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Help us to be attentive and apply that which we hear to our lives, Lord, and leave here differently than when we came in, God. We love you, Lord, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 343, Revive Us Again. Song number 343, Revive Us Again. Everyone all together, nice and strong. We praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love, for Jesus, who died and is now gone above. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again. We praise thee, O God, for thy Spirit of light, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has cleansed every stain. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again. Revive us again. Fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again. All right, great singing. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be 365, Break Thou the Bread of Life. 365, if you want to get that ready in your songbooks. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand, and one of the ushers can get one for you. Important information on there. Of course, our Sunday morning service is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m., and then our Thursday night Bible study, of course, is at 7 o'clock. We are currently going through the book of Matthew, so good to have you here tonight. We are a family integrated church, and so infants and children are always welcome in the service for your convenience. We do have a mother-baby room located in the back of the building, should your child need some diversion. And dads, if you're on, you know, I want to say diaper duty, but maybe that is appropriate. Diaper duty. There is a restroom right here by the kitchen where you can use to change diapers. And if you need to take out your child during the service, then you can utilize the foyer. There's a speaker and screen there available as well. And so just keep that in mind. You see there the sowing times and teams and the list of expecting mothers, the important reminders. I won't go over those tonight. Some of the upcoming church events. We have the Hold Fast Sowing marathon this Saturday, August 12th, meeting at the building, this building at 5 a.m. So if you want to go up there, you can see Brother Glenn for more details about that. But he's going to be taking the church van up there meeting here at 5 a.m. though. So just make sure you coordinate with him. And the goal, of course, is to be there approximately by 10 o'clock, which is when Pastor Thompson is going to be preaching. And then we'll dismiss for sowing thereafter. Of course, they're celebrating their anniversary. So hope to see you there. And then the Ladies Prayer Breakfast is on Saturday, August 12th, meeting at the building at 10 a.m. If you have any questions about that, you can see Miss Janelle Gonzalez for more details. She heads that up. The TJ Soul Winning is on Monday, September 11th. We had a fantastic time. On Monday, we went to TJ, Brother Ulysses and I, Brother Ruben and Brother Connor. When Ulysses almost didn't make it back. No, I'm just kidding. No, he was fine. But I will say this, though. If you're planning to come, which I encourage you to come, we got 18 people saved on Monday. And that was in a matter of about three hours or so. And so the people were very receptive. We went to a park called Friendship Park. And all we did was just go around and talk to just random people there at the park. There's a lot of people. And they're very receptive. And so if you want to participate in that, you can come. But we only want Spanish speakers to come just to kind of get more work done. And then also you need a passport. And so the next time we're going to be going is September 11th. And then we'll probably go every other month after that. But we're planning to also hold a summoning marathon there in the coming months. But the next time we go is September 11th. So we want to encourage you to be there for that. If you have any questions, you can see Brother Ulysses for that. And then Sunday, September 17th is our six-year anniversary. And we'll give you more details on what we're going to do for that particular service. But we're looking forward to completing our sixth year going into our seventh. You see there at the bottom, no food or drink allowed in a main auditorium except for water and coffee. Please make sure you're not loitering in the fellowship hall or in the foyer during the preaching service unless you're out there with your children, dads. And then please silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Go ahead and pull out your prayer sheet there. We're going to go over that just briefly. And then Brother Cody is going to come up and pray over the needs. Of course, you see the needs corporately there. Pray for our sowning, of course, for TJ that we get more people saved there. But in particular, if you could pray for November when we go out to Belize once again, we're planning to have a preaching service in Belize. And we've been keeping in contact with the converts that we've won over the last year or so. And so many of them have committed to come to the first the preaching service. I want to say the first church service, but I don't want to say that because we don't it might just be first works people who go. I don't know, but a lot of people have committed to come. And so if all goes well, we'll see what the Lord does and see if we find an open door there. Pray for that. And then as far as the church families are concerned, if you can please keep continue to keep Miss Olivia in prayer and the baby, the baby, she did perform a C-section on her and the baby is two pounds. Everything else is fine. And they say the baby is still healthy, but obviously it's cause for concern if the baby is two pounds. So if you could just please pray for the baby and Miss Olivia, uh, that she would have a safe recovery. And of course the baby would, um, gain weight and there'd be no other complications from here on out. Please keep her in prayer. And if you have any additional prayer requests you'd like to be mentioned or placed on the bulletin, you can put that at the bottom there and tear that off, put into the offering plate and we'll make sure that it gets on there for the following week. All right. And that is it. Brother Cody, why don't you come on up and pray over these needs. Let's bow our heads in word of prayer. Dear Lord God, we first thank you for our salvation Lord. And it's just thank you for making it just a free gift Lord and that it's so simple and easy Lord to just believe on the son Lord. And so we just thank you for salvation and we just pray that you continue to light a fire under us Lord that we might go and preach that same gospel into others Lord and just help us to never forget the first works and just pray for the soul winning efforts of our church Lord and the, uh, each and individual member of our church Lord that you just continue to help us to, um, have a love for the lost Lord and to continue to go soul winning as our church grows Lord. And that we just pray for the soul winning that's taking place at our church Lord, uh, the same places we've been going to Lord, but also new, uh, areas and locations we've been going to Lord to just pray for, uh, uh, TJ Lord that that continues to be a fruitful area to go, uh, preach the gospel Lord and to soften the hearts of all the areas of the people of the areas that we go preach to Lord. And, uh, I also pray for Belize Lord that, uh, uh, when we go Lord that, uh, it's a fruitful event Lord. And I just, I just pray for, uh, uh, Belize and the people there who have been, uh, reached Lord that they, uh, would come and, uh, just, uh, get plugged in Lord. And I just pray that your, your hand is over that Lord and Belize and Lord, we pray for, um, our, uh, church family Lord. I just pray that you strengthen the families in our church Lord, the marriages Lord, and just help, uh, each and every one of us to, um, uh, forgive one another and to, uh, uh, just, uh, grow closer together Lord. And just, uh, each and every member here at church Lord, I just pray that we continue to be a good brothers and sisters in Christ to each other Lord, and just, uh, be over our church family Lord. Lord, I pray for, um, I just pray for the, uh, the health