(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Find a seat. And also find a hymnal. You'll grab your hymnal and open up to our first song this evening. It's going to be hymn number 110, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Hymn number 110. 110. All the Way My Savior Leads Me. 110. Starting on the first. 110. 110. 110. 110. Amen. Good singing this evening. Brother Jeff, would you open us in a word of prayer? Amen. Amen. For our second hymn this evening, turn if you would to 288. 288. 288. I am resolved. 288. 288. 288. 288. 288. I am resolved. Let's sing their starting on the first. Let's sing their starting on the first. Let's sing their starting on the first. Let's sing their starting on the first. Let's sing their starting on the first. Let's sing their starting on the first. Let's sing their starting on the first. Amen. Good singing this evening. If you need a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hands. Brother Samson will get those around to you folks. Hopefully we have enough this time around. I printed some more. I learned my mistake last time. Welcome to Pure Words Baptist Church. On the front there, we have the date and our Bible memory passage. We will switch on Sunday. It will be on verse 24. Today is the last day to say 823 for those children 18 and under to receive an ice cream reward. On Sunday, we are moving forward with or without you. No child left behind here. If you open up on the top left side, you have our service times. Underneath that, we have our churchwide soul winning and their respective leaders and their phone numbers. We need to get soul winning numbers from this week. Between Monday and tonight, do we have anything to report? Any soul winning from any of the regional times? Looks like a goose egg. That is alright because we have 25 salvation month to date. The updated number for us puts us at 444 year to date. That is fantastic. The totals, if you look at our board, the totals for 2020 will be 23 salvations for the year. We are already well on track to surpass that, but remember the goal is 1,000. Now is the time to really pull out. I think once it cools off, maybe then it will be a little more tantalizing to stay out longer for soul winning. Right now, by the time the time comes up, I am like, okay, we are good. I am ready. On the next top right side, on the inside of your bulletin, still be in prayer for our expecting lady, Ms. Sarah Gomez. Right around that December time frame, so just be in prayer for them and their baby boy. Of course, for guest preaching tonight, we have Deacon Corbin Russell from Faithful Word, so just make sure to really thank him for taking the time to come out and to suffocate down here in the Houston humidity with us. Just make sure you shake his hand or tell him we really appreciate him coming out. Then upcoming on Sunday, we have, this Sunday, we have Brother Ben Naim, Ben the Baptist. It is really nice to get him in on his schedule. I know he is really busy trying to take Kabul back right now over in Afghanistan, but he has made some time to come preach for us. He is actually a good friend of mine. Hopefully, he takes that joke in good taste, but he was making his own jokes himself. He is a good friend and a great guy, so he is coming out to preach for us, both services on Sunday. Then a little further in the future, on October 3rd, we are going to have Pastor Aaron Thompson from Shirk Foundation, so that will be a blessing, another real fun guy to hang out with. We have a lot of great preaching coming up, so definitely a time to be in church. Underneath that, we have our upcoming events. September 25th and the 26th, that is a Saturday and Sunday, is going to be the Pure Words anniversary. Pastor is going to be down. I think he said he is going to have his family with him, but don't quote me on that. I think that is what he said. On that Saturday, we are going to have a soul-winning marathon, and we are going to do our annual false Bible burning, which we are collecting quite the kindling in there for. Then, of course, on the 26th, they will be here to preach both of those services. Then a little further in the future, right after we have Pastor Thompson here, we are going to have the, or I say steadfast, is going to have the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship on October 6th through 10th. They have a real good lineup of preachers. Pastor is coming out. They are also going to have in those days, I know Pastor has talked about having some singles events and some other events and some fun stuff to do. If you can put that on your calendar and make it out, I know it is about four hours north of here, but that is going to be worth it. The Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship is fun. I guess this is the second one. This will be the second annual. We went last year. It was a ton of fun. It is just nice to be around a bunch of people who are family. It feels like you have done them forever, even though you may have just met them. Because you have that same spirit. Underneath that, of course, we have our prayer request. Nothing that we have listed publicly at this time. Of course, if you do have a prayer request, if you want something added into the bulletin, you can email your request to PureWordsBaptist at gmail.com, or if you will just send that in a text to Pastor Shelley or Brother Nick. I am sure they can give me that information. We can get that in there if you want it public. If you have an unspoken prayer request, that is fine as well. Thursday, obviously mid-week, we want to take the time to dedicate just a moment of prayer for any prayer request that we have. So, I am going to go ahead and let's say a word of prayer for those prayer requests. Dear Lord, we just come to you this evening thanking you for the opportunity to get together and to worship, Lord. At this time, I would just pray that anyone that has a request, anyone that has an unspoken prayer request, that you would just be with them and comfort them, Lord, and that you would strengthen them in whatever way they need, whether it is spiritually or emotionally or physically. Lord, I just pray that you would be with those and just be that comforter, send that comforter for them, Lord. These things we pray in Jesus' name. We love you very much. Amen. Alright, and with that, that is going to be the it for our announcements. On the back, of course, there is a section to take notes if you are so inclined. And with that, we are going to go ahead and move on to our third song this evening if you will grab your hymnals back and turn to hymn number 29 at the cross. Hymn number 29. Hymn number 29 at the cross. We'll start there on the first. Alas, and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes that I have done? He groans upon the stream. Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond dreams. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day. Well might the Son in darkness hide and shock His glories in when Christ the mighty Maker died for man the creature sinned. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day. But drops of greed can never repay the debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day. Amen. While the offering plate is being passed around go ahead if you would turn to 2 Timothy chapter number 3 2 Timothy chapter 3 and we'll read that chapter as is our custom kingdom. Alright, we're there in 2 Timothy chapter number 3 and the Bible reads This know also that in the last days perilous time shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affections, truce breakers, false accusers, incontents, fears, despisers of those that are good, traitors, petty, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From such turn away, for of this sort are they which creep into houses and leave captives, silly women laden with sin, laid away with diverse lust, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janus and Jabri withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as there also was. But thou hast full known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch and Iconium, at 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, but even evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known thy holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Amen. So it's great to be here again. It's been a few years since I've been here. I recognize a lot of faces, but I'm pretty bad with names, so don't get offended if I didn't remember your name, but I'll try my best. You know, if I get to come back again, it's always a pleasure to come here. I've had a couple, like I said, I've been here a couple times, and I've told people from my experiences here that Houston is the friendliest place I've ever gone soul winning. You know, and I'm not just saying that to try and flatter all of you. It really is. So I remember Pastor Shelley talking about that when he was getting ready to be sent out to come start this church from Faithful Word, and he would say, man, Houston's just the friendliest place to go soul winning, and I'm thinking, I'm agreeing, I'm saying okay, but I'm thinking, well, of course you're going to say that about the place you're going to go soul winning. You're going to go start a church here. You're not going to go that place. It's just terrible, and you know, go on and on about it. But when I was finally here, I got to go out, and I mean, people are coming down from the end of the driveway to get the invites, even if they're not interested in talking, and even just being here today, it just seems like it's a real friendly city. Maybe it's just because I'm coming from a place where everybody's just so mad about burning alive all the time in Tucson, Arizona, so if that's where I spend most of my time is in Tucson, I run a church plant very similar to this. I feel right at home. It's hard not to spring up and come up here and do the announcements. I felt it was just you know, I'm such in the habit of doing that, so, but I feel right at home. Like I said, we have a similar church about this size in Tucson, so it's good to see you all again. Now I want to preach tonight on the responsibility to study, the responsibility to study, and you know, we always assume that you know, when you're in a church, that that's something that everybody does to some degree or another that everybody is studying, and you know, if you are, you know, great. And here's the thing about study, it's something that if we're not careful, it can wane. Because as we'll see here, it's something that's hard work, you know, something we have to be disciplined about doing. So if you are you know, somebody who's already taken on that responsibility and being faithful to studying the word of God, you know, keep doing that. You know, this isn't going to be a step-by-step how-to kind of sermon. I just kind of want to encourage us to make sure that we're living up to our responsibility to study the word of God. And if we're not studying the word of God, you know, we need to start. And you know, when you're here on a midweek, you know, and again, appreciate everybody coming out, it's usually a pretty good indicator that the folks you got there on a midweek are people who love the word of God, you know, they're there to hear the preaching, they're there to be edified by it, and they're there to, you know, on their own time are reading the word of God. So, you know, assuming that, keep it up. But if, you know, if it just so happens that you're not here, and your devotions are waning, you're not doing the study, you're not living up to the responsibility, well, it's time to start. And I really just want to encourage us to do that. If you look there in 2 Timothy chapter number 3, we kind of see the importance of why we need to study the word of God, why God has given us the responsibility to study. It says in verse 13 that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Okay? So we know that as we come into the end times, and we see this all about us, that evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse. Now I probably don't have to try to take a lot of time tonight to convince you of that. You know, we're seeing our nation just continually, you know, go down the, just the moral degradation of our society, and all of that, everything that's taking place with the LGBTQ and just, just the insane things that are going on in this world. I don't want to go on and on about that. But it's telling us there that evil men and seducers are going to wax worse and worse. And what else are they going to do? It's not just that they're going to try and push their filth, it's not that they're just going to try and brainwash us and try to make us accept their, you know, their, their, their filthy, vile, disgusting lifestyle, but it's also that they're going to try and deceive us. You know, there's also people that maybe aren't going to promote some wicked lifestyle, but they're also just going to try and deceive us and draw us away from the truth. They're trying to bring in false doctrine, teach false doctrine. The evil men are going to wax worse and worse, and they're going to be doing what? Deceiving and being deceived. So if we want to avoid being deceived as, as times get worse, and look, it's going to get worse, it's not going to get better. You know, it says that it's going to get worse and worse. You know, you say, this isn't a very encouraging sermon. You know, well, you know, it's going to get, it's going to get worse before it gets better. But once it gets good, it's going to be the best it's ever been. All right, so there's your encouragement for you. But in the meantime, you know, it's saying here it's going to get worse and worse, and part of what's going to make it so bad is that these people are going to be deceiving us. They're going to be trying to teach us false doctrine, get us away from the truth. So we've been given the responsibility to study. Now, what is it that we're supposed to study? Well, obviously, it's the word of God. You know, God doesn't want us to be deceived. God doesn't want to get caught up with the error of the wicked. So he's given us the Bible, right, to avoid this deception that's out there. That's why it says in verse 16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, and righteousness. Very familiar passage, but also very important, isn't it? The Bible has all the answers and it does so much for us. It reproves, it corrects, it instructs, it gives us doctrine. The Bible is what's going to help you and help you not to be deceived. That's what's going to prevent the deception that the evil men and seducers are trying to bring in to our churches, to our families, to our society as a whole. So we need to be in the word of God. You say, okay, the responsibility to study, what is that? You know, you should just be reading your Bible. You know, that is a form of study. You know, I'm not saying everyone has to go home and put on, you know, the tweed leather vest with the little, you know, or the wool vest with the leather pads and get out the ink blot and then sit there and have all the books out and do some kind of deep dive into the word of God. But, you know, you should be reading the Bible. You know, do daily Bible reading. You know, church, this, I would consider this a form of study, coming to hear the word of God taught. I mean, there's a spot on the back for notes. I don't know that I'm going to give you a whole lot to fill in there. But, you know, that would be kind of, you know, taking notes, going back, thinking about what you've heard, reviewing a sermon. Those are all forms of study. Those are things that we need to be doing, getting into the word of God. That's a responsibility that has been given to all of us. You know, it's something that's, you know, when we talk about this, you'll say, well, 2 Timothy, you know, that's the Timothy. That's Paul the Timothy. That's for the pastor. You know, study is something that the preacher should do. And, amen, you know, preaching, you know, preachers are the ones that should be studying the word of God. They should be learning the word of God, knowing the word of God, teaching the word of God at all times. Right? But, really, the responsibility to study is one that's been given to everybody. You know, we can't just say, well, that's not my job. You know, would anyone get up