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I don't remember much about it. I don't remember much about it. There's an insert. I don't have any updates on that little Henry. I need to find out more about him with the cancer because they were doing surgeries. Yeah, not a whole lot to report. Is there anyone that has any updates for anyone that's on a prayer request for now? All right, well, keep praying for these people. Bring them home with you and remember to say prayers for everyone on our list on a regular basis on the next page. Please pardon the mess. I have not heard. I need to reach out to our contractors and see what the deal is at this point. Obviously, they haven't started putting things back together yet, so I need to see where we stand with inspections because that's the only thing that's holding us up at the moment is the reason why everything is still opened up is in order to get the inspections completed. So once that's done, they could wrap up the work, patch it all up and clean it up. I also got some quotes for carpeting. We're probably going to end up just staying with the carpet that's in here right now and then only replacing there due to the significant price difference in replacing all of it versus only doing that. It just kind of makes sense. So I'll let you know what the timeline is on that, but I'd really like to get all the painting and all the work done in there before we lay down new carpet, of course, right? That only makes sense. So that's what's going on with the building stuff. December challenge is the singing challenge, so we're about halfway through the month of December already, and we've got every day this month the challenge is to stop listening to worldly music and sing four psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs every single day of the week. We've got the Hebrews chapter six Bible memory passage, and we're still just a few weeks into this. Hopefully you are memorizing this, committing Hebrews chapter six to memory. If you're able to do that, you'll get a prize if you could quote it word perfect. And someone asked me this question I think on Sunday, and when it comes to any of the Bible memory passages, you know, we have a deadline to get them done by. You could always get things done early, right, and still be able to win the prize. So, but there's a, I don't think I really spoke to this, but we know that we're going through the entire book of Hebrews, and then at the end there's going to be a big prize to be able to complete the whole book, right? So if you've got all the chapters memorized and you could quote it from beginning to ending, that's going to be a significant prize if you can do that. So obviously you could work ahead and keep trying to quote that, and since that is ongoing right now, you could, whenever you get that finished, you can quote it and win the prize and be done with it in a sense, right? But that will also stand for Hebrews chapter seven, Hebrews chapter eight, Hebrews chapter nine. If you want to get those done early and quote them, that's acceptable, but only acceptable starting like since we've started Hebrews. Not like, well, I memorized Hebrews nine, you know, two years ago. That doesn't count, right? Like you need to be memorizing these and quoting them like within the timeframe of our stuff here. So I just want to make sure everyone's on the same page as that. And it is important, though, that you do also, I mean, we do an honor system here, but it's important that you do quotes out loud to somebody else in person, you know, be able to do the quoting, and then if you're doing the checking, you know, don't let people slide when they say it wrong, when they're not quoting it right. I get it, you know, you want the person, you kind of want them to get it right, but if they get it wrong, you know, you could hold off for a second to see if they're going to correct themselves, but if they're going to continue on, then stop them and say, no, you did that wrong. And it's okay, you don't just automatically fail, just start over, okay? You need to be able to complete the quotation from beginning to end in order to win the prize. So you have to have it memorized well enough to be able to go verse one to whatever the last verse is in the passage and be able to do that without making errors, right? So it's fine if you catch yourself, you say, oh, wait, no, I didn't mean to say that, and you correct whatever it is, no problem. But, yep, we're going word perfect on these, and all that means is if you've memorized it to a point to where you're, like, getting a word wrong here or there, it's just a little bit more effort to get to the point to where you're not doing that, okay? So if you could already get to that one point, you could definitely get to the point to where you're not going to be making those mistakes. It's just usually running down to the deadline and you're kind of wrapping up those last few verses. Invest the time, you'll get it done. So I just wanted to bring, it's been a long time since I've talked about the rules for our Bible memory, but that's how we do it here. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed down there for the month of December, and then the events that are coming up this month and next month and February. So the big thing is going to be our Christmas service, excuse me, which is already, what, a week from Sunday? I think, I can't believe that. It's so soon. We will be having a potluck in between the services, and the evening service will be bumped up to about 3 o'clock instead of 5 o'clock, with the soul winning time being after that evening service for everyone that wants to go on soul winning. And then New Year's Eve, Saturday the 31st, we'll be meeting up for a fellowship here, 2 to 7. Should be a lot of fun. Homeschool field trip to the aquarium on the 10th of January, and then on the 10th of February, another field trip to the science museum. Let's see, that's about it for our announcements. I did order some gifts for the retirement home community, so those should be in by Friday. And I also ordered some gifts, small gifts, for church, so if you show up to church on Christmas Day here, your family will be able to go home with a nice little gift from Stronghold Baptist Church. All of that stuff is ordered, and that's about it for our announcements, and I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Peter now, and lead us in our next song, please. All right church, if you can open up your head notes again. Song number 432. Song number 432 there at the bottom of the page, Angels from the Realms of Glory. Song 432. On the verse, Angels from the realms of glory, Queen your fires, Lord of all the earth, Facing creation's glory, Now proclaim Messiah's birth. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King. Shepherds in the field of writing, Watching Lord of loves by night, Zowing in his balmy shining, Yonder shines thee in his light. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King. Sages leave your contemplations, Wider visions we will call. Seek the grave, desire of nations, He hath seen his little star. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King. Space before the altar bending, Watching long in hope and fear, Suddenly the Lord descending, In his temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King. The Church, while the offering plates are being passed around, If you would please open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. That's the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. And as we do customary here at Strong Home Baptist Church, We're going to read the entire chapter. And that's Brother Jesse, if he can please do that for us. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, the Bible reads, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, As we have received mercy, we faint not, But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, But by manifestation of the truth, Commanding ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, In 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. 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 darkness, Hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God In the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed, We are perplexed, but not in despair, Persecuted, but not forsaken, Cast down, but not destroyed, Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, According as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken, We also believe, and therefore speak, Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus Shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are of your sakes, That the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many Redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, Yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, Worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, But at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, But the things which are not seen are eternal. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for giving us a chance and a privilege to come here to gather together and to hear the preaching and teaching of the word of God. We pray that your service will give you honor and glory. Please bless Pastor David Burson, still of the Holy Ghost, and help him to give him wisdom and words to be able to teach us the word of God so we can come out of here being better Christians, Lord. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Alright, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We're continuing on in no real dramatic changes to the theme so far of what we've been reading in the first few chapters in 2 Corinthians. Let's jump right in to verse number 1. And one of the things I just wanted to point out, and it's hard for me to kind of pick and choose when I'm going to preach on certain subjects and not, because, you know, as you go through the different chapters, it kind of builds up and you've got different points being made, but it still covers the same very similar topics. And what we see a lot in 2 Corinthians is references to ministry and just doing the work of God and being in a ministry and various aspects of that. So we're going to continue to get into this and how it is a ministering. That's what ministry is. Ministry means you're serving, you're serving other people. That's what the ministry is. So verse number 1 here says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And, you know, this concept of fainting not, we're going to get to that a little bit later, too, from verse number 1 there, where it says, Seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. So as we go and serve other people, we're not fainting, we're not quitting, we're not just stopping the work, and continues that with, we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness. You know, the things of God ought to be completely transparent, clear, above board. You know, nothing is done in guile or sneakiness or craftiness. You know, when you get together, especially when we get together as a church, and we're planning, hey, we're going to go preach the gospel to people. Here's what we're going to do. Everything is out in the open. Everything is being broadcast to the world, to the internet. We're not having these secret meetings and going, hey, what do you think we can do to like trap people in and get them to listen and all this other stuff. That would be handling, and especially doing with the word of God, that's doing things deceitfully by guile. There was a church in Prescott Valley that, it was, what was it, the door? It was not the door, but that was one of the spinoffs of this church, Potter's House. Extremely wicked church. I don't know if any of you all have heard. They're part of this Christian fellowship ministry, CFM Ministries, worldwide organizations. They all spawned from this church in Prescott, Arizona. And it's a Pentecostal church, really wicked, but here's the thing about that. One of the things that drove me nuts about that church is that they would claim to have these standards and stuff, they would try to live differently so it would be similar to what we believe as far as standards are concerned, but of course they're total hypocrites. They're all for the standards on Sunday, but not the rest of the days during the week. There's families that go to that church that, oh yeah, if they're going to church, you better believe the women were wearing dresses and the men were wearing, were dressed up, and then they're the ones making comments about our girls because our girls were wearing dresses during the week. Yeah, you're just doing it for show. But anyways, I don't want to get too far off on that. What they would do, here's one of the things that they would do is they would hold this, near Halloween, they would do this haunted house. And they would advertise these things as like this haunted house. They'd just get people to come in, get the public to come in, and then they would basically lock them in and tell them you can't get out and all this other stuff and trap the people so they have this captive audience. And they'd try to tell them about hell and scare them that way and then try to do something about giving them the gospel. But here's the thing, that doesn't work. You don't want to be trapping people in and seeing like, hey, what can we do to just make sure that these people can't do anything and we're going to set a trap for them and then we're going to give them the word of God. Look, they're going to be bitter against you. And you know how I even found out about this? Because there's a lot of bitter people out there that told me these stories like, hey, this is what happened. We went to this place. This is what they did. It's like, man, it's crazy. And it wasn't just one person telling me the story. I had multiple witnesses telling me, yeah, that's exactly