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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Rock of Ages, don't judge my singing, because I haven't led songs in a while, but I will do my best, alright? Alright, we'll take it from the top, you ready? Song 126, Rock of Ages, okay. What's 236? Okay. What's 241? Don't know? That's okay. Alright, Rock of Ages, song 126. Rock of Ages, okay. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. Rock of Ages. Could my zeal no languor know, these for sin could not atone, thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling, while I draw this fleeting breath. When my eyes shall close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown, and behold thee on thy throne. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Alright, that was rough, but I'll try to get better here. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer, Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord so much for the time that we could gather tonight. We thank you for the souls that got saved today, and soul winning, and we just ask that you would bless the services tonight. And Lord, that you bless the message, fill us with your spirit. As the word of God is preached, I pray that we would have hearts to listen and be attentive to the message tonight. Lord, help me preach as I preach tonight, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Alright, second song is song 241. And when I stop singing that just means I lost my place, alright? Alright, ready? Let's have you any room for Jesus, song 241. Have you any room for Jesus? Have you any room for Jesus? He who bore your lead will sing, as he knocks and asks admission. Sin, will you let him in? Room for Jesus, King of Glory. Hasten now, his word obey. Swing the hearts, throw widely open. Bid him enter while you may. Have room for pleasure, room for business, but for Christ the crucified. Not a place he can enter, in the heart for which he died. Room for Jesus, King of Glory. Hasten now, his word obey. Swing the hearts, throw widely open. Bid him while you may. Have you any room for Jesus? As in grace he calls again. Oh, today is time accepted. Tomorrow you may call him name. Room for Jesus, King of Glory. Hasten now, his word obey. Swing the hearts, throw widely open. Bid him enter while you may. Room for Jesus, King of Glory. Soon will pass God's day of grace. Soon thy heart left cold and silent. And thy Savior's pleading cease. Room for Jesus, King of Glory. Hasten now, his word obey. Swing the hearts, throw widely open. Bid him enter while you may. Do you need a bulletin, really? All right. Can you bring a bulletin? We don't? I thought we did. Okay. Miss Mary, do you need one? Okay. All right. Welcome to Bible Believers Baptist Church. We're going to take our bulletins and just look at some quick announcements here. And the verse of the week was John 20 verse 29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. So great scripture there. And we are those people that have not seen and yet believe. So we are blessed for that. And I'm your pastor, Pastor Thompson. And there's a short little message on the top left corner there talking about welcoming you to the church and all that stuff. But if you have any questions for me at any time after the service, you're more than welcome to come up and talk to me. I don't bite despite what the rumors are out there. I'm actually pretty easy to talk to. So if you have any questions about anything, any spiritual questions, or maybe you're saved and you've never been baptized, or maybe you're not saved and you're not 100 percent sure you're going to heaven, please come see me. Or one of the other people here and they'd be happy to show you what the Bible says it takes to go to heaven. Our service times are 10 30 a.m. for our Sunday morning preaching service. Our Sunday evening preaching service is at 3 30 p.m. There's soul winning in between the services on Sunday. And then Wednesday we have a new soul winning time at 4 p.m. to which I was horribly late to. And then I went to the wrong address. And my wife was just pushing me and saying, Come on, let's go, let's just go, let's just go. And I was like, all right, all right. And like I was really just trying to find a reason. No, I mean, I wanted to go, but I felt like it was just like a lost cause because we were late getting into our room and all this other stuff. But anyway, we ultimately ended up going. And then, of course, we had the guys join us and Josh got his first salvation today out door to our soul. And so that's a really great, awesome first time experience getting someone saved. And last week he was with us and he was he like had invited a couple of people and just talk briefly. But he's been training for about two or three months now. And so he decided it was it was time to leave the nest. So and now he's he's off and and getting people saved. So praise God for that. And that's what it's all about right there is training the next generation to bring forth the fruit. So there's another man says that we had two salvations out today. So when I got a guy named Cole saved and we're about a half mile from the church and we got him right when he was coming home from work. And usually that's a bad that's a bad deal. The last thing you want to do is talk to some religious person at your door when you just get off work. So but he was really nice, really receptive. And he ended up changing what he believed in. He believed that you had to do works to be saved. And now he believes in Jesus alone, trust him for salvation. So we got two out there today. Even though we were late, we had about 45 minutes and we got we got two salvations. So it's really good. So praise the Lord for that. We're a family in a great church. That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services. And we do have a mother baby room that's all set up back there for the moms and children. And so we're just asked that no no no children over three are in there. No unattended children in any area of the building. Please no food in the assembly area and then reserve the back rows for families with young children. Rockers are for pregnant or nursing mothers and elders only. And then please help to keep the building clean. And obviously deep cleaning needs to be done all the time. But if you just clean up the mess that you make, then it makes everything a lot easier for the people that have to clean. So then if you would please silence your cell phone. If you would, I'll probably do the same thing. I don't want to be a hypocrite here. So and then assistance to your vehicle is available by the ushers. And they'd be happy to walk you to your car or any assistance that you might need. If you need something, just ask. So and then, of course. So now we have. Did you guys get two salvations on Sunday too? So that makes 77 salvations for the year. So great job. And so wanting. And with a small crew, that's those are good numbers. So and then let's see, I'll be preaching for the remainder of the Sundays for this month. And also we have I think we had Brother Rick and we have Brother Robert preaching this Sunday. And then Brother Sean Conlon on the weekend of the 24th. And then we're going to be in October already. Can you believe it? The time's gone by fast for me. I don't know about for you guys, but last month was just like I was doing a lot of traveling. So anyway, the upcoming events, there's a fellowship of Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. It's a conference in Cedar Hill, Texas, which is close to Dallas Fort Worth there. And it seems like everything's connected down there anyway. So it's kind of like Port 1. You know, it has all these different suburbs and stuff like that. So anyway, it's Pastor Shelley's putting that that conference on. It's supposed to be. It's always been a great conference. And so he always puts on a great conference. And then we have in November 8th through 12th is a missions conference. It's at Faith Award Baptist Church down in Tempe, Arizona. And the last one they put on was in 2020. And it was really good. There's also training that goes on there. Last time they trained with making maps and and they kind of had some workshops and things like that. And each day has its own continental theme. So I can't remember. I'm North America. So I'm actually preaching about this church and the great things going on in Yakima for the last few years with all the salvations and knocking like most of the reservation and things like that. So that's what I'm actually preaching about at the conference. That'll be on Friday morning. So if you can't make it there, you can tune in to the live stream and we'll try to make sure that people can get access to that information. If they want. So I think that's all I have for announcements. Let's see. Bella and Della had birthdays and Harley's is coming up and Danica. So that's on the 29th. So that's all I have for announcements. You want to come on up and