Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst, welcomes you to the Aug. 3 evening revival message with Rev. Kelvin Brown from Mount Olive Baptist Church. I'm taken aback a little bit tonight.
[00:00:13] My father's here.
[00:00:16] Appreciate that.
[00:00:17] Church is here. Church members are all around.
[00:00:21] The people of God are here.
[00:00:23] I understand there's some great pastors here tonight, great preachers of the word, great people of God.
[00:00:34] The reason I'm taken aback is because I've been.
[00:00:38] As I was listening, I was thinking about how it is that I'm standing here tonight and what that journey was like. And to me, the further I go down the road of life, the more I become humble.
[00:00:58] Because as I look over my shoulder, I can see how it had very little to do with me and that I'm here tonight not because I've done anything right or because I'm so great, but I'm here by the grace of God tonight, and I'm here to serve him and hopefully to encourage us, to encourage one another. Mason. If I need to turn off one, I will. I'm okay. All right.
[00:01:29] I was. I was praying that I have enough breath tonight to share the Gospel. Amen. If I forgot anyone or anything, I apologize. But I just want to say good evening, and I want us to get right to the word of God. If you look in the Gospel According to St. Luke, I've been preaching from Luke, and I want to let it go, but it won't let me go.
[00:01:54] And maybe that's what we all need to hear tonight. Luke, chapter 11.
[00:02:01] And I want to begin at verse 29. Luke 11:29.
[00:02:08] Amen. You have your Bible with you.
[00:02:11] Luke 11, verse 29.
[00:02:18] You get there, say, thank you, Lord.
[00:02:27] And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, this is Jesus.
[00:02:37] This is an evil generation.
[00:02:41] They seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.
[00:02:52] I'm just going to leave it right there.
[00:02:56] I actually want to talk tonight.
[00:03:01] I'm going to try to combine two messages into one because they're both so important.
[00:03:07] I struggled with which one the church needed tonight.
[00:03:12] And so I think you need both.
[00:03:15] But I'll be brief. Amen.
[00:03:18] I saw him back there going, shoo.
[00:03:23] So tonight I want to talk and use the subject. And it's a great subject. Choose the right path in life.
[00:03:31] Choose the right path in life.
[00:03:35] And that's why my subtitle is pay attention to where you're going.
[00:03:41] But when it comes to choosing the right Path in life.
[00:03:44] We really don't know once we set out on a path in life, how long we're going to be on that path.
[00:03:52] You know, there are some babies who never make it home from the hospital after birth.
[00:03:58] There are some children who don't make it from being a toddler up to being in elementary school or first grade yet. There are others that go on in life, and we don't know where the path will end for us here.
[00:04:13] But my job tonight is to make sure we know where that path is going to end up and take us. Amen.
[00:04:20] So we want to choose the right path in life.
[00:04:25] And the gospel that I want to share with you tonight is Luke. You know, he is such a unique figure in the Bible because he was a Gentile, and he's the only Gentile writer of the Gospel of the Bible in the authors that we know. Amen.
[00:04:45] He reminds me, I want to tell you. I was.
[00:04:48] I'm getting. I digress a little bit. When I think about Luke, I think about. He was a physician. He was a doctor. And six weeks, no more than six weeks, like eight weeks ago now, I called Pastor Jeffrey and I said, I want to help you with revival, but I don't know if I'll be able to because they've got to go operate on my kidney.
[00:05:10] And he said, well, we'll talk about it. You just go ahead and have the surgeon. We'll see what happens.
[00:05:15] And so I told Pastor Jeffrey somewhat of this, and I'm gonna tell all of you tonight. Don't tell anyone.
[00:05:23] Keep it a secret.
[00:05:25] But, you know, they hook you up to all this stuff, and they put this little thing on you, you know, like, what is a hospital gown or whatever.
[00:05:35] And I left my beautiful wife. They rolled me into the or.
[00:05:41] And me being an observant person that I am, I began to look around, and it was like, you know, when you get into.
[00:05:50] I had been in surgery eight times before this one, or seven times before this surgery.
[00:05:55] But sometimes when you get into a situation, you have a clear vision of what's going on.
