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🎶🎶🎶 🎶🎶🎶 Sing it on that first verse! 🎶🎶🎶🎶 🎶🎶🎶 🎶🎶🎶 🎶🎶🎶 🎶🎶🎶 Thank you so much for every precious soul that's here, Lord God, this morning. We do pray that you please bless them, Lord God, for making time to be in your house this morning as well. And I do pray that you please also be with our service. I pray that you would please just bless every aspect of it. That you would please just bless the singing unto you. And that you would also just please bless the most important part of the service, the preaching of your word. I do pray that you would please just feel passionate with your Holy Spirit. Guide him through the Scriptures. Help him, Lord God, to bring to remembrance of the things that he has studied, Lord God. And I do pray that you would please help us also to be attentive with our hearts and our ears, Lord God. That we might leave here changed this morning because we heard your word being preached and applied it to our lives. We pray now that you would please just be with us now. In Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. Song number 439, count your blessings. Song number 439, count your blessings. Song number 439 there in your hymnals. Singing on that first. When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed. When you are discouraged thinking all is lost. Count your blessings, name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy if you're called to bear? Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly. And you will be singing as the days go by. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. When you look to others with their plans and goals. Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold. Count your many blessings, money cannot buy. Your reward in heaven wore your home on high. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. So amid the conflict, whether great or small. Do not be discouraged, God is over all. Count your many blessings, angels will attend. Help and comfort give you to Jesus. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Of course, our services are as follow. Sunday morning is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5pm. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. Currently going through the book of 1 Samuel. And so hope to see you there on Thursday evenings. We are a family integrated church. And so infants and children are always welcome to stay in the service with their parents. For your convenience, there is a mother baby room located in the back of the building. And it's available there should your child need some diversion. Changing tables are available there as well. Make sure you utilize that. Do not utilize the fellowship hall or the foyer. That's designated for the men if they need to take out their children. But ladies, we do have the mother baby rooms located on the side of the building there. And you see this so many times in teams. If you want to learn how to preach the gospel, how to get people saved. See me after the service, we'll be placed on a team. And you'll receive some training on there. We don't throw you in the deep end right away. Obviously, you go out with a partner and you kind of see how it's done first for the first couple of months. And then when you feel like you're ready, then you can actually start talking to people. And so I want to encourage you to be a part of that. You see the list of expecting mothers. Please continue to pray for them. The important reminders there at the bottom. And then some of the upcoming church events. Of course, we have the homeschool field trip to the Discovery Cube in Orange County on Wednesday, September 14th. All the activities at our church are free. And so if you homeschool your children, I want to encourage you to be a part of that. You can see my wife in more details about that. Samaria mission strips coming up on Saturday, September 24th. Men's prayer night is on Friday, September 30th. And then we have our fall program kickoff on Sunday, October 2nd. Amen. And I'm excited about the fall program especially, of course. Just different things that we do each week and encouraging people to bring visitors. Of course, everyone gets points and there's gifts and rewards that you can get at the very end of that. And then of course, it concludes with the annual church banquet. And so that's going to be great. We're looking forward to that. And be in prayer over that. You see there at the bottom, no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Make sure you're not loitering in the foyer or fellowship hall during the preaching service. If you see the men standing in the back there, those are the ushers. They're there for a purpose so don't think that that's a good reason for you to go out there as well. Just keep that in mind. And then you see there, the quiet time is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the whole building. That means the lights are off. Make sure you respect that. I don't want to keep announcing that on Sunday night that, you know, hey quiet time, what quiet time is. Everyone knows what quiet time is and what's supposed to happen there. So just please keep that in mind. And then make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. And that is it. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Song number 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. Song number 45. Song number 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. Song number 45. Song number 45. See it on that first verse. When I can read my title clear to vengeance in the skies How bid farewell to every fear and wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping eyes How bid farewell to every fear and wipe my weeping eyes Should earth against my soul engage and my retards be hurled Then I can smile at Satan's rage and face a frowning world And face a frowning world And face a frowning world I can smile at Satan's rage and face a frowning world Let cares like a wild day lose come and storms of sorrow fall May I but safely reach my home, my God, my heaven, my home May I but safely reach my home, my God, my heaven, my home May I but safely reach my home, my God, my heaven, my home There shall I bathe my weary soul, seas of heavenly rest And not a wave of trouble roll across my peaceful breast Across my peaceful breast Across my peaceful breast And not a wave of trouble roll across my peaceful breast Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time, our ushers will be receiving the offering. And please turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 7. Thank you. Thank you. Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7, the Bible reads, Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them know the law? How that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she should be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, for without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Wasn't that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that I do. If not I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, but to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Let's pray, dear Lord God. Just thank you for everything that you've blessed us with. Thank you for this opportunity to assemble here this morning for the preaching of your word. Just ask that you would meet with us here now, and please just bless and pass from here with your Holy Spirit as he preaches, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we are in Romans chapter number 7 this morning, and the title of my sermon today is The Impact of Exaggeration. The Impact of Exaggeration. Look at Romans chapter 7 and verse number 12. It says, I want to preach on the effects of exaggerating today, and give a few biblical examples of when exaggerating is actually necessary, and others where it could actually be detrimental. Now, what does it mean to exaggerate? Well, exaggeration simply means, by the dictionary, simply means to magnify beyond the limits of truth, to overstate, to represent disproportionately. This means to increase or enlarge abnormally. In other words, you're essentially adding information that wasn't there to begin with, and you're lying in order to prove a point, okay? And so when people exaggerate, they'll often give a little bit of truth, but they'll also kind of cake on the salsa a little bit on that taco in order to kind of help them prove the point that they're trying to make. But, you know, another way of saying that is that they're lying, okay? They're essentially, you know, lying. They're giving an untrue statement. They are bearing false witness of a particular situation, person, whatever. But another definition of exaggeration is to make greater, more noticeable than usual. And this isn't necessarily adding information that isn't there, or lying, or anything like that. It's just essentially magnifying the truth without adding anything to it because of the fact that maybe that person that you're telling this to, the story to, or explaining something about, you know, that situation may be small to them, but they need to be communicated that it's actually bigger than what they think it really is, okay? And we're more often familiar with the first definition, right? Magnifying