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

Amen. Well thank you so much for being here this morning. Sorry about the late start. I think it's partly my fault. Normally I print my notes off somewhere else, but the printer was having some demonic possession issues, I guess. Both printers was legion. There were many, but anyway, I'm very thankful to be here to preach for you this morning, and I just want to say thank you to Pastor Jones and Mrs. Jones and the church here for having me here for your special five-year anniversary weekend, and it's a great honor for me to be preaching behind this pulpit, Shield of Faith Baptist Church, and Pastor Jones was talking about how long we've known each other. I was trying to figure it out, too. I guess I could have just went back to a Facebook picture that Miss Jessica posts all the time, but I don't, I can't remember how many, you know, she posted it I think last year, but I forgot what it was, so I think it's close to 10 years, though. I think it's close, so because this is five years in the ministry. Well, he was ordained five years ago last Sunday, right? So, but we've been friends for longer than that. We've been friends before we were even, you know, leaders or anything like that. We were just guys going to different churches that were kind of just, you know, trying to get soul wanting started in our areas and meeting together on a regular basis, and like he said, we met at a soul wanting marathon. We all had lunch together, and our kids were much younger back then, and yeah, we've been fast friends ever since, and yeah, I remember Pastor Jones' first sermon he ever preached. It was, we were at like a fellowship meeting, and it was the fretting plague of leprosy, right? Is that the first one? Yeah, and yeah, so he preached, I think it was out of like Leviticus 14 or something like that, but so, I mean, I remember his first sermon, and I remember his second sermon that he ever preached was at a, in Albany, Oregon, on a stack of chairs, and he preached a sermon about one of David's mighty men, and it was about his hand cleaving to the sword, and so I remember he, I said, did you get any sleep last night? He was like, no. So, but we've been through a lot, you know, in these last ten years or so, and you know, our hair was much less gray when we first met, but we've all been really good friends, and I appreciate Pastor Jones and Mrs. Jones' friendship, and you know, I'm glad to see that the church is doing well here, and I want to say this, that also Pastor Jones was one of the founding members of Verity Baptist Church Vancouver when we started the church there, and the first time he ever came to our church, he got kicked out of his church for coming to our church, so, and he, they lived like two and a half hours away, and I think that his, he was like, well, we'll go to the first one, and then he just never stopped coming after that, because when he came to that, his pastor was upset that he came to our church service, and so he kicked him out, and basically just told him nobody that went to that church service was allowed to come back to their church or whatever, so anyway, so he came after that, and then I think he only missed like maybe one or two Sundays for that whole year. That's pretty impressive, because a lot of people can't make it who live in town every Sunday, so, and some people can't make it on time, and they live five minutes away or whatever, but they made it every Sunday pretty much, I think one time they were sick and, or something like that, but two hours, two and a half hours back and forth, so that's four and a half to five hours of driving every Sunday for a year. He preached on Sunday nights for us, and when he left, I kind of felt like, oh man, Pastor Jones is, well, he wasn't Pastor Jones back then, it was Brother Joe, but I was just like, I felt, you know, kind of lost. I was like, man, one of my best people are leaving, and, but he left his cushy government job that he had, and, you know, it was really cushy, you know, that he had a pretty comfortable life up there, you know, he had a house, you know, good job, and he decided to count the cost and put all that stuff aside and, you know, go and train in Sacramento, California under Pastor Jimenez, and so he could come here and start this church. He answered the call to forsake all here in Boise, Idaho, and preach the Word of God and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason why I'm mentioning that is because, you know, people, sometimes people think that we have these crazy motivations for wanting to be pastor, like we're just like, you know, we're trying to get rich or something like that, but I guarantee you this, after five years, Pastor Jones is less monetarily rich than he was when he left. I mean, he probably could show you his bank statements and prove that to you, but, you know, it's just, it's just weird the accusations that we get as pastors where, you know, we're probably less successful in the world than we are as pastors. So, but, you know, for anybody questioning his motivations for being the pastor here, that's, it's just crazy, because really he could have just stayed in an old-life church and just gone soul-wanting or whatever and just not answered the call, but the truth is, is there's a great dearth in the land for good pastors and for men that will just put everything to the side and go and preach the Word of God. So I really appreciate Pastor Jones and his stand that he makes and the fact that he's been faithful here in Boise, Idaho. So with all that being said, the title of my sermon this morning is Achievements of Five Years or Five Years of Achievement. So, and I'm kind of gonna take some some worldly things that we, the benchmarks that people make after five years and kind of use that to to maybe teach some spiritual application for the sermon this morning. It's a little bit different, but it's still kind of, you'll see what I'm talking about when I get into it. So I really only have basically four points, but they're definitely different types of points. So the first point is that, and we're in Hebrews chapter 5, just we'll be in verse 11 here, but I want to take a look at five years old physically versus five years old spiritually. So Hebrews 5-11 says, Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing your dole of hearing. For when, for the time that you ought to be teachers, you have need one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong drink. So, and I think I preach a sermon here about not having, you know, not just being a baby forever spiritually that you need to grow up and things like that, but when a five-year-old turns five, a small child, there's a lot of things that that change for that child. You're not necessarily a toddler anymore, you're not a baby anymore, and there's a lot of things that children will do at five years old, but for spiritual purposes, in spiritual purposes we also should be a certain amount along in our spiritual life after five years. So the church is celebrating five years today, but I've noticed that there's a lot of people here that haven't been here for five years and weren't here in the first five years, but there some are that have been here for the for the last five years. And so, but I'm not sure, I can't like read how far along everybody is spiritually in here, because that's just not something that we can see necessarily unless, you know, you're here day-to-day, and I don't, I'm not here day-to-day, so I don't know where you're all at spiritually, what age you are spiritually, because when we become born again we are born of God and we're babes in Christ. And so being a babe in Christ is not bad, it's good because you're saved, right? You're gonna go to heaven, but, you know, we do want to grow, we want, we don't want to stay spiritual babies forever. Look at verse 13, it says, for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. So you don't want to stay a baby, you don't want to always stay on milk, God wants you to grow, he wants you to get grown up, and just like we have stages in life that we grow, then spiritually we also have stages in life that we should be growing. Also and it says in verse 14, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So it just makes sense that you're not going to have strong meat like steak or something that's hard to chew until you have teeth to do that. Babies can't eat steak, babies can't process that kind of food, and God designed our bodies so that, you know, some dumb parent isn't going to give him a steak, you know, baby a steak dinner, right? You know, he made us to be able to, you know, take baby steps in these things, right, so to