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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🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 page 66 will be our second song at calvary page 66 page 66 at calvary let's sing it out loud there on the first years i spent in vanity and pride caring not my lord was crucified knowing not it was for me he died on calvary mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burden soul found liberty at calvary by god's word at last my sin i learned then i trembled at the law i'd spurned till my guilty soul imploring turned to calvary mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burden soul found liberty at calvary oh the love that drew salvation's plan oh the grace that brought it down to man oh the mighty gulf that god did span at calvary mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burden soul found liberty at calvary on the last now i've give to jesus everything now i gladly own him as my king now my raptured soul can only sing of calvary mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me soul found liberty at calvary gracing all right good evening welcome to sure foundation baptist church it's great to be back from texas i picked something up actually i've had this for a while but i thought well what a good time to wear it so it was a gift and so it's still a tie so don't uh throw me in baptist purgatory just yet all right so anyway uh let's look at our bulletins does anybody need a bulletin if you do please raise your hand and the ushers will bring you a bulletin and uh looks like we've had a few people out sick so let's make sure that we're praying for them on our front cover we have our verse of the week it says jesus christ the same yesterday and today and forever hebrews chapter 13 verse number eight it's a great scripture there our service times are 10 30 a.m sunday morning service sunday evening service is 3 30 p.m we're still going through our series on pictures of the anti-christ they'll be preaching about judas iscariot this sunday evening and then thursday bible study we are starting a brand new book tonight and so the book is first peter so we'll probably do second peter along with it after we're done with the first book i have two sermons planned for the first chapter and we're just going to kind of have an introduction and i'll go through a few points here and then we'll be done but if you look down you can also see our praise report the salvation totals baptisms and attendance for last week and then august 20th we are upcoming events so this saturday we're having a so many marathon event and it's going to be in the town of kent washington so it's not exactly seattle or takoma it's kind of off to the right i'm i'm guessing like when i look at the map i just when i'm up there i just see seattle that's all i see but they're actually called different places so i know people get all upset about that but it's closer to seattle than it is here okay so anyway we're gonna have a 9 30 start time the the park name is west fenwick park and the address is on our youtube video i didn't have it put in there so i just kind of put that all we'll just put that all together a couple days ago so anyway if you need the address just see me or just watch the video it's on our youtube channel if you're planning on going who's planning on going i gotta raise the hands can i get a amen or something around here all right so we do have several people from our church that are going and i'm looking forward to it so it's going to be a great event and we have plenty of people from up north that are going to be attending so breakfast well donuts and coffee will be provided so if you have special dietary restrictions that you uh are not able to eat donuts and stuff like that and same thing with panda express the panda express is gonna be for lunch but we're meeting at 9 30 at 9 30 we're gonna meet fellowship have coffee and donuts at the park and then we're gonna go out soul winning for two hours then we're gonna break for lunch like we always do and we get in panda express so i don't even want to hear any whining about it the food is free so you're not paying for it so and i doubled up on the teriyaki chicken this time because i know how popular it was last time there wasn't a scrap of teriyaki chicken left last time and you know i i prefer it without the teriyaki sauce personally but anyway i got greens i got the make you know the mega greens or whatever they call them so if you're like on a keto diet you can still partake of this wonderful bounty of food then we're gonna go out so many for another couple hours after that and then i'm offering to do baptisms for anybody that wants to be baptized obviously if someone from up north or someone just coming to the event wants to be baptized i'd be happy to do it there's a lot of water up there it's not like other places so you know you can find a mud puddle deep enough to baptize people up there sometimes so anyway it hasn't been raining a lot so you can't really say that but there is a lot of water up there so we'll find a place to dunk somebody somewhere if they want to get baptized and other events that we have coming up and i extended the yakima trip to wednesday through saturday um so wednesday through saturday september 29th through october 1st so it's actually september 28th so we're going to get the signups for that as soon as possible i'm going to as soon as this event's done i'm going to go right to the next event and start planning that but if you're planning on going please make sure that you really are going because i'm going to you know get hotel rooms for anybody that wants to stay and go up there and the first two nights we'll probably do the sea galley thing like we do do usually they got crab legs and they got shrimp but also i'm gonna preach on one of the nights there i'm not sure if it's thursday or friday but i'm planning on preaching one of the nights there last time we rented a like a little event center and yakima and every whole bunch of people got sick when we're up there so uh it was a pukerama with all the families and they all had to go home sick but anyway food and puke is not really a good thing to talk about at the same time so anyway sorry about that but uh the trip is going to be fruitful i mean we just had some guys go up there just a short little trip and they how many salvations you guys have like five five yeah so they had five salvations just like in one you know day zoning up there with just a a very small amount of people so it's very fruitful up in the akima we've knocked most of the uh reservation areas but uh we're we're in yakima proper now or pit bulls or commodity so it's going to be a great trip there's still lots of great soul wanting to do up there and so that's planned for the 29th through or the 28th through october 1st then october 28th through the 29th um i originally had that planned for uh let's see that's for friday and a saturday to do blain's zoning i still might do the blain's zoning but what i was thinking about doing is actually extending that trip from the 27th through the 29th and i was planning on doing a preaching service up in the seattle area so i'm not sure where exactly i'm going to do that since it's such sort notice i don't want to do it now but we're going up there for the border crossing event on that saturday so i figured i'd just go up a couple days early i could preach on a thursday night or something and then we'll do a soul winning marathon the next day and then you know i'm just trying to abuse myself to the maximum here but it'll be a lot of preaching that week so uh but when we come back um let's see the 29th which is a saturday i was planning on doing like a men's preaching night for the evening service so i don't have to preach like 18 sermons in the same week or something so but we've never done this before but i was thinking we could do some chili you guys want to do such like i don't know if we'll do a cook-off but like we could do a cook-off you know twist my arm and you know maybe we'll do that but i was thinking it'd be cool you know i'll preach a morning sermon probably against halloween or something and then y'all can rip face on whatever you want for the evening and we'll have just like a chili cook-off in between the services you know so that it'll be real nice during the men's preaching night you know you can cook it with beans or without beans it's up to you but i personally prefer it now beanless i'm on that shelley doctrine right now so it's no knights of agony toiling in bed it's just like you're good to go right so and plus it's keto friendly so anyway um so that's kind of what we got planned oh yeah and i forgot pastor jimenez is going to be here october 23rd to preach for us so that'll be good i'm trying to get another preacher lined up for us before uh november so i know it's looking a little thin right here but it's going to get bigger it's going to it's going to get more uh more stuff going on here so anyway we're family integrated church that means the children infants are welcome during the church services and uh we are literally holding the fort down tonight so um you know the frozen chosen are here so we're gonna still have service even though we don't have a lot of people that's okay you know that's okay sometimes people get sick and whatever but we are family integrated church we do have a place for the children to go you know for you and your child to go if they need uh anything any attention or whatever the mother baby room is located back there the dad baby room is located back there and those rooms have comfortable seating and also you can still pipe in the sermons i'm not sure about today we got kind of got some technical difficulties going on with the the recording and the live streaming system so we're trying to get those bugs worked out tony got mad and broke that piece right there no i'm just joking he didn't but he probably was mad enough too so anyway we're just bear with us as we go through some technical difficulties but the the rockers and gliders are for pregnant nursing mothers and elders only please no men in the mother baby rooms and vice versa and no unattended children in any area of the building for any reason at any time okay and no food is allowed in the assembly area which is this area right here unless it's you know pre-approved or whatever and then escorts are available to the ushers or by the ushers excuse me they're the guys with the jackets and the usher pins you can donate online our text giving numbers listed below there then the ties and offerings that came in in july are located down at the bottom of the page and it looks like pio annabelle and olivia got happy birthday sang to them so happy birthday to everybody and for miss maddie and that's all i got for announcements except for first-time visitors