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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our services tonight here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. It's very good to see you all here tonight. If you would all please find your seats and we'll begin our song service tonight. So take your song books. We'll begin with hymn number 173 tonight. 173 Love Lifted Me. Hymn number 173. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me 133 Love Lifted Me. analy Love Lifted Me. 173 Love Lifted Me. 173 analyze on YouTube. A vibratoryospel into a Oh Oh Me Souls in danger He's the master of the sea billows his will obey He your savior wants to be be saved today Good Ah Amen that's a great start tonight. Let's go up the source in order first if you would bow your heads together with me Your only father we thank you for allowing us to be in church on this Sunday night We thank you for the privilege that you've given to us to sing together as a church Please bless the song service help us to sing out and help us to sing these words Purposefully, and I pray also you please fill pastor virgins with your Holy Spirit Help them to come preach your word boldly to us and fill them with your spirit and help us be attentive to the preaching tonight And we'll thank you for everything that's said and done in Jesus name. Amen Number 115 is next In number 115 no one ever cared for me like Jesus in number 115 Let's start on that first verse I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus in number 115 on this verse together number 115 I Would love to tell you what I think I Would tell you Something that no other friend can do No There's no other friend No one else take the sin and darkness from me Oh, how much he cared for me All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me All my heart was full of misery and love Jesus placed a strong and loving heart And he let The way I ought to go No Me like Jesus, there's no other friend The sin and darkness Oh Every day Oh But I'll never know Someday I see his blessed face above Like Jesus There's no other friend No one else take the sin and darkness from me And the Ushers will bring one to you if you have your bulletin Please open it up on the upper left hand corner is our church service times Right below that is for so many times at the bottom is of salvation the baptisms for the year on the right hand is information About Mexico Monday tomorrow. We're leaving at 7 a.m Try to be back by 9 But we aim for 11 at the bear at worst case scenario and to make a conference still going on We have pastor Burson's this morning and we're gonna have him this afternoon Of course to preach for us once again and at the very bottom It's information about the small town so money that they're gonna have in pace in Arizona on Saturday, July 23rd They will meet at the building at 8 a.m Give it brother Raymond if you have any more questions on the back is also another is another or more information on another reservation trip This one's gonna be Friday, July 29th through Saturday, July 30th. Once again, you got any questions talk to brother Raymond He'll give you more information and below that it's information about the red hot preaching conference pastor Anderson will be preaching a very Baptist Church this Friday, July 15 at 7 30 p.m And the QR code is right there in case you're wondering where to watch it below That is is the list of expectant ladies Please continue to pray for them and at the bottom is information about pastor Jason Robinson. He would be our guest preacher this Wednesday So let's go over Salvations for the week if you got somebody save on Thursday, July 7th, go ahead and raise your hand I'll start from the left side and the Salvations for Thursday. We got one right here any more Salvations for Thursday We got two down here And Any more Salvations for Thursday Friday any Salvations for Friday? We go on right there any other Salvations for Friday? We got four four right here any other Salvations. Is that two? Alright, we got two Salvations in the back and the other Salvations for Friday Saturday any Salvations for Saturday You How many five Okay, no problem a little baby about the Zari over there next to papa about Zari He raised his hand, but I know he didn't get anybody to say five Wow Next week, right? How old is he? Four. Yeah five Salvations for the four-year-old right over there All right Saturday any other Salvations or non-salvation for Saturday and today We got two over here any other Salvations for today Nine nine Salvations any other Salvations. We got One over here and any more Salvations for today? Of course once one right over here. All right, don't be shy guy. Anybody else going once going twice. All right, we're good You Should find the insert there in your hymnal if you don't have one, please raise your hand We'll sing it on that first Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle Oh The truth And That bad He By the honor Oh Me Oh Hey man, good singing everyone, let's take her handles now, let's go to him number four hundred and forty-nine Dwelling in the Lula land in number four hundred and forty-nine when we get to that praise God really shout it as best as you can The noise is dry 49 on the first now Oh Oh With So Underneath The From Ah Oh Oh Oh Oh The ushers are passing the offering place, please turn your Bibles to John chapter number three John chapter number three John chapter three the Bible reads There Was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews the same came to Jesus by night and said unto him Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit He cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit Marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again The wind bloweth where it listeth and now here's the sound thereof But can't not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is everyone that is born of the Spirit Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him art thou a master of Israel and no, it's not these things Verily verily I say unto thee we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness if I've told you earthly things and you believe not how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things and no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of Man which is in heaven and As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish But have everlasting life for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world But that the world through him might be saved He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God and This is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved But he that doeth truth Cometh to the light that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea and there he tarried with them and baptized and John also was Baptizing in Aenom near to Salem because there was much water there and they came and were baptized For John was not yet cast into prison Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying And they came unto John and said unto him rabbi He that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou barest witness behold the same baptizer and all men come to him John answered and said a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said I am NOT the Christ but that I am sent before him He that hath the bride is the bridegroom But the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice This my joy therefore is fulfilled He must increase but I must decrease He that cometh from above is above all he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth He that cometh from heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testified and no man receiveth his testimony He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him The father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hand He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life But the wrath of God abide upon him Father in heaven I pray that you please bless pastor burzins as he preaches your word fill him with the power of the Holy Ghost And help us our children Lord that we do your word as we learn from the preaching of your word in Jesus name I pray man Amen, all right. It's great to be back here. Once again this evening with y'all and We're gonna dig right in here. So the the sermon outline I have for this evening a little bit different, but What I want to do is I want to take you through the Christian life cycle the Christian life cycle is what I'm calling a sermon and We're gonna look at the various stages of spiritual growth because there's we're actually the you know We're starting off in John chapter 3 where the Bible talks about you must be born again, right? So we're gonna start with that new birth and there's a lot we could learn and there's a lot of parallels Between your physical growth in this world as well as your spiritual growth in this world and we're gonna go through Many of the things that that we should be maybe hopefully provide a little bit of instruction depending on Where you're at spiritually everyone is probably in a different place spiritually in this