Amen.
Okay, we're in 1 Peter chapter two this morning.
And the title of my sermon this morning
is Church Growth Blueprint.
Church Growth Blueprint.
I wanna talk about some of the things
that are necessary for a church to grow.
And making a mistake about it,
we want to continue to grow as a church.
That is our goal, that is our plan,
that is our agenda to continue to grow in a big way.
And our church is growing
since it first started eight years ago.
Now let me give you a couple of things
topic before I get into my main points. The first thing I want to mention is that God ultimately grows the church, right?
God ultimately grows the church. Hold your place there in 1 Peter chapter 2.
We're gonna come back to that in just a bit and go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
And the reason I say that is because sometimes people will hear a sermon like this. They'll hear statements like that.
They're like, hey, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. You guys aren't growing the church. It's God who grows the church.
And the answer I have to that is, well, duh.
But that's not to say that we are not to do our part.
There are certain things that we have to do on our end
to make sure that we situate ourselves in such a way
that God blesses our congregation.
He blesses our church and he gives us the increase.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter three
and verse number five that says here,
who then is Paul and who is Apollos?
But ministers by whom he believed
even as the Lord gave to every man.
I have planted Apollo's watered, and I want you to notice this, but God gave the increase.
Now, that part there, God gave the increase, is the most important part, right?
Meaning that God is the one who ends up making the difference.
He's the one who shows himself strong on our behalf.
But the previous verses there says that He plants it in Apollo's watered.
So obviously the apostle Paul is the one who's sowing the seeds, he's putting in the work,
he's preaching the gospel, he's getting people saved.
Apostles is coming, he's watering it with the preaching of God's word, he's discipling them
and the result of the efforts of these two men is that God gives the increase.
He's ultimately the one who grows the church.
Says this so then neither is he that plants it anything neither he that water it but God that giveth the increase
So ultimately God is the one responsible for growing the church and so when we look at a church that's growing numerically
It is growing numerically, it's growing spiritually.
It's essentially an indication that God's hand is on that church, right?
Because of the fact that that is a visible result of God's hand
blessing that church. He's the one who's increasing that church.
So when you look at a church that, excuse me, is preaching the word of God,
They're so many they're getting people saved and it's growing numerically people are being reached
We can say well God's hand is on that congregation. God is blessing that congregation
With increase and so it's important to note that obviously God is the one who grows the church upon this rock
I will build my church and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Obviously. That's not at the exclusion
the effort that we are to put in to make sure the church grows. The second thing
I want to mention here is that numerical growth, though important, is not the end
game, right? It's not the end game. You know, the end game is obviously to please
God, to glorify God, to make sure that we obey God, okay? But I want to say this is
that numbers are important.
You never want to take this radical extreme view where it's like, well, God gives the increase and you know
Spiritual growth is the most important. Therefore. We're just never gonna count numbers. We don't care about souling numbers
We don't care about attendance numbers. No, you're a liar. Of course we care about those things
Because we the way we measure success is by measuring the growth of that success
Numerically and let me just say this, you know numbers are important to God
The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance
And you know what God wants?
Multitudes to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and you know if numbers weren't important then explain to me
Why act chapter 2 highlights the fact that you know three thousand souls were saved
He's keeping track of the numbers and he specifically puts this in the New Testament to motivate us as New Testament believers
To shoot for those numbers as well, you know
We want to see hundreds yay thousands yay even millions of people saved throughout our ministry here at first works Baptist Church
And a great incentive or a motivator an inspirational thing that we see here in the word of God is that the church in the New Testament
They preached the word of God, 3,000 souls were added unto them,
later on 5,000 souls are added unto the Lord.
Those are numbers that God is specifically highlighting to show us that numbers do matter.
Because numbers represent people, right?
You say, why do numbers matter?
Well, first of all, numbers in salvation matter because we want to get a lot of people saved.
But secondly, you know, it creates more laborers for the harvest.
The Bible says in Matthew chapter 9 verse 37 the Lord states this then say he unto his disciples the harvest
Truly is plenteous. What does that mean? The harvest was referring to the world those who are lost in the world
Those who are without Christ in the world and the Bible is telling us here
Jesus is saying that the work is plenteous. You know you never you can never really say to yourself
Well, you know, we've just done all that we can we finished all the work. No, there's still more work to do, right?
You know, you have people who work at certain jobs,
just like, well, my job is done.
You know, as soon as they finish the tasks on their list,
but here's the thing, there's always more work to do.
And the Bible's saying here that the harvest
truly is plenteous, there's enough work to go around.
You can start thousands and thousands and thousands
of churches, and you know what,
there'll still be more work to do.
He says the harvest truly is plenteous,
but I want you to notice this,
but the laborers are plenteous?
No, the laborers are few.
So Jesus Christ is specifically saying there's enough work to go around. The problem is this. There's not enough laborers
There's not enough workers. There's not enough preachers of the gospel
There's not enough Christians out there who are taking the service of God seriously or serious enough to
Train themselves be equipped to go out there and actually reach people preach the gospel
He says there he goes on to say pray therefore the Lord of Harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest
You know, you know what? I pray every single day
that God equips our church and sends forth the laborers
from our church into the harvest.
My desire is that new Christians in our church
would be equipped to preach the gospel,
to go out there and do the work of the Lord.
But here's the thing, it requires numbers.
The reason we wanna grow our church is to grow laborers
in order to get more people saved,
more people glorifying God.
And of course, ultimately, as our church grows,
churches begin to grow.
Because later on in the future, we can start churches from this church, which can ultimately become a headquarters, a home base for other laborers to reach that particular part of the world, that particular city, that particular state, etc.
And so numbers are definitely important.
Now, let me also say this is that, you know, we want to grow, but we also want to grow in the right way, right?
Because numbers doesn't always equal substantial or you know good growth quality growth
Let me give you an example years ago. I was driving on the 710 freeway
This is a long time ago and you know on the 710 freeway just you know
You have animals that cross the 710 freeway and they all unfortunately meet their untimely demise on that freeway, right?
We call it roadkill
Well, you know that there's a unfortunately fortunately, but unfortunately there was a people
They got you know killed there and he was on the side of the road
Okay, it was a dead end dead dog right there
And you know he's just lying there and people just driving by and and I remember seeing it and saying oh man
That dog, you know got hit by a car
Well, you know the Long Beach isn't really known for cleaning up their messes
They're just kind of left it there, you know
Well, the next week, it was still there,
but it was just a little bigger.
You get what I'm saying?
And then, you know, as the days and the weeks go,
it just got bigger.
You say, why?
Oh, because it's so healthy, right?
It's such a healthy carcass, you know,
and growth equals health.
No, not necessarily.
You know, the reason it was getting bigger
is not because it was healthy, because it was eating,
that thing was dead.
Rigor mortis has set in the gases within the body. We're expanding the body and you know, I don't know if I don't know if they blow up
But you know
Obviously whales do that in the ocean and steer clear when they do that you guys seen videos like that where the whales are just they explode or whatever
The point that I'm making is that, you know,
that dead animal grew and it was growing in size,
not because it was alive, but because it was dead.
And let me say this, there are congregations out there
that, yeah, they may be growing numerically,
yeah, outwardly they appear beautiful,
but inwardly they're full of dead men's bones
and full of all uncleanness.
Because the outward doesn't necessarily represent
the inward, sometimes it does, but not all the time.
And just because you have a large congregation,
a large church, a lot of people going on a specific congregation doesn't mean that what's
taking place within the side of those walls is actually a good thing, because it could
be a church that's preaching a false gospel.
It could be a church that's teaching false doctrine.
You know what?
Why does the gate that lead to destruction and many there be which go in there at?