and say, well, it's not my job to read the Bible. It's not my job to listen to what's being preached. Of course not. But you can see how the responsibility to study is something that's been given to all of us. And, of course, obviously, you know, I'll start out by just, you know, you know, doubling down on that point. Yeah, it is for preachers. You know, that's the primary application here in 2 Timothy, verse 17, right? He says that the man of God may be perfect. You know, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So, of course, you know, if anybody's supposed to be doing the study, it's the man of God, the one who's going to get up and do the preaching. And, you know, I know that, you know, we have a lot of people here that come through this pulpit, you know. Hopefully every guy that's, you know, filling in is doing that study, because that's an important job. It's a real important thing to get up and preach the word of God to a group of people. And you never know what kind of impact it's going to make on somebody's life. I think about that quite often. You know, we might, we have a smaller church, you know, it's not some big fancy building or anything like that. But, you know, and people say, well, that's what matters. You know, getting the numbers in there and having a big building and all that. You know what really is the most rewarding thing as a preacher? Is preaching the word of God and seeing it actually work on people's hearts. Actually, watch people come and hear the preaching, receive the preaching. Even sometimes it's a hard sermon. Even sometimes when it's something that is a strong rebuke, you know, or not, you know. But even then, you know, when they receive something that's difficult and then they make changes in their life and they stick by the stuff, look, there's nothing more rewarding that as a preacher. But if we as preachers aren't doing the studying, we're not doing the reading, we're not doing the preparation, you know, we're not, we're going to miss out on that. And more importantly, the people are going to miss out on that. So there's an admonition for, you know, the men of this church that get up and preach behind this pulpit to take it seriously. And don't ever think, well, it's just small potatoes here. You know, it's just, it's not a big crowd. No one's really watching. Look, every single person is, you know, every child of God deserves to be edified and can go on to do great things. You never know the impact that you're going to make as a preacher, so make sure you're doing the study. Of course, again, that's what the, you know, 2 Timothy is showing us here, that it's given to the man of God to study, to know the word of God. And here's the thing, God wants that for his people, no matter who they are. It's not like God has some kind of a quota. Like, well, you know, when you get X amount of people in your church, then I'll start caring about whether or not the people are being edified. You know, God wants every single one of his children to be edified. He wants them to learn and to grow and to have knowledge and understanding. Go over to Philippians. I'm going to have you in 2 Timothy, I'm going to have you in 2 Timothy 1 Peter, that area, so just keep something there. I'll try not to sprain any fingers tonight. If you get a paper cut or something, you can just tell Pastor Shelley and he'll pour some lemon juice or something, I don't know, okay? So, anyway, I'll do my best to not have you, and I won't go too long and have you all over the place, but go over to, did I tell you to go to Philippians? I think that's where I told you, go to Philippians chapter 3. Look, God wants his people to have knowledge, to have understanding, and he does that through the preachers. He does that through the preaching of the word of God. You know, in Jeremiah, where he's pleading with Baxley and Israel to come back, he says to them, I will give you pastors according to mine heart. Right? And what is God's heart? Which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. You know, God desires for his people to be given knowledge, to have understanding in the word of God, to not be deceived, but to know the word of God. The Bible says in Proverbs that the soul be, also that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good. You know, it's not good to just go through life without knowledge, without understanding. It's not good to go through life without taking on the responsibility of studying the word of God. You know, we need to have knowledge, we need to have wisdom, we need to have understanding as we live our lives so that we can do it effectively and do it well and do it in a way which honors God and brings forth truth unto God. So if we don't have that, look, that's not a good thing. That's a bad thing. We need to make sure that we're doing the study, that we're living up to that responsibility. And of course, again, it's a responsibility that's given to everybody and we're just kind of touching base here and emphasizing the fact that it is for the preachers, anybody that's doing the preaching of the word of God, the pastors, so on and so forth. I mean, we can think about John, right? John 21, where Jesus comes and finds, you know, Paul and the others, or excuse me, Peter and the others, you know, they're fishing, right? And he's kind of taking Peter's side, he's rebuking him, and he's telling him, look, feed my sheep. And just three times, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. God wants his people to be fed. God wants his people to be edified through the preaching of the word of God, through the pastors and the preachers. That's why it's such a huge responsibility to do the study, to take on that responsibility. He said in 1 Peter, you know, apparently Peter got the message, you know, because later he's preaching himself, the elders which among you I exhort, who I also am an elder, and a witness of the suffering of Christ and a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God which is among you. So he's getting it from Jesus, you know, three times, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. He gets the point, he does the work, and now he's telling others, hey, do the same thing, feed the flock of God which is among you. And look, let me just say, you know, that's why sometimes the most needed sermon is not the funnest sermon. You know, that's something I've kind of had to get over and learn as a preacher, is that you don't have to try and knock it out of the park every single sermon. People don't just need to hear about how much we hate the fags and how Jews need to repent and get right. You know, there's more to the Christian life than just Jews and fags. Okay? Now look, you've got to have those sermons, right? Those are important topics to cover those things. There's a myriad of other things. Those are some of the hot button issues, right, that we bring up, and they need to be preached. But do they need to be preached every single service? Do they need to be preached every single week? Do they need to come across every month? You know, well, maybe. One month in particular, right, which has just gone by. But, anyway, look, not every sermon is going to be the fun sermon, but it might be the needed sermon, right? Are you there in Philippians chapter 3? Look at verse 1. Paul said, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. You say, Brother Corbin, you come all the way here just to tell us to read our Bibles? You come all the way here just to tell us, hey, we should take preaching the word of God seriously? Yeah, I came all the way here to do that. Why? Because it is safe for you. It's grievous to me. You know, I could preach any number of things when I came here, but, you know, this is the thing that I think people need the most, more than anything, is that we need to be reminded to study and to read the word of God and take heed to the preaching the word of God and to apply the things that we hear. It might not be the funnest sermon, but, you know what, sometimes it's the needful sermon that we need to hear. I mean, there's always these, you know, revolving door of issues that we have to bring up as preachers. You