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walking in sunlight all of my journey over the mountain through the deveil Jesus has said I'll never forsake thee promise divine that never can fail heavenly sunlight heavenly sunlight flooding my soul with glory divine hallelujah I am rejoicing singing his praises Jesus is mine shadows around me shadows above me never conceal my Savior and God he is the light in him is no darkness ever I'm walking close to his side heavenly sunlight heavenly sunlight flooding my soul with glory divine hallelujah I am rejoicing singing his praises Jesus is mine in the bright sunlight every joy seeing pressing my way to mansions above singing his praises gladly I'm walking walking in sunlight sunlight of love heavenly sunlight heavenly sunlight flooding my soul with glory divine hallelujah I am rejoicing singing his praises Jesus is mine let's have a word of prayer Lord Father God we just thank you for this day you have given us Lord thank you for the mighty men's conference that we had this week we ask that uh you just bless Pastor Thompson as he preaches tonight Lord thank you for sending him over here for us Lord we ask that you get him back home safely we ask that you bless all the salvation we had today Lord we love you thank you in Jesus name we pray amen all right if you would turn to your next page 227 saved by the blood it's two pages back 227 saved by the blood say by the blood of the crucified one now ransom from sin and a new work begun saying praise to the father and praise to the son say by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm safe glory I'm say my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone glory I'm say glory I'm say I'm say by the blood of the crucified one say by the blood of the crucified one the angels rejoicing because it is done a child of the father joined air with the son say by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm say glory I'm say my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone glory I'm say glory I'm say I'm say by the blood of the crucified one say by the blood of the crucified one the father he spake and his will it was done great prize for my part in his own precious son say by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm say glory I'm say my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone glory I'm say glory I'm say I'm say by the blood of the crucified one say by the blood of the crucified one all hail to the father all hail to the son all hail to the spirit the great three and one say by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm say glory I'm say my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone glory I'm say glory I'm say I'm say by the blood of the crucified one all right now we're gonna go through our announcements at this time commercial break someone has to do that we got our bulletins here if you need a bulletin lift your hand nice and high and one of our ushers would love to come by and get you a bulletin also on the inside we have our service and soul winning I'm gonna get if there's any soul winning that you just forgot to mention to your soul winning captain we still want to try and grab that and we can get it counted does anybody have any sewing from the past few days that didn't get reported or you need reported okay also on the right we have the list of our expecting ladies or prayer lists also our upcoming events the final Sunday of the month we're gonna have Sunday treats for those who participate August 28th and then also we have a Shreveport Louisiana Marathon September 24th we have a sign-up sheet on the back cabinet make sure to sign up if you're wanting to participate we should have a a caravan as well so if you'd like to just ride with the church we'll have opportunity to ride together if you'd like otherwise you can just meet us out there hopefully in the next week or so we'll have an exact address and everything like that too as far as where we're meeting if you just want to meet us out there we have a special guest pastor Thompson he's gonna be preaching for us again this evening so it's definitely a great blessing that he's able to come out here and preach for us so much and he's a great friend of ours I really really appreciate his friendship and he has a great church in Vancouver Washington if you ever are in that area I definitely don't want to stay in Portland so you can go to Vancouver Washington and see them also he has a lot of church plants that he has one in Spokane Washington he also has one in Canada Oh Canada and then also one in the UK so I mean this guy's ever there's a sure foundation coming here pretty soon I'm just kidding and so he's putting them everywhere Glen Rose okay he says he likes it out there and so some of you guys can travel out there now it was definitely great going out there and being in that area of the country it was nice we really like the retreat and everywhere we go but make sure to thank him he'll be flying out this evening God willing and so just pray that he gets home safely but we really appreciate him coming out here with his family and we hope that he can get back home safely that's all I really have for announcements this morning or I'm sorry evening we'll go ahead and go to our third song 220 well actually I'm sorry 263 or 61 261 yep turn your eyes upon Jesus I know Pastor Shelley just preached a sermon about penmanship so I'm in trouble now 261 turn your eyes upon Jesus 261 turn your eyes upon Jesus and the first oh so are you weary and troubled no light in the darkness you see there's a look for a get the Savior and life more abundant and free turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and through death into life everlasting he passed and we follow him there over us no more had dominion for