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Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome back to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you would, let's turn to our first hymns to song number 224. Song number 224, There Shall Be Showers of Blessing. That's song number 221. 224. There shall be showers of blessing. This is the promise of love. There shall be seasons refreshing, sent from the Savior above. Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead. There shall be showers of blessing, precious reviving again. Over the hills and the valleys, sound of abundance of rain. Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead. There shall be showers of blessing, send them upon us, O Lord. Wrecked was thou a refreshing, come and now honor thy word. Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead. There shall be showers of blessing, O that today they might fall. Now as to God's word confessing, now as on Jesus we call. Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead. All right, with that we're gonna have a word of prayer. I just pray, Lord, that you just bless this service tonight, and I pray that we just be edified as we grow up and learn to grow more spiritually, Lord. I pray that this sermon be edified to us tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, for the next song, song number 31. Song number 31, He Lives. Song number 31. Song number 31, He Lives. I serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever man may say. I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him, He's always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me, a long life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to Him poor. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart. In all the world around me, I see His loving care. And though my heart grows weary, I never will despair. I know that He is leading through all the stormy blasts. The day of His appearing will come at last. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me, a long life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to Him poor. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart. Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King. The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find. None other is so loving, so good and kind. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me, a long life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to Him poor. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift your hand nice and high. One of our ushers can still get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage, Psalm 146 verse 2. Any of you kiddos that can quote this can get a treat on our Wednesday service. On the inside we have our sort of soul winning times, church stats. Is there any soul winning reporting that did not happen? You didn't, you forgot to give it your soul winning lead or something for the past few days? All right. Is that from today are you saying or somewhere else? Okay. Who are you with? Okay. All right. And then on the right please continue to pray for all of our expecting ladies. We have our prayer list there. Please be praying for everybody mentioned as well. If you have any additional please email us. We'd like to add it to the bulletin. We do have our church reminders there on the back. Please take note of all of those. On the bottom we have the ladies Christmas party. It is going to be this Friday from 6 to 9 pm. The dinner is going to be provided and we are having it be a nursing's only event so we'd really encourage you dads out there to watch the kiddos. As I always say, throw peanuts at them. You know it's always a good suggestion. If not, you can survive, right? You can survive. Use the rod of correction if needed, right? Just extra practice. Also if you'd like to participate there's a gift exchange. Please bring just a wrapped $25 gift and then you can RSVP to my wife either via WhatsApp, Facebook or in person if you don't have those options. If someone was listening online and didn't even have those you could email but that's pretty much what's recommended. Also down below we have the Christmas caroling December 6th. We have the December 10th Dallas soul winning marathon. Just to give you an FYI, the Christmas caroling will meet here at 6 pm. So just meet here at 6 pm and then we'll go out Christmas caroling. It gets pretty dark pretty much around six and we'll just get organized and we'll head out. We'll do it for about an hour. So hopefully everybody shows up by six. We can get out in less than 15 minutes and then we'll go caroling for about an hour. And it won't be too too far from here. We'll try to stay within about a 10-15 minute drive of this area but we are going to try and go to the nicer areas. So that's where all the lights are, right? We'll just try to find some nice areas with the lights and we'll go sing to them. They usually really enjoy it and really like it and as brother Ben said, if they don't agree with us this Audimite deception will change their mind. No, I'm just kidding. So but we can go out and sing some Christmas cheer. Spread that. December 10th is our Dallas soul winning marathon and there's a sign-up sheet. So if you want to sign up on the back cabinet, please do sign up if you're planning on attending just so that way we can anticipate proper lunch scheduling and plans like that. And we will pretty much have a regular schedule. 9 am we'll meet, have breakfast somewhere over there and then we'll go out from about 10 to noon, have some lunch somewhere and then go back out for another round in the afternoon. If you can even only participate in one or the other, please still do. You don't have to do the whole day but obviously you're encouraged to do the whole day but if you just want to show up for the morning session or just the afternoon session, know that you're definitely still welcome to participate and we would like to have as much church participation as possible for that. That's pretty much all I have in regards to announcements this evening. We're gonna go ahead and sing our psalm of the week. Psalm 15. Psalm 15. All right, we could turn to our Bibles or you could turn to your white handouts to Psalm 15. Psalm 15. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. He that backbiteth not with his tongue in whose eyes a vile person is condemned but he honoreth them that fear the Lord in whose eyes a vile person is content but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that swear it to his own hurt and change it not. He that puteth not out his money to usury. He that swear it to his own hurt and change it not. He that puteth not out his money to usury. Nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that do it these things shall never be moved. Nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that do it these things shall never be moved. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill. As the offer play goes around please turn to your bibles to 1st Corinthians 13. 1st Corinthians chapter number 13. 1st Corinthians chapter 13 the Bible reads though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing charity suffereth long and is kind charity envieth not charity vaunteth not itself is not puffed up doth not behave itself unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things charity never faileth but whether there be prophecies they shall fail whether they be tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away for we know in part and we prophesy in part but when that which is perfect has come then that which is in part shall be done away when I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things for now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known and now abide of faith hope charity these three but the greatest of these is charity let us pray father thank you for this great chapter in the bible we thank you for pastor and his family and all my brothers and sisters in christ today and we just thank you for all the showers of blessings and the abundance and the plenty that you gave us this year and all the souls that we won to christ help us to finish strong lord and help us to do more works and become more complete christians and I just pray that you will be with pastor as he preaches this sermon and fill his heart with the wisdom that he needs to deliver this message to us and help us to take heed to the principles and become better christians and when I say these things in Jesus name amen amen. 1st Corinthians 13 is a real famous chapter of the bible it deals with the subject of charity and charity is kind of an interesting word in the bible it's kind of synonymous with love but I like the fact that the bible used the word charity here in 1st Corinthians 13 because the little bit of distinction here is that charity is kind of signifying true love is kind of the way I would word that is that you know sincere true godly love is what charity is kind of in essence signifying because the word love in the english language is pretty broad people say I love pizza people will say I love ranch dressing that's a weird love okay people will say all kinds of things and then obviously you say you love your brother you love your sister you love your mom you love god all these things can be true yet have different nuances as far as what they really mean and what you're kind of alluding to and in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 the word charity is talking about a true sincere genuine godly love that the bible wants us to have and of course charity is really the main essence of christianity this is kind of the heartbeat of the bible is that we should have charity and it's the it's the goal of the christian life and and that's important to kind of understand when we're kind of talking about some of the verses here that we have here in the bible and you know there's some strange views when it comes to some of the latter verses here in this chapter but look at verse number eight the bible says charity never faileth and again I believe what it's trying to say is a true sincere love is going to win you know it's it's funny how the reprobates always say love wins because I'm like it's true love is going to win the problem is that they're not loving the problem