Page 19 in your handles.
are attending, I pray that you would bless the service.
Thank you for all the soul-owners who went out today,
and thank you for all the salvations.
I pray, Lord, that you would fill Pastor up
with the Holy Spirit, and that you would help us
to apply the message to our lives
and limit the distractions.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
The second song this theme will be page 20, one page over.
When I see the blood, page 20.
When I see the blood.
Thanks for coming to Set Fast Baptist Church.
If you didn't get a bull's knee and you'd like one,
just slip your hand up real quick.
Our ushers can come by.
Matthew 28, we're doing our Bible memory passage.
On the insides are service and soul winning times,
our service times, church stats.
Make sure you're putting that into our group.
Also on the right, we have a list of expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for them.
Our kids choir has been going really well.
Thanks for those who are participating.
And I'm really looking forward to their performance on Easter.
The Foley wedding is this upcoming Friday.
If you have not RSVP, do it now.
So you have permission, you get your phone out
and you can sign up.
Just make sure you fill that out
so we have an idea of how many people are gonna be coming.
And then also our spring swap is gonna be April 13th.
Mansfield soul winning marathon is April 19th.
Easter Sunday the 20th. We have our Easter cards out. So if you'd like to use those for soul winning
We already have some nice Easter invites. You can be handing out at the door and so that's a nice to have
Ladies tea is gonna be May 10th
We have some church reminders down below on the back is our prayer list
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and just sing our
Third song make sure again to be praying for
Evangelist Duncan or Bannock and his family as they're gonna be heading back tomorrow morning
Or just tomorrow. I don't know exactly when but they're gonna be heading back. He's in the morning
So they're gonna be flying out. It's a long long flight
And so just be in prayer that it goes smoothly and I really appreciate you guys being here
And you guys are on our hearts and minds and we're looking forward to your monthly newsletter every week or every month
So thank you so much. We'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the week Psalm 67 if you can get your special binders
Psalm 67
Psalm 67.
Let the people praise thee, O God.
Let all the people praise thee.
Oh, let the nations be glad
and sing for joy.
Let the people praise
All the earth shall fear Him. Let the people praise Thee, O God. Let all the people praise Thee.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
you
Luke chapter two, the Bible says,
and it came to pass in those days
that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be taxed.
And this taxing was first made
when Cyrenius was governor of Syria
and all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea,
unto the city of David which is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and lineage of David,
to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was that while they were there,
the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes,
and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.
And they were so afraid, and the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you.
You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
Goodwill toward men and it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven
The shepherd said one to another let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing
Which has come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us
And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished,
they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
As it is written in the law of the Lord,
every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.
and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord,
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,
and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.
And the Holy Ghost was upon him, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost
that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple.
And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law,
then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people, Israel.
And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against, yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of Acer.
She was of a great age and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity.
And she was a widow of about four score and four years,
which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
And she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth.
And the child grew and whacked strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.
And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in
Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.
but they, supposing to him to have been in the company,
went a day's journey.
And they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.
And when they found him not,
they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
And it came to pass that after three days,
they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the doctors,
both hearing them and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished
at his understanding and answers.
And when they saw him, they were amazed.
And his mother said unto him, Son, why hath thou thus dealt with us?
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me?
Wish ye not that I must be about my father's business?
They understood not the saying which he spake unto them and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them
But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man
Let us pray dear heavenly father. Thank you for the word of God
I thank you for this section about Jesus Christ and his birth and dear God
I pray that you would please bless our evangelist or bannock as he
Uh, goes back to the Philippines, give them safe travels, and please bless the message
now that you've laid on past Shelley's heart and Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I want to look
at the end of this chapter again in the Bible says in verse 48. And when they saw him, they
were amazed at his mother said in them, son, why as though thus dealt with us, behold,
And of course, if you ever lose one of your children,
it's one of the most heart-wrenching experiences
of your life.
This goes on for a few days,
so I can't even imagine what kind of feeling
that might have been.
So when they finally recover their child,
who's 12 years old, he's not necessarily a toddler,
but it's still kind of a scary experience.
They're saying,
Didn't you realize we were missing you?
We've been looking for you.
What's going on?
And she says,
thy father and I have sought thee.
Any answers in verse 49 he said in them,
how is it that ye sought me?
wish ye not that I must be about my father's business.
And what's kind of interesting,
it's kind of a spicy reply, honestly.
But what he's really trying to get at is
that he has a call on his life to serve God
and to do something spiritual with his life.
And so he's kind of making this statement
and we kind of have a different meaning here
because
His earthly father is not really his biological father.
His earthly father is just simply an adoptive parent,
in a sense, because Jesus Christ doesn't have
a biological father.
He's the Son of God.
And that's from a biological perspective
because Mary is his mother biologically,
but biologically, he has no earthly father.
He's just simply a conceived in the Holy Ghost,
conceived in the womb by the Holy Ghost.
However that works, he is physically the Son of God.
Just like Adam is the Son of God made from dust,
there's one other Son of God in a sense
from a biological perspective
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the second Adam in a sense,
as the Bible describes him.
And so he's kind of making this statement
to clarify like,
Joseph's not my father,
my father is God the Father in heaven.
He's still, though, if you notice, it says in verse number 51,
and he went down with them, and came to Nazareth
and was subject unto them.
He's not trying to be disrespectful.
He still honored his father and his mother,
but he's just trying to make it clear like,
hey, I'm here to serve my heavenly father
as my primary goal in life.
But obviously as a young boy,
we still need to be subject to our parents
until we become an adult, until we're on our own.
But what I wanted to draw from this text is just this phrase my father's business
And that's what I want to preach a sermon on this evening is my father's business when we're a young child
We are subject to our parents and we need to obey our parents and and do everything they ask
But there comes a point in a young man's life when he himself has to make decisions
for himself and he becomes a man he becomes an adult and he moves on with his life.
The Bible says that a man is supposed to leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife
and they start their own family. They start their own unit. Even if a man does not get married
eventually he's obviously going to move out, live on his own and not be with his parents.
The apostle Paul doesn't still live with mom at home. He's obviously a grown man. He can take care
When young men grow up and they become of age,
they typically would follow in their father's footsteps.
They would often have the same profession.
They would have the same job.
They would have the same accolades.
They just do the same things.
If he was a Smith.
They are a blacksmith just like their father was.
If he trained horses, they train horses.
If he was in finance, they're in finance.
They just kind of follow in their father's footsteps.
They take his career.
They model their life after their father.
They're about their father's business, right?
Or they take the family business.
In many cases, a lot of people have their own business
and the son is kind of expected
to take their father's business
and to keep going in that same trajectory.
But Jesus is showing, no, there's going to be a break here.
I'm not just going to do what my dad did.
And we know from the biblical text that his father was a carpenter.
And Jesus did do carpentry. But Jesus did not continue doing carpentry.
Jesus changed professions because he was about
his father's business, which means God the Father's business.
And at the end of the day, all of us that are saved,
we have
a heavenly father and we're supposed to make a decision to say, you know what, my life should
be about my heavenly father's business, not my earthly father's business. Now, I want to go
to a lot of verses, go through Ephesians chapter one, go to Ephesians chapter number one.
You know, we read this and it's a great verse because we think, oh yeah, Jesus was supposed
But you know what, that's not just for Jesus, that's for all of us.
We all should have the same attitude and say, you know what, I need to be about my Father's
business, which is God the Father.
Now none of us can pick who our earthly Father is.
