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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] 4-0-5 ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] 4-0-5 The banner of the Crosses, sing it out on the first. This royal banner, given for display to the soldiers of the King As an inside prayer, we lift it up to bring all those ransomed ones we see Marching on, marching on For friends, count everything but loss And to round it through, toil and sin Meet the banner of the Cross Song 4-0-5 on the second Though the foe may rage and gather as if not But the sander he displayed And beneath its folds as soldiers of the Lord For the truth be not dismayed Marching on, marching on For friends, count everything but loss And to round it through, toil and sin Meet the banner of the Cross Over land and sea, wherever man may fall Make the glorious tidings come But the friends have bannered, now the story's done While the Lord shall bring his own Marching on, marching on For friends, count everything but loss For friends, count everything but loss Toil and sin, meet the banner of the Cross 4-0-5 on the last When the glory dawns, disjointed glory near For this age we live our day When before our King of Kings shall disappear And the cross of rules shall stay Marching on, marching on For friends, count everything but loss And to round it through, toil and sin Meet the banner of the Cross Amen, Father, Lord, we do love you and we thank you for allowing us to gather together this morning, Lord. We pray that you bless the service, everything that happens today, that it would bring honour and glory to your name. We pray that you speak to us through your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Turn to song number 66. 66 at Calvary Song 66 on the first Years I spent in vanity and pride And caring that my Lord was crucified And knowing that He blessed me with pride Oh, how lovely Mercy there was great and grace was free Father, there was love tonight to me And then I heard Him say, Father, Almighty Mercy, there was grace and grace was free Father, there was love tonight to me And then I heard Him say, Father, Almighty And now I turn till my country said I'm going to Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free How and there was hope so good to me Where my dirty soul found liberty at Calvary O the love that consummations can O the grace of God and God to bear O the mighty good that God has brought At Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free How and there was hope so good to me Where my dirty soul found liberty at Calvary Now I came to choose a celebrity Now I come to own his country Now my rapture's open only see At Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free How and there was hope so good to me Where my dirty soul found liberty at Calvary Mercy Amen, alright well let's take our bulletins We'll look at some announcements real quickly this morning If you do not have a bulletin please raise your hand And one of our ushers can get one for you If you need a bulletin just put your hand up And we will get one for you The verse this week Psalm 37-3 Trust in the Lord and do good So shalt thou dwell in the land And verily thou shalt be fed And that's a good verse there We like that, if you open up your bulletin You'll see our service times Sunday morning service 1030 AM And we are glad that you're with us Of course on Sunday morning on the Lord's day for church Sunday evening service at 6 PM And we do invite you to be with us on Sunday night For the Sunday evening service And of course the evening service Is different than the morning service Different songs that are sung Different sermon that's preached Just one more opportunity to be in God's house With God's people under the preaching of the word of God And then of course our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 PM And we encourage you to be with us for the midweek service If you look at our soul winning times Our main soul winning time is on Saturday mornings at 10 AM And then we have additional soul winning times On Thursdays and Fridays and Sundays at 2 PM So if you'd like to go soul winning this afternoon There will be an opportunity For you to be able to do that If you are a first time guest If it's your first time here at Verity Baptist Church We're glad you're with us We have a gift we'd like to give you As you walk out of the church building this morning If you go out our main foyer Or if you go out our secondary foyer You'll see a little table set up And on that table you'll see these little gift bags Please grab one on your way out As a gift from us to you for being our guest This morning there are several resources in this bag That we'd like you to have It's very well made, very interesting We think you'll like it We want to give this to you as a gift So please make sure you don't leave here this morning Without grabbing one of those gift bags And if you are a guest we'd ask that you please take a moment And fill out the communication card Which is inserted in your bulletin If you need a pen just raise your hand And one of our ushers will bring you a pen So you can fill