{"id":45992,"date":"2022-10-01T02:08:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T07:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/on-goin-up-the-down-road-bible-study\/"},"modified":"2022-10-01T02:08:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-01T07:08:15","slug":"on-goin-up-the-down-road-bible-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/on-goin-up-the-down-road-bible-study\/","title":{"rendered":"On Goin&#039; Up The Down Road &#8211; Bible study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Years ago, old timers would say, when asked where they were headed, &#8221;  I&#8217;m goin&#8217; up the road a piece.&#8221; Now, that was said whether they were  going north, south, east or west  or whether they were going up in  elevation or down in elevation. Today, there&#8217;s a &#8220;down road&#8221; of  degradation that many folks are going up, and it is not just &#8220;a piece&#8221;   it&#8217;s  a &#8220;fer piece&#8221; they&#8217;re traveling. And, they are not just strolling  casually up that road  they are running flat out. In the past fifty  years, our country has seen a decline in moral values that has been  unsurpassed by any other time in the history of our nation.<\/p>\n<p>Paul describes the condition of the Gentiles who had left God and,  consequently, whom God had &#8220;given up&#8221; in Romans 1:18-32. When they  refused to have God in their knowledge, they threw off all moral  restraints. When man becomes a standard to himself, his pleasure is  found in the exploration of new appetites of gross degeneracy  in  living for no higher goal than self-indulgence  he will not be content  to live in harmony with the way he was created (cf. Romans 1:25-28).<\/p>\n<p>Whom shall we blame for this self-indulgent mindset? Well, the  &#8220;Hollywood crowd&#8221; has certainly accelerated the pace. Not only do they  glory in their shame, but they praise themselves for their skills,  awarding themselves for their immorality  openly ridiculing God and the  Bible  and we watch it! But there would be no Hollywood influence, if  folks didn&#8217;t want to watch it.<\/p>\n<p>What current &#8220;sitcom&#8221; does not in some  way glorify homosexuality? And the &#8220;Soaps&#8221; are a daily diet for those who enjoy the display of adulterous affairs. The pornography business is increasing at a rapid rate throughout the Internet  have we checked  our emails lately?<\/p>\n<p>But in the final analysis, each person <strong>chooses<\/strong> to watch or not.  What we see does have an effect on our behavior (and  our children&#8217;s behavior as well)  even if it does no more than deaden  our consciences so that we do not feel a sense of shame.<\/p>\n<p>Brethren and  friends, the time has long past for us to say, &#8220;Enough is enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We know that terrorism is a very present danger to our society. However, the <strong>greater danger<\/strong> is the loss of moral values.  This will not only cause the downfall of our country, but it will cause  eternal, soul destruction (cf. Amos 1:1-15; Amos 2:1-16; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 10:28).<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s not be found &#8220;goin&#8217; up the down  road,&#8221; but rather be found walking up the &#8220;up road&#8221;  and not just &#8220;a  piece&#8221;  this road requires a nobler walker who is determined to travel a  &#8220;fer piece&#8221; (Matthew 7:13-14).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Years ago, old timers would say, when asked where they were headed, &#8221; I&#8217;m goin&#8217; up the road a piece.&#8221; Now, that was said whether they were going north, south, east or west or whether they were going up in elevation or down in elevation. Today, there&#8217;s a &#8220;down road&#8221; of degradation that many folks &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/on-goin-up-the-down-road-bible-study\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;On Goin&#039; Up The Down Road &#8211; Bible study&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}