You never want to say, well, you know, I know this particular denomination and they're doing great works because it's such a big
You know the Roman Catholic Church has billions of converts
Yeah, broad is the way that lead it to the destruction of many but there be which go in there at
That's just how it works. And let me just let me tell you the biggest congregation in all of history is hell
How about that?
Hell has the most members and in fact hell has more members than heaven does
Because more people believe lies than they believe the truth the point that I'm making here is that when we grow our church
We want to make sure that our growth is actually quality growth not just quantity
But that it's quality, you know, there's wrong ways the church grows. How about this?
You know they have a tendency to want to tone down the message so as to not to offend
You know, they want to grow their congregation numerically and so what they'll do is they will abstain from certain passages
They'll abstain from certain words
They'll abstain from certain sermons and certain content because they're afraid they might offend their congregation
But let me just remind you the church of God is meant for believers
That's not to say the unsafe people are not gonna come here people who are not Christian are gonna come here
Obviously they are but when they do we want to give them the gospel
We want to get them saved.
We want to convert them from being a natural man to a spiritual person, a person who's
regenerated so they can enjoy the preaching, glean from the preaching, and do the will
of God.
But at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we don't tone down the message here
in order to reach people.
And a lot of people do that.
They turn the sermon into a TED talk in order not to offend, to reach people.
But you know what?
What you do to reach them, you got to do to keep them.
And so if you are accustomed to preaching a 15 to 30 minute sermon at TED Talk,
that's what you got to do for the rest of your ministry to maintain those people.
But hold on a second.
If you reach people with doctrinal sermons with hard preaching, guess what?
That's what you're going to continue to do in order to maintain the people there in order to reach more people.
We want to make sure that we grow the right way.
The wrong way to grow would be to tone down the message so as not to offend.
To eliminate doctrinal differences well doctrine divides and so we don't want to like hit on certain doctrines
Because we don't want to you know cause division within a church. Well actually
Preaching specific doctrines preaching all the doctrines unifies the church
You say well, you know aren't there gonna be people who disagree? Of course. That's why we're not a cult
because a cult seeks to force people to stay
within the walls of their congregation,
whereas a biblical church preaches doctrine,
and if you don't like it,
there's tons of other churches you can go to,
and you can find one that agrees
with whatever heresy you believe.
So wrong ways to grow is that you tone down the message
so as to not to offend.
People eliminate doctrinal differences.
How about this?
They change music in order to reach people.
And here's the thing, folks, is that a lot of churches,
are more so concerts and, you know, social clubs.
The emphasis isn't really placed on the Bible.
It's almost like an afterthought
in a lot of these churches.
What they do to reach people is the purple lights,
the smoke, and smoke and mirrors, and then the music.
And the music essentially supersedes
the preaching of God's word.
And quite frankly, they work hard at not offending you
You know what I mean by their music not necessarily by the preaching
They want to make sure that they please you by the music and not necessarily by the preaching of God's word
And so we can't change the music we want to stick to the traditional hymns
Traditional music and recognize that music in a local New Testament church is made to prepare the hearts for preaching
It's meant to accentuate the preaching
You know really the music is kind of like an afterthought in our church
It's a tool that we use in order to prepare the hearts
for the preaching of God's Word, because it elevates doctrine
through music, OK?
So we don't want to tone down the message
so as not to offend.
We don't want to eliminate doctrinal differences.
We don't want to change the music.
And we don't want to remove labels.
Some churches, what they'll do is they'll, in order to grow,
like, well, maybe we should remove Baptists
from our congregation.
And let me just say this.
are Baptists, they just remove Baptists though.
Why?
Because they don't want to offend people
who don't like Baptist churches.
So non-denom churches like what Baptists teach,
they like the fundamentals of the faith,
they just don't want anybody else to know that.
So as to not create division,
what they'll do is they'll remove Baptists from the name.
And folks, labels are extremely important.
That way you know what you're getting into, amen.
And, you know, obviously our church is an independent fundamental Baptist church and it's very specific in that label so you can search it up on the internet and see what you're getting yourself into.
And anybody who's here is here on purpose.
Because, you know, if you've known our church, you know, you know what I mean?
So this is like, you're obviously here on purpose, okay?
But just imagine going to a grocery store shopping and there's no labels on the food
You're just you're kind of risking it right and it's the same thing with churches
You want to make sure that you know what church you're getting into because a label is often associated with
Connected with the teachings and beliefs of that church
So looking for a Baptist church, a fundamental Baptist church puts you in the ballpark of the doctrines of the Bible and it shows you, you know, these people in general believe these set of doctrines, therefore this is a church we should attend, okay?
The point that I'm making here is that there are wrong ways to grow a church and these are some of them. Now let's get into the sermon here before I get off on other tangents.
Three blueprints for church growth, and these are kind of really radically different one from another, okay?
And so they're not necessarily tied in one to another
They're kind of different from one another and I want to address them this morning number one
And this is the most important thing and I kind of hit on this on my introduction church growth requires personal growth
Now we want quantity, but we want quality over quantity
And if we get the quality, eventually we will get the right type of quantity.
Don't ask me to repeat that.
Okay, the point that I'm making here is that we want quality spiritual growth.
Not superficial growth, quality personal growth.
There are churches that have quantity but do not have quality.
Sometimes there are congregations that are just filled with babes in Christ.
And look, there's nothing wrong with being a babe in Christ.
What is a babe in Christ?
Someone who's newly saved.
They just got saved within the last couple of months,
the last couple of years.
That would be considered a person who is a babe in Christ.
They are new to the faith.
And you know what?
All of us started like that, right?
We just got saved.
We're new to the Christian faith.
We're new to the Christian doctrines.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But the problem is, is that if you stay a babe in Christ,
that's an issue.
You know you've been attending the church for years on end and yet you still have not matured spiritually in your knowledge of the Bible
In the service of God you have remained a babe in Christ and that is not God's will for your life
The Bible says that we henceforth beat no more children right tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
Slide of men cunning craftiness whereby they lying way to deceive God says he wants us to grow
He says, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And so there's congregations that have babes in Christ.
And because they're not preaching doctrinally profound sermons, the congregation remains
babes in Christ.
They don't move beyond the book of John.
They don't move beyond the book of Proverbs.
They don't move beyond the fundamentals of the faith.
They don't move on to perfection, deeper doctrines,
because of the fact that maybe the pastor doesn't,
that's not important to the pastor.
That's not important to the church.
Or even worse, how about this?
There's congregations out there with people
that just are not saved.
They have a lot of people, but they're just not saved and you know the pastor might be saved
Maybe some of the members might be saved
But in general you talk to the members and it's just like you get one answer
Differing from another in regards to the message of salvation
Whereas I promise you if you spend 15 minutes just going around our congregation talking to different people about salvation
You will get the same answer consistently 99% of the time
And I'm talking about if you're talking to people who've been to our who've been coming to our church for the last six months
For the last year for the last five years. You will get a consistent answer regards to salvation
But I promise you this church is out there if you talk to people after the service for 15 minutes
Various individuals who've been there for the last five years. You will get different answers
Because the message of salvation is not being exalted. It's not being elevated and not being educated in this area
The point that I'm making here is that we want quality in spiritual growth now
What does that require where it requires you to be closely tied to your Bible?
Look at the Bible says in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 1
Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking
As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word,
and I want you to notice this,
that ye may grow thereby.
So, by what I was specifically saying here,
hey, after you've repented of sin,
because that's what you're supposed to do after salvation,
God wants you to get right with God.
He wants you to clean up your life,
lay aside all of these bad habits and sinful things.
He says he also wants you to desire the milk of the word,
referring to the word of God.
And the reason it says sincere, sincere
is just another way of saying pure word of God.
So before I get into my point, let me say this.
If you're gonna grow spiritually,
you need the right Bible.
The sincere milk of the word is referring
to the pure word of God,
which is referring to the King James Bible.
You're like, well, you know, I just
prefer other versions that put the cookie on the bottom shelf.
