Into The World - The Mount of Olives

Into The World – The Mount of Olives
Dr. Rob Sidwell
8/13/2024

Good evening. Good to be back to be with you again this evening. Thank you once again for giving me this opportunity and feeding me burgers. It's good to be here with you this evening, and especially I'd like to thank Brother Mark for leading that song we just sang, Olive's Brow, because that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about the Mount of Olive's.

It's most famous, obviously, for the song we just sang. What happened then, with Jesus going out to that mount before he was arrested, and praying and beseeching God, that if possible, that what was about to happen to him would not happen to him. Smith's Bible Dictionary talks a little bit more about the mountain itself. The title is a bit misleading, at least as we understand the word mountain. Because, of course the way we think mountain. We think Chardon is not a mountain, but it’s on a peak. It's just a solitary stand-alone eminence, a prominent height. Actually, what's called the Mount of Olives is a ridge.

It's a series of peaks. Smith's Bible Dictionary says that the ridge is about a mile long. Jerusalem is situated right next to it so that it's on the east side of the city. As the east side is covered, the ridge turns west, and so it covers a part of the Eastern section of the city.

We know about four events in scripture that took place there. This evening, we're going to look at them, and we're going to see what we can learn from these things. Two of them, the first two, we're going to look at it from the Old Testament. Let’s turn to 2 Samuel chapter 15, where we will encounter King David. This is not a happy time for King David. 2 Samuel 15 and we're going to jump in at verse 13. And I'll read this again from the English standard. If you read verses, for the sake of time, 1 through 12, one of David's sons, Absalom, who had been exiled at one point for murdering his half brother. It's a long and rather sordid story.

David had welcomed him back, but never saw him once he returned to the city. Absalom had been plotting against his father. Absalom had been campaigning to the people of Jerusalem and beyond, saying essentially, David doesn't care about you. I'm paraphrasing, of course. Make me king, and I'll fix your problems, and it was working.

Here we go in verse 13 And a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.” Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.” And the king's servants said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides.” So the king went out, and all his household after him. And the king left ten concubines to keep the house. And the king went out, and all the people after him. And they halted at the last house. And all his servants passed by him, and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath, passed on before the king. Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go I know not where? Go back and take your brothers with you, and may the LORD show steadfast love and faithfulness to you.” But Ittai answered the king, “As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” And David said to Ittai, “Go then, pass on.” So Ittai the Gittite passed on with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. And all the land wept aloud as all the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness.

What can we get from all this? Times are pretty desperate. David has been forced to flee his capital. What does he tell Itai? He says, I'm going to move the capital. He says in verse 20, I go, I know not where.

Take it from someone who studied history. History is replete with examples of kings, emperors, sultans who were deposed. Most of them didn't live too long after that. Most of them either went into exile indefinitely or a couple of times they tried to win back their throne. If you ever heard of Bonnie, Prince Charlie, for example, trying to win back the throne of England that had been taken from his family, it didn't work. David is in a very tough spot. Most likely, if he's going to suffer the fate of most monarchs who were overthrown, he isn't going to live very long. We may not be be king's or rulers, but what do we do in tough circumstances? What do we do in tough situations?

Let’s keep reading here. It says, verse 24, and here's more of our main focus. And Abiathar came up, and behold, Zadok came also with all the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city.

What was the Ark of the Covenant? The most sacred object in Israel, the place where a manifestation of God, dwelled above the cherubim, as it's often said in the Old Testament, above the two cherubim that faced each other on the lid or the mercy seat. This is the holiest object in Israel. Wouldn't you want it with you if you were fleeing for your life?

Look what David says in verse 25. Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place.

But if he says, I have no pleasure in you. Behold, here I am. Let him do to me what seems good to him.

Who did David leave in charge, ultimately, of all things? He left his concubine in charge of his house, but who did he leave in charge of his life? He left God in charge of it. What does he say here? Verse 27, If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back. And let me do as seems good to him. Ultimately, David put his fate in the loving hands of God. We'll have more to say on that in just a moment. Let's finish reading the selection here.

Moving down to verse 27. The king also said to Zadok the priest, “Are you not a seer? Go back[e] to the city in peace, with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.” So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there. But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went.

These are desperate times, but there are a couple of things we want to note in this passage. When David first left Jerusalem again, who was with him? His warriors, he talks about his mighty men, his warriors, but also the priests and the Ark of the Covenant. Was the Ark of the Covenant powerful? Let me rephrase that question. Was the Ark of the Covenant powerful in and of itself? I see some shaking heads, no, and you are exactly correct.

People still believe in good luck, charms. and holy relics. In the movie, The Riders of the Lost Ark, there's a line in there where one of the characters says, The Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. No, it does not. It says no such thing.

