WEBVTT

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 In Jesus name, Amen.

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 Amen, alright if you want to take your hymnals, turn to page number 397.

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 Page number 397. Little as much when God is in it.

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 Page number 397.

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 [singing]

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 Welcome back everyone.

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 The verse of the week is Psalm 51 verse 10.

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 Psalm 51 verse 10.

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 "Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

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 That's Psalms 51 verse 10.

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 So there's times for 10.30 this morning and 3.30 this afternoon.

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 There's Wednesday evening Bible studies at 6.30 p.m.

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 So many times where yesterday at 10.30 there was a salvation and today at 1.00 p.m.

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 and there was another salvation which brings our total of salvations for October 1st to 7.

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 Which is a total of 84 for the year so far.

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 Alright, today was church picture day so I hope you had a chance to get your photo taken

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 and get your family taken and hey, it's good to have that.

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 That was a blessing, beautiful setup so I'm really glad that that happened.

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 November 11th will be the next homeschool day.

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 So if you plan to attend please just let Ms. Kylie know.

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 November 15th will be the next Cheney Soul winning.

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 Let Ryan know so he can organize that event.

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 November 23rd will be the kids choir practice after the morning service.

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 So if you wish to have your kids in the choir, I'm sure for a holiday special,

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 please just let them know and have them ready then.

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 On November 30th will be the next men's preaching night

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 and we're going to mix that with a pie social.

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 So sign up for preaching, sign up for a pie,

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 and let's have a good night that night.

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 Kids, remember Proverbs 28-13.

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 If you can memorize that, tell Miss Kylie you can receive a piece of candy.

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 And if you have any other prayer requests that need to be in the bulletin,

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 please let the Thompsons know.

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 With that, let's turn to the Lord in prayer.

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 Heavenly Father.

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 Alright, so if you want to take your blue psalm books,

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 turn to Psalm number 119.

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 Psalm number 119.

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 And if you do not have a blue psalm book,

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 please raise your hand,

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 and I will give you a copy.

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 119.

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 Psalm number 119.

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 I said, thy testimony.

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 Pray for the office.

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 Give what we can, Lord.

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 Even if we only have two minds,

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 the Lord will do as much when you are in it.

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 Everybody to Sure Foundation Baptist Church,

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 if you could go ahead and take your Bibles

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 and turn to 1 Peter chapter 2.

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 1 Peter chapter 2.

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 And as always, here at our church,

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 we read the entire chapter before the preaching.

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 1 Peter chapter 2, the Bible reads,

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 "Wherefore, laying aside all malice

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 and all guile and hypocrisies and envies

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 and all evil speakings,

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 as newborn babes desire the sincere

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 milk of the word that ye may grow thereby,

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 if so be ye have tasted the Lord is gracious,

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 to whom coming as unto a living stone,

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 disallowed indeed of men,

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 but chosen of God and precious,

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 ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house

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 in holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices

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 acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

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 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture,

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 behold, I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone,

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 elect, precious, and he that believeth on him

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 shall not be confounded.

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 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious,

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 but unto them which be disobedient,

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 the stone which the builders disallowed,

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 the same is made the head of the corner,

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 and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of a fence,

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 even to them which stumble at the word,

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 being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.

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 But ye are a chosen generation,

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 a royal priesthood, and holy nation,

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 a peculiar people, that ye should show forth

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 the praises of him who hath called you

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 out of darkness into his marvelous light,

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 which in time past were not a people,

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 but are now the people of God,

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 which had not obtained mercy,

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 but now have attained mercy.

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 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,

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 a stain from fleshly lust which war against the soul,

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 having your conversation honest among the Gentiles,

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 that whereas they speak against you as evildoers,

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 they may by your good works, excuse me,

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 whereas they speak against you as evildoers,

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 they may by your good works, which they shall behold,

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 glorify God in the day of visitation.

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 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's stake,

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 whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors,

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 as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers,

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 and for the praise of them that do well.

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 For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence

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 the ignorance of foolish men, as free,

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 and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness,

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 but as the servants of God, honor all men,

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 love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king, servants.

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 Be subject to your masters with all fear,

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 not only to the good and gentle, but also to the foward.

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 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief,

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 suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it,

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 if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently.

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 But if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently.

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 This is acceptable with God.

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 For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us,

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 leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps.

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 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

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 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again.

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 When he suffered, he threatened not,

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 but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.

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 Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree,

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 that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,

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 by whose stripes ye were healed.

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 For ye were as sheeps going astray,

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 but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

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 Brother Jake, could you please pray for the preaching?

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 Amen.

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 Alright, so I know it's been a minute,

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 and this sermon is going to be a little bit different than how I normally preach.

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 Because today, kind of like one of those things, you have a big event,

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 and I don't know if you've ever seen like a big soul winning missions trip or something,

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 and then you come back and you preach on that.

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 Well today, the sermon is reflection on having a babe.

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 Reflection on having a babe.

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 This is not how to have a good child, I'm sure I'm too young on that,

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 but I'm going to just say life is about experiences,

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 and even though I'm a very academic person, I love to study, I love to do that,

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 you can learn everything through a book, and you can have knowledge,

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 but yet you do it, and it is very different.

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 So today I just want to give some reflections.

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 The reason why is I believe having a child is such a deep meaning,

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 and it is kind of deep in my understanding on many different things.

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 It's hit a bunch, I'm going to try to hit many different topics,

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 and here's the thing is, one of the most important takeaways from this, I believe,

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 is having a child, as we call the heavenly father, having the chance to be a father,

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 I do not say I understand the mind of God,

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 but yet I think I adapted a deeper understanding of the love of God

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 by being a father myself for a short time.

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 And I think it's so important to understand this, and so if this sermon doesn't hit everything right,

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 it's more of a, I would say a spiritualized sermon, a more reflection sermon,

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 it's not a hard doctrine sermon, you disagree with anything, that's probably fine.

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 This is just the way it hit me, and I'm just sharing that with you, hoping you'll be edifying.

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 But here's the thing, if you're in 1 Peter chapter 2,

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 just go back to 1 Peter chapter 1 to verse 23 very quickly.

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 And it says, "Being born again, not of corruptal seed, but incorruptible."

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 We cannot be born again spiritually until we are born

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 and understand that we do come from a corruptable.

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 But Lord willing, through a good life, we will by the world be saved,

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 which we will live forever, for all flesh is grass,

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 and all the glory of man as a flower of the grass.

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 The grass withered, and the flower thereof faded away.

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 It is incredible to hold a newborn life, and yet as great as that is,

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 it is so mind-bending, at least for me to think.

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 This little man is incapable of all, so gentle, so small,

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 but I have no control of what he will be.

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 I can raise him and do all that.

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 He may grow up to be one of the greatest pastors.

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 He may grow up to be a drunkard.

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 I don't know what his life will bring or the fate of that,

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 but it's amazing to think that at one point I was so helpless and small,

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 and even if I have my pride and think I've made it so far in life,

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 I have gone so much, I've done so much, I'm still just this babe.

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 I am nothing of this world.

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 This world will forget me quicker than anything,

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 and yet even though that saddens me, it humbles me when I look into my son's eyes.

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 Just a babe. We grow for a little and we fade, but yet in the flowering,

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 just when we see the flowers, don't we love to see flowers?

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 I ain't even a man, just nod.

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 Women, you know how the flowers are beautiful when they're in bloom?

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 Isn't it beautiful to see new life?

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 It's humbling. It's part of life.

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 But here's the thing, the Word of God endures forever,

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 and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you,

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 verse 1 of chapter 2 where I had you read,

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 "Wherefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, all hypocrisies,

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 indies, and evil speakings as a newborn babe."

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 I've never read that verse and realized,

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 do you know how you can set aside all those things?

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 It's impossible for you unless you're newborn.

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 The little boy back there is the only time in his life

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 he will not have any malice, any guile, any hypocrisies,

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 indies, or evil speakings.

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 He's not capable of it. He hasn't done that.

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 It isn't amazing. You don't got to get too old before that's true.

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 You have a two-year-old. You have a new one.

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 There's some envy about who mom picks up.

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 To not have all that, which God is commanding you to do,

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 you would have to be like a newborn child.

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 And I thought that was mind blowing. It's like, this child,

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 and I'll get into the doctrine I flex on,

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 he does not have any derailing.

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 He doesn't have evil speaking.

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 Sometimes he screams, but he's hungry.

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 Don't blame me. That's not wrong.

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 He's just like, hey, the one feeling I have,

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 that's not evil. That's not wicked.

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 But to put aside all malice and guile and hypocrisy

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 and any evil speaking, that's a newborn babe.

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 Because hey, you know as a newborn babe,

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 the only thing you can do, it says right there,

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 desire milk.

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 Literally all they can, that's all they figured out what to do.

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 They get grumpy, they have some gas or whatnot,

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 but all they can do is ask to be fed.

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 And God says when you have your second birth,

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 that's what you need to return to.

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 That's exactly how you need to be.

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 All you need to do is just turn to His Word and just take that.

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 And what's interesting to me when I reflected on that

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 is hey, not only is it just true that the child is literally sinless,

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 he can't even have an evil thought yet.

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 That's how he would wish us to be.

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 But you're not going to be like that.

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 But you should return to the Word of God like milk.

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 Because despite what people say, be like,

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 here, use a commentary, use a devotional, it's just too much.

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 Weird, God says it's like milk that you can give to an infant.

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 And as a babe in Christ, if you can't take the Bible, you're ill.

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 I guess you need to be put on an IV and get something even simpler,

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 but you're not, you can never be grown.

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 If you can't take the milk of the Word, you can't ever get the meat,

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 so you can't ever become a theologian, a philosopher,

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 if you can't take the straight milk of God's Word.

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 And I just get that by looking at this.

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 I've had a lot of time holding a child through nights, through hospital trips,

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 and all that, to think about what does this mean to me.

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 And this is just kind of some of a reflection.

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 As a newborn babe designed the sincere milk of the Word,

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 that you may grow thereby, the only thing a babe can want

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 is milk, and it helps them grow.

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 As a newborn Christ in your second birth,

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 all you should really seek for, and I understand,

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 I'm talking to so many people that have had years of years

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 or a life longer, but the milk is what you need to grow.

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 The sincere milk.

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 You know what's crazy? That's all you need to grow.

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 Now preaching helps, there's different ways to deliver it,

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 but it says you can grow thereby.

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 And in verse 3, in chapter 2 it says,

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 "If so, be ye of tasted, the Lord is gracious."

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 Isn't it amazing?

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 When you receive your second birth,

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 if you would just humble yourself and just seek the milk of the word,

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 then you understand, hey, you all loved,

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 God died for you, and then he gave you a blueprint for your life.

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 If you understand, and he wrote it in a way that affects you now,

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 he wrote it a thousand years ago and it's applicable to you right now.

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 Why? Because the creator of the universe wrote it for you.

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 And you understand, that is a gracious God.

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 You understand that God is gracious because he gave you everything you need.

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 Look, all a babe needs is that milk.

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 Isn't that incredible?

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 Isn't it insane that some people just think that's accidental?

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 You're like, just randomly we produced everything a baby needs.

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 It's strange because if they didn't involve the suckle, they would die.

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 Anyway, all parts of the sermon I could get lost on

00:24:14.660 --> 00:24:16.630
 and keep you here for like six hours thinking about,

00:24:16.630 --> 00:24:20.660
 because I've had a lot of time thinking about, you know, having a baby.

00:24:20.660 --> 00:24:24.830
 But it's crazy. But understand what God says.

00:24:24.830 --> 00:24:28.090
 He says, "As a newborn baby, design this here that you may grow.

00:24:28.090 --> 00:24:32.070
 And if so, you have done that. You have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

00:24:32.070 --> 00:24:37.050
 If you would just take the Word of God, the milk, the clear teachings of the Bible,

00:24:37.050 --> 00:24:42.020
 and you just eat that. Just look, look, we all get interested in revelations,

00:24:42.020 --> 00:24:47.530
 maybe how the world began. Hey, maybe, you know, whatever you can get lost in.

00:24:47.530 --> 00:24:51.580
 But you know what? The things that will keep your life and make you grow are actually the simple things.

00:24:51.580 --> 00:24:56.520
 The milk of the Word will help you grow. And if you understand that, you can see the grace of God.

00:24:56.520 --> 00:25:01.240
 Because guess what? What He wants from you is not always the most complicated thing.

00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:05.190
 And in the sermon this morning, He says, "You know what God wants from you? Do what you can."

00:25:05.190 --> 00:25:13.460
 What a grace! Let me tell you this. Our Heavenly Father is graceful.

00:25:13.460 --> 00:25:18.210
 He's the God of grace, God of patience. He's full of grace.

00:25:18.210 --> 00:25:23.220
 And hey, if you have accepted the grace by getting saved, you'll understand that He is grace.

00:25:23.220 --> 00:25:26.190
 But isn't it interesting that we call Him our Heavenly Father?

00:25:26.190 --> 00:25:31.550
 Because let me tell you this. I don't think I've ever understood grace better than the past month.

00:25:31.550 --> 00:25:36.960
 Maybe a month and a half, we include my wife, as she, you know, there's a lot of things going on.

00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:38.940
 She needs a lot of help. You have to give a lot of grace.

00:25:38.940 --> 00:25:46.390
 But what's interesting with a child, it is one way. One way grace completely.

00:25:46.390 --> 00:25:52.320
 And I've come to understand how amazing that it is.

00:25:52.320 --> 00:25:55.910
 If you would turn, turn to Romans 11, if you could.

00:25:55.910 --> 00:25:58.850
 Romans 11 verse 6. Romans 11 verse 6.

00:25:58.850 --> 00:26:05.200
 Because let me, this, I don't know if I've ever heard this put together.

00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:08.170
 It's so clear, so that it just boggles my mind.

00:26:08.170 --> 00:26:11.150
 And I'm sure I will bring it up to somebody at some point.

