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Music Time for church Music Music Music Good evening everyone, welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church Open up your hymn notes to song number 263 Song 263, Barely Barely Song 263 Music Make sure to sing this out with all of our hearts Oh, what a spirit and kind for me From combination he hath made me free He that believeth on the Son saved me At everlasting time Barely, Barely, I say unto you Barely, Barely, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true Barely, Barely, I say unto you Barely, Barely, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true Barely, Barely, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true Barely, Barely, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true He that believeth on the Son is true At everlasting time Oh, for he hath entrusted my Lord Though he does not know I believe his Word Oh, that message every child of God At everlasting time Barely, Barely, I say unto you Barely, Barely, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true At everlasting time Oh, for he hath willed not doubt For in the climate he will not dress down He that believeth on the moon he shall At everlasting time Barely, Barely, I say unto you Barely, Barely, message ever new He that believeth on the Son is true At everlasting time Amen. Let's turn to our next psalm, psalm number 42. Psalm number 42. My latest son is singing fast. My latest son is singing fast. My latest son is singing fast. My latest son is singing fast. Psalm number 42. To the first, my latest son is singing fast. My grace is nearly done. My strongest side is now our best. My triumph is begun. Oh, come, angel wind. Come and around me stand. Oh, carry away all your soul in peace To my eternal home. Oh, carry away all your soul in peace To my eternal home. I know I'm here. Oh, holy race. Oh, friends, I'm here to hear. Oh, I am here. The Lord is great. The crossing must be near. Oh, come, angel wind. Come and around me stand. Oh, carry away all your soul in peace To my eternal home. Oh, carry away all your soul in peace To my eternal home. I've almost reached my heavenly home. My spirit loudly sings. My holy heart beholding all. I hear the voice of grace. Oh, come, angel wind. Come and around me stand. Oh, carry away all your soul in peace To my eternal home. Oh, carry away all your soul in peace To my eternal home. Oh, where my longing heart to be Will lay and die for me. Oh, come, angel wind. Come and around me stand. Oh, carry away all your soul in peace To my eternal home. Oh, carry away all your soul in peace To my eternal home. Amen. All right. It's good to have you all here. We're so glad you're here. Amen. All right. It's good to have you all here with us once again for the evening service, Strong Old Baptist Church. This time we're going to go through our announcements. So if you don't have a bulletin, just slip your hand up real quick and we'll go through these announcements. If you open up to the first page, you will see our service times listed there. Sunday morning at 10.30, Sunday evening again at 5 o'clock. Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We're doing a part two because I didn't make it quite through all of Psalm 78 last week. It's not real typical, but it's a really long psalm, so come on out for that. Join us for our Bible study. Go verse by verse through each chapter. We've got the soul-winning opportunities listed there, as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month of October, as well as for the year. So if you went out soul-winning with us this afternoon today and were able to lead anyone to Christ, call the name of the Lord. Slip your hand up real quick. We'll count those up. One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine. Cool. So slip your hand up. Everyone, once again, with your numbers. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Oh, missed you. Cool. Awesome. So, well, praise the Lord. That's a great result for this afternoon, 11 salvations. But that's a lot of ones and twos and people spending all afternoon going out. So, you know, getting these results is just a result of a lot of people putting forth a lot of hours and a lot of work. Appreciate everybody going out and putting in their time. Continuing on here, we've got the offering totals. This is down there at the bottom of the page. Pray requests. As I mentioned this morning, we added Mrs. Carter with her pregnancy to the list. We have one more addition here for Charles Stover. This is Brother Jeremy's uncle who has an aggressive prostate cancer. So lots of people have cancer on our prayer list. It's a very, very bad disease. It's a terrible disease. And people go through a lot of pain and suffering. And depending on treatments and the seriousness of the cancers and stuff, it is not an easy disease to deal with. So please pray for Charles Stover as well. It's like we have a lot of pregnant ladies, but then unfortunately we also have a lot of people who have cancer on the list. Those are kind of the two most common problems that we're seeing. So, yeah, please bring these prayer lists home with you. Remember to pray for the people on this list. They're desperately in need of your prayers. It's why we have this here. If you have a request that you would like to make, we have cards up in the foyer there. You can take one, drop it off in the offering plate, set it on my desk, hand it to me personally, set it on the pulpit. I will get it. So does anyone have any updates that were not mentioned this morning on anyone who's on the prayer list? All right. So, like I said, continue to pray for everyone here. Down at the bottom of the page there we've got the churches and pastors. We pray for various churches each week. We kind of cycle through different churches and pastors. What I pray for this week, we're praying for Hold Fast Baptist Church in Fresno, California, Pastor Jared Pozarnsky. On the next page we have the Chattanooga Soloning event. So this marathon, we're going all day on Saturday and we're going from morning to evening. So we will feed you. We will provide the hotel stay for you. If it's too long of a distance to be able to make it there, obviously if you can make the drive in the morning, it saves resources for the church. If you can do that, please do that. If not, I understand. Make long, different distances. We do want to make things available for you to be able to get out there and to be there to do the whole day with us. Same thing for Saturday night. If it just simply is not really going to happen for you to make it to church after going out all day because of all the driving, then back and forth to try to get back here, we can also put you up in a hotel for Saturday night. But I'll say this, I am sending out emails and I'm going to be dealing with all of that stuff tonight. So please sign up for that tonight. I'm locking this in. It doesn't mean I can't do something for you later, but if you've forgotten and you've been planning on going, but you need something, especially getting a hotel room. But even if not a hotel room, if you haven't signed up, please let me know. I'm trying to buy enough food. We're buying breakfast. We're buying lunch. We're going to provide dinner. So this helps me tremendously so that I can make sure there's enough food for everybody there and that we're not just overbuying because if not very many people show up and we just have a ton of food, that's a waste. So we don't want to do that. So please help me out here. Sign up at the front and let me know you're going. I'm taking that sign-up sheet home with me tonight. So if you were uncertain or you're still uncertain, you could still come. You could still show up on Saturday. Don't think that you can't just because you didn't RSVP. We