if you're a first-time visitor we have a little package we put together for first-time visitors and we just on the outside of the foyer there if you want to grab one of these when you walk out as a token of our appreciation for you being a first-time guest we thanks for being here if you're one of those first-time guests but anyway that's all i got for announcements if you we need to sing another song and we'll receive the offering all right let's turn to page 49 in your green hymn books page 49 we'll sing meet me there page 49 meet me there page 49 let's sing it out on the first on the happy golden shore where the faithful part no more when the storms of life for me me there where the night dissolves away into pure and perfect day i am going home to stay me me there me me there me me there where the tree of life is blooming me me there when the storms of life are on the happy golden shore where the faithful part no more me me there here our fondest hopes are vain dearest links are rent and twain but and have no throb of pay me me there by the rivler sparkling bright in the city of delight where our faith is lost inside me me there me me there me me there where the tree of life is blooming me me there when the storms of life are on the happy golden shore where the faithful part no more me me there where the harps of angels ring and the blessed forever sing in the palace of the king me me there where in sweet communion blend heart with heart and friend with friend in a world that ne'er shall end me me there me me there me me there where the tree of life is blooming me me there when the storms of life are on the happy golden shore where the faithful part no more me me there amen it's time i'll take our offering brother sean can you bless the offering for us so so so her request but i'm going to tonight and then i'll just pray afterwards so i just want to make sure that we're praying for steadfast baptist church they're not it seems like we were always praying for steadfast baptist church but they really i mean are under a tremendous amount of pressure and heat all the time and just like when you think it's going to end it just keeps going so and they had a small group of protesters there when i was there um and you know the protesters have been less and less you know they they get back to their bath houses and then you know whatever the disgusting filth does but uh they're still pretty spunky i mean they were trying to they take signs and they try to blind people as they drive out of the parking lot so well remember this this guy tried to fight me you know like in my when i'm in my truck or whatever they like covers my window as i'm driving out of the parking lot trying you know what they do that to people so they can get them killed because there's like a the road there's 55 miles an hour as it goes past and so they try to block people's vision with the sign so they can get them killed there's a cop sitting right there watching them doing nothing so that's the kind of stuff that they're facing you know they're always threatening to fight some lady spit on my window or whatever i mean they're just filth they're beasts they're vile so anyway pray for them because that's not the only thing they got going on it's always something but you know god's you know they're definitely going through some temptation and some some trials so continue to pray for them pray for brother stucky um out in the philippines and all the church plants of verity baptist church that are out there i think they have three church plants there now and for pastor paul waringa and also the um the church that's supposed to get started in poland let's pray for that to happen and also for the mothers uh the expecting mothers miss shantel miss sibyl and miss amy and then also i have a special unspoken um that i would i need some prayer on and then also pray for the many souls to be saved this coming saturday and for travelers mercies for everybody driving up and at the you know brother mone's just kind of having a hard time trying to get moved down here so pray for their family as they are moving just as the worst one of my worst activities that i hate of all time and they have a lot of stuff and just a lot of things going on i i'm heard something about their dogs eating some kind of thing that they weren't supposed to so i don't really know what's going on with that but um brother mone's from kent washington he really wants to go to that event so hopefully uh they can maybe just catch the end of it or something pray for miss crystal she's sick and there's just a bunch of people sick in our church so let's pray for them um for brother uh sean uh his dad pat uh needs prayer he's supposed to be getting a pacemaker it's next week right brother sean so pray for brother pat he's a good friend of ours and uh just a great man of god and so just pray for him and also for miss alejandra um keep praying for uh it's kara right okay for kara um with all the medical issues that she's having and then also uh for amanda his mom's car to be fixed and also for the court date that she has coming up um and then for miss sarah miller a prayer for matthew uh he lost a pet and that can be tough on kids when they've never seen death before so um just pray that you comfort his heart and then for miss sheila um also for her health and just ongoing health issues that she's having and um to keep donna in prayer as she'll get movement on her left side but more importantly for the stage four cancer that she has so um pray for that and then miss leilani a prayer for a surgery that she's needing to get bumped up to get it earlier and also for recovery she's been a lot of pain for miss kylie prayer for mimi to get into that's her grandmother to get into some apartments that are suitable for her in sacramento two unspoken for miss alejandra two unspoken for miss sherry and unspoken for miss julene remember chris in your prayers who's over in another foreign country and hasn't got to see his family in a long time so just pray for his safety and uh also uh my granddaughter karina is really sick too and she's been running a fever and she's been really lethargic for the last couple days so and and i think nia has come down with something i don't know skipping church itis i think no i'm just kidding i'm kidding so anyway i'm just joking honey don't get mad so anyway let's pray all right definitely father lord we just come to you in jesus name with all these requests and we pour them out before you lord and i just pray that you would uh lord that you would answer all these prayers according to your will and your mercy lord watch over steadfast baptist church pray that you just help them to overcome the obstacles and lord to let them stand and let the devil flee from them lord and i just pray that uh all these requests all the unspoken lord all the health needs of our church i pray that you would just bless those things and and answer them according to your will and lord even if your answer is no i pray that you just help us to have a a good heart and know that you know what's best for us and we pray for all the expecting mothers in our church pray that you just bless them keep them and they'd have healthy and safe deliveries and lord for the soul winning marathon that we have coming up this weekend pray lord that you would just bless that in a mighty way lord that we'd find uh just a a great spot a great fishing hole or we could get some people saved and lord that we'd enjoy some fellowship and just a a nice little trip out of town for a saturday lord i pray that you would just bless the services this weekend lord and um and all things that are done here in your name pray that you would just uh bless our church and and help us to grow and help all those that are sick to get well in jesus name we pray amen all right good evening would you turn with me to the book of first peter book of first peter chapter one the book of first peter chapter one all right in first peter chapter one the bible reads peter an apostle of jesus christ to the strangers scattered throughout pontus galatia cappadocia asia and bithynia elect according to the foreknowledge of god the father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of jesus christ grace unto you and peace be multiplied blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of god through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of jesus christ whom having not seen ye love in whom though now you see him not yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you searching what or what manner of time the spirit of christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of christ and the glory that should follow unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the holy ghost sent down from heaven which things the angels desire to look into wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of jesus christ as obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written be ye holy for i am holy and if you call on the father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in god that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in god seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of god which liveth and abideth forever for all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away but the word of the lord endureth forever and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you brother alex will you pray for us amen so like i said in the announcements i'm starting a brand new book for our bible study and it is first peter so um i was going to do a little bit of an introduction to the book and then i'll get into the meat of the sermon i'm probably not going to have time to finish the whole chapter as a matter of fact i know i'm not going to have enough time to finish the whole chapter i could finish the whole chapter but then you all be mad at me so the spirit of pastor shelley is upon me tonight to preach a long sermon i was getting i don't have any room to talk because i preach a lot of long sermons myself so but uh i think he does now hold the new ifb record at one hour and 55 minutes so uh that was at the camp so it was a great sermon though so i really enjoyed it but anyway so by way of introduction for this obviously by the name of the book we understand uh you know that it's written by the apostle peter it says peter an apostle of jesus christ so he's making it very well known that it's he the only peter that we know of in the scriptures here so and he wrote both books first and second peter and he's an apostle and so he was personally trained by the lord jesus christ and an imperfect man so obviously not an infallible pope as the roman catholic church would have us to believe they try to say that he was the first pope and uh there's no such thing as an infallible man so like when the pope speaks you know they try to say that his