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I'll carry you out there. I'll help you get out there. No problem. Don't hesitate to ask anyway We do have online donations coming So if you're one of those people don't want to like to go to church But you want to just give all your money. No, I'm kidding. We're gonna have that coming up and so get ready for that Man, we got 73 souls saved so far this year That's a lot for our little church praise God for that and I pastor went out today with his wife and one another One I believe so. Praise the Lord praise God You can see the September tithes and offerings there and we don't announce that for everybody. It's not in their business So anyway, pastor Thompson is going to be here preaching tonight. He'll be here next Wednesday, too Don't miss it this coming Sunday We got brother Sean Brother Sean Collins gonna come and preach for us morning and night I'm looking really looking forward to that love brother Sean and his preaching a very Well-learning man in the Bible. So let's go ahead and sing another song now page 37 How great thou art a Great song that was in Europe for a half a century before it came over here this song I know for a fact it was in Russia For quite a while before it came over here they call it cock TV leak over there That means how great thou art in Russian page 37 Sing it out nice and loud now Oh Lord my God when I in awesome wonder I See the stars I hear the rolling thunder Then sings my soul my savior God How great thou art How great thou art Then sings my soul my savior God to thee How great thou art How great thou art On the second And forest glades I wonder And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul my savior God to thee How great thou art How great thou art Then sings my soul my savior God to thee How great thou art How great thou art On the third and when I think that God his son not sparing Send him to die I Spares can take it in That on the cross My burden gladly bearing He bled and died To take away my sin Then sings my soul my savior God to thee How great thou art How great thou art Then sings my soul my savior God to thee How great thou art How great thou art When Christ shall come Wish out of acclamation And take me home The joy shall fill my heart Then I shall bow in humble adoration And they proclaim my God how great thou art Then sings my soul my savior God to thee How great thou art How great thou art Then sings my soul my savior God to thee How great thou art How great thou art One more page 299 page 299 Day by day my daddy's favorite songs My daddy used to go here Passed away about six years ago He used to sit two rows in front of you pastor Oh Strength I find to meet my trials here Trusting in my father's lies me storm and I've no calls for worry or for fear He who's hard is kind beyond the measure Gives unto each day what he deems best Lovingly it's part of pain and pleasure Mingling toil with peace and rest Every day the Lord himself is near me with a special mercy for each hour All my cares he fain would bear and cheer me He whose name is counselor and power The protection of his child and treasure Is a charge that on himself he laid As thy days thy strength shall be in measure This the pledge to me he made Help me then in every tribulation So To trust thy promises. Oh Lord That I lose not faith sweet consolation Offered me within thy holy word Help me Lord when toil and trouble meeting There to take as from a father's hand One by one the days the moments fleeting till I reach the promised land And now we're going to take an offering So Let's pray for that offering dear Lord bless this offering father Just bless it for thy use father may be used for thy honor and glory to bring souls to you to take care of the expenses here and And everything else Lord. We just thank you father that we have an opportunity to be here and serve you We thank you for this offering and we're about to receive in Jesus precious name. Amen You Let's turn our Bibles to James chapter 4 James chapter 4 you'll see it right around the back there by Hebrews You'll see it back there in the back of the Bible there No before you get to First second third John and Peter and all that James chapter 4 For once come wars and fightings among you Come they not hence even of your lusts that warn your members You're less than have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet You have not because you ask not You ask and receive not Because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts The adulterers and adulteresses know you not that the friendship the world is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Do you think that the scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace wherefore he saith God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble Submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you Draw an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded Be afflicted in mourn and weep let your laughter return to morning in your joy to heaviness Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Speak not evil one of another brother He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeth his brother speaketh evil of the law and judgeth the law But if thou judge 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 you did say today or tomorrow We will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away for that You ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that But now you rejoice in your boastings all such rejoicing is evil Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin Mr. Thompson All right, good evening everybody And before I get started in the sermon, I just wanted to mention a couple more Announcements we're planning on having a soul any marathon That's gonna be October 20th and 21st. There may be a special guest speaker on Friday But regardless of whether that person is able to come or not They're still gonna be preaching. So if that person's not coming then I'll be doing the preaching But we're still gonna have a preaching time. We're gonna it's gonna be here at the church, of course, and I Was planning on doing maybe a couple hours of soul winning on Friday And I definitely want to knock the town of Hera so the Yakima small town, it's I guess as you go towards White Swan, it's west of Wapato, I think I'm right about that. But it's I think it's about a town of about 500 or something like that So there is a Baptist Church in town It sounds like they are saved but I still want to go there anyway and do some soul winning. So I was trying to buy some some stun guns for the dogs, but the state of Washington Isn't letting me buy them anymore for whatever reason, but I think I might have enough Laying around our church back in Vancouver I can bring them we're not gonna actually use them to stun the dogs unless we have to but you know Those res dogs they they will come after you And I've talked about the Chihuahua leader of the gang in White Swan and I wasn't joking that that dog was mean Had it controlled all the other bigger dogs that were in the town so But anyways, that's the most scary part for me about knocking these towns is when you get into those reservation the towns that a lot of people have dogs, but a lot of people just kind of let him roam around and I've almost Got bit before I think when I was in Wapato the last time this dog I didn't see him and he was just like one of those dogs those creeper dogs He was in his he was in his little house or whatever And as soon as I started to step in the yard it just like shot out of its doghouse and like like Almost bit me like it was really close. But anyway, so enough about that But I just wanted to make mention of that and will of course be very hospitable and if anybody wants to come And and spend the night here Just needs to talk to like if someone's from out of town and they want to come to the event They just need to see me about maybe Possibly maybe getting a group rate. I'd like to do a group rate at the hotel. We normally stay at but But if anybody needs a hotel for that night, they can come talk to me about it. So Or just message me. So anyway, James chapter 4. Let's get into the to the word here and So this is the second Sermon in James and like I've said before I kind of just recap a little bit that James is like the book of wisdom not not that all books aren't the book of wisdom in the Bible, but It's kind of like the proverbs of the New Testament in my opinion So a lot of great stuff here a lot of Christian living Christian principles how to treat one another and just things We should not say, you know, there's a whole there's a whole chapter just about how how damaging the tongue can be and This kind of just has a little bit of a hodgepodge of things in it And I got to I think verse 6 last time, but I am gonna finish the whole chapter tonight It's not that long of a chapter. So but I was kind of going with the theme of You know doing one thing versus the other and I'm gonna kind of continue that theme tonight So let's look down at our Bibles at verse number seven. The Bible says submit yourselves therefore to God Resist the devil and he will flee from you. I'm gonna pray real quick Heavenly Father we thank you Lord so much for this great church here and Lord May be small in number but Lord I believe that you're gonna build this church into a great powerhouse of soul winning and Lord I just pray that you'd bring forth labors to the harvest I pray Lord that people get plugged into this church and get faithful and I pray that you would just help us to be Examples as leaders in the church here and we pray that you would just bless the services tonight and Lord though we'd be few in number tonight Pray you would just bless each person that came tonight to hear the Word of God preached and to sing songs to you in Jesus Name we pray Amen, so submit yourselves therefore to God Resist the devil and he will flee from you. So point number one tonight is submitting to God versus submitting To Satan because if you don't submit as a Christian if you don't submit yourselves to God Then who are you really submitting yourself to I mean because Satan is the one that made humanity to fall in the first place So in reality