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Alright, we're in Exodus chapter 23, I just want to let you all know that I'm very thankful to be able to be here with you all. This is my home away from home and I'm thankful for the people of Faithful Word Baptist Church of Tempe. We have a heart for God and thank you again for starting the church, helping start the church over in El Monte. The people there are thankful for that as well and just want to say thank you for that. Exodus chapter 23 and verse number 27 says, I will send my fear before thee and will destroy all the people to whom thou shall come and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee and I will send hornets before thee which shall drive out the high vite, the Canaanite and the Hittite from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee until thou be increased and inherit the land. The title of the sermon this evening is by little and little, by little and little. And if you look at this passage of scripture, go with me if you would to verse number 20. Obviously Exodus chapter 23 has a lot of laws and ordinances, commandments that God has given to his people. But then he switches gears here in verse number 20, he tells them, behold, I send an angel referring to Jesus Christ. He says before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared and he gives them some instructions and he's basically telling them you need to follow him and if you follow him, if you obey his voice, he's going to bring you into this land. He's going to give you success. He's going to allow you to have victories over your enemies. He's going to allow you to prosper but it's all based upon whether you obey his voice or not. Now he gives them these instructions and then in verse number 29 he says, referring to the enemies, he says, I will not drive them out from before thee in one year. Now who is he referring to? Well he's referring to the Hivites and the Canaanites and the Hittites. He said I'm not going to take them out just in one year. He says that's too fast. He says lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against thee, by little and little I will drive them out from before thee. What is he saying? It's going to take a lifetime to basically overcome, have victories over these enemies, be successful and prosper. It's not something that takes place overnight. The part of the sermon that I really want to focus on is this fact of success, prosperity in the Christian life, growing, all these things take time. Things that happen little by little, by little and little. Becoming a mature Christian doesn't happen overnight. Becoming a really great soul winner does not happen overnight. Having a great marriage does not happen overnight. Assimilating to a church does not happen overnight. These things happen by little and little. And unfortunately we do live in a society, what I would call a microwave society, that we just want everything now. You know this drive through, you know, microwave mentality where we see the product but we don't want the process. We see the destination but we don't want to sacrifice, we don't want to work, we don't want to do what it takes in order to get that destination. We don't want to put in the work that's necessary to obey the voice of the Lord in order to reach that final destination as he would want us to. We just want success here and now, right? But that's not necessarily the way the Christian life works. You know a Christian life is not necessarily even determined by decades, it's just determined by a lifetime. And you can't expect to, at one point, you know, you get saved, when you first get saved, you get into a church and then you're just going to be sent out to be a pastor. Or you're just going to be the best soul winner in that church. Or you're just going to, you know, know the entire Bible right off the bat. Or you're just going to have everything intact, you're not struggling with this sin, you're just, you know, you don't have these bad habits. That thing, that's candyland, it doesn't exist. These things happen by little and little. And you know in between that little and little there's a lot of failures, there's a lot of setbacks, there's a lot of two steps forward and one step backward, there's a lot of relapses in faith. There's a lot of times when we just fail, and we don't do that which we're supposed to do, but that shouldn't deter us from continuing to go forward, we just need to have the mentality this thing comes by little and little, okay? Go with me if you would to Proverbs chapter number 6, I'm going to read to you from Isaiah 28. Anything worth doing in life takes time. It takes time. You know a mushroom grows overnight, but as soon as you walk up and you kick that thing it has no root. The redwoods on the other hand take years to grow, to be strong, to be fortified. You're not going to just go up to a tree, a redwood and just knock it over, why? Because it has taken time. You think of the palm trees and how deep they're rooted into the ground, it takes time. Nothing of substance, nothing of strength is ever built overnight, okay? The Bible tells us in Isaiah 28 in verse number 9, whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Men that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast, for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. Here the Bible is telling us that certain things just come little by little. You know this should encourage us to recognize that when we first get saved and maybe some things that are preached from the pulpit are a little abrasive or maybe they seem just a little too much, you know, just hang in there for a little bit. Maybe you just need a little bit of more maturity in order to face that. You know, if you feel like, oh man, I don't know if I can take this, there's just too much going on and it just, you know, I've heard a lot of offensive things here, maybe you just need to hack it a little bit because your growth comes little by