["Pomp and Circumstance"]
For our Thursday evening service, we all please have a seat
and grab a hymnal and open up that hymnal to song number 351.
We can begin this evening's service by singing song number 351,
Tell it to Jesus.
Song number 351.
["Tell it to Jesus"]
Amen.
Father, Savior, great Lord.
Born in the Church of Jesus.
Great Lord.
The King of the Church.
Great Lord.
Blessed Church.
We pray for you.
Amen.
Thank you, brother.
Let's sing the hymnal to song number 127.
Song number 127, this is so sweet.
Rest in peace.
Song number 127.
["Tell it to Jesus"]
Amen.
Let's have a go at the announcements.
We need you to be clouded.
We'll go to the singing song number 262.
Alright, if you need a bulletin,
go ahead and slip up your hand.
Brother Adam will bring you one.
As always, the service times are right there at the top.
We've got the salvation, baptisms, offering totals,
as well as the attendance for both the month and year.
The weekly Bible memory project.
So, they've got the Old Testament books and the chapters.
Keep working on that.
And don't forget there's going to be that pop quiz.
So, make sure you're working on retaining these things, too,
as you go.
Don't memorize it week by week,
and then forget what you've learned.
Also below that, we've got the donuts and coffee this Sunday
at 10 a.m. in honor of those celebrating their birthdays
in the month of October.
So, if you can get here early, come on out and have a donut.
And then we've also got the Mexico Monday coming up
this coming Monday as well.
And if you're going to go to that, please, RSVP with either...
You don't have to RSVP,
but just let me or Brother Segura know
so that he can expect you.
Otherwise, he might just blow right through you.
If he doesn't think anybody's going to be at the building
to meet him, he might just go right on down to Nogales.
His plans change.
So, normally he does stop,
but we want to let him know whether or not to expect anybody.
Also, on the back, everyone's invited to the wedding
of Thomas Forte and Charlotte Hesse.
That's up in Tempe on Friday, October 14th at 2.30.
Again, my family and I are going up there,
so if anybody would like to ride along,
there's probably about, what, four seats available?
Does that mean we can squeeze in that van?
You don't know?
You never guess?
Three?
You don't want anyone riding with us, do you?
I'm kidding. Of course we do.
But, yeah, so come on out if you want.
Everyone's allowed to go up there,
but we do have some room available for anyone who might want to go.
Also, some exciting news below that.
We're going to be having the 2022 yearbook pictures down here.
So the Tucson crews made it into the yearbook at long last,
and not that we were ever banned from it.
It's just that I was too lazy to do anything about it,
just being honest, all right?
But this year I'm ambitious.
This year I'm feeling very motivated,
so we're going to work on this.
But the catch is down here is that we have to do it all at once.
We can't spread it out over several weeks,
so we're going to take all these pictures on Sunday, October 23rd,
right after the morning service.
We'll start with the larger families and work our way down to the singles.
So if you're going to want to be in the yearbook,
and hopefully that's everybody,
make sure you come dressed to kill, as they say,
and be your most photogenic self that day,
if that's possible for some of you.
I don't know.
But also we're going to have EG subs and the steroid slurpees,
whatever you call them.
I guess you call that the EG.
If I just say we're going to have EG,
everyone's going to assume we're just going to have the Slurpee drink.
But we're actually going to have subs and the EGs,
so EG subs and EGs, EGs,
because that's what you call that stuff, right?
You call it EGs.
Who names their store after the product that they sell?
It's very confusing.
Anyway, so come on out for that.
We have lunch waiting for you while you wait to get your picture taken,
and also you will get a high quality digital file of the photo,
of your photo, not somebody else's photo.
You're going to get your photo.
So then you can take that and you can make Christmas cards.
You can get that.
Maybe one of those people likes to blow up the family picture real big
and hang it over the mantle.
I'm cool with that.
Go for it.
Do your thing.
But you're not going to get it if you don't come out
and get your picture taken.
So everybody participate,
and then when the yearbooks come out a short time later,
you're going to be included in the Faithful Word Baptist Church yearbook,
Immortalized for All of Eternity in that book.
All right, well that's enough of that.
Below that we've got the song scheduled for the upcoming services
and also some other upcoming events.
If anybody wants to go to these Reservation Soul Winning trips,
just let me know and I will make it happen.
I will get you to Tempe,
and we will get you out there knocking those doors.
Otherwise, that's going to do it for announcements,
but we will count up the Soul Winning going back to Monday.
I think for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
What about today?
All right, we'll keep up the good work going out,
and that's going to do it.
We'll go ahead and sing one more song
before we get into the preaching tonight.
Song number 262,
The Light of the World is Jesus.
Two, three, two, one, two, three, two, one, two, three, two, one, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three
two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three
two, three, two, three
two, three, two, three, two,
three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three, two, three.
Three, two, three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three.