of, uh, uh, brother Jonathan and Ms. Olivia's baby Lord. I just pray that you are over them Lord and that you're comforting them right now Lord. And I just pray that you're over the baby Lord. And I just pray that you, uh, give the doctors, uh, wisdom Lord. And I just pray that you are over them and, and, uh, just, uh, comfort them at this time Lord. And just pray that everything goes well with that Lord. And I also pray for brother Sean, Ms. Eva Lord, that, uh, uh, their baby is also with their, with the complications there. I just pray that you also have a hand of healing over that Lord and that you, uh, comfort them at this time Lord. And Lord, I just pray for, uh, uh, uh, all these general requests that we have Lord, salvations for, uh, family and friends of our church Lord, and just for general requests and other requests Lord, you know, uh, everyone's wants and needs Lord. And I just pray that you could answer those according to your will Lord. And again, you just pray that you bless this service Lord, uh, feel pastored to be here with your Holy spirit Lord, as he preaches onto us, uh, bless the music and bless this whole service, every aspect of it, Lord. And, uh, just pray, uh, uh, uh, that you, uh, keep us safe on our way back home. Lord, we pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. Song number 365, break thou the bread of life. Song 365, break thou the bread of life. Everyone all together, nice and strong on that first verse. Break thou the bread of life, dear Lord to me, as thou didst break the loaves beside the sea. Beyond the sacred page, I seek thee Lord, my spirit pants for thee o living word. Bless thou the truth dear Lord, to me, to me, as thou didst bless the bread by Galilee. Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall, and I shall find my peace, my all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O Lord to me. Thy holy word, the truth that savith me, give me to eat and live with thee above. Teach me to love thy truth for thou art. Love, O send thy spirit Lord, now unto me, that he may touch my eyes and make me see. Show me the truth concealed within thy word, and in thy book revealed I see the Lord. Amen. This time the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in Matthew chapter 16. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. We're in the book of Matthew chapter 16. And the Bible reads, the Pharisees also with the Sadducees came and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, when it is evening he say it will be fair weather for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but can you not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them and departed, and when his disciples were come to the other side they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves saying, it is because we have taken no bread, which when Jesus perceived he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason you among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets he took up, neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, how many baskets he took up? How is it that you do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that you should beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? They understood they how that he bade them not to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. When Jesus came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? And they said, some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged to his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. That time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go on to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, be it far from thee Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me Satan thou art on a fence unto me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? But the son of man shall come in the glory of his father and with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom. Let's pray. We thank you heavenly father for the King James Bible dear God and everywhere therein and we thank you for this wonderful church you have given us your God and every precious soul in it and we thank you for our pastor dear Lord and we ask that you please bless him with your Holy Spirit this evening as he preaches your word onto us in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Okay we're in Matthew chapter 16 and I'm going to go over chapter 16 in just a bit but let me just cover a little bit of the latter end of Matthew chapter 15. On Sunday night I preached through the first half of Matthew 15 but I didn't cover the second half of it and I'm only going to go over one particular story in Matthew chapter 15 because the feeding of the 4,000 is almost identical to what we saw in Matthew chapter 14 which is the feeding of the 5,000 and so the principles are basically the same I'm not going to rehash uh that particular story but look at verse 21 of chapter 15 and then we'll go into chapter 16 in just a bit it says in verse 21 then Jesus went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon and behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried into him saying have mercy on me O Lord thou son of David my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil but he answered her not a word and his disciples came and besought him saying send her away for she crieth after us but he answered and said I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel then came she and worshipped him saying Lord help me but he answered and said it is not me to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs and she said truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table then Jesus answered and said unto her woman O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that very hour so let me just briefly explain this particular story here and one thing that I want to talk about is the fact that many claim or believe that Jesus is literally calling this woman a dog and a lot of people have kind of problems with this they're just like man he's so rough why is he calling her a dog you know and let me just give you some explanations as to why or what why I believe this is being stated here now one of the answers that people typically give and one of the answers that I thought in times past was the fact that the reason he's kind of referring to her as a dog is because Israel in general had a prejudice against those who were outside of the nation of Israel okay you know they viewed other nations that were not of Israel as being unclean and it's one of those things where they kind of took a doctrine a little too far because in the old testament obviously we see this principles that God's people should never really you know they shouldn't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers and so God would command his people not to marry those of four nations not because of their ethnicity but rather because of their beliefs right you know if they married a heathen or a pagan who worshipped a false god that can turn their heart away from the Lord and then they would worship false gods and then of course God would have to chastise them thereafter but here's the thing is that God didn't care what their ethnicity was as long as they were worshipping the true God because there are many within Israel in the old testament who were not born of Israel but became Israelites they partook of that covenant you know because of the fact that they believed in the Lord even if they weren't necessarily Israelites ethnically okay so it's not like you know God had something against the ethnicities of this world per se but rather what they believed in the fact that they worshipped false gods and even here you know in the new testament Jews kind of took that and kind of ran with it to an extreme case where it's just like they didn't really matter if they're worshipping the true God it's like well they're of a different nation therefore we're against them and they're unclean and a good example of this is here in this particular case where you have a Canaanite a Syrophoenician by nation the bible says and the disciples are like to utter go away you know they're just kind of to have that attitude and even a little even in the book of acts for example some of these apostles were still having problems with