Be all the folly of sin I resign,
my gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus is now.
I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
and purchased my pardon on Calvary Street.
I love thee for rearing the thorns on thy crown.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus is now.
I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death,
and praise thee as long as thou mayst be brave.
And save with thy death, you lies cold on my crown.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus is now.
In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright.
I'll sing with a glittering crown on my crown.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus is now.
Here's the Christ we have striven,
after our neighbors our own Lord.
Rest, to our souls, the beginning of the eternal storm.
Lo, all the souls of the souls, in which he reigns as well.
Great God will give our faith in life,
through Jesus' holy reign.
Here's the light, now let us show him his glory,
and stand firm, loving fully,
willing for our love, their friendship,
beside the crystal sea.
Yes, the sweet rest is remaining,
for the two children of God,
where there will be no proclaiming,
never a chasing cry.
Lo, all the souls of the souls, in which he reigns as well.
Great God will give our faith in life,
through Jesus' holy reign.
Here's the light, now let us show him his glory,
and stand firm, loving fully,
willing for our love, our friendship,
beside the crystal sea.
Sin and pride will grant our glory,
we shall be on the blackboard,
we know the Lord till the morning,
just till the night has come.
Lo, all the souls of the souls, in which he reigns as well.
Great God will give our faith in life,
through Jesus' holy reign.
Here's the light, now let us show him his glory,
and stand firm, loving fully,
willing for our love, our friendship,
beside the crystal sea.
We praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love,
for Jesus, to thy end, is now gone among.
Hallelujah, bind the glory, hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah, bind the glory, revive us again.
We praise thee, O God, for the Spirit of life,
who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night.
Hallelujah, bind the glory, hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah, bind the glory, revive us again.
O glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
who has borne all our sins and has bled every sin.
Hallelujah, bind the glory, hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah, bind the glory, revive us again.
Revive us again, fill his heart with thy love.
May his soul be rekindled with fire from above.
Hallelujah, bind the glory, hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah, bind the glory, revive us again.
O Lord, a thousand tongues to sing,
blessed be the name of the Lord.
The glory sung by God and King,
blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name,
blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name,
blessed be the name of the Lord.
Jesus, the Name that charms our fears,
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Tears piercing in the sinner's ears.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
He breaks up
Oh
I am reading and so happy
I think of my lesson
I know I shall see
Welcome to steadfast baptist church if you could all find your seats. We'll go and get started
Thank you all for coming out this Wednesday evening
Once you found a seat go ahead and grab a hymnal we're gonna start in song number 409 the fight is on
Song 409
The fight is on
I know you guys know this one. So I'm expecting to sing it really loud
Oh
Heavenly Father we thank you for steadfast Baptist Church and everyone that's gathered here Lord God
We ask that you fill fill Pastor Shelley with their Holy Spirit helping to preach an edifying sermon unto us
We can walk out better Christians. We came in all for your honor and your glory Lord. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen
All right. Next up we have song number
153
This one's a little bit slower, but we've sang it before so if you know it I want you to sing it real loud
How firm a foundation
Oh
Good evening. Thank you for coming to steadfast Baptist Church
If you need a bulletin just lift your hand nice and high whenever ushers can come by with a bullets in on the front
We have verse 10 for our Matthew memorization
Also on the inside we have our service time soul winning times on the right is a list of expecting ladies
Please be in prayer for them. Also. We have upcoming events our rain. Oh, so trips coming up pretty soon
Please pray that our trip would go smoothly and then the cruise trip with some of our church members is gonna happen the middle of
February also pray for that event also and then we have a couple we have a spring recital March
22nd and then we have a kids choir that's gonna be starting on March 2nd
That's just gonna be here at the church on Sundays in between services
And so if you are planning on participating, that's when that's going to be
There's some church reminders down below
We'll go ahead and go over our prayer list here on the back
We've been continuing to pray for the names grandmother and miss Charlotte. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother. Mr
Becca we've been praying for the Millers friends mom who has cancer
I would continue to pray for the Scots pray for brother Scott who's struggling with cancer and also
mrs. Grace for her nerve pain could be in prayer for the Garcia's
daughter Krista who's pretty close pretty close I guess to
Delivery time and so just continue to pray for her. I've also been praying for a brother Tony for his health and work
continue to pray for the Foley's and their
Their visa we've been praying for brother Alex and his work which I think is a praise report
I think that that's been going good right nice. He's got a badge. Okay good
And then also we've been praying for the Good Winds for miss Sarah
We've been praying for brother Nick's mother for her salvation. Please be in prayer for the absols for surgery
It's on Friday. So I guess that's gonna be just two days from now. Just pray for him
Pray for brother Billy for his friend
Blake and then pray for his co-worker Cory and so they've got a couple sicknesses there
Also pray for I guess it's Blake's father
And then also if you'd pray for brother furs brother
Trevor and his niece Hadley and then we've been praying for brother Evan for one of his new converts and
Then brother Ellie had asked for prayer for another
Friend miss Catherine for healing from cancer. So we'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer for our prayer list
Thank You Heavenly Father so much for all these ladies who are expecting please be with them during their pregnancies
I pray that you just please help them with their delivery
Please help those who have recently delivered and be gracious unto their children's development
I pray that you'd also just help our family and friends that are struggling with cancer and various sicknesses or illnesses
I pray that you would just please help them have a recovery
I pray that you'd also just help those that are struggling with a surgery or
They're just recovering right now that you could just give them a speedy recovery as well
And then I pray that you would just help our church family that needs
Favor with either their travel or with their work or with their relationships
I pray also those that we're hoping for salvation
I pray that you give us the opportunity that you would soften their hearts that you would give us the boldness to preach under
These family members and friend meant friends and that you could help us to get them saved
And I pray that you just help our church with our upcoming missions trips
That you would allow us to see many people saved and that we could reach new people for the Lord and it's in Jesus name
We pray. Amen
That's pretty much all I wanted to go over as far as announcements
We'll go ahead and sing our psalm of the week. So I'm
148 it's in our special handouts. So in our binders and
Brother fur helped us do these are really nice. So thanks Psalm 148
Psalm Psalm 148
Sing it out nice and loud
Oh
Great singing everybody as the offering plates are going around. Would you please turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter number nine Matthew?
chapter number nine
You
Matthew chapter number nine
the Bible reads and he entered the ship and passed over and came into his own city and
Behold they brought it to him a man sick of the palsy lying on a bed and Jesus
Seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy son be of good cheer
They say they sins be forgiven thee and behold certain of the scribes said within themselves
This man blasphemeth and Jesus knowing their thoughts said wherefore think ye evil in your hearts
For whether is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise and walk
But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins
Then sayeth he to the sick of the palsy arise take up thy bed and go unto thine house
And he arose and departed to his house
But when the multitude saw it they marveled and glorified God which had given such power into men
And as Jesus passed forth from thence
He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom and he saith unto him follow me
And he arose and he followed him and it came to pass
As Jesus sat at meat in the house behold many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples
And when the Pharisees saw it they said unto the disciples why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?
But when Jesus heard that he said unto them they that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick
But go ye and learn what that meaneth
I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance
Then came to him the disciples of john saying why do we and the Pharisees fast oft?