Three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two
Three, two, three, two, three, two, three
Three, two, three, two, three
Three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three, two,
three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three, two,
three, two, three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three, two, three,
two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three
have somebody who's in a dearth, they're going out, oh, a wild vine, let me just grab
that and put it in. Well, do you know anything about that wild vine? Do you know anything
about that gourd? You might want to, you know, get like a, some kind of a, you know, a botanical
book out, you know, something that's going to inform you about the botany of your local
wildlife before you start just shredding something up and throwing it into a potage and feeding
everybody. But this is what people do when they become desperate. This is what people
do when they go through a spiritual dearth in their life. They'll just start reaching
for whatever is at hand, whatever is near, whatever looks appealing, whatever is better
than, you know, just the herbs of the field. And obviously, you know, you can't really
blame them because, you know, a gourd is more appealing than an herb, especially during
a dearth. But here's the thing about, you know, reaching for the wild vine, here's
the thing about gathering out of desperation in your life, just the, you know, the appealing
gourds. They lead to death. They lead to spiritual death. They will not profit you. In fact,
they lead to waste, we'll see here in our story. And the backslidden Christian, you
know, the Christian who's going through a spiritual dearth in their life, they will
more readily consume sinful things. We all, you know, we all know that once people, you
know, start to sin, it's easier to start sinning more. Once you kind of take that first
step into sin, then that next step isn't as hard. You know, some people who have never
committed some sins are going to have a real hard time committing certain sins. Other people
that have already committed those sins, it's going to be a lot easier to just step right
back into that, isn't it? And, you know, here's the thing, when people find themselves
in a spiritual dearth, when they find themselves not doing the things that they should be doing,
when they find themselves in some desperate situation, they're going to be a lot more
likely to just latch on to whatever wild vine there is, whatever wild gourd, and just
consume it, make it a part of their life, and not really consider the consequences and
suffer as a result. For example, some, you know, a lot of unchurched Christians, or maybe
just churched but unread Christians, maybe Christians who don't really know their Bible,
they don't maybe, there's a lot of people out there today obviously that don't attend
church at all, they don't get any Bible whatsoever, they're going to be a lot more
readily, more likely, rather, to accept false doctrine, aren't they? They're more likely
to just latch on to some wild vine on the internet. You know, they're going to be
more likely to just gather up some wild gourd out there on Bitchute or YouTube or whatever
the, you know, website. They're going to be more likely to latch on to these false
doctrines and just consume that, you know, because it's maybe it's not as appealing
as the herb, you know, but here's the thing about the herb of the field, it's not going
to kill you, it's not going to cause waste, it's not going to bring death, it might
not be the bet, you know, seem to be the most filling thing, it might not be exactly what
you want, but you know what, it's what you need. And what you don't need is to latch
on to these false doctrines, these sins of these wild vines that are out there in the
world. And again, people who are going through a dearth in their life spiritually are more
likely to do this. I'll just read to you from 2 Peter, it says in 2 Peter chapter 3,
Peter said that Paul and his epistles, that in Paul's epistles are some things what hard
to be understood, and amen to that. There are some things in the epistles and throughout
other places in the Word of God that are hard to understand. That they which are what unlearned
and unstable rest. You know, unlearned and unstable people, they come into hard things
in the Word of God, and rather than wrestling with those things, rather than trying to grapple
with those things, rather than trying to understand those things, they just, you know, they twist
them, they rest them, and as they do also in other scriptures, what, to their own destruction.
Look there's hard things to be understood in the Word of God, does that mean we shouldn't
bother with it? You know, people say, reading the Bible is hard. Yeah. Well okay, well what
else in your life that's hard do you not want to do? I mean, should we just start going
on a list of things, if it's hard, let's just not do it. A lot of things aren't going
to get done, are they? It's hard to go to work. Well let's stop doing that. You know,
it's hard to, you know, have consistent hygiene, I mean, for some people. To have, you know,
well let's just not do that. Hey, it's hard to go to the dentist. I mean, who, if
you like going to the dentist, just leave. I'm just kidding. Maybe you do. You know,
you like walking out of the dentist, feels good when you can suck some air through your
teeth, right, and they feel all shiny and white, but no one goes, oh man, I love going
to the dentist, why, it's hard to go to the dentist. Well let's just quit doing that.
Let's just not do anything hard, and we'll see how everything turns out. Obviously we'll
be more likely to do things that are going to have an immediate impact on us. You know,
if we just quit working, you know, we're going to feel that pretty quick when the bills come
due and we can't pay them. When there's no food to put on the table. All of a sudden
we're going to find the motivation to go out and do something hard. But when it gets into
this spiritual realm, when it gets into things that are a little bit more, you know, less
or less tangible, things that aren't necessarily we're going to, you know, feel the impact
from in our physical life, you know, those are the things that maybe we can let slip
because they're hard. And look, I'm not going to lie to you, Bible reading is hard. It is.
But you know, it's also enjoyable because doing things that are hard bring a sense of
satisfaction and you feel good about them when they're done. That's why people don't
do it. They don't want to read it because there's things that are hard to be understood.
