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All right, thank you all for being out here on night two of our camping trip It's good to see everybody out here with us this evening and thank you again pastor Thompson for doing those sword drills Try to make a little bit more fun. You guys get a little more excited. I mean, come on, I Guess they're all pooped from the day I've had too much fun out playing riding their bikes and in swimming and everything else so appreciate everyone being out here this evening if you want to turn your Bibles to Luke chapter number seven Luke and Chapter number seven Trying to get the live stream set up there's some Wi-Fi out here, but I'm having some technical difficulties So it's not gonna happen tonight hoping to get it up for the rest of the week though Luke chapter number seven As well as you can read the entire chapter you follow along silently while I read Bob Reed starting verse number one now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people he entered in a Capernaum and a certain centurion servant who was dear unto him was sick and ready to die And when he heard of Jesus he sent unto him the elders of the Jews beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant and When they came to Jesus they besought him instantly saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this Free love at our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue Then Jesus went with them and when he was now not far from the house the centurion sent friends to him saying unto him Lord Trouble not thyself for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee But say in a word and my servant shall be healed for I also am a man Said under authority having under me soldiers and I say unto one go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and he doeth in When Jesus heard these things he marveled at him and turned him about and said unto the people that followed him I say unto you. I have not found so great faith. No not in Israel and They that were sent returning to the house found the servant whole that had been sick and it came to pass the day after that he went into a city called Nain and Many of his disciples went with him and much people now when he came nigh to the gate of the city behold there was a dead man carried out the only son of his mother and She was a widow and much of people of the city was with her and when the Lord saw her he had compassion on her and said unto her weep not and he came and touched the beer and They that bear him stood still and he said young man I say unto thee arise and he that was dead sat up and began to speak and he delivered him to his mother and There came a fear on all and they glorified God saying that a great prophet is risen up among us and that God had visited his people and this rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all the region round about and the disciples of John showed him of all these things and John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus saying art thou he that should come or look we for another When the men that were come unto him Excuse me when the men were come unto him they said John Baptist hath sent us unto thee saying art thou he that should come or look we for another and in that same hour He cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits and unto many that were blind He gave sight then Jesus answering said unto them go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard How that the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised to the poor The gospel is preached and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me And when the messengers of John were departed he began to speak unto the people concerning John What went ye out into the wilderness for to see a reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold they which are gorgeously appareled and live delicately are in king's courts, but what went ye out for to see a prophet Yea, I say unto you and much more than a prophet This is he of whom it is written behold I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee for I say unto you Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he and all the people that heard him and The publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and lawyers Rejected the counsel of God against themselves being not baptized of him And the Lord said where unto then shall I liken the men of this generation into what are they like? They are like unto children Sitting in the marketplace and calling one to another and saying we have piped unto you and ye have not danced We have mourned to you and ye have not wept For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and ye say he at the devil the son of man has come eating And drinking and you say behold a gluttonous man in a wine bibber a friend of publicans and sinners But wisdom is justified of all her children. He would Excuse me But wisdom is justified of all her children and one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him And he went into the Pharisees house and sat down to meet and behold a woman in the city which was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at me in the Pharisees house brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with it with tears and Did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it he spake within himself saying this man if he were a prophet would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner and Jesus answering said unto him Simon I have somewhat to say unto thee and he saith master say on there was a certain creditor which had two debtors The one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both tell me therefore Which of them will love him most Simon answered and said I suppose that he to whom he forgave most And he said unto him thou has rightly judged And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon seeest thou this woman I entered into thine house thou gavest me no water for