[00:06:03] And so when I got in there, I noticed. It seemed like the first time I noticed everyone was wearing a mask.
[00:06:10] I began to look around at the little trays and tables, and I said, well, you know, they all have access to a sharp knife.
[00:06:17] And everyone had a mask or access to a sharp knife except me.
[00:06:24] And usually in that situation, I always had a gun.
[00:06:29] But it occurred to me that I better start making friends.
[00:06:35] Luke just reminded me of that. So don't tell anybody about it. Amen.
[00:06:40] But anyway, back to the message. Okay, I'm gonna get serious. I'm gonna get back to the message.
[00:06:45] When you choose the right path in life, I want to talk about, you know, it's a journey. Like I say, we don't know where the journey is going to take us. But there are three things that you can expect when you get out. You can expect thick traffic, heavy traffic at some point.
[00:07:04] You can expect, if you're going to take a journey, to hear directions.
[00:07:08] And you can expect to observe different color lights as you travel along the way.
[00:07:14] And even in the ancient times, when the time of the Bible and God's people, when they took a journey, all of these things were happening.
[00:07:26] You know, the traffic would get heavy, maybe the way Mary and Joseph experienced on the way to Bethlehem when baby Jesus was about to be born.
[00:07:38] You hear directions that are given, maybe like the wise men received when they came looking for Jesus.
[00:07:46] There are different color lights and so forth. As the wise men looked at the stars in the sky, they had to take it all in.
[00:07:54] And today, as we travel today, we expect thick traffic, even in the country sometimes because if there's an accident, the road gets clogged or whatever when we go along the way, we have to listen to directions carefully if we want to get to where we're going.
[00:08:11] And you can expect to see different color lights on the highway. Are y' all still here with me?
[00:08:19] So as we. As we look at this message tonight, I'm going to share with you. Well, the Holy Spirit will share with you through me more of these things.
[00:08:34] And so no matter what happens tonight, I want you to remember, we need to stay on the right path, but we must pay attention to where we're going.
[00:08:43] So let's just look at what God is doing.
[00:08:46] Beginning. I'm going to start in verse 27.
[00:08:50] You understand that at this time, Jesus has been making his way from the main area of his ministry in Galilee.
[00:08:59] He's making his way toward Jerusalem. He's been teaching and mainly getting close to the disciples and trying to teach them what they would need to know because he knew that his time was getting short.
[00:09:14] And so as they are moving on toward Jerusalem, toward the cross, on toward his destiny, the reason that he came to earth to die for mankind, but also to be raised from the grave, he begins to encounter along this right path that He. He's the trailblazer for the right path, by the way, to show us what to do. He begins to encounter a number of things and Here in chapter 11, most of us know this because you can find the model of prayer at the beginning of it.
[00:09:46] And then if you look a little bit further, you can see the importance of how individuals need to pray and be persistent in prayer.
[00:09:54] And then in verse 14, you see where Jesus was casting out a devil out of a person that was mute. And as he did this, he began to encounter some resistance.
[00:10:09] So tonight let's read the word and then begin to see what. And I'm just gonna read a few verses for background and then I'll get down to the main verse where I wanna begin, which is verse 29. Are you all gonna allow me to do that tonight?
[00:10:25] So look in verse 14.
[00:10:27] And as he was casting out a devil and it was mute, and it came to pass when the devil was gone out, that's gone out of this person, this person began to speak. And the people wondered, verse 15. But some of them said, he cast out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. And others tempting him, sought of a sign from heaven.
[00:10:50] They were just wanting a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thought, said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And a house divided against itself falls.
[00:11:04] And I think that's the problem that we have on the level of families, but on the national level, that's the thing that we need to be careful about, is being divided.
[00:11:17] And that word divided indicates that which is people that are divided against each other.
[00:11:24] And even in the house, you know, husband and wife can be divided against each other. Children can be divided against the parents. And so as we look at this, understand that Jesus is already sharing what it takes to stay on the right path in life.
[00:11:42] And then he goes on and says, they said to him, he says, if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?
