Be restored with the children's score, and with pride to do my heart and soul.
Collect offering. Bless the offering.
I ask you to bless this offering, both the gift and the giver. In Jesus' name, amen.
Good evening. As always, I just want to say thank you to the pastor for giving us the opportunity to preach and, you know, expand our skill set for the opportunity to preach tonight.
I hope that it's a blessing for you, as it is a blessing for me.
So, I've never been a fan of platitudes, and, you know, the world is absolutely full of them, so I figured it would be good or behove us to actually investigate some of these sayings and see if they hold any water.
After all, for the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, for it is written, "He takeeth the wise in their own craftiness."
And conversely, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
So I'm sure there could be a whole series of worldly sayings and their biblical validity, but today I'm just going to start with "seeing is believing" or "I'll believe it when I see it."
So don't worry, I don't think I'm going to take the full time, so it might be quick, but are there any examples of this being true in the Bible?
Well, yeah, there are a few. In John 11, verse 44 says, "And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes."
This is Lazarus being brought back by Jesus, and his face was bound about with a napkin, and Jesus said unto him, "Loose him and let him go."
"Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him."
So, well, you know, case closed then, right? You know, seeing is believing that everyone's right.
You know, they just saw Jesus perform a miracle, and boom, they were saved.
You know, well, unfortunately, not so fast, if we just keep on reading, the very next verse says,
"But some of them went their way to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done,
then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees' counsel and said,
'What do we? For this man does many miracles. If we let thus alone, all men will believe on him,
and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.'"
But kind of ironically, they're using the wisdom of the world without self-reflecting
that they themselves haven't actually believed.
They're afraid that everyone's going to believe if they just saw a miracle,
but they just saw a miracle and they don't believe, you know?
So, I mean, from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put him to death.
So, clearly for them seeing wasn't believing.
And even Judas saw Lazarus, and it didn't make him blink an eye,
because later John tells us in John 12 that,
"Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany,
where Lazarus, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
There they made him supper, and Martha served him,
but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spacknard,
and very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair,
and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
Then saith one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him.
Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
So I mean, Judas saw a man that Jesus had brought back from the dead,
and was more concerned with the price of ointment than his salvation,
and believing in Christ for his salvation.
You know, and this isn't the only person that first-hand saw miracles of Jesus,
but I mean, few people saw as many first-hand miracles as Judas Iscariot.
Yet, even so, he refused to believe, and chose death.
So clearly for him, seeing wasn't believing.
And you know, funnily enough, Jesus himself seems to have known
that the world was lost in this way of thinking, and gave this parable,
and I'm sure it's totally coincidence that the man of the parable is also named Lazarus.
In Luke 16, it reads, "Then he said," this is the rich man in hell looking up to heaven,
and Abraham's bosom, and Lazarus says, "I pray thee therefore, father, that thou will
send him to my father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them,
lest they also come into this place of torment."
Abraham saith unto them, "They have Moses and their prophets; let them hear them."
And he said, "Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will
repent."
And he said unto him, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead."
So, you know, I mean, I think that's pretty clear and, you know, again, first-hand experience
for Jesus and Lazarus in that one, so not much of a parable, but kind of just a straight
story of his life.
So I guess, you know, it makes you wonder, like, why would the world teach that seeing
is believing?
And, you know, there's two thoughts I had on that.
And the first one is the more hopeful reasoning that I think that they, you know, being the
world, really do think that, you know, if I was just to see proof of the Lord, I would
believe.
And I don't think there's any malicious intent there, just a lack of faith.
But we know this isn't true.
Like this example from Judges 6, this is Gideon, and he says, "Behold, I will put a fleece
of wool on the floor, in the floor, and if it do be on the fleece only, and it be dry
upon the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou
hast said."
And it was so, for he rose up early in the morning on the morrow, and thrust the fleece
together and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
And Gideon said unto God, "Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak,
but this once, let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece, let it now
be dry only on the palm of the fleece, and upon the ground let there be dew."
And God did so that night, for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on
all the ground.
So like even though Gideon had actually already spoken to the Lord, he still did a double
and then triple check.
So I mean, I understand, you know, people feeling like if I see the proof and you know,
you hear people praying for a sign and wonders, but I think at least a part of the reason
why, you know, I mean, the parable says that, you know, why we don't just get those prayers
constantly answered is that isn't going to convince you.
If that's what it's going to take, it's not going to take that.
It's just not going to happen.
It is an act of faith.
It's not a seeing is believing.
But the second other reason why it could be that people push the idea of, you know, don't
believe it unless you see it, you know, too good to be true kind of thing is that it could
be that it's meant to push people away from faith.
If you're trying to constantly push people away from faith, you're going to have a much
harder time having them have faith in God.
And I think there's almost a kind of irony in the world's wisdom of not believing unless
you can see, because of the absolutely wild and virtually unfounded explanations of the
natural world and the nature of man, it kind of highlights the religious faith of secularism.
But yeah, like I said, this is just one example of these worldly sayings that we hear every
day.
And I think it would behoove us to stop before we take it in, take that saying and do a study
on it from the Bible's point of view and see if there's any truth in it.
But yeah, just wanted to share that and thanks again for the opportunity to preach.
So let's grab the next one.
Got Jesse up next.
Thanks for having the short ones.
As I started writing sermons, it's kind of appreciated to have like the short sermons
for the everything that didn't make it or topics that you thought you could do a sermon
but couldn't.
So thanks pastor for posting these.
So thank you for ever putting this short pulpit up, makes me feel a lot taller.
Really, really nice.
I just try to do this more often.
