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Now in Exodus chapter 3, of course, we're reading the familiar story about Moses meeting with God at the burning bush out in the wilderness. He's being sent to go to Egypt to deliver the people out of bondage. They're all enslaved in Egypt. They've been there for about, you know, almost 400 years, and so Moses is going to be the deliverer that's going to take them out of there. Now, if you would, look at Acts chapter 7, okay? Keep your finger back in Exodus. We're going to get back there. But look at Acts chapter 7. I want to read you a little bit of another perspective on this story from the New Testament where Stephen is basically recapping this when he's preaching in Acts chapter 7. Look at verse 22 of Acts chapter 7. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. So now you remember that Moses, of course, was, you know, born in a time when male children were not allowed to be born among the Hebrews, and they were actually killing the young children, throwing them into the Nile River and doing that wicked thing of infanticide. Well, he grew up to be, you know, three months old. They hit him in a basket. They put him in the Nile River, and he went floating down the river in a basket. Pharaoh's daughter was washing herself. His sister Miriam was watching to see what would become of the child. And Pharaoh's daughter finds the child, pulls him out. He's crying. She had compassion on the baby. And they took Moses, and basically he was nursed by his mother and lived with his mother, his real mother, for the first two years of his life. And when he was weak, he became, you know, basically the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Well, he lived in that system. He grew up in Egypt until he was 40 years old. Okay, so he lived from the time he was, you know, 2 to 40. And look what it says. It says he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. I mean, he went to their schools. He went to their university. You know, he got all the training. He was very, very educated in their ways. And it says in verse...and it says he was mighty in words. What does that mean? He was a very good speaker. I mean, he was an eloquent speaker, and he was mighty in deeds. And it says that when he was full 40 years old, verse 23, it came into his heart to visit his brethren that showed him Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed, this is the key, he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not. And the next day, he showed himself unto them as they strolled, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren. Why are you wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me? Is thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled most of his saying, was a stranger in the land of Midian before he begat two sons. And when 40 years were expired, there appeared to him, and this is where we're at in the story, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. And Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and durst not behold, then said the Lord to him, Put out thy shoes from thy feet for the place where I am now standest this holy ground. I have seen, I have seen the inflection of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. Now, all that reading is the introduction, and I want to preach this subject. Send someone else. You know, this was Moses' attitude. Send somebody else. Now, when we were back in Exodus 3, he began to make excuses when God wanted to send him, and God was dead-bent on sending him to be the one to deliver the tomb of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Even 40 years previously, the Bible teaches that God had already chosen him. Now, he went about it the wrong way. The people weren't ready. I don't know if they weren't being oppressed bad enough, their bondage wasn't bitter enough yet, but they became indignant when Moses tried to lead some kind of an uprising. You know, it was premature, and what happened was he was rejected by the people. They did not want him as a ruler. They did not want him as a judge. They did not want him as a deliverer, so he had to go and wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And he went and dwelled in Madian. He began to herd sheep. And he met a man in Ryu. His father-in-law, Ryu, gave him one of his daughters, Zipporah, to be his wife. So he basically just settled down in the wilderness. He marries Zipporah, he has a couple of sons, and he's just kind of living his life and going about his life. Well, God wasn't going to let him go. God came back to him when he's 80 years old and says to him, I'm going to send you. I want you to go and deliver my people out of the land of Egypt. Look at the excuses. Are you next to this three? He basically gives five different protests, five different excuses. The first excuse is in chapter three when he says, you know, who am I? Who am I that I should deliver the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt? Then the next thing is, he says, well, I don't know what to tell them your name is. You know, verse 13 and 14. They're going to ask me what your name is. I don't even know your name. You know, so he just keeps making up all these different reasons why he's not going to go. Then look at chapter four, verse number one. And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor harvin' unto my voice, for they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto me. So this is the third time he's protesting and making an excuse. He's saying, well, they're not going to believe me. Okay, look at his next excuse. Look at verse 10. And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and have a slow tongue. Now is that really true? No, the Bible says he was mighty in words and deeds. He was a very eloquent man, but he's just making excuses. Then this is where God really gets upset. Okay, his last excuse in verse 13, he basically just says, O Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and on night he begins