What they'd rather do is what's easy. What's easy to just get on the internet and
just, you know, watch the wild vines, eat some wild gourds, learn about Nephilim, learn
about the Book of Enoch. These are things that are not going to bring life. These are
things that are not going to profit anybody because they're fake. You know, I could
go on and on. There's just so many things. I kind of went off last Sunday night about,
was it last Sunday night where I was talking about the red-haired mummies, things like
that. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that's out there that people latch onto because they're
in a spiritual dearth in their life. They're not in church. They don't serve the Lord.
They're not reading their Bible. But oh, they've got this wild doctrine that they found on
the internet. You know, and it might sound good. It might look good at first, that wild
gourd. But you know what? You're eventually going to say is there death in the pot. And
it's going to make you sick. And here, you know, the problem is is that not only when
people get in a situation like that do they hurt themselves, they also hurt other people.
This guy goes out into the field and he gathered, he's just, oh man, just herbs, herbs again,
herb soup. You know, oh, that again. You know, we had that last week. You know, we've been
warming that up for the last few days. Now we've got to make more. And he goes out there
and he's like, oh, look at this wild gourd. Look at this wild vine. This wasn't here last
time. This is great. Just sprung up. It's right there. It's convenient. It's at hand.
Looks good. What could be wrong? You know, that'd be one thing if he just sat down and
ate it himself, right? And he got sick. You know, and they just send somebody else and
be like, oh, by the way, leave the wild vine alone. I mean, look at this guy. We don't
want to eat any of that. But what happens is that when people get desperate, they actually
start to cause harm to other people around them. When people get backslidden, when people
get in a sinful condition, when people go through a spiritual dearth in life, they're
not the only ones that are going to suffer. They're also going to hurt the other people
around them. I mean, that's what this guy does. He goes out. He gets to get the wild
gourds. He brings back verse 40, rather than verse 38. It says, and he came and he shred
them into the pottage for they knew them not. And it's a they there. So everyone else is
just like, oh, well, if you say so. This looks good. You know, let's all just shred it in.
And then verse 40. So they poured out for the men to eat. So he's feeding this to, you
know, the sons of the prophet, to these men. And it came to pass as they were eating of
the pottage that they cried out and said, oh, thou man of God, there is death in the
pot. And they could not eat thereof. And here's the thing is, you know, people, when they
get desperate, they're more readily to consume these wild gourds, these wild vines, whether
it's it's a matter of latching onto some sin. If people get carnal and backslidden and go
through a spiritual dearth in their life, they're going to be more readily latch on
to some sin in their life. They're going to more readily be willing to just, you know,
do things that they shouldn't do or false doctrine. People that are unlearned, people
that are not don't want to do the hard work of Bible reading, do the, you know, do have
the discipline of showing up to church for the preaching the word of God. They're going
to be the ones that drift off into these strange and, you know, wild doctrines, so to speak.
But the problem is, is a lot of times they drag people with them. You know, people will
come to church who are unlearned and unstable and, you know, they'll, they'll get, you know,
they're all twisted up from something they learned on the internet, some wild vine. They've
been consuming wild gourds off the internet. And then they come here with their family
and they get bent out of shape and they, they get, they make a big stink about something
over nothing really. And then they leave. And it's like, you know, you feel bad for
the people, but you know what I really feel bad for is the children that are just drug
along. You know, kids need to have some kind of stability in their life. They need to have
a place where they can have some stability and be taught and learn and grow and not just
be yanked around in life. You know, that's just one example. That's what people who are
desperate do though. They don't just damage themselves. They damage those that are around
them. The Bible says that one sinner destroyeth much good, but notice in the story here what
it is that brings the cure to the wild vine. What is it that neutralizes this in this pottage?
It says in verse 41, he, Elisha said, then bring meal and he cast it into the pot and
he said, pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.
So they eat this wild vine and then this wild gourd in this pottage and they cry out in
the sign of God says, well, bring meal. Now what's interesting about this is that meal
is not an ingredient that you would add to pottage. Meal is, you know, like a ground
grain. It's, it's a more coarse grain. It's, it's like, it's like a, it's like flour, but
it still has, you know, I, I don't know. I'm not a, I'm not a baker. I don't, I'm not in
food manufacturing, but it's basically, you know, it's, it's not flour, but it's meal.
Who knows what meal is? Probably most people. Okay. But meal is something that you would
make cakes out of. For example, I'll just read to you in Genesis 18 that it says that
Abraham told Sarah what to make quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes
upon the earth. So she made these cakes out of meal. Jesus used that analogy about the
kingdom of God. He said, it says a woman that what took and hid three measures of meal until
the hole was leavened. That she hid the leaven and three measures of meal until the hole
was leavened. So meal is something that's typically made to make cakes, to make bread.