is that they're freaks and they have hatred in their heart and and really they they don't love anything but of course love will win love never loses love's going to be triumphant god is love and of course god is going to be ultimately victorious but even in our lives it's basically saying that charity itself is the thing that's going to keep going forward keep moving it's never going to fail whereas there's lots of things that are going to fail and are not going to last forever and you know one way that you could look at this and and I believe this is what the context is implying is that whenever I bestow a work upon someone out of charity meaning that I have a true sincere love and I and I want to do good under this person I have altruistic viewpoints here and and I'm doing it out of a godly sincerity it is going to last forever and and what the bible means by this is is you know when you do a good work it's never going to be forgotten god is going to remember that good work that you have in that charity and it's just never going to fail because it's going to be realized in heaven you're going to be rewarded for that true and sincere charity that you did nothing can be taken away from it you can never lose any rewards according to the scripture that have been earned something that's been fully earned and and the transactions already transpired you can never lose that and so when the bible is saying charity never faileth you know when you go out and preach the gospel and get someone saved when when you give alms to the poor out of a sincere heart like those things are going to exist for all of eternity because god will remember them and god will reward you but there's some things that are not going to last forever and what does it say in the next breath it says but whether there be prophecies they shall fail now due to youtube censorship this should be immediately obvious that some sermons have just disappeared you know sometimes people come like what can I I can't find this sermon and I'm like I don't know you know it may just it may just be gone forever and it's like when will we ever hear that sermon again it's like never I mean before modern technology every sermon failed because every sermon just eventually faded into non-relevance or everybody that had heard that sermon eventually died you know of course there's still some older sermons people like Charles Haddon Spurgeon you know of course people transcribed his sermons and they put them in a book and they gave them to me you know so I have Charles Haddon Spurgeon's you know sermons but I don't read them because I don't care and they're all weird anyways but you know of course preachers even before that we don't have all of their sermons they're gone and of course those sermons in and of themselves aren't going to necessarily exist beyond the sermon itself you know the point of a sermon is to change people's hearts and then for those people to do the works and then their works live on but the sermon doesn't live on and that's what it's saying the prophecy the preaching it's going to eventually fail it's going to eventually not do anything anymore it's going to eventually come to naught whether they be tongues they shall cease you know there's certain languages that become dead languages eventually and they just cease to even exist and nobody uses them nobody talks in that language they just have no relevance anymore he even says here whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away you know of course this will you know make some people mad but I've heard NASA say they're like the technology to go back to the moon was lost you know now of course through new technology they figured out new ways to do this or whatever but yeah it's real that some knowledge and some technologies are gone you know that's why things like the pyramids or Stonehenge are a marvel you know they're considered like the seven wonders of the world you know certain things like this because people don't even know how that happened or they don't know what technology was used and and of course even just personal knowledge you know stories that your great-grandparents told their children may have ceased because everybody forgot them and there's no one to tell those stories anymore there's so much knowledge there's so much information there's so much stuff that's just going to eventually end but one thing that'll never ever end is charity charity will never ever fail it'll never end the charitable works that are done in this life will last forever they will never cease just like the gospel it's never going to end it's the everlasting gospel so that's what this verse is saying I've heard some people tell me like this is saying that somehow like can't the canonistic canonicity of the bible is you know in view of this verse or some people would say like speaking in another language like stopped you know because of these verses or something like this that's not what the chapter's about at all you know it's talking about what I just said and look at verse nine for we know in part and we prophesy in part but when that which is perfect has come then that which is in part should be in a way so let's say oh see when that which is perfect when we get the final canon of scripture we no longer need the apostles giftings or anything like that of course I do believe in what's considered cessationism but I don't believe this is a proof text for that you know cessationism is the viewpoint that the apostles giftings ceased or stopped with the apostles that essentially they're no longer in prevalence today I do not believe that is because of these verses and that's not why I believe that I believe that because number one we see only the apostles doing it in their lifetime and then number two we know more we don't have any more apostles so when you just put that puzzle piece together you realize okay these things have ceased so then what is the apostle Paul saying he's saying that right now we don't understand everything about the end of the world heaven and god and all that we know only a little bit but when he says when that which is perfect has come he's talking about eventually we're going to die and go to heaven and we're going to understand everything okay then that which is in part should be done away meaning all of the gaps that we have in our mind or all of our understanding now is going to just completely be eviscerated because once you really understand what's going on then that all that other stuff is irrelevant it's kind of like a child sometimes children don't understand adult things you know they may not understand all of the ideas of how babies come into the existence right or they may not understand everything about you know some kids are taught santa claus or something like this right but it's like after they have full realization of these things after they've seen the real deal or they know it's like you're not going to go back to the child's viewpoint or have that kind of limited understanding that's what the apostle paul is trying to allude to that's why he says the next verse when i was a child i spake as a child i understood as a child i thought as a child but when i became a man i put away childish things so he's saying when i was little i perceived the world through the eyes of a child and you know certain things didn't you know always make perfect sense to me but now i understand what they were actually talking about and they make i can see them in a new light because i'm now an adult and i understand it you know it's similar you know a guy that's single may not understand every verse about marriage and then he gets married and then he's like oh wow you know and then you know you don't have any kids you don't understand everything in the bible but then you have to start having kids you're like oh wow yeah that's a lot different right ever as you grow and as you age and as you become more mature things are seen through a different light and you have better understanding and and that's why he says in verse 12 for now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now i know in part but then shall i know even as also i am known so the what the apostle paul is saying eventually of course we're going to seek the lord jesus christ in the flesh and all of those thoughts that you've had of what he looks like are going to be completely eviscerated and you won't care anymore because you'll actually know what he looks like right i mean a lot of people are just so obsessed with what jesus christ looks like and there's all these pictures and paintings and ideas and i would just venture to just say this they're all wrong and we have no idea now i do know he's not black okay sorry to burst your bubble all right he's also not asian and he also probably doesn't look like dylan okay now beyond that i don't really know entirely of course revelation gives us some hints to some of the glorified view of jesus and he's got hair white as wool and eyes the flame of fire and his feet look like the shining brass and of course it's going to be an incredible sight but you know at the end of the day i don't really know but eventually it'll be face to face eventually i won't even have to wonder anymore eventually you know our faith becomes sight of course and you know while we won't know everything in this life the bible still wants us though to follow kind of the instructions here in verse 11 to put away childish things and as i would word it become mature and the bible teaches that we should not just be mature physically but we should become mature spiritually and so the title of my sermon this evening is this spiritual maturity spiritual maturity and of course i explained all this just to help you kind of understand where i'm coming from but you know i just want you to understand this chapter a little better but let's go to hebrews 5 it's going to give us more uh verses that kind of come in line with what i want to talk about this evening but we want to be like the apostle paul and put away childish things and become a man and and not just physically spiritually as well there's a lot of people who may be a man physically but they're spiritually a toddler they're spiritually a baby and it's important that we become mature spiritually this is why when the