So Much the More
Category: Peace & Assurance
Speaker: Anthony Aaron
Date: June 7, 2024
Have you noticed that the day that Brother Paul picked me to come up here, he left? So, you might want to—now is your chance if you want to go. But anyway, when he asked me to give my testimony, the first thing I did was I said, “All right, God, what do you want me to say?” Because, you know, most of the time people think of salvation, and I’m going to touch on that, but I think he really wanted me to speak and give him glory on.
I see my life now as a big, giant puzzle and how he has put the pieces together, and he has the pieces in his hand. I was brought up by godly parents in a godly church, and at about the age of 10—I guess I’d have been probably around 1975—I made a profession of faith, but I think I did it more out of conviction rather than conviction. It was more of just mainly trying to get people off my back or, you know, more of—not, I didn’t do it for the right reason.
So now I’m going to have to fast-forward because I’ve got to fast-forward a lot in order to get to where I’m at now. Fast-forward to around 1990, '91, somewhere in there. So I’m roughly 25 years old. God leads me, I see now, to Crossville, Tennessee, where I opened up a sporting goods store, or so that’s what I thought it was. But he actually led me—now that I see a piece of the puzzle—he led me to attend Cornerstone Baptist Church in Crossville.
The preacher there was Mike Curley. Some of y’all may know him; he’s been here several times. Where’s the cowboy hat, the cowboy boots? A little bitty fella, doesn’t compromise the Word—that’s just Mike. So I started attending this church, and as I go in there and I listen to him preach, I’m like, “I don’t like this.” He’s preaching this stuff right at me. I don’t like this kind of preaching, but I keep going back, taking this abuse over and over and over again.
So at that point, that’s when conviction came in on a Thursday night. Actually, I’d been out witnessing. And so I come in, I said, “Mike, I said, I can’t really go out and witness and tell people how to be saved. I don’t even know if I’m saved.” And he just looked, and he said, “Well, I can’t make that decision for you. I don’t know that, but let’s settle it if there’s doubt.” I said, “Okay.” That Thursday night, then I was saved. No doubt. No, I know for a fact at that point.
And I said, I had to bring my notes here because I want to get all these time frames and these pieces of the puzzle correct here. So now, let’s fast-forward again, the year 2000. I’m still in Crossville. My father was diagnosed with leukemia at the time. Late 2003, I was in the process of selling my part of the store. And so late 2003, God brings me back to Nashville to help my mother with my father. And in early 2004, February, my father died at that point.
So I’m assuming now I get to go back to Crossville. God’s going to open the doors. He’s going to take me back. This was a temporary thing, you know, and all that. Well, here I am, standing right here before you, so that wasn’t his plan. So as I stayed and I was attending a church, but I wasn’t getting fed like I should be. At the point when I didn’t get to go back, I was miserable, I was angry, I was unhappy, no peace, no joy. I was angry at God, and I’d say, “God, you know, I’m angry at you. I just, I don’t know, I don’t understand any of this.”
And so at that point, I was like, “All right, I’ve had enough. I can’t take this anymore.” I said, “God, what do you want?” And at that point, when I finally yielded, and I said, “You know, you’ve got to do this. I can’t do this. I want joy. I want happiness and peace. And I know this is not what you want me to help.” So at that point, God said, “It’s time to find another church.”
So he leads me here to Rutherford County Baptist. So I come in, I hear Brother Paul preach, and as soon as I heard him preach, I’m like, “This is it. This is the kind of preaching I’m used to. This is what I was used to. This is what I wanted.” And, of course, everybody was friendly. And so at that point, God began to change things and begin to bring back the joy and the happiness and the peace and all that stuff that he wanted me to have. But I had to get out of his way in order to do that. I was the one holding him up.
So I was sitting here thinking, I wish I’d have done this earlier rather than try to do this on my own. And at that point, God began to bless me in ways that were just beyond anything, you know, I could imagine. And I saw that the times when I would ask and I would pray and say, “Hey, God, this is what I want, this is what I want,” God was saying, “Nope.” And I kept wanting to go back to Crossville. That was one of the things because I’d left my church, my friends, I’d left everything. But God never gave me peace about that. So I didn’t go.
But now that I look back, these unanswered prayers that are now being answered and still are this day are far better than anything that I could have ever wanted myself. So when I look back and I say, “I wish I’d have done this earlier, God,” I realized that the whole time he had the pieces of the puzzle in his hand. And until I quit arguing with him and said, “All right, God,” he’s taught me what it really means to yield and to trust, especially the trusting, and when things make no sense, and you’re like, “I don’t understand any of this. This is crazy.”