00:26:11.150 --> 00:26:14.130
 But Romans 6, or sorry, Romans 11 verse 6, it says,

00:26:14.130 --> 00:26:19.270
 "If by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.

00:26:19.270 --> 00:26:24.230
 But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, works is no more works."

00:26:24.230 --> 00:26:29.880
 When you get saved and born again, you receive that grace with no works.

00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:34.080
 Let me ask you this, with your first birth, did you earn it by works?

00:26:34.080 --> 00:26:38.710
 You absolutely did not. It is insane to think that you did.

00:26:38.710 --> 00:26:43.630
 Because let me tell you, that kid is lazy. He just eats and sleeps.

00:26:43.630 --> 00:26:48.240
 But I'm going to tell you this, I have to give grace all the time.

00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:52.660
 Let me just say, and we have grace with different people in different ways.

00:26:52.660 --> 00:26:57.960
 Because let me explain this. If my boy comes up and he had pooped his pants,

00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:01.930
 when I try to help him with that, he pees on me, he then pukes on me,

00:27:01.930 --> 00:27:05.900
 and then cries he wants to be fed. If that's Honda, he's getting kicked out of the house.

00:27:05.900 --> 00:27:12.080
 But then that one gets a lot of grace. It ain't cool, right?

00:27:12.080 --> 00:27:16.050
 So grace is a little bit different, because we understand, because it's one way.

00:27:16.050 --> 00:27:23.990
 It's just never boggled my mind that this child, who I have affection for, grace for, patience for, has never done a thing for me.

00:27:23.990 --> 00:27:32.870
 And I realize I've grown up in a transactional society, and I've never truly understand so deeply how much that is,

00:27:32.870 --> 00:27:37.810
 that truly to see all the virtues that God asks us to do, it actually needs to be exactly one way.

00:27:37.810 --> 00:27:43.650
 So it does not matter how it comes back to me, and even though I think I have grown in patience,

00:27:43.650 --> 00:27:47.570
 grown in love, grown for fellowship with the brethren.

00:27:47.570 --> 00:27:50.720
 Man, having a child you learn one way, that's pure.

00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:53.300
 I don't think I've ever understood that.

00:27:53.300 --> 00:27:56.250
 And let me tell you, if God gives me grace, why?

00:27:56.250 --> 00:27:57.230
 Because He loved me first.

00:27:57.230 --> 00:28:00.240
 I can love Him because He first loved me.

00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:02.220
 That's the way I would treat the child.

00:28:02.220 --> 00:28:04.210
 I don't think I've ever seen that so purely.

00:28:04.210 --> 00:28:06.190
 If you're in Romans, go ahead and turn to Romans 15.

00:28:06.190 --> 00:28:08.180
 Actually, you turn to 1 Thessalonians 5.

00:28:08.180 --> 00:28:10.170
 You turn to 1 Thessalonians 5.

00:28:10.170 --> 00:28:12.150
 I'm going to read Romans 15.

00:28:12.150 --> 00:28:16.250
 Romans 15 verse 1 says, "When they are strong,

00:28:16.250 --> 00:28:20.220
 all they bear the infirmities weak and not to our own pleasures."

00:28:20.220 --> 00:28:23.200
 I've had so much time to focus on the virtues of a Christian

00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:27.320
 in the past, you know, month or however long it's been.

00:28:27.320 --> 00:28:29.290
 That's amazing, I think.

00:28:29.290 --> 00:28:31.270
 When I implement that to the way I'm supposed to treat

00:28:31.270 --> 00:28:35.830
 and the way you have to treat an infant, it's the purest form.

00:28:35.830 --> 00:28:39.170
 I always have in my mind, when I think of virtue,

00:28:39.170 --> 00:28:41.250
 I'm thinking of man to man, adult to adult.

00:28:41.250 --> 00:28:45.650
 I mean, you know, even Honda, I mean, like, as a teenager to me.

00:28:45.650 --> 00:28:50.470
 But that's great if you work man to man, but you understand the virtues.

00:28:50.470 --> 00:28:53.440
 It should be in the mind, I believe, to the purest sense,

00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:56.410
 and if you don't agree, that's fine, to what you would treat an infant.

00:28:56.410 --> 00:28:59.580
 Because it is one way, and it is not going to be reciprocal.

00:28:59.580 --> 00:29:04.550
 And what it says is, if you are strong, if you are a strong man,

00:29:04.550 --> 00:29:06.510
 then you should be able to bear other people's problems.

00:29:06.510 --> 00:29:09.010
 You should be able to lift them up.

00:29:09.010 --> 00:29:11.750
 You should have the infirmities of the week,

00:29:11.750 --> 00:29:13.700
 and can you get weaker than a newborn infant?

00:29:13.700 --> 00:29:16.890
 My gosh, I don't know how true it is,

00:29:16.890 --> 00:29:18.840
 because I've supported that neck since day zero.

00:29:18.840 --> 00:29:21.950
 Because I've been hurt, and you better support that.

00:29:21.950 --> 00:29:23.910
 So I think it's like, it's literally paper like,

00:29:23.910 --> 00:29:26.260
 "Oh, it's been freaking out."

00:29:26.260 --> 00:29:30.070
 But I have supported that with all my strength.

00:29:30.070 --> 00:29:32.950
 But let me tell you this, even though, yes,

00:29:32.950 --> 00:29:34.940
 it's talking to the brethren as a whole,

00:29:34.940 --> 00:29:36.920
 a lot of these are just spiritual things,

00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:38.910
 but take the metaphor of a child is all I'm asking for this sermon.

00:29:38.910 --> 00:29:41.890
 That literally, you can support a child,

00:29:41.890 --> 00:29:43.880
 you learn how to take care of the weak,

00:29:43.880 --> 00:29:45.870
 those other than the sickly,

00:29:45.870 --> 00:29:48.020
 the ones that don't pay you back.

00:29:48.020 --> 00:29:51.150
 It is a one-way love and relationship,

00:29:51.150 --> 00:29:54.120
 and I believe that's how God the Father actually asks us to do it.

00:29:54.120 --> 00:29:57.090
 And for me, I'm calling myself out.

00:29:57.090 --> 00:29:59.080
 I don't think I've ever truly recognized that.

00:29:59.080 --> 00:30:02.070
 You're in 1 Thessalonians 5,

00:30:02.070 --> 00:30:04.040
 1 Thessalonians 5, look down at verse 14.

00:30:04.040 --> 00:30:06.020
 It says, "Now we exhort you, brethren,

00:30:06.020 --> 00:30:08.250
 warn them that are unruly,

00:30:08.250 --> 00:30:11.270
 comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak,

00:30:11.270 --> 00:30:14.230
 be patient towards all men."

00:30:14.230 --> 00:30:17.740
 I tell you, you'd have to do that with all children.

00:30:17.740 --> 00:30:20.350
 You have no choice.

00:30:20.350 --> 00:30:22.340
 I think it's very clear why, most of the time,

00:30:22.340 --> 00:30:24.330
 when you see people that can take care

00:30:24.330 --> 00:30:26.320
 of those hardest cases,

00:30:26.320 --> 00:30:28.310
 those that are actually born

00:30:28.310 --> 00:30:30.300
 with physical defects or mental defects,

00:30:30.300 --> 00:30:32.290
 isn't amazing it's usually not their only child.

00:30:32.290 --> 00:30:34.280
 They have others.

00:30:34.280 --> 00:30:36.270
 I think the Lord does that so you have people

00:30:36.270 --> 00:30:38.260
 can train, because let me tell you,

00:30:38.260 --> 00:30:40.410
 if you have many, many children,

00:30:40.410 --> 00:30:42.380
 obviously you're great, and you can see that

00:30:42.380 --> 00:30:44.350
 whether you've ever had children or not,

00:30:44.350 --> 00:30:46.330
 that parents of parents of parents,

00:30:46.330 --> 00:30:48.600
 lots of kids, they have a certain ability

00:30:48.600 --> 00:30:50.640
 to deal with drama, patience,

00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:52.610
 stress, all that,

00:30:52.610 --> 00:30:54.580
 and yet they usually can still show grace

00:30:54.580 --> 00:30:56.650
 to other people. Why? They've been

00:30:56.650 --> 00:30:58.720
 trained. They've taken the

00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:00.710
 weakest minded, the sickliest

00:31:00.710 --> 00:31:02.700
 sick, the weak feeble,

00:31:02.700 --> 00:31:04.680
 the ones that, they can't even walk!

00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:06.670
 You see, the parents,

00:31:06.670 --> 00:31:08.660
 they've got one on their back, one under their arm,

00:31:08.660 --> 00:31:10.640
 and they're dragging a sword behind them,

00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:12.630
 and they still have to call two others to fall.

00:31:12.630 --> 00:31:16.000
 God is literally telling you to do this,

00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:17.990
 and I understand in context this isn't about children,

00:31:17.990 --> 00:31:19.980
 but can you all see how having children

00:31:19.980 --> 00:31:21.960
 would lead you to having

00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:23.950
 the virtues that God has already asked you to do,

00:31:23.950 --> 00:31:25.940
 to have the patience to lift up that

00:31:25.940 --> 00:31:27.930
 you take your strength that you think you have

00:31:27.930 --> 00:31:29.920
 and the glory of your life before your flower

00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:31.910
 fades, and what you do is you help the others.

00:31:31.910 --> 00:31:34.080
 And that is something you just have to do

00:31:34.080 --> 00:31:36.050
 when you have children. And I truly believe

00:31:36.050 --> 00:31:38.020
 seeing grace, because giving the grace

00:31:38.020 --> 00:31:40.000
 to a child, as I've already said, hey,

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:42.370
 you're going to lose stuff,

00:31:42.370 --> 00:31:44.310
 cry stuff, lose sleep,

00:31:44.310 --> 00:31:46.580
 you know, all this, why?

00:31:46.580 --> 00:31:48.530
 To take care of someone who is not thankful to you,

00:31:48.530 --> 00:31:51.080
 they just expect it.

00:31:51.080 --> 00:31:53.310
 It's funny, in every other context of my life,

00:31:53.310 --> 00:31:55.250
 I've always been like, well Lord, I guess I'll do it,

00:31:55.250 --> 00:31:58.560
 and this one, it's a joy. And I'll get to that.

00:31:58.560 --> 00:32:00.490
 Here, you turn to

00:32:00.490 --> 00:32:04.120
 you turn to 1 John

00:32:04.120 --> 00:32:06.050
 4, 18, 1 John 4,

00:32:06.050 --> 00:32:09.630
 verse 18. And I already quoted this,

00:32:09.630 --> 00:32:11.650
 but I'll say it again, 1 John 4, 19,

00:32:11.650 --> 00:32:13.880
 it says, "We love

00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:15.820
 Him because He first

00:32:15.820 --> 00:32:18.680
 loved us."

00:32:18.680 --> 00:32:21.040
 We love Him. We love Jesus.

00:32:21.040 --> 00:32:23.030
 We love God. Why?

00:32:23.030 --> 00:32:25.020
 He first loved us. We could not

00:32:25.020 --> 00:32:27.010
 have gotten saved before He first

00:32:27.010 --> 00:32:29.000
 loved us and showed us the grace

00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:30.990
 through His Word, through what we did,

00:32:30.990 --> 00:32:32.980
 and having a soul winner expound the Word

00:32:32.980 --> 00:32:34.970
 unto us. But understand this,

00:32:34.970 --> 00:32:36.950
 I don't think I could have ever understood

00:32:36.950 --> 00:32:39.070
 what that truly meant.

00:32:39.070 --> 00:32:41.040
 Like, I just took it by faith, like, that's

00:32:41.040 --> 00:32:43.010
 what the Word says, that's what I believe.

00:32:43.010 --> 00:32:44.980
 But to understand, when I look at this child

00:32:44.980 --> 00:32:47.170
 who I believe recognizes

00:32:47.170 --> 00:32:49.930
 me now, but I don't think he

00:32:49.930 --> 00:32:52.710
 can't comprehend love. But I'm turning my

00:32:52.710 --> 00:32:55.630
 whole life upside down for him. And I do it

00:32:55.630 --> 00:32:57.590
 with joy and happiness.

00:32:57.590 --> 00:32:59.560
 And I expect nothing from it, because there's nothing

00:32:59.560 --> 00:33:02.650
 that will come from it. And if you go back

00:33:02.650 --> 00:33:04.760
 one verse from that,

00:33:04.760 --> 00:33:06.840
 in 1 John 4

00:33:06.840 --> 00:33:08.800
 18, it says, "There is no

00:33:08.800 --> 00:33:10.990
 fear in love, but a perfect

00:33:10.990 --> 00:33:12.940
 love casts out fear, because

00:33:12.940 --> 00:33:15.220
 fear has torment.

00:33:15.220 --> 00:33:17.640
 He that fear is not

00:33:17.640 --> 00:33:19.610
 made perfect in love." And kind of what

00:33:19.610 --> 00:33:21.570
 hit me here, and maybe

00:33:21.570 --> 00:33:23.690
 I perfectly said, "Sleep to five

00:33:23.690 --> 00:33:25.640
 and everything going on in the past month, I am

00:33:25.640 --> 00:33:28.900
 probably insane." That's fine. But I want to

00:33:28.900 --> 00:33:31.710
 explain this, is that, not to go

00:33:31.710 --> 00:33:33.670
 into many details, there was complications,

00:33:33.670 --> 00:33:35.640
 there was this, but the child came out,

00:33:35.640 --> 00:33:38.180
 it was fine, you know,

00:33:38.180 --> 00:33:40.150
 had a bruise on his head, you know, it's whining,

00:33:40.150 --> 00:33:42.120
 it's crying, but man, I haven't slept in nights,

00:33:42.120 --> 00:33:44.090
 I have it, and finally the child

00:33:44.090 --> 00:33:46.900
 calms down. He even kind of smiles.

00:33:46.900 --> 00:33:50.880
 It is calm. And I could feel

00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:52.850
 sleep take over me as the overwhelming

00:33:52.850 --> 00:33:54.810
 peace of having a sleeping child

00:33:54.810 --> 00:33:57.690
 who takes over. And then do you know what crawls

00:33:57.690 --> 00:33:59.980
 into the, the edge of my mind?

