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

Thank you very much. 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. 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. Amen. All right. Let's go ahead and turn to song number 325. Trust and Obey. Sing it loud. 325. Trust and Obey. When we walk with the Lord on the first. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word what a glory he sheds on our way while we do his good will. He abides with us still that with all we'll trust and obey. Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Not a shadow can rise not a cloud in the skies but his mouth quickly drives it away. Not a doubt or a fear not a sign or a tear can above all we trust and obey. Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Not a burden we bear not a road we share but our doily doth richly repay. Not a grief nor a loss not a frown or a cross what is best if we trust and obey? Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey but we never see the lights of his love until all only enter we lay. For the favor he shows and the joy he bestows are for them who we'll trust and obey. Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but on the last and in fellowship suite no sin at his feet or the world by his side in the way what he says we will do where he says we will go never fear only trust and obey Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Alright, well good evening. Welcome back to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. Let's go through these announcements here real quick. Alright, front page of the bulletin. Weekly church service time. Sunday mornings are at 1030. Sunday evenings are at 6 and Wednesdays are at 7 PM. Underneath that is a list of soul winning times. Saturday mornings at 1030 meeting right here is the only time that doesn't change or very rarely ever changes. Any questions about the other times? 208-391-5323 is the number to call. Let's see here, middle page of your bulletin now. Tonight we'll be going through a portion of Hebrews chapter number 12. And let's see here, Old Testament Bible reading challenge. Let's see, don't forget you've got five months left to go. Birthdays and anniversaries for July. So next up will be mine and Miss Jessica's anniversary on the 17th. And the next birthday after that will be Kylin. Verse of the week, Luke 4 21 which says, And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. We are a family integrated church. And what that means is children and infants are always welcome in the service. If you need privacy, dad's got to use the break room. Mom's mother baby room should be open ready to go right across the hallway. Let's see here, don't forget to turn your phone off or place it on silent so it's not a distraction. And the bottom line says, If you are not in the kingdom, you are not my neighbor. So that's it for announcements. We'll have one more song before we receive the offering. Alright, let's grab those hymn books, please. And we'll turn to song number 261. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. 261 Turn your eyes upon Jesus. On the first. Oh, so are you weary and troubled. No light in the darkness. See, there's light for a look at the Savior. My life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Through death and to life everlasting. He passed and we followed him there over us and no more helpful meaning for more than conquers we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. And alas, his word shall not fail you, he promised. Believe him and all will be loved. And though to a world that is dying, his perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. Look full in his wonderful face. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. Look full in his wonderful face. The Bible reads, Werefore, seeing we also are compassed about, with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he deceiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he when the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. But he, for our prophet, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. But let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burn with fire, nor on a blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated that the words should not be spoken to them any more. For they cannot endure that which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touched the mountain, and shall be stoned, or thrust through with the dark. And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly, and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Brother Victor, would you pray for us? All right, amen. Well, we are on chapter number 12, and like I said during the announcements, we're not going to make it through the full chapter, but that's okay, there's a lot to this chapter anyways. Now, with that being said, keep your place there in Hebrews 12, but go to James chapter number 1. James chapter number 1. I titled the sermon, very simply, this, Cloud of Witness. And I'm going to read it to you, and I'm going to read it to you, and I'm going to read it to you, simply this, Cloud of Witnesses. And we're going to get to that, okay? But before we get to that, we need to make sure that we understand what drove, what fueled this cloud of witnesses, which we learned about last week. Okay, which was obviously what? Faith. We spent a lot of time last week going over the definition of faith, which a lot of people cloud up, but it is very simple. It is believing the promises. Believing what is written down is a good example. And I kept harping on that, but it's also believing the things that we ask of the Lord, okay? And here's where people get into trouble, and I mentioned this last week, but a lot of times people ask things amiss, right? They'll ask things and, you know, preachers get up and say, oh, if you're lacking that jet ski, you're lacking that boat, you're lacking that money, you know, all you got to do is pray and you got to have faith, right? They teach this like it's some kind of magical force or some kind of a magical power, right? You have to be very careful with that if it's not His will that we have such things, if it's not His will that we get that raise, if it's not His will, whatever it is that we ask, we're not getting it, and we need to be okay with that. We ought to not get offended, right? You see what I'm pointing to? Again, I'm going to get a light banner and put it over that sign there because people aren't noticing that anti-snowflake, look, this church is anti-snowflake. Like 100%. Let's make sure that is loud and clear, okay? We are anti-snowflake. If I don't respond to your text message right away, I apologize, okay? I don't exactly work nine to five, okay, it's more like eight to nine some days. So, more on that after the service. But anyways, you're in James chapter one, you know, last week kind of listening to this, I was like, yeah, I forgot, I had to cut some things out for sake of time, right? And I kept harping, you know, believe what's written, believe what's written. But a lot of, you know, a lot of things that we pray for aren't written in the Bible, right? Because we live in 2022. There are situations that we all go through, and if everything we ever thought or prayed for or needed was written in the Bible, we'd never be able to read, be too long, right? It would exceed the circumference of the earth and things like that. But it's important that we learn how to ask God for things in faith and what that really means. Now again, to back up the definition we talked about last week, faith is the substance of things hoped for. We talked about that and what that meant. We looked at the Roman centurion, right? What was his attitude? His attitude was like, Lord, you don't even need to