I just want to pray real quick, oh lord fill me with the holy spirit, help me preach a
good message, and have a fight with people in Jesus name I pray amen.
Go ahead and turn to Proverbs 31.5, Proverbs 31.5.
One of the things that I actually wanted to preach a sermon about, full length one, but
the more I kind of looked into it, the more I realized I couldn't actually develop a full
length sermon on.
So I kind of made the, I guess the short sermon list is marijuana.
You can't really preach, the more you think about it, you can't really preach a full length
60 minute sermon on it because it just comes down to you just like don't do it.
On like alcohol, alcohol at least in the Bible has a more ecclesiastical purpose.
We do see with like the Lord's Supper, there's a differentiate between alcohol and juice
as we'd say nowadays.
So you can kind of see, you can drag that one out more, there's a lot more depth to
it.
As you probably know, weed's not mentioned in the Bible specifically, so there's not
an ecclesiastical, it's not really physical, you can't really preach about the history
behind it.
On like alcohol, you can talk about the historical preservation methods and how they actually
had juice.
You can't do that, right?
Not to say in the ancient times they didn't have a similar substance, they probably did.
But you can't talk about the spiritual aspects because I firmly believe that the same spiritual
or lack of spirituality would drive someone to become a barfly in the past would drive
them to be a stoner, pothead in the present, right?
You see these people that are, if you go to Safeway and you see these people going to
get their weed from over there, 50 years ago these people would have been curled up in
the back of a bar nursing a bottle, right?
Now this is just what's in fashion, drinking's down among younger people, weed's more accessible,
so it's almost like a bigger problem.
Fifty years ago, public drinking just wasn't, even in the US just wasn't a thing, you had
to go to some place.
Now it's accessible, gas stations have THC vapes, it's everywhere.
If you work anywhere near blue collar jobs, you'll know all about this, right?
It's a bigger issue, but it's the same, it's the same reason people go out and drink, it's
the same reason for weed too, and it's, so you kind of apply the same things, and we
see that in Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31, Proverbs in general has a lot of like, wisdom about
alcohol and all, getting spiritually drunk, and it also kind of applies to weed, so of
course, you know this one probably, you just replace drink with, lest they get stoned,
right, and it kind of makes sense, it kind of all fits together, lest they get stoned
and forget the law, and prefer the judgment of any of the afflicted, right, that's one
thing we think about potheads is, they're kind of out of it, they're kind of, always
kind of loopy, I'm not going to get in a whole debate about different strains, well actually
this strain, you know, I don't care, you're still worse off than someone who's completely
sober, okay, even if you're, well this is the active strain, it makes you more active,
and it's like, okay, well, you still didn't need that one, you still have a bigger problem
that if you need something to get active like that, you're still a stoner in my book, I
don't care.
And that's one thing, then in verse 6, "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish."
I've always taken this as almost like a, I guess more of a sarcastic, like give strong
drink to him that is more like depressed, that's just my interpretation of that.
And "Wine unto those that be of heavy hearts," kind of just more backing up.
And what you see now, pot usage is very common among depressed people who have nothing going
for them.
As I said, in a past life, they would have just been the town drunk, but not anymore.
It's the same thing, right?
The same reason it would drive someone to be an alcoholic.
It's going to drive someone to be a stoner.
They're running from something in their life.
They have some issue that they just do not want to deal with, they just cannot face head
on, whether it be the poor lot in life.
Instead of trying to work to improve themselves, they curl up with the joint, right?
As I said, 50 years ago, it would have been the guy at the bar who doesn't want to go
home.
He has a bad home life.
He has bad jobs.
He doesn't want to go home and be among the loser's club where there's no judgment.
And now it's just weed.
It's just the same thing.
As I said, let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more.
And I work in Blue Collar, right?
All these guys who get stoned all the time, they're running from something, they're running
from the fact that their life isn't improving.
They're making those steps to improve it.
They're making those steps at work to learn how to do their job better.
It's just every day is the same dreary day.
I talk to them about this, and every day, the thing they look forward to the most is
going home and getting stoned, right?
I'm the crazy one because I say I actually look forward to coming to work, which might
be a little bit crazy, but I don't look forward to go get stoned because I like my work and
I'm happy where I'm at.
But some people obviously don't and they're trying to forget their poverty, which if they
actually didn't smoke so much THC, they might be poor.
They've told me how much they've spent on it and it's quite a bit of money that probably
would solve a lot of issues if they cold stop, which is another great argument about alcohol
is it's economically cheaper to be a teetotaller.
So this is one of the things is they're remembering their misery no more.
And that's really one of the, that's a spiritual issue for weed is they're depressed people
and they're in this endless cycle, they're depressed and then they become addicted and
weed is addicting.
I don't care what you say, it's technically not addicting.
You don't know how dopamine receptors work.
Anything that releases dopamine can become addicting.
That's addictive and they go in this endless loop where they have to medicate themselves,
they medicate the symptoms of withdrawal with weed and then they get the symptoms of withdrawal,
which commonly, if I give you a list of symptoms of addiction withdrawal, suppression, anxiety,
shakiness, sickness, you go down this list and all these people who are saying, "Oh,
I medicate myself with weed," they have all these symptoms.
That's what they're medicating.
"Oh, I need weed because I get anxious without it," and it's like, yeah, you're addicted
to weed, you're treating the symptoms of addiction, that's what you're doing.
You're not anxious, you're not treating Parkinson's or glaucoma or anything they say.
There might be actual research and uses for an herb, medicinal herb, you're 30, you don't
have Parkinson's, you don't have glaucoma, you're 20.
You have anxiety, welcome to the human condition.
We're naturally predisposed to fear, like this is normal, like yeah when you get older
you start being sore, that's normal, right?