what they did. And this is the same place. They'd have these clubs to make it look like this nightclub. But then when you go in, it's like, you know, it's this whole, it's just a facade. It's guile. And they're just deceiving people and tricking people just to try to get them in. You know, we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. That's dishonest when you're trying to front as something else just to get people to come, you know, we don't do that. You ought not to do that. And anyone who's a person of God, anyone who wants to be a minister of the word of God, you ought to be handling the word of God. You ought to be, the way that you live needs to be honest. We don't walk about in craftiness and in guile trying to just conjure up some way of getting to people. That's not what we do. Everything is out in the open. Everything is transparent. We tell people. I tell people at the door, you know, oftentimes, hey, you know, I'd like to, this is what you believe, but I'd like to show you this because I would like you to believe this way. I try to persuade you to put your faith in Christ. I've said that to Muslims, like, look, I want to be able to persuade you and show you, look, you decide for yourself, but I want to show you these things because I'd like to see you believe in Christ. It's, there's no hidden agenda. Just deal with people honestly. You tell, you know, not like the Jehovah's Witnesses that want to go up and not say where they're from. Jehovah is at your door. Hi, how's it going? Wait, where are you coming? You know, who are you? Oh, hi, yeah, well, we've got this. Brochure. Like, who are you? Where are you from? Oh, we just, you know, we're all in the neighborhood. Where are you from? You're Jehovah's Witnesses, aren't you? Oh, well, you know, we're just passing out this literature today. Look, say who you are. Don't be deceitful. Come right out. We don't handle the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And, you know, people in general have a lot more respect when you're not trying to deceive them. And you'll find out you don't need these crafty methods to try to preach to people. In fact, you'll have better results if you're just honest. Because they're going to be a lot more willing to listen to you, like, oh, I can at least respect someone who's being honest with me than someone who's beating around the bush, trying to go through all these various methods of, like, if we do this and this and this and this, and then we'll hit them with the gospel. Look, you don't need to go through guile. Don't be deceitful about it. Just be up front. Here's what we're doing. I mean, think about it. If you're dedicated, well, if you're not dedicated to the truth and serving the Lord every way in the truth, then you're going to end up doing a disservice to the cause of Christ. Jesus Christ said what? I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the truth. We need to be handling the Word of God truthfully. We need to be doing everything that we do in truthfulness and dedicated to the truth, whatever that is. And in our own Christian growth, it should be dedicated to what is right. We all ought to have that zeal in trying to determine just what is correct, what is right, what is true. I mean, back before I was saved, that was my interest was just wanting to know what's true. And it's remained since then, especially after getting saved, I still want to know just what's true. Ever since that point of wanting to know what's true, I don't want people to lie to me. Whatever the truth is, it is. But I can handle it. Just tell me what the truth is. That's all I want to know. That's why I'm interested in the truth. And we ought to continue to only be interested in the truth and being able to speak truth and promote the truth and whatever that happens to be. You know, such a simple concept, such a simple value, is turned on its head in the crazy society that we live in because people are trying to call it a virtue to lie to people about some of the most basic things instead of just telling the truth. Like, no, you're a woman. You're not a man. I don't care how many surgeries you've had. I don't care what clothes you wear. You're a man. You're male, at least. You have X, Y. I mean, something, right? Sometimes it's hard to call people a man, right? But look, it's not good to be lying to people just to make them feel better for their emotions' sake. We need to be doing everything that we do in truth, not in craftiness, not in guile. This is why doctrine is also so important. We care about the truth. We don't care who it offends. We don't care even what the ramifications are. If it's the truth, it's the truth. End of the day. Is it the truth that the Jews killed Jesus? Yes. It is what it is. Is it the truth that God replaced Israel? Yes. It is. I mean, are we interested in the truth or not? That's what we care about. It has nothing to do with any other hidden agendas. And this is what people don't understand. I was going to preach this another time, but I don't know where I was going to fit it in. I'll just put it in here right now. I'm so sick of hearing the people that say, oh, you just hate people who are different than you. As if it's at some stupid low level like, oh, you're different than me, so I hate you. Who really thinks that? I don't even know if there's anyone in the world that just says, well, I hate that person because they're different than me. You know the people who say that are the ones who just make up stuff out of their own imagination of their heart because they don't want to face reality or face the truth or actually hear what the real reason is. They just want to come up with something that makes them feel better to make the other person sound stupid or idiotic. Oh, yeah, you just don't like people that are different than you. No, and you know what they're talking about when they say that? Homos. Oh, you just don't like them. Look, there's a lot of people in this world that are different from me that I don't hate at all. So, yeah, no, try again. It's not that they're different than me. Are they different than me? Yeah, they are different than me, but is that why I hate them? Just because they're different? No. It boils down to what is the truth. What does God say about it? That's what's going to dictate where my love goes and where my hate goes. It's as simple as that. Let's keep reading here. Let's take that Corinthians chapter 4. I'm getting too far derailed now from 2 Corinthians 4. Look at verse number 3. The Bible says, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, and, hey, this is the truth, and we need to remember that, you know, obviously if you're saved, you have eternal life. Nothing's ever going to change that for you, right? So if you hide the gospel, if you don't preach to anyone, you still have it. You still know it. You're still saved. It's not going to impact your eternal destination of whether you go to heaven