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All right, the title of the sermon this morning is the backsliding heifer the backsliding heifer look down at your bibles at hosea chapter 4 And verse number 15. It says though thou israel play the harlot yet Let not juda offend and come not ye unto gilgal neither go ye up to bethaven nor swear the lord liveth for israel Slided back as a backsliding heifer. Now the lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place now When we read the old testament, you know, god will often address the nation of israel as though they're an individual, right? We obviously know that israel was was a literal individual But when he addresses the nation of israel, he often just concises it and makes it as though he's talking to one person And this is great because of the fact in the new testament the bible tells us that these things happen unto them For our examples and they're written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come So when god addresses israel as an individual we can actually apply that to ourselves in the new testament And take it for a spiritual instruction reprovement Etc. So we in the new testament as believers can take the instructions the warnings The condemnation that god passes on to israel and apply it to ourselves and especially in this matter of backsliding And in fact the word backsliding backslidden is found More so in the old testament than it is in the new testament And the term backsliders is basically used to describe the nation of israel forsaking the lord and reverting back to idolatrous practices We see that coming throughout the bible, right? We see that in the old testament that israel would be right with god They would serve the lord. They do the proper sacrifices They keep the sabbaths they obey his commandments But then another generation would arise who would forsake the lord They would leave the sanctuary They'd serve the gods the pagan gods that surrounded them of the nations that were surrounding them and they would backslide They would revert back to those practices And the idea of a backslider or backsliding Is that at one point they were going forward, right? But now in light of their sin, they are sliding backwards. They're going astray. They're forsaking the lord Let me read to you from isaiah chapter 1 verse 3. It says the ox knoweth his owner and the ass is master's crib But israel does not know my people does not consider all sinful nation A people laid in with iniquity a seed of evildoers children are corruptors. They have forsaken the lord They have provoked the holy one of israel unto anger. They are gone away Back where the bible says in hosea chapter 14, you don't have to turn there. He says in verse number one Oh israel return unto the lord thy god for thou has fallen by thy iniquity It says take with you words and turn to the lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously So will we render the calves of our lips verse 4 says I will heal their backslidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him This is constantly being talked about when in reference to the nation of israel getting away from god now in hosea chapter 4 We find a very interesting analogy, right? Because he says there look down at your bibles at uh chapter 4 Verse 16 for israel slided back how as a backsliding heifer now, this is pretty funny, isn't it? Like he's like calling him a heifer and you know Why would he use that? Well Why would god choose to use livestock to characterize the reverting back or going astray? A heifer simply a cow and more specifically it's actually a cow that has not borne calves Okay, but it's a cow and when you think of a cow, you know, this is livestock. That's pretty heavy Right And it's an animal that's very weighty. And in fact the average female cow weighs approximately 1600 pounds pretty heavy And it's actually been observed that with cows that when they begin to graze They will actually refuse to go uphill to graze on a mountain or on a hill They'd actually prefer to stay around the contours of that hill. They don't want to go up and work for their food So now picture this picture a cow that weighs up to 1600 pounds Trying to make their weight upward going up a hill what is going to hinder and impede that animal from making it to the top The weight right because eventually it's so heavy that it's going to revert and backslide and just continue to go around the contours and the outlining of The mountain there now this is true of israel. Why is that? Well Israel they love the lord, but they got away and in fact the weight of the vanity the sin The idolatry and paganism basically precipitated their downward spiral spiral to the point where they hit rock bottom God had to chastise them and whoop them and basically scourge them in order to get them to come back onto him Now the same can be said of us, right? You know when we allow sin into our lives when we begin to backslide, you know God will basically use that and he'll use the consequences of those sins and he'll begin to chastise us as well in order to get Us to come back to him and in fact, we can be basically You know characterized as a backsliding heifer because just as the heifer is very weighty The bible actually tells us wherefore seeing the year compassed about so with so great a cloud of witnesses Let us lay aside every what wait And the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us and so, you know We can characterize the christian life as going forward You know, we just sung the song i'm pressing on the upward way Why is that because we're going up right? We're seeking to to get closer to god. We want to serve him love him more every single day We don't want to revert back to old sins We don't want to backslide and forsake the lord forsake church forsake bible reading that which is very much important But what will cause us to do that the weights? Right being a backsliding heifer a fat cow That has so much weight that it's going to impede us from going forward for the lord The bible says in philippians chapter 3 go with me if you would to jeremiah chapter number eight It says brethren I count on myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before I Press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ. Jesus, you know, we want to avoid the pit of backsliding You know, we want to avoid forsaking the lord. Now. What does that look like when we say this person forsook the lord? Well, you know people don't like this but in but reality is it's like when you leave church And you don't come back like oh you can't say someone is backslidden because they're not going to church, you know, jesus christ Gave his life for the church You know He purchased the church with his own blood and the bible literally says forsake not the assembly Of ourselves together as the manner of some is but so much the more as you see the day approaching Church attendance is very much important to god, right bible reading is important Soul winning is important all these things collectively are important to the lord But you know, we can rest assured that if someone leaves church It's just the fruit of the fact that they're probably in a backslidden state. Okay, why because we know that that's an integral part of our lives You know the assembling of ourselves