Psalms 147 verse 7. All right, service times are 1030 this morning, 330 this afternoon, and 630 on Wednesdays.
Sunday or Saturday, 1030, was there so many time, and today at 1 p.m.
Ryan, just did you have any? One? Amen. All right, so that brings our Salvation's up to
6 for November for a total of 90 for the year so far, so
Amen.
Tins down below. Upcoming events.
Actually one announce or a couple announcements with soul winning just for the next few times.
If you have any flyers left from today, or in your car, your pockets, your coats,
your kids toy boxes, you know, we know they all get around, but if we can just bring them together.
If you have them today, if you can give them to me or Ryan,
we're just running really low on the 2nd of December. We'll get some more. So if you could just
collect them all, I know if you have any extra.
And also
when we get the new flyers,
we're gonna go to a system to where we're gonna give it out to with the maps each time.
So we just kind of
maintain them a little better because when I send out groups for 40, you know,
each group will have about 40 houses if we do two teams. If I send four people out,
how many do you need? Ten. That's a little less than about the 250 you guys take each week.
So I'm just playing with you.
But, and hey, I do it too, because here's the thing is, I'll have some, they'll be in the back of my trunk.
And you know what happens after a couple weeks to a month back there?
They're no longer fit to give out to people. I know that happens. I've done it. Unfortunately, I've wasted that.
So we're just going to go to where we count per map, bundle it up, just so we all have your supplies.
And hey, if you need a few in your car, because hey, you're out there giving it to the coffee,
you know, ladies you order from or however, friends and family, that's great.
We're just trying to have a little bit more control so we don't run out as much so just
move forward if you can until you know, another week if we can just manage the ones we have
because those that have been here long enough remember, you are very thankful to hand something
out when you're talking to people that stranger we have gone out with no handouts and let
me tell you that icebreaker is a blessing.
So it's a good system we have.
All right.
But beyond on that, had the first choir practice day they look great.
I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes.
You guys stay tuned for the more practices in the show.
On November 25th, so coming up real close because, hey, it's only on Tuesday.
All right.
That's going to be the midweek service.
Go ahead and bring a dish if you like.
Just bring it before service.
I guess we'll try to come maybe a little bit before.
That's okay.
Okay.
That way, if we have a little bit of food social just because probably a lot of you
are having a midweek little break or you're traveling, just really great to send people
off for a thankful week of celebration.
On November 30th, so next Sunday is the men's preaching night.
We'll have multiple men preaching and we'll also have a pie social.
So hey, bring your sermons and bring your pie and let's have another fun night just
to finish out this festive week we're having.
Then moving right into December, December 13th will be the ladies Christmas party.
That will be at the Thompson's house.
Please RSVP, let Kylie know and I'm sure she'll put together another lovely activity
for you all.
So just let her know you're coming and I'm sure they'll be a blessing.
December 20th will be the church Christmas party.
It will be at 4 p.m. at the church, so the games, food and the second annual Christmas
Olympics.
So it was fun last year and she'll be a blessing this year.
So hope to see you all there.
And then December 21st will be our Christmas Sunday.
So invite friends, bring them out because hey some people are just Christmas and Easter
only.
Well let's bring them in at least Christmas all right.
So something to look forward to, we've got a full festive you know holiday season even
here at church.
So looking forward to that.
Kids, your memory verse is John 14 verse 6.
John 14 verse 6, "Jesus say unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father by me."
As you know if you repeat that to Miss Kylie you will receive a piece of candy.
Alright, birthdays have all come up, talked about that, rules are all the same, tithing
is below.
If you have any prayer requests please just let the tops know and they will get it into
the bulletin.
Alright let's turn to the Lord in prayer.
Heavenly Father thank you so much for today.
Next song is song number 467, the B-I-B-L-E.
For you kiddos, since your voices are all warmed up from the choir practice I would
hope.
Speaking about the Olympics I'm going to make a Bible trivia for that so you better
be reading the Bible.
So, at the very least, yeah, uh, song number 467, the B-I-B-L-E.
Let's sing it together on the first.
The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me.
I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.
Let's do it one more time.
The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me.
I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.
Welcome back everybody to Sure Foundation Baptist Church, if you could take your Bibles
and turn to John chapter 13.
John chapter 13 and as always our custom here at our church is to read the entire chapter
before the preaching, John chapter 13 the Bible reads, "Now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the
Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's
son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands,
and that he was come from God, and went to God.
He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself.
After that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to
wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter sayeth unto him, "Lord, dost thou wash my feet?"
Jesus answered and said unto him, "What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know
hereafter."
Peter sayeth unto him, "Thou shalt never wash my feet."
Jesus answered him, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."
Simon Peter sayeth unto him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."
Jesus said to him, "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every
wit.
And ye are clean, but not all.
For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, ye are not all clean."
So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again,
he said unto them, "Know ye what I have done to you?
Ye call me master and lord, and ye say well, for so I am.
If I then, your lord and master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's
feet, for I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord, neither he that
is sent greater than he that sent him.