we're going to actually we're going to sing another song. You guys don't want me to sing, do you? That was bad. Are you sure? Can we do something? What was the song you're thinking of? Do you know? Do you know Verily Verily? I think I can pull that one off. I'm sorry. I just haven't when I haven't sang before. I just haven't sang in a long time. It is. Do you know it? Can you play it fast? You've never done it? Is it Verily? It's Verily Verily, right? So 214 is Verily Verily. I think I can make this sound somewhat OK. Go ahead and just play like a little intro if you want and then. Oh, what a savior that he died for me. From condemnation, he hath made me free. He that believeth on the sunset, he hath everlasting life. Verily Verily, I say unto you, Verily Verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the sun, tis true, hath everlasting life. All my iniquities on him were laid, all my indebtedness by him was paid. All who believe on him the Lord hath said, hath everlasting life. Verily Verily, I say unto you, Verily Verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the sun, tis true, hath everlasting life. On the third. Though poor and needy, I can trust my Lord. Though weak and sinful, I believe his word. Oh, glad message every child of God, hath everlasting life. Verily Verily, I say unto you, Verily Verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the sun, tis true, hath everlasting life. On the last. Though all unworthy, yet I will not doubt. For him they cometh, he will not cast out. He that believeth, oh the good news, shout, hath everlasting life. Verily Verily, I say unto you, Verily Verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the sun, tis true, hath everlasting life. All right, hopefully Brother Rick never forgets his tie again. Let's go ahead and I'm going to call up the usher. We're going to do an offering. All the pouches are up there. You can just do it from the back. You got the pouches? Yeah. That's a new one for you guys? That's a good one though. Sorry, you threw stuff at me, I got to throw stuff at you. We can both sound, we can do our best, all right. The Lord said to make a joyful noise, he didn't say that to sound good. But, anyway, Brother Paul, will you bless the offering? Father, thank you for today's award. Thank you that you've come here to be your friend. We appreciate you, Father, and thank you for your courage. Thank you for the introduction, Lord. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you, Father, and thank you, Father. Bless the offering, Lord, for tonight. Thank you for your love, grace, and mercy. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, welcome to Bible Believers Baptist Church. I'd like to turn over to James, Chapter 4. For whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hands, even of your lust that war in your members. Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain, ye fight and war. Yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask to miss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteries, knowing not that the friendship of the world is an enmity with God. Who shall ever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resist the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Smit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nay unto God, and he will draw nay unto you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn, and weep that your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another. Brethren, he that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judgeth the law, thou are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgeth another? Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain. Where is he known, not what shall be on tomorrow? For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for little time, and then vanish the way. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boasting. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. All right, we're in James chapter number four. I didn't really title my message, but it is a Bible study, but lots of different topics here. And if I don't get finished up by 730, then I'll wrap it up and we'll have to finish it some other time. So we've been studying through the book of James, and I've said this before, but I believe it's a book of wisdom for us in the New Testament. And obviously I believe that James was the brother of Christ. He wasn't. It's not James the brother of John. It's James the half brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has a lot of wisdom. I mean, he lived with Jesus for a long time, so he would have thought he would have got some. So, and he did. He got enough wisdom to get saved, so that's great. But he ended up being the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. And so we're in chapter number four, and there's just a lot of wisdom in this chapter. And so I kind of tried to just break it down on, it's kind of like the right way versus the wrong way. And that's kind of the way I'm titling the topics here. But number one tonight, I want to look at the wrong way versus the right way to get what you want. Because, you know, a lot of people try to get things that they want through the wrong avenues. And even Christians do. Christians whine, Christians complain. Like you think about in the book of Numbers when the people complain to displease the Lord. It's like instead of complaining, why not ask for what you want and then let God just give it to you and then everything's okay. But instead they tempted him, they upset him, and basically he gave them quails until they were coming out their nose. So, you know, we don't want to be people that are trying to go about getting things the wrong way. So let's look at verse number one where the Bible reads, For whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lust, that war in your members? You lust and you have not. You kill and you desire to have and cannot obtain. Yet you fight in war, yet you have not because you ask not. And so this is really kind of strange to me that he's talking to Christians like this. He's like wars and fighting. It's like, you know, is he talking about literal wars? Well, I mean, I think that a secondary application can be there, but he is talking to people that are saved here. He's not talking to just random unsaved people. But why do wars happen in our world? Well, wars happen in our world because of people's lust and desire for power. And they want more. They're not just happy with the borders that they have. They want to take the borders of everybody else. That's why you've had many world empires, you know, that these guys that are conquerors, they go out and just try to conquer every single land that they can and make it into their image of how they want the world to be. And even the United States has kind of done this. Like, we have military bases in like 153 countries. There's a reason why we do, but we have a lot of influence over these other nations. We have military bases in Japan. Is Japan a free nation? Apparently not because the United States is occupying it to a certain degree with their military. Obviously, you know, there was a big world war where Japan attacked us and all that stuff. And Germany is, you know, basically was divided between the USSR and there was like the Soviet bloc. A lot of people in here are too young to remember this, but there was a wall in Germany that divided the east from the west. And, you know, when communism was at its height in the Cold War, you know, there was a communist side of Germany and then, you know, the other side of Germany or whatever, the non-communist side, I guess. But why does all this stuff happen? Well, people fight because they lust after things. And they go about and say, hey, instead of just asking for something or, you know, working out some kind of a deal, why don't we just kill everybody and then take what they have? That's what people have been doing for thousands of years. But, you know, James is using this language talking to other Christians. He says in verse 2, you lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. And it's really funny to me is that, you know, we have a heavenly Father that made everything. He can give us anything that we need, anything that we hope for, anything that we desire. And obviously, you know, you got verse number 3 where it says you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust. So, I mean, that should give us a clue when we're asking for things. It shouldn't be something that our flesh lust after. You know, why can't I have that person's wife? Well, because the Bible says that that's their wife. It's not your wife. You have your own wife. Or maybe you don't have a wife, but that one isn't your wife. They belong to somebody else. And so that's a stupid thing to ask for. Hey, God, can you, like, kill that person's husband so I can marry their wife or something? So that's a weird thing to think of, isn't it? But yeah, people do this