together the fellowship and the preaching of god's word listening to these things This is important to god and when people forsake the lord, you know pop, you know Often the thing to go first is church attendance Begin to make excuses why we can't go begin to make reasons why something else is more important than church attendance This is what it looks like. Now. Let me just say this is that backsliding is common throughout the bible Why is that because it's just common to human nature Okay, you know, you're not like a heathen if you backslide and you trip and you fall, you know This is unfortunately it is common. This is something that is common to man You look throughout the bible you find backsliders backsliders all over the place from leaders to you know Just regular servants of the lord you have for example, saul Saul unfortunately backslid and guess what? He finished his life in that state That's a sad place to be and the bible tells us, you know A just man fallen seven times and rises up again But there are times when people backslide so hard there's no coming back from that And you think of saul being an example of that how about samson Samson was one of the strongest men that ever lived in the bible He was going to be used greatly of god as one of the judges the spirit of the lord would come upon him And he would do great exploits for the lord delivering god's people from the hand of the philistines and his enemies But what happened he finished his life and not so good of a way, right? I mean he ended up committing suicide He because of his fornication and his pride and arrogance. He he fell he backslid and he finished his life that way You know, how about solomon? One of the wisest men that ever lived You know god imparted into him divine wisdom to write the book of proverbs to write the book of Ecclesiastes to write songs and whatnot and he was used greatly, but you know what he was carried away By the pagan wives that he married and the concubines that he had And eventually he just forsook the lord and he finished his life that way he backslid. How about in the new testament? You have peter Peter's pretty hardcore This guy was like man i'll go with you into prison I'll, you know, though though You go into prison. I will go with i'll die with you. I mean if people followed his lead, but what happened? He actually forsook the lord for a season and and thank god he bounced back Right, he bounced back. He got back on board and god was still able to use him in a great way Thereafter, but he backslidden the bible tells us demons hath forsaken me having loved this present world. What does that mean? He backslid and we don't know if demons bounced back or not or if he got right with god or not We just know that for all eternity. He will be known as the person who forsook the lord because he loved his present world You know backsliding can really damage your life. It could damage the lives of those around you now look at jeremiah chapter 8 verse 5 The bible says in verse 5 why then is this people of jerusalem slitting back By a perpetual backsliding they hold fast to see they refuse to return now No one's perfect. We make mistakes we sin every day But the the the goal is is that when we sin we get right immediately You know, you never want to allow a space of time when you're backsliding to be elongated for two for too long You know, you don't want to be in that state of perpetually backsliding What happens when you perpetually backslide eventually You're going to forsake the things of god You're going to forsake the house of god your bible reading the point is is that when you sin when you do wrong? You you notice it immediately you confess it before the lord you repent of it and you get right with god You know if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness the bible says You know, we need to take advantage of that and make sure that every day we're getting right with god We're being good repenters, right because we want to avoid Being a perpetual backslider because once you're perpetually backsliding it's harder to get back It's a lot more difficult You know if a cow Is making a way it's way uphill and it's almost to the top it begins to revert back and slide back Once they hit rock bottom, it's actually harder to be motivated to go back to the top Right because you put so much work into going to the top you put so much work into going forward You put so much work into your bible reading and to improving yourself as a christian When you hit rock bottom when you come back to the bottom of the mountain It's very difficult to make your way back up again now. It's possible Absolutely, but you know you get someone who's been out of church for years They haven't read their bible for years. It's difficult to get back on the board back back on board again It's difficult to just start opening up your bible reading again Making it back to church and the reality is you have satan the flesh and the world combating you in this area You know putting you down discouraging you making you depressed and you just make excuses to say well Maybe maybe next year i'll get back into it, you know, maybe next month i'll get back back into it Reality is you need to do it today Okay. Now there's this false teaching by by lane comfort that says, you know, there's no such thing as a backsliding christian only false conference So he says like the backsliding does not exist amongst christians Now, what does this tell you about him? This tells you he does not read the bible Because it's found multiple times. The word is literally found multiple times in the bible In regards to a nation forsaking the lord and god admonishing them to return back unto him, right? And you'll say this. Well, there's no such thing as a backsliding christian There's only false conference because he has this doctrine that if you're saved you're always going to be in church If you're saved, you're always going to be repenting. You're never going to do wrong, you know, it's a sinless perfection false doctrine heresy That basically tells people well if they went out from us They were not of us for if they had been of us they would have no doubt continued with us That's that's talking about false prophets. Yeah, right. Let's talk about people who are anti-christ like judas, okay Backsliding Is commonplace in the church Today in our church today. It's it's common amongst christians And in fact the bible even tells us the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord though he fall Yet, you know the bible says he will not utterly be cast down for the lord upholdeth him with his hand So what does that tell us? It tells us even if a person falls into sin they fall out of church to get away from god The bible literally tells us they will not utterly be cast down Why because he's just such a great christian a great man of god that he's just going to stay on the right path No matter what. No, it tells us because the lord Upholdeth him with his hand the bible tells go to hebrew chapter number 10 if you would hebrew chapter number 10 What i'm saying is this is that you know when people backslide doesn't mean they lose their salvation Because we know it's impossible to lose your salvation Okay But there's people out there that want to teach that and they actually use this scare tactic