But I’m so glad and I’m thankful that he didn’t give up on me, and that I have a God who still has the peace, even to this day. He’s been putting them together. I see now where he was so many years ago, and I’m like, “Where are you at?” He was out of the whole time. So I just want to say, to God be the glory. Amen. Thank you.
I have already been given some hand signs to slow down, so I will try to. I’m one of those guys, you know, I don’t like to—okay, let me see. I do speed, all right? Not that I don’t like to speed, but I try not to speed, but I try to get to the speed limit as fast as I can. I’m one of those guys. So I’ll try to slow it down a little bit. I want you to get the message. I don’t want to just stand up here and you try to read the subtitles off of it. Maybe we should do that. Let’s have the subtitles down here at the bottom so you know what I’m saying. But that’ll be good.
“So much the more”—that is the phrase we are looking at here. I love phrases in the Bible. Phrases in the Bible, to me, that’s what I look for. When I read my Bible, I’m like, “Lord, would you give me a little phrase? Some little tidbit, little nugget that I can take.” And man, the Lord gives it to me. And in studying for this message, this phrase “so much the more” stuck out to me, and I just wanted to research it. So I did a Bible study on it, and this is the result of that Bible study.
But the phrase “so much the more”—it’s amazing because it means more. It means more than more. It doesn’t mean less and less; it means more and more. “So much the more,” all right? So I’m just hoping we know that, but it means not only more, but so much the more.
We have, if you know us, we bought a house, and for some reason I prayed for a fixer-upper, and yeah, all right. But he never came, so that’s the thing. I got to do it. But I prayed for a fixer-upper, so if you know anything about renovating or remodeling your house, it doesn’t just take more time, it doesn’t just take more money, it doesn’t just take more effort. It takes so much the more money, time, and effort. And that’s what we’re dealing with right now. But this phrase “so much the more”—I wanted you to get that in your psyche today. I want us to be able to take home this phrase with us this morning: “so much the more.”
The phrase “so much the more” is actually given four times in the Bible. Two of those situations are very similar, we will see as we go on here. But I wanted to look it up, and I love technology. Praise the Lord for it. You know, you talk to old-fashioned preachers when I was in Bible college, and they would say, “Does anybody know where this verse is?” And I’d pull out my phone and I type in the words. “Oh, it’s right here. It’s in…” No, no, no, you didn’t know where it was at. And it’s true, I needed to. But I enjoy technology. I enjoy—I typed in that phrase “so much the more.” It came up four different times in the Bible, and we’re going to kind of go through these. It’s just really three points today. On Wednesday night, the introduction was really long and a short message. So now we’re going to get a short introduction and a long message. So we’ll see. We’ll definitely be out of here at a certain time.
So let’s go ahead and keep going here. But “so much the more”—this phrase is given a couple times. In this passage here, Hebrews 10:25, this is one of those times, and we’ll look at another two times in the Bible. But I don’t have to tell you this: if you’ve been here, not this last week, not the week before, but the week before that, the preacher preached on the prophecy. And I love the illustration that he used. He said, Jesus isn’t going to come as a thief in the night to us Christians because we know that Jesus is coming. We can see the signs of Jesus’ coming. It’s so close to us. It’s so imminent. And Jesus’ return is imminent; it can happen any day. It can happen right now.
And praise the Lord, Jesus is coming back. We don’t have to worry about that. But Jesus’ return is imminent, and he gives us some clear direction with these “so much the mores” in the Bible. We’re going to look at these. You’ve already got your Bible here. Open it: Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 25. But let’s look at that. Let’s read that verse again. And when we get to that phrase “so much the more,” I want you to say it out loud with me. You ready? Here we go. Hebrews 10:25: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.” You ready? “And so much the more as you see the day approaching.”
You know what? To me, God puts things in the Bible—maybe just selfishly for me, I don’t know, but he puts it in for everybody. But the Lord tells us, “Hey, you know what? There are some important things we need to pull out of here.” We use this verse as a verse to show people the importance of going to church, and that’s what it has in here. But there’s something that we generally miss when we talk about that. Look at that verse again: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”—that’s talking about church—“as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.”
You know the amazing thing about church? Church is two parts. Church is coming to be around godly fellowship, but church is also about encouraging one another. Church is about being there for your brother, being there for your friend. Hey, you know what? If you see somebody that’s down, what are we supposed to do? We’re supposed to exhort one another. We’re supposed to encourage, to lift up somebody. Man, that’s an amazing thing about church.
