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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Great job. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here tonight. Thank you for coming. Now, if you can go ahead and find your seats, we'll go ahead and get started. And for our first song, we'll go ahead and start in song number 30. An oldie but a goodie, song number 30, nothing but the blood. Song number 30. Song number 30, nothing but the blood. What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my part in this I see, nothing but the blood of Jesus. For cleansing this my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. Oh, other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can force an atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. All right, great singing everybody, let's all pray together. Lord, we want to thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for allowing us to come here today and praise you and listen to your word being preached, Lord. We love you and we just ask you to bless this fellowship and bless this church. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 29. Song number 29, At the Cross. One page behind, song number 29, At the Cross. Alas, and did my Savior flee, and did my sovereign die. Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes that I have done, He groaned upon the tree. Amazing, fading, grace unknown, and love beyond degree. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut His glories in. When Christ the mighty Maker died, for man the creature sinned. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Here Lord, I give myself away, tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. One of our ushers can come by, just keep your hand up, flag him down, throw something at him, whatever. On the front we have the Bible memory passage, Psalm 58, we're on verse 4. Any child that can quote the Psalm of the week, 18 or under, can get an ice cream treat immediately following the service. And also on the inside we have our service times, our soul winning times, and our church stats. Please continue to report all of our church stats to your soul winning captains and lieutenants. Also, just as a habit and a reminder, anytime I go out soul winning and I get someone saved, I always offer to take their email so that we can add it to our email list and we can be emailing them out sermons. And so I would say 9 out of 10 times people want to give me their email. Even people that are saved, you can say, hey, I'm glad you're saved. We send out sermons, we'd love to add you to our list if you just want to check some of them out, and you can get some emails, and we can send that out to them. And so I think people really appreciate that, and we'd like to reach as many people with the gospel, and not just the gospel, but also all the sermons. And so that's a great idea, and then you can share that with brother Dylan or your soul winning captain. Just the emails that you capture when out soul winning, I'm terrible at hearing and writing them down, too. So I just hand them my phone, I just say, hey, put your email address in my phone, and then I just copy and text brother Dylan, and that way we can keep growing that list as well. So that's just a friendly reminder when you're going out soul winning. Try to see if you can grab their email address, and we can send them the sermons throughout the week. Also on the right we have the list of our expecting ladies. Several ladies here on our list that you need to be in prayer for. Also we have a prayer list that we go over on Wednesdays. We're continuing to pray for Ms. Negara for health, Ms. Lucy's mother. We've been praying for brother Cameron Hall. We've been praying for brother Wallach's daughter. We've been praying for Ms. Cooley's stepdad, cancer treatment. We've been praying for the Rodari family up in Verde Baptist Church, their infant John. And we've been praying for brother Rich for a job. So that's pretty much all I have as far as in the bulletin. Obviously there's a lot of other prayer requests out there, and if you have any private ones you can always email those in. But we'll just say a quick word of prayer for those that are here in our bulletin this evening. Thank you Heavenly Father for our church. Thank you so much for these ladies that are expecting and the blessing of pregnancy. I pray that you would please be with their pregnancy, please be with their children. Please help their development. I pray that you would give them a timely birth, give them strength. I pray that you would help give them comfort during all of this heat. I pray that you would also be with our church family that has a lot of health issues, with chronic issues, they've been struggling. I pray that you would give them hope. I pray that you would give them strength. Please bless them with a miracle. Please just give them healing. And please give them a full recovery. I pray that you would also help our church family that needs favor. Please also help us to be bold in our relationships that we have, our friends and our family members and our co-workers and those that we've been hoping and wishing for to be saved. I pray that you would give us boldness and courage to preach the gospel to them and to stand for the truth. And we just thank you for all you give us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On the back we have our church reminders. Upcoming events, the Mighty Men's Conference, August 17th through the 19th. And there's a sign-up sheet. Please, please make sure you're signing up so we can make sure we have the accommodations taken care of for you. Also, October 12th through the 15th is our Firebreathing Baptist Fellowship. And you don't want to miss this. It's going to be a great opportunity to hear a lot of fantastic preachers that it's very difficult to always get aligned with the stars and everything like that. And they're very busy men and they take time out of their schedule to come out here. So it's a great honor. When we get a little bit closer, we'll also probably try to see if we can get some different sign-up sheets for people that can help volunteer. Because it's definitely a team effort when we do some kind of event like that of people that can maybe help with cleaning, organizing, and some different things like that. So I'm really looking forward to hosting and having this kind of an event. Also, it's a great opportunity to invite someone or encourage people to show up to hear a kind of different style sermon. It'll definitely be packed in here, but I think it'll be a lot of fun. Also, I just got back from the Red Hot Preaching Conference and wow, it was a lot of fun. A lot of really good sermons were preached there. And so I encourage you, even if you don't get to go out there, just check out some of the sermons. I think Verity Baptist Church has all of their sermons posted on their rumble. And you can check it out. They also have an email list called bandbutnotbound.com. You can go to that website, sign up for their email list, and they send out a lot of information as well. We try our best to communicate with our church family via email as well. And you're not just going to get sermons, sometimes you also get other messages. And I know because of that, sometimes people just kind of think it's like spam or something and don't pay attention, but we sent out an email to everybody about a filming, film showing tomorrow night. So I apologize if you either didn't get the email or you didn't notice it, that this seems like really last minute for you. But again, for most people, they did notice this and they've already kind of responded, but we're trying to get a count of who is planning on participating. But tomorrow night, we're going to be airing our film at 7 p.m. And so is there anybody here that sounds interested and did not already email me? They think like they want to go? Okay. Make sure to ask me or Brother Dylan about that as well. I think we have plenty, plenty of room for everybody that wants to come. Also, you know, if you have that coworker or person that you would like to come and bring them to the show, I think you're going to have room. So we might as well fill it up. And if have to, they can sit on Dylan's lap. And so, you know, bring them and we're going to have popcorn and drink and some candy. And the movie is going to be lit, folks. Okay. And we aired it at Red Hot Preaching Conference. Everybody liked the film or they were a reprobate. So, you know, basically, you know, it was widely well accepted. It was well accepted with everyone. No, but seriously, I think that this is actually a very good film. It's also not just a rehashing of anything that we've aired before. It's really different. It's definitely the same topic as the Sodomite Deception film, but a lot of people have told me, they say, man, it's a completely different film. And they really enjoyed it. They really liked it. Keep in mind, we slapped it together very quickly, but most people told me that they were really surprised with the production value of the film anyways. And they thought it was still really well produced. It's about two hours right on the dot. So just to give you kind of an idea of the length of the film. But we're going to air it tomorrow night for our church family and friends. And if you can't make it, it'll be put online Monday night. So Monday night, we're going to be releasing it to the world. We'll do our best. We're going to kind of have a live premiere. But it's not going to be on YouTube, okay, folks? All right, so people that want to put it on YouTube afterwards, go for it. But you know what? I'm not going to do that. And it's probably going to destroy your channel. But you know what? The truth needs to get out there. And I'm sick and tired of people not being willing to say the truth on these issues. This is a really important issue. It's also a really creative way for us to tell our story. So if you like Steadfast Baptist Church, you've been with us, it's kind of a way to kind of relive some of the experiences that we've gone through in a unique and creative way. And so I really appreciate you guys for being faithful and sticking with us and giving