It's not an ingredient that you would add to pottage. But in this instance, you know,
Elisha, with the things being as they were, he says, well, here's the solution. Put the
meal in it. You got a wild vine in there. You got some wild gourds that don't belong
there that are poisoning you. The solution is the meal. Put the meal in. So they, cause
we see that in the store, they cast in the pot. They said, pour out for the people that
they meet. And there was no harm in the pot. And meal is something that is used in this
story to cure wild vines. And before, you know, obviously probably the illustration
or the analogy is probably pretty apparent to you, but before we move on to that, let
me just remind you also what Elisha is doing in the story. He's doing damage control. He's
doing damage control. That's being caused by desperate people. And this is something
that, you know, we have to be mindful of if we're going to be involved in the ministry.
You know, sometimes there's going to be desperate people that come along that are going through
a spiritual dearth in their life that just lack spirituality, that are carnal. And it's
going to be, you know, the man of God, they that are spiritual are going to be those that
have to kind of clean up after them. You know, this is something, and obviously you can apply
this in your life, but this is something that maybe resonates a little bit more with me
just because of the fact that I'm a little bit more involved in the ministry. And I see
it all the time. People who are desperate, people who are carnal, people who are going
through a dearth, that are just making a mess out of their life and making a mess out
of the lives of those around them. And then, you know, it's the man of God, it's those
that have to come up behind, those that have some spirituality and actually have to try
and clean up that mess and do damage control and say, well, here's the solution. And sometimes
it's not always a pretty answer. But what is the ingredient that the man of God uses
to fix this? It's the meal of which you make bread. And I believe that's a great analogy
of the word of God. You know, bread is often likened unto the word of God. You know, Jesus
is the bread which came down from heaven. Jesus is also called the word of God. Okay?
So the picture is this, is that, you know, when people are desperate, when people have,
are consuming these wild vines, when they're consuming these wild gourds in their life,
the solution to feed them, the antidote that they need is the word of God. You know, the
word of God is what's going to straighten you out in life. You know, and again, as I
said recently in one of my sermons, you know, it's not me that's trying to get people to
do what they should do. It's the word of God. I'm just delivering, saying, hey, here's what
the Bible says, do with it what you will. You know, and again, that's why it always
humors me when I preach something and people come to me and they feel like they have to
apologize to me. Like, well, I'm just telling you what the Bible said. You know, your problem
is with God. Okay? And I'm not going to re-preach all that. But again, it's the word of God
that is going to fix people. Right? When people are poisoned, when they have these wild gourds
in their life that they picked out of desperation, they picked and added into their pottage,
so to speak, that they've gotten their vessel because of the fact that they're unspiritual
because they're going through a dearth in their life. It's the word of God that's going
to fix them. You know, that's why it's important to get the word of God in your life. Get the
word of God in your life. Get it in your life. Read the Bible. Go to church. Be there for
the preaching and the word of God. You need it. If that is what the solution is. Notice
he didn't, you know, Elisha didn't say, well, let's just go through this and pick all the
wild gourds out. I mean, that would be, you know, let's just start over. I mean, what
do we need? Water and herbs. Maybe we'll just find more of this or more of that. And, you
know, but this time let's just leave the gourds out. No, the solution was to add more to it.
Not to just get things out. It was to add the word of God. See, people get this idea
sometimes that if they just quit doing something, that that's going to be the solution. Look,
a lot of times, obviously, that is a huge part of the equation. If we're trying to break
some habit, get out of some sin, obviously you've got to stop doing that. But the mistake
a lot of people make is that they don't fill that void with something else. And I believe
this illustration here with these gourds and this pottage and this meal being added is
the illustration that you need to add the word of God to your life. Because this isn't
an ingredient you would typically put in pottage, but it does what? It cures it. It
makes it edible. You know, I'll read to, I know we all know 2 Timothy chapter 3 where
Paul told Timothy to continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been
assured of knowing of thou of whom thou has learned them and that from a child thou hast
known the Holy Scriptures. And notice what he says about the Holy Scriptures, which are
able to make thee wise. You want wisdom? It's in the Bible. You want to be a wise person?
Pour the meal of the word of God into your life and it will make you wise. Don't just
grab the wild gourds in your life. Don't just latch on to some sin out of desperation. Don't
just latch on to what's easy and convenient on the internet. You know, rather than, you
know, saying well I'm not going to go to church. I'm just going to sit at home and
live stream stuff or I'm just going to watch my favorite preacher. Hey, I'm all for you
watching your favorite preacher. You know, but when it's time to be in church, you should
be in church. And people need to get the word of God in their life. They need to be there
to get the meal of the word of God because that is what's going to make them wise. The
Holy Scriptures. Not just some, you know, you know, some motivational speaker online.
Not some seminar. It's not going to be Tony Robbins. You know, those people, they don't
have a spiritual mindset. They're not Christians. I'm not saying there aren't things we can
take from certain people and apply. I don't know if Tony Robbins is one of them or not.
I don't listen to the guy. You know, he just came to mind. But you know, there's a lot
of people out there in the world. They latch on to a lot of teachers. They latch on to
a lot of philosophies. They latch on to a lot of things that are being put out there.
