Prepare Ye The Way Of the Lord, Make His Paths Straight

Good to see everyone today. Realized there's a number of visitors here today because of the wedding yesterday. And it definitely makes a little bit of a dilemma for me as a preacher, having a number of visitors here, get around preaching a bit.

I put a message together a couple of weeks ago and preached at one of the outlying churches. And I realized that some of you are here today, so you will hear that message again. Thought it would fit well with having the wedding, being put on to preach today, not having time to focus on it.

But anyhow, I trust that we all can be fit. There are two phrases that I would like to keep in mind as we go through the sermon. My message title is Prepare Ye the Way.

And two phrases that I would like to help us remember the sermon, prepare ye the way of the Lord and make his path straight. Those are the two phrases. And I think all of us recognize that that was given by the John the Baptist as he came preaching out of the wilderness.

We have in the last book of Malachi there the prophecy of John the Baptist coming, given with the name of Elijah. And I thought it was interesting just to consider that the John the Baptist came out of simply, seemingly nowhere, out of the wilderness with a message for the people of God. Elijah seemingly came out of nowhere there where he came to prophesy against Ahab and saying there won't be any rain for three and a half years on the face of the earth.

And then he disappeared into the wilderness. John the Baptist came out of the wilderness and Elijah passed into the wilderness and there was fed by a raven. So in Mark chapter 1, I'm turning your Bibles there.

We'll read the first eight verses. And what we'd like to do today is look at these phrases and this wording that we have here. We find it numerous places in the Bible.

And we like to look at some of that. And then we'd like to make some practical application to our lives. Today, Mark chapter 1, and we're reading the first eight verses.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

And there went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel's hair, with a girdle of skin about his loins. He did eat locusts and wild honey, and preached, saying, there cometh one mightier than I after me, the lachet of whose shoes I'm not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And so we have these statements that John the Baptist came, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. This word straight here simply means level or true.

He was supposed to come and make the path level and true for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and start his ministry. Make his paths straight. And so we could ask the question, well, how did this work? How did John the Baptist come preaching, making the paths straight? If we just go over into Mark chapter 2, and we have verses 13 to 17, I think it gives us a clue what he was making the paths straight for.

In verse 13, it says, Jesus, he went forth again by the seaside, and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him.

And it came to pass that as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples. For there were many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, they that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick.

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And we could ask the same question, and people are asking that question today. The disciples came, and they asked him, and said, or the Pharisees asked the disciples, how is it that he, Jesus, eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? That question is rolled around in many people's minds, and some people use it as an excuse to spend time with ungodly people.

I believe that this is a clear message to us today on what John the Baptist did in making the path straight for Jesus Christ to come. I believe these publicans and sinners were probably people who heard John the Baptist preaching, they responded to that message, they were baptized by him, and thus their hearts were ready when Jesus Christ came. And so I think it was Jesus spending time with some of these people who were repentant.

There's actually a clearer passage in Matthew 21 that actually brings John the Baptist into the equation by Jesus himself. Matthew 21, 28 to 32, Jesus telling this parable, but what think ye? A certain man had two sons. He came to the first and said, son, go work today in my vineyard.

He answered and said, I will not. But afterward he repented and went. And he came to the second and said likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not.

Whether of them twain did the will of his father, they say unto him, the first. Jesus saith unto them, verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you, for John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not. But the publicans and harlots believed him.

And ye, when you had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him. And so that's probably the clearest passage that we could find where John the Baptist preached, people got converted, they repented of their sins. It was harlots and it was publicans that repented.

And he made this place level for the Lord Jesus Christ to come in and to invest in the lives of these publicans and sinners. There's another verse over in Hebrews 12 that uses this same language. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

Hebrews chapter 12 and verses 12 and 13. So here we have in context, the Hebrew writer writing and encouraging the Hebrew people that they should not become discouraged with all of the difficulties that they were facing. And one of the things that the Hebrew writer brought to their attention was the fact that there is this goal that God has in mind for us and that is to make us better people.

And sometimes he uses these difficulties to chastise us, to make us better people. And so he goes through that teaching and in verse 12, he says, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. So we have this same language here about making straight paths for your feet.