us the opportunity to even have a story. And so, you know, it's definitely a big thank you to you guys for being such dedicated and faithful Christians that we have a church. It's Steadfast Baptist Church. And boy, a lot of people are very impressed with how much you are willing to put up with and your courage and your strength. And frankly, even your ability to handle yourself spiritually when at times you're being provoked. And we definitely understand that. But, you know, we have a really good testimony as a church and a lot of people are starting to wake up and realize that we're right on these issues. And so I'm really excited about this. Hopefully you can share it with people as well. I don't necessarily know what the plans are with the film other than just putting it out there. It's kind of hard to market these type of products and things like that. But it's just fun to make something, put it out there. I'm not necessarily anticipating that we get a lot of views or anything. It could even get taken down. But it would just be fun for us to kind of put it out there, have our unique story. And we'll have it online and stuff like that where people can still check it out afterwards. But you know what? Hey, share this thing with family members, coworkers, friends. This is my personal opinion. I think that this film will be easier to share with people than the Sodomite deception. You know, especially ones that are maybe on the edge or maybe they're not necessarily as agreeable on some of our doctrines because it's really hard to argue with how many facts and just straight Bible stories are lining up with what the film is portraying. And so if you like the truth, you're going to love this movie. This is my one time to promote the film, okay? So just bear with me for a moment, all right? But I'm really excited about this. I hope that you guys are as well. And if you're not excited about it, you know what? Stop being a pedophile enabler, okay? All right. With that, we're going to go to our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 150. So it's in our special handouts, Psalm 150. And we're going to praise the Lord this evening. All right, Psalm chapter 150. Everybody sing it out real loud on the first. Psalm chapter 150. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in love. Ferment of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him not only for his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the temporal dance. Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals. Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that have breath. Praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God the Father. Praise God the Son. Praise God the Holy Ghost. Praise God in free person. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. That's Romans chapter number 8. Romans 8 the Bible reads, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, gay rather, that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are recounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for Romans chapter 8 and for our church service this evening. I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit now as he expounds the chapter to us, Lord, and help us to learn the truths that you would have us to know from this chapter so that we can glorify you to the best of our ability. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So we're here in Romans chapter 8, and it's a very long chapter in comparison to some of the other chapters that we've looked at so far. But just a quick recap, and I like always doing this kind of recap because Romans is kind of telling a story, and a lot of people will talk about Romans in a context of the Romans road, and that's definitely very true in the sense that Romans is kind of laying a lot of different foundational blocks, and it's kind of telling a very interesting story. Chapter 1 was telling us that salvation's been revealed by faith, and it said in chapter 2, it talked about how everybody's going to be judged, whether they are the best sinner or the worst sinner, and chapter 3 is made clear we're all sinners. So salvation's been revealed, we're all going to be judged, we're all sinners, well then how do we get saved? Well chapter 4 tells us salvation is by faith, and chapter 5 emphasizes the fact that once you're saved, you're always saved, and there's a lot of different things that we looked at in chapter 5 that prove that you're saved forever. Which then brings you to the question in chapter 6, you know, should we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the answer was clearly, God forbid, we should decide to serve God with our lives, even though we've already been saved, even though we can't lose it, we should decide to not serve sin anymore, but serve Jesus. And in chapter 7, the previous chapter, it talked about that real struggle that exists when trying to serve God. The fact that just because you may want to, and you have the desire in the inward man, in the new man, you still have that flesh, and there's this constant warring and battling with the flesh, and who are you going to serve, and every day you have this opportunity to either walk in the new man, or walk in the Spirit, as the Bible describes it, or to walk in the flesh. And in chapter 8, we then kind of divulge it and talk about this victory we have when we walk in the Spirit. And really, I think that chapter 8 is really a chapter of victory. Now, it kind of has two parts. In one sense, it's victory when we walk in the Spirit, because when you walk in the Spirit, you're not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. You have victory over the flesh, you have victory over sin, you have victory over bondage when you walk in the Spirit. And then the ultimate victory is the fact that because you are a new creation, because you are born of God's Spirit, and because you've been quickened, you will for sure go to heaven. You will for sure eventually have victory over the flesh. While we're going to struggle daily and we're going to have a constant battle until we die, you're going to win this battle, period. It's kind of like, hey, you're going to play the game, but in the fourth quarter, Jesus Christ is going to score enough points for you to win. So it doesn't really matter if you're lame, if you're bad, if you're terrible. Play the best that you can, but guess what? Jesus is going to win the game in the fourth quarter, period. And we have that victory over the flesh no matter what. We're going to defeat it. We're going to win. And chapter 8 kind of reminds us about the victory that's offered to us and the inevitable victory we will have at the end of our lives. Verse 1 says this, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Now, you've got to love some of these verses in the Bible, but this one's a really important one. And I think it's kind of confusing because it has so many theirs in there. But there is therefore, notice this word, now. You know, some people will try to say that salvation is a process or that eventually you're going to get to a certain status with God. But according to the Bible, there is currently now no condemnation is offered to us. Now, what does that mean? That means that you can be right with God 100% right now. Now, we're not just talking about going to heaven, though. We're talking about God being pleased with you. And he's saying very specifically, you have to be in Christ Jesus and you're not walking after the flesh but after the Spirit. So what the Bible's kind of painting this picture is, once you've been saved and then you start walking in the Spirit, God is not mad at you for any of the past things that you've done. In the sense that once you've gotten right with God and you've reconciled and you've apologized and you're basically on the right course, that God's not just constantly hanging over your head all your past mistakes and all your past issues and all the deficiencies and things that you have wrong with you. And that's a great encouragement to some of us that have some bad past sins. You know, there's people who didn't get saved as a child and they have made some bad-like decisions. Maybe they've been divorced. Maybe they've been divorced and remarried. Maybe they've been divorced and remarried and then divorced and then remarried. Maybe they've just been divorced and divorced. I mean, like there could be people in all kinds of weird scenarios. Maybe someone, God forbid, but they committed an abortion. Maybe someone had a bastard child. Maybe someone's committed adultery. Maybe someone's committed murder. Maybe someone stole a lot of things. Maybe someone did a lot of drugs. I mean, there could be a lot of evil, a lot of bad things that people have done in their past. And the Bible is saying right now you could potentially have no condemnation if what? If you're in Christ Jesus and you're walking after the Spirit. And that's great encouragement. People like the Apostle Paul really resonate with this message because you know what? He had some past issues that were pretty big. Like persecuting the Church of God. Like being complicit in the death of saints. Like going into someone's house and arresting them and dragging them off to prison for just being a Christian. Now that could hang over the Apostle Paul's head his whole life. But you know what he's saying? Hey, right now I have no condemnation with God for that because I'm saved and I'm walking in the Spirit. So what the Bible is offering you is a way to have a clean slate every single day. Those that are saved have the opportunity just every day you can just have a clean slate and if you're just walking in the Spirit, God is not going to constantly hold over your head all the previous issues that you've had. And of course when you're in the Spirit, according to the Bible, you're not going to be sinning. You're not going to be doing anything wrong anyways. You're right with God. And that's just a nice feeling. It's nice to have the feeling when you're just, you're doing good. You know when you're not doing good or you make mistakes or you're being lazy, sometimes you have that guilty conscience, you know what I mean? Like maybe you show up at work and you