And a lot of times those things are just wild vines. What people need is the Bible. So,
you know, here's the thing. If you would, go over to Psalm 19 where you were. Keep something
there in 2 Kings chapter 4. If you find yourself tonight spiritually starved, what you need
is the Bible. What you need is the Holy Scripture. What you need is the meal of the word of God.
You don't need more internet. You don't need more whatever in your life. You need less
of that. You need less of whatever wild vine it is in your life. And you need more Bible.
Add Scripture to the recipe if you want to make that pottage tolerable. And I'll read
to you. You're going to Psalm 19, but I'll read to you from Psalm 119, which is just
a powerhouse about the word of God. In fact, I think we're going to memorize this chapter
next. Some of you got it. We're not going to memorize Psalm 119. This is the passage
I like to recite when I dunk people in the baptism. I recite Psalm 119. It's a joke.
But notice what a powerhouse it is where you have a man like David who's just going on
about the word of God. And what are the things that he says about the word of God in verse
97? Oh, how I love thy law. And that's with an exclamation point. You're not just,
yeah, I like the Bible. The Bible's cool. It's no, oh, how I love thy law. It is my
meditation all the day. All day he's meditating on the word of God. And you say, well, that's
David. You know, that should be what we all say. And look, I know that we have other things
to do, but we should reach a point in our Christian life where we find our minds just
kind of orbiting the word of God, orbiting a scripture, orbiting a passage, thinking
about the word of God, thinking about the Lord, thinking about the things of God. I
understand other things command our attention, you know, but we have this capability to also
still always come back to the word of God. You know, what's the first thing we think
about when we wake up in the morning? That's a really good measure of where you're at
spiritually. You know, I know it's not every time we're going to instantly go to spiritual
things, but you know, that is a discipline, a practice that we can make a part of our
life. You know, do you try to recall the passage of scripture that you're memorizing? Do
you think about what you read? Is your first thought, I need to read my Bible and pray?
Even if it's just for 15 minutes, folks. Even if it's, you know, the first thing that
comes to mind when you wake up, the Lord. What about, you know, throughout the rest
of the day? And look, I get it, we get busy, but here's the thing. If we want to be wise,
if we don't want to just latch on to all these wild vines that want to get our attention
and get us to chasing them, then we have to meditate upon the word of God. We have to
keep it in front of us. We have to add the meal to our life. And that's what David did.
He said, it's my meditation all the day. Oh, how could anyone just want to think about
the Bible and do something? You're just on about Bible reading. Oh, well, who would want
to do that? It sounds so boring. You know, it's just black ink on white paper. Was that
David's attitude? He said, how sweet are thy words unto my taste. Yea, sweeter than honey
to my mouth. That's what David said about the word of God. And here's the irony is that,
you know, people who say that about the word of God, who have that attitude, maybe they
won't say it, but maybe in their heart they kind of have this attitude of, eh, the Bible.
You know, I know I'm supposed to read it, but it's kind of dry. The reason you have
that attitude is because you don't read it. If it's Bible reading's hard, it's because
you don't read it. If you started reading it, you know what you'd start saying? How
sweet are thy words to my mouth. They're sweeter than the honeycomb. How I love thy law. If
you just started reading it, you got through that hard stuff, you're just making yourself
do it, eventually you'd start to love it. Eventually you'd start to say like David,
through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Isn't that
a t-shirt we see now that's out there? I hate every false way. Look, that's a great t-shirt,
I'm all for it, but you know how you get there? Through his precepts. That's what comes first.
It's through his precepts I get understanding, then I learn to hate every false way. I hate
vain thoughts, he said in verse 113, but thy law do I love. You know, if we started meditating
and reading on the word of God, if we added the meal of the word of God to our lives,
we'd look at those wild vines, we'd look at those wild gourds that the world just offers
up and just say, I hate those things. I hate these vain thoughts. I hate all this, you
know, short form media content that's out there. I hate all the vanity of TikTok and
vanity of YouTube and the vanity of all of these stupid things that are trying to just
get your attention and teach you nothing of any value. And our world, in our youth especially,
are just being inundated with this stuff. It's a dumbing down of our society. And even
adults, even adults are saying, man I'm having a hard time paying attention because they're
just so used to all this just short attention span theater that's out there. They're just,
next channel, next channel, next channel, not fun enough, not exciting enough, you know,
just scroll, scroll, scroll, flip, flip, flip, click, click, click. And it's all vanity.
But it's, that's the wild vines that are out there. That's the wild gourd that the world
is offering up. And if we would add the meal of the word of God, what we'd find ourselves
saying is I hate vain thoughts. When you start to meditate upon the word of God all day,
you'll start finding yourself like, why am I even thinking about that? Why am I so preoccupied
about some actor or some musician? I mean, think about all the things that the world
talks about out there. It's such a big deal to them. You know, some, you know, whoremonger
or whore of Hollywood and their, their relationship status. Like, who cares? Some floozy out there
that's, you know, what, what did she show up in on the red carpet? It's vanity. Who
cares? But you know what? People latch on that stuff and even God's people, even Christians
are out there just consuming the wild gourds of this world. Why? Because there's no meal.