But thy disciples fast not and jesus said unto them
Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast
No, man put the piece of new cloth unto an old garment for that which is put in to fill it up
Taketh up from the garment and the rent is made worse
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles else the bottles break and the wine runneth out and the bottles perish
But they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved while he spake these things unto them behold
There came a certain ruler and worshipped him saying my daughter is even now dead
But come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live and jesus arose and followed him and so did his disciples
And behold a woman which is deceased with an issue of blood 12 years came behind him and touched the hem of his garment
For she said within herself if I may but touch his garment
I shall be whole I shall be whole
But jesus turned him about and when he saw her
He said daughter be of good comfort for thy faith had made thee whole and the woman was made whole from that hour
And when jesus came into the ruler's house and saw the minstrels
And the people making a noise he said unto them give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth
And they laughed him to scorn but when the people
Were put forth he went in and took her by the hand and the maid arose
And the fame hereof went abroad into all the land and when jesus departed thence two blind men followed him crying and saying
Thou son of david have mercy on us
And when he was come into the house the blind men came to him and jesus saith unto them believe ye that I am able
To do this they said unto him. Yea, lord
Then touched he their eyes saying according to your faith be it unto you
And their eyes were open and jesus straightly charged them saying see that no man know it
But they when they were departed spread abroad his fame in all that country
As they went out behold
They brought to him a dumb man possessed with the devil and when the devil was cast out the dumb spake
And the multitudes marveled saying it was never seen so it was never so seen in israel
But the pharisees said he casted out devils through the prince of the devils
And jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom
And healing every sickness and every disease amongst the people
But when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd
Then sayeth he unto his disciples the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few
Pray, therefore the lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Let us pray heavenly father lord
Thank you for this chapter of the bible. Thank you for steadfast baptist church and the salvations that we've seen
I just pray you bless pastor. Shelly be with them filled with your holy spirit to preach your word unto us
And help us to receive it with a glad heart. Praise in jesus name. Amen. Amen
Matthew chapter 9 the bible says in verse 1 he entered into a ship and passed over and came into his own city
And behold they brought to him a man sick of the palsy
Lying on a bed and jesus seeing their face said into the sick of the palsy son. We have good cheer
thy sins be forgiven thee
And behold certain of the scribes said within themselves this man blasphemeth
Jesus knowing their thoughts said wherefore thinking evil in your hearts for whether is easier to say
Thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise and walk
But they may know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins then say thee to the sick of the palsy
Arise take up thy bed and go unto thine house
And he rose and departed to his house
But when the multitude saw it they marveled and glorified god which had given such power
unto men
Now here in the beginning of matthew chapter number nine
It makes a pretty strong contrast
To some of the previous healings of the lord jesus christ and that not only does he heal the man
He makes it clear that he's forgiving his sins
And that's a pretty
major shift in just
Healing someone because no one prior to the lord jesus christ is forgiven sin
Because it's not something that man is allowed to do
and when the lord jesus christ
Is healing this person he's healing him but also saying that his sins are forgiven
When the pharisees are those that hear this kind of thing certain scribes hear this notice in verse three this man
Blasphemeth why blasphemy because only god can forgive sins
So you have one of two options either a
Jesus christ is god or b he's blaspheming because there's no other option here. He is either god
Or he's blaspheming but here's another
quandary for the pharisees and the scribes and the haters
Is that when the lord jesus christ said unto the man sick of the palsy?
Son thy sons be forgiven thee he literally got up and he literally walked and we know that god here is not sinners
So how in the world could this guy get up in this miracle?
And be healed when this man is telling him that he's forgiving his sins and blaspheming at the same time
It's not possible. So, you know, that means jesus is god. It's that simple
It really just sits there and it's someone that doesn't want to believe that jesus is god or wants to deny
The reality right there in front of them because he is saying specifically that he's forgiving his sins and healing him simultaneously
Meaning there's only one option. He's god. That's it
And so here's just another proof text of the divinity of the lord. Jesus christ
I don't even understand how anybody argues with this. I mean
There is a religion out there called unitarianism
Unitarianism
It's a sect of christianity
I'm sure most of us probably have not really ran into that too much but unitarianism
Denies the deity of jesus christ they believe
And simply the father just god the father being the only god and that the lord jesus christ is a lesser created being
And the holy spirit is just the spirit of god. And so they basically deny the trinity they deny jesus christ divinity
And I would I would just love to see how they would wiggle out of this
because typically what they do is they go to a verse like
first timothy chapter number three verse 16 where it says god was manifest in the flesh and they'll say
Oh, that's a textual variant
It really is supposed to just say he there get the esv or get the nasb or something like that
You won't make these mistakes, but this isn't something that's just like a quote one word textual variant
This is the entire story this is just this is just an example of jesus christ telling him
Hey, i'm forgiving your sins and then then saying he's blaspheming
Because they recognize that for only for anybody to say that they'd be declaring themselves god
And then he heals them my question be to the unitarian is how in the world you reconcile this story
with your doctrine because the only way
For jesus christ to perform this miracle is if he is god manifests in the flesh
Now, of course it says he's given this power into men, but that's just the man christ
Jesus god even in his form as a human form. He was still capable of forgiving sin, but it's only because he's god
Man does not have this power. The pope does not have this power pastors not have this power. No one can forgive your sin
There's only one man. There's only one mediator between god and men the man christ. Jesus
Okay, and so he's the only one that can reconcile you and give you this forgiveness of sins
And so this is a really powerful story in the bible to prove the divinity of jesus christ
And you'll you'll often have people say like oh, where did jesus say I am god
Well, I don't have that exact phrase
Um, but I do have him right here saying that he's forgiving sin
And of course why because jesus wanted to be a little bit
You know, he wanted to
Give people an excuse if they wanted to have an excuse
He basically just allowed people to just have their excuses if they want to have them
Or just try to create some kind of a straw man idea
And so he didn't want to just always walk around just say like i'm god worship me
He obviously was kind of coming on the dl. He's that ceo undercover. Okay, you ever heard this show?
There's like the quote ceo undercover
He comes and visits his employees and he tries to see what they think and how they act
When they don't realize the boss is actually there and it's like jesus is kind of that ceo undercover
He's like hey jews, what's going on? And they just don't want to believe
That he is really their boss that he's really the master
and so it's just kind of like an interesting way for him to
To interact with humanity because obviously if he just comes in the clouds with all of his glory
And anybody that says a crossword is immediately struck with lightning. Well, then you don't really get to see how people react
Just like the ceo. Why does the ceo
Show up at his business acting like a random employee because he wants to just kind of see what are things like
When i'm coming unannounced, what are things like when people are?
Having the watchful eye he wants to see what people are really like and commend them if they're doing a good job
Say like hey, this guy's doing a good job not even realizing the boss is watching here's someone that's slacking
Because he doesn't think that the boss is watching. He only does work for eye service essentially and so
God in the same way is kind of trying to figure out who's giving him quote eye service and who actually sincerely
Is going to believe in him who sincerely has faith who's who's this is sincere christians
Another thing that's very interesting about this and i'm going to spend a little bit of time on the story
Just because I think it's kind of a unique part of this chapter
For us is the fact that this guy's sick of the palsy
palsy
We a lot of times in our modern context we think of bell's palsy, which would be a form of palsy
but palsy is just kind of a
Shorter word for paralysis. Okay, just being paralyzed
So it's some form of paralysis
Typically we think of this type of a paralysis as bell's palsy
That's a medical term that many of us maybe have heard and that's just where part of your face
Will kind of be paralyzed or lose its ability to move. So if you ever notice somebody unfortunately has this
Typically, it's noticed by having half of their face is not able to essentially move and so they'll be making facial expressions
But one side of their face is just kind of just stoic. It's just who's who's seen this
Yeah, a lot of people have seen this before
um my I had a family member that had a friend that had this and
Often we would see it. Unfortunately, she'd have an episode or it would happen and and it was very
It's very interesting. It's very it's it's crazy when when someone is is experiencing
Bell's palsy episodes, but this man is having a palsy. That's not a bell's but it's not a face
It's like a legs. It's his legs are paralyzed
He's crippled he's not able to walk and so jesus christ is going to heal him of this palsy of this paralysis of his legs
But when he heals him
He is saying specifically in kind of a context that his sins
Are somehow connected to this paralysis. I mean, it'd be hard to read this story and not see that he's making a connection
To this man's sins because he's saying
An equivalent statement to saying your sins are forgiven are saying just arise and walk take up thy bed and walk
He's saying this is like an equivalent statement. So it's almost like he's a he's making a
an equal statement about
Healing and sins being forgiven specifically which is kind of an interesting connection that I find in the bible
And I I notice this is in a lot of places in the bible in this chapter has another mention
Look at it says in verse 32
And as they went out behold they brought to him a dumb man
Possessed with a devil and when the devil is cast out the dumb spake and the multitudes marveled saying
It was never so seen in israel. So you kind of notice this theme in the bible when someone's sick
that
In some cases they have a demonic spirit or they're possessed with the devil and that's causing them some kind of a physical ailment
physical infirmity
In this prior part of the chapter this man doesn't have a devil or demon
But he simply is told by the lord
Jesus christ that his sins are forgiven him and then now all of a sudden he's not paralyzed anymore and he's able to walk
I want to go to some more verses go if you would to first corinthians chapter number 11 go to first corinthians chapter number 11
I think that we have to understand that the bible teaches
That in some context in some
in some situations
Physical illness physical infirmities have some tie to sin
Now, of course you you can't say
definitively all sickness
Is related to sin, but I also don't believe you could say that all sickness is unrelated to sin
I think it would be an error to say all sickness is because of sin
But I also think it'd be an error to say that no sickness
Is a result of sin the bible seems to indicate both are true and of course then that allows us to
Try to do soul some soul searching in certain situations
When there is sickness, but look what it says in first corinthians 11 verse 30
for this cause
Many are weak and sickly among you in many sleep
According to the bible. There's a punishment of sickness mentioned in first corinthians chapter number 11 verse 30 because he says for this cause
What is the cause verse 29 for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily?
Eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the lord's body. So the bible is saying when someone is
partaking of the lord's supper
Unworthily, they could be punished with what sickness
So this would be a direct cause of someone's sickness or illness being as a result of sin or doing something
Unworthily go go to john chapter number five go back to john and I want to show you another verse to balance this
Because I would think almost on the surface
You could come away especially when you read the bible
If you're really thinking about it, you would almost come away thinking that all sickness and all illness is a result of sin
But that's not right
And we have several very clear examples of this one is job and i'm not going to necessarily
Belabor that point you've heard of job and obviously job had boils all over his body
Which was a grievous sickness and illness and the bible tells us that jesus christ was moved against him without a cause and so
There is no sin that caused job to experience one of the worst sicknesses and worse illnesses that we've ever seen
Here's another clear example of how it's not related to sin. John chapter number five. Look at verse number
Uh
Well, okay, I i'm going i'm going to i'm i'm thinking about the wrong place we're going to go there next
But here's another example of sin being related to sickness and illness. Look at john chapter 5 verse 14
afterward
Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him behold thou art made whole
Sin, no more lest the worst thing come upon me
So this is a guy that was healed by the lord
Jesus christ of his sickness and illness on the sabbath day when he runs into him. He warns him and says hey
I know you're whole but make sure you don't go sin again because then you're going to get even worse
Than you were
Go to john chapter number nine go to john chapter nine. This is where I was I was kind of leading into but
You could like I said you could you could find a lot of bible
That's almost indicating that sin is like related to sickness illness physical infirmities
And a lot of places in the bible and he's he's warning in first corinthians 11. Hey, if you eat or drink unworthily
Many are sick or could even sleep as a result of this in john chapter number five. He's warning
Hey, I know you've been made whole but if you go out and you keep sinning whatever you're doing
A worse thing could come upon you. Okay, john chapter number nine though. Look at verse one
And as jesus passed by he saw a man
Which was blind from his birth
And his disciples asked him saying master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born
Blind so again the question is for them. They're thinking like every sickness every illness every imperfection as a result of sin
Why because the bible just has so many examples that are talking about it
So you could kind of see where they're drawing that conclusion from but then jesus makes it clear in verse three
Jesus answered neither at this man sin nor his parents but that the works of god should be made manifest in him now again
It's not saying this guy or the parents have never sinned
He's just saying that the result of his blindness is not because of a specific sin
There's not a sin that we can tie his blindness to and say here's the sin that his parents did
This is why he's blind. Here's the sin that he did there. Here's why he's born blind
There's no sin that caused his blindness god just allowed this person to have a very extreme
Illness sickness blindness, of course is a disease and infirmity a weakness in their body
So that he could then come along and heal him later and he could get all the glory
That's what he's saying, but that the works of god should be made
Manifests in him so god allowed this man to be born blind so that when he comes across jesus later in his life
He can be healed and we can see this is the son of god
We can see that this is god manifest in the flesh go to deuteronomy chapter number seven go to deuteronomy chapter seven
So what's the point that you're making pastor selly well, here's the point the point that I want to make is number one
That when we do see sickness and infirmities and illnesses we should try to ask ourselves this question
Is this a result of something i've done or am doing?
Yeah
I think that's a fair question that we should we should examine ourselves
We also should say okay
Because we don't always know we don't want to judge other people
And look down upon other people for their sicknesses and illnesses and think man
This guy must be very sinful or must be doing something wrong because we could be wrong about that
They were wrong about job. They were wrong about this man that was born blind
But what we should do is we should take the admonition of the text and just apply it to ourselves
And just say hey when I have issues or problems or whatever
Is this something that i'm doing and of course we have to understand that in this world?
Young children and elderly people they're going to get sick because they have lower immune systems and that's just how life works
People are going to get sick. It's not always just a result of sin
But in many cases it I think it could be it could be minor things
It could be things like you're just not being very hygienic. Maybe you're just not very physically healthy
Maybe you're just not eating a balanced diet. Maybe you're not getting enough sleep. Maybe you're overworking yourself
I think a lot of things that we could be doing could cause us and they could be like minor sins or minor
Things that we're not doing correctly or doing what the bible would have us do as far as what's the best way to live
Our lives and as a result, there could be some sickness and illnesses tied to that
But there's also just the bible warning that when you break god's commandments
He could punish you with sickness and illness and when you keep his commandments
He kind of says the opposite look what it says in june 9 chapter 7 verse 15
And the lord will take away
From the all sickness and will put none of the evil diseases of egypt which thou knowest upon thee
But will lay them upon all them that hate thee
So god is saying hey if you guys are keeping my commandments if you're doing right
Those really horrible diseases and and sicknesses and things that I gave egypt. I just won't even give that to y'all
and you know today
We we even can see something like this go if you go to june 28 go to join chapter 28
Where if you keep god's commandments and you do what's right? There are certain very evil sicknesses and illnesses that you will not get
Here's one that you won't get it's called aids. All right
And it's not like a uh, oops I tripped and got aids
It's not like you go around and you just you know, I didn't put a hat on it's cold outside and I got aids
It's not like you just didn't sleep and you've been kind of stressed at work lately. And so you came down with a case of the aids
Okay, you get aids from being a faggot. That's how you get aids. Okay, and when you're not a disgusting faggot
You are very unlikely to get aids, but just think there are people that are straight that have gotten aids
You know why because they whore around
Because they go out and they're a whoremonger of this world and they lay with people that they're not married to
and while they may be in a
Hetero relationship or a hetero situation that other person
May not have been that other person may have done things that you would have never imagined doing
Or been with someone else that's done that
I mean the the numbers are astronomical today
When it comes to these quote body counts and it's extremely disgusting
It makes it to where the the likelihood of getting a disease or an illness or sickness is just astronomical
Today, I mean women are bragging about being with 300 people
500 people there's a woman that bragged about being with a thousand people in one day
Wow
It's like all over the internet. She keeps bragging about it. It's disgusting
It's filthy
It's unimaginable
And you know what as americans
We could be bringing all kinds of evil diseases and sicknesses into our country because we allow people to do this kind of filth
And this nonsense and this disgusting abomination and we can't sit here and just say like oh sickness is just a random thing that happens
No, it's a filthy thing that happens in many cases
There's many sicknesses and illnesses and diseases today that are a direct result of sin
fornication and adultery
And all kinds of things like that will cause grievous grievous sin
And grievous illness and sickness deuteronomy 28 warns
Against breaking god's commandments what he could do to you. Look what it says in verse 21
It's talking about when you break his commandments the lord shall make the pestilence cleave
Under thee until they have consumed thee from off the land
Whether thou goest to possess it the lord shall smite thee with consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation
And with an extreme burning and with the sword and with blasting with mildew
And they shall pursue thee until thou perish
He's warning about sickness. He's warning about fever. He's warning about inflammation
Later, look what it says in verse number 27. The lord will smite thee
With the botch of egypt and with the emirates and with the scab and with the itch whereof thou canst not be
healed
There are certain illnesses and sicknesses that cannot be healed
You're a lifelong carrier
of some
stds
Things like aids and hiv and syphilis and gonorrhea and the clap
It's not what you don't want to clap. Okay, folks
You don't want you think that what i'm saying is is hard to hear, you know, it's hard to hear is the clap
You know, it's hard to hear is when you hear the doctors say you're positive
That's what's hard to hear and you know, we should warn our teenagers and warn our children
Hey, you keep god's commandments so you can stay clean
And you think that just a little sickness little illness isn't very much fun. Wow these lifelong diseases. That's what's really not fun
That's that'll really destroy your life in a hurry
That'll take one of the things that god has given you to be a pleasure and a joy in marriage
And turn it into a curse in your life
What a shame and an embarrassment that there's so many people today
That are just filled with diseases which they cannot be healed from and look it's it's related to sin
Go back to matthew chapter 9 matthew chapter 9
People people say and it's so
Weird is they'll say oh I don't believe in god because of aids
It's like no. No, you should believe in god because aids exist
And they almost they blame god for aids even though they don't realize it's their problem
It's their fault you live in other parts of the world. There's all kinds of diseases and illnesses
We haven't heard of that. We don't get because they don't live in a sanitized area. They don't live in a hygienic way
They bathe in cow dung they bathe in cow urine you think i'm exaggerating i'm not you go to india
Men will literally bathe and put cow dung and urine on their face and on their head and all over their body
They'll they'll put it on their doors
You wonder why the smell the house smells weird. They're putting urine on the door
Or
Anything like you're exaggerating no, I have the video evidence
You can close your eyes and just hear I don't even it's weird
They're lighting dung on fire in their house