You know, I’ve talked to people, and they’re like, “Man, I don’t know about this church stuff. I’ll just kind of sit at home and I’ll do my church thing to myself.” You know, that’s great, but who’s going to go to when you have a prayer request? Who are you going to go to when you need some encouragement? Man, I want to be around people that have prayed for me. I want to be around people that will encourage me. And that’s—praise the Lord—we have a church for that. Here are some things: the two parts of a church, the assembling of ourselves, that’s the church part, and then exhorting one another.
You know, the closer we get to Christ coming, the less and less you’ll see of people exhorting one another, and the less you’ll see of church. You know, look at it. Think about those churches that want to conform to the world, want to attract the world, and want to lure the world in. Man, they’re having church every day, aren’t they? No. If you’re lucky, they’ll have one service. Maybe they’ll have two services. It’s just the same service repeated at 8 and then at 10, 10:15. They have to have a weird 10:17. It’s always a weird time. But why is that? Because the closer and closer we get to Christ’s coming, God says this: “Hey, you need to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. You need to watch it because you know what? Those churches, when they’re trying to conform to the world, they’re going to have less and less and less of church.” And you know what? It’ll soon be to where there won’t be a church. It’ll be just kind of a group of churches, and they’ll just kind of—you’ll have an online thing, and that’ll be my church I go to. “Yeah, I watch that thing. It’s like a once-a-month thing. That’s how we do it.” No, that’s what’s going to happen. The closer and closer we get to Christ coming, the less and less that you will see of church and church activity.
Man, praise the Lord, we have a church on the move, all right? I’m so thankful for this hornet that keeps distracting everybody. But I’m so thankful we have a church and we have a pastor that wants to do things. Man, praise the Lord for soul winning. Me and my wife were able to go soul winning yesterday. That’s a church activity. Man, if you were able to—if we have a picnic coming up next Sunday, man, be a part of that. Those are church activities. And we have a church. We’ve had to change the calendar. We didn’t just say, “Well, just forget it all. We’re just going to cancel it out.” No, we want to have more church activities the closer we get to Christ coming. We want to have more and more of church because of the influence that church has in our lives.
So, you know what? Churches that are conforming to the world, they’re not adding services; they’re losing services. And you’ll just see that. It’s sad. Man, if I was a pastor, man, I would want to have church. I wouldn’t want to have church. I wouldn’t want to be canceling services. I wouldn’t want to be on the boat on Monday and just, “All right, well, I’m good for the rest of the week. I preached on Sunday, I’m good to go for the rest of the week.” No, I don’t want that. I would want to have more church. And the closer we see to Christ coming back, the less and less you’ll see of these churches that are having services.
You know, I want my kids to be raised in church. I want my kids to be raised in church. You know, I’ve talked to some people and, you know, some family members, and they said, “Well, you’re going to brainwash your kids if you keep bringing them to church.” And I said, “You know what? They need some good cleaning up. They need to be cleaned up.” Man, I had two brothers; they needed as much church as they could get. No, I’m just kidding. But we needed some cleanup.
You know, I’ve heard of, you know, “They’re going to hate church if you keep bringing your kids to church and you keep forcing your kids to church.” They’re going to hate church when they get older. You know what? Not if I don’t hate church. If I come to church with the attitude, “Let me fulfill my religious duties, let me sit in my seat, everybody look at me, I’m going to wave, shake my hand, shake my hand,” and then I go home and I have the preacher for lunch, or I have another member in the church for lunch—you know what that creates in a child? Well, it’s not really important to Mom and Dad.
But if I enjoy church, my kids are going to hate church. They’re not wanting to go to church. But if I go to church and I’m excited to be here, man, my kids are going to be excited. I love it when Elaine wakes up and she’s like, “Are we going to church today?” “No, not today. It’s Monday.” “Are we going to go to church today?” She loved VBS because she could go to church every day. But she loves church, and we’re like, she said, “Are we going to church today?” “Yes, it’s Wednesday. You’ll be able to go.” And she usually asks for a couple of people. “Is so-and-so going to be there?” “Yeah, she’s going to be there.” “Is a teenager going to be there?” “Yeah, she’s going to be there.” And, man, I love that my kids want to be in church. I love that. That’s what I want.
You know, a lot of people say that, you know, I’ve talked to parents, I’ve talked to families, and they say, “You know, I don’t want to go to church because that’s my only day off. That’s my day to spend with the family.” Man, I don’t know about you, but there is nothing like driving in a car together as a family going to church. Man, there is nothing like, as you’re on your way to church, saying, “Hey kids, let’s pray for the preacher today. Hey, kids, let’s pray that somebody gets saved today in church.” Man, there’s nothing like that. That is quality family time.