didn't really check in mentally for a while and you just kind of feel a little bit bad about what you've been doing. Look, I've been there. I'm sure other people, I know there's, I'm not going to raise the hands, but I know there's other people that every once in a while you kind of have that over your head feeling, right? Whereas the day you wake up early and you get a head start and you accomplish a lot of work, it just feels a lot better at that midpoint of the day than when you've done nothing or you're kind of slacked off or you haven't been as faithful. And the same is in the Christian life that when you're right with God, it just feels a lot better than when you're not really right with God. When you're kind of slacking and not doing the things of God, it's kind of like coming to church. You know, if you haven't missed a church service in three months and you walk in, it just feels good. Whereas if you missed church for three months, sometimes people have this like hesitation of like, oh, I don't know, you know, what's it going to be like when I come back? Which it's kind of silly because if someone truly missed service for three months or three years or 30 years and they walk in, you know what my first thought is? I'm so glad they're here. And everybody feels that way. People are just sitting here like, wow, where have you been? How dare you show up? Man. It's like, hey, I'm glad you're alive. It's great to see you. It's not like I'm thinking bad. I'm thinking this is great. You know, every time, because there's lots of times as a pastor, there's people that I'm thinking like, man, I don't know if they're going to come back. And every time I show up at church, I'm just hoping they show up. I'm just like, man, I hope they come. I haven't seen them in a while. It'd be great to see them. I'm not sitting here thinking like they better not show up tonight. You know, they better not come back this time. And, you know, I think the same is the mentality that God wants us to have and to realize is that God is not sitting here thinking like, well, when you finally get right with me again, there's going to be a day of reckoning. No, he's just wanting you to get right every moment. And when you do, notice there's no condemnation right now. And I just love that the fact that the Bible teaches that there's new mercies every single morning. God wants us to have the opportunity to have a clean slate every single day. And that's just really refreshing to serve God that I don't have to live down my past mistakes. You know, and you should take a note out of God's book. This is how you should treat other people. You know, your spouse did something bad yesterday, but then they apologized and got it right. Well, the next morning, it should be a new morning. You shouldn't just constantly hang over their head every single mistake that they've made and every problem that you've ever had and every argument that you've ever had and every time they didn't do what you said and every time they said something and they didn't really do it. You know, you don't want to just constantly hang over your spouse's head every single issue they've had in your relationship. You want to forgive and forget and let them have a clean slate every single day. And say, hey, you know what, we may have had some issues in the past, but you know what, today is a new day and we have new mercies and this is similar to what God does for us and we should have the same attitude. And according to the Bible, we need to walk after the Spirit. Look at verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of life and Christ Jesus have made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do and that it was weak to the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Now what the Bible is saying, there was nothing wrong with the law, but there was a problem. We could not keep the law. Why? Well, verse number 3 says that we were weak through the flesh in the sense that we were incapable of fulfilling the law or doing what the law said because we're just flesh and flesh is weak and flesh is not capable of doing it. But now that you're saved, now that you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, you can choose to walk in the Spirit and now you actually could fulfill the law. So it's kind of like saying before you weren't strong enough, you weren't capable enough to actually follow the law, but now that Christ is in you, you have the opportunity to actually fulfill the law, to actually do what the law said and actually to be righteous. So you know, some people think and have this weird mentality that the New Testament is like throwing the law in the trash and that doesn't exist anymore, whereas what the Bible is actually saying is now you finally have the opportunity to do the law. Before, you basically were inevitably going to fail. You didn't really have the opportunity. You weren't capable of fulfilling the law. But now that you're saved, you actually have the opportunity to fulfill the law, and that's what God wants us to do. God wants us to fulfill the law. God wants us to be the best representation of law followers that exist on this planet. And the only way someone could do that is if they walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. You have to do it through the Spirit of God. Verse 5, Let me tell you something. Catholics cannot please God. Mormons cannot please God. The United Methodists cannot please God. The Muslim cannot please God, folks. The Atheist cannot please God. The only person that can please God is the guy that's saved. And even then, it's not automatic. You have to still live by faith, for without faith it's impossible to please Him is what the Bible says in Hebrews. And you know what? According to the Bible, this flesh is not what's pleasing to God. Now let's make that practical. What does that mean? It means all the grooming and primping and postulating and grooming of your body is not what's pleasing to God. Have you ever noticed when it talks about women, it talks about how that adorning is not the adorning of your hair, like the braided hair or the broided hair and wearing of gold and wearing of apparel, but it's the hidden man of the heart and a meek and quiet spirit. And according to the Bible, of course it's not saying and wearing of apparel like, don't wear clothes. It's saying the wearing of fancy clothing and the cut and the design and the pattern and the fashion. You know what? God doesn't care about any of that. God's never been pleased and thought, you know what, that's a really pretty dress. Wow, that is some really cool broided hair. Man, the makeup did wonders there. He doesn't think that. Oh, boy, those are some beautiful earrings. Wow, that's a beautiful necklace. But this is how man views it, doesn't it? Especially women. Women are like, did you see that dress? See those earrings? See those nails? Do you see? I mean, they're always focused on the outward appearance, aren't they? Oh, you see the cut of that dress? Oh, man. But God's not impressed. God doesn't care about those things. Those things are carnal, they're of the flesh and has nothing to do with pleasing God whatsoever. That does not please God, the outward appearance. Hey, you being some hulk of a man and you being this physical specimen, you being the greatest athlete and the strongest looking guy, you know what, doesn't impress God. God's not impressed by you, Goliath. God's not impressed by you. You know, when David's first brother is presented before Samuel, the Lord refuses him. And he says he doesn't look on the outward appearance. He looks on the inward appearance. And he looks on the heart. And you know what? He refused his first brother. Why? Because God doesn't care about your physical appearance in that way. God doesn't care about these things. Now, often your physical appearance is a representation of what's going on in your heart. And so God does care about our physical appearance only in the capacity of it being a reflection of your heart. Right? The Bible tells men to have short hair. But it's not like God's just super impressed with your short haircut. He just wants you to be obedient to him. So when someone has long hair, it's not like long hair to him, he just really hates the idea of long hair. It's the fact that it's a representation of someone being rebellious to God, and that's what he hates. That's what he really just doesn't like whatsoever. And so often the outward appearance is a reflection of what's going on inside. That's why Jesus Christ is telling the Pharisees to cleanse first that which is inside, cleanse the inside of the platter, and then the outward. But at the same time, you have to realize the outward just still doesn't matter to God. God's not focused on the flesh. God's not focused on the outward appearance. God's not focused on the carnal things of this world. He's not focused on the diet, and on the cars, and on the houses, and on the bank account. I mean, pretty much everything that Andrew Tate brags about, God doesn't care. I've got so many beguys. You brokies. Oh, I've got so many girlfriends. Dude's a faggot anyways. The dude, Andrew Tate is a faggot. If you like Andrew Tate, then you like faggots, okay? The guy said that he would sleep with a transgender. You know how I know you're a faggot? Because you said you would sleep with a transgender. I mean, what more proof do you need? I don't want any more proof, okay? And the guy brags about his accomplishments of what? Oh, he's so strong, he's a kickboxer, he's so good looking, he's so intelligent. But let me tell you something, all those things are carnal. Everything about Andrew Tate is carnal, and frankly speaking, it's all fake anyways. Most everything that he says. And let me tell you a little dirty secret about rich people. Truly rich people never brag about their cars. You know the people that brag about their cars are fake rich. You know how I know Andrew Tate's fake rich? He brags about his Bugatti all the time. Because rich people don't buy Bugattis, it's a waste of money. That would be like a rich person bragging about how many lottery tickets they bought this week. It's like, why are you buying lottery tickets? That's