All right, well it's great to be here again
and great to have a midweek service, huh?
And midweek services are great
because you get to recharge your batteries a little bit.
And so I know that you haven't started doing that yet
and everybody lives quite a distance away.
But one of these days soon,
we'll start having a regular midweek service.
But I figured we'd start one off while I'm here.
I mean, I didn't just come here to have fun, right?
I came here to preach, but preaching's fun to me.
So it's great to meet everybody and all the new people.
Welcome to the church.
Appreciate you being here.
Let's look at our,
actually let's turn to,
before we get into the main scriptures,
I wanna go to Hebrews chapter four.
I wanna go to a couple different places
and obviously I'm preaching out of Ephesians chapter four.
But I wanna get this put into our mind tonight
and this is, the main focus is that,
we need to have the Bible in our minds.
The Bible's the most important thing for the Christian.
It's our offensive weapon.
It's the sword of the spirit.
And we need to have our eyeballs in it.
We need to read it daily, in the morning, in the evening.
And we need to put it into our, in practice in our life.
It's not just enough to read the Bible,
but you also have to put it in place into your life.
And the title of the sermon tonight is
Remove, Renew, Replace.
We're in Hebrews chapter four, look at verse number 12.
It says, for the word of God is quick.
And that basically means it's alive.
The word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the divinest sunder of soul and spirit
and of the joints of marrow.
And it's a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart.
This isn't just a normal book, folks.
This King James Bible,
that everybody should be reading out of,
it's not just a normal book.
This book is alive, it's powerful,
and when you read it,
you know that you've got a powerful book in your hand.
It's not just some fairy tale,
like all these Gatheists and Phagnostics want to say, right?
This is the word of God.
This is what we need to use
for all of our faith and practice is what we believe.
Everything, this is, you know,
Jesus Christ is our cornerstone,
but the word, this is the word of God.
Jesus Christ is the word of God, amen?
So everything that we believe
needs to be based upon this book,
and it's for our instruction and righteousness,
and we need to apply it to our lives, like I said,
but look what it says,
that it's sharper than any two-edged sword.
No book in the world will cut you to the quick
like this book right here.
When you're doing something wrong
and you read it in the Bible,
you're like, oh man, I gotta fix that, right?
Or if you're reading it, say,
hey, I need to add that to my life.
You know, I need to quit doing this,
I need to start doing that.
This book will instruct you on every aspect of your life,
and look, if it's not in this book,
you don't really need to know about it, do you?
So it says it's sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the divinest sunder of soul and spirit.
That's how sharp it is,
that it can divide a sunder of the soul and spirit,
and it says, and of the joints and marrow,
and it's a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart.
So everything that your heart thinks it can discern,
it's a powerful book, it discerns the heart,
it discerns your intents of your heart,
and a lot of people stay away from this book
because they're in sin, and they're like,
oh man, I don't feel spiritual today,
so I'm just not gonna read it.
That's the wrong attitude to have.
We need to let the Bible remove, renew,
and replace the things that we need to add into our life.
Look at Hebrews chapter five, just one chapter over.
And so I just kind of lay in the foundation
for the sermon here is that everything
that I'm gonna be talking about tonight,
you need the word of God to implement
these things into your life.
Look at Hebrews chapter five, verse 11, it says,
of whom we have many things to say
and hard to be uttered, seeing your dole of hearing.
See, some people, they just stop listening.
They stop listening to the preaching,
but they also stop listening to what the word of God says.
Look at verse 12, for when, for the time
you ought to be teachers, you have need
that one teach you again, which be the first principles
of the oracles of God.
I know it becomes such as have need of milk
and not of strong drink.
See, the thing is that you're a babe in Christ
if you don't even have the first principles down.
You know, you could be saved for 20 years
and you could still be a babe in Christ.
See, babies, they just grow up.
You feed them, they grow up, right?
You can't really stop that.
You know, kids turn into toddlers
and toddlers turn into children
and children turn into preteens
and preteens turn into teenagers
and then they become young men or young women
and then they become adults.
There's nothing we can do to stop that progression, right?
You can try to starve them,
but they're still gonna grow somehow, right?
But when it comes to the Christian life,
you know, you're just gonna continue to stay a babe
if you don't know the first principles
of the oracles of God.
And you know, those people need milk.
You need milk first before you can have the strong meat,
right?
It says you're in need of milk and not of strong,
you have such, excuse me,
let me back it up to verse 12 here.
Let's see, for the time you ought to be teachers,
you have need that one, teach you again,
which be the first principles of the oracles of God
and are become such as have need of milk
and not of strong meat.
So strong meat would be like the hard to learn doctrines
and things like that.
Things that are more meaty, more spiritual,
not just like salvation, baptism.
Those things are easy to understand,
but what's not easy to understand
is the different multiple layers of the Bible.
You have to read the Bible over and over again
to get more out of it.
And the more you read it, the more you're gonna learn
and you're gonna become more skillful in the word of God.
You know what I mean?
I'm sure you remember the first time
you ever picked up the Bible and tried to read it.
And you know, now here you are today,
a lot of you have read the Bible multiple times
and don't you learn something new every time you read it?
Yeah, yeah.
You should be, if you're not learning something new,
then you ought to ask so that God will show you new things
and great things out of his law.
Then verse 13 says,
for everyone that useth milk is unskillful
in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
So if you are still a babe, that's okay.
But if you're like 20 years into your Christianity
and you're still a babe in Christ, you need to grow up.
You need to drink the milk and you learn
the first principles of the things of God
so that you can get out of that baby mode
and get into some more strong meat.
See, it says in verse 14,
but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,
even those by reason of use.
You see that, reason of use?
Have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
So the more you use this book,
the more discernment you're gonna get in the word of God,
and then you're gonna be able to discern
between good and evil.
But if you don't ever read this book,
you're never gonna get that knowledge,
and you're always gonna be stumbling,
you're always gonna be tripping up,
and you're always gonna be like,
I just don't understand why I don't grow.
Well, read your Bible and maybe you'll grow a little bit.
Yeah.
Now let's go to our text in Ephesians chapter four,
verse number 17.
See, once you get saved,
you need to get rid of some things, don't ya?
And then you need to renew your mind,
and then you need to replace the old habits
that you used to have with better habits.
So that's what I'm gonna be preaching to you about tonight,
but you're not gonna get that
without reading the word of God.
Now look what it says in verse 17,
Ephesians chapter four, it says,
this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord
that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,
in the vanity of their mind,
having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart,
who being past feeling have given themselves over
unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But ye have not so learned Christ,
if so be that you have heard him,
and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.
So what's the Apostle Paul saying here?
He's saying, hey, we used to walk
like these other Gentiles walked,
in the vanity of their mind.
They have their understanding darkened.
There's a lot of unsaved people,
and sometimes we expect people to be like we are.
But nobody's gonna be like you if you're saved.
They don't understand, their understanding's darkened.
They're alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that's in them.
You know, a lot of people wanna be ignorant.
They wanna be dumb on purpose, don't they?
They just wanna go through their life,
and continue to sin, and do whatever it is
that they wanna do, and that's why the Bible says
that they hate the light, they won't come to the light.
Because men love darkness rather than light
because their deeds are evil, right?
And so some people just don't want it.
You know, you go to someone's door, no thanks.
They just don't, the light shines in their house,
and they don't want that light.
They don't wanna receive that light.
And it says, who being past feeling,
you know, some of these people are so past failing
that they've become given over to a reprobate mind,
and they've given themselves over to lasciviousness.
It's like lewd acts and things like that,
and work all uncleanness with greediness.
Some people just want money, they love money,
and they love to be filthy and dirty.
It says to work all uncleanness, it says,
but ye have not so learned Christ,
if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught.