to say Well, if you get out of church, you know, you're you're you're you're you might lose your salvation and you know You might you might fall from grace And if you're saved by grace or faith You know might want to check your salvation No Look what the bible says in hebrew chapter 10, by the way Same chapter where we find the bible telling us forsake not the assembly of our of ourselves together, you know Not forsaking church. Look what it says in hebrew 10 verse 38 now the just shall live by faith But if any man draw back now, what does that mean? It means to go backwards, right? It means to forsake god it means to backslide if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him now This is correct. Amen What is it telling us? You know, if we backslide god's not pleased with that It doesn't matter how many excuses you make It doesn't matter how many good reasons you have to get out of church. God is not pleased, right? If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him verse 39 But we are not of them who draw back unto what perdition So it's like by the way, if you draw back you're not going to go to hell Because we are not of them that draw back into perdition but what but of them that believe to the saving of the soul So it says look even if you draw back you just get in the worst condition the worst sin the worst whatever Hey, thank god, you're still saved Because you're not of them that will draw back into perdition. We believe to the saving of the soul Hey, you shall be saved yet. So as by fire You know, you might lose all the eternal rewards You may not be able to be used by god in a great way if you're just out there You know sinning and and forsaking god But at the end of the day if you're saved you're saved and thank god for that But just know this my soul shall have no pleasure in him You know, we want god to be pleased with us. Do we not and he doesn't expect perfection What he expects is just obedience And when we make a mistake, we confess it before god we get right we repent and and we just get back into the fold Amen, amen You know, it's a horrible feeling when you're backsliding Okay, it's a horrible feeling when you're just out of church or or your heart is not right with god And i'll get into that in just a bit. You know, it's a beautiful feeling When you get right with god, right and you know, we as david can say, you know create within me a clean heart Renew a right spirit within me, you know restoring to me the joy of thy salvation. What does backsliding do? Well, it robs you of your joy You're no longer you're no longer happy, you know, there's something missing well, what is that it's obedience to the lord It's being with the brethren It's being able to read the word of god and still have a tear because you know that you have god's favor on your life You know, you know that god is blessing you It's it's knowing man. I'm right with god. I know that i'm right with god, you know It robs you of these things go with me if you would to Go to jeremiah chapter 15 jeremiah chapter 15. So what does backsliding do it robs your joy Doesn't matter how much you enjoy your sin at the present moment. The bible says that the pleasures of sin are for a season It's only going to last for a little bit, you know bread of the sea is sweet But you know afterwards thy mouth shall be filled with gravel the bible says, you know You can enjoy sin for a month for a week for even a year But at the end of the day afterwards thy mouth shall be filled with gravel. You're going to despise it You're going to hate it and you're going to realize the consequences of your sin was not worth it, right? So it robs you of your joy Look at jeremiah 15 verse 5. It says for who shall have pity upon thee o jerusalem Or who shall bemoan thee or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest Thou has forsaken me saith the lord thou are gone backward Therefore I will stretch out my hand against thee to what and destroy thee I am weary with repenting. So what does backsliding do it robs you of your joy? But guess what? It also causes god to chastise you it causes god's hand to be against you Why is that because if you're a child of god, which means that if you're saved god will chastise those whom he loves Or in hebrew chapter 12, right? He scourges every son whom he received the bible says And you know god knows how to hit you where it hurts He knows how to get you where it hurts to get your attention and you don't want to live like that You know, you don't want to live your life always being chastised by god because eventually god will just say you know What i'm just going to take you home So you don't finish your life in shame. I'm going to allow you to just go home right away I don't want that for my life I want to live as long as I possibly can to serve the lord to see more people safe to see my children grow up Right to do great exploits for him because that's what that's what god wants for me I don't want to revert to plan b where god just has to destroy my life because i'm not willing to get right with him You know where his hand is against me. I want his hand to be on me For his favor. I don't want it to be against me. You understand Look what it says in jeremiah chapter 2 jeremiah chapter 2 So backsliding robs you of your joy You're no longer happy you become grumpy and angry and what do you do you begin to blame everyone? Well as the pastor You know, you know, he he he didn't call me one time or he didn't answer my text message or you know He preached a sermon. I knows about me or you know You know as a person in church and they offended me and oh, I don't agree with this doctrine or whatever by the way Mark it down sometimes when people leave our church They've been backsliding backsliding long ago And they use another reason to say why they left You know, they're like, well, I don't agree with this doctrine pastor. Mahia preaches or whatever, you know, you know I heard he said that if you doubt your salvation, you know, you're not even safe. I don't agree with that And what they'll do is they'll use that as an excuse Even though they're already backslidden. They just need a reason to leave So they don't want to they don't want to go to the pastor or the church and say i'm backslidden. So i'm i'm gonna leave Because I don't want to be here because i'm backslidden So instead to say face they'll just say well, I don't agree with you on this doctrine or I don't like this person I just don't feel welcome here anymore You know people are mean to me I just feel like i'm not growing They'll use an external reason something that's not true To basically make up for the fact that they are backslidden, okay? Look at jeremiah 2 verse 17 says has thou not procured this unto thyself And that thou has forsaken the lord thy god when he led thee by the way And now what hast thou to do in the way of egypt to drink waters of saihor? Or what hast thou to do in the way of assyria to drink the waters of the river thine own wickedness Shall correct thee And thy backslidings shall reprove thee Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou has forsaken the lord thy god And that my fear is not in thee saith the lord of hosts What is he saying aside from the fact that god's hand is against you? Guess what? You also have to deal with the fact that the