Some people in here I guarantee some of us have great fathers. We have just great parents
We had a great earthly father. He was awesome
And then some of us probably don't have a great earthly father some people lost their father
Some people's father left them some people's father was just a bad father
I mean not everybody has a great father from an earthly perspective
But the good news is is that no matter what your father was?
You have a Heavenly Father that's willing to adopt you
and come alongside and to be a great Father unto you.
Okay, Ephesians chapter one, look at verse three.
Blessed be the God and Father.
of our Lord Jesus Christ with blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ.
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
You have the opportunity to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, become a child of God,
and then you're adopted into God's family, and now you have a new Father, you have God the Father.
And God the Father wants to be your heavenly Father, and he wants to take care of you,
and he wants to bless you, and he wants to guide you and lead you.
He wants to have a relationship with you, and he wants to have a fellowship with you.
You know, one thing that you constantly hear,
from the non-denominational crowd and people at the door,
is they talk about salvation as having a relationship.
It's all about having a relationship.
And the reality is salvation is not based on having a relationship.
You know, I have a relationship with my boss, that doesn't make me a son.
Because it's not just having a relationship that gets you saved,
it's believing in Jesus that gets you saved, okay?
But at the end of the day,
You know, what they're bringing up, the concept they're bringing up is a good concept,
even though that word's never found in the Bible.
Its fellowship is kind of the word that's used in the Bible,
but of course the Bible does want us to have in our modern vernacular a relationship with God.
God wants us to have some kind of a fellowship with Him and each individual, every single one of us, needs to have our own personal relationship or personal fellowship with God.
He is our Father. He has adopted us and we need to ourselves have a relationship with Him and be about His business and His goals for our life.
Now, let's go to some more verses.
Go to Matthew chapter 10.
Let's go back to the Gospels
and go to Matthew chapter number 10.
Let's see a few more verses before we kind of get into
some of the subject matter here.
But we need to make a decision
to be about our Father's business.
And what I like as I like how Jesus worded it,
he said, it's my Father's business
because he made it personal.
because our Heavenly Father is a personal God
and He is my Father.
He's also your Father.
He's our Father for all of us that are saved.
You Judas, you don't have, you know, sorry, you're a bastard.
But.
We have a father God the father and we are saved and he's my father
He's he's he's someone that's personal to me and it should be personal you and we need to strive to have a
relationship with him and we need to strive to be about his business
Not about our earthly father
Now, as for some of us, that might not be as big of a task
because maybe you don't have much of a relationship with your father.
But if you have a pretty good relationship with your father,
the Bible is saying in some cases,
you have to put that on the back burner
and you have to choose to not be about your earthly father's business.
You need to be about your heavenly father's business.
Look what it says in Matthew 10, verse 34.
Think not that I'm come to send peace on earth,
I came not to send peace but a sword.
For I'm come to set a man that variances against his father.
Notice the first person mentioned in this list is your father,
to set a man at variance against his father.
Because you know what, we're not here to serve our earthly father,
we're here to serve our heavenly father.
And we have to put preeminence in the relationship of our relationship with God over our earthly father.
And look, I believe that we should have a great relationship with our father.
I believe that we should celebrate our father.
I believe we should be willing to provide for our parents in their old age, and we should take care of them.
But let me tell you something, I am not here to serve my father.
Earthly speaking, I'm here to serve my heavenly father.
And I have to elevate my relationship with God above my heavenly or my earthly father
So much so that you should always ask yourself this question.
Any decision or anything you're doing, you should ask this.
Is this going to please God the Father more or my earthly Father more?
And you have to make that decision and say,
you know what, this is a better spiritual move for me.
This is going to draw me closer to God,
so therefore I have to make that decision
over the decision of what's better for my Father.
And, you know, for a lot of fathers, you know, specifically even in my life, they want you
to just be around and hang out and just do stuff with them because they like you.
I mean, me and my dad have a great relationship.
We love each other.
We talk all the time.
We played sports together all the time.
We watched basketball and we did all kinds of stuff.
I mean, great relationship.
I lived one block from him.
You know whenever I moved out. I only moved one block away. Okay, so it wasn't real far and we play golf all the time
We do all kinds of games. He's really smart. So it's really fun. We have a lot of good conversations
So, I mean I have a great relationship with him hung out with him a ton
Did he want me to move and go train to be a pastor? No
Selfishly he would rather me just hang out and be near him for the rest of my life
Would he like for me to move here and not be near them?
No, he's always like, hey, why don't you start a church
in our area?
And you know, it's just like, no, it's not gonna happen.
But obviously selfishly parents want to be around you.
They want to be around grandchildren.
But you know what, I'm not here to serve my father.
I'm not here to serve his wants and wishes and needs.
I'm here to serve my heavenly father's
wants, wishes and needs.
And so my decision making should be first,
God the father, second, my earthly father.
Now, it doesn't mean that I have to have, like, a problem relationship.
It doesn't mean I have to have a bad relationship.
It just means I'm going to choose my Heavenly Father over that other relationship.
It says, notice here, in the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
And what context does this mean?
It means for many people, they're just not going to choose to serve God
because of an earthly relationship.
They would rather please other people over God.
But we have to be about our Father's business.
We have to choose, no, I'm going to be about my Father's business,
which is my Heavenly Father, not my earthly Father.
Verse 37,
He that loveth Father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that love his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that takeeth not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseeth his life for my sake shall find it.
In order to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ you have to personally say,
you know what, God the Father is my most important relationship and I'm going to always choose that.
That's what it really looks like.
Go to chapter 19, go to Matthew chapter number 19.
This is not a one-off passage of the Bible, it's constantly brought up.
And you see Jesus.
Constantly showing how he's not preferring flesh and blood over the work of serving God.
I mean, even his mother and his brethren come to talk to him,
and he's just like, he kind of refuses to go out and talk with them.
And he says, behold, my mother and my brother and my sister.
You know, he's like, hey, who is my mother? Who is my brother?
They that hear the word of God and do it.
That's the people that he's saying are the ones that he's going to give the preeminence to.
He's given the most attention to.
and focus on Matthew 19 verse 27.
Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee.
What shall we have therefore?
And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the
regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall
sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone that have forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life.
But many that are first shall be last,
and the last shall be first.
So the Lord Jesus Christ is telling His disciples,
hey, there is a reward to serving Him,
but it's going to cost you something.
And in many cases, it's costing people a lot.
Houses, brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife,
children, lands, for my name's sake.
So, you know, for a lot of people,
they have to walk away from physical possessions,
maybe making a lot of money, family.
I mean, this verse is really personal for me.
Go view it in Mark 10.
I think that for a lot of you, it's probably personal.
You know I it's it's really that whole verse is really personal me is I was in a family business where we owned lots of lands and houses and
When I moved I literally said bite all that you know and it's not that I think there's anything wrong with that
It's fine. There's nothing wrong with being in family business.
There's nothing wrong with owning rental property or owning houses or owning lands.
And I'm not saying you even have to forsake all that to serve God, but sometimes you do.
I'm not saying you always have to forsake your father to serve God.
Sometimes you can serve God with your father.
I'm not saying you have to forsake your brothers and your sisters.
You don't have to, but sometimes you do.
For some of us for some of our situations we do have to say goodbye to certain things and you know what?
We should be willing to do so. That's what a real disciple looks like is someone that says hey, I'm willing to do that
I'm willing to walk away. I'm not gonna put you as the most important relationship
I'm putting God as my most important relationship mark chapter 10 look at verse 28
Then Peter began to say unto him,
Lo, we have left all and have followed thee.
