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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"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good evening everybody. Welcome to Bible Believers Baptist Church tonight. Man, I'm just, I'm thrilled to see all these people here tonight. Praise God. I wish we could have that every night. Well, anyway, Pastor Thompson's our pastor here and he's going to be preaching for us tonight, I think in James 4. We're looking forward to that. Let's turn in our hymnals right now to page 198. Page 198. There is power in the blood. Would you be free from the burden of sin? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Would you, O evil of victory, win? There's wonderful power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. Would you be free from your passion and pride? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Come forth, friends, into Calvary's trial. There's wonderful power in the blood. Sing it out. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. Would you be high, much brighter than snow? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Sing, sing for us in this mighty blood. There's wonderful power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. I don't know if you know this, but a lot of churches and hymnals, they're taking the blood out of the songs. But as we know from this song, that's where the power is. So we're going to sing about the blood. We know from the Bible, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. Let's sing that last verse. Would you do service for Jesus your King? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Would you then give me his praises to sing? There's wonderful power in the blood. Sing it out now. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. And then our next song, 232. Another blood song. I hope you guys aren't offended. Are you okay with this one? 232, when I see the blood. That's another church that's offended by the blood, not this one. We love the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. And don't forget to do parts on it. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. On the third. Judgment is coming, all will be there. Each one receiving justly is proved. I am the Savior, seen planting blood, and I will pass, I will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Oh drink of passion, oh boundless blood, oh lovely kindness, faithful and true. By the peace we shall burn under the flood, and I will pass, I will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Amen. The verse of the week is, who knows the verse of the week? John 10, 29? I could be wrong. September 10, September, here we go, here it is right here. Just testing you guys. You failed miserably. Let me see, the verse of the week is Hebrews 3-4, where every house is builded by some man, but he that built all things is God. What a wonderful verse. God the Creator. Thanks for joining us here at Bible Believers Baptist Church tonight. It's our prayer that you will be blessed by the music and the preaching of the word of God. If you're a first time guest, I see a couple here tonight I think, please fill out a visitor card. Drop it in the offering plate when it goes by. If we can be of any service to you at all, let us know. Pastor will be available tonight after church when he's done preaching. If you've got any questions, you can come to him and he'll be happy to answer them. Don't hesitate to ask. We're an independent, fundamental, Bible believing, King James Bible Church here. King James only. We're soul winning. We went out today, we didn't get one, but we tried. Soul winning, salvation by faith alone, and family integrated. That means, just as you guys are doing, you brought the kids in here, that's great. That's where they belong. Amen? And if they start misbehaving, then of course you know we have a mother baby room in the back, or if they need some attention, you can take them back there. Please know men or anyone in there in the mother baby room with the women. We appreciate that. The rockers in the back, or if we're pregnant, or nursing mothers and elders. So I just got in there. I'm an elder, so I can sit back there if I want. If you're under my age, you can't do it. Or you've got to be pregnant, or something else. Please help us keep the building the way we found it. We found it pretty nice, so you know, don't put any gum under the seat or anything and clean up after your kids if they make a big mess. I don't have to tell you guys that, you already know it. I'm just doing it for the fun of it, right? Online donations and text giving are coming soon. And if anybody here needs help out to their vehicle afterwards, just come and ask. We'd be happy to help you out to your vehicle. I think that's about it again. Let's sing our last song. It seems like we should be afraid. Let's play. Heavenly Father, thank you so much tonight, Lord. I feel like I just have to thank you for all the people that are here tonight. Lord, praise your holy name. We've got some people in your house. Father, we want this house full, just like you want it full. And Father, if we have to go out into the highways and the byways and the hedges to bring them in, Lord, help us to do that. Help us not to be lazy Christians. And Father, we just thank you for tonight. And the pastor is with us here tonight to preach for us in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Our last song, 213. Page 213. The Light of the World. Amen. You know we are now the light of the world, you know that? So, let's get going. If you didn't go out today, go next time we meet. 213, The Light of the World is Jesus. The Light of the World is Jesus. The whole world is lost in the darkness I've seen. The light of the world is Jesus. Next to John at noonday his glory's turning. The light of the world is Jesus. God, feel the light shining for me. Sweet, feel the light rise from above me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No darkness have we, who in Jesus abide. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. Until the light is shining for me. Sweet, feel the light rise from above me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. Until the light is shining for me. Sweet, feel the light rise from above me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. One more verse. Sing it out. Oh, me of the sunlight and the moon. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the city of glory. The light of the world is Jesus. Until the light is shining for me. Sweet, feel the light rise from above me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. OK, now we're going to have our Bible reading for the preaching tonight. Further Josh taps gonna come up and read the Word of God for us Please turn to James chapter 5 in your King James Bible James chapter 5 Starting there in verse 1 the Bible reads Go to now you rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten Your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire You have heaped treasure together for the last days behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields Which is of you kept back by fraud? Cryeth and the cries of them which have reaped or entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath you have lived in pleasure on the earth and been Wanton you have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter You have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord Behold the husband men waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience Patience for it until he received the early and latter rain be also patient establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Grudge not one against another brethren lest she be condemned Behold the judge standeth before the door Take my brethren the prophets who've spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience Behold we count them happy which endure You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth Neither by any other oath, but let your yay be yay And your nay nay lest ye fall into condemnation is any among you afflicted Let him pray is any Mary let him sing Psalms is any sick among you Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him Up, and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that she may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and Six months and he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit Brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him Let him know that he which convert at the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall Hide a multitude of sins. Let's pray Father God, we thank you for this day. Thank you for all the people that are here right now. Please fill pastor Thompson here with your Holy Spirit and everybody who's listening here Please fill them with the spirit as well so we can get as much as we we need out of this sermon here We thank you for your words in the name of Jesus. We pray amen You're gonna get a lot tonight it's gonna be a You're gonna get all you need and probably more than you wanted. So Anyway, we are going to have a farewell dinner tonight after church and that is going to be At I almost said Black Angus, but it's actually going to be at Sea galley sea galley, so everybody in here is invited. We can't be there till after 8 but there's no It's just gonna be entrees only but you can get what you want So I'm not limiting you to fish and chips or chicken strips or anything like that As a matter of fact if you get chicken strips is probably gonna offend me Because I kind of just think like you're not right with God if you if you're gonna get chicken strips at a steak and seafood restaurant, so Anyway, I wanted to say there in the announcements there. We are having a solely marathon here October 20th and 21st So I'll be here preaching on Friday night of that week and then the next day we're gonna so Friday We're gonna have some soul winning and then Saturday. We're gonna have a soul in a marathon We're gonna be knocking the doors of the town called Hera So we're knocking all that we're gonna try to knock all the doors in one day. So that's something that's coming up I'll make sure to feed you The labor is worthy of his hire. So If you come out and help us, I don't know what the weather's like here on around the 20th of October Hopefully it's not too cold yet. It's cold. Okay. Well, so anybody that's coming from our church You might need to put like a hoodie on or something. So Or a coat so anyway, let me get into the scriptures tonight and You know, like I said, we can't be the sea galley till 8 o'clock So if I go till 8 o'clock, you know, you can just follow it take a little nap It's like it's too much for you. I'll try to get done before obviously before 8 o'clock, but you never know with me So anyway, this is the last chapter in James and we've the if you're looking for James 1 It's just for some reason God did not want it to be recorded or our sound system didn't want to be recorded so James 1 is just gone, but Last week, we were in James chapter 4 and basically I've kind of said this every sermon that James is a book of wisdom for Christians in the New Testament and It's got a lot of things that are similar to Proverbs in it and it's just a good book for Christian living So we talked a lot like there chapter 3 is just all about the tongue and how the tongue can do a lot of damage We got to make sure that we try to bridle our tongue and then last week It was it was talking a lot about I mean, there's just multiple different topics within each chapters That's why it's kind of like Proverbs when you're trying to preach through it. There's just so much good stuff