repercussions of your sin Your own wickedness shall correct thee Your backsliding shall reprove thee why because there are built-in consequences to sin So sometimes god doesn't even need to chastise you you just get chastised by your own stupid actions They already have built-in ramifications and consequences That can be devastating to your life and guess what when you know it, you know it You know, man, this is my fault. I did this, you know The wicked my wickedness and my backslidings have reproved me and look it's good because at that point you recognize I need to get back, you know to church. I need to get back to god. I need to return unto him, right? So we want to avoid backsliding and again look there might be someone in here who's backsliding Maybe they've been backsliding for a couple days But the point is this is that you just get right with god Immediately. Amen, you know, you just you confess it before the lord you get a good night's rest you get yourself a triple triple You take you got to look use the elijah formula Right. I don't want to die And god's like you need to go to sleep I'll bring a raven to feed you and he ate he He he ate he slept and then he ate and woke up and ate again and slept again, right? Sometimes that's what you need Sometimes people just need a break. Okay, but here's the thing not a break from church A break from church Not a break from your bible reading not a break from your spiritual habits that are good You just need a break from just yourself sometimes, you know And just slow down a little bit. We want to avoid backsliding as much as possible So how the heifer slides back and how can we counter how do we as christians end up in a perpetual? Backslid and stay go with me if you went to acts chapter seven acts chapter number seven Acts chapter number seven We're talking about the backsliding heifer I don't want you to be a backsliding heifer You know and we as sheep can become can transform into cows Why because then we get all this weight we get all this vanity We increase our sinfulness and we do things we're not supposed to do and that causes us to revert back to go back to old Ways and to backslide and forsake the lord. So number one, how does a person begin to backslide? Well, let me say this number one it begins in the heart Actually begins in the heart What do I mean by that? Well, you know It begins when you begin to entertain The possibilities of being back in the world again Going back to old friends having fun again You know you name it that's where it begins begins with your thoughts. Look at act seven verse 38 says This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in mount sinai With our fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto us to whom our fathers would not obey But thrust him from them and in their hearts Turn back again into egypt That says saying unto erin make us gods to go before us for as this moses We which brought us out of the land of egypt. We want not what has become of him Did they have something against moses? No, they just wanted to go back to egypt in their hearts So when you begin to entertain the possibilities of life outside of church Outside of the service of the lord. That's where it begins when you begin to like look at your friends and your neighbors and the joneses then you see all the money that they have And the possessions that they have and you know, your buddy gets to sleep in on sunday You know, he doesn't have to go soul winning He doesn't have to do all these things if he seems to be having a good time you begin to entertain the fact Well, maybe I should just get out of church Maybe I should just take a break And get out of church for a couple months just kind of just you know, I need to put it on cruise control There's no such thing as cruise control in the christian life There's only forward or backward You know now you can slow down You can you know, put it into second gear you can put it into first gear, but you always have to be going forward If not, you will go back and it begins in your heart, you know And this is common in the bible as well where people begin to look at the evildoers That's why god is constantly telling us people. Hey, you know envy not the evildoer Don't envy wicked people who seem to be prospering in their way and look Maybe god allows some people to prosper in this world who are not saved in order for them to see the goodness of god And it would cause them to seek out the lord and get saved. Amen So don't look at them and say well, you know, they're having fun or or maybe it's going well with them They're able to pay their bills, you know, they got a job. They're not struggling like me Why maybe I need to go back into the world. No, that's not that's not the answer The answer is this this world is not our home We need to recognize. You know what? We're just sojourning in this world. This isn't our home You know, our home is a lot nicer than this You know, we have we have mansions prepared for us. Our lord is there You know, there's there's so many things that we have to look forward to but what happens is people sometimes they set their affections On the things of this earth. This is why the bible tells us setting out your affections on the things of this world But but on on heaven, right? It tells us to make sure that we protect our heart Now go with me if you would to uh, go to second corinthians chapter three I think I got the wrong verse here Sorry second corinthians chapter 10 go to second corinthians chapter 10 I'm going to read to you from jeremiah chapter 7. So how do we counter this? Because everyone gets these imaginations Don't tell me you don't I don't I don't miss the world. I don't miss you know, the things of course you do because you have the flesh And look your type of world may be may be different from my type of world My type of world is different from someone else in the church But at the end of the day, you know There's something in our hearts that still desires those things and it's because of the fact that we have the flesh You know, maybe you got saved later on in life. You came to the christian life with baggage, you know There's certain appetites that you might have that are more destructive than others But at the end of the day the world is still the world and you can still be tempted by the world That's why you got to protect our hearts The bible says in jeremiah 7 22 for I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them Out of the land of egypt concerning the burnt offerings or sacrifices But this thing commanded I them saying obey my voice and I will be your god and you shall be my people And walk ye in all the ways that i've commanded you that it may be well with you, but they harken not Nor incline their ear but walked in the counsels and the imagination Of their evil heart and went backward and not forward. You see that's why it's important for you to be in church Right and not only that but when you hear preaching you don't just reject it but you consider it right you take it into account You listen to it. You try to obey it and don't follow the imaginations of your evil heart Look, uh, you're in second corinthians chapter 10. Look down your bibles at verse number Five it says casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ So look When you get this