my feet But she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head Thou gavest me no kiss But this woman since the time I came in hath not seized to kiss my feet My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment Wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much But to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little and he said unto her thy sins are forgiven And they that sat at meet with him began to say within themselves Who is this that forgaveth sins also and he said to the woman thy faith hath saved thee go in peace Let's pray dear heavenly father. Lord. We thank you so much for this opportunity. We have the night to gather together God we thank you for making all this possible for so many people so many brothers and sisters in Christ to be here tonight and I pray that you would please bless this time that we have together bless the whole time Lord bless the fellowship and And just strengthen our relationships here dear Lord And I pray that you would just fill me with your spirit tonight Lord Help me to preach in truth and in power and boldness dear Lord And I pray that there'd be a lot of good that would come out of the preaching of your word And that your word would sink in deep and Lord and that we'd all be able to pay attention and stay focused I know this is a little bit of a different setting We're outside don't Lord but I pray that you please just help us all to stay Intent for the short time that that we're gonna be preaching from your word and God, I love you We all love you here to Jesus name. We pray. Amen All right, I thought it was only appropriate to preach a sermon tonight And this is this is what was just kept going through my head because you know as we're going out To camp in the wilderness and you got all this preaching every day I thought you know named my service what went he out for to see and this is what you know Jesus Christ was saying unto the Pharisees and say, you know, well, what did you go out to see? What did you go out in the wilderness for to see of course, this is a Baptist camp This is a Baptist Church camp that we're having right now Strong old Baptist Church is here sort of spirit Baptist Church is here with us and we're Baptist we believe in Baptist doctrine we believe in the fundamentals of the faith and You know what a better person to highlight than John the Baptist at a Baptist conference at a Baptist event, right? And and here's one of the things it's very distinctive. There's a lot of things are distinctive I'm not going in all the Baptist distinctive tonight but one of the things I love about John the Baptist is just the little bit that you get to understand about who he is and We understand that about a little bit about who John the Baptist is Just from these few verses here and a few other places where Jesus is is You know asking them look down there. Well, let's reread this past. We just read the whole chapter. Let's reread this part right here Verse number 22 says then Jesus answering said unto them go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard How that the blind see the lame walk lepers are cleansed the deaf ear the dead are raised to the poor the gospels preach now one quick note on this and is one of the things that Jesus Christ gives us such a great example of Okay John the Baptist For whatever reason had a moment of doubt when he was in prison Right now I conjecture that one of the reasons why John might have been doubting about Jesus Is because he had a different expectation of what Jesus was going to do when he came to this earth a lot of the believers At that time thought that the Christ was going to set up an earthly kingdom because they were conflating The first coming of Jesus Christ was the second coming of Jesus Christ They didn't quite understand how all that was gonna play out like we do today So I think that might be some of the reason why he was doubting a little bit But here's one of things I love about Jesus Christ, right? He confirms it He's like look tell tell him everything you've seen and heard Tell him all these things because he'll know that that's the that is the the confirmation of the prophecy and just kind of edify him and build him up and then after he says that he says in verse 23 and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me and when the Messengers of John were departed. He began to speak unto the people concerning John and then he's here praising John the Baptist Right, and I love that about Jesus Christ, you know people really good men of God might have you know these points where they're they're not quite perfect right or they have a little bit of misunderstanding and Jesus isn't going what do you mean? You don't believe you know, he's not flipping out Over some of these things that he knows it's a smaller issue He just needs to be encouraged needs to be edified and then he goes and turns and praises John the Baptist and You know, this is what you you could you get to do You know a couple different things when you see some faults in somebody Right, you can you can hammer on them. You could talk to other people about them. You could complain about them or you can you know show some grace and mercy and Look past that and still praise good people. I'm John a bad was a good guy. He's a great guy. In fact, Jesus Christ himself Said among them that are born of women Verse 28 for I say unto you among those that are born of women There is not there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist Let's talk about a great preacher But that's what Jesus said but look at how Jesus describes John the Baptist verse number 24 He starts talking about John the Baptist when he says and when the message of John were departed He began to speak on the people concerned John. What went he out for? What were you out into the wilderness for to see so what did you go out there to see when you went out and you heard About this big commotion about John the Baptist. He's