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Amen. Amen. Let's look at verse 17 and 18 where the Bible read, He therefore beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. 2nd Peter chapter number 3 is dealing with the fact that the things that we see, they're not eternal, they're temporal, and all the things that we see are going to be burned up one day, and the question is, knowing that all these things we're going to lose, what manner of person ought we to be? And when we see the wicked, sometimes we can be led astray, we can decide to want to live the life that they do, but he's saying you need to beware of that, lest you fall from your own steadfastness, you serving the Lord, going to church, reading your Bible, and the key to maintaining this steadfastness, the key to being on the right path, I believe is in verse 18, but it says, but grow in grace, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the title of my sermon this morning is, Are You Growing? Are you growing? Now, when we think of Pure Words Baptist Church, we're hitting our one-year milestone, and a lot of people, they think it's very important for a church to grow, and I agree, I think it's very important for a church to grow, but today, people, when they think of growth, what do they think of? They think of the number of people in the sanctuary. They think, well, how much money do we have coming in? How big is our building expanding? Is our tithes and offerings expanding? Is the number of people coming to our church expanding? That's the growth that they want, but that's a temporal growth. That's something that we see, you know, in the flesh today, and in the Bible, the growth that it wants to highlight is grace. The growth that it wants to highlight is knowledge, and to me, what we're seeing here is spiritual growth is much more important than carnal growth. Now, look, I'm not against churches growing physically. I think that's great. I would love it if this church grew in number every single year, every single time, every single week, every single service, you know, Sunday night service, we have more people, that'd be great, but the reality is that's not going to be the case. You know what we can work on? The one thing that we can do is we can grow spiritually, and I want you to think about yourself for a moment. Where were you a year ago spiritually? What were you like a year ago spiritually? What kind of church were you going? Were you even going to church? Did you even read your Bible? Had you even read the Bible before? Had you ever gone soul winning? Had you ever done anything spiritual? What was the spiritual state that you're in a year ago and then think, okay, where am I at now? And think, have I grown? Is there any kind of growth? And when I look at this church, I've always been very pleased and I feel very encouraged because when I look at you guys, I see a lot of growth. I'm not talking about physical growth, okay? I'm talking about spiritual growth. I know people in here, they weren't going to church, maybe one time a week. Now they're going three times a week. They've never been soul winning. Now they're getting people saved every single week. I see people, they never preached a sermon before, you know, in front of other people. Now they've preached multiple sermons in front of other people. So it's a lot of spiritual growth, and the question is, are you growing? And to me, I think that this church, we've done great. We've done excellent. I've seen a lot of spiritual growth, but we ought not stop after one year. We ought to continue growing. And I hope when you look at your life now and then you go fast forward another year and you look back, you can see the same level of growth again. You can see even more growth. You can see, hey man, I've read the Bible this many more times. You know, I've gotten involved more in the church. I'm learning more knowledge. I have more grace unto other people. And I think this is a great concept for us to constantly look back a year ago and say, you know what? What was I doing a year ago, and am I growing? Because if you're not growing, you know what? You're getting worse. There's no middle ground. You can't just, you know, really just tread water in the spiritual life. You're either gonna grow or you're gonna get worse. You're gonna lose the things you had. You're gonna let them slip. You're gonna lose your steadfastness. And so it's important to look at yourself. You know, some people might look at themselves and say, you know what? I'm not really that much different. I mean, I went to church, you know, one time a week. I'm still going to church one time a week. I don't really go soul winning. I don't really read my Bible. Well, that's a shame. It's a shame if you haven't been growing spiritually. We all need to be growing spiritually. Now, let's look at verse number nine. Okay, let's get some context here. The Bible says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now, in chapter number three, the Bible's talking about, you know, the atheist or the mockers or those that don't believe, how they're gonna say, oh, you know, where's all these things that God was talking about? When are they gonna end up happening? You keep talking about these future prophecies, but we don't see anything happening. It sounds like your God's pretty lazy. Sounds like your God's kind of slack. But the reality is that's a false accusation against the Lord. The Lord is not slack. The Lord is not lazy. What he is is he's long suffering. What he is is he's merciful. What he is is he's gracious. The reason why he's not judging our sin immediately is not because he's slack. It's because he loves you. It's because he's long suffering. It's because he wants more people to get saved. Look, God has every right to destroy Houston, Texas right now. And you know what? He wants to. But the reason why he's not is not because he's slack, not because he's too lazy to pick up the rod, not because he's too lazy to judge it. The reason why is because he's long suffering to the city. He saw 771 souls in this city last year. He's like, I want them to be saved. So I'm going to give that city grace. I'm going to give that city mercy so that soul winners can go out and preach the gospel and get them saved. That's the heart of God. That's God's nature. God could just judge us and wipe us off the face of the map right now, but he has grace, he has long suffering, he has mercy. And you know, a good parent is going to be merciful with their children. Look, if we just strictly punished our children for every little error, there'd be no hide left. You know, you can't use the rod anymore. So it's good for a parent to still be long suffering, to be merciful. And when we think about grace, I think there's two aspects. One aspect, which is the clear context here, would be that for salvation. You know, being gracious to people so that they could be saved. Trying to be merciful and long suffering. Look, we were all unsaved at one point in our lives and we needed someone to give us grace and come and tell us the gospel and be patient with us. And we, as we go out and preach the gospel, we need to be gracious and long suffering and merciful to get people saved. We also should be gracious with our brethren. But go if you would to 2 Timothy chapter 2. Keep your finger here, but go to 2 Timothy chapter 2. Flip to your left a little bit. 2 Timothy chapter number 2. Let's see the Bible emphasize the importance of being