VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIVING
https://boxcast.tv/channel/yuyyyftbksyppzhnl3il?b=qw1sirelx6uyiwaa33sx
Pastor Wayne Edwards of Heritage Baptist Church continues to encourage us to overcome the traps of this fallen world and to seek victory in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The service begins at approximately 20 minutes by clicking the above link. The Watchmen’s Report is after this preamble.
Gibber! Gibber!
Chugley
PASTOR WAYNE WRITES:
August 1, 2025
Dear Heritage Family and Friends,
While our eternal salvation is a gift of God, which we receive by faith alone in Christ alone, the essential evidence that we received that gift of God’s grace is our total transformation. In other words, while sanctification is a lifelong process, if there is no immediate evidence of transformation in a person’s life after professing faith, it raises questions of the genuineness of their salvation.
Years ago, A.W. Tozer warned the Church: “It is my opinion thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some religious experience by ‘accepting’ Christ, and they have not been saved. If your Christian conversion did not reverse the direction of your life, i.e., if it did not transform your life, then you are not converted at all; you are simply a victim of the “accept Jesus” heresy.”
The goal of the Christian life is not just to escape hell and enjoy heaven. The primary goal is to die to ourselves so that Christ may live His life through us by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. That is the secret to living “the Victorious Christian Life,” or as it is also called, “the spirit-filled Life.” This is the central theme of our next sermon series, “Victorious Christian Living: A Study in the Book of Joshua.” The first sermon, “Canaan for Christians,” is based on Joshua 1:1-18.
· The sermon may be viewed at theheritagechurch.org
· The sermon will be available on our website and YouTube.
· The YouTube URL: ttps://www.youtube.com@heritagebaptistchurchperry
Thank you for your continued support and for sharing these sermon study guides with those you think might be interested. We are truly encouraged by the response we’ve received from viewers worldwide.
Wayne J. and Linda J. Edwards
PO Box 766
Perry, GA 31069
706-599-3966
THE WATCHMEN’S REPORT
JULY 30, 2025
My Fellow Watchmen,
Once again, the “Christian Establishment” is out of touch with where the Holy Spirit is moving in our day. In the early 70’s, I had the same feelings about Christianity as Gen Z has today. It was plastic, phony, pretentious, if not outright false, and firmly encased in hermetically-sealed organizations, institutions, associations, and conventions. While opposing Catholicism, how dare anyone question the order of worship, or introduce a new song, or, in my case, invite a black teenager to share his testimony with the youth group on “Race Reconciliation Day.” Duh! We were supposed to read and pray about it, but not do it!
So, like thousands of other “twenty-somethings,” searching for the TRUTH, unclothed from the robes of self-righteous religion, I found home in “para-church” ministries; Campus Crusade for Christ, Navigators, The Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts, Focus on the Family, and others like them. And, when we opened our home for a Bible Study on Tuesday nights, we became the reason why the youth were not attending church – 30 teenagers and college students studying the Scriptures, and holding each other accountable for their walk with the Lord, but, “oh no” – it wasn’t OF GOD because we didn’t do it through the local church.
Francis Schaeffer tried to tell the religious intelligentsia of that day that the evangelical church was not prepared to respond to the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit, and neither is it today, for many of the same reasons. Jesus told the church at Sardis, “I know that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” And, as He told the church at Laodicea, “I know you say that you are rich, have become wealthy, and need nothing, but you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” It’s disheartening to see that many ‘para-church’ ministries, which once served as a refuge for young adults, can no longer understand their needs.
Having been in the ministry since the early 1970s, I can still empathize with the youth and their struggle to find spiritual fulfillment. Just as we were turned off by the “plastic banana” religion of our day, these young adults are turned off by the entertainment-based religion of our day – they want more than an one-hour emotional experience, they want the TRUTH; the unadulterated, undiluted, unmodified, unvarnished TRUTH of God’s Word – not churchianity, nor religiosity, nor a semi-theatrical performance around a God of their own imagination, but the TRUTH, with no mixture of error.
If today’s churches are going to seize this moment and reach out to this new generation, the Disney Esque-Seeker-Sensitive approach will not attract them, or it would have already. Neither will a fancy website, flashing lights, a stronger fog machine, or a Starbucks coffee machine. As I was 50 years ago, they are looking for the TRUTH of God’s Holy Word, and that means many of today’s celebrity pastors will need to spend more time in the mirror of God’s Word than the other one! PW
Please forward these articles to those who might be interested in receiving them.
Pastor Wayne
Pastor Wayne J. and Linda J. Edwards
PO Box 766
Perry, GA 31069
706-599-3966
wnledwards@gmail.com