if we're not submitting ourselves to God We're submitting ourselves to the world to the ways of the world and who really is the one that makes these ways What like why is the world the way it is because of Satan? You know Satan is the one that made Adam and Eve fall in the garden Satan is the one that controls the world through his Principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places and you know what Christians like to fall into the trap of the devil all the time But the Bible says if we resist the devil he will flee from us now turn to Matthew chapter 4 verse 1 I want to show you how Jesus made Satan flee from him because you know I'm not gonna pull some Billy Sunday moves up here and just say yeah, come on devil. Let's fight and all this other stuff We're gonna have a boxing match and like have some fake Shadow boxing up here where I'm pretending to fight the devil or something. That's ridiculous If the devil wanted to fight me and and God let him he could kill me easily So I mean to get up here and say that you could fight that We're gonna fight the devil in some spiritual or physical fight It's not gonna happen as a matter of fact We the Bible says we shouldn't rail against the devil, you know, don't even the devil We're not supposed to rail against so saying things About the devil that aren't true is not something that Christians should do either as a matter of fact I think we should avoid trying to say that we're gonna fight him the only way we can fight him is to resist his will and his will is completely just always bombarding our lives and our minds and our eyes and our ears and Everything about us every single day of our lives and and look we we Christians have a hard fight You want to talk about people that have a hard fight in this world people like oh, yeah Christians are just treated like that. We're treated like garbage We're treated like garbage by our own families. We're treated by garbage by the world. We're treated as garbage even in the places where we work sometimes and You know, we have to resist, you know, all these principalities and powers, but we also have to resist our own flesh I mean Unsafe people they ignorance is bliss You know, they might not even realize, you know, obviously people have problems because of sin, but they don't equate it to well You know if I just get saved maybe I could have some victory over this stuff But we need to take the example that Jesus took he didn't say come on devil. Let's fight You know, let's do an MMA cage match or something. This is how he this is how Jesus did it Look at Matthew 4 1 it says Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil So the devil did tempt Jesus just like he tempted Eve just like he tempted You know all the people that have come before that were great Christians in the past But Jesus had one thing on his side that really made him Different and set apart from everybody else. He was the sinless Son of God. He had not committed sin and he is God So he's not only God but he's also the God man Christ Jesus and so the devil did try to break him and to tempt him and Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered Would you be hungry after 40 days and 40 nights? I'd be hungry after 40 minutes and for you know 40 seconds, I mean, you know, we we as human beings we can't even imagine doing a fast like this Can it be done? Well, you know the only people that ever did it in the Bible was Jesus Moses and Elijah that is recorded in the Bible So it's not just some feat that anybody could do But he specifically did this so that he could be tempted because imagine how hungry you would be after 40 days and 40 nights He'd be really hungry. He was probably emaciated He probably was really skinny and that kind of that kind of fast can really mess with your mind, too People have gone crazy over doing long fast like that But of course Jesus, you know, he was you know, he had superiority over the will and of the flesh He was born without a sin nature so it you know, but he's also God This is a test against got the God man Christ Jesus. So human beings get hungry. God doesn't have to eat Does that I mean does that make sense to you? So but so Jesus was human and so he did feel the same things that we feel He feels the infirmity of the flesh that we feel and he understands our plight because he's been a human being before as you know God has been you know, he came down as the Lord Jesus Christ. So And it says when he had fasted 40 days and 49 He was afterward and hungered and when the tempter came to him He said if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread So what's the first thing he tempted him with? Hey, I know you're a little bit hungry Why don't you turn those stones into bread and it's like, you know The first thing that you think about when you're really hungry if someone even you know, a lot of people are like well You know bread it's not a big deal. I'd be I'd want something else Believe me if you're starving a piece of hot fresh bread, you know, especially from Texas Roadhouse or something It's gonna be like, you know Heaven tastes in your mouth. So but this is what he did to tempt him He said, you know make these stones bread But he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God So, how did Jesus fight against the devil? He used Scripture He's the scripture that he knew and so that's why it's important for us To know the scriptures so that we can defend ourselves in those times when we're being tempted So he's being tempted to what sin He's being tempted to sin and says it says then the devil taketh up him up to the holy city and Seteth him on a pinnacle of the temple and sayeth unto him if thou be the Son of God cast thyself Down for it is written He shall give his angels charge concern in me and in their hands They shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone So the second temptation is he's saying here just throw yourself down if you're the Son of God He's tempting him to try to tempt God Like if he just jumped off that they eat he's like basically saying hey the Bible says That if you just jump off this this pinnacle that God will bear you up on what the angels are gonna protect you But I think that if he would have jumped God would have let him die I Mean, obviously he was never he was never gonna not pass that test But he still it was a temptation It was a temptation to use his power because Jesus was God So he could he have made the breads and the stones and the bread. Yes Could he have floated down from the pinnacle? Yes But obviously these are temptations that the devil is trying to use against him And it says in verse 7 and Jesus said to him again it is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Again, the devil taketh up to an high and exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them And saith unto him all these things Will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me then saith Jesus unto him get thee hence Satan For it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Then the devil leaveth him and behold angels came and ministered unto him So, you know the Bible says submit yourself to God therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you How do you get him to flee from you? Well, you resist the devil by submitting yourself to God That's what it says and how did Jesus do it? He submitted himself to God He didn't allow the devil to tempt him to do things or to say things, you know and you know how it says that the devil takes him up and shows them all the world and Says that I'll give you everything here So that just means to me that the devil does have the power to give those things to people But you know, that's why you have people that you know, you're like inexplicably, you know All of a sudden they can play this this music and and it's funny how these rock stars will say I don't even know how I wrote that. I just wrote it Yeah, because they made it they made a deal with the devil You know the devil does come, you know If he came to the Son of God, he will come to other people to get them to do his will and it's like You know, did he does he appear with a hay fork and and devil horns and a little contract? I mean, I don't know what he does, but I know that the testimony if you just look up People that have sold their soul to the devil You can find multiple interviews online Bob Dylan, you know, Katy Perry all these Eminem, you know all these different types of really famous Musicians and things like that Literally say they sold their soul to the devil to be able to be famous and so Hollywood movie stars do that But I think that just regular people do it. I'm sure too. I'm not sure how that process works I've never had the devil come to me with a contract but you know, I'm a son of God I'm saved I'm not the son of God but I am saved and so there's it's a pointless contract to try to bring me because I can't Lose my salvation, but I think there are people that work for the devil literally and they're called the sons of Belial They're called the children of the devil and you know, it is a real the devil's real it's not some fake made-up thing to make us be scared and give money to the church or be scared and you know, We you know, that's that's superstition That's Catholic superstition the whole cross thing and the the holy water and all those, you know You know those Exorcist style movies and things like that. They don't that's not that's not power There's no power in a trinket that goes around your neck with with Jesus hanging on it There's just no power in that those things are vain and Jesus isn't still on the cross anymore So there's no reason to put those things on your body or in your house So number one, we need to submit ourselves to God Versus submitting ourselves to Satan and how we resist Satan The best way to resist is to memorize scripture in our heart The Bible says thy word of I have I hid not thy word of I hid my heart that I might not sin against thee so your best weapon against sin and against with resisting the devil is To hide the Word of God in your heart number two tonight Getting near to God versus being backslidden getting near to God versus being backslidden Look at verse number eight back in