or hell, but it's hid to those that are lost. You hide the gospel. Now you're impacting the lost. They're going to be the ones that don't get to hear the gospel preached. The Bible says right here, in whom, talking about the lost, in verse number 4, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Now, even just this phrase, the God of this world, who do you think it is that is referred to as the God of this world? Because a lot of people like to think that, well, God the Father is just controlling everything. That's what the Calvinists will think. That's what a lot of lordship, salvation crowd will think because a lot of those are Calvinists too. They're telling you God's controlling everything. Well, then why would it refer to the God of this world that 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? The God of this world is being referred to as Satan. Satan is the one who's blinding the eyes of people so that they can't see the truth. Satan is the one that doesn't want people getting saved. You know, the Bible says that the Lord's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God wants people to be saved. God wants the glorious gospel of Christ to shine unto them which is why we're commanded to shine that glorious light of the gospel unto people. Satan though is referred to as the God of this world. That's why it's a lowercase g, lowercase g God. He's this, he wants to be God. He's not God but he's the one who's blinding the minds of those that believe not because otherwise the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them. Verse number five, For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. You know, it ought never be about you. And even when we, you know, when we preach Christ, when we preach the gospel, I don't go around just telling everybody my testimony. I don't. Now sometimes I'll let people know what my testimony is but not when I'm going door to door and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't, my testimony doesn't really matter because we're preaching Christ and him crucified. We're preaching Christ and the cross and the death and the burial and the resurrection. It's not about me. We shouldn't be going around and preaching ourselves. We preach Christ. Now obviously there may be a time where there's some relevance or some similarity between your situation and someone else's situation where it might be helpful for them to hear something from your perspective, your point of view or something that you've gone through but it never changes the gospel. And watch out for the people who try to make the gospel about themselves. And this is where the works based salvation, the repent of your sins, oh, I used to be this and now I'm, and it's like the gospel becomes all about them and their changed life instead of about Jesus and the sacrifice that he made and the gift that he offers for us for free. Verse 5, 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 darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. The power, the preaching of the cross is powerful. The preaching of the cross, the preaching of Jesus Christ is power. It's strong enough to bring life to the dead, to bring the dead back to life, to make people be born again. It's powerful to change lives. It's powerful to do so many things, but this is saying, hey, we have this treasure. What's the treasure? The treasure of the light, the treasure of the truth, the treasure of the gospel. We hold this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power, that the power may be of God and not of us. So you're saying the reason why we are able to hold this treasure in earthen vessels is so that God gets the glory and God gets the credit. It's not about us. We don't preach ourselves. We're preaching Christ, and we are in these sinful, human, earthly, fleshly bodies. God formed man out of the dust of the earth. That's why it's called an earthen vessel. That's all this vessel is. That's all we are is we're made up of this creation out of the dust of the ground. That's our worth is out of the dust, but we're holding a treasure. We didn't create the treasure. We didn't earn the treasure. We didn't buy the treasure. God gave us the treasure, and we're just holding it in these dirty earthen vessels to continue to just give the glory back unto God because there's no way that this earthen vessel can produce such a great treasure to where God's going to have to get the glory and the credit and the honor of that treasure because there's no way that this earthly vessel can possibly compare to that treasure. Now, let's see what to expect. The next few verses are going to talk about the Christian life, and this ought to give us hope. This ought to give us comfort. This ought to be something that we can look to, and you should look to, on how a Christian will probably be living his life if he's living godly. The Bible says in verse 8, We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed. In the midst of whatever bad things might come your way, for example, being troubled on every side, facing things, you don't know where the next problem's going to come from. There's troubles all around you. He says, but we're not distressed. You don't have to stress out about it. As a believer, holding this treasure in your earthen vessel, is there a lot of danger around you? Sure, you could be troubled on every side. He says, you don't need to be distressed. You don't need to stress out about it and let that worry you. You know, we're perplexed. Sometimes you don't really understand what's going on. You could be puzzled and perplexed and just going like, man, I don't get this stuff, but you know what? You don't have to despair about it. Like, nothing's making sense, but that's okay. You know why? Because I'm going to continue serving the Lord, and the Lord is going to guide my path. I may not understand it. There may be trouble all around me, but I can still walk in faith, and I don't have to be distressed. I don't have to despair, as in there's no hope. You know, what's going to happen? It's all bad. No. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Whatever persecution you may actually go through, that's not pleasant. That's not fun. But just know, hey, God has not forsaken you. You know why God doesn't forsake you? Because Jesus Christ was forsaken for your sake. When he hung on the tree, and he says, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? It's because he bare the sins of the whole world, because he was bearing your sins. That would forsake you from your Lord. But he made that payment for you, so now we can be confident knowing, especially after the resurrection of Christ, knowing, you may be cast down. You may be persecuted. You may have problems. You may have, you know, go to jail, you may get beaten, whatever, but you're never forsaken. Never forsaken. And contrast that with someone who, they don't have any physical ailments in their life, they have all the riches of this world, but if they're forsaken, man, they've got nothing, and you being not forsaken have everything. Cast down, but not destroyed. You're gonna face your lows, but for no reason do we have to despair, or be distressed, because we're not forsaken, we're not destroyed. Verse 10 says, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Your faithfulness to Christ while bearing the wounds for Christ is what brings forth the life of Christ in your body. Being able to suffer these things and remain faithful is going to demonstrate the life of Christ. Because what was the life of Christ? Hey, he was the one who was beaten. He was the one who was whipped. He was the one who was cast out. He was the one who went through all kinds of rejection, physical pain, crucifixion, everything for a greater cause, for you, for others. So when you live your life, if you start going through those things, you are making the life also of Jesus manifest in your body. Verse 11, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. I mean, if that doesn't encapsulate the Christian life, to truly be following in Christ's steps, to be that Christian that's following Christ, Christ ultimately, what did he do? He lived and died for the life of others. He walked the path of going through the, as we just read, being troubled on every side, being perplexed, being persecuted, being cast down, all for the sake of others. He did all of that for others. He gave his own life a ransom for many. He died for others. So hey, if we're going to be Christlike and we're going to follow Christ, you better believe the same people that hated Christ will hate you too and come after you and you go through the persecution, you go through these things, and even being delivered unto death, that's going to show the life of Christ. Death worketh in us, but life in you, because if you really are walking the walk, you will be reaching people as well. It won't be for naught ever. The Bible says, greater love hath no man than this, and a man lay down his life for his friends. That's the epitome of love is dying. Think about that. Laying down, but not just dying, it's laying down your life as a sacrifice for other people. It's a self-sacrificial love. It's the last thing that you can finally give. That's the greatest love shown. It's the love that Jesus showed for us, and it's the love that we ought to be able to have for others. To be willing to say, I am willing not only to give of myself and work hard and everything else, but to ultimately even give my life all the way down to my last breath to serve, to help other people come to Christ. That life may be brought forth in them. Death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit, verse 13, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Now, he brings up the resurrection. He just gets done saying, hey, death worketh in us, but life in you, but then at the end, it's not this morbid thought of just dying because there's a resurrection because then he says, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. So in this earth, we give ourselves unto death for the sake of others that they may have life, but then in the end, at the resurrection, we're all brought back together in life. So life wins out, of course, because we have eternal life that never ends. Now, I want to go back here to verse number 13. It's a very important verse, and I'm going to take the time to go through this a little bit tonight because from time to time in churches, for whatever reason, you know, people want to attack the doctrine of calling upon the name of the Lord for their salvation, and this is a critical verse in this doctrine. This is extremely important in understanding this. Verse 13, we're obviously talking about salvation in this context. First of all, very clear. Verse 13 says, we having the same spirit of faith according as it is written, and we're going to look at this in a minute. Psalm 116 is this quotation. As it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, and we're going to see in that context it's talking about salvation as well. We also believe and therefore speak, and then brings up the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is critical for our salvation, the resurrection of Christ. So calling upon the name of the Lord, you know what has to happen in order to do that? Your faith, your belief. There's no contradiction in Scripture. When you read a passage that only mentions believing, well, that's true for, you know, hey, whosoever, you know, like John 3.16, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Amen. And we're going to see in Romans 10 how it describes that, right, that belief saves, but we're going to see also, like it says here, hey, I believed and therefore have I spoken. When people call on the Lord, it's because they believe, and you should call on the Lord when you do believe, and look, this isn't even something that needs to be taught. I think it's kind of intrinsic. It's natural. People criticize us, oh, you're leading people in prayers and everything else, and you think we're getting false converts and whatever. They're trying to think that, like, we focus so much on the prayer. The focus isn't on the prayer. The focus is on the faith. The focus is on the Word of God. I mean, go out sowing with us. The focus isn't on the prayer. The focus is on everything up to that point. But you know what I've also noticed is after preaching the gospel to people, there's some people who just really don't want to call on the name of the Lord, and then there's plenty of other people who have no problem with it. And just after experience, what I've seen, everyone who's kind of refused, who doesn't really want to pray, I was never very confident in their acceptance of what they're being shown from the Bible anyways, like, every time. Virtually, virtually every time. There may be an exception of people who are extremely timid and shy and just feel self-conscious in front of other people, but that's definitely the exception, not the rule. Flip over, if you would, to Psalm 116, because we're going to look at this in context. But I'll continue with my story. You know, even when I got saved, you know, we lead people in prayer. We lead people in the gospel. We show people from the Bible very clearly, help them to understand the simple concept of eternal life. They're sinners. They deserve a punishment from God. They deserve hell. Christ paid the way for them. Christ did everything for them, and all they have to do in order to receive the free gift of God, the free gift of eternal life, is to put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior. It's very simple, right? But we make sure people understand that and try to help them out along the way, so if there's any stumbling blocks, we can deal with that. We try to practically take their hand and lead them through so we can bring them to Christ so that they can ultimately call on