bible talks about the office of a bishop it doesn't give a carnal age because the carnal age is not nearly as important as the spiritual age the spiritual age of the individual is much more important and of course there can be individuals that are much younger than you physically but are more spiritually mature and we shouldn't despise their youth just because they're younger than us doesn't mean they couldn't teach us something that they couldn't be more spiritually advanced or educate us in the word of god and of course we all should strive to have a spiritual mature age you know not just be physically old or or considered just like well as long as somebody's old they should be the pastor you know i've heard weird ideas like every pastor should just be an old guy or something and it's like i don't really care how old he is you know i don't want a biden up here trying to tell me what to do you know i'd rather have someone that's spiritually mature regardless of how old they are physically okay now hebrews chapter 5 verse 8 the bible says though he were a son yet learned the obedience by the things that you suffered talking of jesus and being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him obviously that's talking about obeying him by believing in christ first ten called of god and high priest after the order of milk has a deck of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing you are dull of hearing for when the time he ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of god so what he's saying in verse you know 11 is that i he's like i want to teach you more about malchizedek but you guys for whatever reason haven't even soaked in the basics you don't even understand just the fundamentals of the faith and just the really baby simple doctrines and because of that i can't then go on to elaborate and explain to you the deeper things about malchizedek and the priesthood and you know this is important for a couple reasons to understand that not all of the bible is on a basic level not all of the bible is just real simple and real easy there are things in the bible that are hard to be understood you know it's always funny to me when i talk to younger christians in the faith and they're getting challenged on their faith and anytime they want to ask me a question it's like well i just really want to understand you know romans 11 and i i just really want to understand matthew 25 and i just really want to understand you know galatians 5 and i want to understand first john chapter 3 and i'm like look these are some of the passages that even say people want to understand it takes you know for some people it's taking them lifetimes to study the bible and to pray and to meditate to understand fully like all the verses in the bible and get a really good graph and it's like sometimes these people just want just hey i just want to understand this it's like well sometimes you need to lay down some basics verse just to get to that point where it's going to really manifest in your mind now of course if you have a great preacher and you have great men that you can just stand on the shoulders of them sometimes you can fast you can fast track a lot of this information you know myself included i've learned a lot of great spiritual truths from other men who studied the bible prayed and meditated and learned the bible for themselves and then spoon fed it to me and you want praise god for great preachers and men of god they're willing to study the bible and to hand it down but of course we have to do our part we have to learn the basics we have to study the bible ourselves and read the bible otherwise some things just won't click some things just won't make sense to us just like explaining complicated adult subjects to children it won't make sense until they grow up is the same with the bible there are certain topics there's certain subjects that will probably never click in your mind unless you mature unless you grow up and what he's trying to emphasize is that you must decide to just learn and grow and not just be stuck on the basics just over and over and over again i think that a lot of christians genuinely do complain that care about church would complain like i don't feel like my church is feeding me and you know that's a legitimate concern because the church should be feeding people and they should be growing but at the same time you will not grow simply by just showing up and walking through the door you personally have to read the bible on your own you have to pray you have to memorize verses you have to put into practice the word of god because the bible says that you don't want to be a forgetful hearer meaning you could show up at church every service and be the exact same or worse spiritually because you're just not doing anything yourself you know you can you can and again of course we could take a baby and we can spoon feed it but eventually that baby needs to learn how to eat for itself and it needs to grow up and and learn on its own and and this is an important thing he's trying to say like at this amount of time you guys should be a teacher but for some reason you're still needing me to spoon feed you basic things and notice how he says this in verse 12 the first principles of the oracles of god now that's important principles of the oracles of god now look at chapter 6 verse 1 therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ you have to understand that these two verses are in in synchrony are are are basically in symphony with one another because they're talking about the same subject so he's saying i don't want to spoon feed you the basic doctrines anymore let's leave the basic doctrines why because if we keep reading in chapter 5 look at verse number um 12 again he says and become such as need have i'm sorry and be are become such as have need of milk and not a strong meat he wants to give them the strong meat but they can't handle it you know i'd love to give ellie the brisket and the ribs and the steak but she can't handle it she needs just the milk right now but as she grows up like abby abby loves the strong meat okay abby she loves steak and i love that about her you know she's my she's my texas girl okay but you know as you grow up you start handling the right doctrines you know you stop putting beans in your chili you start eating the strong meat of the word you don't need the soft tender delicate beans in there you can handle some meat you know you can handle and not just some just pure meat right because i just want the pure meat sermon right and of course a church like ours we could dive into some of the deep aspects of the bible and get some of the strong meat but we have to do something we have to grow ourselves we have to grow up and we have to mature and we have to be willing to learn and read the bible ourselves because if we're not even just doing the basics then you know as a pastor all i'm going to do is just sit up here and preach on basics because you got to get those right you got to get those those billing boxes but if people actually start doing all the basics and getting all the regular stuff done then you can start moving on to better topics more interesting things deeper things that's why it's important for a church to become spiritual mature and he's you know he's saying here these people should have gotten to that point verse 13 for everyone that uses milk is unskillful and the word of righteousness for he is a babe but strong meat belong to them that are a full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil so he's saying that he wants to give strong meat to them but they can't handle it because they're a babe and he's saying the strong meat is given to those who are a full age here would be my synonym mature this is your spiritual maturity because they're of a full age meaning that they've reached that point of full maturity and we're still again talking about spiritually in verse one he says therefore that there's a reason why that word's there it's because it's there for a reason therefore therefore since what he wants them just to not basically be stuck in these basic things and he doesn't want them to just be a babe forever and he wants them to be a teacher and because he wants them to go into perfection therefore leaving the principles of the doctrines of christ now of course what is the basics you know he says let us go into perfection not laying in the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward god so here's another thing if if we're leaving all of this then that must mean we're talking about something different he wants to bring up something different now of course what did we start with this and in verse 10 called of god and high precept of the order of what melchizedek okay so he wanted to explain something about melchizedek then he brings up kind of this tangent about how he doesn't feel like they can handle it look at chapter 7 verse 1 for this melchizedek king of savelim priest will say then he brings back up chapter 7 again melchizedek why because chapter 6 is kind of just a tangent and he's just trying to say like look i wanted to explain this thing about melchizedek but i'm kind of feeling like you can't even handle it because you guys are babes but we need to leave this this basic stuff and go on into perfection which perfection means completion you know when you look at fruit that's growing on the vine you would say if it's a full age it's perfect it's complete it's matured right that's what he's wanting from us but you can't get there spiritually speaking if you only have the basics you have to have more than this so that's why he's saying therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ let us go on into perfection not laying in the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward god and of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment so you're saying look the doctrine of hell the doctrine of salvation by faith the fact that works don't save um just getting baptized and ordination these are all the really basic simple just on the cuff doctrines once you've got that we're going to move on now why would you move on from the doctrine of salvation let me i'll explain that thought but look at verse three for a second and this we will do if god permit what