that because if you remember the apostle peter in act chapter 10 he had this trance that he went into and the Lord basically gave him a vision of a great sheet and then at the four corners with all types of unclean animals right and you know the sheet you know goes down it's it's it's like you know Lucille's right it's just there's all these delicious beasts right that are coming down on a sheet and you know they come down on the sheet and then the Lord tells peter why is killing eat i would have just been like where's the where's the barbecue sauce you know just say less you know but you know and what peter responds with is not so Lord because nothing common or unclean hath entered into my mouth i might be getting that verse a little wrong but he's basically saying like i can't eat this because it's unclean and the vision had to repeat itself a couple times until peter realized that the reason god was giving him this vision is because he was viewing the surrounding nations the people of these nations as unclean the way he would view these animals okay and then ultimately the reason he's really giving him this vision is because he would have to go and preach the gospel to cornelius who was not of israel okay and of course the Lord responds by saying you know what god hath cleansed that call not thou common or unclean now what is he saying when he says cleanse it basically means who the Lord hath bought with his own blood don't call common or unclean that doesn't mean that you know everyone is saved because jesus christ died for everyone when he says cleanse he's just referring to the fact that jesus died for the sins of the whole world okay so people can be saved you understand these these surrounding nations and so you could obviously see that this is a mindset that jews had and israelites had where it didn't really matter what they believed or that they were looking for the truth because cornelius was looking for the truth you know he feared god he was making doing alms before the Lord but he wasn't saved you know it's obviously they had some sort of prejudice against their surrounding nations so people often say well this is the reason why jesus is calling her dog you know because you know jews in general had this view regarding other nations but i don't really believe that because of the fact that i don't think jesus cared about that okay so how do you know well because he had one of the one of the apostles was a Canaanite you know he wasn't of israel so obviously he didn't care about those things he cared more about what the person believed but not only that think about this if he's calling her a dog then he's basically contradicting himself in matthew chapter 7 when he says give not that which is holy unto the dogs right and so you know he's not contradicting himself this is obviously a special case and i'm explaining to you what this particularly means here and by the way you know he's going into the coast of tyre and sidon which obviously the vast majority of the occupants in that region are not necessarily israelites which is why you have this syro-phoenician woman who's uh of Canaan approaching him during that time right so i don't think the lord cares who it is as long as they believe in the lord doesn't matter what ethnicity they're there they are obviously he's going to receive them if they're looking for the truth right and there's many examples of people who were not of israel who you know wanted to know the truth the centurion being one of them who came to the lord and in fact jesus said of that centurion that he had more faith he didn't find faith so great faith no not in israel he said so this guy had more faith than most of the israelites of that time even though he wasn't of israel okay so what is he referring to here well let's look at the story he says you know of course she comes to him and her daughter is grievously vexed with the devil she's possessed with the devil and she approaches him asking for help and he just doesn't answer her okay the bible says there in verse 23 that he doesn't answer her word he just basically ignores her and then his disciples come and they're just like telling her go away you know she's like she's like annoying us because she's crying after us and verse 24 he responds by saying i am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of israel now this doesn't mean that he wasn't sent for anybody else right you know because obviously there's people out there that have that belief that jesus was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of israel and that the gentiles are just like a plan b okay but obviously that's not the case because earlier in the book of matthew we see that he tells the disciples go not into the way of the gentiles and into the way of the samaritans enter ye not but go into the rather into the lost sheep of the house of israel but then he said you know obviously eventually they're going to make their way into these gentile nations so what we see in the gospels is the fact that the gospel obviously was to go to the israelites first to the jew first and then also to the greek right basically the the tactic there is to work their way out gospel goes to the israelites first unto them were committed to the oracles of god and then they essentially move their way out which is why he ends up giving the great commission in matthew 28 to teach all nations he says in mark 16 to preach the gospel to every creature and then in acts 1a he says go to jerusalem judaea samaria and then the uttermost parts of the earth okay so what he's saying here is basically i believe what he's referring to here is just priority okay he's going first to the lost sheep of the house of israel i think what the reason he's saying this is twofold one he's teaching priority but two he's going to test her faith that's really what he's doing here is testing the faith of this woman verse 25 says then came she and worshipped him saying lord help me but he answered and said it is not me to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs now i don't think he's literally referring to as a dog he's kind of comparing her to a dog metaphorically to convey priority right it's just like kids eat first and then the dogs and basically saying the gospel goes to the israelites first and then everyone thereafter and he she has a great answer to that says in verse 27 she said truth lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table basically saying well if that's the case i still want some of the crumbs now what does this show on her behalf it shows that she's practicing importunity which is an important doctrine in the bible what is importunity it's persistence in prayer right it's coming to the lord being persistent even when it seems as though the lord's insulting you or something using this metaphor she's just like if that's the metaphor you want to use that's fine i still need the crumbs and this is a great concept here that many christians need to learn in prayer is how to be persistent and the reason i say this because sometimes christians just give up on prayer and the reason they give up is because they don't get the answer on their timeline you understand when they want it you know because we always give god a deadline when we pray right it's just like lord i need this at this time and if you don't give it on this day at this time then i'm just gonna stop praying for it but really what we should do is just keep asking until those doors close you understand and there's many examples of this where in the book of luke particularly when it talks about being importuned be importuned about something that you're praying that it's according to god's will you need to make sure that you're persistent in prayer and you know be the type of person that you know the bible says men are always to pray and not to faint what does that mean not to faint means don't just give up on prayer well it didn't happen so i'm just gonna assume god doesn't want it well for me it's just like until it's like abundantly clear that this door is completely closed why not just keep praying for it right you know some of you might have a family member who at this moment is close to the gospel maybe you just need to keep praying for them okay and i'm all for giving them the gospel