that it's the voice of god speaking to people the roman catholic church is just a total mess and a nightmare um so but they like to claim him as an infallible pope and popes are not supposed to have spouses but peter very clearly in the scriptures does have a spouse so uh they kind of messed up on that one i forgot to hide that one right it's funny how people always say that like you know the the roman catholic church chose what books were going to be in the bible and it's like well don't you think they would have chosen to minus that part out of it to make peter look like he was infallible um you know god is the one that chose what books were going to be in the bible so anyway peter was in the inner circle with jesus so he was one of the closest disciples to the lord jesus christ and uh he was known for seeing some very great things in the scriptures like to whom shall we go when all the disciples were about we're gonna you know a lot of the disciples left him and jesus said will you leave also he said to whom shall we go thou hast the words of everlasting life and he also said thou art the christ the son of the living god when jesus asked him you know who who do you say that i am and peter had the right answer just right there ready to shoot it out right and you know he shows great feats of faith like walking on water none of the other apostles went to walk on the water to him it was just peter and then he also has to own the failure of sinking before he got to him so peter kind of is just like one of those those pictures in scripture where we can see ourselves in him a lot because you know he's zealous for god he loves the lord but then sometimes he has to put his foot in his mouth and as a matter of fact it's more than you know it's quite a few times where he makes the wrong decision but you know what we make the wrong decision a lot of the time too if someone just had our lives under a magnifying glass and stuck it in the bible we'd probably be pretty embarrassed about some of the dumb things we've done even as christians so he shows great uh let's see he was present during the transfiguration and saw a glimpse of the glorified christ before he was to be glorified and uh he was also known for the like i said the imperfections of putting his foot in his mouth even after saying something great so he says something great and then like right afterwards jesus christ rebukes him and uh calls him satan you know so diversity says blessed are thou simon barjona for the you know for flesh and blood if not revealed this to you but then a few sentences later he's like you know saying that he was going to die and be resurrected and peter like tried to rebuke the lord for saying that and then the lord said get thee behind me satan thou are no offense to me so again he says the right things one at the next minute he's not saying something right but again human being so um he makes bold statements about never leaving christ and of course we know the great failure that he had when he denied the lord three times when he had a chance to stand up for jesus and to you know be counted uh as one of his friends in his time of need but you know all the disciples fled all of them they all fled even people that weren't necessarily his main disciples they fled too and were afraid and jesus fall i mean uh peter uh followed a far off and you know obviously it was he did some dumb things while he was there including you know denying the lord three times but you know peter was saved at this time so people you know when people are afraid they'll do a lot of things that they really regret sometimes you know and so he denies him and then he's also rebuked by jesus after the resurrection for worrying about you know what john's business is you know basically and you know basically he's reproved for quitting the ministry because when he when jesus called his apostles they all had to quit their jobs and just live by faith and then after jesus was crucified and and and dead then peter kind of went back to work as you know as a fisherman and he was never supposed to do that so he gets admonished about that he's told three times you know you know he denied jesus three times and then he's jesus asked him three times feed my sheep feed my lambs feed my sheep so he's imploring him hey basically he just kind of gets a second chance after you know having a great big failure where he looked like a fool in front of his peers but you know peter went on to do great and mighty things after this and you know he was admonished he was admonished to preach and and teach the word of god and uh he boldly uh preaches after christ's resurrection from the dead on the day of pentecost and three thousand people end up getting saved by the efforts of all the apostles there and peter's the one that like comes out strong because you know the basically the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the romans they wanted to smash you know the christianity and so when they just when they killed christ you know he did resurrect from the dead and he appeared to people that were already saved he didn't appear to people that were dead i mean that were not saved he i mean if he did the scriptures don't record that okay so you know he also um he does great works of the new testament in the book of acts or several times and he's the one that first kind of starts getting the gentiles saved and things like that um and then he kind of takes a back seat to the apostle paul so i mean you know the disciples like to argue about who is the greatest or whatever which is a really dumb thing to argue about but you know in reality just by what the bible shows us the apostle paul was the greatest of the apostles i mean he was the hardest working he had the most fruit and everything but that doesn't mean that peter was a bad apostle he just made some mistakes but i mean he was a great man of god he wrote two whole books of the bible his great feats are are shown in the book of acts and he you know he also is shown in all four gospels as a as a positive character for the most part he is rebuked later by the apostle paul for falling into judaizing foolishness so even as an apostle he's still making mistakes right but uh make no mistake about this peter was a great man of god and not was but is because anybody that's saved and has died in the lord is still alive right now so and peter wasn't just an apostle he did the work of an evangelist you know he proved his own work but he also pastored a church he says that he was an elder and we'll see that later on as we study this book but uh you know he wore a couple different hats um great man of god and we should take some lessons from the apostle peter when you're going through the gospels next time just kind of just maybe think about the things that peter does well and then the the pitfalls that peter falls into that we should avoid okay we need to avoid the pitfalls that he fell into and the main thing was that he was too quick to speak rash with his mouth you know the bible says we're supposed to be slow to speak and we're supposed to be listening right so but anyway that's kind of just an introduction of who the apostle peter is and uh what what kind of we're gonna the man that we're studying you know studying his writings and he's going to give us accounts of things that he personally witnessed and things that are very helpful you know being one of the 12 see paul wasn't one of the 12 he wasn't one of the original 12 so he didn't really walk with jesus like the apostles did so he met jesus after that i believe that that jesus gave him all that revelation and taught him all that stuff but it it's a little different than literally walking with him for three years and sleeping in the same room sleeping you know traveling together talking you know none of the like i mean there's stuff that's recorded about their conversations but if you put all the you know all the conversation and all the things that happen with them you know i'm sure there's a lot of other great stories to tell and just a lot of great conversation and things like that so um but anyway let's move on to the actual chapter here let's look at verse number one again the bible says peter an apostle of jesus christ to the strangers scattered throughout ponchus galatia tappadocia asia and bithynia so you know he's he's an apostle of jesus okay he tells us what he is and then he's right who's he writing to well it says the strangers scattered through pontus galatia and all these different places right so he's not right does it say he's writing to a church doesn't say he's writing to a church does it he's talking to strangers what does that mean well my personal belief is that peter's referencing believers that are in these geographic areas he knows these people are saved maybe they're meeting on an occasion or whatever but there's there's there may have been just believers that had no organized church maybe you know because you know when a great so many movement comes through not every time does a church get planted in those areas sometimes you just have people that are you know in those areas maybe they're watching you know nowadays they're watching sermons online they didn't exactly have youtube back then so you know peter's giving them what he could maybe a letter to encourage them a couple letters to help them you know maybe to encourage them to follow the lord you know because scattered doesn't mean together does it scattered does not mean assembled does it scattered means that they're these are saved people that are scattered in all these different areas and you know god still cares about christians that are scattered in other areas that don't have a good church to go to it's like i i preach very strongly that you should be in church as as many days as you can whenever the doors are open you should be there you should be involved in the church and doing the things the programs that the church has going on which is mainly soul winning and obviously fellowship but you know just attending and you know doing the i mean we do everything here we pray we have bible reading we have preaching we have fellowship we eat together we meet together and it's a good thing but not everybody in the world has this luxury to have a great church so you know there's great churches all around but maybe not in some of the darkest places of the earth so i believe my personal belief is that peter is writing to people it says strangers that are scattered so what what exactly would that mean well maybe it means someone that might not even be a national of that country that is saved but there and they don't have a good church to go to why do i think that well let's let's look over at leviticus chapter 19 i just want to show you a scripture here because i could i could go and do a deep dive with this but i don't think it's really necessary but why