So it's talking about people that are saved.
You know, people that trust Jesus,
you know, we have to get out of those old things
that we used to have in our lives,
and so I'm talking about saved people here tonight.
People that have put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
they believed on him, you know,
and so number one, my point number one is,
we need to remove.
What do we need to remove from our lives?
Well, we need to remove the sin.
And so is that possible to remove all sin out of our lives?
It's not necessarily possible to do that,
but we should give it a good try, right?
We should try our best to live a life
that's pleasing to the Lord,
and so we need to remove the sin out of our lives.
We need to remove that trash and that corruption
that's been in our lives, and you know,
the worldly ways that we once walked in.
And those things are hard to walk away from,
some of them, aren't they?
Music is really hard, isn't it?
Because music was probably a big part
of everybody's life in here,
and I'm sure some people still struggle
with the types of music that they listen to.
You know, so you'll hear some stupid song in the store,
or you know, you can't even really go anywhere anymore
without having some kind of music playing in the background.
I was having breakfast this morning,
and some Led Zeppelin was playing when I got in there.
And it's just like, man, I hate this song,
but I just can't stand Led Zeppelin,
but I just can't stand worldly music anymore,
but yet your flesh is drawn to it, isn't it?
It is, it's drawn to it.
And so like, how do you know
that some music isn't good for you?
Well, because it makes you emotional,
it brings you back to your childhood memories,
it brings you back to, you know, romance or whatever.
Or maybe it brings you back to some time
when you were in the thug life or whatever you were doing.
But it brings memories to you,
and you probably have that music stuck in your head
for the rest of your life.
There's albums that I know every beat,
every song, every riff, everything.
How do I know that?
Well, because music's powerful.
And that's a powerful thing,
it's hard to remove that stuff out of your life.
Movies, Hollywood movies, things like that.
And just, you know, a lot of people gamble, they drink,
you know, they smoke weed, or whatever it is that they do,
they have a hard, those are things that we as Christians
need to get out of our lives, though, right?
But some people have harder problems with certain things.
Some people have proclivities to other sins
that other people wouldn't have.
You know, some people struggle with music,
some people don't.
Some people struggle with smoking, some people don't.
Some people struggle, you know,
it just depends on the person
and how deep you are into it.
But, you know, as Christians who have put on
the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to try to remove
those things out of our lives.
Well, how do we do that?
Look at verse number 22 in our chapter,
Ephesians chapter number four, verse number 22.
And so, number one is we need to remove.
It says that you put off, isn't putting off
removing something from you?
Like if I just said, I'm putting off my coat
because it's too hot, which I'm actually gonna do right now.
Put off, right?
You put off concerning the former conversation,
the old man, which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lust.
So, what's it about to say we need to put off
concerning the former conversation?
That's not talking about things you used to talk about,
all right?
When we say someone's having a conversation,
most of the time we're talking about someone
having a conversation where we're speaking to each other,
but what the Bible means here is the life
that you used to live, the manner of life
that you used to live, the old man.
See, once you get saved, you have what's called the new man.
The new man comes, and that new man is sinless,
perfect, but you still have the old man
living inside you, but you wanna try to crucify
the deeds of the old man, don't you?
And it says that you've put off concerning
the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt.
Isn't the old man corrupt?
Does this flesh wanna do anything that's good?
No, it doesn't, it wants to do things that are bad.
It wants to live that old life, and that's why you saw
the children of Israel wanting to go back to Egypt,
wanting to have the flesh, not really caring
about the manna, they wanted the flesh from Egypt,
you know, and the children of Israel's a picture
of kind of how the Christian life is too.
We always wanna go back and do stuff.
We wanna go back to our sin.
The Bible says it's like going, you know,
like a sow going back into the pig pen, right?
Or someone, the dog puking and wanted to eat its own vomit.
Who's ever seen a dog do that before?
It's disgusting, isn't it?
And so it should disgust us too, but yet,
that's what we wanna do, that's what our flesh wants to do.
And look, the more we live our lives in the flesh,
the more fleshly things we're gonna wanna do.
Our defenses are weakened, and then, you know,
then we're gonna end up doing the things
that we don't want to do.
So Paul talked about the fact that he was carnal.
Paul talked about him doing the things
that he wanted to do, he didn't do it.
You know, and that's because we can't always walk
in the spirit, we can try our hardest,
but we're not always gonna do that.
But we should try to live most of our life in the spirit
and not try to walk in the flesh, right?
But of course, we are sinful people.
We're never gonna be perfect like Jesus was,
but for the most part, we can try our best
to remove that old stuff, to get away from those old people,
those old haunts that we used to go to,
the things that, you know, easily beset us,
we need to try to put those things off.
So it says, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts.
See, it's deceitful, these lusts, they deceive us,
and we think, oh, it's okay, we're better now.
You know, we can handle this,
but you're never gonna handle it.
It's gonna handle you.
Sin's gonna handle you.
Look at Psalm 119, verse 11.
Just keep your finger or bookmark or something
back in Ephesians, chapter four,
because we're gonna come back to that.
But Psalm 119, verse 11.
Well, how are we gonna get, how are we gonna remove,
how are we gonna put off these former things?
Well, Psalm 119, verse 11 says,
thy word have I hidden my heart,
that I might not sin against thee.
So it always goes back to the Bible, doesn't it?
How are you gonna hide God's word in your heart
where you're gonna memorize it?
You know, that's, why do we memorize verses
and give prizes for that?
Because we want that word of God in our hearts
so that we might not sin against God.
Or that we might wanna do the things
that God wants us to do.
You know, seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you, right?
So if we seek first, first thing we do when we get up
is we seek the kingdom of God.
You know, we get up, we read our Bible,
we pray or whatever order you wanna do that in,
acknowledge God, give him some acknowledgement.
And then, you know what, obviously at the end of the night,
we should be meditating in God's word and praying.
And I personally think that praying is an underrated thing.
And a lot of times we just go,
I don't know why I just keep falling into this.
Well, why don't you pray to God and ask him to help you?
Why don't you read the Bible and get some knowledge?
So you can remove these things out of your life
and hide his word in your heart.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse number one.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse number one.
What are we talking about?
We're talking about removing the things out of our lives
that we need, these roadblocks, these stumbling blocks
to the Christian life.
Because do you really just wanna be a baby
for the rest of your life?
Nobody wants to be a spiritual baby
for the rest of your life.
That's just a hard road, isn't it?
If you're always just making mistakes,
you're always on the milk,
someone always has to reteach you everything.
We need to get to where we're past that baby stage
and we're on to the stronger meat,
the things that's gonna help us discern
the difference between good and evil, amen?
So look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse one, it says,
we're foreseen, we're also,
we're our compass, excuse me,
we're also our compass about with so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every way.
Isn't that putting off?
You know, you got weights on you,
who's ever ran with weights on or, you know,
you do a workout with weights on or something like that?
It's a lot easier to do stuff
without having a whole bunch of weight on you, isn't it?
It's a lot easier to run if you don't have chains
and weights or whatever it is.
I know people train that way, there's a lot of,
who does like training in here?
There's some people in here that do some kind of like
physical training, right?
So it's a lot easier to run, you can run faster,
that's why people train so that when they take
those weights off, then they're faster
and you know, all that type of stuff.
But what the Bible's talking about here
is the weight of sin, right?
It says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin
which doth easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us.
See, God's saying that, you know, the Christian,
you know, we're supposed to run,
we're supposed to, in the Christian life,
it says, so run that you may obtain, right?
So we're supposed to be running this race,
it's the Christian life.
It's the, you know, the apostle Paul talks about
being a race all the time,
and he seemed to like sports a lot,
so he always has some things that he's talking about
when it comes to sports,
but when we lay aside that weight and that sin
that does so easily beset us,
we're gonna be able to run faster, aren't we?