You don't want to skip over it and when I do a verse by verse Bible study I want to cover all the verses so and sometimes that makes it difficult to put a sermon together in a book like this But anyway, let's and as a matter of fact I failed last week because I forgot to read the last verse and so I wanted to bring this up before I get into the main part of the sermon and I skipped a really important scripture last week because I think I just didn't copy and paste it that last one But it's verse 17 So just turn back at one to one chapter at the very end verse 17 of James chapter 4 The Bible says therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him It is sin. And so this is kind of like one of those all-inclusive verses. It's telling us just hey if If you if you know that you're supposed to be doing something, you know It's supposed that it's good Then if you don't do that, it is sin to you, right? Is that what it's saying if you know to do good and don't do it, it's sin and what would this apply to? Well, I mean the context in in chapter 4 was boasting If you just read up a couple verses, it's about boasting about what you're gonna do later And you know a lot of people put off serving the Lord until later I'm gonna make my money now and then later I'm gonna serve God, but it's a dangerous position to hold you should serve God now While you have the time and so like I said the context is you know that you're saying well next year I'm gonna do this or I'm gonna move here that I'm gonna then I'm gonna serve the Lord I'm gonna get married and have kids then I'm gonna serve the Lord You need to be serving God now Because to him that know it to do good and do it that not to him it is sin if you're putting God on hold for your life so to speak I'm not saying don't try to be successful in your work or don't try to be successful with your family But if you are just you know, you're trying to earn your money Before you become you know The Christian that you should be that's just a wrong way to look at things God wants you to serve him now And you know and if you know it's it's now And you know you're supposed to be serving him now, then if you're not doing that it's sin so anything that you know to do Good, you know and what's good. I mean obviously the there's a lot of stuff. That's good isn't there going out and soul winning is good coming to church is good and You know reading the Bible is good prayer time is good Singing Psalms hymns and spiritual songs, that's good these things are good, and if you know to do them, and you're not doing them It's sin, so this is kind of like one of those things that's that's a scripture to help us with our conscience or Say you cross paths with somebody and then you think in your mind I should I should talk to that person you know a lot of people say well God told me to speak to that person well. You know it's it's your conscience It's it's the Holy Spirit, maybe, but it's you know it's not an audible voice if you're hearing an audible voice That's saying hey go talk to him. You might need some psychiatric help because God doesn't talk to us We're not Pentecostals at this church for Baptist and God talks to us through this thing. It's called the Bible He he completed it Genesis to Revelation. It's a closed book. You're not getting any special revelation from God That's not in that book so don't be weird quit saying God's talking to you I mean if he's talking to you through the Bible then yes, but how do you know what's good the Bible? How do you know that what you're doing is good the Bible is gonna Tell you that and so when you cross paths with somebody What what are we supposed to do we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourself, and how do you do that? What does that mean exactly who is our neighbor? It's anybody that we can reach and we can help that's within our power to do so so if you know someone's on save Maybe you struck up some kind of conversation with them or something Hey, give them the gospel if your conscience is telling you hey Quit being a chicken and give this person the gospel then you should do that because that is something that's good Isn't it and so when you don't do it, and you're like haven't you ever gotten it gotten in a situation like man? I really wish I would have I really blew it there. I wish I would have said something I wish I would have talked to that person and that's a that's a terrible feeling to have because there probably was a reason why your conscience or what or whatever the Spirit of God working in you or whatever just saying you know talk to this person, and then you don't do it You know it is sin because you know that it's the right thing to do. You know it's good to do it so now let's move on to the sermon and and Let's look at verse number 1 in chapter 5 and the the first point of my sermon is is a warning We're gonna see a warning to the rich And it kind of just goes together with what was last said because he that knows to do good Do it not to him is sin if you think that you're just gonna You know boast about what you're gonna do tomorrow and today you're gonna do this this and that well You don't know what you're gonna do today You're not you don't know what's gonna happen to you tomorrow So you can't boast and brag about the things you're gonna do and certainly you shouldn't being rich Shouldn't be one of those things that you're that you're boasting and bragging that you're gonna do So going right into the context of chapter 5 Look what it says it says in verse number 1 go to now you rich men weep and howl for your Miseries that shall come upon you now. You're like well. Is it a sin to be rich. No. It's not a sin to be rich This is a warning to To rich people that are wicked and if you if you pay attention to it It's talking about these rich men that are wicked look what it says in verse 2 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth eaten and the Bible warns us many times And I'll show you some scriptures go ahead and turn to Proverbs 23 Proverbs chapter number 23 And there's several scriptures and a lot of guidance about us Not just laboring to be rich worrying about money all the time obviously you got to make a living You got to bring home the bacon, but you know we shouldn't be laboring to be rich That shouldn't be the goal is that we're gonna be rich someday, and why not well I'll show you some scriptures, and what the Bible says about that, but look at Proverbs chapter 23 verse 4 says labor Not to be rich. Well. There's there's a clear is what does that mean in the Greek right there? It means labor not to be rich, okay, that's what it means cease from mine own wisdom You know and and our wisdom will tell us hey I got to make money I got it I got to be rich so I can do this this and this and all the fine things that I want in life But but you know when it says labor not to be rich the next thing is cease from mine own wisdom Stop trying to figure everything out You know sometimes we just need to let God guide our lives a little bit And we worry about all these little finer points and sometimes. We just need to let God you know lead us and Comfort us and show us the way But sometimes we just want to do it all ourself in the flesh, and that's not how we should be says wilt thou Set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches certainly Make themselves wings they fly away as an eagle toward heaven so you know when you get rich You know your money's just gonna be gone. Just like it is when you're poor It's just you're gonna buy more things you're gonna buy more expensive things You're still gonna have the same mortgage if you're bad with your money now You'll be bad with your money when you're rich, too So you know and you're like well at least I'll have this this and that yeah But you're still the borrower servant to the lender a lot of times people they get more money They're making more money And then they just buy more things that enslave them into working harder and and working for more things right look at Proverbs chapter 15 verse 16 Proverbs chapter 15 verse 16 and look I'm not saying if you're rich or evil or something But the Bible very clearly says that this is not something that we should be seeking or desiring You know Solomon was rich, and he didn't even ask for it You know he God actually Especially blessed him to be rich and gave him the things that he didn't ask for when he asked just for wisdom And so as Christians that should be you know you should think back on that situation But look what riches did to him you know in the end he had everything he wanted everything he could ever need he Sought after wisdom he sought after knowledge he sought after knowing all this stuff and in the end He said it's all vanity. You know and your riches will fly away What you know you can't take it with you your children are gonna fight over it when you get old when you die and get Old you don't want that to happen so You know be be one of those people that are you know have your stuff figured out who what's going to who and who's going? You know because it's weird how families just I've mentioned this before But it's weird how families just fight and turn on each other when it comes to money and inheriting their parents stuff So anyway look at Proverbs 15 verse 16 it says better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith Better is little with the fear of the Lord So it's better to have not a lot to be broke or you know barely making it than it is to have great treasure and Trouble there with so what's it says warning us about the rich people? You know you have more money, so you can you know you have you start getting more money So you have more desires you have more lost after things and those times of things can consume you and destroy you it says In verse 17 better is a dinner of herbs where love is then a stalled ox and Hatred therewith so and what is it alluding to well? It's better to just be poor and happy than it is to have a lot of money and and to have a hatred in your home There's a lot of rich have ever knows how a lot a lot of rich families. They have a lot of problems You know they have a lot of problems It's not like every all rich people are happy a lot of them are miserable actually you know and they might say well I'm happy I got all the money I could want But then you know their life doesn't show that at all because they're missing something you know what they're missing they're missing the true riches the true treasures which are God and salvation and You know looking forward to the things of life outside of this planet in the finite last week I preached about how life is a vapor it appeared for a little while and vanished at the way I remember very clearly when I was young Brother Josh back there was telling me How he's 22, and he's already starting to feel old or something. I was just like I'll trade you right now. I said I was dunking on people when I was 22 like I'll trade you right now But it's funny how we think that way though, but you know brother Josh You got a lot of year good years left in you, but The older you get the more aches and pains you're gonna get and things like that so but anyway I just started for throwing you under the bus, but I couldn't help it so now Let's look at Proverbs 3 verse 5 and and this isn't really necessarily talking about riches But it should be what our attitude should be towards the things of God Because look if we're seeking God and his righteousness all these things shall be added unto you. That's what the Bible says So do seek the right things put your heart towards the right things put your effort and all your Achievements towards