speak. So, but being spiritually grown up is different, and the benchmarks and the things that you make to become a spiritual five-year-old are a lot different. But let's look at some of the things, or I'm just going to tell you some of the things that bench, some things that five-year-olds physically do as when they turn five. Well, one thing is I started kindergarten when I was five years old or six years old or whatever, five or six. Some people start later than others or whatever, but usually five years to six years old you start kindergarten. That's when you first start learning how to do what? Color within the lines. You know, most there's toddlers in this room, do they all color on the lines? Probably not, but when you're in school they start kind of, you know, teaching you how to color within the lines so that, you know, it doesn't look like some kid just like did this, you know. So you're starting to learn to not be a toddler anymore, but you're more accountable and more, you know, you're just trying to do more things with purpose than you normally would. You begin to learn how to draw, you know, and some people can be 30 years old and still draw with stick figures and then they never learned how to draw, right? But, you know, not everybody's talented like that, I get it, but, you know, you learn how to draw, you learn how to develop vocabulary more than mama, dada, and I need to go potty and stuff like that, right? So you start to develop vocabulary and then you also learn how to write the alphabet. You know, they have those little lines and it has like a little dash in the middle of it and you learn how to write your top letters and your bottom letters and, you know, I think printing is what they do now in most schools, but I learned how to do cursive later on, but, of course, the first thing you do is learn how to print the alphabet and you begin to write and add basic numbers and you learn how to ride a bike, hopefully. I mean, I don't know what men are doing these days, but you should, men, if you if you have a five-year-old or six-year-old boy or girl, you should teach them how to ride a bike, you know. I think people are teaching kids how to be on the computer screens more than they are bikes now, but, you know, it's a good thing to learn how to ride a bike. You know how my stepdad taught me how to ride a bike? He put me on the bike and then he just launched me and I fell down and I got back up and I coasted for a few seconds and I just fell over, but then I learned how to ride a bike real fast. I didn't fall after that unless I ran into something, but you learn how to do these basic things as a five-year-old and, you know, you learn how to tie your own shoes. Who could tie their own shoes when they were five years old? Anybody? A couple people? Nowadays, most people, you know, they give them the Velcro shoes until like they're 18 or something, but, no, I'm just kidding, but, yeah, I mean, those are just basic things. You learn how to do basic chores and so, you know, but to be five years old you don't really have to do anything. It's just time happens, food happens, and time spent and you're gonna get those milestones naturally as you grow up. There's nothing that's gonna stop that except for starvation and, you know, don't spend time with them. You don't feed them the right things and they might be malnutrition, but they're still gonna be five years old, but to become five years old spiritually is different. You must be born again and you must begin to live the Christian life or you're always gonna stay a baby. And, you know, you don't need to be going to church for five years to become a five-year-old Christian. You know, you can advance to five years in the faith pretty quickly as far as like being able to, because kids that are five years old, they have teeth, don't they? Most kids that are five years old have teeth unless, you know, Dad knocked all the baby teeth out or something. But, again, I'm joking about that, but what I'm saying is that they're ready to eat a little bit more stronger meat, aren't they? They're ready to eat hamburgers and, you know, maybe steak if it's cut up really good. But, well, how do you get to be five years old spiritually before you reach a five-year mark in a church? Well, you know, you really, and I teach this a lot, I'm not gonna go too deep into it because I preach a lot of sermons about this, but one thing you gotta do is start reading the Bible immediately, all right? When you get saved, you should start reading the Bible immediately and, of course, in churches like this, I'm sure that Pastor Jones stresses the fact that you should read the Bible, you know? I know he does, and the Bible teaches that we should be doing meditating in God's Word day and night, right? Day and night, and you should probably read the Bible once a year. And if you haven't read the Bible cover to cover, then you're definitely not past baby stages. I mean, I don't even think maybe necessarily one time through the Bible would put you past baby stages. Maybe you're a toddler. Maybe you've achieved toddler status at that point, but you're definitely not ready for strong meat. It took me about three times through the Bible before I started to really understand timelines. I don't know, maybe I'm just thick or something, but I didn't understand timelines necessarily of where everything fit together until I read it three times all the way through. So, and then prayer time is another way to start to grow up and mature, and you can reach that spiritual five-year-old pretty quickly because, you know, and the benchmark in the Bible where you see somebody that's really spiritual is Daniel. Daniel prayed three times a day, and it's very clear when they passed that law saying that he couldn't, you know, nobody could pray or have any petition before a God or man besides King Darius, then, you know, that's when he got arrested because he was praying like he did three times a day. King David talks about in the Psalms how he prayed three times a day. So, you know, and obviously not everybody's going to meet that right away, but that is a good goal to meet. Reading the Bible twice a day, morning and night, praying three times a day, attending church whenever the doors are open, you know, or whenever you can, whenever the doors are open on a special service, and just regular on a weekly basis. You know, Pastor Jones has some spiritual meat for you to chew on every single week, three times a week. He takes time, he prepares sermons for you, and it's not just about the preaching though. It's also about the fellowship, and fellowship with other believers, it does kind of normalize you and helps you to be a better Christian, because when you don't attend church, it kind of makes you a little bit, you know, you kind of start believing some weird stuff that's just not true, and it takes being around a bunch of other people sometimes to kind of rein in some of those far-out-there beliefs that you might have, like flat earth, hopefully nobody believes that, but there's just other stuff, the Nephilim doctrine. I mean, if you're going to church, you're not going to church, but you're watching YouTube all the time, and you're reading about 450 foot tall giants, you know, and you come in here, and you start spouting that stuff off, then people are going to be like, whoa, whoa, let me show you about the sons of God, okay, and then someone could teach you that doctrine, and you're like, okay, well, you know, maybe I did watch some crazy stuff before, and you can start being normal, but church attendance is very important. Soul winning is important, you know, to at least go soul winning once a week is important for your love for not just people, because we're supposed to love our neighbors as ourself, but we're also supposed to love Christ above all, and when Jesus said that we're supposed to do the first works, you know, the first works were come with, you know, follow me, and I'll make you to become fishers of men. So if you get those things going right off the bat as a Christian, you're going to grow by leaps and bounds, and you can hit that five-year benchmark pretty quickly, but obviously you don't want to go too fast. You know, don't just skip over the milk and go straight for the meat, because that's not the order that God wants you to do it. You know, figuring out all the timelines of the pre-Trib rapture, I mean the post-Trib rapture good night, see, that old IFB is just ingrained in me. So, but the post-Trib pre-wrath rapture, having that figured out as opposed to figuring out what baptism is all about, and what, you know, about eternal security, you should know the milk stuff first, the first principles. That means