We're gonna be able to run with that patience,
that race that's set before us,
it's gonna be a lot easier to get to a life
if we're not always being punished for the sin
that we keep committing,
the pitfalls that we keep going back into.
And it's like, it's like almost like, you know,
you get to a level, and then you get a setback,
and then you have to go back up to that level again.
So you go back instead of going forward,
and the best way to go forward
and to run this Christian life
is to not have a bunch of sin in your life
weighing you down and stopping you
from being the best Christian that you can be.
Look at verse number two,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Hey, who do we have to look up to?
You know, we can look up to other people in the faith,
we can look up to other pastors,
but who should we really be looking up to?
Jesus, right?
It says the author and finisher of our faith.
He's the one that finished it, he's the one that authored it.
He wrote the book, amen?
And we're supposed to be looking unto him, what did he do?
Everything perfect, everything right?
So if we want someone to look up to,
you know, then it should be Jesus.
And it says, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
He finished, didn't he?
He finished the race, didn't he?
And he finished what it took to save all of mankind.
You know, when we go to people's doors,
we tell them all the great things that Jesus did,
but we can't even really,
it's kind of an encapsulated thing, isn't it?
It's like, yeah, he healed the blind,
he rose people from the dead, he walked on water,
and they're like, okay, okay.
But we're just like basically just scratching the surface
of what he did.
We should have a little bit of passion
when we preach about what Jesus did for us.
It's not just a factoid that we're getting out there,
we need to just get a little bit of passion in our preaching
and remember we're not just going through a script
when we're out soloing, we need to care about people.
People are gonna believe you based upon how much you care.
If you're just sitting there and you're like,
yeah, Jesus died for you, and yeah, you wanna pray?
I mean, we gotta have some passion in our preaching.
Do you ever get fired up when you're preaching to people
and you're just like, you know what he did for us?
You know what he did, he died on the cross for us,
and then he was buried and he rose again the third day.
He went to hell for three days and three nights for us.
There's nothing wrong with being passionate
about your preaching when you're preaching to someone.
To me, it's realistic, you know?
So look at Romans chapter 10, verse 17.
So we look unto Jesus, we gotta lay aside,
that's removing, isn't it?
We need to lay aside every weight,
every sin that doth easily beset us.
See, our sin is the thing that's gonna make us trip.
We're gonna stumble.
We're not gonna be able to, you know,
you're gonna be crawling through the race,
because sin hinders you from being able to run that race.
Look at Romans chapter 10, verse 17.
So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God.
But you know what?
We use this a lot for soul and it's applicable.
It's what it's talking about.
But what about the faith that comes to us
by hearing the word of God in our daily life?
You know, the more we hear God's word,
the more it's gonna help us in our daily life,
and it's gonna help us to believe the things in the Bible.
You know, people listen to Alexander Scorby,
he sounds British, but he's actually from Brooklyn.
But does it increase your faith
when you hear the word of God read to you?
Does it increase your faith
when someone preaches the Bible to you
and just plainly shows you what the Bible says?
How about just your daily reading?
You know, you're gonna hear that in your head,
like while you're reading it,
but sometimes I'll put my app on
and I'll let the, I have somebody besides Scorby,
he's actually really British,
but I like read along with as he reads it out loud.
And I don't know, I just like reading like that
for some reason, helps keep me into the story more.
And so, you know, that faith is gonna come
by hearing the word of God,
and we need to hear it in our minds and in our hearts,
let it sink down in our ears.
Revelation, go ahead and turn to Galatians 5, verse 16.
I'm gonna read Revelation 2, verse 29.
Revelation 2, verse 29 says,
he that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to hear,
not just to read and not apply it,
but he wants us to read it and he wants us to hear it.
He wants it to sink down into our ears.
And what's in here?
Your brain, right?
And so he wants it to sink down into our brain.
He wants it to be in our being, right?
And so we need to understand that we need to hear
what the Spirit says.
The Spirit is this book right here.
You're gonna get the Spirit out of here.
Now, Galatians 5, verse 16, what's the Bible say?
It says in verse 16, it says,
this I say then, walk in the Spirit
and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
What's the key to, you know,
getting rid of the sin in our lives?
What's the key to removing the sin out of our lives?
Well, if you walk in the Spirit,
ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
I mean, you're like, that sounds really simple,
Pastor Thompson, but it's not always that easy, is it?
Because as men, we walk through this world,
we have to hear all this smut,
we have to see all the wicked ways
that the women dress out there.
It's a hardship for men, isn't it?
When you're always having to look up all the time
or look down or go like this or just walk around.
It's hard.
It's hard to walk around in this world filled with sin.
We're supposed to be in the world,
but not part of the world,
but sometimes it's hard, isn't it?
Having to hear that music,
having to see the things that we shouldn't want to see,
but our flesh wants to see that stuff, doesn't it?
Our flesh wants to lust after other women.
Our flesh wants us to lust after things
and getting rich quick and things like that.
But again, pretty concerned about gambling.
A lot of people just want to get rich the easy way
and they don't want to work hard for what they have.
But you know, we're supposed to walk in the spirit.
How are you going to remove?
Well, you got to walk in the spirit.
Look at verse 17, it says,
for the flesh lusteth against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary, the one to the other,
so that you cannot do the things that you would.
So what's the problem?
Well, your flesh, everybody in here is made of flesh, right?
It lusts against the spirit.
And so there's just constantly, every single day,
it's a battle.
We're supposed to take up our cross daily
and follow after Christ because it's a daily battle.
You know, but the great thing is that every morning
there's new mercies.
You know, the Lord gives us new mercies every day.
And so if you failed yesterday,
well then get up and walk right, walk in the spirit,
say, hey, today I'm actually going to read my Bible.
Today I'm actually going to pray to the Lord.
Today I'm actually going to go to church.
Today I'm actually going to try to walk spiritually.
Today I'm going to go soul winning.
You know, do something that's spiritual.
Walk in the spirit and you won't fulfill
the lust of the flesh.
Then you won't even have to worry about it.
You're so busy being spiritual that you don't have time
to walk after the flesh.
And that's the easiest way.
You know, why was it so, you know,
I go to a church, a men's retreat every year,
you know, when I was younger, when I was first saved.
And at that time I still smoked.
I know I'm wicked, right?
But at that time I still smoked and every time I'd go,
I'd be like, I'm going to quit smoking this year.
And it was actually on the week
of the Great American Smokeout,
it's the day where everybody says, hey, today I'm quitting.
And you know, it's really easy to not smoke
when you're around a bunch of other Christians.
You know, it's embarrassing,
you smell like cigarettes or whatever.
And it's like, yeah, this is easy, this is good.
And then you get back to the world, to the real world
where you're stressed, driving down the road,
you're stressed at work and all this stuff.
The kids are crying and screaming.
And you're just like, Calgon, take me away.
Yeah, smoke a cigarette.
But I have quit smoking by the way, so long, long time ago.
But you know, I'm just trying to say that it's easy to walk
in the spirit when you're doing spiritual things.
And so try to do spiritual things
as much as you possibly can.
And you're going to walk in the spirit.
You know, ask God to help you.
But we all fail, we all fall.
God's there to pick us up when we fall.
But we have to get back up.
We have to get back up and keep walking.
So number one, we got to remove.
We got to remove the things in our life
that are hindering us and stopping us.
And how do we do that?
Well, we get into the word of God.
And we also lay aside that sin.
We look unto Jesus as our example.
We hear the word of God.
We get our faith from the Bible.
And we walk in the spirit so that we won't fulfill
the lust of the flesh.
Number two, we need to renew.
You know, a lot of us have been brain defiled.
It's actually being brain defiled.