If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
I speak not you all, I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled.
He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
Now I tell you before it come that when it is come to pass ye may believe that I am he.
Verily, verily I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that
receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily,
verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.
Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he
spake.
Then he then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, "Lord, who is it?"
Jesus answered, "He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it."
And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
And after the sop, Satan entered into him.
Then said Jesus unto him, "That thou doest, do quickly."
Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.
For some of them thought because Judas had the bag that Jesus had set unto him, buy those
things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
He then, having received the sop, went immediately out, and it was night.
Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God
is glorified in him.
If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway
glorify him.
Little children, yet a little while I am with you.
You shall seek me, and as I said unto the Jews, 'Whether I go, ye cannot come,' so
now I say to you, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this, shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love one to another.
Simon Peter said unto him, 'Lord, whither goest thou?'
Jesus answered him, 'Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards.'
Peter said unto him, 'Lord, why cannot I follow thee now?
I will lay down my life for thy sake.'
Jesus answered him, 'Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice.'
Brother Paul, could you pray for the preaching?
Amen.
All right, so we're here in John chapter number 13.
If you want to look down there at verse number 34, it says, "A new commandment I give unto
you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
And this evening, I just wanted to preach a sermon about having love for one another,
for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
According to the Bible, this is something that is very important, because Jesus even
says, "Hey, this is how people are going to know that you are my disciples, is when you
have love one for another."
And obviously, we're like one week away from Thanksgiving, or less than weeks away from
Thanksgiving.
And then after that, it's the Christmas season, although in my opinion, it's the Christmas
season right now.
The Christmas season does start before Thanksgiving, and I like Christmas.
I love the whole thing, and I like it when all the Christmas stuff comes out early and
ticks off all the people that don't like Christmas for some reason.
I like it when that happens.
That's a good thing.
So I like the Christmas season, but one of the great parts about the Christmas season
is that it emphasizes love one for another, because we're giving gifts, and we know as
saved Christians that gifts are not something that are earned, it's just freely given out
of the love of our hearts, right?
And you know, the Christmas season, it illustrates love so greatly because, you know, what is
it that motivated Jesus to come and become a man and be born of a virgin?
What was it?
It was love for mankind.
Amen.
It was His great love for mankind.
And so, you know, I just think this is a great message for this time of year, for this kind
of Christmas season, is having love one toward another.
And you know, this is the Bible is just filled with verses about, you know, having love one
toward another.
And if we look at John, go ahead and turn to Philippians chapter number two.
I'm going to read for you John 15 verse number 12.
It says, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
And of course we know that this is the greatest act of love that has ever been committed was
when Jesus Christ laid down his life, literally died for us.
He laid down his life for his friends, for the whole world, amen.
And so, you know, this is the greatest act of love that has ever been done.
Because he didn't, you know, Jesus Christ, he didn't just do it for one person or just
a small group of people.
No, he did it for actually every single person that's ever been born, amen, and ever will
be born for that matter.
And so that was the greatest act, single act of love ever performed.
But you know, there has been people throughout history who have laid down their lives for
their fellow man, right?
And that is a great act of love.
And that is the greatest act of love that we as just normal human beings, you know,
I believe are capable of.
You know, obviously we're incapable of laying down our lives for the world like Jesus Christ
did, but we in fact are capable of laying down our lives for our friends, amen.
And so, you know, hopefully this is not something that any of us have to, you know, prove, you
know, hopefully we don't have to lay down our lives like save our friends.
That would be a tragedy.
We would not want something like that to happen.
But you know, that that would be the greatest act of love that we could do.
It's unfortunate, though, you can only do that one time, right?
It's only one time thing you can do.
And so, you know, that that's that's that's the greatest act of love that we can do.
Hopefully we don't have to do that, though.
Hopefully nobody has to has to demonstrate their love in that manner, because obviously
we don't want anybody to die.
Right.
Amen.
Can I get an amen there?
But, you know, there's lesser acts of love that you can repeat multiple times, right?
And so those are the acts of love that we want to concentrate on, you know, and if you
do have to do the ultimate act of love, you know, praise God if you can do that.
But hopefully you don't have to.
But again, we want to concentrate on what we can do multiple times throughout our lives,
right?
And here in Philippians 2.2, it says, "Fulfill 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 others better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
And really to kind of just boil these verses down into one statement, it's just putting
others first.
This is a great way that we can show love one to another.
Verse number four, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others."
So what is that?
That's basically, that's just putting others first, right?
And so that is going to be to the exclusion of doing things through strife and vainglories,
right?
So, I mean, if I'm doing something just for vainglory, well, then what is motivating me?
Is it love that's motivating me to do that at that point?
No, what's motivating is just to have the admiration and everybody think I'm just a
great guy.
If I were to like, "Hey, I'm going to give so and so a thousand dollars.
Hey, everybody, see this thousand dollars that I worked hard all week for?
I'm just going to give it away because I'm just so awesome and I'm so loving and I'm
so kind."