kind of stuff all the time, and I'm not saying Christians do. But I'm sure among the Christian world there's people that want and desire things that they shouldn't want to have because we do have the flesh. We're always constantly fighting with our flesh to try to, you know, to wrangle it. Like I talked about the tongue last week and how the tongue is this little member, but it moves, you know, it boasts with great things. It moves against our own conscience. It, you know, it says things that it ought not to say, and it kind of can control the destiny of our body in a way. But God's saying here in James chapter 4, you know, you ask and receive not. Like when, there's sometimes when we do pray for stuff, but you're praying for the wrong thing. And so here's God's answers to prayer. Yes, no, and wait. Or maybe later, you know. But some things we just have to wait for. The Bible talks about waiting upon the Lord. You know, when we ask for stuff, sometimes He doesn't give it to us. Why? Well, because we're going to try to consume it on our lust. Like, please God, make me rich. Well, the Bible actually warns us against trying to just be rich and having a mindset where all we care about is money. Because money is going to lead you down a dark path, and I'm not saying we should, obviously we have to have money to survive in this world. But we shouldn't be worrying about being rich. Obviously, some people are going to be poor their whole lives. But, you know, a good prayer to say is, hey God, give me what I need to get through. Give me what I need so that I'm not, you know, cursing you. So that I'm not, you know, being too full and then, you know, acting like I don't need you anymore. That type of stuff. But God says we don't have what we want because we're not asking for the right things. You ask a miss that you may consume it upon your lust. So don't pray for stupid things. It's just real simple. Don't pray for things that you know are against God's law. Don't pray for things that are against God's word. And if you pray for a Lamborghini, you're probably going to crash and run a telephone pole and die. So, like, guys, you know, if you're praying for that, first of all, you know, they're really expensive. And second of all, you probably don't ever want to drive it because, I mean, they're just so, like, I would be in jail. I already know. I'm not, you know, God does not allow me to have sports cars for a reason because I would drive them like sports cars. So my right foot is not saved. It'll step on the gas pedal way too hard. So now I said number one is the right way versus the wrong way. Fighting and wars and arguments and envy and lust and, you know, wanting all these things that you're not supposed to want to have. You know, that's the wrong way to go with God if you want to ask Him for something. He says that you ask and receive not because you ask and miss, that you may consume it upon your lust. So what's the right way to ask for things? Well, turn to Matthew chapter 6. Keep your bookmark or something to keep your place in James chapter 4 and turn to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, verse 9. The Bible says, after this manner therefore pray ye. So the Lord's Prayer isn't some vain repetition that we just repeat over and over like a mantra like the Catholic Church does. You know, hail Mary full of grace, blah, blah, blah. You know, Jesus said not to repeat and pray in vain repetitions. So what do the heathen cultures, the heathen religions do? They repeat mantras. They repeat prayers over and over again and that's vain. It means nothing. But what's He say? He says after this manner therefore pray ye. Our Father which art in heaven. So the first thing we got to do is come to God and realize who He is and give Him, you know, acknowledge Him as who He is. The God of the universe, our Father, and it says hallowed be thy name. That means we're supposed to take His name and we're supposed to keep it holy and not drag it through the mud. Okay, so when we come to Him, you know, we come to Him in the correct way. We pray to the Father through Jesus Christ the Son. Right? And give Him the glory, great things He hath done. Right? You know the song. But that's how we should, how, you know, sometimes people will, you know, and obviously Jesus is God. If you pray to Jesus, you know, Jesus is going to hear you. Right? But like when the Bible specifically says how we should do something, Jesus is saying, He doesn't say after this manner pray, dear Jesus. You know, I only do the dear Jesus prayer when I'm leading someone to Christ. Because the Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And the Bible also says that there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So what name are we saved under? The Lord Jesus Christ. So when I'm leading someone to Christ, I tell them you must call upon the name of the Lord. That name is Jesus. And so, but when we call upon the name, when we call upon God, you know, we have access to the Father through the Son. He's our high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And when we pray to God, it's the Father through the Son. Jesus explains it right here. Give Him the glory. Make sure to hallow His name. And it says, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. So, and obviously, Catholics repeat this prayer over and over again. They call, you know, it's all, this is called the Lord's Prayer. Everybody knows it as that. But this isn't a prayer to just repeat. He's saying after this manner, in, what does that mean? In the same way that I'm saying it, then, you know, there's no specific pattern that you have to do every single time. Except for, obviously, who are you calling upon? Who are you asking? You know, whose name are you praying in? Those things are important, but like, when it comes to, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven, I mean, that should be our mission. What our will is should be what God's will is. Jesus' will was not necessarily to go to the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. What did He say? He said, nevertheless, not My will, but Thy will be done. So, Jesus Christ, the Son, didn't want to be tortured to death. He didn't want to be hung and nailed upon a cross. He didn't want to go to hell for three days and three nights. And, you know, I mean, the resurrection's the good part, right? Where He rises again and His body's all new. But, you know, there's still battle scars left over. You know, when Thomas said, I'm not going to believe unless I can put my fingers in the holes and the nail prints in his hands, you know, and thrust his hand into his side, like, I think at that point, Thomas just did not believe the resurrection at all and didn't realize what a stupid thing he was saying. But then when he saw Jesus and those wounds were actually there, you know, he didn't try to put his fingers in the wounds, did he? He just got on his knees and said, My Lord, My God. So, now, so, God's Kingdom, you know, is something that we should be trying to usher in. And obviously, I don't believe in amillennialism or I don't believe in these doctrines where the world's going to get better and better and then all of a sudden it's going to be the millennial reign. It's not going to get better and better. It's actually going to get worse and worse. The Bible says, seducers shall wax worse and worse. It's not going to get better. People that believe that, I just don't know where they're coming from. But we still are to do the will of God. And when we're praying and asking for things, it should be done in God's will. We should be asking for things that are in His will, not our own will necessarily. Now, obviously it's okay to ask for things. We're His children. We're His children by faith and we can't ask Him for things. We can ask anything we want, but it doesn't mean He's always going to say yes. Did your parents always say yes to you when you ask them for stuff? Hopefully not, because if they did, you're probably a spoiled brat and you never got spanked in your life or something. But I got whoopings. I mean, I was talking to that guy, Colin, when he told me he got spankings because sometimes I'll ask people that when I'm soloing, like, did your parents ever spank you? And sometimes people say no. And I'll tell you what, it's really a weird phenomenon, but a lot of times when someone's never been spanked before, they won't get saved. I'm not saying that happens all the time, but they can't understand why God would allow His children to still, because we still sin after being saved. And once He doesn't throw us into hell for the sins we commit, He chastens us like a father would a son. So when they can't understand that concept because it's never been done to them, because it's an important picture for us on earth that your parents are your authority, you follow your authority, you respect your authority, and sometimes they're going to correct you when you're doing wrong. They're going to teach you what commandments you're supposed to do and which commandments, you know, they're going to tell you the commandments maybe just of your life, maybe it's not God's commandments, but they're going to teach you in a way, they're supposed to teach you in a way where one day you can get the gospel and you can say, oh, this is what this means. God won't throw me in hell because I'm His son, but He will chasten me just like my parents did. Or, you know, when I break the rules there's consequences for those rules, and this is why you do it, because your life's going to fall apart if you just live your life any way you want. If you live by no rules, then you're going to have a rough life in this world. So it says in verse 11, give us this day our daily bread. So we ask God for the things that we need, and obviously we need to eat food every day. So He's using this as an example. Our daily bread, the things that we need to sustain us, whether that's clothes or a place to live, but, you know, daily bread is an example here. And it says, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And I would say that this is not necessarily talking about the fact that you're in deep with a credit card company. I think this is talking about the sin debts, you know. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, people that sin against us. And I can prove that to you through another parallel passage, but I think it could be both, but I think in general it's talking about sin here. It says, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So just real quick, back up to verse 12, though, we should be asking God to forgive us on a daily basis the things that we do wrong. And, you know, 1 John 1 says, good night. Yeah, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So that's talking about the relationship being repaired. It's not salvation, because some people take that verse and they think that every time you sin that you have to repeat that prayer or something. If we, you know, forgive me, I need to be saved again. Look, once you're saved, you're always saved. That's what the Bible teaches. It doesn't teach you can lose your salvation, so that's not what that verse is talking about. So anyway, so we need to ask God to forgive us and obviously to forgive people that sin against us. You know, the Bible says that we're supposed to treat our enemies well, pray for our enemies, you know, the people that despitefully use us, and we probably have enemies in our life. And I'm not talking about these vile, wicked, reprobate type people. I'm talking about people that are just normal people. Maybe they just don't like you for whatever reason. Maybe they're your adversary at work. Maybe it's, you know, one of your friends, friends that just constantly likes to torment you in front of other people. Whatever it is, you know, we should try to forgive people and have a forgiving attitude, because the way we are with other people, that's the way God's going to be with us. That's how God's going to deal with us. So look at verse 13, it says, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So we ask for God's protection. We ask Him, you know, if we are tempted, that we'll be able to overcome that. It says, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So this is just, you know, something that Jesus put in there to help us to understand how we're supposed to pray. And, you know, at one point His disciples said, teach us to pray like John teaches his disciples. And so Jesus gives this model prayer. Look at Luke chapter 11, verse 9. Luke chapter 11, verse 9. Kind of gives us a little more insight to the Lord's Prayer. What am I talking about here? I'm talking about the right way to get things and the wrong way to get things. When we pray for the right things, and we pray in the right way, and we pray to the right person, and we pray in the right name, and we have a right attitude, and we're not asking for things that are going to harm us. We're not asking, you know, for God to just kill the teacher that gave you an F on your report card or something. I mean, that's a little extreme, don't you think? God just killed that lady that gave you. You know, it's just like, that's pretty weird. Like, we got to, you know, go back to James when it says that. So you have wars and you lust, you kill and desire to have. Like, I want an A. But Luke chapter 11, verse 9, it says, And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give for a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he asks an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If he then be an evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? So God will give us the Holy Spirit when we ask to be filled with the Spirit. I mean, and, you know, I ask that a lot, especially before I preach a sermon. I want the Lord to fill me with the Spirit so I can preach the Word of God in the Spirit. But that's a command to all believers to be filled with the Spirit. Well, how do you do that? Well, you've got to ask. You know, He says it right here. If you then be an evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? You know, it says, and I ask you, and I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. So, you know, is he going to give us everything? No, just the things that we're praying in His will, the things that are necessary, the things that are needed. And sometimes, you know, the desires of our heart, if they're not some sinful thing, He's going to do that. But how we ask, who we ask, who we ask through, and what we ask for are important parts of our prayer. And we shouldn't be plotting to take things from people by having some kind of battle with them and some kind of war. You know, as Christians, we're not called to even have war. I don't believe that we're supposed to be fighting in wars at all. You know, obviously, if some nation came to take us over and we had to fight, then I believe that that's right. But, I mean, going around and just getting into wars all the time is just not what God called Christians to do. Because when Peter tried to, you know, Peter chopped the high priest servant ear off with a sword. And he said, put your sword back in your sheath. You know, this is not a physical battle we're fighting today. As Christians, we're in a war. We're soldiers, but we're not in a physical battle. And I don't believe God has called us to go into the military to just wage war on people, you know, and turn, you know, these Middle Eastern countries into seas of glass by bombing them relentlessly. I just, I don't understand how Christians become warmongers. It's just not something, you know, I'm not saying don't defend yourself. Of course we should defend ourselves. You know, if someone's trying to kill you, then you have the right to defend yourself. But, like, we're like in wars with people and it's just like, why are we in these wars? So, I mean, we're at war right now with Ukraine. It's like, everybody's just like, what have you been doing for Ukraine? Absolutely nothing. I'm not doing anything. And I'm not, you know, I just, I think that we should not be in that war. And especially when a Democrat calls for it, you know, when Democrats are warmongering, then what is the real agenda there? I mean, I'm not really sure and I don't really care, honestly. I feel bad that war's going on, but, you know, I just don't feel like us as Christians, it should be our job to just back all this warmongering that's going on. That's just not what we're called to do. Our kingdom is not of this world. That's what Jesus said. Or else my disciples would fight. But people just get this American pie, American flag, apple pie, baseball type attitude, all this America, America stuff, and they go too far with it. And Christians start watching Fox News or Newsmax instead of reading their Bibles. And their Bible's going to tell them, you know, to put your sword up in your sheath, not to go out and join the highest training team for the SEALs or the Rangers to try to go and kill a bunch of people that you don't know and you don't even know why you're fighting the war. And a lot of soldiers get disillusioned with this kind of stuff because they think that they're going to protect our country, but in a lot of cases, they're just like pawns moving on a chessboard for some elitist that's making money off every bullet, every gun, every tank, every missile, every jet. You know, it's the racket of war. It is a racket. So anyway, number two tonight is worldliness versus godliness. Worldliness versus godliness. Look back at James chapter 4 and verse number 4. James chapter 4, verse number 4 where you had your bookmark if you had it. It says, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, Know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God. And just real quick there, I don't necessarily think it's talking about literal adulterers and adulteresses, but I'm not saying it could. It's kind of like Proverbs. Like sometimes you can, or the arch saints of Jesus when he would say a parable, you can interpret those things differently. But here, I think he's talking about spiritually, but it could be either. It could be literally too, but you know, I mean not every Christian is an adulterer or an adulteress. You know, not every Christian is a spiritual adulterer or adulteress, but it says, Know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God. That's why I think it's not talking about literal adultery, because why would he ask that question? Because friendship with the world means that you're loving the things that are in the world and the things that are of the world. And you love that stuff more than God, and so you're basically taking things that are from the past that you really liked, or it just says friendship with the world. You know, if you're loving the world more than you're loving the things of God, then you've basically become a spiritual adulterer or adulteress. It says, Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And you know, I've read these verses multiple times, and you know, people just don't seem to get it. Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. So is it possible to be saved and be an enemy of God? It is, you know. When he told the children of Israel not to, if you do this, you're going to be cursed. If you do this, you're going to be blessed. So he lists all the blessings. Blessed will you be in their field and all this other stuff. But you notice that the curses in that chapter are a lot more than the blessings, because you know, we just get into a lot of stuff. But he's talking to the children of Israel who picture the saved Israel of God in the New Testament, and he's saying you're going to be cursed for doing this. So God will curse our lives, so to speak. I'm not saying you're cursed that you would go to hell, but I'm just saying that if you're standing right now with God, you're an enemy, that's a bad position to be in. But the Bible does say it. He's talking to Christians here. He's not talking to non-Christians. He says, do you think the Scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? And you know, just really quickly, I had a pastor say, well, this is a mistake in the King James Bible to me. He said, there's no verse in the Old Testament that says the spirit dwelleth in us lusteth to envy. But here's the funny thing about that. The funny thing about that is like in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament, there's many verses that talk about how our desire to go back to the world and look at the world and want the things of the world, it is lust. And lust and desire to have things which are wicked, you know, you're talking about envy, you're talking about covetousness. Desire and covetousness are the same thing. They literally mean the same thing. So when it's talking about the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, that's not a mistake. It's just something you can, it's a fact you can see in the Bible multiple times over and over again. Let's look at some of these verses together. Let's look at 1 John 2, verse 15. The Bible's very clear that we're not, He's against worldliness. He wants us to be godly. Because I think this is the Christian's worst hang-up, honestly, is that we do good for a while, and then we go back and want the things of the world. It's a constant battle with our flesh. It's a constant battle. But you know, if you really do go back to the world, it's going to be a place of pain. It's never the same. You cannot go back. It's like that saying, you can never go home. It's kind of true. You can't go home to your old sin life. It won't work out because if you're saved, it's going to vex you. And even though you know that it's wrong and you're still doing it, it's still going to vex you. It's never going to feel right because you know what you're doing is wrong. So, look what it says in 1 John 2, 15. It says, Love not the world. Well, what about Jesus? He said that He loved, you know, what about God saying He loved the world? Is this a contradiction? No, it's not a contradiction. He's talking about that we're not supposed to love the world, the things, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. See, God loved the whole world that He gave His only begotten Son so they could be saved, not so He could hang out with them, not so He could enjoy the things of Egypt. You know, the people, the children of Israel, they're like, oh, we remember the leeks and the garlic and the fish and abundance. They're just whining about the food. It's just like they're whining about what they're having for dinner and all they do is just ask God for those things. But this is lust. This is the lust of the former things. Look what it says in verse 16. It says, For all that are in the world, excuse me, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away and the lust thereof. So you see how it compares lust and worldliness? It's two, they go hand in hand. Lust and worldliness go together. The lust of the flesh, the things that your eyes want to feast on, the things that we want to see, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. You know, some people are just, they're proud of the life that they live. You know, I've asked people, you know, what do you believe it takes to go to heaven? I've literally been told, well, I was a school teacher for 30 years. I was in the military. I rescue dogs from the rescue place or whatever. It's just like, that's the pride of life. They literally think that they're a better person than anybody else because they do certain tasks in their life. And people will give you their works resume every single time. Like, at the door they'll be like, well, you know, when people are hungry, I really want to feed them. And they just start telling us all this stuff and it's just like, you believe in works. You know, that's the devil's religion. That's what all religions believe. The religion of Christianity is that Jesus died for us. We're sinners and we can't save ourselves. He has to do it for us. But the religion of Cain is what? Look at all these great vegetables I grew for you, God. Look at what I've done. Here's my carrots. Here's my leeks. Here's my garlic. And Abel brought what God said to bring, a blood sacrifice representing the Lord Jesus Christ. So look at Romans chapter 12. I'm going to read for you Romans chapter, or excuse me, Colossians chapter 3 verse 2. Turn to Romans chapter 12 verse 2. I'm going to read Colossians 3, 2. Romans 3, 2 says, set your affection on things above, not on the things of the earth. Not on the things of the earth. So our affection, the things that we think about, the goals that we have, remember it goes back to what's God's will? His kingdom to come. Not our kingdom, but His kingdom. When you start looking on the things of the earth, you're going to start looking on your kingdom. But when you're thinking about the things of heaven, you're thinking about what's going to be in the future, you're setting your affection on the things above instead, which is good. Romans 12, 2 says, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So God, so this is again an admonition against worldliness. Be not conformed to this world. What does it mean? Change. It means to change. You're saved now. Don't stay conformed to the things of this world. Don't think like the world. Don't buy things that the world wants. Don't hold those things as an important thing. We need to renew our mind. Well, we got the new man, so we need to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So when you get saved, you have a new creature in Christ Jesus, the new man, the old man, and the old things have passed away, and all things have become new. So God wants us to renew our mind, not be conformed to the world, and prove that what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You're like, well, pastor, you know, you're just saying that we have to be perfect all the time. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying we should try. Don't we, shouldn't we try? Shouldn't we, you know, if the Bible is like warning us against worldliness, well, that's why Christians believe about a lot of stupid doctrine that's not true, and then they start laxing on their spiritual life, and the next thing you know, you're backslidden, you know, and God doesn't want you to get backslidden. He wants you to do and be the most effective Christian you can be in this life. Look, turn to Titus chapter 2 verse 12. I'm going to read John 15, 19. John 15, 19 says, If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. And this is what happens is that Christians start getting hated for things and for following the word of God, and then people start to persecute you, whether that's your own family, whether that's your friends, everybody thinks you're a nutter, and that's just not true. The truth is, is that the world won't love, the world loves their own. They don't love Christians, and they can say that they love you all, but ultimately they are against you. And some people are benign in our family that are not saved and maybe won't, you know, take it to a crazy level of persecuting you, but in their mind and in their hearts, they're not really with you in the way that you would think that they were. Like, oh, yeah, that's just Grandpa ranting and raving about Christ again. Oh, I love you, Grandpa, you know, you're such a good grandpa, or whatever, you know. And that is, Jesus said the world will hate us. You know, He said it in John 15, the world hates you because you're not of this world. So you're like, I just don't understand why I get treated differently. Because you're not of this world, that's why. And that's why we're treated differently. I had you turn to Titus 2, 12, it says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, see, it puts it together there, worldly and lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, the world we live in now. That's what it's talking about. Because really, this is our proving ground, isn't it? This is our testing ground. This is our time to shine. This is our time to do the most we can for God. And, you know, we only got one chance at it. There's no such thing as reincarnation. It's just not true. So we have one life to live in this world, and it's a quick life. I mean, I'm 48 years old, and it went by really fast. And I'm not saying I'm gonna die tomorrow. I hope I don't. But, you know, I don't have as much time as I did when I was 20, you know, obviously. When you're 20, you know, you got the world as your oyster, right? So to speak. But when you're 20, you have a lot more energy. And that's why I think it's just funny when these 20-year-olds are like, oh, I'm so tired. It's like, you don't even know what tired is. Wait till you're 48, and then you've done the same exact thing that you did. You ain't gonna feel like you are when you're 20. Trust me. So, anyway, turn to 1 Peter, chapter 2, 11. 1 Peter, chapter 2, 11. I'm gonna read 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 4. 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 4 says, No man that warth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. So we are chosen as soldiers once we're saved. And whether you like that or not, you enlisted in the Lord's army. You might not have known that at the time, but it's true. And so everybody can do something for the Lord. Everybody can do their part. You know, in the war, they used to have those propaganda posters, you know, in World War II and stuff. Do your part. And, like, women come to the factories and, like, all this stuff, right? But, you know, God wants you, wants women in the war, too. It's not just, like, a man's world. You know, we, women are soldiers, too. This is the one military that you actually should be in. You know, the ones that are out there in the world, you know, were women on the front lines in the battles. Like, that just doesn't really happen. But if it does, it's just a shame. Men are the ones that go to war. That's just always how it's been. And to, you know, but when it comes to God's soldiers, this is a spiritual war. So we don't have to fight in the same manner and fashion. So women are in this battle, too. But entangling ourselves with the things of this world and the affairs of this life, it's like, you know, when someone's a soldier, they don't have, they can't just say, well, you know what? I'm really not feeling that good today. I really just don't feel like going to war. They're going to be like, get out there, soldier. We totally push ups and then get your gear on again. You know what I mean? So when you're entangling yourself in the things of this world, it's like, you know, I decided I want to get married, so I'm just not going to go to war today. Is that, can you give me a pass? But that's kind of how the woke ideology is these days, right? And I mean, when you just have, they stop making people pass certain standards of testing and stuff like that, when they're out on the battlefield, they're toast. There's a reason why they have those standards of testing. There's a reason why women can't pass the Navy SEALs program because it's too hard. It's not physically, they're not physically able to do it, and that's not a knock against women. It's just a fact. It's just like, women, look, there's women's sports and there's men's sports. There's a reason why there's a difference between the two. You know why? Because men are just stronger and faster and more aggressive. And it's not a knock. It's just true. It's like, but this world wants us to think that we're all equal physically, and that's just not the case at all. Just watch that video in the military where the woman and the man square off with these, they have these pugilist sticks or whatever, and as soon as they blow the whistle, the guy runs over there and just knocks the girl down brutally and starts beating on her with the stick. And they have to drag them off of her. And it's just not a fair situation to put a woman in. It's just not. But it's kind of like I was telling this story the other day how women kind of get this idea that they can hit men because they know that men aren't supposed to hit them back. And really it's just a bad precedence to set, but I was even talking to my wife about this today. I was at a school dance one time, and this girl just slapped me right across the face. I mean, just hand print right here, I mean, in front of a bunch of people, and I was really mad. I wanted to hit her back, honestly. I'm not going to lie. There's nobody else listening to this, so it's okay. No, I mean, when anybody hits you in the face, you're going to get mad, right? But I've been slapped in the face twice by girls. Once was another girl that I was friends with. I don't know why she did it, but she slapped me and gave me a bloody nose. And it's like I didn't do anything back, but it's a bad precedence to set where people are saying, yeah, women are just as tough as men and just as competitive as men. It's just not true. It is just not true. So this whole everything's equal, it's just garbage. It's fake. It's not true at all. I don't know how I got onto that, but anyway, did I have you turn to 1 Peter 2.11? Have I read it yet? Okay. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. So abstain, that means to stay away from those things. We're strangers and pilgrims in this land. The Bible says this world is not our home. We are passing through. Abraham was looking for a city, and that city was the New Jerusalem. So we're supposed to be doing the same thing, but abstaining from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. Don't beat yourself up and make things hard for you. It's just like the people that say that I quit smoking, but I carried a pack of cigarettes around with me. That's just a bad idea. Don't carry the cigarettes around with you because you're going to get in a moment where you're stressed out, and then you're going to smoke. So just keep those things away from you, and you won't have a problem. You have to cut those things out of your life. Look at 1 Peter 1.14. The Bible says, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance. So when we were not saved, there was a lot of things that we were ignorant of that God wanted, right? And if you just think back to how you were before you were saved, and maybe you were saved when you were young, so you just can't really remember, but the things that we were ignorant about, like I was 25 when I got saved, so there was a lot of things that I remember that I did out of pure ignorance. And even when I was saved and I didn't go to church yet, there was things that I believed even about God and about the Bible that I don't believe now. And here's the thing, is that church and the Bible will make you normal. But if you're just some shut-in in your basement, and you're looking at all the conspiracy theories, and you're watching Nephilim videos, and you're watching reels upon reels with lizard people, and 450 foot tall giants, you're gonna think some weird stuff. But when you come to church, and the Bible's read to you, and the Bible's preached to you, and you're around other normal people, you're gonna get more normal. So when you're a paranoid shut-in, and everything's a conspiracy theory, and there's a lot of conspiracy theories, I'll give you that, but church makes you normal, church makes you stable, and the best thing you can do is be in a good church where the Bible's being preached, and don't go back to the former life where you lived in ignorance, because you're not ignorant anymore. And ignorant doesn't mean you're stupid, ignorant means you just don't know. And so you didn't know it was wrong then, but now you know that it is. So that's when God starts to pull the paddle out, when you know you're doing something that's wrong, you know you're living in a way that's not right, you know you're skipping church when you shouldn't, you know you're not reading