know, if you stay in church long enough, you're going to hear the sermon preached on a particular topic more than once. You're going to hear preaching on adultery over and over. You're going to hear preaching about fornication and drunkenness and the rapture and the King James Bible and eternal security and salvation. But you're going to hear all these topics preached over and over again. And you should never get this attitude of, oh, here we go again. Or this again, I already know this. Look, Paul said, you know, it's not grievous for me to write the same things, but for you it is safe. You know, it's needed by the people to keep them safe, but, you know, it also keeps the preacher safe too. When the preacher doesn't get so caught up in trying to preach some new thing. You know, when you get up and you think, well, I've already preached that. You know, I've already preached that last year. I preached that six months ago. I don't know how many times I've preached on this topic. Let me come up with something new and exciting. You know, that's very dangerous ground to get on. When the first scene comes about and you start, you know, because then you might be motivated to go to the word of God and try to make it to say something that it doesn't say. That's when you start coming out with really odd doctrines. That's when you start making really odd statements from the pulpit. In fact, I heard a couple today. You know, I heard in the clip from, you know, that bozo over there in San Antonio got up and saying that, you know, that Mary had nothing to do with Jesus' birth. That she would, brother, she's just the oven. Well, she said, she's just the oven, brother. He's that bread that came down from heaven. She's just the oven. Well, that would make him the dough that came down from heaven, first of all, right? And if you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, you know, you know, be thankful you don't know what I'm talking about. But, you know, where does something like that come from? I mean, you hear something that you're just like, how, why, how? How do you even get there? Well, it's because you got to be different. You got to preach something new and exciting and edgy that's going to draw disciples after you. You know, then you start preaching crazy things like that, that, you know, that Mary, you know, that in fact Jesus wasn't made after a woman. That, you know, Jesus isn't the seat of a woman. That she's just the oven, or whatever. And there's a whole lot of other things in that clip that I'm not even going to touch with a 10-foot pole that we're just really weird to hear. But I'm using that and I said, boy, this is a perfect illustration for what I'm preaching tonight. Look, we need to preach the things that are safe, the things that we know, the things that we can prove from the Word of God that aren't just speculation or just new. There's nothing wrong with tried and true doctrine. That's what people need to hear. That's how these doctrines get lost. That's how these doctrines go by the wayside. That's how false doctrine flourishes, is when people stop preaching what's needed to be preached. Because it's, oh, I've already preached that. Or, you know, everyone already knows that. Don't assume everybody knows everything. You know, that's another thing I've learned, too, is that, well, you'll have someone say, well, yeah, they'll come to the church. Well, you know, I listened to Pastor Anderson online. I found your church. You just might have this tendency to think, whoa, they listened to Pastor Anderson. They just must have all their ducks right in the road doctrinally. Not always the case. You know, sometimes you still need to preach those things that we all know and we all understand to bring other people on. People are at all different levels in their Christian life. So as preachers, look, we need to bear up that responsibility to do the study. Why? So that we can preach the Word of God accurately and so that the people can be edified. Not to, so we don't end up like, you know, the Athenians and strangers in Acts 17 who just want to spend their time and nothing else but to hear some new thing. That's dangerous ground. Okay, preach what is needful. You know, another way you could apply this, the responsibility to study why it's so important is so that you can go out soul winning with knowledge. You know, and by the way, those soul winning numbers are great. That's, you know, good work on that. That's amazing. Great numbers. It's great to see so many people getting saved but I bet there's probably, if we started to go around the room tonight and start telling a few stories, you've probably been out soul winning and heard people say some pretty wild things or say some pretty crazy things. You know, nothing's really coming to mind but we all know that they're out there. People want to start talking about, you know, aliens, Bigfoot. We were out soul winning, you know, it was 100 whatever degrees in Tucson. Guy invites us in and we're thinking, all right, it's going to be a long gospel presentation. He's got the AC going, right? But he was listening but it got to the point where it was like he just wants to talk about aliens. He just wants to discuss about some strange abstract idea about what the, you know, and it's just like, well, I'm not going to waste my time on that. We need to be studied so we can go out there with knowledge and understanding and preach to people the truth and not just get caught up in weird and strange things. Go over to, are you still in 1 Peter? I didn't have you go there yet. Go to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 3. You know, we need to walk in wisdom, the Bible says in Colossians. Walk in wisdom toward them which are without. You know, the people that are out there that you're going to go meet, outdoor knocking, they deserve, when you go to their door, that you have some wisdom. You know, again, the sermon is about the responsibility to study and how it's for everybody. You say, how is it for everybody? It's for every soul winner. Look, you might not have to know, you know, all the intricate details of end times prophecy to go out there and go soul winning, but don't you need to know how to show somebody they're a sinner? How Jesus is God? How he died for their sins? How it's by salvation, by grace, through faith? Don't you need to know those passages? Don't you need to know how to present the gospel if you're going to do that? You need to be able to walk in wisdom toward them that are without. How are you going to do that? By taking on the responsibility to study, to know the word of God, to know how to give the gospel. You said in 1 Peter chapter 3, look at verse 15. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So we're going to need to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and what? We need to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason. Now he doesn't say a reason for everything. This kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier. When you're going out soul winning, yeah, you have the responsibility to be studied up to know how to present the gospel, but you don't need to be able to go out there and defend every false, or disprove every false doctrine and defend the Bible from every single angle that people are going to come at you with. Look, some people are out there just to argue. They just want to get in a debate. They just want to talk about some obscure thing, and they're heretics. They're not there to listen. They're not there to learn. He said you need to be ready to answer every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. You know, if people want to know how to be saved, we ought to be able to tell them how to do that. And how do you do that? Through study, through knowing the word of God. We don't need to answer every stupid question that people ask. But we do need to be able to give an answer to the hope which is within us. That's why it says in Proverbs, speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. Go over to Titus chapter 3, Titus chapter 3. I'm going to spend a little bit of time on this point because people seem to struggle with this. I see it