From shades of night to flames of light, O praise his name, he lifted me.
He called me long before I heard, Before my sniffle heart mustered, but when I took
was here.
Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church, it's great to see everybody
here tonight.
If we go ahead and find our seats, we will get started.
Once we've found a seat, let's grab a hymnal and if we're all ready to sing tonight, let's
Song number 349, the Comforter has come.
Song number 349, sing it out with me tonight.
Song 349, let's all sing it out on the first.
The Comforter has come.
the opportunity to gather here, be amongst your people, and just hear your word preached
and sing your songs.
Lord, we love you and we just ask you to fill this room with your spirit and bless this
church.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 44.
singing out together.
We'll work till G.
Good evening. Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin or you'd like one, just lift your hand nice and high on the front.
We have our Bible memory verse, Jude 9 on the inside.
We have our service times, our soul winning times.
Please make sure you're updating our group chats with your soul winning info on the right.
It's a list of expecting ladies and we also have, I don't think, I think y'all have a better bulletin than me.
Can someone, can I get one for me, Brother Devon?
Someone had a special one.
I saw it.
But we also have, on our Specting Ladies list, one of those has turned into a birth.
I want to give those details, but I need to get them on my phone or something real quick.
Also upcoming events, we have, there we go, okay, so you have the old ones too, all right.
Jared and Tinnika Carlson on the birth of their daughter, Patricia Ruth.
She was born on the 18th, six pounds, 14 ounces, 18 and three-quarters inches long.
Congratulations to them.
It's definitely exciting. Continue to pray for them.
I think there's a meal train in our group chat if you'd like to help them with that.
Then upcoming events we have the Shreveport, Louisiana Marathon is going to be coming up soon June 28th
Please make sure and sign up on our sign-up sheet in the four-year
There's also a July 4th opportunity in Springdale, Arkansas
And Brother Sam Foley is going to be leading that for us if you'd like to go out there with them
They're going to be doing it a couple days and they're going to be targeting some park areas where some of the Marshallese
people have migrated to for events and
pretty receptive. The marathon we recently had in Cleveland, Texas went really well and so it's
another opportunity if people want to participate. Our semi-annual business meeting is going to be
July 13th at evening service. July 19th is a Lancaster, Texas soul-winning marathon and that's
really close to here. It's only like 20 minutes or so from the church and so we're excited about
that opportunity. Our men's
Conference our mighty men's retreat is gonna be August 14th of the 16th. It's gonna be the same place. We've done it every other year
And there's the there should be a sign-up sheet for that coming soon also
Pastor Enrique Reyes from Springcrest Baptist Church is going to be coming and preaching for us at that retreat.
The FBBF conference, August 27th through the 31st, it's going to be Wednesday through Sunday,
and we're going to have preachers Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, and
two services normally on Sunday. So it's going to be jam packed with preaching.
We're going to have events and special stuff. We're going to have our kids spelling bee and
things like that again. And so it's going to be an epic conference. I don't even know how
we're going to fit in the building, but just pray that everything goes smoothly. I've invited
everybody. So, you know, we may, we may pack this place out, but I'm excited about it. It's,
it's supposed to be hot. So
Tim said something about pyrotechnics.
I don't know if we're going to do that or not, but we'll see.
But it's going to be a lot of fun.
And I'm really looking forward to that.
Missions trip to Mexico City.
Brother Diego's helped leading a trip September 8
through the 12th.
And that's going to be, that's really exciting.
If you are wanting to participate or have any questions,
you could see me or Brother Diego about that.
And we're really looking forward to their opportunity
there in Mexico City.
Well over 20 million people in Mexico City specifically and so
It's very populous area. They're gonna be targeting like park areas and major areas where people are just gathering in Mexico
Just in general is a very receptive country. So if you if you speak Spanish though, you know, that's that's the only catch
You kind of have to speak Spanish because if you speak English once you cross the border, it's very unlikely
you'll have somebody speak English.
It does happen, but it's very unlikely.
And even when they do, they don't tell you.
So it's just like, the last time I went,
I got this guy saved in Spanish,
and then afterwards he just starts talking to me in English.
And I'm like, what in the world?
Like, why didn't you just talk to me in English
the whole time or whatever?
But.
Then also our teen summer events. We have July 26th. There's gonna be bowling night August 9th
Is an adventure park and so those are gonna be a lot of fun
Thanks to our teens who are participating in the last one. It was a lot of fun on the back
We have a prayer list. We'll go over this quickly
Continue to pray for the Carlson's parents also miss Miller's friends mom praying for the Scots both parents and also
Have continued to pray for Miss Olivia's health if you'd pray for the Garcia's
brother Tony's health, continue to pray for Ms. Larky,
who's been doing really well,
continue to pray for that full recovery,
pray for brother Brad for his upcoming surgery
and sister's health.
And then if you'd pray for brother Diego's friend,
Ms. Sheila, we've been praying for Ms. Cindy's friend,
Angela and mother.
brother Jared pray for his co-worker Josh also continue just pray for recovery
for brother Samson brother first also asking for prayer for his father who's
been recovering from surgery please pray for the Foley's for their dad for the
kidney disease that he has if you pray for brother Perez's son Elijah for the
who's in the enlisted and that's that's a scary time now especially
pray for brother Philip's wife Miss Carina please pray for brother Gabriel's friend and
For their health and then also if you'd pray for miss or Bannock's grandmother
And so we got a lot of prayer requests there and really we should also just pray that we don't enter into war
You know the unnecessary war, but we'll just say a quick word of prayers of church family
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for those ladies that are expecting and their pregnancies.
Thank you for the most recent birth. I pray that you would just help
continue just growth and for everyone to recover smoothly.
I pray that you'd also bless the ladies that wish to expect and wish to conceive. I pray that you bless them.
I pray that you would also just be with our church family
that's struggling with various illness or sickness.
Please give them recovery and they can get in church.
I pray that you would be with those
that have terminal illnesses or dealing with severe illnesses.
I pray if possible, please just give them health.
Please give them peace during this time of difficulty.
I pray that you would please just help our friends
and family that need to hear the gospel,
that you give us the boldness and you give us the opportunity.
They bring a soul winner to them to get them saved.
I pray that you'd help us.
that need favor with our jobs or with our work right now.
Please be with our evangelists and the Philippines
and continue to bless their work over there
and their church.
I pray that you'd also just please give us grace
as an Asian if possible,
that we don't enter into unnecessary war,
but I pray that your will will be done.
And I pray that as we go through these times,
that we still focus on the gospel
and you allow our church to get many people saved
and that we would finish the year strong.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
It's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We're gonna go ahead and sing our special hymn of the week holy, holy, holy
It's in our Psalm binders. Holy, holy, holy
All right, that was holy, holy, holy in your binders holy, holy, holy
So I'll sing it out loudly together, holy, holy, holy, I'll sing it out on that first.
plates are being passed around go ahead and open your bibles to the book of
Matthew chapter 25 that's the book of Matthew chapter number
Matthew chapter number 25, the Bible reads, Then shall the kingdom of heaven
Be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them.
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said unto the wise
Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out."
But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you,
but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.
And while they yet went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with
them to the marriage, and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, Barely I say unto you, I know you not.
Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.
For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants
and delivered unto them his goods, and unto one he gave five talents, to another two and
to another one, and to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took
his journey.
Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them
And likewise, he that had received two, he also gained other two.
but he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money.
After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them,
and so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord,
thou deliverst unto me five talents, behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
His Lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant,
thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.
Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
He also that had received two talents came and said Lord thou deliverance unto me two talents behold
I have gained two other talents beside them his Lord said unto him well done good and faithful servant thou has been faithful over a
Few things I will make the ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord
Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art
an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed.
And I was afraid, and went, and hid thy talent in the earth, lo, there thou hast that is
thine.
His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou newest that
Thou oddest, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I
should have received mine own with usury.
Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him
that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he hath."
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him then shall he sit.
upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them
one from another as the shepherd divided the sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on his
right hand but the goats on the left then shall the king say unto them on his right hand come ye
blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for I
was in hunger and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and you took
in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when
saw we thee and hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink."
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the king shall answer and say unto them, Barely I say unto you, and as much as ye have
done it unto one of these little, least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall ye say also unto them on the left, hands, Depart from me, ye cursed."
into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels for I was in hunger and you gave me no meat
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink I was a stranger and you took me not in naked and you clothed
me not sick and in prison and you visited me not then then shall they also answer him saying lord
when saw we the in hunger or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister
Then shall he answer them, saying,
Barely I say unto you, and as much as ye did it not
to one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this chapter of the Bible.
Thank you for our church.
Thank you for our pastor.
Thank you for all the souls that we've gotten saved.
I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley,
fill him with your Holy Spirit.
As he preached your word unto us,
help us to learn from it, Lord,
and apply any of it into our hearts
to become better Christians.