more than conquerors we are turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace his word shall not fail you he promised believe him and all will be well then go to a world that is dying his perfect salvation to tell turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace as the offering plates go around please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 15 that's Luke chapter 15 if you do not have a Bible the ushers can bring one for you the Bible reads then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them and he spake this parable unto them saying what man of you having a hundred sheep if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine and the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it and when he hath found it he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he cometh home he called together his friends and neighbor saying unto them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance either what woman having ten pieces of silver if she lose one piece doth not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently to till she find it and when she have found it she call with her friends and her neighbors together saying rejoice with me for I found the peace which I had lost likewise I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth he said a certain man had two sons and the younger them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me and he and he divided unto them his living and not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him and when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my brother excuse me I will go to my father and will say unto him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants and he arose and came to his father but when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him and the son said unto him father I sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son but the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be married for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost in his found and they begin to be married now his elder son was in the field and as he came and drew nigh to the house he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what think what these things meant and he said unto him thy brother has come and thy father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound and he was angry and would not go in therefore came his father out and entreated him and he answering said to his father lo these many years do I serve thee neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment and yet yet thou never gave us me a kid that I might make merry with my friends but as soon as this thy son was come which had devoured thy living with harlots that was killed for him the fatted calf and he said unto him son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine it was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost in his found let us bow our heads for prayer father we just thank you for this opportunity to be in your house today to sing praises to you and your son's name we're so very thankful for pastor Thompson and his family to come here and preach for us and we're so very thankful for our pastor and his family as well and we just pray that you will give pastor Thompson wisdom and all spiritual understanding of the scriptures tonight as he expounds them to us help us to apply what he gives us to our Christian lives and become more complete Christians and help them to also to get home safely and please stay the weather and we pray these things in Jesus name amen amen well it's great to be back for the evening service and again I just want to thank pastor Shelley and mrs. Shelley and the whole steadfast family for having me here I really appreciate it and the hospitality has been wonderful and I'm just you know I want to stay longer but you know I got stuff I got to get back to but hopefully the hurricane doesn't blow us out of the air well you call this rain I mean you're welcome no I'm just kidding I brought it to you not joking anyway the title my sermon tonight is the prodigal son the prodigal son now this is a parable obviously found in Luke chapter 15 and I would say you know there's parables can be interpreted different ways sometimes and I would say and if I'm wrong about this pastor Shelley teaches something different and that's fine you just go with what your pastor says but I feel like the primary interpretation is talking about two sons one is Israel and one is the Gentiles and the Gentiles rebelled early on and went astray and when they returned to God he was happy and that he wanted them to come and be saved and you know it's a celebration because the Gentiles were once lost and without hope in the world and now they're found I feel like that's the primary interpretation but you can you can get other interpretations and I'm not preaching about that interpretation tonight I'm preaching about literally a son that goes astray or even a daughter that goes astray and kind of just gonna pull some stuff out of the text but let's see let's let's look at Luke chapter number 15 verse 11 so the interpretation I'm gonna be preaching is that basically you have two saved sons one son leaves and leaves his family in a bad way and you know goes and lives amongst the world and does worldly things and gets himself into a lot of trouble he's backslidden and then you got the other son who stays behind helps dad is doing things right so basically I'm just preaching about you know the the steps of being backslidden and how you can get back and kind of just how us as Christians should respond to people when they get right and those types of things so number one tonight is found in verse number 11 where the Bible says and he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of