come to my house. Just say the words. If I hear the words, I've got what I, I got all I need. I just have to, I'll just believe that and it'll be done, right? That is faith, right? Listen to this, Titus 1, 2, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. You know, a lot of times, you know, we have voices in our head and these voices will pop up. Are you really saved? Are you really, you know, are you really truly born again? Did you really get converted, right? How do we overcome those thoughts? How do we overcome those voices? Through faith, right? You have to learn how to sever your head from your neck, okay? You need to learn how to draw the line between your head and your human heart because our hearts seek after sensationalism. Our hearts are wicked. Our hearts are evil. Our hearts only draw up things that are contrary to the will of God. So what we have to do is we have to learn the promises. We are guaranteed eternal life. We are guaranteed salvation once we believe on the Lord, plain and simple, right? Which is why we have to constantly talk about this, which is why we have to constantly be in the Word, which is why we need to assemble and all the things that we do is so that we don't lose that head knowledge because when you lose that head knowledge, or maybe not even so much knowledge, right, but when it's not in the forefront of your mind, when you're not thinking about it, that voice can creep in. The enemy is there. The Bible says that the devil is as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may destroy. We don't know exactly how that looks, but apparently it seems like in the spiritual world, we have like this power meter, kind of like on a video game, right, and they can see when you're in the yellow bars, right, about to hit red, you're out of life, you know, and they can like see that and they're like, I got this guy, you know, this guy's going down. You need to hurry up and get a mushroom or something to get that power raised up, you know, and the mushroom's the Word of God, right? That's how you got to kind of look at it, right? If you play games, whatever. Anyways, I don't know why I'm talking about this. Back to the subject of faith, okay, let's see how it applies to prayer and then we'll move on to the chapter, okay. James chapter one, verse five. Look at what James says. If any of you, okay, now does this include your dog across the street? Does this include your Episcopal minister that doesn't believe the Word of God? No, to the saved. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. That giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. Look, that is a promise. That's a guarantee. Look, that is written in your Bible. The question is, do you believe it? Do you want to be wise? I hope you do because that's how this movement grows, by us displaying wisdom in our lives, okay. And look, if you ask, you shall receive. It's a guarantee, it's a promise. Adopt that mindset that the Roman centurion had, right. Just say the word, Lord, and I'll, I just know I can bank on the fact that it will be done. Look at verse six. But let him ask in faith. What does that mean? It means that we shouldn't have this entitled attitude, okay. Oh, he just didn't give it to me because God doesn't like me right now. There's people like that out there, right. No, that's not us. That's not us. We need to humbly ask. It says, but let him ask in faith. Now don't miss this, nothing wavering, okay. Nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. So what does that mean? Not a good thing, right. You have the guarantee. You have the promise. You have your measure of faith, which is on Christ. We are in him. We can get this promise. This is a promise you can have. This is a guarantee to the believer. Case closed. No need to doubt. Verse seven. It says this, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Go to first John chapter number five. So again, the enemy to the believer. The enemy comes to the believer and says, you've done too much. You have gone too far. You have pushed God so far, he's not going to give you that wisdom to get out of whatever situation you put yourself into. That's what the enemy does. And it registers in your mind as your own voice and it starts barking and it starts harping on you. And the way that you overcome that is by faith. This is the Bible. You're saved. You believe the word of God. This is a promise. If you lack wisdom, you ask God and you live your life as if he has already given it to you. That is how we are supposed to be. That's how the witnesses in chapter 11 lived their lives. They heard the word, they believed the word and that drove them. And we'll look at that again here in a second. But look at first John five in verse number 13. It says this, these things have I written unto you that believe on Baal. Oh, it doesn't say that. Okay. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God. That ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the son of God. All of this pointing to faith. Meaning these things that he's talking about here does not apply to every single person on the planet. This is to believers. Verse 14. And this is the what? The confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Okay. If you wanna see the contradiction in that, just turn on a Pentecostal Church's YouTube channel and you will hear the opposite of that. You'll hear the name it and claim it. Hey, you need to just will that cancer out of your body. You just need to will that wheelchair out of your body. You need to will that broke bank account that you have and you need to overcome it. You just don't have enough faith, okay? No, that is wrong. That is not Bible doctrine. Verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him. So if you want to have confidence that your prayers will be answered, you need to understand the rest of the verse. If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Well, obviously his will, John 6.40, that we would hear and be saved. We would see the son of God through the word. We would believe and be saved. But his will for us is that we would continue and do good works, that we would be disciples, that we would go and further the kingdom of God, okay? There's a lot of things like that in the Bible and so if you wanna get better at understanding his will, what does that mean? That means you need to be in church. That means you need to be reading the Bible. You need to be meditating on what he's told us, okay? And then that will become more clear to all of us and your prayer life will get better and it will get more powerful because you understand the mind of God. You will be a man or a woman after the heart of God. Look at verse 15. It says, and if we know that he heareth, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the position, I'm sorry, the petitions that we desired of him. You see that? If we know that he heareth us. Well, in order for you to get to that stage, you have to make sure you're not double minded. You're not listening to that old man saying, you messed up because you did that to that car or whatever it is, you know? You had this attitude. You've got problems. We all have problems, okay? God, look, God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and he knows when his children are trying to play games to get what they want. You know, for us parents, it's kinda hard. You know, sometimes we're like, I don't know if they seem genuine, they seem serious, but he always knows, okay? He always knows. And when you have the right mindset, you're like, look, I'm tired of playing games. I'm gonna ask the Lord for this. I believe this is God's will. I want this person to hear the word. I want, you know, whatever it is, okay? We can bank on the fact that he's going to answer