to protest to him. You see, Moses is trying to say, hey, send someone else. First he said, well, you know, I'm not good enough for the job. Then he said, well, I don't even know what your name is. Then he said, well, they're not going to believe me. Then he said, I'm not eloquent. And then he just said, well, just send somebody else. So somebody else is going to do it. But you see, what Moses didn't understand is that if he didn't do it, no one else was going to do it. Look at Ezekiel 22. I'll show you what I'm talking about. The book of Ezekiel 22. At the end of the Old Testament, you got these three big long prophetic books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. Look at Ezekiel 22, 30. Because a lot of people have this attitude that if I don't do it, someone else is going to do it. God can just send someone else. God can just do someone else. Well, look at Ezekiel 22, 30. The Bible reads, and I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me, before the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore have I poured out my name and nation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath, their own way of my recompense upon their heads. Say, Lord, now did God want to pour out his wrath in this passage of Ezekiel 22? No. Did he want to pour out his wrath with fire? Did he want to recompense their own way on their head? No, he was actually looking for some man that would stand up and stand in the head, stand in the gap, before the people so they'd not be destroyed. But the problem was he found none. If you remember in Ezekiel, or not Ezekiel, Exodus chapter 33, God came to the same point with the children of Israel as he did in Ezekiel 22, where he basically said, I'm going to destroy the nation of Israel. He said, I'm going to finish them off right here in the wilderness, and remember, one man stood in the hedge, one man made up the gap, and Moses stood before God, pleaded with God for the lives of the people, and the Bible says that God repented of the people that he thought that he was going to do under the children of Israel, in Exodus chapter 33. Why? Because one man stood up and made the difference. Here he sought for a man and found none. They ended up being destroyed. They ended up going into captivity. And that's what Ezekiel's talking about. When they went into captivity to Babylon, whereas in Moses' day, there was a man, and it was only one man that God could have used to bring them out of the land of Egypt. He chose him, he ordained him, he sanctified. Look at Jeremiah. You're in Ezekiel 22. Just go back a few pages to the book of Jeremiah chapter one. You see, God is sending you, God is sending me to do a great work for him, and we can't have this attitude of send someone else because there is no one else. That's what you need to understand. Look at Jeremiah chapter one. I'll show you what I'm talking about. It says in verse four, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. What sanctified me? He set him apart. He said, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet under the nations. Now listen to Jeremiah begin to make excuses. Then said I, Ah Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. You see, God chose a specific man, Jeremiah, to do a specific job for him. He chose this man, and he said, look, if you don't do this, no one's gonna do it. You see, we often think that we're just expendable, right? Like, well, I'm just expendable, I can be replaced. You know, and look, Christians cannot be replaced. No member of this church can be replaced. It's not just, well, you know, we have 40 people, so if we lose five, we just get five more, and then we sell four. No, every single person is unique. Every single person is an individual. No two human beings are the same. Hey, God creates every person different in their mother's womb. It's not just an accident of genetics or this person's DNA and this person's DNA. No, God creates life. And the Bible said in Psalm 139 that David said he was fashioned in form in his mother's womb. He said, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Hey, two people in this world are not exactly the same. God made everyone different, and you and I are not expendable. We're not just like the parts of a washing machine or something where if it goes bad, we just replace it with the same bolt or replace it with the same screw or replace it with the same nut. No, we need, this nut cannot be replaced. Hey, you know, hey, I'm telling you, none of us can be replaced. And I tell you something, when you say send someone else, there is no one else. God has a special work that he has for you to do, and it's different than what I'm going to do, and I can't do your work and you can't do my work. For example, I could go and talk to somebody and take my Bible and want to give him the gospel and tell him how to be saved. He may not like my personality, he might not like my face. He might just not relate to me. We might just have a different personality. Now look, does that make him a bad person just because he doesn't like me? No. Okay, and then they're typically, what do you mean, no? Anyway, you know, no, that's okay. He might not like me, okay? But if you went and talked to him, he likes you. You know, because you're different than me. And then there are other people that would like me that would not like you. Or maybe they would listen to me that would not listen to you, or vice versa. And that's why God has to use each and every one of us in a different way to reach different people. And so we can't just say, we'll send somebody else. There is no one else just like you. I mean, can you imagine, who would have stepped in and been Moses? Moses, the meekest man upon the face of the earth, the Bible says. A man mighty in words and deeds. A man learned in all the learning of the land of Egypt, but then he also spent 40 years in the wilderness with God, didn't even know God for 40 years. I mean, this man was a unique person. He can't just be replaced. And