little. And maybe you're at the point right now where you can't really take it, but if you take it, you're going to get to a destination of being mature and being able to take that hard preaching, being able to take those sermons that apply to you and the life of your family, etc. The Bible tells us that these things take place by little and little. I mean, think about, think about destroying your life. That doesn't happen overnight. That happens by little and little. You know, the Bible tells us, take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines for our vines have tender grapes. How do you wreck your marriage by little and little? By loving your wife less than you loved her last year? By respecting your husband less today than you respected him last week? You know, by not reading your Bible enough today as you used to read it before? How do you wreck your marriage? Well, by not spending as much time as you used to together, just doing it little by little. You know, a lot of times we think, oh man, this person, they fell into sin or they did wrong. No, actually, they failed like a long time ago. Often someone, when you see someone fall into sin, quote unquote, they already fell into their heart months prior. They are already imagining those things in their hearts months prior to them falling. Why? Because sin takes place little by little. Destroying your life takes place by little and little. It comes from years of bad habits, years of tolerating sin, years of desensitizing yourself to that thing that's going to destroy your life. Wrecking your marriage happens by little and little. How do you even lose knowledge of the Bible? Little by little. You stop reading the Bible as much as you should. And I've met a lot of pastors, who in time passed, they knew a whole lot of Bible. And it seems that within recent years, they don't know as much as they used to know. Why is that? Because they felt like they got to a point where they just arrived, they know all scriptures, they know all the doctrines. So what do they do? They put the Bible aside and start picking up books about the Bible. And don't do that, amen? They start picking up books about the Bible and what happens? Knowledge begins to be taken away from them because they're no longer esteeming the words of his mouth. They're no longer reading the word of God. They're no longer approaching the Bible by saying, Open down mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. So therefore they begin to lose knowledge little by little. That takes place over a span of years. How do you develop bad habits? By little and little. Look at Proverbs chapter 6 says in verse number 10. Get a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth, and thy want as an armed man. Just a little sleep, just a little slumber, a little bad habits here, a little bad habits there, a little toleration of this sin here, a little toleration there. At the end of 10 years, your life is destroyed because of your bad habits. It happens by little, a little compromise here, a little compromise there, and guess what? At the end of your life, you will have a failed life. Why? Because these things take place in increments by little and little. Go to James chapter 3 if you would. James chapter 3. Don't undermine the little things. Don't undermine the increments of minutes that we have in our day and the hours and the days that make up the months and the months that make up the years because that's what it takes. That's what we have to utilize in order to be successful in life. It's the little things that matter. Look at verse number 1, it says, My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships which though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell. The Bible says even something as small as controlling your tongue on a daily basis is important for success. Why is that? Because your tongue can get you in a lot of trouble. Your tongue can get you in a lot of trouble in your marriage. Your tongue can really just discourage and provoke your children. Your tongue can offend your brethren. And obviously today we talked about being triggered and there's sometimes we just can't do anything about people being triggered, but there's times that we can. You know what? Sometimes we say things when we're not supposed to say them and you know you're not supposed to say them, but you say them anyway. And that gets you into a lot of trouble. You know, that is a character quality that's important. Why? Because the Bible says that for many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man. It's a complete man. Now you say, man, I have trouble controlling my tongue. Then work on it by little and little. You see, the discouraging thing could be this is, well, I can't do it so I'm just going to throw out my hands and I'm not going to be able to do it. The attitude we need to have is we need to do this little by little. You can't expect to build a house overnight. It takes one brick at a time to build it. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you accomplish anything? It's one task at a time. If you look at a project, you know, maybe you're at work or at your job, you have some specific project that you're working on. If you look at the entire project, that can be discouraging, but if you break it down into little tasks, you know, at that point it becomes palatable. At that point, it actually seems easy to do. And that's how the Christian life is. It's just a little here and a little there. Not trying to do everything all at once, just little by little. Go with me if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter number five. A little character flaw can spoil the vine of success. Hey, how about this? How do you tear down a church by little and little? How is a church destroyed by little and little? You know, how is a church just brought down to ruins by little and little? What do you mean by that? Just a little leaven. Right? Look at 1 Corinthians 5 or 6. Your glory is