imagination you begin to entertain the possibilities of going out into the world Man, I need to go hang out with my buddies so we can go pick up on some chicks I want to go back with my girlfriend so we can go clubbing Whatever it is that people do nowadays do clubs even exist anymore Maybe that was like a 90s thing You use your equivalent, okay You know when you get begin to get those thoughts, you know, what does the bible say cast down those imaginations? You know and every high thing and it says you need to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ So it's like you're spiritually when you get that thought you just gotta like shake it off, right? Like I can't think that way, you know, don't let your mind control you you need to control your mind Your mind needs to be in subjection to you You need it needs to work for you You use it to think upon that which is lovely and righteous and true You use it to memorize scripture you use it to think upon the lord You use it to become a better person to be smarter to have more knowledge Don't use it or don't allow your mind to use you as a vessel to basically flesh out what it's thinking Right. So when it's thinking man, I want to go and do this in you know, I say shut up We're not doing that We're going to go to church. We're going to listen to some preaching. I want I want to have ears to hear Hey brain, I want you to remember what's being preached I want you to think about the scriptures brain You know, I want to I want you to read books. I want you to read the bible I want you to entertain godly thoughts instead of entertaining fleshly things entertain the possibility of you winning someone to christ Like man, you know, I want to I want to win this person over why don't you win someone to jesus instead? You know, imagine yourself if you've never gone. So why don't you entertain the thoughts? Of winning your first person to christ Why don't you entertain the possibilities of of raising your children for god Why don't you entertain the possibility of being a pastor one day? If you're qualified, right? If you've not disqualified yourself Entertain the possibilities of how god can use you. You see the imagination is a wonderful thing I love having an imagination Because you know god says that he calls those things which are not as though they work And that is an imagination It's when we can imagine what could possibly happen within the next five years 10 years 20 years with our family with our church and it helps us to just Envision the possibilities but you know what that can turn against us as well And our imagination can be used against us to to basically imagine wicked things that will take us out of church Because look if you imagine something for example sinning or whatever it may be eventually if you keep entertaining those thoughts, it's gonna happen, right? You imagine man, I wonder what it's like to commit adultery or for singles, you know I wonder what it's like to fornicate, you know Just to have a girlfriend and or have a boyfriend and have this physical relationship if you entertain those thoughts enough. It's gonna happen But you know, I think about this if you entertain godly thoughts That can happen too Right, you're like man. I wonder what it's like to win my first person to christ I wonder what it's like to go on a mission trip and you just keep thinking about it and thinking about it thinking about it Eventually, it's going to motivate you to actually go and do it And that's what god wants, right? The bible tells us keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life colossians 3 1 says if you've never been risen with christ seek those things which are above Where christ sitteth on the right hand of god set your affections on things above not on the things of this earth The bible tells us that demas has forsaken paul having loved this present world and is departed unto thessalonica First john 2 15 says love not the world Neither the things that are in the world if any man loved the world the love of the father is not in him. Hey Check yourself. Do you love the world? You know, well, I love the world and I love god impossible You can't Well, I just love certain things of this world and my affection is still there, but I still love god No You're you're deceiving yourself because the bible tells us that if you love these things the love of the father is not in you This is not referring to the fact that god doesn't love you anymore. There's nothing that can separate us from the love of god Right, it can't separate. There's nothing that we can do that can cause god to not love us anymore He will always love the bible says that he'll love us with an everlasting love But you know, there's certain things we can do that can cause us to not love him And when we begin to entertain the world And we allow the world to captivate us You know at that point our love for the lord can diminish you know That's one thing we can't waver on is our love for god, right? Because that's the the the vehicle of motivation that god gives us in order to keep serving him The love of christ constrained us the bible says right You know whether someone offends you or you don't agree with something or something catastrophic happens in your life You know at the end of the day you can say to yourself i'm not going to leave church I'm, not going to stop reading my bible. I'm not going to stop being a godly parent for my children because I love the lord I love god, right and you may be thinking to yourself. Well, i've gone past that point You know, I backslid or i've backslid him then you know what if you love me keep my commandments How can you correct that you just begin to keep the commandments of god again you begin to obey the lord And incrementally make your way back That's what this is. Why god says draw nigh to me and i'll draw nigh to you, right? If you begin to make steps going back to the lord He will meet you more than halfway To get you right with him, okay So make church and preaching a necessity now go to psalm 73 Now I know there's these like house church idiots out there And they're just like well i'm right with god and I don't need church You know the church. Why is it? Why do you guys go to church on sundays? Why is there only one leader? We should all be leaders. Okay. Okay. Cora, dathan and abiram Right Church is necessary And you can measure A successful christian based upon their attendance right if they come to church and they're here. They're faithful You're like, oh that's cold. Like no cold. Like if I say lock the doors Right we're taking three offerings today lock the doors you can never leave That's not cold light To say the church is a necessity. I don't force anybody to stay here In fact, sometimes I force people to get out right Why is church so necessary in order for us not to backslide Well, look at psalm 73 verse 1 truly. God is good to israel Even to such as our clean heart but as for me My feet were almost gone My steps had well nice slip for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity Of the wicked so this guy's having like a pity party He's like god's good But me, you know, what was me? And he's like I was envious at the foolish and he begins to go over a list of things that the wicked have That he doesn't have And he's just kind of complaining and just