but you and i both know that sometimes it's hard to give our family the gospel because you know they changed our diaper or whatever it may be you know and sometimes we just need to get them to church so that someone else can preach the gospel to them but maybe they're just even close to that well just pray that god gives them a a soft and you know a tender heart right and you're like yeah but you don't know my family member okay then go ahead stop praying then stop being importuned in prayer but i still believe that it's important to be persistent in prayer for a specific need if you're praying according to god's will and you know sometimes it takes decades for certain prayers to be answered right and so this is a great example here of a woman who obviously knows about the lord and is coming to him and even though when he's not answering a word because isn't it doesn't prayer feel like that sometimes it's like you pray and you don't get the answer you don't get the word you want and what did she do this she'd be like all right forget it he's not listening you know back to back home dealing with my possessed daughter or whatever no she just kept she just kept at it and in fact the second thing she does is worships the lord so she asks doesn't answer her and then she just worships god she's worshiping and then he and then he gives her an answer that kind of seems like it's not in her favor you know when the circumstances change and they don't seem to be in your favor what do you do well you don't give up says there in verse 25 lord help me basically i know the circumstances are not in my favor but lord help me right and then he he hits her with like the dog metaphor there at which point she still humbles herself and just says well i still need the crumbs from the master's table and then of course he honors her by saying in verse 28 oh woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou would i'm sure she's glad that she just persisted in asking right you know a lot of people don't grow in their faith because of the fact that they don't persist in prayer if you persist persist in prayer and you get the answer to your prayer in the coming years that increases your faith and it helps you to realize you know what i can't i can't just give up on prayer just because it doesn't come at the moment that i wanted it to right we can't expect god to operate like a drive-through like uh you know uh like a starbucks mobile app or something where you just expect it to have it right as soon as you come you know as we can't expect godford to operate like a microwave it's like everything is beautiful in his time and what god requires of us is just to be persistent and keep praying until those doors close or until one opens that you have faith that you know this is what god wants to do it okay so a great great story there let's go to chapter 16 now i'm not going to go over the feeding of the 4000 because it's essentially the same principles that we talked about with the feeding of the 5000 the difference being one was five one was four and so it's pretty much the same principles there look at chapter 16 in verse one it says the pharisees also with the sadducees came and tempting desiring him that he would show them a sign from heaven and he answered and say it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering oh you hypocrites you can discern the face of the sky but you cannot discern the signs of the times now what's going on here well the pharisees and the sadducees are doing what they do best which is being sensual right fleshly sensual devilish it's not enough for them that jesus christ is there in the flesh they want another sign apart from that and it's very similar to what we see in first corinthian chapter one that the bible talks about you know that the jews require a sign and the and the the greek seek after wisdom and of course jesus christ the preaching of the cross to the jews is a stumbling block right so even if jesus christ is right there the word of god made flesh they're not going to believe it unless they see a sign and jesus doesn't give them a sign he's not like catering to the jews saying all right well pick and choose what would you like you know you want me to move the degrees of the sundial back or forward you want to do with giddy he doesn't give him a sign he says the only sign you're going to get is the sign of the prophet jonas and he doesn't even expound what that is because obviously he's talking to the pharisees and sadducees they should know what that is since they are masters of law right but he gives them this little uh rebuke here and he basically says you know when the when the when the sky is fair weather or it's it's red it's just like okay you know it's it's not going to rain no storms are coming however when when it's foul or excuse me when it's red and lowering lowering could be basically mean like overcast you basically know that it's going to be foul weather it's probably going to rain there's going to be a storm and he's saying you can discern what type of weather is going to spring up based upon the face of the sky he goes but you can't seem to discern the signs of the times what is he saying you know how to discern the weather but you can't even tell salvation based upon the face that you're looking at which is jesus you don't even know what salvation is and it's standing right in front of you you can discern the face of the sky but you can't discern the face of god which is jesus christ is basically what he's saying right and why is that well because they're blind they're not saved they've already rejected the truth okay many of these pharisees were already twice dead plucked up by the roots you know they don't want the truth they want to cause they want to crucify the lord they hate the lord many of these people are you know the the the motive is in verse one to tempt him right to trip him up to tempt him it's not because they're looking for the truth they hate the lord now when i think of this particular passage i think of a lot of people out there in the world who maybe claim to be christians online and you know social media that they're really good at discerning the face of the sky what am i talking about you know they're really good at discerning all the evils of this world right like they're really good they can tell you who was on epstein's island they can give you the entire list they can tell you about all of the conspiracies and everyone who's behind it but they can't tell you how to be saved and look that there's a lot of them out there that are like that obviously there's people out there that know both okay we're not talking about them we're talking about the population or the christians out there they could discern the face of the sky they know all the evils of this world they can tell you you know all the illegal stuff that biden is doing they can tell you about everything but they can't discern how to be saved why because the natural matter see if not the things of the spirit of god neither can they know them for they are spiritually discerned right and it's important for us as christians that we major on the important things of the bible and not just frivolous information out there that's causing you to be anxious and fearful and angry that's important i think that's a major temptation for a lot of christians today where they just like to dig into all the evil information of this world because they want justice but you know it's a fool's errand it's a bottomless pit of information it's only going to make you more upset right and we never want to be a church that we can discern the face of the sky of this world all the news that's going on but you don't know any bible right you don't know how to preach the gospel you don't go soul winning you don't read god's word you're not really involved in the spiritual matters the most important matters of this world but you definitely are wise unto evil whereas the bible says be wise concerning good and simple concerning evil you understand and so you know a lot of people out there and the reason i say that is because i am on social media quite a bit because i'm always putting out content particularly on instagram and i get people like this all the time they're constantly sending me videos about