Praise in Jesus' name, amen.
And men, Matthew 25 is starting with the word then.
So it's probably important to think about the context
when we explore this particular chapter.
And of course, it's always important to understand
the context of any passes that you go through.
Matthew 25 is really just three parables
that are all describing the same time
frame, or a particular event.
What is that event that's being described
is when Christ returns
and sets up His earthly kingdom on heaven.
I'm sorry, on earth, sorry, His kingdom on,
the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Sorry if I misspoke there.
But what is the context here?
What is the then in context to?
Well, look at verse 44 of the chapter 24.
It says, therefore be also ready for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of man cometh.
So the context was about Jesus Christ returning.
And not so much the exact second, but just kind of that timeline.
Because you'll notice in verse 3 of chapter 24, there's a couple of questions asked.
One of those questions is, what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the
world?
The return of Jesus Christ and the end of the world is kind of more of a couple year event in a sense where you have Christ coming in the clouds at a little bit past the midpoint of the seven years at the last seven years of this world.
And then we have God pouring out his wrath and then Christ is going to be on the earth physically where he's going to be ruling and reigning.
And so it's just kind of talking about when is that all going to happen.
in essence. And that's what chapter 24 led us up to, is it said, hey, there's going to be all these
crazy things, there's going to be war, and there's going to be all this persecution. And then finally,
before everyone dies, all the saved die, Christ is going to come in the clouds,
and he's going to pull out his elect from the four winds of the earth.
and they're basically going to be raptured up together with Christ.
And then until God is finished pouring out his wrath,
we don't actually come back down onto the earth.
But I want to show you that chapter 24 is all about the coming of Christ.
And it's the second coming, is what we refer this to.
Notice in verse 3, again, the sign of that coming, verse 27, notice at the end,
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, verse 30,
and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see
the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Verse 37, but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Look at verse 42.
Watch, therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Look at verse 44 again.
Therefore be also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh.
And then you'll see it mentioned three more times in this chapter in a parable, verse 46,
whom is Lord when he cometh.
Verse 48, my Lord delayeth his coming.
Verse 50, the Lord of the servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him.
The context could not be any clearer.
It's overwhelming that we're talking about the return of the Lord Jesus Christ
from the beginning of Matthew 24 all the way to the end of chapter 24
and then leading into chapter 25.
Again, it's only about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
which is crazy when you have so many independent Baptists today
who will start reading this chapter and then mid...
Midway, they'll be like, oh, this is just for Jews
or some other timeline or dispensationalism
or some nonsense.
That's not really for us.
And they just try to chop up this chapter or something.
This chapter's all about the exact same event,
the exact same timelines.
Chapter 25 is basically just kind of giving us a glimpse,
giving us some parables to try and have an idea
of what this is gonna look like
when Christ actually comes on the earth
and is gonna set up his kingdom.
That's what it's about.
Look at verse chap verse 1 then
So what is the then and refer to Christ has returned?
That's why we get the then, because the Son of Man has come.
Now he's explaining what is it going to be like when Christ returns, what's going to happen.
He says, then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to the ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom,
and five of them were wise and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.
but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept,
and at midnight there was a cry made.
Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps,
and the foolish said unto the wise,
Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, saying,
Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you.
But go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came,
and they that were ready went in with them to the marriage,
and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgin, saying,
Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, verily I say unto you,
I know you not.
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour,
where in the Son of man cometh.
Did you notice how in verse 13 it ties it back all together again?
So verses 1 through 12 have to be describing this process of what it was like when Christ came.
And we can learn a few different things from this parable.
Again, a parable is not perfect.
Not everything necessarily is going to be exact as far as what's going to happen in the future,
but it gives us some ideas.
It talks about there's 10 virgins and 10, there's five that are wise, five that are foolish.
This just kind of gives us an idea of five people that are saved and five people that are not saved.
Now, I don't think you can take this too far, because number one, I don't think that 50% of people in this world are saved and 50% of these people are not saved.
It's probably more like 95% that are not saved and 5% that are saved, so you can't take that there.
Not every single person's a virgin, so you can't take that overly literal.
So you can't just take everything in every part of a parable and apply it to everything.
But it's just saying, look, there's some saved people,
there's some unsaved people in this particular parable.
Now, we notice that some have oil and some notice in verse 3
took no oil with them.
That's helping us understand that some are saved and some are not.
Some are wise, saved, foolish, not saved.
The wise have oil, picturing what?
The Holy Spirit.
Those who have no oil, picturing those that do not have the Holy Spirit
because again, they're not saved.
The Bible says when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that you're sealed with that Spirit of
promise until the day of redemption. You've been sealed with the Holy Ghost. You can't lose him.
He can never leave thee, nor forsake thee. You're sealed under the day of redemption. There's no way
to be unsealed or to stop being a child of God. You're saved forever. Just for sake of Bible study,
keep your finger, of course. Go to Hebrews 1 for a second and we'll see what the Bible says about
Oil is mentioned a lot in the Bible and I think it's helpful when we realize that a lot of times it's symbolic of the Holy Spirit
It's a symbolic of the Holy Ghost
the Bible talks about candlesticks and
It talks about there being oil on the candlesticks and then the oil burning gives light
And if you think about it like a candlestick is often referenced to the church and so as a church we are a candlestick
The Holy Ghost is that oil that keeps giving us that light and we are to be burning and
a shining light and we're not allowed that light to be put under a bushel, which again
is that gospel message.
And of course, this is to give light under the world so that people can be saved.
These are constantly symbols used in the Bible over and over to give us an idea.
The Bible also talks about, you know, this idea of a candlestick in heaven.
where there's the seven spirits of God and it's kind of symbolic of a different things too.
So there's a lot of different analogies, but the Bible brings up oil, I believe, in this verse,
Hebrews 1-9, in context of the Holy Ghost. To give us context, verse 8 starts saying,
But under the sun, he saith thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever a scepter of righteousness,
is the scepter of thy kingdom. Notice that the sun is God.
And notice it says in verse 9 that Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
So the Bible says that the Son is God, but then it says that the Son has a God,
which is what? God the Father. So we understand the trinity through the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, because then we have the oil of gladness being put upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is mentioned, I believe, in John chapter number 3, where the Bible says that God the Father
unto Jesus Christ, meaning that no one's been filled with the Holy Ghost to the same extent
or the same level as the Lord Jesus Christ was when he did his ministry on this earth.
Go back in the Old Testament to 1 Samuel chapter 16. I want to get a little bit stronger, tie-in,
but I believe that's a reference to the Holy Spirit and that kind of gives us an idea of what
we're talking about when we talk about this oil. So, and again, it's not a coincidence that
When we talk about these five foolish virgins,
he doesn't say that they had a little bit of oil.
He doesn't say they took some oil.
He says they had no oil.
because unsaved people don't have the Holy Ghost.
They don't have the Holy Spirit. You have to receive the Holy Spirit
by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're not Pentecostals.
We don't believe this is a secondary event where you get slapped in the face and then
all of a sudden the Holy Ghost comes inside of you or something like that.
No, the Bible teaches the moment you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
then you're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Now, of course, we can quench the Spirit.
We could choose not to listen to the Spirit, we could grieve the Holy Spirit,
but He'll never leave us or forsake us.
In the Old Testament, you know, things may have been a little bit different,
but we have still the Holy Spirit active in the Old Testament
and coming upon men of God.
And notice what it says in 1 Samuel 16 verse 13.
and anointed him in the midst of his brethren.
And notice this,
and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward,
so Sema rose up and went to Ramah.
So I believe that the oil is there to help give us the analogy
or the symbolism of the Holy Spirit being poured out on you.
So the Holy Spirit was literally poured on David,
but to symbolize how God was going to pour his Holy Spirit.
on to David and David was going to do many mighty works
through the power of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
So that kind of gives us a reference.
Go back to Matthew 25.
Not every mention of oil is always about the Holy Ghost, but a lot of them are and that just kind of give us an idea
I'm not just making things up. The Bible is literally showing us. Hey oils on David like the Holy Spirit came upon him
We see that the oil of gladness was put upon the Lord Jesus Christ and yet
We don't really have a story where we have this special physical anointing of oil on Jesus Christ
But what we do have is Jesus Christ coming up out of the waters
out of the baptismal waters and then the Bible says that John the Baptist saw the Holy Ghost descend
like a dove and lighting upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's what I believe was that
oil of gladness put upon the Lord Jesus Christ and of course he was driven into the wilderness
through the Spirit then he starts his ministry after basically being anointed by the Holy Ghost
in a special unique way at the baptism of Jesus Christ. Now again going to this story
The wise have oil meaning what they're saved
They're saved and those who have not believed they are foolish again
The wisdom here is that one group is saved
and the other group is not saved
because the wise believe in Jesus Christ.
The unwise do not believe in Jesus Christ.