the first things first, right? The first, you know, it's just like going to kindergarten. You don't go to high school before you go into kindergarten. You know, you're going to fail your classes, so you don't want to start with the meat before you start with the milk, okay? So, and then another thing that would be very helpful for you is to start to try to live a separated life, and these are things that are going to help you meet your benchmarks, meet your goals as becoming a well-rounded and perfect Christian, is to come out from among the heathen and be separate, sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. And, you know, you start doing that and you're going to grow very quickly, and you know, you'll be able to be in a church like this after five years, because, you know, you're rooted and grounded in the truth, you're starting to, you know, you're going to be in a church like this, and you're going to get past the milk. You're not going to be like those people that like, hey, you need someone to teach you again. You know, you don't even have the first things figured out. Don't start trying to eat the meat before you start drinking your milk. And so, and it is hard to measure after five years sometimes. You know, people can be saved for 25 years and they can still be a baby. And so, spiritual growth is different, obviously, than our physical growth, but you can see the picture of spiritual growth in the growth of human beings. Now, and it's just, you know, we're going to get older and eventually we're going to die. Our physical lives are going to die, but obviously we're going to go to heaven. So, but, you know, you don't just automatically become a spiritual Christian after five years. Five years going to this church isn't going to automatically make you a great Christian. You have to put some effort into it, too. I mean, Jesus put forth all the effort for you to be saved, but, you know, you do have to put effort into your Christian life. You have to invest in yourself as far as making yourself a more mature Christian. And so, you definitely want to get past the baby stage and get in, at least, you know, for the sermon. You know, get, at least, get to the five-year-old mark, right? So, now, number two this morning, and this is something that is also, you'll see in the secular world, is that after five years of employment, you get certain perks of a job, or you get certain accolades, or you get certain privileges after five years of employment. Who's ever gotten an award for being a five-year employee? All right, nobody else? Wow, what company do you work for? That must, they must hate you. No, turn to Colossians chapter 3, verse 22. So, I've been, I've worked for, you know, some, some companies, and they, one time I had worked, I was working for a company for almost 10 years, and they gave me my five-year award, so they were just a little bit behind on that, but it says in Colossians 3, 22, it says, servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. So what's he saying? He's saying if you work a job, obey all the things that they tell you to do according to the flesh, not, not as men pleasers, not in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord. And then it says whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. So we're supposed to work our jobs as if we're doing them for Christ, as if we work for God, because in reality we do. Everything that we do should shine forth that we're working for the Lord Christ, right? And it says, so when you do it, do it as unto the Lord, even if they're froward, even if they're, your boss is the biggest jerk in the world, you look at it as if, hey I'm working for God anyway, and this guy's just kind of like the underboss or something. And yeah, maybe he's a jerk, but I'm gonna get through this. And it says, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Now obviously this is talking about earthly employment, but it's also talking about our employment under the Lord Jesus Christ. It says we, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Do you serve the Lord Christ this morning? Well I hope the answer to that is yes. But you know, in this, in the church, what is it, what is it that you're doing to serve? Because you're supposed to be serving in the church, aren't you? And you're supposed to, because the church is where we get the work done. This is the, this is what God set up for, the agency that God set up for us to be able to work for him. He works through the local church. And in the workplace, after five years, you're gonna get certain condom, not condemnations, commendations, awards, perks, at your job for achieving five years of employment. So, and I'll just name some of the ones that you might get. You might get a five-year award certificate in some kind of meeting, and everybody claps for you. Yeah, you got five years. And, but does that mean you're the best worker? No, it just means you were there for five years. So just because you're here for five years, I mean, you're probably not gonna get an award, you know. But there is a reward for being faithful from God, isn't there? So just because you don't get the paper award with the shiny gold foil on it or whatever, doesn't mean that God doesn't appreciate your faithfulness in being at church. Now, also, in some companies, you get what's called fully vested in the company. So I've worked for a couple companies where, after five years, you get full, you might get fully invested in the stock or in the retirement program that the company has. And so that's a good perk, isn't it? But you know what? When you work for God, you also, what it's even, what's even better is that you get fully vested from the moment you start working. Like he doesn't just hold back some of it and then wait till you've been here for five years to start getting your rewards. What's nice about working for the Lord, you just start getting the rewards right away, as long as you're doing something that isn't wood, hay, or stubble, right? Now, and then a raise. Sometimes if you get five years in, you get a pay raise, right? And then you might get more vacation hours. Any job I've ever worked at that you work, you get five years, it's always they increase your vacation hours. Who's ever gotten that one, at least? Anybody? Wow. You guys need new jobs. I'm just kidding. And then how about bonuses? Anybody get a bonus before? I don't know I can say that I've ever gotten a bonus necessarily, but, but, or you might get gift awards. Like I've worked at places where they'll give you like a watch or maybe a nice pen or something like that. So you know there are perks for longevity at a company. And another perk would be is that after five years of working somewhere, and if it's something that you want to be your career or something like that, something that you really care about, something that you want to do maybe for the rest of your life, maybe you don't even want to do it, but that's the career path you've chosen because you know it's going to support your family or something in that manner. So, but, after five years of working someplace, you truly get to master the craft that you're doing. You get to be a master and as far as just knowing your job really well. So who would say that you know more now than you knew the first day of your job? Okay, at least we got some hands raised. Okay, so you're like, nope, I'm worse. So, so, and that just makes sense, right? I mean obviously, and, but, but the thing is you have to, you do have to apply yourself. You know, there's some people that work jobs and they don't apply themselves and they're not better necessarily than the first day that they started. And you know, we had this saying, every day is a new day for so-and-so. You know, that you have to keep teaching them and you've told them the same thing over and over again, but every day is like a new day. It's like Groundhog's Day or whatever. They just do the same thing even though you've told them over and over again. So you don't want to be that kind of person, but after 10 years of just, or 10, excuse me, 10,000 hours of constantly doing something and applying yourself to something, you do become like a, you know, a pro or a very, you know, you're a master in that trade basically. And if you apply yourself, you become very valuable to the company that you work for. And so most companies, they're losing money when they first hire people because they're paying for the training. Are they, are you producing during the training? Probably not. There's a lot of companies that they put a lot of training into and I mean the first week is them showing you stuff and putting you through the dumb videos that you have to watch and