(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. You can grab your hymnals and open up the song 37. Hymn number 37, There'll be no dark valley. Hymn 37. All right. Let's sing this out with all our hearts on the verse. There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes. Together his love was born. There'll be no more sorrow when Jesus comes. There'll be no more sorrow when Jesus comes. But a chorus borrow when Jesus comes. Together his love was born. Together his love was born. Together his love was born. There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes. Together his love was born. On the third song, 37. There'll be no more weeping when Jesus comes. There'll be no more weeping when Jesus comes. But a blessing when Jesus comes. Together his love was born. Together his love was born. Together his love was born. There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes. Together his love was born. There'll be songs of grief when Jesus comes. There'll be songs of grieving when Jesus comes. And a joyful meaning when Jesus comes. Together his love was born. Together his love was born. Together his love was born. There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes. Together his love was born. Psalm 472. This is my Father's world. Hymn 472. On the first this is my Father's world. And you by this he fears. All nature sings and round me with the music of the spheres. This is my Father's world. I rest me in the fog. The rocks and trees of skies and sea. It's made the wonders fly. This is my Father's world. The birds and carols play. The morning light the lily white father's world. He shines in all that's rare. In rustling grass I hear him ask peace please to me everywhere. This is my Father's world. Oh let me therefore hear that the road is not so strong. God is the ruler again. This is my Father's world. The battle is not done. Jesus who dies shall be satisfied in birth and anyone. Sorry. Alright. Great singing this morning. At this time we're going to go through our announcements. If you do not have a bulletin slip your hand up real high and we'll make sure that we get one out to you. If you open up to the first page you'll see our service times listed there as always Sunday morning at 10.30. Sunday afternoon again at 4 pm then Wednesday night 7 is our Bible study. We're going to be in Isaiah chapter 30 this week. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvations and baptisms for the month of October as well as for 2021. Let's go ahead and count up any salvations for the week to report. If you want to tell anyone this week and have any salvations report to slip up your hand real quick. We'll get those counted up. One what day? Thursday. Amen. Two yesterday. Amen. Anyone else? Five for the Saturday group. Alright. You went with brother Mark's group? On the west side. Oh great. Cool. Two back there. What day? Saturday. Cool. Yes sir. Oh the week before. Okay. So the previous Saturday. Okay. Just one. Awesome. Alright. Very good. Did I miss anyone? Excellent. Keep up the good work. Out preaching the gospel. This is the last day of October. So the challenge is essentially over because remember I said before the October challenge was to add an hour every week and the week starts on Sunday so there's no more weeks left for October. Who completed the challenge and added that extra hour all four weeks? Amen. One, two, three, four. Who did more even if you missed a week or didn't get everything complete but you did a little bit more soul winning than normal? Amen. Amen. That's great. That's great. Good to see that. Obviously it's showing with the number of salvations that we see for this month because people have been going out and doing some more soul winning and that's wonderful. That's awesome. I'm gonna I'm gonna get a prize for the four hands that I saw. If there's any more Yes sir. You did too. Okay so five for that. We'll have a prize for you coming up here probably next week. And then the offering totals are listed down there at the bottom of the page for the month of October. Prayer requests. We Let's see. My wife just told me about this but we're gonna be adding Mrs. Weatherby to the prayer list for being with child. And that's exciting news there. So Add her to the prayer list. And does anybody have any updates? Obviously we have The last one on the list is answered. So praise the Lord for that. Returning safely to the U.S. So we're glad to see all of the Michael family here this morning. And that's very good to see that. Is there anyone that has any updates though for anyone who's on the list? Anything to update on? Alright. We're gonna continue to pray for everyone. Of course if you have a prayer request. We have I don't know if we still have them or not. We have little cards for prayer requests that are usually in the foyer. Check the drawers if you want to fill that out. But we don't need a formal prayer request form. You could write on a piece of paper. You could write it on the back of this or whatever. Drop in the offering plate. Hand it to me personally. Whatever you want to do. And we'll add you to the list here. And it's very important we're praying for everybody on our list. On the next page. So the November challenge is gonna be a Bible memory challenge. And normally I try to plan this out a little bit better so we could start a brand new Bible memory that coincides with this. But what I decided to do is I know we already started Romans 4 like two weeks ago. But there's something like 24 verses. And if you can this is still gonna be. We're gonna keep the same schedule for the Romans 4 just in general. Right? And you'll still get a prize for being able to do that. But if you could get Romans 4 completely done in the month of November then you'll get a bigger prize for being able to get it done in a shorter period of time. So that's the way we're gonna do this. And if you already gotta head start on this because you started doing Romans 4 then great. Then you gotta head start. Right? So good on you for getting started on that. And you still gotta get the rest of the passage done this month. But that's gonna be the focus. The challenge this month is Bible memory and focusing on committing some Scripture to memory. This is such a great passage Romans 4. I kinda didn't wanna I didn't wanna add another one to do a different Bible memory in addition to the one that we're doing as a church here. So I just decided okay well we're gonna let people who don't maybe complete it all in a month still get a chance to complete it and get the smaller prize for that. But the bigger prize you're gonna get if you get it all done in the month of November. So that's what our focus is for this month is Bible memory. Upcoming events of course we have the chili cook-off today as almost all of you I think already knew because we have a lot of chilis. I don't know how many there are. There's like 9 or 10. The last time I saw there was a whole bunch of chilis. So hopefully you're gonna be really hungry by the time service ends because we got a lot of food to eat. But we're gonna pick judges after service. I'm gonna pick judges. Now my wife was giving out numbers if you, if someone in your family actually put it this way, if you know who's like anybody's number you're disqualified from being a judge. So hopefully you don't know your number or the number of someone that entered. And I should have said that a little bit more clearly before but it is what it is. Alright. We're gonna have to pick from the pool because now if you know someone's number you're tainted. Right? You have the potential to not judge righteously one way or the other. And here's the thing cause here's the thing. I don't want people to go well I can't vote for this now because I know you know and try to do something that's like well I don't want to show favor here. But if they're the best one we still don't want you to you know we don't want that influence. Right? So just kind of remove that influence all together and if you know it sorry you still get to eat chili. Everyone gets to eat chili that's the good news. Everyone gets to eat. You just aren't gonna be a judge. Just like everyone gets to come to church not everyone's a pastor. Well everyone gets to eat chili today. Not everyone is a judge. So we're gonna select five judges and the judges will commence right away. We're gonna try to get that set up. I'm gonna set up the judges table right up here in the front. And you know as soon as service is over you know I'm gonna ask like we've done plenty of times before to get all the tables everything else set up. And while that's being done we're gonna get the judges up here and get their chili served in the cups. So judges we got the cups already labeled. One through however many there are. And the judges are gonna taste them. We're gonna put you know figure out the top three. The judges are gonna all make their top three list. And then every first place choice gets three points. Every second place choice gets two points. Every third place choice gets one point. And then the chili that has the most points at the end is the winner and so on and so forth. Now here's the way I wanna do tie breakers cause there's never really a good way to do tie breakers