not good, knowing not that a little leaven, leaven at the whole lump, purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Hey, just tolerating just a little bit of sin can destroy the entire church. You know, often, it's not the infiltrator that can destroy our church because when an infiltrator is exposed, what does it do? It strengthens our churches, right? It brings us, it gives us unity, it gives us strength. But you know what? When sin is taking place in the church and it's tolerated, that will definitely destroy a church. And I've seen it happen over and over and over again where they just allow a little fornication into their church, they tolerate just a little divorce in their church, they tolerate just a little drunkenness and a little railing, whatever it may be, and what happens? That church is destroyed. The leadership is destroyed and you know what takes place? The next generation is destroyed. Why? Because that next generation is testifying, can see of the toleration of sin that's taking place in those churches and they grew up thinking it's a-okay. They grew up wanting to go to church, to a church that what? That just tolerates sin over and over again. Why? Because 10 years, 20 years ago, they allowed just a little leaven. And that little leavened up the whole lump, the Bible says. You know, the church is not just destroyed overnight. What happens? It takes place little by little, okay? A little lack of character, a little sin. But on the same token, how do you have a successful marriage? Well, you have it just doing the little things consistently, every single day. How do you restore a broken marriage? You do it by little and little. You know, don't throw up your hands and just give up and it's just hopeless. You know, we just, it's just not the way it used to be. You know, the way you fix a broken marriage is just by little and little. You know, don't look at it over a span of a year, just take care of today. Sometimes something can seem so insurmountable simply for the fact that we just, well, you know, we have so much going on and so many problems. How about you just fix one problem today? That's a good idea. How about you just take care of one little thing today? What about tomorrow? Well, then tomorrow you can take care of another little thing. And then the same thing after that, the week after that. By little and little. That's how you fix a broken marriage. How do you build a godly family by little and little? You know, and look, don't try to build a godly family so people can look at you and say, wow, that's a godly family. You know, just to keep up with the spiritual Joneses, so to speak. Build a spiritual family because that's what honors God. Build a spiritual family for the sake of your children, for the sake of your wife. But how do you do that by little and little? You know, doing that which is consistent every single day by little and little. How do you become a great soul winner? By little and little. You know, you don't become a great soul winner overnight. It happens over a lifetime. Look, I'm still working on soul winning. I like to go soul winning with different people in our church so I can learn something. Well, aren't you the evangelist there? Aren't you just already supposed to be like the best soul winner there? Not necessarily. You know, I have 12 years of experience of soul winning, but I'm not going to come to my people with an attitude that I'm better than them. I'm going to come to them with an attitude to understand every man is my teacher. I can learn something from everyone, right? And you become a great soul winner by little and little and I have not arrived. I have not yet apprehended, but to become a great soul winner, I need to recognize that I have not arrived and it happens by little and little. Memorizing a little verse here, memorizing verses there, making sure that you go out at this time and at that time and your scheduled time by little and little. How do you learn the Bible? By little and little? Well, you know, I just got saved and I just want to make sure that I know all the deepest doctrines of end times. I want to make sure I get all the timelines in my mind. Why don't you just focus on reading the entire Bible? Why don't you just focus on just getting through the Bible this year? Well, I just, I saw this one little, you know, thing in the Bible and I just, you know, yeah, that's good and everything, but why don't you just practice on just reading the entire Bible this year? I already did that. Okay, why don't you practice it again? How do you increase your Bible knowledge? By little and little. Well, I just want to be able to preach these super profound messages. Well, why don't you just master the basics first? Because the basics are the most important aspect of the Bible. That's our foundation. How do you learn the Bible? By little and little. Reading the Bible a little here, a little there, learning more each day. How do you build a church? By little and little. You don't build it by bringing a stinking rock band into the church, you know, a choir of hoochie mamas with mini skirts to attract the masses. You don't bait them with carnality. You build the church the way God wants you to build a church and ultimately He said, I will build my church. You know, you do it by preaching the Bible, just doing regular soul winning, door to door and letting that thing grow and just honoring God by little and little. You know, it's funny. When we started the church in Omani, a lot of people thought that like Pastor Anderson and I had been planning for years, or no, for months. You know, when we started that church, it was just like, it did happen like overnight, I'll be honest with you, like literally I talked to him over the phone and we had just gotten kicked out of our church and I remember like he, one thing led to another and he basically said, you haven't wanted to start a church in L.A. for a long time, how'd you like to be a part of that? I said, I would