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Go brighter, work in the glowing sun. Work for the night is coming, when man's work is done. Work for the night is coming, work for the sunny day. Fill Friday's hours with labor, rest from shore and sea. Give every fighting minute something to keep in store. Work for the night is coming, when man's work's no more. Work for the night is coming under the sunset skies. While their prices are glowing, work for daylight flies. Work till the last thing faded, faded to shine no more. Work for the night is on me, when man's work is gone. The cross has brought you there, the body waits for you. Listen to his voice, sleep within your care, and lead me high above you. Lead me on the cross, lead me there, lead me there. Lead me on the cross, lead me on the cross, Jesus will lead you there. Heel at the cross, there is room for all, who will his glory share. Listen to his voice, mark him there with all, who knows you are anchored there. Lead me on the cross, lead me on the cross, Lead me there, lead me there, lead me there. Lead me on the cross, lead me on the cross, Jesus will lead you there. Heel at the cross, keep your idols up, float on two grounds above. Turn your way to the spark of God, trust only in his love. Lead me on the cross, lead me there, lead me there. Lead me on the cross, lead me on the cross, Jesus will lead you there. Shackled by a heavy burden, lead the Lord of guilt and shame. Then the hand of Jesus touched me, and now I am no longer the same. He touched me, oh, he touched me, and oh, the joy that floods my soul. Something happened, and now I know, he touched me and made me whole. Since I met this blessed Savior, since he blessed and made me whole, I will never cease to praise him. I'll shout him while eternity rolls. He touched me, oh, he touched me, and oh, the joy that floods my soul. Something happened, and now I know, he touched me and made me whole. I have found a deep peace that I never had known, and a joy this world could not afford. Since I yield and control my body and soul to my wonderful, wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, my angels and seraphs in heaven adored, I bow at thy shrine, my Savior divine, my wonderful, wonderful Lord. I desire that my life shall be ordered by Thee, that my will be in perfect accord. With Thy own sovereign will, Thy desires to fulfill, my wonderful, wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, my angels and seraphs in heaven adored, I bow at Thy shrine, my Savior divine, my wonderful, wonderful Lord. All the talents I have, I have laid at Thy feet, Thy approval shall be my reward. Be my storm, great or small, I surrender it all to my wonderful, wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, my angels and seraphs in heaven adored, I bow at Thy shrine, my Savior divine, my wonderful, wonderful Lord. All that last now, thou art fair. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Steadfast Baptist Church. It's great to see you guys tonight. We'll go ahead and find a seat. We'll go ahead and get started. Once you've found a seat, grab a hymnal, and we will start tonight's service with song number 66. Song number 66, At Calvary. Song number 66. Sing it out real loud with that first verse. Sing it out real loud with that first verse. At Calvary, I got worded, that's my sin I learned, then I trembled at the law I spurned, till my guilty soul and glory turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free, water there was molten like to be, then my burden sold round liberty, at Calvary. O the love that true salvation's planned, O the grace that brought it down to man, O the mighty hope that God did spend, at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free, water there was molten like to be, then my burden sold round liberty, at Calvary. Now I've given to Jesus everything, now I gladly own him as my king, now my rapture's old can only sing, of Calvary. of Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free, water there was molten like to be, then my burden sold round liberty, at Calvary. Alright great singing everybody, let's open up the service now with a word of prayer. Lord we love you and we thank you so much for this church once again, we just thank you for the opportunity to gather here and sing unto you Lord, we just ask that you help us to lift up our voices and fill us with your spirit and it's in Jesus name, amen. Alright for our next song, let's go to song number 10. Song number 10, Near the Cross, song number 10. This one always sounds good when you sing it loud. Song number 10. Jesus keep me near the cross, there a precious mountain free to all the healing stream, close from Calvary's mountain in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross a trembling soul love and mercy crown thee there the pride and glory star sheds its wings around me in the cross, in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross a lamb of God in its easy glory tell me long from day to day with its shadows on me in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river near the cross I'll watch and bring hoping, trusting ever till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river in the cross in the cross be my glory ever till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river Good singing. If you didn't already get a bulletin, you would like one, you can lift up your hand real quick. One of ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. We are wrapping up on Matthew 28. It's a Bible memory passage. Any child 18 and under that can quote the verse of the week can get an ice cream immediately following the service. On the inside, we have our service time, soul winning times, our church stats, please keep updating them, and if you have maps, please put them in our bins just so we can update our soul winning efforts. On the right, we have a list of several expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them. Upcoming events this Sunday is going to be, we don't have practice, it's going to be the real thing, alright? So we're looking forward to it. And we're going to be getting to hear on this Easter Sunday, both our kids choir and youth choir. And so they've been preparing and I'm excited for them to perform. Mansfield's soul winning marathon is this Saturday and we have a sign up sheet here in the foyer. It looks like a lot of people have signed up, but please if you are planning on attending will you make sure to sign up for us just so we can have a pretty accurate count as far as food and everything. We're going to be doing a lot of soul winning in the morning and afternoon. We'll just be meeting here around 9 am. Have breakfast for a little bit, go out for a few hours, come back, have lunch, and then go back out again in the afternoon. So if you can make it for the whole thing we would love that. If you can only make it for a portion, we don't want to discourage anybody so show up for whatever you can and whatever you'd like to participate in. Also we have the Lord's Supper is going to be this Sunday evening. Of course I personally believe that the crucifixion was on Thursday, but instead of having a special service on Thursday or doing it today, we're just doing it Sunday evening. I think that will maximize attendance for that particular service. So if you'd like to attend the evening service we'll have the Lord's Supper. There's a baby shower for the Scott family on the 3rd and in the back it has some details. We have a Mother's Day brunch May 10th and my wife also has a sign up sheet out here if you can sign up that way, but if you've signed up in the application the ladies group chat you don't have to do both. So if you do one or the other you should be good. I think we're going to have a big turnout this year and so I'm very excited to see how that goes. Church reminders down below on the back is the details about that baby shower. It's going to be on the 3rd from 12 to 2. If you would like to attend, it is nursing's only preferred. If you can bring a side dish or dessert, you're more than welcome. Please RSVP to Ms. Milstead and they are registered on Amazon as well. Now we don't have it in the bulletin yet. I want to see if I can pull this up just to make sure if I can get the stats right, but we do have a congratulations to the Lugo's on the birth of Annalise Marie Lugo and let me get the stats. She was 20 and a half inches long, 9 pounds, 11 ounces and she was born on the 14th. So congratulations to the Lugo family. They're not backslidden folks. They just had a baby. No, I'm just kidding. It's a joke. That's really exciting for them. I think there was a meal train also organized by Ms. Milstead if you want to help them on that, but congratulations to them. Very exciting. Also, we have our prayer list. We'll go through that here quickly. We have the names that we've been praying for, their grandmother for her vision and health and salvation. We're also praying for the Carlson's mother, Ms. Rebecca and father for both of their health. We're praying for Ms. Miller's friend's mom who's been struggling with cancer. If you continue to pray for the Scotts for brother Horace and Ms. Grace for health and then also Ms. Olivia and then if you continue to pray for the Garcia's, brother Tony for his health, we're continuing to pray for the Goodwin's friend, Ms. Sarah for recovery from surgery. Continue to pray for Ms. Larkey's arm. Also, we're praying for brother Brad, his father and sister's health and then also he was asking prayer for himself for some work. We're also praying for brother Diego's friend, Ms. Morris if you'd continue to pray for her health issues and then I think it was told me 8 p.m. tonight, Ms. Sarah is having surgery and so if you would pray for her it's the morning where they're at and so if you just pray for her, it's the morning where they're at and so if you just pray for their surgery to go well. Also, if you'd pray for Ms. Cindy has a friend who is struggling with some health issues and then if you'd pray for the Afzal's father I guess an update is it's gotten a little bit worse and so if you just really pray for them, they would greatly appreciate that and then also if you'd pray for the Stewart's mother, Ms. Turner who's been diagnosed with Alzheimer and that's definitely something that's not fun to deal with. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and it's kind of an ugly disease and so we'll pray for Ms. Turner as well. So let's go ahead and pray for them as a church family. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church. Thank you so much for all the ladies who are expecting. Thank you for those who recently delivered. I pray that you would just be with all of these ladies and their pregnancies and these young children. I pray that you would also just help our church family that's struggling with these serious illnesses, these cancers and other serious health issues. I pray if possible that you would just give them healing. Please give them favor. Those of our friends and family that are also struggling with health issues, I pray that you would just give them a miracle. If possible that you would at least just give them comfort and peace during their difficulty. I pray those that need to hear the gospel, that you would soften their hearts, that you would give us an opportunity to open our mouths boldly to make known the gospel to them and get them saved. I pray that you would also be with our friends and family that are having surgery or recovering. Please help them and guide those medical endeavors to go well. I pray that you would also bless our church family that needs help with their work or with favor at their job. And I pray that you would continue to use our church to get many people saved. I pray that you bless our upcoming Soul Winning Marathon and I pray that you would just help our church do everything in honor and glory of your son. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We're going to go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week. It's Psalm 126. It's in our Psalm Binders. So if you have one of the special binders, it's Psalm 126. Alright, that was Psalm 126. Let's all sing it out together. Whereof we are glad Turn again our captivity O Lord, as the streams in the sound May that snow and tears Shall reap in joy May that snow and tears Shall reap in joy Whereof we are glad We that go forth to keep in There in precious seed shall doubtless come again Shall doubtless come again With rejoicing, bringing his sheep with him It's a day of wonder even, the Lord has done great things for them Whereof we are glad Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18. That's the book of Matthew chapter number 18. Thank you. Matthew chapter number 18. The Bible reads, And Jesus called the little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my father which is in heaven. For the Son of man has come to save that which was lost. How think ye, if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he findeth it, and verily I say unto you, He rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the ninety and nine, which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou is gain thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how off shall my brother sin against me, and I should forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence. And he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down on his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldst thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother that trespasses. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be in church. Thank you for this church, and thank you for all the souls that are getting saved. I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley, fill him with your Holy Spirit, help him to preach a word unto us, and help us to receive it with an open heart. Praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew chapter 18, verse 1, the Bible says, At that same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Now when you compare this to some other places in the New Testament, it seems likely that what's really the meaning of this question is it's almost like the disciples are hoping that Jesus will just point someone out of the crowd and just say, Well, Peter's the greatest, or John's the greatest. They're kind of looking for some affirmation of one of them being the greatest, and in fact, in other places in the Bible, they argue amongst themselves about who is the greatest of each other, who's going to be the best one another. So you see a little bit of competitive spirit amongst the disciples, but this attitude is actually corrected by the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says in verse 2, And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become his little children, shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself is this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So when Jesus Christ is asked this question about who's the greatest in heaven, it's interesting how a lot of times he doesn't always answer a question directly. He kind of gets to the heart of the issue, and here he's giving this idea of, first of all, you're not even going to get into heaven unless you become like a little child. Now, you know, when it uses the word disciples, sometimes the Bible's referring to just the twelve, sometimes it's referring to all the people following him. Obviously when we're talking about the twelve, they're all saved except for Judas, and there's not really any meaning to preach, you know, salvation messages to them, but in many cases a lot of these disciples, I believe many of them are not even saved yet, so sometimes Jesus Christ is still planting seeds of salvation in these messages that he's giving, okay? Now, first of all, he's saying except you be converted and become as little children, you should not enter into the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven represents the idea of being saved, being a Christian, and it has a lot of different contexts that it could be used, but just loosely, it's just basically being a Christian, being saved, that you're entering into this spiritual kingdom of heaven. And he's saying that you kind of almost have to have some aspect of a little child to be saved. What is the aspect of a little child that you have to have to be saved is you have to humble yourself. Why is it that children are so much easier to get saved than older people? It's because they're more humble. It's because they just have a more humble attitude, and they rely on others for the vast majority of their life, and so it's really easy for them to trust someone else to accomplish things for them. As children grow up, they start to get a little bit more independence, don't they? At first, they want you to tie their shoes. Then there's going to come a day when they get mad if you tie their shoes for them. You know, and it just kind of keeps graduating where, hey, they want help getting dressed, then they don't want help getting dressed anymore. And just lots of different little things like this. You know, at first they'll want help learning how to drive the car, but once they got it, they don't want help learning how to drive the car anymore. And so in the same way, it's like, for salvation in a sense, little children, it's a lot easier for them to want to recognize that, hey, Jesus paid all my sins, and has offered me free salvation, and I just accept it. Whereas the older people get, and the longer they live their life, they've kind of earned a lot more things, and it ends up making it much more difficult for them to want to trust salvation as a free gift. You can see this in the same context of being rich. Why is it that rich people are often much more difficult to get saved than poor people? Well, because generally speaking, people that have money or that are rich worked very hard to accumulate that wealth. You know, I'm not saying there isn't exceptions to this, but just generally speaking, most people that have money or have acquired money over their lifetime, it's because they worked very, very hard. And so they earned that money. They've earned the position, the status, they've learned to trust in themselves, and they think that they're better than other people, and so it's very difficult for them to then accept free salvation and trust what Jesus Christ did, because they want to earn their own salvation. And there's so many people today that want to believe that salvation is what they do, or their works, or who they are, but you have to humble yourself as a little child and accept salvation as a free gift in order to be saved. And salvation is really, if you think about it, it's an exercise of humility, because we have to repent of trusting in ourselves, and we have to put our faith in what Jesus Christ did. It's not of ourselves that any man should boast. Why is it that people don't get saved? Because they want to boast, because they want to believe in their works, because they want to have something to do with earning it, but the Bible makes it clear it's a free gift in Romans 5 three different times. Romans 5 says it's a free gift, free gift, free gift. Where is boasting then? It is excluded, is what the Bible says. And so we have to humble ourselves in order to get saved. And you and I both know when we go out and talk to people and try to evangelize, many times someone doesn't get saved you can tell the pride that they have. Oh, I already know what the Bible says. Or, oh, I've been in church my whole life. Or, oh, my