beyond the limits of truth. People who do this type of exaggeration will often overstate a story or a statement in order to give themselves credibility, you understand? So they'll tell a story, they'll talk about a person, or they'll make some sort of statement, and they'll add more information than is necessary or more information that's just not there. They'll actually begin to lie about that particular story in order to give themselves more credibility or to get a reaction out of people, right? The audience that they're speaking to isn't necessarily impressed, so they feel the need to twist the truth a bit to make it more palatable and interesting. And sometimes people exaggerate because they're just plain wicked, okay? They add more information, they lie. You know, a good example of this, a bad example actually, would be the Pharisees, right? The Pharisees throughout their ministry of persecuting the saints of the New Testament would often exaggerate what the disciples and Jesus Christ were doing in order to recruit people to persecute them as well. In order to recruit the baser sort to hate the disciples and hate Jesus Christ and hate Christianity, they would say, these that have turned the world upside down. I mean, that's an exaggerated statement. Number one, because of the fact that the disciples, if you really want to say what they were doing, is they were turning the world right side up. You know, they were actually correcting that which was lacking. They were correcting false doctrine. They were correcting the Pharisees and the false prophets of the day. They were actually turning the world right side up. And so there's plenty of examples of the Pharisees that would make exaggerated statements. You know, they fill Jerusalem with their doctrine. In other words, what they're saying is they're preaching Christ and him crucified, right? And they're making it seem as though they're pestilent. They're making it seem as though they are, you know, they would often say, these that are teaching contrary to the law of Moses. Well, that's an exaggerated statement, okay? Because of the fact that they were obviously teaching what the New Testament teaches, that we're no longer under the law but under grace because of the fact that Jesus Christ concluded the Old Testament with his death on the cross. But they were not teaching contrary to Moses because what Moses was preaching is the same thing that the disciples were preaching. They're preaching the same gospel. They're on the same team. It's an exaggerated statement in order to recruit people to hate Christianity, the Lord, the disciples, to kind of discredit them, okay? And so, but let me just say this, is that there are instances where the proper exaggeration is needed in order to magnify a particular principle, okay? And we're going to go over those briefly in just a bit. First, before we get into the negative ones, stay right there in Romans chapter number seven. You say, when is it proper to exaggerate in order to magnify a principle? Well, you know, think about this one. The Bible talks about the strange woman, okay? The strange woman in the Bible, in the book of Proverbs, is synonymous with the whore. It's synonymous with a woman who is just, you know, out there fornicating. She's committing adultery. She's committing fornication. She's an unclean woman, and obviously this can be applied to men as well. But the Bible spends a good chunk of the book of Proverbs talking about the strange woman. And the Bible tells us that the strange woman, that her feet take hold on hell, right? That's an exaggeration because it's not like literally her feet are going to hell. They're not taking hold on hell, right? The reason the Bible's stating that is to emphasize and magnify the consequences of getting around a strange woman, okay? She'll make your life a living hell, is essentially what the Bible's trying to communicate here, okay? Her end, the Bible says that her end is as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on hell. This is a proper exaggeration because we want people to fear the consequences of sin. We want young people to fear the consequences of fornication. We want young people to fear the consequences of adultery. Why? Because they have some pretty devastating repercussions to them. And so in order to communicate that properly, you need passages like this that say the strange woman, her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on hell in order to magnify the consequences of being with such a wicked person. And so there's instances in the Bible where the proper exaggeration is needed. Why? Well, because of the fact that sin is obviously sinful and has some pretty devastating repercussions to it, but to some people, it's not, right? To some people, it's just like, yeah, it's pretty bad, but it's not that bad. Well, we have to make it look, what does the Bible say? Exceeding sinful. Look at Romans chapter number seven. We're going to look at the fact that the law exaggerates sin, okay? Why? Well, it exaggerates it to make sin appear exceeding sinful, which is exactly what it is. Look at Romans seven, verse 13. It says, Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. Now, let me just help you out here. Sin is already exceeding sinful. Sin is exceeding sinful. It's wicked in the eyes of the Lord. It is the transgression of the law by biblical definition, but to some people, it's not. And so, therefore, we need to bring the law to their attention to make sin look exceeding sinful, that it might appear exceedingly sinful and needs to be brought to the person's attention. Go to Romans chapter number two, if you would, Romans chapter number two. Romans chapter number two, let's give an example here. Look at verse 14. Verse 14 of Romans chapter two says, For when the Gentiles... Now, when the Bible talks about Gentiles, it's often synonymous with just unsafe people. The Bible would consider us to be Gentiles before Christ, before we got saved. So when it says the Gentiles, obviously it's referring to anybody who's not a Jew per se, but it's also referring to just people who are not saved. It says, For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are law unto themselves. Now, what does it mean when it says that these have not the law? In other words, they don't have the first five books in the Bible in their hand. They didn't have the Pentateuch with them. The Gentiles who are the heathen, who are of other nations, who are foreigners, they're aliens to the commonwealth of Israel. These individuals, they don't have the law of God physically in their hand. However, the Bible says that by nature, they do those things which are contained in the law. So even though they don't have the physical scrolls of the Bible back in those days, according to the Bible, they naturally do or don't do the things that are contained in the law. And what is it referring to? You know, they don't commit murder because they know that it's wrong. They don't steal because they know that it's wrong. You say, well, how do they naturally know that? Well, because of the fact, look what it says in verse 15, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. So we would say today, their conscience is bearing witness. Their conscience is what's telling them what is right and what is wrong. And that's because the law of God is written in their hearts. Does that make sense to everyone? Now, everyone in this world has this within them. They have the law of God written in their hearts. But let me just say this is that even though a person may have the law of God written in their hearts, sin may not still appear exceeding sinful to them. Because there's plenty of people out there who even though they know they're doing wrong, they still do it. It's not really a big deal to them. They still fornicate, commit adultery, they're thieves, they lie. Why? Because, you know, they might be able to just excuse themselves from it and say, well, you know, everyone kind of does this. It's just, you know, but hold on a second. What if you bring to their attention what the Bible actually says about those things? What if you bring to their attention that adultery is not just some sin like everything else, but it's a sin that, according to the Bible, merits the death penalty? Well, at that point, it becomes exceeding sinful. What if the Bible tells us, what if we're presented with the Bible, that the Bible tells us that fornication is wicked, it's unclean, and it is a sin that can destroy life or it's a sin that can give you STDs, it can give you unclean diseases, it can produce bastard children, it can do all, it has all these negative repercussions, according to the Bible. You know, at that point, it becomes exceeding sinful. Now, this is like, it's not the cool thing to do to fornicate, to be a whore monger or be a whore. Now, because of the law, it's become exceeding sinful. The law has exaggerated fornication, it has exaggerated adultery, it has exaggerated the sins that you know were bad in the first place, but now they're magnified, you understand? So that's why it's important that we talk about what the law says, right? It's important that we recognize and we teach and preach about what God thinks about specific