00:33:59.980 --> 00:34:05.580
 It's calm because it's dead. I mean, it makes

00:34:05.580 --> 00:34:07.990
 sense. I literally woke up multiple times

00:34:07.990 --> 00:34:10.300
 being like, "Oh, he's so peaceful, so calm."

00:34:10.300 --> 00:34:12.710
 This is perfection. It must be because

00:34:12.710 --> 00:34:15.520
 he's dead. And I, I don't mean to,

00:34:15.520 --> 00:34:17.500
 I'm not, my only point is

00:34:17.500 --> 00:34:19.480
 I scared myself into not sleeping

00:34:19.480 --> 00:34:21.460
 more nights than I could have slept

00:34:21.460 --> 00:34:23.440
 because I was so worried. And let me tell you,

00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:26.710
 that was not perfect love. I eventually had to

00:34:26.710 --> 00:34:28.680
 be like, "He's fine. He's

00:34:28.680 --> 00:34:30.660
 always been fine. If the baby's sleeping,

00:34:30.660 --> 00:34:32.640
 stop poking him to see if he's breathing.

00:34:32.640 --> 00:34:34.950
 Alright? Leave him alone!"

00:34:34.950 --> 00:34:37.640
 And maybe I'm insane. Maybe that's just me.

00:34:37.640 --> 00:34:40.230
 But I'm going to say, I was

00:34:40.230 --> 00:34:42.140
 freaked out many times because nothing was wrong.

00:34:42.140 --> 00:34:44.940
 Because he's always whining. He's always

00:34:44.940 --> 00:34:47.220
 rolling. He's always hard. But then a few times,

00:34:47.220 --> 00:34:50.220
 now here's the thing is, now he's sleeping.

00:34:50.220 --> 00:34:53.590
 I have a fear. Give it to God.

00:34:53.590 --> 00:34:55.970
 You know? He's sleeping. It's

00:34:55.970 --> 00:34:57.940
 great. And now I can feel that love

00:34:57.940 --> 00:34:59.900
 more perfectly because I don't have fear.

00:34:59.900 --> 00:35:03.120
 I don't want to say, I know things happen,

00:35:03.120 --> 00:35:05.180
 but I had no reason to believe that. I was

00:35:05.180 --> 00:35:07.470
 freaking myself out. And that's not perfect

00:35:07.470 --> 00:35:09.730
 love. And if I don't have that

00:35:09.730 --> 00:35:11.700
 anxious over nothing, I can love him more

00:35:11.700 --> 00:35:13.670
 purely. And as it says, I'm

00:35:13.670 --> 00:35:15.650
 loving him first before he could ever love me.

00:35:15.650 --> 00:35:19.040
 And I just think that's an interesting reflection

00:35:19.040 --> 00:35:20.990
 of God's Word in our life.

00:35:20.990 --> 00:35:24.270
 Now here's the thing, turn, uh,

00:35:24.270 --> 00:35:26.250
 if you can't keep up, I know I'm going to move fast.

00:35:26.250 --> 00:35:28.240
 Romans 12 verse 9, it says, "Let

00:35:28.240 --> 00:35:30.220
 love be without dissimulation.

00:35:30.220 --> 00:35:32.200
 Uphold that which is

00:35:32.200 --> 00:35:34.190
 evil, cleave to which is good."

00:35:34.190 --> 00:35:36.350
 Let me explain that, like, this is

00:35:36.350 --> 00:35:38.300
 maybe just a reflection on me, you can judge me all

00:35:38.300 --> 00:35:40.750
 you want in this, but I'm not sure

00:35:40.750 --> 00:35:42.700
 I have ever actually loved without

00:35:42.700 --> 00:35:46.040
 dissimulation before. That is a word

00:35:46.040 --> 00:35:47.970
 that is a concept that I understand

00:35:47.970 --> 00:35:50.400
 philosophically.

00:35:50.400 --> 00:35:52.340
 I understand what an ideal

00:35:52.340 --> 00:35:55.220
 love would be, but I have found

00:35:55.220 --> 00:35:57.180
 that I expected most of my relationships

00:35:57.180 --> 00:35:59.240
 to be transactional in some way.

00:35:59.240 --> 00:36:02.110
 The church member, you know, I do this

00:36:02.110 --> 00:36:04.080
 and this, I expect basically

00:36:04.080 --> 00:36:06.070
 certain things, otherwise I get grumpy.

00:36:06.070 --> 00:36:08.320
 Or, you know, at least hold it back,

00:36:08.320 --> 00:36:10.280
 need to work past that, race ships,

00:36:10.280 --> 00:36:12.300
 it's just, I found that I, I did not

00:36:12.300 --> 00:36:14.260
 understand how transactionally

00:36:14.260 --> 00:36:16.410
 I viewed relationships

00:36:16.410 --> 00:36:19.380
 until you have an infant. I love without

00:36:19.380 --> 00:36:24.030
 the simulation. I'm like, oh,

00:36:24.030 --> 00:36:25.990
 I'm going to throw away his diaper, maybe

00:36:25.990 --> 00:36:27.940
 my pants now, I don't know, like everything's destroyed.

00:36:27.940 --> 00:36:30.770
 Can't be angry at the child.

00:36:30.770 --> 00:36:35.530
 Like, at least I have not. Like,

00:36:35.530 --> 00:36:37.480
 grant you, sometimes you haven't slept at all

00:36:37.480 --> 00:36:39.790
 and all this, and sometimes, like,

00:36:39.790 --> 00:36:41.740
 my lovely wife, do you mind

00:36:41.740 --> 00:36:44.900
 watching the child for a little bit?

00:36:44.900 --> 00:36:46.820
 Maybe it's a little less of an archetypes,

00:36:46.820 --> 00:36:50.140
 but I don't know if I've ever actually

00:36:50.140 --> 00:36:52.120
 loved without the simulation. And what

00:36:52.120 --> 00:36:54.110
 I'm trying to say is, I feel

00:36:54.110 --> 00:36:56.090
 for mere grumps, not that I understand

00:36:56.090 --> 00:36:58.080
 the mind of God, but for a

00:36:58.080 --> 00:37:00.070
 moment in time and a deeper

00:37:00.070 --> 00:37:02.050
 thing that I personally have never

00:37:02.050 --> 00:37:04.360
 experienced, I understand

00:37:04.360 --> 00:37:06.350
 the glimpse of what I think God's

00:37:06.350 --> 00:37:08.340
 heart is. And some of these words

00:37:08.340 --> 00:37:10.330
 and these expressions, these ideas

00:37:10.330 --> 00:37:12.310
 seem more alive because now I

00:37:12.310 --> 00:37:14.300
 am having just a drop of perhaps

00:37:14.300 --> 00:37:16.290
 that grace of God within my own

00:37:16.290 --> 00:37:18.280
 life as my Heavenly Father reflected

00:37:18.280 --> 00:37:20.270
 in the physicality of being

00:37:20.270 --> 00:37:24.550
 a father. I just think that's a wonder.

00:37:24.550 --> 00:37:28.100
 In Romans 15, in Romans 15

00:37:28.100 --> 00:37:30.190
 in verse 5, Romans 15 in

00:37:30.190 --> 00:37:32.900
 verse 5, let me explain,

00:37:32.900 --> 00:37:36.590
 this is necessary. Now the God of

00:37:36.590 --> 00:37:39.110
 patience and consolation

00:37:39.110 --> 00:37:41.140
 grant you to be like-minded one

00:37:41.140 --> 00:37:43.110
 towards another according to Jesus Christ.

00:37:43.110 --> 00:37:45.080
 And I know all these are about the brethren,

00:37:45.080 --> 00:37:47.540
 but understand, do you have to have patience

00:37:47.540 --> 00:37:50.550
 with kids? You have to have patience with kids

00:37:50.550 --> 00:37:52.670
 when they're not your kids, if you're going to be

00:37:52.670 --> 00:37:55.390
 a good church member, alright? But having

00:37:55.390 --> 00:37:57.600
 a child or an infant

00:37:57.600 --> 00:38:01.950
 or a pregnant wife, patience

00:38:01.950 --> 00:38:04.310
 is not just a-

00:38:04.310 --> 00:38:07.340
 like, it's a necessity. And I think

00:38:07.340 --> 00:38:09.290
 having a child, cause you know when- you know

00:38:09.290 --> 00:38:11.250
 how quickly a child will be calm

00:38:11.250 --> 00:38:14.810
 when it wants? You know when you need to stop

00:38:14.810 --> 00:38:17.230
 calming them? When they- when they stop

00:38:17.230 --> 00:38:21.250
 telling you they need to be calmed? Here I

00:38:21.250 --> 00:38:23.510
 am! You know, I feel I'm in the height

00:38:23.510 --> 00:38:25.460
 of my glory, the prime of my life.

00:38:25.460 --> 00:38:28.110
 I've got someone who doesn't even speak English

00:38:28.110 --> 00:38:30.060
 ordering me around. I thought this was America.

00:38:30.060 --> 00:38:34.470
 You've got to have patience. And may

00:38:34.470 --> 00:38:36.430
 God grant you a like mind because

00:38:36.430 --> 00:38:38.400
 He's the God of patience. Can you imagine how long

00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:40.520
 suffering He is with us? I'm talking about the

00:38:40.520 --> 00:38:42.480
 firstborn, but everyone who's

00:38:42.480 --> 00:38:44.440
 been born again is because the grace of

00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:46.490
 God He's shown to you

00:38:46.490 --> 00:38:48.480
 and giving you a feeble-minded little

00:38:48.480 --> 00:38:50.460
 one that needs all your attention just to

00:38:50.460 --> 00:38:52.450
 stay alive teaches you so many things

00:38:52.450 --> 00:38:54.430
 and patience is just an absolutely necessary

00:38:54.430 --> 00:38:56.410
 one. If you turn to Colossians

00:38:56.410 --> 00:38:58.870
 1, Colossians 1, while you're

00:38:58.870 --> 00:39:00.830
 turning there, in James 1 verse 4

00:39:00.830 --> 00:39:03.260
 it says, "But let patience have

00:39:03.260 --> 00:39:05.200
 perfect work, that you may be

00:39:05.200 --> 00:39:07.310
 perfect in

00:39:07.310 --> 00:39:09.270
 entire, wanting nothing."

00:39:09.270 --> 00:39:11.230
 And I thought this as I'm here

00:39:11.230 --> 00:39:13.720
 4 a.m. holding my child

00:39:13.720 --> 00:39:15.670
 so my wife can have a break, I'm thinking

00:39:15.670 --> 00:39:18.980
 you know, you have patience

00:39:18.980 --> 00:39:20.920
 you have everything you want, because everything you want

00:39:20.920 --> 00:39:23.240
 if you had patience you'd be like, someday

00:39:23.240 --> 00:39:26.870
 at some point, this verse

00:39:26.870 --> 00:39:28.850
 never hit me as hard as I did when I

00:39:28.850 --> 00:39:30.820
 heard it, like I said

00:39:30.820 --> 00:39:32.800
 4am, holding a child who's a little

00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:34.780
 I don't know, gassy, he ain't sleeping

00:39:34.780 --> 00:39:36.980
 I can already tell, this isn't

00:39:36.980 --> 00:39:40.630
 going to be a peaceful morning, it just says

00:39:40.630 --> 00:39:42.610
 but let patience have

00:39:42.610 --> 00:39:44.580
 her perfect work

00:39:44.580 --> 00:39:46.540
 because let me tell you this, if you have

00:39:46.540 --> 00:39:48.930
 you already love, you love the child

00:39:48.930 --> 00:39:51.070
 you have the grace to show that whatever

00:39:51.070 --> 00:39:53.050
 they do, you let it go, but if you have patience

00:39:53.050 --> 00:39:55.020
 you have no current wants

00:39:55.020 --> 00:39:57.250
 and do you understand, you know

00:39:57.250 --> 00:39:59.720
 what drives us mostly mad

00:39:59.720 --> 00:40:01.680
 is our desires, our wants

00:40:01.680 --> 00:40:03.650
 and here's the thing is, the worst thing is, I want it now

00:40:03.650 --> 00:40:07.060
 and you have children, you better be like

00:40:07.060 --> 00:40:09.440
 we'll put that off to the side, I don't even care what that is

00:40:09.440 --> 00:40:11.480
 it could be like, man I want a sports car

00:40:11.480 --> 00:40:13.460
 yeah that's gonna have to go away aside

00:40:13.460 --> 00:40:15.440
 sometimes like, I want a hot food

00:40:15.440 --> 00:40:17.420
 you're gonna have to do this

00:40:17.420 --> 00:40:19.410
 sometimes like, I want a non-pute covered shirt

00:40:19.410 --> 00:40:23.300
 well, eventually we'll get there

00:40:23.300 --> 00:40:25.260
 patience work her perfect work in your life

00:40:25.260 --> 00:40:27.220
 and I was like, my goodness

00:40:27.220 --> 00:40:30.990
 what's a desire if I just have patience

00:40:30.990 --> 00:40:32.980
 and God says, I know how to give you good things

00:40:32.980 --> 00:40:34.970
 if you just wait upon me

00:40:34.970 --> 00:40:36.960
 I know how to give you that and I know how to give you more

00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:38.950
 if you just have patience, what do you care?

00:40:38.950 --> 00:40:40.940
 my gosh

00:40:40.940 --> 00:40:42.920
 holding a child in the middle of the morning

00:40:42.920 --> 00:40:44.910
 I'm not upset, I'm not grumpy

00:40:44.910 --> 00:40:47.290
 I realize, if I just have

00:40:47.290 --> 00:40:49.420
 patience in all areas of my life

00:40:49.420 --> 00:40:52.600
 what am I suffering from?