it out And of course we aren't going to do anything odd with your info We would just like to have a record of attendance We actually would like to send you a little gift To fill the card out When we're done with the announcements we're going to sing a song When we're done singing we're going to receive the offering As the offering plate goes by you can drop this card in the offering plate Or you can come by and see me I'd love to meet you I'll be standing at the front door greeting people on the way out If you look at the announcements there We of course are a family integrated church What that means is that children and infants Are always welcome in the service We do not separate children from their parents for any reason We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available For your convenience We'll have monitors set up so you can watch the service And listen to it So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service So if you need some privacy We would encourage you to use those rooms as needed If you're not sure where they're at You can look at the back of the bulletin And you'll see a layout of our church building It'll show you where the restrooms are Where the mother baby rooms are Where the daddy room is And of course if you need to be baptized Please let us know we'd love to baptize you You can let us know on your communication card If you've spoken to somebody and you know you need to be baptized And you know what to do Then you can be baptized today The baptistry is filled, the water is warm All you have to do is at the end of the service After the preaching while we're singing the last song If you step out that door One of our staff guys will meet you there And we will get you situated for baptisms If you look at the announcements and upcoming events Of course we have the UK missions trip coming up And we are going to be heading to London tomorrow My family and I And several members from our church Will be in the UK for The upcoming week So we encourage you to of course be in prayer for us As we travel And we appreciate All of the prayers Of course for the missions trip The preaching And all of that I'll be preaching twice there And I'll be there, we'll be there of course with Pastor Thompson He'll be preaching a couple of times And there's going to be an ordination Brother Ian's going to go from evangelist To pastor and I think the church will become independent there So it'll be a good time And we appreciate all the prayers Want to just let you know For the cleaning group appreciation dinner That was supposed to be on Friday of course We had to have the funeral so that got moved to this Friday August 25th at 6pm So just please make a note of that And we appreciate you being flexible with that Next week I'm going to be gone I'll be gone on a Wednesday A Sunday and a Wednesday And praise the Lord that we've got several men In our church that can preach for us And God's different men in our church That'll be preaching on Wednesday night On Sunday night and on Wednesday night And be in prayer for them and be here Be in your place to support them Of course as they preach the word of God But on Sunday morning when I'm not here Pastor Pazarski From Whole Fast Baptist Church in Fresno, California Will be here on Sunday morning Preaching the morning service So I want you to be aware of that I want to encourage you to be here Pastor Pazarski and Whole Fast Baptist Church The great church in Fresno We started it And of course we ordained Pastor Pazarski as the pastor there Doing a great work And he'll be preaching next Sunday morning So I'll be in the UK But he'll be here preaching for me And I appreciate his friendship And he's a great preacher You're not going to want to miss it So make sure you're in your place for that And then of course we want you to be aware of the family and friend day coming up You should have one of these cards in your bulletin Family and friend day which is our church's anniversary It's a 13 year anniversary For our church on Sunday September 10th At 1030 am And we want you to use this card It's called family and friend day Because we want you to invite a family member Or a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor If there's somebody you've been thinking about inviting to church This is the opportunity to do that Let them know that we'll have a lunch A free lunch after the service We'll have the annual anniversary mugs that we give out every year Free candy suckers for all the kids We've got music from the VBC Choir and Orchestra And it's going to be a great day So make sure you're aware of that Don't forget about that Sunday September 10th, 1030 am Our church's 13 year anniversary I guess that means our church is a teenager now So I thought Now the rebellion is really going to kick in But anyway Family and friend day And then don't forget we have a soul winning push On Thursday September 7th Friday September 8th On the 9th at 10 am So 3 days of soul winning Leading up to family and friend day And we'd love to have 100% participation We'd love to have everybody out for those days If you're able to come to one of those Or