dad's a pastor. Or, they'll just kind of give these labels, and you'll say, oh, okay, then what does the Bible say you have to do to be saved? And then they're just like, well, I know. I already know. Okay, well what does it say then? Well, I know. It's like you can tell that they just don't want to admit that they actually don't know. They don't want to admit that they're actually confused. And so they're afraid of actually having to humble themselves and getting saved by someone else. In fact, I've had somebody before you know, you knock on the door, and I'm asking, what do you have to do to be saved? And you just the first thing you say is just like, I know more than you. It's like, okay, let's just say that's even true. Okay, but that doesn't mean that just because you might know more than me in some areas or some ways doesn't mean that I don't know something you don't know. I mean, there could be someone that's inferior to you, lower IQ, younger than you, and yet they still have some information or knowledge that you don't. In fact, it's usually called technology, right? You know, the boomers, they don't know how to operate some of the new technologies out there. And then you get a toddler, and the toddler knows how to use it, and you're kind of thinking like, how is that even possible? Because look, you know, all of us probably have some knowledge or some information that other people don't, and we should have a humble attitude in life. We don't want to have this attitude where we always think that we know better, we know everything, that we're always right. We should be willing to listen to other people. And of course, that's one of the attributes of someone that's going to get saved. They have to humble themselves. That's how they end up getting saved. Verse 4 also says, Whosoever there shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Not only does humbling yourself to accept free salvation get you into heaven, having a high status in heaven or being one of the greatest in heaven is also related to humility. So those who stay humble will also be those who are greatly used by God and end up achieving great things for God. And in God's sight are going to be the most rewarded. Now, I want to go to a lot of verses on this point because I think this is an important point in this chapter, but let's go to Matthew 5 for a second and look at verse number 19. You know, the Bible tells us explicitly, and we've already read this, we've already studied this, but it tells us how to be great in the kingdom of God. What does it say in Matthew 5, verse number 19? Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So how do you become great in the kingdom of heaven? It's by keeping God's commandments. Now, do I have to keep the commandments to go to heaven? No. I don't have to keep a single commandment in order to go to heaven. All I have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he gives me free salvation. I become a son of God. I've been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. I can't lose it if I even wanted to. I'm in Jesus' hand. I'm in the Father's hand. I'm sealed into the day of redemption. I've been passed from death unto life. I can't even come into future condemnation. So in my new man, I can't even sin. But that doesn't mean that I can't still do things that are wrong after being saved. And of course, there's consequences to breaking God's commandments in this life and the loss of position and reward in heaven. So there is a direct consequence to the sins that we commit in this life. When we get saved, we should keep God's commandments still. And in fact, that's how you demonstrate that you love God. And I would argue that's how you demonstrate that you're humble. Humility would be to say, hey, I don't know what's right. I don't know what's the best. But this is right. This is the best. And so I'm going to submit myself. I'm going to humble myself unto the word of God. And I'm going to follow what God says. And that's going to cause you to end up being great in heaven. What would be the opposite attitude? Oh, I know better than the Bible. And you say, hey, that commandment that the Bible says, no, you don't have to follow that. And so you not only do not follow it, you teach other people not to follow it. And you would think, like, why do people teach people to break commandments? Because they want to justify the fact that they're breaking that commandment. Why is it that as soon as someone gets divorced, now divorce is not a sin? Because they want to justify the fact that they just got divorced. Why is it that when someone stops going soul winning, soul winning is not a commandment now? Why is it as soon as someone stops going to church three times a week? Well, you don't have to actually go to church three times a week, just whenever you feel like it. Or then pretty soon it's just Easter only, right? Well, I go to church once a year, so now I haven't forsaken the assembly. Or they don't really like the church they go to, so now they go to a church with a woman pastor and they say, oh, yeah, I know where the Bible says explicitly that a woman's not supposed to teach the Bible, and I know that she's supposed to keep silence in the church. But that was just in Paul's day. That was Paul's opinion. Well, let me tell you something. You know the Word of God is not Paul's opinion? The Word of God is the Holy Ghost's opinion. And you know what? I'm not going to go to a church that is going to be in violation of clear scripture. And if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, you know what? You're going to keep the even least of the commandments. Oh, you know, if you go to steadfast Baptist church, they'll try to get you to follow everything in the book. They'll even take you to Leviticus. They'll take you to Deuteronomy. They'll take you to all kinds of verses. And they have all these standards, and they have all these rules. You know why? Because I'm not trying to be the least in the kingdom of heaven. I'm trying to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You know, there's plenty of churches out there that'll teach you, you know, we're free in Christ. You can just live however you want. You can just do whatever you want. We've already been saved. You know what? That's a bad attitude. It's ungodly, and in fact, it's satanic. It's satanic because the devil, of course, wants you to not accomplish anything for him. The devil wants to distract you, and the devil wants you to destroy your life and sin even after being saved. Of course, the devil doesn't want us to get saved, but even if you get saved, it's not like the devil's going to stop trying to get you off the right track. The devil is still our adversary, and the devil still wants to destroy us. And you know what? We need to keep God's commandments. We need to be humble and lower ourselves and say, you know what? I need Wednesday night church. I need to memorize scripture. I haven't learned everything in the Bible. I need someone to get up and preach the Bible. You know, there's this attitude that a lot of people have, Oh, I already know more than my pastor. I've already heard him speak. I already know. I'm smarter than him. In fact, I can interpret the Bible better than him. I can speak better than him. You know, that's not a humble attitude at all. And even if you were better than your pastor, you know what? You can just sit down and shut up and listen to the pastor preach. Because I've been in plenty of church services where I didn't really think the pastor or the preacher was necessarily the greatest or maybe even the most knowledgeable, and yet I got a lot of good things out of the sermon. And other people in my life that were important to me got good things out of the sermon. Because you know what? The word of God has power no matter who's preaching it. And we need to submit ourselves and humble ourselves and say, you know what? I need to go to church. I need to listen to someone preach. I need to sing the songs and the hymns. I need to go out there and drag myself out and go soul winning. I need to sing the Psalms and the hymns. And I need to renew my mind every single day. And you know what? I need to get on my knees and I need to pray for God's help. That is a humble attitude and that is the person that's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Just like a little child asks his parents all day long, can you tie my shoes? Can you help me in the bathroom? Can you give me food? Can you give me drink? Can you fill up my cup? They're just constantly asking for help, help, help, help, help. That's what God wants us to be like in the Christian life. We're constantly praying to God and we're seeking Him to defend us and deliver us and nourish us and provide for us and guide us. And we're going to the Word of God every day saying, I need the Bible today, not I got it. Not, no, that's Old Testament or that's legalistic or that's strict or that's fundamental or those are standards. No, no, no. It's the Word of God and we should keep the least of God's commandments. That's humility. Go over to James chapter 4. Let's keep going on this thought because this is such an important thought. I don't want to be the least in the kingdom of heaven because I'm going to be there a lot longer than here. I don't know how long I'm going to live, but I know that I'm going to live an eternity way longer. And so, you know, it's way more important to me is to enjoy that period of my life than to enjoy this period of my life. But here's the thing. God's commandments are not grievous anyways. People would think like, oh, man, you're really missing out by going to church. You know what? I actually like church. You know, a lot of people that show up on Wednesday night, they get excited that it's