the things of God and he's gonna bless you with all that stuff anyway Just like he did with Solomon, but we don't want to be to the point You know we don't want to be doing things for bad motivations Well, you know I just don't understand why God's not making me rich. Well. Maybe you can't handle it Maybe you you're gonna get a bunch of money, and you can't handle having that much money It's gonna destroy you and God wants to take care of you and make sure that you're you know he when you ask him for Things he's willing to give you those things, but if it's something that's gonna be harmful for your life You know maybe you shouldn't be asking for those things, so I'm gonna says in Proverbs 3 5 It says trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own Understanding so at some point like I was saying earlier you have to trust God With your heart and not lean to the things that you have in your mind and your own understanding you got to lean on God's Understanding and it says in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths How is he gonna direct our paths when we acknowledge him in all of our ways, and you're like well that sounds boring Well, you know you're in a Baptist Church right now. I'm gonna preach the Bible to you, and that's not boring That's that's knowledge That's wisdom the Proverbs are a book of wisdom for us to understand how to go And he says in all thy ways acknowledge him God, and he shall direct thy paths be not wise in thine own eyes Fear the Lord and depart from evil it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones And then it says honor the Lord with thy substance What does that talk about the things that you have and with the firstfruits of all thine increase? And that's talking about the money that you get coming in or whatever and it says so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and Thy presses shall burst out with new wine What's it say it's not saying God's gonna make you rich, but God's gonna bless you with substance Because you put him first because you've chosen to follow him and follow his understanding And then he's directing your paths don't you want God to direct your path? Because we don't want to fall off the path You know the way of righteousness the way of truth You know the Bible talks a lot about these things and how David would pray in the Psalms They'd say you know that he's following like basically the footsteps They're they're put in front of him And we got to learn to trust God and stop trusting the money stop trusting in our own power to bring things to pass Obviously God's given us a brain. He's given us bodies to work and all this other stuff And he expects us to do those things But when we're putting God first when we're you know not leaning to our own understanding of things But actually looking at God for our understandings and acknowledging him in all of our ways Then he is going to direct our paths. That's what the Bible says so isn't that what you really want I mean if you're here tonight, and you're saved. This is the things that we should want How does what does God want from us to acknowledge him in all of our ways? All of our ways not just some not just the garbage time that we have not the extra time that well We're not playing video games or watching movies or or listen to music or going to this or going to that no He wants us to Acknowledge him in all of our ways look at first Timothy chapter 6 verse 6 first Timothy chapter 6 verse 6 the Bible says but godliness with contentment is great gain and Sometimes people just aren't content with the things that they have But you know and I think that talks about that in the book of Hebrews that to be content with such things as you have That Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us. He's always gonna take care of us He's gonna make sure we have what we need, but it says but godliness with contentment is great gain So it's not just being content, but it's godliness also It's a combination there isn't it and it says it's great gain for we brought nothing into this world And it is certain we can carry nothing out So our gain in this world means nothing the only gain in this world that counts is the gains that we're making in heaven And you can't see that account You can't look up on an app online what you got coming to you in heaven and God's gonna figure out all that stuff out For you, but when you serve the Lord, he's going to take care of you. He's going to reward you and So when we call when we're content with the things that we have Then that's great gain That's what the Bible says so great gain is talking about being rich, isn't it? Look what it says for we brought nothing in this world and it's certain we can carry nothing out You can't carry anything with you. It says and having food and raiment. Let us there with a be there with content Has anybody here gonna be content if that's all you have That's what the wisdom of the Bible says though And you know a lot of us would be upset if we didn't have a place to live But God see how much God blesses us way more than we actually, you know He's promised us basically to give us food and raiment and to take care of us He's never seen his seed begging for bread And and so God is always going to take care of his people and make sure that they have enough But what if it came down to the point where all you had is something to eat and some clothes to wear? The Bible says we're supposed to be content with that. So anything we get on top of that is a cherry on top, isn't it? It's nice that we have a place to live. It's nice that you have two cars It's nice that you have children, you know All these different things that God blesses us with this is just extra that he gives us because you know We serve him and we love him and sometimes he just gives us things and we don't deserve it at all But he does give it to us So we should be thankful for what we have instead of just being whining about all the things we don't have all the luxuries That we wish we had well, I just really want a 75-inch TV, you know, this 60-inch is just not good enough for me It's just like that's just you know, it's a bad attitude and we shouldn't always just be wanting bigger and better all the time But that's the way that we're fed all this garbage from Hollywood Everything everything you look at when you talk about it. You'll be like seeing it like oh, well the thing I was just talking about the my phone's trying to get me to buy it right now Where'd that come from because your phone listens to you talk and and the ads come in you're like well I really how did it know that I want to do that it heard you talking it read your mind I don't know. It seems like that sometimes. Oh, yeah, I Don't think I said this to anybody. How about my phone? Oh this but anyway So I don't want to freak anybody out. But anyway, so So it says in verse 9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts Which drown men in destruction and perdition that doesn't sound very positive. Does it who is it again? They that will be rich fall into temptation So is it good to be wanting to be rich? No, the Bible is warning us against that. It's saying hey, that's it That's not the way to you know to follow the Lord is to just want to be rich It's and it says it says that you're gonna fall into temptation So you're gonna be tempted to do things that you shouldn't do. It's a snare it's gonna trap you and it has many foolish or stupid and hurtful lusts So when you have more money, you can do more things and you can there's more Opportunities for you, but there's also a lot more opportunities for you to do wicked things It says which drown men in destruction and perdition It says for the love of money is the root of all evil and I know that the New King James and other Translations will say it's all kinds of evil No the King James says for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have heard from the faith and Pierced themselves through with many sorrows, so It so money is the root of all evil. So all these wicked men so like what does the Bible talking about in James chapter 5 verse 1 it's talking about these rich men and It's gonna go on here. We're gonna go back to it here in just a minute But why would we want to be like the rich men that bring us before? You know bring us before councils and try to sue us and that they're always trying to harm Christianity like yeah, you know guys like George Soros and you know, everybody always says George Soros But it's legitimate that he is funding things that is trying to overthrow You know the the good people of this country He supports all these occupy protests and all this other kind of garbage But the rich men drag you before the council's the rich men are there and and you know I'm talking about rich people that aren't saved there that are wicked Why would we want to pattern our lives or be like they are you're like? Well, I wouldn't do that if I had all that money How do you know you wouldn't do it and do some kind of wicked thing if you had it? If God thought you could handle it, he would give it to you That's why you don't see a lot of rich people in Christianity But in Jesus time there weren't rich people that followed him, you know Lazarus and Mary and Martha had money They were practically supporting him, you know, they they were helping with a lot of stuff But there was other rich men in the Bible that were helping Jesus and the disciples and there's nothing again There's nothing wrong with being rich or having a lot of money but you just should not be seeking after it like it's just the most important thing because it's be it can become people's God and You don't we don't serve we you can't serve two masters You're either gonna serve God or Mammon Mammon is the things of this world the riches of this world It could mean money, but you can't serve them both So there's a warning against what trying to be rich or wanting to be rich The warning is you're trying to follow after a pattern that wicked men will follow or wicked women will follow So, you know, it says that they've heard from the faith or aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many Sorrows these people and because you know, I mean people can still get rich on their own They can just avoid God's counsel and just say well, I don't care I'm gonna do it my way and then you're gonna see What happens the fruit of wanting to do things your own way instead of wanting to do things God's way? So again, it says the Bible says seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness And all these things shall be added unto you turn back to James chapter 5 Let's look at verse 3 James chapter 5 verse 3 the Bible says your gold and silver is cankered I am the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire You have heaped treasure together For the last day, so I believe that James is specifically calling out right here people There's some end times Bible prophecy in the book of James in chapter number 5 and right here. It's kind of warning these People that are rich that have heaped this treasure together for the last days talking about maybe the kings of this earth And you know in the last days, there's a lot of rich people that use their money for wicked ends and wicked things How about Bill Gates? You know wanting to vaccinate the whole planet or whatever like you first buddy. How about you take all your vaccinations? You know, but he you know, he's just some kind of wicked Supposedly Philanthropist that's someone that just like likes to help people or whatever But it's funny how his help is like just injecting people with all these vaccines But he wants to have the