that prayer with a positive yes. Verse 15, one more time. And if we know that he heareth, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him, okay? But again, this takes time to develop. This takes time for us to understand because again, there's no verse in the Bible that says you're gonna live cancer-free. There's no verse in the Bible that says you're gonna live till you're 85 years old. There's no verse in the Bible that says you're guaranteed that your spouse will not die or your child will not die. There's no promise of that at all. There isn't. Once you understand that, once you understand what is written down and what it means, your prayer life is more effective. Your faith is more effective as you walk through the Christian life. So if you would go back to Hebrews chapter number 12. Hebrews chapter number 12. And so you have to understand it was that mindset, that mindset that John, that mindset that James is telling us about, it was that mindset that we saw from Noah all the way to David. In fact, if you would, just go back to Hebrews 11 real quick and let's take a look at just two verses here. So just flip one page back, two pages back, depending on the font size of your Bible. Hebrews chapter 11, look at verse 6. It says, but without faith, it is what? Impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Now look at the very next statement here. The very next verse, what does it say? By faith, Noah being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, okay, what happened? Obviously, Noah heard the word of God. He heard the prophecy, he heard these warnings that were gonna be coming upon the earth. What did that do? What did the faith that he had, what did that drive him to do? Look at the rest of the verse. Moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. This is how we fight today. This is how we wage war in our lives. It's by faith. It's by believing the written word of God. It's by looking at the evil and the wickedness that's going on in the world today and saying our Savior has promised that he would come back, he's gonna clean house, and he's going to mop the world of these wicked, evil dogs, right? Understanding that, having faith in that will move you to this kind of a work ethic. It will move you to be this kind of a witness, this kind of a powerhouse, which is what we need in today's day and age. And so with that understanding, let's start off Hebrews chapter 12 now, verse one says this. Wherefore, so again, new chapter, not a new thought. Just got done telling us about these great people of the Lord, right? Men, women, people who had great faith. You learn from Noah all the way to the mentions of David. And it says wherefore, so because of this, because of how they were, because they obtained a good report through faith, the end of the chapter 11 says, wherefore seeing, we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Stop right there. Who are those witnesses? Well, it's all the people that he just mentioned here in the prior chapter. We are surrounded by their actions. We are surrounded by what they did because we read it. Everybody in here has the word of God. That's what it's initially talking about. Now, I know sometimes we pull this verse out. We're like, we're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses and we talk like that, but you have to understand what it really means. When you read the letter to the Hebrews from front to back, it's very clear what it's talking about. It's talking about the people that he just mentioned. We're to look at Noah. We're to look at Abel. We're to look at Abraham. We're to look at Moses and David and study these Old Testament guys and be like, how did you do that? How did you have the faith, David, to keep running from Saul to eventually become king and to be a great man after God's own heart? How did you do that? Through faith, through believing the promises. And we're supposed to be inspired by that. It says, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. So because of what they did, because of the inspiration that they left us, it says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, does that mean that these guys that he mentioned don't have any sin? Of course not. They all sinned, every single one of them. It's clear in the Bible, right? But hey, their sins paid for it, right? What's written about them, the good stuff that they did. Hey, it's not bringing up the fact that Barak was kind of a little mama's boy, right? He didn't bring it up, just said, hey, time would fail me to tell about Barak and Jephthah, right? He didn't even bring up the whole oath thing, did he? No, he just brought up the positive, right? Because look, what Jephthah did, I mean, that dude had some faith. Now, he had some mighty physical strengths and some leadership attributes as well, but ultimately it was their faith that we are to look to, right? Though these guys made mistakes, though they had issues, you know what? They didn't let that sin take them out of the race. They didn't let that bog them down to the point to where they are no longer able to serve, which is what we see so often in today's day and age, in today's Christianity. So if you would, keep your places there, but go to Ephesians chapter two real quick. Ephesians chapter number two. Now, again, it's important to understand he's not saying you have to get rid of all sin before you can serve God, okay? No, he's saying you need to be careful and lay aside every weight, right? All the weighty matters of the world that people try to throw on our laps. Oh, you know, I'd come back to that church, but there's like dirty spots on the wall, and I didn't like the doughnuts, and I didn't, you know, the coffee wasn't this, and it wasn't that. You know, people can get like that. They can let little stupid things like that bother them, or, oh, the pastor didn't get back to me right away when I texted him this question, you know, in the middle of the night. I don't think he likes me. I'm offended. My feelings are hurt. What am I ever gonna do, right? People like that don't wind up serving God. People like that will not get written down in this kind of capacity because they're weak. They're snowflakes. They produce nothing. Understand that. This is what we are fighting today. I'm telling you right now, this snowflake victim culture comes inside the church. It comes and it infiltrates the people of God, which is why you need somebody to stand up here and sometimes get a little bit angry, a little bit upset about these things so that we can develop some strength, so that we can grow a backbone, so that we can stand up to people and say, hey, why don't you stop being so sensitive and just serve God? Why don't you study to show your own self approved unto God instead of worrying about what everybody else thinks about you? Why can't we do that? Because we live in a society full of cowards. That's why. And it's disgusting. It's despicable. I don't want to come back because I'm paranoid. I don't want to come back because I don't like the fact that you didn't respond to me right away. Hey, guess what? I've got a life. I'm not chained by my phone. Hopefully everybody in here has that same attitude, right? Good grief. All right. Ephesians chapter 2. No idea what I'm talking about, but let's just read the verse anyways. Look at verse 8. It says, for by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Verse 9. Not of works lest any man should boast. We read these verses all the time. Why are we saved, though? What's the purpose? Is it just so that we can get saved and chill and never serve God? Exactly. Look at verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Okay? People miss this all the time, right? The whole point, the whole reason we need