sins and how some are actually greater than others. And in fact, you know, you say, well, don't all churches do this? No, they don't. And here's the proof. You know, you have churches today that are accepting of sodomites. And they'll say, you know, it's just like every other sin. But you know why? Because they're not reading the law of God that actually says it's an abomination before the Lord. They're not reading Leviticus 20-13, which states that it's an abomination worthy of the death penalty. It's a capital crime. You see, the people out there are just like, oh yeah, it's sinful, just like every other sin. Wrong. Let's go ahead and take a look at the law of God that makes it exceeding sinful to the point that they deserve the death penalty for that. And so, you know, too many people spend too much time just in the gospels or just in the book of Proverbs. You know, we need to spend equal amount of time throughout the entire Bible. You say, are you saying that we shouldn't listen to Jesus? Of course we should listen to Jesus. But you know what? The Bible says that when Jesus Christ was rebuking his disciples, he said, O ye fools and slow of heart to the belief all that the prophets have spoken. And beginning of Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So Jesus Christ referenced the Old Testament because they're on board with what he was teaching in the New Testament. It all coincides with all God's word. And God expects for us to teach, preach, and believe the entire Bible, not just bits and pieces. And we need a nation today that makes sin look exceeding sinful. But in order for us to do that, we need to make sure we bring them back to what the Bible actually says. And not just say, well, that's just Old Testament. Well, thank you for locating that for me and helping me find where that particular part of the Bible is. That doesn't make, it makes no difference. You know, for you to say, well, that's just Old Testament. You're saying that we should just toss out all the books of the Old Testament and only listen to the New. But there's a reason why the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, is canonized for us. It's because God wants us to know the entire thing and esteem, listen to this, esteem the entire thing as well. So we can't minimize sin. And when sin is minimized to this world, it's because Christians have failed to exaggerate the repercussions of sin by bringing them to the law and showing them the magnitude of those repercussions of committing those particular sins. Okay, making it look exceeding sinful. Look at Romans chapter three, if you would. Romans chapter number three. You know, in this instance, it's a good thing to exaggerate sin. You know, it's a good thing to preach to your congregation and tell them if you fornicate, God just might strike you dead. Oh, you're exaggerating. Well, that's funny because God struck down like thousands of people in the Old Testament for committing fornication. You think he just overdid it a little bit there? I thought that everything that God did was good. And yeah, you know, fornication is not a sin punishable by death, but you know what? God can easily just say, well, you know what? You're the exception to that rule. Because there's thousands of people who are the exception to the rule where he struck them down dead. Okay. Look at Romans three, verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in the sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And so obviously everyone has a knowledge of sin in the sense that they have the law of God written in their hearts. But that repercussion, those sins become even more magnified when you bring to their attention the Bible. When you show them what the Bible actually says about it, then they're just like, oh man, God actually feels very strongly about this particular sin. God feels very strongly about drunkenness. You know, you have Christians today who minimize drinking alcohol. They're just like, you know, Jesus turned water into wine. That's like their text verse. But you tell them, where is that story in the Bible? Show me where that story is in the Bible. They're like, what's in the Old Testament somewhere, you know? They can't point to where it's at. They're just parroting with some alcoholic pastors telling them, some reformed wine bibber out there who just wants to drink and he wants to justify his drinking. Whereas if you actually look at the entire Bible, you see that the Bible makes alcohol look exceeding sinful. So how do you know? Well, because the Bible says, look not thou upon the wine when it is red. That's magnifying how grievous it is to actually commit the sin of drinking alcohol. And it is a sin. Okay. Go with it if you would to Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. So it's important to magnify, it's important to exaggerate, you know, the effects of sin, the effects of drinking alcohol, the effects of fornicating, the effects of committing adultery, the effects of divorce, the effects of being effeminate, the effects of sodomy in the land, the effects of bestiality, the effects of incest, the effects of these particular sins that are known in this world. Okay. And not just minimize and say, well, they're just like every other sins. Churches that say that sin is sin and, you know, we all sin, obviously they don't know the Bible. Or they're ignoring the Bible or they're just plainly lying to you about the Bible. Okay. Because there are sins that are exceeding sinful in God's eyes. Now, what's another thing that we should exaggerate? Well, you know, preaching the gospel to every creature, that's an exaggerated statement. Right? Look at Mark 16 verse 15, it says, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, that's an exaggeration. He said, why is that? Well, because he's talking to disciples who have no vehicles, no airplanes. So they have to go, he's telling them, you got to go into all the world. Okay. He didn't say your known world. He just said, go into all the world. And of course, this is also reiterated in Matthew 28 when he says, go ye therefore and preach, or when he says, teach all nations. So all nations is not just subject to the Middle East, to Israel, to Egypt. It's all over the world. Now you say, well, why did he give such a exaggerated command to go everywhere? Well, number one, to communicate the urgency to preach the word of God. Because if you think about it, if we have this command today to preach the gospel to every creature and to go into all nations, go into all the world, it creates a sense of urgency because we only have one life to live and there's only so much you can do with your life. But it helps us to realize, okay, that means that the gospel is a priority. Soul winning, preaching the gospel, getting people saved must be a priority if God said we have to go into all the world. And folks, we live in 2022 where there's airplanes, there's the internet, there's all types of fast types of transportation. I mean, we have no reason why we can't go into all the world per se. But even then, even with all this advanced technology, even with the internet, we're not going to be able to preach the gospel all over the world. You understand? But you know what, that command will help us to place a sense of urgency on that command to do what we can. And if every church understood the exaggeration of the statement and understood, hey, we all have this responsibility to do our part, to get the gospel to every creature, then you know what, we might win the world to Christ. But obviously it's not going to happen because not all churches have that priority. And so when he says going into all the world, that's an exaggerated statement in order to help us to realize that it's urgent, okay. And in order to help us to realize that it's important to God, it's a priority. You know, churches today have not made soul winning a priority. It's no longer a priority to them. Churches become a social club to most churches. They come, they hang out, and don't get me wrong, you know, we're kind of like a social club, you know, we hang out. I mean, we hang out a lot, a little too much sometimes, okay. And now we just installed like a power lifting gym in the back here. I mean, it's going to get even more, yeah. People are PRing tonight after church, man, Marcos is PRing. They're going to get the whole church behind you on this one, right. Dead lifted, we got the whole nine. Now people are going to fellowship more. But you know what, that's not the priority though. You know, the fellowship thing that we do, it's great, but that's not the priority. What is the most important thing? It's preaching the gospel. That's why we're called first words, Baptist church. To emphasize the importance or placing soul winning as the most important thing that our church can do and does, okay. You know, think about what the Bible says in Jude 22. You don't have to turn there. Go to Matthew chapter 5, if you would, Matthew chapter 5. Think about what it says in Jude 22. It says that if some have compassion making a difference, it says others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Well, that's an exaggeration, but it's an exaggeration meant to communicate the fact that we're saving people