Obviously there's wisdom that goes beyond salvation itself
but the Bible liken salvation as to being wise
and having that knowledge.
The Bible also then tells us in verse 5
while the Brigham tarried,
they all slumbered and slept.
This is important because in the previous parables,
you'll notice that it says something similar.
Look at verse 43 of chapter 24.
Therefore, be also ready for, in such an hour as you think, not the Son of Man coming.
So, you know, again, some people are watching and they're ready and they're prepared.
Some people are not watching and they're not ready and they're not prepared.
Those who are not saved are not prepared for Jesus to show up.
And this is important because when Jesus Christ shows up, or you die, it's over.
There's no other opportunity to be saved. This is your opportunity to be saved.
And notice what it had said a little bit further in this chapter specifically about the door being shut in verse 10.
Notice it says,
And while they went to buy the bridegroom came and they that were noticed this ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut.
So when Christ comes, if you're ready, you go in with them because you're saved.
If you weren't ready because you weren't saved, the door shut and you have no opportunity to get saved.
because salvation is by faith, it's not by sight.
Once you're seeing Jesus, it's too late.
It's kind of like Noah's Ark.
You know, you had to basically get on the Ark
and I don't know that the Bible says it explicitly or not,
but you kind of had to get on the Ark
before it started raining.
You know once it's raining and you're about to drown well the door shut you can't get on now
Everybody wants to get on the boat when they're about to drown
But did you get on the boat before it even rained before it starts raining and starts pouring in the same way?
It's like yeah, everybody wants to believe in Jesus now that they're in hell
But God is saying, hey, it's too late, the door's shut,
that's why you're foolish, because God wants people
to be saved by faith.
Being elect is by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ
and having chosen to put your faith in Jesus Christ.
This is our test, this is where we're being tested.
Hey, are you gonna be the wise virgin that's ready?
Or are you gonna be the unwise, foolish virgin
that decided not to get saved to delay salvation?
And I don't think it's very common, but there are people that you'll meet your family members friends co-workers people they'll say
Like they'll explicitly say like I'm kind of waiting to get saved
Who's heard someone say this before that they're waiting to get saved. It's kind of a sad statement to hear isn't it?
Or sometimes you know even soul winning they'll say well, I don't think I'm ready to believe that right now or you know
I don't know if I'm wanting to trust that right now
I'm not ready to convert or change my opinion or something and it's like hopefully they do
But the problem is the people that just keep putting it off. You never know when your ticket's gonna be called
And of course, not everybody is going to make it to the actual coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but when you die, it's the same experience in the sense that if you weren't already ready,
if you're not already saved, you will go to hell.
Now, they ask for their oil and it says,
hey, we can't give it to you.
You know, you got to go find someone else to give it to them.
And, you know, again, I think it's just more about the timing.
Because you have a similar parable in Luke chapter 16 where the rich man is asking Lazarus for some water,
but there's a great goal fixed between them. He can't do that anymore.
You know, we can't give people the gospel when we die.
You know, after we die, it's over.
And so this is our opportunity to help people
and for people to have oil.
So there's gonna be a time when you can't help other people.
This is our time to help other people
and we should take it serious to get other people saved
because there's coming a day when we can't help them.
It's too late.
They have to go to someone else.
But you know what?
Hey, when everybody's saved is gone,
well, there's no one to buy oil from either.
Okay, so it's unfortunate for this group of people.
And then another thing that we could notice is that he said in verse 12 to these other people,
I know you not.
Now that's kind of mentioned in another place in Matthew.
Go back to chapter number seven.
Go back to Matthew chapter number seven.
So this is just all kind of helping us understand what was the parable really talking about?
The parable saying, when Christ comes, if you're saved, you're good.
If you're not, you're not.
That's basically the essence of the parable.
There's other things we could learn, of course, in Glean,
but that's the primary understanding
of this particular parable.
And we don't want to take this parable
and stretch it to something else
that the Bible's not teaching,
because this is what it's clearly emphasizing.
And it's mentioned in multiple other places.
Matthew 7, look at verse 21.
Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is heaven.
Isn't this similar to the virgins knocking at the door
and saying, hey, let us in?
I mean, they know the name, they know he's the bridegroom,
they're asking for this salvation kind of in the same way.
Hey, let us in, let us in.
Many say, Lord, Lord, but they're not able to enter.
Just like the door was closed, they're not able to enter, are they?
It says in verse 21,
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
if we not prophesied in thy name,
and then the name have cast out devils,
and the name did many wonderful works.
And then while I profess in them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work in equity.
Notice it says, I never knew you.
And in our other parable, it says, I know you not.
Why? Because once he knows you, you're saved.
He'll never forget you, he'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
The reason why he never knew them is because they were never saved.
The reason why he doesn't know the other virgins is because they're not saved.
They're not children of God, they never got saved, they never were going to be saved,
and so he just doesn't know them, and they're not his sheep.
Christ brings in all of his sheep, but those that are not his sheep are rejected, he doesn't
know them, and they're not saved.
Why are these people not saved?
Because they trusted in their wonderful works.
We kind of have two different groups of people not getting saved here.
In Matthew 7, these people didn't get saved because they thought their works were going to save them.
So this is a lot of people that are active in a false religion.
Whether that be Catholicism, whether it be a church of Christ, whether it be Jehovah's false witnesses.
I call them false witnesses because they're a bunch of liars.
I talked to one tonight and she's lying to me about, oh, the Bible never mentions hell.
The Bible never says anything about hell, so then I'm just like,
okay, what about Revelation 21.8?
The lake which is fire. Oh, that's symbolic.
What about Revelation 20 which says the death and hell are cast in the lake of fire?
Oh, that's not talking about hell, that's talking about, it's symbolic.
You just said it wasn't mentioned. I just showed you as mentioned, right? Then it's like, okay, what about they're like
But people aren't tormented forever. Okay, Revelation 14. How about them being tormented forever and ever?
Well, that's not the place that you're thinking that's hell and I said, well, what is it? Oh, it's just symbolic
I'm like, okay. How about
Mark chapter number nine where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. What about this symbolic?
I'm like, okay, what about Matthew chapter number 10 that says and fear not them which kill the body
But are not able to kill the soul, but fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell
symbolic
symbolic of what
What does this mean and it's just it's just like what?
Hitting that button doesn't just make the verse disappear or something because it's symbolic symbolic. It has to symbolize something
Right? Hey, we're going through a parable right now, and you know what oil symbolizes the Holy Ghost
Yeah, hey uns
Unsaved foolish virgins that pictures people that didn't believe in Jesus Christ
Yeah, there is something that it means, but you know what by just saying symbolic that doesn't just make the verse go away
Then what is hell symbolic of what is fire symbolic of what is burning symbolic of and they can never explain this to you
Because it's a cult and because they just don't want to believe the Bible
But you know what it's it's dangerous and scary because hell is real and they're really gonna go there
And what I've noticed about false religion and what I've noticed about heresy is they often just hit this symbolic button
It just everybody just wants to make the whole Bible symbolic
Adam and Eve, symbolic. God's going to preserve his word from every generation, symbolic.
Oh, the Trinity, symbolic. God the Father is in heaven, symbolic. God the Father has a face, symbolic.
I mean, it's just like, what in the world? It's like, the Bible has to mean something.
Why in the world would we just not believe the Bible? And this is what's so funny to me.
Most religions it's like the symbolic thing and then finally it's like actually symbolic
It's like Jesus talking about drinking his blood and then the Catholics are like literal
Catholic, it's just like, God the Father is never symbolic,
God the Father has a face symbolic,
just symbolic, symbolic, symbolic, symbolic,
and then it's just like drink blood.
That's literal, man.
We gotta literally drink Jesus blood.
And I should just go to show you,
the unsaved person is a foolish person.
They're not wise, it doesn't click, they didn't get it.
These people have spent time with Jesus
and yet they still think works is gonna save them.
Why? Because it just went over their head.
They didn't get saved. They didn't put their faith in Jesus Christ.
So, you know, in Matthew 7, this is more about people that were in a false religion,
like Jehovah's Witnesses, and they were working their way to hell.
Matthew 25, I think, is a little bit more just the person that's apathetic and lazy.
Basically, the person that just doesn't care to do anything was just not paying attention,
just living their life, doing whatever they want.
I don't have time for religion.
I don't really care.
I'm just going to live my life, and unfortunately, Christ is going to come in a day when they
think not.
For a lot of Americans, I think they're going to be taken by surprise when Christ returns.
I think that you know other countries they're gonna probably go through literal hell
I mean they're gonna go through fire and brimstone raining down from the sky and just all kinds of turmoil and destruction and
All kinds of just war and just the worst things imaginable lots of parts of the world and go through that
But America's probably gonna be fine
Until that day
until Christ comes and then he's just going to roll out
just unthinkable wrath onto this earth.