gracious when you're going out. Sowing, when you're preaching the gospel. You know, unfortunately, some people, they're kind of a jerk because they know all the Bible. They know how to get saved. They know what it says. So when they run into somebody that maybe is not really understanding the gospel, isn't quick to just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they can be like, well, just go to hell then, buddy. Is that really the attitude that we should have? Look at 2 Timothy chapter number 4. Look at verse number 24. The Bible says, And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. So according to the Bible, the devil is out there. He's just taking all the unsaved captive at his own will. He's deceiving them. He's blind to the minds of them which believe not, is what the Bible says. The devil is going out there as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, and it's our job to go out in meekness, and patience, gentle, going unto these people, trying to get them saved. We understand they oppose themselves, but look, they're already condemned. They're already damned. They're not any more condemned. They're not even more damned. If they were to die right now, they'd go to hell by not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's our job to try and save them. Have compassion. Love people. Be gracious. Be merciful. And yeah, it says, and some say with fear, but you know what that fear should be? The fear of the Lord, not the fear of you. Not the fear of you being a jerk. The fact that the Bible says that there's a hell, and that it lasts forever. The fact that there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The fact that it's outer darkness. That there's no rest day nor night. That they can't even get a drop of cool water on their tongue. The pit when there is no water. They're constantly on fire. That's fear. But it's not about you. It's not about you being a jerk, and in fact you're loving that person by trying to warn them about how horrible hell truly is. You say, you know what, I believe this book. I believe this is God's word. And this is what it says most people are headed for. I don't want you to go there. Can I please share the gospel with you? Can I please show you how you can be saved? Can I please tell you how you can know that you have eternal life? We should go out and grace and mercy and love people. And God has grace and mercy towards us. And after we get saved, we also should extend that same grace, mercy, and long suffering to the brethren. You know, one great thing about this church is we've been constantly adding new people. More people have been coming. You know, some people know a lot of Bibles. Some people are pretty new to the Bible. So there's a lot of varying degree of knowledge. There's a lot of varying degree of expertise. There's a lot of varying degree of experience, of age, of all kinds of things, walks of life. And we ought to have grace and mercy and be long suffering towards other people as they grow. You know, everybody has to start somewhere. Everybody was a baby at one point. You know, what if you're trying to, you know, build an arbor? You know, you're an arborist, and you're trying to build basically, you know, a forest. And you say, well, this little tiny sapling, you know, it's weak, so let's just snap it. Well, every tree starts as a sapling. You ought to love it and care for it and nurture it and let it grow. You ought not to look at someone in this room and say, you know what, they're a sapling. Let's just snap them like a twig. Let's just go and tell them off because they're not strong, because they don't know. No, we ought to love people. We ought to be gracious to people. We ought to be long suffering towards people. Go to 1 John, chapter number four. 1 John, chapter number four. I see a tendency in a church that has a lot of knowledge to end up becoming jerks. End up, you know, not being gracious unto people. Not loving people. Going around, being puffed up, being arrogant. You know, oh, I just know so much of the Bible. You know, people come in, they're new visitors, and they'll get grilled with 5,000 questions. It's like, I don't know what this guy's doing. Like, why is he interrogating me? Look, you ought to be gracious. You ought to be long suffering. You ought to love people and in meekness show them. Say, hey, you know what? I thought the same thing. I was foolish too. I didn't understand that too. If you'd like to, I would love to show you some time. Not brow beating people. Oh, you didn't already know that? You're so stupid. You're so foolish. You don't already know about, you know, the post-Trave rapture. No, we ought to be gracious to people. We ought to love people. And you know, being an independent fundamental Baptist, we strive to have high standards, you know, and the world today, it's not anywhere near the high standard. Okay, people are dressed wrong. People act wrong. People talk wrong. They have a bad lifestyle. They have weird marriage issues. People are living in fornication. People are all kinds of wicked sins and weird stuff. And then they come in. You shouldn't expect them to be looking just like you and dressing just like you and talking just like you. You ought to allow people to grow. You got to allow people to, you know, learn the doctrine and why don't you just lead by example rather than going on blowing your mouth off and talking about people and gossiping about people, you know, why don't you measure your own growth and stop worrying about their growth? Look at 1 John chapter number 4 verse number 20. The Bible says, if a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. You know how you show your love for God? It's by how you love people. When you're a jerk to all the people in the church, you know that tells me you don't love God. When I find out that people are gossiping and backbiting and talking behind each other and saying all manner of evil, you know what that tells me? You don't love God. If you go around back talking your brother, back talking your sister, doing that which is evil, you ought to have grace towards them. You ought to have mercy towards them. You ought to be long suffering towards them. Why? Because that's what God's like. And God is going to be long suffering and merciful and gracious with you when that's how you treat the brother. And we see the man that says he loves God and then treats his brother like a jerk. He treats him like dirt. He does not love God. How can you say that you love him? We actually see our brother in the flesh. We can't see God in heaven. We see him through faith. We see him through the scriptures. We see him in all kinds of invisible things. We see him when we go out and preach the gospel. We see the power of the Holy Spirit. But you know what? In the flesh we can't see God. We can't see the Lord Jesus Christ right now. But you know what? You can see your brethren. You can see the ambassadors for Christ and we ought to love them and treat them well. And one thing I'll tell you this, you've had a lot of pastors come here and preach some really face-ripping sermons, preach some hardcore stuff. But let me ask you this, when they're not buying the pulpit and they're just talking with you, are they just sitting there brow beating you and beating you up and telling you how stupid you are for not knowing things? Let me help you out. All those pastors have way more knowledge than you. They know way more of the Bible than you. They're infinitely further in their spiritual walk than pretty much everybody in this room. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just being honest. So why is it that they're not walking around being a jerk to you and putting you down and be like, oh, you didn't know that? Oh, I can't believe that. Oh, why didn't you know? You don't know all these things. You're not doing all these things. You're not dressed right. You're not acting right. No. Now obviously when you're behind the pulpit, preach God's word. We ought to preach. We ought to rebuke with all authority. But you know what? As a person, I also don't believe that I'm going around brow beating you guys. Going around treating you like dirt. No, I'm trying to lead by example and I'll preach the Bible and then we'll let people grow. Let people grow through your example. You ought to look at yourself and say, do I want everybody to be like me? Why everybody dressed like me? Why everybody came to the church like me? It's like, well, we wouldn't have it on Sundays. We wouldn't have it on Thursdays. I mean, if everybody was like me, we just wouldn't have a midweek service. We just wouldn't have a Sunday night service. Nobody would have a Bible. Nobody would go soul winning. Nobody would be dressed right. I mean, what if everybody was like you? You're like, well, we'd have church three times a week. Everybody here Sunday night. Everybody would go out soul winning. Everybody would be reading the Bible. Everybody would be a preacher. You ought to look at yourself and say, what am I like? What if everybody was like me? Stop looking at everybody else. Why don't you look at yourself? Are you growing? This isn't are they growing? Is your neighbor growing? Is your spouse growing? Are you growing? That's the title of the sermon. Look at yourself and say, what am I like? Go back to 2 Peter chapter number three. 2 Peter chapter number three. Now, obviously as a parent as the husband, it is still your job to also evaluate your family to make sure they're growing alongside. You know, it's the it's the man's responsibility to look and say, you know, what are you growing? And if you're not, I'm going to go to you. I'm going to provoke you. I'm going to exhort you to do better to show up. You know, I'm going to put you in the car whether I have to do by tying you to the car or whatever and we're going to bring you to church and you're going to show up and I'm going to put a Bible in your hand and I'm going to teach and instruct you and lead you. Okay, but at the end of the day, you ought to mostly be concerned with yourself. Judge yourself and see, hey, how am I doing? Now in 2 Peter chapter 3, let's look at verse number 17. The Bible says, ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. You know, when we see the world today, it's very appealing. It's very appealing to the flesh. I'm not going to stand up here and say that I'm not tempted to go back and want to do all the fun stuff that the world does. You know what? I'm a video game addict for the rest of my life. Okay, I'll just admit that. All right, and you know, I would be tempted if I if I put a TV on and I started watching it. I would start want to watch it every day and just watch TV all day and go back to the world and get around bad people and want to get into all kinds of wicked sin. People, you know, are going to get back into all manners and drunkenness, fornication, all manner of covetousness, lasciviousness, just everything and all of it is constantly a temptation for us and we ought to look at it and say, you know what? I need to beware. I need to know that I could get back into that. I ought to realize I could slip back at any time and especially a church is only one years old, especially a church that people have been coming for a short space. You know, this isn't been, you know, a long stretch. Okay, one year. You had to realize it's very easy. It's very likely for people to not stay in church and I just say this to be real but churches that are like ours, in fact, most churches and you know, when they start out and you look at the people that kind of started with that church and then you finally hit that like four-year mark, five-year mark, six-year mark, virtually no one is still there. None of them. Zero. And I don't want that. You know, I'd love to be the exception to that rule but the reality is that's what it's going to be like and when you see your brethren fall, here's my question. Are you growing? Are you going to look and say, well, they're getting out of church. They're stopped going still winning. They got caught back into the world. But you know what? I need to beware because I could do the same thing. Take heed. Don't think too highly of yourself. Don't think I could never get led astray. Don't think I could never go to church. You know, what you ought to do is you got to make sure you're growing because as long as you keep growing, that's going to prevent you from slipping from your steadfastness. If you start going less, you're going to start going less and doing less and being there less and all of a sudden you're gone. You just slowly evaporate, slowly all gone. But you know what? If you keep growing and growing and growing and growing, you know, it's going to be really hard to get you away. It's going to take a big axe to chop you down. But you know what? When you start withering and withering and withering gets to a point where it's just a little bit of wind, just snap. I mean, here in Houston, you have a pretty big storm. A lot of trees, you know, snap and break. Why? Because they're not growing. They're dying. And when a tree starts dying, it becomes fragile. It becomes weak and anything can come and just knock it down. And you know what? The spiritual walk is the same way. People are grounded and rooted in the truth. People that are constantly going to church and constantly reading their Bible, they don't just immediately go out into the world. It's a slow moving process. They stop coming Sunday night. They stop going Sunday. They stop showing up in the midnight service. Then all of a sudden they come once a month. Then all of a sudden, just gone. And it's sad. You know, you don't see very many people that are coming three times a week and they're going soul winning and they're plugged in the church and they're real excited that they just fall away. That's very rare. Usually that's like an infiltrator or something. They get kicked out, OK? But I'm just saying, so we ought to be growing. And if you're growing, you're going to protect yourself from all of these things. So we've been talking about growing in grace, but let's talk about something else. Let's talk about growing in knowledge. But go ahead to 1 Peter, chapter number two. Just flip over a couple of pages to your left. 1 Peter, chapter number two. Look at verse number one. The Bible says this. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. You know, when you get saved, you ought to realize the graciousness that God has towards us. You know, he didn't have to come down on the cross and die for our sins. He didn't have to go through hell and be rose again. He didn't have to do all these things, but he was gracious and he paid for all of our sins so that all we'd have to do is just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we could be saved. And what is grace? Unmerited favor. What's the opposite of that? Well, malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, evil speakings. When you notice yourself doing these things to other people in the church, you got to realize you're not having grace. Grace is when you see someone doing something wrong and you extend favor towards them. You're kind to them. You're good to them. The opposite is when someone is doing good and you envy them. You speak evil of them. You're doing wrong. What kind of person are you? And if you taste the fact that the Lord's gracious, you ought to be gracious, too. But notice in verse two, he says this, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow there by. How do you grow? You grow through the word of God. You grow through getting the milk of the word. So when you start coming to church, you ought not expect to just grow magically. You grow by showing up. You grow by hearing Bible preaching. You grow by reading your Bible. You grow by showing up to church more and doing more and going soul winning more. It's not some kind of mystical, magical thing. It's you come to church three times a week. You read your Bible. You go out soul winning. You start memorizing the scripture. I mean, it's one verse a week. I mean, that's probably like a word a day or two words a day. I mean, it's not that hard. You know, the thing is, if you had been doing a verse a week with us for the last year, you'd memorize multiple chapters of the Bible by now. Here's my question. How many chapters of the Bible you have memorized? Zero. All it took was a verse a week with us. And you would have memorized multiple chapters. Shame on you if you don't memorize any chapters of the Bible. You ought to grow. You ought to know the Bible. We ought to be a good representation of the Bible. People expect us to have knowledge. What a shame if someone came up to you and says, hey, what's John 3 16? For God, only son, something. That's the NIV. Shame on you if you haven't learned anything. If you can't quote any verses, if you don't know any of the Bible, look, well, but I could tell you all the stats for the Houston Texans. I know their jersey number. I know their height. I know their weight. I could tell you, you know, what happened in this magazine and this movie. Let me tell you all about the plot. I could tell you every minute marker when they laugh and they don't. But you're gaining information. Here's my question. Is it temporal information or is it information for life? Are you growing by the sincere milk of the word or are you growing by the fake substitute high seed? You know, are you growing by some other beverage that's not even good? That's not even healthy. You know, the fake I would say soy milk. Some people might be offended, but I want the dairy milk. You know, I want the real thing. I want it. I want to have something to chew on. I'm just getting vitamin D. All right, let's get the 3% going. All right. Raw milk knowledge. But we need to be growing. Now, I want you to go to Isaiah chapter 28. Isaiah chapter 28. You say, how do I grow, Pastor Shelley? Well, you got to do more bio-reading, more church, more soul-winning. And you say, that just sounds like a lot. Well, here's the reality. You don't necessarily, in my opinion, have to do this extraordinary amount every day. What you need is just consistency. And over a long period of time, you'll notice major growth, major change in your life. Isaiah chapter 28 is a passage where it's a rebuke against the children of Ephraim. They're a bunch of drunkards, and they don't really want knowledge. But it makes me think of the world today. I mean, if we were to look at the average American today, they're all Satish children. What is that? They're all drunkards. They're not sober. They're not taking their life seriously. They're just going out and having fun. I mean, basically, the highlight of life to everybody is college, where they go and they just drink themselves into oblivion, where they go out and have so much fun, and then you'll talk to people, oh man, those college glory days, you know, they were so much fun. It was the highlight of their life. That ought to be the downfall of your life. That ought to be the worst moment that you had in your life, when you were just so foolish and idiotic, and you made all these mistakes. And the thing is, when you're drunk, you can't learn anything. You become stupid. Reference a sermon I preach called, Drinking Makes You Stupid, all right? But Isaiah 28, look at verse number 9, the Bible says, Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breast. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little. So, according to the Bible, it gives us some instruction here, how you can grow. And you know, every baby starts at some point at the same level. And you know, a baby doesn't eat that much. It's like ounces of food, just ounces of milk. And it's amazing how a little tiny baby, just by getting little bouts of milk, you know, a lot of times a day, but I'm just saying, they get lots of little bit of milk, they grow, and they grow, and they grow, and they get bigger, and you don't even realize how big they get until you have another one. And you're like, wow, you're a lot bigger than the newborn. You're so much heavier. You got so much bigger. How did they get that way? By a little. Just a little bit. But you know what? They're getting the right substance. Were they not? I mean, what if you just feed a baby, you know, tomato juice, or water? You know, there's some people, they're weird. Don't do this. Vegans, they're like against babies having like breast milk or any kind of dairy, and they'll feed them some kind of like vegetarian formula or something, and they'll literally kill their own babies. And you know what? You ought not get the vegetarian NIV. You ought not go and get some cheap baked substitute. You ought to get the real thing that God made. What did God make? Breast milk. You know what God made? The sincere milk of the word, God's word, the King James Bible, and that's the only way you're going to grow. You know who doesn't grow? The NIV reader. You know who doesn't grow? The New King James. You know who doesn't grow? The ESV. You show me someone that's not King James only, that's growing in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior. Doesn't exist. Doesn't happen. You know what? They get worse and worse and worse. I know people, they read the NLT every single hour a day, and you know what? They grow way less. They don't grow at all than the person that reads their King James just five minutes a day. Why? You got to get the right source. You got to get the milk of the word. You got to get God's word because it's pure, holy, and righteous. You know what? Just a little bit of that word. It's so powerful. Just a line. He says line upon line. Precept upon precept. You will grow. And you know, if you grow every single day, after 365 days, you're going to be like, wow, I'm a lot different than I was. You know what's going to change your life? The King James Bible. The Word of God. Why did you name your church Pure Word Baptist Church? Because this is the most crucial part of our faith. Without this book, it doesn't matter. We could meet here, and I could scream and yell about anything else, and it wouldn't change your life. It wouldn't, you know, I could get to scream and yell about politics. There's plenty to be mad about that. There's plenty to be mad about the tolls. Don't get me started on the tolls, okay? I hate the tolls here. It's ridiculous. They're just taking so much money from us. But you know