Everyone wakes up when they're older and starts getting sore for longer, you have a bad sleeping
position.
This isn't a problem that has to be medicated with weed, okay?
These are just normal things but they're so numb, they require this weed to get numb that
without it they're blinded, like think of the allegory of the cave when the guy comes
out of the cave and he's blinded by the light, a stoner, he comes out of the cave blinded
by the light and his solution is to go back down into the cave where all the pretty pictures
are.
If you don't know Plato's allegory of the cave it's pretty interesting.
The other one is we don't actually fully understand THC products.
You might say well it's been around maybe 100 maybe 200 years.
What they had back then is pretty they just kind of had it right they're not doing it's
only in the past like 30 40 years that there's actually this hardcore like genetic engineering
to produce stronger things.
So you think back in the 60s of all the pot heads like hippies one they stopped doing
it and got good jobs two it wasn't that strong it was pretty mild from what I've heard nowadays
you that's some strong stuff and you can actually damage yourself and we don't know we do not
know the full extent because it just hasn't been around long enough and it hasn't just
been the studies they're very rare and no one really wants to tackle this because it's
such a big industry that kind of putting a damper on it is a significant loss of money
and states would rather like chase the tax revenue that it brings in by the way the tax
revenue that it brings in you don't get a lot as much as as promised and the cost of
enforcement eats all that up so you you really lose money and just makes life all the all
the worse for everybody and we're actually uh go to olivicus 10 9 uh we're discussing
this i was discussing this bill and he brought up the point that some people they smoke one
or two joints and they actually lose their mind like they go into full psychosis doesn't
happen to everybody but if you see these headlines of like kids smokes joints shoot somebody
that's that's what happened he actually lost his mind like we just do not understand how
it works and is that a risk you want to take okay so uh ligus 10 9 this is against alcohol
and to the priest of aaron but in the new testament you know if it's good for the priests
chances are it's also good for us right you know like yeah okay we might not be judged
the highest the highest the standard that a priest of aaron in the levitical order would have been
judged to but we're still judged to those levels and still a good idea um and he gives us warning
that you should not drink strong drink lest you die and it's not a guarantee but it's saying like
you might die if you drink strong drink if you go into the tower if you go into holy the holy is
drunk you're done but this is done so on the statistics we actually figured out actually chat
gpt figured it out but i'm not going through the research i don't care we actually figured out it's
about one in 50 on the conservative side about one in 50 chance and a lot of people might not
know that odds of really put that those odds into question i just want to kind of give you
a more visual hint on what one in 50 one in 50 actually looks like because not a lot of people
know do you know what one in 50 looks like odds kind of get confusing so i brought a visual aid
this is a box of 32 acp the best caliber there's 50 of them in this box okay it's actually not
because i grabbed it in complete box let's say there's 50 there are 49 duds in one live round
and if you picked a round at random and i were to load it in the gun you were to like aim at
yourself pull the trigger do you want that odd that's one in 50 chance of being shot grand spit
lower because i'd give you a 1920 spanish pistol that can shoot this you might not might not hit
it but do you want that odd that's what one in 50 looks like one of those right one of those is
live do you want to take that bet do you want to bet that much because you you might be that for
the 49 people you also might be that one who just they're gone you're toast you talk you talk to
someone you see this homeless people some of them are complete psychosis it's probably from that
right that's that one in 50 you end up smoking crack and dying of fentanyl overdose in the streets
of portland okay those those 1960s cheesy cop movies and cop tv shows where they have like
the person does weed once and they just lose it what do you think they're basing that off of they
knew this stuff back then and now it's even stronger back then it's probably one in probably
150 with the strength right they didn't they didn't they just create these like anti-weed
narratives out of nowhere right i've been watching a lot of adam 12 by jack webb and they and dragnet
they both have like the drug episodes and they both start with weed and jack webb's pretty good
offer i i don't think he's that like creative of a of a writer he based most of his stuff of what
he saw and what he was told by cops by detectives so he wasn't making stuff up right these people
it starts out with weed and it goes on from there you never know what you're going to get into next
the more you compare it to alcohol in the bible of you know you wake up with bruises it just
it just makes sense short story of is you just don't do it i mean come on there's no reason to
it's not like alcohol which at least in different forms like isopropyl it's kind of useful to have
this rubbing alcohol or if you're into like RC cars you might have methanol hanging around
that's alcohol but it's a little useful for sanitary purposes there's no reason to have THC
around come on and if you really if some reason medical future they approve it for human consumption
for very rare things i mean that's not now right you like there's no reason to go self-medicate
yourself you know even there's no reason to do that you're not you're not like old you don't
parkinson's you're 30 that's that's pretty much it don't do it don't do drugs kids um this is the
moral of the story uh you know what does the bible say uh lest you die right the bible's not being
hyperbolic it's covering a lot of things there if lest you die because that's actually a real concern
and nobody talks about it but especially if i asked shawn about the whole fentanyl thing he
does a whole story about that but yeah they are spiking weed with fentanyl i actually one of my
cousins uh died overdosed on fentanyl laced weed when he was about 21 22 he's gone right actually
gone that's an actual concern nowadays you know when you listen to these old people you know as
i said the old people all stopped smoking weed they all got jobs you know and it's it's a lot
different nowadays don't listen to them uh without pray lord is actually blessed as an actual
preacher uh help fill him the holy ghost and help him preach a good message excuse me amen
earth is going on here yeah showing all right go ahead and open up your bibles to proverbs 26
start out by thanking pastor thompson for putting this on it's always great to come up here and
preach uh title my sermon is uh flattery of this world the flattery of this world let's pray lord