There’s nothing like—my dad used to do this. We would sit with friends, with our friends, the older we got in church. But sometimes my dad just wanted us to be close, and we would all sit in the same pew. Why? Because it’s family time. He wanted to show this, man, this is an important time for us. We are coming to church as a family. Man, there’s nothing like that. Man, the family time that you can get from coming to church, the family time you can get from coming to activities. Man, the more, the closer and closer Christ gets, the less and less we need to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We need to be in church. Make church a priority in your home. Don’t let ball games, don’t let sports, don’t let family members get in the way of you going to church. Make it a priority. If it’s high on your list, your kids won’t ask you, “Hey, are we going to church today?” No, we’re going to be in church. The doors are open. What are you thinking? “All right, we’re going to be in church today.”
We would—and I don’t recommend this, this is kind of a weird, different time—but when we were younger and we were sick, my mom had the idea. She’s like, “Man, you’re going to be sick at the house, or you’re going to be sick at church.” And we weren’t going around sneezing and shaking everybody’s hands. We were little kids. And our spot if we were sick was to lay down underneath the pew, and we’d have two hymn books as our pillow. Man, that was it. But my parents wanted to make it a priority to us as little kids: you are going to be in church. Church is a priority to us, to this family. And man, make that a priority, a priority to your family. So much the more. Not less and less, but more and more and more.
I’ve already talked about it, but why do we go to church? To assemble with other like-minded Christians in godly fellowship. There’s nothing like it. I love going to church and listening to the testimonies that we heard today. I love hearing stories about God changing people’s lives. Man, you hear that at church. Praise the Lord for church. I’m going to keep going, y’all. I’m getting a little quiet here. All right. Here we go for the next one.
So number one: Do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. So much the more, let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
Here’s number two. Go ahead and turn to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7 in your Bibles. That should be the second book in the New Testament. Mark chapter 7. I’m trying to find it too. Mark chapter 7. We’re going to look at verse number 32 and we’ll go down to the end of the chapter, verse number 37. Mark chapter 7, verse number 32. Here’s what the Bible says. The Bible says: “And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and [one] that had an impediment in his speech: and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.” They told Jesus, “Would you put your hand on him?”
“And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers in his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said unto him, Ephphatha.” All right, I don’t know if that’s right. If you’re a Bible teacher, I’m sorry about that, but Ephphatha—that is, “Be opened.” And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man. You ready? Say this phrase with me: “But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it.” And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, “He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.”
You know what? I’m going to put some things out here. So number one is, the closer we get to Christ coming, God had to put something in the Bible because we’re sinners. All right, we’re lazy. All right. You know, there are just certain things that the Lord’s like, “Okay, they’re going to struggle with this. I’m going to put this in the Bible.” And praise the Lord for that, okay? I think the Bible’s written for me, and y’all got some stuff in there, too.
But God tells us this. He says, “Look, this man, this deaf man, this dumb man, he came to God. He couldn’t speak.” God put his fingers in his ears and he said, “Be opened.” And then what happened? He said, “All right, now don’t tell anybody. Don’t tell anybody about this.” But what happened? “So much the more,” they began to publish it. “So much the more.”
You know what we need in our churches today? We need a little bit more of publishing God’s goodness. You know, Jesus told that man, “Don’t say anything because his hour hadn’t come yet.” But you know what I can tell you this morning? Jesus’ hour has come. He’s already shown himself as the Son of God. He’s already shown himself as the Savior, the Messiah of the world. That’s what Jesus has already done. So we can tell people about God. We can tell people about Jesus. We can share God’s goodness.
You know, I want my life—I want the Lord to record my life as “so much the more I began to publish about God’s goodness.” You know what I love about going to church? And I kind of already said this on my other point; I stole it. I’m sorry, I’ll repeat it again. You ready? But you know what I love about going to church? I love hearing God working in people’s lives. There is a radio program that I listen to, and I love it. You know, I didn’t grow up in a life of drugs and alcohol and things like that, but man, I love hearing those stories how God took a drunk, God took a druggie, God took somebody in an abusive relationship, and God did something amazing in their life. God did a miracle in their life. I love hearing stories about that.
But you know what church used to be about? Church used to be about, “Hey, brother, what’s an answered prayer request you’ve had recently?” “Hey, brother, how has the Lord worked in your life here recently?” But now church is the day. Is—you ready?—what do we talk about? “Well, did you hear about the news?” “Well, did you hear about what they’re doing over here?” Man, “Did you hear about, did you see what sister so-and-so was wearing?” “Did you hear what brother so-and-so was listening to in his truck when he pulled up?” All right, if it was a Dodge, it was—no, I’m just kidding. No, no. Anyway.