People will say that we're all brainwashed, right?
You guys are a bunch of brainwashed cult members
and Pastor Thompson's a cult leader.
And you know, I don't remember like calling everybody
on the phone saying, hey, you guys got to show up
for church tonight.
Did I say that?
No, you all just came because you wanted to come
and hear the word of God.
You wanted to hear the Bible preached.
Nobody's stopping you.
Nobody's making you come to this church.
You come to church on your own volition, right?
So, but the problem is, is that we've been brain defiled.
And we walk in this world and our brains are defiled.
And you know, we actually need to be brainwashed.
We need to have our brain washed.
That's the problem is that our brains have been defiled
and we got to wash them and scrub them.
How do we scrub them?
With the word of God, right?
We need to renew.
So Ephesians chapter four, back in our text,
verse number 23, it says, you know,
first we're supposed to put off and then it says,
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
So like I said, when you're saved, you have the new man
and we need to renew that spirit of our mind.
If it gets defiled, we need to wash it up, right?
So I'm here to brainwash you tonight.
I want to tell you how to be brainwashed
because we've been brain defiled for too long.
You know, in other churches, you know,
they just don't even care.
They just want you to put the money in the plate,
shut up and come back next week.
Take, eat the cracker, drink the juice
and rinse and repeat, right?
Sing a couple songs.
But you know, our church is a little different.
We're a little more militant, aren't we?
You know, we're an organized group of soldiers
that we have a mission to get as many people saved
as we can because didn't Jesus come to seek
and save that which was lost?
He did.
He came to seek and save that which was lost.
But we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.
Look at Titus chapter one, verse 15.
Titus chapter one, verse 15.
And people, you know, I'm sure you start going
to this church and your family starts saying,
you guys are maybe taking a little bit too far.
You're thinking about moving?
You're thinking about moving to that church?
You're crazy.
You need to go, you need to go, you're being brainwashed.
You know, that pastor, that leader there
is brainwashing you.
You're like, amen, amen, he's brainwashing me, right?
And so I know that sounds bad, but in reality it's the truth
because our minds have been defiled.
Look at Titus chapter one, verse 15 says,
it says, unto the pure, all things are pure.
So when you're pure, you're pure
and all things are pure to you.
But unto them that are defiled
in unbelieving is nothing pure.
So the unbelievers, nothing's pure to them.
They're defiled, they're unbelieving.
It says, but even their mind and conscious is defiled.
So we had our minds and consciences defiled at one time,
but we need to clean them up.
What does defiled mean?
It means it's filthy, it's dirty.
And so we've had a lot of growing up where it,
I mean, I don't know what it's like to grow up
in this country, but I'm sure you've had to endure
a lot of filthy things and your conscience has been,
had issues, like some people just get into sin
and they just keep sinning, but you know,
when Jesus saves you, he creates in you a new man.
And so we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.
Look at Psalm chapter 51, verse 10.
Psalm chapter 51, verse 10.
David, when he sinned with Bathsheba,
that was a great sin, wasn't it?
And he had Uriah the Hittite killed to cover up his sin,
but it didn't work, see,
because God knows everything that we do.
I don't know why he thought he was gonna escape
from that one, but it didn't work.
And when Nathan the prophet came in, he said,
thou art the man, you know, he was the man.
But you know, when we sin, when we get defiled,
the Bible says right here, create in me a clean heart,
oh God, and what's it say?
Renew, right?
Renew a right spirit within me.
So, you know, the world's gonna defile us,
sin's gonna defile us, sin's gonna give us problems
in our mind and our soul that's gonna get us
all dirty and filthy and defiled,
but you know, God can do,
he can create in us a clean heart.
But you know, the Bible says in 1 John 1, 9,
it says, well, let's turn over there real quick.
I'm actually, I don't have it in my notes.
I should know it by heart.
I think I do know it by heart.
1 John 1, 9.
Sorry, it's a new Bible.
1 John, 1 John, sorry.
So that's what happens when I don't have it in my notes.
1 John 1, 9, it says, if we confess our sins,
he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
And what's it say?
To cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So, you know, what's gonna help us is being renewed
in the spirit of our mind.
What's gonna help us is asking God to create in us
a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within us
when we sin.
Turn to Romans chapter 12, verse two.
Romans chapter 12, verse two.
So we need the word of God to wash our brains.
We need the word of God to wash our brains
and to not just be conformed to the world that we live in.
We're supposed to be separate from the world.
It says love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world, right?
Look at Romans chapter 12, verse two, it says,
and be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
So we have to renew our minds.
We have to be transformed.
We can't be conformed to this world.
It says that you may prove,
that you prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
See, once you, your mind is renewed from the Bible
and you're transformed, you're renewed,
then you can start to prove the things that are good.
You prove the things that are acceptable.
And what's it say?
The perfect will of God.
Now, nobody's gonna be perfect, like I said,
but complete is what perfect actually means
when you're talking about the King James Bible.
You wanna be a complete Christian?
You wanna be the perfect package?
Well, you need to have a renewing of your mind.
See, when we first get saved,
we have a lot of crap in our life, right?
Just a lot of garbage, a lot of trash,
and it needs to be cleaned up.
How do we do that?
Renewing our mind through the Bible.
Yeah.
Walking in the Spirit.
And eventually those things, you know,
we forget like how bad we were.
And then we're like, oh yeah, I used to do that, huh.
It's bad.
You know, I used to go to the bar.
I used to get in fights.
Or, you know, I used to think differently.
I used to listen to different kinds of music.
And the Bible will just clean you up.
It's gonna renew your mind.
But we can't be conformed to this world.
You know, that's what, when you talk about
worldly Christians, what are you talking about?
People that are still conformed to this world,
their mind has not been renewed.
They don't read the Bible.
A person that's been saved and they never read the Bible,
they're never gonna grow.
They never even drank the milk yet.
How many people out there, you know,
that claim to be Christians don't even read the Bible?
They've never even read the Bible once
and they're getting on telling us how mean we are.
They're always, oh, why are you so mean?
I didn't realize that reading the Bible was mean.
Reading the Bible out loud is mean.
Preaching the Bible, oh, that's mean.
Why are you being so judgmental?
Well, God's judgmental.
Isn't he?
You know, I mean, just look at the word judgment
in the Bible.
See how many times it pops up.
Judge in the Bible.
They're like, you're not supposed to judge.
That's the opposite of what God says.
We are supposed to judge.
So we're just not supposed to judge unrighteously.
So look what it says in,
let's see, let's turn over to Psalm 119 again.
Psalm 119 again.
So how are we gonna not be conformed to this world?
Well, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind
and then we can prove the good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
Psalm 119 verse nine.
It says, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way,
you see that word cleanse,
by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
You wanna cleanse your way, young men,
young people, even old people?
Yeah, well, you gotta take heed
thereto according to thy word.
So you gotta actually take heed to what the Bible says
and actually do it, right?
And so then you can cleanse your way.
Why, because we're already defiled.
We need to clean ourselves up
and that's something that's a process
that takes place over our lifetime as a Christian.
You're not just instantly sinless of all sin
and you never have to work at anything.
We still have to work at things
and that's gonna happen till Jesus Christ comes back.
But how do we cleanse our ways?
Well, we gotta take heed to what the Bible says.
Read the Bible.
Ephesians chapter five verse 25.
We need to remove some things.
We also need to renew some things.
We need to make all, you know, when you renew something,
you think about renewing a car.
Usually when a car's all messed up,
well, I know it's probably the same here,
but in the States, you know, people try to get these
old, junker, classic cars and make them nice
and shiny and new again.
Well, how do you do that?
Well, you replace all the bad stuff with good stuff, right?
And you replace it, you renew it,
put a new paint job on it and all that stuff.