still want you to come if that's the situation that turns out. But whenever you know if something were to change, then send me a text, give me a call, somehow communicate with me, send me an email just to let me know as soon as you know. That would be helpful for me. So looking forward to this. We always have a lot of fun. If you've never been to one of our Solening Marathons, I encourage you to join us. We have great fellowship. It's fun. You get to go out to go to another city and just kind of, you know, we hang out, we go talk to people. It's really fun. And it really is fun. I'm not just saying that. It is enjoyable. It's a good time. Even if you are someone who is a little nervous or maybe a little timid or a little shy, just all you have to do is join up with us and we'll partner you with someone who's not as shy and that can do all the talking and just go along and see what it's like. It really is a blessing. It's a blessing when you get to witness someone call in the name of the Lord, when you get to see somebody change their mind about what it takes to be saved because most people think you have to live some certain life and put in these good works and put in all this effort and when you see someone see the Scripture, explain to them, be like, hey, look, you're a sinner and Jesus paid for your sins and show them the passages and show them the Scripture and convince them and persuade them to put their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ and they say, yeah, you know what, that's right, I want to be saved and they call in the name of the Lord. That's a great thing to be a part of. It really is. It's a lot of fun and I encourage you to join us. If not this Saturday, then come along on Sunday when we go out in the afternoon or any of the other days we have listed. This is what is really necessary in your Christian life is preaching Gospel to every creature. So all the details are listed there. If you have any questions, just talk to me after church. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Got the meetup location. We'll be meeting there for breakfast and for lunch and then I will let you know where dinner will take place on this day. So either in the morning or in the afternoon, I'll let you know, hey, here's the meetup plan, here's where we're going to go for dinner. I just need to make sure that people will be able to accommodate our size or we'll actually meet somewhere else. So that is the plan. Looking forward to it. It's going to be a lot of fun November challenge is a soul winning challenge. So, again, if you are going to participate in a soul winning challenge, it's really easy to add an extra hour. If, I mean, pretty much in general, going to this event, I don't think too many people have their normal schedule of doing like all day soul winning on Saturday. So if that's not part of your normal schedule, this will easily add that hour to your normal schedule. But what this does not do, you can't say, well, hey, I added five hours in this one week, so I'm good for the month. No, you're not. Not for this challenge. I mean, hey, that's great. I'm glad you put in extra time. But this is a weekly challenge for the month. So whether you put in an extra one hour or an extra ten hours, it's good for that week. The next week you reset and go, okay, now I need to add another hour. But the point is with these challenges, very frequently, the point is to make you think about your schedule and your time and try to fit in more where you normally wouldn't. We all have schedules. We all have routines. We all try to do our best and make sure we're reading our Bible and praying and doing these various things. But this is a challenge, so it's going to try to push you to do a little bit more. That's the whole point. So that's the spirit of the challenge, and that is part of the rules if you want to complete this challenge. New church plant, Greenville, South Carolina. Nothing new to report. Just continue to be in prayer. We are still just being patient and waiting for the right place to come along that will work to plant a church. It's not easy finding a place to rent. So just be in prayer about that, that God will open up the right door for us because we have to make a commitment for a multiyear lease, and we want to find the most appropriate space that we can. So we're not just going to settle to move real quick just so that we can get something there. We're going to take our time, do it the right way, and have a good space that's not going to cause us, hopefully cause us any problems going forward that we could accommodate good growth because I really do believe that this is going to be a very successful church plant. So I'm convinced of that, so that's why we're doing it. But yeah, just continue to be in prayer, and I'll let you know, and I'll let everyone know as we move forward on where we're at with the planning and the preparation for that. Bible memory passage listed there. We've got a couple weeks left, so if you could quote all 22 verses that are here. Not all 22, the first 22, because Hebrews 10 is longer than 22 verses. The first 22 verses is how we've sectioned off Hebrews chapter 10, and you could quote it without making any mistakes. You will earn a prize for that. We've got the birthdays and anniversaries through the month of November down there at the bottom of the page, and then on the back, upcoming events. We've talked about most of them. We've got the gingerbread house making activity, Christmas caroling. We also have sign-up sheets for those. Please sign up for them because we will have some food provided and other things going on there. We'd love to have you join us for that. Both of these are a lot of fun. And then church camp, of course, that's the event of the year. I think that is the highlight of the year every year. I love our church camp. It is a lot of fun, and I encourage you to come out and join us for that. Even if you're not much of a camping-type person, it's just a lot of fun being out and enjoying. It's a great time of year. You get to hang out with everybody here and just relax and do whatever you want to do. There's activities. There's good preaching every night. It's just a really good time overall. Even if you don't like the camping, just kind of get through that aspect of it, and then the rest is going to be a lot of fun for you. So I hope to see you all there, but please make sure you sign up for that because the space is limited. There's only so many spots available. All right, that's about it for our announcement, so I'm going to ask Brother Will if he could come up and lead us in our next song. Church, turn to Psalm 134. My anchor holds him 134. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. My anchor holds him 144. All right, this time I'd like to have the ushers set up for our evening offering. In charge of all the offering plates for being passed around, please open up your Bibles to the book of John chapter 8. That's John chapter 8. And as we do customary here in Stronghold Baptist Church, read the entire passage. I'd like to ask for the dead sale. Please do that notice. He just went unto the Mount of Olives, and early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that was out sinned among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers, hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou barest record of thyself, thy record is not true. Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bare record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came, and whither I go, but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh, I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bare witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me nor my Father. If he had known me, ye should have known my Father also. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple, and no man laid hands on him, for his hour was not yet come. Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself, because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come? And he saith unto them, Ye are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, That ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the saying that I said unto you from the beginning, I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me, the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. And he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We are Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed, but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father, and ye do that which ye have seen with your Father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me. A man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God, this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they unto him, We be not born of fornication. We have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your father, ye would love me. For I proceeded forth, and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech, even because ye cannot hear my word? Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. For he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. They answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a devil, but I honour my father, and ye do dishonour me. And I seek not mine own glory. There is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Who makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing. It is my father that honoureth me, of whom ye say that he is your God. Yet ye have not known him, but I know him. And if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know him, and keep his sayings. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took the upstones to cast it him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. Brother Jared, can you pray for us? Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your Word, God. I pray that you will pour your Spirit upon Pastor as he gives us the message of the Word. I pray that you will bless the Word sent down into our hearts and apply it to our lives. And be with those who were not able to make it here today. We love you Jesus, we pray. Amen. Alright, so this evening I want to preach a sermon on just this concept that comes up in John chapter 8. It's a long chapter, but there's so many good things here in John chapter 8. It's one of the things I like about reading the whole chapter before we get into the preaching. Guaranteed to get some good things. Even if it's not for me, you're going to get it from the whole chapter that we read beforehand. John chapter 8 is a great chapter, but there's a concept that comes up in Scripture, and it's really emphasized a lot in John chapter 8 as well and a few other places in Scripture. I'm telling my sermon as a father-son. We see this exchange between Jesus Christ and these Pharisees. They're saying, hey, we're Abraham's seed. God's our father, and Jesus is contending with them saying, look, God's not your father. Abraham's not your father. He's like, I know you're Abraham's seed, but if Abraham were your father, you'd be doing the works of Abraham. If God were your father, you'd be doing the works of it. I want to preach a subject about being a father-son, and I want to be able to think about it from both perspectives. From the father's perspective as well as from the child's perspective. Hopefully we can make some applications in our own life that we can be representative as a child of God and really show forth the works that are meet as someone who is going to be called a child of God. And that's where we're going with this. It's not a very complicated sermon, so it's not going to be super deep or anything like that. You know, this morning I had more of a doctrinal sermon, but this evening I just want to edify and encourage you and really just provoke you to thinking and just kind of analyzing your own life and analyzing your ways because this was an area for certainty that caused me to doubt back when I was really just, it's hard to even say backslidden because after I got saved, I never really grew a lot and never really got plugged in, but I was just living a life that I knew was wrong. There was a lot of things that I was doing that the Bible condemned that I knew were wrong. I knew in the Bible, even without having to do, like, to learn more after my salvation, I knew it was just blatantly wrong. And those are things that I would say to myself, hey, how can I say I believe the Bible? How can I tell other people I'm a Christian? How can I say I believe these things when I'm doing the opposite because I'm not looking like I am a child of God? No one's going to look at me and be like, oh, yeah, that guy's a Christian. And it has a big impact on your life and on your faith to the point where I was starting to even doubt, like, am I even saved? Do I really believe? Because I'm living this way, right? On the flip side, it's terrible for your testimony and your not being a very good child. Now, I just want to lay a little bit of groundwork with what we believe here at Strong Old Baptist Church because people get really confused even on this subject, and part of this is also being referenced in John chapter 8 as well. So, because I'm going to focus a lot on our works and our actions and our deeds, we also don't believe that your works, your actions, your deeds is what determines whether or not you're saved. Okay, so what do I mean by that? Well, as Jesus is speaking to these Pharisees and they're claiming to be a child of God and he's saying you're not a child of God, you're actually a child of the devil. You know, the devil is your father, not God. We believe that, just as Jesus explained in John chapter 3, that a person must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. Jesus has a discussion with Nicodemus in the very beginning verses of John chapter 3, and he says, Let me just, instead of trying to quote everything from memory, let's just flip back a couple pages because I don't want to screw this up. Jesus answered, So, he's saying it's not a physical thing. Yeah, the first birth, that's the physical birth. When the mom's water breaks, that's being born of the water, that's being born of the flesh, that is the first birth. The second birth is a spiritual birth. We need to have that spiritual birth where you're born again, where you're born into God's family. You're born of the spiritual seed that's sown in your heart. The Bible teaches us that the seed is the word of God. God's word gets planted in your heart, and when you receive that seed, when you receive the word, when you put your faith on Christ, that is when that new life begins. That is when there's a new creature that's born again inside of you. That's when you become a part and adopted child into God's family. And praise the Lord because that means, once you've done that, you are always a member of that family. Once God becomes your Heavenly Father, he's always your Father, you're in that family. And similarly, there are people who have had the opportunity to get saved, they've been preached the gospel, they've understood salvation, they've understood it, but they've rejected it, and they have become reprobates and in turn become children of the devil, children of Belial, children of the wicked one. And I preach entire sermons on this subject, you can seek them out, I can give you a resource if you're interested, if you're unfamiliar with this topic. It's a little outside the scope of this whole sermon tonight, but it's important to bring it up because there's this back and forth with Jesus and the Pharisees, and let's just look at some of his verbiage with that in mind, and I'll