That would be level, that would be true. That would be so that the people wouldn't trip up. These people who are discouraged, life isn't going well.

It would be easy for those to trip up. And the Hebrew writer was encouraging that we would lift up those hands, we would strengthen those feeble knees, we would make straight paths for our feet so that the weary wouldn't fall by the wayside. I believe what John the Baptist preached was actually something that he would have got out of the Old Testament.

I think probably all of us are aware that in the Old Testament, there was laws that surrounded accidental killing. So if you unintentionally killed somebody, God made safety for them. And so if you, and there in Deuteronomy, it actually gives that story of if you went out into the woods to cut down trees, they didn't have chainsaws, but they had ax.

And I think anyone that used an ax may have already used an ax with the head a little bit loose. If you go into the wood and you take it and you go back to make a stroke and the ax head falls off and hit somebody and kills them, it was totally accidental. You didn't hate the person before.

Then you could run to one of these cities. God said, when the children get into Canaan, they're supposed to have three cities that they specifically set aside as cities of refuge. But he said, if God multiplies you, then you should have three more.

And so we know they had three on one side of Jordan for the tribes that stayed over there. They had three on the other side. And this was so that they could run for safety.

I understand that when they ran for safety, they would enter into the city. When they entered into the city, they had to deal with the elders of the city. The elders of the city would interview them, interview the witnesses, and make sure that this was an actual accidental killing.

If it was not an accidental killing, then they would turn him over to the closest kin who would kill him because he hated the person before and did it out of vengeance. And so we have the children of Israel making these, setting these cities apart. Sometime in the time of the children of Israel, the Jewish people, they put a lot of effort into making these cities of refuge, making access into these cities very doable.

And so we have the city and you have the highway going into the city, which would have been the major highway into the city. And sometime in the Jewish, we would get it from the Jewish information that they put a lot of effort into this road that led into the city. So you had all these side paths that came off, but you had this main drag into the city.

This road, at one point in Jewish history, this road was really broad into the cities. They would make them 48 feet broad so that it was easy access. You can only imagine a main city with all the traffic of chariots and horses and people pushing their carts and their wares and maybe sitting along the street and selling the wares to people who were entering the city.

They made this 48 feet broad for easy access so that if you accidentally killed someone, you could come off of here and you could run up here, dodging in and out because it's so broad, you had enough room to get in there because somebody is on your heels because they're out to kill you because you accidentally killed someone else. They would send a delegation out at the beginning of the year, which would be February and March of our year. They would send a delegation out to check this road out, take care of all the potholes, all the situations.

This road actually was made so that it was level, and that's what our John the Baptist came preaching. John the Baptist was supposed to make straight paths for Jesus' feet. He was supposed to make a straight path for Jesus coming.

They would take down, they would make this road level. They would take down the hills. They would bring up the valleys.

Anywhere where there's a stream across the area, they would build a bridge. They would make it really easy access so anyone that's running would know where to go and would have easy access to do it. Another thing that at one point, they would have had at each one of these side trails coming out, right here they would have a sign, and its sign would be pointing towards the city so that when you're running and you know you're in trouble and someone on your heels and they're about to kill you, you can't always think straight.

So they had this sign at each one of these cross sections. It was a picture of a hand, and it pointed to the city, and it said Mikla, Mikla, which meant city of refuge, city of refuge, which way it was pointing. And so I think that's probably where John the Baptist got his message, this idea of this main highway going in.

I think at some point too, and I can only imagine, so you're out here in the woods and you are chopping wood and your axe head falls off, and it's your friend who's helping you or your friends that are helping you, can you only imagine that they're really concerned about your welfare? I would understand that sometimes there was a number of people ran with that person who was running for the city of refuge to encourage them. And can you imagine coming up this street, it's probably nice that it was 48 foot broad because you might have a handful of people who are running with you, encouraging you, run, go fast, hurry up, he's on your heels, you gotta make it. And so I think that's probably where some of this language comes from.

If we go back into Isaiah 40, we'll see more of that. Isaiah chapter 40, more of this language that John the Baptist preached. Isaiah chapter 40, verses one to five.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received at the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice, here's the prophecy, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God, every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Turn over to chapter 42 and verse 16.