Right?
What would that be?
That would be doing something through vainglory, right?
If I'm just like, you know how Jesus talks about, "Hey, don't blow a trumpet when you
give alms," you know, that would be doing something in vainglory, right?
You know, "I'll blow them a trumpet.
Here I'm going to give a thousand dollars to so and so because I'm just so loving and
I'm just so kind."
You know, that really does take away from the lovingness of that act.
It really just kind of makes it a vain act, right.
And so, you know, and also, you know, doing things, you know, through strife, you know,
you know, just seeking out like cause friction when we're trying to get stuff done for God.
You know, that's not obviously being loving towards your brothers and sisters in Christ
when we're causing, when we're causing strife, you know.
And so we always want to be able to pass over any transgressions and different wrongs that
people do towards us.
Why?
Because that's going to be showing love towards our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ
when we can just, you know, let the strife go, when we can just pass over and not be
angry at somebody or, you know, not be annoyed with somebody and just be like, "Okay, well,
you know, that situation, they did this or they did that, but I'm not going to make a
big deal out of it.
I'm just going to pass over it."
Why?
Because I don't want to do things through strife.
I don't want to cause strife where there doesn't need to be strife, right?
Why?
Because I want to show love for my brothers and sisters in Christ.
And you know, this verse here, these verses here, they kind of emphasize having unity.
And we should be united in our goal of the Great Commission, right?
And so this should be a uniting force to cause us to go, okay, well, these small differences
that we may have, I'm able to just put them aside, right?
Because we want to be of, you know, we want to be of one accord.
Now it's a good thing that nobody, you know, it says one accord, right?
So it's a good thing we don't have multiple Honda accords in the parking lot up there
because that would be a bad thing, apparently, according to the Bible, right?
And so I don't think we have any accords, though.
We might need to fix that.
So we've got to have at least one.
But anyways, okay, go ahead and turn to 2 John chapter, I'm going to say this is 1 John
chapter number five, because I don't think there's a 2 John chapter number five.
And now I'm questioning whether or not this other one is 2 John.
But I don't know, I think it might be 1 John chapter one, I'm going to read it for you.
If it's not 1 John chapter one, it's 2 John chapter number one, but it's verse number
five.
But you're turning to 1 John chapter number five, I'm going to read for you this other
unknown verse.
It says, "And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee,
but that which we have from the beginning, that we love one another.
And this is love that we walk after his commandments.
This is the commandment that as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it."
So according to these verses here, you know, what is love?
According to these verses, love is when we walk after his commandments, right?
What is that?
We're obeying the commandments of God, right?
In order to have love, true love in our lives, we need to be obeying the commandments of
God.
And, you know, somebody would say like, "Well, what if we don't know the commandments?
How is anybody expressing any love in the world if they don't know the Bible and they
don't know the commandments of God?"
Well, here's the thing, is that the Bible says that God has written the commandments
on our hearts, basically.
And everybody has a conscience, right?
So truly every, you know, we were talking about psychology earlier today, you know,
this doesn't actually apply to everyone because some people have a seared conscience, according
to the Bible.
But everyone that has a conscience and has the laws of God written on their hearts, they
truly do have the ability to express love because they have the ability to follow the
commandments, right?
Now, obviously, for all of sin to come short of the glory of God, and so not everybody's
loving all the time, but what am I trying to say with that is just that everybody on
planet earth, unless they have a seared conscience, is capable of some amount of love.
Amen?
Does that make sense?
And so, but us as Christians, we should be the most loving group.
Why?
Because we're actually the ones that really want to follow every single one of God's commandments.
We want to open up the Bible and figure out the whole council of God and try to follow
all the commandments of God, amen?
And so, and according to the Bible, that is what love is.
And so, somebody that's not saved or somebody that doesn't understand or know the Bible,
they are going to be incapable of having a complete love, right?
Because they're not going to be able to keep all the commandments.
Because why?
Because they don't know them all.
And so, if they don't know all the commandments, then they're not going to be able to have
a complete love.
However, you know, caveat, everyone is capable of some amount of love.
Unless they're a psychopath, unless they're, you know, unless they're the Green River
Killer, then they have their conscience seared and, you know, they have no ability to keep
any of the commandments of God.
So, you know, but we're not worried about those people.
I'm just thinking about that because of the lady that we talked about following today
that was asking all about the Green River Killer and Jeffrey Dahmer.
And well, what if, what if they believe and, you know, and then pedophiles can stop liking
children and I don't know.
All right.
Well, anyways, we were reading Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and all kinds of stuff.
All right.
But you're in first John five.
Look at verse number two.
It says by this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commandments for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his
commandments are not grievous.
And this is, this is kind of a theme in the Bible where, you know, through love is when
we are keeping the commandments of the Lord.
And it says in, in first John four 20, it says, if any man say I love God and hated
his brother, he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen.
How can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his brother also.
So notice, you know, once again, that the command is, is that we love our brethren,
right?
We have a command from God.