that's why God became angry when for the fifth time he sent somebody else. I can't do it, I'm not gonna do it. God said, you must do it. You are the one that's gonna deliver the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. And so we gotta keep this in mind. Flip back to Isaiah chapter six. We're in Jeremiah, just go back one book to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter six. And you know where a lot of this comes from? It's Calvinism. You know, this idea that God's in heaven pulling all the strings, that we're all a bunch of puppets on the strings, and this is simply not true. And this Calvinist doctrine teaches, well, if you don't, God's gonna get it done. He'll find a way to get it. He'll just, it's not you, he'll just use somebody else and blah, blah, blah. That flies in the face of this. I stopped for a man, I found none. I wanted to save him, I wanted to help him, but I couldn't find anybody. You know, Calvinism is false doctrine. You say, are you a five-point Calvinist, a three-point Calvinist? I'm not a Calvinist pentagram, triangle, line. I'm a zero-point Calvinist, just draw a circle. That's what kind of Calvinist I am. No points at all. Because I don't believe in total depravity of man. I believe that man is a sinner, but I don't believe that man is unable to believe on Christ. The Bible says that God has given to every man the measure of faith. Every person is able to believe on Christ. Jesus said, you will not come to me that you might have life. I don't believe in the total depravity. I don't believe that a man does everything wrong in his life. Did you know that there are even unsaved people who do some things right some other time? Who believes that? I mean, obviously an unsaved person might do something nice or do something right. It doesn't mean that they're not a sinner, they're still ungodly, they're still gonna go to hell if they don't believe on Christ, but they're not totally depraved or they're unable to do right. Unconditional elections. There is a condition. If, if thou believest with all one heart, thou mayest and filipin. And the eunuch answered, said I believe that Jesus Christ is son of God. Yeah, I got a computer programmer in the front row. He knows what conditions are. If, then, okay, if comma then. That's a condition. If thou shalt believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. There's a condition to your salvation. It's not unconditional. There's a condition. Believe, there's only one condition, faith. Limited atonement. Nope, he's the savior of all men, especially of those that believe. So he's the savior of those who do not believe, but it's not gonna do him any good. Hey, the word was preached unto them as well as unto us. Howbeit the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Okay, so it's preached to everyone. He's the savior of all, but he's only gonna be affected to get you to heaven when you believe on him and the blood is applied to the spiritual normalcy of your heart as it was in the Passover in Exodus chapter 12. Irresistible grace is the other point of Calvinism. Like you're just drawn to it. It's irresistible. I don't, oh, I must get saved. Then why does Stephen say in the same chapter we just read, you do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. It's possible to resist God's spirit, to quench the Holy Spirit, to grieve the spirit, to resist the call to salvation. He called, he said in Proverbs 1, he said, I called and you refused. I stretched out my hand and no man regarded. Hey, that's a resistance to God's calling. God's, and then he'd say, oh, you know, but God chooses, you know, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. He said, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you to bring forth fruit. He said, I've ordained you, I've chosen you to bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. But he was talking to 12 people and guess what? One of them was a devil. He said, have not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? So he didn't choose him for salvation. He chose him to be his disciples and one of them turned out to be an unsaved devil. That can't be talked about salvation. He said, have not I chosen you 12, John chapter six, and one of you is a devil? Perseverance of the saints. Perseverance of the saints. You say, well, that's eternal security, right? Wrong, it's the opposite. I believe in the preservation of the saints. Preserve to them that are sanctified by God the Father, Jude 1-1, and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Hey, I'm preserved in Jesus Christ. I don't have to persevere in the end to be saved. Hey, I already come and been saved. I'm preserved in Christ, preserved in God the Father. God is holding me in his hand. He said, no man could pluck him out of my hand. I'm saved eternally, secure. Nothing can change that. As far as the east is from the west, God has separated me from my sins. Hey, I don't have to persevere to be saved. Did Locke persevere in the end? Yet he was saved. Did Samson persevere in the end? Nope, but he was saved. Did Noah persevere in the end? Nope, but he was saved. Look at all the people in the Bible who dropped the ball and yet were saved. Look at Peter, becoming backslid and denied that he even knows Jesus Christ. And yet he was saved. And so you don't have to persevere at the end to be saved. You have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved. The Bible says that if they endure to the end, their flesh would be saved in Matthew 24. And that's where people, they mix that up with their spirit being saved. He says there should no flesh be saved except those days should be shortened. If you endure to the end of the tribulation, you'd be saved by the rapture. That's all that's saying. Look at Isaiah, did I even turn to Isaiah? Look at Isaiah. I love this verse, Isaiah 6, 8. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Who wants to go is what he's saying. Who are we gonna send? Who wants to go? Who will go for us? Who's willing to go? He says, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. Not send someone else, not somebody else is gonna do it, but this gotta be all right. So hey God, I will do it. Here am I, send me. Look at Amos 7. Where in Isaiah, just go toward the end of the Old Testament. Before you get to Matthew, you'll get to the 12 small minor prophets. Look at Amos chapter seven. Amos, if you're not familiar with the book of Amos, Amos was a prophet that preached in the northern kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes. If you remember at this time in history, the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom of Israel had become fractured after Solomon, his son Rehoboam, basically took the two southern tribes. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat took the 10 northern tribes. Well, if you know anything about persons saying kings, persons saying chronicles, which one was the more wicked of the two? The northern or the southern? The northern. The northern hardly ever had a good king. They hardly ever were worshiping the Lord. It was usually always the southern kingdom that kind of was the more spiritual, the more righteous. They had some bad kings, but usually they were preaching the truth and had good kings. So Amos was a prophet. Isaiah was preaching to the southern kingdom. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, preaching to the southern kingdom. Okay, predominantly. But Amos was a prophet to this northern kingdom of Israel, okay? So he's preaching to a rough crowd. I mean, these people don't wanna hear what he has to say. Well, look at chapter seven, verse 12. And Amaziah, now Amaziah was the king of the northern kingdom at this time of Israel. Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seeder, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah. So he's trying to send him to this other king. He's like, get out of here. We don't wanna hear what you have to preach in our country. He said, you know, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah and there eat bread and prophesy there. So we could probably, a modern day parallel, would be like preaching in America today where there are a lot of people who are saved and there are a lot of people who believe the Bible versus being in a country that is maybe like a Muslim country or being in a country that was very atheistic or Buddhist or something. They're trying to send him back. You know, they're saying, hey, go to the land of Judah and he bread and prophesy there. But prophesy not again anymore at Bethel. For is the king's chaplain, is the king's court. So he's going right up to where the king lives, right in the capital city and just preaching this stuff. And nobody wants to hear him. He says in verse 14, then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet. Neither was I a prophet's son, but I was an hermit and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock. And the Lord said unto me, go prophesy unto my people Israel. He's saying, look, I wasn't a prophet's son. This isn't what I always wanted to do or this is more of what I was raised to do or born to do. Hey, God sent me to do this job. And I said, here am I, send me. I'm going to go where God wants me to go. I'm going to preach what he tells me to preach. I'm not going to let you or anyone else stop me. Did the children of Israel want Moses? No. He tried to start something and they rejected it. He came back 40 years later. He was supposed to bring the elders of the children of Israel with him to go speak with Pharaoh. He ends up going and speaking to Pharaoh. And what happened? The elders of Israel got angry at Moses and said, oh man, now we have it even worse. Now Pharaoh's mad. And they got angry at Moses. At some points they wanted to kill Moses and Aaron. They didn't want it. It didn't matter whether the people wanted him. It didn't matter whether Israel wanted Amos. It didn't matter whether the Jews wanted Moses. Hey, it's who God sent. And no one else could have done that job except him. Look if you would at Matthew chapter nine. You see Calvinism says God's pulling the strings up in heaven. If you fall out of place, he'll just put somebody else in your spot. Wrong. No, there's only one person that can do the job that you're called to do, and that's you. And God is ready to use anybody and everybody who's willing to step up to the plate. He just says, who will go for us? Whom shall I send? And he's looking for somebody to say, here am I, send me. Look at Matthew chapter nine, verse 37. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Look back at Matthew four. Matthew chapter four, we're gonna see Jesus calling people to follow him. And he wants to follow him. See, here's what I'm trying to express to you at this point. Is that God wants to send you personally. You say, well, he can only send Moses, so he's not looking for volunteers. He just picked certain people like Moses and Amos, you know, at Jeremiah. No, you're missing the point of the sermon. Yes, God does pick specific people for specific jobs. Like Moses had to be the one, you know. He was the perfect guy to go down and lead the son of Israel. Amos was the perfect man, even though he didn't think so, even though others didn't think so. He had this calling in his life. He thought, hey, he's just gathering sycamore fruit. He's just herding a bunch of sheep. But God said, no, you are gonna do great things for me. Thank God he wasn't still gathering a bunch of people. I don't even know what sycamore fruit is. You know, he's gathering a bunch of sycamore fruit. You know, and that's what you're, is that what your life is gonna be? Just go gather a bunch of fruit that nobody's even heard of? When you could be preaching the truth, when you could be preaching God's word, getting people saved. But basically, yes, God picks a specific person for this, a specific person for that, but guess what? He's picked everyone for something. That's why I'm trying to get across to you. And