often. People go out there, they'll go sowing, and they'll get caught up in talking about and debating about something that has nothing to do with the gospel. They're just trying to prove God or something or prove why the Bible's true. There's no way to prove that. I mean, you're not going to be able to, in 10, 15 minutes at a door, completely convince somebody of why creation is true and evolution is false. You can just show them what the Bible says and they can take it or leave it. That's how we need to approach it. Did I have to go to 1 Timothy? I had to go to Titus 3, didn't I? 1 Timothy 6, it says, If any man teach otherwise, consent not to wholesome words. This is 1 Timothy I'm reading. Even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is accorded in Godless, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, evil railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. Say, look, when you run into these things, you didn't say dig your heels in, have your Bible tabbed up, why you can prove that Satan and Jesus aren't brothers when you knock on that Mormon's door. Look, I'm gonna be perfectly honest. When I hear Mormon, I'm already backing away. As soon as I hear, I don't know if you have a big population here, those are like the hardest people to get saved, I've noticed. Or if they say, hey, I'm a Jehovah Witness, one thing I saw that I really like, they'll say, well, how long have you been a Jehovah Witness? 30 years. It's like, time to wrap it up. Right? Because they're just, it's so ingrained, there's so many things that they're just gonna wanna argue and dote and question and just surmise about. And the Bible doesn't say dig your heels in and go at them and prove them wrong and get that aha on them, right? That's not what we're out there to do. We're there to give an answer for the reason and the hope that is within us, not to argue. He says from such to withdraw thyself. He told Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2, foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing they do gender strifes and the servant of the Lord must not strive. You're in Titus chapter 3, verse 9. But avoid foolish questions. Avoid them. You know, when you see one coming at you, just step aside and just let that foolish question just go right on by. So many people wanna just step in front of it and be like, oh, I got this. And then, you know, 20 minutes later, you've gone nowhere at the door, right? Avoid foolish questions, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain. You know, that's what a lot of people that just wanna get into arguments and look, this is a big thing online that I notice. You know, in the chat groups and the live streams, people wanna get in there and they just want to argue and they want to just, you know, prove how much they know. It's not about getting somebody saved. It's not about bringing somebody around to see things your way. It's about just showing, I showed that guy. You see what I wrote in there? You know, just having that comeback, right? You know, having that right verse and that right thing to say and just cut somebody down and prove that they're wrong, right? That's, you know, the Bible says that that's unprofitable and vain. I mean, it doesn't profit anybody. I mean, if I just disprove somebody to be a heretic, I mean, does it really profit anything at all? It's just vanity, really. And he says that a man is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject, knowing that he, that his such subverted and sin had been condemned of himself. There's really not a whole lot you can do for the guy who just refuses to admit he's wrong and to get right. That's why he gives him two admonitions, right? That's it. So again, you know, I'm kind of trailing off here a little bit going down a rabbit trail, but the point is this, is that yeah, our responsibility is to study, right? Why? So when we go out soul winning, we can present the gospel. We can get people saved. But it doesn't need to turn into this, you know, we need to study so we can, you know, disprove every single false doctrine that's out there. You know, when I first started soul winning, that was a big hang up for me. You know, maybe somebody else goes through that too in this room, or has or is. Going through that. Because I was like, well, I can't go soul winning until I know how to answer Mormons on this doctrine. Until I know how to answer JW on this doctrine. And then I remember hearing, hey, it's the same gospel for everybody. The Catholic gets the same gospel, the Mormon gets the same gospel, the JW, the non-denom, the non-religious, the non-churchgoing, the atheist, they all get the same gospel. Now I just ask them, hey, do you want to hear it or not? And if they don't want to hear it, I don't say it like that, but you know what I'm saying. Do you want to hear this or not? Do you want to hear this or not? You say, hey, can I show you? Can I share that with you? Got a minute? No? Okay, have a good day. You know, but if they want to come at me from some strange angle about their Catholic doctrine or whatever, their Mormon doctrine, you know, it's just, well, we can come back to that. Okay? So those are two groups. Again, we're talking about the responsibility to study. Whose responsibility is that? It's everybody's. You know, it's the preacher's responsibility. It's the soul winner's responsibility. You know, not so we can go overboard out there. But it's also, here's another big one. I'll just touch on this. You know, it's the responsibility of parents to study. Say, why? Why parents? Because you have a job of instructing your children. I mean, isn't that the whole point of studying so you can teach others? So you can take in that knowledge. It's not just so you can sit on it, you know, and pat yourself on the back and say, well, I know so much. I've got such a big brain. I've learned, you know, so many things. If somebody asks me something, you know, I'm going to have the answer. You know, it's so that you can share that knowledge, so you can give that instruction, so you can give that correction. You know, that's a big job of, that's a big part of being a parent. You know, that's a huge part of being a parent. A lot of your life, at least it should be, is spent, what, instructing children. You know, and any mothers know this is the case. Kids have to be taught, like, literally everything. I mean, everything, right? And hopefully, if you have enough, you get some older ones that have figured out, they can start kind of taking on the teaching, you know, about how whatever works, or how to do this, or how to do that. But look, that's a huge responsibility. If parents don't do the study themselves, how are they going to teach the kids? And that's something that, you know, we're commanded to do in Scripture. I mean, I won't take the time to go to Deuteronomy 6 and read all that, but look, you go read Deuteronomy 6, and God is saying, look, you need to teach this to your children when they'll sit us down, when they'll walk us up, when they lie us down, when they'll rise us up. Bind them for a sign upon thine hand. They shall be frontlets between thine eyes. I shall write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. You know, this is something God wants the Word of God taught to our children. And is the public school going to do that? They're not going to take your child aside and give them the gospel, teach them about heaven, teach them about hell, teach them about Jesus. They're not going to teach them that. We know that. You know, and look, the preacher's going to help there. You know, the church is going to help with that, but they can only get you so far. You know, you're going to be the one that has to, as a parent, is going to have to construct and teach your children day in, day out. So you should be doing the study to be able to do that. And again, my study, it's just, you know, all the moms are like, great, you know, thanks a lot. Brother Corbin, you're going to come and just lay more on me like that? You know, I'm already got, I'm already, you know, neck deep in work, you know, and doing all the things around the house. Now I got to study. Look, all I'm