project blue beam i'm like what is project blue beam you know they're just sending me videos about aliens and you know the list on eppstein's i don't care about those things honestly it doesn't improve me as a christian you know and they're just like look at all this fraud and and all these things that are going on with the biden administration is just like i don't really need videos on that i know that that guy's crooked i know that guy's the devil i don't really need to know those things and it's not really improving and then but these same people will send me videos like like because they want to bounce it out you know what i mean they'll send me like biblical videos but it's like esv niv with like a bunch of false doctrine on there it's just like you can discern the face of the sky but you can't discern the signs of the times you can't discern which one's the right bible to use you can't discern what that what's the right church to go to you can't even discern the right jesus because they send me things and it's just like the long hair jesus or whatever chosen looking jesus and it's just like man you you major on the truths of this world but the reality is this is the world by wisdom new not god and so it's important for us to have the wisdom of god even if it's not esteemed in the eyes of the world or the truthers of this world who have rejected the truth the true truth which is jesus christ right now obviously in my opinion if you major on the bible and you grow in your discernment you can discern the face of the sky based upon that as well and here's the thing we don't need to be i don't i don't even know what they're called meteorologists what are the what are the weather people called what's the proper term is that correct all right you don't need to be a meteorologist i thought those were people who studied meteors or whatever i can't discern that but you don't need to be a meteorologist to know whether it's going to rain or not you'll be fooled sometimes i mean we're in the summer here in southern california and it's rained like it rained today and yesterday that's just weird that's just unheard of it's like humid outside you faithful word people you guys have no idea what we're talking about or maybe did it rain where you guys were at yeah i mean we have experience and you just never see that and some people are just like happy we're like wow we're getting rain in the summer it's like this is not good for the summer this creates humidity okay and i didn't need to go to school for that to know that but you could look at the sky and you know essentially determine what the weather's going to be like why because you just have a basic understanding of it you just common sense right you see a bunch of clouds and look dark it's like it's probably going to rain right well you know what if you have if you major on the word of god you don't have to go out and dig into evil because once you have god's word you can discern just at a surface level this is wicked this is bad this is not good you don't need to dig in and get all the details all the gory details or whatever and and know of all the iniquity and sin and all the stuff that people are involved in to know that it's bad you can have simple spiritual biblical discernment you have your senses exercised to discern both good and evil and discern the face of the sky of this world right you know you don't need to go be a part of some non-denom church to know that it's not a good church you don't have enough of bible to just look at the outside or just look at a clip of the pastor you're like oh this church is gay you know what i mean this guy is not looking like a biblical pastor in fact you can put them on mute most of these you could just pop you know turn on the video put the pastor on mute and just automatically know this is not a good church he's like moving like this or whatever you know his wrists are flimsy and and you know he has the tight um polo with uh the the ripped jeans but he's like balding and he's like 60 you don't need to listen to anything it's just like my eyes have already has have judged already you know i be an absent have judged already it's like i don't even listen to this guy i just got to watch how he his mannerisms and it's a dead giveaway you can discern the face of this guy okay who he is based upon that and so the pharisees were not able to do that because they were a wicked and adulterous generation who weren't really looking for the truth they were looking for a sign okay and so let's move on here look at verse number five it says when the disciples were come to the other side they had forgotten to take bread then jesus said unto them take heed and beware of the leaven of the pharisees and of the sadducees and they reasoned among themselves saying is it because we have taken no bread now i always chuckle at this verse because it's just like how do you get that i mean was there a time when the pharisees and the sadducees gave you like a bundle of like a basket of bread or something like that like what would make you think that that's what he's referring to because he's saying like hey beware of the leaven of the of the of the pharisees and the sadducees and they're like oh man it's because we've taken no bread so maybe the pharisees and sadducees are selling bread don't buy it from them or something like that it's just like they're lacking discernment they're being too literal about what jesus is saying okay and verse eight says which when jesus perceived he said unto them oh ye of little faith why reason ye among yourselves because ye have brought no bread now why is he saying this well verse 9 says do you not yet understand neither remember the five lows and the five thousand and how many baskets you took up and of course he talks about the seven lows and the four thousand so he's basically saying you know you're so caught up in the physical necessities that you're kind of undermining the spiritual necessities right and this is a temptation for christians sometimes is that when they're in a time of need they have a tendency to overemphasize the physical needs which we're not saying are not important but they kind of they kind of overemphasize the physical needs and underemphasize the spiritual needs okay you know you're going through a tough time maybe you're out of work maybe you're struggling financially you know and then you just start you know when you when the bills are being paid it's easy to have faith it's just like have faith brother you know bills are being paid and everything's going hunky dory there's no problems and you're telling everyone to have faith because it's easy to do that it's just like yeah brother hey just god's on the throne and god will provide for you and you know when everything's on top side you know but it's different when you have to say it when everything's not going the way it goes planned right when maybe you're struggling a little bit financially and things aren't going really well at your job and you're falling behind in your bills maybe you're going into debt a little bit but here's the thing folks is that even in that case we still need to emphasize the spiritual over the physical okay and recognize seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you realize that these are the things that the gentiles seek after okay and it requires some discipline i'll just be honest with you that when you're going through a tough time to still place a considerable amount of emphasis and effort into the spiritual not just the physical okay because a lot of times a lot of these physical needs that we have if you're not careful can pull you away from the spiritual even to the point where you just you just get out of church people start making excuses of why they got to pay the bills then they start missing church on sunday because they got to work overtime or something start missing church during the midweek service and they start you know maybe they don't go soul winning as much or they stop reading i mean it's just like a snowball effect where they begin to make excuses as to why they need to miss spiritual disciplines for the physical needs that they have and they're just like well i don't want to be worse than an infidel you know but but you know to say that is to imply that