And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you,
there hath no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospels.
But he shall receive a hundredfold now, and this time,
houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers,
and children, and lands, with persecutions,
and in the world to come eternal life,
but many that are first shall be last and last first.
Now this verse makes more sense for me,
because it's like, hey.
Yeah, I might not have the same relationship I've had
with a lot of my brethren, physically and sisters.
But look, I have so many more brothers and sisters
that I get to hang out with and have all kinds of fun.
And all kinds of other places, I mean,
if I needed a place to stay,
tons of people would let me stay with them.
And so I have all this stuff.
But it did say with persecutions that that's also real. Okay, that's a real phrase right there
You got a circle underline highlight. So whenever you serve God, you get it. Hey, you still get brothers and sisters
They're just spiritual brothers and sisters and you still get houses and stuff
But you get something else with it with persecutions. Okay, but you know, that's the reality
That's the reality, but many that are first shall be last and the last first
You know, if you want to be about your father's business
You need to realize that serving God is going to cost you something.
I mean, there's really just not anybody out there that's just going to say,
like, it didn't cost me anything.
We all probably have to give up something.
We all are going to have to make some kind of a sacrifice
and make some kind of a difficult decision.
For some people it's easier than others,
but I want to go to Matthew 4 if you would.
I'll show you a couple of people that did this specifically in the Bible.
But we need to have a vision for our lives.
That is not set by our parents, but it is set by our heavenly parent our heavenly father
The vision for your life should not be what your parents want you to do. It should be what God wants you to do and
In fact, it's not even what you want to do. It's still what God wants you to do
We need to say you know what? I'm gonna be about my father's business in my life now
What's the first step of that well you need to get saved and your thing everybody has to personally get saved
Your parents can't get you saved no one can you say you have to personally believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
You have to make that choice. You have to personally decide. I want to believe in Jesus and I want to become a child of God
After you get saved you then still have to make other decisions. You have to personally decide to read the Bible yourself
No one's gonna I mean your parents might ask you to read your Bible and they might kind of force you a little bit
But beyond being a young child eventually you're gonna have to just make a decision yourself. I want to read the Bible
because it's hard work, and a lot of people aren't going to read the Bible.
But instead of just reading other material or just not reading,
you need to say, you know what, I'm going to read the Bible because I want to have a relationship with my Heavenly Father.
You have to decide that you're going to worship God for yourself.
You have to decide, I'm not going to church because my spouse comes to church.
I'm not going to church because my parents are making me go to church.
I'm not going to church because someone else, I'm going to church because I want to go to church.
I want to show up.
I want to open the hymnal.
I want to sing loud unto the Lord.
I want to be about my Father's business.
I want to worship God in my own heart.
Because, you know, worship doesn't really work
in the sense that you don't care.
Like, this is what's silly about worship if you just fake it,
is you're fooling no one that matters
because the only person that matters in your worship is God,
and God can see your heart,
and if you're not worshiping God in a true heart,
it's just a meaningless thing anyways.
It's just like us in marriage when you ask your spouse something important and they give you a sarcastic answer or something
Or it's Micaiah giving a sarcastic. You can tell and you just kind of like that's meaningless
You know if you ask your spouse like hey, do you love me like yeah, I love you
You're like that doesn't really benefit anything in the same way you showing up at church and just
Just going through the motions, but you don't really have any desire to love God. You don't really care about God
It's a meaningless worship
We need to have true heartfelt worship where it's like,
hey, I'm here about my father's business.
I love God.
I appreciate what he's done for me.
And I'm gonna actually sing with some conviction.
You know, when I sing to God to be the glory, I really mean it.
I really want God to be glorified for what he's done in my life.
I want God to be glorified for my salvation.
I want God to be glorified for the works that he's done and the sacrifice he made
with his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I really want God to be glorified for the changes I've made in my life.
I want God to be glorified for my children and for my wife
and for the works that we've done and accomplished.
I want God to be glorified for the salvation that our churches have.
I want God to be glorified in my life,
and that's why I'm singing.
I'm not just singing because it's awkward if I don't.
I'm singing because I actually want to worship God.
You know, we need to decide to pray for ourselves.
You know, we need to actually say,
you know what, I'm gonna actually pray to God.
I'm gonna by myself go somewhere
and I'm just gonna pray to God
and I'm gonna actually pour out my heart to him
and I'm gonna tell my heavenly father
the things that I need.
You know, most of our children have no problem
going to mom and dad
Can I have candy? Can I have ice cream? Can I stay up late?
Can I watch, you know, TV shows or watch a movie or can I go play outside?
I mean, they're constantly bombarding us with just
wants and wishes and just sometimes they're just, can I sit in your lap?
Will you give me a hug will you play with me will you talk with me they want a relationship with us?
And then become teenagers some of them decide they don't want that anymore and it's kind of sad
You know if it's a teenager just sit in your dad's lap and just give him a hug
You know don't be awkward about it. He still likes you
You know wrestle with dad play with that you know in the same way our Heavenly Father wants us to have that relationship with him
He wants us to pray to him and he wants us to go to him when you're when you're feeling sad
When you're anxious, when you're stressed, when you're worried,
when you're uncertain, when you're concerned,
we're supposed to go to the Lord in prayer,
we're supposed to go to our Heavenly Father,
and we're supposed to have a real relationship with Him,
and pray to Him.
You know, we need to have a desire
to have a personal relationship with God the Father,
and we need to decide,
hey, I want to do what my Father wants me to do.
You know, we have a desire inside to please our Father,
earthly Father.
But we should also draw out that spiritual desire to please our Heavenly Father.
And say, hey, I want to do what my Heavenly Father wants me to do.
He created me. He gave me a life. He gave me a wife. He gave me children. He gave me a job.
He's given me all kinds of great things. I mean, I love steak.
I mean, think about it. God never had to create steak. He never had to create cows.
Praise God for cows, you know?
You can all eat Chick-fil-A and I won't save the cows, okay?
I want to eat the cow, right?
It's like, praise God he made beef, he made brisket,
praise God we're in the New Testament
and I get to have bacon, I get to make pork, baby back ribs.
I mean, these things are awesome.
You know, having a wife is awesome.
I mean, God didn't, you know, he started out with just men.
And then he's like, it's not good for the man to be alone,
so I'm gonna create him a help meat
and he created him a woman and let me tell you something,
having a wife is awesome.
Having children is incredible.
Having the ability to just go out.
I mean, our world is beautiful in so many ways.
There's so many cool things to do.
God gave us all kinds of cool, awesome things to enjoy
because He actually loves us and He cares about us.
Looking at the stars, it's so amazing.
You know, when you look at the stars and the sun and the moon,
you're supposed to say,
what is man that thou art mindful of?
And the Son of Man that thou visit is Him.
We should just be just kind of in awe of the God of the universe creating this
wonderful play land for us to just go out and enjoy and have fun and
Serving God doesn't stop the fun
Because you know what I probably would have never gone to the Bahamas in my life if it wasn't for soul winning. I
Don't really have a desire and it's really expensive, but it's like hey
You're gonna go out there and preach the gospel and boy the Bahamas is amazing
I mean, the water there is beautiful.
I was kind of jaded against beaches
because I'd only been to Galveston.
You know, this is like, it's brown.
All right, this is not what the brochure had, you know?
But you go to the Bahamas and it's crystal clear.
I mean, it's like clear looking water
and you just think like, this is amazing,
this isn't beautiful.