do i get my opinion that these are believers well it says that they're believers you know in a later verse here but that they're strangers that are scattered so look what it says in leviticus 19 34 it says but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thyself for ye were strangers in the land of egypt i am the lord your god so why do i you know when peter calls them strangers i just kind of think of this verse and i think well you know in the time when this is written the children of israel's nation was being made right they were strangers in the land of egypt and god brought them forth and made them a nation of a peculiar people gave them laws gave them government gave them preaching and they're saying right here the stranger that dwelleth with you you're supposed to treat that stranger that maybe isn't from the nation of israel wasn't born into the country born into that land those people that come and want to attach themselves to that nation the bible says here that they shall be as one born among you we're not supposed to treat them differently is what they're what god's saying here so now here later on they're ruled over by the roman government right and so now people that are so and obviously we believe in this church that the nation of israel becomes a spiritual nation and so wouldn't it make sense that there's a bunch of spiritual people or saved people that are scattered in different areas why would they be called strangers well because they're not you know maybe not in their own nation they weren't born in that land maybe they're not accepted in that land but they're still strangers that are scattered abroad so um just so the fact that god is saying to treat these other these people well are among them so they don't really have you know the now they're in a position where the people that are saved are scattered in all the places of the earth and not necessarily uh an actual physical nation of israel or maybe they're saved people that have left juda at this time it's just my guesses i mean i'm not a hundred percent dogmatic on that but it kind of seems like that's what he's talking about and so an application for us today though with that scripture is a you know a spiritual application for us is that we should treat strangers and visitors well that come to our church you know because we're here we're established we've been here for a while if you've been coming to our church you've been here for a while you you've gotten to know people you have your own set of friends but sometimes people come in from the outside and they might not you know they listen people that are looking for a good church they are going to base whether they come back to this church or not based upon how they were treated when they came a lot of and a lot of people are just afraid to walk into a door of a new church because they know every eyeball is going to look at them they know that people are going to be making quick judgments and things like that and they you know people just want to be accepted don't they and so when a stranger comes into our church we should treat them like one that's been in the land for a long time right so and then we need to accept them and treat them like we would treat ourselves in the same position because i'm you know the first time you ever came to our church you know i'm sure that you probably had some of those feelings too and some people are way more introverted than others and so just to come to a church is a huge step for them and then to get a not very warm welcome when they come to a church that they were already just like on the edge about not coming to then they just kind of you know get treated like well yeah i mean i i didn't get a chance to say hi to them or whatever and sometimes that happens i get that because sometimes you know it's at the end of a hot sermon or something and they're uh they're walking up the door as fast as they can so nobody can even get a chance to talk to them i understand that but you know our church i think our church family does try to treat people like that and i'm glad that we do but we should never get to the point where we start treating this like it's us only and outsiders are not welcome i want outsiders to feel welcome even if they're not exactly like us you know because the strangers in israel are out of israel that came to join the nation they weren't exactly like them either i'm sure it took time to learn the customs and the laws and the rules and all they had to do is get circumcised and join themselves to the nation and they were part of the club right so to speak so you know obviously people are going to have to learn our customs and how we do things here and you know people will hear the whole chapter of a bible getting read and like we take those things and we don't think about them but to some people that might seem weird like why are they reading the whole chapter well we read the whole chapter so that people can get the context of what's being said so you can hear the context of what you know i might just point out one verse from that chapter but then you've heard the whole context so you can tell whether i'm just ripping it out of context or you know whatever that's why we do it and the bible says you know until i come give attendance to reading so we should be reading you know the word of god should get written read here i mean if you look in the old testament the bible was read for hours sometimes and people just stood there and listened to the bible being read but then like ezra and the scribes you know they would give people the sense of what those things meant if they didn't know and things like that so we need to realize that you know we're not this church is not going to get bigger if we treat the strangers that come in here like strangers we should treat them like one born in the land like someone that's been coming to our church for a long time and let's be friendly be friendly to people you know that's a good thing to do is to be friendly with people and then their first impression isn't like what temo's first impression was at a church that i used to go to where not a single person said hello to him i mean what in the world is that was it because he's mexican or something there wasn't a lot of mexicans there when i went there but i mean what in the world why would you not say hi to a visitor so we should treat you know people like temo like the strangers in the land that come in here no offense brother tema but like one that's born among us right i mean that's how we you know let's take this and apply this because you know peter is trying to reach out to these people that are scattered abroad maybe they don't have a great church to go to maybe they don't have you know all the things and peter's just trying to write to them give them some doctrine help them out and and we do that too pastors the and pastor friends of mine will go to a place that has no church and will preach you know a couple sermons we went to new jersey this year and preached a couple sermons and 130 people showed up but they don't have what they would consider a church like ours but they go to the best church that they can or whatever but during this time it wasn't probably like that there wasn't probably the best church the you know there's a bunch of baptist churches that are not like ours but you know just go to that one it's like they probably didn't have an option it was probably the synagogue or nothing right so but it's funny because the jews will take this and they'll be like well you know let's be you know they're they're just turned into a bunch of racists where they would they hated the gentiles they tried to kill jesus the first time he ever preached in his hometown they tried to throw him off the cliff for preaching that salvation is going to come to the gentiles basically that he brings up two gentiles that god did great miracles for even though there's a whole bunch of jews around him at the time and he chose those gentiles to be saved so you know god loves the scattered people he wants people to you know come into the full but you know these jews were just turning a bunch of racists and you know what they still are today even though they're it's a religion not a people so they'll try to say oh no it's a people no it's a it's a religion you track them back far enough that's why to go to israel it's not just a dna sample that gets you and you have to renounce christ and any other religion to get into that country and you have to promise that you're not going to proselytize jews and if you go there under false pretenses and try to preach to the jews they'll run you out of the city on a rail just like they did to jesus they'll spit at you they'll mock you and that they'll go they'll go after you you know there's the mission field for israel is a very unreceptive place so anyway um so but think about that the the fact that the uh pharisees didn't they didn't want to treat people like they were the strangers of the land they didn't want to treat them like they did like they were but see how the role is reversed now and then we're saved you know we're saved christians we are being told you know we're that now we're the strangers and the we're the scattered people but we're supposed to treat those people like we would treat anybody that's born in the land right so let's number one that was all introduction we're halfway through the service all right all right let's rock and roll here not literally put our put our feet on the rock and our name on the roll no anyway uh number one tonight we see the trinity in verse number two so we see the trinity represented by peter in verse number two but what it says it says um let me make sure i got the whole scripture in there elect so it's the you know these people or the stranger scattered elect according to the foreknowledge of god which elect means chosen right you know we have elections and we choose which president we want in theory right in theory so but elect means simply just means chosen people will say well that means you're the jew or whatever it just means you're chosen you're chosen as a person to be saved basically according to the foreknowledge and what does foreknowledge mean it's knowing something before it happens it's not making things happen to fill to fulfill your will it's the knowledge that you know someone's going to be saved so god is the only one that has that knowledge so that's why it says elect which is chosen according to the what the foreknowledge knowing what's gonna you know knowing what's what's gonna happen before it happens of god the father so god knows this through sanctification which is setting apart yourselves of the spirit which is the holy ghost right and obedience and sprinkling of the blood of jesus christ so we have all three elements of the trinity in this verse right here so you know apparently peter