preaching out man We got to see what's going on out in that wilderness this John the Baptist guy What did you go out there to see he says a reed shaking with the wind? The reason why it was read he's like you see someone just just going with the wind just let us just have his doctrine Just just blowing about every wind of doctrine. Just just whatever people want to hear. Look, that's not John the Baptist John the Baptist wasn't spineless He doesn't just get this this force any type of oncoming force Like wind where reeds are just kind of bending over blowing over John the Baptist is standing strong in the wilderness. He's got a backbone a Reed shaking with the wind, but what one you out for to see a man clothed and soft Raymond? What did you expect to see some cupcake some little uh, you know someone owed, you know, I'm a little bit dirty, right? Look, hey, we're on a camping trip And I appreciate people, you know, I've had a few questions on what's the you know, what's a dress standard like and And I understand that, you know, especially guest preachers they don't they want to be offensive you want to be very Appropriate right, but here we are. I mean we're out in the wilderness Right what we come out here to see we're not we're not dressing in soft Raymond This is this is where we're at right it's not it's not about the dress it's about the message is about the Word of God Obviously We show respect in the house of God we and we and we show respect to the Lord and we try to appear our best But look ultimately, you know, we're Baptist and what matters most of all is the message Word of God That's what we're here for and Jesus said what did you go out expecting to see do you expect to see a read you expect? To see someone who's getting pushed around you expect to see someone in soft Raymond He says behold they which are gorgeously apparelled and live delicately are in Kings courts John the Baptist was not some, you know noble men raised with a silver spoon in his mouth He's out in the wilderness eating locusts and honey He's got a leather belt about his loins. Okay, he's out there just preaching the Word of God in the wilderness This is who John the Baptist was. He's a rough guy rough rough on the outside, right? But what won't he out for to see a prophet yeah, I send you and much more than a prophet This is he of whom is written behold. I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way Before the and as Baptists, you know, we're supposed to be out there preparing the way for people obviously He's preparing a way for Jesus Christ, but we're preparing the way for people to be led to Jesus Christ And we need we need good old-fashioned Baptist preaching like John the Baptist John the Baptist wasn't afraid to step on any toes by the way, in fact John the Baptist was beheaded because of his preaching He was beheaded because of his preaching. He was beheaded because for Herodias sake Herod's brother Philip was was married to a woman and John the Baptist and he wanted her and he coveted her and he ended up marrying her And we don't know all the details about that But the Bible teaches us that you know, if you're to get divorced and remarried that you're basically committing adultery Does anyone believe that here But Jesus Christ said except to be for the cause of fornication That if you if you put away a woman and you marry another that you're committing adultery It's what the Bible says. It's what the Bible teaches. And yeah, I know today it's offensive It was offensive back then too. And in fact, John the Baptist was beheaded for it Here didn't like that. But you know what? He didn't he didn't hold back and say well, I mean The Herod's done this I better not say anything about it cuz I might get in trouble That's not what what did you go out in the wilderness for to see Someone who's just gonna lay down and not preach the truth Well, hopefully, you know when you come here you're gonna hear from a lot of people a lot of Baptists None of them made John John, but you know, we've got well, there is one we have deserve. Sorry Jonathan I think a John Jonathan writes not JOHN though, so we don't have a John We've got we've got Jonathan the Baptist. We've got Aaron the Baptist Right. We've got Ed the Baptist We got Steven the Baptist. We're gonna have Roger the Baptist Jason the Baptist. Thank you. I'm like, I know there's one more and my brains dead and I'm a Baptist And what'd you come out here to hear hopefully you came out here to hear the Word of God Hopefully you came out here to hear from people who are not gonna back down hopefully you came out here to hear from people who are willing to Preach the Word of God and not just be some reed shaking in the wind But what happens is People get offended. Look what Jesus said in verse 23 said blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me You ought not to be offended by the Word of God You know Fundamental Baptist preaching is often referred to as hellfire damnation preaching, right? You know, I said, amen You say why do you rip on say why do you always got to be harping on say why do you gotta be yelling and screaming? Why because the Word of God is important and because you know people all of us me included need to sit down Sometimes and just hear the Word of God thundered forth and just be told hey thus saith the Lord and Someone you know, we all need to be set straight from time to time And you're gonna need someone who's not gonna beat around the bush Who's not gonna be kind of blowing around in the wind you're going well, what is he really saying? I don't know. It just sounds like everything's kind of okay You need someone who's just gonna take the Word of God and say look this is what the Bible says Adultery is a sin Remarriage from from divorce is a sin You know all these various things are sins and and you ought not to do them turn if you would to Matthew chapter 16 I Matthew 16 we get a good picture of who these what what Bible type preachers