There's places like that all over the world.
It's not just the Bahamas,
but I'm just saying there's beautiful beaches,
there's all kinds of mountains if you like,
mountains, there's all kinds of cool things to do.
And you know what, serving God,
you still get to enjoy some of those pleasures too.
But you know there's a special joy when you help somebody that was confused about how to go to heaven,
realize how to be saved, and you preach them the gospel.
And not everybody to get saved is very emotional.
Not everybody to get saved is even very appreciative.
Some people are like, okay, good, can I close the door now?
And they're like, yeah, bye.
But there are some moments where you get someone saved
and they're just really appreciative.
Maybe they're emotional.
You can tell that a burden has been lifted.
You can tell they can kind of see now.
You can tell that things have clicked in their mind.
And who knows what God will do in that person's life.
Who knows the work that that person
may accomplish in the future.
But you know what, you just got it kickstarted
and it's a beautiful thing.
It's a beautiful thing to see people, you know join our ranks or join our church and they're kind of worldly
Or maybe they got a lot of issues and they start getting plugged in and they start changing boy. It's a beautiful thing
You know hard preaching works. I've seen people who were pretty worldly and apathetic and after a couple years of preaching
They really changed and became a different person and it you know, it's a really cool thing
It's a really cool thing to see God working in people's lives and then making positive changes and doing this work
Because you know what serving God has great joy and benefit to it
And we need to decide to say, you know what?
I'm gonna be about my father's business.
He created me, he gave me life, he gave me joy,
he gave me pleasure, and the least I can do
is just serve him with my life.
And of course, that's why I think some people,
you know, that have this attitude,
they're willing to make tough decisions
and sometimes even tough decisions, just like that.
God tells Abraham to move from his family
and he just moves.
God has Moses just kind of have to make a separation from Pharaoh and that family and Moses is gone.
Moses is willing to choose affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Here's a couple examples how about these disciples Matthew four look at verse 21
This is Jesus and going on from Vince
He saw two other brethren James the son of Zebedee and John and his brother and a ship with Zebedee their father
Mending their nets and he called them and they
Immediately left the ship and their father and followed him
They said, hey, I must be about my father's business.
They're with their dad in the family business.
They're fishermen.
Jesus comes along and says, let's go and they just go.
They just drop it.
And they have that attitude of saying, you know what?
I need to be about my father's business.
Hey, my father says, go and I'm just gonna go.
And they left their own father.
And look, I think they probably had a great father.
There's nothing in the Bible to suggest anything other than that they had a great father. They had great parents.
He's providing for them. He's teaching them. They have the family business.
I mean they have no reason to walk away except for one that they're gonna serve God the Father.
And we have to make that decision ourselves.
Go to Mark chapter one.
Of course, he also called Peter and Andrew
and they immediately left their job in occupation
and served the Lord Jesus Christ.
But it's kind of interesting that you have James and John
and the Bible just says they immediately left their father.
They immediately were gone from their own father.
They were set at variance against their own father
to go and serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mark chapter one, verse 16, the Bible says,
Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother casting a net
into the sea.
They were fishers, Jesus said unto them,
come ye after me and I'll make you
to become fishers of men in a straight way.
They've forsook their nets and followed him.
Straight way is again just saying immediately,
they gave up their job, they gave up their career
and just said, you know what?
I'm gonna serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now of course, I don't know that the text tells us
that Simon or Andrew's father
was a fisherman, but it's probably likely.
It's probably likely that they're learning
the same craft or trade that their parents had had.
And yet there again, probably following
in their father's footsteps in a sense,
but as soon as Jesus comes along, hey, no,
now I'm gonna serve him.
Now I'm gonna follow him.
I'm gonna be about my father's business.
Same about James and John here, it says in verse 19.
And when he had gone a little farther,
then he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother,
who also were in the ship, mending their nets,
and straightway he called them,
and they left their father, Zebedee,
in the ship with the hired servants and went after him.
Now, this is what I think is really important to think about.
Who ends up being the greatest disciples?
Who ends up becoming the greatest Christians
that we read about in this time period?
James, John, and Peter.
Do you think it's a coincidence that the guys that immediately left their father and the
ship are the same guys that end up being the greatest Christians that we see in the Bible?
It's not a coincidence because you have to have an attitude and a heart that says, hey,
I must be about my father's business and you have to forsake all and say, you know what,
I'm putting on the back burner because I'm going to serve God with my life.
God the Father is my life. He's my business.
He's what I'm about and I'm going to serve Him. And those are the people that God
used greatly.
Hey, you want to be greatly used by God? You have to say I am willing to put it
all on the altar.
I'm not about my earthly father's business. I must be about my heavenly
father's
business. If you want to be a great disciple, you have to make that decision
in your heart and your mind and say, you know what?
It's about my father's business.
I want to go to another story, go to Judges Chapter 6, go to Judges Chapter 6.
We can read about many people that have to make sacrifices, but I'm just kind of focusing
in on here this contrast between an earthly father and a heavenly father.
We see Jesus Christ bringing this up.
We see James and John have to go through it.
We see Abraham having to walk away from his father, Tara.
Plenty of examples where I could show you but here's one that I thought was kind of an interesting example was Gideon
Gideon is someone who has to make a choice to kind of make this
separation from his own father in a sense or kind of go against his father in a way now
I'm not going to read the whole story about Gideon
But at the time of Gideon the Midianites are greatly oppressing the children of Israel
and the children of Israel are very impoverished
because of the Midianites.
And ultimately it's a punishment for having turned away from God.
They're not very godly, they're very wicked,
they're filled with sin, and as a result God's punishing them
and oppressing them greatly.
An angel appears unto Gideon and is telling him,
Hey, we're gonna use you to basically deliver the children of Israel from this oppression of the Midianites
And he's giving all these instructions on them. Look at verse number 25. This is what he's telling
This is what the Lord's telling Gideon. He has to do though
Verse 25, And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said in them,
Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old,
and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath,
and cut down the grove that is by it, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God
upon the top of this rock in the ordered place,
and take the second bullock,
and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove,
which thou shalt cut down.
Then Gideon took ten men of his servants
and did as the Lord had said unto him, and so it was.
Because he feared his father's household
and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day,
that he did it by night.
And when the men of the city arose early in the morning,
behold, the altar of Baal was cast down
and the grove was cut down, that was by it,
and the second bullock was offered
upon the altar that was built.
And they said one to another, who hath done this thing?
And when they inquired and asked, they said,
Gideon, the son of Joash, had done this thing.
Then the men of the city said unto Joash,
bring out thy son that he may die,
because he hath cast down the altar of Baal,
and because he hath cut down the grove, that was by it.
And Joash said unto all that stood against him,
will ye plead for Baal?
Will you save him?
He that will plead for him, let him be put to death
whilst it is yet morning.
If he be a God, let him plead for himself
because one has cast down his altar.
Therefore, on that day, he called him Jerubbabel
saying let Baal plead against him
because he had thrown down his altar.
So we have this story where God is gonna use Gideon
to deliver the children of Israel
out of the hands of the Midianites.
But he kind of has him do this first this first thing
This is kind of the first thing that he's going to use Gideon for and it's almost like he's just testing Gideon
How committed are you and so he asked him to do a few different things here number one in verse 25
He says that he wants him to take his young father's bullet
Number two he needs to throw down the altar of Baal and then number three. He has to cut down the grove
So he has to basically kind of go against his dad in a sense think about it
This is his dad's money
This is his dad's altar, and this is his dad's grove
This is all of his dad's things and he's saying you have to throw these things down you have to destroy these things
You have to basically take a bold stand here now praise God that his dad kind of
sees through that and sees like,
okay, wow, that was kind of, you know,
Gideon might be on the right side here
because Bale is, you know, this false God.