The Bible speaks of God doing such things. What was the Ark? A box, a gold-plated chest, a very special chest. It was made to God's exact directions in the Book of Exodus. That's all it was, ultimately. In and of itself, the Ark had no power at all. There's another line in that same movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they add something else. An army which carries the Ark before it, says the movie, is invincible.

Turn over to 1 Samuel 4. If that's true, and let's pretend for a moment that's true. An army which carries God's Holy object is invincible. Then if you're David, wouldn't you have wanted it with you when you're fleeing for your life? You certainly would. Israel had thought that the Ark made them invincible.

1 Samuel 4:1, ESV here again, says, And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines?

Why indeed? They admit that God was not with them. why do you suppose God wasn't with them? You know the answer to that. If you read the Book of Judges, where it begins and ends with the phrase every man did what was right in his own eyes. Israel was not following God. Was that the conclusion that the elders of Israel reached here in 1 Samuel? No.

Finish the verse. Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh that (notice) it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.

Is that going to work?

Let's keep reading. So the people went to Shiloh and brought from there the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts who was enthroned, I inferred to earlier, on the chair of him. So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. As soon as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the LORD had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight. So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

David recognized what the elders did not. What was the Ark? It was God's sacred chest, but what could it do? Nothing. We won't read this for the sake of time. If you read, it's a short chapter. 1 Samuel 5 tells us what was commonly done. If you defeated an enemy civilization in the ancient world, you captured their gods. In most cases, of course, that meant the idol, the various little statues. You captured their idol, and you brought their idol into the temple of your gods so they were captive. You captured them. The Philistines did this with the Ark. Again, for the sake of time, we'll paraphrase here. What happened? It didn't turn out so well for the statue of Dagen, the Philistine God, and later, it didn't turn out so well for the people of the Philistines cities as God sent plague after plague on every city the Ark was taken to.

Let’s read one verse here. 1 Samuel 5:6 says, The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and his territory.

The Ark didn't inflict a thing. The hand of God did this. Verse 7 says, The when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, The Ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his (they do say his) his hand is hard against us and against Dagon, our God. So they send it to all five of the Philistines cities, or at least they tried to. They didn't want it by the end.

When the Ark gets returned to Israel, who strikes people dead? Who strikes people dead who look into it? God does. When Uzzah touched the Ark, did the Ark kill him? God did. David recognized what here on the Mount of Olive? David recognized that God alone is God, that you don't get closer to God by having an object around, not even the Ark of the Covenant.

There are people today who will try to sell you relics from the Holy Land. Water that came from the Holy Land, vials of dirt that were dug up from Jerusalem, etc. How are you going to know they came from Jerusalem? Even if they did, ould that get you any closer to God?

I could bore you. With long story after story about the Catholic relics and so on, that they count on these things to connect them to God, it doesn't work. Objects cannot get us closer to God. People wear a cross around their neck, which, of course, is fine unless they think, if I wear a cross around my neck, that'll get me closer to God automatically. It doesn't work that way. If it reminds you of Jesus and what he's done for us that’s wonderful, but just keep in mind this is not a good luck charm. This needs to mean more to you than, I'm in trouble, I'll grab it, and that's going to save me. It doesn't work that way. That's one thing we can learn right here from what happened at the Mount of Olives.

David pauses and sends the ark back to Jerusalem. The other lesson that we can get from this, we've already alluded to. Notice David's attitude. He did not complain against God. He did not say, if you read through 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, he went through a lot. I spent years running from Saul. For seven years, I was king over one tribe. I went through a lot to get here, and now I'm being thrown out of my own palace. He didn't rail against or blame God. He said instead he submitted to the will of God. He probably kept in mind what had been said to him not too long before by the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 12. Again, for the sake of time, we'll skip to the end of this. When David is confronted with what he had done Bathsheba, what he had done to her husband, Uriah. After David had self-righteously condemned the man in Nathan's parable, what did Nathan tell him? You are the man.

We'll jump in there. 2 Samuel 12:7, the ESV here says, Nathan said to David, 'You are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'I anointed you, King of Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more, why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I'll raise up evil against you out of your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor,' 'And he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the Son,' 'For you did it secretly, verse 12, 'but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son.’

Maybe David had that in mind when he was conferring with those who followed him at the Mount of Olive. The scripture doesn't explicitly say that he did. Ultimately, David did say that he had faith that everything was in God's hands. If God delights in me, I'll be restored. If he doesn't, there's no use trying to fight that. Absalom, of course, did not... He wanted to be king. We know that he didn't succeed in that. Who succeeded? Solomon. Sadly, though, Solomon is a source of our next Mount of Olive's account.