what? If I get and yell about tolls, and I yell about the politics, and I yell about all the sin, and I yell about all the unfairness, you know what? It's not going to make your life different. You're not going to get better. You're not going to get better? God's Word. By getting up and preaching the Word, and you young men that preach the Bible, you got to make sure what you're doing is preaching the Word of God. You know what's going to make change in people's lives? Preaching God's Word. If I get up and preach my opinion, no growth. I might have physical growth. I could get up here and be like Joel Osteen and lie to you. God bless you. God just wants to bless you spiritually. He's not mad at you. He wants you to do your best. Why don't you go and do your best today? We might gain more people. Some queer faggot sissies coming in here liking that preaching, right? We'll grow in more people. We can get a basketball arena. We can have all the fancy music and all the show and whatever. But you know what? There's going to be no spiritual growth. Spiritual decay. Spiritual wickedness is what's going to happen. An evil spirit. You know what? If you preach God's Word, whether or not people leave the building, you'll see a lot of spiritual growth in people's lives. You know what? If we have half the number of people in our church next year, but all those people in that church can look back and say I have a lot of spiritual growth, I say success. Are you growing? Are you growing is the name of the title of the sermon. Go to Mark, chapter number four. Let's see the Bible give us an example of something that starts small and grows big Mark chapter number four. You say I'm a nobody. Well, you know what? If you keep growing by God's Word, you can do great things for the Lord. It doesn't matter where you start. Mark chapter number four, look at verse 24. The Bible says, And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear, with what measure ye meet. It shall be measured to you, and unto you that here shall more be given. For he that hath to him shall be given, and he that hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath. And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up. He knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately put put it in the sickle, because the harvest is come. And he said, Wherein to shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. What is the parable about? It is about the fact that the kingdom of God, things that are spiritual, not carnal, it does not matter how small they start, you know what, if it continues to grow spiritually, it can become greater than all the other herbs of the field. You look at yourself and you say, I am contemptible in the flesh, I am no one special. You know what, if you keep growing in this book, you can become greater. It is not about physical greatness, it is about spiritual greatness, and you all have the ability to be spiritually great, to be someone wonderful in the kingdom of God. You know what it takes? It takes someone who decides, you know what, I do not have a big faith, I do not have a lot to offer, but I am going to put it all in here. I am going to put it all on the Lord Jesus Christ. I am going to give him every little bit that I have, and you know what, he is going to turn me into something great, because it does not take a big effort to be put in, it just takes all of it. It is someone wanting to put all of their heart into the Bible. Read the Bible with all their heart, with all their might, with all their strength, with all their soul, loving the God. God is mighty. And you know what, God gets more glory when you are weak, but you put it all in him. People look at you and they are like, I do not know how that guy does it. There is nothing special about him. Nothing wonderful about him. That has to be the finger of God. That has to be the Lord. That is why I think when we read the book of Samson, he probably did not look like this guy. When we look at Samson, we think, man, he could probably tear a lot of people apart. He probably did not look that amazing, because they kept looking like, what is this guy's secret? If I was looking at Samson, I would be like, I know his secret. He is huge. He is like, I can take down a bear. He is probably somebody you look at and you think, I do not know about that guy. That guy is smaller than people. That guy, how is he doing it? And we notice, that when the Spirit of the Lord departs from Samson, he cannot win any battles. So there was nothing physical about him. It was not because he was so much physically stronger. He was not like, you know, Mr. Universe, I am Samson, Delilah, come here. No. I mean, he is just small. But you know, he has all of his faith in the Lord, does he? And you know what, when you have all your faith in the Lord, you can defeat Goliath. We have been reading in 1 Samuel, David killed Goliath. Was David bigger than him? Was he stronger than him? Was he more experienced in battle than him? But you know what, he had all of his faith in the Lord, and you know what, the Lord was this rock, and that rock got slung out of the sling, and it defeated the enemy. You know what is going to defeat our enemies today? God's Word. You know, we go out and have power today, when we preach the Gospel, God's Word. You know why the Mormons fail? Because they are preaching garbage. You know, another Gospel, another Testament of Jesus Christ, what their book says. You know why the Jehovah's Witness fail? Because they're so apathetic, and they have lies. They go out and preach lies today, it doesn't have any power. You know why we succeed? Not because you're special. Not because you're so good looking. Some of you aren't, okay? I'm not, alright? It's because God's Word has power. All the power rests in here. And we ought to realize that there's so much power here, and decide what, you know what, I want to grow with this. I want to keep feeding myself this, so I can keep growing spiritually. And when you stop feeding yourself with this, you stop growing. Start atrophying. You know, people that work out a lot, when you stop working out, you lose that muscle mass. You get weak. And then you go out and you play football, and you pull your hamstring. That's what I did, alright? Ephesians chapter 4, it's not about me, alright? How are you doing? But if you want to be physically strong, you've got to work out. And you've got to do the exercises right. You can't cheat. You can't cheat at working out, or you won't get strong. And you know what, you can't cheat with the Bible. You can't just get the cliff notes. You can't just read the commentary. You can't just show up, and just only hear Bible preaching. You need to get along with God, and open your Bible, and read it, so that you can grow. Grow by the Word of God. And I hope that next year, you think back to this sermon, you think, wow, I grew a lot. Praise the Lord. It's not because of you, it's because of His Word. It's because you're reading His Word, you're meditating upon His Word, and He'll take you to places you never thought. It's happened to me. I don't know where I'm going. Look at Ephesians chapter number 4, Galatians, Ephesians. Look at verse 11, the Bible says, And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, and to a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted, by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, making the increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. What