Wednesday night and they get to go to church. Who would say, hey, I like going to church on Wednesday night? I saw you didn't raise that hand. I'm just kidding. It was a trick question. Yeah, I like going on Wednesday night. You know why? Because I like seeing you guys. I like being around people that are normal. And everybody acts like we're weird. No, they're weird. OK, church is the coolest and the most normal people I've ever met and they're fun to hang out with and they like the Bible. And, you know, we should say, hey, I need church. I like church. I want to be in church. You know, that's the type of attitude we need. And, you know, when we do those things, God will give us a heart to enjoy them. You know, you don't really also enjoy things that you're not doing. The more you do something, the more you typically end up enjoying it or wanting it or desiring it. You know, like sports, there's certain sports out there that maybe you've never played it or never tried it. It doesn't really interest you that much. But here's the thing. When you play it or you do it more, you end up getting a little bit more desire for it. You end up starting to like it and you kind of want to do it. There's certain foods that maybe you've never tried and you just don't really have any interest in because you, frankly speaking, have never tried it. But if you ended up trying it and giving it a chance, you might end up actually liking it and growing some kind of a taste for that particular food. I know as a kid, I've always been a picky eater. Let me say this. When I was a kid, I was an extremely picky eater. When I had a burger, it was meat and bun only. I refused to have anything else on it. But then eventually, you know, I started having like onions and lettuce and tomatoes and pickles and all this. And now I love it. I would love to have, I love all the vegetables on my burger. Now, of course, sometimes you try things like mayonnaise and you're like, wow, that's gross. Okay. I hate mayonnaise. I don't like mayonnaise. It's not for a lack of trying it. It's not for a lack of having it. I've just never really liked it. But here's the weird thing. I like mayonnaise and tuna. So, you know, you can't figure me out. All right. I got a lot of kind of problems when it comes to food. But at the end of the day, you know, sometimes you've got to just try things in order to end up liking them. Here's one. How about just try Wednesday Night Church? Maybe you'll end up liking it. Maybe try reading the Bible daily and maybe you'll end up liking it. You know, there's an area in your life where you're feeling like I need to have desire or I want to enjoy this more, but I'm struggling. You know, you just give it give more energy and effort to it. You know, that's how you end up liking things and you'll appreciate them more. James Chapter four says in verse number five. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwells in us lesseth the envy, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore, he saith, God resisted the proud, but giveth grace under the humble. But God is going to give grace under those who humble themselves. What does it mean to humble yourself? You know, in some ways, humbling can actually be a verb because it simply means to just lower yourself. You know, the Bible could talk about an animal in the text that humbles itself. It's just talking about it's getting in a lower position, just crouching down. That's just a humble. Lowering yourself physically or lowering yourself just kind of in a mental way of just simply saying this person's more important than me. Here's another way to humble yourself is not just to lower yourself, but to elevate others. So you can lower yourself and you can also elevate others. Both are forms of humility. Another aspect of humility is depending on God for success. Not thinking that you can be successful on your own, but depending on God to give you success. Here's another thing, depending on God for advice. Not thinking that you have the right wisdom. I mean, the Bible says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. So according to the Bible, we're not supposed to trust in our own opinions and our own mindset. We're supposed to trust in the Word of God. If the Word of God says something and I think something else, I'm supposed to repent, change my mind, humble myself, and believe what the Bible says and not argue with the Bible. And agree with the Bible's opinion, not my opinion. Now, in James chapter 4, look at verse 10 now. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. If you want to be elevated by God, if you want to have a great position by God, you must humble yourself. Go to Philippians, go backwards to Philippians chapter number 2. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. So it's right there in the G-E-P-C, alright? Philippians chapter 2, look at verse number 3. The Bible says, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. True humility is when you can actually genuinely believe in your own mind that other people are more important and better than you. What is pride? Pride is believing you're better than others. What is humility? Believing that others are better than you. You know, here would be a great one, if spouses could actually believe genuinely that their spouse is more important than them. And you know, in a lot of ways, my wife is more important than me because she has so much more time with the children than I do, and her influence on that children, on those children, are probably going to be more impactful than me because I just, I don't spend as much time with them. When it comes to my children's lives, my wife has a greater impact on those children than I ever will just by sheer volume of time. That means I need to try my best to empower her to be a great mother and to be able to be a great educator and to spend great time with them and to be a spiritual example unto them. You know, it's important for me to encourage my wife to be a spiritual godly woman, not just for my sake, but for my children's sake. And it's also important for me to look at my children and say, wow, they have so much potential and to actually elevate their lives and make sacrifices for them and for their lives and actually genuinely believe that they might be better. It's also important, hey, in the house of God, there are people in this room that are just, frankly speaking, way better than me at lots of different things. You know, when it comes to our instruments and when it comes to our music and when it comes to all kinds of aspects of how our church runs, there are just people that are just better than me at things. And it would be best if I could empower them to end up doing those tasks and having them do those tasks instead of me having to do everything because, you know what, I'm not the best at everything. And we should always look at opportunities and ways to use other people's talents and encourage other people and look at other people's opportunities to do great works. I mean, let's look at our evangelist Duncan Urbanek in the Philippines. This guy is super important to the cause of Christ. I mean, this guy is almost single-handedly getting more people saved than our entire church in a year's time. I mean, that's a really important work. And in a lot of ways, he's better than me because, frankly speaking, I probably wouldn't be willing to leave my homeland. You know, this guy was willing to leave his homeland. And you know, for all of us, that's very difficult for any of us to leave our homeland. No matter what homeland it is, no matter where you're from, our homeland is just really special to us. Our native language is very special to us. Just the customs and the traditions and the food and all the different things that we were born in, it's natural, it's easy, we like it, and it's convenient. And to leave such a place, to go somewhere else, is a very extreme sacrifice. And so for someone like him to make a sacrifice of leaving his homeland to go to a foreign country, whether it's better or worse, just leaving it itself is a difficult task. And look at the great importance of this man going out there and preaching the gospel and getting thousands of people saved. I mean, this guy's time is valuable. This guy's life is valuable. And we should elevate other people and not just constantly worry about self. Constantly always thinking about how we're better than other people. You know, we should try to replace those thoughts with thoughts of other people, how they're important, and esteeming other better than yourself. This is true humility. Who is going to be the greatest person in heaven? The person that has humbled himself enough to say other people are more important. You know who did this? The Lord Jesus Christ, because this whole passage is about the Lord Jesus Christ. And instead of the Lord Jesus Christ coming down to earth to just show off how much better he is than all of us, you know what he did? He humbled himself and became a servant, a person of no reputation, so that we could be elevated and become the sons of God. He lowered himself, humbled himself, put himself in no reputation so that he could elevate other people and give us free salvation. I mean, Jesus Christ, we're going to celebrate this week his crucifixion, one of the most humiliating and painful experiences that could ever be had in all of eternity that the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to go through just so that we could be saved. And isn't it sad how many people get saved and then do nothing for Christ when he was willing to take the humiliation of the cross for us? You know, Christ didn't come down to be served, he came to serve. He didn't come down to be ministered unto, he came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to