I've never done it before, but I've seen it done.
I've heard about it, so.
But anyway, look at Ephesians 5, 25.
It says, husbands love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it.
Then he might, what does it say?
Sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by what?
The word.
So how do you get sanctified?
What does sanctified even mean?
It means to be set apart.
It means to be holy.
So why did he die for us?
So that he could sanctify us and cleanse us
by the washing of water by the word.
What's he talking about, the word of God?
You know, you're clean through the word of God.
James chapter four, verse eight.
James chapter four, verse number eight.
When you're renewing something, you're cleaning it up.
You're making it better.
James chapter four, verse eight says,
draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts,
ye double-minded.
Be afflicted in morning, weep.
Let your laughter be turned to morning
and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord
and he shall lift you up.
So how do we do that?
Well, how do we purify our hearts?
Well, you know, you got to draw nigh to God.
You know, once you draw nigh to God,
he's like, okay, well they took a step towards me.
Well, I'm gonna take a step towards them.
I'm gonna draw nigh to you.
And we're supposed to cleanse our hands.
Purify our hearts.
Isn't that cleaning it up?
Getting it clean?
So when we're double-minded, you know,
our hearts are not clean.
A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways.
So if you're double-minded,
then you need to cleanse your hands.
Purify your hearts.
Get close to God.
How do you do that?
Well, prayer, reading the Bible, being humble.
No, isn't humble.
Getting on your hands and knees
and asking God to forgive you for something.
Asking God to help you.
But if you're not even ever sad about what you do,
that's not being humble.
It's like God knows when you're being fake.
Doesn't He?
You know, dear Heavenly Father,
forgive me in Jesus' name, amen.
Okay, I'm good.
Is that the most repentance you got?
Because it should be a little more deep than that.
When you know you've done wrong,
you know, you just put your head down,
get on your knees, and ask God to forgive you.
That's the most humble thing you can do.
And then the Bible says if you draw an eye to Him,
how do you draw an eye to God?
Well, we can't actually go up to Heaven right now, can we?
So we call upon His name and ask Him to help us.
So calling upon the name of the Lord
isn't just asking for salvation,
it's asking for anything.
And when we know we messed up,
you know, you want God to cleanse your ways,
well, get humble.
You know, get on your knees and ask Him to forgive you.
Get in the book and read it.
So number three tonight, it's the last point,
but it's the longest one, okay?
All right, we got until midnight, right?
Yep.
Nobody's sitting in the window?
Okay, we're good.
All right, so we need to replace.
So I've talked about how we need to get rid of all the things
that we, you know, when we first get saved,
we have all this stuff in our life,
this trash and garbage and sin
that we gotta get out of our life.
And how do we do that?
Well, we renew our minds through the word of God,
and we start to realize, hey, these things are bad,
we need to get the things in our lives that are good.
And so when you go to start replacing those things,
see, that's the thing, a lot of people,
they get sin out of life,
and then they don't replace it with the good works.
You know, our good habits.
And so, you know, we have to put off,
we have to cleanse, and now we must replace
all the ways with better ways, good ways.
And so how do you do that?
Well, look at Ephesians chapter four, verse 24.
Ephesians chapter four, verse 24.
See, the old habits, the old manner of your life,
the old lifestyle has to be replaced
with a new and better lifestyle, doesn't it?
And, you know, new habits.
Because if you used to go to the bar all the time,
you know, ah, you know, I used to go to the bar
at four o'clock every evening,
and drink until the bar closed.
Now what's gonna be your new habit?
You gotta find something, don't you?
Something good, though.
Look at Ephesians 4, 24, it says,
and that you put on the new man.
So you have the old man on,
you gotta take the old man off, put the new man on.
Which after God has created a righteousness
and true holiness.
So the new man wants to do the things that are right.
The new man wants to do the things that are true and holy.
And so that's what we gotta start doing
is putting new practices into place with our lives.
Things to replace.
Well, let's look at Ephesians chapter four, verse 25.
It says, wherefore putting away lying?
Were you a liar before?
Did you used to lie a lot?
Well, what's the Bible say?
Speak every man truth with his neighbor.
So here's a thing to replace.
Stop being a liar and start telling the truth.
Stop lying to your neighbor about stuff
and start telling the truth.
For we are members one of another.
And it says, be angry and sin not.
Is it okay to be angry?
It's okay to be angry, but don't sin.
Did you used to be an angry man?
Did you used to fight people all the time?
And your way of settling things
was just smacking them in the jaw?
That's not how we should be living as Christians anymore.
It says, be angry and sin not.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Neither give place to the devil.
And it says, let him that stole steal no more.
Were you a thief before?
Well, you need to replace that with what?
But rather let him labor.
Working with his hands a thing which is good.
Hey, if you used to be a thief,
you can even be a thief and steal time from your boss
by not working hard.
By not doing what you're supposed to do.
Hey, why don't you just become a hard worker?
That you may have to give to him that needeth.
Now replace the old ways with good things.
Aren't these things replacing good things?
You know the bad things with good things?
Look what it says in verse 29.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth
but that which is good to the use of edifying.
That it may minister grace under the hearers.
Hey, how many things would change
if you would talk to people differently?
You know, we don't have to talk to people
with the corrupt communication
that used to proceed out of our mouth.
You know, the F word was one of my favorite words
back in the day when I was a young unsaved person.
But that is not a word that we should probably be using,
right?
That's corrupt communication.
Now I'm not gonna go to the point where I say,
you know, you're not supposed to say bastard
because that's a bad word.
No, that's in the Bible, okay?
Damn, piss, that's in the Bible too.
So I'm not getting all crazy, ultra spiritual, all right?
But that word is not in the Bible, the F word, you know?
Now there's a different kind of F word that I use
but I'm not gonna use that right now.
That one's okay too but.
Anyway, I don't wanna get kicked out of the country today.
So, but anyway, so it says,
let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth.
That, but that which is good to the use of edifying.
You know, when you're driving in your car by yourself,
you know, and that person cuts you off or,
you know, you let them in and you're like,
oh, yeah, I'm gonna do the Christian thing
and let that person in and they just go really slow
in front of you, you know what I'm talking about?
Super annoying, isn't it?
But you know, and if colorful things come out of your mouth,
well, it just changed the way you are.
You know, just don't let them in next time
and then, no, I'm just kidding.
You don't let them in, they won't disappoint you, you know?
I'm just kidding.
But we should, you know, we should change the way we talk.
You know, do your kids, you know, are you one way here
and then another way at home, the way you talk?
Do your kids say, mommy, what does that mean?
You know, we gotta change the way we communicate.
We gotta change the way we communicate with our spouses.
You know, we probably used to talk one way around the bend.
Maybe we should change the way we speak
in front of them now, you know?
We need to replace the old man with the new man.
It says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit,
whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
And be kind one to another.
There's a novel idea.
Hey, why don't we start being kind one to another?
Instead of having all this bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor, you're all mad.
Evil speaking, put that away, put away all the malice
and start being nice to each other.
As Christians, we're supposed to be nice to each other.
We're supposed to be good to each other.
We're not supposed to be plotting against each other
or trying to climb up the ladder
to a higher echelon to the other person.
We're supposed to be kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another.
Hey, does someone slightly in church?
Well, that happens.
You know, this church is not perfect.
It's never going to be.
That's filled with sinful people, y'all sinners.
It's going to be filled with sinful people.
We're all sinful people.
But then we sit back and judge our brother
like we're better than them
because maybe they have a different sin
that we don't have proclivity to.
And we're not tender-hearted.
Someone just is like mean to you or whatever.
You know, you can let stuff go, did you know that?
You don't have to just right every wrong
that someone does to you.
That's how you used to be.
But why don't you try being a little bit different now
and forgiving people.