And so, you know, the command, notice this is kind of a, kind of a circle here that love
is the commandments of God, amen.
But then one of the commandments of God is to love one another.
So it's just like a big love circle going on here.
You're commanded to love, right?
All right.
Nobody else.
All right.
I thought that was kind of funny, but it's a, it's a rough crowd.
All right.
We had a great sermon this morning and so it's really hard to follow up on Remy's sermons.
I don't know if anybody appreciates the difficulty level of having to follow up on Remy's sermons,
you know, it's, he's making it kind of hard, you know, sometimes I wish I'm like, all right,
maybe if he would just bomb a couple, you know, then I, then I can look good.
But then I remember, no, I'm supposed to love brother Remy and hope he does great every
single time because I'm putting him before myself.
So, you know, so that's just a great application for having love for your brethren, right?
Because not wishing that they would bomb a sermon because that would just be wrong.
Right.
All right.
So go ahead and turn to Romans chapter number 13, Romans chapter number 13, we're going
to look at verse number eight, it says, Oh, no, man, anything but to love one another.
For he that loveth one another hath fulfilled the law.
And you know, we're going to get into some specifics here that the Bible gives it says
for this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet.
And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, love worketh no ill to his neighbor.
Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Of course, these verses go right along with those verses that we read earlier about, you
know, keeping the commandments is love, and, you know, love is the fulfilling of the law.
You know, the Bible just kind of lists off some specific things here that, like, if you're
doing these things, you're not having love one toward another.
You know, first one being, you know, thou shalt not kill, because, like, if you, you
know, and this should be pretty obvious, I think we all probably understand this concept
pretty well, right?
If you kill somebody, especially if this was like a brother in Christ, if you killed them,
could you really say that you love that person?
No, you know, not really a very deep concept, not too hard to get, right?
This is thou shalt not steal, right?
So you know, if you, if you want to, and this applies to, you know, you shouldn't steal
from anybody, but let's just say, you know, if there was a brother in Christ that owned
a convenience store, they owned a 7-Eleven, and you just bust in there and steal a Slurpee
or whatever, is not really having love toward your fellow brother in Christ or your fellow
sister in Christ.
But, by the way, you shouldn't do that to anybody, right, because according to the Bible,
you know, it's thou shalt not steal, ever.
And the Bible also talks, you know, we're talking about having love towards the brethren
right now, but the Bible also emphasizes having a love for the lost, right?
And so just any random guy with a convenience store, you know, stealing from that individual,
that's not, that's not having love towards that individual.
That's the opposite of that.
That's causing harm towards that individual.
And so obviously that's not something that you should be doing to anybody, right?
We should never be, you know, stealing.
Why?
Because, hey, look, love worketh no ill towards his neighbor.
And if we steal, you know, and there's different ways to steal, I mean, you know, for one,
you could break into 7-Eleven and, you know, take a slurpee.
Everyone would say that that's stealing, but you know, there's, there's, there's other
ways that, that, you know, that, you know, you could steal from somebody.
Like if you, if you made a deal with somebody like, Hey, you know, if you repair my deck,
I'm going to give you a thousand dollars.
And then you give them seven 50, you know, that would be a form of theft.
Okay.
So there's, there's very, there's various different ways that people could, could steal.
But if we were to engage in that, obviously that's not showing love towards our fellow
man.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Now this, of course, you know, this is something that we've all have done at one point in
our lives, right?
Because I don't think, not necessarily, hopefully nobody in here has killed anybody, right?
And hopefully nobody steals, but bearing false witness, you know, that is something that
we've all done before.
I mean, this is one of the great examples that we use out soul winning.
You know, I personally always use it, right?
Like I ask them to get like, have you ever lied before?
And they say, I'm like, yeah, you know, I've lied to, right?
And so this is one of the examples that we use to show that everybody is a sinner.
We show that, hey, look, everybody has lied before.
And what is lying?
Well, bearing false witness would be lying, right?
And you know, and bearing false witness, I guess, you know, that has kind of a more formal
connotation or sounds to it.
You know, like you're in a courtroom or whatever and you, you know, you lie about what happened
and then they pull up what happened on the security camera and they're like, hey, you
bore false witness, you know, or whatever.
I don't know, I haven't spent that much time in a courtroom, so maybe I'll leave that for
brother Paul to, I don't know if you spent much time in a courtroom either, but you know,
he works for people that do or something, I don't know.
But you know, we have this, you know, this idea of what goes on in the courtroom, right?
You know, where like, hey, we have to have this testimony, we have to have this witness
and then somebody will lie about that and then end up causing great harm to somebody
because then, you know, based off this lie, they end up going to prison for 20 years or
something like that.
I mean, that would be like the worst form of lying would be like lying in a courtroom
and then like somebody at, you know, like the children of Belial back in the book of
Kings where Jezebel gets children of Belial to bear false witness against Nabal because
what's his face?
One in his vineyard.
He gets these children of Belial to bear false witness and Nabal gets killed.