room Some people might have been saved very recently. Some people might have been saved a long time ago Some people might have been saved a long time ago, but have just recently started coming to church. There's all different types of People out there in the world myself. For example, I got saved when I was 20 years old But I didn't really get back. I didn't get baptized till about seven years later And then I started going to church and then I started growing and that's the one of the biggest differences between physical growth and spiritual growth right physical growth It's gonna happen on pretty much the same timeline for just about everybody, you know, you start off as a baby you have to be fed typically from from the mothers from the mother's breast and Is drinking milk and not able not capable of eating strong meat until they're able to grow up a little bit their system continues To grow able to eat food their understanding starts to develop and you have to learn various things So you as you go through all those stages, that's pretty much, you know We all follow a very very similar path as far as how much time it takes to get to each stage and it's very Time dependent, but the cool thing about your spiritual life in the Christian life is that you can actually accelerate your growth Because it's it's not as time dependent now There is always an element of time that we have to deal with you can't just become the super Spiritual mature Christian just overnight there's going to be an element of time But unlike physical growth you can develop very quickly and rapidly past the early Stages of like only being able to handle the milk of the word right you could you could grow past that really quick and then Continuing on even into into adult spiritual life. There's a lot there's a lot of opportunity for quick growth But we're gonna look at the potential for pitfalls as well at each stage There's a lot of things just in my experience of being in church and Pastoring and everything else. I've seen a lot of patterns over the years where people can fall for kind of the same reasons Depending on where they're at spiritually, so we're gonna cover all of this stuff this evening So hopefully there should be something here for everybody didn't regardless of where you're at spiritually So y'all everyone ought to be able to learn and and be edified by the sermon this evening Let's start off just with being born again Obviously, that's the number one and the most important thing of all is that you have to start off Just make sure you're born again, right? Because if you're not born again, you're gonna end up dying and going to hell, right? So if you Just by virtue of being born again Though you've secured a place in heaven and if you remain an infant or a baby all the way until the day of your physical Death hey, praise God you're born again Praise God, you're a child of God So that's that's the most important thing and that's the first step is making sure you're born again Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus Nicodemus didn't understand these things Nicodemus wasn't saved. He's trying to talk to him about being born again. Nicodemus is just like what are you talking about? Look at verse number three Bell says Jesus answered and said unto him verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again He cannot see the kingdom of God. So you want to see the kingdom of God? Okay, great You need to be born again Nicodemus said unto him how can a man be born when he's old? He's like, what are you talking about? I'm an adult. What do you mean be born again? I can't be born again. I was born a long time ago He says can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? So obviously he's in his mind he's thinking about the physical life Like there's no way my mother gave birth to me once it can't happen again. I've grown I'm a lot older now How can I be born again? Jesus explains himself a little bit further verse 5 is that Jesus answered verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit And this is where he's explaining that second birth. It's a spiritual birth You need to be born of the Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God and just to clear this up in case there's anyone who's Heard some lies about this being born of the water is not being baptized When you're born of water and then born of the Spirit he clears that up in verse 6 we says that which is born of flesh is flesh, which is the born of water and that which is a born of the Spirit is spirit, which is born of the Spirit and In case you know you didn't understand this or know this I'll teach you this When a child comes into this world when it's time for a mother to be delivered of the child the child's ready to come out Something happens. It's it's crazy the water breaks right The water breaks and then the baby comes out That's being born of the water that's being born of the flesh we all have a birth in this life Anyone anyone if I could see your eyes today You've been born in this world. Well, you want to agree with that or not. You've been born in this world, but being born of the Spirit Not necessarily everybody has I hope everyone has here but that is one Nicodemus didn't understand this Jesus explains it to him No, you need to be born of the Spirit and in John chapter 1 it tells us exactly how can we because what happens when? You're born you become a son or a daughter, right? I've got six children my own they were born in my family That's when I become my son so we come my daughter the Bible explains how we can be come a son of God because not everybody in this world is a son of God again contrary to Popular opinion you go out in the world many religions even so-called Christians will tell you. Oh, yeah, but we're all children of God No, we're not all children of God We're not because then John 1 verses 12 and 13 would make no sense John chapter 1 verse 12 the Bible says but as many as received him to them gave me power to become the sons of God if you Need power to become a son of God. It means you weren't a son of God to begin with They receive power to become the son of God even to them that believe on his name and so I'm sorry What must I do to be saved? Oh, yeah believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved You do that you receive your salvation You do that you receive your salvation that's the moment you're born again, that's when you become a child of God Praise the Lord. It's easy, right? It's good. It's great news Being born and now for the delivery of a child. How hard is it for a child to be born? They're not doing any of the pushing All right, it's hard on mom But baby is just going like hey, why are you pushing me? I like it in here I don't want to go out and but the baby's just that's it. You're out It's easy for the baby to be born it's easy spiritually to be born it's easy Christ did the hard work Christ labored he suffered and bled and died and rose again on the cross. He did all the hard the hard job But for us it's easy Put your trust in Jesus Christ. He saved your soul. You're born again. You become a child of God. Amen That's where we start turn if you were to first Peter chapter 2 Now just as a physical child They can't handle very much a spiritual child of God also Needs to start off with the milk of the word Overall I would say generally speaking the Bible is not a like a complicated book just in general I think it's pretty easy and pretty straightforward We interpret this book very literally we look to the words and we believe what it says and God's not trying to be Deceptive in how he words things. So when when he makes Commandments and he makes decrees He's saying it in the most simple way possible for us to be able to understand in our human brain What he's talking about and not speaking Cryptically to the point of saying oh, well, that's not I know that's what I said, but that's not really what I mean That's what people claim that don't like what the Bible says That's the teachers that don't want to just be honest with what the scripture actually says they watch Oh, I mean that can't actually mean that so I mean that would be preposterous. So it must mean something else. No, you're preposterous It is what it means, okay, but there are plenty of doctrines and things that you need to Have a foundation of the basics in Scripture before you can really start to comprehend and understand Some of the deeper doctrines you need to get layered. You need to have foundations It's the same thing with kids and education in school Right, you have to learn how to understand the basics of the Bible Right, you have to learn how to read you have to learn the basics You start learning phonics and what the letters look like and what the alphabet is And and you have to have these building blocks before you can start moving on to some Deeper concepts to even be able to understand them mathematics same thing You're in your your addition and subtraction before you could really understand the multiplication and the division And and and on and on it goes spiritually It's the