so whatever God wants you to do, whatever calling is on your life, hey, no one else can fulfill that. And so if you decide to quit the church, if you decide to go out and just drink and party and just have a good time and live it up and forget the Bible, forget soul waiting, who's gonna do your job? Who's gonna talk to the people that you were supposed to talk to? Who's gonna fill your place in this church? Or in another, you know, like-minded Bible-believing church? You see, you're not expendable. You're part of the team. You're a crucial part of God's plan, no matter who you are. He didn't just call Moses and just call him. No, he's calling to all of us. He's calling to everyone saying, who will go for us? And he's looking for somebody to say, here am I to send me? He wants God to send labors in the harvest, but so many people are not answering God's call. He's seeking for a man and he's not finding one. Look at Matthew 4.19. This is when Jesus comes to Simon and Andrew and he says unto them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightaway left their nets and followed him. And going on from this, he saw other two brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets, and he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. He said, if you follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. That offer is still open today to anyone. He'll offer that to you, he'll offer that to me. He says, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. If you follow him, you will be a soul man. You will get people saved if you're really following Jesus. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him, the Bible says. And so, if you've never won somebody to Christ, hey, boy, it's time to follow Jesus a little more closely, because if you follow him, don't tell me you followed him your whole life and he never made you a fisher of men. That's not what the Bible says. He said, if you follow me, I will make you. Not I might, I will make you fishers of men. Now, let's look at chapter eight. Now, that was the positive example in chapter four where he called people to follow him. He said, I wanna make you fishers of men. And they, come on, they dropped everything. They immediately, they dropped the net, they left the ship, they left Dad behind, and they said, we'll follow you. But look at chapter eight, well, season B didn't follow him. Because see, God's calling, but some people answer his call and some people refuse. Look at chapter eight, verse nine. And a certain scribe came and said to him, Master, I will follow thee with us so ever thou goest. Now again, the word will, you know, we don't really talk this way today in America in 2009, but in English, you know, the shall and the will, a little different, right? No, forget it. But he said, hey, I will, he's like, I'm gonna do this, okay? I will follow thee with us so ever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man is not where to lay his head. So what's he saying? He's saying, well, okay, you can follow me if you want, but I don't even know where I'm sleeping tonight. I could be sleeping outside, you know, I don't have a place to stay. And then look what it says next. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, follow me and let the dead bury their head. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And it's interesting because as you study this, and you see what happens on the other side, and guess who went with him? Just the 12 disciples. So these two guys didn't go. Because if you study this out and read the passage, when he gets to the other side, where he goes to the demon-possessed man, hey, these guys didn't come along, it was just the 12 disciples that came along. So not everybody who Jesus calls comes along. Look at Matthew 9, 9. You're in chapter eight, just flip one page over. Matthew 9, 9. And as Jesus passed forth from this, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of customs. So he works for the IRS. It said, and he said unto him, follow me, and he arose and followed him. So here's another guy, dropped everything and followed him. Look at chapter 16, verse 24. And here's the key right here. This is the key verse, Matthew 16, 24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man, cause you say, oh, you're just calling specific people, right? Just certain people in this inviting to follow him. Oh, he said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Hey, Jesus is looking for anybody to follow. He says, anyone who wants to follow me, just deny yourself, take up the cross and follow me. Numbers 11, 29. You don't have to turn there, but it says in Moses 7 to him, this is Moses speaking, envious thou for my sake, would God that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. He said, God wants all of his people to be prophets and that God's spirit would rest mightily upon every single one of them. Hey, God said, if any man will follow me, anybody can be a fisher of man. Anybody can be used by God. Everybody should be filled with the spirit of God. Everybody should be preaching God's word. Everybody should be, I need to say, well, I'm not gonna be a pastor. No, it didn't say everybody should be a pastor. It didn't say everybody should be a leader, a pastor, a preacher, a bishop. No, it said that everyone should preach God's word. Like preach the gospel to every creature. Every man, woman, boy, and girl can take the Bible and go to someone one-on-one and preach the gospel to that person and see them saved. That's for everybody. All God's people. Look at 2 Corinthians 4. You're in Matthew. You just go to the end of the Bible, about halfway through the New Testament. Look at 1 Corinthians, or 2 Corinthians 4. And let me make this two applications to this truth, to this idea. The first application of it is this. If you don't answer God's call to be a fisher of men, if you don't answer God's call to go out and give the gospel and see people saved, no one will fill your place. And I'm gonna show you that in the