god is giving us duties that will conflict you understand what i'm saying to say that it's the claim that god is giving us duties the conflict and the duties that god gives us never conflict it should never conflict you know you can still provide for your family and still be in church and in fact i would say it's almost impossible to provide for your family if you're not in church because of the fact that going to church and taking care of the spiritual is more important to god and situates you in a position to be blessed of god so you're in church you're serving the lord you're putting the righteous things first you're seeking after righteousness and the righteous one well then god adds the necessities to your life he provides those things miraculously you know he supernaturally provides for you and then what you get your needs provided and you also get your faith increased as well you understand but in my experience i've just seen too many christians they kind of say no you know i need a i need to provide and so therefore i'm not in church i'm gonna go once a month or something but once a month turns into once every other month and then that turns into once every four months and then before you know it you're not even in church and here's the common excuse that i hear sometimes well i'm still watching online right but you know what online is not church though okay you know uh are you taking up an offering while you're at home are you is there a reading of the scriptures there are you uh do you have a chair and a hymnal you know are you fellowshipping with other brethren or something like that you know obviously the bible says to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is and so you know that's not enough and i know people alleviate their conscience by thinking why i just heard good preaching so i'm still good to go but no part of coming to church is not just the preaching of god's word we need to exhort one another daily you know you need to partake of the fellowship not just the preaching but you know get exhorted by other brethren and you know church kind of levels you out mentally and spiritually especially if you got some weird ideas and you're planning to make some bad decisions right why are you guys laughing is there someone who did recently you know you're planning to make some bad decisions or something it's important for you to be in church so that the older brethren can tell you hey that's a stupid decision you shouldn't do that because i'm just telling you when people get out of church they make a lot of stupid decisions fact i've seen this over and over and over again and it doesn't even take that many services to miss to start making really stupid decisions they just revert back to their old ways old ways of thinking old things of doing and it's just like and then they begin to justify whether it's sin or just a bad idea and no one's there to correct them on it so it's important to be in church because when you're in church you develop key relationships with people that are more spiritually mature than you are and you know you tell them like hey i'm planning to like uh move to a state for a job where there's no church but i can still watch online and then the older brother can say well that's a stupid idea why why in the world would you want to do something like that well they pay really good i can tithe like a lot of money and give to the work of the lord and i'll still do soul winning bad idea stupid idea really you think that's a stupid idea yes it's a really dumb idea you know don't do it and so it's important for us to be in church because then we'll learn the truth through other brethren right kind of helps us and then you realize oh yeah i guess that was a stupid idea actually i would have destroyed my life if i did something like that how did i get off from that what what were we talking about here yeah i know we're talking about church for sure fellowship oh yeah disciple okay yeah yeah disciples taking things too literally but why was i even on that oh oh i remember now i remember now what it was that basically they were emphasizing the physical over the spiritual you understand and how christians have a tendency to do that and it again it requires some discipline that we're going when you're going through a hard time you're still reading your bible when you're in a state of depression in a state of anxiety in a state of need and want you're still waking up every day and you're opening the bible and you're reading it you're praying you're in fellowship with the lord i mean that requires a lot of discipline to do that okay and so jesus is trying to convey a very important truth to the disciples and all they can think about is like the physical bread what they're actually going to eat and then he has to remind them like hey didn't i just provide for five thousand in one instance and for four thousand in another instance it's like so that's another thing that we can learn is that when we're in a time of need in order to kind of lower your anxiety a little bit you got to remember what god did for you in times past like well god came through years ago when i had this particular need he can come through again god did it before he can do it again it doesn't matter how hopeless my situation is nothing's impossible with the lord he owns all the cattle he owns the cattle of thousand hill all the silver and gold he can provide for us therefore i need to keep reading my bible i need to keep going to church i need to keep sowing i need to keep leading my family in the ways of the lord because i know god provided in times past he can provide again he's multiplied the loaves and the fish in times past he can multiply it again okay so it's a great truth there look at verse 9 says or verse 10 sorry verse 11 how is it that you do not understand that i spake it not to you concerning bread that you should be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees then understood they how that he bade them not be aware of the leaven of the bread but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees now when i think of this particular part of this passage i think of the fact that sometimes people come to church listen to this people come to church maybe they have a specific hurt or they're going through a specific trial and they only want to hear sermons about that right like how to overcome they want every sermon to be how to overcome depression or something or like how to fix my marriage and you know those sermons are good and they're needed but did you know that we also have to talk about doctrine of just other subjects and topics sometimes we got to talk about how believing in aliens is stupid every sermon can't be about how to raise your children every sermon can't be about how to fix your marriage every sermon can't be about how to overcome depression i'm not saying that there's not sermons like that because there has to be you know because those are needful but folks we got to preach the entire bible and there's a danger in churches when they only want to when they emphasize one aspect of the bible and just kind of ignore everything else it's like they just want you know a church where they emphasize child rearing they emphasize the family and only preach on the family or they only emphasize a particular doctrine we need to be balanced and just preach everything right now obviously in our church we have you know one time out of the year aside from other sermons but just one time out of the year where we emphasize the family it's family nights and we preach on the family and then you know throughout the year something comes up i'll preach on the family but in general i have the responsibility to just preach everything and so i can't just cater to your hobby horse of a doctrine and just say well can you only preach on reprobates or just you know some people just only want to hear about it in times or they only want to be here about reprobates or they only want to hear about i don't know jews not that that would be in this particular room you know in our church here there would never be someone like that only wants to hear about jews there are people like that here okay let's just be honest okay but sorry every sermon can't be about exposing the jews now that's one of my