were like We get a good picture of what Jesus Christ himself was like based on the testimony of others Even people who weren't his followers There's a testimony of Jesus Christ and how men of God were in in Bible days We saw you know, John the Baptist wasn't he wasn't just dressed gorgeously He wasn't he wasn't backing down. He had a backbone. He had a spine he was willing to say the things that need to be said regardless of how it was received and Go ahead and go through all the prophets read your book read the Old Testament read these preachers That would preach the Word of God read about Jeremiah read how read how he was You know lower down into the dungeon because of what he preached Read about Ezekiel read about you know Isaiah and Elijah and Elisha and and you can see all the trouble and persecution that they faced But you know what? They never backed down. None of them did they never did They always preached the truth they always preached what God told them to say You don't need someone tickling your ears today You need someone preaching your ear the Word of God Matthew 16 look at verse number 13 and 14 the Bible reads when Jesus came in the coast of Caesarea Philippi He asked his disciples saying whom do men say that I the Son of Man am so he's basically saying What are people saying about me? Who do people think I am and their response was this and they said some say that thou art John the Baptist So right there we see that Jesus was a preacher like John the Baptist People were confusing him thinking that oh, this is John because Jesus started his ministry basically as John was ending his ministry So they're thinking well John was beheaded. Maybe this is like a reincarnation of John the Baptist And They say some Elias which would be like Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets So they're saying to Jesus man. He's just like some of these real hardcore Preachers from the Bible. This is who Jesus was and you know, one of the things that John the Baptist we what do you preach repent? Repent and you know what for people repent Isn't a very positive message because it's telling you to turn to change now look Let's make this real clear and I know all of you here as far as I know Believe right about this when John the Baptist was preaching repent when it comes to salvation He was pointing people to Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't telling them you got to give up all of your sins in order to be saved John the Baptist was telling people repent why because they weren't putting their faith in Christ Their faith was in whatever is anything but Jesus Christ. They had their faith in the law of Moses They had their faith which wasn't really the law of Moses. I mean, I didn't really understand the Word of God They had their faith in any other religion They had them faith in themselves they had a faith and how good they were their own obedience to the law But they didn't have their faith in the Savior So they needed to change they need to repent they needed to put their faith on Christ But you know what? He wasn't just preaching that I'm sure he was preaching a lot of other sermons about repentance And look we all ought to be repenting daily You need to change you need to get the sin out of your life Whatever sins you got, you know, whatever bad doctrine you got whatever bad believes. Yeah, you got it. You got change We got to get it right with God. You got to repent and that's not gonna be received. Well But this is how Bible preachers do it flip over if you would real quick to Isaiah chapter 58 I Say another great example of a great man of God a great preacher of God's Word Talk about some Christ like preaching right here Isaiah 58 we're looking at that very famous verse right there verse number one Bible says cry aloud Spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet say why you Baptist always yelling Well Bible says right there lift up your voice like a trumpet. Hey cry aloud spare spare not means don't withhold don't hold anything back Let it all rip, you know, I know a long time ago when I you know after I got saved I was looking for a good church. I'd be visiting different churches periodically. You know, I was I was a real watered-down Christian I was real lame as it were good before I got plugged into a good church Because I got saved I didn't start going to church right away. I It took me a while to find a good church and I go to these churches I go to church service I listen to preaching and it's always just like Why why does it seem like you're holding back You hear preaching is be like why don't you just come forward and say it and you read these parts of scriptures like oh man This is also I'll be learning I'm reading as we're going through and the preachers go in a different verse or whatever and and I'm reading this and I'm going wow if you you know if you could move past that verse the very next verse like There's so much more you can be saying here and it just always felt like preachers were holding back of course the very next verse oftentimes something might be controversial and People just don't say you know what the Bible says we're not supposed to hold back Cry aloud spare nots lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins So you're gonna you're gonna go out into the wilderness Hopefully, here's some preaching and expose your sin to you Not to tear you down Not to just make you feel bad because you know these preachers just love making people cry and making them feel bad Look, that's not the point If you get grieved by the preaching the only hope that we have is that it's that it's that it's a sorrow that leads to repentance and you can read all about that the apostle Paul describes in detail from a preacher's view of Preaching on sin how he's like, you know, I was I was sorry at first He said he was sorry that he even wrote that first letter because he really laid into him He really rebuked him hard, but he said, you know what I