But did you hear what happened? And we’re so often, we talk the negative. I talked about it in teen church this morning. We talked about your voice, and man, just the power that our tongue has. But yet so often, we stick to the negative. We stick to the negative in so many things. Christians should be God’s biggest fans. We should not have a Christianity to where people talk about God, where people don’t mention God’s goodness.
I talked about again in teen church, but silence is often the loudest voice of not agreeing. Man, if I don’t talk about God, man, my silence about that shows people, “Well, it’s not really a big deal for their lives.” Man, I want to be talking about God. I want my neighbors to know. I want my friends to know. I want my family, my coworkers—I want them to know about how God’s worked in my life. I want them to know about the miracle God has done in my heart. You know, I love talking about God’s goodness to me because God has been so good to us. Why do we keep that to ourselves? Why is that the last thing we talk about?
And I’m not just getting on to you; this is me. There’s a mirror in the back; it’s looking right at me. But I’m not talking. We stick to the negative so often, and we live in a whole world full of hatred and negativity. And all they need is a Christian to say, “Hey, man, you know what? I was praying for this, and God answered my prayer request.” “Man, you know what? I’ve been waiting to tell my family member about Jesus, and you know what? They got saved this week.” “Man, I’ve been excited about my family member; she’s finally getting into church again.” We need to start talking about the goodness of the Lord. We need to talk about God’s goodness.
I’ll read you some verses here. But what do I hear about a lot when you’re talking about Jesus in the workplace? You know, a lot of people that, you know who they are, right? You’re pushing up their glass and they go, “We’re not supposed to talk about religion.” Right? Anybody hear one of those? Yes, “You’re not supposed to talk about religion.” You’re not supposed to talk about religion. Well, let me tell you what: nobody can argue with a changed life. I don’t care who you are; nobody can argue with the changed life.
We talked about a story on Wednesday night about the man that couldn’t walk. He was weak in his ankles; he couldn’t walk. And you know what they did? He got healed, and they brought him before all the Sadducees, the Pharisees—the Pharisees—and he was standing before them. And listen to this verse, you ready? Acts 4:14: “And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.” They could say nothing against it because it was a changed life. They see it with their own eyes. This man was talking about God’s goodness, and they couldn’t say anything because God did a work in their hearts.
Man, us as Christians, we should be proclaiming God’s goodness. Here are some verses. The Bible talks about publishing God’s goodness. You ready? Psalm 9:11: “Sing praises to the Lord; declare among the people his doings.” Psalm 22:22: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” Psalm 66:16: “Come hither, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.”
You know what? God is looking for some people to brag on him. Man, God has been so good to us. He has given us salvation. Most of everybody was able to walk in here today. We’re breathing. All right. Nobody’s hooked up to a monitor as you walked in. We have so much to be thankful for. And you know what? I hear so often, we’ll have a Thanksgiving service or you’ll talk to somebody, “Man, the Lord’s been so good to me.” I can stand here all night long and tell you how God’s been good to me. That’s great. But have you ever done that before? Have you ever stayed up late thanking God for what he’s done? Has there ever been a time where you’ve gone to God and just declared his goodness in your life? Yes, he knows about it, but have you told him about it? Have you told him how you enjoyed having your family around? Have you enjoyed the blessings that he’s given to you financially or spiritually? Have you asked God? Have you declared to God his goodness?
So much the more, as we get closer to God coming back, we should be praising Christians. We should be declaring God’s goodness. You know what? This deaf man, he used the miracle. Listen to this: the deaf man used that miracle that God gave to him to proclaim God’s goodness. Think about it. He was deaf. His tongue was tied. He couldn’t speak. But what did God do? God healed him. God gave him a miracle, and he used that miracle to help somebody else. He used that miracle in his life. The Bible says he spake plainly. And Jesus said, “Hey, don’t be telling nobody just yet.” And what did he do? He used the miracle in his life to go help somebody else.
Man, the miracle that we have of salvation—how many times have we told our coworker about that? You know what? We talk about, “Don’t talk about religion in your workplace.” I don’t know how many bosses—I’m sure there’d be very few that wouldn’t enjoy you coming to your boss and say, “Hey, you know what? I am so thankful that God put me here in this workplace. I’m so thankful that you are my boss.” God worked that out in a special way. Now, don’t lie, okay? Don’t lie. But there’s not a boss in America that wouldn’t like to hear that from their employee. There’s not a friend in America that wouldn’t like to hear, “Man, God has been so good bringing us together as friends. God has been so good to us.”