00:40:52.600 --> 00:40:56.750
 patience is such a virtue

00:40:56.750 --> 00:40:58.790
 and having a child, an infant

00:40:58.790 --> 00:41:00.830
 just reflect this so much

00:41:00.830 --> 00:41:02.800
 if you turn to Colossians

00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:04.780
 in Colossians 1 verse 10 it says

00:41:04.780 --> 00:41:06.750
 you might walk worthy of the Lord

00:41:06.750 --> 00:41:08.950
 unto all pleasures

00:41:08.950 --> 00:41:10.930
 being fruitful in every good work

00:41:10.930 --> 00:41:12.920
 and increasing in knowledge of God

00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:14.900
 strengthen with all

00:41:14.900 --> 00:41:16.880
 might according to his glorious

00:41:16.880 --> 00:41:19.080
 power unto all

00:41:19.080 --> 00:41:21.230
 patience and long suffering

00:41:21.230 --> 00:41:23.450
 with joyfulness. And this is exactly

00:41:23.450 --> 00:41:26.500
 what I was trying to explain. You can

00:41:26.500 --> 00:41:28.480
 get all work done. You can get

00:41:28.480 --> 00:41:30.450
 everything done. You can get through

00:41:30.450 --> 00:41:32.430
 all those things. You can work for God

00:41:32.430 --> 00:41:34.410
 and you can increase in knowledge. Hey

00:41:34.410 --> 00:41:38.550
 how is, excuse me,

00:41:38.550 --> 00:41:41.010
 how is Brother Remy learning Greek?

00:41:41.010 --> 00:41:45.000
 Patience. It is, how is he

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:47.060
 increasing in knowledge? Over and

00:41:47.060 --> 00:41:49.040
 over again he gives. He's saying he gives

00:41:49.040 --> 00:41:51.020
 what he can towards it. It takes

00:41:51.020 --> 00:41:53.000
 time to learn a language. Some of us

00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:54.980
 won't do that. Hey, how do you get anything

00:41:54.980 --> 00:41:57.130
 that's worthy done? Patience and

00:41:57.130 --> 00:41:59.080
 time. And it's literally saying,

00:41:59.080 --> 00:42:01.150
 and here's the thing is, having a child

00:42:01.150 --> 00:42:03.210
 explain this so much because it says,

00:42:03.210 --> 00:42:05.170
 "Strengthen me with all might according

00:42:05.170 --> 00:42:07.480
 to his glorious power until patience

00:42:07.480 --> 00:42:09.400
 and long-suffering

00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:14.110
 with joyfulness." And like I said,

00:42:14.110 --> 00:42:16.450
 like, I totally get that whole joke

00:42:16.450 --> 00:42:18.420
 where people are like, "Oh my gosh, you're

00:42:18.420 --> 00:42:20.390
 getting put on, you haven't slept and all

00:42:20.390 --> 00:42:23.720
 that, and hey man, what's

00:42:23.720 --> 00:42:26.960
 the next one?" And here's the thing is, in

00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:28.920
 a trans-actual, you know,

00:42:28.920 --> 00:42:30.890
 value-based society, you're like,

00:42:30.890 --> 00:42:32.970
 "Well, let's write all the positives and all

00:42:32.970 --> 00:42:34.920
 the cons and we'll just kill our society."

00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:37.060
 But it doesn't, that's actually, it doesn't add

00:42:37.060 --> 00:42:39.860
 up. You can put all the negatives there

00:42:39.860 --> 00:42:44.190
 and joy. Well, now I'm

00:42:44.190 --> 00:42:46.140
 going to take all my anti-depressants and

00:42:46.140 --> 00:42:48.160
 all this because I don't feel joy. Well, make

00:42:48.160 --> 00:42:51.150
 your life harder. Have a kid. And I'm like,

00:42:51.150 --> 00:42:53.120
 I'm not even being negative. Like, it doesn't

00:42:53.120 --> 00:42:55.090
 make sense. And let me tell you, like I said,

00:42:55.090 --> 00:42:57.060
 academically I study, I say, "Hey, the Lord of God says

00:42:57.060 --> 00:42:59.100
 'Hey, happy is the man who has many of

00:42:59.100 --> 00:43:02.670
 them.'" And I have them, I'm like, "Wow." Yeah,

00:43:02.670 --> 00:43:05.020
 life is not easier, but it's more

00:43:05.020 --> 00:43:07.310
 fulfilling. And what are people missing

00:43:07.310 --> 00:43:09.780
 in their life? Fulfillment.

00:43:09.780 --> 00:43:11.880
 Joy. And God literally says,

00:43:11.880 --> 00:43:13.840
 look at this, patience and long

00:43:13.840 --> 00:43:15.880
 suffering. What is long suffering? Suffering

00:43:15.880 --> 00:43:17.980
 long. I love old

00:43:17.980 --> 00:43:21.120
 words. And if you ever, even if

00:43:21.120 --> 00:43:23.090
 you rudely learn Latin, that's how all

00:43:23.090 --> 00:43:25.070
 they are. It sounds fancy to our ears because we don't

00:43:25.070 --> 00:43:27.040
 know what to say. They literally just take words and

00:43:27.040 --> 00:43:29.620
 it's like, there we go. That's the whole

00:43:29.620 --> 00:43:31.540
 different thing. But long suffering

00:43:31.540 --> 00:43:33.690
 means you're suffering for a

00:43:33.690 --> 00:43:36.400
 long time. Joy.

00:43:36.400 --> 00:43:40.360
 American mind just exploded.

00:43:40.360 --> 00:43:42.800
 I have a headache. Drug. I'm

00:43:42.800 --> 00:43:45.410
 not happy. Another drug.

00:43:45.410 --> 00:43:47.370
 Well, why don't you, you know, and

00:43:47.370 --> 00:43:49.340
 look, look at me when I say this, why don't you change

00:43:49.340 --> 00:43:51.380
 your diet, get a little exercise. Whoa.

00:43:51.380 --> 00:43:54.030
 No, no. Quick. I like candy.

00:43:54.030 --> 00:43:56.110
 Give me in candy form. Just pop it.

00:43:56.110 --> 00:43:59.310
 Tick tack. Let's go. But God literally

00:43:59.310 --> 00:44:01.280
 says you need to have patience

00:44:01.280 --> 00:44:03.250
 to do all his glorious work and all his

00:44:03.250 --> 00:44:05.220
 mind. How do you strengthen and increase knowledge?

00:44:05.220 --> 00:44:08.510
 It's patience. With

00:44:08.510 --> 00:44:11.190
 suffering. With joy.

00:44:11.190 --> 00:44:13.840
 And I think without your mind, without experiencing

00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:15.790
 something that has brought that to you.

00:44:15.790 --> 00:44:18.250
 And here's the thing. I'm sure in

00:44:18.250 --> 00:44:20.220
 other parts of your life, if you train for a

00:44:20.220 --> 00:44:22.200
 sport forever and you got injured, but yet you had

00:44:22.200 --> 00:44:25.170
 to train, you found joy in suffering for a long time.

00:44:25.170 --> 00:44:29.130
 But I'm just saying, a child, an infant,

00:44:29.130 --> 00:44:32.480
 all that, long suffering with joy.

00:44:32.480 --> 00:44:35.140
 It just blew my mind. Patience.

00:44:35.140 --> 00:44:40.250
 And here's the thing is, just to continue on with the virtues,

00:44:40.250 --> 00:44:42.200
 what else does God love to see in people?

00:44:42.200 --> 00:44:44.880
 How about meekness and humility?

00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:48.580
 Meekness and humility. You go

00:44:48.580 --> 00:44:50.540
 to turn to Proverbs 16 and

00:44:50.540 --> 00:44:52.510
 verse 19, Proverbs 16, verse 19,

00:44:52.510 --> 00:44:54.480
 and Proverbs 29 and

00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:56.520
 verse 23, it says, "A man's pride

00:44:56.520 --> 00:44:58.490
 shall bring him low,

00:44:58.490 --> 00:45:00.460
 but honor shall uphold

00:45:00.460 --> 00:45:03.920
 the humble in spirit." I think one thing

00:45:03.920 --> 00:45:06.230
 that is just very good for the spirit,

00:45:06.230 --> 00:45:08.200
 and I have seen this for years, long

00:45:08.200 --> 00:45:10.160
 before I ever had a child,

00:45:10.160 --> 00:45:12.140
 long before I even had a wife, to be honest.

00:45:12.140 --> 00:45:15.350
 The men of this church that preached

00:45:15.350 --> 00:45:18.400
 had kids. One thing that was very

00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:20.390
 interesting is I saw through that

00:45:20.390 --> 00:45:22.500
 and I can see in myself now,

00:45:22.500 --> 00:45:24.860
 how uppity and prideful

00:45:24.860 --> 00:45:26.810
 and arrogant can you get

00:45:26.810 --> 00:45:29.380
 with baby puke all over you?

00:45:29.380 --> 00:45:33.810
 It's not something we ever bring up

00:45:33.810 --> 00:45:37.090
 but I have seen wise

00:45:37.090 --> 00:45:39.060
 people, honorable people

00:45:39.060 --> 00:45:41.030
 and let me tell you this, there's something about having

00:45:41.030 --> 00:45:43.030
 a child, children that

00:45:43.030 --> 00:45:45.580
 humbles you because you may want

00:45:45.580 --> 00:45:47.520
 to be the most proper, militant

00:45:47.520 --> 00:45:49.580
 perfectionist there is

00:45:49.580 --> 00:45:52.020
 and there's not a problem with that

00:45:52.020 --> 00:45:54.240
 but it's really hard if you have

00:45:54.240 --> 00:45:56.210
 three kids running around screaming all the time

00:45:56.210 --> 00:45:58.170
 right? If you have four, five of them

00:45:58.170 --> 00:46:00.500
 or you just have one that's

00:46:00.500 --> 00:46:03.710
 gassy. You're holding a kid that's

00:46:03.710 --> 00:46:05.670
 farting all the time, it's really hard for you to have a

00:46:05.670 --> 00:46:08.560
 very stern conversation and

00:46:08.560 --> 00:46:10.470
 anyone here probably knows like

00:46:10.470 --> 00:46:14.070
 and I'll just say me and my wife do this

00:46:14.070 --> 00:46:16.040
 it's not this but like you know we'll be

00:46:16.040 --> 00:46:18.010
 saying something about each other and the kid will make a noise

00:46:18.010 --> 00:46:20.320
 positive or negative like yeah

00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:23.970
 that's right, he agreed with me

00:46:23.970 --> 00:46:27.750
 you know

00:46:27.750 --> 00:46:29.790
 humbling, it's something meekful

00:46:29.790 --> 00:46:31.710
 of this because hey

00:46:31.710 --> 00:46:33.730
 if you turn to Proverbs 16

00:46:33.730 --> 00:46:36.090
 verse 9 it says, "Better it is

00:46:36.090 --> 00:46:38.070
 to be of the humble spirit with lowly

00:46:38.070 --> 00:46:40.050
 spirit, than to divide in the spoils of

00:46:40.050 --> 00:46:42.030
 proud." Something about having little kids

00:46:42.030 --> 00:46:44.010
 it's just going to humble you

00:46:44.010 --> 00:46:46.380
 it's going to make you meek

00:46:46.380 --> 00:46:48.710
 because it's so hard, you just can't

00:46:48.710 --> 00:46:51.220
 like you have kids dragging you

00:46:51.220 --> 00:46:53.880
 in every way, you want to do this

00:46:53.880 --> 00:46:55.820
 they want to do nothing, like everything

00:46:55.820 --> 00:46:58.440
 and nothing about that, and it's hard

00:46:58.440 --> 00:47:01.000
 you have to have the patience, you have to show

00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:02.980
 that grace, and you have to have that love

00:47:02.980 --> 00:47:04.970
 and one sided for them, all the virtues

00:47:04.970 --> 00:47:06.950
 coming down to show what humbleness

00:47:06.950 --> 00:47:08.940
 and in Galatians 5.23 it says

00:47:08.940 --> 00:47:10.920
 meekness and temperance against such

00:47:10.920 --> 00:47:12.910
 there is no law

00:47:12.910 --> 00:47:16.830
 meekness and temperance

00:47:16.830 --> 00:47:19.960
 let me see, I mean

00:47:19.960 --> 00:47:21.960
 there's just something about having a little kid

00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:24.910
 I mean, you guys know for a long time

00:47:24.910 --> 00:47:27.740
 I'd be up

00:47:27.740 --> 00:47:29.880
 force my wife up, she'd make food

00:47:29.880 --> 00:47:31.840
 get this, we'd pick people up

00:47:31.840 --> 00:47:33.850
 we'd drive, we'd get all there

00:47:33.850 --> 00:47:35.800
 have all these things, try to make sure that

00:47:35.800 --> 00:47:38.030
 everything is ready for church, and now I'm like

00:47:38.030 --> 00:47:40.990
 we almost got to church on time

00:47:40.990 --> 00:47:45.210
 the first time we came back man

00:47:45.210 --> 00:47:48.750
 I haven't traveled much with the little one yet

00:47:48.750 --> 00:47:51.980
 it's humbling, take your timetable

00:47:51.980 --> 00:47:54.380
 and then just put them in and get patience

00:47:54.380 --> 00:47:56.390
 it'll happen

00:47:56.390 --> 00:47:58.410
 I feel like I'm on island time now

00:47:58.410 --> 00:48:00.380
 yeah brother

00:48:00.380 --> 00:48:02.350
 we'll make it, don't you worry alright

00:48:02.350 --> 00:48:06.210
 it's humbling, and I have to take a lot

00:48:06.210 --> 00:48:08.160
 of my pride, of what I've built up

00:48:08.160 --> 00:48:11.200
 and this is how it's going to be

00:48:11.200 --> 00:48:13.140
 and I'm still the man of the house, I still have to

00:48:13.140 --> 00:48:15.260
 set a distance, but there's a grace period

00:48:15.260 --> 00:48:17.340
 there's more of a grace period

00:48:17.340 --> 00:48:19.280
 than there has ever been before

00:48:19.280 --> 00:48:22.410
 and I just think that's humbling, that's meekness

00:48:22.410 --> 00:48:24.430
 and here's the thing is, if

00:48:24.430 --> 00:48:26.410
 nothing I've said makes anything, these are all the virtues