repented but but I don't repent You know, he said later I didn't you know, I changed my mind is a good thing Because even though you were sorry for a season, you know that sorrow worked repentance in you And they got those things right that needed to change and that's the whole point and that's the purpose of going out in the wilderness And hearing a John the Baptist preached the Bible so you can hear the Word of God you could hear it clearly you could hear it without any beating around the bush and someone is coming straight forward and saying it and Look, you either receive it or you don't now in Isaiah 58 God's commanding Isaiah here essentially how to preach and To show my people their transgressions in the house of Jacob their sins but there's a big problem with the people here on how they're going to receive it because if you are there if you're sitting and Listening to preaching and you're thinking well, I don't really have any sin I'm just pretty much right on everything You're not going to receive any rebuke very well You just think well, I'm good And let me tell you this if you go to church year after year and you've got people preaching to you that that are that are good you're listening and preaching and you never Hear anything That kind of stings you or pricks you it's like oh man, you know what I need I need to do something about that You need to check yourself If you're not hearing any preaching I'm not here in your own reading and everything else and you're just like yeah I'm good And you could read and read and read and read and read and hear all preaching preaching preaching You got a problem and it might be a bigger than you think It might be a lot bigger than you think And it's really time to take a deep dive inside and check it out Look at verse number two here in Isaiah 58 the Bible reads yet. They seek me daily and delight to know my ways as A nation that did righteousness. So you're saying the people are acting like they're righteous. They're saying they're seeking me daily They're they'd delight to know my net in my ways like a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching to God This is their added this is where their mind is that this is what they're thinking verse number three They say wherefore have we fasted say they and now see us not They're saying well, wait a minute. Why are we fasting and It's like you're not you're not hearing us God You don't see our fast Wherefore have we afflicted our soul and now take us no knowledge You say well and we're doing all this stuff God. Where are you? How come you're not hearing us? They think that they have no problem. They're doing everything. We're fasting, you know, just like when disciples, you know The the the Pharisee will I fast twice in the week? You know and I thank you God that I'm not like this publican over here, right? This is the same attitude This is the attitude that his children of Israel had They just thought that they were just so perfect and so great and they didn't do anything wrong It's a proud attitude, but that's not reality The Bible keeps going here in verse number three behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure and Exact all your labors so God is saying right off the bat you're not doing it right first of all because You're just doing all your let you know, the fasting is supposed to be a time of afflicting your soul It's supposed to be a time of of you know, deep serious prayer and just affliction on yourself That's why you're withholding things from yourself. It's not just about well, I'm just not going to eat something Right, it's it the food is part of it But the whole point is to afflict yourself and to withhold pleasure from yourself basically hold all pleasure and he's saying here That you know the day of your fast you're finding pleasure and you're just doing all your work. It's just day to day for you Behold ye fast and then and then the reason why this do you fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness You shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high Is it such a fast that I have chosen? So say it look they're pretending like yeah, we love the Lord. We love God. Everything's great We're fasting but God how come you aren't here in our fast? How come you're not answering our prayer God? And he's saying look you're fasting for strife and debate And then he says is it the fast I is this the way is this what I've chosen for you to fast Is this how I've chosen for it to be done a day for a man to afflict his soul Is it to bow down his head as a bull rush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness To undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke See they got caught up on These small details exactly like the Pharisees who say well we pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin Jesus said but you've omitted the weightier matters of the law, you know judgment faith Mercy, you know these things ought you have done and not to leave the other undone When people get so full of themselves and lift it up in their pride They think everything's going great and they can't even see The the forest for the trees they can't even see the big picture they can't see you know that they're really it's like the church at What church was that in Revelation where they they you know, they think they're rich they've got all their goods Right, but he says but you're poor and miserable and wretched and blind and naked What church? Sardis I'm going with that. I Look it up later the Church of Sardis Where they're you know, they thought that everything was great But spiritually through through the through the lens of God through lens of the Word of God. They were miserable. They were poor They were blind. They're naked. They needed they needed a lot more than they thought they thought everything was good Flip over if you would do Ecclesiastes chapter number five I The preaching of Isaiah just like the preaching of John the Baptist just