Man, I was working with a man here a while back, and we were, as a teenage boy, and we were working on one of the vehicles for the church. And it was just so negative. The whole conversation was, “Well, we can’t do that. You know, we can’t find this.” And so you know what? I knew this was going to happen. And so I did everything in my power to thank God for everything. You know what I did? I was like, “Oh, man, we have the 10-millimeter socket. Praise the Lord! Wow, that bolt came off, and all we had to do was pour in two gallons of Knock’er Loose. Praise the Lord! Man, we didn’t have any extra bolts when we got finished. Praise the Lord! Man, we’re laying here on the ground, and there’s not a snake coming after us. Praise the Lord!”
I was doing everything I could to give praise to God. And you know what happened? You know what’s funny? What happens? Is that teenage boy at the end, he said, “You know what? Praise the Lord, we had a good day today.” And I was like, “There it is. That’s what we’re looking for.” Man, God needs Christians not to complain, not to look at all the negatives in life, but to look at what God has done positive in their life, to focus on those positives. That’s what God’s looking for.
You know what would help our workplaces is positive, glorifying Christians. You know what would help your schools, teenagers, is positive Christians giving glory to God. You know what would help our families? Not sitting around during Christmas time—and some of you have to be there, I understand, all right?—and you’re sitting around at Christmas time, and “Did you hear about your cousin? Did you hear about your aunt? Did you hear about so-and-so?” And instead of doing that, why don’t we just fill the whole time with, “Man, God has been good to me about this”? Have a list prepared. Come to your family with, “Man, God has been good to give me this. God has been good to give me this. God has been good to give me this.” Why is it that we take the negative all the time? Why don’t we give that praise to God?
God is looking for Christians not to keep to themselves, not to hold in what God’s been good to them, but to declare it, to declare it among the nations, to declare it among the heathen. That’s our job. That is what God wants to hear. God wants to hear about His goodness. The world needs somebody to declare God’s goodness. The sinner down the street is not going to talk good about God. Who’s going to talk good about God? Who’s going to declare God’s goodness among the heathen? Who’s going to declare God’s goodness among the people? That’s us. That’s us.
Take it today: the closer God gets to His coming, man, the more and more I am going to be proclaiming God’s goodness. I’m going to be a beacon of proclaiming God’s goodness, proclaiming what God has done for me. You look at Paul. What happened to Paul? Paul was before such big religious leaders and also the government. He was before the government. And you know what he did? “What do you want me to talk about? I don’t want to offend anybody.” No, you know what he did? He said, “On that road to Damascus, my life was changed.” And every time he stood before somebody, you know what he said? “On that road to Damascus, my life was changed. God saved my life.”
Man, why don’t we take that as a challenge? Take that as a challenge. So much the more as we see Christ coming, we should be in church. So much the more as we see Christ coming, we should publish God’s goodness.
Here’s the third thing. Look at Luke chapter 18. This is point three. This is it. All right, you’ve made it so far. We’re doing good. If you need to adjust your seatbelt, please feel free to do that. Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. We’re going to look at the last thing here. But we talked about number one, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Number two is to publish God’s goodness. And here’s number three.
Luke chapter 18, verse number 35. And I want you to listen closely on this one. When we get to that phrase “so much the more,” let me see where it’s at—in verse 39. When we get to verse number 39, when it comes to that phrase “so much the more,” we’ll say it out loud. But we’ll start in verse number 35 just to get some context here. The Bible says in Luke chapter 18:35, the Bible says: “And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging. And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.”
And they which went before rebuked him. They told him to be quiet, that he should hold his peace. But he cried—you ready?—“So much the more.” Say that one more time, you ready? He cried, “So much the more, thou son of David, have mercy on me.” He didn’t just cry it again. He didn’t just cry it louder. He cried it “so much the more,” “Thou son of David, have mercy on me.”
Look at verse number 40. “And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, saying, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.”
You know what? The third thing that we need to be doing the closer Christ comes back, the closer Christ’s coming is near: we should be crying out to our Savior. We should be crying out to God. When is the last time in your prayer time that you cried out to God? When is the last time that you were alone with God, whether that be in your prayer closet, whether that be in the woods somewhere, whether that be in your heart—you cried out to your Savior?
You know, there are some interesting things about this story, but you know what? When is the last time we’ve cried out to God? When is the last time we’ve shed some tears about a family member? When is the last time we fought in prayer for our wife? We fought in prayer for our children turning out for God? The more and more, the closer God gets to His coming, the more and more we should be crying out to God.