orientation and all that kind of stuff. And then giving you all the stuff that you need to do your job. All that stuff costs money. So they've lost money when you sign on, then they have to pay for, you know, whatever benefits and all that kind of stuff. And then you don't even know the job very well and you have to learn how to do the job better and then eventually you become, maybe they break even with you. But after five years, if you've applied yourself, you're making money for that company at that point and you're doing well. So, you know, a lot of people, they invest a lot in employees and then they just leave real quickly and it hurts employers. And I would say this, and obviously if it's McDonald's and you need to move on, okay, I get that. But, you know, to just leave over anything, over everything is probably not a good practice to get into. And it looks bad on your resume. You know, worked here two months, worked here three months, worked here six months. Like, why did you leave? Well, I couldn't get along with the boss. You know, the boss yelled at me. I was late. The boss yelled at me. It's like, well, the boss is gonna yell at you sometimes if you're late. And some people just can't be, can't handle being talked to like that. And they're just super snowflake-y about things and, you know, their feelings get hurt because the boss, you know, chewed them out or whatever. Sometimes the boss is gonna chew you out, you know, depending on where you work. If you're working for a Fortune 500 company, they're not supposed to do that kind of stuff or they could get in trouble. But it still happens though, right? So, but if you work for five years at eight hours a day, you will become an expert at that job and you'll be very valuable to that company. So how does this apply to us? Well, if we can work for the Lord, the longer you do stalling, don't you think you get better at it? The more you preach, don't you think you're gonna get better at it? The harder, the more you learn about working in a church situation, don't you think you're gonna get better at it? Even if you're not being paid to do it, you're still gonna get better the more work you do. You're gonna become an expert. Say you're here for five years and you've been soul-wanting every week for five years. Do you think you're gonna be a better soul owner and more valuable to the Lord five years later than you were when you first started? Absolutely. You're gonna learn the nuances of those things. So the Lord is looking for people to serve Him and work for Him and whatever aspect of servitude that you do for this church, it means something. And you know what? You're investing in the church and you're investing in your future, in rewards in heaven, but you're also investing right now, because God does bless us on this earth right now for the things that we do for Him. And so really it's the best kind of work that we can do. Look at Matthew chapter 19 verse 27. Matthew chapter 19 verse 27. And Peter kind of asked this question, and a lot of times he'll ask some weird questions or say some dumb things, but then he says some really cool stuff and really profound things. But I always feel like that's talking about the average guy, you know. We say a lot of dumb things. Every once in a while we say something interesting. But Matthew chapter 19 verse 27 it says, Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold we have forsaken all and followed thee, and what shall we have therefore? What do we get because we've forsaken everything and followed you? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that he which have have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, he shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So we can't get this. This is already taken, right? This has already been fulfilled. But look at verse 29. It says, And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. So, and obviously I, you know, I'm thinking when he's talking about father and mother and wife and children, those are people that didn't want Jesus. They don't want to serve the Lord, things like that. And then lands, you know, basically you've forsaken anything that isn't part of serving Christ. And he says, What you shall receive a hundredfold, a hundred times what you've given up, because you've decided to serve him with your life. And it says, and shall inherit everlasting life. So the benchmark, the very least, like say you don't do any works at all. Say there's no works done, zero. The thief on the cross didn't do a lot, did he? But he still, what does he get? He gets eternal life. That's a reward, isn't it? I mean that's, that's a reward. Wait, did we do anything to earn eternal life? No. So the very, at the very minimum you're gonna get is eternal life. And I think that I'd be happy with that. I mean if I was a thief on the cross, I'd be like, okay, that's cool. You know, I'll deal with that, you know. So I mean we're gonna get stuff for working for God. So the cherry on top is that in the afterlife we're gonna also receive other rewards. So turn to Matthew 6 19, Matthew 6 19. And so some, sometimes people have this attitude, well I'm gonna go to church, yeah, but I'm not gonna really fully serve him or get really involved until I've kind of made my fortune. I've, you know, got my retirement or whatever. And they'll say, well I'll serve God when I can. But you know what? You're always gonna say that. You've got to serve God now, right now. And don't wait to serve God. Because if you wait to serve God, you're gonna be looking back 20 years later and say, man, where'd all the time go? Because time does go fast. And so look at Matthew 6 19. It says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break in and steal, break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure, treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So if your heart is in the treasures of this world, then where will it not be? In the things of God. So we have to put things to the most important thing. I mean, Jesus said, you know, if you forsaken all, then you're gonna get rewarded greatly for it. But if your heart is in the treasures of this earth, you know, where moth and rust doth corrupt, you know, people can steal your 401k. You know, all it would take would be a worldwide crash and all your 401k is gone. Or a few bad weeks on Wall Street, gone. You know, your retirement is not safe as long as it's in some bankster's bank account somewhere. As long as it's in some mutual fund that is intangible that you can't touch or something. That money is not guaranteed to be there. Social Security is not guaranteed to be there when you're 62 and a half or whatever. It's not guaranteed. They keep saying it's gonna run out, it's gonna run out. And, you know, I feel bad for the younger generation because it probably will be gone, you know. And Congress has gone in and raided it multiple times and not paid it back while they're probably invested in it in their insider trading scams that they do. And they can, they can insider trading all they want and it's not illegal for them. I mean, we really have a lot of disadvantages in this world. The rich are rich for a reason. You know, and a lot of, a lot of reasons why these, these banks are rich is because they're just fleecing. They're literally fleecing people for all their, their wealth. And so don't invest yourself in the things of this world because all that money is fleeting, you know. And, and all the treasure that you're saving on this earth, you can't take it with you. And your kids are just gonna fight over it anyway. So, like, what's the point? You know, they're gonna fight over it and hate each other. And it's like, what, what'd you save all that stuff for? So that they can fight? So that they can go, mom wanted me to have that necklace or, you know, whatever, something stupid like that, you know. So, you have just begun in a lot of workplaces to be an asset to your company after five years. But after being in this church for five years, you should also be an asset to it. And so I would just, you know, implore you to, you know, stay in church. Be in church and invest your time into things that matter. And why not get fully vested in the kingdom of God instead of worrying about being fully invested? I mean, obviously, we do have to, you know, support families and make money. I'm not saying be some, you know, wear a sackcloth outfit with a little belt around it like the tire, the fryer tuck or something. Or, you know, I'm not saying to do a vow of poverty and just sleep in church all night because I don't think Pastor Jones will let you do that anyway. I'm saying you need to invest yourself in the work of God and serve Him. So, because really, we get a lot, we get a really good retirement package from God Himself, right? And things that we won't see until we retire from this life. And when we retire from this life, it's either going to be through a rapture or it's going to be through our death. And so, what do we get to see though? Well, He's got the best benefits package. We get free health care for all eternity. We won't, you know, we won't have to have band-aids or we don't have to go to Kaiser to get, you know, surgeries or anything like that. It's just we're going to be fully, you know, functional and we can't get hurt, we can't get sick or anything like that, and nobody's going to die anymore. There'll be no more funeral homes, you know, that's going to be gone. So, our health care is fantastic. It's the best health care plan you could ever hope for. It's everlasting life. It's immortality. The Bible talks about us having mansions in heaven, you know. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. We get those new bodies. The ability to commune with God and see Him face-to-face someday and to not have to worry about our money and things being stolen down here because in heaven you cannot lose eternal rewards. I don't believe you can lose eternal rewards because it's just like you can't lose an eternal life. So, how are you going to lose an eternal reward? If you get somebody saved, how long are they saved for? Forever, right? So, how would you lose that reward of getting that person saved? It's not like that just gets stricken from your record or something. Oh, you didn't go to church on Sunday? Sorry, that one doesn't count for you. Like, that doesn't make sense, does it? When you lose rewards, what the Bible talks about losing rewards, it's talking about losing your ability to get that reward. So, the wood, hay, and stubble is the stuff that you, the time you spent doing something stupid or not worthy and then the jewels and the gold and all that stuff is stuff that you, time you spent that means something that counts for eternity. It's winning souls. It's, you know, whatever else good works that God deems is something that's worthy of eternity. Let's turn to Genesis chapter 29 real quick. Genesis chapter 29. And this is, this is kind of an interesting story to apply to this, but I was just thinking about it and I thought, wow, this is kind of, this kind of fits a little bit with church life. And, you know, one thing about church is people will quit. People come, people go. This is one of the hardest lessons I had to learn becoming a new pastor is that sometimes, no matter how much you invest in somebody, no matter how much time, no matter how much effort, no matter how much you've helped somebody, they could still stab you in the back and turn around and walk away. And you're like, and then you just have to, or some people just quit. Not everybody's just a bad evil person that leaves church. Sometimes they just quit. Sometimes they just can't handle the life of going to church or the life of being a Christian and they just leave. Now look at Genesis 29 16. It says, and Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well favored. And Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. And Laban said, it is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man. Abide with me. So he's saying, stay with me. And for the fact of the story, don't think the seven years is adding the five, so this doesn't have anything to do with the five years. It just has to do with abiding and working, right? And it says in verse 20, and Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love that he had to her. See when you love doing something, it doesn't seem time-consuming. When you love serving the Lord, it's gonna seem like a short time for you. It says, and Jacob said unto Laban, give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled that I may go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. And it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him. And he went unto her and Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for a handmaid. And it came to pass that in the morning behold it was Leah. Surprise! It was Leah. It wasn't the one that he worked for. For how long? Seven years, right? And he said to Laban, what is this that thou has done unto me? Did not I serve thee for Rachel? Wherefore then has thou beguiled me? And Laban said, it must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week and we will give thee this also for the service, which shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so and fulfilled her week and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel and he loved also Rachel more than Leah and served with him yet seven other years. So I mean if you look at this in perspective of serving for a church, you know, what was Jacob's goal? What was he trying to, who was he serving? He was serving Laban but who was he serving for? He was serving for Rachel, wasn't he? Was he serving for Leah? Was he serving for the handmaids? No he wasn't but he did get all that stuff, right? So when you're working for something, you love it, it doesn't seem burdensome to you. It didn't seem burdensome to Jacob, right? But when you work and serve at the church, you have to also have the mindset that you're working for Christ. You're not working for, you know, you might be working and helping each other but the main thing that you're serving is Christ. You're trying to serve Christ and there's that relationship it talks about as Christ, you know, the picture of Christ in the church is the picture of Christ as a husband and a wife, right? A husband loving his wife and then just like Christ loved the church, right? So I mean it kind of fits in that picture a little bit but so we're not serving in the church for ourselves, we're not serving for other people necessarily. Just like I showed you in Colossians, we're serving Christ. That's who we're serving and that's how we should look at it and if we look at it that way, we're never going to be disillusioned when we get Leah. We're not going to be disillusioned when we get Bilhah. We're not going to be disillusioned when we get Zilpah. When we don't get the expectations that we want out of church, don't blame, you know, don't just stop serving for Rachel, so to speak. Keep serving. Keep serving for the purpose that you came to serve for and don't get sidetracked over things that go wrong. Because let me tell you something, there's no perfect church on this earth. There's not one great Baptist Church that has zero problems, teaches everything exactly the way that you specifically believe it. If you're looking for that, that church doesn't exist. No pastor and parishioner is going to actually agree on every single nuance of the scripture. So what you should do, the mindset that you should have, is that, hey, I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ, and if Leah pops up, then, you know, I mean, Leah pops up sometimes, you know, and obviously I feel bad for using Leah as a bad example here, but really Jacob was blessed, wasn't he? But, you know, when you think about the life of Jacob, you know, when you look at it from an outside lens, you know, what what do you think about Jacob? He was a great man, wasn't he? But then you think about all the things he went through in his life. You know, this particular point right here, but also, you know, he went through a lot of heartache. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life after he wrestled with the angel, right? The angel of the Lord. He ended up with four wives that he only wanted that one. He ended up with twelve children, or twelve sons, and those guys, they took Joseph, his favorite son, and sold him into slavery. He didn't get to see him grow up. And then when he's old, he gets to go see him again. So he had these blessings in his life, but he also had some really hard times. He said, few and evil have my days been, when he talked to Pharaoh. So, you know, we're gonna live this life, and we're gonna have a lot of tough times, but if your eye is always on what you should be doing, who you should be serving, then when these life issues pop up, you're not gonna blame the wrong person. You're not gonna, you're not gonna get disillusioned and quit because your purpose was always to serve or master the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's somebody that we can always look up to. He's someone that never failed in life. And you know what? Pastors are gonna let you down. Men in this church, or women in this church, are gonna let you down at some point. But you know who's never gonna let you down? Jesus is never gonna let you down. As long as you keep that in perspective, you're gonna do well. I mean, so, you know, the verse where it says, he served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him a few days for the love he had to her, but he didn't get her, did he? Those few days were for Leah. He just didn't realize it. He got disappointed, but he didn't say, oh, you know what? I'm done. I'm not taking her, and I'm not gonna work for Rachel. I'm just, I'm moving back home with mom and dad. He didn't say that, did he? He just kept serving. So in reality, he served 14 years for Rachel, but he also got, you know, all those other things along, you know, that he didn't intend on getting. But life is that way, folks. Life is just that way, and we have to look at it from that perspective. He was working for the right reasons. His mind never changed as to who and what he was working for. And he found out he got Leah, he was upset. And most people would be upset in that situation. I get it, but he didn't quit, and you know, even though he went through all these unpleasant circumstances, you know, Laban was changing his wages all the time. He was out in the cold raising sheep, and you know, and then, you know, he was, you know, Laban tracks him down. His wife dies on the side of the road. The one that he loved the most dies on the side of the road, and you know, giving childbirth. I mean, he just, our life on this earth is hard, but you know, as long as we have Jesus as our focus, you know, that's our, you know, that's what we should really be focused on when it comes to serving. So look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 20. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 20. And if you've been here for a long time, one thing that's really annoying when you're out in the workplace also is when someone acts like they know everything. You know, you go to that workplace and it's like that, you know, the new person comes and they're like, yeah, I already know that. Yeah, and you're training them. Yeah, yeah, I already know that. Yeah, I already know that. Don't be like that, you know. Be willing to be teachable and learn new things from people. I just want to throw that little bonus in. And you know, and this kind of goes along with what I was saying about Rachel and Jacob here, but 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 20 says, But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some of honor and some of dishonor. So you know, this is a great house. This is the house of God, right? And so he's saying there's some great things about it. There's some sometimes not great things about it. But it says in verse 21, If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, that means set apart, holy, and meet for the master's use. That means ready, being able to be used, and prepared unto every good work. So put all the negativity aside. Put away, you know, and don't worry about the things that are dishonorable or the things that, you know, upset you. Because this is the thing, you know, you can start going to a new church, everything's great. You know, you know, I can freely talk about whatever I want. I can freely talk about the post-re-rapture. I can do all this. But you know what? After you're at a church for a while, it just becomes a church. It stops being special. But we should never have that feeling because, and if you start feeling that way, I would just challenge you to do this. Find a church in this area that's repent of your sins, Baptist Church, and just go there for one service, and then you'll be really happy to come back to this one. This teaching, you know, make sure that they're preaching about the rapture that night and how you can come back at any moment. And then make sure that it's, you know, maybe it's a guest speaker, and they do a big altar call, and they do like 15 stanzas of just as I am. And then you'll realize what kind of a great church you have to go to. So number three this morning, after five years of marriage. So after five years of marriage, there's usually, have you ever heard of, you know, people getting certain anniversary gifts for a certain amount of time? Like after five years, ten years, fifteen, whatever. So after five years of marriage, I look this up, I didn't get my wife anything like this, but you know, this is tradition, okay? It's not Scripture, obviously. But after five years of marriage, an anniversary gift is usually, by tradition, something crafted after wood, and it's supposed to represent strong roots. And that kind of makes sense, because after five years you've kind of had some ups and downs, and learned to get to know each other a little bit better, and things that you like and don't like, and had time to work on things. And you know, you should have been able to grow some roots, and been able to weather some of the storms. And you know, obviously some marriages after five years can still be really rocky or about to be divorce. Obviously in marriage you have to work at things, right? You have to work to make the marriage better. You have to work, you know, marriage is a constant work. It really is, because men and women are a lot different. And you know, we definitely have different personalities, and you know, Pastor Jones just preached a sermon at our church called Opposites Attract, but all opposites attack too. So I mean, it is true. But after five years, things should be, you know, there should be more knowledge to dwell with each other, and you know, if you're working at it. So that's, but the scenario, it does take effort, and just being married isn't enough to make the marriage grow. It's just not enough. You have to be rooted in that marriage. And what does rooted mean? Well, you're not going anywhere very easily. It means you, you know, if a tree has roots and it's got strong roots, it's not going anywhere. You're not gonna push it over. It's not gonna blow away with the wind. And when you commit to getting married, it's till death do us part, right? You vow a vow and say, you know, for rich or for poor, you know, and all that kind of stuff, till death do us part. And sickness and in health and poverty and wealth, forsaking all others, you know, and then you choose each other, and then later on you're like, I can't stand you. I want a divorce. You shouldn't say that kind of stuff, you know, because you already vowed a vow before God you said you're gonna stay together forever. But after five years, as a Christian especially, you should you should be committed, rooted into the marriage. And so it's the same way with our commitment with Christ, you know. A lot of times in the scriptures, he kind of compares his love to us to a marriage. Obviously, you know, we're not married as far as, you know, he's just talking about the covenant, the commitment that he has towards us is like the covenant you should have in the marriage. And a lot of times the children of Israel will break that covenant, wouldn't they? And Christians break that covenant, you know. But Christ and God have always been committed to the covenant they've done. They've never broken their covenant with us as believers. But, you know, and it's just like, you know, when when we when we fall away, it's because our roots are kind of taken out, you know. We're kind of removed from him and we have to move towards him and make things right with him when we are wrong. But our commitment with Christ, you know, he's committed to us. We should have the character and the wherewithal and the mindset that we're not going anywhere either. So after five years of being a Christian, you know, if you have character you're not gonna just leave and just leave the Christian life. But, you know, I'm not saying you're gonna be unsaved or something. Obviously, once saved, always saved. But some people do leave the Christian life. There's a difference between following him and not following him. And if you're not following him, it doesn't mean you're not saved, it just means you're not following him. And, you know, we should have roots like we have roots with our spouse, obviously, and we're not gonna leave him. The Bible says he will never leave us nor forsake us. And we should have that same attitude toward him. Look at Ephesians chapter 3 verse 16. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 16. The Bible says in Ephesians 3 16, it says that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. So Christ is rooted into us. It says that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. So we're to be, you know, we should be rooted in Christ. Obviously he's rooted into our hearts. He's never gonna leave us, but we should be rooted and grounded in his love, you know. And he dwells in our hearts. We should be committed to him like he's committed to us, because he's not gonna leave us. You know, that's a great promise to us. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God rested on people and would dwell in people for a time period, but we have the Spirit all the time. We have the ability to discern the Scriptures, and the Bible says the Spirit teaches us all things. So we have a great advantage over other people, and the saints of times pass in that way. Look at Colossians chapter 2 verse 6. Colossians chapter 2 verse 6. Colossians 2 verse 6 says, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So how do we get rooted and built up in him? Well, and established in the faith, well it says, as you've been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So getting rooted in Christ, you know, it has a lot to do with knowledge. It has a lot to do with learning doctrine, and when you learn to get to know God, how are you getting to know him? Through the Bible, through the Scriptures. Look at Psalm chapter 1. Psalm chapter 1. Psalm chapter 1. It says in Psalm chapter 1, verse number 1, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law doth he meditate day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. So the fact that a man, you know, separates himself, or a woman separates himself from the ungodly, from ungodly counsel, and delights in the law of God. And, you know, the Bible talks about you having strong roots, like a tree planted by the river. And so that's what we're talking about here, is having roots. And, you know, when you have roots, you're not gonna be moved to follow strange and diverse doctrines. You're not gonna be moved to leave the Lord you love. You're not gonna be moved to divorce your spouse if you have roots. When, you know, and this should be the attitude that we have as a Christian, hey, I'm staying put. I'm not gonna just leave over everything. I'm not gonna leave my spouse over any reason. Oh, he left the toilet seat up, you know, I just don't think it's gonna work out. I mean, it's not silly. But, you know, sometimes the little things kill. I mean, that's not a Bible verse, but sometimes, you know, it's those types of things are the last straw in some kind of stupid argument that you get into. And people get divorced for some really weird things, some really dumb things, but it's really a deeper seated thing. They didn't have the roots that they should have had. Now, let's look at one more psalm here, and we'll move on to the last point here. Psalm chapter 92, verse 12. Psalm chapter 92, verse 12. So, we should be planted in our marriages, we should be planted in the Word of God, and we should be planted in church. It says in Psalm 92, verse 12, it says, The righteous shall flourish like a, like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. So, the Bible talks a lot about planting roots, and us being a plant that has deep roots. So, and a palm tree flourishes where? In desert places. I mean, it could be like hardly any water and a palm tree will still flourish. And Lebanon is kind of known as being a dry area, an arid area also, but yet they have strong cedar trees. So, even in harsh conditions, you know, if we have strong roots and we, you know, are in rooted in God's Word, rooted in God's house, and rooted in the love of Christ, then we're going to thrive as Christians. We're going to be like that tree that's planted next to the river. Now, like how it says, planted in the house of the Lord, they that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. And so, I mean, what, you know, it's, so is it good to be planted in the house of the Lord or planted in front of your television watching YouTube videos? I mean, it's better to be planted in the house of the Lord, you know. And obviously, we can learn things at home when we're sick, or there's some reason why we can't be in the house of the Lord, but we should be in the house of the Lord. God's saying we're going to be flourishing if we do that. We're going to be flourishing in the courts of our God, and it says we're going to still bring forth fruit in old age. It said that in Psalm chapter 1 also. What is that talking about? Well, bringing forth souls. You know, don't you want to just, you know, obviously we talk about winning souls to the uttermost, right? We, you know, we talk about winning souls until the day we die. But in reality, if you're 90 years old, I mean, there's no 90 year olds that go solely in this church. There's no 90 year olds in this church. So really, we do have a shelf life, and we do have a time where we're going to be the most effective working for God. It's not going to be when you're 92 years old and you can barely walk. You're not going to do the triple decker apartment complexes anymore. You're not going to even walk hardly. So how are you going to do these great things? Well, it says that, you know, you're still going to bring forth fruit in old age. And, you know, in these circumstances, you're planted in the house of God. So, but you can still give the gospel to someone that comes to church, can't you? You know, there's other things that you can do when you're older. You could pray for people to get saved. You know, just because someone can't necessarily go door-to-door soul winning at an older age doesn't mean that they still can't bring forth fruit, because they still can't. But the mindset is gone with a lot of people. A lot of people don't bring forth fruit in the old age. They think it's retired. I retired from my job. Well, I'm retiring from church, too. They're like, I'm going to buy a Winnebago and drive all around the country and see things. Forget my grandkids. Forget this. Forget that. Forget church. And then, you know, the wife chops her hair off and then they both dress in the same clothes and drive around the country or whatever. It's kind of what happens. That's the American dream, apparently. But it's not my dream. You know, I want to continue to serve the Lord as long as I can. Number four, this is the last point, and this is kind of different, but it's the number five in the scriptures can also represent death. And you're like, well, this is kind of a weird turn. Well, it is true, though. So a lot of times, and look, I'm not trying to go into some, you know, cabal, you know, some kind of weird Jewish, you know, numerology thing or something. But in the Bible, there are numbers that repeat themselves a lot, and they do represent certain things. Now the number five does, a lot of times, kind of talk about death. So let's just look at a few of these things. Look at John chapter 1, verse 17. And if you think about, there's five books of the law of Moses. And what does the law bring forth? Does it bring forth life eternal, or does it bring forth death? It shows us that we're gonna die, and if we don't believe in Jesus, then we're gonna die and go to hell, right? So it says in John 1 17, it says, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So the way we get grace, the way we get everlasting life, you know, the way that the Old Testament saints are saved is from the grace of Jesus Christ, from the cross that he died for us and rose from the dead. So, and the law was given by Moses. So, you know, the Bible talks about death, you know, coming from the law. So, you know, we know that we're smitten because of the law. Turn to Revelation 3.1, it says, in Exodus 38.1, it says, and he made the altar of burnt offering of Shittim wood. Five cubits was the length thereof, five cubits was the breadth thereof, it was four square and three cubits the height thereof. So, you know, even the altar in the Old Testament was five cubits by five cubits. So, and what did they do on that? They killed animals and burnt them on the fire. So, and then Revelation 3.1 says, and unto the angel of the church in Sardis, these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars I know thy works that thou hast a name and libest, and art what? What does it say there? Dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Which church is this in the order of the number, there's seven churches, this is the fifth church, and it says that they're dead. And, you know, it says strengthen the things that remain. Revelation 6.9, this is the sixth or the fifth seal in the book of Revelation, the fifth seal in the book of Revelation. You're like, well why are you bringing all this up? Well, because, you know, some people didn't make it five years here. And, you know, they're spiritually, some of them are spiritually dead, you know, maybe in more ways than one. But, you don't want to be those people that don't make it. You don't want to be, and obviously I'm not necessarily even just talking about spiritual salvation, I'm just talking