Notice the language, and I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have not known, I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight, these things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. Chapter 45 and verse two, I will go before thee, I will make the crooked places straight, I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut and sunder the bars of iron. And one more, Jeremiah 31 and verse nine, prophecy of the restoration of Israel, it says they shall come with weeping, and with supplication will I lead them, I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

So just some numerous different passages that bring out this idea of straight paths, and we see it in the Hebrew writer, straight paths for your feet. There'll be a number of other things that we could consider, but I'd like to bring out some of this in Psalms 24. If you wanna turn in your Bibles to Psalms 24, this don't have the idea of straight paths, but it has an interesting concept given here.

I think we know this Psalm well, it was actually a song, and it was sang at the moving of the ark when they moved it from Oberynum's house over to Mount Zion. And I understand that this was arranged in a very specific way to be sang for that movement, the moving of the ark. And so you had this whole crowd of people who were, the whole congregation was a part of this moving of the ark over to Mount Zion.

This song was specially dedicated to this moving of the ark, and as I understand it, from what I've read, is the way they had this arranged is verses one and two were sang by the whole congregation that was following the ark. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded upon the seas and established it upon the floods.

And then verse three was sang by one single person. So you have this whole vast crowd and you have number three being sang by one person. Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place? And then verses four and five were answered by a choir that was a part of the great congregation that was following.

So you have the congregation singing one and two, solo number three, and then there was a choir who sang number four and five. He that hath clean hands, a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. And then number six, again, was sung by the whole congregation.

This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob, Selah. And I think they had this time that as they were coming to the gates of the city that then verses seven to 10 were sang. The whole congregation sang verse seven, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in.

Now, it's not the same language as we're talking about making straight paths for your feet, but it's, again, the idea of God coming into the city and this idea of the gates being lifted up and the posts being pushed out because there was an important person coming into the city. Make it wide, make it open. And so we have the congregation singing, lift up your heads, O ye gates, be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, the king of glory shall come in.

And then I understand there was a group of people inside the gate, inside the city, that answered or actually gave a question. Verse eight, who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Again, the whole congregation sang lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in.

And again, the choir inside. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory, seal up. And so what I see in that is they made a really big deal out of the fact that God was coming, the ark was a representation of the presence of God, and the presence of God is coming into the city.

And again, open up the gate of the city wide open and make lots of room because the king of glory is coming in. There's a couple of other verses that talk about this of God coming. In verse 24 of Exodus 20, it says an altar of earth, thou shall make unto me and shall sacrifice their own, thy burnt offerings, thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thy oxen, in all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee and I will bless thee.

And so I wanna bring into this whole idea of making his path straight so that God can come. There's also this idea of his desire to come. If you do certain things, I will come.

We have in Revelations 320, it says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come to him. I will come to him and will sup with him and he with me.

And so we like to take this idea and make it practical. And I like to make it practical in five different ways of God coming into our lives. So the first one is God coming into our lives personally.

The second one, God coming into our lives in our marriage, God coming into the lives of our children, God coming into the lives of us as the church, and then last of all, as our community, or making the path for God to come into our communities. And so this idea of making the paths straight, taking down every hill, bringing up every valley, putting a bridge across every stream, making a really nice highway for God to come into your life and into my life and so forth. And so for number one, God coming into our lives personally, Isaiah 66, verse one and two says, thus sayeth the Lord, the heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool, where is the house that you build unto me? Where is the place of my rest? For all those things have mine hand made, all those things have been, sayeth the Lord, but to this man will I look.

This is God wanting to come into our lives personally. We need to push out the doorpost, we need to push up the frame and make it wide because God actually wants to come into our lives personally not one time, but every day, we need to make the paths straight for him to come. So, but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word.

So humility. And you know what I think the biggest test for humility is? So humility is the pathway that God is gonna ride into our lives. And it's the appeal, I wanna come unto you, lift up your heads O ye gates, make straight paths for your feet because Jesus wants to come into our lives.