thank you so much for this day thank you lord that uh we can come here and listen these men
preach lord i pray that you'd fill me with your spirit and that you would have me preach the
message that you've laid on my heart in jesus name amen you know uh flattery is not mere kindness or
encouragement it's insincere praise smooth words spoken with an ulterior motive designed to
manipulate deceive or gain advantage and we need to we need to understand what flattery is because
we're getting flattered in a lot of different ways now we're not just getting it from people
we're also getting it from our own little pocket surveillance devices
the bible warns us repeatedly about the dangers of both giving flattery and receiving it
in proverbs 26 verse 28 says a lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it
and a flattering mouth worketh ruin flattery is often tied to deceit and it brings destruction
not only to the one flattered but to the flatterer as well similarly proverbs 29 verse 5 declares
a man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet here flattery is likened to a trap
luring someone in into harm for personal gain to illustrate this danger let's turn to a story in
the old testament go to second samuel chapter 15 second samuel chapter 15 it gives us a pretty
vivid uh you know story that shows us the destructive power of flattery second samuel
chapter 15 is talking about absalom absalom the son of king david harbored rebellion in his heart
he desired uh he desired the throne and used cunning words to steal the allegiance of the people
chapter 15 verse 1 says and it came to pass after this that absalom prepared him chariots and horses
and 50 men to run before him and absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate and it
was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment then absalom called
unto him and said of what city art thou and he said thy servant is of one of the tribes of israel
and absalom said unto him see thy matters are good and right but there is no man deputed
deputed of the king to hear thee absalom said moreover oh that i were made judge of the land
that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me and i would do him justice
and it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance he put forth his hand and
took him and kissed him and on this manner absalom to all israel that came to the king for judgment
so absalom stole the hearts of the men of israel and you can see here how absalom flattered the
people he agreed with their complaints praised their cause and acted as their friend all while
plotting to overthrow his father his flattering words won their hearts but led to civil war
bloodshed and ultimately absalom's own death the story warns us that flattery can divide families
communities and even nations go to psalm chapter five psalm chapter five there are a lot of ways
that we get flattered in this world it's not just by people it can also be by our own devices i'll
go into that psalm five verse nine says for there is no faithfulness in their mouth their inward part
is very wickedness their throat is an open sepulcher they flatter with their tongue and
psalm 12 - says they speak vanity everyone with his neighbor with flattering lips and with a double
heart they speak the lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh
proud things you know god himself despises flattering lips because they stem from a double
heart insincerity and that mass wickedness flattery often appears in context of seduction or moral
downfall today we have we have even more outgrowth and flattery with with things like ai ai loves to
flatter you it does what's called a confirmation bias if you use chat gpt or grok or anything and
they start understanding who you are by the information that you put in and they gather a
ton of information okay they're not they're not just they're not just gathering the information
you put in there, they know who you are. They know your Google account. They've gone through
everything. They've figured out what you've done. Heck, they probably know what Pastor Thompson
preaches about. Okay. And so, and so when you start asking chat GPT questions, it goes through
all that and it doesn't want you to stop talking to it. So it's not going to challenge you. It's
not going, it's going to give you all this confirmation bias. It's going to agree with you.
It's going to, it's just like, you know, you have one person who is a Catholic and when he
goes to chat GPT, it says, it says that, you know, salvation is by faith plus works. And then you go
to a Baptist and it says, Oh, no, no, it's 100% faith. I've seen both of those answers from the
same chat bot. So, so it's just that confirmation bias that they're going through. So we need to
make sure that when we use these tools, you know, we, they, people don't want to be confronted. They
don't want to be told, no, they don't want to be told you're wrong. Okay. And so that's what,
that's what these tool, these resources do is they just, they, they, they, they bend over backwards
to make you think that you're right. And it really reminds me of these liberal fund center churches
that you come in there and they, and, and they don't tell you, they, they don't, they don't say,
thus say it the Lord and tell you, hey, you're doing the wrong thing and you need to change,
you need to clean up your life. Now they'll be like, oh no, you're doing great. You're
doing fantastic. Let me just do this Ted talk and you can feel good about whatever you're doing.
You can get out of here. And that's exactly what chat GPT does. That's exactly what Grok does.
That's exactly what all these AIs do. So be careful when you're, especially when you're
trying to dig down deep on something. Don't rely on what they say. In Proverbs chapter 6, verse 24,
it talks about another form of flattery, flattery of an evil woman. To keep thee from an evil woman
from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. And then in Proverbs 7, verse 5,
it says that they may keep thee from the strange woman from the stranger which flattereth with her
words. This is something that is very common, where you have women that will flatter you
and ultimately try and destroy you. So we need to be aware of that. In Proverbs chapter 7, verse 21,
it says, "With her much fair speech she causes him to yield, and with the flattering of her lips
she forces him." These verses remind us that flattery can lead us into sin away from God's
path of righteousness, even in our relationships. The Bible cautions against it. In Job chapter 17,
it says, "He that flattereth to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail."
Flattery erodes the trust and brings a curse upon generations. If you want your kids to
hate you, flatter them all the time. I mean, that was one of the dumbest things that I thought
when I was growing up because parents would be like, "Oh, Billy, you could grow up and be
president someday. You want to be an astronaut? You go for it." And it was like, "No, they're not
going to do that. You're blowing smoke. It's like the amount of work that you would have to do."