And it may even be possible that America still kind of escapes for a while
but you know what Babylon comes to remembrance and whoever Babylon is gets
nuked off the planet.
But the Middle East isn't going to get nuked off
the planet.
Christ is going to come back down and He's going to rule and reign
and He's going to deal with people and the people that are there
that are not saved are going to be slaughtered and they're going to be destroyed and I think
that's kind of what this next parable is going to get into.
Look what it says in verse 14,
For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling to a far country
who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods.
We're going into a completely another parable, but it's the same same thing crisis giving us multiple parables of the same thing
Isn't it kind of feel like Christ has gone on a long journey? I mean, it's been about two thousand years
This guy's traveling into a far country. It's been a really long time, but then he's entrusted us his goods
What the King James Bible the word of God the gospel the church. He's given us the church. He's given us the gospel
And he's given us, you know, his holy, the Holy Spirit and we have these things and we're supposed to be good stewards of what God has given us.
We have to be good stewards of the Bible and the church and the gospel and the things that he's given us.
It says in verse 5 and he gave unto one, or he says unto one he gave five talents to another two and to another one to every man according to his several ability and straight way took his journey.
You know, one thing we have to understand, just, this is just an important lesson.
Please just learn this, not everything's fair.
The Bible doesn't teach fairness, okay?
Some people get five, some people get two, some people get one.
Now, God is smart though.
He gives five to the guy that can handle five,
and He gives two to the guy that can handle two,
and He gives one to the guy that can handle one.
So, whatever God's given you, just realize, hey, God wants to give you something, this
is what he thinks you can handle, he's going to give it to you.
Now, I would argue us being in America, being, you know, mostly citizens, and being, uh,
you can take that for what it's worth, and hey, living in Texas, having St. Vest Baptist
Church, having King James Bible, like, I don't think anybody in this room is the guy with
one.
I think we're all, we all are beyond that.
And then even amongst ourselves,
there's probably some that have a little bit more
than others, but at the end of the day, we have a lot.
We've been entrusted with a lot of stuff.
And we have a lot of opportunity to do some big works
for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we should take this opportunity
that God's given us in this life
to do something really big for him.
Because I think that we can.
You know, if you live in the middle of the jungle somewhere
or in sub-Saharan Africa or something,
yeah, you might be the guy that has one.
But you know what, we're not like that.
We have a passport that can take us all over this world.
We have the internet, we have tools, we have money.
Many of us have multiple languages
that we can use at our disposal.
I mean, we are not sitting on one talent here,
but notice God gives out.
different talents based on, notice this,
according to his several ability.
The word several here is in reference to the fact that we have many abilities.
Just saying we have a lot of different abilities.
We have a lot of different talents.
And I think in this room there's a lot of people with a lot of different talents.
A lot of different abilities here.
Now, he says in verse 16,
then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same
and made them other five talents.
Notice this guy used every talent he was given.
Now, sometimes we always think about this as money,
but maybe that's not, you know, the best way to look at this.
Think about this, maybe God gave you talent in money,
but maybe he also gave you talent in the ability to speak multiple languages.
Are you using that talent that he gave you?
Maybe he gave you talent that you can travel to different areas
using that talent, doing missions trips,
going at least on the small towns, so when he missions trips.
Hey, take advantage of the wife that you have,
take advantage of the children that you have,
take advantage of the job that you have.
You know, God gave us a lot of talents.
Let's use all the talents he gave us.
Hey, maybe you're good at singing, using that talent for the service of God.
Maybe you gave you a really sharp mind and you're really smart and you could use that.
Preaching ability, soul winning ability, friendship, camaraderie.
You know, there's all kinds of talents that God's given us.
The ability to weep with them that weep.
and to condescend him in a low estate,
and to provide meals for people,
and to provide empathy for people,
and you know, you go through hardships,
you can help other people that go through hardships,
and you can be someone that just bears
other people's burdens.
You know what, God gives us a lot of talents.
I like this guy because he got five talents,
and you know how many he used?
He used all five to get five more.
And you know what?
Whatever God has given you, often when you start using that, he'll give you even more
talent.
He'll give you more talent than you thought, or he'll add to your talents, or help you
to use those talents.
I like this guy.
He went out and traded you know what also he had to work notice that he got five talents
He didn't just sit around and get five more talents
He had to trade he had to do some work
He had to put some effort in because you know what yes
Obviously, we're fragile and comparison to God. Yes, obviously God works through us
But you know what he needs a willing vessel to actually go out there and do the work
We have to work and we have to do something with what God has given us verse
17 and likewise he that had received to he also gained the other two
I like this guy's attitude because even though he's not the most talented. He still used everything you had to
Who cares how talented you are here's the question. Are you using what you have?
Who cares how much money you have? Are you using what you have?
I mean we can see in the Bible explicitly a woman that only had two mites gave it all the Lord and then Jesus Christ said she gave more than they all.
Like in our minds, we just think like, oh man, I'm not that rich so I can't serve God much.
Okay, how about being the poorest person? You could end up having the greatest riches in heaven.
Nothing's limiting you. You're limiting you.
We are often limiting ourselves by downplaying the importance of our lives, downplaying the importance of the impact that we have, downplaying what God has given us, downplaying the future.
We should be being more bombastic and more energetic and more excited about what God has given us.
If God is going to greatly bless some women for just giving two mites, how much more of all the opportunities we have in our lives?
But you know what, it's so hard for people that are rich and have abundance to actually
do something for God because it's easy to just give two mites away in a sense in comparison
to giving riches, lots of money, luxuries, abundance.
It's harder to walk away from those things when you have a lot.
The young rich ruler went away sorrowful because he had much riches.
It was a lot harder for him to give all that wealth up than it was for the poor widow woman,
in my opinion.
Because, you know, if you have a lot, it's a lot harder to kiss a goodbye than when you don't have that much.
There's some liberty to being poor in some ways.
There's some freedom when it comes to being poor.
There's also freedom to being rich.
The Bible says the rich answer is roughly, okay?
So, you know, there's benefits on both sides, but there's also cons on both sides.
But you know what, no matter what, where you find yourself, are you using what God's given you?
gaining more, multiplying, adding to the kingdom of God,
doing something with what God has given you.
This is a great person that we're learning about
in this parable, verse 18.
But he that had received one went and digged in the earth
and hid his Lord's money.
After a long time, the Lord of those servants
cometh and recketh with him.
And so he that had received five talents came
and brought other five talents saying,
Lord, thou deliverest enemy five talents, behold.
I have gained beside them five talents more.
His Lord said unto him,
Well done thou good and faithful servant,
thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will make thee ruler over many things,
enter thou in the joy of the Lord."
Again, this parable is interesting
because even from the owner's perspective,
he said, I didn't even give you much.
Did you notice how he rewards it?
He says, that has been faithful over a few things.
So even the guy that had the most,
it was still almost nothing.
And so again, from our perspective, we could think,
oh, it's not much.
You know what?
He said, you've been faithful over just a few things.
I'll give you a ton of stuff to now be faithful over
because he that is faithful and that which is least
is also faithful and that which is much is what the Bible says.
And so, you know, our mentality, our perspective
is often warped by the culture that we live in
and just the frailty of being a human.
Whereas from God's perspective,
like we don't really understand.
how things actually work and how things look many times and so we need to stop worrying about
counting and quantifying and all this stuff. It's just like, are you using what you have or not?
This guy had a little bit and boy, God's gonna reward him greatly. I love this verse,
I love this phrase where he says, well done thou good and faithful servant
and it's like the Holman Christian Standard Bible says, well done thou good and faithful slave.
Isn't that just weird?
Isn't it awkward?
And I heard a Southern Baptist preacher get up
and he said, that's the reason why he likes the home
in the Christian-Saner Bible better
is because it says slave so many times.
He's like, it's really getting to that doolos or something.
You know, the Greek doolos or whatever.
He's like, it just sounds terrible.
I don't think it's more accurate.
And at the end of the day, I'm not a slave.
I'm a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I just think that's a silly thing to think like,
I'm not going to be King James only
because it doesn't say slave here.
That is just weird.
I think God's people would reject that translation anyways.
Verse 22,
He also that had received two talents came and said,
Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents,
behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
As the Lord said unto them, well done, good and faithful servant,
thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will make thee ruler over many things,
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Then he which had received the one talent came and said Lord I knew thee that thou art in hard man
Reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed and I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth
Low there thou hast that is thine
His Lord answered and said them thou wicked and slothful servant thou newest that I reap where I sowed not and
gather where I have not strawed
Thou oughtst therefore to have put my money to the exchangers,
and then, at my coming, I should have received mine own with usury.
Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him, which have ten talents.
Friend, everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance,
but for him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he hath.
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness,
though shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
So, we kind of finished this parable on the last guy.
The last guy doesn't do anything. Notice his attitude towards this Lord is horrible.