like the preaching even of Jesus Christ Doesn't go over well with a lot of people and One of the reasons why is because people can't take rebuke or correction people just don't take it very well They think they know better They think they're great. They think everything's just fine. And as it's it's the result of pride. I Love what Ecclesiastes says here, you know when when you're when you're getting ready, you know this week here when you're out in the wilderness Getting ready to hear We should take the advice of Ecclesiastes 5 look at verse number 1 The Bible says keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear Than to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil This is obviously in reference when you know, if you're gonna go to church, you know, you don't just go To like to offer up your sacrifice. You better be ready to hear because that's what God wants you any God wants your obedience God wants your ear. God wants your heart. God wants you listening. God wants you learning God wants you changing your life way more than he wants you putting a bunch of money in the offering plate Way more than he wants you just offering up some great sacrifice Oftentimes he doesn't even ask you to do right there's things that does people will just do I'm like, oh man I'm gonna do all of this for God and I'm gonna give all this and I'm gonna donate that and and whatever and it's like How about you just start by it by listening to the Word of God? Just listen to what God has for you and and don't be so caught up and all these great Sacrifices that you're making just be obedient Biles is obey is better than sacrifice Be ready to hear when you when your foot goes to the house of God Be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools look at verse number two The Bible says be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart Be hasty To utter anything before God for God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few and this is something I think that all of us ought to be able to swallow down and Think about and meditate on being not rash with your mouth. What does it mean to be rash with your mouth? It means you're letting words come out way too easily. You're speaking too quickly You're not giving the proper thought and attention Oftentimes people let emotions take over and end up saying things that you ought not to say If I was in the abundance of words there wanteth not sin Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God Verse three for a dream coming through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure and fools Pay that which thou has vowed better is it that thou shouldest not vow then that thou shouldest vow and not pay Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the angel that it was an error Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hands Flip over if you would to Luke chapter 8 In Luke chapter 8 we got the famous parable of the sower And of course, you know, I'm not going to go through the entire parable We got the seed that's the Word of God being sown Some is on stony ground some falls by the wayside some is on stony ground some is on a good ground Right, and it gives all these different examples and how there's basically when that new life is created that that some of it gets choked out the cares of this world and the riches and other things Just come along and they get people out of serving God. They make people become unfruitful in their service But then of course is that there's on a good ground and starts bringing forth fruit and just doing a lot for the Lord That's the parable. But what Jesus says and I love this verse in verse number We'll start reading verse 16 No, man when he hath lighted a candle covereth it with a vessel or putteth under a barrel but Seddeth it on a candlestick that they which enter in may see the light for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest Neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad take heed therefore how ye hear For whosoever hath to him shall be given and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken Even that which he seemeth to have. Well, I love that verse says be careful how you hear How you hear? How you hear can determine how fruitful you are Which the parable the sower is talking about being fruitful ultimately like we want to be those that are that have the good ground, right? You your your the soil has been plowed everything's ready to go and you can be very fruitful Just like you know, you've got this candle you're saved you've got you've got the the gospel within you you've put your faith in the gospel and we ought to shine the light of the Gospel and we you know, the more you know the Word of God you ought to be a light a brighter shining light and we're not supposed to hide that and He kind of summarizes all this and saying, you know take heed how you hear because how you hear Are you ready to hear or are you closed off? Are you anticipating and look you ought to be able to if you've got someone who's saved up preaching? You if you are hearing right if you are ready and you are open and you are willing to receive Anything that God's gonna pour out they don't have to be the best order They don't have to be the most dynamic They don't have to be the most exciting or maybe the best with their words But you ought to get something out of that preaching Because you're ready to hear Because you're gonna pay attention, you know, some people look I get it I've heard a lot of preachers and I know that I don't have all the best skills either So that's why I'm gonna focus on this a lot more because I get you to understand that it doesn't have to be You know this this perfect person preaching or all well this person's way more entertaining I like them or you know, great you can like whoever you want, but how about you're just ready to hear the Word of God and ready to make the application to yourself and Learn as we're going through these scriptures. I