believed in the trinity right so peter is teaching the trinity here even though he's not like saying well this is the trinity he's just it's just this is how he's teaching it because you know he's a new testament believer he's an apostle he's taking the knowledge that he got from jesus christ and he's trying to pass this on to somebody else so what is he passing on well you know that god there's god the father there's god the son there's god the holy spirit all right so and it says grace unto you and peace be multiplied so and in reality grace is something that is multiplied unto us grace is meaning that you know you're not saved by your works you're saved by grace grace is something you don't deserve but it's god's grace that allows us to continue to you know even though we're still sinners christ died for us and his grace is sufficient for us his grace continues to cover it up his grace continues to keep us saved we are saved by grace we're not saved you know through any other you know weird doctrine that people want to bring out in 2022 and i'm sure there's a lot of it but god is the one you know and we're not calvinists here so obviously the calvinists will take the terms like elect and foreknowledge and they'll just spin them on their head but just because you know something's going to happen first doesn't mean you chose that that person was going to be saved you know they're chosen basically because you know god knew that they were going to pick to be saved so that might boggle our minds but we're not god so we don't understand how he has that knowledge but it's because he's god because he's all powerful none of us know that none of us understand how that works but god does pick us because he knows that we're going to choose him so that's not calvinism that is just reality that is just him knowing before who's going to be saved and you know we don't know who's going to be saved so guess what he says preach the gospel to every creature and the people that get saved are the elect they've they have they have chosen to believe on christ and so now they are actually chosen and saved so i i don't want to get into all this calvinism stuff but i just i know people just get these weird ideas that you know they're chosen because god chose them because they're special or something it's like no god knew who was going to choose him and so he chose them because he already knew yeah it gets it gets complicated doesn't it so i just want to teach about the trinity just for a few minutes here so john first john five seven and you know not everybody's on the same level of this trinity stuff so i just i do i think it's important for us to understand the trinity as much as we possibly can because i think that our minds when we start trying to wrap our minds completely around what the trinity is i think that we fall short i think that we know as much as the bible can tell us i don't think we should get our doctrine from any other way i don't think a cup of water with snow ice and you know slush is is a good representation of the trinity as far as like trying to explain how they're three yet one i think it's it all all of these things that people try to use to explain the trinity fall short of the truth and so i don't think that we have to necessarily understand it completely but i think that we'd have to believe it because the bible says it so the trinity is the father the son the holy ghost these three are one so and first john five seven it says for there are three that bear record in heaven the father the word and the holy ghost and these three are one that is the quintessential scripture to to say yes god you know the trinity word trinity is not in the bible so but neither is rapture neither there's a bunch of words that aren't in the bible but still the concept of the trinity is still taught in the bible because you know even peter is teaching it in verse two to us to help us understand hey there's the father the spirit and there's also jesus christ and so in first john five seven it explains to us the father the word and the holy ghost these three are one not agree in one i mean not these three are one not like they're all different pieces of a you know if there's a like a pie and you and you divide it up into three pieces that if you move those pieces away from each other that's just a piece of the pie you have to bring it all together to make it become god that's not that's not what we believe so and i'll explain that here in a little bit let's turn back to genesis chapter one in the beginning genesis chapter number one and i think that we can kind of get a little bit of a grasp on it here genesis chapter number one and we need to have these doctrines reinforced because you know not too long ago there was a huge battle about the trinity it's an end times heresy this oneness doctrine that's taught but it's not just from the end times the hindus are are basically oneness they believe that all these millions of gods come from what one one god that plays all these different roles right and you know there's other you know the muslims are a oneness religion you know and so we we got to understand that the the end times religion that is being pushed upon us is that god is one and he just reveals themselves in different ways to different people that's not the truth you know that isn't it weird how there's so many people that believe that you can be saved by other ways that's because this garbage is being pushed to people and it's not the truth so genesis one says in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the water so in verse one you have god the father in verse two you have the spirit of god in verse three and god said let there be light and there was light so there you have the trinity in the first three verses of the bible you have the father you have the spirit you have the son the son is the word of god the bible very clearly teaches that it said in first john five seven turn to john one turn to john one in your bibles john chapter number one the bible says this in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god so is the word god yes or no that's what it says right and so we know that the word the word of god is god he was with god in the beginning so to to me that people just wig out over stuff like that it's just like a mind a mind bender but it's what the bible teaches the same was in the beginning with god all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made everything that's made here was made by the word of god isn't that what it says so and then skip down to verse 14 it says and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth so in for in verse 14 it tells us that the word of god which is god was made flesh so the bible teaches that jesus christ was god isn't that what it's teaching right there now turn to acts chapter five verse number three so i'm just kind of showing you some instances first i want to show you you know the the most clearest verse is john first john five seven in genesis chapter one verse one through three it shows us the trinity in those three verses in john chapter number one it's explaining the deity of christ how that jesus christ is you know it doesn't say jesus christ but we that's who it's talking about okay that's who it's talking about okay jesus christ is the word of god when jesus christ comes back it says his name is the word of god okay and it says in verse 14 he was the word which is god was made flesh dwelt among us so acts chapter five verse number three now a lot of people will try to say even like the jehovah's witnesses will will mess with verses like john one one and say that the word was a god and make the god like a small g but there's no other god beside jehovah it's funny that they say that but but then they still believe that jesus is the savior in the new testament it's like i mean do you not figure out that this is just wrong doctrine and wrong teaching but they also say that that the holy spirit is a force like they got their doctrine from star wars or something and so they're like you know they're trying to equate the holy ghost to a force and acts five three very clearly tells us that the holy ghost is god also amongst lots of other verses i'm just showing you a couple examples here it says in acts five three but peter said ananias why hath satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost so who did ananias lie to the holy ghost right and to keep back part of the price of the land whiles it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not in thine own power why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart thou hast not lied unto men but unto what does it say god so in verse three he lied to the holy ghost in verse four as peter explains you didn't lie you know to man you lied to god and so it very clearly shows us there that the holy ghost is god right now turn to philippians chapter 2 verse number 11 and i just want to show you that obvious i mean this should be obvious to us but that god the father is actually the title a title of god the father right it's it's who he is philippians 2 11 says and that every tongue should confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father so jesus christ is lord how's that possible well because he's god also the holy spirit is god also but all three of them are one okay and i'm not saying oneness they're they all have their own distinct bodies and personalities and i'll explain what our church believes about that but like i said there's no example of nature that helps us perfectly understand the trinity i think the best way to help people to understand that god is the three-in-one god is that we have a body we have a soul and we have a spirit that's the best example why is that the best example because god says that we were made in his image and after his likeness so why would that be the best picture well you know if we're in the image and likeness of god then that means we're like him in some ways we're obviously not god but he made us in the image and likeness of himself so now let's turn to genesis 126 i'm sorry i should have had to keep your finger there genesis 126 and i'm going to just give you our doctrinal statement it's on our website but i think it's it's important for people to understand what we believe and when people go to our website it shouldn't be just like well do they go soul winning or do they not do they believe the bible what bible they use i mean when you come to our website you should pretty much know all of our major doctrines and you know if there's anything up there that's not up there that you think should be up there come and let me know because i think that we covered a lot of the bases there obviously the whole king james is what we believe every every word of this book is is ours uh and we believe it all so but uh when it comes to the doctrine of the trinity there's been