is the Bible saying? The Bible is emphasizing the fact that we ought not stay children. Why? Because you need to grow. You say, hey, is your sermon biblical? Well, I keep reading verses where it keeps telling me to grow, and stop being a child, and stop being a little kid, and grow, and learn, and get more information, and gain more knowledge. Here's my question. Are you gaining knowledge? You know, unfortunately, because we advocate a lot of homeschooling, people will do it, but then they won't teach to their children anything. Their children are not growing. They don't educate them. And you know what your children need? They need you to sit down and patiently teach them, little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept, so that they can gain knowledge. You know what? I don't advocate you to just take your kids out of school so they can be stupid. I want you to take them out so they'll be safe, and then they can actually learn good information. But you know what? You've got to teach them that good information. And when we come to church, it's not a time to take a nap. It's a time to open your Bible, and read the Word of God, and to grow. I don't want to sit here and pastor a church of children spiritually, a bunch of babies, that I have to get here, and I can only teach you milk, only little tiny doctrines. The Bible says that thou shalt not steal. The Bible says, salvation by grace through faith. That's all we can learn today, because you're all whining like little babies. Ah! I can't handle this hard preaching. He said that I, you know, didn't grow spiritually, because I'm not coming three times a week. Ah! That's what people are like spiritually. How many babies would we have if we had spiritual eyes today? They're like, Oh, man, he's telling me I'm not a, you know, God displeased with me, because I'm not going soul-winning. Ah! That's what the Bible says. But the reality is, we need to not be children. We need to grow, and get better, and be able to take more hard preaching, and learn more doctrine, and be able to gain more wisdom. I mean, if we just open up, you know, the Minor Prophets, and start talking about all the spiritual significance of Zechariah, you know what, a lot of people would be like, Wah! Wah! I don't know what happened! Why? Because we have to gain the foundations first. We can't just put the roof on top all of a sudden. You can't start doing all the electrical work. You can't start painting before you even do the drywall. What are you going to paint? You're just painting nothing. And today, if you went to a lot of churches, it's just full of babes. If you get up and you start teaching any deep doctrine, any parts of the Bible, they don't understand. You know, why do people not understand the reprobate doctrine today? You know why? Because the only step they're on is homosexuality as a sin. I mean, they didn't even get a little bit further in their Bible when it says that they should surely be put to death. You start saying that, they're like, What? But then when you start realizing, Oh, they're supposed to be put to death? Oh, God destroyed them with fire and brimstone? Oh, all the kings, all the righteous kings, they removed them out of the land and break down their houses? Then you finally get to Romans 1, and he's like, Hey, guess what? They're also reprobate. You're like, Oh, that makes sense. But you know what? You can't even realize that it's a sin. You can't even realize it's worthy of death. You can't just start with reprobate doctrine. You're confused. You don't understand. Why? Because you're a baby. Go to Hebrews chapter number 5. Hebrews chapter number 5. I'm going to read for you in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, The Bible says, When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. How did you get saved? I accepted Jesus in my heart. Child. Why don't you realize I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what I did. You know, some people, they don't understand the Bible, so they talk like a child about it. But you know what? When you realize the Bible, stop talking like a child and start talking like a man. Homosexual descent. Child. The reprobate. That's what the Bible says. Put him to death. Why don't you sound like a man today? Why don't you actually learn something? You know what? I used to speak like a child. We all did. Just grow. Are you growing today? Are you getting more knowledge, more emphasis from the Bible? Hebrews chapter number 5. In this context, the Bible's talking about the high priest. It's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the changes that are going to be made. Look at verse number 5. It says, So also Christ glorified not himself. Put that in your oneness pipe and smoke it. Bam! Christ didn't glorify himself. Christ is not a lover of himself. You know, glorified Christ, God the Father. That's why when you open up your Bible, it's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. It's all symbolism of Jesus. And then you know when we get to Jesus, you know he's all talking about the Father. Hey, I want to pray to the Father. Let me tell you all about the Father. Let me give you more information about the Father. And then when Jesus goes back up into heaven, it's all about Jesus again. It's all about the Holy Ghost reminding us and bringing us into remembrance all the things that Christ told us. Why? Because they don't glorify themselves. The Father glorified the Son. He spoke all about him. Jesus Christ, when he's on this earth, he just talked all about the Father. And you know what the Holy Ghost does in your heart? He brings to remembrance all the things that Christ commanded us. Because Christ did not glorify himself to be made a high priest. Look at verse 5. But that said unto him, Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crime and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard that he feared, though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by the things which he suffered. Now, here's where your oneness crowd gets really off. They'll say, Oh, he were a son? Guess what? Jesus Christ is the Son of God, period. Now, why is it saying were a son? It's just, it's emphasizing the fact that even though Jesus Christ is literally the Son of God, there's not a higher status. He is God manifest in the flesh. Even though he's a son, he still learned obedience. And if Jesus Christ can be obedient, how about us? How about us being obedient? How about us growing? How about us learning? That's what he had to do, yet he learned obedience. If Jesus Christ needed to learn, you need to learn. You need to grow. That's what the Bible is emphasizing. Look what it says in verse 9. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you're dull of hearing. What is he saying? I want to teach you so much of the Bible. There's so much symbolism of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's so many great things we could learn and know and be taught, but he says I can't teach it to you because you're dull of hearing. You're not growing. You're turning your ears off. You're not taking the application. How do I grow, Pastor Shelley? Well, when you hear the sermon and you say, you know what, I could make a change, you make the change. You know what happens when the preacher preaches the sermon and nobody changes? He thinks I need to preach that sermon again. And then when he sees no change, you know what he says? I need to preach that sermon again. And then he sees no change. I need to preach that sermon again and again and again and again and again. He could have spent some time teaching new stuff, growing, learning more, getting better, knowing more information. But he says, look, in verse 11, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you're dull of hearing. I can't teach you these things because you're not growing. You're not gaining that foundation. You know what? We can't paint the walls until we get the drywall on. So I keep screaming, put drywall on, you're just like, where? You've got to start applying the things that are taught in the Bible if you want to grow. Look at verse 12, for when the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again would be the first principles of the work of God and to become such as have need of milk and not strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. He's saying, look, you've been saved for a long time now. And the reality is by now you should be a teacher. By now, you should know the Bible. You should have the information. There's people in this world, they've been saved 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, and they know nothing. See, how do they know nothing? They never grew. They never learned. They never sat there and went to church. They just went to church every once on Easter. They just go to church every once in a while. They just scan their Bible a little bit here and there and then decades pass and they know nothing. Don't be that person who after 10 years of serving God looks back and say, I'm still the same. Isn't it good that you have just one year? I mean, if you just failed in the one year, you still got nine years to look back at that 10 year mark and say, wow, I had a lot of growth. And it's good to constantly look back and say, hey, am I headed down the right direction? Was I walking down the right path? Am I growing? Am I getting more knowledge and more grace? Because guess what? There's going to be a point in your life when you ought to be a teacher. You're going to get to a point in your life where it could be said of you for the time when you ought to be teachers. Here's my question. Is it going to be say, you need one to teach you again? Or is it going to say, good job on your teaching? I'm excited how well you're doing in your teaching. I'm excited by how much knowledge you have. I'm excited by how much grace you have. But guess what? I don't care where you're at. There's going to be a point in time where you ought to be a teacher. You say, how do I get there, Pastor Shelley? Well, not quickly. You got to grow. And you got to get that milk. And you know, I love milk. You know what I like more than milk? Steak. I love steak. Ribeye, T-bone, filet, sirloin, all of it. Just bring it on. I like that strong meat. You know what? Some people never get to have strong meat because they just stay a baby for their whole life. And the only thing they can be fed is milk. I don't want to be a pastor where I have to get up and for the rest of my life, I can only serve milk. I want every once in a while to get up and put a ribeye on the plate and be able to serve a ribeye on the people. And they like the strong meat. They desire the strong meat, not just the milk. So what is the Bible teaching? We need to grow! Go to John chapter number 3. John chapter number 3. Let's see a guy who, for when the time he ought to be a teacher, he need one that teach him again. John chapter number 3. Now, John chapter 3 is a really special portion of scripture because it's the Lord Jesus Christ having a private conversation with a Pharisee. Nicodemus is how it starts out with. Now, let's get a little context. Look at verse 5. Jesus answered verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter in the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell when's it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Now, what is this passage about? Salvation. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Being born again spiritually. And you can't see the new man. You can't see the spiritual birth. He's saying just like the wind. You know, you can kind of see it moving the trees, but you can't see the wind. And obviously, someone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's possible when you observe them, you can say, hey, now they're going out and preaching the gospel. Now they seem to, you know, have a lot of works of the Word. That would be evidence of the fact that this person's saved. I mean, if you're saved, you're going to get other people saved. If you're not saved, you can't get other people saved. Okay? Now, I'm not saying that I justify whether or not someone's saved based on their works. I justify it based on what comes out of their mouth. Hey, what do you think someone has to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So someone that looks like they have the works could be unsaved. And someone that looks like, wow, there's no way this guy's saved. But if he has the right testimony, saved. But at the end of the day, we can still see the wind a little bit. Okay? We can still see what the wind does. We just can't see the wind. Now, is this like radical doctrine? Is this like level expert, salvation, being saved? And what does Nicodemus say? How can these things be? I don't even understand salvation. Look what Jesus says in verse 10. Jesus answered and said to him, art thou a master of Israel? And no, it's not these things. He's looking at Nicodemus. He's saying, wow, you're a teacher. You're a preacher. You're a pastor. And you don't even have salvation, right? Wow. How can that be possible? Because what? For the time when you ought to be a teacher, he has need that won't teach him again. He doesn't even understand the Bible. And it ought not be so with us. We ought not be people who, after a long period of time, we look back and we say, man, I need to learn all the basic doctrines again. I need the milk again. I need to go back to the baby formula. I need to go back and get all of this, you know, milk. I want to be the person that's just enjoying ribeye. I want to be the person that's enjoying the strong meat of the word. Go to Psalms chapter 92. It's the last place I want to return this morning. Psalms chapter 92. What's the title of the sermon? Are you growing? Are you growing? And the answer's already been given to us. You say, how do I grow, Pastor Shelley? Line upon line. Precept upon precept. Here a little, there a little. By consistently, every single day, opening your Bible and reading the Bible. And, you know, sometimes people make real aggressive goals. And I like aggressive goals. I like saying, you know what, I want to read the Bible 30 minutes a day. I want to read the Bible an hour a day. I want to read the Bible two hours a day. I love that. But sometimes what people will do is because reality, there's going to be a day, if you have that kind of aggressive goal, there's going to be a day where you fail. There's going to be a week where you fail. There's going to be lots of days where you fail. You can't read an hour. And what people end up doing is they make an aggressive goal an hour and they realize they can't meet it. And instead of just reading for 15 minutes the next day, they just don't read. They get so discouraged that they quit. And the reality is, no matter how little it is, read the Bible. If it's only a chapter for that day, read the chapter that day. If you can only squeeze in five minutes, squeeze in