You know, the false witnesses are like, we saw him blasting God and they're like, all
right.
So the false witnesses, put them to death, right?
And so, you know, that form of false witness, that's got to be the worst form because it
ends up in the death of an innocent man, right?
And of course, you know, there's all different various types of lying, but, you know, we
shouldn't engage in any of this type of lying, you know, obviously, you know, don't lie in
the courtroom.
I think there's, I don't know if that's, if it's true, but I think there's probably like,
I think that would be a crime to lie in the courtroom.
Like if you lie under oath, I think that would be a crime.
So you know, definitely don't do that because then you're going to go to jail and we don't
want anybody to go to jail.
But you know, just, you know, that's not the type of lies that you and I are generally
dealing with.
Amen.
There's oftentimes in our lives, there is a, how do I say it?
A something that makes you want to lie.
What, what, what, what's the word I'm looking for here?
A something that causes something to happen.
It's not, not an impulse, not a lust, motivation.
We're going to, I don't think that was the word I was looking for, but that's a good
word.
I like that word.
We're going with that word.
There's a motivation to lie.
Right?
Why?
Because you feel, you know, sometimes in your life you feel like, okay, well, if I tell
the truth, this bad thing is going to happen.
Right?
Has it?
I mean, everybody's had that before.
Right?
I mean, we've, you've probably had that happen this year.
You probably had that happen like this month or week or whatever.
Right?
We sure need to get up here and confess all of our sins and every single time we've lied.
But we've all had that situation where we feel like, "If I tell the truth, I'm going
to be in trouble."
Or, "If I tell the truth, I'm going to be embarrassed."
Or, "If I tell the truth, this thing that I don't want to happen might happen."
Everybody's had that situation before.
And look, if we're honest with ourselves, we've all caved to the pressure at one point
or another.
Haven't we?
Nobody's done that.
Oh, except for me.
I've never done that.
I'm telling the truth.
No, I'd be lying if I said that amen and so, you know
We've all caved that pressure at one point or another in our lives, right to lie
But the Bible is teaching against that why well, I mean according to the Bible, you know
That's not having love for your neighbor, right? Why because that's not fulfilling the law God
You know and and if we you know, think about you know lying if there's like, you know, and this this happened to be relatively recently
you know, there was there was a piece of equipment at a business that I was working on and
there was parts in the in the equipment that were not wired up correctly and it had caused a large amount of damage to the
piece of equipment and I
Was under the impression that we did not do that
Because the person that had put those parts in didn't tell me and they said they hadn't worked on the equipment before but then I had
To find out later through different various means that we had put those in our company had put those in and it was our
Fault that the damage was done to the equipment and it would have been far better for me to have known
That because then I could have just told the customer
We are replacing all these parts free of charge because it was our fault, but because I didn't know that until later
I was telling them this is what happened. These are all the parts that are that are gonna have to be replaced
You know and they were very angry because they knew the truth
They knew what was going on, but I looked like an idiot because I didn't right
And so the fact that you know somebody lied to me about what happened and what they did
I looked like an idiot, you know and trying to pull them over
You know pull the wool over the eyes when I was not trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes
I was trying to do what was right. I thought maybe another company had done it and
You know if another company did it then that's not our fault
And so you guys are gonna have to pay but then I found out later. Oh, no, no, no, no, you know
So, you know lying causes problem. Okay, and so
You know, that's just kind of an example that happened to me recently where I was, you know
I was not very happy with you know, the gentleman that did that, you know, and
But you know, it is what it is, you know people lie and you know, we've all lied before so we need to be able we
Do we want to have love again, you know, this is sermon is about love, right?
So I have you know love for the gentleman. I didn't like come down on him
You sort of you know, you know, you know, I didn't do that, you know, I just let it go right but you know
We we can understand that you know lying to try to protect ourselves
Can cause problem right and the truth has a way of being found out, right?
And so a lot of times we get this idea that we can protect ourselves from the consequences of our actions
But just sweeping it under the rug not telling the whole truth and you know, not saying what happened, you know
Or or basically just lying right we think we can protect ourselves
But then if we do that we cause even more damage and then you know
Cuz like if this gentleman would have just told the truth, you know, I would have been like, okay
Well, this is what you did wrong, you know, I can see why you did that but this was the wrong thing
Unfortunately, this was just an expensive mistake
but you know because he lied and didn't say he put the parts in then
Respect has a lot of respect has been lost
Right. So that caused even more damage than if he would have just told the truth, right?
So because at the end of the day, you know, the truth comes out and we have to pay for it anyways, so
I don't know that just that example just came to my mind about the damage that that lying can have
And so, you know, we should we should avoid it
We should just go ahead and tell the truth and you know what?
The Bible says is the truth will make you free, right?
So and it's what God wants right and that should be enough motivation for us to say hey
I'm gonna do it all the time now, you know again, this is something that we've all done and
You know what? We're probably all gonna we have a long life left, right?
Most of us have decades to live. We're probably gonna do it again, right?