so many weirdos and so many so much false teaching even independent baptists like fell down on this doctrine so genesis chapter 1 verse 26 says and god said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air not pita and over the cattle and over all the earth so god gave man dominion over the earth right including all the fish you know now we have animals keeping us hostage they're telling us what to do an eagle egg is is more special than a human i mean what if you if you kill an eagle's net if you kill all the eggs and you know you make some scrambled eggs out of an eagle's egg you're going to go to prison and pay a whole bunch of fines but you know if you kill your children that's just okay anyway time out for a second there but it says in verse 27 so god created man in his own image isn't that what it says in the image of god created he him male and female created he them now just a you know i know i'm not teaching about this right now but god is a man he's male he's not a female it says he male and female created he them yes he created a female but he created the female out of the man out of his out of a rib so he took the rib of adam and created a woman to be a helpmeet for adam not saying they're lesser or anything like that but god is not a female all right you know i i sometimes i'll i'll hear people talk sometimes they'll be like and you know god they'll say god and then they're like she does it like stop hold on god is not a woman there's no feminine side or quality of god and any anything to the to the difference of that is a heresy it says the image of god created he him and then in first corinthians 11 it explains who the head is and all that kind of stuff which i'm not preaching about that but you know it's not it's not male and female it's god is god is male god is masculine and so what do we believe well why did i show you those verses so i could show you that god god made man in his image right and so we are similar to god in some ways because he made us like that so it's not heresy to say that it's the truth so here's what our doctrinal statement says we believe in the trinity which is the belief that there is one god that exists in three persons the three persons or members of the godhead are the father the son and the holy spirit or the holy ghost ghost means spirit right the three members of the godhead are distinct and separate persons each possessing their own body intellect and will the three are all equally god and eternal meaning that they have eternally existed as three persons the three members of the godhead voluntarily submit themselves under a chain of command we we acknowledge that each member of the godhead is not partially god so it doesn't take all three to form one it's not partially god or a part of god but believe that each member is all god and all of god we reject partialism the belief that each member of the godhead is a part of god that comes together to make up one god we reject polytheism the belief that each member of the godhead is a separate god we reject oneness the belief that each member of the godhead is the same person playing different roles so those are all heresy when it comes to believing what god what god is but god is a trinity three separate i mean how could you say that jesus didn't have a separate will when he said you know he obviously followed the will of the father but what did he you know what did he say you know he said that you know if it's possible for this cup to pass you know so his will was not necessarily to get beaten and and hurt and named and crucified and hung on the cross that wasn't his will that was the father's will but you know what jesus always did those things that were pleasing unto the father so he was a perfect obedient man and you know god's spirit in the full was in christ so jesus christ was the fullness of the godhead bodily that's what the bible teaches so the father was in him the spirit of god was in him when he got baptized he got filled completely with the spirit of god and so if you think about that so he had god the father in him he had the spirit of god in him and then he was a man okay so that's the picture of the trinity right there for you right jesus christ was a man right he was also god he was the god man so that's what we believe about the trinity and people you know they want to teach all this heresy but jesus christ you know was is the lord you know people when you ask people out soul wanting like hey do you believe that jesus christ is god and they say well he's the son of god that is true but what are they saying when they're responding that way they're saying i don't believe he's god he's the son of god but it is true he's the son of god but he also is all of god so god the father sets at the top of that hierarchy as far as the the submission to you know the son submits to the father the spirit of god is also you know speaking those things which pertain to christ convincing sinners of their need for salvation and you know obviously the holy spirit you know i don't have time to go into each and every single thing about them but i do think it's important every so often to preach the trinity if you have any questions about that please come and see me after the service because obviously i could preach a whole sermon about that but i don't have time to do that today we're going to move on to the next point which is we as believers are begotten again to a lively hope look at first peter chapter one verse number three first peter chapter one verse number three it says blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead so we're begotten again to a lively hope well what's another word for begotten born right so i believe that this is that's what it's talking about it's talking about being born again but it's according to the mercy of god it's according to jesus christ because none of us deserves to be saved you know but there's a lot of people out there that are teaching a works-based salvation but we don't believe that we don't believe there's any of our own works involved in our salvation what do we believe that jesus christ did all those works for us for our salvation and that through his mercy and through his shed blood i mean the reason why he came here was to rescue us all from hell he did it and people that preach or believe a workspace salvation are thinking that they have some part in their own salvation it's it's heresy it's wrong it's wickedness that's what the catholic church teaches let's build our way up to heaven let's you know just like babylon you know babel they built a tower to heaven why were they building it because they you know and obviously nobody can reach heaven they could really build you know some tower that reached all the way to where god's throne is god wouldn't first of all god is not going to allow but he's not you know what are they showing that we're going to do it our own way we're going to get to heaven our own way we're not going to get to heaven by somebody else doing it for us a lot of times people won't get saved just for the simple fact that they don't have some part in doing it you know these manly guys are just like well you know i fixed my own truck and you know i do all this just there you know look look you're not good enough buddy you can fix all the trucks you want you can be an american soldier you can be the best high school teacher that ever was you know none of that stuff's gonna get you into heaven it's not according to your works it's according to the works of jesus christ it's just that you know that is the the quintessential doctrine of these phony christian churches out there is they want to push a works they'll say it's all by grace they'll say it's not of works but then they'll say well if you don't have the works then you're not really saved it's like what are you talking about it's not of works even after you're saved it's not of works it's ridiculous now what does the word lively mean so it says we're begotten again so we're begotten again we're born again by the mercy of god not by our good works but it says we're begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead so lively means full of life and energy active and outgoing if you're lively that's how you are but a lot of people that are saved don't act like that they act dead and we don't we are not you know if we're begotten again we've gotten a new lease on life so to speak when you're saved that means that you've gotten another chance to serve god and and to get right and and to earn all your rewards and and you know to live the best life you can as a saved person unto the lord though you're not begotten again so you can just do whatever you want you're begotten again so he you can do good works but you're not saved by those good works the people that are unsafe they can't understand these concepts they really can't they just have a hard time grasping when i say so i mean you can just sit there and preach it and and explain it the best you can but if god's spirit is not helping them to understand that they're never going to get it salvation is a miracle just like you know children being born it's it's like a miracle it's not you know it's not a lot we don't put a lot of effort into it we do the things that you do to make the baby come you know you know to make the baby be be made inside the womb or whatever i don't want to get too graphic here but like really what do we do the baby just kind of grows mom eats for two or three and then the baby comes the baby's born it's like the baby comes you know obviously there's a lot of pain involved in that too a lot of stress and anxiety for the dad no i'm just kidding as the dads we don't really do a whole lot right i mean honey i love you get away but but it's the same thing with when we're you know we we put forth a little bit of effort we show them the scriptures but if someone's born again they're born again because they believe the gospel because not because you're the best orator that ever lived lived on the planet it's because god takes something that the people call foolishness and he takes that and uses it to his power and glory and people are born again they're begotten again and that is all the lord's doing you know we have a part in that i understand that we have a part in helping but it's a small part just like bringing for children men don't really have a huge part in that either so anyway let's move on to so i said you know we have we have a new lease on life have you ever heard that saying before you know so and so has a new lease on life well i kind of looked up that term because i just thought well we're you know sometimes terms are interesting to look up their their origins and it basically means a fresh start renewed vigor and good health as in since they bought his store dad had a new lease on life so this term is with its allusion to a rental agreement dates