to understand what drove Noah, what drove Abel, what drove David, what drove Abraham, what drove Moses was the fact that they believed the promises and they didn't let the weights of the world and they didn't let the sin bog them down. They fought both of them off continuously their whole lives. You have to fight off this evil trinity. You have to fight the devil. You have to fight the weight of the world and you have to fight everything else that gets thrown at you from your evil, wicked heart, which is sin. That little voice, hey, just go ahead and do that. Let's go and say that to that guy. I had to fight that this morning. Hopped out of the vehicle, I saw a fat dog boy across the street and I was like, hey, what's up, fat boy? You know, after telling you guys not to engage with him, you know, I'm like, what am I doing? What am I doing? It just comes out sometimes. Look, I'm just confessing faults to you. I told you. I'm a little bit of a troll. I need help as well, okay? But here's the deal. We are saved for service. Plain and simple. People don't like that. We are saved for service. We are not saved by service. We are saved for service. God has a mission for the church and that mission transcends physical reality. Talked about this last week. What we do in this life has ripple effects in eternity. We'll talk about this again in two weeks, okay? Go back to Hebrews chapter number 12. So hopefully that makes sense here when he says in Hebrews 12 one, wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. We are called to run this race and this race is called saved for service. We are to serve God. We are to be sanctified. Remember your S's, okay? You're saved. You're sanctified. You're in Christ. We are called to be separate from the world. That's, you know, people don't like that. I just think wherever two or three are gathered together by name, you can't change my mind. Guess what? It is what is. I don't think we have to have the assembly. I don't think we have to have a pastor. Why do we have to have a church service in order and this and that? Because it's in the Bible. Because it's in the Bible. Show me in the Bible where Paul, where Peter, where John, where all the apostles started churches and we're like, you know what? In a hundred years, though, when this fizzles out, don't try. Make sure you tell people in a hundred years, just give it up. Don't worry about it. You know, because God's going to basically give people access to free Bibles and, you know, you can buy the Bible at the dollar store and just read it and live your life however you want to do it. I mean, that's the attitude I see today in a lot of people that call themselves Christians and say that they're saved. Just, oh, you just do whatever you want, right? We don't need church. We don't need church. We don't need any of this. God doesn't respect the church. That's blasphemy. That's not okay. It violates every page of this book. Every page. A hundred percent of the words of this book. That violates it all. I don't like that attitude. I will continue to fight against that attitude. God has ordained the church to display the manifold wisdom of him, which he has given us. And it changes year to year. The wisdom that we have to draw out of the Bible today to cope with today's society is different than it was back in the 50s, isn't it? It's different than it was back in the 1800s. But oh no, we need to go back to how they did things in the 1700s and the 1800s. Hey, shut your mouth. Times are different. I don't live in 1776. We live in 2022, and it's weird, really weird. And trying to make sense of it sometimes is mind-boggling. So anyways, eat that. Hebrews 12, look at verse 2. We are saved for service. Verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That was set before him endured the cross. Endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. You know, it's kind of interesting. We talked a few weeks ago about how we serve a savior who went through a lot. I mean, you're not serving some savior that doesn't know what it's like to be in the flesh. He understands what it's like to be under demonic attack. He understands what it's like to be under attack from the Bible scholars and from the know-it-alls and from all these different people. He knows what it's like to have the mobs follow you for free food and free miracles. He knows all that stuff. Whatever it is you're going through, you say, well, yeah, but I've been wrong. I feel shame. Well, guess what? He felt shame too. He felt shame on that cross while people were looking at him, while they were mocking him, spitting on him, and saying the most filthy, vile things. And he didn't quit. He didn't hop off the cross and go, you guys ain't worth it, right? We're not worth it, but he still went through with it, didn't he? And we are to meditate upon what he did on that cross. And that should drive us to, you know what, say, you know what? This stuff that they got written down on the sidewalk out here, all the little chalk statements, right? I love it. I'll eat it up all day long. And don't bother me. Don't bother you. It just proves our point that they're dogs. They're vile. They're disgusting. That the Bible's true. It's a testimony to everything that we've been saying is 100% fact and reality. Any normal person with a conscience who walks by these sidewalks out here is gonna be like, what the heck? Like, what? I mean, like, what in the world? Whose side do they want to be on? You know they're gonna side with the temple of Satan? You know, the Boise chapter of Satan. I mean, get out of here. Thanks for showing your true colors. So look at verse number three. It says, for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Lest you be weary, don't miss this, lest you be weary and faint in your minds. Look, this stuff can get to people though. It can. It can wear people down. It can hurt people. I have seen it. And this is why I'm getting so mad. Because it ain't gonna happen here. We're gonna make sure that we understand that Jesus went through that as well. He went through the mockery. He went through all of it. He's from everlasting. He watched. Think about this. From heaven, he watched and he knows what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah before he even came down to see it. He heard the cries. He heard the petitions of the young that were being abused there. He knows all of that stuff. He gets it. He understands. And if he understands and we can look to him, we can say, you know what? It's really not that bad, is it? We can keep marching on. We can keep preaching the word. We can keep going forward. One more time. Verse three. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. I mean, all you're pretty much reading, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is just Jesus just roasting these guys. Just completely turning their arguments upside down, inside out, and just completely teaching them their own following. Right? That's the position we need to take. But we need to consider him and what he did on the cross. And just sit down and read the crucifixion and meditate on it. When you're down and out, look, I'm telling you, go to the gospels, crack open the crucifixion, and read about what they did to Jesus. Read about how Pilate and Herod passed him back and forth and became friends the same day. And understand, hey, that's who we serve. And he defeated them all. Because those people are roasting in hell right now. They are under his feet. And that's our savior. That's the one that we serve. So we have no need to faith in our minds. You know, I was reminded of this story today. Several years ago, during Hurricane Katrina, I was stationed in New Orleans, Louisiana. And there was a period where I had to send my family back to Washington. And so I was just there by myself for several months. And I was going to church. And this guy came in. And he was like, hey, I don't think I've met you. And I was like, yeah, I've been coming here for like a couple years or whatever year, something like that. And I was like, what about you? How'd you hear about this church? And he's just like, oh, I used to come here before 9-11. I was like, oh, just back in town visiting? He's like, no, I never left. I was like, OK, might as well pour it on. And he's like, I got offended after 9-11. He's like, I just could not understand why God would allow that to happen. He's like, I'm not going to lie to you. I got mad at God. And I left. And I quit. You know what he said? He said, I fainted in my mind. And I was like, wow. And then he said this, and I'll never forget it. He said, my life's been hell the last five years. My life has been hell. And I've been trying to figure out why. He's like, I figured God was just angry at me and I was just on my way to hell. Because this guy wasn't really versed in the Bible. I mean, he got saved there. And this church was like big time against for penny or sins. They did not play around. They made sure you understood that. And he was like, so it's weird because I know I'm saved, but I have this anger at God. He's like, I've literally fainted in my mind. He's like, and then I was reading, I was listening to the pastor on the radio and I realized I'm being chastened because I fainted in my mind. And he's got more for me. And I was like, well, great. Well, welcome to church. And looking back, I'm like, not sure because they didn't have like soul winning anymore. I wasn't sure how that was going to work, but whatever, you know. I thought that was interesting. But anyways, if that guy, just take that guy. If he would have, you know, maybe meditated on the crucifixion, meditated on what Christ did, thought about knowing the hardships that they went through. Look, these guys went through worse things than watching 9-11 happen on TV. Way worse things. I mean, these prophets were sawn in half. They were tortured in ways we can't even imagine because we're not reprobating. You know, I mean, think about that here. It's all worse than 9-11. You know, whatever, we got to move on. Look at verse number four. Look at this. Look at this. It says, ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. So he's saying, hey, understand, you don't have it as bad as the one who saved us did. So we need to look again, point to him, verse five, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. So what is he doing here? He's leading up to talking about the subject of chastisement, okay? So you really have a couple options as a believer. You can work on your faith and say, you know what, I'm going to be like these guys that were mentioned in chapter number 11, or I can just be a snot-nosed little punk that's getting offended at every little thing, and guess what? If you're saved, the hammer's coming down. It's what it is, okay? And he's getting ready to drop that ball here. Verse five, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. And then he says this, my son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor fate when thou are rebuked of him. Verse six, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Keep your place there, but go to Proverbs chapter number three. Proverbs chapter number three. So what does it mean to chasten? It means to correct behavior, okay? Why would God want to correct our behavior? Furthermore, hey, if this was just a free-for-all, you just get saved, you just roll out of bed, oh, I'm saved. Or, oh, I cracked open the Bible, I read it, and I realized salvation's by grace and faith, and I'm saved. And then that's it. That's just the end of your life. You're just, okay, well, I can just sail all my life, try as hard as I can to really juggle between sin and the weight, and that's the real battle. If that's the case, why would we ever need chastening? Well, it don't make any sense. Chasing is to correct behavior. It's because we are saved unto service. God wants us to serve him. He wants us as a wise people to be the beacon of light unto this world. That is why. That is our purpose here. We are saved unto good works. We, believers, are his workmanship. He is working on us. He has given us the tools. He has given you the Holy Spirit. He's given you everything that you need to display wisdom and to set yourself apart from the world, which is a huge testimony against the wickedness, against the world. But here's the thing. When people say, nah, it ain't about all that, to each his own. All that kind of crap makes people paranoid. When people develop that attitude, there's two things. Either you're not saved or you're getting punished. And I hear people say all the time, well, this isn't a punitive type thing. Really? Then what is it? I mean, in a sense it's loving because it's loving for us to correct our children, right? But hey, our kids aren't like, wow, this is really love. Like, this is joyous. No, it's painful. It may not be punitive in that sense, but it is painful. It's unnecessary pain is what I'm talking about here, okay? So again, he starts to say, hey, Hebrews, you guys forgot. You forgot the exhortation that was given unto you. Proverbs chapter three, look at what this says. Look at verse one. My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. Don't miss this. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add unto thee. Verse three, let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thine heart so that thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Notice he doesn't say in the sight of God and just the saved, right? But God and man. Why would he say that? Why does this proverb read the way that it does? Because God's people were called to be a light to the world. They're supposed to look at us and be like, why aren't you going down to the bars all the time? How come you're not acting like all these other heathens? What's different about you? How we live our lives should match the message that we preach. Seriously, that's the whole point here. We are called to be different. I see videos all the time, like recommended video, why so and so likes Islam over Christianity. There's all kinds of videos like that. Why so and so likes Buddhism over Christianity. And this has been around for a long time. It's because we live in a world today where the majority of people still call themselves Christian by default. Well, at least in this country. And that number's even shrinking. And the problem with that is it's not true because most people in this nation are not even saved. Most people who call themselves Christians are not even saved. Most people who call themselves Christians and go to church have never even read the Bible for themselves front to back. Most people that are saved, honestly born again, have never read the Bible. Some of them haven't had time yet, but others just choose not to. And that's a problem. That's a problem for this world because if the salt loses its savor, what happens? What's it good for? To be trampled, trodden under the foot of men, to be discarded. Right? God's not going to eat. Look, why do you think God killed Ananias and Sapphira at the start of the church, the start of the New Testament church it's bringing up? Yeah, they lost that savor big time. And we're going to talk about that here in a few moments. God looked down and said, I'm not going to be able to use this. This is completely the opposite of displaying the manifold wisdom of God, lying to the Holy Ghost. And so he said, hey, there's no light left here. There's nothing that can be profitable of this. I'm taking you home. And by that action, we're left with a warning, which should produce fear in the hearts of believers to drive us to act like no one. But anyways, let's move on here. Verse five, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Right? You can see faith written all throughout that verse. Look at six, says in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Verse nine, honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase. Look at verse 10. It says, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Now it's kind of interesting how he says this. We all know what this means here, right? He says this and what is the very next concept that he begins to teach? Verse 11, yep. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord. Right? Because most people have a hard time with that, with giving to the Lord, giving their time, giving their money, giving whatever. A lot of people go through that way. It's a struggle. It's hard because we look at our lives and we're like, man, I can't afford to pay this. I can't afford to not work overtime on Sunday morning. I can't afford not to do this. And the next thing you know, you're not serving God the way he wants to. And so God knows that. And so when you're reading this passage, the very next thing it leads to is chastening, right? My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be wary of his correction. Verse 12, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth even as a father of the son in whom he delighteth. Right? We all correct our children because we want them to go on the correct path. Well, him being righteous and a just holy God, he's gonna do that to us. That's just the way it is. That's the way that it works. Now go back to Hebrews chapter number 12. Look at verse seven. It says this, Hebrews chapter 12, verse number seven, it says, if ye endure chastening. Okay? Because not everybody who says they're Christian gets chastened. Right? If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Right? I mean, you kind of see that in the world today. I've been to people's homes, I've done jobs for people where you can tell that's what goes on there. You know, where the kids are literally 1,000% running that house. And the parents are like laughing it up, think it's funny. You know? But what happens to those types of people when they grow older? They become like Hunter Biden. Right? You put them in a detox facility and he's like, oh, I'm just going to light up some crack. You know? I mean, that kind of attitude, that's how these people are made that way. Because they grew up with parents that did not chasten them. Well, you need to understand that the Lord, he's not like that. He's perfect. He's going to chasten us. All of us. Because we all make mistakes. We all stray from the past. So, verse seven, if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Rhetorical question. Verse eight, but if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons? You say, oh, you're saying cuss words. I'm not saying cuss words. It's in the Bible. Right? Because what's a bastard? Somebody without father. See? Okay, so somebody comes in here and you know they're not saved. They're, you know, but they're saying I'm a Christian. Oh, I got saved in seminary and I repented of all my sins. And that's how I know that I'm saved because I don't sin anymore. You're a bastard. You're a liar. Well, I don't get any chasing. Nothing bad ever happens to me because I love everything and everyone and everybody. Well, you're a bastard. Okay? That's what you are. You're lying because what does verse eight say? But if ye be without chastisement. So somebody comes up to you and like, oh, yeah, nothing happened to me for what I did. Nothing happened to me since you saw me last five years ago. What does that mean? You're a bastard or you're lying. Take your pick. Tell them, say, oh, you must be real proud of that. So either you're a bastard or you're a liar. Which one is it? Admit it. Tell me right now, which one are you? Because my book says all are partakers. Do I need to stand up here and preach the rest of the night about why we need to go to church? Verse nine, Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits? And don't miss this. It's going to come into play later. Live. Uh-oh. He's talking to believers here primarily. We're always going to be alive from the new man. What does that mean? Did Ananias and Sapphira keep living? No. Think about that for a second. Look at verse 10. It says this. For they, verily for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure. Right? He's not saying like, yeah, they got their kicks on you. They just love going ham on them. No, it's because, you know, a father should take pleasure in correcting their children. Like, hey, this is good for you. I hate to do it, but I know it's necessary. You need this so that it doesn't come back to bite me later in life. Right? Because like every week, people are like, how many kids do you have? Oh, you know, three. Oh, what are their ages? Oh, they're all teenagers, you know, and one-on-one's 18. Oh, you got to be pulling your hair out. Is that why your hair's gray? Is that why your hair's all white? It's like, no. They're fine. Because when they were little, I did correct them, like quickly, harshly sometimes. But we'll talk about that later. Verse 10, one more time. For they, verily for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure. But he, for our profit, okay, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his what? Holiness. Understand what is going on here. For our profit, our God corrects us. Now, does he come down here and get in your face like a drill instructor? No, he doesn't do that. Right? But he sets things up in your life to get your attention. Right? And sets little warning shots off. Like, oh, why won't my car start? Or things like that. And it's different for everyone. And only you know, honestly. You know what you're doing. You know when you're being chastened. We know in our hearts when these types of things are going on. But we need to understand it is for our profit. I believe my dad living with us in the state that he was in for two and a half years was for my profit. I was not the best child in the world when I was a kid. I wasn't the worst, but I definitely wasn't the best. You know, that could be some kind of correction or some kind of chastening going on there. But either way, I'm stronger now going through that. And so, am I going to just get mad at God? I can't believe you let me go through that, God. No, it's over. It's done with. We've moved on. Now we've got a different fight. You know, it is what it is. You know? But understand, the chastening, the corrections for our profit keep your place or go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 11. We're getting close to being done. 1 Corinthians chapter number 11. But anyways, the goals for our profit. It's so that we might be partakers of his holiness, his sanctification. Okay? And guess what? Sometimes, that's going to produce sermons that cause paranoia. Okay? We have to preach sermons. You're going to see this in a couple weeks when we go through the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus starts talking about anger. He starts talking about lust. He starts talking about things, the secret things that go on inside of all of our minds. And you and me are going to get paranoid. Because the Bible reads the thoughts and intents of the heart. There's no way around that. Sorry to keep bringing it up, but apparently it's a problem for some people. And because some people just can't understand that, now they're out of the will of God. And it's my fault. I'm the unkind one. I'm the jerk. I'm the one causing pain. Look, you ever heard Pastor Jimenez preach? Has he not been here like three times since this church first started? Go to his YouTube channel and show me a sermon that does not make you somewhat paranoid. Go to Pastor Anderson's channel if you can find it. He's going to preach some things that make you paranoid. Go to Pastor Mejia's channel. He's going to preach some things that make you paranoid. Why? Because it's the word of God. It's designed to correct us. Sometimes the chastening comes in the form of a sermon. Like apparently I said some stuff this morning that got somebody pretty upset. And I had no idea. Do you think, I mean, do you think that I'd like write these sermons like two seconds before I get up here? Like no, I had no idea. I don't really care because I'm called to be in season and out of season if it offends you. It's pretty big. No snowflakes. No. God can't use snowflakes because they melt under pressure. They melt under heat. You know when the heat goes up, right, guess what? They start spreading out and start slowing down, whittling away. They're done. Anyways, so again back to the subject here. But for our prophet that we might be partakers of his holiness. God corrects us. Okay, let's take a look at this here. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we're gonna read here in verse number 26. So I mean look, Paul for chapter after chapter after chapter, you know he's correcting through the word of God the behavior of the Corinthian church. These people were out to launch on a lot of things and they were abusing the Lord's Supper. Okay. Now this is gonna tie into chastening here. Let's take a look at verse 26. It says this. So Paul says, Hey, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Okay. Talking about what we call communion, which we take once a year here. Don't have time to get into that. He's not talking about just some ordinary meal at church. He's not saying don't have potlucks. Don't, you know, none of that stuff. Don't have donuts. That's not the application. Okay. He's talking about the Lord's Supper, the purpose, and the manner in which it is to be done. Verse 27, he says this, wherefore. So again, because when you do the Lord's Supper, you show the Lord's death till he comes. So because of that, so he says wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. Okay. Stop right there. He's not saying, you know, if you take communion and you sin today, well, guess what? You could possibly die. That's not what he's saying. He's talking about the manner in which the meal is being taken. Okay. Because they were abusing it. The situation was, they were like, oh yeah, we heard, you know, we got the Lord's Supper going on. They got all the bread. They got the juice and everything. People were coming in and just being like, oh, I'm first in line for the bread. Let me get two loaves. They were just gobbling the stuff up. And so people were coming in like, what's going on here? Like, this is just a free-for-all? Supper. And if you mock God's Supper, you're mocking him. It's not something he's going to put up with. So look at the consequences. He says this, but let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. So examine yourself. Do you understand what you're doing? Do you understand the purpose of this ritual that we do? That's what he's saying. Verse 29, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. And then people see that word damnation and they're like, oh, well, going to hell. No, damnation means judgment. Sometimes it's referring to hell. Other times in the Bible, and I showed you this a few months ago, it doesn't mean that all the time, okay? He's talking to believers, people that are saved. You say, prove it, I will. Verse 30, for this cause. Now here are the stages of chasing. Here is a perfect example. For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. Look, Paul only uses that word sleep to describe people that are saved that have passed away, okay? He doesn't look at the heathen world and say, oh, they're asleep. No, they're dead in every sense. Dead physically and dead spiritually in hell, okay? So when you see that word there, sleep, he's referring to believers. So if you go back, keep your place that we're going to come right back to. But go back to Hebrews chapter number 12 and look at verse nine. What did we read a few moments ago? Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and what? Live. There is such a thing as sin unto death, okay? And we don't have time to really delve too deep into that because we have to get moving here. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 11 and let's read some things here. Just a couple more verses and look at this stage. So verse 30, for this cause, many are weak. For what cause? Because people were not discerning the Lord's body. They were not understanding the supper, okay? And I've heard a preach before. I've been in churches where they're like, look, if anybody in here has sinned today, you should not partake of this. You're telling me you made it all day, all day, without a foolish thought? That's impossible. Okay? So I've already hammered that home in another sermon, so I'm going to drop it right there. But he says, for this cause, many are weak, okay? Look, this is talking about a physical weakness, I believe, but it's also talking about a weakness spiritually. Who's ever seen a believer who seemed to be doing pretty well, so when you're reading the Bible, you know, having good conversations, you see them at church and they're talking about things in the Bible and then that starts, there's something going on. There's like a separation where now the conversation is not so much about the Bible. They're not able to maybe explain things as clearly as they once were. They don't really want to hang with the biblical discussions. What's that? What do we see in there? A weakness that turns into a spiritual sickness, right? I mean, when you're reading through Hebrews, what did Paul tell us about the high priest? Well, they were of infirmity, right? We have a sickness, a sin sickness, okay? So when a believer starts getting caught up into living for themselves, being under the weight of the world, just gobbling up the sins and they're not battling these things off, well, guess what? It leads to an infirmity of sin in the believer, a sickness of sorts, and it can lead to this next step in many sleep. So Paul's like, hey, you guys are scratching your heads over there in Corinth, wondering why people are just tapping out left and right, you know? And guess what? It's because the Lord is chasing you, trying to get your attention, shot across the bow, you know, a knock on the head. Hey, you home? This isn't right. This isn't right. Stop, stop, stop. And you're just like, eh, I'll quench the spirit. Nah, I'll keep quenching. Nah, I don't need that. I don't need that. Two paranoid, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm offended, whatever. Boom, you're done. Look, I had a pastor and he used to tell the story all the time and I may have told it to you before, but I'm gonna tell it to you again real quick. So same church, when I was stationed in Louisiana. This was a great church, you know? And the pastor used to tell the story about another Baptist church where they would preach for each other once in a while, so on and so forth. It got to a point where the guy started acting weird. He just started, you know, not really wanting to talk about the gospel, not wanting to talk about the Bible, and just acting strange, not wanting to fellowship as much. He said, eh, something's going on with him. Whatever, I'll just leave him to his own devices. Whatever, okay? Turns out this guy was seen as secretary. Well, as you know, you know, a lot of these Baptist churches, they have a thing called deacon boards and they're in charge of this and, you