Luke 13:22-30 8-21-2022 (As built, Amite #508)
- Saved… as in once saved… always saved… untrue…
- You know if you ever met Brendon… he would tell you that he was an accident looking for a place to happen… it seems that if he had two paths he would always pick the wrong one… if you asked Brendon man just what happened… he’d say man it began early… he said look it’s the nineteen sixties it’s me and my mom and dad…my dad is a carpenter… my mom is a nurse…and he said… they’re struggling… their not on the same page… their not even on the same book… they’re not even in the same library… he said as a result of it my mom takes me and we leave Ireland and go to England… he said do you know what it’s like being an Irish person in England… he said man it’s just tumultuous… he said man all through grammar school and high school I just couldn’t make the right decisions… it was just a free for all… and as a result of it his step-dad says man I got to give him some hope… some direction… so he says look I’m going to take you to see a movie… so he takes him to see James Bond… he said man it was life changing… he said man the guy seemed to have it all together… go figure right… and as a result of it he said man I figured that’s what I wanted to do… now his grandfather knew… he said the last thing I wanted for him was to be “an actor” I’m just trying to give him hope… but man he said it became directional… he said so much so that he decided after high school that man he was going to go work for a station… he’s going to you know at a movie company… he’s going to work for a production company he’d move this... carry this… tote this… and then he said man next thing you know I’m getting little bitty bits and pieces… and he said I got a little bit part in a movie called a long good Friday… and then he got in a movie that had a little bit to do with the devil himself… and to be honest with you he said man I’m just struggling… and he said the saving grace Brendon will tell you later in life… are two things… the first thing that meant a lot to him was finding or meeting his wife… who is of all people a bond… James Bond girl… and she gets him a bit part in a movie called Seraphim falls… and if you haven’t watched it y’all it’s pretty profound with Liam Neeson… As a result of it he’s in seraphim falls… and then he gets in another one that’s called the Thomas Crown Affair… and then all of a sudden man he gets in another one called heat… and then man he gets in another one and it doesn’t matter I can’t remember the name anyway who cares… okay… he gets in a movie that… it struggles… let’s just be honest… it doesn’t make it… oh I know what it is… Mamma Mia… are you kidding me… you watched Mamma Mia and you didn’t watch Seraphim falls… okay now I know the crowd okay… I got you now… okay… it was painful to watch that movie as I can tell you… and then all of a sudden man the world starts to change… and it changes when he does the Thomas Crown Affair because it puts him in the limelight… then he gets a little bit part in Mrs. Doubtfire… and then he becomes James Bond… and… then he becomes James Bond… Golden Eye… do you all know who Pierce Brosnan is… great… for the six people who now know what planet I’m on… God bless you… but you know what’s amazing is… in an interview that he did not long ago… he said what was your saving grace… he said well one marrying my wife… but the second thing was the Catholic Church… he said that’s what turned the table… he said because now I understand the faith…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ that’s exactly the point… that is the gospel… the good Lord is talking to very Jewish people… Pharisees… and Sadducees… and they’re asking the question… remember this… this is his words not mine… how many people will be saved… quote… very few… because they will not be strong enough to make it through the narrow gate… my brothers in Christ you need to stop… you are a first century Jew Nolan Dees … you need to understand where they sit in the world… as I told you earlier… most Jews believe only the Jews were saved… you and I know at the end of the day you and I were on the out… so therefor we wouldn’t make it… they even believe some of Noah’s people would be saved… they believe some of the people from the time of when Moses leads them into the desert… now they are starting to realize that’s not necessarily true… as a matter of fact he makes a points to use the word narrow… and then he makes another point to say that very few… in other words faith without works is dead… because you have faith you will do works… and because you do good works you will have faith… it is God’s grace… God’s grace… faith hope and love… that leads you to where you need to go… but you have free will…
- Now my brothers and sisters in Christ stop… hold on a second… you need to make sure you need to understand this… throughout scripture and mankind… the argument about who is saved and who is not… I’ll give you a point… how many of you today have heard from others… and they will quote you Romans ten… somewhere up in there… sometimes they’ll quote you Titus… sometimes they’ll quote you Ephesians or Acts but mostly Romans ten… they will come and say… that if you proclaim Jesus Christ to be your Lord and savior from your mouth… and you believe he rose from the dead… you are saved… okay so me and this one lady right here are the only two… oh now we got two… do I got three… okay we got three… okay now we got four… Okay this ain’t an auction… listen to me my brothers and sisters in Christ… at the end of the day… the problem is you need to understand the language in which they speak… past tense… present tense… and future tense… what I quoted to you is present tense… the Greek work is Sozo… and every time he talked about being saved in the future… he said you must persevere to the end… which is like around Mark thirteen… Matthew ten… every other time… Ephesians… Acts… Romans… Titus… all of them are either past tense or present tense… I’ll give you proof of example… Judas walked with him… proclaimed him to be the savior of the world… even held the mans money… and at the end of the day the good Lord says three things about Judas… the son of perdition… Satan entered you… and it would have been better you had never been born… well if you’re going to make it to heaven because we’re all saved… well then why would Christ say it’d been better you’d never been born… because ultimately you’re going to make it to heaven… I tell you what… you took a test this week… and you walked in and I told you… man it’d been better you never took that test… you think you passed… my brothers and sisters in Christ I tell you what… I need to know… how many funerals have you ever been to… in your entire life… where the reverend… and or priest… stood up and said… I don’t think junior made it… he didn’t make it… he just didn’t… I’ve yet to go to one where somebody said that… my brothers and sisters in Christ unfortunately my nature sometimes is when I go to hospitals… sometimes I’m not matching the door and the room to the right number… I just