murmuring and he's just like man. I almost fell almost Well, nice slip but look what it says in verse 16 When I thought to know this it was too painful for me, you know All this prosperity of the wicked all the things that they have and I don't but hold on a second verse 17 until I went into the sanctuary of god Then understood I their end So he's just like man. I was so envious at my buddies who were in the world I was so envious at all these people who are just doing better than me until I went to church And then I understood either end What is he saying? Well, I know what where that type of lifestyle leads to Because I went to the house of god and they preached the word of god and I learned you know what? Phooey with this lifestyle Because I know where that leads You know, you see your buddies and they're just living a a a promiscuous life, you know They're committing adultery on their wives, or maybe they're just fornicating or they're doing drugs. They're drinking You're like man, it looks so fun. But hold on a second if you come to church If you go to the assembly of god pastor is going to rip on those things and tell you how you can get an std if you do so Tell you to get cirrhosis of the liver if you continue drinking tell you you're going to be a stupid idiot if you smoke pot You know will make sin look exceedingly sinful and what happens then you're like, well, I don't believe that anymore Doesn't look that fun anymore Yeah, because now, you know the repercussions of that type of lifestyle You know when children are being born out of weillock and your child is a bastard When you contract hiv or some type of std gonorrhea chlamydia when you get herpes You shouldn't talk about that. No, we need to make it look exceeding sinful In order for people to realize why am I envying? these people They're miserable They have herpes They have stds You know, yeah, you're you have to wake up early to come to church But guess what your buddy who drank last night is vomiting his guts out Because of all the alcohol that he drank the night before right? Oh so fun, but now he's he's he's got this this crazy headache He's drinking clamato He's trying to overcome it and you're in here smiling drinking some coffee Fellowshiping thinking about the things of god. Hey, you look like you're doing pretty well now In comparison to your buddy your envious hat, you know When you get down in the dumps and you begin to look at the luster of this world and begin to envy The prosperity of the wicked come to church And i'll remind you What the end of that person is? And when you're reminded of that you're like, wow, why did I even envy such an idiot? Why did I envy this woman? Why did I envy this man? Why did I envy these group of people? They're like miserable actually You know, yeah, but you know, they get to stay home and smoke pot and watch cartoons Eating a bowl of cereal That's loser status right there You are a loser a brain dead idiotic Loser with no purpose in life and look some of those guys they like have children and their wives work for them You know they work and they stay home and they do all these things but hold on a second Is that really successful though? Yeah, he may be feeding the the lust of the flesh right now He may be designing those things right now, but you know what at the end of the day at the end of their life They have nothing to show for it That's why it's important to come to the house of god To be reminded of these things Let me say that that's why it's important that you are in a leather lung hellfire brimstone preaching church Because you know if you go to some lame church where the preaching so watered down You know, you just get a cup of water every single service that you come to and they're not ripping on these things You're gonna say well, yeah that life is it does look way better You know and in fact this pastor seems to tolerate it So guess what I can have both I can fornicate I can drink I can smoke pot and be in church, too Because the pastor likes my time That's how some churches are Whereas here we scare the fire at it We tell you if you're a drunkard if you're involved in fornication idolatry covetousness Extortion you can't be here So you might as well just go all in So that god can chastise you that we just give you over for the destruction of the flesh Get right with god and you come back. Amen So it this is why it's important to be in church In order to avoid backsliding and you know what if you're backslidden this morning I hope this got you right with god To say man, why am I envious? This is correct and it's not like i'm correct. The bible's correct All right, the bible's telling us don't envy these people they're going to be destroyed go to hosea chapter 11 Hosea chapter number 11. We need to get back to making sin look exceeding sinful Not flowery and pretty we need to say this is ugly This is destructive. This will ruin my life. It'll ruin my children's life. It'll ruin my wife's life It'll ruin my husband's life if I allow myself to get involved in these things. Let me say this when you backslide, okay? When you decide to just go all out and backslide you not only affect yourself You affect the people around you and unfortunately you affect the people who love you You you affect the people that you love What's an example of this well think about think about lot think about abraham, you know when abraham Backslid and he went into egypt because of the famine You know, he took lot with him and you know what abraham was able to bounce back, right? He got right with god began to serve god, but unfortunately lot had developed an appetite for the world This is why when they split he chose a certain planes that were likened unto those in egypt And that eventually led him to pitch his tent towards sodom and we know how that ended up. He ended up living in sodom Okay And what happened to lot? Well, he ended up losing his wife the purity of his daughters His son-in-laws were destroyed he might he might have been happy about that though, you know You know, he did he destroyed his life, but you know what he backslid but you know what? He didn't he wasn't the only one that went he took his family with him Because why did lot's wife turn and look back? Probably because she still had an appetite for egypt So just keep in mind, you know when you backslide you never go alone You always take someone with you And you may be able to bounce back and get right with god and do right But those who followed you may not have that same fortitude and discipline and character and love And they may just stay where you led them to scary thought Even more so if you're a parent You know if you backslide and your children follow you you may be able to bounce back You may force your children to come back to church and all these things but eventually, you know If they develop some bad appetites while they're out in the world, you can't change their heart Yeah They have to change their own heart, but do you want to roll that dice? I'd rather keep my kids in church. I'd rather be in church I'd rather stay right with god not only because I love the lord because I love my children. I love my wife You know and I know the ramifications I may be able to bounce back. I can come back to church You know, i've been i've been doing this for a long time, but