Why are you pleading for Bale?
And you kind of almost see him
like win his dad over a little bit,
but it was definitely a difficult task
because even Gideon himself was afraid
to just do this in the open.
He had to do it at night, but he did do it, didn't he?
And some of us, we need to do like what Gideon did in our lives and I'm not necessarily going to go in the exact order here but think about some of the things that he did.
Number one, he specifically threw down the altar of Baal.
And if you think about it, I think that God wants us to do a few things and we're going to decide, you want to make my business be about my heavenly father's business and not my earthly father's business, is that some things in our lives need to be thrown down.
If your parents have a false religion,
that needs to be cast down for you personally.
You cannot serve Baal and God.
You have to say, you know what,
if my family's gonna serve that,
nuts to that, I want nothing to do with it.
I'm gonna destroy it in my life.
You're gonna destroy that crucifix.
You're gonna destroy that Hindu God.
You're gonna destroy whatever it is
that's tied to that false religion.
You're getting rid of it.
You're getting rid of that Mary shrine.
Here's something you could just throw down.
How about Calvinism?
Hey, you were raised a Calvinist, okay, throw that down.
And just, you know, some things are not redeemable.
We're not going to reuse Calvinism.
We're not going to repackage it.
We're not going to repackage the Mary shrine.
Here's one.
How about the modern versions of the Bible?
Maybe you were raised with an NIV.
Look, there are some people they say,
my grandma, my grandpa, my dad,
they gave me this special NIV.
Throw it in the trash burn it with fire throw it down. It's not hey
You know what I know that that's special to you and I'm sure the altar of Baal might have been special for you and your
Dad, but it needs to be thrown down
It needs to be destroyed, you need to get a King James Bible.
Get rid of that NISB, get rid of that ESV, get rid of these modern Bibles.
We need the King James Bible because I'm about my father's business.
I'm not about whatever Bible is handed down to me, I'm about the King James Bible.
And I may not have inherited this from my earthly parents, but I inherited it from my
Heavenly Father and this is the real Bible and all the other ones are trash and I have
Hey, if someone gives you an altar of bale,
you need to throw that thing down.
I've been given gifts from people that are close to me
that are the tree of life version.
It's trash.
It is trash and it needs to be burned with fire.
No one should ever have that Bible.
And you know what?
Honestly, the cover was really nice.
It was green.
It was like authentic leather.
It was like really, really nice.
It burned well.
Hey, you're raised with Pentecostalism?
Throw it down.
You were raised with speaking in tongues, throw it down.
Hey, you were raised where you thought
Robert Morris was a good preacher, throw him down.
He needs to be thrown down.
And you know what, he's a pedophile and he deserves death.
And I don't care who likes him, he should be put to death.
I've had some people say, oh, well,
you know, that was a long time ago, put him to death.
Oh, well, he didn't do it again.
We don't know that.
Even if we assume he never did that again put him to death throw him down
Hey, I don't care what Robert. Oh, he built this big church. It's fake. It's full of unsaved people
And you know what their resources need to be put to a real work of God instead of just continuing his fake legacy
You know, I preached against this guy for 10 years for over a decade because he preaches
a false gospel.
He preaches lordship salvation.
He's not saved.
He's a wicked, evil, false prophet.
And you know what?
Him being a pedophile should be everybody's wake-up call, but it's sad how many people
still like Robert Morris or still fall over themselves to like him.
And you know what?
Hey, maybe you're raised to listen to a lot of satanic music.
That needs to be thrown down.
And when I say Satanic music,
let me make it clear what I'm saying.
I'm saying Satanic music.
I'm saying like you look at the album cover
and it has a pentagram on it.
You know, it's literally talking about Satan.
Okay, I don't think that necessarily all music is Satanic.
Okay, just because it's not a him or something like that.
Some people might disagree with this,
but I'm just saying, I think that God created us
to just make music.
Hey, you make music, it's music, right?
I don't think there's anything wrong with opera.
I don't think there's anything wrong with classical music.
I don't think just because you write your own song
or love song or whatever, it's somehow satanic.
But there are songs that are worshiping the devil literally.
They're not redeemable.
They should be thrown down.
You should stop listening to them.
Don't listen to bands that are named
some kind of an anti-Christ God-hating name like Pantera.
which is a blasphemy against the Lord Jesus Christ because according to the Talmud
Jesus is not the son of God. He's the son of Pantera. So of course, and he's the bastard child of Pantera
So why do you think there's a band called Pantera because of that? Why is there a band called avenge sevenfold?
Oh because they love Cain and they love the works of Cain and they want to be avenged sevenfold
Okay, so it's like all these satanic bands
You know, they're all in Seattle, okay?
That's where, you know, basically, you know,
basically if they're from Seattle,
they're probably of Satan.
But I'm just saying, like,
there's all these evil, wicked bands out there.
We're not trying to redeem them.
We don't want anything to cast it down.
There's Satanic movies.
There are movies, there's films.
There's all kinds of just Satanic things in the world.
And I think that the Grammys and stuff,
it's now, it's just like overtly Satanic.
I mean I really I'm kind of stuck in the 90s and early 2000s when it comes to pop culture
Okay, so forgive me if all my movie and song references are based on 90s and 2000
I don't know what happened in 2010 to now
But it seems like the music and movies were just like overtly satanic now
I mean, where they're just worshiping the devil on stage
and doing, I can't even describe what's going on
because it's just so perverted and so evil
and so sodomite and it's just like,
ugh, we need to get rid of that stuff.
You know, how can a Bible-believing Christian
listen to music that's blaspheming Jesus?
Look you should just get rid of that you just look. I'm not trying to be a stick in the mud
I'm not saying you can't listen to something that's not a hymn, but you know what if it's overtly blaspheming God
How is that you being about your father's business?
You need to say hey dad. I'm not gonna go to the Pantera concert with you. Sorry
You know, I'm not going to watch this overtly satanic thing because I want to be pleasing unto God the Father and some things
Hey, I'm not going to go to the Catholic Church with you. I'm not going to go to the Pentecostal Church with you
I'm not going to go to Robert Morris's church with you
Hey, I'm gonna throw that down and say it's not for me. I want to be about my father's business come with me
Come listen to the music with me
and watch the sodomite deception with me
and hey, I'm about movies, just the right kind, okay?
And not these lame Christian movies that are cringe, okay?
I'm not talking about that.
Throw those in the trash too, okay?
All your Kurt Cameron and whatever.
Go over to First King, keep your finger here
because we're coming back.
Go to First Kings chapter 15,
go to First Kings chapter 15.
Does it Kenneth Copeland have
some like cringe movie or something too?
I don't know, someone shared something online.
Get rid of that stuff, too.
Kenneth Copeland should be throwing in the trash, too.
He just looks like a demon.
I don't even understand how someone could personify a demon so much,
but he just looks evil, okay?
Here's someone that had to make a pretty tough decision,
but he made the right decision.
It's Asa.
Look at 1 Kings 15.
Look at verse 11.
And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord.
as did David his father and he took away the sodomites out of the land.
It's a great verse, a great verse from the Bible.
And he removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
This is similar to what Druba Bell, what Gideon had to do,
is he's getting rid of idolatry, he's getting rid of false religion
that had been passed down and handed down from his fathers.