00:48:26.410 --> 00:48:28.380
 that, as I'm just holding a child

00:48:28.380 --> 00:48:30.360
 and like I said, a lot of the sermon came at

00:48:30.360 --> 00:48:32.340
 4am, you know, just

00:48:32.340 --> 00:48:34.610
 holding a child, just thinking like, wow

00:48:34.610 --> 00:48:36.600
 God, I think this is why

00:48:36.600 --> 00:48:38.580
 it's so true, you know, the wife of your youth

00:48:38.580 --> 00:48:40.560
 I think you're supposed to, if you have

00:48:40.560 --> 00:48:42.550
 this, how much of a life do you spend

00:48:42.550 --> 00:48:44.530
 in the correct order of things, taking care of

00:48:44.530 --> 00:48:46.540
 others, if you have a child young

00:48:46.540 --> 00:48:48.470
 in life? I'm a hypocrite

00:48:48.470 --> 00:48:50.770
 but here's the thing is, I can reflect

00:48:50.770 --> 00:48:52.730
 what is right, and I can see the virtue

00:48:52.730 --> 00:48:54.790
 of what it was, what it should have

00:48:54.790 --> 00:48:57.800
 been, but here's the thing is, these are all

00:48:57.800 --> 00:49:00.410
 the virtues, you know,

00:49:00.410 --> 00:49:03.730
 excuse me, and I think I can

00:49:03.730 --> 00:49:05.720
 understand more of what God

00:49:05.720 --> 00:49:07.700
 calls virtues quicker because I've had the experience

00:49:07.700 --> 00:49:09.690
 of having to give these all one

00:49:09.690 --> 00:49:11.670
 way, I have to love without

00:49:11.670 --> 00:49:13.660
 receiving, I have to give grace without

00:49:13.660 --> 00:49:15.650
 receiving, I have to have patience, and I

00:49:15.650 --> 00:49:17.990
 have to have the humility to handle

00:49:17.990 --> 00:49:20.040
 someone who needs my strength

00:49:20.040 --> 00:49:22.870
 to merely survive.

00:49:22.870 --> 00:49:24.840
 And with that long-suffering,

00:49:24.840 --> 00:49:27.550
 I find joy in that. I think for a moment

00:49:27.550 --> 00:49:29.500
 I can better understand when I see God,

00:49:29.500 --> 00:49:32.090
 like, how do you deal with us? And I've always

00:49:32.090 --> 00:49:34.020
 tried to think, like, man to man, like, man,

00:49:34.020 --> 00:49:36.370
 I just don't know if I could give Jason that much

00:49:36.370 --> 00:49:38.320
 grace if he was the children of Israel towards me.

00:49:38.320 --> 00:49:41.880
 But then I think of, to God,

00:49:41.880 --> 00:49:43.820
 I'm probably not even as great as

00:49:43.820 --> 00:49:48.480
 this infant. I'm a babe who

00:49:48.480 --> 00:49:50.410
 just needs the milk, sincere milk

00:49:50.410 --> 00:49:52.860
 of the word. And if I see that

00:49:52.860 --> 00:49:54.840
 as how God would see me, I see more

00:49:54.840 --> 00:49:56.820
 so what the grace and long-suffering

00:49:56.820 --> 00:49:58.800
 he would have for me. Because for a moment

00:49:58.800 --> 00:50:00.780
 in time, I see unreciprocal,

00:50:00.780 --> 00:50:04.070
 one-sided love in my

00:50:04.070 --> 00:50:06.110
 own life. And I go, "What

00:50:06.110 --> 00:50:08.990
 gracious God that I serve."

00:50:08.990 --> 00:50:14.730
 Now here's the thing is, I've gone through many

00:50:14.730 --> 00:50:16.720
 virtues. And I'm sure there's many that I've missed.

00:50:16.720 --> 00:50:18.700
 These are the ones that hit me. But let me tell you,

00:50:18.700 --> 00:50:20.690
 it's not just virtues of the Bible I've

00:50:20.690 --> 00:50:22.670
 seen. There are doctrines. And these are

00:50:22.670 --> 00:50:24.650
 not in any particular order, as nothing in this sermon

00:50:24.650 --> 00:50:26.640
 really is. But I will tell you this,

00:50:26.640 --> 00:50:28.730
 there are doctrines I see now that

00:50:28.730 --> 00:50:30.680
 I understood academically, that now

00:50:30.680 --> 00:50:33.540
 I'm like, I just don't know how

00:50:33.540 --> 00:50:35.500
 you could not have this. And let me explain this. This is

00:50:35.500 --> 00:50:37.470
 very strange. Whether you know this or not,

00:50:37.470 --> 00:50:39.640
 I haven't seen my parents because

00:50:39.640 --> 00:50:41.770
 of, they have moved on for over 15

00:50:41.770 --> 00:50:43.740
 years. But here's a doctrine that

00:50:43.740 --> 00:50:45.710
 hits me very hard now,

00:50:45.710 --> 00:50:47.690
 is in Ephesians chapter 6,

00:50:47.690 --> 00:50:49.800
 verse 2, "Honor thy father

00:50:49.800 --> 00:50:51.770
 and mother, which is the first commandment with promise,

00:50:51.770 --> 00:50:53.750
 that it may be well with thee, and

00:50:53.750 --> 00:50:55.720
 thou mayest live along

00:50:55.720 --> 00:50:58.420
 on this earth." My parents have been dead for a long

00:50:58.420 --> 00:51:00.390
 time, and I will say over the past

00:51:00.390 --> 00:51:02.350
 month, I've had more respect for them

00:51:02.350 --> 00:51:04.690
 than I probably did in the

00:51:04.690 --> 00:51:08.100
 last 20 years of their life.

00:51:08.100 --> 00:51:11.500
 There's nothing I can do with that, because

00:51:11.500 --> 00:51:13.490
 despite the rights and wrongs that happen in our

00:51:13.490 --> 00:51:15.470
 lives, I think so much of the later time,

00:51:15.470 --> 00:51:17.450
 I've always heard, "Well, yeah, yeah, I'd give

00:51:17.450 --> 00:51:19.440
 you milk," and I'm like, "Who cares?"

00:51:19.440 --> 00:51:21.420
 Because I don't remember that time in my life. I cannot

00:51:21.420 --> 00:51:23.410
 imagine what a different relationship I might have had

00:51:23.410 --> 00:51:25.610
 had I just had children right out of high

00:51:25.610 --> 00:51:29.930
 school, because it's humbling to think

00:51:29.930 --> 00:51:32.520
 this is how I once was.

00:51:32.520 --> 00:51:34.460
 When I think of who I am, it is

00:51:34.460 --> 00:51:36.490
 never the infant. It is

00:51:36.490 --> 00:51:38.460
 never, I would literally die

00:51:38.460 --> 00:51:40.430
 if you decide to just leave me outside

00:51:40.430 --> 00:51:42.400
 like some girl going to...

00:51:42.400 --> 00:51:44.660
 that's not part of the sermon. There are

00:51:44.660 --> 00:51:47.480
 horrible things that happen. There are horrible

00:51:47.480 --> 00:51:49.460
 things people do, but let me tell you this, this child

00:51:49.460 --> 00:51:51.440
 relies on the strength

00:51:51.440 --> 00:51:53.430
 of those stronger than it.

00:51:53.430 --> 00:51:55.410
 And it is just expected.

00:51:55.410 --> 00:51:57.390
 But I'm going to tell you this, I

00:51:57.390 --> 00:51:59.860
 cannot, I've never

00:51:59.860 --> 00:52:02.360
 never had a stronger opinion like

00:52:02.360 --> 00:52:04.340
 wow, honor thy father and mother, it's

00:52:04.340 --> 00:52:06.330
 too late for me, but my gosh does it make

00:52:06.330 --> 00:52:08.310
 so much sense now, because guess what, I

00:52:08.310 --> 00:52:10.290
 think honor your parents is like this,

00:52:10.290 --> 00:52:12.280
 because hey, who gave you your first birth?

00:52:12.280 --> 00:52:14.580
 Your mother and father. Who gives

00:52:14.580 --> 00:52:16.530
 you your second? The first command.

00:52:16.530 --> 00:52:18.780
 You love God your heavenly

00:52:18.780 --> 00:52:20.760
 father. If you don't love your heavenly

00:52:20.760 --> 00:52:22.750
 father, because you never loved your earthly

00:52:22.750 --> 00:52:24.740
 father, I bet it's a little bit harder for you to get

00:52:24.740 --> 00:52:26.730
 saved. At least I think that's probably in my life

00:52:26.730 --> 00:52:28.720
 is what happened. But my gosh,

00:52:28.720 --> 00:52:30.710
 I have been sitting here with

00:52:30.710 --> 00:52:32.700
 parents over a decade gone

00:52:32.700 --> 00:52:34.690
 going, wow, I did not honor them.

00:52:34.690 --> 00:52:37.610
 And somehow holding my own child

00:52:37.610 --> 00:52:39.560
 in my own lap made me reflect of my

00:52:39.560 --> 00:52:41.810
 own shame for where I was in my own

00:52:41.810 --> 00:52:43.790
 life. And I'm just saying that is

00:52:43.790 --> 00:52:45.770
 a doctrine, even though I believe that

00:52:45.770 --> 00:52:47.750
 the Bible says when I got saved, that's

00:52:47.750 --> 00:52:49.730
 what I accept. It's just something different where I go,

00:52:49.730 --> 00:52:52.450
 wow, what they did for

00:52:52.450 --> 00:52:55.180
 me. What I made later in life

00:52:55.180 --> 00:52:57.130
 and all the problems that I ever remember

00:52:57.130 --> 00:53:01.370
 wasn't during this stage.

00:53:01.370 --> 00:53:03.470
 So that is something that just boggled my mind.

00:53:03.470 --> 00:53:06.920
 This one may sound funny.

00:53:06.920 --> 00:53:08.870
 I don't know how many of you, maybe your child

00:53:08.870 --> 00:53:12.700
 took it differently. The first

00:53:12.700 --> 00:53:14.630
 washing was very painful.

00:53:14.630 --> 00:53:18.990
 This child did not

00:53:18.990 --> 00:53:21.680
 like getting bathed.

00:53:21.680 --> 00:53:24.720
 Now I think later, I think we all maybe like

00:53:24.720 --> 00:53:26.690
 that's at least my, I remember like kid, but that's like

00:53:26.690 --> 00:53:29.100
 five, six, you know, they love baths.

00:53:29.100 --> 00:53:31.380
 First one he hated it. They're like, where are you going

00:53:31.380 --> 00:53:33.360
 with this? I'm like, hey, Proverbs 26 verse 11.

00:53:33.360 --> 00:53:35.340
 As the dog returns to his vomit, so does the

00:53:35.340 --> 00:53:37.320
 fool return to the folly. But I thought about it, if I'm

00:53:37.320 --> 00:53:39.300
 lying this, your first birth, man, that

00:53:39.300 --> 00:53:42.840
 first time he gets water, he's like, ah! It wasn't cold,

00:53:42.840 --> 00:53:44.920
 it wasn't hot. Hated it. Screaming.

00:53:44.920 --> 00:53:46.870
 You would have thought we were like

00:53:46.870 --> 00:53:49.220
 rubbing like, I don't know. It just

00:53:49.220 --> 00:53:51.200
 thought this was the worst thing ever. And I

00:53:51.200 --> 00:53:53.180
 thought, you know what? That's pretty much like

00:53:53.180 --> 00:53:55.170
 a newborn Christian when you

00:53:55.170 --> 00:53:57.150
 start cleaning up their life. They literally think

00:53:57.150 --> 00:53:59.130
 it's the worst thing ever. Like, I can't live

00:53:59.130 --> 00:54:02.580
 without that dog! Dude, I'm just

00:54:02.580 --> 00:54:05.130
 washing you. Dude,

00:54:05.130 --> 00:54:07.090
 we're using a soft cloth.

00:54:07.090 --> 00:54:13.500
 We're not getting it at all. Like

00:54:13.500 --> 00:54:16.100
 screaming. And I'm talking about myself.

00:54:16.100 --> 00:54:18.420
 Man, I've told you there's things I did not

00:54:18.420 --> 00:54:20.490
 let go. Like, first washing wasn't

00:54:20.490 --> 00:54:22.430
 good enough to clean my life up when I got

00:54:22.430 --> 00:54:25.230
 saved. And it's funny, I mean, I saw

00:54:25.230 --> 00:54:27.210
 our, you know, little

00:54:27.210 --> 00:54:29.190
 baby Paul there, man. He was

00:54:29.190 --> 00:54:31.170
 just, like, he wasn't even dunked in the water.

00:54:31.170 --> 00:54:33.150
 Like, it was like a little spray on his leg.

00:54:33.150 --> 00:54:44.600
 He's like, this was kind of me when I

00:54:44.600 --> 00:54:46.740
 first came to the church. I'm like, what do you

00:54:46.740 --> 00:54:48.810
 mean I gotta get rid of this? What do you mean

00:54:48.810 --> 00:54:51.170
 that this is what I've always... I

00:54:51.170 --> 00:54:53.880
 think it's fine. Yeah, this infant thought it

00:54:53.880 --> 00:54:55.830
 was fine too. He's pooped himself and he would

00:54:55.830 --> 00:54:58.500
 stay that way forever. I've decided I

00:54:58.500 --> 00:55:02.010
 want it clean. You're like...

00:55:02.010 --> 00:55:04.560
 So I literally thought, like to me, it hit me.

00:55:04.560 --> 00:55:06.710
 I was like, man, I guess the first time

00:55:06.710 --> 00:55:08.770
 I clean. But hey, after you start cleaning up

00:55:08.770 --> 00:55:11.030
 your life, eventually you don't

00:55:11.030 --> 00:55:14.190
 want to be dirty. Maybe the first one you

00:55:14.190 --> 00:55:16.470
 just kind of got to work through. This one,

00:55:16.470 --> 00:55:18.390
 you know, at this age he doesn't have a choice.