follow in like example of we're supposed to be ministers, we're supposed to be servants, we're supposed to give our lives for others because we see their lives as more important than our own. This is what it looks like to be great in the kingdom of heaven. You say, well, I don't want to do that. Well, then you won't be great. The greatest people are those who serve. Go to Luke chapter 22, go to Luke 22, and we'll see the disciples arguing about this. Luke chapter number 22. What does it mean to humble yourself like a little child? What does it mean to be great in the kingdom of heaven? Well, number one, it's keeping the least commandments and teaching people to keep the least commandments. It's lowering yourself and humbling yourself, needing and depending upon God, esteeming others better than yourself, serving. Luke 22 verse 24 brings up the same concept. And there was also strife among them. Which of them should be counted the greatest? You know, Peter, James, John, they're, hey, I'm going to be the greatest. No, I'm going to be the greatest. What does it say in verse 25? And he said unto them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so. But he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. Isn't it so funny that the Bible almost virtually never uses the word lordship? But it does occasionally, and when it uses lordship, it's a negative mention. And then there's all these people that have this, quote, lordship salvation. In fact, the most famous proponent of lordship salvation is John MacArthur. John MacArthur teaches that lordship salvation is necessary to be saved, and yet lordship here is actually a negative mention in the Bible. You know, it's not lordship salvation. Salvation's free. And this is what's ridiculous. They'll say, you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life to be saved. I can't make Jesus the Lord because he is the Lord. Just like I can't make the president the president. Just like I can't make anybody in some position that they already have, have that position. You know, Jesus Christ is the Lord whether I want him to be the Lord or not, or whether I obey him or not, he's still the Lord. And making him the Lord does not improve my chances of being saved. Being saved is a free gift offered by humbling myself and accepting the free gift of salvation. And Jesus Christ, by no coincidence, in the same passage, when they want to be great, he's saying, look, you guys wanted to be great because you wanted to lord over each other. We're not supposed to be lording over one another. The Gentiles, they love this lordship stuff. You know what, the kingdom of heaven is not like this where we're lording over each other, it's where we're serving each other. He says in verse number 26, But ye shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. So it's like, if you're in the highest position of authority, he's saying, why don't you act like you're the servant in the room? Not the guy that's going to be ministered, but the guy that's going to minister the most. Why don't you, instead of taking shotgun, taking the first seat, act like the younger brother and let someone else take the shotgun seat? Let someone else take the nice seat? Instead of saying, I'm the member that's been here for ten years, why don't you act like the visitor and have the visitor act like he's the ten-year member and give them the honor and give them the respect? This is the attitude and the idea of Christianity where we're esteeming other better than ourselves. For God's sake, do you know who I am? This is my seat. This is my parking spot. This is where we sit in church. As opposed to saying, hey, you're a brand new visitor, why don't you sit here? Some newer family, some newer person, let them sit there. Let them have the high place. Let them have the esteem. Let them have the honor. Let them have the attention of your friend or the pastor or whoever, because it's not about you. You're supposed to lower yourself and esteem other better than yourself. This is what's going to cause you to truly be great in the eyes of God. Go if you went to Matthew, chapter number 18. Go back to Matthew, chapter 18. I think it's important to dwell on those thoughts because this is really a key component of Christianity is humility. Now, it says in verse number 5, And whoso shall receive such little child in my name receiveth me? He says, so if you receive a little child in Jesus Christ's name, you're receiving Jesus, Jesus takes everything personally. He says in verse 6, But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. So, if you do positive and good things unto little children, Jesus Christ takes that personally and it's like you did something good unto Jesus. You did something negative unto a little child. Jesus Christ also takes that personally and he's greatly offended on their behalf. So, it's not like Jesus Christ is a respecter of persons even when it comes to age. Those who are older, Christ does not care more for than a little child. Yet, there could be an attitude in society that thinks children are less important, of less value in society or in the church. But you know what? Children are just as important as adults in the church. And when we got soul winning, preaching the gospel to children is just as important as preaching the gospel to adults. And so, we shouldn't look down upon children for being young. Jesus Christ received little children and we should also receive little children. Go back to Matthew 10. We've already read this, but I'll make note of it again, how Jesus Christ takes things personally. Look at verse number 40. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. So when we go out soul winning and you take your little kids with you, and someone offers them just a cup of water or a bottle of water when you're going out soul winning, the Bible's saying that person's going to be rewarded the same as if they gave it to an adult, or if they gave it to Jesus Christ himself, because Jesus Christ takes everything personally. And so we should do good unto all people, including children. We should love little children. And in Matthew chapter 18, the context, again, is not just children. It's children that believe in him, isn't it? It's people that are actually saved and that have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says if you offend one of these little ones, he says it would be better for you to just be killed, in a pretty gruesome way, having a millstone tied about your neck and just thrown in the depths of the sea. Now, some people would say that the death penalty was abolished in the New Testament, and I'm thinking like Jesus doesn't seem to be that offended by the death penalty here. In fact, I would argue that he's advocating for it. Not just in this place, the Bible says whoso curseth father and mother, let them die the death. That's just a direct quote from Jesus Christ. So, you know, getting rid of the death penalty hurts society, and it hurts children. Because people who offend children often do not just do it one time in their life. They're a repeat serial offender. And we live in a society and a culture today that has taken away the death penalty for child molesters. Our Supreme Court, not that long ago, had made some ruling making it illegal to have the death penalty for child molesters. Only a child molester would pass such a law. That is insane. That is crazy. And, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, look, these people that would do things to children, you know, they should receive a strong, strong punishment. And I feel like even the world mostly agrees with us on this point. This should be a point that Christians should be championing today because even the world's like, yeah, that makes sense. But what's sad is how many churches today are saying, no, no, no, we need to love these people and bring them into church. We need to give them a second chance. Let me tell you something. Those people do not have a second chance here. They don't have a first chance. If we even just think that there is an issue, we'll take care of it. And you know what? We should be strong on this point because we should love children. If you love children, you would hate anybody that would offend them. And if Jesus Christ is taking this personal, we should take it personal. That children should be protected. Children should be safe. And it's just our approach on Christ. How many churches today constantly just hit headline news? Oh, another staff worker molested child, youth pastor molested child, daycare worker molested child, pastor molested child, assistant pastor molested child. I mean, we've had it here constantly. Even Robert Morris himself of Gateway Church, arguably the largest church in the world, Gateway Church, he had molested an 11-year-old when he was in his 20s and married. He was staying with some church family and he molested their daughter while staying with their house for four years. For four years. And then, you know, the dad, for some weird reason, decided not to tell the cops. Please tell the cops. Please get the authorities involved. It was just as long as he stepped down. But then he only stepped down for like a year or two and then went right back into the ministry. And then it's come out a lot later in time when there's been a lot more damage. And this guy's another proponent of lordship salvation, preaching a false gospel, wasting so much money and effort and energy on a bad church and a bad movement, and just causing our approach to the cause of Christ. Building like a weed. And so, you know, if we got rid of child molesters the way we should, that would have never happened. How many people that have been influenced by Gateway would have actually gone to a better church if he had have been dealt with the way the Bible says? But yet, somehow, people think, no, I'm smarter than God. Let's not do that. Let's not have the death penalty for child offenders and this stuff. No, no, no. We need to trust the Word of God. We need to go to the Old Testament and the New Testament to establish our laws and trust in the Lord and not in our own wisdom. Child molesters should be eradicated from society. They're not worth living. I will never have any empathy or sympathy for them. I want nothing to do with them. I believe that they're reprobate. I believe they can't even be saved. Because someone to do such a thing has to have some kind of a vile affection inside of them and has to have some kind of a darkness that is just so anti-natural feelings and affection that, to me, it's a clear example of someone that's a reprobate and given over to reprobate mine and they need to be dealt with appropriately. And it's sad that people don't believe in the reprobate doctrine anymore. I mean, it's not like I'm making up words. It's a word in the Bible, folks. The Bible says that there are people that are reprobate and, you know, when you look at statistics, it's ugly, but you look at statistics, they did a survey of a bunch of child molesters in prison and the average number of victims among them was 150 victims. 