Which is just going to release all kinds of toxins and all kinds of fumes. This is what happens when you worship cows
This is what happens when you worship rocks
When you don't worship the god of the bible the god of the bible is a clean god
He wants us to be clean and hygienic
And of course the more we get away from god the more disgusting and filthy our society is going to become it becomes like san francisco
Where there's dung all over the streets where there's needles everywhere where people are filled with all kinds of diseases and illnesses and sicknesses
Look, it's a result of sin
It's a result of sin and we need to clean ourselves up
So the lord will put none of these diseases and none of these sicknesses none of these illnesses on us
Hey, if we got rid if we just implemented leviticus 2013 we could get rid of aids
We could be aids free in america. We could get rid of some of these horrible diseases and filthy
Disgusting scabs and itches and emeralds and whatever weird stuff. God said I don't even want to know okay
You don't want to know
Praise god that you go to homeschool
Because when I went to public school, you know what they did
They put us in a room and they have a big screen and they literally show you everything I just said
And you're at first you're like, what is that? And you're like, oh
What is that? They'll show you the scab and the itch and the burn and the whatever and you're just like
Who had to see that? Okay. Yeah, look around homeschool kids
You have been preserved you little eyes. You don't ever want to see that. I wish I had not I wish I'd never seen it
Okay, it did not benefit me it did not help me
It was it was rough. All right
Go good back to matthew chapter 9. Look let's look at verse number nine now
The bible says this and as jesus passed forth from thence. He saw a man named matthew sitting
at the receipt of custom
And he saith on him follow me and he arose and followed him now a lot of people we call matthew the tax collector
It's coming from this passage here where it says that he was sitting
at the receipt of custom which I think is a fit it does seem to imply that he was
participating somehow in receiving of taxes custom
Is just another fancy word for what we would think of as taxes
And so here he's sitting at the receipt. So he's either a tax collector or
And maybe he's not like got the high ranking position, but he's at least a clerk or somebody that's there
Participating in the collection of taxes and so he's at least a low-level tax collector
Jesus sees him there and just says follow him that tells me that jesus will sometimes find you even when you're not at your best
And it's still the call is to still follow him, you know
We go out into the highways and the hedges and we compel people to serve jesus
Even when they weren't looking for him even when they weren't at their best even when they weren't even being spiritual necessarily
Jesus just comes along and says hey follow me. Jesus came and found peter when he was fishing
When he wasn't doing his best, you know, there's never a bad time to start serving jesus
There's never a bad time to be called into the ministry
Or to start serving god or to go out and be a soul winner or to start following the lord
Jesus christ or reading your bible and even if you find yourself backslidden like peter did hey
There's never a bad time to just get back on the right track and start following jesus again
And start going out there and doing the work and what I like about matthew is as soon as jesus says follow him he follows him
He rose and he followed him no questions asked. He just says come and follow me
And you know, those are the kind of people that jesus is going to use
Jesus likes people that don't ask questions and boy, I wish I could teach my children that
You know, hey children when your parents give you an instruction. This is what you do
You just do it
You don't say like why?
I mean, what are we reading jesus like matthew follow me why?
But what am I gonna get out of it but i'm hungry but you know
Just he just doesn't he doesn't even ask any questions. He's just like bam i'm doing it
He said follow me i'm gonna fall. Hey at work if your boss says something you just do it
You just hey, he says get up. Come here. All right, i'm gonna get up and i'm gonna come here wives
Hey, you like this point, right your husband says do something you just do it
Hey children, we do what our our mother and father say
Wives do what their husband says husband you do what your boss says, you know, this one's a spicy one
What if your pastor said to do something?
Oh, it's quiet. Hey, that was really quiet you do it. Okay, right. I mean, it's just any leadership
Here's one. How about when you read something in the bible that you're not doing?
Jesus came to you
You opened your bible
And you weren't expecting it, but then jesus said hey do this
What's your response? Are you going to be matthew?
If he says hey do this, are you just going to do it right away or are you going to gain say him argue with him?
Make an excuse say why maybe later maybe the next day or are you going to be like a disciple?
You know what a disciple is he sees something a bible and he does it then
He makes the change then
He starts following jesus right then if you want to be a disciple of the lord jesus christ
You are the type of person that when you see what jesus says you just do it right then
You know why people are not disciples because they say i'll do it tomorrow
You know why people are not disciples because I have to bury my dad
You know why people are not disciples because they see it and they argue with it. They don't like it
They don't want to do it. They put it off. They make an excuse
Nope the disciples just hear what jesus have to say and they just follow him, you know, we read the bible
We're all just thinking about
matthew
Because it's about matthew, right? It's a book written to matthew
It's about matthew his name is brought up, but you know what you need to do is you need to often insert yourself into the bible
And say well what what would you do?
If you were at receipt of custom and jesus came by and said follow me
What would you do and I think all of us would like to say well, I would get up and follow him
Okay
But if you would have followed jesus christ when he came by and asked you then you would follow him right now, too
And if you won't follow him right now, let me explain something to you. You wouldn't have followed him back then either
You have to be honest with yourself and I remember a long time ago
I i've said this many times but i'll keep saying it
Is I played this game with myself because a lot of people like to play this game. They say where in the bible would you go?
What would you see would you go see the flood?
Would you like to go back to creation?
Would you like to?
Be in egypt with the children of israel and see all the miracles wandering in the wilderness
Would you like to go with joshua and conquer the promised land?
Would you like to be with david and kill goliath?
I mean like what would you like to go and see and there's so many cool things that you could do
But I always just said well, I would just like to follow jesus
I would like to walk three and a half years or whatever it was
And walk around with jesus and see what he had to say and and see the miracles and hear his preaching
Like that's what I would really want to do. And then I I said to myself
I I said that and I thought about that and I was like, that's really cool
And then all of a sudden I said, you know what? No, I wouldn't
Because i'm not i'm not even following him right now
I remember sitting there thinking, you know
How in the world could I say that I would abandon what i'm doing in my life and follow jesus
When right now i'm not even close to that
When right now in my life, i'm not even really doing anything like that. And so then I said, you know what?
I do need to make a change
And I said, you know what? I need to get serious. I didn't start reading my bible
I need to go find a church and get plugged in because I was kind of like not really in the church at that point in time
I mean I was going to church, but I just didn't like the church. I was going to this bad church
And so I was kind of discouraged about church at the time
But I thought about I said well if I would follow jesus
Then what I would do today because I wasn't born then I was born in 2000 not 2000. Sorry. I'm not a millennial like y'all
I was born in 1987
I
Was like well, I would find the guy that's the most like jesus
Right now and i'd follow him
And so that's what I tried to do. I was like, hey i'm gonna go and find a guy that loves the lord jesus christ
That's making a big splash that's serving the lord and i'm gonna go and follow him
And you know what? That's what we need to do in our lives. We need to actually apply the bible
We need to say hey if you want to be matthew
What did matthew do and what can you do because jesus didn't put me at the time of matthew?
I'm, not sitting at receipt of custom two thousand years ago where I am i'm sitting
somewhere in the west texas area
Where it's windy?
What am I gonna do well, you know what I still have opportunity to serve god
We all have opportunity to serve god where we're at and you know what you just get plugged into church and start following the lord
Jesus christ if you really want to be a disciple
And you say this is hardcore. Yeah, the bible's just hardcore folks, you know, the bible's kind of like emphasizing and written to disciples
It's really not for the backslidden
It's for us that want to go hard
And so the people that don't want to go hard they want to go to a church where they're not going to read much bible
People be like, oh, why do you keep emphasizing all these things that are the same over and over because the bible does and jesus keeps
Doing it. I'll tell you there's so many times when i'm doing a bible study and i'm just thinking like I said that last week
And I said that the week before that and I said that sunday night. I said that wednesday night
I'm, like but then I but then I keep saying but I got to say whatever the bible says
And if the bible is just keep bringing up the exact same things just over and over and over and over and over again
Who am I to sit here and say well, I need to teach you something new
Let me teach you about the earth being flat or something, right
I mean that's where you have to go when you're not going to teach what the bible says
And who wants to follow a flat earth or off the edge? I don't that's why I don't even let them drive me
If you get in if I get in a car with you for the first time and you haven't ever driven me before
I will ask you what the shape of the earth is. Okay, don't be offended
It's not because I think anything negatively about you. I just don't want you to drive me off the edge. Okay, so
That's just a personal rule that I have but at the end of the day
We need to make sure we're following jesus christ if we want to be a true disciple
We need to be like matthew and when jesus says follow me you just get up and you follow him
It's that simple verse 10 and it came to pass as jesus sat at meat in the house the old many publicans and sinners came
And sat down with him and his disciples and when the pharisees saw it they said unto his disciples
Why eat at your master with publicans and sinners?