He says, you're a hard man. You reap where you have it sown.
He just has a really negative attitude towards this guy, doesn't he?
Kind of shows, you know, the attitude of the unsaved is they kind of just hate God.
Because if you really understand this parable, again, we're not contrasting three saved people.
We're contrasting two saved people and an unsaved person.
and some some reasons why we know that he's unstable number one he's thrown
into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth okay and
specifically he didn't do anything with the talent notice that the contrast was
not him actually gaining a talent it was just putting it in the bank it was like
why don't you just put it in the bank I believe that that's basically the the
analogy of getting saved he's saying you should have at least accepted the talent
You didn't even you didn't even help yourself
Like you could have at least just put it in the bank and got some usury off of it
But you didn't even benefit yourself
And it's like the unsaved Jews because if this is really about Jews if you think about it
And if you really want to think about these parables,
it's pretty easy to understand.
The guy with five talents, the apostle Paul.
The guy with two, the apostle Peter.
The guy with none, Judas Iscariot, okay?
And they're all Jews.
They're all, you know, servants in a sense.
Judas was given the gospel.
He was there with the disciples.
He didn't do anything with it.
He hid it, and he himself didn't even take advantage of it
because he was an unsaved devil from the beginning.
He never believed, and so he just died
and went to hell when he hung himself.
Whereas you see the Apostle Paul and you see Peter being great ministers who not only get saved
but also take that money and put it out there and get other people saved
and they are great soul winners for the Lord Jesus Christ
and I guarantee they're going to be greatly rewarded for the Lord Jesus Christ.
So obviously, you know, I think you should do works.
and works help, but you don't have to do works to be saved
as long as you just accept the gospel you're saved.
And, you know, you should just at least get saved
and just go to church, you know?
And it's like saying, look, if you just get saved
and you're just going to church,
at least you're going to benefit the kingdom of God some.
I think that's where the usury is coming in.
It's like, hey, even just showing up at church
and just tithing and just being a part of the program
or whatever, somehow you're just gonna at least
add a little bit to the kingdom of God
and it's just gonna do something.
But don't be this guy that just does nothing.
And of course, obviously I'm talking to a crowd
of saved people for the most part.
There's probably a Judas somewhere.
I don't know who it is, but you know, somewhere in here.
But other than him, I mean, we're all saved.
So we can't be that third guy.
But at the end of the day, we also don't want to be the guy that's just collecting the interest.
Let's be a soul-winner too.
Right, let's be the guy with the five, let's be the guy with the two.
But you know what, at least if you were the guy that's just saved and in a good church,
at least you're getting something out of it, right?
And if I wasn't going to go soul-winning, this is the wrong attitude.
If I was going to be a non-soul-winner, I would at least still go to a soul-winning church.
Oh, it's still at least help us all winning church because you're probably still gonna get at least something out of it
There'll be a some kind of game. You know think about the Christians that are saved and going to a bad church
I don't think that God's pleased with them at all. Okay, and
This guy seems to be like hey at least if you were putting it at the bank and you could get something out of it, right?
But he's an unprofitable servant. He's gonna be cast in the outer darkness where there should be weeping and gnashing of teeth
I want to compare this to Luke 19 as well, go to Luke chapter 19.
What does this mean in the context of Matthew 24 and 25 though?
Well, I think we could look at it like when Christ comes,
okay, and he's on his earthly kingdom,
It's gonna be like the judgment seat of Christ in a sense or this timeline is gonna be the judgment seat of Christ
Those of us that have served God and done right. We're gonna enter into the joy of the Lord
We're gonna have rewards and we're gonna we're gonna get to use those rewards. I believe it's gonna be how we rule
We're gonna rule on the earth based on what we did for the cause of Christ
And so, you know, that's important, but there's not everybody saved still on the earth
Obviously all the Savior coming with them, but not everybody is saved
And that's where we see this unprofitable servants that have survived somehow.
They've gone through all of this horrible seven years of human history to survive,
to show up where Christ is, and then what's going to happen to them.
Well, look at Luke chapter 19 verse 22, because this is like a parallel passage.
It says...
And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant, thou
newest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did
not sow, wherefore then gave us not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might
have acquired mine own with usury.
And he said unto them,
That stood by take from him the pound and give it to him that have ten pounds and they say in him Lord
He had ten pounds for I say in you that everyone which hath shall be given and from him that hath not even that
He hath shall be taken away from him
But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me
So I think it's possible and very likely that even through all that great tribulation all that great wrath not everybody's dying
I mean the Bible talks about only like a third and a fourth of mankind dying in different plagues and different stuff
So somebody's gonna survive and yet that unsaved Jew
Who is able to just survive all of that wrath and get all the way to Christ literally coming on the earth?
He's still gonna be drug up to the Lord Jesus Christ
And he's gonna be killed right before the Lord Jesus Christ for having been that
Unprofitable servant and not getting saved and he's gonna go straight into hell where there's the weeping and gnashing of teeth
So it's like he thought he escaped, but no he's he got right there where Jesus Christ is and he's still gonna be slain right there
And we're gonna see what those people are like. They're getting thrown out
You know some people like oh Matthew 24 and 25 is about the Jews. Okay. Well this part is
All those unsafe Jews are gonna be drugged out and they're gonna be slaughtered and they're gonna be killed because they were
unprofitable and wicked servants and
You know go back to Matthew 25 go back to Matthew 25
But think about think about the what the Bible says about Jesus Christ it says in Psalm chapter number two
That he's going to rule the rod of iron
He's not he's not gonna lay down and just be that slaughtered lamb again
He's gonna be the king of kings and the lord of lords
He's gonna rule with authority and those that reject him are gonna be slain
He's gonna actually enforce his rules on the entire earth
And you know what being an unsaved wicked Jew is not a place to be in the Malina rain
Because he's gonna rule with peace
You know, right now they're allowed to just terrorize the earth and that's why I have so many problems.
That's why we have problems in America is because our country is run by unsaid, unscrupulous, disgusting, evil, false-profit Jews.
And they're trying to drag us into war.
And, you know, they're trying to drag us into war.
They don't want to go to war.
They're not going to fight the battle.
They're not going to send their own people
to fight the battle in many cases.
They just want to kill American soldiers for money
and for greed.
And just because they're mad about anti-Semitism
being on the rise, which is pretty much just natural,
because when someone's just oppressing you
and attacking you and evil and hates you
and thinks you're just an animal,
it's pretty easy to just hate that person in return.
But you know obviously the Christian spirit inside of us should be willing to still give that person the gospel
Obviously, there's extreme reprobates that we don't, but not every unsaved Jew is a reprobate.
And of course, if we had the opportunity, we should give the Gospel to every Jew that
we can.
We shouldn't hate them and tell them that they're the children of God, though.
We shouldn't just say, everybody in the Middle East is good, or those are God-chosen people
because they're not God-chosen people, unless they believe in Jesus Christ.
And then if they believe in Jesus Christ, they would probably want to leave that nation
And because that stupid flag has nothing to do with David or God or the Lord Jesus Christ
or the Son of David, it's ungodly religion.
It's an anti-Christ religion.
It's an anti-Christ state.
It's a fake nation.
It's not of God.
And you know what?
They're trying to just destroy all kinds of other people.
They need the gospel too.
But you know what?
It's two wicked religions fighting over a land that I don't want.
And, you know, it's really frustrating to see how many Christians are just falling all over themselves.
They just say, we need to go to war with Iran, and we need to nuke them, we need to fight them,
and whatever Trump says is good, and, you know, just God bless Israel.
Stupid Greg Locke is out there prophesying about how God gave him revelations about Israel right now.
He's trying to scare people into supporting Israel saying,
God's going to awaken all these sleeper cells of terrorists if we don't support Israel or something.
Our nation needs to bless Israel.
Before 1948, wasn't America doing pretty good?
We were pretty much still, the world's superpower.
you know, earlier before that too.
And we didn't, you know, know about Israel, really,
or care about Israel or anything like that.
So why is it that God was fine with us back then?
And then it's like, from 1948 to now,
are we really just gonna say like,
oh man, God's been blessing America so much.
I mean, we have Zionism just exploding in our country and it seems like our country keeps getting more wicked and more punished.
More oppression, more inflation, more pride, more sodomy, more evil, more bad churches.
I don't see Zionism as a correlation to the blessing of God that these guys keep dreaming up in their mind.
In fact, our nation was pretty much built on anti-Semitism.
I mean, if you actually understood American history,
they didn't want to let Jews into our country.
They didn't want to let Jews into our nation.
In fact, I believe it was Rhode Island.
You can correct me.
Fact check this.
Fact checked anything I'm saying right now,
but I think it's like Rhode Island specifically.
There was multiple Jews trying to become citizens,
and we rejected them.
They went through their court system,
and they said, no, Jews cannot be citizens of our state.