But here's the thing, folks, is that cookie is rotten.
It's past due.
It has all types of poison in it.
You say, come on, are you serious?
They basically say the same thing.
Well, how about the fact that a lot of these deviate
from the original text in hundreds, sometimes even
thousands of places?
And in fact, let me just give you one of the most obvious examples because, you know, what are some of the versions that people like to use other than the King James Bible, ESV, NIV, some instances, the New King James Bible?
And let me just say this, how can it be a New King James Bible if King James has been dead for like a long time?
King James authorized the King James Bible. That means he approved of it, he wanted it to be translated. How did that happen with the New King James?
But let me give you an example, you know in the ESV in this verse that we're looking at
Because you say well, there's no differences. It's just you know
It says the same thing just in different ways well here says that we need to read the word of God in order to grow
Thereby and other versions that says he may grow into salvation
Well, that's a big difference
You know you read that verse in these other churches. It's no wonder people are confused on salvation
Because they think, well, I have to serve God,
I have to read the Bible, I have to have a relationship
with God in order to be saved,
and even then, you know, we're being saved, right?
That's another example.
1 Corinthians 118, for the preaching of the cross
to them that perished foolishness,
but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
The new King James says, but unto us which are being saved.
Essentially communicating that salvation is a process whereas the King James Bible communicates it as this one event
That's done. It's already done once you believe on Jesus Christ
Point that I'm making here is that you know, you can't grow spiritually if you don't have the right milk
Gotta have the pure word of God and look if you have a modern version of the Bible
We have a location where you could put it at in our church and we can get you a new Bible
You know, I'll give you a new a new Bible, but you have to put your Bible in
It's rightful place in our church because we have a place for those Bibles. It's called the trashcatch
Okay, well, I think that's sacrilegious. I think that's blasphemous
Well, how about the fact that those Bibles teach blasphemy? You have a problem with that?
You know, do you think let me ask you this do you think it's right to remove entire verses from the word of God?
I don't
You know acts 837 completely gone and you're by in the ESV and
By the way, and these aren't just like verses
There's just like well, you know, we can get the meaning though. We can live without it. Well, it's about salvation though
So that's an issue
You know and people can say well that was just a mistake that people made in times past. Well, you know
I don't know about that
When it's so specific regarding the fundamentals of the faith such as salvation, it raises
an eyebrow wondering if these people are doing it intentionally.
How about 1 John 5-7, which is a text verse on the Trinity?
You know this is a the Trinity is a major doctrine of the faith and yet a lot of these modern versions of the Bible either remove it
Or they place a footnote that says older manuscripts did not have this particular verse in it
Casting doubt on the word of God you can't grow if you're doubting the Bible that you're reading
And so they deviate from the text, they add to the text,
they cast doubt on the text,
and some of them are just outright inaccurate
when it comes to communicating just information period.
Geographical locations are messed up,
ages of kings are messed up.
And so, you know, obviously we want the pure word of God.
We don't want the King James Timu version, right?
We don't want King James from China.
I know it looked good in the picture,
but once you get it, it just falls apart
five days later or something like that.
And just remember, whatever they're showing you
on the picture, that's not the actual size.
And you know what, the ESV looks good on the outside,
but once you look on the inside,
you realize it's full of dead men's bones
and all uncleanness.
It's not true to picture, right?
You know I like going to restaurants where you see you know or like you know a particular restaurant
You see the pictures and it says actual size or I'll say not the actual size
The only time I don't appreciate that is when it's obviously not you know, there's like a big old doughnut
It's like not actual size. I know that
But then sometimes I'll have pictures like this is the actual size because I want them to tell me the truth, right?
Well, you know what that's how Bible should be
What is the actual truth?
And you know what? The King James Bible has withstood the test of time over the last 400 years.
It's inerrant. It's infallible.
Well, I know all kinds of mistakes in the King James Bible. Really, show me.
You could come after the service put this Bible in your hand, and you can let's let's let's see it
You know, it's funny is every single time I say that to someone they can never really point out because they're simply parroting
What other people are saying whereas we could actually take your Bible and show you all kinds of mistakes
You know what no one can actually answer. Why is it that these modern versions of the Bible literally remove verses?
I'm telling you acts chapter 8 is one of the most notorious ones where you're reading it as like verse 36
And all of a sudden they just put a number 37 no verse and then 38. That's a problem
This is why by the way a lot of these modern versions of the Bible are written in paragraph form
You see our Bible is written in such a way that the verses are separated
Okay, so you can see them whereas if you kind of jumble them all together into a paragraph form
You know, you can you could kind of overlook the fact that those verses are missing
Okay, the point that I'm making here is that a newborn babe needs the milk of the word the pure
sincere milk of the word in order to grow and let me just say this
Reality speaks this when it comes to modern churches who use the modern versions of the Bible and that is that their spiritual growth reflects that
Their Bible reflects their spiritual growth and vice versa. This is why they're not doctrinally sound
This is why they're confused on salvation
This is why they're not a hundred percent sure that if they die today they would go to heaven
And let me just say this if people attend those churches and they are sure that they're going to heaven
99% of the time in my experience is because they got saved in a Baptist church. This is a fact
You know, oh, you know, that's that's just you know anecdotal evidence. Yeah anecdotal evidence is based upon me going out and preaching the gospel
and meeting people who go to those churches
and them telling me I got saved at Baptist Church.
That's pretty good evidence.
And it's not just me, various people in our church,
various people in other churches have said the same thing.
Because here's the thing, we're always taking polls.
We're taking surveys every single week, right?
When we go on and preach the gospel,
it's like we're surveying the land
to see who's saved and who's not.
Point that I'm making here and I know I chased this rabbit, but I just got back from a King James conference
And so you know this is important and I'm gonna be preaching more on the King James later on but
You know, we need to desire the pure, sincere milk of the Word, which is the Word of God.
Because it helps us to grow spiritually.
The Bible also says in Colossians, go to Hebrews chapter 5, Hebrews chapter 5, Colossians
1 and verse 10 says that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
numerically we want to make sure that the spiritual aspect is also on par with
that numerical growth. In other words we need spiritual and numerical growth but
never the numerical growth at the expense of the spiritual growth. If we
have to pick one over the other it's going to be spiritual but luckily we can
just choose both.
What's important though the priority is always the spiritual growth
Making sure that you study the Bible read the word of God have a walk with the Lord
And let me just give you our weekly reminder to make sure that you're reading the Bible every single day
My friends, you're Christians, you are a safe person, you are a child of God, you have access to the Word of God,
you have it on your phone, you have it a physical copy, we have Bibles here.
There's no reason why you should not be reading the Word of God.
You should be reading the Bible every single day, and I'm not saying you have to read 10 chapters, 15, 20 chapters.
If you're new to reading the Bible, start off with at least one to five chapters.
Or just start off, we're just reading the Bible 15 minutes a day.
I mean, you do more than 15 minutes of scrolling on social media,
reading all kinds of nonsense, right?
Why not actually crack open the Bible and read the sincere word of God that can actually benefit you
and help you to increase in the knowledge of God, okay?
You see, reading the Bible is commanded of us, but it also improves discernment and gives maturity.
What is the sermon you know it's it's it's it's essentially the ability to judge situations properly
Judgment is lacking in our society and it's because God is being removed from our society
The more the Bible is undermined in our society the less judgment people have
Look at Hebrews chapter 5 verse number 11
Let's skip down or actually go to verse 12 it says for when for the time you ought to be teachers
You have need that one teach you again
Which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as to have need of milk and not of strong meat
For everyone that use it milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness
So the Bible here is comparing the word of God to milk and meat, right?
You know it's comparing it to raw milk
and it's comparing it to a sirloin steak, a rib eye, okay?
And we would say that, you know, children, infants,
sucklings need milk, right?