is he saying this will do we'll go on to perfection if god willing we'll go on to perfection now again why would i never lay down the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward god again well verse four because four because it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy ghost and have tasted of the good word of god and the powers of the world to come if they should fall away to renew them again under repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the son of god afresh and put them to an open chain why would i not teach someone to repent from dead works and a faith towards god because i can't get them to repent again because once you're saved you're always saved so i don't i don't need to convince someone that's saved if they fall away to get saved again what would i what would i preach to someone that's fallen away that's saved i would preach them james too faith that works is dead wouldn't i i get there and say you need a kick in the pants you know you need to get in church you need to quit drinking you need to quit smoking you need you know i wouldn't lay down the doctrine of faith i wouldn't lay down the doctrine of hell why would i teach somebody about hell that's a backslidden christian because they can't go to hell that's and again that's not going to motivate them to to to do the right thing if they understand the right doctrine it could motivate a bunch of unsaved people to follow the bible but of course i'm not going to teach them about hell i'm not going to teach them about baptism because they already got baptized they already got baptized they already learned about salvation by faith they already learned about hell so you know what they need they need other doctrine you know what would be a good doctor for this person hey you're going to reap what you sow hey you know it's an important doctrine to teach people you're going to be rewarded according to your works whether that be good or bad wouldn't that be a good doctrine to teach somebody that's in this particular case and of course it clearly says in verse number six to renew them again under repentance you know if you think this person is uh unsaved my question is always this what did this person repent of the first time because it says that i would have to make them repent again now if we use the same word in the same chapter the repentance in this one was repentance from dead works and a faith toward god that sounds like salvation i can't get someone to be saved again now if i needed to get someone saved again wouldn't that mean that christ would need to be crucified again because the first crucifixion didn't work for them because they got saved by his crucifixion but if they somehow lost that salvation well we need christ to come down here get crucified again and believe in the second crucifixion and if they lost that salvation then we need the third crucifixion right and he's trying to draw a difference here in the book of hebrews that the blood of bulls and and calves and goats don't take away sin and it wasn't the multiplicity of sacrifices that took away sin but rather was the once for all sacrifice of christ that took away sin and of course it would put christ to an open shame saying he didn't really pay every sin if you got saved and then you had to get saved again so he's saying look you're we're putting christ to an open shame by trying to get someone saved after they already got saved now wouldn't this make perfect sense to say you know the number one reason why you shouldn't preach salvation by you know try to get people saved that are already saved is because they can't lose their salvation that's the whole point of what he's saying because of this reason i'm going to stop teaching you this because you can't lose it and you've already gotten saved even if you fall away i'm not going to renew you again under repentance i would then be crucifying christ the son of god afresh and put him to an open shame now verse seven says four this is still in connection to the reason why we're leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ what's another reason why because the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it and bringing forth herbs meat for them by whom it is dressed receive a blessing from god but that which bare thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh in a cursing whose end is to be burned so what is our this is a parable obviously he's saying that there's earth and the earth is either bringing forth fruit or is bringing forth thorns that's real clear in the bible okay what's the earth you know well again we don't we don't really have an entire explanation of this parable but if we just study the bible and we get other parables that have the exact same elements and when i say exact i mean exactly the same elements luke chapter number eight very clear the parable the sower is talking about seed being sown into the soil same same story here and it makes it clear though that that soil is men's hearts and in the three groups that are saved one is in the stony ground one is in the thorny ground and one has no thorns the one with no thorns what brings forth fruit the one with thorns the thorns choke the fruit and it's not fruitful now what are the these things represented above though what does the fruit represent converts getting people saved right what does the thorns represent in the parable of luke chapter number eight the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches which enter in choking the word so what is he basically saying in verses seven and eight he's saying that look if you serve god you're gonna have fruit and you're gonna be rewarded of god and if you let the chairs of this world you let the deceitfulness of riches if you let all the sin in this world enter into your life you are going to basically let that choke and it says something's gonna be burned but does it say that the earth is burned no it's saying that the thorns are going to be burned okay well if you compare that with first corinthians chapter number three the one the person that lays up the wood hay and stubble his works are burned yet he himself is saved so again it's not that the earth is burned it's not that the earth is destroyed the thorns are destroyed and of course our bad works our bad labors our bad fruits are going to perish because they weren't of charity remember we're talking about the things that last forever the charitable things are going to last forever they're never going to fail the things that are going to just basically wood and stubble though that were not done in charity that were not done in godly sincerity they're going to be burned up lost forever and and it's you know it's a bad deal verse nine but beloved we are persuaded better things of you now of course he means he brings this up because he just brought up the guy that fell away and he brings up in the last verse the guy that was bearing forth thorns and stuff and he's like saying i'm persuaded that you're not going to be one of those bozos you're going to do what you're going to be the person that goes on to perfection you're going to be the person that becomes a full age you're going to be the teacher you're going to be the one that produces the fruit and your spirit you're going to become spiritually mature and he says notice this and things that accompany salvation now i do find it again mind-boggling that people will tell me that the previous verses were talking about salvation when verse 9 says that this was things that accompany salvation it couldn't be any clearer that he wasn't talking about how to go to heaven he's talking about something in verses 7 and 8 that accompany salvation what accompanies salvation reward or cursing based on your works and he's saying i'm persuaded better things of you and what and things that accompany salvation though we thus speak for god is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love so again if we connect the dots here verses 7 and 8 have to be talking about things that accompany salvation and they have to be talking about what our work and labor of love of course our work and labor love have nothing to do with going to heaven nothing to do with salvation and of course this is why a lot of people believe in work salvation because they're unsaved and then when they come to chapter 6 it is clearly about works and then they're like well this is saying you know you're going to lose your salvation it works and it's like obviously the person's looking at hebrews chapter 6 the wrong way we're not talking about unsaved people getting saved we're talking about the saved person becoming spiritually mature that was clear in chapter 5 that was the context and of course once he explains this full thought he comes back to chapter 7 explaining the thoughts about malchizedek and you know chapter 7 is a pretty deep chapter of the bible i mean explaining some really deep concepts about malchizedek and jesus christ and and some really good doctrine so of course god wants us to become as spiritually mature and he's not going to forget our work and labor of love which you have showed toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister why charity never fail charity never faileth and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that you be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises so he doesn't want us to be slothful you know what's one of the reasons why people become or don't become spiritually mature is because they're lazy is because they're slothful and so he just tried to encourage you to stop being slothful don't be the guy that's just producing no works or just bad works you know the thorns and the briars of this life but rather be diligent and of course adam he had to suffer the consequences of sin he had thorns and briars so he had to work harder to get that fruit and of course the more sin you have in your life the harder it's going to be to produce fruit the the the more difficult it's going to be for god to use you not saying he can't some people have said oh well if you commit fornication you could never get someone saved and it's like that's stupid i mean the woman at the well is like a five-time adulterer and she's going around getting people saved with her testimony of being an adulterous