saying is, you know, have a family devotional time. You know, just read the Bible to your kids for a half hour. You know, sit down and just show them something from the Bible. You don't have to, you know, sit down and have an eight-hour session and like, okay, Genesis to Revelation, here we go. You know, we're going to do an old, sit down, it's time for an Old Testament survey tonight, you know, on a Tuesday night or something like that. But, you know, this is something that we can do as we live our lives with our children. You know, moms, dads, you can be looking for those teachable moments to instruct kids. You know, when something comes up, they say something, they do something. You can say, hey, well, let me remind you what the Bible says here, son. You know, let me remind you, daughter, why that's wrong or why you did something good here, okay? But how are you going to do any of that if you yourself haven't studied, if you yourself have not read? So, you know, for moms, you know, really, I understand moms aren't going to get up and preach sermons and do all that. You know, they don't need to be really digging into the Word of God as much as a pastor would. Well, look, they have a pretty big responsibility of teaching their children how to live godly Christian lives, like training up that next generation. They should be doing the reading themselves and finding that time to get into the Word of God and to teach it and to train up their children the way that they should go. You know, a great example of this, and go to 2 Timothy 3, is Timothy himself. You know, Timothy is probably one of my more favorite characters in the New Testament, just because you kind of piece them together through the Acts and through the epistles written to him and other places. You can kind of see Timothy's life play out. You never hear from him directly. You know, the books are called Timothy, but it's not him speaking. You know, it's Paul. He's kind of an interesting character, and we get to see him start out. And it says in Acts 16, I'll just read to you. You know, this is after Paul and Barnabas is split, right? And he's coming into Derbe and Lystra, and it says, And behold, a certain disciple is there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which is a Jewish, and believed, but his father was a Greek. And it says of Timothy that he was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him. So Paul comes into, you know, Derbe and Lystra, and he meets this guy Timotheus, and he starts asking around. Well, what can you tell me about the kid? You say, you know, that Timothy, he's a great cat. You know, he's solid, right? He's well reported of. He's got a good reputation, before Paul even gets there, right? And this great opportunity opens up for Timothy to go on, to go with Paul, right? It says him would Paul have to go forth with him. I mean, that would be a pretty cool opportunity, wouldn't it? I mean, you know, if I were a young man, and, you know, like Timothy, probably unmarried at this point, didn't have any kids, just, you know, kind of had an open schedule. And a guy, some man like Paul came along and said, hey, you want to go, you know, tromping around all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature with me and starting church? I mean, what an adventure. That'd be great, right? But Paul didn't just pick any name out of a hat. You know, he picked Timothy because of the fact that he was well reported of. And what I'm getting at is this, is that, you know, Timothy didn't just turn out that way. He didn't just, you know, it wasn't by accident. He'd just wake up one morning and it was like a godly young man. You know, there was people in his life that brought him to that place, that opened up that door for opportunity. And, of course, that was his, you know, his mother and his grandmother. That's what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 1. It says in verse 5, when I call to remembrance the unfaith faith that is in thee, which dwells first in thy grandmother, Lois, and thy mother, Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. So these two Lainies in Timothy's life, you know, they are the ones that took the time to instruct him. They are the ones that took the time to teach him and to give him the knowledge and understanding that led to this great opportunity of going around with the apostle Paul and doing all the great works that they did. You know, there's probably a real, they get credit for that, don't they? You know, moms should never get, you know, feel like they're, what they're doing is unimportant. You have no idea how God could use that child. I mean, they were just faithfully training up Timothy, teaching him the word of God, right? That's what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15, and that thou from a child hast known the holy scripture. Now, who was teaching him? Well, we just read, you know, it was Lois and his mother, Eunice. They were the ones that were giving him that instruction and look where it led, right? Now, again, that didn't happen by accident. You know, they had to do what? In order to instruct the word of God to give Timothy that knowledge, they themselves had to be people that were in the word of God. And they, and yeah, even, again, it's the responsibility to study. It's for everybody. It's for the preacher. It's for every soul winner. And you know who else it's for? It's for the moms. It's for parents. And it's for dads too, obviously. And you say, well, is it really that important? Well, look what it did for Timothy in his life. Turned him into a godly young man who was well reported of, opened up this great door of opportunity to go out and do a great work for God. So you could see what a great impact, you know, even, you know, just the reading of the word of God, teaching your children the word of God can have on a life. You should never take that lightly. We see that, but so the question is then, why is study so often neglected? I mean, a lot of people will say, well, yeah, it's important, I know. But yet it goes undone. Yet it doesn't get done. Why is that? Because study is hard work. You know, it's hard for mom to carve out that 20, 30 minutes, whatever, to get all the kids to just sit still, you know, and listen, right? And look, that's a great, you know, getting kids to sit still in church, that starts at home. You know, that's, you know, giving, that's teaching instructing. Let me teach you how to sit still in church by teaching you how to do it at Bible time at home, okay? You know, but that's, you know, but that's hard work, isn't it, for moms, when they've got a busy schedule. It's hard work when, you know, you're working a full-time job as a dad or whatever, and then you're like, you're starting out soul-winning as the silent partner and going out and having to listen to other people, give the gospel and taking notes and marking your Bible, getting over the nerves to actually speak. You know, that's hard work, right? That's why people don't do it. It's not because they underestimate the importance of it. It's because they just don't want to put in the hard work of doing it. You know, that's why so many preachers get up and preach false doctrine and just, you know, off-the-wall things and say dumb things because they don't know the Word of God. They haven't read to Genesis 3.15, you know, where, you know, the Bible's telling us that it's the seed of the woman that's going to bruise Satan's heel. The seed of the woman, right? That, yeah, Mary actually did have a lot to do with Jesus' birth. That there were, you know, her chromosomes were involved. I'm going off again. But that's why stupid things like that get preached because people don't, one, it's probably because they're not saved and wouldn't understand the Word of God if they read it anyway. Or they just don't read it. It's neglected because of the hard work. If you're there, go over to 1 Timothy, chapter 5. 