Specifically in verse 13, and also Mecca's mother, even her,
he removed from being queen because she had made an idol in a grove.
and Asa destroyed her idol and burned it by the book Kidron.
Boy, Mother's Day was a little spicy after that, all right?
I mean, think about it.
You have to remove your mom from Queen.
You have to take her idol and you're burning her idol.
That's a bold stand.
But you know what?
He was about his father's business.
He did that which was right in the eyes of God.
Not in the eyes of his mom, not in the eyes of his fathers.
He did that which was right in the eyes of God.
Because you know what?
We are here to please God the Father, not our earthly parents.
Now, of course, God wants us to obey our parents and be respectful and do good on them.
But if they have an idol in their life, it needs to be torn down and thrown in the trash.
Go to it back to our passage here in Judges chapter 6.
I want to read a couple of these verses again.
So some things in our life need to be just discarded.
You know, if you were raised in a Christian home,
you probably don't even know what I'm talking about.
Just praise God that you don't.
But for a lot of us, we weren't,
and some of us have some things that need to be thrown away.
Some things need to be destroyed.
Now, what's interesting is this grove,
because Gideon not only did he destroy this altar of Baal,
but he was told to cut down this grove.
And then did you notice in verse 26,
it says,
which thou shalt cut down."
So he's not just cutting down the grove,
he's actually taking the lumber from the grove
and then he's gonna use it in the sacrifice under God.
And this is the second thing that I think that we need to do
is we need to not only just destroy certain things,
is we need to take some things and cut them down
and reuse them for God's purpose.
So there may be resources that God has blessed you with.
That you're not using for God. You've been using it for a different purpose and now you need to use that for God's purpose
You know
One that just comes to mind this really just obvious for me though is like someone that's musical talent
Maybe God blessed you with a lot of musical talent, and for a while it was a grove.
You are using that talent for the grove, but God wants you to cut that down, but it doesn't
want to get rid of your musical talent.
He wants you to repurpose and use that musical talent for God.
Use your singing ability, use your instrument ability.
You know, God, it's not like God doesn't like music.
He loves music.
He's all about music, he just wants us to be singing praises unto him, doesn't he?
And again, it's not to say that you can't use your musical talent for things that aren't just directly worship,
but that should be where we're really focusing our effort and energy and our talents, shouldn't it be?
We should be focusing our musical ability and giftings and talents for serving God.
You know, playing instruments for Him, writing songs unto Him, singing praises unto Him.
We should be using that talent that God has given us, you know, to be purposed for Him.
Maybe God gave you a talent or gave you resources like a family.
And we should be using that family to serve God.
If God gave you a wife, you should use that wife to serve God.
You know, and help your wife to serve God too.
Taking that resource and not using it selfishly,
but using it to serve God.
Making a family, having lots of children.
You know, if God gave me a wife and we just say,
you know what, we're not gonna have children,
well that's not using those resources correctly.
I might be using it for the grove purpose
and not for the sacrifice purpose.
You know, we need to be using our talents
and the resources that God's given us
to make lots of wonderful children and children that please the Lord.
God takes great pleasure in children that are raised to serve God.
Of course, God is so merciful that many of us or some of us that maybe we weren't raised
Christian or we weren't raised very godly, we can still come in and join the fold and we can play catch-up.
But you know what, God takes great pleasure in children that were raised correctly, children
that were raised with the Bible in hand, children that were raised to serve the Lord.
And we should take special privilege and care with those children and we should raise them
for the Lord, not raise children for another purpose.
So many children today are being raised with a selfish ambition.
In fact, there was a, I think there was a famous chess player who married like another
And their only goal was to try and like create
genius chess prodigy children.
Like they didn't, I don't even think they really loved
each other, they just simply were like experimenting
and they just wanted to like have children
and then just have their children train in chess
their entire lives to see if they could become
grandmasters in chess.
And I think,
You fact check this look this up, but I think like one of them did I think one of them ended up becoming like a grand master
I think the other two were just like what's known as like an international master or just kind of a little bit lower level
But it's isn't it interesting that parents will literally dedicate their entire child's life to chess
to a game
How much more should we be willing to try and dedicate our
children's lives to serving God?
Being like a Hannah and saying, you know what,
I'm going to lend Samuel unto the Lord and I want to train a
child to actually love God and be used of God.
What a better purpose for your child's life to try and train them up in the Lord and try
to teach them to be a godly child.
You know, there's parents that do this in sports.
Of course, sports is probably the big one where parents are vicariously living through
their children and trying to make them become themselves.
You know, one that's really successful is Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods' dad would hit golf balls in their garage every night and had his son hit golf balls in the garage every night.
And in fact, Tiger Woods was a known prodigy because he was on television as a young child already demonstrating how gifted he was at golf.
I think it was like five or six years old. You look it up, but he was like super young.
because of how much his dad was just making him play golf all the time.
He was known in high schools to already be like a superstar.
And he just, I think he only played maybe a few years in college.
I think like maybe one year in college, but by the time he was going pro, he had
already had like a huge major endorsement deal before he'd even played
because he just expected this guy is going to be amazing.
But think about it, that actually happens in the Bible.
People already know there's something special about this kid and they know that Zacharias and Elizabeth are going to raise this child to serve God.
Think about Manoa and his wife when we have Samson, another child that was dedicated under the Lord and ends up being greatly used by God.
And look, I don't think that children serving God is an accident. In many cases, it's purposeful.
Just like, you don't just become this awesome superstar with no practice and effort,
many of the greatest athletes and professionals in our world were doing so as a child.
We're trained as a child, and that's why they are the way that they are.
Whether they're an Olympic athlete, I mean, you go to China,
they're picking kids at a super young age and training them to be an Olympic athlete,
you know, for way in the future.
And it's like, we should also be striving to use the resources God's given us.
God's given us children. Why don't we help them to serve God?
Memorizing Bible verses, reading the Bible, learning the hymns.
I mean, my kids already know the hymns better than I do.
Okay. And that's not hard, because I have like a mental issue when it comes to lyrics with songs.
I have no idea what's wrong with me, but I cannot remember any lyrics with songs.
But my kids are already just so sharp. I mean, they're just singing the hymns.
because at night we'll like sing a song,
we have to do it by heart,
and I'm over here like,
uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh,
and they're just nailing the words
and I'm just thinking like, man, this is great.
This is great that they're just already learning all kinds of songs, learning hymns, that they've
read the Bible so many times, that they're memorizing Scripture, they already know what
so many is.
I mean, they're just, they're on a great trajectory, on a great path to serve God.
I hope they choose to make that decision for themselves, but I'm going to give them as
much opportunity to serve God as possible.
God's given me these trees, I'm going to use them for Him.
You know, maybe you don't have a lot of just worldly or carnal talents.
Maybe you're not a great singer. Maybe you aren't that successful in the business world.
But maybe you're a great soul winner.
You should use that talent.
There's so few people that are out there soul winning.
And, you know, if you're a great soul winner, you need to be using that talent for God.
You could be using that talent for something else.
I mean, I think that, you know, for some of us,
like there's a crossover between just salesmanship,
customer service, maybe just some of those skills
kind of transfer over and so wanting to help a little bit.
But you don't even have to have those skills.
But here's the thing, if you do have those skills,
instead of worrying about making tons of money,
you're doing something else, why don't you use that
to serve God?
and say, hey, I got this grove, but I'm going to cut it down and I'm going to use those skills
in order to get as many people say as possible. Hey, you're charismatic, you're likable,
you have a high aptitude, use those talents for the things of God and about your heavenly Father's business.