the Bible when you should, you know you're not praying when you should, you know that you're not going soul winning like you should, or praying for soul winners at least, then you know that it's wrong. And we need to be in church around other believers so we can be stronger, and be normal, and be better. So, but like is this realistic or even obtainable? Is it really realistic to believe that we can fight against the world and not be overcome with all this stuff, not conform to the things of the world, not having our affection set on the earth, not loving this world in a way that we shouldn't, not, you know, not abstaining from fleshly lust. You know, is it possible to live a life like this? Because it seems like it's hard, doesn't it? That's why these verses are in here to encourage us. That's why you need to hear preaching about these topics because we need to be reminded where our mindset is supposed to be. That's why the Bible says renewing your mind. So every time you come to this church and there's a Bible message preached, be prepared to receive the Word of God. Be prepared to receive that engrafted word that is the, you know, that's what saved you, and that's what's going to save you in this life also as far as like making big mistakes, making huge errors, committing fornications as a young person, you know, getting, you know, having children out of wedlock, there's just all these things that you can learn and glean from the Word of God, but, you know, it can be obtainable. You know, there's people in the Bible that live pretty good lives, and God wouldn't put it in here for us if it wasn't attainable. So it is realistic, and actually it's expected. It's not expect, like to have all the Christians, you know, behaving badly in this world is not what God expects from us. He expects us to be different. So number three tonight, I only got time for one last page here, but being humble versus being proud, and this is a major topic especially for now, for the time that we live in, but look back at James 4 verse 6. James 4 verse 6. So being humble versus being proud, the Bible says in James 4 verse 6, it says, But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, or for this reason he saith, God resisted the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. So grace means that we're getting something that we don't deserve. We're saved, but do we deserve it? No, we deserve to go to hell. But he says, but he giveth more grace, because God resists the proud, but he gives grace to those that are humble. So when we're humble, that's when we're going to receive the grace. But here's the thing, if we walk around with a prideful attitude about our sin, we walk around with a prideful attitude and treat people, and we act proud about our own accomplishments and our own achievements in this life, that's a bad place to be in also, to where you're hardened through pride. In Romans chapter 5, go ahead and turn to Psalm chapter 103 verse 8, but in Romans chapter 5 verse 20 it says, Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So sin has abounded in this world, but grace covers that sin, and so if you're saved and you commit a lot of sin, the grace is going to cover that sin. That's what it's saying, grace did much more abound, because it's always going to reach further than the sins that we commit as saved people. Okay, hopefully that makes sense to you. But the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but it's also a mirror for us to see where we're wrong in our lives. And so the grace that we get though is because of being humble. God hates pride. He hates pride parades. He hates people that say that they're proud. He hates Donald Trump when he's proud. And you're like, well, I can't believe you'd say that. Well, who's more proud than Donald Trump? I mean, literally, I think he's funny when he like roasts on Democrats and stuff, but like, you know, he's built the best bombs, he knows the best people, he's done the most, nobody does more than he does when it comes to, nobody knows more than he does about nuclear war. Nobody knows, I mean, it's just like, if you just look online, you can see the montages of all the best things that he's the best at, and it's like everything, pretty much. It's like he just, you know, maybe he's just saying that as a tongue-in-cheek thing, maybe he doesn't really believe that, but when you say it that much, it kind of seems like he does believe that. But, you know, if God hates pride, he's got to hate the things that Donald Trump says. And you're like, well, I can't believe that you're up here, you know, we got to be, we got to band together with the other conservatives and stuff, hogwash. Jesus wasn't involved in political stuff. He avoided it completely. Did you see him having Pilate over for dinner? Oh, come on, Pilate, we're going to have like a special ceremony for you and all the temple police. Yeah, come on in, let's have a service for the temple. No, he avoided politics. He didn't care. He didn't even talk to him. Like, literally he goes to Herod, Pilate sent, he doesn't talk to Pilate, and then he goes, he's sent to Herod and he doesn't even talk to him. He like says nothing to him. Why? Because they were wicked. You know, and when someone's wicked and prideful, God just doesn't want to have anything to do with them. So, he's going to give us grace and us mercy because we are humble. If you're not humble, though, what are you going to get? You're going to get cracked. Look at Psalms 103 verse 8 where I had you turn. It says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Aren't you glad that God's like that? Because I sure am. It says, he will not always chide. It means like, you know, strive with men. Neither will he keep his anger forever. He gets angry, but he gets over it. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. So, like in reality, God doesn't punish us what we deserve. He really just over, he doesn't overlook it, but he gives us mercy and grace. Sometimes for things that we probably should be dead for in all honesty. But, it says, for as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that, what's it say there? Fear him. When you have no fear of God before your eyes, that's a very, I keep saying this, but that's a dangerous place to be. But, you know, when you do fear him, and you do know that the hammer's going to come crashing down on you, and, you know, when you sin, and you go to God and you're humble about it, he's not going to come down on you like the ton of bricks that he would had you been proud about that situation. It says, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord did that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, and he remembereth that we are dust. God knows that he made us out of the dust of the earth, and he knows what, you know, our frame. We're weak. We're men. We're women. We have weaknesses. He understands that, and he pities us like a father would pity his children. So just remember this, that how you deal with others is how much grace God will give you, you know, when, you know, however you deal with others, that's how God's going to treat you when it comes to dealing out the mercy, or dealing out the punishment. So be merciful to those other people that you wronged, and be forgiving. You know, if someone does you wrong, are you going to hang them from the rafters, or are you going to give them some grace? Are you going to give them a little mercy? You know, when someone wrongs you and they apologize, do you accept that apology? Like, if they're sincere, because you can kind of tell when people are sincere. You know, have you ever, like, had your kids are fighting, like, oh, Tommy took my toy, or whatever, and they come and, ah, Tommy took my toy. You know, have you ever had that happen before? Well, you know, these kids, they just want Tommy to get punished, don't they? Their kids are just like, they'll try to do anything to get the other person spanked or whatever, but when you're merciful to others, and you give your children, like, I call it giving your kids the mercy card. Like, when I was, my kids were growing up, I wanted to punish them for the things that, like, if they broke the Ten Commandments, then they got spanked. That was just, like, kind of my benchmark rule. But if it was something that I could, you know, just pass over and just say, hey, you know, next time it's going to be, you know, the rack or whatever, you know, the next time it's going to be a paddling, right? And then they do it again, and you get them for it, but like, you know, it's kind of like, if you think about it, how we deal with our kids, or how, you know, how we treat others, is how we want God to treat us. So we should do that in kind where we have, because we have power and influence over certain people in our lives. Maybe not now, but maybe we have in our past, but how you deal with those people when they transgress is how God's going to deal with you when you transgress. So, you