Hey, someone slightly just forgive me.
Do they have to ask for forgiveness before you forgive them?
No, you can forgive them anyway.
Can't you?
Can't you see maybe they just had a bad day?
You know, maybe they're just a jerk
and they're not where you are at spiritually.
But you know, if you sink to the level that they're at,
then what are you doing?
You're dragging yourself back down to where you used to be
when you could be spiritual and just say,
you know what, I forgive that person, doesn't matter.
No big deal.
I mean, I've talked about this before,
but like where I work, we can yell and scream at each other,
which I try not to yell and scream at people,
but sometimes it happens.
But I've seen people get in the worst arguments at work
and then the next day it's just like nothing happened.
You know, sometimes you can get in an argument
with a Christian and you know what you should do?
Act like nothing happened.
If it's not a big deal anymore,
it's not a big, you know, we shouldn't be yelling
and screaming at each other, obviously.
But if people that are unsaved in a construction zone
can sit there and scream at each other
and the next day they're good,
then why can't we do that?
If someone just doesn't shake our hand in the morning
or doesn't say, oh, you know, your kid's cute or whatever.
Or maybe, you know, they're not your cup of tea
and you don't like going soloing with that particular person.
You're like, I'm just not going soloing with them anymore.
It's just like, you shouldn't have that attitude.
You know, maybe not everybody's your favorite person
to go soloing with, but if you get partnered with someone,
you should just go and don't complain about it.
Let that soloing captain choose who you're going with.
Obviously, if you guys are throwing down in front of people,
that's probably not a good thing.
But that probably doesn't ever happen, does it?
Where you're actually yelling and screaming
at your soloing partner,
unless you're like a false prophet or something,
preaching a false gospel, then go ahead and scream at him.
That's fine.
They're saying, you gotta repent of all your sins.
You're like, wait a second, whoosh, excuse me.
But that usually doesn't happen, does it?
I mean, but we need to be different.
You know, we need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ
and when we do that, we need to be kind to one another.
Tender-hearted, forgiving one another,
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Who are you to sit there and hold grudges against people
when Jesus died for a bunch of people
that don't even love him?
Isn't he the savior of all men?
Didn't he die for everybody?
Even that reprobate that didn't want to get saved?
Didn't he die for them too?
So if he can forgive people, why can't we forgive people?
Especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Go ahead and turn to 2 Peter chapter two.
I'm gonna read Colossians chapter three, nine.
Colossians three, nine says, lie not one to another,
seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds.
See, if you put off the old man with his deeds,
you're not gonna lie to each other.
You know, and obviously, again, we're sinful,
we can fall into sin, but you know,
if we put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
we put on the new man, then we ought to be different
than we were before, does that make sense?
We need to steer clear of old haunts
and vexing your soul around wicked people.
This is something I'll never understand,
how the people don't realize,
you can't keep hanging around the same people
that used to hang around and expect to get more spiritual.
If you're saved, the last thing you should be doing
is hanging around a bunch of unsafe people.
Now, obviously, man, you gotta go to work, you know,
I understand that, but that's different.
You have to do that, you have to go to work.
And if you're around a bunch of reprobates all the time,
then find a different kind of job
or a different kind of way to support your family,
but we need to steer clear of our old haunts
that vex our soul and being around wicked people
all the time, and that includes family.
You know, if you take your kids and drop them off
to grandma and grandpa's and they're just sitting there
telling your kids how, well, you know, when you're 18,
you can move out and do whatever you want,
you don't have to listen to this crazy stuff,
just because it's your mom and dad,
just because it's your grandma and grandpa,
I wouldn't let somebody take my kids
that's telling them when I'm not around
how bad we are for making them go to church.
You know, I'm gonna separate from people like that,
it doesn't care, I don't care if it's my Siamese twin.
I'm gonna separate from them.
You know, obviously, they're gonna separate with you
before you separate with them.
That's usually the way it happens.
But you know, don't get all broke up about it.
Jesus said that would happen.
Yeah, yeah.
He said he didn't come to bring peace but a sword,
to bring cause to vision.
A sword chops things in half, doesn't it?
Yeah.
And people of the same household
are gonna be against each other.
So why would you think it's so weird
that your mom wants to stop talking to you?
You know, obviously, some people just,
their parents hate God, or their grandparents hate God,
or maybe they're just not ready to be saved yet.
I'm not saying just like completely, you know,
cast them aside.
I'm just saying that, you know,
you need to learn who you should be hanging around with
and who you shouldn't.
Look at 2 Peter chapter two, verse six.
It says, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow,
making them an ensample unto those
that should live, that should live ungodly,
after should live ungodly, excuse me.
So it says, and delivered just Lot,
vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.
See, Lot was a saved man, but where did he end up?
In a cave with his two daughters.
His wife turned her back towards San Francisco,
became a pillar of Saul, right?
But whose fault was that?
Lot was a saved man, what did he do?
Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked?
That means the lifestyle.
He had to be around those fruitcakes all the time
and see their unlawful deeds.
And what it says in verse eight,
for that righteous man, see, he was righteous,
he was saved, dwelling among them,
in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul
from day to day with their unlawful deeds.
So the last thing we need to do
is pitch our tent towards Sodom
and be around these filthy people.
You know, obviously things are different here,
you know, with all this agenda going on
with the Sodomites, right?
That doesn't mean that you need to get on board with it.
You just get away from it.
If you have some fruitcake uncle, get away from him.
Don't let your kids around him.
You know, if you're going to the same Starbucks
and the same fruitcakes behind the counter every time,
go to a different place to get your coffee.
I mean, I don't know if anybody gets their coffee
at Starbucks here, but I saw a couple of them around, so.
But anyway, you just don't know anymore.
Things have gotten really crazy,
but the last thing we need to do
as a righteous person is be dwelling among them.
Dwelling among them, allowing them around our children
and our family members is just bad.
It's going to vex your righteous soul from day to day.
And some people are like, well, I don't really think
that, you know, they're really that bad.
Okay, well, you know, why don't you read Genesis chapter 19,
Judges chapter 19, Jude, you know, 2 Peter,
and then tell me how great they are.
How about Genesis when Noah, you know,
has his weird son do something to him?
You know, we don't know what he did,
but, you know, the Bible uses the euphemism
that he looked upon his nakedness,
and that's kind of weird.
So it's not that he accidentally
just didn't see his dad naked.
He did something to him.
And so we need to stay away from people like that,
or just wicked people in general,
people that live an ungodly life,
we need to stay away from them,
because you know what it's going to do?
It's going to vex your righteous soul from day to day
in seeing and hearing these things.
You know, to have to be around it and see it all the time,
it's nice to come to church.
You just see normal people dressed normally,
you know, for the most part.
They're dressed normal, they talk normal,
we don't talk, you know.
It's easy to get into church and feel good
and feel spiritual, but then we got to walk out
to the filth of the world.
You know, but why would you put yourself
where you're living in a place,
I would never move to San Francisco.
There's no way, I don't care how much money you offer me,
I would never live in San Francisco.
I wouldn't live in some weird sodomite town
where it's all a bunch of sodomites, you know,
or any other kind of weird person that's wicked.
It says, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly
out of temptations and to reserve the unjust
to the day of judgment to be punished.
The Lord knows how to deliver us out of, you know,
but he knows how to deliver us out of these things,
but don't put yourself in a situation
where you're being vexed by this filthy conversation
of the wicked, the lifestyle of wicked people.
Don't put yourself in that position.
Don't put your children in that position.
Oh, you know, I know he's a little weird,
but you know, I let him watch my kids every once in a while.
There's actually people I know that think that way.
I'm just like, I would never let a sodomite
watch my kid ever, no matter what,
even if I had a camera on him the whole time.