Turn over, please, to First Kings, chapter 11. And we will see that although Solomon was a wise man, he was only a man. He didn't always put that wisdom into practice. In fact, toward the end of his life, he usually didn't.

First Kings 11:1 says, Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

Where did he do it? On the mountain east of Jerusalem, the mountain that would come to be known as the Mount of Olives.

This sad commentary on what would happen to Israel. It should also tell us something else from what we've read. Back to what we said about the Holy land. Is it really holy? Is there such a thing as the Holy land? No. Especially not if you read, we live under the New Testament. Nowhere on Earth is exalted above any place else on Earth. We touched a bit on that last night.

Turn over to Second Kings, Chapter 23. We'll see that the Mount of Olives had a new name by then. It wasn't a good one. It wasn't a happy name. By second Kings 23, after Solomon's death, had split between 10 tribes, Israel and two tribes, the new nation of Judah. Israel, by second Kings 23, had been obliterated by the Assyrians.

We're now dealing with Josiah, the king of the two tribes of the nation of Judah. Josiah was one of the few good kings. He tasked himself with cleaning up Judah's corruption. He ruled about 400 years, 400 years after Solomon. Look what was still standing by his time, 400 years later.

Jump down to verse 13 of Second Kings 23. It says, And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men..

On the Mount of Olives, David had worshiped God. On the Mount of Olives, Solomon had worshiped pagan gods, and every single one of the ones listed part of their worship involved child sacrifice. Every single one of them. Ashtaroth, Shemosh, Melcom, all three of them. And so by 400 years, give or take, by Josiah's time, the mountain was known as the Mount of Corruption. These places stood for a long time.

That's an excellent example of how there's nothing really necessarily special or blessed about a place. Places can be used for good or evil. To give you an example from like 3000 years later in history. You know what happened to the railroad car that was the site where World War I ended. Four years of mostly pointless slaughter. The trenches of Europe had barely moved for four years. It came to an end in a railway car in France where the Germans signed the armistice. World War I had been by far the bloodiest war in human history ever bought them until that time. The French preserved that train car. Tens of millions of soldiers were lost in World War I. The French preserved the train car in a museum. This is 1918.

What happened in 1940? The Nazis overrun France. As soon as Hitler found out where that the railroad car was, he had the museum wall cut away and had the train car brought out and forced the French to sign their peace treaty that gave Nazi Germany control of Western Europe in the same in a car, where the slaughter had ended in World War I. The French were forced to sign a treaty that would lead to four years in Western Europe of oppression, slave labor, and genocide.

I’ll give you a reverse example before we move on here. Bad places can be used for happy things. I mean, once a place has been used for evil, it can't ever be redeemed, right? You're right to react that way because it can. What happens when this place is cursed? It was used for evil.

When the Allies destroyed Nazi Germany, they took over, of course, the city of Nuremberg. Nuremberg had been the city where Adolf Hitler had held his grandest, greatest, largest rallies. See all the films of the thousands upon thousands of Nazis saluting and parading with their flags and such before their Fuhrer. The Americans turned the parade grounds into a baseball field. They made a point of filming where the swastika at the entrance. They made sure they captured that on film. They turned the parade grounds at Nuremberg, into a baseball field. They used the Nuremberg Hall of Justice, where genocidal laws have been passed as the courtroom, where the Nazis’ evil deeds were exposed to the world and then judged. This should remind us of examples like the Mount of Olives, like the Versailles train car, like the city of Nuremberg.

Places and things can be used for good or evil purposes. So can we. We have choices to make. How are we going to use the places that we use? The places where we live? The places where we work? Are we going to use Psalm 5:51 here? Are we going to do all that we have and all we do in the name of the Lord? Are we going to use what we have and the places that we have for evil purposes? We must not get attached to things. We must not say God can only be worshiped in this place. God can only be worshiped through this thing. We found that out, of course, fairly recently with COVID, didn't we? You can't say we can’t worship God if it's not in a church building, right? We found out that that wasn't true. What did Jesus say? He said, where two or three are gathered together in my name there I am in the midst of them. We must avoid this attachment that the world has to objects, whether they're allegedly holy or not, or places, whether they are holy or cursed or not.

Romans 1:24 says, Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

Why were they abandoned to sin?

Because in verse 25, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.

We must not worship objects or places. We must worship the one who created them all. We don't bow down an idol, as we often say, and I think it's true. Anything we put in God's place becomes an idol. I was very attached to Mentor. It was very hard for me to move away from there. If I put Manner, Ohio, above God, I have a problem. If you put Streetsboro or Kent, Ohio, you have a problem. If you put any location or any object on Earth above God, you have a problem. This is our family heirloom Bible, it shouldn’t be put above God.