our text in James chapter 4 The Bible reads draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts. He double-minded so It's interesting that he's God says this Statement draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you What does that mean that we can get away from him? We can draw away from God But he says the the way to not be backslidden The way to get closer to God is to get close you get close to him and he will get close to you So if we're always resisting Pete, you know It's like if someone wants to hang out you want to hang out with someone but they don't want to hang out with you You know Have you ever had someone you like wanted to be their friend and they just really don't want anything to do with you No matter how hard you try They just it makes it does the opposite like they then they just don't want to hang out with you or whatever you know, but that's If if we do that with God, he's not gonna want to hang out with us. He's gonna resist us too Because we have to be nigh to God. We have to be close to God We have to love God and you know, he's gonna be close to us but you know One of the things that he's not gonna he's not gonna be happy with how do we draw away from him? Well, he says cleanse your hands you sinners. It's obviously sin Separates it does separate you from God. Now people say well, you're teaching the hell of separation from God. No, I'm not teaching I'm talking about sin is separation from God the more sinful you are and the less Repentant you are about those sins the less close to God you will be that's why the next breath He says cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded Because Well, we're in Christian. We're in church. That's the that's the easy time to be you know Just really spiritual and godly in church and you're around other people that believe the same thing as you do You're not tempted to sin in a place like this like you would be in some other place So what about outside of the church? We're outside of the church a lot, aren't we? And we were rubbing elbows with people that are not necessarily, you know, spiritual people And then that brought, you know, the more when we hang around people that are not spiritual. It's gonna drag us down So who you hang out with does determine how spiritual you'll be sometimes That's like, you know when you know bringing the example of school again My parents would or you know, people would tell me don't hang out with that crowd. That's a bad crowd They're gonna drag you down and as a as a teen you don't understand that as a younger kid You might not understand those things you think well They're just cool, you know, everybody likes them they're popular But you know what the things that are popular in the world are not the things that God finds, you know popular Those aren't the people that he wants you hanging out with the most popular usually the most popular or the most sinful to There the the nerd of the class that gets straight A's Which there's nothing wrong with being a nerd, but they're the the geeks, you know You know school has like a lot of social constructs to it there's the jocks the rich kids the poor trailer trash kids There's the geeks There's the there's you know The jocks the athletes or whatever and people are kind of separated into these things at school It's been a long time since I've been in public school, but I don't you don't forget stuff like that And so but usually the ones that are the most popular are the ones that are doing the worst things They're popular for a reason and a lot of times they're just rich and that's why people like them or they're more beautiful Or more handsome than the rest of the other kids that can also separate things and you know We just don't want to get into that mindset. Well, we're hanging around the wrong people Going to the wrong people's house because you know what's gonna happen. You're gonna become like those people and If that's not what you want to be then don't hang around them You know and it says draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you and if you're cleansing yourself from your sins by you know, praying and asking God to forgive you and Then purifying your hearts. How do you do that? Well, you know thy word have I hidden my heart that I might not sin against thee is a good verse But also, you know, how shall a young man cleanses ways by taking heed thereto according to thy word You take heed to God's Word and he will purify you he will cleanse your ways So, you know and as Christians sometimes we can be double-minded, but we don't want to be that way What is double-minded? Well, it's where you think one way and then you go off and you act another way You have to it's like two minds, you know, you got the carnal mind and you got the saved mind. So Look at Psalm chapter 119 verse 8 Psalm 119 verse 8. Oh, well, I forgot that I had this Already put in there. So I already quoted the verse but these are some good verses Look at Psalm 119 verse 8 if you want to know how you know, David, of course David wrote Psalm 119 He loves the Bible. He loves God's Word. It's the longest chapter in the Bible Psalm 119 and It's just mainly what it is about is about God's Word and the great things that God's Word does Look at verse 8. It says I will keep thy statutes. Oh forsake me not utterly Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word How do you how you gonna cleanse yourself you sinner? Well taking heed to God's Word paying attention to what the Bible says You're like, well, you sound like, you know a boring fuddy-duddy. Well, you know what? Well, do you want to live a good life as a Christian or do you want to live a life where you're being chastened all The time because the Bible says whom he loveth he chasteneth You know, obviously God is gonna chasten us and nobody likes to be spanked Nobody likes that But that's what's gonna happen And the more we take heed to God's Word the better off we're gonna be and the closer to God We're gonna actually be you know, the Bible there's a saying I'm probably gonna mess it up, but it's like something about Sin will keep you from the No, not not that one it's about the Bible but anyway, I forgot what it is, but it's like sit, you know sin will Keep you from this book, but not anyway Yes, be from this book this book will keep you from sin Yeah and that's true because most people when they're sinning and in a in a spot where they're just really backslidden the Bible isn't what they're reading because if they were reading the Bible they probably wouldn't be like that So when you take heed to God's Word, then that's the the more God's Word is in your heart the more You're gonna have you're gonna think about these situations and these things that you're doing and maybe It's going to steer you in a different direction a good direction So it says with my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments Thy word have I hid my heart that I might not sin against thee so this is talking about Bible memorization So a lot of people and in our movement, you know in an independent Baptist movement a lot of people are into memorizing big big Portions of Scripture and I'm definitely not against that. I think that's good. I would never say yeah It's just it's dumb to to memorize God's Word. I wouldn't say that but here's here's what I personally think about Memorizing Scripture, I think if you're gonna memorize Scripture memorize things that are gonna help you because you might have half the New Testament Memorized but if you're not applying it and if it's just because look if you don't use it You're gonna lose it If you don't use the Scriptures that you have in your heart Then like if you don't just keep repeating it and doing maintenance on those big portions of Scripture You're gonna forget it your mind can only take in so much stuff So why not just take the best Scriptures that are gonna help you with your life Like I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me the first scripture I ever, you know, memorized Strengtheneth but strengthens and strengthen is the same thing. But anyway So but that what I can do all things through Christ That's a truth that we need to get so like when you're like, oh, I just don't know if I can really do that I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me now you can do all things It's not like oh, I can't do this, you know can't never did anything Isn't that the truth? I can't do this You're never gonna do it because you already think you can't but Christ says he can't and he can he says you can do All things through Christ. So when we hide God's Word in our heart when we get you know When you know the Scriptures about soul wanting and you and you could just quote those at the door. That's great You know, but at the door We're supposed to use our Bibles to show people what the Bible says about how to be saved But what about when you're on a plane next to somebody? What about when you're on a bus next to somebody and you just don't happen to have your Bible? I mean most people have phones Okay So you can probably pull out your phone But isn't it good to have the scriptures memorized so you could actually lead someone to Christ without having to Well, if you don't have a Bible you have it in your heart So the things that help you and encourage you the things that keep you from sin, you know different scriptures can help you And you know scriptures that can comfort you, you know So like John 14 I mean John 14 1 through 3 is really comforting that he's gonna come for us again someday And he's going to prepare a place for us. You know, look at Luke 15 verse 11 Luke in verse 11 Luke 15 verse 11 the Bible says And a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father Give me the portion of goods that falls to me and he divided unto them his living This is talking about this. This is a really famous set of scriptures. It's about the prodigal son now You know if you draw nigh to God, he will draw nigh to you and this it's really exemplified in this story So when this guy this guy has two sons one of them, you know He wants his portion his inheritance now He's gonna leave his family and this is showing this is talking about they're both sons so at God the