a waste of money, right? Yeah! You know what, buying a Bugatti is a waste of money. You know, all the rich people that actually have lots and lots of money, usually you'd watch them pull up in like a 1970s Ford truck or something that they've had from the day of their life. You know why? Because they don't spend their money, they save their money. Or they invest their money. And I'll tell you what, I worked at the bank and all the people that walked in that were really wealthy, you would have never guessed in your life. And all the people that were strung out on debt and about to go bankrupt and just ruining their lives were the ones rolling up in the fanciest cars and the fanciest outfits bragging about how they're going to take everybody out to the club and the bar and to dinner and bragging about how much money they had. And you know what, it was all fake. Because the people that are fake have to convince everybody else that they're rich. The people that are rich don't need to convince anybody. And let me tell you who's some of the richest people ever, it's Jews. And you know what, I never see Jews running around screaming about how much money they have. The Jews, they're dressed like garbage with their pigtails and they drive around in little crappy cars and they pinch every single penny and you never see them spend any money. Why? Because they have all of it. Okay folks, the people that are going around bragging about how much money they have, have zero. And you would be surprised how so many people you think are just filthy rich are broke or have negative money. Celebrities and athletes, they like to spend money. They don't really make a lot. Even people like Michael Jordan. I mean, how much money do you think Michael Jordan's made in his life? This guy's made hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. The guy was in debt. The guy lost all of his money in gambling and wasting all of it. And I think it was Shaq. Shaq was on an interview talking about how he got tripped when he first got into the NBA because they tell them, hey, you get a $20 million contract. And this was back when $20 million was a lot of money. And so in his mind he's thinking like, oh, I can spend $20 million. And he's saying, this is the problem for all of us athletes. We start thinking that we have $20 million, but we don't realize after taxes we only have nine to start out with. And we're not even going to get it all right away. And he said usually we go out and buy a car and a house and whatever, and we'd already be above that nine. And he'd be like, we'd be flat broke. That's why they end up just selling out because they already spent money they don't even have yet because they don't even understand how to manage money. A lot of them come from the ghetto and they've never had any money and they're just broke. But Andrew Tate, okay, you want to know why he has a lot of money? He's a pimp. I mean, he's just a handler of prostitution. Oh, wow, way to brag about how much money you have. I don't care if you had a trillion dollars. If you made it all from prostitution, it's not something to brag in. I'd rather be the brokest person on the planet than be a filthy rich person making all my money selling women and selling whores. And then he claims, oh, I'm being persecuted by the Matrix. You know, the Matrix is going to try and get me for all these charges. It's because you're a sex trafficker, loser. You know what, if they were going to really get you, they should put you to death. You know what, and praise God if a righteous government would put Andrew Tate to death for being a sex trafficker and being involved in prostitution, what a wicked evil person. Praising things like Islam, praising things like the Orthodox Church, flip-flopping. Dude's a faggot. I don't like him. I don't care about him. You know, I hope he rots in hell pretty soon. And you know, he's ruining the reputation of true masculinity because people are looking up to this guy. But let me tell you something, it's fleshly and God's people should not look after men like that. It's fake, it's not real, and it cannot please God. God's not impressed with your Bugatti. God's not impressed with your cars and your kickboxing and your cam girls and whatever else you got, Andrew Tate. You're a loser. He's the biggest loser. No one even likes him. All of his friends are vain. I guarantee none of his friends like him. All the girls that he's been with don't like him. I'm sure his mom doesn't even like him. I mean, what mom is proud of their son for pimping out women and being in sex trafficking? What a loser. But this is what a lot of people look up to. This is what a lot of people desire to have. Why? Because it's of the flesh. Men want to just have money and women and fame and they'll do anything to get that. But let me tell you something, it's not worth it. And even after you have all of it, you end up just becoming a faggot like he did. Seriously, that's what happens. Hey, you want money? God will give you all the money you wanted. You want women? He'll give you all the women you wanted. And you want fame? He'll give you all the fame you wanted. And then when that's not enough, he'll just turn you into a faggot. And then you still won't even want that and then he'll just send you to hell. But you know what? There's no way to please God chasing after the things of this flesh. Let me tell you, little children, don't go down the road of the world. Don't think that being strong and having money and all these things is going to get you right with God. You know what? Serve the Lord. You know what God's pleased with? All the children here that memorized the verse today. That's what God's pleased with. That's what God's impressed by. It's people that want to show up at the church and read the Bible and study the Word of God, not some dude that's going to brag about what car he has. Now, look what it says in verse 9. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of us. Andrew Tate is none of God's. I don't care if he's Orthodox or not. He's not saved. And he's not of Christ. And according to the Bible, we're not in the flesh. Now, what does this mean that we're not in the flesh? Well, look at verse 10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. So, think of it this way. Your body is dead either way. If you're unsaved, your flesh is dead. You're dead, okay? And if you're saved, your flesh is also dead, okay? But what's the difference between the saved and the unsaved? The saved's spirit is alive, okay? And according to the Bible, our flesh is dead in the sins that have been crucified with Christ. And we don't want to live in that dead body because that dead body doesn't bring us anything. It's going to die eventually. It's just going to be something that we shed eventually. There's no reason for me to get attached to that because there's no real benefit to it. It's already dead. It's already decaying. It's already dying. It's not going to last me. And it's expiring eventually. It's already just wasted effort, wasted energy. And you know, those of us that have already kind of peaked from our age perspective, you start realizing like, you know what, I'm not going back in time. I'm never going to be as strong as I was. I'm never going to have as much energy as I did. I'm never going to be as handsome as I was, right? And in some cases, you're never going to be as tall as you were. Men over time will shrink a little bit. They typically, you start getting a little bit shorter over time and you start losing it. This is sad for me, okay? I need a miracle where I grow somehow. I don't want to get shorter over time, but that's just kind of an inevitable reality. And so it's like, why do I want to keep investing in a ship with holes in it? It's sinking. Why would I keep putting money in a bag with holes in it? It's dead. It's dead. The only thing worth putting money into or effort and energy is in the spirit because the spirit man is going to live forever. And the treasure that I'm going to have in heaven is going to last forever. And so the body's dead because of sin. It already died, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. So every single person that's ever sinned is dead in that capacity, in that essence. And unless their spirit gets quickened, you know what, they're going to go to hell. And so for us that are saved and we realize that we're not in the flesh, our true man is in the spirit man, there's no point in serving that flesh to man. Verse 11, But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Now, again, this death and this living, I believe it's just in the context of your spiritual activeness in the sense that, you know, the faith that works is dead. So, you know, if I just decide to just keep living my life in the flesh, I'm going to be dead and not producing anything. But what is dead? It's not benefiting, it's not helping, it's not active. You know the Bible talks about the poor widow woman who decides to live in the flesh, that she's dead while she liveth. She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. Faith that works is dead. And those that decide to just live in the flesh are dying and they're dead and they're not active. And it's interesting because in a context of, like, plant life, it can kind of have this, like, process where it's more like dying and living and it can kind of, like, go through these cycles. So it's a little bit more common to, like, what we're talking about here. Whereas in our life, when we think about dead, we think about just, you know, kicking the bucket. We think about being in the grave, right? But in the Christian life, you can have moments where you're kind of just dead and then you're back alive and then you're dead and then you're back alive. And he's saying if you just live in the flesh, you're going to just die. You're going to get to a point where you're producing nothing, doing nothing. Whereas when you walk in the Spirit, you're alive and you're allowing Christ to live through you. And that's why it's important for us to mortify the deeds of the body. What does mortify? To kill, to put to death, to say no to. And that is going to allow us to live spiritually. It's talking