know, just think about that. Look at Matthew chapter 18, verse 21. Matthew chapter 18, verse 21. This will be the last set of scripts we turn to tonight. Matthew chapter 18, verse 21. So how much grace you give, you'll be given that grace back from God. How you measure, it'll be met back to you. So if you're always just like, I want justice, they owe me, they better do this, they better do that. You know, I need them crawling on the ground in broken glass, whipping themselves in the back, or I'm never going to forgive them. You know, we just want people to pay the highest price and the highest toll. But what about when you screw up, because you know what, you're going to someday. You're going to screw up, and it might not be the same situation, but then, you know, when you get punished and it's really bad for that, and then you think back to the time that you weren't merciful to that person, you know that's why you got it. So, and God will bring those things to your mind, so people will say, well, I'm just not really sure if this is chasing or if this is testing. Well, if God helps you to recall a memory where you were not very merciful to somebody else, and then now you're getting, you know, the hammer over something that's exactly the same type of situation, the way that you were getting met, the measure that you measured with. And so we should always be willing to be merciful to people and to make things right. God, Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers. And, you know, he didn't say that because he didn't mean it. He really means it. He's the prince of peace. You know, he wants peace. But, you know, we should be willing to be peaceful and be peacemakers ourselves as Christians. I mean, that's what we're called to do. But look at Matthew chapter 18, verse 21. Now, this is a very interesting set of scriptures here, and I don't have time to go into the whole story, but I'm going to read a pretty lengthy passage here and then we'll be done. But Matthew chapter 18, 21, it says, Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Tell seven times? So this, you know, Peter's asking a question, and I don't think it's a stupid question. I think that, you know, maybe, you know, he's just seriously curious about it. Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. So basically he's just saying a random number and seventy times seven. That's a lot of times, right? So, you know, he's just saying that we should forgive when people ask us, right? And I believe as a Christian that people do ask you to forgive them that you should, okay? Now I realize that some people give fake apologies, but how can you really judge it? But, I mean, you can kind of tell when someone's really sorry, but sometimes maybe you can't. But when someone asks you to forgive them, you should. And here's why. Let's read the passage together. It says in verse 23, Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants, and when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. So this is, you know, a very substantial amount of money for back then, millions of dollars, right? And it says, But for as much as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. So, you know, I mean, basically everything that he has is going to be taken from him because he owes this great debt. Now this is a picture of us having a debt with our sin that we could never pay for. Someone had to pay for it for us. Someone had to forgive us of that debt. And it says in verse 26, The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. So this master, this lord here, pictures God the Father, okay? And he forgives us our debt. You know, he comes and is humble, and then God has compassion upon us and saves us, right? But it says, But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, so like a fellow Christian, which owed him 100 pence, so which is nowhere near the amount of money that he was forgiven for, and he laid hands on him, and he took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. So the guy really just, he puts his hand, you know, grabs him by the throat, and his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. So he's like, he's not saying he's not going to pay him. He just said, Just have patience with me. Give me a little more time to pay this debt, and he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So this is like a picture of someone doing a minor transgression against us as Christians, and then us not being willing to forgive that little thing in comparison to the sins that God has forgiven us for. And it says, He would not, but went and cast him into prison, so he's making him pay. This is, you know, and this is that picture. You're going to make them pay for what they've done to you. But then it says, So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. Now I would say, it's okay, and I've taught this before, maybe not here, but it's okay to, if someone does not, you know, does not, you know, let's say they do something terrible to you, and they don't care, and they don't ask for forgiveness, and they're not sorry. I personally believe that you don't have to forgive that person. If someone is a mass murderer and they break in and killed every person in your house except for you, I mean, that person's a psycho, I don't think you have to forgive that person, even if he does ask for forgiveness. But when it's coming, talking about a Christian, a fellow Christian that asks for your forgiveness, or even if it was just a regular person, you know, and you say, no, I'm not gonna forgive you after God's forgiven you everything, what he's saying here is that God's gonna come down on you like a ton of bricks when you treat people that way, the way that this guy treated his fellow servant that really just did something very minor to them. And in comparison to the debt that we owe that God forgave us, they're not comparable at all. And so, to have a prideful attitude or an attitude where you gotta make that person pay for what they've done, and you're not just willing to forgive people when they ask for forgiveness, it's like, you're gonna be in trouble, man. You know, God's not gonna deal with you very kindly about that. And so, you know, it's very important that we don't have a prideful attitude, that we have an attitude of grace toward other people, and that we are forgiving one to another. If somebody gives you a dirty look, I mean, you don't have to right every wrong to you. You don't have to blast it all over the internet for everybody to see how so-and-so screwed you over or whatever. You don't have to do that. You know what? And anyway, God's gonna deal with those types of people anyway. He's gonna be the one, they'll be the ones that God comes down on like a ton of bricks. And obviously, if you're wanting that, that's also not right. I mean, but if it happens, it's like, well, you know, I'll try to tell them. You know? So we just should not be so quick to deal judgment and destruction on the people when we really deserve destruction ourselves, but God is merciful to us. So it's all in the attitude that you have towards God and the attitude because we're supposed to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, with all of our minds, with all of our soul, with all of our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. So when God sees that we're not treating Him right, He's gonna get upset, but when He sees that we're not treating Him right and not listening to Him and treating our fellow brothers and sisters not right, He's gonna have a problem. The two top commandments in the whole Bible and you're breaking them, it's not gonna bode well for you if you have a heart that is just not right and you're just wanting every wrong righted and you can't just let a simple transgression pass over. You know, sometimes the forgiveness of debts is bigger than just a little thing, but I guess, you know, Jesus is, there's a lot of things that we've done that are pretty bad too, I'm sure, in this life that we can think about and remember how we deal with others is the way He's gonna deal with us. We'll finish the second part of this next Wednesday, so let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the great wisdom in the book of James. I pray that you just help us to, you know, just mainly just out of all these things, Lord, that I just really have a strong feeling about tonight is the fact that we should let things go and, you know, that we don't have to just make people pay for every transgression. I pray you'd help us, Lord, as a church to be forgiving and, Lord, to love one another as you commanded, Lord, and I pray that you just help us to have a humble attitude when it comes to the things that we've done wrong and that, Lord, we would seek your face for your mercy, Lord, and I pray you give it to us. Give us that mercy and we don't deserve it, but we definitely need it and we'll pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's sing one more song before we're done.