Father Represents the father in this story the two sons means that both of them are saved But one of them's not living right and the other one is okay look at verse 13 it says and not many days after the younger sunset gathered all together and Took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living So he's not a very good Christian is he and when he had spent all there arose of mighty famine in the land And began to be in want so as a Christian if you think you're just gonna go off and leave the church And do and live however you want and you're gonna go off and just waste your life and things like that God's gonna God's gonna curse your life That's what this is representing right here when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in the land And began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and sent him to Into his fields to feed swine And he would feign have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him So, you know, he's he's in a sad state here God God is you know, if you think about it God is this is picturing God punishing his life to the point where he's gonna bring him back to the realization That he needs God. He needs his father and it says when he came to himself He said how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger I will rise and go to my father and will say unto him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son Make me as one of thy hired servants. So he's basically saying I know I screwed up my life You know father and but I you know, I know I'm gonna admit that I sin I'm gonna go and get right with my father and you know He's gonna just let me at least, you know be like one of his hired servants or whatever It says and he rose and came to his father So remember it says if you draw an eye to God He will draw an eye unto you. And so what's this guy do he decides? Hey, I've had enough of my life being smoked and cursed and I'm gonna go back and do what's right But it says he arose and came to his father but when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had Compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. So when we draw an eye unto God He's gonna draw an eye unto us But he noticed that he was making mistakes here. You just can't do things. However, you feel like however, you want to come to God the way he expects you to come to him and that's with repentance and sorrow when you Screw up when you mess up your life. You can't just well, you know, I'm just gonna keep doing it No, God's not gonna draw an eye unto you unless you draw an eye unto him first But then he's gonna come running right? Isn't that what it says? He saw him afar off and he was like, you know, he ran towards him So, I mean, let's put that picture into into play Brother Rick, would you come up here just real quick? What will you come up to? Yeah So this is just an exercise just go stand by the piano brother Rick go over there So I guess Rick has to be the father. All right, he looks older. So All right So now here's the prodigal son. He's messed up his life. He's on drugs He went and spent his parents inheritance not not in reality, but this is just pretend right? So he's over there He's he's living wrong, but then he realizes You know, I've messed up my life and I want to get right. What do you do? Well, what did it say that he's gonna go to his father and say father I've sinned against heaven and before thee and so once you get to that point Then the obvious choice, you know when your life is all messed up and you're backslidden and you're out of church And you realize that that you know Your life is going bad because God's making it go bad because here's the thing as a saved person You can't just do whatever you want You can but you're gonna get punished I mean we teach this at the door to people all the time and then those same people that are at the door They're like, yeah, I'm not gonna go to church. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna go soul winning I'm not gonna go to church and then you know You start getting out of these things and then you you're like, I just don't understand what my life is so messed up Hey dummy, get back into church and your life won't be messed up Get back into serving the Lord and doing the things of God and your life won't be messed up pass the test Endure the temptation and you know If you're out of church and you're backslidden then get your lazy carcass back into church and have some character For crying out loud now, he's gonna develop some character. He's gonna go to his father now just start walking really slow Brother Rick without falling down run. Just run down Say this is what it's like see That's what it's like, you know, I mean brother Rick. He ran as fast as he could you guys go ahead sit down but like, you know, that's That's what it's like though The father is gonna run back to you and he's gonna get close to you But you can't just come however you want. You have to come, you know with hat in hand sorrowful and Realizing that you messed up so we can get backslidden but God, you know what he gives us a second chance Look what it says in verse 21 and the son said unto him father I have sinned against heaven in my sight and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son You know what? None of us are worthy to be called his son. None of us are worthy to be called daughter But it's that's not that doesn't have anything to do with it. We once you're saved. You're his son You're his daughter and doesn't worth has nothing to do with it was Christ's worth that made us worthy in the first place And it says but the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on His hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it less and let us eat and be married For this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost in his found and they began to be married so life moves on and What happens with the prodigal son? Well, he has this realization Hey, I got to get right and how does he get right? He does repent of his sins, doesn't he? And you know, we believe in repenting of your sins after you're saved But see the story of the prodigal son. He's already a son and a lot of people apply this to salvation I guess you could kind of do that But if he was already a son when he left that just tells you that people can get backslidden People can get away from God and God is willing and ready to receive you back In fact, he's gonna run towards you the moment you try to draw an eye to him So don't just think oh God can't use me anymore That's kind of what his attitude was like well, at least I could be like one of the hired servants No, you're still the son. He still puts the robe back on you. He puts the ring on your finger He slays the fatted calf and you know He's gonna be happy that you've come back and everybody else should be happy When a prodigal son comes back when someone leaves church and gets out of church for a while But then they come back and don't give them a bunch of grief about it Hey, where you been brother or whatever don't be like that, but you know, just be happy that they came back to church You know this guy the the father of the story doesn't go Well, you know I was just waiting for you to come back, you know, I'm just saying stupid stuff to him He's just like hey Welcome back home and that's how we should be when people get backslidden in our church and You know when they come back don't give them any grief just be happy that they're there and rejoice with them because they came back So let's look back at our text in James 4 9. It says Be afflicted and mourn and weep So that's the opposite of just being happy and excited, you know, obviously we should be excited when that you know This is talking about the attitude that you should have when you're in sin when you're outside of God's will be afflicted You know that means You know be upset about the state that you're in mourn that sin that you've been committing weep You know get it out of your system Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness, you know laughing is good Mary Hart do with good like a medicine and and I don't think there's anything wrong with joking around laughing I think God has a sense of humor Otherwise, he we wouldn't have a sense of humor, but it can get out of control. I understand that it can get too crazy but That when you're in sin, and you're far from God, you shouldn't be Okay with that and I've been happy about that He's just basically saying this is how you should be when you're backslidden. It says humble yourself Selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. So how do you get lifted up? It's not by saying look at me I'm such a great Christian and and you know I do this and I do that and I I tied the ball that I have and you know, like the Pharisees That's how they were they're proud about everything all the works that they've done and I'm not like this guy over here this publican That's that's how the Pharisees were But the Bible says we're supposed to humble ourselves You know the guy that stood next to the Pharisee wouldn't even look up to heaven But said Lord the publican said Lord have mercy upon me a sinner. He smote his breast He he was upset with how he was and one went to one went away Saved justified and the other way the other one the Pharisee he wasn't even saved It's funny how these people that are act all religious or whatever, you know They're not saved and they're sitting there talking about us about how bad we are and like dude you're bad, too You just nobody can see it But God sees it God sees how those types of people are number three tonight Proper judgment versus unrighteous judgment proper judgment versus unrighteous judgment There's a saying out there in Christendom and it's actually doesn't come from Christians I think I think they people like to take one verse out of Scripture and And twist it into we're never supposed to judge about anything and that's just completely ridiculous Look at verse number 11. The Bible says speak not evil one of another brethren he that speaketh evil of his brother now speaking evil is like You know things that you hope would happen to them. Basically it says and judges his brother Speaketh evil of the law