about in a spiritual context. When I'm in the flesh, I'm dying spiritually. When I'm in the Spirit, I'm alive spiritually. But both can't be alive at the same time. Notice. You've got to either kill the flesh and allow the Spirit to live, or you're going to live in the flesh and you're going to start killing the Spirit. But both can't be alive and well at the same time. You can't be utilizing both at the same time. You've got one charger and two phones, okay? And you know what? You've got to plug in the spiritual phone. You can't plug in the flesh phone because it's just not going to operate at the same time. You have to pick which one you want to plug into. And it's important for us to plug into the spiritual man so that we can serve God. And of course, the Bible's telling us that we're debtors, not to the flesh. You know, that's a pretty strong language. God's saying he paid for you. He bought and paid for you. So you're actually a debtor. You owe him to serve him. You owe him to do what's right. Your body has been bought and paid for by Jesus, so you're supposed to serve God with your body, not your own belly, not serve your desires. You're supposed to lose your life so that you may gain it. You're supposed to die for Christ daily. We're supposed to die daily so that we can have Christ live through us. Christ is in heaven. Christ is not on this earth. You know, the Bible talks about the church being the body of Jesus Christ. And see, here's the thing. The way for Christ to be alive and the way for Christ to interact with people on this earth is you. You can literally be Christ to them. You're the ambassador. You're the representation of Christ. You are the eyes and the nose and the ears of Christ. And you know what? Christ's word dwells in us and the Holy Spirit reminds us of Christ. And we're supposed to go out and preach Christ unto them. And the way that Christ lives is when you get up and you read John 3.16 to some poor lost soul out on the corner. Christ is living through you literally. When you stand on the truths of the Bible and when you preach the word of God to individuals, you're allowing Christ to live through you. But you know what? When you shut your mouth and you don't preach the gospel, you know what? Christ is not alive. You're dead. You're not allowing Christ to live on this earth. And you know what? It's a shame that there's so many Christians doing nothing for God and they're not allowing Christ to dwell on them richly. They're not allowing Christ to walk on this earth. You know, they say like, well, why doesn't Jesus just walk up and knock on my door and give me the gospel? Well, you know what He did when Dylan walked up and knocked on your door and was there with the gospel? Jesus Christ was literally there. Because Jesus Christ is in Brother Dylan, Jesus Christ is in the soul winners in this room, and Jesus Christ literally walked up and knocked on your door and was trying to give you the gospel. And you know what? If you didn't receive Dylan, you wouldn't receive Christ anyways. Because it wasn't about the flesh. It wasn't about Christ's flesh that pleased the Father. It was the Spirit inside of Christ and Him ministering and preaching the gospel. And you know what? The poor man in hell, the rich man in hell, he wasn't poor. He was rich, but he was poor when he was in hell. Didn't have any money in hell. That poor rich man lifted up his eyes in hell being in torments and he's begging that someone would come back and preach the gospel to his family and you know what He said, if they won't hear Moses, they wouldn't hear a man that rose from the dead. They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. But you know what? Let us not be the reason why they're not hearing it. Let them hear Moses and the prophets. Let us be the ones that go out and preach the gospel. And you know, I hear this stupid thing from people like Matt Walsh who says, Well, I think that if you just love, God can work with that. And anybody that's ever loved won't go to hell. False. The rich man in hell, he first asked if he can get a drink of water. That's pretty selfish, understandable. I'm pretty sure if you're in hell, you're going to think about some water and wanting it. But you know what? He can't get out of hell. It's been described to him. They said, Hey, there's a great goal fixed. And you know, even if we wanted to come down, we couldn't. And even if you wanted to come up here, you can't. There's just no option. And he realizes, I'm doomed. Like, I'm never going to get water. I'm doomed. And you know what he then asks? Can someone at least just save my family? Now let me tell you something. That's love. It's not like that guy in hell stopped loving. He actually loves his family enough to wish that they wouldn't go to hell. And he doesn't want them to go to hell. That is love. But you know what? He's still burning in hell. Because you can love things and still go to hell, folks. That's why it's stupid. You know what saves people? It's not love. It's believing the gospel. Because that's a pretty loving thing to do is wish that your family wouldn't go to hell. But you know what? There's a lot of Catholics that wish them and their family wouldn't go to hell. I mean, think about Catholics today. They'll go to the Catholic church and they'll do prayers and whatever so that their family can get out of purgatory. They're like literally the rich man in hell, like asking for their family to be saved. But it can't happen that way. You've got to believe on Jesus Christ and you've got to be saved. Here's another thing. There's a lot of people, and this is sad, but I'll knock on people's doors and they'll say, hey, I just lost my mom or I lost my dad or whatever. And their mom or dad was an atheist or a Mormon or a Catholic. And if the inevitable question was asked like, do you think they're in heaven? I already know the answer. No. They're burning in hell. But you know what I know this? They want you to still be saved. Just because your whole family might be burning in hell right now, they all still want you to get saved. They still all want you to not have to go to hell. And you know what? We need to be the Jesus Christ representation on earth that shows up and allows Jesus Christ to minister to these people and for them to be saved. And think about this. You have less love in your heart when you decide to not preach the gospel than the guy burning in hell. There's a guy burning in hell wishing he could give the gospel to their loved ones and then you decide not to. That's embarrassing. I heard some atheists, I think it was like Penn and Teller. They have a famous podcast or show or something. And he talked about some evangelistic guy that came and was giving the gospel. And he said, you know what? He's like, I don't believe what you're saying. But if I did and I didn't tell someone about going to hell or preaching the gospel to them, I'd be the most hateful person to ever live. And it's like even he could recognize. The reason why he's pointing that out is he's saying 99% of Christians will never even share the gospel with him. And he's saying there must be something wrong with Christianity because why is it that you believe I'm going to burn in hell for all of eternity? You're not even willing to confront me with the gospel. It just shows you have almost no faith in the gospel, no faith in hell. You don't even believe the Bible whatsoever. And you know what? Christ doesn't live in you. But you know what? We need to show the world that Christ liveth in me, that Christ is alive and well in my body because why I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know what? We need to die to ourselves and start living through Jesus and allowing the spirit to flow through us. And we need to mortify the deeds of the body so that we can live. The only real life that we have in this world is preaching the gospel. Everything else is vanity. It doesn't even matter. It's like Andrew Tate. He has no life. When you talk about someone and say this guy has no life, what does that mean? He's a loser. He's a derelict. In our modern culture we would think of somebody as like a homeless person, right? They just walk around, don't do anything, beg for money. We'd say this guy has like no life. But let me tell you something. Andrew Tate has no life. And let me tell you something. The Christians that go to these non-to-non-fun sinners and never crack open their Bible and never preach the gospel to anybody, they have no life. The only people that have life are Christians that are actually preaching the gospel and serving God with their lives and reading the scripture. You know what? Those are the people that have a real life. People say, oh, you fundies, you don't have any fun. Well, you know what? I have a life. You have no life. Why don't you get a life? You know what? Because there's no life in the things of this world. They're dead. I mean, the Bible couldn't be stronger. Look at verse 6 again. For to be carnally minded is death. Oh, I'm so concerned with what car I'm going to get soon. Death. I'm so concerned with what clothes I'm going to wear. Death. I'm so concerned with what people think I look like. Death. You know what? That kind of death mentality stops people from preaching the gospel. Oh, what are they going to think about me if I preach the gospel? Death. It's killing the gospel. Oh, what are they going to think about me if I go to steadfast? Death. Oh, I've got to hand off this invite. You know what? That is a feeling and a thought of death. And the devil wants to kill the gospel. He came not before to kill, steal, and destroy, and he wants to bring death into your life. That's all he ever does. When he came to the woman in the middle of the garden, you know what message he had? It was a message of death. Lies are messages of death. This world is a message of death. The Bible says to love not this world. We are supposed to be spiritually minded, renew our mind, and not allow the carnal mind to detract us because you know what? It's an enemy of God. That's strong language. Your desires of your carnal flesh are enemy of God, and it will stop you from serving God. Why do people stop going to church? The