explain this part of the sermon, and then we'll get into a little bit more of what I really want to dive into. So, Jesus says here, let's jump down to verse number 39. They answered and said unto them, Abraham is our father, Jesus said unto them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God, this did not Abraham. So, he's saying like, you're claiming to be Abraham's children, but Abraham would not try to kill me, like I'm telling you the truth, Abraham loved the truth, he accepted the truth, and you guys are trying to kill me, you clearly are not children of Abraham, you are not, because you are not like him at all. So, he's referring to them being children, obviously, physically speaking, a child is going to bear the resemblance of their parents, right? Like, there's going to have that resemblance there of bearing who they are going forward. Just as Jesus is the express image of the father, we'll get into that a little bit too, he's saying, but here he's just saying, even just by the works, like look, Abraham's not your dad, you're not like him at all. Ye do the deeds of your father, then said they to him, we be not born of vortication, we have one father, even God, like, God's our father. Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me, he's like, if you really did love God, like, there's no way you can't love me. You have to love me, I came from God, like, I am a son of God, you cannot say you love God and not love me. Just like the Bible says in 1st John, I mean, you can't say that you have the father and not have the son, they're inseparable, right? The trinity, the holy trinity is inseparable. You can't have one without the other, you have to have the father, son, the holy ghost, these three are one, you cannot say, well, I'm only going to accept the father. Like, no, it doesn't work that way. Why do you not understand my speech there in verse 43? Even because ye cannot hear my word. And this speaks to that same subject of, they've already become children of the devil, which is why they can't even receive the things of God. They can't hear his word, the natural man receiveth not the things of God. They don't understand his speech, they don't understand the word of God, and they can't, because they can't hear his word. Verse 44 says, ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. So, he's saying, look, you are children of the devil. And when it comes to spiritually being born into a family, if you are a child of the devil, you don't change your father spiritually. So, just like physically when we're born in this world, you've got a dad. Everybody has a dad. It doesn't mean you have to know your dad, but you have a dad. Everybody, and they have one dad. I know we have a lot of weird things going on in our society, but literally, physically, genetically, you only have one dad. Okay? No matter what perversion people are trying to pull out there, everyone has one dad. And you can't change who that is. You can't change, once that's done, once that birth, you know, the conception happens, that life is brought forth, you can't change that. The second birth is the same. If you have that second birth unto life, you have, you're born again, the seed, the word of God has conceived in your heart and brought forth that new creature, nothing can change who your father is, your father in heaven. Okay, that's happened, but when you reject the gospel, and that you haven't had that new birth, you haven't been born again, but you've rejected that, and God hardens your heart, and God closes that when you become twice dead, like Jude talks about. Okay, people who are twice dead as opposed to twice born, they're twice dead, their father is the devil, and just as you, those who are born again can't change their father, well, when you're spiritually born of the devil, you can't change that. It's a really scary and sad situation that there are even people that exist that they are beyond the hope of redemption. Okay, and this is called the reprobate doctrine. It's people who have rejected the devil's their father, and they will always be a child of the devil. But again, I don't want to get too deep into that tonight, because it requires a lot more work to really flesh out that doctrine. But that is what we believe here. We have eternal security in our salvation, because once you're saved, once you're in the family, you are always a member of that family, you're always in there, and praise the Lord for that, right? Can't change your father. Unfortunately, there are also people who are children of the devil, and that's the situation they're in. But I don't want to focus on those people as much. I want to focus on, okay, you are born again, you are a child, you need to represent the family well. You ought to be someone who's known as being a child of your father, right? I mean, physically speaking, if you think about this in a physical family, if someone were to look at one of them, my children are still real young, but as my sons grow older, let's say my firstborn son grows up, and if he were to do the things like me, if he were to work like me, and maybe talk like me, be like, oh yeah, you're your father's son, right? I mean, that's what people would say, because they remind you so much of him. He's picked up maybe a lot of things that I do, and good or bad, just kind of mimicking and just being real similar, and you see that frequently with fathers and sons. You might see that with mothers and daughters, right? You see where people are, the children are very similar to their parents. And obviously that can be good and bad, just physically speaking, but that's what Jesus is referring to here, though, too, with these people, like, look, you need to be representative of what family you're a part of. Now, physically, obviously, that gives dads and moms an important job of making sure that you're raising your children right so that they can have you as an example, and that you are a good father to be someone to look up to, and that they will do like you do, so that if they were to say, for me, oh, yeah, you're a bosun's kid, I could tell. And hopefully it would be things that are good, that are honorable, that are upright, that are righteous, right? Those would be the things I want my family to be known for. I want my name to be known for just good things, for being solid Christians, right? Because some families have really bad names, and generation after generation, and maybe, oh, you're one of those, and they get bad names and bad reputations for their name, right? But way more important than just your own physical, fleshly name here on this earth is being part of that spiritual family, and your heavenly family being representative of the Father in Heaven, right? Because you definitely want to be someone who's going to be known as, oh, yeah, that's a Christian. That's someone who's born again because they're doing the deeds, they're doing the works. Just like Jesus said here in John 8, I need to find the specific verse, it's a little bit up from my... Verse 29, the Bible reads, And he that sent me is with me, the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. So we see the example of Jesus, the Son, saying, I do always the things that please the Father. So a good son is going to try to always be doing the things that's pleasing to the Father. We see this happen in physical lives, in families, as well as spiritually. That you're going to have a good son, a good child, who's going to be looking up to be pleasing to their parents. And that's a natural thing that happens, too. You see that with little children. I know my little children, they'll look up to me, or they'll look up to my wife, and mimic what we do, and people will do that even in not good situations. It's what kids do. It's the way that God designed the children to