human population down to a certain level. Well, so how is he gonna do that? Well, how about just giving a bunch of people vaccines and you don't know what it's doing to them So now look at verse 4 says behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields Which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and cries of them Which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth so It's talking about people that have been wronged by rich people because how do rich people get rich a lot Well, some rich people get rich from working really hard Some people inherited it's called old money. They're born in the right family It keeps transferring from air to air and you know So that's that's kind of how people get rich, but you know, obviously in the last days There's a different type of rich person I mean, obviously there's been these types of people all along but there's some rich people out there that Their their end is is to be destroyed and when God's Hearing the cries of people that have been wronged by these rich people. What does it say? You know He they've kept back by fraud Cryeth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth And what does that term mean? Well, it means the Lord of hosts in the Old Testament. It's translated as the Lord of hosts So the Lord or you know armies and so God You know when you don't want God the cries of people that are being wrong Going into God's ears. What's God gonna do when when that happens? Well, what's he when when people were are Doing wicked things against widows and fatherless children and people that can't really fight back against that kind of power God in in Exodus, I'll be studying I'll be going through this on Sunday night But in Exodus he says that he will kill you for that God will kill you for that So again, why would we want to be like a these rich people, you know Why would we want to pattern our life after this? We're not supposed to live our lives according to the pattern of this world But we're supposed to live our lives according to how God wants us to live them. So look at verse 5 it says You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just and He doth not resist you so what does this verse talk about? Well, it's talking about condemning people that are saved and Killing the just who are the just the just of the people are justified by the blood of Christ you know, we sang two songs about it and and the Bible says when you're just or Justified it's just as if I'd never sinned. So God saves us by his blood. We don't deserve it It's by grace through faith alone without any works whatsoever but when it's time our rich people here is talking about People that that take things out on save people killed the just so so, you know These rich people they they condemn they kill and it says he doth not resist you So as Christians, we can't we're not supposed to fight back in a physical way when it comes to being persecuted That's not when we fight back now if you're fighting to defend your castle your home, whatever you whatever you're doing That's fine. But you know, if somebody's killing us because of what we believe we're not supposed to fight back I mean did Stephen fight back? No, he didn't once they captured him I mean you can run and try to get away, but once you're caught I mean you kind of got to just go through what whatever you're gonna go through and You know, that's the you know The patient people are going to keep their souls according to Matthew chapter 25, so we need to be aware of how we're supposed to respond when someone's persecuting us and You know the the the rich have been killing the just people for a long time and So again these passages seem to be alluding to the rich people that rule over the world in the end times and these kings That that have all this power So, I guess the lesson, you know for us as Christians is you know Why are we trying to be like the rich of this world when this is the types of things that they do? Like why do you want to put yourself in the same basket with them? And these are the ones that are using their Fortunes to usher in the Antichrist in the one-world government, but you want to be like them You want to have the money that they have? Well, there's they came at a cost and You know the Bible talks about how the devil Just offered Jesus every all the kingdoms of the world if he would just bow down and worship him So you don't think he's doing that with other people in the last days, of course He's doing that and so he he's got an agenda that he's trying to fulfill but we still have to play within the rules That's the difference between us and them. We have rules We have rules then, you know, they talk about like rules of engagement for military soldiers and things like that There's certain protocols that you have to go through as Christians. We can't fight like the enemy fights. They fight dirty They fight nasty. They lie. They rail they say things that aren't true. They make things up and You know, they they come against us for no reason they you know, and they hurt us They they do types of all different types of sabotage things but as Christians we are supposed to be honest We're supposed to be forthright. We're supposed to not be violent You know violence is something that Christians are not supposed to be we're not supposed to be violent people So let's not pattern ourselves Like the world and the world's rich men that cause us all this grief And you might not see it in your surface life or in your surface level But it is happening whether you realize that or not now, let's move on to point number two tonight point number two is Patience in relation to Christ's coming patience in relation to Christ's coming Look down at James verse chapter 5 verse number 7 The Bible says be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord Behold the husband and waited for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long Patience for it until he received the early and latter rain This is a great verse right here and we're supposed to be what does it say patient, you know? And it's not necessarily, you know patient is waiting for something and not like getting all upset about it So you're just like, you know, you have to wait and you have to be patient It's like when you're at the doctor's office and you check in and you're like, you know 15 20 minutes early and then they still don't call you back until way later But then if you're like one second late, then they're like, oh we got to reschedule the whole thing, you know Don't you hate that? It's like dude. I was like 30 minutes early the last time doesn't that count on the other end? It doesn't but You know, we need to be patient for the coming of the Lord and that's talking about the second coming, right? Someone when Jesus comes back in the clouds every eye shall see him according to Revelation chapter 1 verse 7 It's not a secret rapture It's not some secret thing that nobody else is gonna see there's not gonna be millions of piles of clothes on the ground and airplane Pilots, you know disappearing in the middle of their flights and all this other stuff. That's just Hollywood garbage. It's bad doctrine it's just not true and the Bible talks about Jesus coming after the tribulation Matthew chapter 24 and You know, it's funny in that chapter It's that you know, the disciples say what when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world and then Jesus tells them all that stuff And then he talks about when he's coming back Do you think that they just thought well because this is what the pre-trip people this is what the dispensationalists will say Well, that's talking about his second coming. Yeah, I know But they think that the second coming is at the final end of the seven years When he his feet touched on the Mount of Olives or whatever but Is there a coming between there? Like I mean, is it coming to one point two or two point one or whatever? It's like that's ridiculous. Why would Jesus tell them about a coming? That's not this that skips the pre-trip rapture That's ridiculous. That's not what the Bible teaches and they have no verses for it They have not one single verse that teaches the pre-trip rapture and if you have one, please show it to me after the service I'd be glad to look at it, but you know, I've read the Bible quite a few times And I just have never seen it and you're like, well John blows a truck, you know trumpet blows and John is called up hither Oh, that's your proof for the rapture That's ridiculous folks, it's not proof of the rapture, you know, we base our beliefs on clear scripture at this church Clear scripture like John 3 16 for God to love the world that he gave his only begotten son That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's clear You're saved by believing in Jesus. He gives you everlasting life. It's a free gift. That's pretty easy That's that's one you can rest your head on and know for sure. That's how you're saved And when Jesus says, you know, they ask him a question and when his disciples ask him questions for the most part He answers the questions. There might be some times when he's like, well, you know, you don't need to know that right now but They ask him point-blank questions. He usually gives them the answer. He's not gonna skip a pre-trip rapture and then and then that's what you know, these these theologians are you know have all these crazy twisted charts and you know, there's lines intersecting and you know Just it's just it's too much to take in. It's really not that complicated. It is a little complicated, but it's not that complicated And people are like, yeah, he could come back at any moment That's not what the Bible says folks. I don't have time to preach a whole sermon about that right now But what I wanted to kind of focus on with this point here is that We need to be patient for the coming of the Lord See, we're not supposed to seek the day of the Lord because that day is is destruction for all the unsaved, isn't it? But the day of the Lord and the day of Christ happened in the same day So for us that day is gonna be a great day the dead in Christ are gonna rise We're gonna meet the Lord of the elders that are alive and remain We'll be caught up together and meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord It's a great day for us, but it's a bad day for the rest of human human being humankind So and we have to understand God's view on this and not be selfish to just want the rapture to happen right now Or whatever. He's got a job for us to do He's saying be patient under the coming of the Lord behold the husband then what waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth What is the precious fruit of the earth? Well in this con, you know, it's obviously it's given us some symbology here But it says and has long patience for it when you plant things They don't just sprout up and turn into like if you if you plant carrots tomorrow Are they gonna are they gonna turn into carrots the next day and you're just gonna you know be able to just eat them No, it takes time. It takes patience You have to water them and you have to you know, you have to do all the things you have to do whatever I'm not a gardener, but you you know the thing, you know, I'm just kidding, but you have to you know, it takes time for you to For that fruit to come to fruition Before it actually is for you know If you plant a tree it takes years for you to be able to get the fruit off of it It doesn't just happen in one day. It doesn't happen in one week doesn't happen in one year You know, I don't I don't know a lot about apples and cherries and all this other stuff But I do know that the trees