flesh. The flesh. All the things this world has to offer, the comfortability. I mean, you and I think about it from a logical perspective. If you're going to go to heaven, like it's locked and you're saved, and only things that matter are eternal things, you'd be like, I'm going to go to church as much as possible. Like from just a logical mathematical equation because you take all the works that you had and you multiply it by zero that were of the flesh, and that's the reward you get in heaven. Zero. When you multiply any number, children, let me teach you this. Multiply anything by zero, and the answer is zero. A million times zero is zero. Ten times zero, zero. Five times zero, zero. Zero times zero, zero. But you know what? All the works that you have that are spiritual, God is going to multiply by a big number. So from a logical perspective, it only makes sense to go to church. Why do people stop going to church? Because they're carnal. Because they're fleshly. Because they're allowing the enemy version of themselves, the bizarro version of themselves, the bad version of themselves to win. You know what? It's sad to see people do it. And you know what? I don't hate them, but I hate their flesh. I hate the bad version of themselves. I hate, and you know what? God hates that, and we even hate that. That's what the Bible said in Romans chapter 7. The Apostle Paul, he even hates it, but we all can fall victim of it. That's why it's important. Hey, you're here on a Wednesday night. God bless you. You didn't say yes to the flesh. You were saying yes to the Spirit when you did so. Now, the Bible says here, let's keep reading a little bit further. Look at verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and of children, then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with them, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So the Bible's saying we know that we're saved. The Spirit of God's witnessing to us and manifesting Himself that we're saved. And you know what? Only saved people can even understand the Bible. You know what? Every time God enlightens you with cool spiritual truths, every picture of Christ that you see light up for you in the Bible, every time you hear the gospel and it just resonates with your soul, it's just a constant knock at the door of your heart, just a constant reminder of the fact that you're saved, of the fact that we're the children of God, just reminding you and resonating that in your heart, in your mind, in your soul. And He's saying, you know, not only are we children though, we also want to have an opportunity to be glorified with Him, but the only way to get that glorification is to suffer. You have to suffer. Glorification comes from suffering. And, you know, this is the cool part about it. The suffering is so minuscule in comparison to the reward of glory that you'll receive, He's saying it's not even worthy to be compared. That's crazy. He's just saying like, it's foolish for me to even try to tell you how bad the suffering is because it's just so silly in comparison. It would be something like, you know what? I'm going to just lightly thump your arm and you're going to get $10 trillion. And it's like, but let me tell you about how bad this thump is going to be. It's like, it's not even worthy of talking about it because no one would not take that deal. It's like, hey, you're going to have to work for me for five minutes and I'll give you a million dollars. It doesn't even matter what that work was. You wouldn't be like, well, tell me about the work, you know, what I have to do. It's like it's not even worth mentioning because the comparison of the exchange here is just so extreme you're just like, let's do it. Like, I'm all in. And that's what he's trying to say. It's like, look, just the infinitesimal amount of suffering that you might have to go through. Someone might say something mean about you in comparison to the fact that you could be greatly rewarded in heaven for all of eternity. It's like, why are we even mentioning this? It's like, well, if I go to stuff ass Baptist church, someone might say something negative about me. They might not even do it. Right? It's like, well, if I go soul-winding, someone might slam a door on my face one time. It's like, okay, but by you going soul-winding for your whole life, you might give like 20 mansions in heaven for all of eternity. How much was that worth to like 10 seconds of like... It's like, that's stupid. That's dumb. He's just saying, look, the sufferings of this life, it's not even worth me comparing because honestly, it's just so silly of a comparison, is what he's trying to say. So when we look at sufferings, and even the sufferings that are rough, I mean, actually getting beaten, actually getting stoned, actually having real persecution, he's saying even that's not even worthy of being compared. Because whatever temporal sufferings you have, this is eternity, folks. For all of eternity, you get the reward related to that particular level of suffering. And the suffering can't even be close to comparison because of how short the duration, how minuscule it is in comparison. And many times, you know, people even like it. It's weird. Verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. So the Bible's talking about hope and, you know, our flesh, our body, is going to eventually be resurrected, renewed, made new, and we'll no longer have this corrupted body, we'll have a new body. And he's saying the whole creation just can't wait until we have the new heaven and new earth. The whole creation just can't wait until it's better. But he's saying how much more us, and we're excited to have that better body that body that's going to be glorifying unto God, and right now we're kind of groaning and we travail in pain together. We all suffer. All of us have varying degrees of suffering and evil. You know, some people think it's suffering to get free pizza after church, you know, but that suffering's not worthy to be compared, okay? It's like, whoa, man, I have to eat free persecution pizza. You know, it's like, what are you talking about, man? Right? Like, it's just silly in comparison a lot of times. But, of course, there is real suffering, pain, afflictions, and evil, and disappointments, and mocking, and laughter, and ridicule, and shame, and these things can happen. But, you know, we're waiting for the reward, and he's saying, we're not going to necessarily see it, we hope for it. And what is hope? Hope is something you can't see. We don't see the reward, we don't know exactly what the reward is, but we know the reward's on the other side, and so we're just serving God with hope. But you know what's so interesting about this is, if you can see everything, then you can't have hope. You know, this reminds me, or makes me think of the atheists in this world that say, I only believe in what I can see in. Now, you know what they're saying? I have no hope. That's what they're actually saying. Because the only way to have hope is to believe in something that you can't see. So you know what atheists are saying? They're hopeless. The hopeless atheists. And, you know, the Bible even talks about the Gentiles in times past. They're without God, and they're without hope. Why? Because think of this. If I'm an atheist and I die, what do I have hope for? Nothing. I didn't even believe in Islam. I don't even have 72 virgins to hope for. I have nothing to hope for, right? How scary would death be if you literally don't even have any hope? Zero hope. Obviously there's people that have false hope, right? They have false hope in their false religion or in these fake things out there, and that's even more depressing that they might think that they're going to get 72 virgins. You know, these Islamists that commit a jihad? They thought they were going to get 72 virgins. It was really 72 demons. They mixed that up in their book, okay? But according to the Bible, the only way to have hope is to believe in something you can't see. We Christians, we have hope. And we have our hope in Jesus Christ. We have our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is also why many Christians are willing to die for their faith is because of hope. Those who have no hope are not willing to die. They're terrified of death. Death is intensely terrifying to these people because they just don't have any hope. And it's important for us to realize because we have this hope, we can then live our lives on the edge, right? We can live our lives all the way up until a gruesome death because we're hoping for the new body, and we're hoping for being pleasing unto God. And our hope is not in this life, it's in the next. Whereas if all of my hope was gone because I can only believe in what I see, you know what I'd only invest in? This. You'd be like all of the transhumanists. You'd be like the Elon Musk of this world trying to download your brain into some computer and wish for new body parts and hope that you could somehow resurrect your body. They'd be investing in this life and investing, Well, I better just be with as many people as I can because that's the only life I get to live. YOLO. You know what, YOLO doesn't have any hope. You know what, I'm not going to only live once because I'm going to die and then I'm going to really live. And you know what, it's not you only live once, I always live. I'm not going to just only live once, I have eternal life. I'm going to forever live, period. And so there's no reason to live this life of just putting all this treasure up on this earth and saving for this life and investing in this body and investing in the carnal things because they're all going to die and they're worthless. You know what, we have our hope in our new body, in Jesus Christ, in heaven, so it's meaningless to care about all that stuff. Verse 26, likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Now, I really like verse 26 and modern versions a lot of times ruin this verse, but notice what it says at the very end, it says, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings, notice this, which cannot be uttered. Now, a lot of Pentecostals today will try to tell you about their special prayer language they have