And so what you're doing is just setting these kids off on a bad path. There's nothing wrong
with being a plumber. There's nothing wrong with working with your hands. Encourage them to do
stuff like that. It's like, "Oh, but little Billy, he wants to be an astronaut." Well,
little Billy ain't never going to be an astronaut. He's not going to go to school for it. He doesn't
want to... Look, you got to join the military. You got to be a pilot. You got to go through all these
programs. Basically, you got to get a master's degree. It's a lot of work. And these kids,
that's not what they want to do, but they'll be lied to by their parents and told that they can
do whatever they want. If their parents were just honest with them and actually put them on the
right path, first thing, bringing them to church and then being realistic with them, finding out
they might not love what they do for work. I had someone tell me that once because they always
talk about if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. And it's like, look,
if I did what I loved, I wouldn't earn a cent. Because you can't make money doing what I like to
do. But you know what? My job, I can earn money. I can feed my family. I can do all this stuff. And
then guess what I have? I have hobbies. You can have a hobby. You're not going to make any money
doing most hobbies. But you know, that's kind of your fun thing. Work is work, okay? It's work.
It's called work for a reason. It's not called play, okay? So be realistic with kids because
you're flattering them just as much as that evil woman telling them, "Oh, you're so handsome and
muscular and oh, you look fantastic." All they want is something from you. Well, you know what?
What your parents want from you a lot of times is they just want your adoration. And it's like,
"Look, your kids aren't always going to..." It's so weird. Growing up, when I was a teenager,
I really resented my dad. But if my dad were my friend when I was a teenager, I would hate him
now. But my dad wasn't my friend when I was a teenager. He was honest with me. And I really
resented that. And then when I got older and I looked back on it, I said, "Thank you, dad.
Thanks for actually telling me the truth instead of blowing smoke and flattering me."
And then I'd be a big failure, you know? So yeah, we have to be careful. There are all kinds of
flattery. All right. So go to Proverbs chapter 20. Proverbs chapter 20 verse 19. Let me speed up
here. "He that goeth about as a tale bearer revealeth secrets, therefore medalleth not with him that
flattereth with his lips." And then Proverbs 28 verse 23 contrasts it with an honest rebuke. "He that
rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favor than he that flattereth with his tongue." Look,
if someone comes to you and they're telling you something ridiculous, you need to rebuke them,
okay? I was just talking about that congressman who is all like talking to that general about
some island in the Pacific because they wanted to put 4,000 more troops there and the congressman's
like, well, don't you think the island will capsize if he does that? And this army guy's like, oh man,
this is my boss, how do I explain to him that islands are actually attached, they're not just
going to flip over if you put some more people on them, but he should have just rebuked them,
he should have said that is absolutely stupid and you don't know how islands work and you need to
do some research, okay, because they're not going to capsize, okay. So yeah, being honest, giving
rebuke, and then us being able to take it, you need to take rebuke, you know. Now let us not
forget the dangers of being flattered. When we allow smooth words to puff us up, we become
prideful and deaf to correction. In the New Testament and Romans, Romans 16 verse 18,
"For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by
good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." They say all these nice kind
things and they deceive these simple people into doing whatever they want, and they're just
flattering them. Flattery deceives the naive, leading them astray. You know, in 1st Thessalonians
chapter 2, Paul says, "For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak
of covetousness. God is witness." He's specifically saying, "Hey, God is my witness. We never flattered
you guys. Flattery is a tool of the enemy. It worketh ruins, spreadeth the net, and stealeth hearts."
But, you know, praise God, we have a better way. Let us speak truth and love as, you know,
as Ephesians exhorts us to. Rebuke when necessary, encourage sincerity, and guard our ears against
empty praise. Seek the approval of God and not men, for the fear of man bringeth a snare.
Let's pray. Lord, you know, deliver us from the snare of flattery, help us discern deceitful words,
and, you know, speak with integrity in our hearts, Lord. And, you know, may our tongues glorify you
alone. In Jesus' name, Amen. Only one left. Brother Alex, where's your Bible? Verse seven, Matthew chapter three, verse seven.
So Matthew chapter three, verse seven, and this is John the Baptist. But when he saw many of the
Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, John's baptism, he said unto them, "O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits,
meet for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father."
So let's pray. Dear Father, thank you for your word and thank you for the opportunity to preach
it today. Ask, fill me with the Holy Spirit to preach those words that will edify and exhort
people and give the people ears to hear and apply this sermon. In Jesus' name, amen.
And so John was baptizing believers and he was preaching the gospel of Christ to come.
And so in that passage, in that verse, the wrath to come is talking about hell. And we know that
from other passages in the Bible that the Pharisees believed that spiritual salvation
was by keeping the law. And the Sadducees, there's a verse that tells us that they deny
the resurrection and the Spirit. And I think what that means is when they deny the Spirit,
they're denying that people have eternal souls and that there's a heaven and a hell.
And so, you know, all that's damnable heresy. And so John the Baptist knew that most of those
Pharisees and Sadducees were not saved. But, you know, maybe there was a couple that could
have been saved. I know the Bible tells us that of the chief rulers and the priests that some
believed when they heard the preaching of the gospel. So it was possible that some of those
Pharisees and Sadducees that came to his baptism were saved. And so John tells them, "Bring forth
therefore fruits, meet for repentance." And I think he's like doing a salvation check, you know,
just in case some of them actually are saved. And of course the word repentance in the context of
spiritual salvation means, you know, change your mind from believing in that damnable heresy,
like the Pharisees believed in works salvation or the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection
and they didn't believe in the eternal life. And so they would have to repent of that,
change their mind and believe the truth. And so when a person stop and believe in the free gift
of eternal life to believe on Christ. And in the verse says, "And think not to say within yourselves
we have Abraham to our father." And so John the Baptist is telling the Pharisees and Sadducees,
don't say the words that show they're putting their trust in the lineage of Abraham or any
other damnable heresy. And so he's saying don't say within yourselves, don't speak within yourselves,
but instead you know say the words that would show that they believed on on the Christ to come.