That's what they need to grow.
But obviously they get to a point where
they're no longer satiated by milk
and they want some of those solids.
You know, they're sitting at the table with you,
you're eating some steak
and they're just reaching for your steak, right?
Because they've reached a particular age in their biology that they're ready for those solids
You know they start reaching for the ground beef
They start reaching for the chicken they start reaching for the board they start reaching for those solids because that's what they want
They're growing and it says here that if you only stick to the milk of the word the foundational truths of the word of God
You're not really gonna grow to the point where you can handle meat. Okay?
In other words, you're unskilled for the word of righteousness, you know, you might be good at explaining salvation, which is great
But God wants you to also explain the book of Revelation
And I don't know if you know this but the book of Revelation doesn't say anything about only for pastors
Only for scholars
Book of Revelation is for everyone
Like oh, it's so hard to understand it though. Yeah, but but hold on. It's called the book of Revelation
Meaning it's revealed to you
Right, it's for you to understand, but it requires you to get off the milk of the word and get onto some meat
Okay
It says for everyone that uses milk is unskilled from the word of righteousness for he is a babe
But strong meat belonging to them that are of full age
Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil
We want to be able to discern both good and evil not to be persuaded by the media
Not to be persuaded by podcasts not to be persuaded by social media
Just because someone has a good argument
We want to make sure that we judge between good and evil based upon what the Bible says
But in order to do so you have to read the Bible though
Okay, I believe the Bible. Yeah, but read the Bible so that you can use the Bible
Incident so you can have a biblical perspective
Too many people Christians don't have a biblical perspective
They judge situations in the world politics, you know
Things that have happened in their life based upon their own experiences and they don't filter those situations through
What does the Bible say and folks? Here's a really good question when something arises in your life an
Economic situation a health situation a problem in our nation. This is the first thing that you should think to yourself
What does the Bible say?
Not what does Andrew Tate say?
Not what does this philosopher say?
Not what does this podcast say? No, we need to say what does God say?
Right? What does the word of God say and that should motivate you to search the scriptures to find the answers because it has everything that
Pertains listen to this to life and godliness the Bible makes you godly, but it also gives you the answers to life
Okay, and so as a church we want to grow spiritually which requires you to read the Bible to grow in your maturity
To grow in your discernment go to Roman chapter 7 if you would Roman chapter number 7
Roman chapter 7
Now obviously look there's certain things in a Christian's life
You know we obviously want to read the word of God in order to mature
But it's not just reading the Bible, but also exercising what the Bible says
That grows you right?
be not hears of the word only but excuse me be not hears only but doers of the
word we need to make sure that we're actually fulfilling what the Word of
God says and how do we do that well sometimes we're placed into situations
where we're forced to exercise biblical concepts right they're called trials
tribulations difficulties and folks you can know all the Bible you want
But if you don't know how to respond to trials you're you're done. You're not gonna you're not gonna grow spiritually
You know the way you grow as a Christian is by on-the-job training
It's not just knowledge. You have to be put into situations where that knowledge is
exercised in a in a practical manner, okay? You're like, oh, you know the Bible says love your enemies
Okay, so now you got to be put in a situation where you have to love your enemies
You know, oh, you know, the Bible says, you know be kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you
All right, now you have to be put in a situation where you're forced to forgive someone
What does that do that produces maturity? Oh, man, we got to have faith. We're gonna have faith
You know, we got faith in God. Okay. Now you got to be put in a situation where you have to place your faith in God
Despite your circumstances in situations
If you only know what the Bible says it doesn't do you any good
Why because knowledge puffs it up
You have to be put in a situation where now you got to use what you've learned
And you know that that grows you
Knowledge of the Bible grows you up here
Doing what the Bible says grows you in here
And we need both
You know and look there's people out there that have grown in here
But they have no Bible knowledge and that's a sad thing because God commands us to have Bible knowledge
But you know what there's people more people in my experience they have the knowledge of the Bible here
But they don't exercise it and therefore they have not grown in here
You need to grow up as a Christian and you know what you need experience hardships
You need to experience afflictions you need to experience difficulties
You need to experience pain and affliction because that's what grows you as a Christian
I'm not trying to rhyme here, but it's just it just worked out that way
You know, let me read you from 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 16
It says, for which cause we faint not, though our outward man perish, what is the outward
man?
The physical body.
The older we get, the more the body doesn't function the way it used to.
And I'm going to be 40 this year.
And that means that the years are going to pass by faster and faster and the outward man will begin to perish more and more.
And at the end of the day, we're all perishing outwardly because the body is atrophying as the years go by.
But the Bible says this, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
He goes on to say, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
So he says, look, yeah, obviously my outward man
is perishing, you know, I'm going through a lot,
but these afflictions, and he calls them light afflictions,
this is lightweight, light afflictions,
is working for me, a far more exceeding
in eternal weight of glory, it's renewing me day by day.
So let me just say this, you know, welcome trials.
And I'm not saying that you're gonna smile through the trial,
everything's gonna be great in the trial,
but that trials grow you.
And it gives you an opportunity to exercise your faith and actually put into practice what you've learned in church
Okay, what you've learned in your Bible, and so we need quality growth
And if we're gonna have quality growth in church, you're gonna have to go through some stuff
You're gonna have to go through some trials. You're gonna have to have listen to me some sleepless nights
You're going to have to have pain in your life in order to have some substantial growth in your personal walk with God
Because that is what grows you and if you're the person who avoids problems you avoid trials
You avoid afflictions you run away from your problems. Guess what?
You're gonna remain a babe in Christ for the rest of your life
And what I mean by avoiding it getting out of church stop reading your Bible
You stop winning people to Christ you stop trying to be a blessing you stop living out the Christian life
Yeah, you're avoiding the problem
Because folks we gotta hit we gotta face these things head-on
If we want to grow okay look at 2nd Timothy 3 verse 16. Is that where I had you turn?
We don't have to turn oh Roman 7
Yeah, look at Roman 7 and then we'll go to 2nd Timothy
Look at verse 15 says for that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not
But what I hate that do I if then I do that which I would not I can send into the law that it is good
Then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me,
for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing, for to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I find not.
For the good that I would, I do not,
but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that, I would not, it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me.
You're like, what did he just say?
What did he say, hey, what was that?
Let me just summarize it for you, okay?
He's expressing the battle that exists within him between the flesh and the spirit and he's essentially
Communicating the fact that you know
There's always a struggle the flesh desires one thing and he doesn't want to do that thing that the flesh wants to
But because he's in the flesh he does it and the good that he's supposed to do he doesn't do that
And so it's just this constant battle a great summary could be found in Galatians chapter 5, right?
You know the flesh less than against the spirit the spirit against the flesh
These are contrary the ones of the others should be you cannot do the things that you would
It's essentially highlighting that inner tour turmoil that Christians experience with these two natures that we possess
He says in verse 21
I find in a law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the law of God
after the inward man
And what I believe he's saying here is that, you know, what keeps him on track is making
sure that he's feeding that inward man, right?
Feeding the spirit, feeding the inward man.
He's saying, why do I struggle so much, pastor?
Why don't I experience victory in my life over this particular habit or sin?
It might be because you're feeding the spirit and not enough, excuse me, you're feeding
the flesh and you're not feeding the spirit enough.
The spirit is not apt you're kind of suppressing the spirit right you are quenching the spirit
You're grieving the spirit and you're feeding the flesh and when that happens
You're essentially make yourself susceptible to the temptations that you're enticed with
The point that I'm making here is we need the light in the law of God after the inward man. This is why you're in church today
You know what we're doing what we're serving you we're serving the inward man the meals necessary to remind you of spiritual truths
To help you to combat the flesh combat the world combat the devil
Okay, here's the last thing I want to say regarding spiritual growth inward growth
And that is that it equips you for service go to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 I
Just want you to tell me that everything's gonna be okay. God's not angry with me. He's happy with me. That doesn't equal spiritual growth
Folks growth requires like labor and work
Study to show thyself approve them to God a work men that need not to be ashamed
Rightly dividing the word of truth, you know growth requires like time and prayer
Growth requires time in the Bible growth requires endurance and afflictions growth requires
consistency in spiritual matters
You get no success without diligence, my friends.