look… door… well… walk right in… sometimes it doesn’t lead to good consequences… I go to a funeral to say my prayers for a friend of mine who passed… I just went left… I don’t know I just went left… I walk in… I’m in my dress… everybody is watching… and man I hear the reverend… and he is expounding… this guy did this… and he did that… and he did this… and I’m thinking… my God I’m in the wrong room… there is no way that is my buddy… but I can’t get up and leave now… because the first thing they’re going to say is yeah look at that Catholic… the guy in the dress… look at that piece of work… he didn’t even stay to pray… well the fact of the matter is it was my friend… and I knew… I said man there is no way… I’ve been knowing him my whole life… and if you think Pierce Brosnan had a bad upbringing… you should have seen… oh my gosh… and I remember saying man we need to pray for this guy…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ… throughout scripture people are always falling victim to once saved always saved… why would he tell you in revelations which is the last book by the way…that you will stand before me and I will judge you everything you did with your body both good and evil… well why would you be judging us if we’re all going to make it anyway… more importantly why did you name us… because in the garden of Eden we weren’t named… it was man and woman… they didn’t get their names till after they were kicked out… and now we’re accountable for our actions… my brothers and sisters in Christ… there is a difference between redemption and salvation… redemption is the crucifixion… salvation is the pearly gates… just because that man died on the cross for us doesn’t mean you and I get a free pass… my brothers and sisters in Christ ask yourself this one question… if he is going to come back to judge us… and I’ll use the words of Saint Faustina… when she asked him why do you have purgatory… his response… my mercy doesn’t want it… but justice demands it… I can’t be… all loving and caring… and not discipline you… Isaiah… the Hebrews… the good Lord… my brothers and sisters in Christ… this is why you and I have what we have… this is why the church is set up the way that it is… do you know my brothers and sisters in Christ… and just in case you get confused I want to make sure you don’t… The Good Lord was a farmer… he said I go and I throw seed out… and he says I have four types of seed… I throw some on the path but it gets trampled by people… I throw some in the rocks… but unfortunately the heat just parches it… it doesn’t make it… some of the seed falls into thorns… well that gets choked off… only one out of four falls on good ground… one out of four… my brothers in Christ… only twenty percent of Catholics believe that the Eucharist is true… if I were to ask you… and please don’t respond I don’t want to be depressed… do you know all the commandments by heart… in order… the order that he wrote them… for he wrote them in order for a reason… that the first three deal with our relationship with him… there is only one commandment that’s contingent… it’s the fourth one… do you even know the fourth one… honor your mother and father and you will live a long life in the land that I have given you… dishonor them and your life will be tumultuous… that’s the whole commandment… do you know it’s murder… adultery… steal… bear false witness… covet your neighbors goods and spouse… are the back five… back six… my brothers and sisters in Christ remember what John said in the gospel… if you say you love Jesus Christ… and you know his commandments then well done… if you say you love him and you do not know his commandments… you are a liar… his words not mine… you think you learn the commandments after you get in… no way no how… my brothers and sisters in Christ… once saved always saved… is a lie… why else would he come… do you know the number of people that were saved in the time of Noah… eight… of the million people… that followed Moses into the desert… how many people of those million people made it to the promised land… two… but yet we all walk around as if we’re the only ones being saved and everybody else is an outcast… in the way the world spins today… can I beg you… to make sure that you go to mass… and stop mailing it in… well I saw you on television… well kudos… and thank you for that…did you bother going… Christ shows up incarnationally… he shows up everywhere in person… I go get baptized in person… he goes to a wedding in person… he anoints the sick in person… he shows up to the last supper in person… he gets crucified in person… means you and I got to show up in person… you can’t mail it in… my brothers and sisters in Christ you need to understand this… God is omnipresent… he’s in the woods… he’s in the fields… he’s here and there… but he’s only physically present in that tabernacle… this is why you and I have to show up… and we must be in front of him to receive him… so that he is in I and you are in us and we are in him… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m telling you… it’s more important today in the world that we live… we are arguing about things that we should have walked away from years ago… we can’t even solve the issue of abortion but yet I thought our court responded to that… we’re still killing people like there’s no tomorrow… we got wars about to embark on wars… we’ve got people that have got their fingers on bombs that should have never have happened… we’ve got out church that is giving off even less light each and every day… I’m telling you this because you know the truth… and you know in your heart of hearts that you and I need to worship him and we need to receive him… you need to go to confession and throw up… and be done with it and walk away… you and I need to make sure that you go to adoration… if you spend more time on your phone… than you do coming to visit Christ in the church… or in adoration… can I tell you that’s disordered… you spend more time on your phone then you do talking to him… reading scripture… going to adoration… coming to mass… receiving the sacraments… I tell you what… add up your minutes… AT&T does…my brothers and sisters in Christ if you spend more time on that… I’m telling you… you’re not going to be saved… I’m not judging you… I’m just discerning the act… I’m trying to tell you… that once saved always saved is untruthful… and it is a lie… it is directly proportional to you…
- And my friends in Christ I will leave you with mother Theresa’s quote… which I still believe today is one of the greatest prayers we ever had… the thing was called… the poem was called anyway… people are unreasonable… illogical and self-centered… you need to forgive them anyway… if you are honest people will cheat you… you be honest anyway… if you are successful… you will win false friends and true enemies… you succeed anyway… if you are happy they will be jealous… you be happy anyway… if you over a lifetime build something and they destroyed it overnight… you build it anyway… it was never ever… between you and them… it was between you and him anyway…
- Amen…