two of those or all of those That would be great VBC Choir they have practice today at 5 pm For the family and friend day And then we have the ladies weight loss accountability group They meet on Wednesdays In the mother baby room closest to the foyer But that will be postponed for this week They'll be in the UK with me So no meeting this week due to the UK missions trip But that will resume next Wednesday September 6th Discipleship class they have their final class today At 5 pm There's other things there for you to look at Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off Or place them on silent during the service So that they're not a distraction to anybody If you look at the back of the bulletin Birthdays and anniversaries For the month of August Today is August 20th And also shiny Ruth Jacob's birthday On August 20th So happy birthday to both of them And tomorrow is Miss Joyce Nathan's birthday on August 21st You're not supposed to ever Ask a lady her age and I understand that But I think that this is an exception Miss Joyce is turning 80 Years old tomorrow So praise the lord for her And we're praying that she has another 20 years And she wants To see how these kids are all going to turn out She wants to make sure they turn out right So praise the lord for Miss Joyce She's a blessing to us Miss Andrea Santos has a birthday on August 25th And Miss Kelly Mitchell has a birthday On August 26th Praise report money matters All those things are there for you to look at I do have one announcement To make And that is that Maverick Timothy Lunsford Was born this morning At 6.50 am Weighing 6 pounds 12 ounces And 20 inches long Both mother and baby are doing well So congratulations of course To Miss Rebecca and Brother Josh on the birth of their second Baby My wife will have the sign up sheet Tonight for the meals Of course we want to provide meals for them So just look for her tonight She'll have that to be able to sign up To help them with that I think that's it for all of the announcements So we're going to go ahead and sing the chorus of the week Which is the insert in your bulletin And we're going to sing Rejoice in the lord As we prepare to receive The offering this Morning And we'll go ahead and sing it out on the first God never moves Without purpose or plan When trying to serve him And molding a man Give thanks to the lord Though your testing seems long The darkness Will give it the sign Rejoice in the lord He makes no mistake To come with me on the beat A laugh that I play Oh, that I am dry And glorified I shall come forth As Lord Rejoice in the lord on the second I could not see Through the shadows I held So I looked at the cross I see your instant He bowed to the wail Of the master that day Rejoice in the lord He makes no mistake To come forth as he swans away Rejoice in the lord He makes no mistake To come forth as he swans away When we end up It's bad When I think For when I am dry And glorified I shall come forth As Lord Now I can see Testing comes from above God's strength and mercy When we end up It was my father's last And I trusted his care To come forth as he swans away I will bear To come forth as he swans away He makes no mistake To come forth as he swans away When we end up It's bad When I think For when I am dry And glorified I shall come forth As Lord Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Did you get what I just said? He said, I want Judah, Isaac, or Zebulun, and then on Monday, God, and then on Tuesday, God, and Ruben, Simeon, and then on Wednesday, God, Gad, Ephraim, and then on Thursday, God. He said, I don't want one day. I don't want one section. I don't want one part of your life. He said, I want all of it. God wants to be intermingled through your entire life. Colossians 3, 4. Here's what the Bible says. Here's what every Christian life should be, and unfortunately is not. When Christ, who is our life. Don't tell me God is your life when you give him one hour a week. God is your life when you give him every day of every minute. When you give him everything. When you say everything I have is God. Everything I own is God. Everything I have came from God. When you say, even my children are God's. When you can stand up like Job and say, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, and I'm not going to question him. Blessed be the name of the Lord. God is your life. What could God take from you that would cause you to quit on him? That's your God. Well, if I lost my house, then that's your God. Well, if I lost my car, that's your God. Really, is that your God? People quit on God. They lose a $16 an hour job, and they're like mad at God. $16 an hour! Or even worse, some unemployed person shows up to church. We teach them a little bit about character, responsibility, and integrity. Then they get a $16 an hour job and quit on God. It's like, really, that's all it took for you to sell out, huh? That's all you're worth, $16 an hour? Wow, that's amazing. For some of us, God is our life. And God doesn't just want your Sunday. He doesn't just want your Wednesday. He wants all of you. He wants everything. He wants you to love him with all your