Humility. What is one of the greatest tests of humility is how well I do to allow people to speak into my life. And I wonder how many times God puts that as a test for you and I, how much the paths are actually straight in our life.

If we are the person who's independent, no one's gonna tell me what to do. Well, that's gonna reflect on God also. Make straight paths for your feet.

Humility. Humility is the highway of God into the life of the believer. We know what the Bible says.

God resisted the proud. He's not coming in if we're proud, but he giveth grace to the humble. Every thought of pride in our heart is another pothole in the highway into the city.

And it was really important for those that were responsible for this city of refuge that this was, the path was made straight. All the potholes were taken care of, a delegation was sent out at the beginning of the year and they inspected the road, they inspected the signs, they fixed the potholes, they redid the bridges. And I hope they redid the bridges conveniently, some of our major highways, they're redoing the bridges and it can give such a clog up.

I'm sure there was emphasis put on that if they fixing something up, they're not hindering anything when someone's coming and running for refuge. Andrew Mary said, "'Humility is one of the greatest marks of a crucified man.'" One of the greatest marks of a crucified man. John Ruskin said, "'I believe the first test of a truly great man is humility.'" I think if we're going to interview someone for church membership, if a father's gonna interview a young man, whether or not he can start courting his daughter, I really think humility should be the first thing that is considered.

Is this person humble? Are they teachable? He says, "'I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility.'" And he goes on to say and explains what humility is. He says, "'I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own power, hesitation to speak his opinion.'" But he said, "'Really great men have a curious undersense of powerlessness, feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them that they could not do or be anything else than God had made them.'" And so I think we need to pay attention if we have to be noticed, if we have to have the last word, if we get hurt when other people overlook us or other people get praised, if we resist this idea of other people speaking into our lives, these are the very potholes in the highway for God to come in. And we're supposed to take care of those potholes, fix up the road, make the road 48 feet broad because the King of glory is coming.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up. Why? Because the King of glory is coming and he wants to come into your life and my life. It also says there in that verse in Isaiah about trembling at his word.

And that simply means reverencing his word. Ezra 10.3 says, "'Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them according to the counsel of my Lord and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God and let it be done according to the law.'" And so it's this idea of taking God's word seriously. And so what I would think there, this is again making a broad pathway for God to come personally into our lives, tremble at his word.

And so our morning devotions is not just we put in our time, but we're actually really, God, what are you gonna tell me this morning? And we read it with purpose. We come to church, not because everyone else goes to church or we're just coming to meet our brothers and sisters. We're coming to church because we believe that God speaks through his word.

And so we tremble at his word. We don't got time to be sleepy and we pay attention. We pay attention.

We tremble at his word. This is the pathway God wants to take. A man who is humble, a man who trembles at his word, it's a highway into the life.

To this man will I look. These are the keys for paving the highway of the Lord into our personal lives. Lift up your heads, O ye gates.

Why? Because the King of glory wants to come. There's a voice crying in the wilderness. Even today, prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Make his paths straight. Another one, talking about God coming in a personal life, there's a real interesting two verses in John chapter 14, verses 21 and 23. It says there in 21, he that hath my commandments and keepeth them.

So that's this idea of trembling at his word. He hath my commandments and he keeps them. He it is that loveth me.

And so we know that love is the foundation of keeping his commandments. It says, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father. So this is, so if we obey God, we keep his commandments, we do it because we love him, and then we're loved of our father.

And it says, I will love him. I will manifest myself to him. And so this word manifest means exhibit.

And so what is he saying here? If this person has made this broad highway for me to come in, it's done by trembling at his word, knowing his commands, keeping his commands, because we love him, I'm going to exhibit myself to him. Exhibit, so recently my children voted to go to Longwood Gardens prior to Susanna getting married. And so we went to Longwood Gardens and it is totally amazing to see all the flowers.

I mean, unique. This one's this way, that one's that way. This one has leaves like this.

This one has prickers. This one has fruit, beautiful blossoms. And I think that one flower, and I should remember what it is.

They work for 20 some years to breed a different color and they've got this nice yellowish orange color now, which is they're really excited about. All these different things. And so you can see it's an exhibit of all these different things.