same thing 1st Peter chapter 2 verse number 1 the Bible says wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and Hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes Desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby Physically babies need sustenance to grow If you don't feed a baby it will die. It's not going to grow Well spiritually thankfully if you're born again of the spirit you'll never die You'll never die now physically you'll die You could end up getting saved not knowing the word of God not desiring the milk of the word And make a lot of mistakes in your life and the Bible says that the wage of sin is death you might end up then just just Still be you're living a life where you're you're sinning a lot. Hey, thank God if you're saved But it's not gonna benefit you as much as if you start to desire the sincere milk of the word if you're newly saved And this is this is not saying that newborn babies Or excuse me. This is saying as newborn babies desire the sincere milk. We ought to desire the sincere milk of the word Right. So just as a baby desires that milk baby starts crying when they can't have the milk like hey, I'm hungry feed me If You're a newborn Christian and even if you're not a newborn Christian, we ought to we ought to have a desire for the Word of God Because that is how you're going to grow So you want to grow you want to grow spiritually you want to learn more you want you want to become a mature? Christian you must read You must get in the Word of God You ought to and you need and only the way you're gonna do that is if you have a desire to grow Because let's face it sometimes when we're reading the Bible you get to passages and books and chapters That can be difficult and hard to get through and read and many people who are born again babes in Christ will end up going I Don't understand that That's really boring. I don't really need that anyways and just push it away But when you do that you don't grow You need to have the desire to say, okay, I'm gonna do this because I do want to grow, you know Speaker thinking spiritually a child as a child of God You should want God to be able to use you and do the most to serve God I mean if you're thankful for the fact that he paid for all of your sins if you Appreciate that hey, I don't have to spend an eternity in hell because Jesus Christ paid the way for me Hey, thank you. God. How can I pay you back? I mean, obviously I know I can't pay you back How can I show my gratitude? How can I love you? What can I do for you since you've done so much for me? That would be a normal attitude to have I mean one that we ought to have Well, how about you start by trying to grow Desire that sincere milk of the word in order to grow. You're not going to understand everything in the Bible while you're in this flesh on this earth, I Love it when I go out and knock on doors and talk to people and they're like, oh, yeah I I've read the Bible. I already know what everything the Bible says But you know everything the Bible says That's Funny because you don't even know how to be born again Kind of like Nicodemus, right? You're a master in Israel and you don't know all these things Yeah, you're your master of the Bible. You've read it once like how many years ago? I'm still reading it and still getting stuff out of it With humility we need to we need to take the Word of God and we understand that we need the Word of God but as you learn so we need to learn to read and we need to learn to read the Bible as You start going you may not understand things. That's okay You don't understand a passage. That's okay. Move on keep reading Just don't quit don't stop because you stop you're gonna stop growing You want to keep growing? Don't let it bother you say, okay. I'm gonna keep on moving You know, I get I get to numbers You know, I get I get through some pretty heavy plowing it's like why do I care about all these people I Don't know but you know what numbers is actually gets really exciting and interesting just make it pass those first eight or nine chapters Okay. Yes. There's a lot of genealogy in there But here's the thing That the stuff in numbers one through eight actually becomes very Interesting and Important as you grow up a little bit later in your spiritual life You'll actually start to understand much more deeper things That's in those passages when at the beginning you're going. What do I even need this for? It's like the kid going what do I need peas for What do I need broccoli for I don't like it what do I need look it's good for you One day you might appreciate it, you know, there's there's things that that as spiritual children, too You're going like I don't know why I even have to read this Have enough sense To say even though I don't understand it. I'm gonna do it anyways Because you've heard at least today as newborn babies desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby You understand that Pat that's not a difficult passage understand well, let's apply that then by making sure we're in the Bible and reading when we ought to be reading and Being in and wanting to grow Turn if you go to Hebrews chapter 5 Hebrews chapter 5 So being born again. Hey, that's easy For your faith the Lord Jesus Christ, we all start off as babes and look there's nothing wrong with being a babe in Christ And as you grow you need to understand people are gonna be in different levels spiritually. Hey, praise the Lord That's great. Don't ever look down on someone because they're a babe in Christ and they don't know as much as oh, man What you don't know that? Never have that attitude. I mean what kind what what kind of a pair would I be if I'm just like Like my son or my daughter like what you want. You don't know that And they're like they're like asking you something that they've never seen before Never had any experience with it before I have no idea. What's that? What you don't know what that is Come on man, what are you stupid or something? Look? People Need to grow right they need to learn you need to understand there's a lot of people, you know Even my wife for example when she was newly saved. She did not grow up So I had the benefit of growing up in a you know, a Christian household not a saved household But a Christian house when I went to church. I understood the basics and I was exposed to the Word of God in In one form or another I was exposed to some of the very basic elements of the Word of God Understanding what a lot of sins are and right and wrong. She was not She did not have that upbringing the the what is deemed to be wrong or a sin even was not taught as well in her upbringing so When she was newly saved she didn't even know that certain things were sins that I just took for granted and It ended up becoming wait. What do you? You didn't say that. Yeah. I know I didn't say I didn't think I had to say that Because I was making assumptions. Okay, and then I realized well, I can't just make assumptions You can't when people are young spiritually Because not everyone might have had the same upbringing as you either like she didn't so Never read the Bible never exposed to the Bible So things that someone who is raised even in church unsaved would realize. Oh, yeah, that's a sin Oh, yeah, you're not supposed to do that. Other people might not have had that alright, so just just be aware of that when when we're dealing with people and be patient and and willing to help what those of you who are more mature the Bible says to support the weak and right and that we ought to Not try to put a stumbling block in front of them but to but to help them right and help them to grow as well So as we get in a child you're in Hebrews chapter 5 hopefully You need to learn how just like as children you need to learn how to read Well, you need to learn how to read the Bible You need to learn the rules you need to learn the doctrines need to learn the fundamentals you start off with the basics Precept upon precept line upon line you need the milk of the word Hebrews 5 verse number 12 the Bible reads for when for the time you ought to be teachers You have need that one teach you again, which be the first Principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. So here we see People being rebuked because they've been in the faith or around the faith long enough to know better Like hey look for the time You ought to be mature buddy You've been going to church for a long time. You've been around this stuff. You ought to know better I said before there's nothing wrong with newborn babies. There's nothing wrong with infants There's nothing wrong with children being children But spiritually speaking. Hey, that's great. Everybody is a child at some point when you're born again. You're a babe in Christ But you ought not see it physically speaking I mentioned before we're all in the same time the time frame in general kids are gonna Either grow or they're gonna die because if you're not feeding them, they're gonna die otherwise you're feeding them they're gonna be growing and They're gonna make it through these phases Spiritually speaking though, you