love to. He said, oh great, we're starting next week. I'm sorry? You know, say that one more time. Yeah, this conversation was on Monday, that Sunday was going to be the first service. And he said the first soul winning event on Thursday. So I got kicked out on Sunday and I was preaching on the following Sunday. And I said, sounds good. You know, do we have a building? He's like, nope. Okay, I'm just assuming he's just going to figure it out or something. And he said, all right, great, well, you know, I'll make a video and I'll announce the starting of the church and I'll just say, you know, Brother Mejia will be the boots on the ground. I said, great. So he uploaded the video and that was on Tuesday and all hell broke loose. All hell broke loose. Pastors were calling my old pastor, emails and text messages, do you know that your guy is teaming up with Steven Anderson to start the church? People started messaging me. You were planning this the whole time? You guys were in cahoots and you guys were planning this? I told him, I was like, actually, he just decided yesterday to do it. Like, no, he didn't. You guys have been planning this for months. And he's just like, no, I promise you, it's as shocked to me as it is to you. But when I think about it, you know, though it was kind of like a last minute thing, you know, the start of our church was something that took place over a span of many years. Why is that? Well, because when I met Pastor Anderson, it was, I don't know, five years ago, almost six years ago. And we met during the time, we didn't mean to plan out a church plan in L.A. five years later. So it's not like, hey, you know, five years, don't forget, you know, put it on your calendar. We're going to blow everyone away. Everyone's going to get triggered, you know. We met under very difficult circumstances. I was going through a very difficult time in my life. The Andersons were going through also a very difficult time in their life. We had no idea what that meeting was for. But you know what? It was during that process of pain, of affliction, of defrauding, of a lot of pain and just sorrow that was taking place in our lives that God was preparing the church. He was preparing the both of us for the inception of this church. Now for us, it was just like happened last minute, but not for God. God planned that out, you know, five years ago when we first met. And I remember when he first came into our church, he was wearing a red flannel. And Paul Windburger had gone to our church, sorry to call you out, Paul, but he was a member of our church for a while. And I remember Pastor Anderson came and I saw him and I said, hey, and I didn't really know too much about him, and I said, I know you, and he says, Pastor Steven Anderson, nice to meet you. I said, oh yeah, I know you. I said, Paul Windburger used to come to our church. And he says, yeah, he's the one that told me about this church. And to be honest with you, we hit it off great, had a good time, we kept in contact over the years after that. Years of not knowing that this was going to happen. Years of not knowing what was going to take place five years later. But you know what, by little and little, God was preparing the both of us for this. He said, why, so you can become the pastor? No, it's more like so people can be saved in that area. So people can have a local New Testament church to go to. So people can have a Bible-believing Baptist church, King James only, sowing church where people can go. And look, the process is not even done yet. There's still people over the next few decades that are going to be reached. They're going to be saved because of that church there. And thank God for that. But that is not something, though, in our minds that we thought happened overnight. It's actually something that took place by little and little. And you would have took a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow, a lot of affliction, but it was all worth it. By little and little. How do you defeat bad habits? By little and little. Go with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 8. This leads me into my first point. Why didn't God drive out the inhabitants of that area in one year? Because He said, I'm going to drive out those inhabitants, but I'm not going to do it in one year. Why is that? Well, number one, because the process is just as important as the destination. The process is just as important as the destination. Why? Because the process builds character in our lives. Pain is a good teacher. Afflictions are good for us. They make us tougher. And the process is extremely important in our personal lives. And the process could take seasons, it could take a year, it could take months, or it could take a lifetime. But mark it down, the process is always important. Now look at Deuteronomy chapter 8, and verse number one says, All the commandments which I command thee this day, shall ye observe to do, that ye may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And now shall I remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments, or no. Go to 1 Peter chapter 1. She says, Look, the reason I allowed you to just be in the wilderness for that long is because I wanted to prove you, I wanted to humble you. I wanted to know what was in your heart, I wanted to see if you would keep my commandments or not. You know, if there's someone in here who wants to be a pastor, you're just like, Man, I want to pastor a church, but you want to do it overnight, you're in the wrong church. You need to go to like Fannin's church. They have overnight ordinations over there, drive-through ordinations, microwave ordinations. You know, something like this takes time, even just to build these central qualities or character in a Christian's life, it takes years. And you can't get it without afflictions, you can't get it without trials, why? Because pain is often the best teacher. You know the successes aren't necessarily the ones that teach us the most? Success, what