You know, I'm not against sports, I'm not against professional singing and all this stuff,
but God didn't give you the aptitude and the skills and the talents you have to use them selfishly.
to just play a game for the rest of your life.
You know what, God gave you those abilities and talents
to serve him and do great things for him.
We need to cut down some of the groves in our lives
and we need to reuse them for his purpose.
Here's the third thing that we notice
is that he offers this bullock on the altar.
And the second bullock was offered upon the altar
that was built.
You know, some things are gonna cost you a lot of money.
The bullock represents money.
And when we're serving God, there is a financial sacrifice in many cases.
Go to Romans chapter 12, or you would go to Romans chapter 12.
You know, in order to serve God, sometimes you have to sacrifice your money.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice your job.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice your career.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice the assets that you have,
because the Bible already brought up houses and lands, didn't it?
And you know what, it costs Gideon something to sacrifice this bullock.
It cost money, but you know what?
He wasn't worried about his father's business.
He wasn't worried about money.
He was worried about just pleasing God.
And what did he end up receiving from the sacrifice?
Oh yeah, he delivered the children of Israel
from the Midianites and he drug his entire nation
out of poverty.
And so that little tiny financial sacrifice he made
ended up having a huge financial payoff
for the entire nation.
And I guarantee even personally benefited him.
And, you know, if you want to save America, we need to be investing in the spiritual condition of our country by getting people saved.
That will drag us out of the financial woes that we're in.
Because think about it, if we're getting tons of people saved and doing the work of the Lord, God could just cause like our tax burden to just completely go away.
and just bring it, just give us so much more financial prosperity.
Whereas if we were being selfish, he could just bring in more Bidens and Kamala Harris'
and just tax us to death.
And you end up even having less money,
even though you're not even spending a dime on spiritual things,
whereas you could be spending a bunch of money on spiritual things
and he gives you even more money.
Because, you know, God's economy doesn't work the way our world does.
God's economy doesn't even make sense.
It's like you give and you get more.
In the world, that doesn't really work that way,
in a carnal way, but it does in God's economy.
And you know what, I live in God's economy,
not Joe Biden's economy, not Biden economics,
not Trump economics, not Reagan economics,
I live in God economics, and some Goshen economics,
you know what I mean?
And hey, when you serve God,
he just takes care of you anyways.
You know, I've never had this conversation
in a single time of my life.
I've never had this conversation where someone came up to me and said,
Pastor Shelley, I think I've given too much money to God.
You know, no one's ever come up to me.
I've never had this in my entire life.
No one's ever come to me and said, like, Pastor Shelley, I think tithing is just ruining my life.
Hey, Pastor Shelley, you know, buying a plane ticket to the Bahamas just was the worst thing that I've ever done.
Hey, Pastor Shelley, you know, taking a little time off to go so many today, it ruined and wrecked my life.
You know what? I just don't hear these things ever being brought up to me.
I'm not even saying it couldn't happen. Maybe it could. I just never hear about it.
Isn't it funny that when people just serve God and make spiritual sacrifices,
somehow God just constantly taking care of those people for some reason?
And I'm not saying it's a lottery ticket.
I'm not saying like, hey, I serve God today and then He just gave me a million dollars or something.
If He did, let's get a building, okay? But I'm just saying like, that doesn't happen.
But you know what, he will take care, he needs won't he?
He'll provide for you.
And over the long run, you look back and you say,
wow, I don't even know how I got here.
But obviously by just serving God, he actually has been blessing me and bringing me along
further than I thought.
And anyways, even if it costs you everything, even if you never get any money back, that's
the requirement.
Romans 12-1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice.
I am not entitled to anything.
The Bible says with food and clothing I'm supposed to be content.
The only time I'm allowed to complain is when I don't have food and clothing and you know what in America
We have so much more, but we get sometimes an entitled attitude
You know nowhere in the Bible does it say thou art entitled to own a home with a four bedroom
Two car garage you need to have four vehicles you get a retirement you get
You get to only work five days a week the Bible doesn't bring any of this stuff up
But sometimes don't we get this American entitled attitude of like that's what we that's what we're supposed to have
Like we're supposed to have this 1950s dream life
You know the reason why you have a 1950s dream life is because you bombed all of Europe and destroyed everybody else
And you ripped them all off financially. Okay, then we have our little dream life
Yeah, I guess if you just go rob 50 people you might be living a little dream life if you don't get caught
Okay, but that's not really fair to say like I want to go back to that
Okay, you know how we go back to that World War three
Who wants to really do that where we kill off hundreds of thousands of our men?
And then it's like hey housing is cheap because there's all these houses on the market from all the people that died and
No one can buy them because we have a shortage of manpower
Let's go back to that time where it was great. You know, it's like people don't even understand what they're asking for
No one promise you these things
But you know what? In many cases, when you serve God and you're living sacrifice,
he gives you all the blessings with it anyways.
And you know what? I would rather live in 20, 25 America than 1950 America.
I mean, we can travel so much easier. We have so many great options for living.
I mean, it's a great time to live. It's a great time to be alive.
I mean, the internet's awesome. Online stuff is cool. Technology is fun.
There's so much stuff to enjoy right now that they didn't get to enjoy back then
Okay, don't don't always try to glorify the past or another time realize that we're living in such a great time
And even if it did cost you, you know all this money or time or sacrifice in many cases
It pales in comparison to what other people have sacrificed what other people are going through
I mean you could give up all your money right now
Like you just sell all that you have and start over and you'd probably still have a better life than most people in the rest of the
And I'm not saying do that I'm just saying like I don't think we realize like how spoiled we are
but God does call us to be a living sacrifice and in some ways you might have to make some kind of a sacrifice go to
John chapter 12 go to John chapter 12 just decide in your heart
It's not about my earthly father's business. It's about my heavenly father's business. What do you ever ask me to do?
He says drop the the nets drop the nets
Hey, he says leave the house leave the house leave the lands leave the lands leave father mother sister brethren
You know wherever the spirit blows I will go
I must be about my father's business now if you're 12
Be subject unto them, but if you're 22, hey, I must be about my father's business, right?
Look at John chapter 12 verse 25
He that loveth his life
Shall lose it and he that hated his life in this world shall keep it under life
Eternal if any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be if any man serve me
Him will my father honor. Hey you want God to like you? Well, you got to lose your life
Lose your life
Say, you know what? I'm done with that, and I'm just gonna make my life about my father's business.
You know, there's a great example of this, evangelist or bannock.
I mean, look at this guy, really, in a lot of ways, losing his life, changing his life drastically.
I guarantee if, you know, we go back in time,
far enough, when he's a young teenager and say, hey, you're gonna sell all you have and go move to the Philippines,
he'd be like, you're insane.
like, I would never do that in a thousand years.
It wouldn't even make sense to him.
And you know, for most people, like,
carnally speaking, it doesn't even really make sense still.
But spiritually, who in here would say like,
you know what, I wouldn't mind standing
at the judgment seat of Christ.
And he's like, all right, let's tally up.
Oh, you got 4,000 people saved in 2024?
Like, who in here wants to trade
their salvation number with Duncan for 2024?
Yeah.
I do right now. I'll trade him right now.
I mean this guy is about his father's business isn't he?
And you know at the end of the day it's like hey maybe you have a nicer house or
car or whatever.