And so I think this verse then where it talks about fruits meet for repentance, the word fruits
is referring to words. And so it's words meet for repentance because the the verse says and think
not to say within yourselves. You know so John the Baptist is asking for them to to give them,
speak those words that show that they believe on Christ. And there's other verses in the Bible
that talk about fruits as being words and they'll talk about fruits of the mouth or fruits of the
lip. There's five verses for example one of them is Hebrew 1315. And so as a homework you might look
at look at those five verses where it talks about fruit and then either has lips or mouth in it.
So the word "meat" in verse 8 means like worthy or appropriate, suitable, fitting. And so the
title of my sermon is "Words Meet for Repentance." Words worthy for repentance. Words meet for
repentance. And the application today is when we're preaching the gospel, whether we're door to door
or we're preaching to our family and friends, we should make sure that people have truly
repented in their mind of whatever false thing they believed about getting to heaven and they're
believing on Christ now. And to make sure that a person believes, we ask them questions and we
listen to their words. Now, of course, what saves us is what we believe in our heart, but we don't
see what people believe. We can only go by their words. And so before we pray with them, we should
have heard them say words meet for repentance. And also, you know, at the end of our gospel,
you know, is typically when we would ask these questions to check to see if they really understand
and they believe. But before we ask these questions, we should remind the person again that
it's what we believe in our heart and our mind that saves us from hell. And so it's important
that they ask those questions, you know, according to what they truly believe. And if they have any
doubt about what they believe or they're not sure, then, you know, they should say so. And then we
can show them some more verses, you know, explain to them, and maybe then they'll understand it.
And so some of the questions that I ask just before we're going to pray, you know, I ask,
are we all sinners? You know, where do we all deserve to go to pay for our sins? And, you know,
what did Jesus do that we don't have to go to hell? And then the fourth one is, you know,
what do you personally believe that it takes for a person to go to heaven? What do you actually
believe? And that's a very important question because the person may have heard your preaching
of the Bible and he's like, "Okay, yeah, I understand what the Bible's saying," but that
doesn't necessarily mean that he truly or she believes that and has received it and has taken
it to their heart, that they've changed their mind, that they've repented about what they believe.
And so, you know, another question that we ask is, you know, if a person believes and puts their
trust in Christ and asks to be saved, can they ever lose that salvation for any reason? And we
all have different kind of illustrations we use, you know, like one might be, well, you know, what
if a person is saved, but then five years later they get into drugs and, you know, they rob a store
and they they killed a storekeeper and they weren't sorry and they didn't ask for forgiveness of sins,
you know, would they still go to heaven or would they go to hell? And a lot of times people will
get that question wrong. And so then you got to kind of go back and say, well, now did Jesus pay
for all the sins or did he pay for some of the sins? Did he pay for the little sins? Did he pay
for the big sins? And you can show them some more verses and then ask again, you know, now that
and do you, you know, do you believe that, that he paid for all of our sins and that once we've
been saved, any sin we do is still paid for. And then another question that we can ask
is, you know, do you believe something different now than when we first showed you these verses?
And this is really kind of asking, you know, have they repented in their mind? Have they changed
their belief about what it takes to get to heaven? And sometimes people will say, "Oh no,
I already believed all that," you know, even though when you first came to their door
and you asked them, "Well, what does it take to get to heaven?" and they give their, you know,
usual workspace kind of answer, and you can kind of, you know, repeat those words to them,
and then maybe they'll see that, "Well, yeah, okay, I really did believe something different."
But, you know, I think sometimes people didn't really understand the gospel, and they really
didn't change their mind. And so when they say, "No, I already believed all that," what they're
saying is they really haven't repented. They haven't changed their mind, and there's still
some part of the gospel that they don't understand. And so they haven't spoken words meet for
repentance. And so now those are the questions I usually ask. But here's another question that
is one that I've not asked yet, but it could be applicable in certain circumstances.
And that is, you know, if you had died yesterday, where would your soul be right now? Right? Because
if a person has truly understood the gospel, that it's all about what we believe, but yet what they
believed before we got to the door was something different than what the Bible says, and it wasn't
going to get them to heaven, then they would acknowledge, they would understand that if they
would have died yesterday, they'd be in hell right now, and so it's more of a test of that,
repentance or not, and it's kind of a very direct question, and so maybe it's only really good in
certain circumstances, like for example, my son-in-law, he's not saved, and he's told me
things like, "Well, you're saved by faith alone, but you should be a good person just to make sure
you're going to heaven." And then the other thing he said was, "Well, I'm not saying you can lose
your salvation, but you can walk away from it." And so, you know, he's, he, and so then if he,
if you ask him the question, "Well, do you believe in once saved, always saved?" You know, he might
say yes. And if you ask them the question, "Do you believe that a person is saved by faith alone?"
He'd say yes. And so in his mind, he really believes those things. He really believes that
he's trusting in faith alone, and he thinks he believes in eternal security, but he doesn't.