be looking up. So, as parents, we need to be very, very careful with that, and understanding, you know, they pick up everything you do. I know I just preached on this relatively recently, but it bears repeating. Okay, how you live your life at home is probably the most important thing. Not just outside in front of other people, because if you're different outside in front of other people than you just are in general, your kids will see through that immediately. They'll see you as a hypocrite, they'll see you're a fraud, you'll see, you know, whatever it is. Now look, none of us are perfect. We all probably have some aspect or some element that like, you know, there's some things that are private versus public, but it shouldn't change you, right? Like who you are, your decision, your morality, what you determine to be right and wrong. Even just kind of how you speak, it shouldn't change being at home versus with anyone else. You ought to be real, no matter where you're at, for your children's sake. So that they're not getting confused and they're not learning how to be deceptive or act differently or put on different masks and deal with people differently. You ought to just be showing your children how to be upright and say, no, this is right, regardless of the situation, this is right. We're going to do what's right, I'm going to give you that example, versus the things that are wrong. And also then, as parents, fathers, mothers, remember that you are children of a Heavenly Father. And your Heavenly Father sees everything, right? And knows everything. And we ought to show the Heavenly Father that we love Him and want to do the things that He has for us to do. So let's dig into this a little bit more in the scripture, because there's so much here. This weather's crazy, there's heat and cold and air conditioning and everything else. I don't know what's going on, for all I know the heat's on right now, I don't know. Feels like it. So let's turn here to John chapter 5, we'll read John 8, let's flip backwards to John chapter 5. I'm going to read for you real briefly from Matthew 23, just a little bit further illustration. When Jesus was rebuking the scribes and the Pharisees, Matthew 23 is just really hard on you scribes, you Pharisees, you hypocrites. And He just goes on and on and on and on, rebuking them for all their hypocrisy. Verse 29 says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous. So He's saying, oh yeah, you're showing all this honor and respect unto the tombs of the prophets, the people of God that lived before. And you're ordaining their graves and everything else. He says, and say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. So if we had been in those days of our fathers, we would not have killed them like our fathers did, is what they're saying. That's the claim that they're making. But they're hypocrites, because they absolutely would have, because these are the same people that are putting Jesus to death. So He's rebuking them and saying, look, wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves. Your mouth has condemned you, because you've just admitted that you are a child of your fathers that killed the prophets. They were on the wrong side, and you're their children. And He's not just saying physically, He's meaning spiritually that you're just like them. Because physically, obviously, maybe they knew, but it seems to me it's kind of hard to know literally who was responsible for killing, and if that was someone in your family tree in your genealogy going back hundreds of years, maybe to some prophets, like literally who was responsible, it's a general statement saying our fathers, right? And this is what's, well, I don't know if I want to open up that can of worms or not. I still am getting some of the comments, not nearly as much as I was, but when the people like to, yeah, I'll open it up, fine. I already spoke too much on it now. But when people will say like, you know, your people did this, and all the talk of your ancestors owned slaves, and it's like, I'm not claiming any slave owners as my ancestors. What do you mean? How do you even know anything about my ancestry? And how do you know my ancestors weren't on the side of the people that wanted slaves freed, right? Like this whole racist garbage in the division and the brainwashing into people of just trying to paint everybody that looks a certain way as being evil, or you're part of this wicked group of people, like no, those aren't my fathers. And I can say literally they're not my fathers, because I know that my ancestors weren't even in this country during that time, so they literally aren't, but you're going to look, people are going to look at me and say, oh yeah, your ancestors were slave owners, and you are, like why do I owe you? I owe you anything. I didn't do anything to you, my parents didn't do anything to you, their parents before them didn't do anything to you. You can't prove who did what to anybody. It's too long ago. Who knows? Maybe you could prove some people somewhere along the way, but either way, if you're a Christian, the Bible says that the children aren't going to be held responsible for the sins of the fathers, and vice versa. You can't put someone to death because of the sins of their parents. Everyone has their own sin that they're responsible for. I mean, even recently I saw someone that made some video response, and they're saying like, they brought up one example, anecdotal evidence, one person who said one thing, and then just applied it to everyone. They're like, oh yeah, they said that the gospel of the white man, back in slavery times, was this false gospel, so I guess no white person was saved then, because all white people had a false gospel, and they're trying to negate the fact that people who came over as slaves ended up getting saved, many of them did. Not all of them, some of them did though. And that's a good thing, that they got saved, and we're happy about that. We're not happy that they're slaves, we're happy that they got saved. And were there some white slave owners that had a bad gospel? Yes. Sure. Yeah, and are there some people that are being deceptive with the word of God? Yes. And people still do that today. They'll try to make the Bible say things that it doesn't really say, and I'm sure there were people trying to still use the Bible to keep people enslaved, and not to bring freedom, but you know what? That's not the white gospel. Who speaks for an entire color of people? I mean, who is the spokesman? Who's going to say, I speak for every single person who has a certain shade of skin? I'm the spokesman. It's stupid. Stop generalizing so much on all that, it's ridiculous. Anyway, I had to get that off my chest. But Jesus can see the heart. Jesus knows, and when you read Matthew 23 in the context, you see, so when he's applying what they're saying about, yeah, we wouldn't have killed the prophets like our fathers did, he's like, yeah, you are just like them. You are just like your fathers, and it doesn't matter if they physically descended from an actual person that killed them. He's saying, you are just like those people that killed the prophets, because they wanted to kill Jesus, and they did. That's why. He says, wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that they are the children of them which killed the prophets. So, I had eternal John chapter 5, let's continue there. Verse number 17, but Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. So, again, we're seeing Jesus just bringing up, like, hey, I'm doing always those things that please the father. Hey, my father works, so I work. This is the good example we need to set. Fathers, make a good example for your son. You want your son to work? You want him to grow up to be a good person? You need to be the