those five minutes. If it's only 15 minutes, squeeze in those 15 minutes. But don't let a day go by where you don't eat. You know, there's this magical thing. Nobody in this room goes a day without eating physical food. You don't even have to be reminded. You need me to get up and preach really hard about how you need to not skip meals. I think most of you got it. I think most of you aren't even worried about it. You're like, that's not even a problem for me. I, in fact, don't skip a meal, period. Let alone, you know, eating it all for the day, I don't even skip a meal. I usually squeeze in extra meals. How is it that you can squeeze in so many physical meals and you can't even squeeze in one tiny spiritual meal? One little section of line upon line. You say, Pastor Shelley, how am I gonna grow? Daily. You must grow daily. You must get the word of God every single day. And my question is, are you growing? You know what? You won't grow physically if you don't eat. You'll lose weight. You say, how do I lose weight? Don't eat. It's really easy. The thing is, it's hard. It sucks. It hurts. And you know what? If you could see your spiritual stomach, it would hurt. Your spiritual stomach will atrophy. Your spiritual stomach will, you know, I need the word of God. I need something. So you gotta feed it constantly. Look at verse 12, Psalm 92 verse 12. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. If you're a righteous person, blessed are they with hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, is what the Bible says. God will say he can take a little tiny palm tree, this little tiny thing that can just snap and turn it into the cedars of Lebanon. A cedar is a big tree. It's a massive tree. You're not gonna just push that thing over. It's not one swing of the axe. I mean, you'd be able to chop that thing. And he says, look, you're gonna flourish. You're gonna grow. You're gonna become strong. You're gonna be someone that can do great things. Now, keep your finger here because I did want to read one of the verse, but we'll come back to, we'll finish here in Psalm 92. Go to chapter 1. Psalms chapter number 1. Psalms chapter number 1. The Bible says in verse 1, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seed of the scornful. Look at verse 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate, notice this, day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in a season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. What was the key for the guy in Psalms chapter number 1? Day and night. He meditates day and night. He reads the Bible day and night. And he's constantly growing. And not only growing, flourishing. He's producing fruit. He's abounding. He can't even wither because he's just constantly being fed the Word of God. And the Word of God's constantly renewing him, and growing in him, and healing him, and restoring him, and doing wonders, and allowing him to grow fruit. Go back and we'll finish. Psalms verse 92. What's the point, Pastor Shelley? Well, we hit one year great. I love that this church has hit one year. You know what? I didn't start Pure Words Baptist Church for 12 months. It's for a lifetime. And you say, how am I going to make it in the Christian life for my life? I realize that I want to do that. I want to do that, Pastor Shelley. We have to grow every single day. Look at verse 14. They shall still bring forth fruit and old age. They shall be fat and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no one righteousness in him. Look, if you keep growing and you become that seeder, the Bible says you'll produce fruit and your old age. You know, I used to have a negative view point towards growing old. And if you ask me, I probably still like, I don't know, it's kind of scary. But the reality is I can still produce fruit. You know, some people, they retire and they're like, oh, it's a drudgery. I don't have anything to do. I could go soul winning six days a week. I mean, just think of the opportunities I have to serve the Lord. You know, I might retire from my physical job, but I never want to retire from my spiritual job. Think all the time I can read my Bible. Think about all the time I can grow in the knowledge. Yet, you talk to a lot of old people, they don't know the Bible. They don't go soul winning. Why? They're still that baby. They could be 100 years old and they're a newborn spiritually. And we as God's people, we as the church, a pure Baptist church, we ought not stay newborns. Yeah, we've hit our one year mark. Let's keep growing. Let's get to two years old because when you get two years old, you start talking and it's kind of fun. You know, let's get to five years old. Let's become a teenager. You know, teenagers are pretty exciting. They got a lot of zeal. They can do a lot of rampages of stuff. I mean, if we keep growing, God's going to do wonders for this church. Did I ever think that this church would literally have influence in multiple states by the end of one year? I mean, this church has been able to allow me to go and also help another church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which also influences a church in Oklahoma City, which also influences a church in Florida, which is also influencing all kinds of different people, getting all kinds of different people saved. You saw 771, but how about all the other souls saved and all these other places? And you know what? This church is one that we ought to always be willing to make sacrifices of the local church for the gospel, for going out and preaching the gospel and reaching the lost. You know, the Great Commission was not, go you into all of Houston and preach the gospel. It was go you into all the world and preach the gospel. We ought to have plans and visions to reach the world with the gospel. And not just the United States, Mexico. And not just Mexico, Jamaica. And not just Jamaica, the whole world. You say, how are we going to get there, Pastor Shelley? We've got to grow! Line upon line! One person at a time. Building up men and raising up men that can go out and preach the gospel. And when I look at this church, it gives me great joy to see my children walking in truth. To see people wanting to play the piano and people getting up and song leading and people reading the Bible and people getting up and preaching sermons and going out and going soul winning and leading soul winning times. That's exciting! We've seen so much growth. Let's do more next year. Let's get closer to the Lord next year. And then let's start tasting that strong meat, all right? Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for this church. Thank you for being the head of this church. Thank you for shedding your blood for the local church. I pray that every single one of us would get a strong desire in our spiritual bellies for the Word of God. That we'd be hunger for the Word of God. And that we could be constantly filled from the King James Bible. He'd constantly give us more knowledge and more grace so that we could go out and be a shining light for you. We could be a good representation of you. I pray that you would just fill your spirit into the men of this room and to the women of this room and to the families of this room that they would want to serve you. They would want to follow all of your commandments. And that we continually grow. And we could grow not for our own benefit but rather for the furtherment of the Gospel. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.