That's the America that you live in okay, where initially it was like no Jews. They can't even be citizens
We don't want them no Catholics go to Maryland or whatever
Go to Mary land. It's like hey
We weren't just accepting of all religions and tolerant of all religions. That's a lie
That's a lie that you're fed in public school that's not true whatsoever.
Our nation was a Christian nation.
We did not tolerate false religion.
We did not tolerate Catholicism or all these other religions.
That was way later.
That was years, hundreds of years later.
even well beyond the Declaration of Independence.
Even in the state of Georgia, you couldn't be a Catholic until like the late 1800s,
and it was due to Jews subverting the state and trying to bring in false religion and trying to change the laws.
You know, our nation was primarily Christian, primarily from Europe.
And of course, why is our nation prosperous?
Because of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
because of the Bible, because of the King James Bible,
because we actually had laws based on biblical principles.
That's why our nation was blessed.
And that's why any nation will be blessed today.
And of course the curse of the world is Jews.
I mean the Bible says the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost
because it's an antichrist religion.
Those that have the gospel, the most blessed,
those are the Jews, the antichrist, the most cursed in this world.
And did you notice in Matthew 25 about this particular person?
I want to, I'm trying to find this verse.
Thou cursed it or whatever?
Or am I just making that up? Maybe it was a different verse. Wasn't Luke chapter 19? I don't know
The Bible says that he's gonna throw the cursed into everlasting fire
If someone can help me figure that out. I'll help you. I would appreciate that
It was either in Luke 19 or somewhere else, but he said
What is it? Oh
I'm getting ahead of myself. Thank you
In the next parable, we're going to talk about the cursed, but at the end of the day, these people are cursed already
because they've rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and because they are damned.
One other thing I wanted to mention before I move on to the last story here is this,
that he says in verse number 29,
under everyone that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance,
but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which hath.
Notice that the guy that had stuff gets even more.
And he has abundance.
Well, this makes me think of Matthew 6 verse 33,
which we've already read,
but it says,
There's this idea that if you seek God,
you, like, won't have stuff or you'll have to be poor or something,
but the Bible doesn't really teach that. The Bible actually teaches, like, seeking God
gives you all the things that you need and even gives you abundance.
You end up having a lot of the stuff that you need and then having above what you need
when you actually put God first in your life. And when you don't put God first in your life,
a lot of times you'll even lose what you already have.
You know, it's just this crazy phenomenon when people just start elevating themselves
and getting out of church and they're not tithing and they're not following His commandments
and they're not reading the Bible and they're not going soul-winning and they're not doing
these things, they're putting themselves first that God will just start taking all that away.
They'll take their wife away, they'll take their children away,
they'll take their job away, they'll take their health, they'll take their mind,
they'll take their family, they'll take all kinds of stuff away from them
and it's like those that actually seek God, they end up getting things added to them constantly.
They keep getting more stuff and things that they didn't even think they would have,
it just keeps being added under them and I'm not saying that
you know, serving God will make you richy rich. I'm not saying serving God is like
pulling the lottery.
You know machine, but it's basically saying look you're gonna have what you need and then you're gonna have a little bit above that
Even you're gonna have some abundance and yeah, I do believe blesses the man that walketh not in the council the ungodly
Yeah, I do believe that when you serve God you'll be blessed in a lot of different ways, and you'll have things
It's not saying that you're gonna live this just like impoverished
Mother Teresa type lifestyle
You can still, you know, have some extra stuff.
But, you know, the reason why you got it is because God saw that you were being faithful and so he gives you more.
It's not because you, like, are trying to have your cake and eat it too.
Because I don't think that works. You can't try to have your cake and eat it too.
You just have to put God first and then allow God to just give you the stuff that you need on top of that.
But when you won't put God first, well, a lot of times you just take away what you have anyways.
We got to elevate God in our lives and put Him first, and when you start doing that,
well, then you'll give you more. And you know, they say, that's not fair.
This guy has a lot of stuff. Okay. Well, if you want more, just put God more priority in your life.
Focus on God more and serve God more and watch him bless you
And even if he doesn't well you just get that many more words in heaven
But at the end of the day, I I have seen this principle played out in a lot of people's lives
where they put God first and he really takes care of them and I've seen people decide to drift away and
Most of the time it's just a total train wreck
It's just and you just you're just kind of sitting here thinking like it's obvious that you know
You're just going down the wrong path here
and you need to put God first in your life.
There's more that I could talk about on this,
but I want to move on to the last story.
One of the thought that I think is important is just,
we do need to work hard.
That's a good principle.
I mean, the Bible says whatever you find to do it,
do it with all your might.
The Bible says to serve the Lord.
Not with eye service, you know, serve your master is not with eye service, but do it heartily as unto the Lord
The Bible is constantly telling us to work really hard. We're supposed to love the Lord that I God with all my mind heart
Minds on strength. I mean, we're supposed to do everything. I mean, I
Think that that verse has to be challenged to all of us. Nobody in this room. I think you just honestly say, yeah
I'm doing everything I can right now
Yeah, I'm using every everything I got I think we can always kick it up and we can challenge ourselves more and we should be
Seeking God more in our lives, and we should work really hard. We just saying will work
Till Jesus comes will work. I mean
Christianity is work. Why do you think people quit because it's work
You know, a lot of people just get tired, get burnt out, don't want to work anymore.
You know what, I want to be the person that's old and still working for Jesus.
You know, I don't want to be just the young guy that served him for five years, or I used
to go to a church, or I used to be plugged in, or I used to do things.
No, I want to be the guy that's still there in my old age and serving God, and we see
there's not a lot of people doing that.
Let us be a generation that does that here's the last parable
It says in verse 31 when the Son of man come shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him
Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. So again, I've been building this context
But this is almost an explicit verse about it Christ is gonna come with his holy angels and he's gonna set up his
Kingdom he's gonna set up his throne
Verse 32, and before him shall be gathered all nations,
and ye shall separate them, one from another,
as the shepherd divided the sheep from the goats.
And ye shall set the sheep on his right hand,
but the goats on the left.
So I believe, again, this is, what is the context?
This is the millennial reign,
just like we saw in Luke chapter number 19,
when Christ comes, whatever's left over, it's all gathered.
And we have this division happening of sheep and of goats.
We understand these two animals often represent the sheep is the saved,
the goats is the un-saved.
So he's basically just categorizing the world into two groups,
just like there's only two religions in this world.
Faith alone in Jesus and everything else works, okay?
We have the sheep gathered on one side, we have the goats on the other.
Notice, obviously the sheep are on the right hand, the right hand,
and the goats are on the left hand.
Just a wink, wink, nod, nod, okay, I'm just kidding.
Be careful of left-handed people, all right.
And he says in verse number 34,
then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,
Come ye blessed of my father,
and inherit the kingdom of prayer for you
from the foundation of the world.
For I was in hunger, and ye gave me meat,
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink,
I was stranger, and ye took me in naked,
and ye clothed me, I was sick, and ye visited me,
I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him,
saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger,
and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink.
When saw we the stranger, and took the inner naked and clothed thee?
Or when saw we the sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you,
and as much as ye have done it unto one of the least, that these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me."
So the first group is called righteous.
Again, when we compare scripture with scripture, we realize the only way someone is righteous is by faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans chapter number 10 makes it abundantly clear that there's the righteousness which is of Christ is only through faith.
and that there's none righteous, no not one, by their works,
were only righteous by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
So these people would have been people that believed in Jesus Christ and are saved.
If you only ever had Matthew 25,
if you only could just listen to only this parable in the Bible,
I could see how someone could come to the conclusion and think,
I have to do works to be saved.
Because it sounds like, or is implying,
hey, the saved are people that did works, aren't they?
I mean, he's explicitly saying, hey, they gave water, they gave meat, they gave drink,
they clothed people, they went to prison, and it sounds like they had a lot of works.
But the reality is that we don't read the Bible where it's just one parable.
Also, we don't let parables tell us the clear statements in the Bible.
The clear statements in the Bible say salvation is by faith.
The clear statements say that you can't work your way into heaven.
The clear statements in the Bible say all our righteousness are as filthy rags.
Also, we understand that the whole context of this has nothing to do with quote being saved or not.
It's just an event that's going to happen where he's dividing the saved and the unsaved.
It doesn't say how they got saved. They're already saved. They're already righteous.
So again, we would use clear verses that say like,
what must I do to be saved to actually answer that question?
Why don't we go to that question and then listen to the answer which says,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
or go to Romans chapter number 10 that describes how to be saved in great detail.
We want to go to a passage like that, not to a parable that's talking about when Christ is going to come,
what's going to happen.
So that context is super important.
But even within this, we can still identify how work salvation wouldn't make any sense,
and I want to kind of illustrate that too, and that's what it's not teaching that.