If I were to sit up here and tell you I will never lie for the next 40 years of my life
You think I'd be really telling the truth probably not right?
And so, you know unless I die tomorrow, which I hope doesn't happen, you know, and if I do it's because of the
You know laying down my life for my friends or whatever
But unless I die tomorrow, you know, or if I die shortly, you know
I'm probably gonna end up lying at some point in my life, right and
Same with everybody else in this room
But you know, we need to ask God for forgiveness and forsake it and move on with our lives, right?
And but you know when that temptation comes though to try to lie to protect ourselves or for you know
Whatever the temp, you know, whatever the motivation is that word a good word motivation or whatever that motivation is
You know, we just we need to think like okay
Well, if I have love for my brothers Jesus Christ if I have love towards my fellow man
I'm not gonna lie and I'm just gonna do I'm just gonna fulfill the commandments of the Lord
I'm gonna you know fulfill the law and have love one for another by keeping God's commandments
The next thing here, you know, it says thou shalt not you know, thou shalt not covet, right?
No, you so if you're just you know coveting, you know, all the all the wonderful things that your neighbor has
You know, that's kind of really that really kind of detracts from the love that you have for your neighbor, right?
Because it's it's kind of a perverse jealousy that you have it's like well, well, how come he has a
You know, how come how come brother Paul has a nice Jeep and I just have a crappy dodge
You know that that kind of detracts from my love towards, you know theoretically my theoretical love towards brother Paul
which definitely doesn't
*laughs*
I'm just kidding. I love you brother Paul because the Bible tells me to
*laughs*
But but you know having having a covetous attitude, you know
You can see how that kind of detracts from your love towards your your fellow man, right?
Because instead of you know, instead of focusing on you know, the individual and just thinking about like well
He has all this stuff, you know, or you know, he has this, you know
This better job that I wish that I can have or he has this better house that I wish I could have, you know
and you know, that's just that's not a good road to go down and
Cuz look, you know everybody in our in our lives
There's always gonna be somebody that just has it better than you right and but the thing about it
Is is that you're not in that person's shoes, you know, maybe it looks like they have it better than you but in reality
You wouldn't want to trade places with them, you know, and and I think about like my life
I wouldn't want to trade places with anybody like I like my life. It's a great life
God has blessed me greatly and I don't want to trade places with anybody, you know, a lot of people, you know
They're like all the billionaires the billionaires. It's like, yeah, but do you would you really want to trade places with?
I mean like under probably the best example would be Bill Gates because like who really wants to be Bill Gates, you know
I think I've used that, you know that example probably multiple times probably too many times. All right, let's we got to switch billionaire examples
Okay, do you really want to be Jeff Bezos? No hair
All right, we got to move on we're going down a bad path here, you know, I'm scared of bears so I'm moving on
Yeah, I don't want to be torn by a she-bear, you know
Although Jeff Bezos is not a prophet of God. So I'm good. I think I'm good though
I think I'm good. But if I go down the path a little bit further than their she-bears are a problem. Okay
Let's see here. And if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt
Love thy neighbor as thyself and you know, this is you know, they call this the golden rule, you know
You know treat others as you would have others treat you right, you know, love your neighbor as yourself
And so, you know, obviously there's a certain way that each of us would like to be treated, right?
You know when you're coming to the door
You got like a whole bunch of stuff in your hands. You got you don't you don't have a hand, you know
You would love it if somebody held the door open for you
Of course, you know, that's kind of a silly example
And so, you know, you should hold the door open for other people right when they're coming to the door
You know whether or not they're they have bags full of stuff or whatever whether or not they have the hands
You know you like it when other people hold the door for you
And so, you know the concept here is we hold the door for other people, right?
And of course, you know, that's kind of a silly example, but you know, this is all something we can easily understand
Is that there's a certain way that we all would like to be treated?
And so we expect other people to treat us in that way
we are required then to treat others in that same way, right and
You know and here's an example of this if you don't like
Practical jokes to be played on you. You probably shouldn't be playing practical jokes on other people
Okay, and this is just kind of a weird thing that like some people are just this way for some reason
I I don't understand why like I you know, I'm not like a big practical joke guy
You know, you know, I'll do it like if somebody like I've done it before and I'll do it or whatever
But like I'm not like, you know, my life goal isn't to go out and do practical jokes on people
You know what I mean?
But like some people they like to do practical jokes, but if anybody does a practical joke on them
They're like, oh, you do that. You can't do that to me. I'm so mad. Like I and you know for whatever reason
I I don't understand this because like people have done practical jokes on me and like I don't know
I don't really care that much. That's not a big deal. I mean as long as people laugh, whatever it's it's fine
Yeah, I don't mind, you know
But you know if I do a practical joke on somebody that's done a bunch of practical jokes on me
The expectation is that they're going to enjoy it. They're going to laugh. They're going to have a good time with it, right?