[00:11:54] Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if by Beelzebub I cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges.
[00:12:09] Now bear with me. Verse 20. But if I, Jesus says, but if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
[00:12:22] And in reality the kingdom of God was happening right in front of their eyes.
[00:12:29] And in reality the finger of God had demonstrated his power already.
[00:12:35] And he was pointing to the problems with sin and pointing to the problems with people have when they bring accusations against Jesus as and don't really even understand who he is.
[00:12:47] But he gives them example and he goes on. He Says, now, when a strong man arm keepeth his palace, his goods are at peace. In other words, no one's messing with his stuff. Verse 22. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor, wherein he trusted and divided his spoils. I'm trying to keep. I'm just trying to read the background, but I want to preach almost.
[00:13:14] Do you know, be. Pay attention to what you're using to fight the devil.
[00:13:21] Pay attention to what your tools are. And God tells us what our tools ought to be. But be careful what you use to fight him.
[00:13:29] And he says in verse 23, he that is not with me is against me. And he that gathereth not with me, scatter. Verse 24. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding none.
[00:13:45] He saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.
[00:13:49] And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. That means put in order.
[00:13:56] Finds it put in order.
[00:13:59] And he says in verse 25, and he goeth and taketh to him seven other spirits, demonic spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than. Than the first. I read all of that background just to illustrate. When you get off the right wrong, when you own the right path and get off of it, all these things are possible. An increase of demonic activity in our home. The devil can come take over your house. The devil can take over things that you had set in order and all these things.
[00:14:33] But now this is the turning point in the text in verse 27. And it came to pass as he spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted. Lifted up her voice and said, blessed is the womb that bare you and the breast in which you had sucked talking to Jesus.
[00:14:50] And then she said, look, you're so blessed because of who your mother is.
[00:14:57] You're so blessed because of who you came from, your people.
[00:15:00] And he says, and this is the turning point. Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.
[00:15:09] So the way to stay on the right path is to hear the word of God and keep it all these years.
[00:15:16] Pastor Jeffrey, Pastor Mike, other pastors and preachers, the people of God all these years. If you've been on the road for God, to stay on the right path for God, we need to hear the word of God and keep it. Not just keep it like in a storeroom, but in other words, to Obey it and to walk in it by faith. Amen.
[00:15:39] And so this is what I want to share with you now in verse 29.
[00:15:48] And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, this is an evil generation. And they that seek a sign. So I will talk to you tonight. First of all, when you trying to stay on the right path, note where your current location. Note your current location. Notice where you are in life.
[00:16:13] We're all in different places.
[00:16:16] Emotionally, we're in different places. Spiritually, we're in different places financially. And some of these places are painful. And it's possible to be physically in one place, but mentally in another place. You can be in more than one place at the same time. You can be in church and in pain.
[00:16:38] You can be in a marriage, but feeling lonely.
[00:16:42] You can be on a job, but you feel like you're out of place.
[00:16:47] So it's possible to be in one place, but feeling like you're somewhere else.
[00:16:54] And so Jesus says here, when the traffic gets thick, when the people were thick together, when people come together and the traffic gets thick, we have to be more careful.
[00:17:09] Say, pastor, what do you mean? I mean, I don't care who you are, the traffic is heavy today on the Internet.
[00:17:16] When these kids go back to school, the traffic's gonna be heavy in the classroom.
[00:17:20] When we go out on our jobs, there are a lot of people around us trying to tell us this and tell us that and get us on this road and on that road.
[00:17:28] The traffic, when it gets thick, it requires that we pay closer attention to what we're doing because it's easier to have an accident or to wreck when you don't pay attention. And the traffic is thick, the spiritual traffic is thick today in America, I believe it's thick because of so much wrong teaching, so much wrong doctrines. It's thick today because we have access to every voice in the world right in our pockets on our cell phones.
[00:18:01] But we need to learn as the people of God, to hear the word of God, to hear God's voice, no matter how many horns are honking where you are, learn to hear and distinguish the voice of God from all others. Amen.
[00:18:19] You know, just because there's a whole lot of people around, that doesn't guarantee safe passage.