1 Timothy, chapter 5, the Bible says, in Ecclesiastes, that the Word of the wise are as goads, as nails fastened by the masters of assembly, which are given from one shepherd, and further by these, my son, be admonished, of making many books, there is no end, and much studiness, study is a weariness of the flesh. You know, study is hard work. The Bible says it's a weariness of the flesh to do the study. It's a weariness of the flesh to, you know, instruct. It's a weariness to sit down and get in the, we would all like to just say, well, no, every time I open up the Word of God in the morning, it's just I could hear the angels sing. You know, it just, it falls open. It's like, oh, you know, and, you know, it's just this deep, intimate moment with me and the Lord, and it's just, it's so moving. And look, if you've been in the Word of God on a regular basis, you have had those moments. You didn't hear angels sing, okay? It was probably, you know, someone drove by in their car or something. But, you know, you have had those moments where you're reading, you have the fellowship, the Holy Ghost, I get that. But is that every single time? Sometimes you read the Bible and it's like, what did I read? You had to go back and read it again. You know, what was that chapter about? You realize after like five minutes of reading, you haven't even been taking in what you've actually been reading. You have to start over. It's hard work to pay attention and to do that reading. But look, it's got to be done. Otherwise, we're not going to know the information. How then are we going to be able to share it to the soul winner, you know, to the unsafe? How are we going to be able to share it to our children? How are we going to get out and stand in front of a congregation and share it to the people that need to hear it, whose lives could be impacted if we haven't done that hard work? You know, it's hard work to do consistent devotions, to be consistent at it. You know, our personal devotions, our family devotions, these are things that take hard work. You know, preaching three times a week is hard work. You know, guys want to get up and just think it's going to be this, every sermon I preach is just going to be this heart-moving, eloquent speech that just every tear is just going to, you know, there won't be a dry eye in the place, right? Like, that's not reality. You know, but getting up and preaching solid doctrine is what needs to happen, and that's hard work. That's why it says in 1 Timothy, to have you go there, chapter 5, verse 17, Let the elders that rule well be kind of worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word of God, in the word and doctrine. They labor in the word. You know, that's their job to get in and to mine those gems out and to make that which is complicated understandable, you know, and teach it in a way that can be understood. It's hard work. That's why it gets neglected, right, because of the fact that it's difficult, not because people don't understand how important it is, they do, but because of the fact that it's hard work and that there is a lack of desire. There's a lack of desire to get that information, to do the study that needs to be done, to do the reading. The Bible says in Proverbs 18, Through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh an intermeddleth with all wisdom. You know, you're not going to read the Bible, you're not going to take on that responsibility to study until you want to. You're not going to learn that Romans road, you're not going to mark your Bible, you're not going to teach your kids the basics, you're not going to teach them the books of the Bible, the Ten Commandments, all of that, until you want to do it, because it's hard work. You know, you have to want to do that work. I heard a great quote today, I was reading this, listening to a book on the plane about, you know, developing self-discipline and self-improvement. It was one of these self-improvement books, I admit it. Okay, I read it. Okay, believe me, I need it. Right, but he said that life is easy when you live it the hard way. Life is easy when you live it the hard way. I thought, man, that's a great saying. I'm going to write that down somewhere. What is he saying by that? It kind of seems like a paradox, right? What he's saying is like, look, life is easy when you do the hard things that nobody wants to do. You know, instead of just taking the path of least resistance and just doing that, which is easy, just giving in to the instant gratification of, you know, instead of the Bible reading, I'm going to do whatever, whatever my flesh wants to do. Instead of doing the memory or writing the sermon or teaching the kids or going out and doing the soul winning, instead of doing that hard work, I'm going to do something that just makes me feel good right now, you know, because there's a lack of desire. You think that's the easy way, but you know what? That's actually going to come back around and haunt you. That's going to be what's coming, you know, because then you're not going to raise a Timothy. You know, you're going to raise a Demas instead. You're not going to get up and preach the sermon that's going to edify. You're going to get up and preach heresy. You know, you're not going to do what you could have done because you didn't want to do that, which is hard. You know, that's what makes life hard when you want to always do the easy thing. But when we decide to, you know, do the hard things in life, that is what makes life easy, ironically. It's the lack of desire. That's why people don't want to do it. Because, you know, again, study is difficult, but it's a responsibility that's been given to all of us. No matter what role you fulfill in life, preacher, soul winner, parent, whatever it is, you have a responsibility of studying and why? So that you can equip others. Equip others. So that you can instruct others. That's the whole purpose behind it. It's not just that, you know, God is some taskmaster, just, you know, cracking a whip, just trying to make our lives miserable by making us study. No, there's a purpose behind it. So that we can be equipped to instruct other people. That is our motivation. That's what's going to give you that desire. To get up, to read the word of God, even when you don't feel like it, to do the Bible memory, all of that. You know, those things that we don't want to do that we know we need to do. When we understand that the purpose behind it is to instruct others to profit other people, that's when we'll have desire. I mean, consider what we've learned from other people. And consider what we've learned from, you know, men like Pastor Anderson. You know, a lot of people have learned a lot of things from a guy like Pastor Anderson. He's got that platform out there. You know, a lot of people tune in. People learn. I mean, I read the emails, folks. People are always, hey, I learned this from you. I learned that. This film changed my life, this sermon. It's having such an impact. Think about all the things you've heard from Pastor Jonathan Shelley. You know, things that have been preached behind this pulpit. The other men that have gotten up in this pulpit and preached things from the word of God that maybe you didn't know before. You know, kids can think about all the things that their parents have taught to them. You know, consider all these things that we've learned from other people. How do you think they learned them? Do you think they just woke up one day and just had all that knowledge? Do you think Pastor Anderson just knows everything that he knows? Pastor Jonathan Shelley just knows everything that he knows because when he got ordained, God just downloaded all that information into his brain? No, it's because those are men that get up and read the Bible and study the Bible and put hours in. They labor in the word of doctrine. You know, your kids, if you know anything about the word of God, it's because you have a parent that is instructing you. I mean, the only reason they can instruct you is because they themselves have done the study. They themselves have done the reading. They themselves have sat in church for year upon year, taking in the preaching of the word of God. You know, all the things that we've learned from other people, whether it be parents, whether it be preachers, whether it be, you know, other personal acquaintances. You know, the Bible talks about the fact that we