You need diligence in your life in order to grow
in a spiritual manner.
How are we going to grow our church?
I'll tell you why, by you growing.
And you know what?
I cannot make you grow spiritually.
I cannot bring you to spiritual maturity.
I can only supplement the growth that you are currently
experiencing for yourselves in your personal life.
But you know, I hope to God that tomorrow morning
you wake up and you open the Bible and you read it.
But I hope to God that you wake up in the morning tomorrow and you pray to the God that
I pray to, that you ask God for things in order to increase your faith, that you pray
for wisdom, that you pray for God's blessing, that you pray for your family, you pray for
your spouse, you pray for your church, I want you to grow but I can't make you grow.
You know you have to put yourself in a situation to grow yourself look at 2nd Timothy 3 16
It says here all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine
for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness
That the man of God may be perfect perfect meaning complete
Thoroughly furnished unto all good works
So in order for us to be apt to serve God to be meet for the master's use we need the Bible
The scriptures are needed in order to do so. This is why the word of God is the centerpiece of our church
Everything surrounds the word of God in our church
Right the preaching
Reading the word of God
This church is centered the word of God has the preeminence in this church because it is the basis for success in our church
Okay, and so in order for our church to grow we need quality growth
We need individual quality growth
that stems from reading the Word of God.
And if you don't have a Bible, come see me after the service.
We'll get you a Bible.
It's important.
And look, we're almost like the middle of the year here.
I hope you're still reading the Word of God.
And I hope you have the goal to finish it by the end of the year.
That's the challenge to you.
Read the Bible all the way through.
You're like, well, I kind of slacked on in.
I'm a couple of weeks behind.
Catch up, catch up, read the Word of God.
Don't just throw out the baby with the bathwater
and say, well, 2026 is right around the corner.
I'll just start then.
No, start now.
There's nothing worse than having a sense of regret
at the end of the year.
Like, man, I just kind of wasted that year
and I didn't read the Word of God.
Read the Bible, read the Word of God.
And moms, I know you're busy.
I know you got kids.
I know you got your husband.
I know you got responsibilities.
But play the Bible while you're doing your housework.
Play some audio Bible, throw in Alexander Scorby.
Listen to them in the background while you're, you know,
cooking your meals and spanking your children
and you know, whatever you gotta do, you know,
put Alexander Scorby in the background as you're doing so.
Just get the job done.
All right, point number two here,
go to Proverbs chapter 14, Proverbs chapter 14.
Talk about church growth requires for us
to have spiritual growth, quality spiritual growth.
That stems from the word of God whether it by by preaching by your own walk with God
But let me also say this is that church growth requires
adapting to new technology as well
We're in 2025 you know there's a lot of new technology available for us
And if our church is gonna grow we need to utilize that new technology
Why we'll look at promise chapter 14 verse 4
Where no oxen are the crib is clean now. What is that implying there?
It's saying that if you don't have an ox,
then you don't have, it's mess to pick up, right?
Trying to figure out a word to say.
You know, oxen make messes, right?
They're gonna defecate all over
and you have to pick up after it.
But you know, if you don't have one, don't worry about it.
You don't have any mess to pick up after it, right?
But hold on a second, but much increases
So you've got to wait out, right?
He's saying, look, obviously, if you don't own an aux,
you don't have to worry about the mess that it produces.
However, if you do own an aux, you're
going to have to pick after the mess.
But let me just say this, much increases
by the strength of the aux.
In other words, there's obviously pros and cons
to certain instruments in this world.
Now, we are in 2025.
We don't have aux in.
I'm not interested in an aux.
I like to have cows one day maybe to get the milk
and chickens for eggs and what not for the protein,
but you know, whatever.
The point that I'm making here is that today
we do need to adapt to new technology.
Now what new technology am I referring to?
I'm not referring to smoke and purple lights.
Okay, we don't need gate stuff like that.
We're talking about AI, okay?
Artificial intelligence needs to be utilized.
Now, 20 years ago,
I remember like you know social media getting big and a lot of the old-time
preachers they're just like oh we need to stay away from that stuff and you know
social media and blah blah blah this and that but folks social media has been
used greatly to just get the word of God out okay and I don't have that
attitude I don't believe it's just like oh we just get you know all
technology is bad folks if you're saved you're good
Utilize that New World Order technology because you're already saved
And you know what the same people who were saying this 20 years ago regarding Instagram
Facebook and all these other social media platforms, you know, we have people today that are saying the same thing about yeah
You know, John Connor look at everyone make friends with AI or whatever. Oh
Man AI is gonna take over. Yes, it's gonna take over. Of course it is
But you know what that doesn't really affect us as Christians
We need to utilize it in order to be more efficient in the things that we do okay
And look I'll go back to the social media thing a lot of people were against it
But you know what social media has been used greatly to get the word of God out and in a great way
Millions and hundreds of hundreds of thousands of views millions of views on Instagram
It's been used to get people in church
I've had people visit our church because of social media in fact there's people in our church right now
They were reached through social media
You know we had a YouTube channel that had a hundred and twelve thousand subscribers
Millions of views and there's someone who found me on social media
Who saw it and then he ended up coming to our church and I don't know like a about a month later
The channel got deleted. You say why don't we'll talk about that later. Okay for other reasons
You know they deleted the channel, but folks what if the channel didn't exist? He's in our trip. He's married now
He's a functioning member of our church.
He's a blessing to our church,
but he was reached through social media.
There's people who have visited my friends' churches
from my social media.
Why?
Because social media should be used,
the technology should be used.
I just think, you know, we're going down a bad path of,
you know, it sounds like a person who's not willing
to adapt to their surroundings.
You know, back in the day, it was the printing press.
Right?
Now it's social media or before social media. Now it's AI and obviously AI is weird sometimes. Yeah, and quite frankly
It's not even AI. It's the people who are utilizing AI
That are weird, okay
Now let me say this before I get into the positives of AI
We want to utilize AI to its fullest potential, but we don't want to you know rely on artificial intelligence
To the point where it just stunts our creativity
because we're not willing to think for ourselves.
And let me just say, let me give you the negatives first, okay?
Because, you know, AI is extremely helpful,
it can help you to be very efficient in your work,
but let me just say this is that Gen Z and Gen A
are utilizing AI to an ungodly extent.
Okay, so what do you mean?
They're using it just to be lazy.
Okay, and I'm talking to you Gen Zers
in our church right now.
Okay, it's making you guys lazy now look
We need to use it to be creative if maybe our creativity is a little stunted
We need to use it for for reasons like that, but when you're just using it just to live life
Yeah, you know what?
It's bad at that point. Okay. Now. Let me give you this really extreme example, okay?
I'm you know, I just I just got back from Washington
I was preaching at this King James conference and when I was there
You know I want to go get a rental so I was waiting in line to get a rental
And this is like 25 year old girl in front of me and she has her phone out and she's like you know reading it like this
Right, you know when I read I'm like this, but she's like this
So I'm just like she wants everyone to see what's on her phone
I guess you know and I got nothing better else to do so you know
So I'm looking and
It looks like she's texting someone, but it's not it's chat GBT
And you all love chat GBT in here, okay?
So, you know that she's on chat GBT and this is what it says. This is what the prompt says
Why doesn't Charlie like me anymore?
And in my mind, I'm like, yeah, why you know
And Chad is answering
Chad is like, hey, you're getting the wrong idea.
It may not be that he doesn't like you.
It just might be this, that, and the other.
And she's just like, no, he's been acting weird around me.
Like, having this full blown conversation
with artificial intelligence, you know,
if you're not laughing at us
because you've probably done the same thing.
You're like, what's wrong with that?
And I'm like, this is a joke.
She's asking a robot.
How to like have a relationship and I'm not just saying like one question
I'm talking about they're having a full-blown conversation on AI. Okay, and I'm thinking to myself like
She's relying up on chat GBT
for
Relationship advice and he's like this is what you can do if you really think that Charlie doesn't like you
This is what you hear three things that you can do to confirm if that's the case or not
Say this and it's just like
This is not happening.
And you know what, that is an improper use of AI, okay?
You know, use it to make memes
if you want to have some fun or whatever,
but to use it for relational advice.
And you know, there's people that use it,
there's not just people, I'm talking about Gen Zers.
This is mainly Gen Zers.
It might be millennials too,
but in general I see Gen Zers doing this.
It's just like, where should I go out to eat today, chat?
You know like for every single decision. They need chad GBT now unfortunately
I might have just opened the floodgates to Gen Zers in our church. Well, wow, you know
Yeah, you know does she does she like me chat, you know, it's just like an eight ball that are you know back in the day
The what was the the generation before Gen Z? No millennials
Gen X Gen X just had the eight ball
Okay, you guys know what I'm talking about
They used to have this eight ball, okay?
And you know, my family used to be like,
it's demonic, it was an eight ball
that had like various answers,
and you would shake it, ask it a question,
and then based upon gravity,
just turning that little thing inside,
it would tell you like an answer or something.
That is basically chat GBT now, but okay.
Like where do you wanna go?
I don't know, let me ask chat real quick.
You know, that's crazy.
That's ridiculous.
You know just utilizing it for relationship advice now you say is it really that bad?
Go don't go with me if you want to Isaiah chapter 30 Isaiah chapter 30
You know AI is a tool that should be used to streamline our projects
To be more efficient to access information
Rapidly free us to do more important things. Don't use it to be lazy
And look, currently, we have AI on our phones,
but you know what's gonna happen?
They're gonna end up making an actual physical robot.
And you know, people aren't gonna use it
for information anymore,
they're just gonna use it for relationships.
And look, Gen Z's already like that.
They're already non-social as it is.
Right? A lot of Gen Zers are just they struggle with being social with other people because they're used to that screen
You know so much the more if they have like a physical robot there
Talking to them Star Wars style or whatever C3PO just chatting with them
And
It's making them lazy. Okay
I'm gonna reach you from Proverbs 19 verse 24 says a slothful man hide at this hand in his bosom and will not so much as
Bring it to his mouth again
So like a lazy person is so slothful. They can't even feed themselves. It's just like
Jack can you put this in my mouth?
Use it for your work, of course.
We use it here.
I use it for my videos.
When I make videos for social media,
I'm just like, bring me up a Jew that is angry with phylacteries,
and he's doing this, that, and the other.
And chat does it.
Not chat, but some other AI tools that I use.
Sometimes it's just like, we are not allowed to put that.
So I got to word it differently.
He caught on to me a little bit.
But you know it makes great images and it helps me and even some of the software that I use in
Order to edit the programs on adobe. They have AI on there
And it helps me to just kind of like streamline the process so that I can do other more important things
And they're not spending an hour on this particular video
I can spend 30 15 to 30 minutes on it because AI helped me with that okay, and you know what sometimes moms
I've heard of this and I think it's good, you know, they're trying to figure out what to cook or something
And they can ask chat, like hear the ingredients
in my house chat, what do you recommend I make tonight?
And then it just gives a bunch of ideas.
I think that's great, right?
But look folks, don't be like,
I gotta talk to Cody today, chat.
What should I say to him?
You know, oh, you know, brother Kerry offended me, chat.
You know, what's some information you can tell me
about brother Kerry or how should I respond to him,
brother Kerry?
Alright, how should I respond to Brother Kerry because of it?
You know, you say, well, is it really that bad to do that?
Yes, it is. And I'm explaining why from a Christian's perspective.
Because folks, you're asking Chad to do things
that God should be the one giving the answer for.
You know, you have a relationship problems and you go to Chad.
No, go to God!
Obviously God sometimes is not as prompt as chat, but at least you're gonna get a good answer
And let me just let me just burst your bubble here. Chad is not a real person
Okay
He's collecting and I'm referring to him as he you know
It's collecting information from all over the internet
Right and basically giving you a compilation a collated it you know answer
Based upon what he finds on the internet
Okay, that's what it is. There's no real person there. Okay
But people just like fast access though
Right, and even then you have to fact check chat sometimes chat is wrong
Okay
The point that I'm making here, don't use it to replace relationships, all right?
Look at Isaiah 30 verse 1, he says,
Woe to the rebellious children, sayeth the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me,
and that cover with the covering, but not of my spear, that they may add sin to sin,
that walk to going down into Egypt, and have not asked that my mouth,
to strengthen themselves in the strength of faith, to trust in the shadow of Egypt,
as God at his mouth,
What you should do with your situation right a spiritual situation don't rely on AI so much that now you're just so lazy
You don't even want to pray anymore
Okay, what's the point that I'm making look? I'm gonna use AI and in fact this week
I'm gonna just delve down deep on how we can utilize AI
Just for things in our church, you know
And obviously we can only go so far,
but I'm sure we can streamline a lot of things.
I'm gonna have brother Ulysses research it
in order to get the ball rolling on it
because it's gonna be useful.
And you know what, people may laugh at it
and be like, oh, this guy's progressive,
but we'll see in 10 years from now,
you'll be utilizing AI too,
just like you're utilizing Instagram and Facebook
and all these other social media platforms.
Okay, and let me just say this,
I don't utilize AI to like chat,
just write my sermon for me or something.
Cause it's gonna give you a bunch of liberal sermons.
It's not gonna give you new IFP content.
Check, can you replace this word with the F,
with fag or something, they're not going to want to do that.
And so obviously we need to utilize AI, it's useful,
use it at your home.
to streamline whatever process you got going on there.
You know, it's great for tasks.
It's great for scheduling.
It's great for just cutting out the middleman
in a lot of ways to essentially, you know,
shorten your period of time that you would be spending
on a particular project in order to free you up
for other things, okay?
But don't ask it, you know, where you should eat,
what you should say to this person.
You know, that's nonsense go to God go to the Bible and
Really what it's doing to people who utilize it in that manner. It's just gonna make them really dumb
And in ten years, we're gonna have a lot of people who are just not creative
They know they don't know how to interact with other people
They don't know how to talk. They don't know how to look at someone's face, you know, they're just
Want to talk to chat?
Okay, and so
Our church, in order to grow, we need to utilize current technology and go with the times,
you know, not change the message, not change the methods, but utilize this world, as the Bible says, and not abuse it, right?
In order to, you know, do more for the Lord here.
Here's my next point that I want to make.
Go to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. Here's my last point.
And remember, I said at the beginning of the sermon
is that these points are very extreme one from another, okay?
First point in order for our church to grow
is that we need to grow spiritually.
We need to have quality in our church.
The second thing is that we need to adapt
to new technologies such as AI,
but don't adapt to it so much
that you're just dependent and relying upon it
for every single little thing, okay?
I feel even, it's just crazy that I'm even preaching on AI.
I never thought I would come to this.
20 years ago, I never would've thought
I would even be mentioning artificial intelligence.
AI for me was like a movie back in the day
about some future that was not gonna exist, you know?
Terminator or whatever, you know?
But it's here.
Here's the last thing.
Church growth requires, listen to me, having children.
In order for our church to grow,
we need to emphasize and practice having children, okay?
Look at Genesis 1.28.
Now, this is not only a Christian principle.