Bible. Look at 2 Corinthians 4.3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Do you see that? If we hide, you know, he said, of course, that we shouldn't take a light and hide under a bushel, remember? But he said, you know, remember the song when your kid, this little light of mine, hide it under a bushel. No, I'm gonna let it shine. Who sang that song when your kid? All right. Some people have. Let it shine, let it shine. But anyway, okay. He said, you know, no man taking a candle and hiding under a bushel, but he said, let's set it on a candlestick and it give us light under all that are in the house. He's saying, hey, the glorious light of the gospel needs to shine forth. You need to open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. He's saying, but if it be hid, let's say you do hide it under a bushel. He said, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. To whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them. But is it shining unto them? Well, that depends upon you. Because if your gospel be hid, they will still be blinded and that glorious light of the gospel will not shine in and illuminate and enlighten them to where they can believe on Christ and be saved. No, they'll still go on being blinded. They'll still go on being lied to in a church that's telling them work your way to heaven. They'll still go on to see unless your light shines and breaks through. That's what he said. He said, lest the glorious light of the gospel should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Put back to 1 Corinthians, that 2 Corinthians. Let's go back a few pages to 1 Corinthians 3-5. You say, well, if people are gonna get saved, they're gonna get saved. If they're not, they're not. No. If our gospel behaves into them that are lost, we better shine that light of the gospel or they're gonna remain in darkness. Let's face it. Look at 1 Corinthians 3. This is a really interesting verse. It says in 1 Corinthians 3-5, who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believe, watch this, even as the Lord gave to every man. So what's that verse teach? Read it again. It says in 1 Corinthians 3-5, who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believe, even as the Lord gave to every man. So what did God give to every man? Go ahead and read this verse. A minister by whom they might believe. A Paul, an Apollos, a Stephen, a Matthew, whoever, that's gonna come to them and preach it to them. Right? Now, does every single person in this world who is born and dies have someone in their life at some time or another come to them and give them a clear presentation of the gospel from the Bible? No. I mean, everybody in this world has at least heard something about Jesus. They've heard verses from the Bible. I mean, even just verses that are quoted in our popular culture. You know, we hear verses, we hear about Jesus, we hear about God. Even I talk to people, I talk to a guy, it's funny when I'm done, I talk to a guy who lived in India. And I gave him the gospel. I showed him how to be saved. You know, man, I can't believe that, that you have to believe in Jesus to be saved. He's like, where I'm from, people never even heard of Jesus. I said, come on, are you serious? In India, you've never heard of Jesus? You know who Jesus Christ is? He's like, man, he said, I was 10 years old before somebody told me about Jesus. And he's like, and I didn't even learn like the whole story about the Bible and everything about he's crucified until I got to high school. You know, he's trying to tell me he's living in some place where nobody knows about Jesus. And it was talked to him in school when he was 16. And even before that, he heard about it as a child. But then when he was 16, look, there are kids in America today who don't know anything about Jesus. I mean, it's amazing. It's changed. Since I started knocking doors and giving me the gospel to go this whole way, when I was, just right when I turned 17 years old, which is about almost 11 years ago now, cause I'm almost 28. And I remember you'd knock on the door and you'd talk to people, give them the gospel. And you'd say to them, you know, you talk about Jesus dying on the cross and explain all that. And then you'd say, what happened three days later? And everybody'd say, he rose again, right? Everybody knew that part of the story. Nowadays you say, what happened three days later? What do they say? I don't know what happened. How many people have been out sowing and had people say that a lot? I don't know what happened. He rose again. And you'll say, you know, Adam and Eve? Right, no. I mean, I'm constantly running into teenagers and young adults who don't know who Adam and Eve are. Literally, I'm like, you've never heard of Adam and Eve? No. Jonah, remember Jonah the whale? No. Samson, remember Samson, you know, the strength and everything? Never. Noah, remember Noah and the ark and the animals? Nope. It's true. And look, people in India or people, you know, people down here, I mean, it's pretty much the same thing. I mean, there are people everywhere who haven't heard of the gospel. There are people everywhere who don't know the truth. Why? Because you're sitting around and not giving it to them. That's why. Because you're not going to, because your gospel is being hid, that's why. And you expect somebody else to do it though. Because everybody, I guarantee you, that every single Christian who's gospel is hid, who never gives the gospel to anybody, nobody at work, nobody in your family, nobody at school, nobody at your door, nobody you know, you don't give people the gospel, I guarantee you, you want other people to give them the gospel. I mean, if I said to you, do you want someone, would you like for someone to go tell your mom how to be saved, or your brother how to be saved, or your coworker how to be saved? No. I mean, you'd say, yeah, oh yeah, sure. Absolutely, that'd be great. Oh man, that'd be great if somebody talked to my aunt or my uncle, but it'd be great if