00:55:18.390 --> 00:55:21.100
 I'm hoping, you know,

00:55:21.100 --> 00:55:23.180
 hoping by the time he gets old enough that

00:55:23.180 --> 00:55:25.490
 he does it himself. And don't we

00:55:25.490 --> 00:55:27.460
 want that from a babe in Christ?

00:55:27.460 --> 00:55:29.950
 Hey, at first it may be hard

00:55:29.950 --> 00:55:31.910
 to clean up a little of your life, but at one point

00:55:31.910 --> 00:55:34.020
 you might find you enjoy it. What you

00:55:34.020 --> 00:55:35.950
 once loved you despised, and hey,

00:55:35.950 --> 00:55:39.600
 we might be able to let

00:55:39.600 --> 00:55:42.220
 go of the folly of our past. It's

00:55:42.220 --> 00:55:47.250
 at least a thought. Another thing that has helped me

00:55:47.250 --> 00:55:49.670
 a lot with this child, for me personally,

00:55:49.670 --> 00:55:51.950
 like I said, this whole sermon is about me.

00:55:51.950 --> 00:55:54.090
 I hope it's edifying, but I'm just saying

00:55:54.090 --> 00:55:57.390
 all about me. How about prayer?

00:55:57.390 --> 00:56:00.900
 I'm going to say, having this child

00:56:00.900 --> 00:56:03.480
 has changed my prayer life.

00:56:03.480 --> 00:56:06.220
 One, I've had a lot of

00:56:06.220 --> 00:56:08.350
 prayers. I think all of you who

00:56:08.350 --> 00:56:10.300
 have taken time to pray through the many

00:56:10.300 --> 00:56:12.650
 prayer requests I gave over

00:56:12.650 --> 00:56:14.700
 like, I don't know, four, five, six

00:56:14.700 --> 00:56:17.960
 weeks. So one, I've

00:56:17.960 --> 00:56:19.910
 had to have a lot of faith in God because

00:56:19.910 --> 00:56:21.870
 I'm completely powerless. I think I always

00:56:21.870 --> 00:56:24.760
 said, you ever want to see a man lost and

00:56:24.760 --> 00:56:26.710
 confused and powerless? Put him in a

00:56:26.710 --> 00:56:30.100
 birthing room. I don't know what I'm doing there

00:56:30.100 --> 00:56:32.570
 other than to be more awkward than anything

00:56:32.570 --> 00:56:35.780
 else there. I am completely powerless

00:56:35.780 --> 00:56:37.740
 and I don't know what I'm here

00:56:37.740 --> 00:56:39.710
 to do, but I feel lost, confused,

00:56:39.710 --> 00:56:42.110
 and I've never wanted

00:56:42.110 --> 00:56:44.170
 to go back to work so quickly.

00:56:44.170 --> 00:56:46.280
 I'm out of place!

00:56:46.280 --> 00:56:49.840
 There's a lot of blood and action going on

00:56:49.840 --> 00:56:52.070
 and I don't know what to do. He said,

00:56:52.070 --> 00:56:54.310
 "Praise God, so pray." Pray, pray,

00:56:54.310 --> 00:56:56.260
 pray. But here's the thing is,

00:56:56.260 --> 00:56:58.580
 turn to Romans 8, Romans 8,

00:56:58.580 --> 00:57:00.570
 Romans 8 and verse 26, it says,

00:57:00.570 --> 00:57:02.550
 "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth

00:57:02.550 --> 00:57:04.540
 the infirmities, for we know not

00:57:04.540 --> 00:57:06.520
 what we should pray, for we ought.

00:57:06.520 --> 00:57:08.510
 But the Spirit itself maketh

00:57:08.510 --> 00:57:10.490
 intercession for us, with groanings which

00:57:10.490 --> 00:57:13.270
 cannot be uttered. And he

00:57:13.270 --> 00:57:15.250
 that searches the hearts, knoweth what the mind

00:57:15.250 --> 00:57:17.220
 of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession

00:57:17.220 --> 00:57:19.190
 for the saints, according to the will of God."

00:57:19.190 --> 00:57:21.760
 I'm like, "Paul, what does this bring up

00:57:21.760 --> 00:57:25.430
 to?" I've always said, "Well, it makes

00:57:25.430 --> 00:57:27.400
 sense that God can speak in all tongues,

00:57:27.400 --> 00:57:29.370
 so if we don't word our prayers right, he can

00:57:29.370 --> 00:57:32.290
 translate it for us." But now

00:57:32.290 --> 00:57:34.230
 actually having an infant

00:57:34.230 --> 00:57:36.720
 cry, I go, "I don't even think we

00:57:36.720 --> 00:57:39.840
 need words." It's always been interesting

00:57:39.840 --> 00:57:41.790
 to me when, before I had a child to

00:57:41.790 --> 00:57:43.850
 see mothers, I hear a kid, I'm like,

00:57:43.850 --> 00:57:47.270
 "Is he in pain?" They're like, "No, they're laughing."

00:57:47.270 --> 00:57:49.560
 "No, he's just gassy."

00:57:49.560 --> 00:57:52.270
 I think they're having, like, a horrible time.

00:57:52.270 --> 00:57:54.910
 But now that I have a kid, he

00:57:54.910 --> 00:57:57.350
 prays all the time to me. He's like,

00:57:57.350 --> 00:57:59.370
 "Meh." I was like, "Oh, he just wants to roll

00:57:59.370 --> 00:58:01.970
 on the side." "Meh." He's hungry.

00:58:01.970 --> 00:58:05.410
 He's got gas. I'm translating

00:58:05.410 --> 00:58:07.390
 his prayer through amazing intercessions

00:58:07.390 --> 00:58:09.380
 because I'm having this, and that sounds

00:58:09.380 --> 00:58:11.360
 ridiculous. I'm not saying spiritually, but now I

00:58:11.360 --> 00:58:13.350
 understand that literally because he knows

00:58:13.350 --> 00:58:15.330
 the will and the spirit of my mind,

00:58:15.330 --> 00:58:17.320
 he can translate that. So even if you

00:58:17.320 --> 00:58:20.420
 just, at hard times, if you just

00:58:20.420 --> 00:58:22.410
 believe to God, they can translate those prayers

00:58:22.410 --> 00:58:24.390
 into what you actually want, because

00:58:24.390 --> 00:58:26.370
 if I can do that for an infant, I'm sure

00:58:26.370 --> 00:58:28.360
 the spirit of holy God can do that

00:58:28.360 --> 00:58:30.340
 to the throne of the God the Father.

00:58:30.340 --> 00:58:33.310
 The different whines I can

00:58:33.310 --> 00:58:35.820
 translate, I'm sure God

00:58:35.820 --> 00:58:37.810
 can translate them. So it just

00:58:37.810 --> 00:58:39.800
 helps me understand, because I think

00:58:39.800 --> 00:58:41.780
 sometimes when you get saved, maybe you just wonder

00:58:41.780 --> 00:58:43.770
 am I praying correctly?

00:58:43.770 --> 00:58:45.760
 Am I using the right words? Did I go in

00:58:45.760 --> 00:58:47.740
 the right order? I mean, I think

00:58:47.740 --> 00:58:50.340
 I used an axe,

00:58:50.340 --> 00:58:52.330
 you know, you gotta appreciate,

00:58:52.330 --> 00:58:54.280
 you know, there's acronyms, the order

00:58:54.280 --> 00:58:57.550
 that you pray and all. And if I'm

00:58:57.550 --> 00:58:59.540
 wrong, you disagree, perfect, because you probably

00:58:59.540 --> 00:59:01.520
 have a better prayer life than me, but I'm going to tell you right now,

00:59:01.520 --> 00:59:03.510
 from what I experienced with having a kid,

00:59:03.510 --> 00:59:05.490
 I just tell God what I want,

00:59:05.490 --> 00:59:07.480
 I honor Him in the way that I think I

00:59:07.480 --> 00:59:09.460
 can, and I'm not sure the words actually

00:59:09.460 --> 00:59:11.510
 truly matter. I want you

00:59:11.510 --> 00:59:13.440
 to pray, I think you should do that, but I'm just saying,

00:59:13.440 --> 00:59:15.860
 if it's not perfect,

00:59:15.860 --> 00:59:17.780
 God will translate that, because I know

00:59:17.780 --> 00:59:19.910
 that baby back there is

00:59:19.910 --> 00:59:22.060
 not using proper

00:59:22.060 --> 00:59:24.000
 grammar to offer when he

00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:27.700
 wants food. And I believe that's the way

00:59:27.700 --> 00:59:29.690
 that is receiving this. Not

00:59:29.690 --> 00:59:31.680
 that that's what the Bible is saying, that's not out of context,

00:59:31.680 --> 00:59:33.670
 but the way I am understanding in this metaphor

00:59:33.670 --> 00:59:35.660
 of having a child, that's the way I

00:59:35.660 --> 00:59:37.650
 think this verse came out to me when I thought

00:59:37.650 --> 00:59:39.640
 about it. I don't need to be perfect,

00:59:39.640 --> 00:59:41.620
 he's my father, he knows

00:59:41.620 --> 00:59:43.610
 what I want, I just need to

00:59:43.610 --> 00:59:45.690
 ask. Where are you like, well,

00:59:45.690 --> 00:59:48.400
 how often had you asked?

00:59:48.400 --> 00:59:51.530
 Luke 18, Luke 18,

00:59:51.530 --> 00:59:53.860
 this is Jesus saying,

00:59:53.860 --> 00:59:55.850
 "He spake a parable unto them, to the end,

00:59:55.850 --> 00:59:57.830
 that men ought always to pray

00:59:57.830 --> 00:59:59.820
 and not to faint, saying,

00:59:59.820 --> 01:00:01.810
 'There was in a city a judge

01:00:01.810 --> 01:00:03.800
 who feared not God, neither

01:00:03.800 --> 01:00:05.790
 regarded men; and there was a widow

01:00:05.790 --> 01:00:07.780
 in that city, and she came unto him,

01:00:07.780 --> 01:00:09.770
 saying, 'Avenge me of my adversity!'

01:00:09.770 --> 01:00:12.460
 And he would not for a while.

01:00:12.460 --> 01:00:14.450
 But afterwards

01:00:14.450 --> 01:00:16.440
 he said within himself, 'Though I fear

01:00:16.440 --> 01:00:18.430
 not God, nor regard men,

01:00:18.430 --> 01:00:20.420
 yet because his widow troubled me,

01:00:20.420 --> 01:00:22.420
 I will avenge her,

01:00:22.420 --> 01:00:24.410
 lest by her continually coming

01:00:24.410 --> 01:00:26.400
 she weary me.'

01:00:26.400 --> 01:00:28.390
 The Lord said, 'Hear what the unjust

01:00:28.390 --> 01:00:30.380
 judge said, and shall not God

01:00:30.380 --> 01:00:32.370
 avenge his own elect, which cry

01:00:32.370 --> 01:00:34.370
 day and night unto him through his

01:00:34.370 --> 01:00:36.380
 bearing long with them?'

01:00:36.380 --> 01:00:38.960
 Like, where are you going with this?

01:00:38.960 --> 01:00:41.260
 It's very interesting,

01:00:41.260 --> 01:00:43.750
 and I am saying, I am using

01:00:43.750 --> 01:00:45.700
 the analogy of a

01:00:45.700 --> 01:00:47.660
 baby's cry as a prayer.

01:00:47.660 --> 01:00:50.590
 And I don't know if you know this,

01:00:50.590 --> 01:00:55.520
 if they just, eh,

01:00:55.520 --> 01:00:57.840
 I'm probably not going to go check on them.

01:00:57.840 --> 01:01:05.870
 But if it's for a long time,

01:01:05.870 --> 01:01:08.340
 my curiosity is going to get piqued.

01:01:08.340 --> 01:01:12.290
 Are you saying our prayers are like cry unto God?

01:01:12.290 --> 01:01:14.270
 It says cry day or night.

01:01:14.270 --> 01:01:17.620
 So, sometimes when we're like,

01:01:17.620 --> 01:01:20.740
 God, I just, ah, he's like,

01:01:20.740 --> 01:01:23.260
 you got gas, it will work out.

01:01:23.260 --> 01:01:25.500
 But if it's day and night, you're asking

01:01:25.500 --> 01:01:27.490
 and asking and asking and crying

01:01:27.490 --> 01:01:29.470
 and fearing to him.

01:01:29.470 --> 01:01:31.450
 Let me tell you, as a father, I know

01:01:31.450 --> 01:01:33.440
 I need to go address that. I cannot just

01:01:33.440 --> 01:01:35.420
 leave the child screaming throughout

01:01:35.420 --> 01:01:37.510
 the night without doing something.

01:01:37.510 --> 01:01:40.110
 That's the way I feel that the God

01:01:40.110 --> 01:01:42.100
 is saying you need to call unto him.

01:01:42.100 --> 01:01:44.090
 You're like, well, that's just one verse. Well, in Luke

01:01:44.090 --> 01:01:46.090
 11, Luke 11, Luke 11, verse 5,

01:01:46.090 --> 01:01:48.080
 it says, "And he said unto them, Which

01:01:48.080 --> 01:01:50.070
 of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him

01:01:50.070 --> 01:01:52.060
 night, and say unto him, Friend,

01:01:52.060 --> 01:01:54.060
 lend me three loaves, for the friend

01:01:54.060 --> 01:01:56.050
 of mine in his journey come to me, and I have nothing

01:01:56.050 --> 01:01:58.040
 to set before him. And from within

01:01:58.040 --> 01:02:00.030
 shall he answer, and say, Trouble me not,

01:02:00.030 --> 01:02:02.020
 the door is now shut, my children

01:02:02.020 --> 01:02:04.020
 are on bed, and I cannot rise.

