Hello; I’m Mack Lyon. The program’s a Bible study “In Search of the Lord’s Way of salvation and His way for living the very best life that’s ever been introduced to the family of man. Oh say! It’s good to have you with us today, and we pray that we’ll both be blessed.
Warmest greetings to you, my friend! We’re unusually excited around here today. You see, this is the 30th anniversary of this ministry for Christ. We began on one small television station in East Central Oklahoma, as an outreach effort of the local church to our community. We had no vision, no planning, no idea of it ever becoming a world-wide effort to preach the gospel to every creature on earth. If anyone had suggested that, I probably would have said, “I’m not capable of that.” At the time it was reported that 50% of the people in the average city or town in America received their religious teaching by television, while only 10% of the people of the same city or town received their religious teaching by going to their respective churches on Saturday and Sunday. I learned that we were the average town, and the church where I was preaching, although it enjoyed the largest attendance in town at the time, was reaching about one percent of the people. Oh me! Well, we decided to change that locally!
I started to say “you know,” but you might not know: when the Lord gets involved in something, it very well might, and probably will, exceed any person’s fondest expectations or even his dreams. You have heard me say it many times before and you are about to hear me say it again, “This was the Lord’s doing; and it is marvelous in our eyes.” That is a quote from Psalm 118, verse 23. And I believe it as firmly as the psalmist did. Our program today is “A Reaffirmation” of our five-fold purpose for beginning this program and the same reasons that we have for continuing it.
If you think you might want a free CD, audio cassette tape or printed copy of the message, simply mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. Or if you prefer you may use our toll-free telephone number. That is 1-800-321-8633. It’s streamed on the internet, too, at www.searchtv.org. We would like to hear from you this week. Ken Helterbrand began leading our singing 28 years ago. We receive a lot of very favorable comment about our music. Thank you, Ken, for a good job for a long time. He will lead us now in a hymn, and then I’ll be back to read Mark 16, verses 14 through 18.
Our Scripture reading today is from the Gospel of Mark chapter 16, beginning at verse 14 and we will read through verse 18. “Later (That would be after His resurrection) later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’” That is reading through verse 18, and now let’s go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we are so thankful that You have revealed this scripture to us about some of those apostles that did not fully believe in the resurrection of Jesus until they had further proof; and how that You were able to work through them and preach your own word throughout the whole world. And we pray your blessings on our efforts now as weak and as feeble as we are to preach the gospel to every creature; and may we in the coming years utilize even more ways of going and new ways of speaking the truth to vast numbers of people. Bless our every effort, we pray You in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Before the hymn I said we began this program as a local outreach of a local church to speak the truth in love to the people of our town. Well, the Lord has blessed our feeble efforts exceedingly, and now we’re talking to people all around the world. In fact, one morning while I was preparing this message, we received this letter from the Philippines. And the writer says, and I am going to read it while it is written in his own handwriting. It is very difficult to read, but as mine would be to him; but nevertheless I am going to try to read it. “I am very interested in your program (he says). Praise God for His salvation.....Do you have a contact person here in the Philippines that I could be in fellowship with him; and what must I do to receive salvation? I would like to be sure for my salvation, my beloved friend, because I am confused for there are many religions now and I don’t know what is true. So I need your help, and I need your prayers, because I come to know that the Lord God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. My question is, where shall I join? I need your help. And I need your prayers. Maybe you are the answer to my prayers; Your faithful friend.”
Well, I hope we can be that friend, because you are that friend to our prayers. You are the answer to our prayers as well! And it goes without saying that we went right to work that day to make contact with our contacts over there in the Philippines. Meanwhile, we’ll keep preaching and praying for people like this man in the Philippines.