from hell. It's not like every door you knock on is going to be like lit in flames. We're not firefighters here. This is not a call to be a firefighter to just pull people out of a burning building or something like that. It's meant to communicate the fact that when we get people saved from a spiritual perspective, we're literally pulling them out of hell per se. We're saving their souls from the wrath to come. But it's an exaggerated statement that's necessary in order to imprint in our minds that you're not just going out there spinning your wheels. When you go out there, it's not just you're talking to one person getting rejected, another person to call upon the name of the Lord. It's just an all day's job. No, when you actually get someone saved out there and they call upon the name of the Lord in God's eyes, you're pulling them out of the fire. You've changed their eternal destiny from being under God's wrath to having eternal life. And so it's an exaggerated statement, but it's a necessary exaggerated statement. And in fact, one of the exaggerated statements that we see in the Bible is that I might by all means save some. And a lot of people have a problem with that statement. Like, whoa, you don't save anybody. You don't save anybody. Jesus saves them. Well, if Jesus saves everyone, then let's just not do anything. But you know what? That's not what he commanded us to do. He commanded us to actually go out, open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel. And there's examples of people in the Bible who took credit for saving people. Not because they were sacrificed for the remission of sins, but because they partook in the ministry of reconciliation. You understand? And so when the apostle Paul said that I might by all means save some, he's right about that. He's the one who's saving them because of the fact that he's the one who's giving them the gospel. And in fact, God gives credit to the person who wins the other person to Christ. That's why we even, you know, we get those rewards. Because we're reaping what others have sown, and the Bible tells us that when we turn them to righteousness, we're getting rewarded for those things. And look, most people who have problems with that phrase, yeah, I got this many people saved, are people who don't get anybody saved. Or don't even try to get people saved. You know, they want to be these holier than now type people, like, oh, you don't save anybody, Jesus does. You know, so how many times have you gone on salt winning this month? How many people did you preach the gospel to? You know, folks, these are biblical phrases that are meant to communicate the fact how important, the important role that you play in the ministry of reconciliation. If God is willing to accept and allow the disciples and the apostles to say that I saved these people, it's because he's helping us to communicate that we're instruments in God's hand to go out there and preach the gospel. It's to show the importance of that, and not to minimize your role in this matter of getting people saved. Right? Because you know, it's like, oh man, who am I? What can I do? Well, according to the Bible, you can save people. So shut up and go do it. Stop trying to make excuses and why you're not talented enough, you're not gifted enough. Folks, we have God in us, the hope of glory. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have everything that we need, and God's command is to go out there and actually go preach the gospel and get people saved. Let's give another example of a necessary exaggeration. Now this one is very, how can I say, it's not obscure, but it could be hard to understand, and that is the plucking out of the eyes, or the plucking out of the right eye, the cutting off of the right hand, the cutting off of the foot. Okay, look at Matthew 5, 29. Jesus speaking here says, And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Now, false prophets and false teachers love this passage. Because people who believe and preach a repent of your sins gospel, what that means is you have to repent, you have to turn from your sins in order to be saved, which is a false gospel. The Bible says you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you should be saved. If you believe on Jesus Christ, if you trust Jesus Christ, essentially meaning that you believe that his death, burial, and resurrection is sufficient to save you, then you're saved, you could be saved. Call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe at thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. But there are people out there who claim to be Christians who preach or repent of your sins gospel, and they'll point to verses like this. Because here it says if your right eye offends you, then you should cut it off. And they'll interpret that as meaning, well you have to stop that particular sin that you're doing. You've heard that before? You have to cut off your right hand, if you're sinning like that, you've got to cut off that sin from your life. Because if not, then your whole body is going to be cast into hell. And obviously this is reiterated in chapter 18 and also in Mark chapter 9. Let me read it to you from Mark chapter 9, you don't have to turn there. Verse 43 says, And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off, it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. Where the worm dieth naught, and the fire is not quenched if thy foot offend thee cut it off, it is better for thee to enter into life, life into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire, that never shall be quenched. Where there worm dieth naught and the fire is not quenched, if thy eye offend thee pluck it out, it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of god with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where there worm dieth naught and the fire is not quenched. You say okay what is the interpretation of that? of that well I've often given the secondary and third applications to this particular verse but I'm gonna give you the main interpretation this morning okay let me just say this is that this is obviously an exaggeration and if you don't see that right away then you got rocks in your head because nowhere in the Bible do you see anybody who's committing some particular sin who is being caused to stumble literally just chop off their limbs in order to get right with God and not go to hell it's never happened okay in the Bible I'm not saying it's never happened in the world because there's weird people in the world who you know but think about this how do we know it's an exaggerated statement well let's just you know use some smarts here okay because think about this when he says if thy right eye offend the pluck it out first and foremost if your right eye is offending you you know you use your left eye to see the same exact thing to your right eye looked at you does that make sense everybody I mean I know that this is really deep biology here whatever your right eye is looking at your left eye was looking at too it's not like they got their own separate agendas here not only that but nowhere in the Bible does it record anybody in heaven as maimed why because flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God my friends it's not like someone's in heaven like just missing an arm and you're like you know you know it's got one eye in heaven it's like oh I know how you got here right so no one in heaven is maimed no one in heaven is missing their right eye no one in heaven is missing their right foot okay and if your right hand is offending you your left hand is probably partaking in whatever your right hand is doing okay it's it's an exaggerated statement just like when Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing now is that possible to do it's just like what's he doing over there you might see some people hey you might see some people off the off the freeway who are just high off of drugs doing some stuff like that but this is not talking about that okay it's just like it's just like one half is trying to eat and diet and do right and the other one wants burgers and they're just like what are you feeding them over there it's just like you understand so for people to take this as in like oh your right hand is causing you to stumble your right eye is causing you to stumble your right foot you know by the way wherever the right foot goes the left foot is gonna go to you know this isn't talking about like oh this right foot just hopped to one place to go sin or something like that it's like they don't have separate agendas it's nonsensical to interpret it that way okay you say well what does he mean that well look at chapter 20 because or I'm sorry not chapter 20 verse 20 in chapter 5 much of what Jesus is saying is an exaggeration or what we would refer to as hyperbole it's an exaggerated statement meant to communicate a spiritual principle now what is the spiritual principle that he wants to communicate well look at verse 20 here it says for I saying to you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case answer into the kingdom of heaven now think about this let me ask you a question okay and this is rhetorical but you can answer if you want okay did the scribes and Pharisees have any