But what is it teaching?
It is teaching that if you took all the saved people and gathered them together,
those are the people that had works.
And then notice when we get into this next group, it says in verse 41,
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,
depart from me cursed in everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels,
for I was in hunger and he gave me no meat,
I was thirst and he gave me no drink,
I was a stranger and he took me not in,
naked and he clothed me not,
sick and in prison he visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him saying,
Lord, when saw we thee in hunger,
thirst or a stranger, naked or sick or in prison
and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them saying,
verily I say unto you and as much as he did it not
to one of the least of these,
he did it not unto me.
and they used to go away into everlasting punishment
with a righteous and a life eternal.
Okay, so let's deal with this parable for a second.
One group does all this stuff,
other group doesn't do it all.
Notice it doesn't say that the other group did it some,
it says he never did it.
Now, think about this, are people like mentioned in the Bible as going to hell because they didn't do good things?
Or is it because they were a lying, thieving, idolatrous, fornicating whore?
It doesn't even mention that. It doesn't mention sins.
It doesn't say like this group wasn't sinning and this group sinned and then, you know, it's not even bringing up sin at all, really.
You could argue that the Bible says that him the knoweth who good and doeth not to him it is sin.
You could argue that, like, yeah, I guess they should have been proactive here and done that and it's, like, kind of a minor sin.
We're talking about the most minor of minor sins here into not helping someone that maybe you should have helped.
As opposed to the fact that you're just a lying, heaving, adulterous, murderous whore or something.
Like, that's the reason why people are going to hell is because they commit sin.
Right? So what can we glean from this though? We can glean something, that the unsaved aren't doing something that the saved are doing.
What is it? Well, and this is really important too.
It's not that they actually give somebody something to drink or something to eat or go to jail
to visit someone or close somebody or visit someone that's sick because every group does that.
What is the most important aspect of this entire passage? Notice what he says specifically in verse 40.
And as much as you've done it under one of the least of these, my brethren.
That's the key to understanding this parable because the whole point is who helped the
saved?
Who helped saved people?
And you'll notice only saved people helped saved people in these contexts.
The unsaved didn't help them.
And think about what just happened in the last seven years.
Oh yeah, Christians were on their run from a tyrannical anti-Christ government.
What do you think Christians on the run from an anti-Christ tyrannical government
probably needed? They probably needed a drink every once in a while.
They probably needed food sometimes. They probably needed some clothes.
They probably needed a place to stay. They probably needed these things.
And you think the unsaved who are going through this anti-Christ system
were the ones helping the saved. No, they weren't.
It was the save that we're helping the saved during this time.
It wasn't the unsaved that weren't helping them.
And then it's so funny how the unsaved will read this and say we ought to have works to be saved.
We got to repent of our lying.
We have to repent of our drinking.
It doesn't even bring up drinking.
It doesn't even bring up lying.
And they'll say like, oh, don't you understand, Matthew 25 says you have to have works to be saved.
No.
It's not saying that.
What it is saying is because you're unsaid, you're not going to have works.
And you're specifically not going to have these kind of works.
But you know what?
It would be silly to think that the unsaid don't do these things, because of course they do.
Mother Teresa of course went all over the world and gave food to people and water and all this stuff.
But you know what?
Mother Teresa wouldn't do.
She wouldn't give a fundamental Baptist a drink of water during the tribulation period.
She would she would call the cops on the phone and have them arrested for teaching a false religion because she's of Satan
That's what they would do and you know what the Bible says that brothers gonna betray brother to death
The Bible talks about how the unsaved are going to be persecuting the saved
and smiting their fellow servants and destroying them.
You know, this parable is really obvious when you kind of just think about the context.
When you ignore context, you could come up with wild, wild interpretations about this.
But you know what? The unsaved never did this stuff.
They didn't do it even one time.
And you have to understand something. The world hates the saved.
I don't know if you realize this or not.
Go to John chapter seven for a second.
Go to John chapter number seven.
Why is it that the world's not giving us drink and water
and food and clothing and all this stuff?
Because the world hates Christians.
John chapter seven, look at verse number six.
But let me explain this, they don't hate Christians,
they actually just hate Jesus.
They hate the Lord Jesus Christ and they hate the Bible and they hate God John 7 verse 6
Then Jesus said unto them my time is not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you
But me it hate us because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil
You know why the Jehovah's Witness got mad and slammed the door and screamed at me today?
Because I showed her verses in the Bible about how she's gonna go to hell
Had nothing to do with me. She doesn't even know my name
In fact, she was really nice until she realized that I was a Christian and she was really
nice until I showed her things in the Bible.
And you know what?
She didn't hate me.
She hates this.
And she hates Jesus.
The world hates this.
Why?
Because they know that they're evil and they're going to go to hell and they hate the person
that's going to send them to hell rather than accepting the gospel.
Go to 1 John chapter 3 because of pride.
They want to earn their salvation.
They want to earn eternal life.
They want to earn their status.
But you know what?
You can't earn salvation.
And so therefore they hate the one that offers them the free gift.
They hate the fact that they have to humble themselves and become like little children
and just accept that free gift of salvation.
They want to earn it.
First John chapter 3 verse 13 says this,
Marvel not my brethren, if the world hates you,
what kind of mission are you on in this world?
Are you trying to win a popularity contest?
Are you trying to see, like, how much of the mayors
and all the different politicians can like you?
In fact, look, if you're in a room with a Hindu Democrat
and he's praising you as a pastor, you're failing as a pastor.
If you're Jack Treber and you're asked to pray
for the Hindu Democrat, you know what?
You're doing something wrong as a pastor.
How in the world could a fundamental Baptist pastor that's ripping face and preaching the gospel be accepted of some Hindu
Democrat?
Have you ever met the Democrats in California? Not the most godly group
It'll be a cold day in hell before Democrats are saying hey, let's get past a Shelley up here to talk to us
Now look, I'll do it
I'm not gonna criticize anybody we're doing it, but let me let me tell you something. It's me fireworks, buddy
Boy, they're not gonna ask me back, if you know what I mean.
They're gonna say, I hate this preacher.
He never prophesies good about me.
You know, it's just insane what world we live in.
It's like, who are you trying to panor to these days?
Like, who are you trying to become?
Are you trying to just be accepted of this world
and accepted of the mayors and accepted of everyone
and everyone likes you
and you have a five star Google review?
That's a bad church if you have hundreds of reviews and they're all five-star. It's a bad church
Because the Bible says Marvel not if the world hates you
You know what and look I'm not going out trying to get hatred from people
I'm not trying to piss people off on purpose. I mean, I think I'm not sorry if I am
Sometimes I get confused on that point myself, but I mean generally I am for peace
I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
You know, I want everybody to get saved.
I want everybody to get a King James Bible.
I love people.
I want people to get right.
And even when I call people out, it's because I love them,
not because I hate them necessarily.
Hey, I told that Jehovah's Witness lady
that she's going to hell, but I didn't do it because I hate her.
I did it because I love her, but she hates me.
Not because I did anything mean to her not because I did anything bad to her because she just kind of hates the truth right now
You know, God willing she'd change her mind. I don't know if it's possible. Those people are just
Really lost sometimes give you to Matthew chapter 5 go to Matthew chapter number 5. I
Feel bad for people that grow up in false religion can be really hard to overcome
There's coming a judgment day, there's coming the end and I want to be using my talents
for the Lord Jesus Christ, not trying to please this world because this world is already not
going to like me.
I already lost the popularity contest when I decided to become a Christian.
You had to sign up, you had to realize, I already signed up for everybody to not like
me when I said, I believe in Jesus Christ and you know some of those people are going
Some of those people are going to be close personal friends.
Some of those people are going to be coworkers.
Some of those people are going to be my neighbors.
Some of those people are going to just be, you know, politicians and all the people in this world.
I mean, I'm not trying to see how many friends I can make
because, you know, you're going to get disappointed real quick.
We need to be someone that cares about just pleasing God at the end of the day.
Because, you know, man will fail you, man will disappoint you, man will screw up, man will do wrong.
You know, don't let man's screw-ups stop you from serving God.
You know, you read the Bible and even the greatest guys in the Bible screwed up.
Even David has a pretty big issue.
I mean, that's a blunder.
Can you imagine being like in David's close-knit group and you see him commit adultery and murder?
I mean, you think like, who are you?
That would be just baffling, you know Dimas have forsaken me having loved this present world
He wanted to go back to the world how many people went with them through the Red Sea
And then they're begging to go back to Egypt into slavery and you're just thinking like what's wrong with you?
I mean Aaron made a golden calf
Aaron
Aaron is the one that stood in front of Pharaoh
and was the mouthpiece of God to Pharaoh
and did all these plagues to Pharaoh
and then he made a golden calf.
What in the world is wrong with you, Aaron?
You know, it's just insane when you watch people
just lose their minds.