Christ for themselves and get saved. I didn't have that luxury of having someone to walk me through every step of the way when I got saved, but you know what was very natural to me? When I finally was brought low, when I finally was humbled, when I finally realized, hey, I need a Savior, and in my heart, I put my faith in Christ, I finally just said, okay, I'm done with resisting, with whatever, everything I'm doing, and look, I wasn't saying I'm just done living a sinful life. I was done in a lot of ways. It's kind of hard to describe. I don't want to get too far into detail, but here's the thing. You know what I did? I called on God to save me. That's what I did. Because the faith became real within me. It was a moment when I realized I need Jesus. That I am doomed without Christ. When that finally sunk in. And yeah, I was at a low point, when I realized that, you know what I did immediately? Called on God. Lord, please save me. It was natural. I believed, therefore I spoke. And people want to fight against this. It's like, why would you, if you understand, you're being saved from hell. And look, when I got saved, I knew I was being saved from hell. I knew it. That's why I was called on God because I didn't want to go to hell when I died. I needed a savior. You better believe I'm called on God. Save me. Help me. Deliver me. That's natural. There's nothing wrong with leading people. I mean, it's very scriptural. Definitely nothing wrong with leading people. Hey, call on Christ. Call on the Father. Save me. But you don't do that unless you believe. You have to believe first. But once you believe, call on God. You shouldn't have to twist anyone's arm to do that either. Because if you believe, you should be willing to speak. Look at Psalm 116, verse number 10. This is where the quote comes from. I believed, therefore have I spoken. And then there's a colon there. It continues. This doesn't end here. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. You notice how that goes hand in hand right there? Hey, I'm going to take the cup of salvation. And what does Jesus refer to oftentimes, you know, being saved? It's as easy as taking a drink of water. Are we talking to the woman at the well? The living water, right? Hey, if you take a drink of this water, you'll never thirst again. Isn't that what He was telling her? And what was He trying to explain? Eternal life. He's trying to explain salvation. So what do we see in Psalm here? Taking that cup of salvation. The cup that you only have to drink of one time and you're saved forever. And what did He do? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. What's so hard to understand? Seriously, people want to attack this doctrine. What's so hard to understand? It's not a work. Calling on the name of the Lord is not a work. Go to Romans 10. I'll read this for you from John 4. The same example I was talking about with the woman at the well. John 4 verse 10, the Bible says this. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. So basically what He's saying is that He would have just, if you knew the gift of God. So first of all, if you know what the gift of God is, which don't we explain the gift of God when we preach the Gospel? And who it is that sayeth to thee, Give me to drink. And who was it saying, Give me to drink? Jesus. So you know the gift of God and you know Jesus. He's like, once you know these things, then you would have asked me. Once you know that, you're believing that. That's how you know it. You know the gift of God. You know Jesus Christ. Well, hey, I'm believing on that. Then you'd ask. And then He says, And He would have given thee living water. Now, Jesus refers to it as a gift, and then giving that gift when she asked. A gift cannot be of works because then it's no longer a gift. Right? Grace is no more grace if there's any work involved at all. He literally uses the example of being given a gift, but that the woman had to ask for it. If you would have asked, I would have given it to you. It cannot be, by definition, that can't be a work. Well, you have to call... Look, that's not a work. Jesus would not have used it this way if it were a work. He would have been wrong to call it a gift and say, well, if you would have asked... No, if you would have asked, then that would have been works. Are you going to mean to tell me that God's going to give a gift and give salvation to someone who is doing a work for salvation? No, He's not. See, people get crazy with this, but you have to take a step back, because then what they're really saying then, or what you would have to say... Let me put it this way. What you would have to say in order to be consistent would be that anyone who is calling upon in the name of the Lord really didn't get saved because they were doing a work to get saved. That's what these people who are attacking the sinner's prayer are doing. Look, I got saved the moment that I called on the name of the Lord from the faith that was in my heart. You're not going to change my mind on this either. Romans 10, look at verse number 8. Not saying you're trying to, but anyone who has that thought, not happening. And by the way, anyone who thinks they're going to go out soul winning for this church and name Strong Old Baptist Church is not going to go around pronouncing people saved unless you're leading them through the sinner's prayer. That's the way we do soul winning around here. You're going to preach them the gospel. Be very thorough. Make sure they understand it. Make sure they know what they're doing. Explain to them that when you pray that you're praying to God. Tell them what they're doing. We're not deceitfully trying to trick them into it. Explain it to them. Show them Romans 10. Hey, here's why we're doing this. Because what you're going to do right now, since you've already said and expressed you believe this stuff, you're going to call on God to save you. And if they believe, therefore they have spoken. And that's what we're going to rely on to understand that their faith is even real. Since we can't see the heart. But it's not for us. It's for them. It's because the Bible says. It's because Psalm 116. It's because 2 Corinthians chapter 4. It's because Romans 10 and John 4. Look at Romans 10 verse 8. The Bible says, But what sayeth that the word is neither even in thy mouth and in thy heart? That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now if that was not true, then why is that in the Bible? With the mouth is confession made unto salvation or not? Yes or no? Because the Bible says yes. If that's not important, why is it in here? It has to be true. It has to be a true statement or else it's not in the Scripture. Verse 11, For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And this is qualified. Now whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It explains that a little bit further just so that everyone understands that it's not anyone who just claims the name of