I've been able to think of. But I'm gonna say the chili that has the most like first place choices if there's a tie that's gonna be the tie breaker. And if they have equal then it's the chili that has the next second you know the most second places choices you know and kinda go that way. That's gonna be the determining factor for tie breakers. Just so we know up front that's the deal. Cause when you do this like I've done this before we've done this taste like okay well let's judge again. Well why would the judges change their mind? You know what I'm saying? And then the only other way to do it would be to get another judge that wasn't on the judges panel. But then you're really putting that person on the spot to be like okay it's your fault if you know someone wins or loses. I don't really wanna do that either. So we're gonna try to do it. Hopefully it works out this way. But here's the thing we had a tie last year and was it Coral and Mrs. Freeman? Right? And they so that's fine. Obviously it's fine if we split the prizes up then equally. But it's nice to have first, second, third. And I have half of the prizes and the other half are on my nightstand at home. So we may dole those out tonight or next week. So I'll have to apologize for that. But we do have prizes for this. And they're gonna be hopefully you're gonna enjoy them. But that's what we're gonna do after service right away. We're gonna get the judges started so we can get the voting and then everyone will be able to start eating and we'll enjoy some fellowship after the service. All the rest of the events are listed there. Nothing really has changed regarding that. Romans 4 I went over this already. We're on week 3 of 10 if you're gonna follow the slower pace. But if you're gonna do the challenge get this whole chapter done in November. So and don't be deceived by that week 3 of 10 you got a lot more time if you're gonna do the challenge for November. Right? That's the pace for the normal pace. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries it looks like Mrs. Carter's birthday did not print out fully. She's at the bottom there November 27th. But we can see we've got a couple of birthdays tomorrow. Brother Devin's got a birthday tomorrow. Brother Steven Adams' birthday is tomorrow as well. And then some anniversaries and more birthdays for the month. So that is about it for our announcements. Now I think we've been good so far with not tripping any fuses. Right? The circuits are good. And we planned this out a little bit more in advance. That's why we have some of the chilis in my office and some up front. But you know we want to try to keep it this way throughout the whole service. So don't go using anything extra during service. Right? At the very least. Don't go turning on the hot water and the hot water meaning the little thing for making tea or whatever. And the coffee maker and anything else that's going to draw a lot of power because we've got a lot of stuff plugged in right now and it's working. And we want to keep it working. If you want to do that stuff later that's great because we could turn these things off once service is over. But if everyone could just refrain from trying to use any extra power during the service then we'll do really well. So that's it for the announcements. Brother Peter why don't you come up and lead us in our next song. Let's do it. Through us every day and every hour and be that out should it still be a clean vessel in thy hand with all our heart and our fears graciously with each command channels only blessed master but with all thy wonders plowed flowing through us God consumes us every day and every hour witnessing God how to save setting free from self and sin God who's bought us through us and smooth in thy blood is going on in channels only blessed master but with all thy wonders plowed flowing through us God consumes us every day and every hour on the last Jesus filled out with thy spirit hearts that full surrender know that the streams of living water but with all thy wonders plowed flowing through us God consumes us every day and every hour on the last this time we'd like the Sunday morning offering to ask brother Lindsey if you could please stand for us right church while the offering plate is being passed around if you could open up your Bibles the book of Jeremiah chapter 2 that's the book of Jeremiah chapter 2 and as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church we're going to read the entire chapter I'm going to ask brother Devin if you could please do that for us that was Jeremiah chapter 2 moreover the word of the Lord came to me saying go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying thus saith the Lord I remember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown Israel was holiness unto the Lord and the first roots of his increase all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them saith the Lord hear ye the word of the Lord O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel thus saith the Lord what iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain neither said they where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness through a land of deserts and of pits through a land of drought and of the shadow of death through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt and I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof but when ye entered ye defiled my land and made mine heritage and abomination the priests said not where is the Lord and they that handle the law knew me not the pastors also transgressed against me and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not profit wherefore I will yet plead with you saith the Lord and with your children's children I will not plead for pass over the isles of Shittim and see and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing hath a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit be astonished O ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid be very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evils to the mountain of living waters and hewed themselves out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water is Israel a servant? is he a home born slave? why is he spoiled? the young lions roared upon him and yelled and they made his land waste his cities are burned without inhabitant also the children of Naph and Tappanaz have broken the crown of thy head hast thou not procured this unto thyself and that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way? and now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Sahor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the river? thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord God of hosts for of all time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bands and thou seest I will not transgress when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest playing the harlot yet I had planted thee a whole vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me for though thou wash thee with nighter and take thee much soap thine iniquity is marked before me saith the Lord God how canst thou say I am not polluted I have not gone after Balaam see thy way in the valley know what thou hast done thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways a wild ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure in her occasion who can turn her away all they that seek her will not weary themselves in her month they shall find her withhold thy foot from being unshod and thy throat from thirst but thou saidst there is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them will I go as the thief is ashamed when he is found so is the house of Israel ashamed they their kings their princes and their priests and their prophets saying to a stock thou art my father and to a stone thou hast brought me forth thou hast turned their back unto me and not their face but in the time of their trouble they will say arise and save us but where are thy gods if thou hast made thee let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods oh Judah wherefore will ye plead with me ye all have transgressed against me saith the Lord in vain have I smitten your children they receive no correction like a destroying lion oh generation see the word of the Lord have I been a wilderness unto Israel a land of darkness wherefore say my people we are lords we will come no more unto thee can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number why tremest thou thy way to seek love therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents I have not found it by secret search but upon all these yet thou sayest because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me behold I will plead with thee because thou sayest I have not sinned why guideest thou about so much to change thy way thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast ashamed of Assyria yea thou shalt go forth from him and thine hands upon thine head for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them let's pray dear Lord thank you for this chapter and thank you for your word thank you for this great church that you've allowed us all to meet here this morning at and I pray that you would just please bless our time together this morning