righteousness whatsoever okay right so he's saying unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the Pharisees which by the way they have none you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God now let me ask you this does anybody have righteousness not according to the Bible Bible says that there's none righteous no not one the Bible says that we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousness are as filthy rags in the eyes of God essentially telling us that even the good that we do is still not good enough for God to enter into heaven you understand so when he says that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees he's exaggerating because he wants people to realize wait a minute but the Pharisees aren't righteous and it's just like you got it so therefore we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be imputed upon us because we can't do enough righteousness to get into heaven we need someone else's righteousness the righteousness of Jesus Christ now what the Pharisees and the scribes would often communicate is this outward appearance right they would have this outward display of righteousness okay they had a form of godliness but they denied the power thereof and much of their good deeds or good works or righteousness that they had was based upon the outward things that they would do okay they would clean their hands wash the pots they would tithe twice a week that would fast twice in a week or whatever they would do all these things outwardly to display their righteousness and so the reason he's sharing this hyperbole this exaggeration of cutting off the right eye the right foot is because it's saying just as the Pharisees are doing this outward expression that that's what you would have to do you would have to exceed that in order not to go to hell okay he says in verse 21 you have heard that it was said of them of old time thou shall not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother Raca shall be in danger of the council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire look at verse 27 you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shall not commit adultery it's the physical act of adultery verse 28 but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart and then he rolls right into and if I write I defend thee pluck it out now what is this communicating here well do you think plucking out your eye is gonna help you get rid of your sins because he's saying here you shouldn't commit adultery but I say to you the whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after has committed adultery already with her with his eye no in his heart so why does he give this exaggerated command or this statement of cutting out plucking out the eye cutting off the right hand cutting off the foot it's essentially to remove from them the fact that there's nothing that they can do on their part because anybody with any brains would say I don't think plucking out my right eye is gonna help me none because obviously this is a heart issue cutting off my right hand is not gonna do anything because my left hand is gonna continue doing whatever my right hand was doing my left eye is gonna continue to look at what my right eye was looking at my left foot is gonna the problem is not the members of our body per se it's the heart issue right so you can mutilate your body all you want it's you're still wicked person the Pharisees can put phylacteries on they can you know deck out their their their robes and and do all these outward appearances of righteousness they can abstain and cut off certain things from their life to make themselves righteous but at the end of the day they were still wicked individuals at heart because the problem isn't your right eye the problem is in your right hand the problem is in your foot the problem is you are just not righteous period no matter how much you cut off from your body okay you know and by the way we're doing that today they're just like I'm not perfect enough I need to do the XY and Z you know and they they cut off their breasts they cut off their privy parts but here's the thing there's still reprobate it's not gonna change anything there's still wicked individuals my friend so what is Jesus trying to communicate here he's trying to strip them of their own righteousness to help them to realize there's really nothing you can do because it's such an exaggerated thing to command to pluck out your eye your hand and no I guarantee you no one who was in this crowd was just like all right I'll do it if you do it so like they're friends they're not like right this is crazy but I guess that's what Jesus said we have to do or something everyone knew what he meant right they understood like okay this basically means that I can't save myself because the members of my body which are controlled by the old man right are causing me to sin and no matter what I mutilate no matter what I cut off no matter what I dismember of my body it's not gonna get rid of my sin problem because I'm gonna continue to sin even thereafter it's like when the Bible says you know whosoever you are justified by the law ye are fallen from grace now let me ask you a question is anybody in this world justified by the law not a single person it's referring to people who think that they're justified by the law right so it's an exaggerated statement to help people realize that there's nothing that you can do to save you other than believe on Jesus Christ you know the Bible says that our old man is crucified with them that the body of sin might be destroyed that we should henceforth not serve sin and it says for he that is dead is free from sin so the only way to get rid of those sin problems of your members per se is to believe on Jesus Christ which means to be dead with him understand and then thereafter you can actually have some victory over the bad habits do you have because then the Bible also tells us that to reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey in the lustre of neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God and so Romans 6 tells us explicitly hey you know the only way you can even overcome sin is by not being under the law and the way you can be not be under the law is to be under grace and the only way you can be under grace is to believe on Jesus Christ so that's why he's communicating them but you can see why it would be important to exaggerate this claim or to make such an exaggerated claim is to help people understand you have no righteousness in and of yourself now think about this okay because the law makes everything look exceeding sinful like we mentioned in the beginning right so when we look at the law we're like whoa God's standard is super high there's no way we can keep all this we were all confronted with the long like no way we've already broken all this and the Bible says who's ever keeping the whole law yet offend on one point he's guilty of all so with that in mind think about the hypocrisy because when we look at the law we say the law of the Lord is perfect it's wonderful and there's only one man who's able to keep this law and that's why I need his righteousness in order to be safe so when people try to bring you back under law and say no you have to keep the law to be safe it means that sin has not become exceeding sinful to them it means they're not looking at the law of God for what it really is because it's not appearing exceeding sinful the reason we even came to Christ it's because the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ we saw our exceeding sinful nature in light of the law which pushed us to the foot of the cross it's just like this means that I'm a wretched man this means that I'm gonna split hell wide open this means I have no righteousness and of myself I need Jesus Christ whereas those who want to be under the law they're like oh yeah I kept these from from my youth up you've got to keep all these laws man that's what you got to do it's obviously not exceeding sinful to them then because they think they can keep it still they think that they've kept it and you know what they're essentially saying they don't need Christ there's only one person who's able to keep the entire law and that's Jesus Christ himself okay what's another example of appropriate exaggeration well how about this think about this when the Bible talks about magnifying the Lord right because what does it mean to magnify means to take something that's small and make it big now that's an exaggerated statement because God's already big God's already big but he sometimes guess what he's small to others though right so sometimes God is actually small to Christians so therefore we as Christians need to magnify the Lord to make him bigger than what he really is perceived to be by them you understand so we magnify the Lord we magnify him by talking about his word by talking about how powerful he is how omnipotent omnipresent and omniscient he is how Almighty he is because we want people to view God in a big way and you know what I find that when Christians are fearful when Christians are worried when Christians start you know take their focus off of the Bible is because they're not magnifying the Lord because when you magnify the Lord it's just