okay that's that's nonsense you can get someone saved you can do a great work for god no matter how backslid you are i mean samsung did his greatest work and his most backslidden condition you know knocking over the two columns or whatever that wasn't the the shining glorious moment of samsung okay he was pretty bad but you know in that moment of clarity god still used him and you know what god can still use all kinds of people regardless of where they're at but you know i don't want to live the samsung life and just hope in my last dying breath i get one last good word for the lord you know i want to be the person that's working towards spiritual maturity not being slothful learning and studying the bible and trying to grow in the lord now i want you to go to first corinthians chapter number three first corinthians chapter number three so i have really just kind of two points to kind of draw from the text this evening and i've already given you point one so don't worry all right point one of why you would want to become spiritual mature so that you can then teach notice that the goal of this was that they could be teachers of course when you learn all the principles of the doctrine of christ you can teach others the principles of the doctrine of christ right you can go out and you can preach the gospel and you can teach people about baptism and you can help people learn all the different fundamentals and as you mature then you can even teach more things you have better understanding and of course we love it that that people would become teachers here you know we want the men to be able to preach sermon if needed we want the men to teach the other men you know the word of god if needed we want soul winners to teach other soul winners how to to preach the gospel and evangelize we also want to have the women learn the bible as well as the men because they're going to be teaching the next generations and they're going to be sitting down with young timothy and god willing they're going to impart unto him their faith in the scriptures and teaching him all the important doctrines and what kind of woman to be looking for you know proverbs 31 is a mother teaching her child her son the bible and instruct this is the kind of woman you want and this is the kind of qualities and characters you're looking for and you need to stay away from these bad friends and you need to stay away from poison and alcohol and you need to be wise and giving them all kinds of instruction you know homeschooling wasn't invented a few years ago proverbs 31 already had homeschooling right there in the bible or he had that woman the mother of lemme well sitting down all day long teaching her son and educating him in the word of god and teaching him the bible you know people will be like oh you're against women teaching the bible to me yeah i do but you know what not to my son not to my child i love it when my wife wants these and of course i'm not even saying that i couldn't learn something for my wife she helps me all the time with the bible you know i'm not going to let a woman get up and preach and be the pastor of the church because the bible says that that's inappropriate that's not the right place that's not the right time but you know what god willing we'll have a lot of preachers in the next generation that all their doctrines coming from what their mom taught them so it's like you want to get your sermons in get them in your son right now okay start teaching all the way i've preached a lot of things that my mom taught me who remembers me saying something my mom taught me oh yeah yeah behinds all the room because i constantly you know she's preaching right now why she taught me all these different doctors i'm wearing a tight belt because of my mom right now okay you know my mom taught me lots of good doctrine lots of good things you know and her preaching still lives on through me okay so don't get this weird idea that women are inferior or or they can't be spiritual i mean frankly speaking there's plenty of great women to mention in the bible timothy gets his faith from his like maternal side not even his paternal side so women of faith is a very important thing and we want them to be spiritually mature you know it's not like oh i'll never be the pastor so i don't need to know the bible i'll just go play on my phone and watch tick tock videos in the mother bay room that's stupid that's foolish you know the mother bay room is not like a cool extra hangout it should you should still be listening to the sermon and paying attention you should still be growing you should still have a bible in the lap you should still be turning to all the places you should still be reading all the verses and you know i'm not even against the idea of women talking about the bible you know it's not like after the sermon you only have to talk about your shopping wants okay you could bring up verses in the bible there's nothing wrong with it now again i'm not saying you have to i'm just saying that women should want to know the bible and want to know doctrine and to grow up spiritually and become mature and it's important because when you become spiritually mature other things don't happen like what well let's look at first corinthians three verse one and i brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in christ i fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you were not able to bear it neither yet now are you able for ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are you not carnal and walk as men so what the apostle paul is trying to say is that when people are being carnal when people are causing strife when people are causing contention they are not spiritually mature and it's evident someone that is spiritually mature is not going to be causing all kinds of conflict and strife and division amongst god's people okay of course i i'm going to cause a lot of strife with the world you know the world's not going to like anything i have to say right i'm going to rub them the wrong way all the time and of course i am for peace but when i speak they are for war i'm not asking for it i don't want it i'm not interested in it but no matter what i do you have all these trolls and losers and locusts and bugs and mosquitoes that come out of the woodwork to try and pay attention what we're doing over here okay so that's inevitable you know amongst us and amongst our friends and amongst those who love god we shouldn't be drawing up all these fights and these petty quarrels and all this strife and all this contention people that do that just they should just write like a big sign on their forehead that says like i'm a babe in christ you know we've even had pastors pastors that just it seems like all they do is just cause strife like all they have they just just dream up something to get mad about and it's always these petty silly you know insignificant things and they just always want to be contentious about everything it's like you're just so carnal now i don't know if you're carnal because you're just unsaved that's the only you know mode you have because if you're unsaved carnal is your only mode right but even a saved person could just be in the flesh and just be a carnal person you know and choose not to walk in the spirit and you know what that's a foolish attitude that's not something that you should want and it's evident of people that are not spiritually mature you know i've had plenty of conversations with people i have a high respect for like my friend pastor stephen anderson my friend pastor roger menes other pastors where we strongly disagree with one another on certain things in the bible you know they were never mad at me or like striving with me or causing a contention or didn't it didn't ruin our relationship or anything like that it's like hey you know i strongly disagree with you strongly disagree but we still like each other why because a mature person isn't just gonna get mad at you for everything you do that's dumb you know i guarantee there's pastors that don't like things i've said or done or disagree with me or think that i made a mistake even but you know they don't have they don't have to get up in a sermon and scream that i'm stupid you know that's someone that is not spiritually mature that's someone that's just carnal and you know someone that's spiritually mature doesn't have the need to just always cause a division and a strife and then of course you know when you respond it's like you started it or something right it's like come on give me a break you're obviously the one causing all these problems you know you're the you're the source of all this contention and you're the person that can't let it go you're the person that can't move on you have to constantly bring it up it's like you're just a carnal person you know all the bickering the gossip and and here's where a lot of it comes from envy it comes from envy now he says in verse three among you envying strife and divisions let me tell you something there are a lot of churches that just cannot handle someone being better than them and you know why envy just envy there's so many people that just can't stand the fact that they have pastor anderson listeners going to their church yeah you know and i hear about it all the time tons of people people come to our church from all different states all different places and they're like my church doesn't like me because i listen to pastor anderson you know we had people come from tennessee recently and they were just like man you know i can't even go to this church or they come from they talk to me from new york or they talk to me from california or they talk to me from all kinds of different places texas i mean they talk to me about all they're just like man i go in my church and they treat me different they throw me out they won't baptize me i mean we baptized someone in the last 12 months that their pastor refused to baptize their daughter only because the dad listens to pastor anderson online he didn't cause any problems he didn't even bring it up the pastor's questioning him it's like you know why i believe that probably happens it's because they baptized no one ever right but if you've ever gone to an old ivy church okay a lot of people right when they do baptisms you know what