from the early 1800s and originally referred only to recovery from illness so the origins of the sane are from when someone because back then they didn't really have the hospital and the medicine that we have today but they would say well they have a new lease on life because they overcame this illness and almost died or whatever but by the mid-1800s it was applied to any kind of fresh beginning so i that's not a term i use a lot but it is kind of a term that kind of fits this verse a little bit because you know when you're saved you have a lively hope so we have a lively hope and so we should be full of energy full of life active in the things of the lord outgoing to other people because you know why why why would you get saved and then be miserable you know we should have a new lease on life so to speak and just go out and do the best things we can for god while we have time on this earth and so if i was going to use this term in order to help christians i would say you know you got a new lease on life with god take full advantage of that because we were once we were lost in sin and then now we're found right so we we're headed for hell we're headed for destruction so in reality when we're begotten again we all have a new lease on life right we have we actually have life before we were headed for death and destruction and now we have life everlasting that's a good thing to be excited about isn't it so you know a lot of times we'll be like oh i'm gonna go to church i gotta go slowly i gotta do this right hey don't have that attitude have a great attitude try to have a great attitude about the things of god that you're able to do because you know you might not be able to do them for very long you don't know what a day is going to bring forth you don't know whether you're going to be crippled the next day and i'm look i don't want that to happen anybody but you just don't know you don't know if tomorrow is your or this saturday is your last time to go soul winning because some idiot you know ran you over in the street that happens especially nowadays people just lost the ability to drive turn blinkers on you know follow speed limits i can't really talk about that one but there's all kinds of crashes and stuff going on i mean people are on drugs while they're driving like we're literally if we knew what everybody was on when we're driving around and we probably wouldn't want to drive but we have a new lease on life so hey let's enjoy it let's be lively stones and get out there and just be excited about the things of god have a new lease on life you have everlasting life you know what the only time you have to get the rewards are here on earth here on earth so john 111 turn to john 111 i don't hear no bible's turning what are you on your apps or what you're on your apps if i come over and you're you're looking at some news store i'm gonna be pissed all right so john 111 says he came unto his own and his own received him not but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of god even to them that believe on his name so we get that power from god it's his mercy but he's the one that gives us the power he gives us that power how because we believe on his name so if you believe on his name you are begotten of god you are born again it says which were born look what it says which were born verse 13 not of blood not because you're descendant you're descended from all the ancient jews or whatever nor of the will of the flesh not your own will not you doing things in the flesh not you earning it yourself nor of the will of man it's not man's will that you'd be saved it says but of god see we're begotten by the mercies of god we're begotten again we're born again because of what god did for us our part is believing our part is faith that's it so it's not the will of your flesh you can try really really hard to keep all god's commandments to get saved but it's never going to happen you're going to die and go to hell is the best person that there ever was that went to hell right if someone just like theoretical theoretically really did just try to keep all the commandments wouldn't most people say that person's a good person by our standards but by god's standards that person one sin that that person did is going to send them straight to hell and you know what audacity people have to actually think that they have a part in their own salvation it's weird look at verse five back in our text oh no excuse me look at first peter chapter two verse five i'm sorry first peter chapter two verse five is just one page over probably in your text there it says ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god by christ jesus so you know we're building this spiritual house it says we're built up a spiritual a spiritual house we're supposed to be a holy priesthood we're supposed to offer up spiritual sacrifices but a lot of people just don't want to do anything for god or they they find the the the thought of doing things for god even just giving up three days three nights or three services of their life a week is just too much for them it's like god died for you jesus died for you he said hey go to church gather together you know so much the more as you see the day approaching not so much the less i just i i i have a hard time understanding this i mean i was three to thrive before i was ever a pastor before i was ever you know anything in any church i just learned you got to be free to thrive i just you know and obviously have i been three to thrive every time for the rest of my life no that's i haven't been but you know the more you get out of church the more not right with god you are you need to meet with god each you know a few times a week you probably probably need to do it every day but you guys would you know it'd be rough so let's move on to point number three as believers we have an incorruptible inheritance coming to us as believers we have an incorruptible inheritance coming to us a lot of people are you know raising a broke family i don't know anybody in here that's getting some kind of crazy huge inheritance that when your dad dies he's got the money of donald trump or you know elon musk or something there's a lot of people that you know are rich and they give their children inheritance but you know what if you're poor give your children a spiritual inheritance how about that but we are going to get an inheritance as christians it's going to happen every single one if you're saved in this room you are going to have an inheritance so if mommy and daddy aren't giving you anything grandma and grandpa your long-lost rich aunt isn't going to give you a billion dollars but you know what you're super rich up in heaven you got a huge inheritance coming to you and it's going to be better than anything you could get on this earth look at first peter one verse four the bible says to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you isn't it what what you know do you guys ever go to a parking place and there's a spot that says here reserved for eli lambert is that at every mall you go to every restaurant you go to no you're trying to find a place to park you know handicap stalls you're not handicapped so you don't get a park in that special blue spot but you know in heaven you have an inheritance coming to you it's reserved already for you it says sean conlon come on down no what anybody that's saved has an inheritance coming to them is that what it says so but here's the baseline the baseline reward is everlasting life that's what everybody gets that's already a great gift it's not like you get to live a billion years and then yeah you didn't really do enough sorry you're done it's not a billion i mean think of a billion years but eternal life is a life that never ends there is no billions of years there is no trillions of years quintillion years or whatever we have a life that's going to last forever that's a good baseline reward isn't it the thief on the cross probably got the baseline reward he's like you know remember me when you come when alchemist in thy kingdom stabbed with the spear or whatever broke his legs he got his legs broken you know he did you know he went through a little persecution at the end he got his legs snapped before the sun went down right but what did he do his only works was just believing in jesus and he stuck up for him after he got he stuck up and told the other thief to shut up or whatever but that guy went to heaven with the baseline the mat the the the baseline reward everlasting life nobody that's that saved receives a bad everlasting life i mean that wouldn't be heaven if it's like he got everlasting life but you're sweeping out brother so-and-so's you know mansion every week or whatever that's that doesn't sound like heaven okay so the baseline reward is everlasting life everybody receives everlasting life and there's not going to be a bad day in heaven right there's not going to be any tears any crying any weeping any sadness it's going to be all good right so our rewards for what we do after salvation that are not wood hay and stubble are eternal rewards that we cannot lose and i know that some people say well you can lose your rewards now i would agree to a certain extent but i personally believe and i think the scriptures teach this that you're only losing out on what you could have had if you had been doing the things you should have been doing that's what i believe i don't think you know when the bible says you'll you'll lose your rewards it's talking about how you'll lose the you know if you're if whatever you were building was wood hay and stubble you're building something that matters nothing to the kingdom of god and you're like i'm you know you're saved you're building things you're doing all this stuff but you know you you're you're just not uh huh somebody say something oh okay sorry i thought somebody said something what is it lord no i'm just joking uh i lost my train of thought dang it but anyway um so yeah you can't so let me somebody help me where was i at what hey and so yeah what hands if what you're building is wood hay and stubble and you think you're doing all these great works for god with your garden ministry or whatever but in reality you should have been going soul winning praying for people to be saved you know you know reading your bible all these different works that you can be doing giving alms to the actual poor not the bums you know stuff like that that's an that's that's the the jewels and the gold and the silver that's the the things that mean something they're going to last through the fire wood hay stubble if a fire touches it they go up and smoke so i believe that people are going to lose like if they're building the wrong thing on the wrong foundation then they're going to lose the chance that they could have got over here because they wasted their time doing something stupid that