don't just start giving you the bean cherries like, you know, they you know week one How long does it take does anybody know? for a cherry tree to start producing or for a an Apple tree, I'm pretty sure it takes like five years Yeah, it's not right away and so the picture that we see though is that God is the husband then He's the one that's doing all tending to all these things. He's the one sending out the soul winners He's the one that's made, you know, he wants people to be saved and he's waiting for that precious fruit so we're supposed to have patience waiting for Christ to come back and You know because God hath long patience for it says until he receiveth the early and latter rain So there's a lot of people that have died from you know that were saved before us And there's gonna be latter rain after us So so basically God is waiting for this whole harvest to take place Before he comes back. So and in go ahead and turn to Luke 8 5 I'm gonna read Proverbs 11 30 the Bible says in Proverbs 11 30 the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life you can dial that heat back up or If it's what's the temperature out there you guys are all freezing out there Don't go too crazy over there I Saw him like touch it like ten times Once is enough all right, so anyway, but So the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life So and it says and he that when his souls is wise as Christians, you know, we're part of that husbandry We're part of that fruit gathering and you know throughout the ages He's had people that you know It's very few compared to how many Christians are but very few people going out to do all this work But we are supposed to be patient in the cup You know to the coming of the Lord because God is being patient He doesn't just want to come and nuke everybody. He wants people to be saved Luke chapter 8 verse 5 It says a sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed some fell by the wayside It was trodden down in the fowls of the air devoured it So this is a parable here of Jesus and it's the pair called the parable of the sower So the sower went out to sow seed. So this is a person that's got seed, you know, if you're if you're you know This is a farming community. You guys should know what it's talking about, right? But you know, maybe you know, you've never farmed before I've done some gardening like when I was a kid But like not on the on a massive scale like it, you know, this is a farming a farming area out here But you all understand that to make things grow you have to have seed That to go into the ground says in verse 6 and some fell upon a rock And as soon as it was sprung up it withered away because it lacked moisture Now most people know if you put seeds on top of a rock It's not gonna grow because you know, it's gonna the sun's gonna hit it. It's it's gonna lack moisture Says some it sprung up it withered away because it lacked moisture and verse 7 and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it and the other fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit and hundredfold so a hundredfold fruit and when he had said these things he cried he that hath ears to hear Let him hear and he's what is he talking about? He's talking about the soul winner he's talking about the people that go out and they're preaching the Word of God and Some people are gonna get saved and some people aren't some people are gonna get saved and they're gonna not thrive The the weeds are gonna choke them out Some are gonna fall on the on the rocks and they're gonna get scorched But some people are gonna get saved and they're gonna do what God wants them to do. That's the soul winner That's what it's talking about and it says that they bear fruit 100 fold see when God's talking about souls and people getting saved it's a lot of times is he's talking about fruit of the earth and seed being the Word of God it says In verse 9 and his disciples asked him to asked him saying what might this parable be? So his disciples don't understand it. He's gonna explain it to him He said unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God But to others and parables that scene they might not see in hearing they might not understand Now the parable is this the seed is the Word of God So Jesus is this is one of the occasions where Jesus is actually going to Interpret what he's saying. What is the seed? What's it say? The seed is the Word of God Those by the wayside are they that hear then come with the devil and take away the word out of their hearts Lest they should believe and be saved They on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy and these have no root for a while believe and in time of temptation fall away, so when they get Persecuted they fall away and stop serving God verse 14 and that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and Bring no fruit to perfection kind of like Demas He loved this present world and he ditched Paul and some people are just gonna you know They just don't have the character to move on in the Christian life and so they get choked by the riches see see how riches can be a detrimental to the Christian life and Jesus explains it right here again too and this life and and you know, they don't bring forth fruit to perfection, but Verse 15 that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good Heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with what's it? What's it say there? Patience. So what does the Bible say in James chapter 5 verse 7 hath long Patience for it. So we as Christians are supposed to be patient like God is patient and you know We shouldn't look at this world. Like I just can't wait till Jesus comes back I just can't wait till Jesus comes back, you know, we should want to have Jesus come back But if God's plan is for us to have patience under the coming of the Lord Then let's do what God put us here to do and sow the seed and yeah, some people aren't going to get saved Some people aren't going to hear the Word of God. Some people are going to come to church They're gonna get choked out by the riches and all the things of this world and they're gonna fade away But some people are gonna hear it they're gonna do it and they're gonna bring forth fruit with patience just like God said to do and so to be a soul winner like we talk about so many a lot and Why do we because it's the most important thing that we do folks There's nothing more important than somebody's soul going to heaven someday. There's nothing more important than that And so that is the main job that God put us on this earth to do He didn't just save us and transport us to heaven immediately He has jobs for us to do here. We're supposed to be working for the Lord We're supposed to be doing and bringing forth in Patience because God is patient and wants people to be saved And just because someone doesn't get saved the first time that we give them the gospel doesn't mean that we just give up and blow Up on them or something. We want to leave people with a good taste in their mouth about Christianity and not just be like well You're stupid, you know, you're not you're not even gonna get saved that's a bad attitude We should never have that please don't go soul into this church and then talk to people like that at the door Obviously the reprobates are a different thing. Okay, some queer answers the door starts cussing you out then you know, like I'm just gonna turn around and I don't care what you do, but You know, I'm obviously within reason but you know, we shouldn't be going out of our way Sowing is a time We're going to to just try to get people to to hook back up with God and to reconcile themselves Or the ambassador for God we should this we should have Ambassador type qualities. We're supposed to be reaching people to a peace agreement Right blessed are the peacemakers and when we're making people are making peace with God. That's us being peacemakers, isn't it? Blessed are the peacemakers and so we we got to understand the way God thinks about things And we got to think how he thinks, you know He's given this parable he's talking about the sower that goes out to so and the last thing he says is that they bring forth fruit with patience God's waiting Patiently for the fruit of the earth. Look at 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 8 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 8 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 8 the Bible says but beloved be not ignorant of this one thing that one day Is what the Lord has a thousand years and a thousand years as one day Which is basically a way of saying that time means nothing to God it really doesn't it's it's it goes by Really slow for him and to us we might think that time goes by slow too, but it doesn't really To me. I think time goes by fast And the busier I am the faster it goes I can't believe it's already October I'm just like I've been really busy So but the busier you are the faster your time goes and the next thing, you know, you're old So, you know you young people just enjoy being young don't want to you know little kids in here You know, don't say I can't wait till I can grow up and what pay bills and work Like I'm just yeah, I can't wait to get that electric field. I can't wait to get that electric field Yeah, I can't wait to get that electric field later on can't wait to move out from mom and dad where they feed me and give me all my clothes and all this stuff is like You know be careful, you know, obviously go at the time you need to go But don't try to go up too fast Just you know, enjoy your life as a kid because I think anybody in this room would love to go back to you know Having fun and making forts and playing with GI Joe's and whatever else you did, you know ladies on the way you did but Play with dollies and all that kind of stuff. So those are those are enjoyable times, you know, enjoy your life You know just be patient and you know life is gonna you know, time is gonna happen whether we like it or not So anyways verse 9 says the Lord is not slack Concerning his promise that you know, some people it says as some men count slackness Like some people would say well God promised that he was gonna send Jesus. He's gonna come back Jesus is gonna come back But we can't look at how some men count Slackness you're like, well God's just slacking on the job. He's not doing what he said. He was gonna do We can't look at it that way It says because what but is long suffering to us word not willing that any should perish But that all should come three pens. What's God's will today Calvinists? What is God's will God's wills that not he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance So, I mean that that verse right there just kills Calvinism. It's the death blow Because they're like well the sovereign will of God is the sovereign will of God is that everybody be saved? that's what the sovereign will of God is and That all should come to repentance. It's not talking about repenting of your sins talking about putting your faith in Christ And so God's not willing and so what he's long-suffering he's patient He wants as many people to get saved as possibly will look back at James chapter 5 verse 8 James chapter 5 verse 8 it says in James 5 8 says be ye also patient establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh means draws near its drawing near and Now go to Romans 13 10 go to Romans 13 10 Like you're turning to too many verses. Well, we're in a Bible study. So, you know, I guess you know We're supposed to turn to some verses. You're like, well not that many. Okay. Well, I Mean if you're looking for 15 minutes in a poem and in a couple jokes, then you came to