what about my children? They don't they don't have the same amount of experience in the christian life as I do And they may stay out there. This is a good motivation to not backslide, right? Don't be selfish But the second reason is this so one it begins in the heart. We go back to egypt in our hearts You can be in church and just like man. I wish I wish I could be out there. I wonder what it's like And you need to cast down that imagination But here's another reason is that people backslide because they just refuse to grow They refuse to grow and let me say this coming to church is a great start But you need to grow yourself Okay, in other words when you're hearing the preaching apply the preaching And seek to better yourself Every single day every single week become a better christian grow learn something new Okay, and i'm not just talking about doctrine obviously you need to learn doctrine, but how about just learning to be a better wife? Be a better husband. How about just learning to be a better employee, right? These are things where areas where you need to grow in Look at hosea chapter 11 In verse number seven it says and my people are bent to backsliding from me Though they call them to the most high none at all would exalt Him the bible says in jeremiah 5 6 wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them And a wolf of the evening shall spoil them a leopard shall watch over their cities Everyone that goeth out fence shall be torn in pieces because their transgressions are many And their backslidings are increased go to second peter chapter number one So we backslide When we refuse to grow You know, we no longer put in the effort to grow ourselves We become apathetic towards the things of things of god and look i've been there I've been there many times throughout my christian life where you just You kind of get doing the mundane just kind of seems rough sometimes, you know, because the newness wears off Does it not you come to church like that? This is great You know, I can't wait to hear the next sermon on homos and post-trip or replacement. The odds is great But then six months into it one year into it a year and a half into it the newness will always wear off It always happens that way. It's called the honeymoon All right, when you go on the honeymoon, it's like this is great. We love each other And then you start living you start, you know living together after marriage and then you realize like man His feet stink His socks is he's just he's just a messy person You know And you're like man, I remember we're so happy before Well, it's because the newness wears off sometimes but look here's here's here's the antidote to that Is that you need to make sure that you grow Right, like for example spouses in order for them to continue to to keep their their marriage vibrant. They need their love to grow Because before it's just like you want to get married with her you want to get married with him he's so handsome You know, she's so beautiful And it's just this physical attraction. Of course, there's an emotional attraction there, but you know, don't stay there Obviously you should continue to think your spouse is attractive, but you know, your love should grow after them In other words, you should become like best friends with your spouse Right because here's the thing Looks are great But you do understand that people get old, right? And like 20 30 40 50 years from now, they're not going to look the same when you first married them You know Things start to sag a little bit the hair color begins to change And you know what if you're still stuck on that love because you're just attracted to them. It's it's going to be a bad marriage You know your love needs to grow right? You need to grow yourself as a husband you grow yourself as and I don't mean like physically, okay? Like Which that happens sometimes, you know You get married and it's just like all right. She's mine now. So just like wolf down all the bad foods you can You don't believe in divorce. So But you know you need to grow yourself in order to keep that relationship vibrant, right? Well in like manner, you know in the christian life we come into the christian life We get we got saved, you know, we love sony the king james bible All these things are great and you know now we got a church You know, we're listening to preaching we got fellowship, but then the newness wears off So, how do you counter that? Yeah, you have to continue growing growing yourself Because there's only so much I can do for you I'm preaching three times a week. I can help you on an individual basis if you ask for it But at the end of the day you have to grow yourself Okay Now why do people become apathetic towards the christian life? Well, sometimes it's just laziness Like I don't feel like reading my bible I don't feel like growing or like working in this area of my life How about sometimes it's just offenses, you know, they get offended in church and they're like, well, i'm not gonna read my bible I'm not gonna go i'm not gonna go solo. I'm not gonna try to improve myself Sometimes it's discouragement and depression You go through some traumatic experience in your life and it has you down in the dumps. How many of you've ever been discouraged and depressed? Okay It's normal that's in the bible too And often when you're discouraged and depressed you just have zero desire To just like it's like it's like you're just barely making it Right where you're just like your head's above water. You can't even like do the second mile. You're having trouble even doing the first You know what I mean? So that happens sometimes depression discouragement being disillusioned. Sometimes it's just unconfessed sin, okay Now look at second peter chapter one verse eight. It says for if these things be in you and abound They make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord. Jesus christ He's speaking about these seven qualities. He says look you gotta you know, add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge, etc He says give all diligence to these things verse eight says but he that lacketh these things is blind And cannot see afar off and has forgotten. He was perched from his old sins wherefore the rather brethren give Diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things Ye shall never fall the bible says look if you're constantly growing you're not going to revert back If you're constantly working on your life, you know, you're not going to go back to the world You're not going to do those things that are not pleasant unto the lord You're going to continue to grow but you have to have diligence. You have to grow yourself Okay Don't expect You know godly character to happen by osmosis just because you come to church Obviously, you'll you'll you'll be encouraged, you know, people can motivate you people can inspire you but at the end of the day It's up to you Whether you're going to grow, okay The bible says in psalm 18 verse 36 thou has enlarged my steps under me that my feet did not slip Go with me if you would to proverbs 14 proverbs 14 So You got to continue to grow You know, hey if you never cooked a meal in your life, that's a good area to grow in ladies. Amen Because look we need goals Right, we need goals. We need to be striving for something We need to strive to become better