the goods that follow to me and he divided unto them his living and not many days after the younger son gathered altogether and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living so boy number one is being backslidden is rebellion against God and obviously we probably know that but you know and it could be rebelling against your godly home your family your local church you know when you get backslidden kind of all those things come together now if your family isn't really necessarily into the whole church and being saved thing then it really wouldn't matter but if you're raised in a Christian home and then you rebel against your family and you go off into the world and live a sinful life well you know that's being backslidden and and and you're damaging your family you're damaging your church and you're damaging your own testimony amongst other people and most of all you're damaging your relationship with God you're damaging that relationship with God so verse number 11 you know you're still saved you know a lot of people teach this teach work salvation out of this passage and and obviously if both of them are sons you know we are sons of God right sons and daughters of God through faith and so if you have two sons both of them are saved right that's the interpretation that I'm taking here and in verse 11 said this certain man had two sons and you know he wanted to leave his home he wanted to leave his father and he wants the portion that falls upon him so and he divided you know he and so his dad said okay all right well if that's what you want to do then then take off and so not many days after that he gathered all together so everything that his dad was leaving him he took that journey into a far country so I mean you could interpret that as saying you know he just he left and left everything far behind and he wasted his substance you know and at the end of the passage if you notice he says that he wasted it on harlots and so he wasn't doing good things with his inheritance he was just going off to live the party life and all the things that Baptists don't do that's what he wanted to do right and so it says he wasted his substance with riotous living so he's living an extremely wicked life but again he saved and this this is considered being backslidden now let's turn it over to Hosea chapter 4 and let's see what God thinks about this being backslidden it says and honestly if you get backslidden it's gonna destroy you it's gonna destroy you in one way shape or form it says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me seeing thou has forgotten the law of thy God I will also forget thy children so when you just forget God's law you're saved and you forget God's law and you just want to go live however you want you're you're rejecting God's truth you're rejecting the knowledge of the Bible and the Bible says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge so we don't want to get into that state where we're backslidden against God and you know what you can have micro backslidden aggression against God I mean micro so where you're kind of backslidden for a little bit but then you bounce back you know and and you know we all go through this stuff we all go through seasons where we're not as zealous as we could be or whatever but to forsake the things of God to leave the things of God and just go out into the world and say you know what I'm tired of having to live through all these rules I'm tired of having to be a good person all the time I'm tired of prayer I'm tired of fasting I'm tired of soul and I'm tired of all the things of God and you just turn your back on God just just know this the bad things are gonna start happening to you it might not be right at the beginning of it it might just take some time it might take years but it will catch up with you and God's not just gonna allow his children to go astray without punishing them so I'm getting ahead of myself here but I want to skip down to the let's see let's look at I'll just keep reading here verse number seven it says as they were increased so they sinned against me therefore while I change their glory into shame they eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on iniquity and there shall be like people like priests and I will punish them for their ways and reward them their doings for they shall eat and not have enough they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase because they have left off to take heed to the Lord so this is what the guy in the story is doing right he's going to whores he's you know and God's talking about what's going to happen to people that do this backslidden person it says in verse 11 whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart my people ask counsel at their stocks and their staff declare unto them for the spirit of whoredoms has hath caused them to err and they have gone a whoring from under their God see you know when you go off to the things of the world and you and you you give you more of your time to your sin and the things that you want and the things that your flesh desires you are whoring away from God and you know what you're gonna end up earring or airing and you know it says the Bible says the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err look at verse 13 it says they sacrifice upon the top of the mountains and burn incense upon the hills under Oaks and poplars and alms because the shadow thereof is good therefore your daughter shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit adultery see people think that their sin doesn't affect other people but it does affect other people you see it's affecting his marriage this you know a marriage relationship and even the relationship of their daughters with other people it says I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom or your spouses when they commit adultery for themselves are separated with whores and they sacrifice with harlots therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall though thou Israel play the harlot yet let not Judah offend and come not ye into Gilgal neither go ye up to Beth haven nor swear the Lord liveth for Israel slightest back as a backsliding heifer now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place so God's thought you know this is where you get that term backsliding from and it's talking about a cow that just won't be led you just want to and they want to slide back so anytime we're sliding back we're not moving forward right I mean everybody can agree if that's true turn to Philippians chapter 3 verse 14 because as Christians we're not supposed to be sliding back we're always supposed to be moving forward and getting better and learning more about the Bible and about what God wants from us the longer you're saved the better off you should be not the worse off you should be better than when you started so in the scriptures are written for our admonition so this these verses in Hosea do apply and Philippians 3 14 says I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus the Apostle Paul saying hey I'm pressing toward a mark you know what the mark is it's the prize and the prize is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and look we need to be pressing toward a mark not sliding back like a heifer right like a big old cow so and the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and so rebelling against your God rebelling against your parents rebelling against your boss rebelling against your pastor is what it's sliding backwards it's not moving forward and so being backslidden is rebellion from rebelling against God but it's also could be rebelling against your family and your work and whatever so number two tonight when you're backslidden God will chase in you God will chase in you as sure as the day is long he will do it and this is the problem that we have with you know Christians that want to just go and get into sin and you know the the problem with dabbling with sin is that that sin is gonna take you longer than you know it's gonna take it's gonna take you good night I can't think of the same huh further than you want to go keep you longer than you want to stay and make you pay more than you're willing to pay right something like that good night I had a bite moment I was just like anyway so so let's look back at our text and I've meant to tell you to keep your finger or a bookmark in your spot in Luke chapter 15 because we're gonna come back to it so you know number one being backslidden is rebellion against God number two is when you're backslidden God will chase in you look at verse number 14 it says and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in the land in that land excuse me and he began to be in want so what ends up happening so he rebels against God he rebels against his family he takes all this stuff he wastes all of his money and when he had spent it all so this probably took some time there arose a mighty famine now what does God do to countries and nations and people sometimes you know it seems like a lot of times he put he brings forth a drought he brings forth famine and you know we see this happening in our land today that the United States it seems like things are it's getting hotter I've heard people say that it was like over a hundred degrees here like how many times you know maybe they're punishing what's too good for their sins maybe they're punishing you know Hearst for their sins or whatever and you guys are kind of filling the brunt of that a little bit because see Elijah pray there wouldn't rain for three and a half years but do you think and that affected him too didn't it so sometimes the things that God is punishing you know the the wicked people with kind of we get we get a little bit of of that back to us too so it says you know he arose arose a mighty famine in the land and he began to be in want so what does that term wants me it means a lack or deficiency of something so he start you know he spends all his money now the famine comes now jobs are hard to get food is harder to get and so this is the chastening of God upon this man's life now turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 5 turn Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 5 Bible says in Deuteronomy 8 5 it says thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him so God is saying hey I'm gonna chase in you like you should chase in your son he's gonna check if you're a saved person he's gonna chase in you and it says therefore and so the there is therefore is is there for a reason right to tell us how to avoid this chastening keep God keep the commandments of the Lord thy God walk in his ways and fear him and so if you have a healthy fear of the Lord you're gonna do those things because you don't want to be chasing and if you're backslidden it's gonna get worse you know obviously David was a man after God's own heart right and so David made a lot of mistakes God I mean he made a lot of mistakes but he was still a man after God's own heart why because he was actually did what he was supposed to do and trying to live that perfect life and being sorry and repenting for the things that he did you know that's why God didn't kill him because he said you know when he said thou art the man he's like I have sinned you know and so when you have the right attitude towards when you're sinning not just trying to avoid it not just trying to cover it up not just trying to say well it wasn't really that bad well God doesn't really care that much if I do this that's a bad attitude to have why don't you just say you know what I've sinned and then ask God to