So look at Proverbs 13 verse 18.
See, because I'm sure it didn't used to be a big deal to you
back before you were saved maybe,
but it should be a big deal now
to put yourself in a position
where your kids could be harmed or you could be harmed
and stay away from those people.
And I don't care if it is your Siamese twin.
Cut that thing off, you know?
Go get removed from that person.
Anyway, Proverbs 13 verse 18 says,
poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction.
So we gotta take the instruction, right?
But he that regardeth reproof shall be honored.
The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul,
but it's an abomination to fools
to depart from evil.
See, we need to depart from them
because it's an abomination for fools,
unsaved people to depart from evil.
It's an abomination to them.
They're not gonna change.
You're not gonna change them
unless you get that person saved,
but you're not gonna change that person.
They're gonna change you.
But it says, he that wileth the wise men shall be wise.
That's a good thing.
Hey, you hang out with saved people,
hang out with wise people.
It says, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
What happened to Lot?
He was destroyed.
So you walk around, you hang around with fools,
you're gonna get destroyed.
Walk with wise people, you're gonna get wise.
Philippians chapter two, or chapter one.
Philippians chapter one.
See, it's important who we choose to hang around.
And you can choose.
You don't have to hang around those people.
You don't have to hang around your old friends.
You know, you think, see I went through this.
I've been saved for over 20 years.
And I went and tried to get all my friends saved,
and all they did is vex my soul.
Because once they don't wanna hear it,
you should just be like, okay, peace.
Philippians 1, 27 says, only let your conversation
be as it become at the gospel of Christ,
that whether I come and see you,
or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs,
and that you stand fast in one spirit,
and in one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel.
You wanna put on some new things?
Well, how about putting on a conversation,
or a lifestyle, or a manner of life
as it becomes the gospel of Christ.
And you're not gonna wanna hang around
those old haunts and those old people,
the bar life, the party life.
It says that you stand fast in one spirit,
with one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel.
Hey, you're all here.
You're here trying to strive together
for the faith of the gospel.
What is this church trying to do?
Try to win this nation to Christ.
Small beacon of light in the UK.
And what's your purpose?
Don't get lost in your purpose.
Stay strong in the faith.
And you know, I know it's hard.
I know it's hard to travel.
I know it's hard to gather up all your children in a car,
drive for three or four hours, or one hour, whatever.
And you're all excited about how great this church is.
And I agree, it's a great church.
But you know, the newness is gonna wear off.
And then it's just gonna, you know,
but don't let that newness wear off.
Make it like every week is a new week.
It's a new challenge.
Don't get just caught up with,
oh, it's just like any other church.
It's not just like any other church.
It's different, isn't it?
Yeah.
I mean, you've been to the hellhole churches
that are here, haven't you?
Yeah.
Do you wanna go back to that?
I wouldn't wanna go back.
So, but after a while,
you're gonna start seeing each other's moles.
You're gonna start seeing, you know,
things that you don't like about certain people.
You spend a lot of time together.
You start to, you know,
the things that irritate you about them or whatever.
But you know, put those things away from yourself.
Who cares?
You know, learn to dwell in unity with each other like that.
So turn to First Peter chapter three, verse one.
So we should hang around people that are godly
and stop hanging around
and having companions that are fools,
because you know what they're gonna do?
They're gonna drag you down
and they're gonna just try to get you
to go back to your old ways.
And you know what?
They're gonna be waiting for you to fail.
Your parents are gonna be waiting for you to fail.
Your family members, oh, I knew that was just a phase.
I knew you'd be back.
What an embarrassment to have to go back and say,
well, I know it was a cult or whatever.
That's what everybody says when they fail.
It's a cult.
No, you just failed.
You suck.
That's what your problem is.
You couldn't cut it.
You weren't sold out
or either you're just a reprobate infiltrator, you know?
And I'm not saying to anybody in here,
I'm just saying that that's what happens.
Why do people fall off?
They wanna blame the leadership.
They wanna blame the other church members,
but really you just suck
and that's why you failed.
And you lost track of what you were supposed to be doing
and you started getting all selfish about everything
and you look at what everybody else does that you don't like
and you're just holier than everybody else.
Don't be a holier than them now either.
That's a wicked way to live your life as a Christian.
Oh, I'm so much better than them.
I'm so much more spiritual.
Why don't you help somebody else get spiritual then?
If you're so holy,
why aren't they patterning after you?
Yeah, but nobody likes a holier than thou.
Stand down over there for I am holier than thou.
Nobody likes that.
And it's just weird to be like that.
So you're in 1 Peter 3 verse one, it says,
Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands,
that if any obey not the word,
that they may without the word be won by, what's it say?
A conversation of the wise, the lifestyle of the wise.
Hey, sometimes one person gets saved and the other doesn't.
Well, how do you win your husband over?
It's not by saying he's ungodly, he's not saved,
he's this, he's that, I'm not cooking him anything anymore.
That's not the way, what's the Bible say
the way to win them over is?
That you win them with the conversation,
the lifestyle that you're living,
being subjection to your own husbands.
While they behold your chaste conversation,
your chaste life, your chaste manner of life,
coupled with fear, who's adoring,
whether it not be that outward adoring of plating,
the hair and wearing of gold and of putting on apparel,
that's what the worldly women do, isn't it?
Shouldn't we renew who we are as Christians?
Shouldn't you be a better man than you were before?
Shouldn't you be a better woman than you were before?
Shouldn't you be a godly husband?
Shouldn't you be a godly wife?
Then why do people always go back and try to say,
once it's convenient for them,
for whatever wicked laws are in the nation that they live in,
oh, I'm just gonna divorce them.
Wicked.
Oh, I don't like the way he talks to me, wicked.
Being subjection to your husband.
And you know what, the husbands
are supposed to love their wives.
I don't understand why this is so hard for people.
You know, men want respect.
And women want to be loved.
You know, you can't be just a robot husband.
I love you, honey.
I am going to bed now.
Make sure you do my laundry
and make me something to dinner.
That's not what they want.
You ever actually talk to your wife?
You ever actually have a conversation with them?
And I'm talking about an actual verbal conversation.
Are you, are you just like this?
I know.
Yeah.
Yep, I love you too, honey.
It's just like, we're supposed to be different.
Even as husbands and wives.
Look at verse four.
Don't let it be the hidden man of the heart.
He's just talking about the new man.
In that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God, a great prize.
What's God saying?
You know what's a great price?
You know what God wants to see in a woman that's godly?
A meek and quiet spirit.
The opposite of a loud and stubborn woman, right?
Meek and quiet doesn't mean loud and ugh.
Nobody likes a loud-mouth wife or a loud-mouth woman.
And you know what?
God doesn't like it.
This is for after this manner in the old time,
the holy women also who trusted in God,
saved women, adorned themselves,
being in subjection unto their own husbands.
You notice how that term says their own husbands?
You're not subject to somebody else's husband.
Your own husband.
And I know people get so new, IFB,
they're like, every woman must obey me.
That's ridiculous, guys.
Not every woman has to obey you.
They have to obey their own husbands.
And hey, if you're not married to someone,
you have no authority over them.
Just throw that in for free for you young fellows, all right?
And the way to become some spiritual juggernaut
is not to just have a checklist, you know,
get wife, get kids, be a pastor.
You know?
Doesn't exactly work that way all the time, does it?
So, but anyway, it says, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham,
calling him Lord, whose daughters you are,
as long as you do well and are not afraid
with any amazement.
So Abraham obeyed, or Sarah, Abraham,
Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.
And she, you know, in the scripture where it references
in Genesis, she didn't even say it out loud.
I'm sure she did call him my Lord out loud,
but in the instance where it talks about it in the Bible,
she's using her inner voice.