This blind man had a problem; he couldn’t see. This blind man had a circumstance that was impossible. Nobody could be able to heal this blind man. This blind man was probably blind for a long time, and he couldn’t see. And he had an issue. You know what he did? He kept to himself? You know what he did? He just, “Well, okay. They said Jesus is coming by? Okay. Well, maybe there’ll be a lot of people coming by, and I’ll be able to get some more money while he’s coming.” No, that’s not what he did. You know what he did? He cried out so much the more. So much the more, he cried out to his God. He cried out to his God.
Why do we discredit God so much? Why is it that we belittle our Savior? He is the Creator of the whole world. He made every person on this earth, everything on this earth, and he even made some beautiful scenery for us to enjoy for no other reason but for us to enjoy it. Our God can accomplish the impossible. Our God can do the unthinkable. He can overcome any challenge. He can heal any heartache. He can defeat any enemy. He can vanquish any circumstance. He can conquer any trial, and he can work in your life. Why do we discredit God? God has done so much for us.
And the more and more we see Christ coming, the less and less you’ll see of people, Christians, crying out to God. Why is that? It’s our sin nature. But God knew that. That’s why he put it in the Bible. He wants us to cry out to him. He wants us to cry out to him.
There are some things we notice about this story. Number one: This man, he cried out to God and not those around him. He cried out to God and not those around him. When there’s a problem that happens in our life, who is the first person we turn to? When there is an impossible trial that comes your way, who do we look to? Do we pull up our favorite counselor and try to find what he says about the subject? Do we try to get a book or try to watch a video, or try to seek some worldly man’s philosophy on what we should do? Or do we go to our God in prayer? Do we go to our God and cry out to him to answer our request?
There’s another thing: Jesus was there. Praise the Lord. Our Savior knew that this blind man was going to be here. Our Savior had the power to heal this blind man. Oh, man. Sorry. I don’t want to fall off; that would be embarrassing. All right, sorry. Anyway, where was I at? Sorry about that. Yes, Jesus was there. Our God had the power to heal this blind man. You know what he did? He was waiting for the blind man to cry out to him.
How many people, how many blind men did Jesus pass by? We probably don’t even know. How many people that had an ailment that walked by as Jesus walked by and just sat there and did nothing? How many people had a problem, an issue—marriage, financial—what if they had an issue, a circumstance in their life, and God passed right by, and they didn’t say anything? We know about this blind man because he did cry out to God. We know about this blind man because he knew that by himself he couldn’t solve it. By himself, he couldn’t answer it. So he cried out to the one that could. He cried out to the one that could.
And you know what’s amazing about this story? Jesus waited for him to cry. Jesus walked right past him, waiting for him to cry. And you know what? Jesus heard him. Jesus heard him that first time. But how many times do we pray a prayer request? “Lord, would you help me in this area?” And that’s all the Lord hears from you. How often do we go back to God and say, “Lord, I really want you to answer this prayer request? Lord, I need you to answer this prayer request? Lord, I want my kids to turn out for you. Lord, I want a strong Christian marriage. Lord, I want our church to be able to win the lost.” How often do we keep going back? How often do we keep going back?
Jesus was waiting, but he heard his cry. If that man—if that man, Jesus heard his thoughts before he even cried out. God knew what he was thinking. God knew his heart’s desire. His heart’s desire was to be healed of his blindness. Jesus knew that. Jesus knows every situation that you’re going through. There’s nothing that is unique just to us. There is a God up in heaven that has put you in that path for a reason. There is something he wants us to learn. But imagine this man if he would have sat in silence. He wouldn’t have been healed. He wouldn’t have been healed.
You know, what’s amazing is I think I’m an okay dad, all right? I think if one of our daughters fell and skinned their knee, I think I would be physically able to take care of the problem, all right? You know, dust it off and send them back on their way. Now, I’m just kidding. But I think I’d be able to, you know, get the knee cleaned up and get a Band-Aid? I think I’d be able to do that. But you know what happens when Elaine or Charity falls? What do they do? “Mama!” And they cry out to Mama. Charity, as soon as she learned the word “Mama”—all right, she’s very smart, girl—but she reserves that “Mama” for very, very important times, like when she’s ready to get up, like when she’s ready to eat. All you hear is, “Mama, Mama, Mama.” That’s the only word she knows, but she knows it, and she knows when she has a problem, she knows who to turn to.
You know, when Elaine, when she would fall or maybe push her sister down, whatever happens, when there’s a cry that happens, it’s a cry out for Mama. Just this week, Charity fell backwards. You know, that’s just what she does. I don’t know why. But she fell backwards, and you know what she did? She was crying. And so here comes Hero Dad, right? And I swoop in, and I grab my daughter from the pits of destruction, and I pick her up, and I carry her, and I’m expecting this great reward of a hug. And, “Oh, Dad.” But no, there was still more crying. And I thought, “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’ll be all right.” And as soon as I hand her off to Cotora—I don’t know if she has a button in the back, I don’t know—but she stopped crying. She stopped crying.