150 victims. You think that what I'm saying is bad? How about looking at 150 children in the eyes and saying, oh, well, we wanted to give so-and-so a second chance. It's disgusting. It's evil. It's wicked. People just don't realize how bad it is. People are trying to cover this up. And, you know what, we should expose it. We should bring light to this issue. Now, if we keep reading in this text, it says in verse number 7, woe unto the world because of offenses. For it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maim rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. You know, people say, oh, you're this loud hell fire preacher. Did you notice what the Bible says? Who in their Bible in verse number 7 says woe unto the world because of offenses has an exclamation mark there. You know what that is? That's someone yelling. Okay? That's Jesus Christ yelling. Yes, Jesus Christ cried with a loud voice and he's preaching hell fire. He's preaching damnation. He's preaching condemnation because hell is that bad. You know, my words aren't going to hurt you, but hell will really hurt you. And of course, he's warning a lot of these people because a lot of these people aren't saved. They're still trusting in themselves. They still believe that they're righteous. And he's trying to say, man, any little offense, anything that you do could cause you to go to hell and you would be so much better off, you know, hurting yourself, cutting off your own arms and cutting off your hands than just going to hell. It's not that he's prescribing that. It's not that he's suggesting that. He's just trying to make a comparison because no rational, normal person would ever injure themselves in such a way. It would just be irrational. And he's saying somehow that's more rational than going to hell. Think about how irrational it would be to cut your hand off and then how many people don't even know if they're going to go to hell or not. Like, they haven't even resolved that. It's like, hey, if you die today, would you go to hell? I don't know. What if they said, hey, there's a really good chance your hand's going to be cut off tomorrow. Do you want to know how to prevent that from happening? Don't you think they would care a little bit? Don't you think they'd be a little concerned? But for some reason, hell itself is less scary than losing an arm or losing an eye. But you know what? Hell is way worse. And we should wake people up and say, hey, look, as much as you wouldn't want your hands and your eyes ripped off, you should really be careful with hell. And so we need to get people saved. How dare you confront people on if they're saved or not? How dare you not? I mean, how dare you just allow people to die and go to hell? That would be my question to you. How many people have you ever given the gospel to? I mean, how could you say you love people when you've never even one time tried to help them to not go to hell? That's unloving. Oh, you're unloving. You go around and harass people at the door. No, no, unloving is never harassing somebody at the door. That's unloving. Says in verse 10, Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. So he really has just been kind of keeping this theme about talking about little children, and he's using these little children to teach a lot of different examples. Number one, you humble yourself like a little child to get saved. Number two, you stay like a humble little child in your mind to become great in the kingdom of heaven. Number three, he warns about people that hurt little children and cause any offense because you're in danger of hell fire if you don't get saved. And he brings up in verse number 10 that we should not do anything negative to children because they have angels that guard over them and just even despising them, just not even liking them, you know, could put you in jeopardy of God punishing you. Notice what it says that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. So this is kind of where we get this idea of quote guardian angels. I don't think the Bible really says guardian angels. This is where we get this idea that you have little children, they have their own angels, and not even just angels, they get some of the special angels because notice these are angels that can behold the face of God the Father in heaven. You know, it'd be kind of a weird verse if God the Father didn't have a face and wasn't in heaven. Doesn't this verse seem to have some significance that he has a face that they can see and that he's in heaven, right? And keep your finger here, go if you would to another place, go to Luke chapter 1. Go to Luke chapter number 1. There's a lot of little doctrines you can kind of find here in the Bible but what a meaningless verse if God the Father isn't in heaven and doesn't have a face. But this is significant and the Bible tells us about significant angels in the Bible. Look at Luke chapter 1 verse 19. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. So when Gabriel comes to give this great news about the Lord Jesus Christ, he wants to let him know like I'm not just some angel here, I'm an angel that's in the presence of God. So this is a special angel in the Bible and this particular angel is one that gets to stand in the presence of God up in heaven. And that's one of the reasons why he's going to end up punished here, Zacharias, for not having believed the message about John the Baptist. Because this is an important angel, he's significant, he stands in the presence of God. So notice he punishes him for not believing his message. How much more are guardian angels going to punish people when they despise little children and do bad things to little children? You don't want to mess with God because his angels could be sent down and could punish you for not believing the Bible. Just like Zacharias is punished for not believing Gabriel, you could be punished for not believing Matthew chapter number 18 verse number 10, which says, hey, don't despise these little children. If you despise these little children, God could send Gabriel down and punish you. And what was the punishment? He couldn't even talk, lost his voice. We should be careful how we treat little children. We should have respect under little children and we should love little children. Go to Matthew chapter number 18. There's an attitude out there that hates children. It's an ungodly attitude. Oh, they're just snotty and brats and whiny and complaining. Yeah, all that's true, but we should still love them. We shouldn't despise children. We should love them and we should care for them. We should do good under them. And you know what? I have six of them and I hope I get more. People are always just like attacking me. I just go out in public and they're just like, hey, you know what causes that? I'm just like, yeah, it's great. He's like, if you get a TV, that'll fix it. No, it won't. I don't have a TV, but it won't fix it. And you know what? I'm hoping I get more. They're just like, are you done? No. How many more are you going to have? I don't know, as many as I can. They're just like, ah! I love children. Children are great. I hate this anti-children attitude out there. In times past, society wasn't as down on children. They used to look at children as a blessing. And I wish we could get back to that and realize that children are a blessing from God. They are not some kind of a curse. Yeah, is it a burden? Sure. But anything worth it's a burden. Anything worth it's going to take effort and energy. We should love our children and look at them as a blessing and not despise them. Boy, I wouldn't want to be someone that despises the children God's given to me. What will he do to me for despising them? How many women have gotten children and they get mad about the children they have or despise the children they have and then God punished them and didn't give them any more? Or took away the child that they had? Or punishes them in some other way? You know, God can punish us. We should be appreciative of what God has given us and love the children that God has given us because their angels are the angels that behold the face of God the Father which is in heaven. He's not an abstract idea. He's in heaven and he really has a face. Look at verse 11. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. Now if you read that verse with me, you're reading a King James Bible because the NIV takes it out. If you have an NIV, you did not read that verse with me because it's just gone. Along with 16 other whole verses. Along with tons of phrases in the Bible as well. Why would you take that verse out? This is a loved verse. This is a verse that a lot of people love. Use and quote. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What an important verse of the Bible. NIV gone. You know what you should get rid of the NIV? Not this verse. Verse 12. How think ye, if a man have a hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he findeth, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. So again, he kind of continues again with this little child example. And how caring for a little child is almost like how Christ cares for just one little sheep amongst a whole flock of a hundred. And how he chases after that one and he cares for that one. I think you could look at this verse in two different ways. We could look at it as number one like a salvation perspective or we could look at it as a restoration perspective. Now you would say like how could it be salvation if they're sheep? Because if they're sheep aren't they already saved? But the Bible uses this kind of language for people that aren't even saved yet. I want to look at a couple of examples. Keep your finger out of John chapter ten, go to John chapter number ten. Sometimes God talks in an eternal perspective, not in a current perspective. Because someone who's not saved is not really a sheep maybe in that moment, but they are a sheep from an eternal perspective. So sometimes God may refer to people in that manner. Here's an example of that in John chapter ten, look at what it says in verse sixteen. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. So this is talking about Gentiles that are going to get saved in the future and when the Lord Jesus Christ refers to them, what does he call them? Sheep. But it's not that they're sheep yet, they are sheep from an eternal perspective. They are sheep from God's understanding of knowing the future from the past. But it's not that they are currently sheep. So in the same way we can apply that to the parable of hey, this is a sheep not because it's saved yet, but it's a sheep because it's going to end up getting saved and Christ was going out there and seeking that lost sheep and ended up restoring it. Just like Jesus Christ went to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and he preached the gospel, many people got saved. They weren't a sheep yet, but they were sheep from an eternal perspective that he ended up bringing in. And so we see that he's going out and seeking and saving that which was lost. That's one way to interpret this from a salvific perspective. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 2, I'll prove it in another way too, that sometimes when God refers to people, he's referring to their eternal state and not their current state. And of course when we get saved, the Bible says we change. So there is a change, I mean we're not born the sons of God, we have to become a son of God through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. But it does say in 1 John chapter number 3, Behold, now are we the sons of God. So in 1 John chapter 3 verse 2 it says, Behold, now are we the sons of God because when we believe in Jesus Christ we were born again spiritually and we became a child of God. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 10 says, Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Well here's the thing, you can't get someone elect saved. But what does he mean by that? He's saying the people that are going to end up getting saved, they are elect in a sense from an eternal state even though they might not be elect currently. And I want to go out there and get them saved for, you know, I want to endure all kinds of things for their sake, for the elect's sake. But it's not that they're saved yet, it's just for the people that would get saved, for the people that will get saved. In the same way I think you could refer to that in Matthew chapter 18. So that's one way to look at this parable. Another way to look at this parable is just the fact of like maybe they're all saved and sometimes when someone strays away from the faith or is backslidden, you know, Christ will leave the 99 that are not backslidden and care for the one that's backslidden and try to restore them in a spirit of meekness and love and try to restore them. And, you know, I think that we should have the same attitude. We should have the same attitude that if someone is struggling to serve God, is in a low point, is maybe a little backslidden, that it's great when we can come alongside them and encourage them to try and come back to the Lord, try to get back into church, try to serve God. So, you know, sometimes we have people that leave our church and they're not mad at us, they don't hate the pastor, they're not like secular recording us, they're not doing all kinds of evil stuff. They just simply, you know, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches or just the offense of persecution or just the difficulty of going to church, they just get a little backslidden. They leave church or they get out of church and then they come back. You know, we should be excited that they came back. We should restore such in one. We should be glad that they're there. We should shake their hand. We should be kinder to them and we should try to encourage them. You know, I would hope that people that get backslidden wouldn't be afraid to come back to church. And there is that fear, there is that intimidation of, oh, man, you know, I'm kind of afraid what people will say. But, you know, let's not give them an excuse by then treating them differently or giving them a look or, oh, man, finally coming back to church, huh? It's like, hey, great to see you. And, you know, I don't even have to pretend because that's just my honest opinion. It's like I just get excited when I get to see someone I hadn't seen in a while. And there's people that were great people that were coming to our church and then life happens, whatever, they're not. And if they walk through the door, I would just be super excited to see them again. And we should kind of have that same attitude. And sometimes we even elevate the backslidden above those that are not backslidden, giving them a little more time, effort or energy. Now, if someone's a railing Judas, I'm not going off and seeking that person and trying to bring them back in the vault. Neither is Jesus bringing that up, okay? Obviously, those type of people were treating, what does the Bible say in verse 17? Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. So when someone has been church disciplined, no, we're not treating that person like, hey, let's give you a bunch of extra attention and try to win you back over. We're not going to win you back over. You have to fix yourself and then we'll let you come back in, okay? Now, he says in verse number 15, I've already dealt with this passage a lot recently in a previous sermon called Conflict Resolution. If you really want a detailed explanation, go listen to that sermon. I will make a few points though about this passage. One would be this, that if you don't want the whole church to find out about you causing problems, you should just go ahead and say sorry when you're first confronted. But notice, if you're willing to just be stubborn and you're just not willing to fix issues, then the whole church is going to end up finding out about your issue in many cases. Now, you know, that could be like embarrassing and some people might be like, oh, this church shames people publicly. That's what the Bible is saying. The Bible is saying, hey, if you won't get these things right, if you won't fix them, well, pretty much the whole church is going to find out and then the whole church has to treat you a certain way. What does it say in verse 17? And, you know, that's important for the whole church to do. Now, I'm going to say this, it's more important for that person's friends to do it than anybody else too. Because especially in a church our size, our church is larger than us, we're not all friends. So for me to not hang out with some people in this room is just another day in the office. It's just another day every week. But there's probably some people in here that they do hang out with, talk to, text, whatever, have some kind of relationship. And so it's really important for those people to be the ones that hold them accountable. You know what, I would love it if my friends would hold me accountable if I was causing a problem. In the same way, I'm going to hold my friends accountable if they're causing a problem and going down this road. So we should try to help one another to serve Christ together and then not cause these problems. And we want to make sure we have a healthy church. You know, I was thinking about it, like, our church is just so... I think a lot of us just don't really appreciate the church that we have because we're used to it. Man, I just remember being part of so many churches where there's just all these people in there that you're thinking, like, why won't someone deal with that person? You know what I'm talking about? Like, there's these weird people in the church that are causing problems and it's just like no one will deal with that issue. No one will deal with that person. Or just, like, egregious sin issues and you're just thinking, like, no one's dealing with that, no one's dealing with this problem. And in the same way, it would just be like if your body had all these health issues, like you have an open womb, you have cuts, you know, things are going wrong with your head and you're just ignoring all of it. We want to be a healthy body. We have to deal with issues. And people can criticize all day long that we would exercise church discipline or deal with issues like this. But you