might get stuck in a phase to where you can be for me It was about a time frame of about seven years So whereas I should have been spiritually at least seven years old. I was more like six months old Right, so you know you're looking at a Christian who's What have you been doing for the last seven years? Well, nothing now there is something wrong with that Because we should be trying to grow and and and once you once you're born again You should try to want to grow and especially when you got people here Especially when you got people here if this is more talking about hey, man, you ought to be teachers You've been coming to church even you know, like you really ought to be teachers by this point But now you have need that one teach you again, which be the first Principles of the oracles of God like like we need to go back to kindergarten with you. We need to go back to the basics You're become such as I've needed milk and not of strong meat for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe Brand new believers, they're not gonna be skillful in the Bible, you know, if you ask him a question, I could be like Oh, yeah, you know that's right here first Kings chapter 20 talking about Ben. Hey, dad Not gonna know that not even close right I have no idea Even even something as simple potentially as John 3 16. I Don't know what that is Right. They might have heard it before they believe it They've accepted Christ but not able to Show, you know be you know, I believe I believe this though I believe that everyone is Capable of at least be able to explain to other people how they got saved if you're able to understand the gospel understand salvation You can help explain someone else But they may not be able to go through You know on day one all the books and and be able to show them the Romans Road and everything else You should work towards that Here we have people they're using milk or unskillful in the word They're a babe it says but strong meat belong it to them that are of full age Even those who by reason of use have their senses Exercised to discern both good and evil So if you want to continue to grow you need to put what you learn into practice You need to actually start using it. So when you read something, it's like hey, this is a sin Get it out of your life Like not now now put it into action. Oh, I should be doing this Start doing it This is again how you're going to grow how you're going to mature Spiritually you need to do these things Continue we're gonna continue on through chapter 6 because it's actually gonna explain what a lot of those principles are So if you're newly saved you're a child of God, but you don't even know what the principles are Well, look what the Bible says here in verse number one The Bible says therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ So first of all, you've got the doctrine of Christ himself, right the fact that he came to this earth He's God in the flesh He paid for your sins died on the cross suffer blood died three days. I arose again from the dead Look, that's that those are some pretty fundamental basic teachings in doctrine of Christ Just let us go on into perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works That's another principle. That's another real basic aspect of Christianity that people ought to know as Babes, these are the first things you learn. Hey, so your salvation isn't based on your Dead works your works saving you because you relying on your works. Those are just dead works We need to rely on the work of Christ the finished work of Christ Not your own dead works that can't save you. You need to rely on a work to work, but that's basic, right? That's element. This is what's the Bible saying here? Hey, these are the first principles. We need to understand that Not laying again the foundation repentance from dead works of faith toward God. That's the foundation that is at the lowest level and Then he continuing on once you get past that lowest level being saved and understanding. It's not of works. I Don't have to turn from all my sins to be saved and yes that is still on that low level You know people like to say ah, you know You have to turn from the law or to return from sin to the Savior. I turn from sin to the Savior. Well, no It sounds great Because turning to the Savior. Amen But it's you don't just say okay, there's sin over here and a Savior over here and I'm gonna stop because what are you saying? Well, I'm gonna stop sinning Because if sins back there and I'm turning around to be like, oh, here's the Savior What happened to? the sin well That's this is what confuses people. We may have turned from my sin, but I just but I sinned If you turn from your sin, what are you turning to you're turning to the law because sin is the transgression of the law When You sin you're breaking the law so in order to turn from your sin, you'd have to be following the law But is the law gonna save you? absolutely not So should we turn from our sin absolutely every day Should we strive to follow the law of the Lord perfectly? Yes. Amen Absolutely. Yes But that doesn't save you Those are at the foundational level Continuing on there verse 2 of the doctrine of baptisms baptism is another foundational doctrine But it's the milk of the word Understanding what baptism is getting baptized Basic stuff you're outwardly expressing the faith that's in your heart You're showing the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You're taking that first step of obedience when people are commanded to be a baptized Okay, you know what I'm gonna be baptized because my faith is in Christ and I'm gonna show that when I get baptized so Laying on of hands resurrection of the dead eternal judgment I'm not gonna go through everything these Bible says these are all Principles if you don't understand these things that's fine, but work to understand these things Try to understand these things study understand. What does it tell what what do you mean to laying out events? What do you mean resurrection of the dead? What do you mean eternal judgment? These are all basic Turn it over if you would please to Ephesians chapter number 4 As We continue through this progress of spiritual growth Understand this as well that the things that are good for those who are not spiritually mature are going to be important Going all the way through your spiritual life. So don't think well, I'm not a baby anymore. So I don't need that anymore That's not the way it works here We're gonna cover these principles we're gonna cover how spiritual growth is taught in Scripture But you don't just say well I'm too old for that now and especially in this example Ephesians chapter 4 look at verse number 11 the Bible says that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some Pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ That we henceforth be no more children so Christ gave apostles prophets evangelists Pastors and Teachers he put people in positions and gave them the gifts that they need in order to fill these jobs why for the perfecting of the Saints a Saint is someone who is Sanctified in the blood of Christ. Yes. You are a saint if you are saved today Don't get mixed up with the Catholic concept of sainthood if You are born again you are a saint because you're sanctified through Christ So God gave these positions and people and created these jobs for people to help perfect you To help you it was important. It's for your benefit Where are you gonna find the prophets and the pastors and the teachers in church? You're gonna find them in church This is how God ordained things to be for learning for growing go to church You need to go to church and again countless times. I run to be well I don't need some man to tell me what to do or how to think or what the Bible says I'll just read the Bible look read the Bible on your own. Amen yes, you need the Word of God in order to grow thereby and Not just once a week or twice a week or three times a week You need the Word of God just as much as you would need your daily bread Daily every day you ought to be getting in the Word of God to grow thereby. Yes, that's important. Yes read for yourself Yes, let the Holy Spirit teach you and guide you into all truth and wisdom But God did not create prophets and apostles and teachers and pastors for no reason For you to sit on your rear end at home Everything on my own home, then why did God give these men these gifts to do these jobs? Why is there a job like that? For you not to show up No, it's for you to be in church And to learn from the man of God that God has given and you know what that have had laying out of hands on them and Holy Ghost poured forth on them and you know You'll have to take my word for this or not but I know and I could speak for myself personally as someone who has been ordained and Someone who prior to being ordained as a pastor and sent out to pastor a church Has done some preaching and and worked in nursing homes and done other things other ministries for the church That there is something about once you are ordained and have the hands laid on you God gives you what you need to do the job that you have before you before I was a pastor, I didn't have all the responsibilities and jobs that go along with being a pastor and Honestly, I wouldn't have been able to do it properly Unless I was sent out and following the biblical model properly and It's something that's inexplicable. It's hard to put into words, but it definitely has come just Okay, God has you in this job then he's gonna supply you with what you need to do that job and That is found throughout Scripture all throughout Scripture. Look at Moses. He's saying look I can't speak. Well God I don't I'm not a good public order. I'm not good at this. Can we just have someone else do this? How about Aaron, you know, he's like and God even allows him to have Aaron there But then what do we see later on is Aaron just this permanent mouthpiece? No Moses fills the role Is what we see at the very beginning Moses just uncertain uncertain insecure not you know, not quite ready He feels like I don't think I could do this But then really quickly we're seeing he is the one speaking to Pharaoh. He's the one leading the children of Israel He steps in that role not because he had all this great charisma on his own and his natural talent It's because God gave him what he needed to do the job So if God is giving men these gifts to be able to do this job, how about you show up in order to learn From the people that God has chosen to do the teaching and to do the leading and For the perfecting of the Saints and for the work of the ministry There is no way that if this church wasn't here that there would be as I mentioned this morning The two soul winning times every single day of the week going on all the people who participate in that soul winning If you were not attending this church and regularly coming to search you would not just be doing all this stuff on your own It wouldn't be happening It's important and I don't care how spiritually mature you are You need to be in church as much as you can and Make it a priority And The whole reason here we kind of I'm still in the childhood, right? Spiritual children need to understand why is church important? Hey the perfecting of saints the work of the ministry look at verse 14 that we henceforth so from here forward We're not gonna be children anymore Tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness Whereby they land lie in wait to deceive There are a lot of deceivers out there that are very crafty with the Word of God They can take parts of the Bible and try to deceive people into thinking. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah I mean drinking out of us not a big deal. Look Christ turned water into wine I mean, it's great, right and look these people are out there and they want to try to convince you of things that are wicked And wrong and a lot a lot of new believers. They're unstable. They don't really know that much can easily Get carried away with various false doctrines because the deceivers are slick We Don't want to be tossed about to and fro and like well I heard this person said this and that person said that hey, that sounds good. Let's fuck You got to get plugged in you got to get rooted down and and you know Start with the place one if you got saved out of a church, that's a great place to start Right people who get saved from the ministry here like come to church here Right, you can at least as much as you know, you're saved Go to that church that brought you the truth Right. I mean that that's a good place to start Obviously as you grow you can see, you know You learn the truth go get plugged in and and no longer be a child determine and see hear the teaching hear from people who have the experience and and Get settled in your faith now This is one of the dangers of being in this stage is being led away By deceivers and as this verse is talking about hey, there's people slight of man They're using cunning craftiness and they're trying to deceive second Peter chapter 2 talks about false prophets You don't have to turn or turn if you would to first Corinthians chapter number 4 Second Peter chapter 2 talks about these false prophets and gives us a little bit more Insight into what they do verse number 12 says but these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed Speak evil of the things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption so these false prophets the Bible says they're like dumb animals and They're made to be taken and destroyed. They speak evil other things. They don't even understand. They don't understand the gospel They don't understand the things of God. They're not born again They're not saved it says and they shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to ride in the daytime Spots they are and blemishes Sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you who's talking about these people being around you as a believer you as a child of God and there's these wicked people that will come in and try to infiltrate in order to cause harm in order to deceive in order to carry people away and as the Bible is in verse 14 having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls There's instability in children. There's instability spiritual and spiritual children You're not rooted down. You're not grounded yet You're not necessarily firm in the faith because you haven't learned very much You haven't grown that much yet. And those are the prime targets for deceivers to go after Because they could give you a verse here a verse there out of context and deceive you Into thinking. Oh, yeah. Okay. Wow, you really know this. Well, you're you're a really good teacher, whatever When their eyes can't cease from sin They don't know what they're talking about, but they're trying to deceive you Said by the sleight of man and cunning crafting is whereby they lay on weight to deceive this describe to me And it says in heart they have exercised with covetous practices cursed children. These are people who are out trying to deceive Instructors verse first Corinthians 4 verse 14 the Bible says I write not these things to shame you but as my beloved sons I warn you For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ yet. Have you not many fathers for in Christ Jesus? I have begotten you through the gospel Wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me for this cause that I sent you unto you Timotheus Who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord? Who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church You know, it boggles my mind the people who? Say I got saved from Pastor Anderson. I got saved from the Bible way to heaven I got saved from one saved always say I got saved for all these great resources that they find online And then some deceiver comes around saying oh, what do you know that Pastor Anderson is is hanging out with someone who's a reformed Baptist? hmm Hmm I Mean he's friends with this guy And look here's a video clip of him saying something that Pastor Anderson says he doesn't believe Hmm And a man who's responsible for you hearing the truth and getting saved people will oh, yeah Oh look as Apostle Paul was saying look you don't have many fun. You may have many instructors, but you don't have many fathers. I Mean if it was good enough for you to get saved by Maybe you should take heed Before you listen to these clowns That are just out trying to cause problems and stir up stripes Don't Mess around with that stuff. Don't don't get caught up in that garbage and in that nonsense Hey, you know and this is why the Apostle Paul says you know hey, I sent Timothy Timotheus He's my beloved son Beloved son, but he's his beloved son in the faith. That's not his physical child Timothy's Representing what the Apostle Paul already teaches he's a fruit of his ministry and This is how you can prove and understand who's a false prophet who isn't by looking at the fruit looking at the disciples Timothy hey, he's gonna bring into you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ. Oh, you don't want to follow me Well, look Timothy's gonna come unto you. He's following just like I am He's gonna teach you all the same things that I've already taught you As I teach everywhere in every church Let's move on from that turn if you're in 1st Corinthians 4 move over to 1st Corinthians chapter 8 Let's get into the teen years teen years are fun right physically and Spiritually the teen years are the best years I'm telling you my kids aren't teens quite yet. I am looking forward to that With all of my being Because I remember what it was like being a teenager Because I was one myself and man I knew everything It was awesome. I Mean these adults were like they're trying to tell you stuff and it's just like the Charlie Brown. Wha wha wha? Yeah Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever. I Mean you think you know so much stuff No teen years are great and you know what this is I've seen this spiritually obviously we see it physically. This is something to look out for okay, and Spiritually, it could be very easy to grow into your teenhood very quickly and This can happen. Also. I've seen this a lot You get saved and you get plugged in right away you learn the fundamentals because man you're zealous and you're on fire great Awesome. I love that. I love when people can start growing and growing growing and And you're eating things up and it's day in day out. You're listening in the Bible You're listening to preaching your you know as much as you can to grow. Hey, I was there too That when I got plugged in the faith-ward Baptist Church my life changed dramatically into Doing all of those things and I experience a lot of growth and I love seeing that in other people So don't get me wrong. I'm not saying anything at all. Like this is a bad thing. It's a great thing But you have to be aware That you're still Young in the faith Even though you may have accumulated just a lot of knowledge in a short period of time And When that happens, there's this potential for people to start to get lifted up in pride and That is what you need to look out for. I think that's one of the biggest pitfalls of teenagers because at the teenage years what you're no longer really the same as The child who's you know, the children are growing and learning and understanding different things by the time you become a teenager Usually start to understand some more complicated Subjects your mind is more developed. You're getting better understanding. You're starting to understand things more on an adult level and because of that many children start to think that Wow, I really know a lot because it feels good to have that that that knowledge, right? But chill and children have this desire because they want to be adults so bad That it's just like Well, I know that too So, who do you think you are? Right and it kind of put themself up on that level. Look it happens, right? This is that we know that this happens But it could be happening spiritually as well. Look at verse number one of 1st Corinthians chapter 8 The Bible says now is touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all have knowledge knowledge puffeth up but charity edify and What's going to keep you balanced so you don't just get really puffed up because that that and the Bible says knowledge puffeth up Right, if you're just spending all your time and learning learning learning people have a tendency to get really puffed up in their knowledge You need to balance that with charity. Well, what do you mean by charity? Well, you could read 1st Corinthians chapter 13 get a whole great explanation on charity But the root of charity comes from it's similar to caring so you think about it's love you care about other people It's a true when you're when you're exhibiting charity you're being selfless towards other people and In order to be selfless towards others. You have to be humble So you can have this knowledge But it needs to be balanced with the humility of being able to serve others That is what's going to prevent you from being puffed up with all of your knowledge And in order to maintain that balance, it's very important that you can put yourself in that spot And when you start thinking about other people well What is gonna win the most people if you're gonna persuade somebody about something that's true You might have just as much knowledge as the next person that something is true But if you come across to someone as being this holier-than-thou and man, you're an idiot How can you not know this and having that type of an attitude you come off as a jerk? You're not gonna be very persuasive But on the other hand if you're actually thinking about this person going man, I really want to convince this person about this truth I know that this is true. I Want them to see that it's true and I care about it. I don't want I don't care about winning the argument It's not about winning the debate. It's not about gratifying my flesh about haha. I showed that Jehovah's Witness man I ran circles around him. He thought I had him stumbling all over the place You can have the knowledge to do something like that. But what did that do for them? Now maybe they wouldn't have gotten saved anyways, maybe not I don't know but I'll tell you what they're not going to when you have I'll tell you what, they're not going to when you have that attitude of just you're coming off an attack mode I'm just gonna chew them up and spit them out Hey Why don't you try to see if you could gently show them and that God might grant them repentance and and that they could be? removed from the snare of the devil and and be able to Acknowledge the truth and do so humbly and ask them. Well, hey, have you have you thought about this or let me see that Have you seen this? Can I can I show this to you and and speak in a manner? That's more gentle just for the sake of getting that person to see the truth That would be more and look there's a time for everything, right? You know some you say with fear pulling them out of the fire and on others you have compassion making a difference, right? There's there's different approaches you take with different people I'm not just saying you always have to be soft Bible says a soft answer turn of the ways to a draft Right. There's there's being wise and having that but but when you have that that mentality of saying well I'm gonna I really care about this person it's going to help prevent you from just being lifted up in your own pride because of your knowledge and This is this is the the potential for those in their teen Years, we don't want to come across that way and we need to balance ourselves now teens can also you're in 1st Corinthians 8 flip over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10. There's also the Temptation To get very competitive in In the teen years right you've grown a lot man, I feel strong I feel good How much so what are you doing, huh? How much Bible you doing how much are you reading how much memory you doing? Bring them on. Come on, you know and and and look hey healthy competition is great. I like I like being able to Stir up other people and be like, okay, let's let's challenge each other Let's do something in a motivational way The same way that you might have you if you do like physical workouts You've got someone trainer another buddy like hey We're gonna go and do this and we're gonna kind of you kind of feed off each other a little bit To be able to get more done. That's great But not the attitude of like oh man, I own you right here. I Was out sewing every single day man you lazy piece of garbage. You only went out three times Where are you at, huh? The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 10 verse 12 for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves With some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise And that is one of the key things just in a teenage mentality there's wisdom that's lacking They might gain a lot of knowledge, but there's wisdom that's lacking There's things that you can do because you under start to understand things but it's not necessarily the most wise thing Or you start comparing yourself among yourself. That's not wise Have the humility to say, you know, I don't need to worry about what everyone else is doing I'm gonna serve the Lord in my way Another potential pitfall teen years again, there's these are this is really a where I think I have the most potential for problems which mirrors Real life like physical life. I don't say real life. It's this is real life to his spiritual life versus physical life Turn to go to mark chapter 13 Or excuse me Matthew Matthew chapter 13 Matthew chapter 13. We got the parable of the sower. We're gonna look at this really quickly Often time you find in teenagers they care more Often times they care a lot about what people think of them right There's a lot more pressure to fit in and what what are other people saying and thinking about me and they're much more self-aware and Self-conscious of themselves oftentimes more so than adults Right adults as you get more mature Don't care You know, I'm 45. I I Don't really obviously I don't want to just be like look like a some some bum but at but at the same time I Don't have to impress anybody I can go out and Wear the most plain thing or whatever, you know, like I don't care If my hair is a little bit messed up Not a big deal But the teenagers man, they're gonna be spending time wait, there's This there's something out right there. No I'm growing hair on my ears It's weird But I don't care If I did I wouldn't even say it now one's gonna be looking at He is growing hair there. I Don't care It doesn't matter and you know, we want to grow spiritually and it's great physically to be at that point But spiritually we want to be at that point too to be able to say hey, I don't care what other people Think about the way I live my life if I'm living my life godly I'm not gonna care that people are going wait you Didn't watch that you don't listen to that you do, you know the things that all the world is just doing. I Don't care if they look at me funny But kids are not that way they don't have that much wisdom They haven't gone through that