with God and how they just, and somehow God liked that, okay, and that was them talking to God. And I have, they'll literally take me to this passage. Oh, no, no, no, you don't understand, that was the Holy Spirit, you know, helping me groan to God or whatever. But wait a minute, what did this actually say? It said, which cannot be uttered. That means I can't make that sound. And you know what, there are certain sounds in this world that you just can't make. Now, the human body is incredible, we can mimic a lot of things. You know, you can hear a lot of animal sounds or car sounds or whatever, we can mimic them. But you know, there's certain sounds that just, the human body just can't even imitate. There's just certain noises, there's just certain utterances that just you can't physically make. And what the Bible is saying is the communication between the Holy Spirit and God is something you cannot utter. It's not like, oh, it was my garbly goop, my glossolalia, my toddler talk. No, no, no, you cannot utter it. And this passage cannot be related to Acts chapter number two. Keep your finger and go to Acts chapter number two for a moment. They'll say, oh, well, I speak in tongues. Well, first of all, that's not a phrase found in the King James Bible. Number two, being bilingual is cool, but okay. You know what's better than speaking in another language is prophesying. It's preaching the gospel, preaching the word of God. But Romans chapter number eight verse 26 is not a proof text for your speaking in tongues. And it says the exact opposite of what it says in Acts chapter number two. Look at Acts chapter two verse four. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them. Notice this word, utterance. So in Acts chapter number two verse four, it says that the Spirit gave them utterance. And Romans chapter number eight verse 26, it says these are things that cannot be uttered. So you know what you cannot do is you cannot tie Romans chapter eight verse 26 to Acts two four because they're complete opposites. Yet I have Pentecostals and Charismaniacs and all these other people constantly arguing with me and saying, oh, well, you know what? I speak in tongues like Romans eight twenty six says. Lie, because that is not what it says. In fact, it says you literally can't do it. That's not me saying you can't do it. It's the Bible saying that you can't do it. Now, yes, in times past, did God at moments have the Holy Spirit allow people to speak a foreign language that they've never spoke before? Yes, he did. Yeah, instead of them having to go on Duolingo back in the day of Pentecost, God just basically performed Google Translate for them and just allowed them to just preach the gospel in a foreign language just right on the bat. Boy, wasn't that convenient. Wouldn't it be nice when you run into one of these international people that speak Hindi or speak German or speak French if you could say, oh, no problem. You know, I can't even speak. Je suis hommes. Now, French is so faggoty sounding of a language. Maybe it wouldn't have worked, but maybe there's a manly version of it or something. I don't know. But I guarantee, hey, he would have been able to just pump it out right there. That's beneficial, too, right? How beneficial do you think it'd be? Even today, what if I walk up to someone and I say, you know what, God gave me the gift of tongues. You ready? They're going to be like, 911, there's a crazy psycho at the door. He's rolling around on the floor and barking like a dog. You know, they're not going to be like, oh, wow, how do I come to your church? But, you know, wouldn't it be kind of impressive if you walked up to somebody and they're like, sorry, I don't speak English, I only speak French. And you're like, well, I've never spoken French, but I'll give it a try. And then you just give them the gospel perfectly in French. Don't you think they'd be like, hmm, this is kind of cool, I want to find out more about this God that can allow you to speak a foreign language that you've never even studied for five seconds. But you know what, he's not impressed with you foaming at the mouth and looking like a crazy psycho. You know what, and Pentecostals are full of fakes, phonies, and psychos. And I don't know which one you are, if you're the psycho, don't come. But you know what, if you're the fake or you're just confused, you know what, get saved and start coming to our church. And drop the toddler talk because it's not benefiting anyone. You know what, hey, speaking foreign languages, go for it. But you know what, that's not what Romans 8 is saying, go back. You know what Romans 8 is saying, it's saying that we don't even know how to communicate with God perfectly and the Holy Spirit just makes up the hedge for us. It's saying, hey, I don't even know all the right words. And just somehow, it's basically autocorrect, but the good version. You know, and some of you, when you start typing, it's like, what was that? And then autocorrect, it's actually words. You know, it's like, and this is what the Holy Ghost is basically doing. We're just praying the best that we can, and then the Holy Spirit is just autocorrecting that and giving it to God the right way. And you know what, that's amazing. It's kind of like actual toddlers and their mother. Because actual toddlers will come to me and they'll be like, mama, mama. He wants a cookie. It's just like, how did you get that? Moms are like the Holy Spirit, you know, and they understand things, groanings, which cannot be uttered. You know, it's like, I don't know what that was. But somehow they just have this perfect interpreter unto us. And you know what, it's in the same way that God the Father is sitting there and the Holy Spirit is just like, here's what he really meant. Here's what he's really trying to communicate. And he's able to basically interpret for. And isn't that nice to know? Because isn't there sometimes you just know like someone needs help. You want something positive, but you just genuinely don't know how to communicate that. And that's like toddlers. Toddlers genuinely want stuff, but they just don't know how to do it. And it's nice to have that perfect interpreter there that can tell exactly what you need, what you want. And of course, he's doing it according to the will of God. Verse 28 also then gives us this great promise, a reminder of the fact that all things are going to end up working together for good to those of us that love God. Now, if you love God, the Bible says, if you love me, keep my commandments. Notice it doesn't just say good to every single person that's saved. It says those that love God. Now, you can interpret this verse a couple of ways. I think in one way this applies to all of us in the context that, hey, you know, no matter what, eventually you're going to be saved and go to heaven. OK, so your net result is always going to end up going to heaven and that's good. But I also think another application in the more, you know, you know, in context of this particular chapter is the fact that when you're walking in the spirit and you're trying to follow God's commandments, you're trying to do that, which is good. God's going to make your path just always end up turning out well. You know, a good example is Joseph. You know, Joseph had some some dark turns in his life being sold into slavery, then being falsely accused, then put in prison, then being forgotten about, but then just somehow magically ends up rescuing all of Egypt and his entire family. And in hindsight, he says, you know what? He realized, like, the only way I could have even gotten here is if I was sold into Egypt and then if I was falsely accused and then if I had to go to prison and then if I had to interpret the dream and then if he had forgotten and I was brought in at the exact perfect time when there needed to be another dream interpreted. And then in hindsight, he's saying, wow, all these things work together for my good. And you know what? They built me a lot of character and a lot of patience and a lot of understanding, you know, because you have to be pretty patient to just save food for seven years for a family you've never seen or heard of. You know what? Joseph learned patience because Joseph had to spend years serving in Potiphar's house, years serving in the prison, years just doing what God said. And, you know, I guarantee that character got built inside of him to say, you know what? I can wait seven years for this famine. And then I can be disciplined enough to only sell what's needed so that we can survive the next seven years when we're going to have the worst famine that the world's ever seen. And he could realize, wow, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. Now, let's take another guy's life, like Lot. This guy didn't really love God. And it's hard to say that his life was just one of these perfect little everything worked together for good. You know, I don't think being in a cave and having the weirdest incest ever and creating two of the most wicked nations, the Moabites and the Ammonites, you could say, wow, that really worked together for good, didn't it? But he didn't really love God, did he? He was saved. And let me tell you something. You say, well, I want everything to work good in my life. Well, love God. Because those that don't love God, it's not like everything's just going to randomly just work for you. Now, of course, when you love God and you're doing your best, you're going to still fall and come short and have problems. But you know what? The just man falls seven times and rises up again. And God still is going to enlarge his steps. And I believe that God will still allow that guy to succeed. You know, many guys like this, you know, we take out Joseph for this example. Insert Abraham, right? Abraham tried to screw up his life a couple times, but God just kept him on the right path. Why? Because he loved God. And you see other men in the Bible kind of try to screw up their lives and make big mistakes and have sin issues, but God ends up just getting them back on the right track. Why? Because they love God. And you know what you need to do? You just need to love God in your heart. Because those who just sincerely