forgive you now obviously once saved always saved we all understand that but that doesn't mean you you're always right with God just because you're saved you're right eternally with God but here and now the time you're living in and the future that you're gonna live in you still are accountable to your actions on this earth right and so God says we're supposed to keep the commandments walk in his ways and to fear him turn to Hebrews chapter 12 verse number 5 Hebrews chapter 12 verse number 5 Hebrews 12 5 says and yet forgotten the exhortation would speaketh unto you as unto children my son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth see if you're God's child he's going to punish you is that what he's saying and don't despise the chastening you know if you know children hate getting spankings what is it what do they do right before you spank them no no no no no please no and it's like at that time it's just too late you know they've been just playing the fool they've been doing all this stuff they're getting into stuff and it's like you've been long suffering maybe a little too long suffering but you know what God's long suffering to us too so and I'm not saying you know just let them do things and be long suffer and let them you know swing from the chandeliers or something but you know there there comes a time when the long suffering of God is over and then the chastening comes and you're not gonna know how it is but you know what you're gonna know what it is you're gonna know it's chasing and so you might lie to yourself and say this isn't chasing but you know if you've done some great sin and then God just smokes you the net you know in a minute later or the same day or whatever you know what it is and he's gonna he's gonna scourge every son whom we receive it so and what what do we say sometimes when we're spanking I'm doing this for your own good anybody ever said that before when you're spanking maybe not okay I'm doing this for your own good you know I'm doing this because I love you and they don't feel that love necessarily at that point but that's what you're really doing you are spanking them because you love them because there's a whole generation of children that are rising up and and there's been generations of children that haven't been spanked you know how many times I talk to people at the door and they say they've never been spanked or they've never spanked their children lots it's because dr. Spock or whatever you know from the USS Enterprise he made this dog it's not really him but it's a different dr. Spock but anyway he that's an old Star Trek joke okay sorry but anyway he wrote a book and basically saying not to not to spank your children or whatever I've never read the book because I'm not gonna sit there and read some fool and his writings because the Lord tells us we're supposed to chase in our children and so God's gonna chase in us he's given us an example of what we should do with our children and we need to endure chasing look what it says in verse 7 if you endure chasing God deal with with you as with sons for what son is he whom the father chaseneth not so these people that are sinless perfection people they think that they're just now you know they never sin that's just a weird teaching because if they never sinned and they're not gonna get chasing but the Bible says that what son is who is he whom the father chaseneth not everybody gets chasin every single person that's saved is gonna get chasin from time to time because we're sinful and it says but if you be without chastisement where of all our partakers all means everyone right then you're bastards and not sons okay and that just means that you're illegitimate if you're not getting spanked if you're not getting chastised by God then you're an illegitimate child you're not really saved so if you're getting chasin you know at least you can kind of have that assurance you know sometimes we need assurance that we're saved or whatever I mean obviously the Bible is enough insurance but when you get spanked for something that you do immediately then you should probably realize that God is the one chasing you and that means you're a son or daughter all right verse 9 furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us that's dads moms whatever and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live so our parents spank us you know in the Bible that I think it just assumes a parent people are gonna spank their kids but again in this time this day and age it just doesn't happen and that's why people won't get saved people will not get saved that haven't been spanked I mean I've never got someone saved that's never been spanked before I can't think of a time that someone did and I'm not saying that nobody could be saved if they've never been spanked I'm just saying that you know they're not gonna understand the judgment of God they're not gonna understand consequences if they don't get spanked all right and that's gonna be harder to get those people saved because they don't understand because they missed the picture of God chasing his children we're supposed to chase in ours also it says for they verily for a few days chasin us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness and you know sometimes parents you know to me it kind of sounds like they kind of enjoyed get giving out that spanking right I'm sure there's been times when you've lost your temper and you're just like man he really they deserved it you know so but God doesn't do it for that you know to he's doing it for our own good right he literally is doing it because he loves us he literally is doing it for our own good and sometimes we make mistakes and you know we'll believe one kid over another or maybe they were all caught doing the same thing and one of them wasn't