does success do? It lets us know that we're doing something right. But that's not necessarily how you learn. You learn by understanding what you're not supposed to do. You know? And when you have pain in your life, you have failures in your life, it humbles you, it causes you to seek the face of God, it causes you to pray more, it causes you to read the Bible more, and it causes you not to think that you're all that and a bag of chips. Because when you go through trials in your life, you recognize, I'm not all that I'm cracked up to be, or that I thought I was cracked up to be. And what does it do? It humbles you. You know what? That's a good place for God to start using you right there, is when you're humbled. A lot of people want to run from afflictions, they want to run from problems, really we should just face it head on, because it's good for us. We don't like humility, but humility is one of the best things for us to go through. A trial is one of the best things to go through, because of the fact that it causes us to seek God. Look at 1 Peter chapter 1, verse number 6. Wherein he greatly rejoiced, though not for a season, if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith be much more precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. We live in a society today that just runs from trials. They run from problems, from like, you know, house to house, from city to city, from bad habit to bad habit, because they just don't want to face their problems. And here's the thing, here's the problem with problems. A problem is not necessarily found at a location, a problem is found within you. So wherever you go, you bring your problems with you. You know, wherever you go, your character follows you. Wherever you go, your mentality and your perception of life follows you. Or I think if I just go here, it's just all these things will go away. No, because guess what's there once you arrive, you. Your biggest problem, which is you, is going to meet you there. So here's a way that can, here's something that can help you out. Face you, and don't worry about the location. And by the way, stop blaming everyone for how you perceive things. Stop blaming everyone for the character that you don't have. Stop having this victim mentality type Christianity that just blames everyone but yourself. Just take responsibility. Take responsibility, I'm lazy, I complain too much, I'm not referencing my husband enough, I'm not loving my wife enough, I'm just X, Y, and Z. Just fess up and take care of it. So you can get through the process that ultimately will prepare you for the destination. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. You see, the lessons we learn from the process prepares for that destination. And the process is necessary to have an honorable destination. I mean, just think of this, you know, when we first got saved, God didn't take us home. It wasn't like we got saved and then we just went to heaven, right? We're here, and there's a work for us to do, occupy till I come, there's commandments for us to keep. But here's the thing is, salvation is free, but the reward that comes when we get to heaven is not. You know, salvation is completely free, but the inheritance that we receive, the reward that we get, that better resurrection is not free. Guess what that takes? Suffering. Look at Hebrews 13 verse 35 says, women received their dead race to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, they moreover of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented. I mean, we complain when we stub our toe. We complain when we have like an ingrown toenail. This is something worse. We think we're going through trials when we have a flu or a cold. That's not a trial. Of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Why? So they could obtain a better resurrection. Because to them, obviously, just like unto us, salvation is free, but to obtain a better resurrection is not free. What does that require? A very hard and arduous, afflicted process. And the process is important. We always want that destination, don't we? I can't wait until I do this X, Y, and Z until I can get to this destination. You know, I can't wait until I do this so I can get to this point or finish this goal. But we often forget that the process we go through in order to get to that point is probably more important even than the destination itself at times. At my old church, that's where I learned how to edit film on Premiere Pro. And I remember, like, the way I learned was by giving myself a project. And to be quite honest with you, the best way for me to learn is by just giving myself a project. And I learned more, I was more happy with the fact that I learned things than when I actually finished the final product. So when I finished the final product, I really wasn't happy with it. Why? Because through the process I learned a lot. And it taught me something for the future. And that's kind of how life is, isn't it? You know, we work on our bad habits, we work on being more spiritual, we work on gaining character. But you know what? It's the process that we go through that really helps us the most through that time. And a lot of people want to run from that process, we ought not to run from that process. Go to Romans chapter number 8. Romans chapter 8, verse 16. It says, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. So here it says that we're heirs of God, if we're children, how are we children? Because we're saved, but as many as we see them, to them give you power to become the sons of God, even unto them to believe on his name. But it says here that we can be joint heirs with Christ, but what does that require? Suffering. And what is that? A lifelong process of just going through afflictions and trials. You know, there's a lot of people out there who are saved and they'll never step foot in a church, they'll never pick up a Bible to read it, they'll never experience persecutions or trials. And guess what? They'll go to