This is like human principle, mankind principle.
God commanded not only Christians, but he's commanding mankind in general to do this look at Genesis 128
God blessed them and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and
Subdued it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the foul of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth
Now look folks. This is important and in fact in the United States of America
There's even talked by the the president
to incentivize families having more children
because the birth rate is in decline.
So he, you know, there's talk about like,
he wants to like incentivize them with like $5,000 per child.
I'm like, man, we're gonna be rich in our church.
He's like, whoa.
You know, he wants to give him like trophies for moms
who are willing to have like at least six children
or something like that.
And you know, because the birth rate is declining.
And you know why it's declining?
It's because of feminism.
It's because unbiblical ideologies that have infiltrated the church, causing men and women,
married couples, to despise having children.
And folks, having children is biblical, it's a blessing, it's righteous, and in order for
a nation not to go into decline you need it, but also for a church.
Here's the thing, and obviously not everyone can have children.
So how would people like that apply?
In order for a church to continue to survive,
we need to make sure we're reaching people for Christ.
But I want to specifically talk about having physical children,
okay?
Why?
Because of the fact that I'm telling you right now,
you know, churches are promoting this idea
that, oh, 2.1 children and you're good to go and that's it.
And here's the thing, folks,
the alternative to having children is birth control,
contraceptives.
And that's wicked in the eyes of the Lord.
And let me just say this, if you're on birth control right now,
you need to get off.
And I'm not telling you to get off like, you know,
if there's like a process you have to do it,
I'm saying the goal should be to be completely off
of birth control and contraceptives,
because it's wicked in the eyes of the Lord.
It's murder according to the Bible.
It's not a righteous thing.
And God's will for your marriage is to have children.
Okay, or at least just function as a couple
that's trying to have children.
And if God doesn't bless you with children,
then maybe he doesn't want you to have children.
Okay
The Bible says in Psalm 127 verse 3 low children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the room is his reward as
Arrows are in the hand of a mighty man saw our children of the youth. Well, I just think like if we just keep having children
We're just not gonna be really happy
You know, it's just gonna suck out the the liveliness of my life
I'm not gonna be able to do the things that I want to do happy is the man that had this quiver full of them
So, do you believe the Bible or do you believe your emotions?
And you know what?
I know there's a previous generation that tells you, oh, you know, you're having too
many children, you shouldn't have that many children, you're not going to be free to do
the things that you want to do.
You know what?
Forget that wicked philosophy.
We need to go with what God says.
God says having children is a blessing.
And look, folks, I can attest to this just personally that I am a happy person.
You may not think I'm happy right now because I'm angry about this situation.
But in general, I am a very happy individual and you know what my children bring me a lot of joy
Okay, they bring me a lot of happiness a lot of joy a lot of stress
But you know, it's okay, you know life is stress and you know
The Bible says here that a man who has this quiver full of them is happy
They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with them and the enemies of the gate
And so, you know, we want to make sure that our church
never deviates from the philosophy of having children, the Biblical doctrine of having children.
And, you know, you might have come from the outside, from different ideologies, from your parents,
from the public's full system, that are telling you, oh, you know, you should just choose,
and it's okay if you want one, or if you don't want any children at all, or whatever.
For sake that philosophy, we need to go with what God says about this.
God says to be fruitful and to multiply.
Abortion is murder according to the Bible and a man who has them is happy, okay?
And so you know and look in order for a church to really thrive in the coming
decades it requires for children to be born because of the fact that when I
would say most of us in here are first-generation Christians, most of us.
And so with first-generation Christians we're kind of just like new to this
But in order to create substantial long-term stability in our church, we need to have people who grow up in our church.
You understand what I'm saying? People who grow up and they're, you know, they're born in this church.
They grow up with one pastor. Both of their parents are in church. They're involved in the ministry. Like all they've ever known is church.
That's what you need in order to create a church of substance with good foundation.
Okay, and look folks.
I love having children and I love my children,
but let me just be honest with you,
I love your children too.
I get happy when I see my children,
but I get super happy as well
when I see your children in church.
And you know, it's a little dangerous sometimes,
you know, when we're fellowshiping here,
you have like this stampede of kids
just like running through the church.
But you know what, that, I get a lot of joy from that.
Because I know that these children
are gonna grow up in church,
their parents are gonna be in church,
they're gonna be serving God,
this is the next generation.
And so, let me just say this, you know, if you have the philosophy of not having children,
you need to change that philosophy first and foremost and align yourself with Scripture
because nowhere in the Bible does it teach that.
Number one.
But number two, you need to make sure that you remove anything that would cause you to
stop having children such as your health, okay?
You know, if you are, if there's something wrong with your health that you can do something
Now if you feel like you've done everything you can on your end to have children and you could no longer have children
Then you know what obviously you have to live with that
Maybe the Lord does not want to bless you with children and that that happens for sure
Okay, but what I'm saying is you know, you shouldn't place any barriers in your life
That's gonna keep you from having children and look if you're newly married and you haven't had kids yet
That's normal
Don't think there's something weird with you
You're like, oh man, what's wrong with us?
We can't have kids or something.
Folks, you know, my wife and I got married.
We didn't have kids until like, I don't know,
I want to say like two or three months thereafter.
She wasn't pregnant until two or three months thereafter.
Sometimes just how it is, okay?
And you know, what you should do is just enjoy your marriage,
just enjoy your spouse,
pray unto the Lord to open the womb
and just leave it in God's hands, okay?
But the contraceptives need to go out the window.
You know, the birth control needs to go out the window.
That needs to stop, okay?
Now, here's some reasons why people don't want to have kids.
Number one is for economic reasons, right?
Oh, it's because, you know, how are we going to sustain all these children?
Well, first of all, in the United States of America, it's very much possible.
It's called a tax return, okay?
But secondly, let's just say that didn't exist.
And does God command you to do something
that he himself will not provide you the means to fulfill it?
God's gonna provide for you, okay?
And so that needs to go out the window.
How about this, you know, well, children are a burden,
you know, just having children are a burden.
And the answer to that is, yeah, you're right,
they are a burden for sure.
It's another life, of course.
But you know what, it is a very joyful burden though, okay?
And let me just give you a personal testimony right now
about that, because I'm going to use myself as an example.
My wife is an example of this.
A lot of people are just like, well, I don't want to have kids
because you just don't know what the future holds sometimes.
And you know what?
You're absolutely right.
We don't know what the future holds.
We just don't know what's going to happen sometimes.
My wife is pregnant.
And she's, don't ask me how many months or weeks.
I don't know.
The baby's coming in August.
That's all I know, which is in a couple months.
And, you know, this is our sixth child, so we're super thrilled, we're super happy, it's a girl, and, you know, a couple weeks ago, she had an ultrasound, and just a normal ultrasound as usual, and unfortunately, you know, they found a really big problem.
They found a huge problem, something wrong with the heart, and, you know, four different professionals looked and they basically said, like, here are three major problems that your baby has.
Number one is there's something that's not functioning right with the heart, okay?
The valves aren't working. They're not pumping correctly in the heart.
Secondly is that the femur seem to be both femur seem to be really short and
Then thirdly there's excess excess ambiotic fluid and all this points to genetic disorder
Okay
And you know, we got that, you know, when we got,
when she did the ultrasound,
first of all, the technician said,
there's something wrong with the heart,
I'm gonna have to send this in.
She sent it in to the doctor,
the doctor sent it to the midwife,
the midwife sent it to OB.
And then the midwife came to meet with us
and was just like, hey, your husband
should probably be here for this.
And so my wife calls me and I'm like, that's not good.
What, why do I, if she needs me to be there,
it's because it's probably gonna give me some bad news.
So we go there.
And, you know, she breaks the news to us.
And you know what?
We were devastated because, first of all,
because there's so many question marks.
We don't know what this means.