love God and are seeking after him, no matter how many times you stumble and make mistakes along the way, all things work together for good to them that love God and them that are called according to his purpose. What a great promise that he has here for us. Verse 29, For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, he also called, in whom he called, then he also justified, in whom he justified, then he also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? There's so much good stuff in this chapter. I'm not going to really dive too deeply because we're kind of out of time, but obviously, you know, the Bible talks about predestination, and we say, what is predestined? It's to be determined beforehand. God's already determined certain things before they ever happened. And this is where Calvinism has got kind of a layer of truth, but then they kind of forget this other word that's here in verse 29, for whom he did foreknow. So God's predestination is not baseless. It's based on foreknowledge. So that's the big difference between us and a Calvinist. Hey, we believe in predestination. We believe in election. We believe in a lot of these same terms, but here's a word that Calvinists don't believe, foreknowledge, which is kind of surprising if you think about it because don't they always talk about how God's so powerful and all-knowing? Okay, well, you know what all-knowing is? Having foreknowledge. And if he has this foreknowledge, he used that to determine, predetermine who would go to heaven and who would go to hell. Now this is what the Calvinists would say. It's based on nothing. It's based on just God's desire. And here's the thing. It is based on God's desire. But you know what God's desire was? To save those who would believe in him. So based on God's desire to save those who would believe in him and with this foreknowledge of knowing those who would believe on him, he predestined us who have believed in him to be conformed under the image of his son, Jesus Christ, and to be saved and to be the elect and to be the chosen. He decided to choose those who would choose him. But you know what he didn't decide? I'm going to randomly pick ten people to go to heaven and a million people to go to hell. You say based on what? Nothing. That's weird. That's weird and actually that's limiting God. And you know why it's also limiting God? They don't even believe that man had the free will to choose heaven or hell. God gave us all the free will we could ever wish for and he still is going to get exactly what he wanted. That's way more powerful than just forcing robots to do what you want. It's to be able to give people the opportunity to do whatever they want and then to still happen exactly how he wants it. So it's like God knows everyone who's going to be saved and you know who's going to be saved? Only those people. Even though they had all the free will. He's like, hey, I know you're going to do this and then you do it. I think it's so incredible. I mean, think about it. The Bible's full of God telling us what the devil's going to do and then the devil does exactly what God told us. That's like another layer of embarrassment. It'd be like, look, if you were going to compete against someone in a basketball game and you said, look, you're going to dribble over here and you're going to pull up and you're going to fake once and then you're going to try and shoot and I'm going to block it right into your face. And then I'm going to take the ball and dunk on you. And then he's like, what do I do? And then he dribbles to the right. He fakes once. He posts up and he gets the ball just slammed into his face like the loser that the devil is. God already told him how he's going to lose and what a loser he is and he can't do anything but lose and he's going to lose anyways. That's how powerful God is. And God already determined those who believe in him are going to heaven and those who don't are going to hell. And since God's for us, who can be against us? God's on our team. Nothing. And I like this. God gave us something. What did he give us? His son, right? Isn't this what it says in verse 32? He that spared not his own son. So what is, you know, God's got all the riches. And imagine you in your house, let's say there's one item in your house that's your most prized possession. You know, maybe it's a car or a baseball heirloom or a piece of gold or a gold coin or whatever it was that was your most prized possession. And the Bible is saying God's most prized possession was his son. And he's saying, you know what, he wasn't willing to just keep that away from us. He was willing to even take out of his treasure trove, his most prized possession, the greatest riches that he had, his own son, and he was willing to give that unto us and allow Jesus to be slain for us. And he's saying if he's willing to give of his most precious possession, why in the world would he then hold back things that are so much less value? It's like why would the God of the universe allow his son to take the cross and death and hell for you, but he won't give you cornflakes, right? He wouldn't give you Biden bucks, right? He wouldn't give you, like that's the most bizarre thing is to think like if God would be willing to give me a son, which he did, why in the world would he not give me all things? Isn't that what it says in verse number 32? How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? God is up in heaven willing to just give you anything. Everything is at your disposal. All of it is offered unto us. And if he didn't spare his own son, yet we are sometimes afraid of our own shadow. And you know, that's why he's saying if God be for us, who can be against us? Look, God's on your team. You really think that God wants to hold you back? We live in 2023 America and you think it's scary to be a Christian. But you know what? God's on your team and there's nothing he won't hand you. It's like if you're playing a video game and in the video game he gave you all the powers and he said, hey, in the inventory you have all of it. Unlimited ammo, unlimited bazookas, unlimited grenades, unlimited grenade launchers. What else do you want? Oh, you want cavalry? Got it. You want tanks? Got it. Hey, you want the Air Force? Done. I mean, it's like you've got unlimited potential here and it's like if God be for us, who can be against us? Yep. What's holding us back? You are. You're the only thing holding you back. God is just so ready to just do amazing. I mean, Jesus Christ is inside of you. We have the gospel. We have the whole world at our fingertips. Yet churches and people have such a small vision. We need to start getting a giant vision because you know what? If God be for us, who can be against us? Oh, steadfast, have you heard about all the protesters? If God be for us, who can be against us? Oh, no, Hayden Hurst. They're nothing. They're nothing. They're nothing. Well, how are you going to fight them? Well, you know what? I have every weapon on my side. I have every and no weapon formed against me shall prosper. You know what? We need to start taking it to the enemy because the God of the universe didn't even spare his own son for us. How shall he not give us all things? It's ready to go on the offensive. It's ready to take hell by storm. You know what? The gates of hell are not going to prevail against us. We are the body of Christ and God is for us. You know, who can be against us? And you know what? We are going to get the victory. This is what the ending of this chapter says. Look at verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God? Who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake are we killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things that come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hey, you're going to win, period. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. You know what? No protest, eviction, threat, voicemail, vandalism, theft, reproach, slander, lawsuit, ticket, assault, or harassment can stop God from loving me. Even through all of that, God still loves Steadfast Baptist Church. God still loves you. God still loves me. And God is on our side, folks. Romans 8 should remind us that we have the victory. We are going to be victorious through Christ. And the only thing that can stop us is that stupid flesh of yours. You know what? There's no condemnation to us which are not walking in the flesh or walking after the Spirit. Let us be those who love God and walk in the Spirit, and we have great victory in this life and the next. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this great chapter, for these great promises, for giving us the victory, for giving us your Son, for giving us all things. I pray that we get a big vision. I pray that we get a big heart for the lost. I pray that you'd help us to just mortify the deeds of the body. I pray that you'd help us to just decide to start walking in the Spirit and to be satisfied with the things of God and to look towards those things in the future, to not get our eyes on the carnal and the flesh and on this world, but rather get our eyes on heaven and the things of eternal value. And that we'll be motivated to serve you in newness of Spirit. We just thank you for all the victories you give us and all the love that you show towards us. I pray that we would also return our love towards others. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 472. 472, This is My Father's World, song number 472. Everybody's singing out together on the first. This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears. All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father's world, I rest me in the thaw of rocks and trees, of skies and seas, His hand the wonders wrought. This is my Father's world, the birds their carols raise. The morning light, the billy white declare their Maker's praise. This is my Father's world, He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father's world, oh, let me there forget that though the wrong seems all so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's world, the battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one. All right, great singing everybody, we're all dismissed.