know what it causes? Us to be very healthy. And let me tell you something, we are a very healthy church. Especially when you compare it to what's out there. There's a lot of problems in a lot of churches today that we don't have because we actually deal with issues. And you should appreciate that, that you don't have to come to church and deal with all these problem people all the time. All these awkward situations that can be avoided if we exercise church discipline. The Bible says in verse number 19, again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Notice that, you know, church is authority, but even just Christians is a whole other authority. Here's a good idea, how about you pray at night with your spouse? Because think about it, two people coming together agreeing, what does the Bible say? That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father. Notice again, he's in heaven. I like how the Bible just hammers that point, which is in heaven. Hey, praying with another person, coming together with another brother in Christ and praying is powerful. Coming together with your spouse and praying is powerful, because God can answer prayer. And so we should, on a regular basis, be coming together with other people and praying together. Hey, when we come together as a church and pray, there's a special power and authority to that, that God gives us and wants us to exercise. So I believe corporate prayer is important as well. Verse 21, Then came Peter him and said, Lord, how oft so my brother sin against me? And I forgive him till seven times. Jesus saith unto him, I say unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Now again, you know, we read a lot of the Bible, it's clear, it's not just saying like you're letting things go always, but if your brother does something wrong, comes and apologizes, you're supposed to forgive them. You're supposed to let it go at that point. And you say, like, how many times? Pretty much forever. Many times your brother screws up, you just let it go. That's a great Christian attitude, is that we just are constantly being willing to forgive our brother. Forgiveness should always be on the table for the repentant. But those that are not repentant, of course, obviously, they may have to be church disciplined or stay away, or the relationship changed, but when they are repentant, we have to forgive them. That's not optional. And I was going to give a whole parable about this. Look what it says in verse 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had in payment to be made. The servant, therefore, fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord, I have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence, and he laid his hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that, he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. So he gives a long parable here to warn us about forgiveness. And if you really think about what the parable is trying to allude to, is think about this ten thousand talents he owns. It's almost like we've caused ten thousand sins against God. Like we're guilty of ten thousand sins, and yet when we got saved, God forgave us of all of that. And we don't have to go to hell for all of that. And he was merciful and longsuffering towards us for that. But then what if our brother comes and trespasses against us one or two times, and then we can't extend them forgiveness. It just seems so egregious considering that God forgave you ten thousand times over, and you can't forgive somebody one or two times. But you know, it just will not surprise you, if you know things about church, people will hold the smallest, most petty grudges against one another. And you're just thinking like, how in the world has God forgiven you of all of your sins, all of your lies, all of your stealing, all of your dishonoring your parents, all of the grievous things, and I mean worse things than this, getting drunk, fornication, all this stuff that you did to God. And then this person, well, you know, she gave me a bad look one day. Get over yourself. You know, we need to forgive. And especially if someone came to you and said, I'm sorry, or I apologize, we should just be quick to forgive, quick to let it go. And think about the warning here. If you won't get over little, petty, tiny grudges, God may say, oh, well, you know that list of all the things you did in your entire life? I'm going to make sure you get punished for all of them now. All that fornication you did, all that drunkenness you did, all that debauchery you did, all that partying you did, all those lies you've told, all the things that you've taken, all the times you were disrespectful. I'm going to make sure you get punished for all of it because you won't let this little, tiny grudge grow. That scares me. That makes me want to just say, like, if someone comes to me and apologizes, I'm like, you're forgiven. It's good. That's your attitude, just immediate forgiveness, immediate, yeah, no problem, don't worry about it. And, hey, people have come to apologize to me for all kinds of things. In many cases, I didn't even care. I'm just like, you didn't even need to apologize, but whatever. And if you know anything about me, if you've ever come to apologize to me, you would know. I'm just like, yep, no problem, don't worry about it, I forgive you. Hey, we should do that to our spouse too, shouldn't we? We should do that to everybody in our life, everybody that's harmed us, everybody that's hurt us. Hey, when they get on their knees and say, please forgive me, we should just say, no problem, you're good. We should let bygones be bygones. The Christian attitude should just always be to forgive, always be to let things go. Look at chapter 7, verse 1 for a second. Here's another huge warning about this, same thing. Chapter 7, we've already read, but look at verse 1 again. Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Hey, how you treat other people, God will treat you. I'll just go to one more place, go to Psalm 18, go to Psalm 18. The Bible gives this warning over and over and over again. I'm going to read you another verse, 1 Peter 3 says, Love his brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrary wise, blessing, knowing that ye are there to call, that ye should inherit a blessing. You know, we should be pitiful, we should show pity towards our brethren, and if they screw up, make mistakes, we just say, hey, no problem, when they apologize. Psalm 18, I want to look at verse number 25. And this is just a great one to kind of encapsulate this verse. With the merciful, thou wilt shew thyself merciful. With an upright man, thou wilt shew thyself upright. Verse 26, with the purer, thou wilt shew thyself purer, and with the froward, thou wilt shew thyself froward. So how you treat others in many cases is how God will treat you. If you're very merciful and forgiving towards other people, God will often be very merciful and forgiving towards you. If you're very contrary and you're always against people, then God's going to be against you. And boy, I would not want to be someone that's constantly against other Christians, constantly attacking other Christians. Because you know what's going to happen? God's going to be constantly attacking you. You're constantly just calling everybody a fool and an idiot. Well, then God will make you look like a fool and make you look like an idiot. Hey, how you treat other people, God's going to treat you. And let me tell you something, I'm just as much a sinner as the next guy. I need God's mercy and grace. I don't want to be punished according as I deserve. I want God to be merciful unto me. And so, you know, if I want that, I need to extend mercy to others. And I need to be gracious to others. And when others ask for forgiveness or are wanting to restore things, we should just immediately restore them, fix them, do good unto them. That's how God will treat us. We need to humble ourselves in this life, and we need to make sure that we're treating children the way that they should be treated, not being respected of persons. And when people need forgiveness, we need to extend it to them. This is the Christian attitude that we should have in our lives. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for being merciful unto us. Thank you for the ultimate sacrifice that you gave with your Son on the cross. I pray that we wouldn't despise that by treating our brethren with a begrudging heart and not letting things go, but rather we'd see the example of you forgiving us and that we should also follow in like suit and forgive our brethren, forgive others when they trespass against us. I pray that we would love children, that we'd see them as special and important. I pray that you would help us to have a humble attitude and we esteem others better than ourselves. And I pray that you would help our church to do great works for you, for your Son's name, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, in closing, let's go to song number 27. Song number 27, The Old Rugged Cross. Song number 27. Let's all sing it out together. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame. And I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown. Oh, that old rugged cross so despised by the world as a wondrous attraction for me. For the dear Lamb of God left his glory above to bear it to dark gallery. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown. In the old rugged cross stained with blood so divine a wondrous beauty I see. For it was on that old cross Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown. To the old rugged cross I will ever be true is shame and repose gladly there. And you'll call me some day to my home far away where it's lonely forever I'll stand. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown.