Sunday Morning Worship, April 12, 2020

good

morning

, speaking on behalf of the oldest ship of the Church of Christ here at Bobby's branch, we would like to welcome you to the broadcast of our

worship

service today, although we are not gathering in a public forum, we are

worship

ing to the Lord in our hearts I along with everyone else will rejoice when we can say as David did and Psalms 122 one rejoiced when they told me let's go to the house of the Lord to put it in our words we will rejoice when this virus thing is over and we can all going to the house of the Lord and worship today is the beginning of a new adventure for us here at Bobby Branch, the gospel meeting with Brother Dawn Blackwell had to be canceled due to this virus situation that we were all looking forward to. for a long time for this gospel meeting however we are using this medium and other means to make this gospel meeting a reality these services are on Facebook at 6 p.m. tonight and 7 p.m. this Monday Tuesday and I wish you that this week now the schedule of channel 6 on Ben Lomond TV will be 11:00 a.m.

Sunday 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday afternoons and 5 p.m. On Wednesday now let me repeat that if you allow me again it is the schedule of channel 6 I am alone with the TV it will be 11 a.m. Sunday 3:30 p.m. Sunday 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday afternoons and 5 p.m. On Wednesdays, these times are in this week's newsletter or you can check out the Facebook division if you have any questions. Our goal is to reach as many people as possible with the gospel of Christ. Thank you for worshiping with us today through this medium, let us all.

Please continue to pray that this virus is brought under control and we can return to worship and fellowship together in an assembly. Come to the simple congregation. Now let us all unite as we worship the Lord. God bless you. Thank you. We bow together, our Heavenly Father, we come thanking you for the many blessings you have given us. Heavenly Father, we were grateful for all the physical blessings you have given us, you have blessed us so generously, father, more than we deserve and we thank you for that. Heavenly Father, we are grateful right now that we have a source of strength that we can lean on during these unprecedented times of this pandemic and may we always look to you for strength and guidance, and father, may those in this world look to you as well. to you because of so much uncertainty now is the time they can return to you father Heavenly Father we want to thank you for the church not only here at Bobby's branch but for the church around the world we are grateful for the elders and preachers that we have come with different avenues of teaching and preaching so that those who cannot be our father can use the technology that has been given to us so that we can spread your word further throughout the world.

Heavenly Father, we. Thank you also for the spiritual blessings you have given us, you bless us so much and we would have nothing without your son who came here to this earth, lived as a mortal man, endured temptations and trials, but was still sinless as that lamb led him. . to the slaughterhouse as he hung on the cross of Calvary that through his blood we can have forgiveness of sins and father, if there is anyone today who needs to be restored back to your church or wants to be a member of your church, let them not hesitate and let them Get in touch with someone as quickly as possible so you can make sure their soul is well with you, Heavenly Father, they are the children of the Tudors, the name of Jesus, we pray, amen, the greatest lesson ever taught in the world was the gift of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. who takes away the sins of the world and we want to do what Paul instructed the Corinthians to do when they gathered together to remember Him and so this

morning

we are going to do that, we will remember Jesus and if you would now pray with Me as we offer thanks for the bread that represents her body.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that you love us even to the point that you sent your only Son to die in our place. Father, we thank you this morning for this prayer that represents. his body and his father, we pray that you help us live so that we can wait for his coming again, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen, in this moment we come together to protect the fruit of the vine that represents blood. that was poured out by Christ from the cross could you pray with me this time father we come thanking you for this cup that represents the blood that was shed for the cross on the cross so that we can have forgiveness of our sins pray that you would be with us, while we protect this, all things will be according to your will, for some, cross them, we pray, amen, good morning, it is good to be here with you today in the D branch church of Christ, this is very unusual today, already that we are starting a virtual gospel meeting, this is the first one I have done and I understand it is the first one you have done and of course this is virtually something new for the Brotherhood no pun intended, but I am looking forward to it. looking forward to this week here with you, this morning's lesson is titled The fragility of life after being in the hospital after my accident.

I guess maybe two months or so I was able to go out on the weekends and attend a local congregation in Atlanta, Georgia. He invited me to come preach. I was at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and the local congregation invited me to come speak one Sunday morning and I was very nervous because it was the first time I was going to preach since the accident I had. He hadn't preached in two months. I was worried about my voice. I'm just worried about not being behind a pulpit. I was worried about how I'm going to get on stage.

I can not stand it. I can not stand it. I had that on my mind and you know I'm in a wheelchair, I can't stand it and right before I got up to speak, it was actually kind of funny, but right before I got up to speak, the song leader led the song, "standing for Jesus," I bowed. I went to Sherry and said this song is very offensive. It was May 5th of last year and I started a gospel meeting in Salem, Virginia at the Westside Church of Christ. We are ready. Brooke, our brother. Eddie Gilpin was preaching at the time.

On Monday the 6th, which was the next day, the meeting began on Sunday. On Monday, Eddie and his wife Jeannie invited me and Sherry to lunch at her house, so we spent some time talking and when we finished talking they said we'd go. We went to a small cafe nearby and we were expecting some kind of restaurant so we went out and they had four wheelers and we thought what kind of four wheelers were we going to go to so anyway we set off and followed them to across his field across his farm and in fact I'm going to show you a slide effect this first slide is of the Westside church building this is a store inside the service that is taking place the next shot is the dating coffee they took us to a little place on their farm on their property and they had the food prepared and a lunch that was absolutely beautiful and we said and we visited it and we had a great lunch and it was a really nice day, when we finished eating, They said they would like to see our property and we said we absolutely would, so we walked across the property.

Eddie and Jeanne were on a four-wheeler and we followed them. Sherry and I were on The four wheeler behind them we went up to the top of a hill and actually you can see this was the view looking down we stopped and I got out of my high drop and shot looking down the hill and it was just beautiful. in fact in the next shot you can see that Eddie took my iPhone and took this photo of me and Sherry on the other four wheeler and we kinda knew this was literally minutes before the accident happened and we were heading towards the field.

There was a hay field and somewhere along the line we hit something and when we did, the four wheeler we were on flipped several times. I don't remember any of this, but this is what they told me, they said he turned four. times in the air sherry flew in one direction i flew in another direction and when i hit the ground i broke my back i cut my spinal cord when eddie got to me i was unconscious and they thought i was dead and then sherry was in the distance but she said I could hear an announcement calling my name but it said I wasn't responding Cherry said she was praying to God that she wasn't dead or had brain damage after a while I came to my senses and I still remember some of this even after they said I woke up from being unconscious but Eddie said I started saying I can't feel my legs I can't feel my legs Sherry was in the distance but she said she could hear me moaning, I was talking slurred and it hurt and she said she was telling Eddie that I can't breathe, please move me, please pick me up, but of course Eddie didn't pick me up, he didn't move me because he was scared.

I could hurt myself and then the ambulance came. They called the ambulance. The ambulance very quickly realized that they couldn't help me and called a helicopter that took me to the hospital in Roanoke, Virginia. When I got there, they determined I had a fracture. back, a broken sternum, a cracked c1 vertebra and that they had cut my spinal cord, they operated on me and fused five vertebrae. In fact, if you look at this slide, this is an x-ray of my back and you can literally see that. It broke in half when they finished the surgery, in fact here is a photo of me in the hospital in the hospital room after the surgery.

I guess maybe the next day the doctor came and woke me up and I was very confused because The last thing I remember is I'm walking towards Annette full of hate, it's a beautiful day and a doctor is waking me up and I remember this. This is the first thing I remember and I told the doctor where I am and he said. you're in the hospital you've had an accident and I said I realized I couldn't move I couldn't feel my legs and I told the doctor I can't feel my legs what happened and he said you cut your spinal cord and I asked him if you ever I would walk again and he said no at that point I thought it was a dream have you ever had one of those dreams that are so terrible but you go back to sleep and you wake up and it was? all just a dream i thought that was what was happening i really thought i was going to wake up and this was going to be a dream and for the next few days maybe two days i'm really confused about the time but i kept going to sleep and waking up and thinking that this was a dream i finally woke up and realized it wasn't a dream and i was absolutely devastated after a few days i was flown to shepherd center in atlanta georgia and spent the next two and a half months in rehab now what i want to do For the next few minutes of this lesson I'm going to stop here and I want to start making some applications of this event.