about spiritually, being spiritually dead. And people say well faithful how it works is that, or whatever. But I'm talking about being able to make it in a church like this, because some people just can't hack it and they end up quitting. They can't cut the mustard, they can't get through it. And so after five, you know, the number five is kind of the theme of the sermon, so five years. But, you know, I had to throw a negative in here somewhere. But, Revelation 6.9 says, and when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and the testimony they held. So they were slain, fifth seal, and they cried with a loud voice saying, how long O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And the white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them that they should rest yet a little season until their servants also and their brethren should be killed as they should be fulfilled. So the whole fifth seal is about what? People being slain, right? People being killed. Now in the book of 2 Samuel, there's four men that are smitten with the fifth rib, under the fifth rib, right? You have 2 Samuel 2 23, 3 27, 4 6, and 20 verse 10. And so it's always under the fifth rib that someone gets it, right? So one, two, three, four, five. And what happens when you get someone in the fifth rib? They die, right? So, and then you think about this. So Jesus Christ died, and how many wounds did he receive at his death? He had the two in his hands, two in his feet, and the one on his side. And so the one on his side, I mean, it doesn't say it was in his fifth rib, but it was. What's on your side? Ribs, right? So he got, you know, it was already dead when he got stabbed in the rib, but you know, that's five wounds that he received. And he still has those wounds today, like when he was resurrected, he went to Thomas. He's like, you know, go ahead, touch him, see him, feel him. So, but like I said, there's a lot of people that have left this church for one reason or another. Some not by choice, some people by choice. And you know, most of those people, they didn't make it to the five-year anniversary. And for whatever reason that is, but you know, in our church in Vancouver it's the same thing. There's just some people that, you know, for lack of a better word, just died and didn't make it to that fifth year. So one thing I know, like I said, it's true that people come and go, but don't be one of those people that just go. That just, you know, you get taken out for whatever reason. Because there's a lot of enemies. I mean, outside there are dogs. What is their purpose of being here right now? What do they want to do? They stand there, they yell at you, they yell at your family, they call the pastor's daughters whores. I mean, they say all kinds of wicked things about us, and their whole purpose is to stop you from coming to church. Don't let them do that. They've stopped some people from coming to this church. I'm sure that they have. But why? Well, because a lot of the reasons why is that they didn't serve in this church for the right reasons. That was my first point, right? They didn't serve in the church for the right reasons. And, you know, when life leaves you Leah's, you got to keep serving the Lord, right? You know, you got to keep serving the Lord for the right reasons, and they didn't serve the Lord for the right reasons. Whether, you know, in one way, because otherwise they'd still be here, wouldn't they? They'd still be here, but they're not still here. So obviously, for some reason or another, they were not serving the Lord for the right reasons. Number two, they never grew up spiritually. They must not have ever grown up spiritually because, you know, they couldn't handle, you know, the way that the Christian life is. They stayed spiritual babies or toddlers the whole time they were here. And you know what? You got to get mature in the faith, or things like that are going to happen. Because if someone's always having to rock you to sleep and give you a binky and give you a bottle every night and swaddle you in a blanket, you're not going to make it in this church. You know, you got to grow up, you know, eat some steak every once in a while and know what the Bible says. And number three, you got to plant some spiritual roots here. You know, have some character. Have some smarts. Learn the Bible. Have some character to actually be here to root yourself and ground yourself in the truth in this church. And number four, don't be like the spiritual retards of the past. And look, I'm saying spiritual retards, okay? Like, retard used to be a normal word, I know. Look, I'm not talking about people that are mentally handicapped. When people are like, oh, you shouldn't say that word. I'm not talking about people that can't help themselves that were born like that. I'm talking about spiritual retards. Talking about people like those people out there, dressed up like a bat, dressed up like a grim reaper with a rainbow grim reaper with booty shorts on or something. He's, I think, a man. What in the world? That's what you call a spiritual retard or spiritual reject. So you don't want to go the way of some of the people who have left this church in the past. And again, I'm not saying everybody that left is like that. I'm just saying there's a lot that left like that. And look, there's a lot that left like that in my church, too. But don't let these types of weirdos drag you out. Hey, if you follow all these patterns, and look, I know that this wasn't necessarily the most orthodox sermon I've ever preached in my life, but, you know, I was trying to figure something out with fives, right, okay? But, you know, hey, they didn't plant the roots. They weren't mature in the faith, and they weren't working for the right reasons. And all those things are gonna just get you out of here before five years. And, you know, so I want people, I want everybody in this room to still be here serving God five years from now, and maybe I'll be invited back for the next one, hopefully. But if not, then, you know, you were warned. You get warned every single week from this pastor and taught the Word of God. He spends a lot of time just focusing on the Word of God, preaching the Word of God, helping, and it seems like, you know, we can sit here and just preach these sermons, and it just like goes over people's heads. Don't let these truths go over your heads. You have to, you know, be accountable for what you hear, you know, because too much is given, much is required. And when you come to a church like this, you're gonna get a lot, maybe you're not gonna get a lot monetarily given, but you're gonna get a lot spiritually given. And when you get that responsibility and you just kind of like, yeah, then God will beat you with many stripes. That's what the Bible says. So when you have a lot of knowledge and you just misuse it or throw it in the trash, or you just ignore it, which is the worst thing you can do, because when the people, the children of Israel would ignore the things that God, they knew what the will of the Lord was, but they didn't do it, those are the people that God really gets upset with. If you're just ignorant and just you don't understand what I'm talking about, that's one thing. But if you understand and you just choose to do the opposite, then that's when you're gonna get yourself into trouble with God. But I'm thankful that you're here today. I'm thankful that there's people here for the five year anniversary. And stand behind your pastor, you know. It's a hard job. It's a hard job always, you know, people are like, well, he's always negative. Well, people are always negative towards him too. You know, these people talk about how much, how hateful we are. Well, how hateful is it to stand there and say all kinds of things to us too? Like they're hypocrites, aren't they? Well, we hate you because you hate us. But you still hate us though, right? So you hate. Oh, I thought hate was wrong. I thought we preached the wrong Jesus. It's like, what are you talking about? But these guys are spiritual freaks and retards, okay? Don't worry about them. What are you serving for? The Lord Jesus Christ, right? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this great group of believers here. We thank you for Pastor Jones, Mr. Jones, and the whole family here. Thank you for the spiritual family here, Lord. We pray that you just bless this church for many years to come. And Lord, they'd be a powerhouse in Boise, Idaho, for preaching and for soul winning for many, many years to come. And we thank you for your love for this church, Lord. Pray you just bless it and keep a hedge of protection about it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.