and bless our our ears and open them for us and that we would learn something this morning and that you would help just keep distractions at bay pray that you would also just bless our pastor as he comes to us now and fill him with your spirit and Jesus I pray amen alright so this morning's sermon I consider these to be preventative sermons you know this is a sermon that we need to preach from time to time that you need to hear from time to time we all need to hear this from time to time and you know one bible verse that comes to mind frequently when I preach on these what I consider to be preventative sermons is you know that let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall right that we always need to be humble and make sure that no matter where you're at spiritually you don't get to a point where you just think man I'm untouchable nothing's ever going to happen I'm never going to stop serving God or you know I'm not going to get into sin now obviously we should have that mindset where we don't want to and we should be trying to serve the Lord right but we need to always be aware and be self conscious and be able to catch ourselves when we are slipping into sin and when we start to slide backwards and my sermon this morning is titled the backslider in heart the backslider in heart so obviously what it means a backslide you know we're trying to make forward progress when we serve the Lord we're trying to get further ahead in our spiritual life we're trying to get further ahead in our wisdom and our knowledge and our closeness to God and holiness and sanctification we're trying to get close to God and move forward right forward progress but what happens sometimes is that all of us succumb to doing some level of backsliding where you're not actually going forward anymore you've reached certain you know growth in your spiritual life but then sometimes you come back a little bit we want to try to minimize that backsliding as much as possible and hopefully just eliminate it obviously that's probably that's never going to be 100% humanly possible there's always going to be an element of sin but we don't just accept that and just say well okay well whatever I'm just a sinner then and then allow yourself to slide even further back because the way things work just in life in general you're always moving you're never going to reach a stagnant place in your life in just about anything you're either going to be moving forward or moving backwards that's just kind of the way it is and you may be moving at different paces at different speeds you know but you're always going to be going one way or the other and we want to make sure and analyze our lives regularly periodically and just say am I moving forward or am I actually starting to slide backwards and you could just take stock today and think back just in your spiritual life were there moments and times in your life when you were serving God more and doing more and now you kind of find yourself not being quite as interested not really wanting to do so much not showing up to church very often not reading your Bible that much not going out so you know all these various things that we ought to be doing regularly is this has this been impacting your mind and then you know the side of the service called backslider and heart because this is a heart problem and it starts in the heart and we really want to make sure that we can look at ourselves and our hearts because you can do a lot of things outwardly that people will no one will suspect you of being a backslider now we don't look around at people either by the way of just being like are you a backslider are you backsliding that's not the attitude that we should have and hopefully no one here has that but it's for you individually you know to understand and look as people you obviously want to at the very least look like you're doing good I mean that's a normal thing to want to do that but we shouldn't have a facade it should be real it should be genuine you should be trying to do good because you want to do good you want to serve God not just because you care about what other people think about you I'm not saying it's wrong to care what other people think about you but you know it's more important to care about what God thinks about you and if you're just doing things to look good in front of other people but your heart isn't right God's going to know that because he knows your heart he knows the thoughts and intents of your heart and it's not going to mean anything to him even though it might mean something to some people but what good does that do if you're not right with God and you know the backslider heart is actually comes from Proverbs chapter 14 stay in Jeremiah 2 we're going to do pretty much a Bible study through Jeremiah chapters 2 and 3 we're going to go verse by verse through this because there's a lot that we can learn there's a lot that we can pick up on really where the backslider is at in their heart but Proverbs 14 14 says the backslider and heart shall be filled with his own ways and a good man shall be satisfied from himself now I'm going to start off just expounding real briefly where the Bible says the backslider and heart shall be filled with his own ways because when you start to backslide you got to remember and just beware that you reap what you sow and you're going to be filled with your own ways so when you start sliding getting away from the Lord right you start spiritually just going backwards it's not like there's no consequence to that either now obviously there's different levels you know at stages if you could catch yourself quickly you know we serve a merciful God and we're going to actually see a lot of God's mercy in Jeremiah's chapter 2 and 3 and thank God for his mercy and long suffering because we do need it but see what we're going to see here too as we get through is God has a desire to be close to you and for you to be close to him he wants that and he wants that enough to be able to forgive and look you know to be able to restore you back to where maybe you were before if your heart is right if you have willingness in your heart now a lot of people deceive themselves sometimes even thinking that their heart is right when they're not really looking to God's word or following God's word at all a lot of people say oh yeah I love God right I mean you talk to just about you asked that question on the street today do you love God I mean how many people are going to tell you no right I mean just honestly like almost nobody is going to say you know what no I don't love God I don't love Jesus right but what did Jesus say Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments right so indeed in action many people don't love Jesus many people don't love God it's similar to you know the Bible says if you spare your rod you hate your son like if you're not disciplining him probably you hate him you say no no but I really love him right I feel I have this feeling in my heart see people have this feeling in their heart and they confuse that with what the Bible is talking about about true love right people can have a feeling in their heart over a lot of different things you know a lot of men get lust after someone else in their heart and have a feeling in their heart but that's not love that's lust and we have to be able to identify that too and not just rely on some feeling and just think oh I love God because I have some feeling in my heart or whatever no when you love someone you're going to actually do things for them you're going to if you love God you're going to respect him if you love God you're going to serve him if you love God you know you're going to do more to show that you actually love him if you love your spouse you do things for your spouse right I mean you should you're not doing anything for your spouses ever you know what that's going to start showing well maybe you don't really love them you got to get that right and look that's again this isn't just some feeling a lot of people confuse that and just think like oh I don't love my husband I don't love my wife anymore you know because there's some feeling that they're not having but love is so much deeper than that now obviously we you know we know what it means to feel that you love someone and I'm not saying it's not important but that feeling can come back by you exhibiting and showing that you really do care about them and love them by doing things for that person and I don't want to get too far into this it's a total rabbit trail from what my sermon is about but when I'm talking about the backslider in heart we need to look at our heart and look at heart problems and heart issues and see you know it's somewhat related because we got to look at how our heart is towards God right how do we really care about God do we love God and are we starting to um slide back and one of the indicators that you're going to find if you're analyzing whether or not you're backsliding or not is how many excuses are you making for not doing things of God not being in church not praying not reading your Bible not soul winning not you know again whatever godly thing spiritual activity that you want to think about how many times are you just making excuses for those and it's not getting done especially when you used to do those things you used to come to church every week you used to come to church all services you used to come to you know and now it's like it's hit and miss sometimes you're sometimes you're not and often times what happens with backsliding is it can start with legitimate reasons you know sometimes people get sick sometimes you can be sick for extended periods of time and it kind of keeps you out of doing things that you would normally do you're just really ill you're not feeling well you know you got headaches you can't really read your Bible you can't focus you can't do all this but then what happens is once you become well too many times then people don't if you have a hard time kind of getting back into a routine and getting back in a habit and when we have you know very habitual creatures God's creation us human beings we're very habitual we do things you know in routines every day and that's why often times you could look to an event in your life where something has changed your routine and it can cause you to not to stop serving God because of some change well look it happens but we want to be able to identify that stuff and take an honest reflection at our lives and say you know what this is causing me a problem this is an area I need to fix this is something I feel like I'm starting to backside I'm not doing as much as I used to do we're going to go through Jeremiah chapter 2 now just so you understand in the context here what I'm preaching about is your personal backsliding with God okay with your own relationship with the Lord what Jeremiah 2 is talking about is talking about the entire nation of Israel so it's not identical one to one 100% application but there's many things here that are very applicable that would apply to the whole group as applying to an individual so what I mean by that is you know there's a way that God judges a nation which is slightly different than the way he judges an individual you know when it comes to the salvation of a person we know that that's by grace through faith it has nothing to do with your works but if God's looking at an entire nation to destroy to physically destroy that salvation is based on their works that's based on them you know turning from their evil deeds and serving God and doing things like that so there's that that distinction there which is why I want to bring that up because when he's talking about a whole group there's a couple things where it's a little bit just a little bit different but we're talking about just physical punishments as this is applicable but more importantly I'm going to be looking at the aspects where he's calling out the children of Israel and the problem stems from their heart we're looking to the root of the matter and this can get into and is very applicable for all of us today but without further ado let's start in Jeremiah chapter 2 verse number 1 the Bible reads moreover the word of the Lord came to me saying go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying thus saith the Lord I remember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown so he's starting off by saying look I remember the way you used to be things were great you were serving me you loved me the kindness of your youth all of these things but what's happened there's a difference he's contrasting the way they were to the way they are now and this is what backsliding is you've reached a certain level you used to have a good heart towards God and now you're not anymore verse 3 says Israel was holiness unto the Lord you were separated you were serving me and the firstfruits of his increase all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them saith the Lord and anyone's going to attack you they're going to have problems come on them you're serving me you're right with me and things were great this is all past tense verse 4 hear ye the word of the Lord O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel thus saith the Lord what iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain so notice this this is God saying well what's wrong with me now that you're choosing to stray away from me something that ought to hit home when you're straying from the Lord ask yourself how does God think about that you know why are you straying from me and what you'd probably say well it's not you God well if it's not if it's not God then why are you straying you see what I mean why why would you know if God if God's God's the same God God doesn't change God's good his mercy endureth forever we serve a great God and then you notice well you're starting to stray well why so God's wanting to know why why are you straying from me what iniquity have you found in me what sin have you found in me obviously the answer is none so why are you straying from the Lord why is your heart starting to depart why do you not really want to do the things of God anymore you used to you used to be zealous you used to be fired up to serve God what happened isn't it the same God again this goes to the heart this is where it can often start the backsliding starts with that that loss of zeal and that loss of love but obviously for no good reason now the real reason is because of your flesh because you've been deceived because of many other things but notice that from God's perspective he's saying well you know hey there's no reason to stray away from me because I'm still the same I still am who I am and God's still worthy of your praise and your worship and your time your time dedicated to the Lord your time dedicated to the Lord is God worth that is your savior worth that the one that forgives you of all your sins the one that that came you know is Jesus worth that who came and offered himself up as a sacrifice and suffered and bled and died and suffered shame and took your sins and nailed him to the cross I mean is he worth it is it worth your time obviously those of you here this morning is worth your time you're here right amen but you've seen this if you've been in this church our church has only been around for three years and people have been here any length of time you're going to start seeing you know what look around because some of the people that are here today aren't going to be here next year now I wish I could say that that's not true but every year there's people that have been here that you would never think are going to go anywhere and they're not here anymore and look we haven't changed we still hold to the same doctrines the same beliefs we're still serving the same God it's not like people are splitting off from our church that the people who were here before aren't here now oh because now you've changed your you know we haven't it happens and look we know what happens it's that we don't we're not happy about it I wish I could see I could still see every single face that's in here this morning a year five years ten years from now continuing to serve God that's my goal and that's my hope and I would love to see that with everyone but I just know reality that's just not the way everything works so this is this is what I said it's a preventative sermon because I want you all to not get to a backsliding point to where you just stop coming to church all together and stop serving God look we all have our ups and downs we have our peaks and valleys and we know that now knowing that doesn't mean it's okay we should have all peaks we should be serving God 100% but we know that we kind of want to catch ourselves though we want to stop that as soon as possible no no no wait I'm going backwards because look let's face it it could take a lot of effort and work to move forward in a spiritual life it's a lot of work you don't want to you know kind of flush that away and then have to start back and go like oh man I mean think about climbing a mountain or something you're walking up a big hill you know you might have to stop for breaks and be like man I'm trying to get up to the top I'm trying to get up to the top but then you start sliding down it's like oh man I just covered all this ground now I got to do this all over again it's hard work right we don't want to have we want the minimal amount of backsliding as possible in our lives let's keep reading in verse number four or no excuse me verse number six neither said they where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness through a land of deserts and of pits through a land of drought and of the shadow of death through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt so he's saying they're not asking for me and he's bringing up the fact that he saved them that he brought them through all these troubles all these trials all these turmoils and it's funny because you know we are always going to go and seek God when we're in need and when we need help and when we're in bad times and we're in dire straits we're going to go and turn to the Lord right and we should turn to the Lord but what about when times are good what about when you're not experiencing any real rough times that's the easiest time to backslide because it slips and fades from our memory hey God's been really good to you I mean even your salvation you know for me I was saved 24 years ago right that's a long time it's not like I'm thinking about the day I got saved every day I wake up it's not just a regular now when I had gotten saved I was thinking about it a lot just the fact that I'm saved like that was a big deal it was a life changing event because I was born again right so that's a big deal but as time goes on it kind of fades you don't think about that all the time we need to remind ourselves sometimes look remember how you felt remember how much you want to serve God because he saved you yeah remember that don't forget that don't allow that to slip from your mind and if you're definitely if you're starting to slip back inside back remember those things verse 7 says and I brought you into a plentiful country he's like look I blessed you I saved you I blessed you I did good for you and you know what besides our salvation I bet I guarantee you everyone in this room can say you know what God's helped me through some other tough times too that God has also blessed me and helped me and gotten me through things so look don't don't toss them to the side when everything's going well because when you toss them to the side in your heart your actions are definitely going to show because your heart's not in it you're going to start not doing as much and not and not being right with God and it gets to the point and we want to catch it before it gets to this point but it got to the point with the children of Israel to where they're just starting to serve other gods so this is the extreme and we're in again no one's here as far as I know in our church right now just sitting here that's just like to the point of completely just forsaking God and just going off and serving the gods of the world right this is where Israel is and this is the state that they're in but we want to make sure we don't ever get to that to that state because this is where God's going like what are you thinking what are you doing verse number 8 let's keep reading here the priest said not where is the Lord and they that handled the law knew me not the pastors also transgressed against me and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not profit wherefore I will yet plead with you said the Lord and with your children's children will I plead for pass over the isles of Chittim and see send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing hath a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit what was their glory the Lord is their glory the Lord is their strength the Lord is the one that saved the Lord the one that delivered them the Lord the one that brought them out of bondage he's saying and now they're turned aside to things that don't profit and while this is speaking specifically about idolatry and false gods when you've turned your heart aside from the Lord whatever it is that you're going to set your affection and desires on is not going to be profitable for you whatever it is so if you allow other things to come into your life that's going to steal your focus and steal your attention maybe it's work right just secular work going out and earning money and that steals just all of your focus all of your attention it's going to cause you to not serve the Lord what does it profit you know what it really doesn't profit anything you might feel like oh I got to make this money and it's profitable you know the money all goes away the money burns up and when you're not serving God here's the thing as a child of God as God's child that wants you to serve him and actually commands you to serve him not just desires yes he desires it but he commands you too whatever you think you're gaining he could make all of that go away and continue to cause further problems to where you might think oh man now I got to work even more when in reality what he's trying to do is get your attention and say no just follow me just serve me you don't need that money God can bless you enough to be to be you know where you need to be and you should be content with that because God's given that to you and when you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness you know what God's going to take care of you don't change the glory you have with the Lord with that which does not profit verse number 12 be astonished oh you Evans at this and be horribly afraid be very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evils so here are the two evils one they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters the God that saves you say you know they forsake me that's an evil in and of itself that's a sin just to forsake the fountain of living waters he's the truth he's the way you know God's righteous God's the savior and so here's the second evil and huge them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water so not only have they forsaken the right way but now they've chosen a wrong way right a cistern holds water and he's saying you know they're broken cisterns they're good for nothing yeah they look like they should be holding water and everything else and doing the same job that the fountain of living waters does but they're broken they're corrupt they can't hold the water it won't work so you've gone to something that's broken from something that's perfect and good and no reason to change it out now you've gone to something that's broken and corrupt and is going to do you no good but cause you problems you're looking for the living water there you're not going to find it and when you're serving the Lord you know what all the goodness is there what you need you know man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God so Jesus said that's what the Bible that's what the law says when you think about what you really need that's what we need let's keep reading verse number 14 is Israel's servant is he a home-born slave why is he spoiled the young lions roared about him and yelled and they made his land waste his cities are burned without inhabitants also the children of Naph and Taphanese have broken the crown of thy head hast thou not procured this unto thyself and that thou has forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way so now he's talking about you know when bad times are coming on them when they're being having enemies come upon them and they're being having more problems he's like haven't you just brought this on yourself I mean didn't you just like when God was leading you in the right path now you're going astray and now you're having all these problems well you know what you brought that on yourself verse 18 and now what is thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Sihor or what is thou to do in the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the river thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee said the Lord God of hosts so there's another problem with these people backsliding is that the fear of God isn't in them and another thing to help you to get your to help you not to backslide and if you start to backslide is to remember these things and think about it one is to remember hey God's a God that's a good God God hasn't changed God's the one that saves you God's the one who's going to see you through the hard times God deserves your love and attention and affection right he's a God that deserves that but not only that you ought to fear God too because God's a God of judgment God's a God that's going to judge his own people God's a God who's going to chasten every son that he receives so we need to be aware of that as well that if you're just going to decide you know what God I don't really want to do that just consider yourself as that child in a household that says you know what dad I don't really want to go and do that chore I don't want to go rake the leaves I don't want to go clean my room I you know well what's going to happen to that child in a godly house they're going to get disciplined why because they're not respecting what their father has commanded them to do how much more are loving father in heaven is going to do to his children when you just thumb your nose at God and say you know what God I don't really want to do that you know what God I don't feel like doing that it's easy it's so easy especially anyone who has kids knows you know as they get older when they tell you I don't know how many times I've ever I don't feel like doing that okay you don't feel like doing that you're going to do it anyways because I told you to do it you don't always and look you're not always going to feel like serving God I mean I hate sometimes to confess my faults I told my wife yesterday because I got a little sick this week right I haven't been feeling that great yesterday I told her you know what you know what I want to do I want to go to bed I don't want to do anything I don't want to go to church tomorrow I don't want to do anything I don't want to preach I don't and you know what you know what I said right after that all right I'm going downstairs write my sermons now look it's it's human look I have flesh too we all do but how do you deal with that you have to decide I'm going to serve God I'm going to be here I'm going to make this a priority I love God so even though I don't feel like doing something I'm going to do it anyways because it's the right thing to do because that's what God wants me to do I don't always feel like going soul winning I don't always feel like reading my Bible I don't always feel like staying up late and writing sermons and getting up early and coming to church I don't always feel like it but you do it anyways because you love God that's the you know the heart needs to be there though because when your heart starts to fade now all of a sudden these other reasons and these other things that are going to make you not want to do something they can win out if my heart wasn't in it because my heart is my heart's in this church my heart's for God my heart's in you I love you I love God I want to do that so yes there's more of a desire now to do the things to you know to go through some discomfort because the heart's there but you know what if I start to lose my heart and start going you know what I don't even really want to I don't really want to pass her anymore I really don't you know I don't really want to do this anymore you know what you're going to start finding you're going to start seeing me preaching less and less maybe getting other people to fill in and start and just kind of less programs less activities less everything less work that would be a sign of my backsliding now again none of us are perfect but we need to take heed to ourselves because there's an ever present flesh and desire to just get away from serving God but we've got to get our hearts right get your heart right and having a fear of God that's what I was mentioning you know if I were to we tell this to people all the time at least you know when you try to explain salvation people say oh well you have a license of sin then you just do whatever you want no you can't you can't because God will discipline you right I don't just you know well I'm not going to go down that whole rabbit trail but that belief system is crazy because people will falsely accuse what we believe as just saying like oh well then why I mean and I love when people say I don't love it but you know I sarcastically love it when people say well then I mean if you tell people that then they're just going to go and sin and do this and do that I say well you know what I believe that and I don't do that we actually have a whole church full of people that believe that salvation is 100% free and that if you still sin that you still go to heaven and we're not going around raping and murdering and getting drunk and doing drugs and doing you know like like we're not doing that we all believe that if we did that we'd still go to heaven and none of us is doing that isn't that amazing but you your whole opposition is saying well if you tell people that then they're just going to go and do all this stuff no no there's a lot of reasons why you don't one because you're thankful for God saving you and you respect God and you love God for that that's number one number two is we also know that God's going to punish us and discipline us in his lifetime you say oh but that's not hell ok but it's not like it's nothing it's what you're experiencing right now nobody likes going through hard difficult times yeah it's still enough of a motivator even if it's not hell you know sometimes I think it could be more of a motivator because hell is still unseen hell is not ever present in our mind in our thoughts but discomfort is going hungry not having good health having other problems having a bunch of you know like that's real in the moment and is a good motivator to not to you know to get back right with God but you know what the people here they didn't fear God verse 20 for of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bands and thou saidst I will not transgress so you're saying look before I saved you from the bondage right I've broken your yoke and you said I won't transgress but it says when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest playing the harlot so all the time people are backsliding they're saying oh no no I'm not sinning I'm not going to transgress and then they just go and do it he's like they're deceiving themselves verse 21 yet I had planted thee a noble vine holy a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me he's like look I planted you right you were good how have you degenerated so far and just devolved so low to where you're like I don't even know you anymore who's a strange vine like you're just some foreign strange I don't know you type of a vine verse 22 for though thou wash thee with nighter and take thee much soap yet thine iniquity is marked before me saith the Lord God and again you know the going through motions and doing things like that that doesn't mean anything if your heart's not there it's like saying you're sorry to someone when you're not really sorry if you're going to tell you're sorry to God but you're not really sorry in your heart it's empty, it's vain, it means nothing it does absolutely no good it's not going to mean anything but if you confess and forsake your sin to God that does mean something that is what we're supposed to do and that will be helpful in your restoration and getting right with God and in God showing mercy upon you because you're not really sorry mercy upon you because he cares about your heart getting right verse 23 how canst thou say I am not polluted and be careful again self analysis are you straying from the Lord getting into sin and then tricking and deceiving yourself into thinking well there's nothing wrong with me I'm good I'm not polluted I have not gone after Balaam see thy way in the valley know what thou has done thou art a swift dramedary traversing her ways a wild ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure and her occasion who can turn her away all they that seek her will not weary themselves in her month they shall find her withhold thy foot from being unshod and thy throat from thirst but thou saidst there is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them will I go as the thief is ashamed when he is found so is the house of Israel ashamed they their kings their princes and their priests and their prophets saying to a stock thou art my father and to a stone thou has brought me forth for they have turned their back unto me and not their face but in the time of their trouble they will say save us and save us and again I've already covered this when you're troubled that's when you want to turn to God and say oh, you know, save us and when you backslide to the point of just being out of church, everything else you know, and you're gonna start reaping what you've sown because now you've started to get into sin and look, here's the thing, you get out of church say, well, why do you keep bringing up church? when people get out of church, they tend to sin a lot more it's just true okay, it happens and you know, too many people say, well, I don't need to be in church you do need to be in church it's a commandment to be in church it's a commandment not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is Hebrews 10, you know, expressly tells us that but I'm getting ahead of myself we're gonna see that even more clearly though as well at the end of the sermon why it's so important to be in church and when you start letting the church slip you're gonna start allowing more things into your life that are not good for you that are sinful in many cases and we're gonna see here what God says, you know what? you know, you can keep on saying, oh no, I'm fine, oh no, I'm good, oh no, I'm not doing anything wrong no, I'm right, my heart's right but then in the time of the trouble they're gonna say, arise and save us but look at how God responds in verse 28 it says, but where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, oh Judah so you're saying, you know what? you brought this on yourself so you wanted to do all this stuff, you wanted to go after all these idols let them save you now and we need to have the proper fear of God that says, you know, as a child of God, if you just decide to stray from the Lord and just get off and everything else and then you actually start getting into trouble because you start going after all these other lusts and desires and sins and just forsaken, following God and then you start actually going through those hard times, you know what? God might just say, hey, you made your bed, you can sleep in it now now you're gonna reap what you've sown and you can't expect that God is just always there when you've caused your own problems you know, He might just let you go through what you've done and we need to have that fear, now we don't know because there are times when God will hear us and deliver us when you get right with Him but we don't want to tempt God and test God with that because I'm not saying that never happens either but the point is we need to make sure we understand, hey, God might just be so fed up with the way that you've been acting that He's gonna let you go through those difficult times and don't just think that, because God's not the genie that's just oh, I can do whatever I want and then every time I get in trouble I'm just gonna go, oh God, God, God, help me right? And again, you can put this in the natural sense, you know, a father that has a son that if he's continually just not listening to him and just disobeying him and then running to him anytime he gets into trouble right? He may help him once or twice but you know after that it's like, look you need to go through this and sometimes the way that you can help people the most is let them hit rock bottom, let them get to a point you know, that's why we do church discipline, that's why especially with certain sins, it's like, you know what, we're not even gonna associate with you, we're not gonna talk to you because you need to realize how bad it is so that you can change, so you can repent and get right we want to stop that before it gets to that point verse 29, wherefore will you plead with me? Ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord. In vain have I smitten your children, they receive no correction your own sword hath devoured your prophets like a destroying lion. O generation see the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness? Wherefore say my people, we are lords, we will come no more unto thee. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten me days without number. He said I can't even count how many days now I haven't been in your thoughts, I haven't been in your hearts I haven't been, you know, you haven't done anything with me just days without number verse 33 why tremest thou thy way to seek love? Therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways? Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents I have not found it by secret search but upon all these. Yet thou sayest, because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Again, this is the people are deceiving themselves and oftentimes when we get involved in our own sins and straying away from the Lord, we will have a tendency to try to deceive ourselves into thinking oh, I'm just great with God, everything's fine and obviously, look what we're seeing here, the blood of the innocents this is really grievous and really serious and they're going after these false gods this isn't exactly the same as the way I'm applying it but you can see how with the heart issue, though it still is applicable when you turn your heart from the Lord and that people will still do the same type of thing and people will still deceive themselves and say, well, I'm innocent, I'm not doing anything wrong and you have all these justifications for your sin Verse 36, Why guideest thou about so much to change thy way? Thou also shall be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. Yea, thou shalt go forth from him in thine hands upon thine head for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them. God can make it so that you don't prosper in the things that you're doing that are contrary to the Lord. Let's keep reading here into chapter 3 verse number 1, like I said, because chapter 2 and 3 they go together, I mean it's just a continuation here about the children of Israel straying away from the Lord Verse number 1 says, They say, If a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? Now, this is referencing a law, you know, if someone were to get divorced, if a husband and wife were to get divorced and then say the wife goes and marries somebody else and then she gets divorced or that husband dies or whatever that first husband can't go back according to God's law and then remarry his former wife that has been the wife of someone else. And what the Bible is saying here is that like, well isn't that polluted then? Isn't she polluted? You know, this is in God's law but look at how God deals with them because what he's doing is he's likening them going after other gods as committing whoredom, committing adultery going after and joining themselves unto someone else instead of the Lord, right? They're betraying the Lord and going after other gods but look at what God's saying, he's saying, look normally in the law you can't go back to your first husband, so it would be like them committing adultery and going after someone else and saying, you know what, you can't go back to me now because you're polluted, but look what he says he says, but thou hast played the heart with many lovers yet return again to me, saith the Lord. God still wants you, excuse me God still wants you to get right with him God still wants you to come back even if you've strayed very far away and gotten into all manner of sin and ended up like the wayward son in like a pigsty right, just the lowest of lows, you've fallen down you've really just gotten back, you know what God still wants you to come back to him he still wants you to return unto him, he's still there and desires to have that, that a repaired, restored relationship with you, but it has to start in your heart verse number two, lift up thine eyes unto the high places and see where thou hast not been lying with in the ways hast thou sat for them as the Arabian in the wilderness and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness, therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain, and thou hadst a hoarse forehead, and thou refusest to be ashamed so he's saying because of them straying away from the Lord, now all these bad things he's saying, I've withheld the showers right, he's withholding his blessing on the land he's withholding those blessings because they've strayed away from him verse four, wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, my father thou art the guide of my youth he's saying, won't you just come back to me and say, look, you are my guide, you're my director, you're the one who's going to show me the right way from my youth will he reserve his anger forever, will he keep it to the end behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest the Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done, she has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree and there hath played the harlot again referencing the serving false gods verse seven, and I said after she had done all these things turn thou unto me God still wants you to return when you backslide don't fall for the lie of thinking well now I've done all this other stuff I can never go back and this happens also and you know, hopefully if anyone ever hears this sermon online that used to come to our church or even anyone here in the future you come back and you hear the sermon again or you think about the sermon, you know, if things get really bad, you get off into sin and it's shameful right? and you're going to feel like I'm ashamed, I can't even show my face anymore among those people because I'm guilty of all this sin you can just like God says, you know turn unto me, look, even though he knew you did all these things get back right with them and look, our church if you get wrong, if you're wrong with God, if something happens and you get out of church and you backslide and you get all kinds of bad things, when you get your heart right, come back and you know what, we won't bring it up to you you know, and you shouldn't by the way, I'm saying that right now for you don't bring it up to people when people are gone, if anyone comes back to our church, by the way, if they've been gone for a year or two years, don't just start asking about everything that like, why weren't you here, where have you been just say, hey, it's great to see you, right? glad you're here hope everything's well you know, and they're welcome back right? obviously unless it's someone who's just been completely excommunicated from the church because they're a reprobate or something, right? that's the exception but for anyone, you know, they get their heart right with God they want to come back we don't bring up you know, even if you are aware hey man, this guy did all, you know, got into all this sin or whatever look, if they're coming back to seek the Lord welcome back welcome back this is the attitude that God has, he wants them to turn, he wants them to turn unto me, even though he knew they'd done all these things it says here, verse 8 but faintedly saith the Lord so when things started to go bad they fake it what faintedly means, it's like they kind of fake it like, oh no, we're going to come back to you, but they didn't really with their heart and if you try to fake it and get back into serving God and it's just totally fake and your heart's not in it, it's not going to work it's not going to work it doesn't work you've got to get your heart right and whatever it takes for you when you do your own self-analysis think about all the goodness that God has done for you and think about the right ways of the Lord and you know what, all the other little things minor things, distractions, whatever else might be going on in your life put them in their proper place and put God in his proper place in your heart so you can say, you know what, God is worthy of all of my affection and desire and I'm going to serve him and not allow for God to take the back seat that maybe he has been taking in your life for too long now and put him back in the front and if that's not the case now remember that for the future forget exactly what verse we left on oh, verse number 11 and the Lord said unto me, the backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah go and proclaim these words toward the north and say return, thou backsliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful, saith the Lord and I will not keep