That was our first and foremost reason for beginning this program thirty years ago; and it is the first and foremost reason we have for continuing it indefinitely into the future. The risen Christ charged His disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” He continued, saying, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16, verses 15 and 16). The command to “go” is general; and go we must! He didn’t tell us how to go. Those early disciples may have walked or ridden their camels or donkeys or whatever means they had. Later in other environments, they went on horseback or in horse-drawn carriages. In more recent times we’ve gone in automobiles, steamships, locomotives and even by air. Today this program is going into people’s homes everywhere on earth today by radio, television, the internet, by audio and video tapes and CDs, by modern printing processes, and even by satellite. And, yes, Phil Sanders and I and others on our production staff go and go and go everywhere physically possible to preach the glorious gospel to every creature.
Yes, yes friend, while Jesus gave us the liberty of going the way we choose, He very definitely defined our mission-- why we were to go. We are to preach the gospel. The central truths of the gospel are Christ’s death for our sins according to the Scriptures; His burial; and His resurrection from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 to 3). We are to preach it when people want to hear it and when they don’t want to hear it according to 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 to 4. We can’t go wrong when we tell people, like this enquiring Philippino man, what Jesus said about who “will be saved.” Remember this, my friend, always: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Those were the powerful words of our Savior, of Him who proved Himself to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead (Romans chapter 1, verse 4), and the One who will judge us on judgment day, too (Acts 17:31).
Our second reason or purpose for beginning, and for continuing, this program was to light a candle in the darkness of immorality that was and is gaining acceptability and respectability in our American culture. In 1983 after a speech to a group of High School Honor Students, one of those students asked President Ronald Reagan a question about voluntary school prayer. The President answered, “We have to keep in mind that we are a nation under God, and if we ever forget that, we’ll be just a nation under.” That is the end of his quote.
I’m convinced now that God chose to make this program into something of its present magnitude to help resist the downturn of our nation’s morality and religious faith. You know, of course you do, the news media reports it daily: the incidents of murder, adultery, rape, drunkenness, drugs, gambling and alcohol addiction, and child-abuse, and even infanticide, sex-outside-of-marriage, homosexuality, same-sex marriages, dishonesty of every shade and color; and more and more of what Americans once defined as “immoral” has become moral.
Our youth have died and are dying fighting on foreign battlefields every day to preserve our freedom. Freedom from what, friend? Freedom from God? Is that the question? Or is it a statement of fact? Is it for the freedom of the individual’s right to define for himself or herself what shall be moral and what shall be immoral? Well, if you would like to be enlightened on that, you might ask one of those people on foreign fields today.
Meanwhile, God keeps on saying what He has always said in Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach (meaning a shame and a disgrace) to any people.” And in 2 Chronicles 7:14 He says: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
In Genesis chapter 20 there’s a story about Abraham and Sarah his wife. Sarah was also Abraham’s half-sister, the daughter of his father but not of his mother. Anyway, they went down south to live in Gerar. Now, Sarah was a beautiful woman, and Abraham was afraid the men of Gerar would kill him and take Sarah for sexual reasons. So, he said Sarah was his sister. God revealed the whole truth to Abimelech, the king, and he asked Abraham why he had lied to him. And Abraham replied, (Now listen to me, please. I want you to hear this.) He said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me....” That is verse 12. My friend, any society or culture in which God is not is not a good place and a safe place to live and bring up your children. When and where God is not, human life is cheap. Could that be the reason for an increase in our murder rate?
What do you know about the history of Israel in Old Testament times? Well, very briefly: Moses led them through the Red Sea, out of Egyptian bondage and through the wilderness forty years. It was early in that time that he received the law of God and delivered it to the people. It was the law of God by which they were to live when they reached Canaan; and then he died. Joshua led them victoriously in conquest of the Promised Land. After the death of Joshua then there was another generation that arose; disobedient and idolatrous they were who did not know God (Joshua 2 and 10). And repeatedly, well, it’s best described in Judges 6 and 1: “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand” of their enemies. Remember that verse when you hear in news reports of efforts to remove God from American life. It is Judges 6 and 1. It’s as Peter Marshall once said, “By our tolerance of some wrongs, we have come close to being intolerant of what is right.”