example. Because the son's going to do what he sees and hears of the father. Verse 18, therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do. For what thing soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise. He's saying, he is being the best son to the best father. Whatever the father has for me to do is what I'm going to do, and I'm going to do always those things that please him, and I am going to live up to the standard that my father has set for me. As a son, as a spiritual son of God, we ought to try to have that same standard in our life. Whatever standard God has for us, we should always be striving to be the best son that we can be, so that God can look down and be pleased with us and be happy with us, so we take the word of God seriously. This isn't just a social club at church where we come together and pat each other on the back, and just have fun, and it's just fellowship, and we just eat big meals and potlucks, and then we go home. No, we get together, we may do those things, but that's not the primary thing that we do. That's not what this is all about. It's not just to have some friends. It's because we all care about the word of God, because we want the word of God to take effect in our life, and that we can make the changes necessary so we can be pleasing to God, so we can get the sin out of our life. That's why I preach on sin, and I preach on the son. Why do you have to preach so hard or say these things, and why don't you just lighten up a little bit? Why? Because I care about God's standards. That's why. I care about it. I want to be a son that can bring honor and glory unto the Father, and not a son that brings shame, because it's shameful to be involved in wickedness and sin. But you are a child of Him, then won't you automatically do that? No, because I still have this flesh. So I was talking about earlier at the beginning of the sermon, yes, when you're born again, you can't change that event that happens, that salvation. It's permanent. It's eternal. Nothing changes that. You can't lose that. You won't be unborn. It doesn't change, but it did not change your flesh yet. The flesh is still here. The flesh causes us to sin, which is why we're continually admonished to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. We have to battle and fight and wrestle against the flesh day after day after day. I die to self daily. We must do that in order to be walking right. Now, there's coming a day, thank the Lord, where He's going to change our viral body, this mortal, corrupt flesh that we have, and in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, boom, brand new spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15, read all about it. The new flesh, the new man that were fully redeemed, body, soul, and spirit. We are waiting for that day, but until that day comes, we've got some work to do, because we've got a flesh that wants us to sin. So it's not an automatic thing, which is also why we don't look at the person and say, oh, well that guy called in the name of the Lord, but he's still drinking and getting drunk, so I guess he's not really saved. Yes, you can't say that. All you can go off of to determine if someone's saved is what they say they believe from the heart, and that's the thing. It's a hard thing. We can't see the heart. You can't see it. All you can do is take someone at the word. That's it. That's the best we got. Now you can look at actions and say, oh, I mean, yeah, it means something, but it is not the end-all, be-all proof of is this person saved or not. No. Ultimately, it's what comes out of their mouth. Like I said earlier, I know for a fact I was saved. No one could argue with me about this. Obviously, you don't know that, but I know my own self. I know when I was saved. I know when I called in the name of the Lord. I know it was real. I know it was in my heart. I felt the vexing from the Holy Ghost on the things that didn't bother me before but that did start to bother me that I would do after I was saved. But no one else can see that. And see, this is the problem. You could say, oh, you don't believe in a gospel that changes. Yes, I do. The gospel does change. There's a whole new birth. There's a new creature that's born. Absolutely, it changes. But it doesn't always manifest itself. It always manifests itself outwardly to everybody else. It's an internal thing. It's a spiritual thing which ought to manifest itself outwardly. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's what we're trying to do. And people can testify probably for just about everyone in this room, I don't know, that there have been changes in your life outwardly. Right? And I would say probably 99% of Christians will have an outward manifestation of change. But just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there and doesn't make that person unsaved. So for the years of my life that I was just living like any other unsaved fool out there, I wasn't. I was saved. I was a fool but I wasn't an unsaved fool. I was a saved fool. But no one could tell the difference because they couldn't see my heart. They didn't know the internal struggle that I had, but it was there. But no one knew about it. We don't look at those outward actions. But was I bringing any honor to Jesus Christ? No. No, I was ashamed. It was a dishonor. I was not representing my Heavenly Father in any way, shape, or form. Not at all. I was a child that was like, yeah, I have to claim him. Right? Yes, that's my son. I was hoping he didn't notice, but yeah, he's my son. Right? And the other thing, God won't forsake you. So he's never going to just be like, yeah, that's not my son. Yeah, you're a son. But how pleased is he going to be with you? Two different things. Flip over to John chapter 14. I think we just got done in chapter 5. Let's go to John chapter 14. John 14, verse number 6. Jesus was such a good representation of the Father that it's like, if you know me, you're going to know the Father. He did always those things that please him. He was doing everything that he had seen and heard of the Father. He did it so perfectly that there's just no difference. Jesus is the spitting image of his Father. Right? In the unity of the Trinity, there's that which I think it's even in this, I think it's in this passage, maybe not. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father. So, Philip's like, well, you know, show us the Father. We want to see the Father too. And he's like, Haven't I been with you long enough? Now, this is not, this is not saying that Jesus is literally the Father. He's saying, show us the Father. Okay, because Jesus is not the Father. There is three persons of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and they are distinct from one another. But the Bible says that Jesus is the express image of his, actually I think that's in Hebrew, it's the express image of his person. Right? He is that, I mean, which means he's like the carbon copy, right? The express image. And it uses the word person too, so he's the express image of his person. And what he's saying is, look, if you've seen me, first of all, you're seeing what you would see in the Father, since he's the express image. Not just what you would see with your eyes, but all of the works that he's doing is all representative 100% perfectly of the Father as well. So, in both ways, he is like you're looking at the Father, because all of his actions and the way he looks is just completely representative of the Father perfectly. He was without sin, he did everything, every single thing was done right. So he's saying, why do you need to see the Father? You have me, you can see everything here. How could you not see this? He has seen me at seeing the Father, and how sayest thou then, show us the Father. Verse 10, Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? There's