heart and all your soul and all your might and all your might. He wants all of you. He wants to be intermingled in your life. So as they wander through the wilderness, he says, spread the ark through the people. Spread my presence through the people. I want them intermingled. And here's what I'm saying. You can spend 40 years of your life wandering in the wilderness, or you can move into the victorious Christian life. I say, why are you preaching like this? So you won't miss me when I'm gone for 10 days. Go forward at the direction of God and go forward with the organization of God. Don't just do what God tells you to do. Do it how God tells you to do it. And if you haven't been spiritual enough to spend time in your word, spend time in the Bible, to be reading the Bible, studying the Bible, can you at least identify and be honest enough and tell yourself, I'm a worldly Christian. I don't read the Bible. I'm not a soul winner. I'm barely consistent to church. Can you at least be that honest with yourself and say, I don't know what the Bible says. So let me find some pastor or some pastor's wife who has spent their life with God in the center and let me let them direct me. Let Moses blow the trumpet and tell me what to do and tell me how to do it because I'm not there yet. Now you should get there, but experience tells us most Christians never get there. Most Christians never get to the point where they can say, Christ, who is our life. Number three, go back to Numbers chapter 10. The Bible tells us this quick story here in Numbers chapter 10. They're getting ready to go. They're going forward, walking out of the wilderness of the world and they're supposed to be walking into the notorious Christian life. I hope you will. I hope you won't get derailed like the children of Israel did and spend 40 years wandering in the world. Spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness of the world. How to go forward. They should go forward in the direction of God. They should go forward with the organization from God. It's interesting because there's this really unique story here and it seems kind of odd where it's placed, but it's there for a reason. Let me show it to you. Numbers 10 verse 29. And Moses said unto Hobab, that's a good name. You should name your kid that. Moses said unto Hobab the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law. Remember we met Moses' father-in-law in Exodus chapter 20? Also goes by the name Jethro, another good name. Moses' father-in-law, so Moses is speaking to Hobab the son of Raguel. So this is his brother-in-law. And here's what he says. He says, We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you, come thou with us. And we will do thee good, for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel. And he said unto him, I will not go, but I will depart to my own land and to my kindred. So Moses said, hey we're getting ready to go into the promised land. We're getting ready to go live the victorious Christian life. And then he says to them, he says to Hobab, he says, why don't you come with us? Look at verse 29. Look at this little phrase in the middle of verse 29. Come thou with us. And in verse 30, Hobab says, and he said unto him, I will not go. So what does Moses say, verse 31? And he said, leave us not I pray thee, for as much as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, thou mayest be to us instead of eyes, and it shall be, if thou go with us, yea it shall be that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee. It's an interesting story. They're getting ready to go, and as they're going, God takes the time to give us a little story here, where Moses is speaking to his brother-in-law, Hobab, and he's saying, come with us. Come with us. And what we can learn from that is this, that when we go forward, when we go forward in the Christian life, when we go forward in our Christian maturity, when we go forward out of the wilderness of worldliness and into the victorious Christian life, we should go forward at the direction of God, we should go with the organization of God, but you know, don't ever forget this, go forward trying to reach other people for God. Moses wasn't content just going to the victorious Christian life on his own. He was trying to bring people with him. He says, come with us. He says, come now with us. And he says, I will not go. But notice, he doesn't drop it. Moses says, leave us not. And the interesting thing is in verse 33, we're never told here in Numbers if Hobab came or not. Because in verse 32, in verse 31, he says, leave us not. In verse 32, he's trying to convince them. He says, if thou wilt go with us, yea, it shall be that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same wilt do unto thee. But then in verse 33 begins a new paragraph and they departed from the mount of the Lord, three days journey, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them in three days journey to search out a resting place for them. So we don't get an answer. He doesn't say yes or no. He just says, Moses says, come with us. He says, no. He says, no, no, come with us. It's going to be good. You're going to like it. It's going to be great. The blessings of God are going to be upon your life. And then they just go and they departed from the mount of the Lord. So it doesn't really tell us whether he went or did not go in the book of Numbers. What's interesting is that the Bible does tell us that Hobab went. Let me show it to you. Go to Judges chapter 4. Real quickly, Judges chapter 4. Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges. Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges. Judges chapter 4, verse 11. Now in Judges chapter 4, we're in, we're past Joshua. We've conquered the land. Of course, the book of Joshua is the victorious Christian life, the life that's right with God. The book of Judges is the backslid in Christian life because they're getting backslid in the book of Judges and they're going back into bondage and God has to free them over and over again. In Judges chapter 4 and verse 11, the Bible says this, Now Heber the Kenite, Heber the Kenite, notice this, which was of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses. Now some people get confused here and they think there's a contradiction in the Bible because they'll say, well here the Bible says Hobab was the father-in-law. But what it's saying is, which was of the children, the father-in-law of Moses. Because Hobab, of Hobab, is referring to the fact that Hobab is one of the children of the father-in-law of Moses. But when we get into the Promised Land, we have Heber the Kenite, which was a descendant of Hobab in the land of Israel. So that tells us that back in Numbers chapter 10, when Moses invited him to come, he came. Moses brought his brother-in-law with him into the Promised Land. Moses went forward, trying to reach others for God. Go to John chapter 1 if you would. John in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. John chapter 1, look at verse 37. Say if you preach like this, you're never going to grow the church to 400. You know, our church may grow to 400 when we get into that new building, but you know what I don't want is 400 worldly Christians is what I don't want. 400 Christians that question God when they get a cold. We don't need that. I want some Joes. I want some strong Christians. Some strong Christians who say, hey, I don't even know what the Bible says. I don't know what God says. I'm going to ask you anyway, pastor, but I already know what you're going to say because I already read the Bible. I'm just getting confirmation. That's the kind of Christians we want. Not the kind of Christians that show up and they simply inform us. Sometimes people are like, I'd like to meet with you, pastor, and then they tell me something and I think to myself, was there a question there? I didn't hear the inclination. Like, what was the question? You're not asking me anything. You're just telling me. And look, I don't give unsolicited advice. People tell me all sorts of stupid things and I'm like, you're asking me a question? No, I'm just letting you know. Okay, go ahead and destroy your life. But if you're smart, if you're smart, you read the Bible. If you're smart, you pray every day. If you're smart, you'd be a soul winner. If you're smart, you'd love God and follow God and then you wouldn't have to make love. Just having the word of God in your heart allows you to be able to see the life and the events of life through the lens of God. But you can't do that in the emergency room, so if you've not done that, find someone who has. Say, pastor, I don't know what to do here. Tell me what the Bible says. How should I think about this? Don't come inform us and tell us what you're going to do. I don't care. Do whatever you want. I'm not a cult leader. Ask and tell me anything. Do whatever you want. But if you have a question, ask the question and then why don't you follow what the Bible says? Go forward at the direction of God. Go forward with the organization of God. Go forward trying to reach others for God. Look at John 1-37. And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them. I like this passage because it reminds me of Moses. He saith unto them, Come and see. You know, obviously we want to get people saved. We want all of that and we should try to get people saved. But it's not just enough to get your family saved. You've got to tell your friends and family, hey, come and see. What's going on at that church over there? I've noticed your life has changed a lot, you know. Hey, let me tell you something. If you do the Christian life right, if you do the Christian life right, at first they'll mock you, at first they'll sneer at you, at first they'll say, you're in a cult. But then they'll start realizing like, hmm, their marriage is better than my marriage. Their children are better behaved than my children are behaved. They seem happier than I. I'm miserable. I have to follow all these adrenaline rushes in order to be happy. I can't be happy unless I'm smoking something, sniffing something, injecting something, drinking something. They seem to just have the joy of the Lord. They don't even drink at their weddings. You say, how do you explain it? Sometimes you just