To get to the subject of our song there, let's turn to the New Testament now. Jesus and what he did on the Mount of Olives. Turn to Matthew 21, please. We're most familiar with what happened. To quote the song ‘Tis Midnight, the night Jesus was arrested. Jesus was very familiar with the Mount of Olives in that he had spent a lot of time there.

We'll pick up here in Matthew 21:1 (NKJ) It says, Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’” So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, [c]and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
We often call this the triumphal entry. This began, of course, the week that would end with Jesus on a cross. This was what we call it the triumph of entry because for once in his earthly life, people, at least some people, began to recognize who Jesus was on earth. That's important to know, because within a week, many of the same people, most assuredly, were screaming crucify him. People can be unfaithful, fickle.

Turn over to Matthew Chapter 24 verse 3 (NKJ). It says, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age?

Turn over to Luke 22 (ESV). That takes us to the scene that we sang about. That's where Jesus was. David had paused there. Solomon had built a pagan temple there. Jesus often went there and taught, and Jesus prayed there. So I said four things. Jesus prayed there, and we'll combine the last two as we wrap our thoughts and summarize our message here.

Luke 22:39 says, Coming out, he went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed, and his disciples also followed him. When he came to the place, he said to them, 'Pray that you may not enter into temptation. ‘And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw. And he knelt down and prayed, saying, 'Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Within a week, he had been hailed as the son of David, as the coming one, as the Messiah. People had been throwing their cloaks down upon the road for him to ride over and waving branches and throwing branches in the road. And saying he was king, but he knew it was about to happen. He was about to be betrayed. He was about to be repeatedly interrogated. He was about to be mocked. He was about to be physically tortured, and he was about to be nailed to that cross.

Because he wasn't insane, he wasn't looking forward to it. In fact, he didn't want to do it. He said, If it's possible, let me not have to do this. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, he says, like David before him, (Jesus was sinless unlike David), but he says, not my will, but yours be done.

That's quite a week, isn't it? Jesus went from a triumphant entry to being crucified. Have you ever had a week where things start off really well and then everything crashes and burns? Or perhaps you had a week where things look really, really gloomy in the beginning and then they get better. None of us have ever been crucified or will have to be crucified. We've all experienced highs and lows. Would Jesus also experience highs and lows, better times in his life on Earth and worse times?

Turn over to Hebrews 4:14 (ESV). It says Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect, (the New King James says in all points), but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

What do you depend on? Do you depend on the place you're from, the place you've been to? Do you depend on an object? Or do you really, truly rely, as David did, as Jesus did, on God? That's a question only you can answer.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives one time after he was crucified. This'll be our last reference. Turn over to Acts 1, beginning with verse 9. Jesus has just given his last message directly on Earth to his disciples, soon to be Apostles.

Acts chapter 1 verse 9 says, Now, when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly, (the ESV says they stood gazing into heaven as he went up). Behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up in heaven? ‘The same Jesus who was taken up from you in heaven will so come in like manner (or in the same way) as you saw him go into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.

The Mount of Olives was the sight of many things in the Bible. Jesus endured agony upon that mount. He wasn't crucified there. He was crucified on a hill called Golgotha, but he endured agony. He sweat drops of blood for us there upon that mount. He did all this so we, too, could ascend to heaven, and be with him someday. As we live, let's live giving glory to God for sending Jesus and have a relationship with him for ourselves. We must honor, praise, and glorify Jesus for loving us enough to do what he didn't want to do, submitting to God's will and being that sacrifice. Let's learn that a mountain, a ridge, or a river is only geography. The truly important issue is our relationship with God.

We close this evening by asking, how's your relationship with God? Are you really serving God? Or are you serving something else? Are you serving your bank account? Are you serving your family above God? Are you serving some other relationship? Are you serving your job? If you're serving anyone or anything other than God, you need to make that right.

Secondly, there's nothing holy or unholy about places. We can worship God at any time, in any place, and we should. We should worship God at all times, both when we're in this building or some other church building. We should serve God each and every day, each and every place that we are. Thirdly, Jesus understands our struggles, and he was crucified for us, even though he didn't want to be. He knew full well what was going to happen to him from when time began.

The question is, are you following Jesus? If you never started, then you need to. You need to start by believing that he is the Christ, the son of the living God. You need to be willing to confess your faith in him before men. Be willing to repent of your sins and put him on in baptism as he's commanded for you to do, and then continue to walk in a relationship with him, doing your best to follow after him and making sure you're serving him and you're not serving anyone, anything, or any place else.

If you have been baptized, and not living as you should. If you've fallen into serving the creature rather than the creator, you can make that right as well. If there's anything you have, come forward as we stand and sing the song.

 

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