There's no bread. There's no word of God in their life. That's what you got to get in
there. It goes on and says, great peace have they and nothing shall offend them. Who has
great peace? Who is it that has nothing shall offend them? They that love thy law. That's
who gets peace. People that love the word of God. You're there in Psalm 19 verse 7.
Look there it says the law, verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. It makes wise the simple.
And look, it's okay to be simple. It's okay to start out simple. We all start out simple.
We all start out as children. Obviously in this life we have to learn things as we grow
up. When we're born again, when we're saved, we start out as babes in Christ. There's nothing
wrong to be simple and to start out without knowledge but to remain that way is sinful.
And what that will lead to is you being desperate. And what that will lead to is you out of desperation
just latching on to all the wild gourds of this world that are just going to poison you
and cause you to just think about vanity and things that are worthless and leave off the
word of God and eventually lead you into sin. The Bible says the statutes of the Lord are
right rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
all together. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter
also than the honey and the honeycomb. I mean the word of God satisfies, folks. It satisfies.
And isn't it interesting in verse 10, isn't that exactly what we see people chasing after?
Gold, riches, wealth. And what, the honeycomb, just pleasure. That's what, that's, I mean
if there's two things this world is just going after and trying to just get more of and more
of, it's wealth and pleasure. They just want to make more money so they can buy more things
and have more pleasure. And you know what they're reaching out for? It's vanity. What they're
reaching out for is wild gourds that do not profit. And the Bible says, David here says
that the judgments, the commandments, the statutes of the Lord are more to be desired
than gold. More than we desire, wealth and finances. I understand people have to make
a living. I get that. But if our whole ambition in life is just to get more money, more wealth
and just seek pleasure, we're chasing wild gourds. We're chasing after a wild vine. We're
chasing after that which does not satisfy. And it will not bring peace. He says in verse
11, war over them, by them thy servant is warned and in keeping them there is great
reward. And what's interesting about the story in 2 Kings is that, you know, this meal being
added obviously represents the fact that, you know, we need to add the word of God to
our lives. That's what's going to help cure the sin. That's what's going to help cure
the vanity. That's what's going to bring something of substance and make that pottage of life,
so to speak, palatable and nourishing. It's the word of God. It's the meal. But when you
think about it, because meal is not something that typically would have gone into pottage,
you would have made cakes or bread, something that maybe you would have liked to dip in
the pottage later, this kind of represents the fact that, you know, the old adage, haste
makes waste. Haste makes waste. And it's kind of a waste of the meal. I mean, we're going
through a dearth. You know, I don't know about you, but if you go on some kind of a low carb
diet, bread starts to sound pretty good, doesn't it? I mean, I'm doing kind of a low carb-ish
thing right now. And whenever, my wife makes bread almost fresh, almost every day, this
einkorn bread, and it's so good. And, you know, when I'm there, and it's one of the
days where it's like, okay, you're trying to keep your starches low until dinner, and
then right around 11 o'clock in the morning, noon, that bread in the oven, that smell comes
into the office and into my nostrils, it's like, man, all I want is just, then I'm over
at the kitchen counter just hovering when it comes out of the oven, like, how much longer
until we can cut a piece? How much longer until we can put, you know, a pad of butter
on a piece of hot, fresh sourdough bread? Got your attention now, don't I? Oh yeah.
Wash it down with a glass of milk, it's so good. Right? You know what I'd hate to see
her do is take that einkorn flour and all the other ingredients that she puts in the
bowl and then just pour them into a cup of soup, or a big bowl of soup, and you're like,
well, this is how we're going to eat it today. What? Some grainy, granulated pottage? Ugh.
Right? So this meal being added, this pottage, it's a waste in a way. It'd be so much better
to have it made into a cake or made into a bread. When people get desperate, when people
start to just reach out for wild vines in their life, they make waste of things. Haste
makes waste. And just reaching for what's easy and what's convenient in life is just
going to make waste in your life. And if they had just held out, you know, if this
guy who got the wild gourds had just held out, they wouldn't even had to waste the meal
and they still would have gotten some good food. Because look at the story. It goes on
in verse 42, so after, you know, he puts in the meal and makes this waste of the meal,
it says, and there came one, verse 32, came a man, excuse me, from Balshelisha, and brought
the man of God the bread of the firstfruits. You know, if they just held out and just said,
well, you know what, it's just going to be a dinner of herbs tonight. There's no stalled
box tonight. You know, I'm sorry, but, you know, we're not going to eat these wild gourds.
I don't trust those things. I don't know what they're going to do to us. It's just going
to be this plain pottage. You know, if they'd just been patient and held out, you know,
they would have been able to, what, eat the bread of the firstfruits. Twenty loaves of
barley and full ears of corn in the hustle. I mean, fresh bread, it's of the firstfruits,
right? It was just harvested. They just brought it in. They made this bread of the firstfruits.