heaven, amen? But that's all they're gonna get. And look, that's the best part. But you know what? If we can get something more than that, the rewards, I want that, but that's gonna require suffering, it's gonna require a process of affliction. Go with me, if you would, to Proverbs chapter six. Salvation is free, but to rule and reign with Christ requires work. The redemption of our body is free. You know, when we get saved, the Bible tells us that those who trusted in Christ, that we received the earnest of our inheritance, which is the Holy Spirit who sealed within us until the day of redemption. And the Bible tells us that we're gonna be redeemed, we're gonna be resurrected one day. But in order to obtain that better resurrection, that actually requires something else, a lot of difficulty, trials, and overcoming those things. So why didn't God drive out the inhabitants in one year? Well, simply for the fact that there is a process that needed to take place in order to prepare them for that land, in order to prepare them for the wars ahead. You know, because there's gonna be a lot of fighting in those lands. But if they were not preparing for those things, you know, when they got to that land, they could easily get discouraged, et cetera. But number two, why didn't God drive out the inhabitants in one year? Because if they were driven out in one year, they'd become prideful. You see, what if God just gave you everything that you wanted? You'd be a spoiled little brat. A spoiled little brat. But not only that, after a while, you start thinking that it's you who got you those things. You start thinking, you know, because of my talent, because of my gifts, because of my righteousness, because of my ability, because of my this and that, I'm the one who got me here. Well, that's probably why God doesn't give you those things right away. Why? Because He knows that in our hearts, we can become lifted up with pride. And the Bible says in Proverbs 6, verse 16, these six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto them, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. We need to make sure that we understand that anything we have that's good in this life, every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above, comes from above from the Father of lights. And one of the reasons that God doesn't give you what you want, or doesn't give you what you need right away, is because it could cause you to be lifted up with pride. You know, what if like right when we got saved, we just had the entire, all the knowledge of the Bible just right off the bat. You wouldn't have to even work for it anymore. You'd become prideful. You'd become puffed up. I mean, I would love to just like, when I get saved, just osmosis the Bible into my brain. But that would remove a lot of opportunities for me to grow in my character, to actually make time to read the Bible, to study the Bible, to memorize the Bible, to read the parts that are maybe a little less interesting than others, to have the character, to just read the Bible, to study, to show myself, approve them to God, to be a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That would remove those opportunities. But not only that, I'd just become prideful. You know, and probably God doesn't endow you with all the wisdom of the Bible right when you get saved, because he knows that you'll just get prideful. How do we learn the Bible? Just little by little. And you know what I realize is that the more I learn the Bible, the more I realize that I don't know. The more I read the Bible, the deeper I get into the Bible, the more I realize I don't really know as much as I thought I knew the Bible. Why? Because the Bible's deep. The Bible's profound. The Bible's inexhaustible. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 9. Deuteronomy chapter 9. I wanted to hear a bombastic message, then listen to the Sunday morning sermon. That was pretty bombastic, but tonight we're just talking about something as simple as by little and little. It's an important quality, and it's an important understanding. It's an important perspective to have that we need to recognize, hey, things don't come overnight. We need to work for them. Character doesn't come overnight. We need to work for it. Look at Deuteronomy 9 and verse number 3. It says, understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee. As a consuming fire, he shall destroy them. He shall bring them down before thy face. So shall thou drive them out and destroy them quickly as the Lord hath said unto thee. Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me into possess this land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness or for thy uprightness of thine heart dost thou go to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that ye may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know, when you come to this church, don't have this attitude that you're just God's gift to faithful word of the Baptist Church. You just grace this wonderful congregation with your presence now. You're like the best thing that's ever happened to this church. You know, the Lord brought you here for what? So you can see more people saved. In the midst of that, you're going to be able to fix your marriage, you're going to be able to teach your children, you're going to be able to get some Bible knowledge, you're going to get sin out of your life, it's going to be great, but for what purpose? So you can go out and see more people saved. So you can go out and be a laborer for Christ, go get more people saved so they can be added to the church and also grow in grace and in that knowledge. Don't have this mentality, well I'm just God's gift to just God's people. Well if you want to see it that way, then we should understand that whatever good thing that's in us, it's because of God and others. You know any good thing in me is because of God but it's also because of my parents, it's because of my former pastor, it's because of the people who love me, who have helped me, it's because of leaders, others who have given me their example, I have nothing to glory of. We should always reflect the praise on others because they're the ones who helped us out to get to this point. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7 says in verse 7, the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for you were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he has sworn unto you your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. So what's the second point here? Well the second point is you know God doesn't just fix all our problems overnight because of the fact that if he did, guess what? We just probably become prideful. We think that's because of our efforts, our righteousness, because of you know God's favor on our lives when at the end of the day we just need to recognize if God fixes anything within us, he has the agenda of fortifying us, maturing us so we can go out and see someone else saved. So we can go out and teach someone else, disciple someone, teach someone to live a Godly life. He wants to use us in order to help someone else. It's not so we just can consume it upon our own lust. It's not so we can flaunt our godliness to everyone else. No God matures us in order for us to help someone else. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26. For you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are. And look what it says, that no flesh should glory in his presence. You see, he's doing it because I'm so righteous. No actually he's probably using you because he knows that if he uses you, people will think that it's God. He's like, I don't know if that's insulting to me or what. I don't know if that should say amen to that or what. Yeah maybe he's using you because he knows that no one's going to give you the credit for that. But hey, thank God for that. Because then guess what? We get to be used. And shouldn't it be that our goal would be that God would get the glory? Shouldn't it be that we have the mentality that God gets the glory for everything that we do? You're like, man, what was that first point? I just got humbled. I think this is part of the process brother Mejia, I thought I was just so talented. I thought I was just so good looking, I just thought it was just God's favor on my life. No, it could be that God is using you because he knows that he can get glory from you. It may be insulting coming from me to you, but it's just at the end of the day, we both get the job done, amen? Which is what? God getting the glory. Amen to that. Hosea chapter 13, you'll have to turn there, verse number five says, I did know thee in the wilderness in the land of great drought. According to their pastures, so were they filled. They were filled and their heart was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten me. You know, that's one of the reasons it's good that we're not rich. Because if we were to get rich, our hearts would be lifted up and we would forget God. What does that mean when it says that they'll forget God, it means they'll forget to pray and ask God for his provisions. Don't forget that he's the one who's provided all good things. And one of the things that money does to people is it causes them to forget. It causes them to forget to pray, it causes them to forget to read the Bible, it causes them to forget to be humble, and it causes them to just forget that every good gift comes from God himself. Go to Exodus chapter 13. Exodus chapter 13. This is my last point, is one of the reasons God doesn't fix all our problems all in one year, so to speak, is because of the fact that there's battles that come our way. We don't gain success just by God handing it to us. It comes through victories, right? But often if you're not, you know, God understood this, that if he fixed all our problems that means that we would have to face certain battles that we're not ready for, right? Because in order for him to fix our problems, we need to face our problems and maybe there's certain issues in our life that we're not ready to face as of yet. You know, I don't know if you understand, I don't know if you realize this, but our lives are like a car. You know, once you fix one thing, there's something else that needs to be fixed. Unless you have like a brand new vehicle, like, I don't have brand new vehicles, I have this little van, and it's just like one thing after another, you know? Once you get one thing done, once you get the oil changed and, you know, this is broken, you gotta fix this, you gotta fix that, and that's kinda how our lives are. And so, you know, I can't wait till the day that I don't need a car anymore, amen? That's gonna happen over a lifetime. Just like with our personal lives, not all the problems are gonna get fixed. Why? Because we live in this sinful flesh, this flesh is corrupt, we're gonna struggle with sin for the rest of our lives, we're gonna continue to fight sin, and it's gonna take a lifetime, right? To clean up that life. And once we die, then guess what? We see the redemption of our bodies. But just because we see the redemption of our bodies at the very end and we understand that, that doesn't mean that we don't need to clean up our lives now. We need to clean up our lives now. But it takes a lifetime. And one of the reasons God doesn't just allow us to do that in one year is because people can get discouraged very easily. You know, you first get saved, you have all these issues that you're struggling with, and then you look at someone who's been in church for 20 years and they just got everything, their ducks in order, and you're just like, man, I don't have it down packed like this person does. My financial situation is not like that person, or my marriage is not as good as that person. Well, don't compare yourselves among yourselves, understand that these things take place by little and little. Don't get discouraged because of the way. Look at Exodus 13 verse 17 says, And