I want to be number one. I want to do. some observations and applications number two I want to talk about some benefits of suffering specifically my suffering and then number three I want to ask the question where now where do we go from here where do I go and where do you go from here? point number one and I want to talk about some observations and some applications now the first thing I want you to consider with me is the issue of suffering rather than when I hit the ground and I was lying there with a broken spinal cord. pain now again I don't remember this but they say I was begging for help later when I was in the hospital and I do remember this I remember the pain was so intense I remember begging the nurse for help and I remember her telling me There is nothing I can do and I begged him to please get me some morphine and finally I started crying and I was begging and they got me help and they took me to another room, the doctor did some things and they relieved me. pain, but here is the point I want you to understand, I want you to consider a person who dies and goes to hell, Prince, that person is going to suffer pain a million times worse than what I experienced and they are going to beg for relief but they will not get anything what they will have is darkness and fire and it will not stop Revelation 14 verse 11 says and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever and they have no rest day or night friends when to experience that kind of pain, I know I don't want that forever and ever, well here's the second thing I want to talk about and that is you don't know what tomorrow will bring.

James chapter 4 and verse 14 says, while you do not know. What will happen tomorrow for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes. You know, on this day we were having a beautiful wonderful day and suddenly, without warning, I almost died. What if he had hit me? earth and immediately raised my eyes in eternity brothers, it will always be etched in my mind how real a reality it is that at any moment any of us could die completely unexpectedly and it will be too late and the only thing that The question then is how I was living moments before that, how I was living in what kind of condition I was in in the eyes of God.

You know, Luke chapter 16, the Bible talks about the rich man and Lazarus and they both die as a rich man, becausesupposed. raises his eyes in torment Lazarus raises his eyes or opens his eyes to see angels and each of us is equally going to find ourselves with one of those two alternatives unless the Lord returns first here is a third thing I want you to consider I want you to consider the suffering. Something occurred to me while I was lying in that hospital bed and it was one of the worst pains I can remember in my life.

Later I thought I would have done anything to stop this. It was that I would have done anything and I started thinking about this. You know the Lord endured pain and suffering during his beating and his crucifixion which I believe was far worse than anything else that I endured and friends he could have stopped it he could have stopped it but he chose to endure it for me and for you you know John chapter 10 and verse 17 Jesus said this is why my father loves me because I lay down my life, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down, ladies and gentlemen, which puts a completely new light on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in my mind, this is what Next I want to say a word, I want to make an observation about the will of God since this Accident.

I have repeatedly had people tell me, "Well, no, it happened for a reason or it must have been God's will or work in that sense. You know it was part of God's plan. You know what I don't believe, otherwise we're careful". We are getting dangerously close to Calvinism and suggesting that God makes everything happen. You know the fact of the matter is that God has given us free will and allows us to suffer the consequences of our actions. I don't believe God is out there. flipping people's four-wheelers, you know, sometimes maybe there's a drunk driver and this drunk driver will hit and kill a little child and some well-meaning person will say something like this, well, God must have wanted his son in heaven, friends, no wonder people get angry. to God when they hear things like that that were in the will of God, that it was a violation of the will of God that took the life of that young man and we must be very careful and we must understand that not everything that happens is the width of God , here it is. the second point of the lesson I want us to talk about the benefits of suffering now you see the first point on the screen here the benefits of suffering specifically my suffering you know that skeptics and atheists sometimes use suffering as proof that God does not exist and they would say that if God is all love then he would not allow us to suffer if he is all powerful then he would stop it and then they would say that either he is not all love or he is not all powerful he is not the God of the Bible.

I want to suggest to you that suffering benefits us in several ways. Number one, suffering teaches us how to pray, brothers. I have never prayed as much in my life as I did after this accident. I literally begged the Lord to let me walk again. I have prayed a little. Intense prayers in my life but I don't remember ever praying to the Lord but I prayed to the Lord please let me walk again thousands of faithful Christians around the world were praying for me I asked them to say the same prayer now a skeptic could argue and he could to say, well, you're not walking, you know God's not supposed to answer your prayer?