And so what Jesus is saying here is that the person I'm going to ride into the city on is someone who has made this road smooth and broad. And it's made by keeping his commands and doing them because we love him. And then I'm going to exhibit myself.

And it's going to be like going to Longwood Gardens. You'll go to Jesus and you'll see this facet of him. And then you'll see that facet.

And I believe it's the kind of people who come to church on a Sunday morning and they give testimony and say, you know, I was reading the Bible and I saw this. This just stuck out to me. And when we hear that, we're like, ooh, that kind of gives us the desire to search the scriptures also.

It's those kinds of people that God's revealing himself to. And he's showing this side of him, that side of him, the other side of him. He's revealing.

And then was it Peter or whoever it was, or was it Philip? Someone said to him, why is it that you manifest yourself to us and not to the whole world? And then Jesus came back with a second one. But let's reflect on the first one. Why is it that Jesus reveals himself to certain people and to certain people he don't? Here's the difference.

They've made this pathway smooth and broad. They tremble at his word. They're humble.

They keep his commandments. And then he reveals himself to them. So if God's not revealing himself to you, maybe you should at least consider, do I love him? Do I keep his commandments? That's who he's going to, why don't you show yourself to everyone? Why only a select few? And then he comes back in 23 and says, if a man loved me, he will keep my words.

Same thing again. And my father will love him. And we will come unto him and make our abode with him.

So this was the answer. Why don't you show yourself to everyone? Because I'm going to show myself to a certain person. And that is someone who keeps my commandments.

Here, instead of saying, we will manifest ourselves to him or myself to him, here he says, and we will make our abode with him. And this word, abode, means mansion. I get the idea that this is, again, the same idea.

He'll mansion with, he'll come live with us. But it's more than just living or walking beside someone on the street. We're actually living with them.

We get to see how they live. We're living in a mansion with all these rooms. We get to explore all this beauty.

And who is it for? Those that love him. And so the challenge is, God wants to ride into our life on a highway. We need to take out the stones.

We need to bring up the valleys. We need to take down the mountains. We need to make a highway of the Lord into our lives.

The second one, point number two, prepare the way of the Lord into our marriage. And I'd like to consider 1 Peter 3 for a moment. Might not read it all, but we know there are instructions given, first of all, to the wife, how she should relate to her husband.

I think the main point we see here is that of a woman. How does he say it here? In verse five, verse six, "'Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.'" And I'm not sure that it's so much about calling him that specific word. I think it is reverence, reverence.

So if we want God to come into our marriages, which I think all of us would want that, there are some very key things. One for the woman is to reverence. And then in verse seven, "'Likewise, you husbands, just as it is with the wife, "'likewise, you husbands, dwell with them "'according to knowledge, "'giving unto the wife as unto the weaker vessels, "'being heirs together, the grace of life, "'that your prayers be not hindered.'" So for the wife, it's reverence.

For the husband, it's dwell with them according to knowledge. So you're dwelling with them in a very understanding and caring way. And this is the pathway for God to write into your marriage specifically in answering your prayers.

And all of us want our prayers answered. And if there's anybody that really, really should be passionate about their prayers being answered is parents who have children. Is it possible that if we leave these potholes in this highway into the Lord, make straight his paths? If we're leaving these potholes, is it possible that God is not going to answer our prayers? And so the highway of the Lord into our marriage is reverencing and husbands for us to dwell with them according to knowledge.

We're talking about road, about highways. William Coleman said this, couples who do not expect to work at their relationship often have the roughest ride on the back roads of matrimony. I thought that's pretty good because we're talking about roads here.

So if you're not willing to work at your marriage, if you're okay with not reverencing your husband like you know God wants you to, husband being caring and understanding with your wife. If you're not really, you're going to have rough roads on the back roads. You're gonna be on the back roads of matrimony where there's potholes, where there's difficulties, where it's not smooth sailing, but where do we find the smooth sailing? The most consistent research finding about what is different in the communication of strangers and people married to each other is this, that married people are ruder to each other than they are to strangers.

Isn't that true? Probably those that are closest to us know us the best and they have heard things from us that no one else is going to ever know. They say that's consistent research. Let's defy the research.