and the law and the and judge at the law But if thou judge the law thou are not a doer of the law, but a judge so Now what what is this specifically talking about? Well, it's talking about speaking evil about your brother and When you do that, you're speaking evil of the law and judging the law So God said we're supposed to love that our neighbor is ourselves And we're supposed to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts mind soul and strength But you know people will even say this. Well, we're not supposed to judge anybody for any situation ever But that's just not true look at verse 12 It says there's one lawgiver who is able to save and destroy who art thou that judges another So basically he's so by the context. It's saying who's able to save and destroy so When you're talking about someone that's your brother This is talking about someone that's saved and you're saying I wish that person would die I hope all this evil comes upon them. You know, I don't even think that they're saved and What is God saying here he's saying there's one lawgiver Who's that lawgiver? It's God right who is able to save and to destroy? Only God can save people and who can destroy The gods the only one that can destroy someone's life and destroy. I mean, obviously other people can't but He's talking about in the context here of you know Saying these evil things about your and speaking evil one of another so You know, obviously Christians fight it happens but it's not something that you know, we should never go to the point where you're just like Condemning someone as a reprobate to save it shouldn't be you know So, you know, you you should be careful about what you're saying about other people Especially if it's if it's possible if that person is saved So there's only one lawgiver who's able to save and destroy who are thou that judges another So people will take these and say we're never supposed to judge anybody for any reason But let me tell you something. There's a book called judges in the Bible. So obviously God allowed You know, he made a system called the you know, the system of the judges Where he had people that ruled over and made judgment calls against certain things that people were doing They were supposed to judge the righteous judge righteously and judge those that were doing unrighteousness according to the law so Here's another one that people like to take out of context. Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 7 verse 1 Matthew chapter 7 verse 1 and you're like so far. You don't really seem like you're right about this, but You know the I'll show you some other so But the fact that there's a book called judges should just tell you right there that God isn't saying that we're never supposed to judge So look at Matthew 7 1 it says judge not that you be not judged this is the unbelievers favorite verse oh Only God can judge me, you know, they get those tattoos or whatever that says only God can judge them but But the funny thing is that this is talking about in the cut Look, you can't arrest the text from the context. You have to preach you have to understand the Bible in its context So what is Jesus talking about here? Well, you can't just take this verse here and isolate it and say don't ever judge because you're gonna be judged too I mean, is that true? It depends on what you're what you're talking about here. Look at verse 2 It says for with what judgment you judge Ye shall be judged and with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again And why beholdest the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but consider it's not the beam that is in thine own eyes So what is it saying here? It's saying that if you're gonna judge somebody you're you've got a they got like a little sliver in their eye And you're trying to get it out. Hey, you're doing this wrong and then like you got a beam out of your eye You have a bigger than a sliver You have a way worse problem than they do and you're trying to judge them for a situation That's small when you have a beam hanging out of your eye Is that what it's saying? You have a beam in your own eye How how or how wilt thou say to thy brother Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye and behold a beam is in your own in thine own eye I mean, what is this talking about here? Don't judge as a hypocrite. That's what it's talking about See is verse 5 It says thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to judge Out the moat out of thy brother's eye. It's saying it's not saying don't ever judge the moat that's in someone's eye It's saying hey if you got a your own problem like that or it's even worse than that, then you're a hypocrite It's like if I just got up here and said, you know stealing is wicked It's of the devil and you know, all that's true And then I'm like, you know Someone's forgot to give someone their pencil someone's pencil back and you're like just ripping on someone for taking that pencil You know you didn't mean to but you know you did you took it and then you like do bank heists on the weekend or something Like that's kind of the difference right, you know, someone accidentally stole someone's pencil Which you know, it is technically stealing if you don't give somebody their pen or pencil back or whatever, but what what is worse? Doing bank heists on the weekend, I think is a lot worse stealing widow's houses You know going and trying to rob the fatherless and widows From their stuff or just breaking into people's house and stealing the stuff that they work for That's a lot worse, isn't it? There are degrees of sin people say well, you know all sin is equal That's actually not true All sin is not equal all sin will send you to hell But all sin is not equal, you know The difference between stealing a pencil and shooting someone in the face is a pretty big difference, isn't there? Like which one would you choose your pencil to get stolen or someone to shoot you in the face? Like obviously you're gonna choose the pencil and the the penalties in the Bible if someone does premeditated Murder there they get the death penalty if you steal someone's pencil You have to give back two times the pencils that you gave them or something like that So it's there is a difference but look what it says in verse 24 here Matt or excuse me John actually go to 1st Corinthians 5. I'm just gonna read John 5 724 it says in John 724 judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous Judgment that's Jesus Christ saying that so are we supposed to judge? Well, Jesus said judge not according to the appearance But judge righteous judgment, that means that you're judging rightly isn't righteous the right thing The perfect judgment and how do we get that perfect judgment we get that from the Bible So, how can people say well Jesus said judge not You know when people repeat that like a parrot over and over again right judge not And it's just like you hear it so much. Well, who are you to judge me? This is like well, you know If I'm not stealing and I get up and I rip on people stealing then I'm not judging as a hypocrite am I? But we do have to judge we judge everything we judge so much every day that you if you really just stop to Think about how much we actually judge you'd be probably really surprised who's ever read the DMV book before to get their license everybody Are you supposed to judge how far you are away from a vehicle? How do you judge that situation like how many car lengths you're supposed to be from somebody on the freeway? Depends don't they have like a figure where if you're going 60 miles an hour You have to have a certain amount of car lengths in between. How do you how do you know that? How do you know whether you're doing it right or not? You have to judge your distance, don't you and and then you have to look at like a poll and then count seconds or whatever Want to you know, I I don't even you know, this is bad I drive all the time, but I don't know that what the distances are anywhere. It's been a long time But I'm just saying that we are supposed to judge, you know, you judge Whether you can get into a parking spot or not, right? Can I can you make that spot? Well, what what judgment call are you gonna make on it? Can you make it or you can't and you have to be able to judge on the fly about a lot of things? that's those are simple and silly situations, but They are things that we do every single day, right? So we have to judge and do the right decisions in our life to every day. Is this right? You know, we're supposed to judge ourselves So that God won't judge us Right, we're supposed to judge ourselves in our own situation We're supposed to look at the perfect law of liberty and see what God wants from us and then we judge if we judge ourselves And we go to God for mercy then he's gonna be more lenient. This is like a police officer if he pulls you over you know, my wife got pulled over last week on our way out of town and She was going over the speed limit, you know where they're doing that new roundabout which is dumbest thing ever But anyway the new roundabout they're doing on the highway going towards Wapato Well, he police officer pulled us over and you know, we were really nice we're just like trying to get everything, you know, hand him the registration right away and He came we were nice. We gave him everything we needed and we didn't suck up too much But when he came back, he goes I'm gonna give you guys a break And why did he do that? Well first thing the first thing he says is the first person I pulled over I of the day I usually give them a break But do you think we would have been like what are you there's crime going on all over Wapato Why are you pulling over us? You know, we're law-abiding citizens. Well, no, we weren't because she was speeding So is there worse crime going on? Probably? Yes, but and are they going crazy with all the speed limit stuff right now? Yes Because they lost all that money for the last two years because they don't want to take anybody to court because then they would have to show up with their Masks on and stuff but My point is is that the cop judged us didn't he and he said these are probably decent people They pay their car insurance there. You know, this