And this is where this question would make the difference. Because if you said, you know,
since he's already answered the questions that, "Oh yeah, I believe in once saved, always saved,
and I believe it's faith alone," you could ask those questions again, and he would still answer
them the same way, even though they hadn't repented in his mind. But, you know, the question
about do you believe something different now than what you believed before, or even more directly,
if you would have died yesterday, where would your soul be now? And, you know, and so if it ever came
down to the situation where my son-in-law did actually want to, you know, hear the gospel
preached, and I would absolutely need to hear those words out of his mouth that he said, "Yeah,
I would have died yesterday. I would have went to hell if I would have died yesterday," because
otherwise I wouldn't really have any confidence that he actually repented in his mind to believe
the gospel. And, you know, you might also have family and friends that are like that. I know
I've talked to various people, and, you know, they've got family and friends that are very,
you know, religious people, and they've been going to church for years and years and years,
and, you know, they read their Bible every day, and they've been praying all day, every day,
and, but they're not saved, but they're not saved, and so people like that are the ones where I think
it's very difficult to understand whether they truly have repented and believe the gospel, and so,
you know, a tougher question like that might be appropriate, and because, you know, if a person
answers, "Oh yeah, I'd be in heaven," you know, even though they're not saved, then, you know,
within themselves they're thinking, "Well, I'm not that bad of a person. I would have still gone to
heaven," and so again, they're not believing that it's not of works, or they'll say, "Well, I kind
of already believe most of what this guy told me, what he just preached to me," but they didn't,
and so again, if a person doesn't repent in their mind and believe that they needed to be saved,
how is it that they can be saved, right? If a person actually doesn't believe that they need
to be saved, then they can't really call upon Jesus to save them, and there's kind of a way
to maybe have a softer version of that question. You could say, "Well, according to the Bible,
where do people go that believe the wrong thing about being saved? Did you believe the wrong
thing before we preached you these verses?" Sometimes it's also good to kind of give them
some grace and explain to them that most people really haven't heard the entire gospel. Romans 10
and 14 is a good verse for that, because it says, "How then shall they call on Him whom they have
not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?" And what I'll tell people
is a lot of times people haven't heard the entire gospel. They've heard parts of the gospel, right?
They know that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, and He died, and He paid for all of our sins,
and He was buried, and He rose again, and that He's God the Son, part of the Trinity. And I'll
tell people most a lot of people know that, but the part that they don't get is that it's the free gift
of eternal life. And so now I've showed you these verses, and so the free gift of eternal life is
something that you didn't understand before, but now do you believe that? And that gives them some
grace in that it's, you know, they're not being on the spot for like, "Well, how could I have gone
to church all these years and didn't understand that?" Because most churches don't teach that,
because most churches are corrupt. And so, and to kind of wrap up the sermon then, it's,
you can ask them these questions and if they get it wrong, you know, you can show them some more
verses. And I've seen that a couple times where people will answer the question wrong. You can
go back and God's Word has power, right? So show them more verses and then they can, and sometimes,
then they'll believe after that and then we've prayed. But, you know, sometimes they still don't
get it. But before you walk away, point them to the Bible Way to Heaven video and say, you know,
come to our church. We can show you from the Bible everything you need to know. And if you're
at home and you're getting to thinking about it and you do finally come to that point where
you said in your mind, you know, if I would have died yesterday, I'd be in hell right now.
And I know that's how it was with me because that's kind of the repentance that I had was,
it's like, well, everything in the Bible is true. And if I would have died yesterday,
I'd be in hell right now. Jesus, please save me. And the takeaway is, you know,
when we're preaching the gospel, ask those questions and listen for those words that
show that a person might not believe. And for sure, don't pray unless you're pretty sure
and we base that on words meet for repentance. And with that, I'll close in a prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for our church here and thank you for the preaching of your word.
And we do ask to bless the soul winning to come in the next week and fill us with the Holy Spirit
and bring those verses to remembrance and the questions that we need to ask to make sure that
people are saved. In Jesus name, Amen. All right, turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 24.
Get a brief message for you, just a verse that I've kind of thought about a little bit in the
past and then a little bit while I was listening to the other preaching. It's 2427, open with just
a quick word of prayer. Heavenly Father, just thank you for all the men that preached and help me also
to preach some good things out of the Bible and just be with me in Jesus name, Amen.
So Proverbs 2427, that's a really versatile verse and I didn't know if I could preach anything off
the cuff but I feel like I've thought about this verse enough in the past to at least import
something out of it. 2427 is "prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field
and afterwards build thine house." And of course like there's a great surface level lesson here
like the literal lesson is like you know if you've got a homestead right in Israel or wherever
you want to make sure your crops are planted for the season you've done all the farm work you need
to do before you're putting in the time and effort to build some brick house because if
you have a brick house and no food you're going to starve to death. If you have plenty of food
and you're living in a tent well you have plenty of food and you're living in a tent you know it's
not really the worst case scenario your father's when they're you know living in Egypt and Abraham
they dwelt in tents it's it's not the biggest you know the biggest deal you know at least in
that part of the world where there's not harsh winters but the point you know allegorically the
point is you know before you get obsessed with buying some McMansion or some big house or whatever
hey make sure you have the skills and the job and the income and the savings and the education
and all those things prepare your work without and make it fit for thyself in the field make it you
know make it good for yourself in your profession in your finances and afterwards build thine house
you know if you have to rent for a while and dwell in tents as it were it's really not it
never killed anyone it's it's better to be in a financially and professionally secure position
before you saddle yourself with 30 years of debt um you know there's but there's uh an ecclesial
application here for like a church would be hey make sure you have the membership and and that
you're doing the work in the field that you're sowing the seed you're doing the soul winning
you know before you build thine house before you get you know saddled with some big church building
you want to make sure hey you know you've got you've got not just the people but you've got good loyal
people and you're doing the work you know god's happy you're making it fit for thyself in the
field you're going out into the highways and hedges you're not slacking and then you can then