Christ or claims the name of the Lord just in general is saved. They have to believe. Verse 14, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? That's the very first step, the very first important thing. Hey, in order to have called on the Lord properly, you have to have believed. And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. All the elements of salvation are given here. It's like an outline. You need the word of God. You need a preacher. Someone needs to hear the gospel in order to believe it. And when you believe it, then you call on the Lord. It's that simple. Everyone that's saved goes through that process. Let's continue in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Look at verse number 15. The Bible says, For all things are for your sakes. And, you know, again, this is continuing to speak to the ministerial service servant mindset. Everything's for you. We die that you may live. All things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. Would to God we could all go through our lives with the mindset and the attitude with a humble and meek spirit and put other people first and say, I am doing things for other people's sakes. And completely eliminate the I deserve this and I deserve that attitude 100%. It's pride. The world's not going to tell you that. The world's going to tell you, No, you better make time for yourself. You better put yourself on. You better be the number one. You know, no. That's not Christ. That's not the Christian doctrine. What's the world's method? Hey, look out for number one. What does the Bible teach? Everyone else is number one. So you could look out for number one as a Christian, but whose number one changes? It's not me. I'm going to look out for number one. For all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not. And again, this is the second time not fainting is being brought up. Why? Because a Christian life, you deal with a lot of things that might make you want to stop, that might make you want to quit and just give up, just faint. But look, we don't. And when you can get in the life, in the mindset of doing things for others, I think it could be easier to draw the strength to continue going just a little bit more when you are truly in it for other people. And think about this, right? And say, I don't really know what you're talking about. Well, make it really easy because the more you can think about the people that you love the most, the more it makes sense. But hey, we ought to have a love for the lost, right? Not just for our own family members. But if you just think about it in terms of, say, your own family, right? If you were just working hard or working two or three jobs for yourself, you might not want to work as hard. You might quit earlier. But then if you need to do this because, hey, I'm working for my wife. I'm working for my children. Now you're going to be able to withstand more and mentally be prepared to just go through more and say, I'm doing this. Why? Because other people need it. It's not just for me. I mean, hey, if it's just for me, I could get by on way less. But when I'm looking out and caring for other people, right, I'm going to not faint. I'm going to not quit. I can't quit because I care about other people and I'm doing this for them. That's the mindset. It's a lot easier to reconcile that or understand that when you're thinking about someone that you really love. But we need to have that mindset not just for our immediate family or not just for your best friend but for others in general to be even broader reaching. I mean, in this sense, it's as broad as at least the church for which cause we... Because think about this. He's writing to the Church of Corinth, all things are for your sakes, for you. Like, we're going through hardship for you that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound the glory of God for which cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. That spiritual man, the man that knows he's doing the right thing can be renewed even while the outward man perishes. The flesh, the physical aspects of putting in the work or being persecuted or whatever is going on, the outward man can perish but you still have the inner strength by living right and putting other people first. That's how you're not going to faint. The Bible says in Galatians 6, you don't have to turn there. Galatians 6, 9 says, And let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So remember I saw a lot of the broad reaching, the letter to the Corinthians. It's definitely at least as broad reaching as to the church which is the especially to them who are the household of faith but the Bible says that let us do good unto all men. Let us be able to have that mindset of putting other people first and not be all about me and my efforts and what I want to do and, you know, let's do good unto all men and especially unto those who are of the household of faith. I mean, of course. They are closer to us. They are beloved, beloved brethren. Yes, we ought to be doing, we ought to be, you know, being there and helping those who are of faith. Definitely. Absolutely. Strong bond within the spiritual church family. But also unto all men. And then verse 17 says this, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. All of this stuff is being brought up and it had been brought up earlier in the chapter, you know, being troubled, perplexed, persecuted, cast down. That's still ultimately in the grand scheme of things light affliction. It really is. You think about it. In the heat of the moment it doesn't seem like it but when you think back on everything, it ultimately does turn out to be a light affliction. That's the truth. Light affliction which is but for a moment. Even our lives. The Bible says, you know, for what is your life, it is even a vapor which appeareth for a short time and then vanishes away. Our life is like you go out on a cold day and you breathe out and you see that white little cloud of smoke dissipate in a second. It's there for a moment and then gone. That's what our life is like. It's a short time that we have here on this earth. And in relation to eternal life, man, you want to talk about a light affliction. You want to talk about a really, really, really, really brief moment in time. It's our life. You got eternal life. I think we can go through a light affliction while we're here because once you're gone, you're done with this body, with the sinful flesh. That's gone. The next time you're reunited with your flesh, it's going to be a glorified body. So, and all of these other things aren't going to be an issue anymore. You won't have even a light affliction. There'll be no affliction. There's no affliction for the people of God. You're in redemption. There's no more bondage or burden. It's redeemed forever. Your body's been redeemed, everything. Body, soul, and spirit. This light affliction is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The