She's thinking that.
And that's the type of reference, reverence, excuse me,
you should have for your husband.
Like, well, he doesn't deserve that.
Abraham always didn't deserve it either.
Then he say, hey, Sarah, lie and make sure
so I don't get killed, I'm just gonna lie
and say you're my sister.
You know, that wasn't, you know,
that wasn't very manly of him, was it?
But see, men make mistakes, women make mistakes,
but you know what, we still need to love each other.
And, you know, there's nothing wrong
with calling your husband Lord.
I'm not saying go home and practice like, yes, Lord.
You know, but would it be wrong?
It wouldn't be wrong.
You know, bringing his food on a silver platter,
here my Lord, nah, just kidding.
No, I'm going too far now, all right.
But look at what it says in verse seven, though.
Likewise, you husbands dwell with them
according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife
as unto the weaker vessel.
You know, men are different than women.
I'm sure you all realize that,
but they're not like you, men.
They have different needs, they have different desires
than we do, and we need to learn to dwell with them
with knowledge, okay?
And we need to understand we give honor to them
as the weaker vessel.
We're there to take care of them,
we're there to comfort them, we're there to love them.
When they're having a hard day, come home and help.
You know, if you have seven kids, or five kids,
or four kids, or any amount of kids, actually,
and your wife needs some help when you come home, help them.
Dwell with them with knowledge.
If you're just like playing on your phone,
and your wife's just like, ah, help them out.
There's nothing wrong with that.
So, but look what it says, giving honor unto the wife
as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together
of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered.
So just think about this, we're heirs together
of the grace of life.
Hey, if you're both saved, you're married,
you got a good start.
So why in the world are Christian couples
having such a hard time staying married?
Why are Christians having a hard time being together
while they drag the world in with them,
they drag their mother-in-laws in with them,
they drag their father-in-laws into the marriage with them,
you know, they listen to their best friend
who's not even saved, they listen to friends from the past
who's not even saved, women don't obey their husbands
and just say, hey, this is how we're gonna live our life,
this is the church we're gonna go to,
this is how we're gonna raise our kids.
They're like, no, no, I wanna do it this way.
It's not gonna work if you have two heads
trying to compete together to see
who the lord of the family is.
Am I saying that women are a doormat to their husbands?
No, but the Bible says, I'm not gonna apologize for that,
that you're supposed to obey your husband, period.
Right?
But also men, you're supposed to love your wives,
don't be a robot, don't be weird.
Help them out.
They wanna be loved and you wanna be respected,
you want respect, give them love.
You wanna be loved, give your husband respect.
If you're always saying, you're so weak,
you don't even make enough money, you know.
Yeah, that's just what I wanna hear when I come home.
You suck.
We don't, no man wants to hear that.
But no wife wants to have some robotic man
that's just like, food, now.
You got my laundry done, huh?
Alright, goodnight.
Now I mean, gotta have some,
dwell with your wives' knowledge.
James chapter one, I'm almost done here,
I'm sorry I'm running late here.
Figured I might as well unload the whole truck
while I'm here.
Y'all drove all these hours to get here, you know,
if I just preached like a 40 minute sermon,
it's like, okay.
Hey, Paul preached till midnight, that's what,
I'm still going, I got like five pages of notes left to go.
No, I'm just kidding.
That'll be Sunday night.
Just kidding.
Alright, James chapter one.
What the Bible says, be doers of the word
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
You can read the Bible, but if you never put it
into practice, you're just a hearer only.
You're not a doer.
And you're deceiving your own self.
I've read the Bible so many times,
did you practice it though?
If it be a hearer of the word and not a doer,
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face
in a glass, looking in the mirror, right?
For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way,
and straightway forgetth what manner of man he was.
I read the Bible, but then you don't put it into practice.
It's someone that just, you know,
it's like the Pharisees, they say and do not.
But we can't be like that.
It says for he behold himself and goeth straightway,
forget it the manner of man he was,
but whoso looketh in the perfect law of liberty,
and continueeth therein, he be not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed
in his deed.
So you get new practices.
You remove that old stuff out of your life.
You know, you renew your mind with the Bible,
and then you have to add stuff to replace that old stuff.
Or you're gonna go back to the old stuff, do you understand?
You're gonna forget what manner or person you were.
But if you look into the perfect law of liberty,
and being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.
See, the Christian life is work.
The ministry is work, isn't it, brother Ian?
The ministry is work.
He'll be able to say, oh, you just get up and preach?
You know how long it took me to write this sermon?
I'm not even gonna tell you, it took me a while though.
But it takes time to study the Bible.
It takes time to be able to preach.
It takes experience.
But you know, we have to keep working, and doing,
and replacing our old stuff with the new stuff that's good.
So look at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24.
I got two more places and we're done.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24 says,
let us consider one another,
to provoke unto love and to good works.
See, you're supposed to be considerate of each other.
To provoke unto love and good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
You want a new habit?
Go to church.
Did you used to go to church before you were saved?
Well, maybe you did.
And you're just like, I'm bored, mommy.
You know, this is lame.
You know, you probably will like that
if you were unsaved and went to church.
I didn't go to church when I grew up,
so I don't really have that experience.
I got saved when I was 25.
And then I started going to a Baptist church.
I was Baptist born, Baptist bred.
When I die, I'll be Baptist dead.
But it's true.
You know, I went to a couple churches when I was younger,
but I never went steadily.
But this is a different type of church, isn't it?
This is the type of church that you don't want to forsake.
And you know why?
Because you want to provoke unto love and good works.
You want to assemble together
because God's commanded us to do that.
You want to have a habit of going to church,
a manner of life of going to church.
Hey, what are you doing today?
Going to church.
They shouldn't wake up and go,
are we going, nah, let's go to the movies.
Let's go to Adventureland or whatever, I don't know.
I forgot what those places were called.
You guys got these coastal places
where you have amusement parks.
Go there on a different day.
But go to church on Sunday.
And Wednesday when you have a chance, right?
Last scripture, turn to 2 Timothy chapter 310.
2 Timothy chapter 310.
It says, but thou has fully known my doctrine,
manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity,
patience, persecutions, afflictions,
which came to me in Antioch and at Iconium and Lystra.
What persecutions I endured, but out of them
all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
How do you know you replaced all the bad stuff
and you've renewed your mind
and you're doing good things now?
You've added new practices to your life.
Well, when you're living godly in Christ Jesus,
you're gonna suffer some persecution.
So then you know that you're on the right track.
So what was the title of the sermon?
The title of the sermon was Remove, Renew and Replace.
And we gotta remove all the stuff,
all the junk in our life
and all the former manners of our life.
And we gotta read that Bible and let it renew us.
Let our spirit be renewed and it's gonna teach us
the difference between good and evil.
And we can put those things into practice,
get rid of all that old stuff
and then we're gonna replace the junk with good things.
We gotta replace the junk with good things.
So what are you doing with your gift?
God gave you a gift that's called eternal life.
What are you doing with the gift that you have now?
Because you know what?
Now is the time to serve God.
Don't wait till you're old.
Don't say, you know, I'm gonna serve God
when I make my fortune.
I'm gonna serve God this or that.
No, start serving God now.
Start serving God now.
Replace all that junk with good stuff, right?
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much
for all these people that would come
on our Wednesday night, Lord,
and all the people that traveled from afar.
Lord, I just pray that you'd bless them
for the fact that they were faithful to come to church.
And Lord, I pray you'd help us, Lord,
to get all the junk out of our life
that's possible for us to do, Lord.
Help us to walk in the Spirit,
not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Lord, help us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds.
Lord, I pray that you would help us,
again, like I said, to replace all that garbage
and have good, holy deeds that we do
and not go back to the world.
We know where that leads, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.