still the separation of the Father and him. And look, as he makes the statement that some might say, oh yeah, I see, look, he must be the Father then. He's clarifying this as he continues. Just like he said before, there's a lot of sayings in the book of John that if you just isolate one little verse without getting the full context and the full explanation, you could get off into some weird doctrine like the doctrine of transubstantiation that the Catholics hold. When you read John chapter 6, he's talking about, I'm the bread of life. He said, if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. Oh, well then I guess we must be eating the flesh literally of Jesus every time we eat a cracker, and drinking his blood every time we take a sip of booze. That's what the Catholics think. But when you read it in context, you start to understand he's not talking about the literal physical flesh that you have to eat. He's talking about receiving his broken body and receiving the blood that's shed for you. But it's in the context you have to read it all. You can't just isolate the one verse or the few words. Get the context. So as here, the context continues, believeth thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. So the Father is just like the Holy Ghost indwells in us, similar. Well, the Father is in Jesus, and the Holy Ghost is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Father. There's this mystery of godliness, but that's what you're seeing. So the Father is in him. So when you're seeing him, you're still seeing the Father in him. Does that make sense? I hope. I don't think that's too complicated. There's not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. And this is similar to us. The apostle Paul is saying, well, it's not I that do it, but Christ that dwelleth in me. The good works that I do. Well, it's not me doing the good works, it's Christ. And this is just like Jesus saying, well, it's not me doing the works, but it's the Father. So this is how you can reconcile and see, yeah, there's three persons, but when he's saying, well, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, because the Father dwells in him, and he's doing everything just like the Father would. Because it's actually the Father doing it. They say the Father's doing the work through me. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very work's sake. And this is our testimony, our walk as a child of God. We ought to have people not just, you know, believe for the Word's sake, right? Believe for the truth of God's Word that we're teaching, but then also at least, hey, let's live a transformed life. Let's live a holy life that we can, people can see, well, at least, yeah, this actually means something to this person. They really do hold the Word of God and regard it as the truth. Because they've changed their life to be in conformity to the Word of God. And as much as you, the more you can do that, the stronger your testimony becomes. Because people can see the difference. Because there ought to be a difference. There ought to be a big difference between you and the world. This is how we can be the Father of, or the Son of the Father. And I know we won't be perfect, but that doesn't mean we throw up the hands, right? People are, so what? We continue to strive. And yeah, you might slide back a little bit, but you need to keep pushing forward and try to hold that standard and care enough about the things of God to be known as a son that will bring forth honor. I don't know if you heard the 2 Timothy chapter 2, as long as I'm on this subject. 2 Timothy chapter 2. We're still reading verse number 19. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are His. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. You've named the name of Christ. You've called on the name of the Lord as your Savior. Depart from iniquity. That's what we ought to do. But in a great house, God has a great house. There are many people who have gotten saved. There are many people who have entered into God's household, who have become adopted children. That's His house, right? Your children live in your house, right? Maybe still, I don't know, they're growing up, but it's talking about having His house. His house is full. He's got this great house. In a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, right? The very goodly vessels, the very nice, precious. Wow, these are some very valuable good vessels, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. It's just a numbers game. The more you have, the more people are filled in. Well, you know what? You're going to have some that are better than others. You're going to have some that are doing better. You're going to have some that are really bringing a lot of honor, but you know what? You're also going to have some that bring dishonor. Unfortunately, it's just reality. In a physical family, the more kids that you have, the more children that are coming out of a family, you're going to end up having some to honor and some to dishonor. There's going to be some kids that might just be a little bit more trouble and kind of cause a little bit more pain than some of the other ones, and some of the other ones might just be a little bit more righteous and good and obedient or whatever, right? Like that happens. Well, deal with that. And it's the same thing spiritually. You've got some spiritual children that, you know, hey, we're trying to do what's right. I'm trying to please you, Dad. I'm trying to do what you have for me to do. Help me, tell me what to do, and I'm going to be listening to you, just like the prodigal son. I was going to turn there, but I took it out of my notes. The story of the prodigal son, you've got the one kid that's just like, hey, they're both sons, first of all, but the one son goes, he's like, ah, just give me my inheritance now, and he goes and wastes it, the Bible says, with riotous living, bringing shame on the name of his dad's house. His dad's got this great business. He's got servants. They're doing their work. They're being profitable. Things are going well, but the one son's just like, nah, just let me go. I'm going to go. Just give me what's coming to me right now, and he blows it, right? And he traded his eternal rewards for temporary rewards and then blew it all, and he ended up with nothing. He was still received into the household because he's a son. He's a son, so the dad accepts him right back into the house because he has a place in that house, even though he was foolish, even though he brought shame and dishonor, and the father was happy to have him home. The other brother that was doing everything right, that was obeying the commandments, that was doing everything he ought to, and didn't have these parties and didn't have the temporal short-term riches and parties or whatever, he got upset until the father went out and explained to him because he loved both of them, and he's like, look, basically, he spent everything he got. He's got a place here. But he's not getting anything more. He wasted it. You get everything. All that I have is going to go to you now. You are going to get rewarded in the end, and it's a good picture of how you live your life as a child of God. Do you want to go after the riches of this world and let the sins and the lust of the riches and the lucre and just going off and trying to get the temporal goods and the temporal comforts and the temporal riches? Well, if you focus on money, you're not going to be serving God. You cannot serve God in mammon. So, if you live your life for the riches and you're choked out with the cares of this world, then you don't really have anything to look forward to. You got it here. And it's very short-term, and then it's gone. Or, you can say, I'm not going to worry about the