that god will build the house you know both in terms of membership and maybe a physical building
right um and i don't think we really have a big problem with that the new fb no one's like
buying giant palaces and so forth so but like you know the the the second order application is prepare
prepare um the congregation and make sure you're doing the work before you you know go all in on
some expensive uh physical building right um and then you know you could see how this applies to
um like christ's work he came to earth he sowed the seed he sent out people to evangelize and then
he built the church like he came he did the work on the cross and in his ministry and afterwards
you know pentecost and all that he built the church like he made it he made it easy for us to
be saved he you know uh trained all the apostles and then afterward he built the church right um
and so this is like a lesson about hard work in the later part of 24 it talks about you know not
being lazy and then it picks it picks up that theme back up in verse 30 where he goes by the
field of the slothful but then interspersed between 27 and 30 there's like this seemingly
out of place like two verses about being honest and not lying so it says be not a witness against
thy neighbor without cause and deceive not with thy lips say not i will do so to him as he hath
done to me i will render to the man according to his word so in between 27 and 30 where it picks
up in 30 to 34 it's talking about the theme of hard work and not being lazy there's these two
verses about being honest and i thought you know sometimes proverbs are just jumbled like in the
book of proverbs but this is kind of when you think about it like what's like the number one
way people try and get out of hard work is like fraud deceit lying you know like well at every
level whether it's you know the guy on the side of the road who's saying well i've been looking for
work you know and i'm a veteran and he's lying about both things or whatever right i mean it's
not not every single person that needs help is lying but like there's a lot of you know people
that try and lie on that front and you know what do people do all these scammers you know especially
from other countries but you know any type of scammer instead of going out and being a farmer
or a tradesman or whatever they don't sit behind a computer and just call people and lie for money
right so there's a there's a big connection between laziness and lying or people they lie
and they say i'm sick when they're not sick and they don't go to work or they say that you know
they don't have the tools to do a task but they really do and like there's a million different
ways that people lie to not work so it is connected i think um but then it picks back up the theme
directly in verse 30 it says i went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man
void of understanding um so it's basically saying it's like if you're lazy you're also
not wise you're stupid so i went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void
of understanding and lo it was all grown over with thorns and nettles and covered the face thereof
and the stone wall thereof was broken down then i saw and i considered it well i looked upon it
and received instruction so he's saying i saw this guy's piece parcel of property it was all
messed up and broken down and i received instruction i became wiser i'm like i'm not
going to be like that and that's not that he was like being a Pharisee and just like judging this
guy but he received instruction like i don't i don't want to be lazy i don't want my farm to
look like that right so you go out soul wedding you see someone's house it's all overgrown there's
trash everywhere the paint's peeling off the wall there's beer cans all over the porch right their
life's not together and you learn from that and like if your kids are out with you you know it's
a teachable moment like hey do you want to live like that you know in like a busted down place and
everything's out of order right that's the surface level application but when you when you dig a
little deeper you got thorns and nettles that covered the face of it spiritually this is a
picture of the curse like the curse is that the earth brings forth thorns and it makes it harder
for us to work and so when like our soul when our lives when we're lazy in the christian walk
spiritually there's thorns and nettles that like creep in the world and the things of this world
creep in to your soul and they they break down your walk with god um it says the stone wall
thereof was broken down so we're lively stones were built up together into a you know like a
spiritual building and so when people get away from the things of god when they start falling
out of church the thorns and the nettles will start creeping in the stone wall starts breaking
down they're falling out of the body of christ as it were and i saw and considered it well and i
looked upon it and received instruction yeah a little sleep a little slumber a little folding
of the hand so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and thy want as an armed man
and so the poverty comes as one that traveleth you're just walking along you're going down the
road and the context is you're not doing the work anymore right you're not reading the bible you're
not praying you're not going to church not doing soul winning and you seem to be just going along
right through life a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands what's the big deal
then it says thy want uh will come as an armed man basically you're going to get mugged by reality
in a moment like it's not necessarily uh you're not necessarily going to see it coming you know
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall like you're going to get basically mugged
by reality all at once by like an armed like an armed man robbing you on the highway and uh so
i just wanted to point out there's there's a great surface level application here hey you don't want
your house and your guard and your car and your home to be all broken down and covered with thorns
and and whatever people are going to perceive that you're lazy but spiritually speaking like
the thorns is the picture of the curse and the wall being broken down like this is uh like an
Ezra trying to rebuild the wall right this is a spiritual picture that when you stop doing
the work when you get spiritually lazy like all these things are going to creep into your life
little by little and then all of a sudden like an armed man you're going to have some sort of a fall
that's going to be more obvious you know to everyone around you so that's just some cool lessons
from from proverbs 24 and one other thing is like it kind of this whole thing about uh hard work
versus laziness um it kind of ties back to earlier in the chapter verses 11 24 11 it says if thou
forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain if thou sayest
behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul
doth he not know it and shall not he render to every man according to his works so he's saying
when what's what does it mean to forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death it means
to hold back from preaching the gospel to people that are going to hell right so basically when
we stop going soul winning when we stop being part of the body of christ in a local new testament
church we're going to not going to be sent out right and we're going to end up forbearing to
deliver them that are drawn unto death and god's not going to be happy with that it says he's
going to render to every man according to his works and so we want to make sure that we're not
getting lazy in soul winning as well because that these this verse verses 30 through 34 tie back
to verses 11 to 12 there in proverbs 24 and uh with that i'll close with a quick prayer heavenly
father thank you for everyone that preached thank you for the uh all the lessons and proverbs and
the other chapters tonight and please just bless the rest of the service and just never frame it
and now we'll sing our final song 264 okom okom immanuel 264 in the blue all together on the first
Captivons in the poop. Can you close this with a pr-?