parents to be able to teach our children And look if you say well, I have all those things down back already I'm a pretty decent mom pretty decent dad, you know, we got our kids in check. Okay, then Why don't you challenge yourself then? Why don't you learn an instrument? Oh, wait, there's already people in here who do I call them closet instrumentalists Yesterday we had the sowing training and I started asking people like, you know, do you play an instrument? But then I realized they would say no And uh, but then I realized I had to like ask the question differently And I so I would go, you know, do you play instrument? They said no i'm like have you ever played an instrument? And they're like, yes And I was like shocked at how many people can play an instrument in our church and I know there's more out there I'm coming to get you. Okay What i'm saying? Look if you feel like you're not challenged then challenge yourself Learn an instrument right learn the language become a better person Become more effective in your gospel presentation and your soul winning and your discipleship This is how you're going to grow and look, you know, i'll give you an example you know pastor anderson and I were talking a while ago and one interest that we have That is common is languages. You know, I like to learn languages. He knows a bunch of languages He likes to learn and he told me he says I read I read my bible in a different language all the time and he told me he said because You know sometimes reading your bible can become mundane And don't tell me don't be that that holier than hell I never get tired of reading the bible I'd love it. You know, I think about the bible all the time You know, I memorize i'm just so excited to read the bible. Yeah, whatever. Okay The reality is some people we can get tired myself included Of reading doing the same thing reading the bible over and over again. Okay, and he told me this He said sometimes it could get mundane and I feel like i've already read this story I already know this, you know, he goes So what I do is actually I read it in a different language and it just Livens up my bible reading because I learn new things from a different language different perspective, you know It uses different synonyms in the bible that kind of basically broadens my understanding of the word of god right So it goes to show you this man has read the bible multiple times But yet even then he can grow tired of reading the bible Therefore he does it in different languages to keep his christian life alive Well, like many you have to do the same thing I have to do the same thing where you're constantly stretching yourself stretching your mind To learn something new in order to keep this thing exciting. Okay, you got to keep growing The bible says in psalm 119 66 teach me good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy commandments before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word So we see there that god enlarges the steps of david In order for him not to slip, but you know what enlarging something comes as a means of affliction But it also comes as a mean as you growing yourself Now here's my last point. Why do people backslide? Well, it begins in their heart You know, they refuse to grow themselves and ultimately it just manifested in their absence When you when you run when you hear about someone leaving church You're like, oh man that person backslid The correct thing to say is this wow, that person was backslidden a long time ago then Because it basically it manifests itself in your absence So one month you entertain the thought Next month you refuse to grow this becomes a pattern and then ultimately you just leave church But you leaving church you not so many is simply a fruit Of what was already taking place in your heart And it just manifested itself, you know This is what you don't want look at proverbs 14 14. It says the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways And a good man shall be satisfied From himself, you know the one who is backsliding can't be can't be told can't be reproved can't be corrected They're filled with their own ways And this is a scary place to be folks and I hope that no one in our church is in this state. It could possibly be You know because it's it's a it's it's a place that's very shifty Where your your sins or your bad habits or your way of thinking can get you out of the will of god, so to speak Okay So if this is you today just get right with god And look, sometimes it helps to just go talk to her brother and just tell them Okay, I just want to let you know i'm backslidden I need you to pray for me, you know And you know what we'll do like let's go out to eat. Let's go hang out. Let's go get a coffee You know, we need to help people like that Right, we need to we need to help people who are on the brink of quitting. We don't want them to quit We don't want our brethren to quit. It's a sad thing for me It's a sad thing when when when someone we love gets out of church because they're like man, it's sad Like they're no longer here. I don't see them anymore. They used to sit there. They used to sit here It's sad. So before that happens, you know Go and talk to put your pride aside and say hey, I need you to help me i'm backslidden right now I'm, just i'm struggling a lot right now. Can you pray for me? Can you help me? And I guarantee you anybody here will just put in the effort to say well, what do we got to do man? Let's keep you in church. Let's go have some fun. Let's take a day off. Let's go shooting Let's go hiking. Let's go do something Because sometimes that's what it is. You understand? Let's go fight. Let's go fist fight. So i'm just kidding You know do something because look here's the thing folks if you backslide don't blame us We didn't know Only, you know So you need to open your mouth boldly To make known your backslidings I'm not saying like just tell everyone. Hey, I just want to make a public service announcement. I'm backslidden Go to someone who you trust or just go to a brother or something and say can you pray for me? I'm backslidden right now. I need help You know because I don't and here's the thing deep down inside the inward man does not want to revert back to the world The inward man delights in the law of god The inward man wants to do right and the inward man wants you to go tell someone that you're struggling In order to keep you in the right ways in the ways of righteousness in church, etc All right, inspire heads and have a word of prayer father. We thank you so much for your word And lord help us not to be a backsliding heifer Help us to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Please guide us lord and help us And lord there's times in my life that i've been backslidden and often One thing that I I forgot to mention is if we're backslidden and we're just discouraged. We just need to keep doing what we're doing And often that character works as a spare tire To get us from point a to point b where we can replace that tire get a brand new one on there Where we can delight in the lord again delight in the word of god And the joy of our salvation is restored back unto us I pray god that you'd help us to do so and help us to help restore strengthen and absorb edify those who are struggling today And in jesus name we pray