your favorite christian friends and all the rest of them and do the right thing for the right reasons every time now jesus made a comment here as as well we we read this last time um he says uh i will one of the one of the men that came to him um offering to follow him said i will follow thee but let me first go and bid farewell to them that are at my There's a lot in this statement. There's a lot to be said about this statement,

and it can go in a lot of different ways. But I think one of the primary ways that we need to look at this is that if it is a real concern for you that your family and your friends and those that are at your house those that's the people in your sphere of influence in your life, if those people are so important to you that you feel like you need to explain what you are doing in following Christ to them so that they will be favorable to what you're doing, you are starting out on the wrong foot.

Now today, the institution of church has um has gotten among people who are friendly toward religion into a into an attitude of oh so-and-so is called to preach isn't that wonderful uh or he's called to a mission field or he's you know he's he's been called to be uh what a minister of music at the church or whatever else we've invented and um and so people the religious people anyway have a tendency to look up at something like that and say oh that you know that's a wonderful thing wish you the best best, that kind of thing. Then there are people who think, oh my goodness, you know, this is horrible, he's going to turn into a churchocrat. He's going to turn into one of these people that are always condemning people to hell

and they're going to try to discourage him. I want you to know that in reality, both of those responses are worthless. They have nothing to do with your service to God. If you feel like those things are important, here's what you're going to do. You're not just going to go back and make things right with them before you start into the ministry. You're going to go back to them all the time. And you're going to constantly be bombarded by criticisms. And you're going to be constantly and falsely uplifted

by people of no spirit whatsoever. And either one of those situations are detrimental to telling the truth of the gospel, which is not necessarily a pleasant thing. He requires that we have people that stand on their own two feet. They do not need the commendation of men, like Paul says. I'm not looking for a letter of commendation from you here let me show you you see all these people over here these people were in the world and lost

without god and these people now serve the lord and and do so in in such a way that they are living a life that pleases god you see all these people these are people that i preach to this is the fruit of my labor there's my letter of commendation you see i admire that about paul as a matter of fact he took great pains to explain to people i didn't i didn't necessarily care what the apostles at jerusalem thought of my calling well on the on the road to damascus when he uh was called to the lord why are you persecuting me you remember the story and you know if you read the book of acts you'll find that luke tells a story that you know story that he went back to Jerusalem and got their approval and that they taught him all this stuff and things like this.

And Paul in the book of Galatians says, that ain't so. That is not what happened to me. I got my commission from the Lord and I went off by myself. Because see, Paul knew there's one teacher. Didn't he? And he got off by myself because see paul knew there's one teacher didn't he and he got off by himself and he spent time in the arabian desert and was taught of the lord everything that he's teaching people now yeah i went to jerusalem and i told them what the lord had told me and they said congratulations and they extended the right hand of fellowship everything was fine between me and them that's as far as it went he says i saw peter um and i might have seen somebody else but i don't remember anybody else this is paul's attitude

this gospel i neither received it nor was i taught it but by revelation of jesus christ it was very important for him and it's very should be very important to you that paul's revelation was given to him by god not by other men and if your intention is as you decide to become a minister of the gospel and many of you are called have been called wondered if you've been called or or this is something in your future, or something you failed in in your past. I might be showing you why it failed. Because other men have nothing to do with your calling. Nothing, nothing, nothing to do with your calling. You do not need them.

As the apostles made it clear in so many words, you have no need that any man teach you. Because the same spirit that brought you here, he can carry you where you need to go. He can teach you. You have no need. Wow, man. He didn't say a little bit of need or a whole lot of need you have no need that any man teach you Boy these are this is amazingly different than what we witness in the earth today as Christianity. I Say we fix it. I Say we fix this. I say that we bolster Christianity with the words of Jesus Christ, no matter what

they tear apart, no matter what they throw out the window, no matter what they bring in. Let the words of Christ form our Christian faith and nothing else. We don't care what men think. We do not, we cannot care what men think. All right, our time is gone again. I thank you so much for being a part of the broadcast, and I wish you the best on this. You just need to know that this is going to cost you everything you have, so you might as well just face it. And if it hasn't cost you everything you have, I don't know what you bought. But you didn't buy what Jesus was selling because his price tag was everything you have. I don't think you got this at a bargain basement or a discount house.

Whatever you got, I'd question it. Hey, will you write to me? Don at ThinkRedInk.com I'd love to hear from you. Until I see you again, think red ink. Bye-bye. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you