much and they do care a lot more and this is a problem also Spiritually look at the parable of the sower verse number 18 where Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower Hear you therefore. Oh, man. I'm losing my mic here. Let me put this back up here Hear you therefore the parable of the sower When anyone hear at the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catch it the way that which Was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside So this person's not even saved they hear the Word of God They don't really get it and then the devil comes away takes away the word They they don't they don't know they don't receive it verse 20 But he that received the seed into stony places the same as he that here at the word and anon with joy Receiveth it now from here on out The people are all being referred to in Jesus explanation. They receive the Word of God They didn't just hear it and not receive it they received it And here says anon with joy receiveth it. You know what that means? He got saved He received the Word of God it brought forth a new life But The problem that can happen He hath not root in himself But doerth for a while for when tribulation of persecution arises because of the word by and by he is offended Why? Persecution comes tribulation like a little bit of resistance. Hey, everything's great. You're learning you're growing But then you get that person going Wait, what did you say? What do you believe what you're not doing and You start to get that friction and Some people they care more and maybe it's from a family member. Maybe it's from a close friend that they had Maybe it's you know, who knows it could be anybody but then they're gonna start to care more About what that person's saying Then what they see is true in scripture and then they become offended and then what happens they don't become fruitful They stop doing the work they kind of they kind of fizzle out spiritually This is another one of the potential dangers of being a spiritual teenager You care more about what people are gonna say or think then you care about being right with God And look this is app. Like I said before this is applicable for everybody. Okay, you say oh, well, I've had that experience Maybe I'm not as grown as I think I you know, it's not necessarily the case But this is gonna be most common in people who have not had as much maturity Growing let's move on into the adulthood here. Let me see. What time are we at here? I think I feel like I'm spending a lot of time Well, I'm not coming back for a while so you just sorry I'm just gonna eat up some time I Want to get through this we're almost done. We're into adulthood. Now. We made it the teens was the longest phase That's the hopefully it's the shortest phase for you. But man, you got to cover a lot Those teenage years. I've got a feeling I've got those teenage years are gonna feel like an eternity when I actually start experiencing that because They felt like an eternity when I was a teen Because I just wanted to be an adult because I thought I was one already And I think the parents kind of feel the same way when is he not gonna be a teen anymore So Continuing on now in this parable, we're move on into adulthood bosses in verse number 22 he also that received seed among the thorns is he that here at the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches Choke the word and he become it unfruitful now. I want to highlight there. He become it's unfruitful. You know what that means? He was fruitful So this is a person who has grown to the point of maturity To become fruitful anything about plants a plant it needs to mature before it can reproduce Yeah, I mean physically people too, right? I mean obviously an eight-year-old can't reproduce physically you have to be older you have to be mature in order to reproduce Well, here's someone who was reproducing. They were fruitful, but now they've become unfruitful And this is a pitfall potential pitfall for those who are spiritual adults Hey, you've been going to church you've learned you've grown you've made it through maybe some of the persecutions that have come your way be careful watch out for the deceitfulness of Riches in this world and just the cares of the world that could creep into your life without you even realizing it You're going along everything's going good and then oh, I'm missing church. Well, that's all that's okay. I'm still going to church I'm still faithful. I'm still going and then oh now I'm missing more of this Oh now, I'm not really going sewing up now. I'm not reading my Bible as much now I'm not praying and these things happen slowly They happen slowly And you said I'm still being fruitful, but then you know what there's gonna come a point where? You become unfruitful if you don't keep these things in check Even though you're spiritually mature and an adult No one is immune to sin and the problems that can creep in in your spiritual life Keep these things at bay We ought to be reproducing spiritually regularly that is how we are going to be fruitful and Of course verse 23 is ideal but he that received seed into the good ground is he that here at the word? Understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bring it forth some 100 fold some 60 some 30 Plugging away Reproducing being fruitful staying with it going at it. I Guarantee you you let your church attendance slide your reproductions gonna slide to the soul winning is gonna slide If you don't even have time to show up to church you're gonna tell me you to really have all that time to go soul winning Usually that's one of the first things to go is the soul winning Wow, but I'm still making it to church right because that's that's the mindset and this is because as you grow That's also usually what happens people are basically myself perfect example I was used to going to church once a week when I was a child growing up So when I started going to be able word Baptist Church guess how often I went to church once a week Once a week now that didn't last very long When I started to really I mean, I love church so it's different much different than when I was growing up I didn't like going to church. It was boring now. I'm going somewhere. It's exciting. I'm learning. I want to be there And I saw the importance of it. So, you know as my growth continued. Okay. Well, you know what I'm gonna go I'm gonna go to both services. And so, you know, I'm gonna check out that Wednesday night Bible study now, too I'm gonna start going to all the services And then you go in all the services then you add hey, there's what is this soul winning time thing? I keep hearing about in the preaching man. I know I probably ought to be doing this. I could see it in the Bible It's right there. Okay. Yeah. All right. I'm gonna start doing soul winning, too And as you grow that's often the case with many people you grow in that fashion Well when you start becoming unfruitful, it kind of works its way in reverse So winning time, well that that gets cut out but I'm still going all church services So when times gone, well, I mean, yeah, I can't make it Sunday night. Well, I'm going Sunday and Wednesday Sunday morning Wednesday. Well, I can't make it a midweek anymore. I mean jobs just getting crazy I don't have enough time, but I'm making it the Sunday morning. I'm going to Sunday morning every every week And then you're one step away from just being becoming unfruitful I've seen it happen time and time and time again It's sad. It's unfortunate You have the choice over that everyone on the sound of my voice You have the set you have that you have a decision to make for yourself Check your priorities Where is it gonna be? Hey decide and you know what to everyone else? I'm gonna love you just the same. I Love the people in my church is the same. There's some people who don't come to every service There's somebody any time they're there. I'm gonna try encourage them and bless them and I love it I think it's great that they're even coming at all. Praise the Lord But there is a pattern that exists that you need to be aware of and you need to try to make sure that you don't just become another statistic of someone Who has come and gone and become unfruitful? And As you've been coming to church for a long time and I hope this encourages somebody at least You go to church for years and years and years and you go Three services a week and you hear other people preach and stuff You'll get to the point where you start hearing sermons going like I've heard this before Heard it Try not to get bored With the teaching because look let's face it as I've said before look nobody knows everything about the Bible Okay, but pastors could only teach what they know first of all Second of all, there's a lot of repetition in this book for our own sakes and As a pastor I hit the same subjects frequently and Especially the ones that are more of an issue in the time and age that we live in You will hear Preaching on the same subjects now. I'm not just you know, like going well, here's my notes I'm just gonna just say all the same exact points