the wrong church tonight Roman you're like, I'd rather have that. Okay. Well, then there's plenty of churches around here to do that So you find it Roman chapter 13 verse 10 the Bible says love working no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law and that knowing the time that now it is high time to Awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe so What's the point that the Apostle Paul is making he's saying hey, it's time to wake up Christian it's time to wake up and Realize what's going on around you in the fact that our salvation is nearer than when we first believe So I've been saved for over 20 years Guess what? It's nearer than it was that day And so what's the Apostle Paul trying to impress upon us that you know? There's a lot of things that we think matter that don't you know what matters? That Christ is coming and the night is far spent verse 12 and the day is at hand Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts They're like, well, what does that have to do with anything? Well What it has to do with anything is that God's saying hey get out of this garbage that you're into Whatever it is that's stopping you from serving God. The time is now to serve God isn't that what it's saying to wake it's time to wake up and realize how important our job is as a Christian and Over and over again. I'm just showing you verse upon verse that you know It's the the Lord's drawing I the sour salvation is nearer than when we believed and you know The night is far spent that means the night it's almost over, you know don't you hate it when you kind of wake up before your alarm clock goes off and Like you can't help but look at the clock and you look and it's like I'm still so tired But I have to get up in like 15 minutes and you like try to fall asleep Who's there? There's like I know I have a half hour left I'm just gonna try to go back to sleep, but you just can't you're just like The night's far spent and it's annoying isn't it? But that's God's trying to tell us that hey the night's far spent we got to get busy You know like well pastor you're always saying get busy. We got to do more Yeah, because you know, we're not supposed to just you know Be doing all these wicked things and living our life However, we want we're supposed to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and not make and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust Thereof because our flesh always wanting to go back to Egypt Our flesh is always wanting to do what's wrong and it's hard to keep our bodies and subjection When we're constantly putting provender there for you to fulfill that lust and so what is it talking about? Well the provision if you think about like an animal gets provender, right? It's called provender when they feed them have you ever seen so who's ever fed a horse and you just like have like a handful Of hay and you're just like here you go. Ah, you know bites your hand you try to feed it an apple and I always get bit by them, but But you're providing something for it. So the Bible's saying here don't provide yourself Provender for the flesh whatever it is that you're struggling with get that stuff far away from you Whatever you have to do to get that in subjection, of course, we're never gonna be sinless But what he's talking about here is getting focused on the things that are important and putting away the things that are not and That is the Christian life. It's it's it's so important that we get plugged into God's program and put off our own Selves to put off our own lust and you know, it's too important In fact, you know, it's it's what what's at stake here? The literally souls going to hell that's what's at stake and when you put it in that perspective It's like heaven or hell, you know, if I don't talk to that person, it's heaven or hell If I don't go out so any once a week or something, it's heaven or hell for people You know, we have a sewing time We have sewing times of this church so people can go out and share their faith and be part of the program You know, you know, maybe people don't get saved every single time, but you know what people get saved a lot here And guess what the more people we have going the more people are gonna get saved the more ground we cover Look this place is is fruitful. This is the most receptive place that I have ever been to in Washington State I'm serious Like we've had more souls saved in Yakima area here than any other place we've ever gone And you live here and you might not realize that and yeah, we went to like an old folks home basically today We went to like, you know, 55 an older community and and people weren't interested, you know but that is because they've already lived a long life and You know, they just they've made up their mind we can pull some of those people out of the fire Maybe you know, I've gotten some pretty old people say And I've gotten people over 80 say and I know that like, you know in close to 90 say I'm sure everybody here. It has like a similar story. It's not too late for people You know and and again, you know people aren't always gonna get saved but that can't be how our what our motivation is What's our motivation to just obey the Lord and do what we're supposed to do So it's important as heaven and hell literally if we don't reach these people and it's a huge responsibility and guess whose hands it's been laid Into you're like, well, I didn't know I had that responsibility when I got saved Yeah, it doesn't matter whether you knew it or not Now, you know and so, you know if the watchman doesn't warn the people then the blood is on the watchman's hand We're all watchmen, you know, we're all supposed to be watching Watchmen on the wall. We're warning people to get saved before it's eternally too late Look back at James chapter 5 verse 9 The Bible says grudge not one against another brethren lest he be condemned behold the judge standeth before the door Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience So he's referencing back to the prophets here and how they suffered and we can read the stories in the Bible how they suffered and How they had a hard time and the patience and so who do you think of when you think of patience? Well, it says Let's move on here verse 11 says behold. We count them happy which endure You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful And of tender mercy, so what's it saying? Hey, we can go through a lot in our lives But God in the end we're gonna come out like gold and he you know He's gonna bless us for the for the for the trials that we go through in our life And when we suffer affliction, we know that we're gonna get rewarded for those things in the end God's gonna reward us for those things I mean Joe didn't even know why he was getting all that's why all that stuff was happening to him why he all ten of his kids Died why all this riches were taken away while why his wife is cursing him to his face and saying curse God and die He didn't know and we don't really see a record that he did ever know but we do know this that job suffered greatly and You know, we count them happy which endure God what's God saying to us here? He's saying hey You're probably never gonna have a day like job had So we should be able to if job can endure we've heard the patience of job That he would you know and patience is is going through trials and tribulations and afflictions and not Losing it over it not having a bad attitude and job. He never charged God foolishly Did he and that's why job passed the test? And so we're probably never gonna have a job day in our lives. We're gonna have some days that are tough But if job can endure what he endured the we can definitely endure what we have to endure in our lives so We are gonna have trials we are gonna have tribulations, but don't let that take you out of your Christian walk Don't let your issues at home or your problems with family or anything else take you out of serving God Because look those those trials will end You know and when you're kind of out of the tail end of a storm It's like you look back and you're like man. I'm better for that Even though it doesn't feel good when you're going through it We you know Joe it didn't feel good to job that boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet And he's scraping them with a potsherd. You know he's like gotta like a broken pot Kettle or like a piece of clay or he's scraping the pussy wounds off of it I mean he basically lost everything including his health You know he probably looked awful And you know he never knew why it was happening And we're gonna go through trials and temptations too, but nothing like that So you know he's saying hey we count them half them happy that endure We have heard of the patience of job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very Pitiful and of tender mercy, and you're like well didn't seem like he was very tender and merciful while it was happening But you got to remember who was actually doing it to Joe It was the devil wasn't it and so we don't want to you know fail our tests when it comes You know obviously God had to allow that to happen But God's probably never gonna allow the things that happen to job to happen to you This is an example to us in the Bible of job How that he what he's like the the person that we would look up to when we're going through trials And we're going through hard times So it says but above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven Neither by earth neither by any other oath But let your yay be yay, and your nay be nay lest you fall into condemnation. This is a really good You know nugget of wisdom for us also You know you know people will say well I swear on this or I swear on that that this that you know people will say all manner of things instead of just saying No, I didn't do it Yes, yes, I did do it and here's why you know our communication is talk about our communication How we communicate and sometimes it's it's it can get easy To communicate in a way where you're deflecting or not saying things and being a straight shooter But sometimes people can't handle straight shooting either They get they lose it When you're like brutally honest with people they lose it But you know it's better to be brutally honest with someone have them lose it than it is to sit there and him and ha And beat around the bush about stuff You know we should try our best to you know if someone says hey, are you gonna be there? Yes be there? Someone not gonna be there. No. I'm not gonna be why it doesn't matter. It's none of your business Just not Not everybody needs an explanation of why you know obviously but Anyway, let's move on to number three here tonight the prayer of faith in the anointing oil So look at James 5 13 the Bible says is is any among you afflicted let him pray So if you're going through trials of tribulation, what's the best thing to do? What's the Bible say? Pray is any Mary if you're in a good mood if everything's going great Let him sing Psalms You know sing the Psalms of David sing the Psalms in the Psalm or even saw spiritual songs from the hymnbook You're like well that seems kind of weird why? Like what are you gonna sing Beyonce? Saying like Nicki Minaj or something like what is it that you're gonna sing? like Isn't it better to sing the songs of the Lord than the songs of the heathen? this says in Is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord now I Believe that there's two ordinances that picture the Lord's death You know, obviously the baptism of the believer after they're saved and the Lord's Supper I don't believe that this is an ordinance that a believer has to keep so I wouldn't count it