short-term stuff, and I'm going to focus on the long game, on the long-term, and do what's right, and just, yeah, I'm going to have to not enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and just stay focused and do what's right. And then you reap the rewards later. At the time, then, when Jesus is going to be giving out, saying before Joseph, okay, yeah, here, good job, well done, now good and faithful servant. Now, as a child, thank God, if you're saved, you've got a home in heaven. That's great. We want to fill that house as much as we can. However, the way you live still matters. It's not going to kick you out of the house, but it matters because, hey, in a great house, there's, you know, some honor, some dishonor. Let's try not to be a vessel that's unto dishonor. The next verse says, if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use. Hey, your heavenly Father will use you to do great things for him, for the family, the spiritual family of God, and prepared unto every good work. But you have to purge yourself from these, from the sins, to depart from iniquity because you name the name of Christ. Now, there's going to be people that don't do this. There's going to be people that are the vessels unto dishonor. And they're going to bring shame unto the cause of Christ because, yes, they are a child of God, and they're living like the devil. And that's no good. But they're still children. We need to bear this in mind for ourselves as children of God and also as parents for our children. We need to train up the child in the way that he should go so when he's older, he won't depart from it. We are children of light. You're in 2 Timothy. Just go back real quick to 1 Thessalonians 5. It's literally showing me a few pages backwards. The end of 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 5 through 8. The Bible reads, Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others. But let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for in helmet the hope of salvation. Hey, you're a child of God, you're a child of light. God is light and in him there's no darkness at all. And if you're going to be a child of light, then we ought to live as a child of light. Which means we can't be sleeping. So I'm sorry if you're planning on going to bed tonight, you don't get to sleep. Spiritually, right? Spiritually sleeping. It's not talking about physical. Spiritually, you don't go to sleep. You don't just not care and just give up and whatever, I don't care. No, you live away. You're watching. You're sober. You're taking things serious. It's not just all just a big joke to you. We need to walk as children of light. The Bible says in Matthew 5 14, I'll just close on this one verse. There's these few verses in Matthew 5. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick. And it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Be a child of light to shine the light that's been given to you by God. The word of God be shining this light. So that way, through your good works, people will glorify your Father. And then you could be bringing honor unto Him. How do you shine that light? What is the light? Jesus is the light. The word of God is the light. The truth is the light. So we need to share that in this dark world. It can't be concealed. You can't just keep this to yourself. Do not keep the word of God to yourself. Will you still be saved? Sure you will. But what good is that to anyone else? If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. God has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. That we are ambassadors for Christ. We need to go forth reconciling the world unto Jesus Christ. That is the job. That is what the Father has commanded to His children. You need to do this. This is the work that you need to do. You need to be neat for the Master's use. So get the sin out of your life. Be a child that's going to bring honor unto the Father. Let your children physically see that that is what you're focused on. That you are a pleasing son yourself to the Heavenly Father. And that is going to be the best training that they'll be able to see your actions. It should match your words because you're not hiding the light that is in you. And you're going forth and you're being real in every situation. That's the goal. That's what we want to be. And you'll be pleasing. You'll be pleased when your children go upright. And that you can see them walking in the faith. And have no greater joy than to see that my children walk in faith. And you can make the Heavenly Father pleased. Because you're shining that light. Because you're doing what He's told you to do. And Jesus is the example. Obviously we're a far cry from Jesus Christ. But let's just use that as our example. He did always those things that pleased the Father. Which means you have to be serious. You have to be vigilant. You have to make changes. It is a conscious effort all the time. It's easy to slip. It's easy to forget. It's easy to get these things out of your mind. So start making the practical changes in your life to where you're reading your Bible more. You're praying more. You're thinking on the things of God more. You're adding them to your schedule. This is why we have the challenges. To help you to do these things. To make you thinking about these things. To be focused on the things of God. So that we can be more set apart for the Lord. That we can become more sanctified. And doing what's right. And living the right way. Not just talking about the right way. It's so vital. You have the best gift given to you. Of entrance into God's family. I mean just let that sink in. That Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren. Read Hebrews. He's not ashamed to call you a brethren. How about we can live now and walk so that we wouldn't bring shame to Jesus. He accepts you into the family with open arms. Let's show our love and respect to the one that saved us from our sin. And walk in a way that would be worthy of being a child of God. Don't forget it's hard. In a sense. And it's easy in a sense. We've got this flesh that's trying to make it hard. It's simple though. Not complicated. Work. Continue to strive. Edit. Leave tonight with a change in your mind. When do I most frequently just completely forget about the things of God? Where it's just completely absent from my mind. One time during the whole week in your regular routine. When is the most common time for me not to ever think about the things of God. And figure out how can I do something. Can I set an alarm on my phone. Can I do something to say a prayer. To read a passage. To memorize a verse. To do something. To get my mind so that I'm continually reminding myself that I need to be walking as a child of light. And to be a good son or a good daughter. A good child of God. Let's bow our heads up. What a prayer. Dear Lord we love you. We thank you so much for loving us. We love you because you first loved us God. And we thank you for accepting us into your family through no righteousness of our own. But just by giving us that gift of eternal life Lord we thank you for that love. We thank you for the acceptance and Lord I pray that you please help us to have the wisdom and the knowledge and understanding of your word. Of your law. Of your commandments so that we can be vessels that are meet for your use. So that we can purge ourselves of the sins that do so easily beset us dear Lord. And that you can guide us and help us God to magnify your name. And bring glory and honor unto our Savior Jesus Christ. Lord we love you so much it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right we're going to sing one last song before we are dismissed for the evening brother Peter we please. Song 320. Oh to be like. Oh to be like. It's really. Oh to be. Oh to be. Oh to be like. Oh to be like.