God wants to come into our lives and he wants to come in by reverencing as wives, reverencing your husbands as husbands, dwelling with them according to knowledge. Why? Your prayers will be hindered and so the cries come and make straight paths for your feet. Lift up the gates, your heads O ye gates.

Why? Because the Lord of glory wants to come in to your marriage. They go on to say, this is really sad commentary, they interrupt their spouses more, put their spouses down more and are less complimentary to each other. And again, please let's defy the research.

It says it's consistent and it shouldn't be consistent. Too many marriages where the couple wonders where the blessing of God is. When all they offer Him is a road of hills and valleys and potholes and hardly make it through the stream, get a lot of speed so you might get through and then you get hung up right in the middle.

All we offer Him is mud holes and potholes. Lift up your heads O ye married people. Why? The Lord of glory wants to come in.

The third that we want to consider is our children. And I'd like to apply this. God wants to come into the lives of our children.

We want Him to come into the lives of our children. We want every one of them to get born again. My prayer continues to be that every one of my grandchildren would get born again, truly born again.

We want that. And I got to recognize the fact that if I want my prayers to be answered, I'm gonna have to make a good pathway for the Lord to come into my marriage, even as grandparents. But I'm considering from birth to teen years.

We as parents, we are to be paving a beautiful highway for the Lord to come into the lives of our children. A broad highway, 48 feet wide, no hindrances, no pot holes, no valleys, no mud holes. Proverbs 20 verse 30 says, the blueness of a wound cleanses away evil, so do stripes the inner parts of the valley.

I'm gonna only talk about one thing and I'm not gonna be fair to the subject. Tell you that right up front. There's so much more to the subject that is just as important.

But this says, the way to deal with evil and the way to clear the conscience of a child is through spanking. We try a lot of other different ways. And there are some other ways that we can discipline our children, like time out, go to your room, go back to bed until you can get up happy.

There's some of those things that are just fine and okay. But there's only one thing that I know of that the Bible says clears the conscience. And if you're gonna have God having a beautiful 48 foot highway that's smooth and straight, and the gates are lifted up for the King of glory to come sailing into our children's lives, is by keeping the conscience clear.

There's other things I really need to talk about, like relationship. You cannot be effective in your spanking if you don't have a good relationship with your children. So important, I can't emphasize that enough.

It won't work the same. You got to, and you got to do it right. And you got to do it at the right time.

And you got to be consistent. And you got to do it early to do it right. It's all important.

We want the King of glory to come into the lives of our children. Proverbs 23, 13 and 14 says, withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shall beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell.

We don't like those words. And I think we have to be careful with those words in the bigger world out there because we don't beat our children in the way we use the word beat today. We spank them properly.

And the whole point is to prepare the way of the Lord into the lives of our children by this time honored method of spanking. And what's really concerning to me is that we have these teachings and they're pretty available to us. And we are going on the internet to try to learn how to train our children.

And you're not going to get the right information. There's a lot of information out there that is leaning away from this time honored principle of spanking. So we have soft parenting, we have gentle parenting, and I don't know if spanking is a part of that or not, but it's more from the aspect of doing other things and trying to coach your children into doing right, trying to convince them to do right.

Sometimes it's kind of fruitless to take a year old and try to share with him what he did wrong, why he did wrong, and how he could repair that for the next time. And really all he needs is to take him out and give him a good spanking. And his heart is clear, he won't understand that lofty language anyhow.

But we're living in a time where I think spanking is starting to go out the door. And I don't think, I really honestly don't think we can make a 48 foot broad highway for the Lord, the King of Glory, to sail into our children's lives when they come to the years of accountability without this time honored thing called spanking. I think it's so beautiful to see a little two year old come walking up to another brother in church and he has this clear open face and he'll look him in the eyes and he'll say good morning.

And you can just see written all over that child, something's been done right. It's done by spanking. A lot more than that, but it's done by spanking.

So let's parents, let's make the highway broad, let's make it smooth, let's take out all the potholes because the Lord of Glory wants to come. Okay, let's keep moving here. Just a little bit on number four, a super highway for the Lord into our churches.