favorite doctrines obviously like replacement theology is just an awesome doctrine it's one of my favorite and i can just shoot from the hip and talk all about that for hours on end if i wanted to but the reality is this is that we got to talk about matthew 16 i talked about matthew 15 okay and so he's telling them here like hey i'm talking about beware of the leaven of the pharisees and of the sadducees this is what's important right here hey sometimes we have to talk about false prophets and you know there's certain people in our church especially on a sunday morning that i'll preach on false prophets or one of these topics and it just completely goes over their head they're not really interested in it they're just like you know what they don't really care for it but that doesn't mean we can't preach it because we need to talk about all of these topics and then if we flip that around there's certain people that when i preach on the family people in our church just tune out because they're just like well i'm not married you know i'm i don't have kids or you know this isn't really applied to me so they're just like eh but you know what we need to be able to steam all the topics and all the subjects and all the doctrines because they're all important and if you're not married or you don't have kids and i'm preaching on the family then take notes and save it for later so that in 10 years you're not meeting with me like hey how come you never talk about this i'm like i did talk about it you just were not interested in the sermon you know so he's telling them beware of the leaven of the pharisees and of the sadducees in other words he's like you need to be careful with their doctrine because obviously they're false prophets and they're they're trying to infiltrate and spread their doctrine and so beware of that look at verse 13 let me get my water here verse 13 says when jesus came into the coast of cicero philippi he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that i am excuse me that i the son of man am they say some say that thou art john the baptist some elias and others jeremiah's or one of the prophets verse 15 he saith unto him but whom say ye that i am and simon peter answered and said thou art the christ the son of the living god and jesus answered and said unto him blessed art thou simon barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee by my father which is in heaven and i say also unto thee that thou art peter and upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it so let me talk a little bit about this particular passage here that the catholic church will try to use to teach that peter was the first pope even though there's no mention of pope here there's no mention of him being a father or anything of that this is not the ordination of the apostle peter what is he referring to now i do believe that when he says upon this rock i will build my church that he is talking about peter and i think sometimes christians will have a knee-jerk reaction at that because of the fact that that's a verse and an interpretation that catholics will use to prop up their false doctrine that he's the first pope okay but the reason i believe that it says there that it's stating that he is that rock upon which he will build his church it's because of the fact that peter also known as a stone which is what his his name means i think what jesus is saying here is thou art peter upon this rock i will build my church he's saying upon believers i'm going to build my church because it's all based upon the fact that he says thou art the christ the son of the living god and then of course he responds whether with you know flesh and blood does not reveal the sense of thee but my father which is in heaven i say unto thee thou art peter and upon this rock i will build my church now that's not a far-fetched idea because of the fact that when you look at different portions of scripture especially throughout the new testament you clearly see that christians are often described as being stones and in fact go to first peter if you would ironically enough first peter i wonder where he got this particular passage from look at first peter chapter two first peter chapter two it says it will start in verse number one it says wherefore laying aside all mouths and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted that the lord is gracious to whom coming as unto a lively stone excuse me a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of god and precious that's referring to jesus and then he says in verse 5 ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god by jesus christ and so you know christians are referred to lively stones because of the fact that we live unto god we're saved we're believers and the spiritual house which is what a church is supposed to be is made up of all believers it's not made up of unbelievers it's not made up of people just of different beliefs and cultures or excuse me religious cultures it's made up of christians people who are saved and when you look for example when john the baptist is preaching is rebuking the pharisees and the sadducees he says god is able of these stones to raise up children unto abraham and when you look at galatians we see that believers are spiritual children of abraham so i believe what he's saying here is upon this rock i will build my church he's basically saying upon believers those who confess christ as being the savior is that which is going to build the church okay it's made up of call out assembly of baptized believers is what he's saying there go back to matthew chapter 15 and so he calls them stones he calls them lively stones and obviously peter is an apostle that ephesians chapter 2 says like essentially was like the catalyst of the start of the churches because he's out there preaching the gospel they're starting churches along with paul and others but obviously those churches are made up of believers okay he says the gates of hell shall not prevail against it now when you think about this you know a lot of these verses in the old testament really makes sense for example in leviticus chapter 14 you have some instructions given to the nation of israel as to what to do when there's leprosy in the house okay you know the priest was supposed to go inside the house and assess the house for the leprosy and if the leprosy had spread to the walls for example they were supposed to take the stone because it actually uses that term take the stones and then cast them into an unclean place okay and then it also says then you get a new stone to replace that old stone that was covered with leprosy and i think that's a great principle in the new testament when it comes to churches and church discipline which is why in ecclesiastes 3 the bible says there's a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones in other words you know in church according to first corinthians chapter 5 you have you know people who are involved in sin and they're unrepentant well it's time to cast away that stone and not say well let's just disciple them let's work with them folks if someone's committing adultery in the church right they're committing adultery and they are unrepentant of it then it's time to give them the boot this is not a place for them to be and let me say this when when we say repent we mean like you're not like in that relationship anymore it's not like yeah i'm really sorry but then you're continuing in that relationship i know this is silly but i mean i've heard of churches who do this or it's just like oh they repented but then they're like still sitting in church together it's it's it's wild the bible says we're going to cast that stone away and then you have people to say yeah but if you do that how are you going to reach people you're going to chase people away how are you going to reach people i'll tell you how by putting in a new stone where that old stone was people the church folks our church over the last six years we've lost a lot of people people have come and gone a lot of people have come and gone whether because of they're kicked out because of sin they're heretics or they just go somewhere else they leave on good terms you're like how's the church still growing because we're still adding new stones to the building so