But when jesus heard that he said unto them they that behold
Need not a physician, but they that are sick
But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy
And not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance
So the lord jesus christ hung out with people
That were arguably not the most
Righteous outwardly, you know at least in the public appearance and I would even say just objectively
Many people that were just objectively worse sinners hung out with jesus during his ministry
And it was because they were looking for a savior
Whereas many people that thought they were righteous they were willing to justify themselves
Didn't really need jesus didn't want to hang out jesus. Why because they don't need him
Think about it. Why are people hanging out with jesus because they need him
Why are people not wanting to hang out with them because they don't think that they need him and it shows that their heart is
Based on a works-based salvation versus these people that are looking for a savior and grace and mercy
That's what he says in verse number 13, I will have mercy and not sacrifice
He wants people to just come to him and just ask for free salvation
Ask for the free gift. Whereas these pious
Religious leaders want to go and do some great sacrifice. What good thing?
May I do that? I may have everlasting life or eternal life. They want to do some kind of a sacrifice
Why because they want the honor and glory for their salvation. They're looking to earn their salvation
They're not looking for mercy and that's why they don't receive it
Those who try to earn their salvation will never acquire it those who try to buy it or pay for it will never get it
And of course you have to ask yourself this question
Why would I seek a physician if i'm not sick and the answer is you shouldn't yeah
Don't go to the doctor if you're not sick
A lot of people go when they're not sick wellness check, okay
I don't I mean i'm not saying that's completely wrong
But at the end of the day he's kind of saying like they that be whole
Need not a physician what's the cardinal truth?
If you're whole you don't need a bunch of doctor medicine
You know, here's an application. I always make out of this is why would I take a perfectly healthy baby and stab him with 32 vaccines?
I mean, what did jesus say they that behold need not a physician. Oh except for all these magical vaccines that are going to help him
Get what sid's?
sudden infant death syndrome that's
Unexplained
It's like hey, I know we gave him a bunch of vaccines and the next day he woke up dead unrelated though
That's what the doctor will tell you after he kills your baby
It's called sids. We don't know what happened. We don't know why
But sorry, we're moving on to the next patient
You know come back when you have another kid that we can kill
And it's not that every kid that gets vaccine dies from it
Obviously, it would be pretty obvious if every single one of them were dying
But I don't want to play russian roulette with my child
Even if it's one out of a hundred, I just don't want to play that game
And so i'm not really into that. That's not my thing. Is there plenty of people that have been vaccinated and survived? Yeah
There's plenty of dumb. You could probably punch yourself in the face and survive
Okay, there's a lot of people that broken their bones and survived just because you can survive something doesn't mean it's good
Doesn't mean that it's healthy doesn't even make it the right decision and here's my question. Do you even believe this verse?
You know people get mad at me about what I just said
But what is the carnal truth that jesus gave us they that behold need not a physician?
People that are healthy don't need a doctor now if you're sick
You could need a doctor i'm not against doctors
But when i'm healthy, i'm not really there. I'm not really their best friend. I'm not really even into them that much
Okay, and even some doctors they're not very good anyways, but there could be a good doctor obviously doctors have a place in society
you know if I get my
Leg or finger or arm cut off or something. I'm gonna go to the emergency room
You better believe it if I need surgery, I would probably take surgery if I need surgery, you know
I'm not saying that there is
There isn't a physician there isn't a doctor out there, you know, if you're having a heart attack if you're choking
I mean there's going to be times for medical emergencies those type of people make sense
Okay, there could be something on your body that's growing and it's weird and you need to have it checked out
Okay, i'm i'm for that i'm for doctors when you're sick
When you're not sick, you know, you should be careful and you should be careful. Sometimes the cure
Is is is uh worse than the illness
When you're getting all this radiation treatment and x-rays and they're scanning every part of your body
You kind of have to sometimes wonder are they even causing the problem?
That they're trying to look for
That's a whole nother sermon. I I just this verse is really important to me, but what's the spiritual truth we draw from this?
Well, if you don't think you need to be saved
Why would you even hang out with jesus and see that's the problem for many people that don't think they need to be saved
They're not looking for salvation
There's a lot of people we knock on their door and you say hey
Are you 100 sure if you die today you go to heaven they say yes
And then you say how do you know that and this is the next response. I don't know
I don't know
What you know for sure you're saved but you don't even know how to get saved
Like it's it's that just shows someone's heart is not searching though
And their mind they're whole in their mind
They don't need plus there's plenty of people that will say they know and then they have a bad answer, too
They'll simply say because i'm a good person because I went to confession. I had a catholic priest as my neighbor
In the past and I knocked on his door
He's very upset he was did not like the fact that I was talking to him about the bible
I guess catholics hate the bible and
I asked him. Hey, if you're ready to die today, are you sure you go to heaven? He said absolutely
I had a really good confession today
I was thinking like what and then when I was talking with him
I was trying to explain like hey, I go out we preach the gospel
We're trying to get people saved and he says well, it's not my job to get people saved
And he said he was a catholic archbishop
Bishop
Because he was like over the local parish and he'd just gotten promoted to be like this
Archbishop where he's going to be over like multiple catholic churches in our whole region or something like that
And he says it's not my job to care whether people are saved or not
It's like what is wrong with you?
I just couldn't even believe what I was hearing
Of course has all these merry shrines and all this idolatry in his household
Nice guy I guess you could say other than the fact that he doesn't care about you and doesn't want you to go to heaven
But I mean other than that, I mean just a really upstanding citizen
But he's one of these individuals that thinks he's whole
He doesn't think he needs a physician
Whereas the sinful that he looks down upon and thinks that they're headed for hell
Are actually many cases the people that are going to seek for a savior and get saved
Whereas he himself is going to find himself thrust out and jesus saying I never knew you
Depart from me ye that work iniquity
Hey, I was still kind of the guy I still tried to offer him, you know my explanation of salvation
But at the end of the day wasn't interested didn't like it was a heretic a raging heretic and a false prophet
And you know, he's going to die and go to hell
Even though he might be less sinful than the derelicts of society
He might be less sinful than the people go and talk to in south dallas
He might be less sinful than some of the people that even come to our church
But at the end of the day, you know what? It's not about how many sins you have
Because we're all sinners
And we all need a physician and none of us are whole
that's why you were supposed to believe in jesus christ in the first place and of course jesus using these things as
You know for lack of a better word a puzzle
Or a parable to help people realize the ultimate truth of what he's trying to explain here
Why are you worried about them coming to me?
You know, why are you mad that they're coming to me if they're sick? Don't they need a doctor?
The reason why you don't like it is because you don't realize you need a doctor
And because you just don't like the great physician, which is jesus christ, and he wants to have mercy not sacrifice
Look, he's not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Here's the thing. Once you have been saved
Once you've been made whole
You don't need salvation anymore
I mean if you're saved you don't need to be saved again. In fact, you cannot be saved again
Otherwise you're going to crucify yourself. You're going to crucify christ to yourself again
As hebrews chapter number six says I mean you can't
Go back, even if you fall away
You don't need to be renewed again under repentance seeing that you crucify the son of christ afresh and put him to an open shame
Christ is a once for all sacrifice. He already paid all of your sins. Once you're whole you're whole you've been all things become new
Your your new man can't even sin
According to the bible all things are passed away and become new
You can't even come into future condemnation in john chapter number five. I mean you have everlasting life
You're sealed under the day of redemption. It's a done deal. You've been made whole but they that are whole
Need not a physician
You don't need that anymore. Once you're saved you're always saved look at verse 20 skip down
We have kind of a similar story says and behold a woman which was diseased with an issue of blood 12 years came behind him
And touched the hem of his garment
For she said within herself if I may but touch his garment
I shall be whole so again the whole there was a physical healing. Of course
She wanted to be physically healed but then the spiritual significance
Of being whole again is now that you're righteous
He go to keep your finger go to second chronic. I'm sorry second corinthians chapter number five and the bible makes it clear
That he took our sins
From us so that we could have his righteousness so that we could be
Made whole look what it says in second corinthians chapter five verse number 20
Now then we are ambassadors for christ as though god to beseech you by us
We pray you in christ said be reconciled to god for you have made him to be sinned for us who knew no sin that we
Might be made the righteousness of god and him so we are now righteous. I am righteous in my new man
I don't need salvation anymore because i'm saved because I already have the righteousness of christ imputed unto me
I have as imputed righteousness and i've been made whole now
What gave me that in matthew chapter 9 where we were look at verse number 22?
But jesus turned him about and when he saw her he said daughter
Be of good comfort thy faith
Hath made thee whole so what gave her physical healing was faith. You know, it gives us spiritual healing faith
It's the same thing, you know, it makes you whole in the sight of christ your faith
That's why it's faith alone because it wasn't faith plus something that made me whole
It was my faith alone that made me whole in jesus christ
That made me righteous in his sight and it's by faith alone that we're saved
No works of no works of righteousness that I have I have none i'm filthy rags
I am a sinner. We're all sinners and it's by his righteousness that he gives us that salvation
Go back up to verse 14 the bible says then came to him the disciples of john saying
Why do we and the Pharisees fast off but thy disciples fast not and jesus said unto them?
Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast
No man put the piece of a new cloth onto an old garment for that which is put in to fill
It up taketh from the garment and the rent is made worse
Neither men put new wine into old bottles
else the
Bottles break and the wine runneth out and the bottles perish but they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved
So we have another kind of parable here
This is mentioned in other
um gospels as well and it's a little different they
Jesus brings up a few other elements to this story, but if you think about what he's trying to communicate with in verse number 15
He's saying it doesn't really make sense to be in mourning and fasting when you're hanging out with jesus
Because this is a time to enjoy. This is a time to be happy. This is a time to
essentially
Do the things that are good you're having a good time
It wouldn't be fitting for them to just constantly be sad and be upset and abstain from eating food
When they're hanging out with jesus in this part, so the the timing is not right
It's not the right fit and then he brings up these two examples
To teach that same lesson one is putting a new piece of cloth in an old garment
But he's saying if you do this, it's actually going to make the old garment worse
So you have a tear in the garment you put in a new piece. Well, that new piece is so strong
It's going to pull at that
Cut and it's actually going to tear it even a little bit further
Or he brings up this parable or this idea this carnal truth that you wouldn't put new wine
Into an old wine skin
The old wine skin has essentially gone through the pressure and the elements of that fermentation process
or just
If it wasn't alcoholic wine, maybe it was just just through wear and tear and through wear and tear
You wouldn't want to put something that's valuable or you want to preserve and something that's old and going to be worn out
Because that old and worn out may not preserve it may break easier
It may fall apart and then you're going to end up losing that
Wine so it's saying you're going to put new wine into new wine skins and then both are preserved
Meaning by putting the new wine into an old wine skin
You could ruin the wine skin and ruin the wine essentially because the wine skin can't handle it. It's going to break
It's going to have a problem. So it breaks and then the wine spills out and you lose both
So it's saying you got to put new wine into new wine skins so that they can be preserved
What is the what is the understanding here?
Not everything's the right fit
And not everything's the right timing
Okay, so we want to make sure there's a time to mourn
There's a time to dance
There's a time to love there's a time to hate so we just don't want to put the wrong emotion with the wrong timing
And you know, there's there's a million applications we could make out of this you may even be making them right now
One example that's good is just emotionally if someone just lost someone close to them
That's not a time to dance. That's not a time to be happy
You know, we should essentially try to match we should mourn with them that mourn, right?
We should try to match our emotions with people throughout whatever what experience they're having
If someone just says hey, I got a new house or i'm getting married or I got a new job
That's not the time to rain on their parade. That's not the time to be like man. We should fast
And we should mourn let's cry together, you know, like that's just not really the right emotion
So what what jesus is wanting people to do and learn part of the bible
He's trying to explain is we need to match other people's emotions
And we need to try and be empathetic and think about how other people are feeling
Think about what kind of situations they're going through and and try to have the right kind of emotions
You know some people
They just kind of like allow their emotions to dictate the circumstance
Instead of allowing the circumstance to dictate their emotions
And what's a sign of maturity is when you can take control of your emotions where you say?
Hey
This is a time when i'm supposed to be happy
So I need to learn how to make myself happy in this moment or this is a time to be sad
so I need to take in the seriousness and the soberness of the situation and I need to you know,
Be maybe grieving or maybe be upset about the circumstance
And we live in a society and in a culture that doesn't understand this they're very immature
They want to dictate the circumstances by their emotions. Well, i'm feeling bad. So therefore it's a bad time where i'm feeling good
And therefore it's a good time. No, we need to make sure that we're understanding the circumstance and that i'm matching our emotions
With the circumstance, you know when you come to church that's a time to be sober. That's a time to be serious
That's a time to worship god. It's not a time to joke and to play around and to be silly
It's a time to take the things of god seriously
Hey when you're at a wedding if you ever go to a wedding be happy
Don't walk around just like
My life's bad. We don't care about you right now. Yeah, it's about the wedding party
Be happy for them just and if you're not happy don't show up
If you just got a promotion and married and a bonus and won the lottery
Don't go to the funeral and just be like my life's on cloud nine
Sorry, you lost your husband. Sorry. You lost your wife and your kids, but my life's great
You know, that would be terrible
You know, we want to make sure that we're matching our emotion. Yeah, if you're hanging out with jesus
Walking around he's doing miracles. That's not a time to mourn and be sad and to be upset
And and I think here will be an application
When you're in a great church going soul winning and doing great things for the lord. That's not a time to be upset
You know when some of our church members are being taken out and stoned and persecuted for the cause of christ
That's a time to start getting upset
But you know a lot of people are just really upset right now when honestly things are actually in a good time
Let's not have the wrong emotion
When jesus just keeps blessing us and keeps giving us more freedom and more free course and an opportunity to get a lot of people
Say this is not a time to have a sad emotion
This is a time to be happy and rejoicing and doing the work of god. Hey, there may be days of mourning
But if it's not a legit time of mourning then, you know, maybe you should change your emotions
So like why don't i'm kind of upset
But is the circumstances dictating that because maybe you need to change your emotion. Maybe your circumstance isn't even that bad
Read the bridge at andow and then tell me your situation's bad
Read a book about communism
Read a book about all kinds of things throughout history read about just a daily life 50 years ago or 100 years ago
What what kind of challenges and oppositions they had to go through?
I mean in many cases our lives are just so great
Yet we just try to find something wrong with it
People are trying to find people just want to be upset
And it's just so annoying. It's so annoying when children and people and employees and co-workers
And spouses and whoever are just upset and it's like you have no reason to be upset
Your life is great
You're healthy. Your children are healthy. You you got money in the bank. You can have any food that you want
You can go to church and you can go soul-winning and like you still have youth and it's like why are you so upset?
You know, it's just there's this depression out there this depression mindset that just wants to think about every negative thing they can dream up
Even many things that aren't even real or even happening to them. I just think people don't like me
Why I just think that
Well, did someone say something? No, they invited me to a party. I think it's because they don't like me
I mean people be like this and you're just like what's wrong with you?
Like I just don't feel like I have many friends. Well, have you invited me to go to lunch? No, you invite anybody over
No, do you go and talk to buddy? No
Just I don't have a lot of friends. Well, yeah, if you just look at the floor and you're awkward and don't talk to anybody
Maybe nobody wants to be a friend, but if you know you smile you're happy
You talk to people and when you talk to people you ask them about them
Here's how you have friends ask people about their lives
Because everybody loves to talk about themselves
So if you can learn how to not talk about yourself
You can have lots of friends because everybody want to tell you all about themselves, okay
Go around and just talk to people be friendly be kind
Everybody wants you to buy them a meal everybody wants you to invite them over everybody
I mean, it's just it's easy to have friends when you're willing to give
It's not as easy to be friends when you're a taker
And you know, i'll be honest. I've examined my friend life a lot throughout the years
And I've realized like most of my friends were only takers
But i'd rather have friends than just not have friends
and it's like if I was waiting for friends to just come out of the woodwork and just
Be a giver to me. I probably wouldn't have any friends either
You know, so you just have to you just have to just suck it up and say hey
I'm going to be the giver in this relationship, but I just want to be your friend anyways
And you know, I have had friends and I have had plenty of friends over the years that have also been
A better friend to me than i've been to them
But at the end of the day most of my friends if I were just to be honest with you real blunt
Most of my friends i've given way more into the rate relationship than they have it's really lopsided
But I still like them
Because that's what a friend is just like jesus is our friend
It's really lopsided and how much he's given to us in comparison to what we've given to him
And if you want to have a lot of friends just give here's one other application we can make out of this
It seems like you can't really put the new ifb into the old ifb
Because they can't handle it and then it breaks both doesn't it?
It just kind of ruins both. Sometimes it makes the rent even worse in the old ifb, doesn't it?