[00:18:27] Just because a whole lot of people agree with a certain thing or other thing. And I said this, I shared this not long ago. There are approximately 2.1 billion Christians around the world.
[00:18:39] And in America, the Pew study was done back in 2023, 2024, and they said 62% of Americans identify as Christian.
[00:18:50] But yet we seem like we don't have the power we used to have when we had smaller numbers.
[00:18:56] And so I want us to really focus on and pay attention to when life gets thick and when the crowd gets heavy around you.
[00:19:06] Please understand and distinguish the voice of Jesus from everyone else.
[00:19:11] And so what is he saying? He's given directions.
[00:19:15] So look in the text, and let's look at the directions that he's given us.
[00:19:20] We're gonna have to listen and carefully follow these directions.
[00:19:24] He says in verse.
[00:19:26] I'm reading verse 29 again. And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, this is an evil generation. They seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, remember those ungodly people.
[00:19:44] He said, also the Son of Man will be to this generation just the way Jonah was. I'll be like that. And then he goes, in verse 31, he says, and the Queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
[00:20:08] I'm going to make it real simple.
[00:20:11] These people wanted Jesus to do some type of big miracle.
[00:20:15] They wanted him to put on a show or do something special.
[00:20:19] And what he's trying to get them to see, that he is standing right there in front of them, the Son of God.
[00:20:26] And today, even though he wasn't talking about us, because we weren't part of that generation, but the generation that we're living in is an evil generation as well.
[00:20:37] And what we have to understand is what Jesus is saying. There's going to come a judgment day.
[00:20:42] And that as people are gathered together on Judgment Day, they're going to be judged according to what they knew about Jesus.
[00:20:50] And some of the people that are around us may be in the room on Judgment Day, and they may give a witness for us or against us.
[00:20:58] You look at that.
[00:21:00] He said, the people of Nineveh will rise up and talk and say that. You know what? They're not right.
[00:21:10] Jonah came to us, and as evil as we were, we changed our ways.
[00:21:16] But they have all the prophets and they haven't changed their ways.
[00:21:21] And so as we look at this, we're seeing that we need to listen careful to the directions of Jesus.
[00:21:30] Well, look a little bit further is what he says.
[00:21:33] No man, when he has lit a candle, puts it in a secret place or under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.
[00:21:45] Now, if you come in a house and there's light, Jesus is saying, you can see the light.
[00:21:52] He's telling them now he's gonna move their attention to verse 34. He says, the light of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is single, the whole body is full of light. When your eye is focused properly, when your spiritual understanding is focused properly, when your eye is healthy, you can see where you're going.
[00:22:19] But if it's not, he says here, but when the eye is evil, the body is full of darkness.
[00:22:28] In other words, the way you see and perceive things. The way I see and perceive things is being filtered through what's inside of us.
[00:22:36] And if our spiritual understanding is of God, in other words, we hear God, we want to obey him, then the eye is good and we won't stumble so much. But if it's evil, if our eye is evil, Church, hear me. Hear me well. If we are rebellious, if we reject God, if we rebel against what we know, the body's going to be full of darkness.
[00:23:00] Pastor, why is that important?
[00:23:03] Because all around Amherst county tonight, all around the state of Virginia tonight, all around the world tonight, people are in trouble.
[00:23:16] Evil things are happening even as we speak.
[00:23:20] All around the world tonight, things are going. And people are doing things so evil because they can't see the truth of Jesus. The light he's speaking about is his truth, the truth of the gospel, the truth about who he is and what he came to do in our lives.
[00:23:40] And so he says here, take heed.
[00:23:43] Pay attention to these directions. If you're going to stay on the right path. Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in you is not darkness. Now he's talking about different color lights. You know, when you go down the road, you see a yellow light, you know what it means. You see a red light, you see a green light, you know what it means, what Jesus is saying. Take heed.
[00:24:05] In other words, it's up to each one of us to determine what kind of light we're gonna let into our lives.
[00:24:13] It's up to each one of us to determine what our eyesight is gonna be and what we want to do. And I want to stay on the right path with Jesus. I wanna be faithful and true to him. I hope and pray that I'm encouraging you tonight to be faithful and true to him.