mean I've gone in to heard all kinds of different preaching and you know You ought to be able to walk away Learning something being edified by something have have something have some type of impact through the Word of God Sometimes it's easier than others sometimes harder than others, but when you're ready to hear When you've got yourself ready, you're focused your your intent and you want to learn You know that is gonna have a big impact on how fruitful you become because you're ready to hear be careful how you hear Why didn't the Pharisees hear John when he was out in the wilderness and preaching to repent why didn't they hear him? They Didn't hear him because of their pride They didn't hear him as we already saw I went over this, you know multiple times and Isaiah 58 But we see this over and over again They think that they can't be taught, you know, someone who can't be taught I mean someone who knows everything can't be taught right people were lifted up at pride My favor is when you go out sowing and you have someone you're trying to explain the gospel to them There's already read the Bible like you read it one time. How do you know all about it? I don't need I already know. I already read the Bible and you ask them Well, what does it take to be saved? They can't answer you Now, I mean obviously it's kind of funny but here's the thing Don't let yourself Get in a condition like that Where you can't be shown anything from Scripture Or were you you just end up being as foolish as that person is because you're stiff-necked about Whatever anything that the Word of God and you know, it could be anything it could be any doctrine it could be anything but usually usually the reason why people have This type of pride it's it's it's very specific to something that you're doing wrong Because you don't want to be told that you're wrong about that thing and those are the areas that are going to sting the most and you're going to get people to To Clench up and not want to hear it and have it be real rough. But you know what you ought to be ready for that Get ready in advance and just be like, you know what we're going out in the wilderness and hopefully you're gonna rip my face off And then rip it off again and then rip it off again and I'm ready for it The Pharisees didn't want to hear John because of their pride the truth is Jesus and John and the disciples had way more wisdom and knowledge than all the Pharisees put together I mean they they thought they had their education They thought they were so smart and they had all this stuff right and they had all their degrees I'm sure and oh this people who are ignorant. They know not the law, you know, these people are cursed These people are damned. These people don't know anything And it's because of that very attitude they weren't ready to hear from God they thought they knew it all We need to be ready to hear and you know, I'm gonna throw this in here as well turn if you would to Proverbs chapter 11 Proverbs chapter 11 We have Until Saturday, we have all pastors preaching at this conference and You know some of the pastors are preaching here I know better than others, but I feel like I know all of them pretty well and The Bible teaches that in order to even be a pastor that you can't be a novice Right now not I mentioned before not every pastor has the same skill set Some are better than at different things and others some people are better preachers than others some people are better explaining things, you know than others but none of us here are novices or beginners at at you know counseling at preaching at knowing the Bible now Everyone that I'm aware of doesn't have a pharisaical attitude But the truth of the matter is the Bible says that you can't be a novice even to order to be ordained If you're biblically scripturally ordained, you're not gonna be a novice When you hear rebukes and when you hear teaching from God's Word from a pastor take it for what it's worth Especially from people that you know and the more you know someone and the more you see the fruit of their labor and the more you see the fruit of their ministry and If you see good fruit there Look take that to heart Because when you get rebuked when you get told that you're wrong when you hear something that you're just like it upsets you makes you angry, whatever One the reason why we even do this is because we love God and we love you The reason why we rip face is because it's for your benefit Because I know for me it helped me out tremendously. I love the hard preaching. I love being told that I was wrong You don't like it exactly necessarily right when it happens but it helps make you to be so much of a better person it helps you grow so much more and If you love God if you love the truth And if you love the light you're gonna want to walk in the light and get the darkness slapped out of your life But try to try to take the rebuke especially from your pastor Well, right don't don't just don't don't get too puffed up Against against your preacher against your pastor John was a strong leader And that's another thing John got a following right out in the wilderness he made he was making a name He was he was causing a stir now the you know, John wasn't making it all about himself, which again was evident When as Pastor Ed said yesterday, you know, he made reference to the verse he must is I must decrease but he must increase Because the whole point is that John the bad was trying to point people to Jesus Christ And that's what all of us are doing here today We're trying to point people to Jesus. We're on the same team And we don't want to make these factions like in second Corinthians your Bible saying, you know, I'm appalled I'm a pulse and I'm of Cephas and I'm of Christ Right, you've got all these people all those people love God they love Christ and they were following Christ But unfortunately, you know oftentimes people just try to get stuck in these these cults of personalities or