somebody come to my job and give the gospel to everybody on the job. You expect someone else to do it. But wait a minute, maybe God's will, maybe the minister by whom those people should believe, maybe you're the one that he chose, maybe he's sending you to talk to that person. And if you don't talk to him, you know, and by the way, most people, there's more than one person that's gonna talk to them in their life. You know, somebody kinda, sometimes you talk to somebody and he's planning a scene, another time somebody comes with water zips, somebody else finally gets to reap the increase. But if you think about it, I mean, I've had many people talk to me and give me the gospel throughout my life. You know, I got saved at a very young age. But even after I was saved, there have been Baptists who knocked on my door, there have been just people at work who tried to evangelize me and I told them, hey, I'm already saved, you know, I'm going to heaven and I explained that to them. But wait a minute, there are so many people today who are not answering the call. There's so many people that the gospel is being hidden to a lot of people. And there are people out there who would be saved if you would persuade them, if you would compel them, if you would preach it to them, if you would give them the gospel. You say, oh, I don't think you should be persuasive, I don't think you should be compelling. What happened when Paul preached to King Grippa, what did he say? Almost about persuaded me to be a Christian. He said, wow, because he preached such a powerful sermon to him. He said, wow, you almost convinced me into being a Christian myself. And Paul said, well, I wish it wasn't almost, I wish it'd be all together, is what his answer was. He said, don't tell me almost. He said, I wish that thou were not almost as I am, but all together as I am, except for these bonds, you know, except the handcuffs, you know. That's what he told them. That's what he told King Grippa. He said, I wish you'd be just like me except without these handcuffs on, you know, because he's preaching to them in bonds. He's preaching the gospel to them. He's in jail for what? For preaching? He said, I want to preach the gospel boldly, even in my bonds. And so that's what we need. Somebody who's willing to do it themself. Don't rely on someone else. You got to do it yourself. I already covered these, these are some verses that I was going to cover, but let's turn to one last place due to hominy six. We got tied at the end of Father's day because, you know, it's Father's day. One thing about being a preacher is like, you can get a sermon you want to preach. And then somebody's like, oh, remember, it's this holiday. You're like, oh. You know, like, I'll have my sermon all ready to go. And it's like, it's Mother's day. Oh man, you know, they're going to write the Mother's sermon. But like, the Mother's day sermon, you have to read this, or else you're going to get busted. Right? But like the Father's day sermon, you can get fired if you're not. You know what I mean? Because no one can do it. No one can do it. I mean, I'm not going to care. You're not another. I mean, is anybody in here like, man, I needed a Father's day sermon. It's Mother's day. Woe unto you. You don't preach that Mother's day sermon. You're going to be busted. So, but I'm going to throw you a bone and tie it in to Father's day. Look at Deuteronomy chapter six. Now before I read this to you real quick, let me just explain to you some about the Bible, some about the King James Bible. And that's the difference between the word thou and me, okay? Everybody criticizes the King James Bible and says, oh man, I can't understand the thes and the thows. It's like, look, it means you. Alright, pretty hard. But you know, people get so hung up on that. Man, I've got to get a Bible without the thes and the thows. It's like they can't translate this one word. Thou, you, okay? But the thes and the thows are important. Because if you take away the thes and the thows, you lose the meaning of over a thousand passages in the Bible. You lose the exact meaning, right? You would be mixed up when you read it. And here's why. Because thou is singular and ye is plural. And there are over a thousand places where that alters, you could basically get a wrong message of what Jesus or someone else is saying. Like for example, when Jesus said to Peter, he said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you. Plural or singular? You. Plural. You is plural. Me is singular. Okay, so basically he says, Satan has desired to have you. So is he saying Satan has desired to have Peter or Satan has desired to have the whole group? The whole disciples, what he said. Satan hath desired to have you, but I have prayed for thee. Singular or plural? Singular. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Okay? So there's a big difference there. Because if you were reading it, okay, see what I mean? Oh, next verse, no shit. But anyway, basically if you were reading it in one of these modern versions that just says you, it would just say Satan had desired to have you, but I prayed for you, you wouldn't understand that he's saying he's gonna try to tackle the whole group, but I prayed for you specifically to be the one who's gonna stand up and take the lead, which he did at the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two, which he did in Acts chapter one. Here's another good example. When Jesus said to Nicodemus, verily, verily, I say unto thee, ye must be born again. Everybody has to be born again, but he's saying to one person. And when he's telling Nicodemus, he's basically saying, he showed him these earthly things, and he said, and ye believe not. So he's not rebuking Nicodemus specifically for not believing. He's basically rebuking the Pharisees as a whole. Ye believe not. And on and on, I mean, just all throughout the Bible, thousand times, you get a different gist. And here's another one of those thousand times that dramatically changes the