It's like, hey, you preached against Pharaoh,
you were against Pharaoh,
and now you're making the same false God of Pharaoh.
What a shame and what an embarrassment.
But you know what he got called out and then he got right and you know what sometimes people need to get called out
So they can get right
But let me tell you something you're gonna be persecuted in this world if you actually serve God
But you know what it's a good thing look at verse 10
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom
of Heaven.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of
evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you.
You know, you should want to be that Christian that Jesus Christ is like, man.
When I was thirsty, you gave me a drink.
When I was hungry, you gave me food.
When I needed clothes, when I was in prison.
And again, I don't think that we can all necessarily
do all of that.
He was talking about, this is the corporate group, right?
He's just saying as a group.
We were the ones doing these kind of things and helping, you know
I don't think that you should just get a checklist and just make sure you're getting all these checklists
You know live your life, but then when opportunities come. Yeah, bless God's people
Love God's people, you know when you have this world's good and you see your brother have need
Don't shut up your bowels of compassion from him
But rather bless him give unto him do good unto him if you say you love God and you can't love your brother whom you see
How can you love God and whom you've not seen?
I mean, we need to love the people that we see and do good under the people that we see.
We need to take those five talents that we have and go out there.
And you know what?
We need to come to church to encourage each other from all the hatred that we're going
to get.
Go to Matthew 21.
Let's whistle every turn.
Matthew 21.
We're going to go through difficulties as Christians.
And you know what?
the devil wants to destroy this church,
the devil wants to destroy me,
the devil wants to destroy my family,
and the devil wants to destroy you,
and he wants to destroy your family,
and he wants you to stop serving God.
And you have to realize
that there is going to be a satanic attack
against us for the rest of our lives.
And there's going to be persecution
against us for the rest of our lives.
And you know when it comes,
don't think like what strange things
happened unto me.
Think it not, you know, the fiery trial which is to try you some strange things happened under you as the Bible says
It's normal. You should you should be surprised when nothing's happening
That's why I'm always nervous. I'm thinking man. It's been pretty good
You know, I was like thinking that like nine months ago something like man, everything's pretty good
I was just like bam, you know
Look our church and you know the Christians in this room. We've gone through a lot of attacks in the last nine months
and a lot of private attacks.
A lot of people have just had all kinds of crazy things happen to them.
And you know what?
It's Satan trying to discourage you from keep serving God.
He wants you to just quit producing more talents.
And why?
Oh, I don't know, maybe because we're getting more people saved
than we ever have before right now.
Maybe because we have all kinds of amazing soul winning opportunities in the future
and we have the Bahamas mission stripping.
Look, I told my leadership this, I may have even said it to the church already,
but I said this year we're going to be attacked a lot
because we're trying to do a lot of soul winning.
It's going to happen.
And I'm not saying that because I wanted it to happen.
I don't want it to happen.
And you know what the Bible even says that we should pray that God won't cause us to go into more temptation and evil
and deliver us from the evil man and deliver us from all these problems.
But let me just tell you something.
You can't just escape all of it.
There's going to be hardships.
Yet in all that will of Godly and Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
But I'll tell you this.
Resist the devil and he'll flee from you.
And I'll just tell you, me personally...
Like the the first like five years of pastoring this church
I feel like I've just been like terrorized by the devil and just attacked and persecuted in unimaginable ways
Just like endlessly
But the last little boy it's been fine. I'm fine
Because you know what I think that the devil just like he just wants to come at you as hard as possible
But then when he can't get me anywhere he has to move on because he's not God
He can't just attack everybody simultaneously
And, you know, I think he's kind of moved on from me personally right now.
I mean, maybe come back later, I don't know.
But just for right now, it's been pretty good.
I've seen him attack other people.
I've seen him attack Pastor Oz.
Pastor Oz is under heavy attack right now.
Why? Because you know what? He's fresh. He's a new pastor.
He's got obviously a small flock.
They're trying, you know, the devil's just trying to discourage him and try to, you know, attack him.
You know, somebody that you should pray for. You should pray for pastorals right now.
There's other pastors who are maybe a little bit weaker or having problems.
You should pray for them and try and encourage them.
The devil is trying to destroy good men of God and soul winners right now because we're making a big impact.
And there's people in this room that the devil's trying to destroy.
You know what? Resist the devil.
Resist the devil.
Get into church, read your Bible, do what's right.
Hey, if you have a problem, if you have issues, if you need help, ask for it.
So we can pray with you so we can encourage you, that we can support you.
Why do we have church?
We're not just here to just have fun, even though we do, I think.
We're here to encourage each other.
We're here to, you know, bury each other's burdens.
And we're gonna have real burdens and it may not be right now. Maybe you're everything's great right now
Okay, three months from now. You have a problem
Get some help ask people to help you seek, you know seek the Lord
Trust in the Lord, but realize, you know difficulties will come in your life
And and we want to be the people that are serving God
But let me just tell you something the world hates us and the world will kill us
The world just does not like us and you're not special
If you try to love the world, you know what God will destroy you.
Why do I say this?
Well, look at Matthew 21.
Look at verse 35.
And the husband took a servant and beat one and killed another and stoned another.
Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise.
But last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying,
They will reverence my son.
But when the husband saw the son, they said among themselves,
This is the air.
Come, let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew.
What is the Bible?
Every great man of God is sent to the world and the world hates them and kills them and stones them and spits upon them
and wants nothing to do with them.
And, look, why in the world would I think that I'm better than Moses?
Why would I think that I'm better than David?
Why would I think I'm better than Jeremiah, or Isaiah, or Ezekiel, or all the other prophets?
I mean, these guys are way better than me, and they were rejected.
They were despised.
They were hated.
And then, of course, let's do the coup d'et gras.
How about the Lord Jesus Christ,
who's literally perfect, who never sinned,
who's giving them free meals,
the greatest sermons they've ever heard,
and then they killed him and they hated him.
Riddle me this, if they hate Jesus,
why in the world would they like me?
If they hate Jesus, why would they like you?
You know what?
There's so many Christians today
and there's so many pastors today
that are trying to be loved in the world.
It's nonsense.
In fact, if you love Jesus and you're like Jesus, they'll hate you the more.
The more you're hated, the more you're like Jesus.
You know, I like to find people that are really hated for the right reasons, because those seem to be the best people.
Hated for the right reasons.
And you know, any little bit of righteousness someone has, you know, they're just getting attacked, you know, in this world today.
I'm just trying to help you understand that when it comes to this world, a lot of times
our thinking is backwards.
You think a lot is a lot and it's really a little.
A little, you think it's a little and it's really a lot.
You think, hey, I need to go out there and work for myself, no, you just need to put
God first.
And you kind of think like, oh, I want everybody to like me.
You failed.
Quit trying to get everybody to like you.
Just serve God.
And you know, don't try to, like, I want to go to the church where everybody respects it.
Why?
Sounds lame.
I want to go to the church that's hated.
For righteousness' sake.
They're hated because they go soul-winning.
They're hated because they kick people out for being on the 1st Corinthians Vibe List.
They're hated for preaching Leviticus 2013.
They're hated for being divisive on the things that the Bible says.
They're hated for loving the Bible a little too much, for believing a little too much.
You know, that's the kind of church I want to go to.
You know, I want to go to the church that's going to do great works for the Lord Jesus Christ
because at the end of the day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
And we're going to receive whatever we've done in our bodies, whether it be good or bad.
And you know, I'm going to be there, you're going to be there.
I want to see us all get rewarded greatly.
But all I can do is yell at you right now.
I can't force you to do anything.
But please, please, please, you know, when you go through a difficulty,
when you go through something hard, you know, seek some help in here.
Seek help from the Lord, from the Word of God.
Because we all will have difficulty, we all have problems.
But you know, if you get through it, if you're steadfast, often the devil will leave you alone
and then you don't have to deal with it again.
You just have to get through that that trial that one event. All right. Let's go some prayer
Thank you, Heavenly Father so much for giving us the word of God and
Giving us all these different talents. I pray that you would help us recognize all the talents that you've given us and that we'd use them for your kingdom I
Pray that we wouldn't get lost in
The mentality of our culture that we wouldn't try to seek to be pleased and loved of this world
But rather we'd seek to please you. I pray that you would help those of us that
are going to go through tribulations or difficulties in the future
that you would give us the right mentality.
I pray that you'd help us that are struggling right now
to realize that the devil is going to attack us
and there's going to be real persecution and real difficulty.
I pray that you'd help them to draw closer to you.
I pray that you'd give them comfort.
I pray that you would help us to come alongside those that are struggling or have difficulty
to love on them and help them with their problems.
And I pray that you would just help our church to grow closer to each other and closer to
you in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Song number three hundred and sixteen, I have decided to follow Jesus.
Song number three sixteen, let's all sing it out together.
I have decided to follow Jesus.