I would say that he did answer, the answer is simply no, but at least for now I don't know why, but you know, I have to keep in mind that God sees the entire timeline of my life. I only see one section of the timeline. I only see now. God sees the whole puzzle. I see only one piece of the puzzle or a few pieces of the puzzle. puzzle and so if I don't have the perspective and the knowledge and the wisdom that he has, but I do know this, I do know that I have been blessed through this process.

I continue to be blessed through this process if you meet someone. who does not believe in the power of prayer I want you to send them to me because I have a couple of things I can tell you about this here is a second thing we learn about suffering suffering makes me not love this present world since this accident I have said multiple Sometimes this world is not my home I am just a step you know John 14 verse 2 and my father's house there are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I will prepare a place for you and if I am going to prepare a place for you I will come again and I will receive you to myself so that where I am you may also be for the Don the fourth once wrote woe to the man or woman whose life on this earth is so pleasant that he forgets about heaven and I would say amen to that number three I want you to appreciate with me another benefit of suffering is that suffering allows Christians to let their light shine Matthew 5:16 let your light so shine before men that they can see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven while we were in the hospital we received about 2800 cards, I don't mean emails, I mean paper cards, I know this because my dad counted a lot of these cars that The cards we received had Chick-fil gift cards -TO.

We get a lot of Chick-fil-A gift cards. I joked that we would eat Chick-fil-a until the Lord came back, but the cards kept coming. They are coming and it has been almost a year. I think we have over 4,000 cards now, but we started hanging the cards on the hospital room wall. In fact, I want you to notice that it was a photo of the hospital room and you can see that it is covered in cards, it got to the point that there was barely a place on the wall to put anything and everyone who walked in was amazed, the man in the mail room said he had worked there for about 14 years.

He said he had never seen anything like that someone came in and I remember they asked me are you someone famous and I said no I'm a Christian I said that's what brothers do but you see it made an impression on everyone who came in. I happened to be in the hospital at the same time as Kenny Rogers, in fact, I think I have a photo here, here's a photo of me and Kenny Rogers sitting together. I happened to be in the hospital at the same time as Kenny Rogers and someone said Kenny Rogers didn't get as many cards as you and I said Kenny Rogers isn't a Christian.

I really wish we could have done something about it. In fact, it was very sad. I just saw on the news a few weeks ago that Kenny Rogers had passed away, but the South Haven Church where I preached started a GoFundMe account to raise money for me and a man told me that when he saw how much money had been donated he thought to himself : I have to find out about this church. We have since studied with that man and baptized him and he is now a member of the South Haven Church of Christ, but here is a fourth thing we learned about suffering and that is that suffering helps us maintain a proper perspective on physical possessions. , brothers in The months and weeks after the accident I began to think about all the things I was going to have to give up, many of them simply because I no longer had the ability to use them, about a week after arriving home from the hospital that had. to sell my truck I had gone out before the accident and I had bought the truck of my dreams it was blue the color I wanted was a four wheel drive it had leather seats and I loved that truck and it hurt me to get rid of it because I loved that truck and all the experiences made me stop and realize that maybe I shouldn't love things so much, you know, isn't that the problem the rich young ruler had?

You know, maybe this accident will really end up helping me the rich young ruler He distanced himself from Jesus because he loved his things and Jesus told his disciples immediately afterwards that surely I tell you that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven and again I tell you It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God Matthew 19 23 and I am rich and you are rich and most of us here are very rich because in America we are simply rich There are many people and there are many other faithful Christians and wise men who will lose their soul because of this problem.

Here's a fourth thing I think suffering teaches us and that is that suffering brings out the best in people. I hired two firefighters in Hernando Mississippi, just south of where we are. live I hired them to cut my lawn now they are not members of the church but when they found out what had happened to me and why I was in the hospital they cut my lawn for free, all this last year they did not let me pay them and they are not When I got home from the hospital, members of the church went to Longhorns Steakhouse on a Sunday afternoon.