like oh man whom shall I fear then who shall separate me from the love of God if God before us who can be against us if this God who is this big is for me then I have nothing to fear but the person who is afraid of everything even of their own shadow is a person who's not magnifying the Lord because once you put the Lord in her magnet scope um is that you call it my microscope magnet scope when you put God under a microscope you end up finding that he's bigger than that obviously you're like I don't even need this anymore because God is actually really big God is able to deliver me he's able to provide he's able to protect he's able to do all these things but that's when it's necessary to magnify the Lord and help Christians to realize that God is bigger than what you think he is okay now go with me if you would to 1st Kings chapter 19 all right so those are all the positive ones let's get that out of the way because I want to get into the negative one right I'm a negative person now obviously some a dishonorable mention as far as negative exaggerations would be what Eve Satan right but it's just like neither shall you touch it lest he die we can't touch it lest we die you're exaggerating Eve chill out you only said don't eat it okay but let me give you one another an example of a negative impact of exaggeration Elijah and the seven thousand prophets okay what is the exaggeration I'm the only one serving God I'm the only one look what he says in verse 13 of 1st Kings 19 and it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering of the cave and behold there came a voice and Tim said what doest thou hear Elijah and he said I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel forsaken thy covenant throw down thine altars and slain thy prophets with the sword and I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away Elijah you're exaggerating he's exaggerating because isn't he the only one left and in fact look at verse number look at verse 17 it says and it shall come to pass that him that escaped with the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay and him that escaped with the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slave yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him so you're exaggerating Elijah you're not the only one serving God you're not the only one who's jealous for the Lord and guess what you're not the only one who hasn't bowed down to the image of Baal either there's actually seven thousand men who have not done that now this is what I would refer to as a superiority complex where they think well I'm just like the only one serving God I'm like the only godly person and I don't know if individuals will necessarily say that but you know what churches can often become this way and we asked first words Baptist Church never want to build a superiority complex where we think that our church is better than everyone else now we obviously know and believe that our church is the best that's why we're here now some of you are probably here cuz you're like well this is the only church I got or whatever this is the best church in my area or whatever there's another pastor in the new IP who's across the street I'll probably go to that church well too bad there's not gonna be so you're stuck with me okay but you know what people can get this complex where it's just like we're the best independent fundamental Baptist Church and there's no Baptist Church like ours we're alone we're jealous for our God another word for jealous is zealous right we're zealous well wrong there's 7,000 independent fundamental Baptist churches in fact it's probably more who have not bowed the knee to bail do not get the superiority complex where you think you're just like the cream of the crop you're just the best thing since the New Testament started it's not true my friends now given you are like Elijah but you know what there's other people who have not bowed the knee to the reprobates you know there's others who still don't like them there's others who are preaching from the King James Bible okay there's others who are teaching the right salvation there there's others today and yesterday who have gone soul winning who have won people to Christ I would dare say there's some out there who are probably more faithful to church than maybe some of you are you hear that pin I'm sure there's people out there who are not new IFB who are fundamental Baptists who are probably more disciplined more faithful than even some new IFB people it's just like well I don't want to talk about that though well you know I'm just saying Elijah exaggerated a little bit there okay you know we're the only one serving oh we're not the only one serving God okay there's plenty of other people out there that are serving God now look at chapter 18 so let's get that straight okay it's good churches out there may not agree with them 100% but you know they're serving God they're leading their families they're in church Sunday morning Sunday night midweek service they are praying to the same God that we pray to they're reading their Bibles every single day they're praying every single day they love the Lord with all their heart soul mind and strength I mean they're they're serving God and they're in their church they're singing the same hymns you know they they have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within them they are filled with the Spirit as well there's 7,000 who you know have not bowed the need to build don't make this exaggerated statement that we're just the best church that the you know 2022 has ever seen because it's not true okay now I will say this though there's 7,000 prophets who have not bowed the need to bail but let me just remind you where there's 7,000 were though in this particular story okay look at first Kings 18 verse 1 and it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying go show thyself unto Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth and Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab and there was a sore famine in Samaria and Ahab called Obadiah which was the governor of the house now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly for so for it was so when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by 50 in a cave and fed them with bread and water okay so this 50 are the ones who have not bowed the need to bail but I'm just gonna be honest with you though they're in there they're hiding okay they're not wicked people they're just they're hiding okay so if I were to choose between the 7,000 prophets and our church I'd go with our church because I want to be with Elijah out in the field confronting Ahab slaying the prophets of Baal just doing all the great cool stuff right like we want to be used of God if you need to put me on the front lines let's go to the front lines if you need to put me on the newspaper on the news on channels to just make me look like the offscouring of this world and 7,000 don't want that I'll take it if you want to make me look like a homophobic misogynist and all these things and you want to promote that to the world hey I'll sign up for that where what time is the interview because you know what 7,000 prophets don't necessarily want to do that it doesn't mean they're bad isn't doesn't mean they're wicked it just means they're just you know they're in the cave you know it's like they prefer bread and water in a cave they prefer to just kind of not be you know you know fighting these at these these these battles and these wars they prefer to just do their own thing at the that's perfectly fine but that's just not my ministry though our ministry is just like whatever we do is out in the open people can take any sermon they want and cut it up and and take me out of context and I mean please take my sermons and publish them and and expose me on tik-tok and expose me on Instagram expose me on YouTube do it because that's that's I consider that a good thing bad publicity is still good publicity to us okay and so yeah you know obviously there's 7,000 prophets who are still serving God but I do want to make myself clear that I'd rather be with Elijah than the seven thousand prophets I'd rather be with Elijah Elijah right which is why Elisha went with Elijah because he's kind of doing he's out in the open doing the ministry and let me just say this is that the seven thousand prophets we don't know what their names are but you know what we know who Elijah is though we know who Elijah is those who went on the front lines and did something great for God and were willing to suffer open reproach by the world those who are willing to be persecuted for righteousness sake we know who they are okay but we should never have this attitude where we're just we're better than anybody else because it's not true okay and that's pride that's arrogance seem never have this attitude superiority complex where no one else is serving God other than us it's not true at all go to Matthew chapter 19 Matthew chapter 19 talking about exaggerating here okay and obviously we've all done this myself included to certain extents where we make this exaggerated statement like yeah everyone is just wicked over there you know I mean I pretty much made I make statements like that about LA all the time like wicked is LA is so wicked but not everyone in LA is wicked okay I mean some of you I think live in LA so you're obviously it's not true okay but sometimes in in haste we make statements like that right like David said the same thing he said you know I said in my haste all men are liars but you can see why he said that because he's being backstabbed so much that hastily he just said you know you can't trust anyone but you that's obviously not true that's why even David recognized I said in my haste all men are liars okay now what's another exaggerated statement that we should stay away from look at Matthew 19 and verse number four let's look at the disciples exaggerating here a little bit and he answered and said to them have you not read that he which had made them at the beginning made a male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh wherefore there are no more twain but one flesh what therefore God has joined together let not man put asunder they say to him why did Moses in command to give a writing of divorce man to put her away he saith unto them Moses because of the hardness of your heart suffered you to put away your wives but from the beginning it was not so and I saying to you that whosoever shall put away his wife except to be for fornication and shall marry another committed adultery and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth committed adultery look at verse 10 his disciples saying to him if the case of the man be so with his wife it is not good to marry now I hate to tell you this but the disciples were some of the first miktals they they kind of slipped into being a miktal momentarily you know those men going their own way crap we shouldn't even marry them stop exaggerating okay this is not for in fact verse verse 11 but he said unto them all men cannot receive the same save them to whom it is given he's basically saying you guys aren't even mature enough to like get this okay and you know but you know what the same concept is around today these miktals is just like all women are whores and they sleep around and they won't love you and they're just gonna use you all women are like that you're exaggerating sit down and grow up get a job you know cut your hair brush your teeth make yourself presentable pursue a woman get her to like you and get her to follow you and not all women are like that no all women are whores wrong wrong and that's a cop-out that's code for I can't get me a girl that's what that's code for miktals are not these superior men of this world you know who are just all about manhood their weenies is what they are who were just rejected so many times they're just their next best thing is just like well let's just say that women are just all wicked and that's why we can't get married either one you're just as ugly as sin or two you just don't know how to talk to ladies or three maybe you ought to get off your video games for a little bit and actually man up you know and and go lift some weights or something okay go do something manly for once and maybe you will attract oh yeah you're not gonna track the whore and the slut which is exactly what you don't want to attract but you know you're gonna attract a godly woman you know get into church read the Bible become exercise yourself rather unto godliness read the Word of God get a job be disciplined be a man and you know maybe you'll attract a godly woman you like how do you know I don't know because thousands of people have done it for thousands of years everyone's done it in every generation miktals the only generation that has not been able to do that I don't know maybe shut off Andrew Tate for once okay shut off Andrew Tate which by the way this guy is so fluid in his beliefs he's tossed to and fro cared about with every wind of doctrine because you know at first he's just like Islam is the best religion that's the only religion and Christianity is lame you can't you know you can't say anything bad about Islam you can't get away with that and he's like talking all this smack about Christianity and then recently he just comes down he's just like the world is so crazy you know I'm gonna join myself to a religion that actually promotes family values and therefore I'm an Orthodox Christian now but you know he deserves to be an Orthodox Christian let him be an Orthodox Christian let him get around a bunch of men in dresses that's what Orthodox Christianity is it's just another version of Catholicism they're wearing dresses it's gay okay but this guy's over here now I'm an Orthodox Christian and he wants to demonize women and and and you know just boast about his ability to be a whoremonger and all this stuff it's it's nonsense folks MGTOW is of the devil and anytime someone tells me or tries to approach me with that type of philosophy I just translate it as oh you're oh oh you're a loser okay so how many times have you been rejected that's how I take it as I don't even think MGTOW existed when I was a team we just saw it as you ain't got no game bro that's what we saw we're like oh this person doesn't have any game you know you don't know how to talk to girls you can't get someone to date him but you know this is what we see this exaggerated statement where he wants the disciples want to paint with a broad brush now think about this for a minute think about this for a minute okay because you know MGTOWs think that they're so superior the Christian Christian MGTOWs because there's Christian MGTOWs out there unfortunately the one thing they're so superior to those who are married and have kids but you know as I recall one of the disciples was married Peter well they were better than Peter well as I recall Peter was like the leader of the disciples hmm wonder if that's a coincidence Peter was married and I believe he had children as well okay because he became a pastor in order to be a pastor you have to have children and yet Peter you know I'm sure he's and by the way Peter was he's one of the older disciples older apostles I'm sure he's in the background like these guys because many of the disciples were younger obviously okay during this time so that's why they're making these blanket statements they're just like oh then we shouldn't even marry or whatever it's nonsense after Jesus just got finished teaching principles of marriage it's like dude grow up you know don't bring that MGTOW nonsense to our church by the way okay and if that's what you believe you keep your mouth shut and support the marriages in our church and don't don't go around saying you know trying to flaunt your prideful arrogant MGTOW attitude because we don't respect that here I'll just be honest you probably get clowned on if you start saying your MGTOW and all this stuff you you you're gonna get roasted back because we don't view it as a as a honorable thing to be a MGTOW honorable to us is when you get married when you love your wife as Christ loved the church when you are when you have children and you raise children for the glory of God when there's a family unit in the household that is is being led spiritually that's an honorable thing in fact that's what the young people in our church aspire to have they're like man I want a wife one day with kids and be able to leave my family and teach them the Bible and go to church and go soul winning and just serve God people I mean that's what we like not this MGTOW nonsense go to Numbers chapter 13 number chapter 13 stop exaggerating stop giving information that's not really there stop lying okay look at Numbers 13 talk about the spies here in Numbers 13 look at verse 26 Numbers 13 and verse 26 it says and they went and came to Moses and to Aaron referring to the spies who went out into the land of course they're going out into the promised land to kind of survey the land to see what's going on there and this is a land that essentially God wanted them to have okay he was this is their inheritance so Moses sends them to go kind of survey the land and see what's going on you know and bring back a report kind of encouraged Israel to make sure they get into the fight okay because this is what was gonna be theirs verse 26 they went out and came to Moses and to Aaron to all the congregation of children of Israel unto the wilderness of Peran to Kadesh and brought back word unto them unto all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land so they brought back these grapes these fruits huge I mean it's just like whoa look at the land it's bountiful and they told him and said we came into the land whether thou sent us to us and surely it floweth with milk and honey and this is the fruit of us is like this is a really good land this is good real estate here nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land and the cities are walled and very great and moreover we saw the children of Anak there the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites go by the sea and by the coast of Jordan so what are these guys doing you know they're doing well up until the point where they want to bring all this negative stuff they're like oh it's great but people are they're pretty strong you know and then they're everywhere okay now Caleb he's not with this crew he's hearing this and then he realizes all these guys are being