And so, you know, maybe you should just go to a new ifb church, you know, I mean, hey
There's there's an application
Says in verse 18 while he spake these things unto them behold there came a certain ruler
And worshiped him saying my daughter is even now dead but come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live
And jesus arose and followed him and so did his disciples and behold a woman. We already read this
This guy's asking for jesus to heal his daughter who's dead
And then we get interrupted with the story about the one with the issue of blood for 12 years
And another passage of the bible says that she had wasted all her money on the physicians
And wasn't better, but she only grew worse saying that not all doctors are good necessarily
That's like you went to the jehovah's witnesses for 12 years
You went to the catholics for 12 years and you went to false religion for 12 years and you went to the non-denominational
Church for 12 years and you got worse
But what I like about this story in verse 18, here's a guy a certain ruler, you know what he believes in
the resurrection from the dead
There's a guy that believes in the resurrection because he's asking for his daughter to be resurrected
No one would come and ask for a resurrection if they don't even believe in resurrection
So we see people believing in the resurrection in the old testament, of course
Jesus is going to come and heal this daughter
It says in verse 23 when the jesus came into the ruler's house and saw the minstrels and people making a noise
He said unto them give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth and they laughed him to scorn
Here's an important lesson. If you serve jesus people make fun of you
And a lot of times when you explain something in the bible to somebody people laugh at you
I think that doesn't make sense or that's that's silly or that's dumb
But what jesus said is true
Now they just didn't understand it when he's saying sleep. She's he's obviously not saying that she isn't physically dead
It's just when you're dead and saved you're sleeping
Because you are going to be reunited with your body
At the resurrection, of course, it'll be changed into a glorious body
But that's one of the terms the bible talks about in verse thessalonians chapter 4 talks about those
Who sleep and sleep in jesus and so that's often a reference of people that are saved
That's why I also think in the old testament when you read about the kings
And they'll say that they slept with their fathers. I think that's a euphemism for people that are saved
Because they're sleeping and they're sleeping with their fathers and it's just kind of a metaphor to let you know
Hey wink wink nod nod this guy's up in heaven with his fathers because because
While the bible uses the word dead or die for people that are saved for sure uses it death is
technically for only those in hell
Now i'm not a joe's witness I don't believe in soul sleep because my soul isn't sleeping my body's sleeping
Okay, soul sleep is a false doctrine
But your body is going to be sleep. Okay in the sense that
The spirit without the body is dead. So your body will be dead your physical body, but it's also considered sleep in a sense
In the bible and of course at some point that old body will be reunited with your soul
And it'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye and you'll have a glorious
resurrected body
Resurrect is to basically bring up again. And so
Something's coming up. What is it? It's your body and it's just in a sense
It's sleeping because it's not really doing anything just like faith that works is dead
When you're not really serving god, you're not doing anything and when you're dead, you're not really doing anything for god while you're alive
This is the time to do something for the lord. Jesus christ
Don't let the people that make fun of you win
Couldn't jesus be like, oh they're laughing they don't they're mocking at me so i'm gonna not do what i'm supposed to do here
Ignore the haters ignore the trolls ignore the scorners ignore the mockers ignore all the meme makers
Ignore and this is what's so funny the people that don't like jesus and the truth their memes are stupid anyways
Their jokes aren't even funny anyways
It's like when everything was going woke man comedy was just dying fast
Because you know what makes something funny. It's true
The more true it is the funnier it is the less true it is the less comical it usually is
And so what makes things truly funny is actually the fact that they're true
So, you know their jokes are really lame anyways, just don't even just don't even worry about it verse 25
But when the people were put forth he went in and took her by the hand and the maid arose
And the fame here of went abroad into all that land
And when jesus departed then two blind men followed him crying and saying thou son of david have mercy on us
And when he was coming to the house the blind men came to him and jesus saith unto them believe you that i'm able to
Do this they say unto him yay lord then touched either eyes saying according to your faith be it unto you
So he heals this young lady
His fame goes out everywhere. We see the lord jesus christ. He can do anything
I mean, he's healing people in chapter number eight of big middle and small illnesses and sicknesses
In chapter 90 ramps it up. It's palsy. He's forgiving sin
Not only is that he's casting out devils. In fact, he's also just raising people from the dead
Just everything and anything you could think of he's capable of doing
And these men they're coming unto him. He asks them specifically. Do you think i'm able to do this?
What is it that he wants them to have?
Faith and what saves them according to your faith be it unto you
If you believe that jesus christ is going to raise you from the dead
He's going to raise you from the dead
It's because you put your faith in him to raise you from the dead not your works
Not your self-effort. It's be it on your faith on you. I think this is
one context salvation
I like how all the people that want salvation they ask him for don't they they come and grab them by the garment
They say thou son of david have mercy on me
They're going and seeking him and they're asking and as soon as they ask in faith
They receive it every single time. I also think you could apply this though
to
Just our life circumstance
If you want something to be accomplished in your life
Here's the question. Do you have enough faith to accomplish it?
And jesus will answer your prayers. I believe in many cases like this according to your faith
Be it unto you how big a faith do you have
You know, there's going to be difficult situations in our life. There's people that are maybe difficult to get saved. Well
Be it on your faith
According to thy faith be it unto you, you know may think that your life circumstances in a situation where it's not looking good
Maybe you're struggling to find a spouse. Maybe you're struggling to get the right job. Maybe you're struggling with children
Like to have children or the children that you want. Maybe you're struggling in raising your children
Maybe you're worried about a wayward child. Maybe you're worried about a family member or a friend or
Whatever circumstance you just think like i'm not sure if it can happen. Well, why don't you just increase your faith?
Hey, I want to do something big for god, okay, what about your faith?
Hey, there might be a big task ahead of you. Well according to your faith be it unto you
God wants people to have great faith and say you know what? I know this is a goliath, but I can kill him with a slingshot
Hey, I know that
God is a great god and no one could ever build him a house of living
But I want to build him the greatest house that could possibly be built on the earth and david lays up treasure
On earth so that solomon can build a glorious temple under the lord and according to his faith
You know, it's david's idea to build the house of the lord
David wanted to do it and of course god wanted it to happen too
But at the end of the day he did it according to what david's faith. He did it according to solomon's faith
He did it according to
All of the men of god's faith and so we need to increase our faith and and try to do great things for the lord
Building our church going out soul winning
Reaching the lost maybe making changes in our family and our circumstance, you know
According to your faith be it unto you
We need to increase our faith if he can heal people that are blind
What can he not do he can raise people from the dead, you know your circumstance isn't that bad
Verse 30 and their eyes were open and jesus straightly charged them saying see that no man know it
But they when they departed were departed spread abroad his frame in all that country and they went out behold
They brought to him a dumb man possessed with the devil and when the devils cast out the dumb spake and the multitudes marveled
Saying it was never so seen in israel, but the pharisees said he cast the devils of the prince of devils of the devils
and jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and
every disease among the people
But when he saw the multitudes he was moved to compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd
It makes sense that he's saying they're a sheep having no shepherd when their leaders are thinking he's literally casting out devils by
The power of beelzebub by satan and sometimes we just have to ask ourselves this question when you see someone doing great works for god
Who are you to come alongside and say that they're?
of the devil
Right, I mean there's so many people that would love to criticize the church that's seeing thousands saved
People baptized lives changed doing great works of the lord and then they think like there's something wrong with it
It's like no there's something wrong with you
Like how do you how do you see all this work being done for the lord?
How do you see the miracles of the lord and then say something evil?
But or it'd be people that look at this book right here and say there's something wrong with it
People that are anti king james. I think they have a bad spirit
There's something wrong with them
There's something wrong with their brain. There's something wrong with their spirit
There's something wrong with their heart because you know what? This is a miracle of god this book right here
Never man spake like this man spake and if you don't hear the voice of the shepherd, there's something wrong with you
Okay, and you know, it's a dangerous place to be where you're constantly criticizing the obvious works of god
I believe god is still on his throne
I believe god's holy spirit still moves upon the waters of the face of the earth
I believe that god is still actively doing things in this world. And if he's actively doing things in this world, we're gonna see it
And when we see the effects of the spirit of god in this world
Who are we to come alongside and criticize that and attack that and then try to attribute that to some demonic force or some evil spirit
Or something that's wrong. No, we should see the obvious moves of god and we should come alongside those people and work with them
Amen not come and criticize them
No, jesus is going around preaching the gospel. He's healing every sickness in every disease and they're criticizing him
Now, of course, we don't get to do that
But what we can do is the spiritual version of this where we're going out and we're getting people saved
And when you see someone just going out and getting scores and scores of people saved and doing the great work of god
Why would you ever want to go and fight that and attack that and speak evil of that?