I love going to Longhorns and there was a waiter who always knew me and always took care of us and when I came back he realized we had been out for a while and now I'm in a wheelchair and he came over and asked what happened and when he heard he hugged me neck and cried and when we were ready to leave, our waitress that day said your accounts. They already paid me and I said who paid my bill and she said the waiter did. They gave me a free haircut so I could go on and on with things like that, but I'm talking about non-Christians since the day of the Accident, my parents were there with me every day for three months and I saw my father, who is 75 years old, lift my body and help me up and carry me.

My wife has been there with me every day and she has done many unpleasant things. In fact, our tasks, our nurse at the hospital told us that many people's spouses abandon them after an accident like this, at South Haven Church, where I preach, were incredible, many specific acts of kindness were done in many dimensions, many people drove hundreds of miles alone. to visit me in the hospital and encouraged me for a few minutes you know John 13 verse 35 Jesus said by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another here is number 6 and that is suffering humiliates us more Well, this whole experience has humiliated me, you know, before the accident, I was physically very strong, I was financially well, I had control of my life at work, I was the boss, you know, when everything goes your way, it's easy filling up on yourself it's easy to feel very self-sufficient but you know an accident like this makes you realize how much you depend on God, a whole team of highly qualified doctors couldn't do anything about my situation and it makes you realize how much you depend on God this accident has humbled me in a way that I have never been humiliated and in some ways I think that is good first Peter chapter 5 and verse 6 says, therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you to in due time.

Here is asset number 7 of the benefit of suffering. Suffering makes you feel understanding of others. You may think you sympathize with someone, but until you've been there in person, there's really no way to know, but when you've been hurt like that, you know what it's like. Like you want to be there for other people, you know, when I go to Walmart now and I see someone parked in a handicapped spot and I see them jump up and run in, oh, it makes me angry not just for myself, but I see other people and I think I see it in a whole new way, now you know that Romans 12 and verse 15 say that we are to weep with those who mourn when I see other disabled people who are in wheelchairs and who are in pain and their back hurts. no, I don't see them the same my heart is with them I want to help them and that is a blessing of suffering number 8 suffering purifies us now what do I mean by that when I realized how close I came to dying?

It has made me look for any defect in my life. You know, I would have said that before I had the accident I was faithful and if I died I would go to heaven, but it made me stop and think, is there something in my life that could cause me? being lost you know second Corinthians 13 verse 5 says examine yourselves if you are in the faith, tested now that does not mean if you are in the faith, that is, if you are Christians because this was written for Christians, that means Examine yourselves to see if you are walking according to the faith if your first John chapter 1 in verse 7 to see if you are walking in the light each of us should be doing that you already know in psalm 119 verse 67 David said he went astray before of being afflicted what do you mean there was a benefit that came from your affliction of your suffering and that is that it helped keep you on the right path psalm 119 verse 71 David said it is good for me that I had been afflicted so that I could learn your statutes now here's the next point point number three where do I go from here where do we go from here I'm paralyzed from here down I can't walk what am I supposed to do now brothers I want to suggest to you that everyone chooses in life to be happy or to be miserable.

You know it's strange because when I was at the Sheppard Center in Atlanta I saw quadriplegic people. I am paraplegic. you see people who were quadriplegics, you know the people you will see boiling in a straw just to move their wheelchair and they would laugh and be happy, how do you explain that? I think we've made a decision now, how do I do that? Can I be happy in the face of great difficulty now? You could say my life is miserable. I can't be happy, but you know? If you are a Christian, you can be joyful, you can be joyful.

Paul saidthat he had learned and any state. he was there to be pleased there to be despised Philippians 4 and verse 11 now what does that mean? What it means number one is that he was not natural, he had to learn it and I would say don't forget this. that you are a Christian I remember one day I was in the hospital and I was feeling overwhelmed with grief in fact it was Father's Day last year and one of my daughters and her husband had come to visit us and they had gone home and you know there is an emptiness when your children leave anyway and then being in the hospital was even worse and then I was very sad.