little bit that we do here in this short time that we have and the affliction that we put ourselves through or go through, whatever happens to us, you go through faithfully. Hey, we're going to reap, like Galatians 6 said, if we faint not. There is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The weight brought on you here doesn't compare to the weight of the glory that's going to be bestowed upon you by Lord Jesus Christ at the judgment seat of Christ for what you've done here. Well, well, well worth it. And the key to this is, like it says in verse 18, we don't look on the things that are seen. We don't look on the things of this world. We don't look on the riches of this world. We don't look on those things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Because the things that we see right now with our eyes, the Bible says they're temporal. Short term, temporary. Because everything's going to be burned up. Everything that you see here is going to be burned up. The chairs, the carpet, the ceiling tile, everything. Everything's going to be gone. Everything here is temporal. Which is why, as we're going through this building project, we're not going to make ornate stained glass and like just in pumping in hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the most beautiful structure that we could possibly have. We're not caring about the temporal things. Now, we're going to make it look decent and things are going to be in order. And we're going to make it functional to serve the Lord with. And it's not going to be sloppy and just a big stinking mess or dirty, right? We're going to keep it clean. We're going to have it look good. But that's it. It is not destined to be some great alter structure or anything like that that's just going to be destroyed. We're not focused on the temporal. We're focused on the eternal. It's a light affliction. Jesus said, I'm going to close on this. Matthew 11, 28. Jesus said this. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. There's the formula. Meek, lowly in heart, service, serving others. Taking a yoke, it's a burden. It's a work for others. I mean, even the animals that get in a yoke are serving their master, right? They're being used to do the hard work for their master. What we're supposed to be getting in the yoke, taking my yoke, Jesus said, take my yoke upon you. And a yoke is meant to yoke up two creatures together. So he's saying, my yoke, he's already in the yoke. We get in the yoke with Jesus. So take my yoke upon you. Hey, I'm meek and lowly in heart. I'm willing to serve. Come serve with me. And we're going to serve the Father. Let's serve. And you'll have rest. You'll find rest unto your souls. He says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Hey, be right there with Jesus. If you're, I mean, think about that. You're yoked up side by side with Jesus. Are you really going to start complaining about, oh, man, this is so hard. Like, you're not going to be doing that? I'd be like, man, I'm next to Jesus. You're like, the whole time. Like, really? Like, really? Like, Jesus? Like, you're here? I'm next to you? I'm not way at the back of the line, yoked up with some stinky guy? I'm like, I'm right here next to you. We're paired together. This is awesome. Hey, when you go out, when you preach the gospel, guess what? Christ is with you. When we're doing the work of God, you have Christ in you. You are yoked up with him. So we ought not to be complaining and having a bad attitude or a bad heart about the difficulty of the work. It's not that hard. And the more your heart is right, the more you realize it really isn't that hard, and you start to see the most important things, and you really know it's not that hard, and then you realize, hey, this light affliction, it's only for a moment anyways. We don't have much time. There's a lot of people to reach. Let's just go through with it and do it and not quit and not faint and keep moving forward and serve with Christ. Is anyone else with me? Anyone agree with that? Amen. A lot easier said than done. Take the Word of God home with you tonight in your mind and in your heart. Not my words. The words that we're studying in the Bible, put them in your heart to mold and fashion yourself, to be more conformed under the image of Jesus Christ, to truly be Christ's life, putting other people first and being a servant at heart, to make your life really worthwhile here, to have that rest for your soul. Incorporate that in your day-to-day life. Be reminded of it in the moments where you catch yourself putting yourself before others. Let God's Word come back and say, wait a minute, no, I need to change this. Look, we're all guilty of it. But don't let that, don't let your flesh dictate your life. That's why we look to the Word of God. Bring it with you. Don't be some hypocrite like the Stinkin' Potters House Church. Incorporate it in your day-to-day, every day, not just on church days. That's why our heads have a word of prayer. Your Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for these great passages in your Word. I pray that you would please help us to change. Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for the truth. You've given us such great responsibility. We have such a fragile earthen vessel, Lord, but you've given us such a great treasure. I pray that your name will be magnified and glorified as we share that treasure with other people and try to shine that light in the darkness, dear Lord, and that you'd help us to do that task. And truly, we need your help, Lord, and all the glory and honor must go unto you. I pray that you would help us in our endeavor. Lord, we sincerely just want to serve you better. Help us every day. Help us to be mindful of these things. Lord, stir us up in the Spirit. Stir us up with the Holy Ghost. Lead us and guide us and make known to us our errors as we walk so that we could correct them and make changes that we need to make, dear Lord, that we could truly be pleasing in your sight and that at the end of the day, we might not faint, and you can welcome us when we breathe our last breath, saying, Well done, now good and faithful servant. Lord, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed tonight. Brother Peter. In charge, you can open up your handles to song number 261. Song 261, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Song 261. On the verse. Oh, so are you weary in trouble. No light in the darkness you see. There's life for a look at the signal. There's life for a look at the signal. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. From death into life everlasting, we grasp and we follow him there. For us in no more hath dominion. For more than one universe we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. On the last. His word shall not fail you, we promise. He believeth it all will be well. Able to the world that is thine, his perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.