ought to be able to edify one another. We should, you know, be able to come to church and learn from other church members. Look, whoever it is you've learned from, if you learn something from them, it's because they themselves have done the study. They themselves have had the desire and seen not only is it responsibility, that is only important, but that it's beneficial to other people for them to be equipped. Are you still in Second Timothy? I know I've had you all over the place. Go to Second Timothy if you're not there, chapter two. I want to end with this thought is that, you know, we've learned a lot from other people, haven't we? You know, we've learned from other people who've instructed us, who them themselves have done the study, you know, and they've probably shown a lot of patience with us, haven't they? You know, that's a big part of instructing other people is being patient with other people. And, you know, we should be patient with other people because the fact is people have been patient with us. You know, they get up and they preach things and then they have to preach it again, preach it again, preach it again until it gets through to us, right? You know, we should be patient with people, especially when we're out going, again, I'm going to bring it up because we do it so much. It's soul winning. You know, I know it's a big topic, but we do so much of it, it's important to keep these things in mind. When you're out doing the instructing, when you're out, you know, preaching the gospel to other people, you should be patient with those people. You know, you should, even when you're kind of have to rip face a little bit or rebuke them, it says in Titus chapter one, verse nine, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, you know, he himself hath been taught, you know, this is speaking of a bishop, that he may be able by sound doctrine to what? To do what to the gainsayers? To put them in their place and show them that they don't know nothing. That, you know, we got all the answers, they're a bunch of dummies. So that he can what? By sound doctrine, exhort and convince the gainsayer. You know, not just the guy who just, you know, just doesn't know, just kind of innocent in it, just, you know, never really thought of it, just ignorant. He's talking about the gainsayer, you know, who's gonna speak, who's gonna oppose even, or argue a little bit, or have something to say against what you're saying, right? The Bible is telling us that we need to be able to exhort and convince them. That's the point of going out and instructing people, to exhort them and to convince them, not just rip their face. Look at 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 24. It says, and the servant Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men. App to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil. And that's why it's so important for us to do this study ourselves and to go out, you know, and to get up, preach the doctrines, you know, so that, you know, people might be ensnared here. People might be coming to church and they're snared by some sin. They're snared by some, you know, habit. They're snared by some thought pattern. They're snared by some feeling, whatever it is. You know, we need to be able to preach to them. But, you know, also we need to go out and preach the gospel to people so that they can recover themselves from the snare of the devil. And we got to do that in meekness. You know, this, every time I read that, I always think of this illustration that I heard. He says there that they may recover themselves, in verse 26, out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. It always amazes me when I see people get so short with unsaved people. They get such a short fuse with unsaved people. These people who are, you know, that are just, you know, the Bible says that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God and neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned. And they're trying to, you know, teach somebody who has no discernment, they don't have the Spirit, and they're just, they get so impatient with people that they don't, they're not getting it, right? But you have to remember the people that you're talking to, the unsaved people, they're people that are taken captive by the devil at his will. It always makes me think of this illustration that you ever see a cat play with a mouse when it's caught a mouse? Have you ever seen that? When it catches a mouse and it'll let it get away and then just bring it right back, throttle it around a little bit in its jaws and let it drop it, let it get away? Or what's the other one, like those orcas, right? They'll go out, the killer whales, and they'll play with the seal before they eat it. They'll just bat it around for a while. And that reminds me of some sinner. That's the picture I get. It's these people that we're preaching to, we're trying to instruct and we're trying to reach are people that are taken captive by him at his will. They feel like, oh, man, I'm finally getting away from this sin a little bit. I'm finally feeling better about myself and then the devil just goes, eh, come back here. They feel, you know, then they try again, they're trying to get over some addiction, they're trying to get over some habit, whatever it is. They're trying to get their life right. They finally feel like they're making some ground and the devil says, nah, come on back and thrashes them around a little bit. That's who a lot of times we're dealing with out there. You know, spiritually speaking, at the very least, that's what they're like. So we should be patient with them. We should instruct them in meekness. We should instruct them who oppose themselves. They're not opposing us. They're their own worst enemy. Even if they're lashing out, even if they're mad and upset and saying things at us, they're really opposing themselves. They're really rejecting the Lord and not us. So I'm trying to kind of close on that thought that the responsibility of study is a serious one. It's one we all need to take on and fulfill in our roles and the point is is that we can go out and instruct other people so that we can share what we've learned. And it's important because people need to hear it. They need to benefit from what we've learned, right? I mean, just as we've benefited from the study of other people, you know, others should benefit also from our own study. That's why it's important for us to take on that responsibility, the responsibility of studying. Let's go ahead and pray. Lord, again, thank you for the Bible. Thank you that you've given us all this instruction and knowledge and understanding that's just there for us to learn and to know. Lord, I pray it help us to be people that study and know the word of God to whatever capacity we can and, Lord, that we would fulfill the roles that we're given adequately and, Lord, that we would do a good job at it, Lord, through the study of the word of God. Lord, thank you for this time we've had to come together. I pray you keep everybody safe as we go our own ways. We ask in Christ's name, amen. All right, we'll sing one more song before we go. All right, if you will grab your white handout or alternatively your Bible and turn to Psalm 126. Psalm 126. Psalm 126, let's sing. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion We were like them that dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter And our tongue with singing Then said they among the heathen The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for us Whereof we are glad Turn again our captivity O Lord, as the streams in the South They that sow in tears shall reap in joy They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Then said they among the heathen The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for us Whereof we are glad He that goeth forth and weepeth Bearing precious seed Shall doubtless come again Shall doubtless come again With rejoicing Bringing his sheaves with him Then said they among the heathen The Lord had done great things for them The Lord had done great things for us Whereof we are glad Amen, and with that you are dismissed. Have a good night. you