And again, I'm not gonna read all of the verses in that context, but you know, there it's talking about Jesus Christ. He ascended into, He was buried, He died, He ascended into hell, descended into hell, and then He ascended up on high and He gave gifts to men. And if we read it, we know what those gifts are.

Those are people who are put in place to teach and to preach and to minister and those kinds of things. And the picture that He's given there is of a King who went to battle and He conquered that other city and now He's traveling back and He's coming with all of His soldiers, the King is riding in the front and they have all this booty that they're bringing back that they got. And as they're going down the center of this town, of the city, the people have come out to celebrate the King came back, He had conquered a whole town and He's bringing back all this booty.

And as they're going through the town, they're throwing gifts, some of these gifts to the people as they're going down through. It's a very beautiful analogy of Jesus who ascended onto heaven, He gave gifts to men the same way He took captive the devil and He bruised His heel and now He's giving gifts to men. And some of those gifts are the teachers and the evangelists and the ministers and the pastors of the church, they are gifts.

At the beginning of that chapter, we are called to as a church to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and then later on after He gives these gifts until we all come to the unity of the faith. And so we're all working progress, we're all working process and God has given us specifically people to teach and preach and pastor to help us come from keeping the unity of the spirit even though we don't all see things alike to work towards a place until we all believe similar so that the body just really works together really beautiful and one part gives grace to another and another part ministers to another as it says there in verse 16. And so unity is the highway for the Lord to come into our churches and we want God in our churches.

And so we need to make this road really broad, 48 foot broad, way broader than what is really needed for everyday life, why? Because we want the King of glory to come in, lift up your heads O ye gates, why? God wants to come into our churches and so unity, lack of love, polarization, disrespect and such like are the mountains and the valleys and the potholes that need to be taken care of so that the Lord of glory can come in. I won't spend more time on that one. Number five is highway into the lives of our community.

First Peter 2.12 says, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may buy your good works. Your good works is the highway into the lives of the people of your community. It says which they shall behold and glorify God in the day of visitation.

I don't know what that's gonna look like but I'm just assuming that there's people in our community that God's gonna visit every now and then. I don't know how He's gonna visit them but He's gonna visit them. Maybe it's through a catastrophe, maybe it's through a difficulty, maybe it's through some situation in their life and it's gonna cause them to stop for a moment and say, you know, I like that person.

There's something about that person that it's their good works. In Titus 2 it says, young men likewise exhort to be sober minded in all things showing thyself a pattern. Again, that's kind of like this highway.

It's predictable. This highway is predictable. There's people that's watching over it.

There's people that's taking care of it. There's people that are taking care of the potholes and the bridges and those kinds of things. Young men, showing yourself a pattern of good works, it's consistent.

In doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you. And so the highway into the lives of our community, that broad highway, that of God appealing, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up. I am the king of glory and I want a smooth sailing into the lives of the people in your community.

One of the things that really ruins the ability for God to sail in on a highway or the potholes that are on that highway is when our lives don't demonstrate the grace of God. The voice from the wilderness is still calling. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

You and I might be the only Bible that someone ever reads. And I would like to illustrate this by giving an example from my own life of how it created a really interesting highway into the lives of someone in our community. And I am guessing it's not been that long ago that I told this story that some of you might remember it, but some of you have not probably heard it, and I'm going to tell it again.

So back in probably 93, 94, 95, somewhere in there, we had a neighbor that moved into our community who the other people of the plain community didn't like because he was strange, he was different, he was rough, he was crude, he didn't wave to anyone, and I decided that someone needs to love the man, and so I'm going to wave to him. And I would wave to him and he never waved back. For some time, but slowly but surely, the ice broke.

We waved to each other, he would wave back, we actually started communicating, and when I shared with him the gospel, he said he's a Christian, which I had my questions about, but then he started loaning my equipment, he would come and ask if he could use my tractor, and people would say, Leonard, what are you doing allowing him to use your tractor? I'm making a highway of the Lord into the lives of my community. Anyhow, one day, I went to bring the cows in, the cows grazed right out by his property. Bring the cows in as one cow couldn't get up.