The third reason we had for beginning this program of Bible teaching was to resist the materialism and humanism that was choking the faith and spirituality out of the hearts of the nation’s people. And how were we going to do that? We were going, and we did, and we had, and we still are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we have a man in Phil Sanders who is now the age I was when we began this ministry 30 years ago, who is prepared and can and will continue preaching Christ and Him crucified for the sins of the world another thirty years, if the Lord wills it that long. The prophet Jeremiah said, “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). God said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” That is Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9. “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 5).
The fourth reason we had for beginning and continuing the In Search of the Lord's Way program of Bible teaching is to restore credibility to the religion of Christ that has been so diminished in the commercialism and the sensationalism of many religious television and radio programs; and, if we can judge them by that even in their assemblies. Even some of the “old time,” the “old line” 16th and 17th century reformation denominations are being troubled with attempted innovations of modern entertainment-style Christianity. Pure, genuine, real Christianity was not “made in America,” my friend. Oh yes, we have been a very inventive and productive people alright, but genuine Christianity isn’t our making. Most of what we see marketed nowadays as Christianity is admittedly American; but we believe and preach and teach New Testament Christianity! There’s a difference between New Testament Christianity and what is popularly marketed as Christianity in the 21st century. Well, if you are at all familiar with the New Testament, you know there’s a difference. No, no, now we’re not even trying to be the only Christians; we would love to see every person on earth become a Christian and be a Christian just as you read about in your New Testament. And that’s why we are planning to continue this program for as long as the Lord wills it.
The fifth and the last reason we had for beginning this television ministry 30 years ago was, we wanted to tell our friends then that churches of Christ are not dead; we are very much alive and we feel strongly about the things about which we have just spoken. It isn’t Scripture, but it’s a powerful message: “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to say nothing.”
Local autonomy did not prohibit congregational cooperation in New Testament days; as proof of that is 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. And it doesn’t hinder us today. For thirty years some churches of Christ have worked together to have this voice in the national (even in the international) place of ideas. As you know, communication technology is developing very rapidly, opening more doors of opportunity. What’s next? It is our prayer and our aims and hopes that “In Search of the Lord’s Way” will continue to be a growing force in accomplishing that “great commission” many, many years into the future.
God has blessed me and used me as the speaker every week from the beginning. However, the program has grown from a local ministry to a universal one, and because of physical reasons it has become obvious to me that the work-load is too much for me now. So, as He has in everything, God has provided us with an excellent preacher in the person of Phil Sanders. He has been a personal friend for many years; and he has the same basic Bible-based faith and, being much younger, he’s prepared to work with God to employ new technology and to reach larger and larger audiences. No, no, no, now, I’m not leaving the program! I plan to be around; and you will see and hear me, but probably it will be less and less often as I have a new role as Executive Producer of the program. Let’s pray about it. Holy Father, we pray your continued blessings on this ministry as long as You will that it may prevail, may grow, and reach more souls like this man in the Philippines. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen!
Oh say, friend that hymn has been an inspiration to all of us who work with this ministry over the years, and I hope you enjoyed it and it is an inspiration to you. It has been so good to be invited into your home today. I pray you’ve been blessed as I have by this visit. If you are not a Christian, may I urge you to not let this day pass without confessing Christ just as the Bible says in Romans 10:10: “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” And you will need, to “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins” just as the Bible says in Acts 2:38. If you’ve done that already, but, you are not living the Christian life as you ought, and you know it, you need to admit or confess it, repent and pray and seek the prayers of others as Simon was told to do in the book of Acts chapter 8, verse 14 through 25, and you can read about it there; and I sincerely hope you’ll do that without further delay.
Say, why not attend one of the churches of Christ in the area served by this station that sponsors us here and tell them “thanks for the Search program.” We hope that we can be back with you next week with another gospel message; and we pray God’s blessings upon you because we love you.
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