It's fresh. It's not been sitting on the shelf somewhere. It's nice, hot, fresh. I don't
know if it's hot, but it was definitely fresh. The ears of corn are still in the husk. You
know, there's this great meal that's brought to them. And if this guy had just held out
and just said, you know what, I'm just going to deny myself the wild vine. I'm just going
to deny myself the wild gourds. I'm just going to eat this pottage with just the herbs in
it, and I'm going to be content. You know, if you just waited, this waste wouldn't have
been made. And then they could have used that meal for something else. They could have used
that meal, you know, to make some good bread, and I'd just pour it into some soup. And,
you know, the lesson is this, is that sometimes you're going to have to go longer. Sometimes
you're going to have to, or excuse me, wait longer and go further for the loaves and the
fresh corn. Right? Yeah, the wild, the wild vines right there, the wild gourds, easy.
It's at hand. It's convenient. It's right there. But if they had just waited longer
for the burritos first fruits, if they could have just gone a little further, because these
came from bale chalicia, you know, they had to be brought to them, you know, things would
have been better. But the problem was, is that the field of herbs was near. It was right
there. That's just what they did. Look, if you want to add the word of God to your life,
if you want to have real spiritual nourishment in your life, you're going to have to go a
little further and not just reach for what's at hand and not just take what's easy and
what's convenient in your life. You're going to have to, you know, put some effort into
it. And again, the thing is, is that distractions are everywhere. You know, there's wild vines
all around. It'd be real easy to just indulge. But we have to learn to deny ourselves things
for our own good. And hold out, and good things will come. That's what it says in Psalm 19
at the end there. He said, Moreover, by them I serve as ward, and in keeping them there
is great reward. So it's not like we're just holding out and life is just going to be one
long austere, just painstaking, you know, trial of difficulty. You know, if we add the
word of God to our life, there's still going to be reward. There's still going to be the
fresh bread. There's still going to be the ears of corn that are brought to us in a manner
of speaking. But the problem is today in this world is that the wild vine is everywhere
and it's got gourds to go. You know, it's so much easier just to do something else than
read your Bible, isn't it? Because reading your Bible is hard. We just talked about that.
It's a lot easier just to pull out the phone. It's a lot easier to just play the video game.
It's a lot easier to just do something that's fun and easy and not do something that's difficult.
But you know, let me give just some practical application here in the end, is that doing
things that are hard and difficult are good for you. Doing things that are frustrating
will help you. Because, you know, and I'm not a neuroscientist, but I like to listen
to them. I don't, I'm not a neuroscientist. I just play one behind the pulpit, okay? And
what neuroscientists are telling us today is that the way you learn is through frustration.
It's through doing hard things. That if you want to be one who changes how your mind works,
what they call neuroplasticity, you have to be willing to go through frustration. You
know, a great example would be, you know, learning to play an instrument. If you want
to learn to play an instrument, you're going to be very, at times, be very frustrated.
You're going to be trying to get a certain section or a certain piece right, and you
can apply this to any area in your life. And you're going to mess up and you're going to
make mistakes over and over and over again. And what's going to happen is you're going
to become very frustrated in doing that. And then one of two things is going to happen,
and that's going to determine whether or not you actually learn, is you're either going
to push through that frustration, and I, again, I don't know all the terminology, I don't
know all the names of things, but when you push through frustration, certain chemicals
in your brain are actually released that tell your brain to make a new neural circuit, to
make a new neural pathway, and that's how new thought, new pathways are formed, and
that's how you learn, is actually through the process of being frustrated. But, on the
other hand, if you just decide this is too frustrating and I quit, your brain actually
then tells itself, okay, don't bother learning this. It's too hard. We don't want to learn
this, and it focuses efforts on somewhere else. So the application is, you know, do
that which is hard. Do that which is difficult. Go through the frustration, and don't just
do what's convenient in life. You know, if you want to learn the Bible, you want to know
what the word of God says, you're going to have to drag yourself through it sometimes.
And there's going to be times when you read it and you're going to be like, man, there's
things that are in here that are hard to understand, and you're going to want to understand it's
going to be frustrating, you know, but the answer might be the next page. It might be
the next chapter. It might be the next book. It might be the next testament. It might be
the next year when you read your Bible through. The answer might come in the next decade.
There's things in the Bible that are deep and difficult and hard to understand, and
they can frustrate us, but if we keep plugging along, if we keep working through it, you
know, eventually we'll begin to learn these things and understand them. But if you quit,
you know, that's just going to lead to death. That's just going to make sure that you don't
learn anything at all. And of course at the end of the chapter here, there's this great
last miracle where, you know, this guy brings the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the
cloves of barley. He brings the ears of corn, and he said to his servitor in verse 43, what
should I set before this hundred men? He said, again, give the people that they may eat,
for thus saith the Lord, they shall eat and shall leave thereof. And it's so crazy because
it's, it, it reminds me of when Jesus and his disciples were, you know, he feeds thousands,
right? He feeds the four thousands. He feeds the five thousand. And in between those two
feedings, they doubt Jesus. They're like, they, they, he feeds the, you know, he feeds
the four, the five thousand. And then it comes time again to feed another, a mass of people
and they're like, well, how are we going to do this? It's like, duh, we just did it. And
it's the same thing in this story. He's pouring a meal in this potage and feeding everybody.