You know, there's something wrong with people's heart when they have that attitude
Says they're a sheep having no shepherd
You know
I don't want this to be the case
I don't think jesus wants this to be the case, but there's times and places and areas
Where it's like all the christians in an area just have no good shepherd in their area
And you know a lot of people say like oh no. No, I think there's a great shepherd in every area
But what about this area? What about this time? Jesus is saying like I just feel really bad. I'm moving compassion
Because you see all these people that could be doing these things for the lord that could be used greatly by god
But it's just like they don't have a good shepherd around they don't have someone leading them and guiding them
You know, I've visited many churches filled with hundreds of people and i'm thinking man
If this pastor would just start really emphasizing soul winning and starting a soul winning program
I guarantee dozens if not hundreds of people in this church would probably start going soul winning
Would probably start making some really good positive changes in their life, but it's like the shepherd just not shepherding
And we need a shepherd to shepherd again
We need shepherds to go out and do this the work of being a shepherd and actually guiding the flock and protecting the flock
And we see a lot of shepherds today
They're not protecting the flock and they're not guiding the flock and we just see sheep being constantly scattered
What is what is it happens when you don't have a sheep or a shepherd? I'm, sorry
The sheep are constantly scattered. It's constantly being divided and the work is not being unified
And we see wolves constantly coming in and preying on and and and and and hurting sheep and causing them to go
And then just be destroyed plus we don't see the fruit of the sheep
Whereas with the shepherd we're going to keep them protected and locked together and unified and love and they're going to produce for the field
They produce their fur coats
And you know, what is it? What does a sheep coat do?
Keeps you warm, right? I mean, it's not hard. Okay, you work who has cotton clothes on okay?
Anybody does anybody wear cotton anymore?
It's more of you that wear cotton. Okay
Okay, what about wool anybody wear wool?
Do you know what wool is? I mean
of course
sheep's clothing sheep gives you clothing
And think about it you you take off his coat and then you put it on someone else
That's the picture of jesus, right? He puts on his coat, but in a sense, you know, that's kind of what we do
We go out and we're covering people
With the coat of the lord jesus christ, that's what the sheep do the sheep are constantly being sheared
And we're and then we're using that to cover people and the same way we go out and preach the gospel
To help cover people of their sins
And when the sheep are not together and they're gathered and they're not being sheared and they're not being used
Well, then no really no one really benefits their coats
Just kind of disintegrate off them and fall off and they just get wasted and nobody ends up using
No, we need someone to go in there and shear
And you know the shearing might hurt a little bit, but you know, hey
Sometimes we need to go out and get sheared and of course
We go out and preach the gospel may not be the most comfortable thing might be the most fun, but someone needs a coat
There's a lot of people that are naked out there
They're not saved and they need someone to go out and preach the gospel and he says in verse 37
Then say he unto the disciples the harvest truly is plenteous
But the laborers are few
Pray, therefore the lord of the harvest that he will send for the laborers
Into his harvest. So we're supposed to be praying to god on a regular basis for soul winners
We should be praying for the lord for soul winners
Not church members soul winners
Not people we can just bus in soul winners
And look obviously we'd hope to have just more people that are not soul winners just showing up
And we can convince them to become a soul winner
But at the end of the day, you know
We shouldn't try to see how big a church we should get just to have a big church
We should try to see how many soul winners we can get
We should try to see how many people and let me you know, what I like about soul winners
Is they're not easily offended
You know, I like about soul winners
They like to work
You know what? I like about soul winners. They like the truth. You know, I like about soul winners. They're usually not forgetful hearers
They're usually people that read their bible. They're usually people that actually care about the things of god, you know
I've noticed most of the time when people cause me severe issues in church. They're not soul winners or they're backslidden soul winners
Maybe they were a good soul winner at one point, but now they're
They're backslidden. They're doing less. They're not as interested. They're not going on the mission trips that they were going on anymore
They're not doing the same works that they were doing anymore. You rarely see someone kick up their soul winning and then start
Getting mad at church and quitting church and doing whatever you typically see the opposite see someone start
Fading away and stop going less and then all of a sudden everything's a problem and everything's an issue
Yeah
I'd rather have a church filled with soul winners
That's a safe church to be in that's a church that's doing the right thing and look that's the point of our church anywheres folks
What's the point of us all just showing up and patting ourselves on the back? We're all going to heaven
Yay
We're all great
We're all wonderful. I mean what if what if we come here every every single service?
And we all have great families and we all have great kids and we all have great jobs and we have really nice houses
And we never get anybody saved again
What would be the point?
Is that what does that really accomplish at the end of the day?
You know, we should be opening our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel
And we come to church to be motivated to do those things
And of course
We want to be good husbands and we want to be good mothers and we want to be good fathers
And we want to be good children and we want to be good employees
And and we want to be good church members and all these different things and we want to worship god together
So that we can be a clean vessel
But at the end of the day we do all those things so that god can continue to use us
And he's going to use those
That are doing those things the best anyways, you'll typically notice it's it's like the guy that has 10 talents
Is usually getting 10 things done
And it's like usually when you kind of get all of your ducks in a row
It's like you're doing a lot. It's crazy to me
That the people that do the most for our church are the busiest people that I know
It's like the people that have the most going on
It's usually guys that are married with lots of kids that have an important high like like a high stress job
They have all kinds of things going on and then they just also seem to do the most for church
and then there'll be people that have like nothing going on and
Don't do anything and they have endless opportunity to contribute and they're just like doing nothing. They're just like what else can I have?
You're just like you're not taking enough bro or what?
It's like the people that already have so much going on somehow find a way to give more
and the people that have
You know nothing going on. They just like just take
It's like don't don't think like oh, I can't busy myself with a wife. I can't busy myself with kids, you know
It's funny to me
how all these people want to act like these married guys are such bums or don't have time to serve god and i'm thinking like
They're doing way more than you
Like what are you doing?
You know don't think like oh well if I get a wife I can't serve god anymore
It's like all the people that I think are the best christians are married
And i'm not saying all of them i'm saying there's obviously young single guys that are really zealous and god willing one day
They will get married, but i'm just saying generally speaking most of the guys I really look up to in the faith
Are married have lots of kids are doing all these different things. So i'm not saying don't have kids
I'm not saying don't get married. I'm not saying don't have a good job. I'm not saying don't work hard
I'm saying do all that but if you're not going so any what's the point?
What's the point
Well, we live in this tiny town and we're so great and we have the best marriage ever
But we go zero missions trips. We don't get anybody saved
We're not reaching anybody. What's the point?
What is the point
We're not supposed to just pray for members. We're supposed to pray for soul winners for laborers
We want laborers
We'll work till jesus comes
You know, I want labors you say well, I don't want to work. Okay
We don't need people that don't want to work
We want people that want to work and we want to put them to work
We have more soul winning trips and missions trips and all kinds of stuff this year than we're than we've ever done before
And I want to I want to go on them. You know why we sent advantages or bandit to the philippines because he works
Boy that man works
And he worked hard at his job and he's a soul winner and he's going out there and doing the hard work
And boy, isn't it nice the you know, the money that we give as a church to our missionary
We get a report of thousands and thousands of people saved
How many churches tonight had a newsletter?
And it was like ricardo
Was thinking about visiting church today
Please pray that he might come
And it's like duncan is just like 500 saved
400 saved three baptized four more soul winners added to his crew, you know, it's just like
We need more people like him
I mean there are churches today that have a hundred and fifty missionaries
That they support and if we added up all their salvations they still can't compete with advantage surbanic
And
He's still winning
And you know, that's who we need. I don't want a hundred and fifty missionaries that I have to support for
$25 a month that do nothing. You know what? I'd rather have one missionary that we can pay his whole way and he does all the work
And you know what?
We need more people to come to church that want to do work and serve god and get plugged in
And go all in and be a disciple and be like matthew, you know, jesus didn't need thousands of people to follow him
He had 12
You know what those 12 had in common? Jesus said follow me and they got up and they followed him
And you know what this church needs and these disciples it doesn't need members
You know what every church needs and these disciples
It doesn't need members. Let's go some prayer
Thank you heavenly father so much for your word. Thank you so much for these instructions
Thank you for such a great example that you've given us through your son
Also these these disciples who showed themselves very faithful and willing to sacrifice all I pray that you would help us
That have a desire to be a disciple that we'd be willing to make those kind of sacrifices
That we would be willing to just see the words in red and we would just say we're going to follow them, too
I pray that you'd be with us as we go out to do the soul winning
This year. I pray that you would help bless our
Our missions trip to mexico soon. I pray that you would help bless the cruise missions trips that we have lined up
And all of our other future missions trips and all the soul winning
And I pray that you would give our church more laborers
The harvest truly is plenty is in this area
We have so many great opportunities and so many expeditions and so many missions trips and we need more soul winners
We need more people that are going to work hard. We need more people that are going to labor
I pray that you would please just
Bring us sheep that have a desire to do soul winning
I pray that you'd bring us more laborers that want to do the work
And that want to go out there and reach the loss and I pray that you would help us that are already here
To have even more zeal for seeing people saved in his jesus name we pray. Amen
Amen
All right for our last song we're going to go to song number 125 the solid rock
So
One two five
See it
On jesus name
Is
Me
Oh
Me
Oh
On the last
Oh
Singing
Excellent singing everyone, you are all dismissed.