isn't a stolen car. They're not doing drugs and drinking inside the car right now I'm gonna cut these guys a break and and you know when we would judge ourselves God will be lenient with us like that and sometimes you can just you know I've pled for mercy from cops before I just said look man. I'm really sorry, you know, I didn't realize I was going that fast Apologize, so if you're humble to that police officer Instead of just being a pain in the neck every time a cop pulls you over you're gonna get a different result now some cops are just like, you know, they're just right out of the Academy and they just think they got to give a ticket to anybody for everything Or they're still trying to make up for how they got bullied in high school or something And they just want to take it back out on the world or whatever You're gonna run into those good types of people. That's an righteous judge You know, they're going after specific people some cops just want to be cops so they can break in someone's head This is what they want to shoot somebody they want to get in some action and some cops are like that But you know, not all cops are like that they we have to learn to judge righteous judgment and First Corinthians 5 where I had to turn so even in the church, we're supposed to judge certain things Now this these this passage wouldn't be here if we weren't supposed to judge situations look what it says in verse 1 It's commonly it is reported commonly that there's fornication among you and such fornication As is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. So this is a really Wicked sin that's going on here. This guy's fornicating with his father's wife And it says and you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you So what is he talking about? He's saying that they're not doing anything about it. They're puffed up That means they're just like they're doing the opposite of what they should be doing puffed up You know if you think about like someone's all puffed up there They're you know, like the tough marshmallow man, they're they're just big and fluffy or whatever But when you think about dough rising that's 11 that rises and and that's the reason why that bread is able to rise like that But being puffed up is just another way of saying you're being proud You're being you know, they're like it's like someone They're allowing sin to take place because they're too holy to judge that sin if you think of it that way Because some people I mean I had a lady call me last week and she was just like well don't you think that you know, we should just love the homos and you know that we should just Just be about love and not worry about what what they are and all this other stuff I was just like, you know, you can't do that. You know, if we love children We have to hate pedophiles. Is that true? Like say we have like a whole bunch of children in this church right now And then we just let all these pedophiles come in here And know that they're pedophiles You know, we're putting those people at risk as a pastor It's my job to be the shepherd of the church and to keep the bad wolves out of here So do I have to judge who the bad wolves are? Yes, I do And if I think that someone's a wolf if I have evidence that they are I got to get them out of the church so It's my job to keep these types of people out of here now people could be saved and still be wicked That's the truth of the matter because it doesn't say this guy isn't saved It just says he's doing something really wicked Says you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that done that need might be taken away from among you For I barely as absent in the body but present in spirit. What's it say there? What's the next words there? Have judged already. Are we not are we supposed to judge or not supposed to judge? This is the Apostle Paul He's saying I've already I'm not even there and I've already judged this situation You know what you're supposed to do guys, you're supposed to get this person out of the church It says I've judged already as though I were present concerning him that I've done this deed in The name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you're gathered together and my spirit and the power of our Lord Jesus Christ To deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus So what is he saying he's saying you need to kick this person out of the church so that Satan can destroy him But you're like, well, that's pretty mean but you know in second Corinthians chapter 6 this guy Paul tells them to forgive this guy The purpose of kicking somebody out of church is that hopefully They'll get right and be restored to be able to come back But you can't just let that stuff go on and not do anything about it So that's why he's saying you're puffed up and I've judged this situation already and you know what you need to get this guy out of here and It seems pretty harsh to let Satan destroy the flesh. But you know, have you ever heard of that term shunning? Well, that's kind of what this situation is you're shunning that person and saying hey, I'm not gonna eat with this person I'm not gonna have coffee with this person we're not gonna do Bible study outside of church when someone's thrown out of church here to have nothing to do with them and Unfortunately churches don't practice this and that's why people just are play kit You know, that's why people are in bold and they're like, oh the past way too harsh with you for doing that Do you think the Apostle Paul was way too harsh to say you got to kick this guy out of church? The reason why this guy had to be kicked out of church Probably is because the people acted like it wasn't that big of a deal and just allowed it to go on And you can't just allow stuff like this to go on unchecked. You have to get the leaven out And the only way that you're gonna make them feel sorry for what they've done is to shun them and to kick Them out and to say you're not coming back unless you get this, right? Now if somebody gets it right then they can come back, you know for most things But there are things that people aren't gonna come back for like what? Well, how about just being a false prophet? Someone that just creeps in here someone creeps in their child molester or they're a fag. They're out the door They're not coming back and a child with all child molesters are fags anyway Why would I say well they just melt molest little boys If you look at the studies that's just not true they do both and because it's weird It's vile. It's reprobate it's Something that shouldn't be happening and people took for people. This is what that woman called me about She just wanted me to you know to just she was upset that I believe what I believe But we have to keep the bad people out of here Church is supposed to be pure as much as possible and you know what? The Old Testament they were just killed That's just the way it was they were killed because that's the laws and in Israel But now we don't live under those laws And so the only way we can kill them now is we kill them with our words from the pulpit We kill them with the words of the Bible. We beat them to death these wolves to death with our staff With our words though. We don't literally do it. We don't I don't have the power to Judge someone to death in this church So the only way I can kill that person is to is to cut them off in the Old Testament Say this person's cut off from the congregation of the Lord if they would do certain things Sometimes it was just the death penalty period but now Paul like in the New Testament Paul says, you know, I would that they were cut off that Trouble you and what's he talking about? Well, he could be talking about that. Maybe God would just kill them But he also could be just talking about that. They would just be cut off and kicked out. I Can't kill anybody. I don't want to kill anybody I want but my words are what kills them the Bible's it's not my words. It's the Bible's words God said to kick him out Paul said to kick him out and get over Satan for the destruction of the flesh So to say that we're not to judge at all is just absolutely insane So again, there's a book called Judges God put the system of the judges America as a nation is ruled by judges Even though they're judging unjustly We have a Supreme Court as the highest court of the nation and guess what? They're called the Supreme Court what? judges It's written. Yeah, we're justices. But yeah justices, but how much justice are they actually? It's not really great and there's never This Supreme Court judges, I don't understand why that is But you know, it's all a bunch of Catholics and Jews right that's basically who's ruling, you know, secular Jews and Catholics and So really we're not represented necessarily as Baptist revival believing Christians Supreme Court at all. It's all about what they believe and Obviously, I'm glad that Catholics are against abortion. I Agree with them. I Can't agree with Catholics on certain things like the Trinity. I Agree the Trinity they're right about that but all the hocus-pocus and holy water and crucifixes and the transubstantiation Where they say that when they when you when they do communion, it's literally the body and blood of Jesus That's just not true. It's that is mum, but that is that is paganism. It's mumbo-jumbo it's You know with the fifth thing the fish hat and all It's just it's bizarre is what it is and we don't want our church to be anything like a Catholic Church That's why we took that altar out of here where you could just come up and kneel in front of the pulpit or whatever gone We don't want Idols in this church. We don't want any statues. You know, we're not supposed to be an idolatry, but yet the Catholic Church just has Multiple Statues all over the place the Orthodox Christians have pictures all over the walls that you're supposed to kiss you know, they basically what happened is a long time ago, they there was a somebody infiltrated their Infiltrated their church to try to teach them that you know, I you know kissing images is wrong And so now you have to in order to go to an Orthodox Church You have to kiss the images of the Saints you have to kiss those things before you walk in because that's like