[00:24:32] Sometimes. Yes, it's discouraging. Sometimes you feel like you're getting nowhere. But I want you to know church, no matter who you are, what you're going through tonight, don't be discouraged enough to step off onto that broad road.
[00:24:46] I want you to stay with Jesus. I want you to stay with his teaching. I want you to stay with the Holy Spirit. I want you to stay with reading your Bible. I want you to keep reading devotions. You.
[00:24:59] I want you to stay on the right path with Jesus. I know it's not easy. I know temptation surrounds us all in many different ways.
[00:25:09] But Jesus is telling us to take heed.
[00:25:15] That's up to us. Each person has to put some effort into paying attention to his directions and make sure that the light inside of us, not darkness. Because if there's untruth in us, if there's rebellion in us, if we are not following Christ, the light in us is dark indeed.
[00:25:40] So what does he say in verse 36?
[00:25:44] If the whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole body shall be full of light.
[00:25:53] As when the bright shining of the candle does give light.
[00:25:58] If the whole body therefore be full of light.
[00:26:02] If your life is full of God's truth.
[00:26:05] If my life is full of God's truth.
[00:26:08] He said, having no part in the dark shun evil.
[00:26:16] Try not to participate with evil.
[00:26:20] And today it's hard to deal with all of the things that are around us because there's so much around us that's not right and not of God.
[00:26:30] But he says, take heed.
[00:26:32] Take heed, therefore, that the light is inside of us is not darkness.
[00:26:39] The whole.
[00:26:41] For the whole shall be full of light.
[00:26:46] As when the bright and shining of a candle does give light.
[00:26:50] I want my life to be an example of God's truth.
[00:26:56] God wants your life to be an example of his truth.
[00:27:00] God wants. When people meet you on your job, they want to see the light of Christ shining through you, through your words, through your actions, through the way you treat people.
[00:27:14] The light is desperately needed today.
[00:27:19] Beloved.
[00:27:21] Stay on the right path.
[00:27:25] Pastor, I'm so tired. Stay on the right path, Pastor. But you don't understand what's happening in my home. Stay on the right path, Pastor, you just don't know what kind of diagnosis the doctor gave me. Stay on the right path with Jesus.
[00:27:43] But Pastor, I'm in leadership myself. I'm leading a church and I have struggles within my own life. I'm struggling with sin and darkness. Stay on the right path.
[00:27:55] God is not through with us yet.
[00:28:00] And even tonight, this simple message, I promise you, if you Take it in your heart.
[00:28:10] If you hold it respect for it, God will use it to take you so far down the road.
[00:28:19] In faith.
[00:28:21] In faith.
[00:28:22] Well, Pastor, how do I apply this message to my life?
[00:28:27] Well, let me share a little quote to you. I just want to read this and I'm going to tell you what we have to do. We have to switch on the light. But let me just read this. Jesus is the light.
[00:28:39] We need his guidance.
[00:28:41] If your life seems pointless and without direction, if it seems empty and without love, if your life seems boring and without hope, if it seems common and without purpose, if it seems dull and without challenge or transient and without hope, switch on the light.
[00:29:03] The light of God's word. It will direct you toward a wonderful goal. It is full of God's love for you. It suggests lots of important work to challenge your gifts.
[00:29:17] And it points us to eternal life.
[00:29:21] You see, eventually, where we want to end up is with God. We want to end up with Jesus.
[00:29:29] Someone asked this question not long ago. I shared it.
[00:29:34] I was with a group of men. We were studying, and one of them asked this question.
[00:29:38] Where will you be when you get where you're going?
[00:29:43] Now, that depends on which path you're on in life.
[00:29:48] Where will you be when you get where you're going?
[00:29:52] And while you're on the way there?
[00:29:55] Where will your family be?
[00:29:58] Where will your children be?
[00:30:01] Beloved, it's up to us to hear the word, keep it in our hearts, obey it and walk in it.
[00:30:11] That's God's message to God's people tonight. Amen.
[00:30:15] Amen. Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.