they do is they do a short like little testimonial they'll say like hey when did you get saved how did you get saved what convinced you to get baptized and you know it's the last thing these preachers want oh yeah i listen to pastor stephen anderson online and i got saved listen to his gospel presentation and i changed my life and i'm gonna get baptized you know they don't want they don't want them to say that out loud because everybody will think like this pastor anderson guy must be a good guy i mean look at the fruit that's right in front of us and because of envy he refuses to baptize them you know what that person's not spiritually mature it's so it's so stupid and it's so silly and it just shows someone that's not really mature at all they're just a carnal child at heart and they just can't handle someone being better than them you know what praise god for all the christians that are better than me i sure hope i'm not at the peak of anything i i want tons of people to be better than me because you know that's a sad date of affairs if there isn't people that are better and smarter than me and know more of the bible you know and praise god there's plenty that are you know what i i told myself this when i started pure words about the church i said if my church is a warming pod for people to go to faith for a better church and be listeners of stephen so be it who cares why why would that even matter you know of course we have tons of people that come to our church that were reached by other men that were reached by other people and you know it's hard to bring in people off the street you know i've gotten people saved i've drug them to church i've gotten people saved and brought them in got them baptized you know they usually don't stick it's hard to get them to stick and let's be honest you know most of you in this room you're not going to the church where the guy that got you saved is up there preaching right so again why would i think that's any different anywhere else that a lot of people are just entered into other men's labors you know what the spiritually mature person doesn't care about all of that they're not fixated on all the numbers and who's who and what's going we're all on the same team you know that's what the apostle the apostle is trying to bring up he says in verse number four for while one says i am of paul and another i am of apollos are you not carnal you know preachers will get up and they'll be like this isn't so-and-so's church or you know this is my church or you know you better only listen to me you know that people tell me they said look they're this pastor is throwing people out if they listen to any other preacher like any of these certain preachers or the new ivy or whatever and he's just like what kind of a carnal person are you i mean this you know oh you better be a me you know better be a paul or whatever it's like who is paul right isn't that what he says verse five who then is paul and who is apollos but ministers by whom he believed even as the lord gave to every man i have planted apollos watered but god gave the increase so then neither is he that planted anything neither he that watereth but god that giveth the increase now of course this is tied back to first corinthians chapter 13 that the whole point of even serving god is for god you know if you're not doing the works out of the right heart it's meaningless anyways but the person that just sincerely just loves people and just wants them to be saved and wants them to be baptized and wants them to get plugged into church they don't care where they care that they're doing it you know i don't care as much that you come to my church is that you're just plugged in a church i don't care you know where it's at or who it's with or whatever i just want you to do it you know and that's the right mentality for a spiritually mature christian is to say i just want people to do it who cares who gets the credit for it you know but the carnal people you know they're just all about the numbers and they're all about like you know i got five saved how much you get saved it's like i don't know because i don't care to sit here you know it's like i look at all the signatures in my bible you know about all the people i got saved or whatever it's just like look i'm not against you if you keep numbers or stats but at the end of the day it's not about just numbers and stats it's about souls and it's about the work of the lord and it's about you know you having a charitable heart inside and trying to do the work of god for god and and just to do the right thing and to love people it's silly to just get so wrapped up in oh well you know this person's my disciple or this is my you know that's a cult some churches are just cults frankly speaking where they it's all about the minister and it's all about that pastor and it's all about what he did and you know that's that's a foolish attitude if someone preaches better sermons than me and of course that's true okay but i'm just saying if someone's out there preaching better sermons than me that are gonna that are gonna give you more knowledge more faith inspire you more who am i to stop you from listening to that you know if there's a sermon out there that maybe ministers to you maybe there's a subject that i'm not an expert on there's a part of bible i don't understand as well maybe someone has a personal experience that i don't have that helps them to minister to another person and there could be someone out there that needs that message or wants that message and people are going to limit them on getting that information how do you actually care about those people how do you actually care about the souls of men when you want to hold them back from things that they could get access to or be ministered to i mean you're just a wicked person in my opinion i mean that's a wicked attitude it's evil you know and it's carnal and of course nothing carnal is good everything carnal is is it's enmity with god is what the bible says it's a war with god go to the proverbs chapter 20 go to proverbs chapter number 20 and it's just so funny to me all these people they're just so obsessed with us that that like left it's like do you even know what that means to leave stalker stock much you know people are just like oh i'm leaving the new ip what they really mean is i'm going to incessantly talk about them for the rest of my life and watch all the sermons and it's like how do you know they watch all the sermons because anything i ever say that could possibly use against me is always found and used against me and i'm thinking like how do you even know that it's like you have to be the only way is you're watching every sermon and i'm just thinking like what kind of loser hates me and is listening to my sermons you're a loser don't why why waste your time you know it just makes no sense proverbs 20 verse 19 he that goes about as a tail bearer reveal his secrets therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips you know tail bearing is not saying something that's untrue it's saying something that's true but someone that's mature doesn't have to share everything that's true you know when you observe people doing stuff you don't have to tell anyone and some secret some things just need to be not repeated some things just need to not be said people make mistakes people do dumb things people are not perfect and we shouldn't just make everyone have to relive every dumb decision they've ever made and every mistake that they've ever made and just you can't let anything go and you just have to hold people accountable like the one mistake they made is just that's the only way we can talk about this person it's that we're obsessed with this one person's mistake forever it's like that's just a bad way to live your life you know you should let people live things down and and you should not just be hyper focused on every negative thing that someone did i mean this is a way to destroy your marriage you want to destroy your marriage just obsess with all the bad things your spouse has done and i guarantee your spouse is screwed up i guarantee your spouse has done dumb things at a time but you know what the charitable person the mature person lets things go doesn't just focus on everything and doesn't have the need to tell everybody everything and let me give you some marriage advice never ever ever ever criticize or share negative things about your spouse and you say well to who anyone the mature person in marriage will not will not share negative information about their spouse even if it's true it just doesn't benefit anyone now of course there could be a time and a place in the right environment you know if you're going to like counseling specifically or you have to give a police report or something yeah i get it but you know what it's not for you to just go and tell your parents every dirty secret about your spouse and you shouldn't be telling your friends at church every dirty secret about your spouse and you shouldn't be just telling the random church member that just showed up all about your marriage it's like share much look it happens people just walk up to a complete stranger and they'll just tell them like my husband did x y and z last night you're just like whoa okay i'm you know this is weird right i mean that happens don't do that that's not the mature thing to do you know the mature thing to do is to keep secret secrets and to not just just open your mouth and just let your mind fill it you know what you need a lot of times when your mind's full keep your mouth shut you know look what it says in proverbs 26 verse 20 where no wood is there the fire goes out so where there is no tail bearer the strife ceases as coals are to burning coals and wood to fire so is a contentious man to kindle strife the words of a tail bearer's wounds and they go down in the innermost parts of the belly you know the bible is saying when you don't have this tail bearing person there is no problem and let me say this when there's no carnal person there is no problem you know a church that has a lot of problems is just it's there's a reason there's a lot of carnal people in the church when a church really doesn't have a lot of problems there's really no contention there's really no strife there's no