01:02:04.020 --> 01:02:06.090
 And I say unto you, though he

01:02:06.090 --> 01:02:08.060
 will not rise and give him, because

01:02:08.060 --> 01:02:10.040
 he is a friend, yet because of

01:02:10.040 --> 01:02:12.020
 the importunity will he rise

01:02:12.020 --> 01:02:14.050
 and give him as many as

01:02:14.050 --> 01:02:16.030
 he needeth. Here's again, Jesus

01:02:16.030 --> 01:02:18.010
 gives another analogy, where he

01:02:18.010 --> 01:02:19.990
 says, you know, when a person in the most

01:02:19.990 --> 01:02:21.970
 inconvenient time, and let me tell you this,

01:02:21.970 --> 01:02:24.390
 you have an infant, boy,

01:02:24.390 --> 01:02:26.410
 two to four a.m. is

01:02:26.410 --> 01:02:28.610
 go time, for something.

01:02:28.610 --> 01:02:31.190
 That's their best. You think

01:02:31.190 --> 01:02:33.240
 night is the time to sleep? No, my

01:02:33.240 --> 01:02:35.450
 friend, that's the time to bring

01:02:35.450 --> 01:02:37.400
 bread in the form of milk, or burp,

01:02:37.400 --> 01:02:39.520
 change diapers, you're going

01:02:39.520 --> 01:02:41.490
 to do all this, and you know what? It's like

01:02:41.490 --> 01:02:43.460
 ugh, well I'm locked, I'm in bed,

01:02:43.460 --> 01:02:45.990
 I'm all, I don't care. I'm

01:02:45.990 --> 01:02:47.960
 going to keep on, in this story, knocking,

01:02:47.960 --> 01:02:49.920
 asking for bread, and the baby,

01:02:49.920 --> 01:02:59.680
 opportunity, repeatedly, and you know

01:02:59.680 --> 01:03:01.630
 when, you know when Jesus told him this?

01:03:01.630 --> 01:03:03.940
 Right after teaching the Lord's prayer,

01:03:03.940 --> 01:03:07.020
 important is it for you to continuously

01:03:07.020 --> 01:03:09.610
 ask, and you're like,

01:03:09.610 --> 01:03:12.280
 God's using, like, a

01:03:12.280 --> 01:03:14.240
 rude neighbor in the middle of the night,

01:03:14.240 --> 01:03:16.190
 and an immoral judge, or a woman?

01:03:16.190 --> 01:03:18.300
 He's like, yeah, ask, ask,

01:03:18.300 --> 01:03:21.220
 and what I'm saying is, I found it

01:03:21.220 --> 01:03:23.710
 very quickly that within the first month,

01:03:23.710 --> 01:03:26.580
 I hear just the, he'll work

01:03:26.580 --> 01:03:29.800
 that out, and it keeps coming, and I'm like,

01:03:29.800 --> 01:03:32.420
 ah, he's asking

01:03:32.420 --> 01:03:34.370
 for something over and over and over again,

01:03:34.370 --> 01:03:36.460
 I'm going to respond a little bit more,

01:03:36.460 --> 01:03:38.450
 so in this verse, I'm not saying God

01:03:38.450 --> 01:03:40.430
 is using, I'm using

01:03:40.430 --> 01:03:42.420
 the example of a kid crying, but

01:03:42.420 --> 01:03:44.410
 it's literally saying, ask over and over

01:03:44.410 --> 01:03:46.400
 and over. For everyone that asks

01:03:46.400 --> 01:03:48.390
 to receive it, and seeketh, findeth,

01:03:48.390 --> 01:03:50.380
 and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

01:03:50.380 --> 01:03:52.370
 If a son shall ask

01:03:52.370 --> 01:03:54.410
 bread, any of you

01:03:54.410 --> 01:03:56.340
 that are father, you will give him a stone?

01:03:56.340 --> 01:03:58.810
 Or if he asks for fish, will you give him a

01:03:58.810 --> 01:04:00.870
 scorpion? Or if he asks,

01:04:00.870 --> 01:04:02.820
 shall ask for an egg, you offer him a

01:04:02.820 --> 01:04:05.310
 scorpion. Now that's just saying,

01:04:05.310 --> 01:04:07.260
 he's using the example because most people he

01:04:07.260 --> 01:04:09.220
 speaks to probably have kids. Look,

01:04:09.220 --> 01:04:11.270
 the same way a kid will ask for something,

01:04:11.270 --> 01:04:13.240
 if a kid will scream and is like, I want

01:04:13.240 --> 01:04:15.210
 milk, I want milk, I want milk.

01:04:15.210 --> 01:04:18.560
 You're going to give him sand? Not even

01:04:18.560 --> 01:04:20.790
 unless you're insane, evil, you're

01:04:20.790 --> 01:04:24.180
 going to give him milk. And I believe this

01:04:24.180 --> 01:04:26.150
 is how I reflected as, like I

01:04:26.150 --> 01:04:28.120
 said, I prayed a little bit more regularly,

01:04:28.120 --> 01:04:30.090
 a little more, frankly, a little

01:04:30.090 --> 01:04:32.060
 more passionately in the past

01:04:32.060 --> 01:04:34.270
 month. And this is just my

01:04:34.270 --> 01:04:36.210
 reflection. I think understanding this

01:04:36.210 --> 01:04:38.410
 that if I picture the way God views

01:04:38.410 --> 01:04:40.400
 me as the way I view an infant,

01:04:40.400 --> 01:04:42.380
 at least for me, I'm not telling you how to. I have no

01:04:42.380 --> 01:04:44.360
 good verse that that's the way God sees you. But in

01:04:44.360 --> 01:04:46.350
 my mind, it helps me understand the

01:04:46.350 --> 01:04:48.330
 virtues and various doctrines.

01:04:48.330 --> 01:04:51.030
 Very quickly, as I know I'm running out of

01:04:51.030 --> 01:04:53.180
 time, I just want to hit a few more. Here's

01:04:53.180 --> 01:04:55.300
 one I believe just

01:04:55.300 --> 01:04:57.270
 logically, but now that I have a kid, I

01:04:57.270 --> 01:04:59.230
 believe that you don't believe this. There is something

01:04:59.230 --> 01:05:01.290
 wrong with you.

01:05:01.290 --> 01:05:04.200
 I believe in the age of accountability.

01:05:04.200 --> 01:05:08.080
 You turn to Ezekiel

01:05:08.080 --> 01:05:10.660
 18, Ezekiel 18,

01:05:10.660 --> 01:05:12.650
 but in Romans 7 it says, in verse 9,

01:05:12.650 --> 01:05:14.630
 "For I once was alive

01:05:14.630 --> 01:05:16.610
 without the law, but whence the commanding

01:05:16.610 --> 01:05:18.600
 came, sin revived and I died." Paul

01:05:18.600 --> 01:05:20.580
 is saying at one point

01:05:20.580 --> 01:05:22.570
 he was alive and not

01:05:22.570 --> 01:05:25.670
 under sin. Alright?

01:05:25.670 --> 01:05:28.720
 And why I want this

01:05:28.720 --> 01:05:30.700
 one is I believe that made

01:05:30.700 --> 01:05:32.680
 logical sense that, hey, not everyone there,

01:05:32.680 --> 01:05:34.660
 but let me tell you, you hold

01:05:34.660 --> 01:05:36.640
 a newborn, you're like,

01:05:36.640 --> 01:05:40.560
 to hell with you. I like,

01:05:40.560 --> 01:05:43.120
 I'm like disgusted at that. I

01:05:43.120 --> 01:05:45.100
 literally think you would have to be an

01:05:45.100 --> 01:05:47.080
 an a literally all-male

01:05:47.080 --> 01:05:49.060
 reprobate gathering, men

01:05:49.060 --> 01:05:51.030
 dressed in white dresses come up with something

01:05:51.030 --> 01:05:54.470
 as evil as that. To literally say,

01:05:54.470 --> 01:05:56.650
 sorry, I didn't put oil on your head

01:05:56.650 --> 01:05:58.970
 so, yeah, your child's in hell.

01:05:58.970 --> 01:06:02.310
 Not my fault. And you know what's crazy

01:06:02.310 --> 01:06:04.720
 is they say because of original sin.

01:06:04.720 --> 01:06:06.700
 We're all doomed until you come

01:06:06.700 --> 01:06:08.680
 to the Catholic Church. You will go to

01:06:08.680 --> 01:06:10.660
 hell. That little boy,

01:06:10.660 --> 01:06:12.640
 that little child, girl, whatever,

01:06:12.640 --> 01:06:14.710
 that newborn infant,

01:06:14.710 --> 01:06:16.690
 literally you look at them and I don't care,

01:06:16.690 --> 01:06:18.660
 I walked down the hospital, anyone

01:06:18.660 --> 01:06:20.640
 from the age of 10 to 90

01:06:20.640 --> 01:06:22.710
 who saw the

01:06:22.710 --> 01:06:24.620
 under a couple of days old child

01:06:24.620 --> 01:06:28.570
 was like, "Oh." There's something

01:06:28.570 --> 01:06:30.550
 pure about it that literally

01:06:30.550 --> 01:06:32.530
 I cannot extreme, I cannot put

01:06:32.530 --> 01:06:34.510
 it on paper, and I cannot show you

01:06:34.510 --> 01:06:36.490
 through a picture, but you see it in person, you

01:06:36.490 --> 01:06:38.730
 go, "Oh." And there are people going,

01:06:38.730 --> 01:06:42.350
 "Hellbound. There's something wrong

01:06:42.350 --> 01:06:45.350
 with you." If you turn to Ezekiel 18 and

01:06:45.350 --> 01:06:47.340
 verse 20 says, "The soul that sinned,

01:06:47.340 --> 01:06:49.330
 it shall die. The son shall

01:06:49.330 --> 01:06:51.330
 not bear the iniquities. The father

01:06:51.330 --> 01:06:53.320
 needs shall the father bear the iniquities, son.

01:06:53.320 --> 01:06:55.310
 The righteous of the righteous shall be

01:06:55.310 --> 01:06:57.300
 upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked

01:06:57.300 --> 01:06:59.290
 shall be upon him." Literally right here,

01:06:59.290 --> 01:07:01.290
 I know there's a whole doctor. All these things

01:07:01.290 --> 01:07:03.280
 can be spread out through a whole sermon.

01:07:03.280 --> 01:07:05.270
 "You shall not be punished

01:07:05.270 --> 01:07:07.260
 for the sins of your father in God's eye."

01:07:07.260 --> 01:07:09.260
 So how could original sin exist?

01:07:09.260 --> 01:07:12.650
 Because of Adam's sin,

01:07:12.650 --> 01:07:14.630
 because of Eve's sin, we're going to

01:07:14.630 --> 01:07:16.610
 hell is stupid. And if you

01:07:16.610 --> 01:07:18.590
 literally look at an infant who unfortunately

01:07:18.590 --> 01:07:20.570
 has a tragedy and dies

01:07:20.570 --> 01:07:24.000
 and you're going to go, "Judah got last

01:07:24.000 --> 01:07:28.060
 rites done?" It's wicked.

01:07:28.060 --> 01:07:30.030
 And I'm just saying as I looked into my child's

01:07:30.030 --> 01:07:31.990
 face and I thought about these things, I'm like

01:07:31.990 --> 01:07:34.870
 I can't, I can't even have respect

01:07:34.870 --> 01:07:36.850
 for someone like that. Before when

01:07:36.850 --> 01:07:38.830
 it was just an academic debate, it's like

01:07:38.830 --> 01:07:40.810
 this or that, but looking at a child that new

01:07:40.810 --> 01:07:42.790
 and just that purity, that innocency,

01:07:42.790 --> 01:07:44.960
 will you literally call it

01:07:44.960 --> 01:07:47.010
 innocent age?

01:07:47.010 --> 01:07:50.750
 It just boggles my mind.

01:07:50.750 --> 01:07:56.710
 Couple more. Turn to 1 Timothy

01:07:56.710 --> 01:07:59.050
 3, 1 Timothy 3.

01:07:59.050 --> 01:08:01.010
 Or we've read this one multiple times.

01:08:01.010 --> 01:08:02.960
 I think even Pastor Thompson is going through this

01:08:02.960 --> 01:08:07.090
 currently. I think it has hit me harder

01:08:07.090 --> 01:08:10.120
 why having multiple

01:08:10.120 --> 01:08:13.250
 children is a

01:08:13.250 --> 01:08:15.210
 necessity that God placed for

01:08:15.210 --> 01:08:18.430
 people that would lead his house.

01:08:18.430 --> 01:08:20.640
 In 1 Timothy 3 and verse 4

01:08:20.640 --> 01:08:22.610
 it says, "One that rules as well as his own

01:08:22.610 --> 01:08:24.590
 house, having children in subjection with all

01:08:24.590 --> 01:08:26.570
 gravity." I've already gone through all

01:08:26.570 --> 01:08:28.630
 the virtues

01:08:28.630 --> 01:08:30.610
 that having kids just by necessity

01:08:30.610 --> 01:08:32.590
 will develop in a person.

01:08:32.590 --> 01:08:34.570
 And why don't you want someone who

01:08:34.570 --> 01:08:36.550
 leads as the shepherd of

01:08:36.550 --> 01:08:38.730
 God's flock to have the virtues

01:08:38.730 --> 01:08:40.710
 that he wants? And let me tell you,

01:08:40.710 --> 01:08:42.700
 I am sure there are great hearted

01:08:42.700 --> 01:08:44.690
 young men who try

01:08:44.690 --> 01:08:46.670
 to give their life to God by going to

01:08:46.670 --> 01:08:48.660
 schools, academics, maybe giving

01:08:48.660 --> 01:08:50.640
 themselves to church. They may serve

01:08:50.640 --> 01:08:52.870
 well, but there is something

01:08:52.870 --> 01:08:54.830
 I can see of why God

01:08:54.830 --> 01:08:56.800
 says, "I want you to take the most

01:08:56.800 --> 01:08:58.940
 feeble, weak person

01:08:58.940 --> 01:09:01.180
 in your life. You have to take care of them

01:09:01.180 --> 01:09:03.140
 for years, and once you show yourself with

01:09:03.140 --> 01:09:05.100
 that, you're ready to help

01:09:05.100 --> 01:09:08.120
 the newborns

01:09:08.120 --> 01:09:10.240
 in Christ. I first want

01:09:10.240 --> 01:09:12.170
 you to take care of a newborn life,

01:09:12.170 --> 01:09:14.160
 and then you can understand

01:09:14.160 --> 01:09:16.310
 how to take care

01:09:16.310 --> 01:09:18.260
 of more of the second

01:09:18.260 --> 01:09:20.610
 newborns, or born again.