in the ordinances but it is something that a pastor should do and It says call for the elders. Now if there's only one pastor, will you call for the elder? This is a let them pray over him Anointing him with oil. So it's not talking about if you have the sniffles. Okay folks I don't believe that that's what it's talking about because then I'd be anointing people. I'd be like whipping you with oil Everybody in this room right now But it's talking about someone I believe that has like some really serious illness some really serious ailments look what it says in Verse 15. It says and the prayer of faith shall what's it say save the sick? It you know when someone what are you talking about saving the sick you're talking about someone that probably has some kind of You know disease or some kind of illness that they're not coming back from Maybe it's cancer. Maybe it's you know, and back in the days when you get fever people will just count me as dead I mean there was a time when we didn't have all the stuff that we have now to get rid of fevers and all that kind of stuff, but There are things that that sometimes the doctors can't figure out, you know, no matter how much you go I mean even in Jesus day the woman that grabbed the hem of his garment, you know She wasted all of her money just trying to get these doctors to heal her and you know We kind of do that to ourselves. Sometimes they're like, I just don't understand what's wrong. Why can't this get fixed? Like why can't they figure out what this is? Sometimes you just don't and if it's something that they can't figure out, you know, and you prayed to God about it You know, that would be the time to come to the pastor and say hey I really like to be anointed and prayed over and I'm not gonna pull this rattlesnakes out and you know You know and start just look it's it's just a simple. What does it say to do? It says let them pray over him So it's a it's a time of prayer and it's a time to anoint with oil and so I've literally I've done this before and I just dumped I dumped the oil on top of their head like it says in the Bible Isn't that what they said to do in the Bible? So like when a light and when Elisha Had that guy he like broke the box of ointment and just put it on top of G whose head and then ran out So Is it gonna get on your face? It probably is when it talks about Aaron having the oil Of the Lord on him it trickled down into his beard, right? So, I mean it is something that and what does it represent it represents the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit has power the Holy Spirit has the healing ability and You know, it's a pick and you're like, well, is it the oil that fixes you? No, that's not what it says. It says the prayer of faith shall save the sick The oil is just a representation of the whole of the healing of the Holy Spirit and it's what God said to do So it's not weird at all It's just something that's normal. So and it's something that God says to do if someone's sick now obviously People you could say well, I just pastor I got the sniffles. Can you pour some oil on my head? you know, I mean, I I think it's I think it's a little more I Think it's a little more than that because if it says the prayer of faith shall save the sick That means you're dying, you know, right? If you got the sniffles, you're not about to die. It says in the Lord shall raise him up So what is it's talking about? Someone's really sick Really has some major problems and it says the Lord shall raise him up and if you have committed sins They shall be forgiven him and you know, the Bible does make a connection between sin and health Sometimes, you know when when Jesus would cast devils out they would stop being epileptic or whatever They would stop having the issues that they had sometimes it's it's related to Spiritual oppression. I think when demons are oppressing people You know The Bible talks about how Saul had a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him Do you think he was just like, you know being tongue-in-cheek right there? I don't think he was I think that was literally a messenger of Satan to buffet him and He asked God to take it away three times and it didn't happen So I do think that there's some some some ties to spiritual oppression now the devil cannot possess a Christian Okay, the devil can't possess a Christian because the Bible says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world so the the Holy Spirit resides in the saved person and So a devil cannot enter into a saved person because the Holy Spirit's gonna be like, yeah, right buddy you're out of here So but can the devil still oppress Christians? Absolutely. And what is it tied to if they have committed sins? They shall be forgiven them. So if it is tied to that Then God will forgive those sins, you know, and so I believe that it's kind of a little bit of a process here But I do think it's for something really serious I think it's for something that might be a debilitating illness and I've done this I think with pastor men is twice Where I know into people with oil and then one time it was with my wife and she had the rattlesnakes I know I'm just joking she did but We've done this before and it's it and it is a rare thing But I just want you to know that it is something that I would offer For someone to be able to do if they're having some kind of really serious Illness or injury that they just can't get over and and the Bible says that you know You combine all this stuff together you put the oil and the faith and you know Because you're doing what the Bible says to do then God's gonna bless that situation, you know so I mean that's just kind of what I have to say about that and then to the final point here is Number four is prayer not only works, but it's imperative to the Christian life So look at James 5 16 it says confess your faults one to another and pray for one another Excuse me for another that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man Availeth much there's a lot to unpack in this verse, but you know a fault is not a sin I'm not this Bible this the people will say confess your sins to each other. Is that what it says? Does it say confess your sins? What are you a Catholic priest now? We don't confess our sins to a priest I'm not a priest Well, I mean, I'm a priest and the king and you know, but that's a different context Okay, but I'm talking about you don't have to come confess your sins to me I think it's bizarre when people do this those feel like pastor really go tell you what the sin of community like I don't want to know Unless it's gonna something that you need to get kicked out of the church for then you need to kick yourself out or get it Right, but what I'm saying is that the Bible is saying here to confess your faults One to another what is a fault? It's an unattractive or unsatisfactory feature Especially in a piece of work or in a person's character. It's a flaw in your character It's not a you know and flaws in your character can be sin. Okay, I get that but that's not what the Bible saying to do It's not saying to confess your sins to each other because I think that that's the stupidest thing that you could possibly do honestly Because people cannot help but judge They cannot help it hold things over your head, especially if it's like a major sin If you're just like yeah, I'm committing adultery. That's my husband right now. You know, we please pray for me. It's like That's bizarre Like don't do that. That's not what it's saying. And if you're doing that you're wicked. You need to stop and get right with God But it says confess your faults one to another and pray for one another. Hey, I have a fault You know, maybe I just I drive too fast Don't judge me right now you're judging me you've seen this unsafe foot in action before But it wasn't me today. I just have to say that right now My wife The wife that God gave me not to check it. But anyway, so but It says the effectual fervent prayer. So like we confess our faults like if whatever if we're having some kind of character flaw issue Yeah, that's that's good to talk to each other about and pray for one another that you may be healed The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much So when people are you know, we have prayer requests and and those types of things Because we want people to be healed and you know, there's no there's nothing wrong with sharing a request But I said in the group earlier that I think that you know If you if it's something super personal or something that you just don't you wouldn't want everybody to know the details about You probably should just like keep that as an unspoken and some people are against that and you know I don't care if you are or not. That's how we do things here I don't think that we need to say every little thing, you know pray for so-and-so because they really had a hard time You know keeping a job, you know, it's just that's just not the kind of things That's how people you use to attack other people in church and I don't like that You know, we're supposed to be there for each other. We're supposed to be one big team We're supposed to be praying for another not so that we can get the deets and the gossip The gossip about somebody's life, but so that's why I think it's really important that we don't take this verse out of context and say Oh, yeah, we're supposed to confess all of our sins. No, that's not what it says folks It's not what it says and I think that sometimes people cannot handle something that you're gonna say. So just don't you? Why don't you confess your faults and sins to God? Confess your sins to God because nobody else can forgive them So, why are you confessing them to somebody else that just doesn't make sense So, you know and that's what the Catholic priests have done for hundreds of years Now is you know, come tell me your dirty little secrets confess your sins my son and then they're like, you know 30 Hail Mary's and Father forgive me or whatever. I don't know whatever they do but look at verse 17, so It says Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not On the earth by the space of three three years and six months. So three and a half years Elias just prayed and look what it says. It's not it's not putting them above people. It just says Elias was a man He was a man Subject to like passions as we are He's just the right he's just a regular believer just like we are and obviously he's a great man of God and a prophet But he was just like we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain What's it? What's why is it giving us this example? Because if we do the same thing, we have the same power that Elias has And you're like, well, where's it say that? Well, how about you know, how about You know where Jesus is saying you can move mountains How about it, you know Jesus cursing the fig tree and it withers up and dies and doesn't grow fruit anymore. I mean He Jesus said that we have the power To to have our prayers answered and to God move mountains literally for our prayers And so he what's he's you know, we I think that we just think that we can't do it You're like you think that you're like it says that I know it says that But have you ever actually prayed for a mountain to be moved and removed? And thrown into the sea because I haven't I don't want that that but maybe people live there I'd be feel bad, you know if there was like a horse there or something I Some coyotes. I might feel bad about that But I mean, I think that sometimes we limit ourselves and think we can't do as much as Elias did and this is Elijah We can't do what he did. You know, what's holding us back from doing what he did? Our