it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, less peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. So God purposely took them a different way. Why? Because he knew if they were to face the Philistines head on, they'd get discouraged and they'd probably head back to Egypt. Aren't you thankful that God just doesn't load you with a bunch of stuff right off the bat right when you get saved? You know, that's probably why you don't understand the Bible as much as when you read it. Because there's a lot of deep stuff in the Bible that God requires of us. We learn little by little, and if we understood everything off the bat, we'd be like, ugh, I'm a failure. Man, what in the world? I can't do all this. Well, that's probably why God probably doesn't allow you to understand certain things right off the bat because you're just not ready to handle it yet. Why God doesn't just fix your marriage right away? Because he probably needs you to take your wife out on a date consistently for a while. So you can actually love your wife and enjoy her company and through that process, reach the destination of having a nice marriage. You understand what I'm saying? What I'm saying is that God doesn't just give us everything we need right off the bat because at the end of the day, we may not even be ready for that blessing as of yet. We're probably not even ready, character-wise, Bible-knowledge-wise, whatever it may be, spiritual-wise, to be able to receive that blessing. It takes years. Now let me share one of the afflictions that I have to go through to get that woman right over there. Where's she at? Now my wife is my former pastor's daughter, not the one that kicked me out. People get that mixed up sometimes. My father-in-law was the man who started the church where I came from and I married his daughter. It took me seven years to even take her out on a date. And I had to go through a grueling process. The process of courting her wasn't grueling. I don't want to... Where's she at? She's around here somewhere? But just the process that he had me go through in order to be able to marry her was very grueling. And there's times where I was just like, man, he's just over the top. You know, it's like, I can't talk to her, or I have to shoot him an email and then he'll forward it to her. I mean, I'm not joking. This is real. I'm going to write a book one day. And it was just this grueling process. And he even told me, he said, I came to him and I said, hey, I didn't go to her. I went to him and I said, I'm interested in marrying your daughter. And he said, well, no. You know? And what do you say to that? It's like, okay. And then he said, you got good taste, but I don't know you too well, and you know, you've only been saved for X amount of years. And he said, but in six months, if you still believe this, if you still want to pursue this, come talk to me. Hey, that was the green light for me. Well, that took place for like five years or something, or three years, where he just kept saying no, but if you still, you know. And during that time, I'm like, this is a grueling process. But looking back, I never want to go through something like that again. But now looking back, I'm like, you know what? I learned a lot throughout that time. He said, what'd you learn? I learned how to pray more. I learned to read the Bible more. I learned to appreciate just the simple things in life. And I learned that things that are worth getting will cost you something valuable. But it's worth getting it. It's worth working for it. And at the end of the day, when I married with my wife, I actually appreciated her a lot more at the end of that. You know, that process taught me a lot. But what if I just married her right off the bat? Well, I don't know. I would hope to think that I still appreciate her as much. But I would guess that probably not as much. But because I went through a lot of suffering and a lot of afflictions, a lot of trials, at the end of that story, you know, I really appreciated her that much the more. And now, you know, we have our children. It makes me appreciate it even more. Why? Because the process is important. Because the process teaches you something. These are valuable lessons in life. And don't bypass those lessons. I was like, oh, I don't need to learn this. I don't need to learn. No, you need to learn it all. Because it's going to prepare you for that destination. Once you get there, you may not understand it now, but once you get there, you understand, oh, that's why. Okay, now I understand why. Now I understand the whole email thing. Now I understand the whole strictness and all these things. You know, especially when your kids start growing up. And, you know, I got a daughter now, and it's just like, oh, okay, now I understand why. You know? So what's the message today? It's simply this is, you know, try not to have a microwave drive-through mentality where you want God's blessing now. I want it now. No, ask God for it, but welcome the process once he gives that process to you. And don't try to run from the process. Run to the process so it can prepare you for that destination. Amen? Aspire heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and thank you for the trials and difficulties in this life, Lord, that really prepares for many destinations in our life, and ultimately to be conformed to the image of your son. And I pray, God, that you'd continue to give us grace and help us throughout these trials and afflictions that we're going to experience in this life. Help us not to run from problems, Lord, recognizing that wherever we run to, our problems are going to be there to meet us. And I pray that throughout the years of difficulties and trials that we would run to your word, run to prayer, run to a brother in Christ, run to our church and not miss, to try to just be faithful in all things, Lord, and learn through this process. We love you so much, Lord, and we thank you and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.