You know that stuff you can't take with you. That's the wood hay stubble
that doesn't even matter. And you know what I like to be around people like him
that say hey I'm about my father's business.
that I want to serve God.
I'm willing to make sacrifice.
I'm willing to throw down some things in my life.
I'm willing to cut down and reuse some things in my life.
And I'm willing to, you know what?
Make a personal sacrifice for the things of God.
And you know, this is how you have a close relationship with God.
Those are the type of people I want to hang out with.
Look at John 14, verse 23.
I'll just flip the page.
You know, first John tells us that
The whole point of that epistle being written
is that we'd have fellowship with God.
I'm just going to read for you.
It says,
God wants us to have a relationship with him,
have a fellowship with him.
How do you do that?
Well, let's read a couple of verses here.
Look at verse 23.
Jesus answered and said to him,
He will keep my words, and my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings,
and the word which he hear is not mine,
but the Father's which sent me."
You know how you have a close relationship with the Father?
Keeping his word.
And he abodes with you.
Look at chapter 15, verse 1.
I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it,
that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now, you're clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except that bide in the vine.
No more can ye accept ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit,
for without me ye can do nothing."
Now, the Bible is telling us when we abide in Christ, which is the book,
this is Christ, when we abide in this, we're going to bring forth fruit.
When we're not abiding in this, we're not going to be bringing forth much fruit.
And God the Father is the husband men.
He's the one that's constantly coming alongside of us and caring for us and having a relationship with us,
and trying to improve us and perfect us so that we can bring forth more fruit.
It says in verse 6,
If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and his withered,
and men gather them and cast them in the fire, and they are burned.
Hey, don't forsake the things of God.
Don't be a false witness because they're going to perish.
Don't be this drunk loser because God may destroy you.
Don't be that adulterous woman like Jezebel.
God may throw you in a bed of death.
Don't be like Ananias and Sapphira and lie under the Holy Ghost
because he could just smite you and kill you right away.
Hey, when you're not bearing fruit, when you're not abiding in Christ,
you're abiding in death and you're a dead man walking.
And God may just take you home early.
That's why it's important to keep bearing fruit.
He's like, oh, you're just always about soul winning.
Well, I'm trying to keep you alive.
I mean, can you blame me?
I like you.
If I don't like you, I'll say stop soul winning.
Just don't even read the Bible anymore.
Just go do your own thing
and we'll see you later in heaven, okay?
But you know for us that we like each other. Hey, we should be encouraging one another. Hey, keep bearing fruit, buddy
You want to stay alive bear fruit?
You're afraid of God doing something you just keep bearing fruit
Because that's the that's the best way to that's a good best life insurance policy really
You know the Bible says to honor thy father my mother that the days may be long upon the land was Lord
I God give it thee another aspect that as your heavenly father
And, you know, you want to keep Heavenly Father,
please, I don't like how I said that
because it's on Mormon's talk,
but you want to keep our Heavenly Father, please?
Hey, it's my Heavenly Father.
It's just like Heavenly Father.
Heavenly Father.
Sorry, these Mormons sound weird.
It's my heavenly father. It's our heavenly father. Hey, we want to keep our heavenly father. Please. What does the Bible say?
Look at verse number eight herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit
So so you be my disciples as the father had loved me so I have loved you continue ye in my love
Hey, you want God the father to be pleased with you bear fruit
Hey, you want God the Father to be happy with you, go soul-winning, get people saved.
Hey, you don't want God the Father to be pleased with you, do nothing.
God the Father is pleased with people that are bearing fruit.
When Jesus Christ told James and John to get out of the boat, what was the point?
To gather fruits, to be a fisher of what?
Of men.
Why is it that God is trying to gather people together to become the disciples of Jesus Christ because he's the vine and we're the branches
So we can bear fruit
Why is the parable the sower even being taught because it's trying to tell people to have a good heart to bear fruit?
Why is he saying in revelation to the church at Ephesus that he's gonna remove their candlestick?
except they repent and do the first works
because they're not bearing fruit.
Just like it says in John chapter 15,
hey branches that aren't bearing fruit,
I'm gonna get rid of and burn them in the fire.
We need to have an attitude that says
my life is about my father's business
and my father's business is gathering fruit.
We are fruit gatherers.
That is the occupation of your father and that is what he wants us to do.
He wants us to gather fruit and when you're not gathering fruit you're not
about your father's business. Churches that are not soul-winning are not about
the father's business. Churches that don't care about soul-winning
don't care about the father's business and churches that don't do soul-winning
don't have the love of God in their hearts.
You know, we need churches to be about soul winning and preaching the gospel and getting people saved and bearing fruit.
And let me tell you something, you know, God likes the most in this room, people that are bearing the most fruit.
You know, God's really pleased with is evangelist or bannock because he's bearing much fruit.
You know why we're so excited and we celebrated last week because he bared much fruit.
And you know what, we need to get behind the people that are bearing much fruit because
those are the true disciples of Jesus Christ.
Those are the true men of God.
Those are the people that we need to get behind and love.
You know, I'm not going to get behind men of God that tell you how much they love God.
Hey, though man say you have faith, show me thy faith without thy works and I'll show
you my faith by my works.
Hey, you want to see some of that great faith?
Where are the works at?
It's all about the works and it's all about getting people saved.
Why do we have a missionary?
It's not to go in some deep, dark jungle to almost get someone saved.
It's to go to the receptive places and gather much fruit.
And to bear much fruit.
And that's what the Father is super pleased with.
Why? Because you know what gives glory to God?
Lots of people getting saved.
It doesn't give God the Father glory when no one's getting saved.
It's not giving God the Father glory when heaven is empty.
when church is empty.
When people are not getting saved,
when people are not getting baptized,
when nobody's life is changed.
You know what, it gives God the Father glory.
When people are getting saved,
people are getting baptized,
people are changing their life,
people are making sacrifice,
people are cutting down the altars of Baal,
people are cutting down the groves,
and they're putting them to use.
And you know what, they're taking that bullock
and they're saying, hey, I'm gonna sacrifice this bullock
because I just love God and I wanna get more fruit
and I wanna deliver my nation
out of the hands of the Midianites.
I wanna deliver Israel and I wanna save souls.
And you know what, the Midianites are oppressing our world today with false religion and false
gospels and damning souls to hell and we need to go out there and make the sacrifice to
get someone saved.
For God could use Gideon, he had to say, you know what, I'm going to throw down the altar
of Baal my father, I'm going to cut down his grove, I'm going to burn his bullock and you
know what, then I'm going to serve God.
And for some of us, you might have to just say, you know what, I'm done with the family
business.
I'm done with the family relationships.
I might be like Abraham, I'm leaving father,
because I must be about my father's business.
For some of us, you might have to say,
I'm burning the NIV, the family NIV.
I'm getting a King James Bible,
and I'm starting over with a new legacy.
And as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord,
because I must be about my father's business.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father,
so much for what you've given us.
Thank you for being such a great father.
I pray that we have an attitude and a heart to want to serve you
and to get excited about the work that you have for us to do.
I pray that you would never allow us to just lose focus of what's important
and that we would continue to just bear much fruit
and so that we could be pleasing in your sight.
We just thank you for the fellowship and the relationship you've given us.
I pray that we would draw even closer.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. Our last song this evening will be page 23.
There is power in the blood.
Page 23, there is power in the blood.
I have Sister Ellie coming for baptism.
Have you trusted Christ as your savior?
Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost.
Hold your nose.
Buried in the likeness of his death,
raised to walk in newness of life.
Yes!