But you know, there's you know, some people are just are not that way for some reason and you know, it's it's so
Again, the concept here is is that if if if you would not want somebody to do a practical joke to you
Then you shouldn't be doing practical jokes to other people. All right, that's and again, this is just you know
Love thy neighbor as thyself, you know
And uh, you know, that's just that's just kind of a an example that just kind of popped into my mind
That's a that is a great example is that you know, we just should treat others the way that we want to be treated
And so, you know don't do practical jokes on people if you hate practical jokes
So it's a pretty simple one. I think but go ahead and turn to um, go turn to proverbs chapter number
27 proverbs chapter number 27 and you know at the at the end of roman chapter number 13 there it says love worketh no ill
To his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling
Uh of the law and you know one of the ways that we actually show
Love towards our fellow man and show love towards, you know, our brothers and sisters in christ
Is to tell the truth, right?
You see the goal of love is not just to make everybody around you feel good
And make everybody around you like you and make everybody around you want to hang out with you more
That's not necessarily always love now. Sometimes that can be love. Amen, you know making other people feel good
You know if somebody feels down about themselves you give us, you know, give them some encouraging words make them feel good
That is a form of love, right? But you know
love is also fulfilling the law, you know, and and again, you know one of the things about the law is that
You know, it's the truth is important to god. And so telling the truth is something that's important to god. Okay
Now look here in proverbs 27 look at verse number five
It says open rebuke
Is better than secret love faithful are the wounds of a friend
But the kisses of an enemy enemy are deceitful. Okay, so
Telling people hard truths is loving. Okay
And so, you know letting people just fly off of a cliff, right and not warning them about the cliff
That's not a loving thing to do, right?
You know, so that's why you know, that's why the government our government is loving
Right. Why do I say that?
Well, because they are kind enough out of the lovingness of their hearts to put up guardrails
Where there's like cliffs, right? Like if there's a cliff there's generally going to be a guardrail, you know on the road
Why is that so if the goal is to prevent people from flying off the cliff, right?
And so, you know, there's various different ways that people can
Fly off the cliff, you know with with their lives and so, you know
Not warning people about the cliffs that are out there is is something that I don't believe is a loving thing to do
You know, and of course, you know, there's all kinds of different, you know wild ways that people can destroy their lives
And you know, but it's it's when when somebody you know, whether or not it's a brother sister in christ
Or whether or not it's like a family member or just somebody you know, you know
It's a good idea to warn them about whatever it is that is going to cause them to fly off the cliff in their lives
Right. And so, you know, just just letting letting your brothers and sisters in christ make a massive mistake
Without saying anything about it is is not necessarily a loving thing to do. Okay
Now, you know and and this especially applies if they don't know and you know, a great example of this
Is somebody committing fornication like if somebody is like a young man or a young woman or whatever
You know, they're like about to commit fornication like somehow you just kind of know they're going to commit fornication soon
But they have no idea and look this is very common like people in this world
A lot of people especially in america have no clue that fornication is a big deal, right?
They don't think it's a sand. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just natural, you know
Belly for me meat for the belly or or how does it go? I can't remember
Um, but you know, they have no clue, right?
But if they're warned about it, maybe they will avert course and not end up destroying their life
You know by committing the the sin of fornication or or at least negatively harming their lives
Um, right, you know having their having your life start going down a bad path where they're they're going to have consequences for
For that amen
And so, you know if somebody because if somebody if somebody knows what they're doing, you know
Like that's a little bit of a different story if somebody already knows, right?
Like for example, like if somebody they've been going to a fundamental baptister, you know
A new independent fundamental baptist church for years and then they decide to take a job
And fly out to you know, the middle of nowhere where there's no good church or whatever
You know that person in my mind that person should already know because I mean there's there's always preaching in our kinds of churches about
Hey, you need to go to a good church and church is a big priority and going to
Going to the best church in your area is is is a priority and you shouldn't take a job
Right in the middle of nowhere where you're moving your family away from church and not going to church anymore to you know, it's you know
Somebody in that situation
You know
It's kind of their own fault at that point because they if they've been going to church for years and years and years
They've heard that kind of preaching. They already know right
But there's a lot of people in this world that just don't know why because they don't go to a great church
They don't read their bibles. They have no clue, you know
When there's that example of fornication where they just don't know right and so but you know
Even in the case though where people do know, you know, maybe they just need somebody to remind them like hey
This is a big deal like you shouldn't just do this, right?
Maybe another another example of that would be somebody that's like, okay
Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and do some hard drugs like I'm gonna try out methamphetamine or I'm gonna try out
You know, it's like okay, you know, it's not like people just have no idea. The drugs are bad, right?
It has never heard that like what are you talking about?
you know what I mean, like like people know about dare and you know, they know that it's like look down upon and that there's
Consequences for doing these hard drugs or whatever
But it might be beneficial for somebody to just kind of be shaken. Like what are you doing?