gossip it's just there's no tail bearer in the midst and we've had these issues we've had moments in our history where we have a specific person that is just a tail bearing spigot and just spinning around just sprinkling everybody with their their crap as it were and basically it just caused all kinds of problems and then you throw that person out and it's like all of a sudden just it doesn't even exist anymore it's like that's necessary is to get rid of those type of people in your lives and then not be around and of course we as a church need to become a church so that none of us are that person none of us are so concerned with all this trivial nonsense do you see what so and so did and watched and where and you know what they're i don't care i just don't care you're you're a sinner i'm a sinner we're all going to make mistakes why would we want to sit here and be petty towards each other for every little grievance that we have you know i see lots of things that i don't like and i'm not going to sit here and just pick everybody apart and treat them differently and get mad at everybody and police everybody and you know what we too as a whole church need to do the same thing we're not being petty about little things we're not mad and grieved about every bad thing that someone did or said or whatever you know the mature person just moves on and just says i don't care because it doesn't matter that knowledge will cease anyways as the bible told us in first green things chapter 13 go to luke 8 go to luke 8 and when you decide you know what i'm gonna alert i'm gonna instead of spending so much time bickering gossiping and being envious of everybody i'm just gonna go ahead and start becoming mature then you get the second benefit is you produce fruit why because number one you're going to be able to teach others and number two you're going to be able to produce fruit and of course the antithesis of this is the person that's causing strife and envy and gossip instead of producing that thorns you know you should produce some fruit which is what winning people to christ encouraging people to get baptized encouraging people to serve the lord encouraging people to get back into church encouraging people to stop drinking alcohol encouraging people to make spiritual decisions helping people learn doctrine you know but this doesn't happen overnight you know in order for you to teach the bible and start producing fruit you have to read the bible and you need to read the whole bible you know if you want to become a sole winner it does not happen overnight people that just get saved you say like i want to win someone to christ you're not going to do it in one day i mean it's you know unless you have like the miracle just like the fullness of the holy spirit come upon you like the apostle paul did where he could just go out and just like preach the little bible but you know people that just got saved usually are not there yet they're going to need to do some stuff like read the romans road a little bit you know study those verses a little bit memorize them kind of learn a layout of the of the gospel presentation maybe start going out learning how to talk i mean there's a little bit of a process to go from the day you decide you want to get someone saved to actually successfully just getting people saved you know it takes a little bit of effort it takes a little bit of energy and of course the person that's never going to do this is just a spiritual babe and what we should strive to be is we should all strive to be mature enough that we could get someone saved on a moment's notice man woman even the the young the young teenagers and young adults they if you're coming to my church you should be someone that you could just open the bible and just get someone saved no questions asked there's not really you know obviously some people are better maybe more more experienced but generally speaking if you're saved and you've been coming to my church and you've been having this much opportunity by this time you ought to be teachers and you shouldn't need the first principles again okay and and you should strive to become a spiritually mature person and you say well i'm too busy gossiping about everybody yeah stop doing that and start learning how to get someone saved you know that'll help you and of course when you're more focused on getting people saved you start realizing you have less time for all the carnal things because your focus that your priorities are in the right area of life whereas when you are just constantly worried about all the petty little things and strife and envy you don't have time for the spiritual things luke chapter 8 look at verse 10 and he said unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of god but to others and parables and seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand now the parable is this the seed is the word of god those by the wayside are they that hear then come to the devil and take away the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved notice that in verse 12 it tells you the salvation message believe and be saved you hear the word of god you believe it you're saved but the devil wants to take away what the word out of their heart does the bible say the devil wants to make sure that they don't repent of their sin the devil wants to make sure that they don't get plugged into church the devil wants to make sure that they aren't sorry enough for their sin no the devil wants to take away the gospel message lest they believe it and are saved notice that the devil understands how you get saved the devil's not confused and the devil knows that his one objective is to try and confuse people or to take away the gospel or to stop them from hearing it because if they believe it they're saved you know verse number 13 they on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word of joy and these have no root which for a while believe and in time of temptation fall away so hey they believe they're saved they're walking in faith they have the faith for the lord but you know what that faith wanes and they end up falling away who's this these are the people who read about hebrews chapter number six yeah if they fall away you know they tasted of the good word of god and you know taste means a short while the word taste means a short duration isn't that what we read about in this in this in this passage that they believe for a little bit it says and these have no root which for a while believe so it's like they didn't really do it for very long they tasted it they got saved but they fell away does it say get them saved again now they're already saved they need to get the they need to get the stones out of their heart this is what they really need and you stop being stony ground now it says in the next group it says and that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection so again you can think about hebrew six it follows the same pattern because the stony ground was that first group and then the thorny ground was the second group in that parable it's trying to explain these these different groups of people and again those that have the cares of this world the riches of this life they bring forth what no fruit to perfection why because of the thorns the thorns that are there choking that word verse 15 but that on the good ground are they which in and notice this honest and good heart so is the ground grounds the fine for us i already explained this but i'm just showing you it again the ground is the heart and of course the hearts what's producing the stuff right and out of your heart can come what thorns as i mean this is the parable this is jesus telling you what this means and jesus said thorns are coming out of your heart i believe that but of course you know you study the works of the flesh and you you you realize that what defiles a man is not that which goes into the man well what proceedeth out of the man is which defile the man adulteries and thefts and fornications so of course your heart is wicked and you know it's deceivable things and desperately wicked who can know it is what the bible says you know so if you really understood the the fleshly heart it doesn't have good desires that's why disney's always like follow your heart i wonder why they say that probably because they read the bible and they realize hey i know how to get kids to be wicked tell them to follow their heart you know why because their foolishness is bound in the heart of a child right and you got to drive that away with a rod of correction they don't say follow word of god follow the bible follow your heart right that's a wicked idea but those that have a good art having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit but notice this with patience meaning it's going to take a little bit of maturity to get there you're not going to just day one get people saved you're not going to just day one know all the doctrine of the bible you're not going to just day one be able to explain everything and understand everything about it takes time you got to learn all the basics you got to study everything then things start clicking you know if you don't get a lot out of sermons honestly it's probably because you have limited bible knowledge because i guarantee the people have the most bible knowledge seem to get the most out of sermons because they're making all kinds of connections and the holy spirit has a lot more to work with inside of them because the holy spirit is going to bring to remembrance all things that christ instructed you in and so of course we want to be the spiritually mature christian that can teach others and is going to produce fruit and is going to do it with patience you know sometimes it takes a while to get people saved even if you're our great soul winner so you go to north richland hills good luck there you know you you get the maps that dylan made it's like i don't know where we're going you know but hey even brother ben he's he's lamenting we're going soul winning and it's been it's been rough and it's been rough for a while i mean multiple weeks in a row it even seems like and he's just like it feels rough and i'm just like hey why don't you talk to this lady and hey she was super receptive and she got saved you know it took some