weenie about this verse 30 and Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said let us go up at once and possess it for we are able to overcome it so he just cuts them off and he's like let's just go right now because this is easy this is for our taking okay still the people in other words he's like calm down we can take it verse 31 but the men that went up with him said we be not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we and they brought up an evil report of the land which they have searched unto the children of Israel saying the land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof well I thought it was a land full of milk and honey and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature you know even people are like what and they're just caking on this exaggeration look at verse 33 and there we saw the Giants the sons of Anak which come of the Giants thank you for that observation and we were in our own sites a site as grasshoppers and so we were in their site already did you ask them that now what is it you know grasshopper he didn't give this exaggerated comparison saying because they're so tall we're like grasshoppers in their site and then they're like grasshoppers in our side and they're like in their site as well you never even asked them then they don't even know you were there and the Bible says that this is an evil report my friends when they start caking on information that was never there to begin with and you know what that cost them a lot they have to wait thereafter because people are so scared because the reputation the lands reputation was marred before the children of Israel because of these people that made an exaggerated statement okay you say what's what's the point there we don't we got to be careful how we communicate information sometimes whether about a person whether about you know whatever whatever it is we need to make sure that we are accurate in our statements okay and we all have a tendency to exaggerate just a little bit but let me if you have that tendency to exaggerate a little bit you just need to make sure that you give that caveat and say this is my interpretation but this is what was actually said this is what the person actually did and not try to intermingle both it's just like oh and by the way we were like grasshoppers in their site too like they think we're just like grasshoppers and roaches it's just like how do you know that though oh you made that assumption on your own okay and so you know exaggeration can be used for good but it also could be used for bad too you know here here's an example everyone in the church is doing this it's like is everyone in the church doing it everyone in the church thinks this is have you been in the minds of every person in the church seems it but often and it's like well how many people is that it's like well three but it's everyone though so often when people say everyone it often means like three okay and I've done this before because I you know I've done this where it's just like yeah everyone in our church is powerlifting right now but that's exaggerating because not everyone is powerlifting that would mean like my wife is doing it you know like heritage is cleans and everything you know it's not true a more accurate statement would be a lot of people in our church are powerlifting now right because it's true a lot of people are but we often say everyone because we want people that we want people we want to exaggerate to make it seem as though like oh you know I'm credible and you know this is happening but you know we got to be careful with these types of assumptions these types of exaggerations because you could destroy someone's life like that too you could recruit someone to your side based off of an exaggeration adding truth adding not truth but adding information that's just not there we got to make sure that we're accurate we're gonna make sure that we're precise and if we think that you know if we assume that a person means something by saying something and we want to communicate that you just got to make sure you give the caveat but that's just my opinion that person never said that before you've never said that this person never communicated that but this is just what I think okay because then if you don't communicate that they're gonna say oh okay this person you know have you ever heard of telephone the game telephone telephone is just a game of exaggeration and when I was a kid I'll be honest with you I was the one who loved breaking that telephone it was like the well is blue I'm just like oh man I'm gonna twist this because I want to see what it comes to at the end because that game was boring if you didn't twist it it was boring because then it would get around to the final person if everyone just said what was said you know it's just like okay the well is blue what now you know I'm just like let's throw a wrench in there okay but we can't do that in real life though cannot do that in real life don't be like me when I was you know in first grade playing playing telephone you know we need to make sure we can we communicate accurately we give the information and if you have a tendency to exaggerate a little bit make sure you communicate that too and just say I'm exaggerating a little bit because this is what I feel this is what I believe but this is not what this person said this is not what this person did okay you say oh is it really that big of a deal well I don't know you know the Bible says it's an evil report so when you report something that's not accurate in order to give yourself credibility or to mar the reputation of another person the Bible considers that to be an evil report because you're lying you're embellishing with the purpose of marring someone's reputation or making yourself seem as though you're someone or something okay and so we need to be aware of this type of behavior and obviously this is a fun sermon so to speak talking about the negatives and the positives but we need to apply this as well okay and make sure you know make sure we're not exaggerating on you know the numbers that we're lifting right right yeah I could I could deadlift 600 or whatever you know cuz now cuz now we're gonna test that out now no we're gonna see if it's true and we have everything that you need we even have chalk in there we installed it on the wall it's like you can just we have belts if you need belts we have everything you need so now and look if you say why I don't really do good with crowds you know I mean hey you can go there by yourself it's fine we'll see it afterwards cuz we have cameras in there as well the security cameras in there they can see you actually you know be careful what you exaggerate okay you know make sure that we are exaggerating the things that are proper to exaggerate the biblical truths in order to magnify biblical principles magnify the consequences of sin magnify the repercussions of breaking God's law absolutely and let me just say this there's no way we can magnify hell worse than what it really is so we can communicate hell and talk about how it's the place where the warm diet not and the fires not quench it's a place where you're gonna burn forever you cannot exaggerate hell enough but we also got to make sure that we stay away from bringing up an evil report because you can destroy someone's life like that you can destroy someone's reputation like that and that's it so that's the impact of exaggeration let's pray father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the principles that we see Lord and and the things you know the Bible is so relevant not just to give us doctrine that excites us but it even teaches us just a practical things from day to day and I pray that Lord you help us to take give heed to that and help us to be a people who are willing to magnify the consequences of sin and even magnify the rewards of obedience but also that we may avoid exaggerating giving extra information that's not true that's not there because we could potentially ruin someone's life or just cause problems in a church help us Lord to avoid that and bless us as we go on our way Lord and bless the service tonight in Jesus name we pray amen amen song in 145 it is well with my soul and at the beginning of the chorus the ladies will sing the part where it says it is well with my soul and the men will echo with my soul all right see you on that first when peace like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll ever my lot thou hast taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul ladies men well it is well with my soul though Satan sure try oh sure come let this bless the show rinse control that cries as regard did my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul ladies with my soul it is well it is well with my soul my sin oh the bliss of this glorious my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more praise the Lord praise the Lord oh my soul ladies it is well it is well with my soul on that last and Lord hates the day when my faith shall be sigh the clouds be rolled back as the scroll the Trump shall resound and the Lord shall deep said even so it is well with my soul my soul it is well it is well with my soul amen wonderful scene you are dismissed you