and say, you know, hopefully that doesn't happen But look worst case scenario that does happen. Let's say that does happen. You're sitting in a church I know that doesn't happen here But let's say that happened somewhere where you're going to church and maybe you move away from here. You're going to different church As a mature Christian You need to be able to stay with it and say you know what? I'm gonna not let my turn my ears off and say well, I've already heard this. I know what he's talking about You need to stay focused and intense. Hey, well, what could the Holy Ghost teach me today? And don't just think well, I've already done it all now. I've gone to church enough I'm starting to hear the same things. I must not I must I must have arrived. I'm there no Take heed lest you fall The reason why you hear the repetition is because it's safe for your sake to hear it To write again You know write these things unto you again Look, it's not grievous but for you it is safe The Bible says in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensembles and it's talking about the children of Israel. It's talking about all the the trials that they went through and and the sins that they committed and everything that came as a result and and it says The Bible says, all these things happened unto them for ensembles and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come All the things about the four- you know, why do we have to read about this stuff? The children? Yeah, they were they were Not very thankful not very grateful. I get it But why did why did you even bother to record that God because they were our examples And it's something we could learn from and we should learn from and not have to repeat the same things that they did learn from their example Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall You think you've arrived I'm an adult. I know it all I don't need to come to church anymore. Great I don't even need to read my Bible because I know what it says. I've memorized enough scripture. I know what it says Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall We all need this look I need this include Just as much as you do Just as much just as much as you do the pastor needs to hear the word of God Yes, I'm the one preaching but oftentimes I'm looking at things and going I need to implement this just last week I need to implement this just last week. I preached something in our church about putting God first in your life And I was preaching that sermon to me as much as to anybody else Because it's easy to let things slide it's easy to get a little bit off track It's easy to veer but you got to correct yourself You got to get right back in it again Things can throw you off You could have weird things happen in your life and they throw you off schedule and they get you kind of screwed up for a little bit You need to ratchet yourself back and look at your priorities and say know what no this needs a change Final final point now you get into the senior citizen You are a senior citizen spiritual child of God man you have been in it And maybe you're a senior physically Right, and maybe you're not like Caleb who's 80 years old going. Hey just as I was when I was 40 I had to go out and come in for war man. I'm just going out. I want that mountain Okay You may not feel that way physically But maintain the spiritual mind To be minded in that regard regardless of how old you are if you're breathing breath God has work for you to do we will enter into you've already entered into christ rest if you're saved But we will enter into that rest when we breathe our last breath Retirement doesn't happen in this life spiritually speaking You need to keep working You will get those rewards at the judgment seat of christ until then keep working In the capacity you can Obviously you're going to understand and know your limitations physically of what you can do, you know When it's 112 degrees outside And you're 90 years old. You might not be able to go out for four hours in between his earth and go man I'm going so hey if you could praise the lord great But it's understandable if you can't but don't give up Don't give up do what you can God will bless what you have The widow that cast in the two mites that meant a lot to god It didn't matter that it was physically well, it's just two mites she cast in everything she had That was great in the eyes of god God You may not have the same strength as the young teenager that wants to compare themselves among themselves and teenagers You might want to show a little respect To the person that's been around for a long time and I meant to say this and I didn't Because i've seen the proud attitude and i've heard it out of people's mouths Oh, man, that person is such an idiot. I know more than this pastor and that pastor and they're talking about saved pastors They may not be new ifb, but they're saved pastors saved men of god. Look watch your mouth You got someone that's preaching the right gospel king james only look they've been in the ministry for maybe 40 years And you just got saved in six months, man You've been listening to pastor and then you know all this stuff and I can't believe people are into zionism and everything else Look, I can't believe it either But it's out there And it doesn't mean that you're just so much more mature and is way above all these other pastors That believe differently on some of these doctrines than you do Okay, they've been in the ministry for a long time. That's a lot of work And you ought to respect that even if you disagree with where they stand on some doctrinal issues And don't go blowing off your mouth about how smart you are and how these guys don't know anything You didn't know anything six months ago Seriously right, what do we have that we have not received there's no reason to brag and be boastful over it If you have knowledge great Use that knowledge for the betterment of other people use that knowledge to help other people Not to lift yourself up Bible says in galatians 6 9 be let us not be weary and well-doing going back to senior It's the senior plan be not weary and well-doing for in due season. We shall reap if we faint not just don't give up No matter where you're at don't give up As we have therefore opportunity let's do good do good unto all men especially unto them who have the household of faith There's so much work to be done Everybody has their own role. Every member is put in place for us to be able to do good Everybody has their own role every member is put in place for a specific reason of god whether you're you know two or two hundred whatever Right. Everybody has a place I want to be able to end my life physically, excuse me And hopefully be in a spiritual place a capacity Where I could say like the apostle paul said in second simothy four for I am now ready to be offered And the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness Which the lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing This the end game that's the christian life Fight the good fight Keep the faith Stay consistent Stay faithful to the end And god will reward you Don't stop early Keep going And praise the lord for people people. I know that haven't given up, you know, even in this room tonight You are an encouragement to me And I guarantee you to other people around you I love seeing people, you know this church while while in general There's a lot of young people Young people are not the only people in this church There are plenty of other people who are not quite as young And I love seeing those faces every time I come back here. What an encouragement what a blessing You know stay with it wherever you're at in your christian life in your spiritual walk try to grow Try to try to try to grow more try to strengthen yourself the only way you're going to do it You have to walk in the spirit You got you got to emaciate the uh the flesh and walk in the spirit and and and Make sure that you're growing spiritually by doing the spiritual things getting in the word of god hearing the teaching And just look it's not complicated It's not complex. It's not a hard formula You just got to stay with it don't get bored Stay with it. It's worth it. Let's bow our eyes our word of prayer dear lord Thank you so much for instructing us for giving us all the instruction that we need. Um god sometimes It's not always easy and sometimes it might just seem boring lord to do some of these things Help us to get past that in our minds help us to put the priorities right and say no i'm going to do this Yes, i'm thankful to you dear lord. I want you to use me to the utmost dear lord and um help us to grow spiritually And to never feel like we've just arrived and always be able to look for what we could learn And and god, I thank you so much for for the wisdom that you've given us and in jesus name. We pray. Amen Amen take your hymnals, please. Let's go to hymn number 99 Number 99 come ye this is gauntlet hymn number 99 Let's sing it on that verse number 99 Let's sing it on that verse number 99 Come be this god so led He Is Oh Is No See Her My Me