whatever and they want to make more out of the man than then out of the message and We're here today. And and one of the things that you know That I know that all my friends I that I invited here. They're strong leaders Now is are they perfect? No, I'm not perfect. They're not perfect You can't expect perfection out of people But you know what when you're a member of a church, you need to follow the leadership that you have And you need to humble yourself Even in those instances where you might think they're wrong on something. Hey, look, you know, they love God You know that they love you, you know that they're doing a good work. You know what follow the leader follow the leader Follow them as they follow Christ How about you get yourself in submission and it'll be instead of going around and complaining other people about it and gossiping and spreading rumors Why don't you just follow the leadership when you get rebuked just take it Just take it even if you think you were done wrong suck it up Funny thing about strong leader of the people love strong leaders Until you're the one that's getting the rebuke Right, like oh man. I love coming to church. This is great. Yeah, you're ripping on the fags You're ripping on this and all of a sudden boom, they hit you and all of a sudden it's Now I'm not ever coming back to this church again Look You need to be ready to hear you'd be ready to hear Hopefully You're not just you're not just going out into the wilderness like a Pharisee to see the the sideshow right, what is what what's pastor Anderson gonna say next and Just and just you know, grab some popcorn and like it's just it's just an entertainment thing Be ready to hear Be ready to apply the Word of God from all these preachers and I hope we got some face rip in coming up by somebody because That's what I want to hear I Know I didn't tell you guys that we had any type of theme. I should have said face rip is the theme Did I be turned to Proverbs 11 if not turn there turn to Proverbs 11 Close on these two Proverbs we're closing on it's why closing this thought to you because The things of God, you know what while there's so much Complexity and an eternal things that you could you know, you can gain out of God's Word and how infinite the wisdom is On one hand it's still very simple And what I mean by simple is just it's not complicated like what God has for us to do in this world And the way that we all live our lives is not complicated It may be difficult to do but it's not complicated Doing good doing right, you know the things that God has for us to do. It's very simple We need to make sure we don't complicate those things with you know, we need to get ourselves out of the way sometimes and just and just get over it get over ourselves and Ultimately have a humble spirit and a humble attitude. The Bible says in Proverbs 11 verse number two when pride cometh then cometh shame But with the lowly is wisdom. So when you come ready to hear you got to come lowly Because that's when the wisdom is gonna come You come with pride. You're not gonna be able to receive what what's being taught in the Word of God It's just gonna lead you to shame Because If you're if you're wrong about the Word of God if you're wrong in an area of your life and you need to be corrected You're not willing to take that correction. It's gonna end up to your shame It's just the way it works The sins gonna bring you into shame then flip over to Proverbs chapter 3 because I was said but with the lowly is wisdom and in Proverbs chapter 3 The last two verses of Proverbs chapter 3 Verses 34 and 35 the Bible reads surely he scorneth the scorners But he giveth grace unto the lowly The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools We need to make sure that we're coming Going out to the preacher going out to hear the Word of God Lowly Ready to hear, you know, be careful how you hear because it's only gonna help you be paying attention and you know really stay focused and and follow along in your Bibles when when passages are being turned to I Can't tell you how many times I've learned things From verses surrounding the one that was turned to and I mean, I believe it's a Holy Ghost that's teaching you things You could have thought so everyone's got different things going on in your mind as it applies to you in your life. I Don't know these things there's been I don't know how many times I preach sermons and people come up to me and said, you know Pastor Burzins, you know, this was going on and this was going on and I'm just thinking like I had no idea and I'm preaching on these topics or preaching through these verses and Oftentimes people are just coming back and telling me other things that while I was preaching, you know, this verse came to mind I was just like yeah great that also applies and this is you know, there's so much more there My point is to be to be following along these sword drills are great. Thanks for doing that Pastor Thompson getting people Quick to know where the books are in the Bible be able to turn there quickly be able to reference this stuff so that when the preacher is going and if they're going through and kind of shotgunning through and rattling off all these verses you can be keeping up with them right there and Getting the Word of God because that's I mean, that's what we need. That's where the power is. Anyways powers in the Word of God So hopefully you're ready to hear the rest of the week and You Know if you get your face ripped off praise God It's my words that word of prayer dear heavenly father. Lord. We thank you so much for this opportunity We thank you for this group of Baptists out here in the wilderness Lord I pray that you would please just help us all to be edified and encouraged and Motivated to do better to do right dear Lord. I pray to you. Please keep us humble and and Just keeping our nose to the ground and doing the work that you set before us dear Lord We love you to Jesus name of pray. Amen