a True Christian would not do that So you have to prove that you're an idolater instead go up and kiss pictures of St John and like I don't know where they got all these pictures from, you know, they're just made up or whatever But it's just bizarre You know worshiping men dead men's bones and you know rosaries and there's all this stuff. It's just strange It's not what the Bible teaches. I don't know how I got off on that. But we're we're we are a nation ruled by judges Unfortunately, they're not judging righteously See it's okay to judge but to take bribes is wicked to take You know money so that they won't a certain judgment, you know This is when judges become corrupt and the Bible's very against that We're supposed to judge righteously and by the biblical laws in church We have to judge by what the Bible says and that's just all there is to it number four so my last point is Boasting about tomorrow versus circumstance Circumstance circumspect mindset boasting about tomorrow versus a circumspect Mindset what am I talking about here? Well, look at James chapter 4 verse 13 James chapter 4 verse 13 the Bible says Now a go to now you that say to today or tomorrow We will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow for what is your life It is even a vapor that appearth for a little time and then vanish at the way So James is trying to get across to us here that we you know, we can say well I'm gonna go Next week to such-and-such place, right? And I'm gonna do this next year and I'm gonna buy and sell I'm gonna get gain I'm gonna you know He's basically saying you're boasting about what you're gonna do when you don't even know what's gonna happen tomorrow we don't know and this is why so many and is so important because We we're not promised tomorrow. We don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow We can't boast and brag about what we're gonna do tomorrow because we don't know we could die tomorrow It says you don't know what shall be on the morrow for what is your life. It is even a vapor What's a vapor? It's just like a puff of smoke, right? In the grand scheme of things our life on this earth our physical body and our physical life is so small God likens it to a vapor as compared to the rest of eternity It's a vapor that appearth for a little time and then vanish at the way That's what that's what vapor of smoke does doesn't it? You see it go up and then it disappears, right? So he's picture he's saying this is what your life is like and so don't be saying I'm gonna do this Or I'm gonna do that because you don't really know for sure you can say, you know, this is my plan This is what I want to do, but to say that you're gonna do it. It's like, you know boasting It's like boasting of things that you don't know for sure are gonna happen. And so what do I mean by circumspect? I mean that we have to look at our lives and we have to look ahead into the future and see What it were what is this gonna take what road is this path gonna take me down because we get a lot of pass in the road as we get older and You know, we got a mixture here of young and old here tonight Young and really old. I'm just kidding. That's me Sorry, but Anyway, sorry, but you know, we got a mixture and you know, we've all had forks in the road where we Could have taken a different path, but we chose one and we don't always choose the right one But see, you know if God is leading us on the path, we're gonna choose the right paths He's gonna lead us in the right paths. He's gonna teach us the way that we should go He's gonna if we follow those steps, you know, it's like trails Why are there trails because that's the best way to get someplace, you know Think about the Donner party who's ever heard of the Donner party before? They there was a party called the Donner party and there was a guy that said he had a shortcut to get them to California that would cut a big amount of time off of it But he was just swindling them into taking a different path and that path wasn't proven. And so a whole bunch of people starved to death and died of malnutrition and people end up having to eat each other and all kinds of weird stuff and Why because they chose a path that was not proven and so the path of Christianity the path of the Bible the pathways that God leads us into are The right path and once we start veering off and saying that take this job that makes me work on Sunday that's a bad path That's not a good path I'm gonna take a job that I have to miss every single Wednesday night at church. That's a that's not a good path I'm gonna take a path where there's no I'm gonna move to a place for more money where there's no good church When you have a good church, that's a bad path to take And God is gonna lead you on the right path But your flesh is gonna lead you on the other ones And so you're like, well, it's not that big of a deal if I don't like it. I could just move back How do you know that you don't know that you have no clue what where that path is gonna take you Because once you get out of a good church and you get out of a you know The habit of going to a good church and you get out of soul whining and maybe the place you have They don't all they have is like a Jehovah's Witness like or a Mormon temple. What are you gonna do? Oh, I took this so I could you know, take care of my family Is that really taking care of your family by moving to a place where there's no good church? Is that is that the good path? Is that really taking care of your family? I'd rather have not as much money and To be right with God and right with my family than to take some job where I'm making millions of dollars And there's it's a spiritual wasteland So you don't I mean our if our life is that short then don't you think that the decisions we make in this life Need to be the right ones What path is this road taking me down and when you make a big major decision like moving away? or Taking a certain job or take even taking a certain spouse Like is that the right spouse for you? That that you're gonna spend the rest of your life with you know, what listen to me if You are with somebody And you want to marry someone that's not the same faith with you as you are you're making a huge mistake You're already starting off on a wrong foot because if they don't believe what you believe When it comes to the things of God you're gonna have problems That's why the Bible says we're not supposed to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers And you're like, well, you know, I can change them. I know I can well, you don't know that Again, you don't know that once you make decisions that are based upon the path that you already know is right Quit trying to put a square peg into a round hole all the time and people just I just watch people just beat Stupid decisions over and over again. It's like what are you doing? Like don't you learn from your mistakes? Don't you see that jumping from job to job is a stupid thing to do get yourself? established get yourself established at a good church If you could if you have a good church to go to why would you leave a good church when you like? Well, I'm gonna go check the church out there as soon as I move there. That's stupid. That's an idiotic decision You're like what how dare you say that pastor? It is stupid It's the dumbest thing you could ever do Go to a place with no good church. That's that's I mean, I can't figure how people Just think this in their brain. They think this is a good decision. It's like do you have any discernment at all? I'm just gonna bury this person and you know, they're they go to an Episcopalian Church But you know, I know I'm Baptist but you know, it's all gonna work out. No, it's not It's not gonna work out it's gonna be the worst decision you ever made in your life because look when it comes to faith and Raising a family one person's gonna have one opinion one person's gonna have another go to my church No, we're gonna go to this church. No, we're gonna go to this church and look saved or unsaved If you're saved and you marry someone that's not saved you're gonna destroy your life You're like, well, you know, I could just divorce them later on. You're not supposed to get divorced That's why it says tell death do us part in the vows literally That's why it says love honor and obey for the wife Because once you get married you I mean when you say those things before God It's not just some word that you can break easily people do it all the time But they probably also might wonder why all these problems are going on in their lives Like people just don't take account of the fact that the stupid decision that they made five years ago is why their life sucks right now and If our life is only a vapor if our life is a short time period then why in the world would you choose a duck? And and that's the difference between Live in your life by the way you feel. Oh, I just feel this who cares what you feel like do what's right? That's the difference between God's people and people of the world the world says listen to your heart No, don't listen to your heart. Your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked That's what the Bible says. Don't follow your heart. Don't listen to your heart Your heart's gonna lie to you. Your heart just said love them That's not true Because the heart is gonna deceive you the heart is gonna lie to you and say everything's just gonna be okay you the only thing you can trust in this world is God's Word and you're like what what decision am I making a Stupid one if you don't if you don't follow what God's Word says If you leave a good church to go live somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, or there's no good church You're an idiot If you marry somebody that's not the same faith as you that's not saved you're an idiot It's really harsh Patrick Thompson, it's true though It's true. Is it true? Are you just mad because I'm saying idiot stupid Well, sometimes it I find that sometimes when I'm just like all nice about stuff then people don't listen but you know, maybe I'll Just think like maybe I am being stupid. Why is he like this because I don't want you to wreck your life. That's why Because I don't want you to come to me for counsel five