01:09:20.610 --> 01:09:23.300
 I'm sure you

01:09:23.300 --> 01:09:25.700
 guys have better grammar than me, but you understand

01:09:25.700 --> 01:09:28.540
 what I'm saying. God has

01:09:28.540 --> 01:09:30.670
 said this is the standard.

01:09:30.670 --> 01:09:32.820
 And what's interesting is so many people have

01:09:32.820 --> 01:09:34.790
 thrown out this standard. Paul

01:09:34.790 --> 01:09:36.760
 was a great person who did not do this,

01:09:36.760 --> 01:09:40.020
 but he was not a pastor.

01:09:40.020 --> 01:09:42.660
 He planted churches,

01:09:42.660 --> 01:09:45.200
 and others will have better

01:09:45.200 --> 01:09:47.170
 studies, and I'm sure he found good

01:09:47.170 --> 01:09:49.130
 men to probably follow what the

01:09:49.130 --> 01:09:52.040
 standards were. Peter met

01:09:52.040 --> 01:09:53.980
 these, and he led some church somewhere,

01:09:53.980 --> 01:09:56.020
 but Paul went out and did many great

01:09:56.020 --> 01:09:57.980
 works. We view him as the greatest Christian

01:09:57.980 --> 01:09:59.980
 ever. He obviously took

01:09:59.980 --> 01:10:01.950
 the message of the sermon, and he gave

01:10:01.950 --> 01:10:03.930
 what he could, and he said, "I still haven't given

01:10:03.930 --> 01:10:05.900
 enough." But the thing was, he

01:10:05.900 --> 01:10:07.990
 does not, that did not give

01:10:07.990 --> 01:10:10.770
 him, he planted many churches,

01:10:10.770 --> 01:10:12.750
 he gave a lot of works, but I can definitely see the

01:10:12.750 --> 01:10:14.730
 value, the education that this

01:10:14.730 --> 01:10:16.710
 would give you beyond any academic

01:10:16.710 --> 01:10:18.690
 education. Let me tell you, I'm a very academic

01:10:18.690 --> 01:10:21.910
 person, but I can see why

01:10:21.910 --> 01:10:24.480
 this was placed here more so

01:10:24.480 --> 01:10:27.810
 than I ever could before.

01:10:27.810 --> 01:10:32.200
 It's just the way it is. And for

01:10:32.200 --> 01:10:34.150
 all these things, I believe children strengthen

01:10:34.150 --> 01:10:36.090
 your path, and

01:10:36.090 --> 01:10:38.650
 I see why you should have it earlier

01:10:38.650 --> 01:10:40.920
 in life. In 1st Timothy 6,

01:10:40.920 --> 01:10:42.910
 just for time I'll just read it,

01:10:42.910 --> 01:10:44.890
 "But they that which are rich shall fall into temptation

01:10:44.890 --> 01:10:46.870
 and snare, and into many

01:10:46.870 --> 01:10:48.860
 foolish and hurtful lusts,

01:10:48.860 --> 01:10:50.840
 which draw men into destruction and perdition.

01:10:50.840 --> 01:10:53.170
 For the love of money is the root

01:10:53.170 --> 01:10:55.160
 of all evil, which while some

01:10:55.160 --> 01:10:57.150
 covet it after, they have erred

01:10:57.150 --> 01:10:59.130
 from the faith, and pierce themselves

01:10:59.130 --> 01:11:01.120
 through with many sorrows.

01:11:01.120 --> 01:11:03.110
 But thou, O man of God,

01:11:03.110 --> 01:11:05.090
 flee these things, and follow

01:11:05.090 --> 01:11:07.350
 after righteousness, godliness,

01:11:07.350 --> 01:11:09.420
 faith, love,

01:11:09.420 --> 01:11:11.510
 patience, meekness.

01:11:11.510 --> 01:11:15.130
 Fight the good fight of faith,

01:11:15.130 --> 01:11:17.110
 lay hold on eternal life,

01:11:17.110 --> 01:11:19.090
 whereunto thou art called, and has

01:11:19.090 --> 01:11:21.070
 a good profession before many

01:11:21.070 --> 01:11:23.050
 of witnesses. Many people are wondering

01:11:23.050 --> 01:11:25.160
 why is America falling?

01:11:25.160 --> 01:11:27.140
 Why is this country

01:11:27.140 --> 01:11:29.120
 doesn't look like it's going to be the greatest in the world

01:11:29.120 --> 01:11:31.100
 moving forward? Why do we have so many

01:11:31.100 --> 01:11:33.080
 ills and moral ills in this society?

01:11:33.080 --> 01:11:35.860
 It's because people follow

01:11:35.860 --> 01:11:38.540
 the root of all evil. We

01:11:38.540 --> 01:11:41.080
 followed money. We followed

01:11:41.080 --> 01:11:43.400
 people's lust. You know

01:11:43.400 --> 01:11:47.010
 what they gave up? Children.

01:11:47.010 --> 01:11:49.160
 We don't have children in

01:11:49.160 --> 01:11:52.490
 this country. Hundred years ago

01:11:52.490 --> 01:11:54.440
 or more, we used to be known for having

01:11:54.440 --> 01:11:57.230
 12 kids, 14 kids

01:11:57.230 --> 01:12:01.120
 in America. That's what we had.

01:12:01.120 --> 01:12:03.460
 And let me tell you, I told you all the

01:12:03.460 --> 01:12:05.430
 virtues. And let me tell you, it says right here

01:12:05.430 --> 01:12:07.410
 follow after righteousness,

01:12:07.410 --> 01:12:09.380
 godliness, faith, love, patience,

01:12:09.380 --> 01:12:12.050
 meekness. If you have kids, you

01:12:12.050 --> 01:12:14.010
 are driven to do this by your

01:12:14.010 --> 01:12:15.980
 own conscience and necessity.

01:12:15.980 --> 01:12:19.430
 That literally having kids in

01:12:19.430 --> 01:12:21.410
 your life, especially the newborns

01:12:21.410 --> 01:12:23.390
 that need so much attention and grace,

01:12:23.390 --> 01:12:25.370
 patience, and faith just to

01:12:25.370 --> 01:12:27.990
 care for, develops us.

01:12:27.990 --> 01:12:29.980
 And if people just did this, and I

01:12:29.980 --> 01:12:31.970
 am not an example of this,

01:12:31.970 --> 01:12:33.960
 didn't younger life, would

01:12:33.960 --> 01:12:35.940
 it not shape them into the future of

01:12:35.940 --> 01:12:37.930
 their life? Would it not build them?

01:12:37.930 --> 01:12:39.920
 Isn't this what god wants? But hey,

01:12:39.920 --> 01:12:41.910
 I'm just speaking to myself. What

01:12:41.910 --> 01:12:43.900
 was I thinking in my young life I needed?

01:12:43.900 --> 01:12:46.580
 I gotta get them vengeance.

01:12:46.580 --> 01:12:48.870
 I gotta make myself money. I gotta

01:12:48.870 --> 01:12:50.840
 set myself in a career. I need to

01:12:50.840 --> 01:12:52.820
 do this. I need, I want to do this.

01:12:52.820 --> 01:12:54.800
 Man, I got a bucket list and that's just

01:12:54.800 --> 01:12:58.180
 gonna slow me down. I gave up

01:12:58.180 --> 01:13:00.760
 who knows what. For what?

01:13:00.760 --> 01:13:04.400
 Vainglory, bank account.

01:13:04.400 --> 01:13:07.000
 The bible says, man, riches

01:13:07.000 --> 01:13:09.350
 they fly away as birds. I don't know where

01:13:09.350 --> 01:13:12.440
 it all went. Not with me now.

01:13:12.440 --> 01:13:17.540
 But luckily this little guy is. Children's

01:13:17.540 --> 01:13:19.500
 strengthens our paths and I'm not here to beat

01:13:19.500 --> 01:13:21.470
 anyone down because I'm not an example of this.

01:13:21.470 --> 01:13:23.870
 I can't tell you like, oh, this is an example.

01:13:23.870 --> 01:13:26.100
 All I can say is I understand

01:13:26.100 --> 01:13:28.080
 now why God probably did this because I've tried

01:13:28.080 --> 01:13:30.070
 to show the virtues that having a child of

01:13:30.070 --> 01:13:32.050
 such young life and I understood academically

01:13:32.050 --> 01:13:34.030
 before but now in practice and

01:13:34.030 --> 01:13:36.020
 experience I can see why.

01:13:36.020 --> 01:13:38.480
 God uses the example of he's

01:13:38.480 --> 01:13:40.450
 our heavenly father. Even though I've always thought

01:13:40.450 --> 01:13:42.430
 well I think of my father when I

01:13:42.430 --> 01:13:44.410
 was like 25 late in his life and I

01:13:44.410 --> 01:13:46.960
 helped taking care of him. This

01:13:46.960 --> 01:13:48.910
 is, you don't have to do this but for me I'm

01:13:48.910 --> 01:13:50.870
 always going to view I'm an infant.

01:13:50.870 --> 01:13:53.980
 I'm a helpless child that

01:13:53.980 --> 01:13:55.950
 needs my help. I need to rely on him.

01:13:55.950 --> 01:13:57.920
 I need to have faith on him. I need to give

01:13:57.920 --> 01:14:00.000
 faith on him because he's given me grace

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:01.950
 in the way that I see I give grace to a child.

01:14:01.950 --> 01:14:04.510
 I think that is the way

01:14:04.510 --> 01:14:06.420
 I should view my relationship with God.

01:14:06.420 --> 01:14:09.090
 And I'll end with this. Psalms

01:14:09.090 --> 01:14:11.180
 127

01:14:11.180 --> 01:14:13.160
 verse 3 says, "Lo,

01:14:13.160 --> 01:14:15.130
 children are a heritage of the Lord,

01:14:15.130 --> 01:14:17.260
 and the fruit of the womb

01:14:17.260 --> 01:14:19.250
 is his reward.

01:14:19.250 --> 01:14:21.240
 As arrows are on the hands of the mighty men,

01:14:21.240 --> 01:14:23.220
 so are children of the youth.

01:14:23.220 --> 01:14:25.210
 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.

01:14:25.210 --> 01:14:27.190
 They shall not be ashamed,

01:14:27.190 --> 01:14:29.180
 but they shall speak

01:14:29.180 --> 01:14:31.170
 with the enemies at the gate."

01:14:31.170 --> 01:14:34.150
 As I said, this whole sermon was just a reflection

01:14:34.150 --> 01:14:36.650
 of what I've seen having a child.

01:14:36.650 --> 01:14:39.100
 I'm trying to say, I

01:14:39.100 --> 01:14:42.520
 could consciously, okay, man,

01:14:42.520 --> 01:14:44.660
 all that seems worth it, all that.

01:14:44.660 --> 01:14:46.640
 It's a spiritual thing, I think.

01:14:46.640 --> 01:14:48.610
 It doesn't need to make sense.

01:14:48.610 --> 01:14:50.580
 And I don't think I've ever experienced something in my life

01:14:50.580 --> 01:14:52.610
 so revolutionary like that.

01:14:52.610 --> 01:14:54.580
 Yeah, you can, we can put it on the boards.

01:14:54.580 --> 01:14:56.540
 Oh, it's costly. Oh, you lose sleep.

01:14:56.540 --> 01:14:58.660
 Oh, you do this. There's a lot of cons.

01:14:58.660 --> 01:15:01.160
 But yet, patience along suffering

01:15:01.160 --> 01:15:04.180
 with joyfulness. For many things in the

01:15:04.180 --> 01:15:06.130
 Bible, it came more alive to me having this

01:15:06.130 --> 01:15:08.260
 experience. And if you do or

01:15:08.260 --> 01:15:10.240
 don't have kids, it's not the issue. I'm just explaining

01:15:10.240 --> 01:15:12.230
 what I have felt and why I think it shows

01:15:12.230 --> 01:15:14.220
 that the Bible is true. I know this is a

01:15:14.220 --> 01:15:16.200
 very different sermon. I hope you found something

01:15:16.200 --> 01:15:18.190
 edifying in it, something that showed.

01:15:18.190 --> 01:15:20.170
 Maybe it hits some point.

01:15:20.170 --> 01:15:22.510
 But I'm just going to say, I thank God

01:15:22.510 --> 01:15:25.020
 that the child survived. I thank God

01:15:25.020 --> 01:15:27.010
 that I had the chance to raise it. I thank God

01:15:27.010 --> 01:15:28.990
 that He's entrusted the child with me

01:15:28.990 --> 01:15:30.980
 and it's changed my life so much and I hope

01:15:30.980 --> 01:15:32.970
 it does develop me even further in life.

01:15:32.970 --> 01:15:34.950
 With that, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for today.

01:15:34.950 --> 01:15:36.940
 Thank you so much for allowing us

01:15:36.940 --> 01:15:39.630
 to preach this sermon.

01:15:39.630 --> 01:15:41.570
 I hope it is edifying. I hope it

01:15:41.570 --> 01:15:43.640
 was valued to others. I know it's mostly

01:15:43.640 --> 01:15:46.130
 very sentimental for me, but I hope it

01:15:46.130 --> 01:15:48.100
 was also edifying to you and shows

01:15:48.100 --> 01:15:50.070
 the power and truth of your Word.

01:15:50.070 --> 01:15:52.040
 All this in Jesus' name. Amen.

01:17:52.890 --> 01:18:16.560
 [inaudible]

01:18:16.560 --> 01:18:18.530
 Do you just want to pray? Amen.