Like, you know, you tried what you know, like like if you heard if you heard somebody you knew, you know
Just kind of tried cocaine, you know, although I
Don't know like I I've never had this situation where somebody I knew was just trying cook
But you know this stuff happens though. It's not to me apparently but
But this kind of stuff happens right where people they kind of they're starting to go down a road, you know
They start with weed or whatever and then they're like, oh, you know weed was kind of cool
So let's try the next you know, I don't know. I don't know what the like the latter is for you know, the
Escalation of drugs or whatever because I know like like weed is like the
Light drug or whatever. It's the gateway drug. It's you know, not that bad or whatever, but then it's just like okay
Well, there's weed but then there's cocaine heroin and meth. It's like what is there like in between?
Is it like a Goldilocks drug? Does anybody know because it's like what whatever floats your boat? That's not a drug Paul
That's it's not helping me
So if somebody's going down the path like they're getting on a lot of weed and then their buddy is they're hanging out with all the
Drug dealers or whatever, you know, it might be a good idea to tell them the truth like hey like what are you doing?
Stay away from that stuff, you know, otherwise you're gonna end up like a homeless dude on the side of the road
Sniffing you know, you might end up like Joe Biden's son sniffing lasagna off the floor
You know, you don't you don't want to end up like him, right?
And that should be a great motivator for anybody to get off of hard drugs is hey
You don't want to be like Joe Biden's son that you don't want to end up like that. That's a horrible thing
All right, but anyways
So, you know, it's again the point is is that you know, it's loving to tell people the truth, right?
If it's not loving to just be like, oh, you're fine, you know
You can just make that decision and you know, just kind of follow your heart whatever makes you feel good
You know, that's not a loving it's not a loving thing to tell anybody, you know
It's just just go ahead and follow your heart, you know, and we learned last week that hey guess what the heart is
Desperately wicked and I wish I could quote the rest of the verse here
But what what is it? The heart the heart is does anybody above all things?
Desperately, but what becomes before that though? The heart is deceitful and a you know, I'm trying to like read lips here
And it's not working. I'm I'm moving on you can look up that verse on your own. You all have phones. It's yeah. All right
We're gonna go to Leviticus
19 verse number 17 that it kind of goes along with the same vein of you know
Telling the truth is a loving thing to do
It says thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart thou shalt in no in any wise
Rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin to be upon him
So if somebody is in some type of a gross sin, right?
The loving thing was to rebuke them and be like hey, what are you doing? Like according to the Bible?
This is a this is a gross sin because otherwise if you're just like oh, it's fine
You know if you if your co-worker, you know
If you have like a company meeting or something and they're like, hey
We're gonna try to do sober October everybody and then one of your co-workers is like
Hey, I'm on a different program called Bender till December
I'm not participating in sober October because I'm on Bender till December, you know that person
That's a great candidate for you to be like hey
I'm gonna rebuke my brother and not suffer sin to be up to be upon him like hey, you know what?
You know what? You should read the Bible. You should read
Proverbs 23 where the Bible says look not upon the wine when it is red when to give it this color in the cup when they
Move it the shuffle, right?
right, I mean it look like that's a loving thing to do right because
Is Bender till December is that gonna be is that benefiting people in their lives?
I mean, I mean other than just all like the all different health issues or whatever
I mean like so psoriasis of the liver or whatnot, you know, they're they're like
Destroying their sleep. They're not getting proper sleep. They're destroying their liver
They're probably getting behind the wheel and you know, they're you know, there's all kinds of you know negative things
But on top of that, you know, God doesn't like it and God hates it
And so it's like, you know warning that person is the loving thing to do now just be like, you know, man
You know just enjoy your bender till December buddy, you know, but when did you start that? Oh January. Oh, wow
You know and you know, that's not the loving thing to do right the loving thing to do is to tell them the truth, right?
That's that's the loving thing to do and so, you know part of you know part of loving your brothers and sisters in Christ
And you know, just part of a part of a loving the lost to is telling the truth. Amen
And so, you know loving you know loving one another. How do we do that?
Well, you know, we put others first right and you know, we we try to fulfill God's commandments and we tell the truth
Right we tell people the truth, you know a little bit of tough love as it were, right?
And so that that's how we love one another and so that that's something that we know, you know
It's having have a having a cup of beer this Christmas season. We have a cup of cheer instead
And I have a cup of cheer, you know, I'll have a holly jolly Christmas and we're gonna love one another
Okay. All right. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. All right, dearly father
I thank you for this day Lord. I thank you for everything you've done for us
Or we thank you for the great love that you had for us where you had the greatest
Act of love ever in history that you gave your life for every single one of us and help us to love one another and
To to have great love for our brothers and sisters of Christ as well that we can show that we are your children Lord
Dear Jesus name. Amen. Good summer, brother Jason. Last one was song number 441. Great is thy faithfulness
Song number 441 great is thy faithfulness
That room has a delay sometimes so I get scared like I'm like listening. I'm like, okay, does it sound like he's wrapping up right now?
Okay, so
song number
441 great is thy faithfulness good song 441. Let's sing it together on the first great
is thy
Faithfulness, oh god my father
Thou changes they feel more see men can see but they're writing. Could you close what a prayer?