years from now after you married an unsaved person and go I told you not to marry that person The Bible told you not to marry that person. What are you doing? What do you said? Do you think I should move to this place for this job? No, I didn't say that I said, no, you shouldn't the Bible says that you should be in a good church The Bible says, you know, you should be in the best church you can be in. Oh, but you know this job Well, how's your life going now? And now it's just a vapor that appears for a little time and then it vanishes away And like do you want your life as a vapor to be some big mistake that you made? You know, and obviously God has plan B's for people I get that But why not go with plan a every time you get the chance? Why not go down the path that he meant for you to go on? Instead of going down a path that you know is not right or path. It's stupid or a path. That's idiotic And you know, I'm gonna be You know crass about that just because I think people need to get that through their brain. Look at Psalm chapter 90 verse 9 Psalm chapter 90 verse 9 I'm running out of time here. Yep All right. I got a couple more scriptures and then we'll be done So Psalm 90 verse 9 says for all our days are passed away in thy wrath We spend our years as a tale that is told this is Moses Psalm, by the way Moses wrote this and it says the days of our years are three score years and ten That's saying what 70 years is like the average lifespan basically and if by reason of strength They'd be four score years so you can live to be 80 and you know You can people live past that but it says yet is their strength labor and sorrow So if you live to be 80, it's gonna be tough. You're gonna be hurting all the time. It's gonna be rough I'm already hurting. I'm only 48. So I'm really in trouble later on So it says for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Let's talk about soon. We're gonna die It says who know what the power of thine anger even according to thy fear. So is thy wrath So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom So this is something that Christians really need to get ahold of Moses is saying, you know Moses lived a long life and his natural strength was not abated But you know, most people aren't like Moses most people aren't invading a you know And and fighting battles when they're a hundred and twenty years old, but Moses, you know He was you know, God chose him specially and gave him special abilities or things like that But Moses said let us number teach us to number our days. That means to think circumspectly Ephesians chapter 5 and then I'll have you go back to James and we'll be done These chapter 5 verse 14 the Bible says Wherefore he saith wake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Hey, if you're sleeping on the job as a Christian He's he's Paul saying hey awake out of that sleep you slumber Get up arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light You want to know how to live in this world Christ is gonna be the light to your path He's gonna be the lamp for your feet He's gonna give us the Christ is light, you know, it says see then that you walk Circumspectly not as fools but as wise isn't that what I was just saying? Yeah, walk circumspectly think about the Pass of your life and what those decisions are gonna make and think about the fact that you have a short time it says Not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil. What does that mean? It's not saying the days have like witches and I mean they do But he's talking about the days are evil the more days that we live on this earth The worst we're gonna feel the older we're gonna feel the more frail we're gonna get And I talk about this shelf life thing all the time But we only have a certain shelf life where we're gonna be the best Person that we are in that time span and yeah, we can still go on and do things more older I'm not saying we can't but like even when you're younger You can only do so much your parents kind of tote you along and you kind of have to do what they say But then when you're old, you know, it's kind of like, you know things happen in reverse It's weird, but when you're older you kind of have to have people take care of you, too, right? Like when we get old, it's not like you think that you're gonna be 90 and you're just gonna be like You know knocking doors and soul winning and preaching and all this other stuff. You're not gonna be you're gonna be laying in bed it's gonna be hard to get up and You're gonna be aches and pains and whatever, you know problems that you have in life that you have to take 50 pills for every day or whatever it's just We have to think about when we're young Making the best decision we can and don't just waste the years of your life doing foolishness and Making stupid decisions. We need to redeem the time because the days are evil Back to James chapter 4 verse 15, and this is what he says that we should this is how we should think James 4 15 for that you ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this Or that see really it's God's will whether we live another day on this earth He says but now you rejoice in your boastings all such Rejoicing is evil. Don't boast about what you're gonna do because you don't know for sure what you're gonna do He's saying you never know what's gonna happen That's why we should live our lives like a tale that is told and that we should think circumspectly think about what that decisions gonna make because You know, what? What do you want your life to be? Well, it's a vapor. We can't help that. It's a small time in this earth. And you know what I remember My youth a lot of things that I've done in my youth and a lot of dumb decisions I've made that I wish I never made and even as a Christian I've made some stupid decisions But you know, I mean we can overcome those things But why not if you're already young and you're already thinking about this stuff You know, I wish I had a pastor that would get up and preach this kind of stuff to me When I was younger and say hey, you know You got to think about what the decisions you're gonna make instead of just saying, you know Cuz a lot of pastors won't want a medal But if someone comes to me and they're like pastor, do you think I should move to this church? That you know, it's an old IFB Church they don't do soul-wanting they're repent of your sins But you know, it's a Baptist Church because I'm getting this job that pays $120,000 a year. What do you think my answer is gonna be? It's gonna be don't do it Well, let me talk. Let me ask God God said no That's what it's gonna be and I'm not gonna just sit there and lie to people and scratch your little belly like a puppy dog Let pastor scratch your belly make you feel better about your decision. I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna say you're an idiot if you do that, I don't care who it is So I'm gonna tell people the truth about things like that because I don't want people to make mistakes that I've seen other people make I don't want people to make mistakes that I've made my life And so when I especially if it's a mistake I know I've already made my life and I know what that led to and I know what pumps I had to get over in Order for that my life to get back on track again. I'm definitely gonna say I've learned from this experience Hey Let me help you to learn from experience that I had that was bad and in a stupid Decision that I made that I don't want you to make because I know it's gonna ruin your life And so it's weird because as a pastor I like I've watched people ruin their lives all the time It's really weird it's an odd situation to be in I see people do the greatest decisions that they ever made in their life when they get saved and Get baptized and get it to a good church. I watched them grow I love that but you know what the other side of that coin is I get to watch people that I saw do great and do do great things and everything's good and then watch them just Destroy their life by stupid decisions. I don't want that for my people and I you know You can get mad about the way I say things but what I'm saying is true and you know It is what I say makes sense because you know why it does it's not because I I'm saying it It's because the Bible says it and that's what we have to go with at the end of day. Let's pray Lord We thank you for the scriptures tonight We thank you for the book of James and the wisdom that it has for us I pray Lord that you would just bless this church and help it to continue to grow Pray that people get a fire in their bosom for Soul winning and for church attendance and for preaching and I just pray that Lord our church would grow here and that people would take it seriously take the paths of their lives seriously and Lord People can go back on decisions they made but sometimes it's hard to come back from decisions that are just foolish We're gonna sing one more song You All right, what a great message from that fourth chapter in James, wow, that was awesome Thank you pastor 385 385 to piano players Take the world, but give me Jesus Take the world but give me Jesus All his joys are but a name but his love Abided ever through eternal years the same All the highs and depth of mercy all the length and breadth of love all the fullness of redemption Pledge of endless life above on the second Take the world, but give me Jesus Sweetest comfort of my soul With my savior watching or me I can see the billows roll For the high and death of mercy all the length and breadth of love all the fullness of redemption pledge of endless life above Take the world, but give me Jesus Let me view his constant smile then throughout My pilgrim journey light will cheer me all the while Oh the death and death of mercy all the length and breadth of joy Oh the fullness of redemption pledge of endless life above on the last sing it out now Take the world, but give me Jesus in his cross my trust shall be Tear with clearer brighter vision Face to face my lord. I see all the high and of mercy all the length and breadth of love all the fullness of redemption endless life above Thank you Lord for tonight bless us as we go our separate ways and I'll give us traveling mercies in Jesus preciousness