got to tell people, come and see. Hey, come and see that the Lord is good. Come and see that God will bless you when you live the victorious Christian life. Look at verse 40. One of the two children heard, one or two of which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon and sayeth unto him, we have found the Messiahs which is being interpreted to Christ and he brought him to Jesus and when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon, son of Jonah, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is my interpretation of stone, that they following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find the Philip and sayeth unto him, follow me. Look at verse 46, and Nathanael said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, come and see. You know, we should be trying to bring people with us. And if you say, well, I just got saved, I'm still living in the wilderness, I'm still a worldly Christian. Hey, you know, here's the one good thing about being a worldly Christian is that you probably have a lot of unsaved friends. So why don't you try to bring them with you? Why don't you bring Hobab with you into the promised land? Bring Hobab with you into the victorious Christian life! You say, I don't know, how do I invite my family and friends? Well, I'm glad you mentioned that. We have this special day called family and friend day. Hint, hint, I don't know how subtle the hint is. Who should I invite for family and friends? I don't know, maybe your family and friends? Maybe your Hobab! Maybe your brother-in-law or sister-in-law or brother or sister or whoever. You say, what do I say? Tell them, hey, I want you to come and see. Come and see that the Lord is good. Come and see that there is a Christian life that you can lose a child and still have joy in your heart. That there is a peace that passes all understanding. Come and see that it is possible to live your life in such a way that you can lose everything. You can be a Job and lose everything and say, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him? That's something the world can't give you. So just come and see. I said, number one, go forward in the direction of God. Number two, go forward with the organization from God. Number three, go forward trying to reach others for God. Number four will be done. Look at Numbers 10-33. And they departed from the mount of the Lord three days journey. And the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them. And the three days journeyed to search out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the Lord was upon them by day when they went out of the camp. And it came to pass when the ark set forward that Moses said. This is often what we're going to read here at the last two verses of this chapter. This is often referred to as Moses' battle cry or the battle cry of Moses. So get the picture. You have the cloud that's leading them through the wilderness. The cloud comes up off the sanctuary, the tabernacle, and begins to move. And when it does, they blow the trumpets and begin to follow the cloud at the direction of God, with the organization of God, trying to reach people for God. And as they're going through this wilderness wandering, as they're wandering through this wilderness, they don't know what befalls them. They don't know what will come before them. But as the cloud goes, look at verse 35, And it came to pass when the ark set forward that Moses said. So the cloud goes, the ark is going forward, they're following the presence of God. Moses said, here's what Moses said. This was Moses' battle cry. Whenever they began to go, he would say this as they went, Rise up Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And then when it rested and when they came to an end, and when it stopped, he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel. It's interesting to me that Moses goes forward in the wilderness. They have the trumpets blowing and the trumpets directing them, the organization of God. The only thing that these people, as they were leaving, every time they would leave, if they were close enough to Moses, what they would hear Moses say is this. He would raise up his voice like a trumpet and say, Raise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And as they were coming to an end, and as they were coming to a rest, if they were close enough to Moses, they would hear him say, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel. So what can we learn from that? Remember, we're learning how to go forward in the wilderness, into the victorious Christian life. You got to go forward at the direction of God. You got to go forward with the organization from God. You got to go forward trying to reach others before God. Here's the last point, we'll be done. You need to go forward with confidence in God. This was Moses expressing his confidence in God. Moses didn't know what enemies lay before him, but he knew this, if the Lord be for us, who can be against us? Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered. Let me tell you something, in the Christian life, you and I need to go forward with the confidence of God, with confidence in God. You may not have all the answers, you may not know what lays ahead of you, you may not know why it is that God is doing, or what it is that God is doing, but you can know this, that God knows, and God knows best. And I can go forward with the confidence of God, knowing that whatever God decides, He knows and He knows best. Knowing that whatever God decides to give me, and whatever God decides to take from me, He knows and He knows best. If you're going to go forward, if you're going to come out of the wilderness of worldliness, and enter into the victorious Christian life, you've got to go forward with confidence in God. Here's Power Heads in our world of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you, and we thank you for these passages of scripture. They teach us and they challenge us. Lord, I pray you'd help us to be Christians who are living the victorious Christian life, who are moving forward in the Christian life. Lord, help us not to be worldly Christians, wandering in the wilderness of the world, not ready for the trials and battles that may befall us. And if we find ourselves there, and we find ourselves in the midst of a battle, in the midst of a journey, and not prepared, help us at least be humble enough to say, you know, I don't know. Let me find a man of God. Let me find a godly pastor's wife. Let me find someone who's already devoted to life to God, and let me ask them what the Bible says. Lord, I pray you'd help us to go with confidence in you. Lord, help us to never have so much pride that we would dare to open our mouths and question your goodness to us. We know that Jesus doeth all things well. When it comes to our children, we love them well, but Jesus loves them best. And help us to always go forward with confidence in God. In the masterless world, we pray. Amen. We're going to have Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song. I just want to remind you, of course, that we will be in the UK for 10 days. Some of you are like, praise the Lord for that. And so, but anyway, you'll have some great preaching. We have some good, you know, praise the Lord that we've got some men around here who spend time reading the Bible and praying, and they can step in and preach for me when I'm gone. So we'll have some, some great preaching. While I'm gone, so we'll have some, some men from our church preaching while I'm gone. Make sure you encourage them, be here. Look, when the word of God is open, you need to be under the preaching of the word of God. You need it. And so I encourage you to be here for that. Don't miss Pastor Brzezinski next Sunday morning from Whole Fast Baptist Church. He'll be preaching on Sunday morning while I'm in the UK. You're not going to want to miss that. And then I want to encourage you to be back tonight, 6 p.m. In the UK, I'm preaching two sermons. I've already preached one here and I'm teaching a sermon entitled Why We're Not a Cult. And you know, one thing that people often when they don't like the Bible, they just, they'll try to dismiss us by saying, oh, that's just a cult. But I'm going to, we're going to go through the characteristics. I'm going to teach you the seven characteristics of a cult, and I'm going to show you why we here at Verde Baptist Church and why the new IFB is not a cult. But even more than that, I'm going to show you that we're the actually, we're the antithesis of a cult. So I think it'll be a very interesting sermon and before you, please let us know and we'll have Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song. Turn to song 110. 110. 110. All the way my Savior leads me. Sing it out on the first. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can I now descend with mercy through through life, first by my guide? Can I now descend with mercy through through life, first by my guide? Have my peace, divide is conquered give my faith and live to dwell. For I know, whatever will be, Jesus came. All kids dwell. For I know, whatever will be, Jesus came. All kids dwell. Jesus, with all foods, the one hundred and ten on the second. All the way, my Savior leads me. Cheers me dry, with my dread. Gives me grace, for I am drier. Gives me joy, with the living light. Though my weary steps may flutter, and my soul of flesh may bleed, Flushing from the rock before me, There must be a joy I've seen. Flushing from the rock before me, There must be a joy I've seen. All the way, my Savior leads me. Though the poor, their son is gone, I've passed to his promise, With my father's love somehow. When my spirit gave the brutal, His fight to melt and rage. This my son, through all the sages, Jesus leads me on all the way. This my son, through all the sages, Jesus leads me on all the way. Amen. Good singing. Before we leave here, if anybody has questions about salvation, church membership, or baptism, pastor will be out the door. He'd love to talk to you, or direct you to someone who's trained to talk about that. Ask our brother Johnny, would you close a prayer for us? Heavenly Father God, thank you for our salvation, thank you for our church. Father, help us to go forward in our Christian life, Amen. Amen.