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What The Lectures Do For Us
We have an exciting week ahead. It’s that time of year again–time for the 36th edition of The Southside Lectures. We have invited four great speakers and one great song leader to come and help us in our flight toward heaven. Kenny Moorer, Roger Shouse, Don Truex and Ken Weliever will help us to help ourselves. Time Stevens will lead us in songs calculated to increase our love for truth and righteousness. These special days will do wonderful things for us.
They bring us closer together (Colossians 3:14-18). “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. ”
We are called into one body. What a pleasant experience to be together with those you love. And what an even greater experience to be with those with whom you plan to spend eternity! The Lectures help us sing–together, pray–together, listen to His word–together. Will you be together with us this coming week? Will you be here?
They challenge us toward a common goal (Philippians 2:1-4). “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
The Lectures give us the sense of oneness. There is amongst us a commonality of love, a relationship of unity provided by the Spirit, a together-feeling of compassion. We are of the same mind, of the same disposition, of the same sense of thankfulness for our salvation. ‘Tis indeed a joy to have those of a like-minded love to enjoy that blessed assurances of the gospel Will you be here?
They link us to a common hope (1 Peter 1:3-5). “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Here is a blessed opportunity this week to magnify and classify our hope, to make real our anticipation of heaven, to enlarge our concept of that heavenly home for which we all long, and to elevate the more excellent things and regard what is really important in life. Where could you go this week where you might find a greater subject under discussion? Where could you go to better elongate your hope and fix your faith? Will you be here?
They shove us toward a spiritual mind (Romans 8:1-5). “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”
Here is an opportunity for each of us to make sure of our path of pursuit and to firmly fix in our minds on where we’re going. Our walk is ultimately a spiritual one and here is information that tells us how to keep our bodies fixed and ready for that spiritual dwelling reserved for the faithful. We need such encouragement from the Scriptures; we need such encouragement from one another; we need such encouragement as comes from the sermons that will be preached here this coming week. Will you be here?
They join us to our real destiny (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
We’re all headed somewhere. It is vital–highly important–that we know where we’re headed and how to get there. We can help one another this coming week to know that we’re on the right path–together, that we’re helping one another as we’re heading in the direction of that eternal abode. We need to be impressed with the fact that this world is not our home, that there is a better place, a heavenly place–one with no sickness, no dying, one where we can be together in our praise and adulation of our great God, of His Son Jesus, who procured our salvation, of the Holy Spirit who has enlivened our hope and given us assurances of heaven.
Will you be here for the Lectures next week?