faith and and our belief and our trust in God And so it says he earned he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and so what does earnest mean? It means resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction. I think that sometimes we fail in our prayer life to actually have Earnestness in our in our prayer We lack passion we lack those things and we're like, you know, dear heavenly father in Jesus name. Amen It's just like our prayers over Like, you know praying short prayers and there's nothing wrong with praying short prayers, but you know, we should pray In a way that's like, you know with passion and earnestly And it says and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. So God listened to him because why because of the passion that he had and the seriousness or earnestness that he had In those things so, you know, so so what does it say in verse 18? It says and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit So, you know and and when we think about this, you know What is the effectual prayer? Well a prayer that's successful in producing a desired or intended result So the effectual prayer of a righteous man That means a prayer that's successful in producing the desired or intended A prayer that's successful in producing the desired or intended result effective So the effective prayer something that actually works A fervent prayer is a prayer of passionate Intensity hot burning prayer is basically what it is you know, when's the last time you actually, you know, shouted out or cried out to god and really just you know got very serious and passionate about the thing you were praying about and and actually Uh just went to god in that way, you know, maybe we lack passion and god just like he that's not real That's not that's not legit You know, you're just doing so you're just going through the motions And there's nothing wrong with going through the motions. I'm just saying that to have some passion like why is he using elias as an example because Elias called fire down from heaven and devoured the sacrifices He he called fire down from you know, was it was elisha or elisha or elijah or elisha that called down and burned the 50 men I always get that one mixed up It was elijah. Yeah, and he called, you know, he's like and then the last one's like have mercy on us elijah, you know But he's just like burning people up. He's he's got this fervent way that he prays and god's like saying hey Elias was a was a man's subject of passions like we are So what's he saying we can we can kind of get in on the same thing as long as we have the same effectual prayer the fervent prayer And the earnest prayer an earnest prayer is a prayer of sincere and intense conviction and the prayer of a righteous man That's the most important thing of all Is that you're saved A righteous man just means someone is saved So every saved person has the ability to go to god in jesus name we can go right to the throne room of grace We can go right to the throne room of grace and and plead our petitions And and ask for things to happen and what if you need a mountain moved in your life Then you need to ask for it and you need to have some passion for it and you need to have some Earnestness behind your prayer and you know when it says fervent prayer That literally like if you think about fervent, it's talking about like a passion an intensity You know people have this hot yoga right now and they just want to go in some room and sweat to death Doing yoga poses or something. You know what i'm talking about? It's like some I don't know if it's a new thing, but it's it's it's weird Okay, so if people can have a hot passion to do yoga Why why can't we have a passion to do some prayer time and to get? Down and on our knees and ask god for the things we need It says but the you know, you know So if you put all this together if you put together the effectual fervent earnest prayer by a righteous man And and that's the state of mind that we have every time we go to prayer Then god is going to do great things through our prayers It's important that we pray it's not just something that's a side Gig that we do every once in a while. It's important and it's important for us and to not go to god like eeyore Oh my god And sure nice sure be nice if you gave me some extra money You know what? I mean? I'm gonna i'm just getting too good at these approaches Do it like joe biden no But you know what? I mean like that that shouldn't be the way we you know If if god's saying hey, this is how I like to be prayed to And then we're just like You know We should have some passion in our in our prayer time look at it says in verse 19 We're almost done here in verse 19 Says brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him Let him know that he that converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death And shall hide a multitude of sin, so I believe this could be talking about two different things here I think it could be You know, it says brethren if any of you do err from the truth So it's obviously talking about someone that's an error in their doctrinal stances, right? but it also Could talk could be talking about someone who's Converts a sinner from the error of his way You know when it says save a soul from death. I mean what happens when a soul dies it goes to hell, doesn't it? So obviously we can't lose our salvation So I think that in both cases, you know, we're also we're supposed to restore help restore people as it talks about in the book of galatians We're supposed to restore people without getting ourselves in the mud with them. Okay? But when you're saving a soul from the error of his way his soul from death it says shall hide a multitude Of sins. So what does that mean? Well, I think it could mean that you're hiding a multitude of sins for that person You're helping them get right and so you're helping them get right with god but I think that You know, we're sinful people And if you're the type of person that's just like trying to help people And and help them be restored and get back from you know Your sins are probably going to be covered for the for what you're trying to help get covered with somebody else if that makes sense So, you know and and it's a great thing To help people but obviously if someone's kicked out of church Those aren't the types of people that it's talking about if you're going to get if someone's going to get restored You know if they want to get restored they just reach out to you reach out to the pastor You know and and the pastor can do the restoring work, but if someone's just wrong about something You know then and we change their mind on that and I think that this has to be something that's fairly important I think when it's talking about this is something that's fairly important. Obviously all doctrine is important But if someone's just really going off the deep end say they're just going flat flat tard They're going flat earth or they're going dispensation tard They're going back to dispensationalism and look i've seen this happen This just happened to we've had people that left our church in canada and they went back to the old ifb And they're like I think that we shouldn't be family integrated because you know We can't hear the sermons when the kids are crying or whatever it's just like the moms can't hear the sermons when the kids are crying in their other room, it's just like Just weird stuff and then going back from being post-trib pre-wrath to being pre-tribs like What what verse did you base that off of again? and sometimes I think that people just You know, they get out there they what it really is is that they want to quit going to a church that is constantly just moving forward and pressing forward and trying to Pound down the walls of the enemy and beat down the gates of hell every single week every single sunday Every single wednesday night three to thrive, you know, it's just you know We're just trying to pulverize and destroy the enemy and people just can't some people just can't handle that And they have to go back to the weakness that they were at before and look if that's you then you know is That's sad to me But if that's somebody if that's you then you know that it's you but don't just completely quit church You know it And and look don't pretend you believe something that you really don't like that's just that's bizarre How how like there's people that like have left like pastors that like have left our movement or whatever And the first thing that they do Is they go back on their hell they go they talk about the hell atonement doctrine that we believe You know, it's my pastor perry voice But the hell atonement, right? They were preaching that from the housetops and and we don't believe in the hell atonement like there's we've never said that But what it is we believe that jesus christ went to hell for three days and three nights After he died for our sins and when it says that he died that means what when you die you go to hell If you're alive you're sleeping If you're if you're dead in christ, you're sleeping really? It's not soul sleep like the jose witnesses teach. But anyway, I don't want to get too far crazy with this, but This is the first thing that they do is to start backing off on doctrines And maybe they never really did believe them but maybe they're just going back on those beliefs because They're like well in order to get in and fit in again with my old posse. I can't believe this doctrine anymore So either way, it's just weak whether you change your mind and went back to something that wasn't true Or whether you're just doing it to be a compromiser either way, it's weakness And we shouldn't be weak. We should be strong christians enduring Soldiers and I know I preached for a long time tonight, but we still can't go to you know We can't go to eat until another 15 minutes. So quit quit rewinding. So the first the first point was Well that we saw was the warning to the rich. We shouldn't be laboring to be rich. That should not be part of our Our plan in life and number two, we saw the patience and relations In relation to christ's coming that you know, we need to look at the way god looks at things And so we need to be patient like he is and not just be ready to just beam out of here any second And although that's going to be great We got a job to do and we got to be focused on that number three the prayer of faith in the anointing oil Like I briefly covered that but I think you know, y'all got the point that uh, you know That's something that is biblical. It's something that's right. It's something pastors should be doing And it's not some weird snake oil thing. It's just like what god says to do we do what he says and he does the rest right number four We only uh, not only does prayer work But it's imperative to the effectual christian life. You want to be effective in your life then prayer Is something that we need to be doing so that's all I got. That's the book of james. Let's pray lord We thank you so much for the book of james and all the great wisdom it has And I pray that you would just help us lord to just internalize these things and then graft us with your word And lord, we would remember these things and and lord when we when we forget lord that you just remind us again with great preaching and great bible study in our on our on our behalf and uh lord I pray that you just bless the rest of our night of fellowship and and the food that's To follow and we thank you for everything that you do for us and we love you lord Thank you for all the people that came To church tonight. I pray that you get a special blessing for that from you in jesus name. We pray Amen