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Don't be a backsliding heifer About a backslider new simplest definition is someone who just basically draws back in their Christian life now go to Hosea chapter number four, please So The fact that God uses the term backsliding Implies that at one time they were going forward Right because to go back means at one point you were going forward Well when we get saved, you know You get into a good Bible believe in Baptist Church you get into you get a King James Bible You start getting excited about the things of God you learn how to preach the gospel You're on fire, but guess what over time as I mentioned before the newness begins to wear off And if you don't have character if you don't have discipline if you don't have the right motives If you're not doing things for the right reasons, guess what eventually you're gonna start Sliding backwards, you're gonna start going backwards the Christian life. Obviously we understand it's two steps forward one step backward, right? All right. Why because we're not perfect. We're gonna fail sometimes, you know, we're gonna do wrong Sometimes we're gonna say things we shouldn't have said do things we shouldn't do But the point is we need to keep pressing forward If you're not constantly making an effort to press forward in your Christian life in all those areas Then you're gonna backslide you're gonna get out of church. You're gonna do those things that are not pleasing unto the Lord Let me read to you before we go to Hosea Let me read you don't have to turn there Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13 says I press toward the mark for the prize of The high calling of God in Christ Jesus Hosea 4 16 says for Israel Slideth back as a backsliding heifer now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place. Well, what is a heifer? It's a cow So it's picturing a cow going uphill and it's basically saying, you know, she's no longer going uphill She's sliding back gravity's taking her back. Okay, don't be a backsliding heifer You know look and the funny thing is a heifer is heavy Right Well in Hebrews chapter 12 the Bible tells us to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us That's what the Word of God says. So one thing that will get us backslidden is when we allow sin in our lives You