It potentially means that the baby could die
before she's born.
The baby could die when she's born.
The baby might need heart surgery as soon as she's born.
And if she survives that, the baby might die,
the child might die at the age of five,
might die at the age of 10.
We don't know.
Or she could live, but she might live
with this genetic disorder for the rest of her life
and not necessarily live a normal life.
She might have to live with us for the rest of her life.
And you know what?
I'm a Christian, but man, that hit hard.
It was painful.
It was the most painful experience of my marriage today,
both for both my wife and I.
And you know what?
We were devastated.
We wept, we cried, and we went through the stages of grief.
Whereas just like you kind of wonder like did I do something you know, I'm like well did I preach too hard?
You know you just start going through all these reasons and
You said what did you do? I went to the scriptures
You know, it's just like I have all these thoughts
But quite frankly I need to bring everything into subjection and just kind of know what the Bible says about this
And the verse to keep popping into my mind was John John 9
Who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind and Jesus said neither had this man sin nor his parents
But the works of God should be made manifest in him and I thought to myself you know what this is for God's glory
And my heart is extremely heavy right now,
but at the end of the day I know God's going to use this in a big way.
I know God is going to bless us.
And I try my best to just go through all of the silver lining.
I thought to myself, you know what, if my daughter's born with a genetic disorder,
what a perfect place to be born into.
I said, you know, and all with tears in my eyes,
I just thought to myself, you know,
thank God she's gonna have these five siblings
who are extremely physically affectionate.
She's got Christian parents,
and she gets to live her life with you wonderful people.
And you know, it was still hard.
It was extremely difficult.
And we went through some hard nights
because we had to go to a specialist
to confirm everything that they found.
And, you know, it was like a week after,
but you know, that was the longest week of my life.
Because I had to preach during that time.
And, you know, like, I don't know if I could come to you.
Like, I didn't know how to come to you about the whole situation.
And, you know, my heart was heavy.
It was extremely difficult.
And, you know, a couple of days prior to the specialist,
I had to just make peace with it.
My wife, and I have to make peace with it and I remember thinking to myself, you know what my daughter might die
And I have to make peace with that. I have to make peace with the possibility that my daughter might be the first funeral in our church
That's hard. That's extremely hard and
You know we went through all of these stages of grief and my wife had to explain some of this bits of our kids
You know kids don't really understand at that time. It was hard, you know
But you don't, one thought that did not arise in my heart,
we should terminate the baby.
Oh wait.
That thought never arose in my heart,
in my mind or my heart,
neither came it into my heart.
Oh, she's just gonna have a lower quality of life,
therefore terminate the baby.
No, she's actually gonna have extremely high quality of life
because she's born into this home.
That's number one.
The second thought that I did not have is like,
oh yeah, this is gonna be the last one.
because you just never know what might happen thereafter.
No, my mind is just like, well, you know,
maybe her older brother or her younger brother,
younger sister can also help with us in this situation.
Like I'm already planning for like the,
I didn't tell my wife that, but I'm already planning.
We're gonna have more kids if the Lord allows us to.
And this is not gonna impede me from wanting to have more
kids because of this situation.
And, you know, I made peace with it and against hope I believed in hope, and I didn't charge
God foolishly, I didn't point my finger and God said, why did you do this to us?
I'm serving you, I love children, my wife loves children, why would you do this unto
us?
Because it's, you know, it would be wrong for me to think that the baby was a curse
or something, because my philosophy, my belief has always been the children are a blessing.
One thought that I did have I'll be honest with you. I said if anybody makes fun of my daughter
I'm just gonna whoop them so bad
And you know my church is just gonna have to forgive me and let me continue to pastor something
But then I thought I was a my church probably join me though and whooping this person
You just shake it off
So you know I remember on Tuesday and Wednesday came and then Thursday Thursday was the time where we're gonna have this
disappointment
And I'm just praying and say Lord, you know show yourself strong on my behalf
And I'm just gonna pray Lord that you will just deliver us from this situation
And I hope we go there and we just find that everything's fine
Because I'm just gonna believe that you do stuff like that
But if not
We are thankful for what you've given to us
So we go we go to the the specialist at M M M FM
And, you know, they get the reports,
they see what the problems are.
They do the ultrasound.
And she's like, well, the femurs look fine.
I said, what'd you say?
She said, the femurs look fine.
I'm like, what?
And I'm putting it on my wife like it's her fault or something
like, I thought they said, you know, and she's like.
Then she's looking at the heart and they have like some really advanced technology there where you can see like pumping and
I don't understand. I don't even understand what the ultrasound is. I'm like, oh, is that her fingers?
She's like, no, that's there's our kidneys. He's like, like, all right, you know
They're like, oh, the heart's really good
What?
She's like, I'm a triple check, but everything seems to be functioning with the heart
She's like I'm gonna call the doctor and just to make sure so he comes in and he checks everything he triple quadruple checks everything
And everything's fine
He said well, did they make a mistake? I don't know. I just think it's a miracle
And it could be that God was just kind of doing like an Abraham and Isaac thing
He's kind of just testing us to see what we would do if we would keep the commandments or not
What our attitude would be if we would charge God foolishly or not
Maybe I don't know I
Just know this I would have been happy either way
Obviously it was gonna hurt and it was gonna be the longest four months of our life waiting for the inevitable
But you know and you know what you know something bad still could happen
We don't know we could lose the baby. I don't know
Something bad could come up come about of course. I don't know
All I know is this, is that they're still a blessing
and it's God's will for us not to impede ourselves
from having children.
And you know, I say that to be an example to you all.
That there's never a good reason not to have children.
Will there be some extreme cases?
Yeah, and I think we had to address those case by case,
but in general, there's never a good reason
to not have children.
Well, you know, what if it just turns out down syndrome then praise God
praise God
What if it just has a lower quality of life well as long as they're born into your home. They're gonna have a higher quality of life
Yeah, but what if yeah, there's all kinds of what ifs of course there is
Will there be pain of course sleepless nights yes
Doubts absolutely weepings. Yeah, but you know what weepings only endure for a night though
Joy coming to the morning and my my conclusion of the matter was one day five ten years from now
We're just gonna laugh at this
And be like remember when we were worried about this now is just like a normal life for us
with our child
The point that I'm making here is that children are a blessing
and you should not allow the world, your family,
whatever philosophy is out there to stop you,
to impede you from trying to have children.
And you know what?
Who cares what the outcome is?
Leave it in God's hands, you know?
Trust the Lord and just say,
Lord, the works of God should be made manifest.
We're tools in the hands of the Lord may you use us and however you want to fulfill your will here
You know and so forth and so you know
That's pretty much it and the point that I'm making here is like that's for sure. That's for church growth
Having kids right?
And so I would hope that in the next 10, 20 years,
I mean right now we got like 70 kids running around here.
All kinds of pregnant ladies in our church, praise God.
But I think in the next couple of years,
it's just gonna quadruple and multiply,
more children are gonna be born,
and it's creating an environment of substance in our church
that will last for decades on and for generations to come.
Amen, and so let's work on church growth. Amen in all these three areas. Let's pray Father
We thank you so much for your word and Lord. Thank you for being a God of miracles and
Lord, I pray that you would help us as your people to continue to grow grow spiritually
Help us to adapt to the new technologies
Obviously, we need to do it in moderation and make sure that we don't become lazy and
just kind of give up our personal responsibilities that only we can take care of.
To AI, to technology, help us to utilize it in its proper way.
And then may you bless our church, Lord.
open the wombs. I pray that we would be able to have many children in our church
and at the end of the day children are a blessing and Lord the society needs it
our church needs it may you bless the marriages in our church may you bless the
wives and the husbands and bless the little ones what a great place to be
able to grow up and and I pray that you bless us as we go on our way we love you
we thank you pray this things in Jesus name amen