And as we checked her out here, there was a bullet hole right in her kneecap. And so I ended up using the neighbor's trailer to load her up, to haul her into the barn, she was in so much pain that we had to put her down. And I see my brother-in-law, Lamar's here today, it was a cow, Lamar, that I bought from you when you moved from Pennsylvania to New York, one of my best cows, and she was shot, and I had to put her down.

So we butchered her, some brother from church helped me butcher, and we opened up the knee and we found the bullet. And sure enough, 30 out of six, now I didn't know my stuff, but there was enough people around that did, they say, yeah, and we knew he had it gone, and the neighbor said he was shooting that day, and so it was only conceivable that he shot my cow, accidentally, on purpose, no idea. And so they were on, neighbors were on me, this is your chance to get even with him.

Call the game warden, call the police. And I said, to my wife, no way, I mean, how's that? All this time we invested into this man, and now we're gonna turn him into the police. So instead of that, we butchered the cow, we ground the meat, and then one day I took this meat over to the neighbor, to him, and I gave him this meat.

And he accepted it, I went home, and a couple days later he called and said that I should come over there. And I went over to him, he came out carrying a frozen turkey and he gave it to me, and then he went into the house, second time, and he got another frozen turkey and gave it to me, and he went in the house a third time, I got three frozen turkeys. Now, I didn't ask where he got them, but three frozen turkeys.

And he came out and he extended his hand and says, Leonard, you're my friend. You're welcome to my house whenever you want. And we got into his house, and his third woman he lived with, sister, got converted, she got born again, she became a member of our church, and she raised her children for a while in our church.

Now, it's kind of sad, she never left go of her boyfriend completely, and she washed out eventually. She still, we meet her once in a while, and I know Brother Rick met her one time and said, Raina, what did we do wrong? She said, listen, you didn't do anything wrong. It's because I couldn't let go of my boyfriend.

Anyhow, her son, who was probably 12 when they came here to Harmony, he told me the story. He said, yeah, my uncle, he was target practicing, with a 30 out of six, and he missed the target. It went right through the greenhouse and hit my cow.

So he knew it all along. We eventually helped him move to Weatherly, Pennsylvania, and I don't know what happened to his head. But we are making a highway into the lives of our community.

God wants a ride on a broad highway, a smooth highway, with no potholes, into the lives of the people that we bump into, whether it's at the gas station or whether it's that cranky person that you talk to on the phone that you're trying to do business with that just is miserable. I was talking to a lady. I order this on the phone.

Later on, someone calls back to get my credit card information so they can charge me. And this lady, I ordered this. This lady called back.

I talked to her every time, and she says, oh, Leonard, I'm just so glad to hear your voice. I'm like, why is that? She says, you don't understand my job. My job is to call people up and to get their money, and there's a lot of people that aren't very happy with me.

And she said, there's a few people that I remember. I said, you remember me? I only call about every three months. She said, I remember you, Leonard, because you're always happy.

We're making a pathway for God to ride into the lives of our community, and it's going to be by our good works. And I could just hear the voice crying in the wilderness. Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, and be ye lifted up.

Why? Because the king of glory wants to be ushered into the lives of our community. And we could go on to a lot of other things, but in closing, if the highway is made broad and well for the Lord to come in, the Lord wants to come into our lives personally. He wants to come into our lives as married couples.

He wants to come into the lives of our children. He wants to come into the lives of us as churches and into our communities. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Make his paths straight. The king of glory is coming. If you can, let's kneel for a word of prayer.

Yes, Father, what beautiful verbiage. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.

So many things in scripture that you use that analogy of a highway, preparing a highway for you to come, for you to come into our lives, for you to manifest yourself to us. You tell us what it means. If we want you in our lives personally, you can tell us what it means.

Tell us what you mean when you want to be in our lives as a marriage and couples and answer our prayers. You tell us what it's going to take to make such a beautiful highway into the lives of our children and so forth. Oh God, I pray that we could get beyond ourselves.

We could look to you to find the grace and the strength to make these highways plain, to make them straight, to make them level, whether it's into our lives personally or whether it's into the lives of our community. So help us, Lord, bless each one that's here today and let it minister to the needs of our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name.