anger forever now look, we had read earlier I skipped over it, where God said he put away Israel and gave her a bill of divorce but what's he saying here in verse 12 return unto me so this divorce that he did here obviously it's metaphoric it's to illustrate God's displeasure with Israel and chastening them and punishing them but it's still not this permanent thing because he's saying you know what, just come back to me backsliding Israel come back but look at what it says in I'm going to finish reading verse 12 return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful, saith the Lord only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou has transgressed against the Lord thy God and has scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord so what is God's requirement to getting right with him here, he's saying you know what just acknowledge that you've sinned acknowledge that you've done wrong and unfortunately for so many people it's just so stinking hard to say, admit I've done wrong I was wrong I was wrong when I did that, I was wrong by not serving the Lord I was wrong in serving these other gods in this case or whatever the case may be you have to be able to be humble enough to say I was wrong God, I'm sorry I was wrong, I totally shouldn't have done that God, I'm sorry, and this is what God wants to see in your heart so come back to me, but you've got to at least admit and acknowledge you've done wrong and when you find yourself backsliding, you have to be able to stop taking the justification for your sin because if you still have that justification, if you still think no, no, no, there's still a good reason then it's fake any type of apology or trying to turn back to the Lord is going to be fake you have to address whatever your issue is the children of Israel, obviously they're going after strange gods that's a huge issue whatever your issue is that's just keeping you away from God, that's putting something else in front of serving God whatever that is you need to identify it and say you know what God I'm going to stop making excuses and saying this is more important I was wrong and you've got to mean it you've got to be able to see it that way because if you don't see it that way you're going to continue doing what you've been doing acknowledge thine iniquity verse 14, turn oh backsliding children, turn that's repentance there for I am married unto you and I will take you one of a city and two of a family and I will bring you to Zion now this is the good news about being saved is that God is faithful so he says look I am married you you you you you you you you you you you you why do we have something in scripture that says grieve not the Holy Spirit of God as if it's not possible because what they'll say it's like oh if you're a true Christian you won't do these things if you're a true Christian you won't sin this way if you're a true Christian you won't do this well look at Jeremiah 3 and 2 the children of Israel they were the people of God yet they still did all manner of God saying look just come back to me as a Christian as a believer I should say as a believer you can still sin you can grieve the Holy Spirit of God you can cause the Holy Spirit that resides within you to be grievous to grieve to be sad to be sorrowful like man why are you doing this why are you sinning in this way oh a true Christian would never do that then why is it in the Bible it says to not do it if you would never do it then why would it be in there like if it's just this automatic thing well I mean you weren't really saved then because no real Christian would ever do that then why are you commanded not to do it then why are believers said not to grieve the Spirit because you know what unbelievers don't have the Holy Spirit of God so there's obviously talking to believers you have the Spirit don't grieve it why because you're sealed the Holy Spirit seals you onto the day of redemption that never changes you're sealed and then verse 15 this is the last point and I told you I was going to get back to this why is church important and I will give you pastors according to my heart so this is when you say turn back to me I'm married unto you right verse 14 and I will give you pastors verse 15 according to my heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding church is important God's plan here is hey turn back to me and get in church turn back to me and get back in church get right with God and get back in church why because I prepared pastors for you I prepared men of God that are going to feed you with knowledge and understanding to help you not to backslide again to help you to get right and to follow the right path because that knowledge and understanding is going to help you make the right choices in life and all the knowledge and understanding it doesn't come from me it doesn't come from a man it comes from the word of God but you need to be in a place where you're going to hear the word of God taught and preached to be able to apply it in your life to stay right with God and I tell you what when people backslide the worst thing that they do is getting out of church but I understand it because you start to feel guilty when you sin and because you feel guilty you don't want to show up to church you might be ashamed or whatever else get your heart right instead of clinging to your sin and deciding well that sin is more important to me than serving God and getting right with God because if you have that attitude it's just going to get you all the way out hey if you've sinned and it's shameful it is what it is but it's better to get over it right away it's going to be way less shameful and way less embarrassing to deal with it immediately than it is to try to kick the can down the road and pretend like it's not there and just ignore it and it's going to get worse and worse and worse and then when you finally have to deal with it it's going to be really bad deal with these things right up front deal with it right away and you know what and we're not the Catholic church here it's not like you have to go confessing your sins to some priest in a box confess them unto God no one else has to know what your sins are confess them unto God but I'll tell you what if you cling to your sins and you don't want to deal with them and you don't want to confess your sins there's a lot bigger chance that people are going to find out what your sin is so the sins that you're ashamed of, you're embarrassed of you know what if you keep on going down that way it's a lot more likely that's just going to come to light then deal with it right away get your heart right that's about it that's about it thank you so much for all the guidance and instruction God I pray for every person of this church I pray that you would please help all of us to be strengthened and to not succumb to the backsliding tendencies of our flesh and to be able to stay strong and that everyone that's here today dear Lord I pray in one year from now that they will all still be serving you faithfully and not just serving you but increasing in their faith and in their knowledge and in their service dear Lord all of us, myself included dear Lord help us all to serve you better and to keep a humble spirit and a humble mind so that we could swiftly acknowledge our sins acknowledge our transgressions, acknowledge what we've done wrong acknowledge the things, do a self-analysis see what has been keeping us from serving God, what are the little things that have been coming into our lives that have crept in and maybe we didn't notice at first but Lord help us all to be able to make that analysis today and be able to say you know what, I need to change this I need to start doing better from here forward because I don't want to continue to slide back, I want to start moving forward again God we love you, in Jesus name we pray Amen Alright we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed and I'm going to have Brother Peter's going to lead us in that song but don't forget we're going to try to get the judges table set up real quick right away and get the chili in their hands because I know a lot of times people want to see who wins before everybody starts eating so Brother Peter come on up and lead us in our last song Yes sir We did Amen Alright so apparently we broke our attendance record I didn't think we did but yeah 87 people today so the old record was 84 so in addition to chili we're going to have ice cream after the chili cook off so good thing we've got that freezer stocked and praise God, alright very good Alright church if you don't get your hand on this the song is number 13 Number 13, must Jesus bear the cross alone Hit number 13 Alright let's sing this out on the first Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free No there's a cross for everyone and there's a cross for me The cross can bring a cross out there till death shall set me free And then go on my crown to wear There's a crown for me Upon the crystal haven as Jesus bears in me Joyful outcasts my golden crown and his name be he O precious cross O glorious crown O resurrection day The angels from the stars come down and bear my soul away Thank you so much for coming you guys are dismissed Thank you Thank you Thank you