means nothing of a work that means absolutely zero to god look at matthew 6 19 matthew 6 19 so i'm almost done here i've barely been preaching an hour so get off my back i got two two places for you to turn matthew chapter six and and then we'll go to first corinthians chapter three and then we'll be done matthew chapter six the bible says lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and ruff ruff ruff ma good night moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal see all the stuff we have here is fleeting it could be stolen from you at any time and you know around here you know and around portland there's no cops you know they burned all the police cars in the riots now they need more cop cars or whatever but look all that stuff that you think is going to last forever it's not going to last forever it might not last till night next tuesday don't build your life trying to get things that are just don't matter what's he's saying here but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal all that stuff that's reserved up in heaven for you all the works that you've been doing that are great works those things are reserved from you they can't be corrupted they can't be stolen and it says for where your treasure is there will your heart be also so what's the bible saying hey don't just focus on things on this earth that you can get focus on the things that were going to be reserved in heaven for you now first corinthians chapter three verse number eight first corinthians chapter three verse number eight and i'll prove what i'm talking about when it comes to rewards because here's my thought if you get somebody saved and they live forever and because of the fact that you open your mouth boldly to preach the gospel and you showed them the word of god and they get saved that person is there for eternity how do you lose something that's eternal we don't believe you can lose everlasting life why would we believe that we would lose a reward for someone that you got saved that they live forever we shall shine as the stars forever the works that we do will follow us into eternity they're actually already reserved now you know i know it's time means nothing to god it means something to us we reckon everything by time but it's already there waiting for you but there is going to be a day when god judges us when he judges us for the things that we've done in this world he's not going to bring the jumbotron up and so look there's where you stole that pencil from your your office manager's desk you know you're going to go into you know christian purgatory or whatever there's no such thing we're going to be judged based upon the things that we do in this life and what is what is going to be the judgment what your rewards are look at verse number eight it says now he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor for we are laborers together with god you're god's husbandry you're god's building according to the grace of god which is given unto me as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth there upon or other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is jesus christ don't if you try to put your works on anything besides the foundation of jesus christ it's in vain now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood haste stubble every man's work shall be made manifest it'll be shown right for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and i don't know how that's going to look i don't know how that's i know what fire looks like it says and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is is it the sort that lasts forever or is it the sort that's going to burn up does that make sense okay so and remember that god is a consuming fire so god is going to try our works with fire does it last or does it not you know and the picture is this is something that lasts forever this is something that doesn't this is something that means something in eternity future this is something that means nothing this is stupidity and look not everything you do that's what hay and stubble is like makes you an evil person or something it's just like instead of fixing up your classic 1965 chevy whatever you could have been out soloing and earning rewards there's the stubble there's the wood there's the hay you know and i'm not trying to say don't ever have a hobby don't do anything fun i'm not trying to teach that i'm just saying that this is what the bible teaches about your rewards okay it says um if any man's work abide which he shall build thereupon he shall receive a reward so it's based upon what you've done your own labor that gets you the reward it's not like you know when you went and worked on that chevy malibu 1965 or whatever you know i'm taking away the souls you already got saved i'm taking away the reward of that because you should have been soul winning i don't believe that's what the bible is teaching here it says if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire so if all you have is wood hay and stubble you don't have great works then you're going to suffer that loss it's going to get burned up it's not going to matter but it's not saying that your all your things you ever did are gonna you know if you didn't do something that was that was gold silver and precious jewels that all your works are burned up that's not what it's saying it's saying you're going to suffer loss because you could have got something that you didn't work for if you labor god's going to reward you he's no respecter of persons we labor together with god you're god's husbandry you're god's building so we have an inheritance reserved for us in heaven and if you thought that every time you sinned or or didn't do the right thing at the right time that you're going to lose all these rewards i mean wouldn't that be a it's just a weird way to think i'm for another thing i don't really care like i don't just be like i'm going swimming because i want them rewards like i don't think like that but i don't think it's wrong to think about the rewards you're going to get but you know obviously everything in its own uh and it's you know we've got to be a little bit uh smart about things and just not like you know obviously you don't want to just overemphasize one area as far as like getting the rewards like that's all i care about is the rewards because i mean it's just kind of a weird selfish way to look at things because really what you should be thinking about what you can do for other people right what you can do for other people and more importantly what you can do for god because you know it says if we labor together with him it's like he's always waiting for you like hey come on let's go do some stuff and you're like no no you know kids will like come on let's go change your diaper or whatever and then they're just standing over there just like not wanting to do it come on it's like come on let's go you know you got you're trying to get kids to do something sometimes they just like put their foot down like then you try to grab them away from something they're like yeah yeah you know they put their you know it happens right but we should sometimes be like yeah let's go you should want to do good works for god because you know your works are going to be there you're you want your inheritance your inheritance is going to be there but don't just make all your works meaningless make your works count it's like if you only got so much time to do certain works then make sure that you're picking the works that count make sure you're picking the works that are built on the foundation make sure you're picking the works that aren't going to burn up you know like i fit i i changed tires for jesus i'm sure that that has some kind of redeeming quality but like in you know if you're if you're changing tires for jesus and this is just the totally made up figment of my imagination i don't know if it exists or not but if that's your main ministry you are in comparison to getting people saved i mean it's not even close the garden ministry isn't even close hanging door hangers on a door and walking away isn't even close to actually preaching the gospel to people it's not even a comparison so like even if it is somewhat redeeming it's not going to be the stacks of jewels and gold that you want it to be i mean do you want your your reservation up in heaven to be fort nox or do you want it to be you know just only eternal life i mean we don't know what that what those rewards are going to be or what they're going to be like but i guarantee you if god's involved in it it's going to be something very great very great and even the trying of our faith i i believe you get rewards for that standing where nobody else would stand standing up against the the evils of this world and generation those things are going to matter you know it's like it's like gold tried in the fire like joe gold tried in the fire he brought forth what he bring forth as gold and he's he's probably got great rewards in heaven but he suffered a lot of loss didn't he in his life see if we suffer for loss in our life it's gain up there when it's doing it for the right reasons for the right things all right that's all i got let's pray heavenly father uh we thank you lord so much for the word of god for this uh book first peter i pray that you just help us as we go through it to glean a lot of great spiritual truths out of it lord pray you'd help me as i preach this series to preach what you want me to preach and uh or focus on the things that our church needs to focus on pray you just bless as we all go our separate ways tonight in jesus name we pray amen all right let's open our song books page 127 sing our last song page 127 is so sweet to trust in jesus page 127 tis so sweet to trust in jesus on the first tis so sweet to trust in jesus just to take him at his word just to rest upon his promise just to know the saith the lord jesus jesus how i trust him how i proved him or and or jesus jesus precious jesus oh for grace to trust him more oh how sweet to trust in jesus just to trust his cleansing blood just to simple faith to plunge me beneath the healing cleansing flood jesus jesus how i trust him how i proved him or and or jesus jesus precious jesus oh for grace to trust him more yes tis sweet to trust in jesus just from sin itself to cease just from simply taking life and rest in joy and peace jesus jesus how i trust him how i proved him or and or jesus jesus precious jesus oh for grace to trust him more i'm so glad i learned to trust the precious jesus savior friend and i know that thou are with me will be with me to the end jesus jesus how i trust him how i proved him or and or jesus jesus precious jesus oh for grace to trust him more amen thank you for coming out this evening to our service we'd like to see back here at 10 30 on sunday morning brother robert can you end us with a word of prayer