meaning. Look at Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might, and these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. Talk about learning the Bible, right? And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. Now is that singular or plural? Singular. Thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. So whose responsibility is it to teach their children the Bible? Somebody else, right? That's what church is for, right? That's what the Christian school is for. Don't even get me started on that. That's what vacation Bible school's for, right? Or this uncle or this cousin or this brother. Hey, thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children. And let's talk to the dad, because it's Father's Day. Don't rely on anyone else. Take this as your personal command from God in the singular form, telling you specifically, Dad, it is your job to raise your children and to teach them the Bible. You know, as a dad, I'm not even just totally gonna rely on Mom. Mom's not gonna totally rely on me. Hey, we each need to take it as a responsibility to train up our children in the way that they should go. You see, today people don't wanna raise their own children. It's Father's Day, but sadly today, most children spend very little time with their parents, because they're dropped out at a government school to raise their child for them, or a Christian school, so-called, to raise their child for them. And we've lost the teaching and training that can only come from a parent. We spend millions and billions of, and you know, if a politician wants to get elected, here's all they have to say. Put our children first! Ahh! You know what I mean, right? It's the next generation! Ahh! More funding for schools! Ahh! Support our teachers! Ahh! I don't wanna support teachers! Amen. I wanna spend my own money and raise my own kid! It's America, that's what America's supposed to be about! Freedom! I wanna have somebody take my money away and use it to raise somebody else's kid, and then I gotta spend more money to like, make sure that their kid doesn't get on drugs while it's in school, because that's where all the drugs are being circulated, right? So first I pay to take all the kids out of the home and have them trained by somebody that I'm hiring with my tax dollars. Somebody else is gonna raise the kid. Then I gotta spend, you know, millions of dollars on a war on drugs, so that we can make sure that your kid doesn't get on drugs. My kids aren't gonna get on drugs, because I raised my children myself! I'm gonna teach them myself! My wife is gonna teach them herself! And so we don't need to rely on someone else to raise our children. God gave you your children. You need to spend the time to raise them. And you know what? We can all get busy with everything else sometimes. Get busy with work. Get busy serving God, even. You get busy with everything, but you better take the time necessary to spend quality time teaching and training your children, and don't rely on someone else to do it. Oh, my kids go to Faith Ward Baptist Church. They're guaranteed to turn out right. Wrong. One hour on Sunday morning, an hour on Sunday night, an hour on Wednesday night, it's not gonna cut it. It's you that's with them day after day. It's you that's with them day in and day out. You better take responsibility to teach your children the Bible. Mom, teach your children the Bible. Proverbs 31 was a mother teaching her son the Bible. All throughout the Bible, fathers are instructed to teach the word of God to their children, to teach, and also just wisdom, knowledge, instruction, practical things. Train and teach your children. Don't rely on someone else. Don't rely on someone else to give the gospel for you. Don't rely on, hey, rely upon God's calling upon your life. Rely on the strength that God has given you. God gave you the talent. Moses said, I can't do it. I don't have the ability. But I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me. This is what Paul said. But I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he cannot be faithful, putting me into the ministry. When God calls you to do some work for him, he enables you. When he gives you children, he'll give you the ability, if you'll be faithful, if you'll follow him, he'll give you the ability to raise those children. He'll give you the ability to give the gospel because if he's commanded you to do it, he's calling you to preach the gospel and to preach it. To be a light of the world, he'll enable you to do it. He'll give you the ability to do it. You've just got to be willing to say, here am I, send me. Not someone else, me. I'll do it. I'll take responsibility. Because everybody thinks it's somebody else's job and then it just never gets done. But when every single person takes responsibility and says, I will take it upon myself. I will fight the good fight. I will preach the word of God. I will raise my children and I'm not gonna rely on anyone else but the Lord to give me the strength to do it myself. Let's bow your heads in that word of prayer. Father, please just help this message to sink down into our ears. Help us not to always want to just expect other people to do it for us, your God. Help us to be the one that will give you gospel. Help us to be the one to raise our children and make sure that they get trained in the things of God and turn out right. We love you and thank you so much for saving us and calling us with the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to your own purpose and grace that was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. We have that purpose. We're saved, we have a purpose, but God forbid we would be like so many who walk away from that purpose, who don't fulfill your will for our lives, who don't fulfill God's purpose. And basically our gospel ends up being hidden to those that are lost. Please just bless us now and strengthen us and help us to answer your call on our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right.