He was thinking about the possessions he had lost. He was thinking about the physical abilities he had lost. I was thinking. about things I could never do again and then something funny happened because it really wasn't funny, but you know an iPhone will take your pictures and create a video for you and just send it to you and me. I'm there in bed and it pops up on my phone that it has a video for me and of course out of curiosity I turned it on and looked at it, it was a video of my family from a few years before and we were at Disney World together and a picture of me popped up. standing there strong and I had my arms around my family, around my children and I started to think I'll never be able to do that again at least not in that way and it tore me apart and it made me depressed and I cried and I thought to myself, how can I continue like this? this, but after a minute I thought I'm a Christian, this is all temporary, this life is short and then I'm going to heaven and then I thought, you know what I did and then I started thinking about All those other people in the hospital with me and I pity you because you know, if all we have is this life and I have to spend it paralyzed, friends, that's miserable, but this is the next thing I want us to notice, number two that we need. to realize now I want you to prepare for this put on your seat belt for this because this is a hard thing to swallow we need to realize that God didn't put us on this earth to be happy I think a lot of people think that's my purpose in life is being happy I want to read you a quote from the book let this drink pass by sister Jay McWhorter she wrote we are here to prepare for life after death it really doesn't matter if we live 50 years or 100 years nor does it matter if those years were carefree or full of sadness the only consideration of lasting importance is where we will spend eternity and that's it listen to what the Bible says Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 13 says let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his Commandments because this is the duty total of man.

The King James Version adds the word Duty is not in the original. He says this is the whole man. This is what man is all about: fearing God and keeping his commandments. That's why I. They put me here not to have a good time, but here's the third thing with points number one and two that made me think. I want to be an evangelist. I want all those people in the hospital to have the same hope that I have and who knows, I thought that maybe this incident, this disability, would open the door for me to be able to teach people that maybe I hadn't had the opportunity to teach before, in fact, when I got home from the hospital, I want to show you this photo.

When I got home from the hospital, I had to change my bathroom so that the door was wide enough for me to walk in and be able to shower and, you know, a lot of things had to be changed and we hired four male contractors. to come in and do the work and during the time they were there I was able to set up a studio. I studied with the four men and on this particular day we baptized all of these men into Christ and brothers. I thought if I could convert these men and they will be faithful for the rest of their lives because of this disability.

I had this opportunity and they are faithful in heaven. I will look back and say it was worth 30 years and the wheelchair, no matter how long it lives, is nothing. In light of that, after the accident I thought if I could change all my worldly possessions, if I could change my house, my car, my money, everything I have and be able to walk again and regain the body I had before. The accident, if I could change everything, I would do it just like that and I wouldn't even stop to think about it, but you know that there is one thing that I would never change and that is my soul.

Matthew chapter 16 and verse 26 says because what does it profit a man to win? the whole world and lose his own soul or what will the man give in exchange for his soul Prince? There is nothing more important to God or to you than your eternal soul if you are watching this broadcast today and your soul, your life is not right with God, you have the opportunity today to make things right if you need to become a Christian, the Bible teaches you that the way you do this is by hearing the gospel, believing it, repenting and confessing your sin you are confessing your faith not confessing your sins confessing your faith in Christ and then being baptized in water for the remission of your sins listen believe repent confess and be baptized maybe today you say I'm ready to do that I'm ready to put the Lord in Baptism, if you contact the man, the preacher, the elders of the Bybee Branch Church of Christ, they will make that happen, such Maybe you say: I've never heard that before in my life.

I want someone to sit down and study the Bible with Teach me and show me what to do if you contact them they will make that happen maybe you are a member of the Lord's Church but maybe you haven't been walking in the light maybe you have been outside of faithful service then maybe today You need to fix your life again if you come to the church they will pray with you, they will pray for you to help you get your life back to how the Lord wants it to be. I want to thank you today for tuning in.

Come on this broadcast and we hope to join you, let us pray dear to what extent Lord, thank you for saying everything, give me, bless you, Lord Guinness, today, when we come here to worship you, help us at the table that we have heard today as well. Edify ourselves and go out to preach to others. Where did this virus come from to this earth? Help us do the best we can with the tools we have. Lord, please help those who are in the medical field to help find a solution to this problem. Lord, help them do the best they can and help keep this virus from spreading.

Lord, and when we leave, we pray to be with these, they are all their homes, you are something that