the goal is to keep the church pure by exercising church discipline but not just leave it at that we need to go out and reach more people you know through sowing or when new people come to the church they get saved we encourage them to bring their friends family members co-workers and that happens very regularly at our church where you know families you know there's families in our church that invite old friends and they come and then they invite their friends that's how the church works my friends is by replacing the unclean stones with clean stones okay and so he says there upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it look at verse 19 and david actually asked me about this on sunday because he was hit with this verse out so when he says in verse 19 and i will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven now the catholics will say this is proof that peter was the first pope because he's giving him this incredible authority to bind things on earth and god's like oh pope peter said it say less we're binding in heaven as well and obviously he is talking to peter right because he says thou he says thee he says thou which is what singular talking to one specific person which in context is peter so yes peter does have that ability but not just peter because go to chapter 18 if you would chapter 18 talking about church discipline look at verse 17 it says if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church but if he shall neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a publican verse 18 barely i say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven the same exact thing in matthew 15 matthew 16 excuse me the difference being what ye referring to multiple people plural so it's not just peter he's given this authority to he's given it to peter because he's a believer he's a safe person but he's also given it to the individuals in a local church as noted by the fact that it says ye thee in matthew 16 ye and matthew 18 peter's not the first pope that's just basically what i mean okay if he's a pope i'm a pope and so are you except for you women okay i don't know what what the the antithesis is to pope for a woman but you know pope that was good go back to matthew 16 then charged he is disciples in verse 20 then charged he is disciples that they should tell no man that he was jesus the christ verse 21 from that time from that time forth began jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day then peter took him and began to rebuke him saying be afar from the lord this shall not be unto thee but he turned and said unto peter get thee behind me satan thou art an offense unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of god but those that be of men now this is a very funny passage to me because of the fact that on the first day on the job he screws it up as pope like literally like seconds after he's ordained as the pope he's like rebuking jesus and then seconds after jesus is calling him satan you know because they have this doctrine of like the infallibility of the pope where they say like well he's not sinless but everything that he says is authoritative well really because he's saying that jesus is not going to die which is contradicting the scriptures so his first infallible statement that he makes is that jesus is not going to die it's like dude all everything in the bible is like about this one moment when jesus christ dies and he resurrects and that's the first thing he just like he botches so if peter is their first pope he sucks because he's already making all kinds of mistakes he's like rebuking jesus he's saying he's not going to die and then the lord is just calling him satan i mean like you had one job peter if he was a pope but obviously peter's not the first pope and i think i believe that this story clearly shows that okay and it's so funny because catholics have this tendency to like teach doctrines that are just obviously contradicted in the bible like you know you know sometimes newer christians you know they they hear about these cults and and these sects of christianity and and some of their beliefs require some study to be able to answer but it's really good because there's like a novice level that you can enter in at and just go after the catholics first because it's such easy money with that right it's just like here's your entry-level cult that you can go after it's really simple because a lot of their stuff they're just clearly contradicts the bible you know because other other cults they'll pull out verses that you kind of have to look at and read it in its context to be able to debunk or refute because they're more sly about it catholics are just like i feel like catholics just looked at the bible and say whatever the bible says let's just do the exact opposite and there's our false religion there's one mediator between god and man they're just like mary the mediatrix it's just like it's so easy to debunk them because it's like they just go for the clear statements of the bible and just do the exact opposite so some of you babes in christ you know here's like uh it's like shooting fish in a barrel you can just go for the catholics because they're so easy to debunk but anyways i'm going to stop right there and i'll finish this uh maybe next week when we go over chapter 17 what is the main thing the takeaways from chapter 16 well you know don't forget the fact that obviously from chapter 15 be important in prayer but also don't major on discerning the face of the sky of the times and news and the evils of this world major on discerning the word of god okay don't major on being a babe in christ but knowing all the evils of this world you know you should major on you know being a grown adult spiritually speaking that's not in need of milk but you can handle the strong meat because you have your senses exercised to discern both good and evil and then of course recognize that when you go through a difficult time in your life which is going to happen it's going to happen this week it's going to happen this month it's going to happen this year just kind of be like daniel and purpose in your heart you're still going to emphasize that which is spiritual and realize this is that no trial lasts forever so if you can just handle that little season of difficulty as you're reading the bible as you're praying as you're in church you know you're going to come out stronger in the long run thereafter and so we'll stop right there let's pray father we thank you so much for your word we're so thankful for matthew 16 and all the great doctrines that it that it gives us lord i pray that you'd help us as your people to sift through the difficult times that we experience and none of these last forever and so help us to just endure through the adversities that we experience lord and still emphasize the spiritual to major on the spiritual more than on the physical and i pray you bless us as we go on already give us a great weekend lord bless the sony on saturday with hold fast i pray you help us to see a great harvest of souls may you soften the hearts of those we're going to speak to lord and may you bless all there is lord we love you so much and we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen all right we have one last song song 260 he is able to deliver thee song 260 he is able to deliver thee everyone all together nice and strong tis the grandest thing through the ages wrong tis the grandest thing for a mortal son seems the grandest thing that the world there sung our god is able to deliver thee he is able to deliver thee he is able to deliver thee though by sin oppressed go to him for rest our god is able to deliver thee tis the grandest theme in the earth or main tis the grandest theme for a mortal strain tis the grandest theme tell the world again our god is able to deliver thee he is able to deliver thee he is able to deliver thee though by sin oppressed go to him for rest our god is able to deliver thee tis the grandest theme let the tidings roll to the guilty heart to the sinful soul look to god in faith he will make thee whole our god is able to deliver thee he is able to deliver thee he is able to deliver thee though by sin oppressed go to him for rest our god is able to deliver thee amen wonderful singing you are dismissed