patience to say you know what sometimes it takes a lot of doors some areas are rougher than others you know what i'm glad that we still went to that neighborhood so that person can still get saved you know i'm glad that we have people that are willing to patiently go so on you know sometimes people go so any i think they just expect to get 30 people saved the first time they go out that's not realistic go to james everything unless you're going to the bahamas i mean you're just you're not going to see that kind of that fruit you know it's great to go to the bahamas because it's just laying on the ground you just pick it up but some of these areas have been gleaned a lot i mean there's so many baptist churches in this area already obviously there's been a lot of gleaning already done here so we're not getting this the handfuls on the ground as much we sometimes have to work a little harder to get some of the salvations here but you know we should still do it we should still work our vineyard and we should still try to produce some fruit here while we have it and the spiritually mature person isn't just only interested in soul winning if they can get every you know every doors of salvation the spiritually mature person isn't going to just do it for a while the spiritually mature person is going to do it just forever just going to with patience just constantly get person saved person saved look at james 3 verse 13 go to now eat it say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas you know not what it shall be and the morrow for what is your life it is even a vapor that appear for a little time and then vanish away i'm reading chapter four i'm sorry verse 13 of chapter 13 i was like this has nothing to do with my sermon who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you let him show out of a good conversation his works with neatness of wisdom so again he's saying you know the wise men who's gonna be the wise person the one that's been matured and growed and developed he has he's a dude with knowledge meaning his nose a lot right verse 14 but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth this wisdom descended not from above but is earthly sensual devilish for where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil word you know let steadfast baptist church never be named as the confusing devilish sensual strife and contentious church let it be known as the spiritually mature church and you say well how do we know when everybody here is a teacher when everybody in here is producing fruit and when there's not contention in here yeah look there can be all all the contention they want out there but when there's not contention in here you know why it's because we're mature and and i'll say this if we weren't mature we would have strife so there is no strife it's evidence of maturity in the room it's evidence of people that care about the bible because where there's a bunch of carnal people there will be strife where there's a bunch of women there will be a cat fight where the you know i mean have you been to any you go to all the other churches they have tons of cliques and fights and women clit you know women's you know groups or whatever and they all hate each other and it's just it's gross you know because carnal people are carnal people but you know what spiritually mature people love everyone and they can get around they can get along with everyone and they they like everyone and of course you know people get mad they're like oh pastor Shelly made this mistake or did this wrong even if i did they're mad that my church doesn't get mad at me about it but it's like well that's just because our church is mature apparently they're just so mad it's like you should be mad about it it's like well i'm just you know older than you think about this do your kids do they seem to fight a lot but you know what it's not a very adult thing for adults to constantly bicker and fight is it right when i became a man i put away childish things little kids fight about everything me first i want it no i want to do it i want to get it it's mine you know and it's all about me me me me me i i i and it's like you get pastors that seem to have the same attitude it's about me me me i i i and it's just like you're a little baby up there who cares you know when someone comes up to me and they're like man i really like this sermon pastor minutes i'm like i need to listen to that sounds sounds great or a lot of times i've listened to it i'm like you're right that's a great sermon yeah i like the bible too i like good preaching too what what we're on the same team folks you know and the spiritually mature person just likes the bible they love christianity they love preaching they love people getting saved you know if someone comes to our church that's a soul winner and they say i got 10 times more people saved than you pastor chelly it's like praise the lord it's not a competition i don't have to have the the most numbers you know right now we're getting smoked in the baptism competition because i have to carry ozz on my back no i'm just kidding but you know what praise god that we have soul winning captains and people that aren't pastors that say i want to get a bunch of people saved and i want to get a bunch of people baptized and i care about people why because they're a spiritually mature christian and they don't have to be pastor for it to count they don't have to be the deacon for it to count they don't have to be whatever for it to count they just say i just love souls and i just want people to be saved and i just want to do the work of god why because they're a spiritually mature person the spiritually mature person doesn't have to be in the driver's seat they just want the job to get done they just want it to they want things to go well you know and praise god for men that'll hold up moses's hands you know and praise god for people that's a spiritually mature person right there you know it's a spiritually mature person the bible jonathan because as soon as he realizes that david's the right guy he strips off all of his garments and he just says hey here you go david why because he doesn't have to be david he doesn't have to be the guy let me tell you something all those pastors out there you're never going to be pastor anerson you're not get over it get over it he's better than you in a lot of ways but maybe you have an area that you can you can be better than him who cares you know but let's be honest i mean the guy's read the bible so many times cover to cover good luck catching up the guy's read the greek translation more than most pastors have read it in english the guy has memorized more chapters of the bible than you know a lot of these pastors combined have you even thought of it's like well he i you know sermons he's like there's a reason why sermons are so good he's read the bible so much there's a reason why you know you can't even hardly find a sermon they get nuked after five minutes of listening and five thousand people watch them and the people that have never been censored they have like eight views it's because your sermons are terrible it's because you don't have anything interesting to say you know and of course why wouldn't you want to seek out the guy that knows a lot of bible that sounds great i would love to listen to the guy who knows a lot of bible you know i love being around people like this that know the scripture and the word of god and you know the mature person says i want to learn from other people that are that are wise not like i've arrived i know it all let me just let me just teach you you know the spiritual mature person says i need to learn more and i need to listen and i need to go to church and i need to read the bible and i need to grow and it's it's you know it's about the cause of christ it's not about me and let us be a church that cares about charity and cares about others and wants to teach others and wants to produce fruit not for our own glory and vain you know exercise but rather just because we we love other people let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father so much for the word of god for the the self the selfless and just unspeakable gift that your son gave us and and we we only know in part but i pray that we wouldn't limit ourselves by being lazy but rather we would challenge ourselves to grow up to be mature to learn more and more of the bible so that we could be used of god that we could give more honor and glory to the lord we could encourage more people to be spiritual i pray that we wouldn't be focused on ourselves in this life but rather we'd be focused on what we could do for others and that we would just pull many people out of the fire we would help people to get baptized we compel the backslidden to start serving the lord and that we would be a church that doesn't doesn't care about the scoreboard for us personally but just rather cares about pleasing the lord in jesus name we pray amen all right for the final song song number 437 437 battle hymn of the republic 437 battle hymn of the republic my nights have seen the glory of the coming of the lord he is trampling out the vintage where the grace of wrath or store he had loosed the faithful lightning of his terrible sword his truth is marching on glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah his truth is marching on i have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps they have built the him an altar in the evening news and dance i can read his russian sentence by the dim and flaring lamps his day is marching on glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah his day is marching on he has sounded for the trumpet that shall never sound retreat he is sitting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat oh be swift my soul to answer him be jubilant my feet our god is marching on glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah our god is marching on in the beauty of the lilies christ was born across the sea with the glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me as he died to make men holy let us die to make men free while god is marching on glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah glory glory hallelujah while god is marching on god bless you are dismissed have a good night