If a child can figure out to know where to go, who to cry out to for help, us as Christians, we should know. We should know. There’s nothing that is new to God. God knows what you’re going through. God knows—is waiting for us to cry out to him. He’s waiting for that.
There’s another thing we notice: the world around you will want to silence you. The world wants us silenced. The world does not want you seeking God. Your family, your friends, they do not want you seeking God. They want you to be in your misery. They want you to fall. They want you to be destroyed. But God is waiting for us. And you know what’s amazing? You’re ready? Listen in close. You ready for this? You ready for this? The world can never stop God from hearing your cry. God is not deaf. God is not just sitting on the sideline waiting for a phone call. No, God is there, and he’s able to answer our request.
Praise the Lord, I have a God that wants to hear my cry. As ugly as it may sound, God wants to hear me cry out to him. God loves those times in the woods. God loves those times in the prayer closet where we get with God alone and we cry out to our Father. He wants those times. He longs for those times.
So what happens here? So much the more. So much the more we should be in our church. We should be in our place, exhorting one another. So much the more, we need to be doing our job as publishing God’s goodness. Be a beacon publishing God’s goodness. Be a radio station where we broadcast the goodness of the Lord. And so much the more, we need to be crying out to God. We need to let this world know there is nothing that my God cannot do. And when we cry out for help to somebody else and not God, we show that our God can’t do it, which is a lie. God can do it, and God wants to do it.
Let me—I’m closing with this here. But have you ever cried out for your salvation this morning? Do you know for sure if you were to die that you’d go to heaven? There is a God up in heaven that knew you before you were formed. He knew what you were going to do, where you were going to go, who you were going to be with, who you were going to turn out to be. God knew all of that, but God still loved you. God knows every one of our sins, and He still loves us. God wants you to make sure that heaven is your home today. If you have not cried out to God for your salvation, today is the day. Now is the time. Now is the day of salvation. God is waiting for your call.
You know how I know that? You know how I know that for our salvation? God’s waiting for you. Romans 10:13: What does it say? “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Shall be saved. God is waiting for you. God wants you to be saved. God wants you to have eternal life in heaven. He’s waiting for you. Have you cried out to God for your salvation?
Let’s go ahead and bow our heads and close our eyes. “So much the more as you see the day approaching,” Hebrews 10:25. What will be said of you this morning? Will it be said of you that you, as God’s coming was drawing near, that you were somebody that didn’t forsake church? You were in church every time those doors were open. You published God’s goodness. Could that be said of you? Could that be said of you that you cried out to your God? Could that be said of you this morning? What will we be doing? Will we be doing these things less and less, or so much the more?
I’m going to ask a couple of questions, and with your heads bowed and eyes closed: He said, “Brother Anthony, I will do my part,” whether it be any of these three: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves, publishing God’s goodness, or crying out to God. “I will do my part. As the closer God gets to His coming, I will do my part to so much the more do these things.” If that’s you, would you raise your hand for me this morning? Amen. Amen. Is there any other? Thank you so much. You may put your hands down.
And I’ll keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed. But you say, “Brother Anthony, you talked about crying out to God for salvation. You talked about a God that loves me that wants me to go to heaven. I don’t know who that is. I want to know. I want to know if I were to die that I’d go to heaven.” If that’s you and you’ve never asked Jesus into your heart, and you’d like to make that decision this morning, would you please just do me a favor and raise your hand? We’re not going to embarrass you, not going to call you out. But if you raise your hand, we’d like to pray for you. There would be so many people here encouraged and excited that you made that decision this morning.
Last question here: But if you say, “Brother Anthony, I know for sure if I were to die right now, I know my next breath would be in heaven. I know that without a doubt. I know that from the bottom of my heart. Jesus is my Savior. There’s nothing I do; it’s all what he’s done for me.” If that’s you and you know that for sure, would you just lift your hand up, please? Thank you so much, and we put your hands down.
Let’s pray, and then we’ll have invitation. If you want to stand for me, we’ll stand and we’ll have prayer, and then the instrumentalist will play for the invitation. Lord, we thank you so much for what you’ve done for us this morning. Lord, I thank you for you. You’re so good to us. Help us, Lord, to do these things so much the more. And I ask you, please just bless the invitation time. If there’s still somebody here that doesn’t know for sure they’re going to heaven, would you please help them to be bold about it and be able to come down and make that decision for you? We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Original File: So Much the More - Brother Anthony Aaron Sunday 62820