know, wife finds out about it and she's distraught. She's upset. She confronts the husband. Husband says, you know what, I'm not going to divorce you because that's against the Bible, but I'm not going to stop seeing her. So she goes to the deacons and they're like, okay, well, we'll try to do something about this. They go to the pastor. They come up with an agreement. They all get new cars and they're like, well, we talked to him about it. We told him not to brag about it and, you know, we'll see what happens, okay? This guy ate healthy. This guy was like, you know, I'm not making fun of health nuts. That kind of guy. Worked out at the gym. Did not live an unhealthy life. You know, just a very active, healthy type person. Okay? He was walking out of someone's home whom he went to visit, who had visited his church. And this guy looked back and dropped dead. Dead on the lawn. Just boom, dead. Autopsy report said his heart stopped and everybody, his wife was like, was it a heart attack? That's so weird. Maybe he was taking some supplements or something that causes a heart attack. The doctor said it wasn't a heart attack. They're like, well, his heart stopped. What was it? They said his heart stopped. That's all we know. There was no disease, no cancer, no anything like that. His heart just stopped. How do you explain that? Well, you understand the word of God. There's a thing called sin unto death and I have other stories, but time would fail me to tell them to you, okay? This is a real thing. You know, oh, you're trying to trick us. You're trying to scare us into living for God so you can get rich. Yeah, right. I work myself. I don't need that, okay? I don't need any of that. People are like, oh, he gets his money from Tiley. We're going to have to shut him down. No, I don't. I don't. I'll just get somebody else, okay? That's ridiculous. It's absolutely stupid. There is such a thing as sin unto death. That's all I'm trying to say. This is the word of God. This is the Bible here. Go read Hebrews chapter 12 verse 9 again. Go read 1 Corinthians 11 again. In this day and age, people were dropping dead. Look, God is looking for a group of believers to display his manifold wisdom and he gets pretty upset when people keep rejecting it, keep turning it off. I don't need it. I don't want it. Why do you think some churches with the right Bible and the right gospel just get swept out of the way? Boom, just get bulldozed and they're done. Why does that happen? It's because the church doesn't understand his will. Look, he's looking at this angelic realm and saying, hey guys, this church here that I died for? Look at their wisdom. Look at what they're doing. Look at how they are a beacon of light in the world. When he can't do that, guess what? That salt is just going to get trampled. That's what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. Again, they lost that saber. They lost that light. Said, you know what? Nobody's going to know. It's not a big deal. Who's going to lie to the Holy Ghost? God said, I'm done with you. I don't think that that was the only thing that they'd ever done. They'd probably been quenching for years. I don't know. I can't prove that. It's just a guess because being in the ministry for a while, knowing myself and the things that I've done in the past, God didn't just instantly kill me. Obviously, he said, there's some hope for this guy in some capacity because I'm still here. I'm still preaching the word of God. I'm still in the Bible. I'm not trying to say if you don't do this, if you didn't read the Bible, if you're not praying for this or whatever, God's going to kill you. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying apparently there are stages and we should be aware of that. We should understand. We can't play by the rules of the world. You're saved. You're in a different family. You have a different father than the people in the world. You cannot survive in their camp. You just can't. And if someone does, they're either a bastard or they're lying. Hopefully that's clear. Go back to Hebrews. We are just about done. So Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse number 11. He says this, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous. And we all know that one, right? It doesn't seem to be joyous but grievous. But look what he says, But look what he says, Again, why? Because chastening or correction is for our profit. God wants us who are saved to succeed. He wants us to go out there and win people to Christ. He wants us to go out there and teach people truths from the Bible. That's what he wants. He wants us to live our lives in a wise way that just shouts and displays God's wisdom. Right? Everything points to him. Everything. That's the point. That's the whole idea behind chastening. Look at verse 12 real quick. He says, Wherefore, so again, because of this, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. But let it rather be healed. Okay? The whole point of today's sermon is this. Okay? Understand, we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Go meditate on Noah. Go meditate on, I don't know, David, Jephthah. You know, go pick some of the guys that weren't mentioned. You know, go pick some of the kings. Go look at Josiah and what he had to deal with and how he ended his life. You know, the tragic way his life ended. Meditate on those things. Okay? And understand the evil trinity that we're battling. We battle the principalities and powers of darkness. We battle the flesh, which is what? The sins that death so easily beset us. And then we battle the weights of the world. Right? And you got to remember those three things. You got to get that spiritual ping-pong paddle out and start knocking those things around. But it's a constant battle as long as you are on this earth. You are going to constantly be battling those three things. But don't faint. Don't be weary. Understand the cloud of witnesses. Understand their faith. Understand how these guys made it. And realize you're in Christ. Okay? You're not below them. You have the Holy Spirit. You can do this. You can be like them. And you can do great works for God. Okay? So that's the whole point up to this verse here. So we'll pick it up here later on and we will finish out the chapter. But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for these great witnesses in your word. I just pray that we would be able to draw inspiration from them. Pray you bless the fellowship after the service, Lord. And again, thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right. So for our final hymn this evening, let's turn to song number 121, Like a River Glorious. Let's go out and sing the song number 121, Like a River Glorious. On the first. Like a river glorious Is God's perfect peace Over all victorious In its bright and green sea Perfect yet it fall with Polar every day Perfect yet it grow with Deeper all the way State upon Jehovah Folks are fully blessed Timing as He promised Perfect peace at rest In and in the hall Of His blessed land Never folk can follow Never traitor stand Not a surge of worry Not a shade of care Not a blast of hurry Touch the Spirit there State upon Jehovah Folks are fully blessed Timing as He promised Perfect peace at rest On the last. Every joy or trial Fallen from above Traced upon our dial By the Son of God We may trust Him fully All for us to do May you trust Him holy Find Him holy To state upon Jehovah State upon Jehovah Folks are fully blessed Timing as He promised Perfect peace at rest Amen. Brother Kaitlin, will you close this door please? We'll take a trip as well as a trip home, and she's going to pray. We'll take a trip as well as a trip home, and she's going to pray. We'll take a trip as well as a trip home, and she'll pray. Thank you.