And then a short time later, he gets these loaves. He's like, hey, feed them. Like, well,
how are we going to do that? Well, the same way he did it last time, through a miracle.
And it says in verse 44, so they, he said it before them and they did eat and left thereof
according to the word of God. But see, when people get carnal, when people just want to
reach out for wild vines, for wild gourds, they begin to doubt. They don't have the faith
that they need. And let me just close with this thought. You know, there's a lot in the
world today that they have to offer when it comes to, you know, wild vines. There's a
lot of just vanity out there we can chase after. There's a lot of just gourds of sin
that people can just go after. There's a lot of, you know, new exciting teachings that
are out there. There's all these wild doctrines and conspiracies that people can just fall
down these rabbit holes. They can go get, is it red-pilled? Right? The blue pill is
if you, is if you're not woke, right? It's the red pill that makes you woke, okay? People
can go get red-pilled, you know, all day, every day, you know, and they can ignore the
word of God. But you know what? It's the meal, it's the barley, it's the corn that's
actually going to last and sustain and nourish you. And I was just talking to a guy yesterday
out soul winning where he's like, and I'm pretty sure he was saved, and he's talking
about his grandfather was a Baptist preacher or something like that. And then he asked
me, he's like, well, you know, and he wasn't being confrontational, but he's like, well,
but I could tell what he was doing. He was kind of like trying to allude to like books
outside the Bible. He's like, well, how many chapters are in the Bible? I said, one
thousand one hundred and eighty-nine. He said, well, don't you think there might be some
that aren't in there anymore? And I said, and I instantly knew what he was trying to
get at. Because this guy, you know, wasn't going to church. He looked like he was probably
maybe the type of guy that, you know, might be scrolling through some conspiracy website
somewhere. He's heard about the Book of Enoch and the Gospel of Thomas. So I just was like,
well, you know, the Bible, God said that he would promise to preserve his word. And either
he did that or he didn't. And he's like, yeah, that's true. And he came around. And
I said, look, all these false, all these false books out there, these Enochs, these other
Gospels, they're false. Because God promised to preserve his word. But that's what people
chase after, isn't it? They go after these wild gourds that are out there. The Book of
Enoch. They want some wild gourds. There's some doctrine out there, some wild doctrine
about the Nephilim. They want some wild doctrine about, you know, red-haired mummies and how
we're all, you know, just these crazy things, how we're all related to King Tut. Who cares?
You know how mountains are sleeping giants. That's the kind of stupidity that's out there.
That's what these wild vines are. You know, that, oh, oh, we don't, we don't say, we don't
say Jesus. We say Yeshua. You know, there's all these wild vines of these Judaizers out
there that want to cast light, you know, cast doubt, cast shade on the Word of God. They're
going to say, oh, don't wait for the barley. Don't wait for the fresh corn. You know, I've
got this wild vine right here. It's way more exciting. It's so much more flavorful. You
know, and the people that are going to be duped by that, those that fall for that are
those that are going through a dearth that have no spirituality. But the spiritual people,
they're going to say, no, I'm going to add meal. They say, no, I'm going to go ahead
and wait for the Word of God. They say, no, I'm going to go ahead and just, you know,
make sure that I keep myself in the Word of God. I'm not just going to chase after every
wild vine, every wild gourd, and gorge myself. That's a challenge, is be that person. Because
here's the thing, you know, the truth, the old truths are the best truths. These, these
crazy truths that are out there, they're not even true. They might sound true, but
they're not. Look, the best truths and lies are the ones you're going to hear over and
over and over and over again. I mean, good night Sunday, was it Sunday night preached
about sanctification? That's a powerful truth. Was that the first time you ever heard about
sanctification? I mean, maybe if you're new to church or something, but I'm sure there's
people in this room that have heard multiple sermons about sanctification. That's not some
new doctrine, but you know what, it's a powerful doctrine, isn't it? You know, that's a great
truth to think about the fact that we're sanctified forever in Christ, that we can't lose our
salvation and that we can live and should live a sanctified life. Now that's a powerful
truth, but you know what, it's old. It's old. It's just the meal. It's just the, it's the
same old barley corn. It's the same old fresh ear corn. It's not some wild vine. So get
in the Word of God, get the meal, get the old truths. They're the best. Let's go ahead
and pray. Dear Lord, again, thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for these old truths
that we have. Thank you that we don't have to go out and gorge ourselves on all the vanity
and all the lies and all the deception that's out there, that we have a living Word of God,
that we have the true Word of God, that we have the complete Word of God in our lives.
Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be in it daily, that we would meditate and learn to
love your law. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. All right, we'll go ahead and
begin singing one more song before we go.
One more song before we go.