really doing it maybe they didn't deserve it but you know what every time that we sin and every time God chases us we do deserve it every single time now I'll go to says in verse 11 now no chasing for the present time a present seameth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward yield at the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised by thereby excuse me so that peaceable fruit is you know when you spank your children and then you know for some reason there's just this thing that happens when you spank your children you know they cry afterwards or whatever you know you give them a hug you tell me love them or whatever and there's like there's peace that that is between you and that child after that and it's a really strange thing who knows what I'm talking about yeah so they're they're freaking out they're bouncing off the walls they're doing everything wrong and then you're just like all right that's it you're getting a spanking you spank them you give them a good one and then after that there's peace they like change their attitude totally and that's why God does it to us because he wants there to be peace between us and he wants us to realize hey I'm spanking you because you did something wrong and then we should have the right attitude when we get corrected so we should have that peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby turn to Job chapter 5 verse 17 Job chapter 5 verse 17 so what we first saw is the prodigal son he you know rebelled against God he rebelled against his family and then he's out he does all this wicked sin and and and and he's right he's not right with God and then you see the hammer getting dropped down with his life you know falling apart he's lost all of his money he's in a famine you know he's in want he's lacking he doesn't have the things that he needs and that's what God will do to us sometimes too you know he's gonna punish your life in some way maybe you lose your job maybe you know depending upon what you've done is gonna depend on what the severity that God does to you in return so it says in Job 5 17 behold happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty for he maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole so he maketh sore you know he's talking about let's talk about God spanking you you know when you get a spanking it should hurt now obviously when we're spanking our children we should you know do it a quick age accordingly you know you're not gonna you know take this big rod and and spank your three-month-old baby with it I mean that'd be ridiculous wasn't it you have to you know have some common sense when you're spanking but you know when you're spanking and you're trying to correct a child it should hurt it should actually make them cry and you know I'm sure kids fake it sometimes or whatever but like why spank somebody why spank somebody if it's not gonna correct their actions if it's not gonna make them you know what why even do it if it's not gonna make them hurt it's supposed to hurt it's supposed to make them sore but then it says and he make a sore and bindeth up and he wounded and his hands make whole so God you know does this but he also has a tender hand towards us after he spanks us that's why it says happy is the man that God corrected therefore despised not the chasing of the Almighty we shouldn't despise the fact that we get chasing you know and it's supposed to have a reaction just like it's supposed to have a reaction with our children when we spank them it should have a reaction with the sinful person that is getting corrected by God it's supposed to have some sort of a reaction you know what if it doesn't have a reaction then God's gonna up up the spankings it's gonna get worse isn't it so like if a kid just keeps doing the same thing you keep saying quit throwing the stuff underneath your bed or whatever and they just keep hot you know I clean my room then you just look right underneath the bed now all the stuff stuff under their bed right and they just keep doing that well eventually you're gonna have to correct them more you're gonna have to spank them harder or punish them in some way some harder way in order to get them to stop doing that same sin I'm gonna read for you Proverbs go ahead and turn to Proverbs 19 18 I'm gonna read Proverbs 3 11 and 12 it says my son despised not the chasing of the Lord neither be weary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a father the son in whom he delighteth so again the application to that is as a child of God you're gonna be corrected so don't despise your parents children for chasing you you know God told them to do that the Bible says we're supposed to correct our children and why do we do that because it doesn't it won't make sense heaven and hell won't make sense to them if they never have any if they never get corrected for the things that they do wrong and you have to be consistent all right be long-suffering but you know what be consistent you can't just spank them for one thing and then just let them get away with it forever and ever and ever again and then when you're upset and when you're mad then you're finally gonna do it again right so and here's the thing people say I've heard people say never correct your children when you're angry and I can see that because there's been times when I was really angry and maybe I would have you know lashed out a little bit more than I would but isn't God angry when he's when he corrects us so to say that never spank when you're angry obviously how about just have some temperance when you're when you're spanking how about just not go overboard you know punching them in the face and knocking their teeth out is not a good spanking okay that's that's you losing your you're cool and you know obviously you know nobody hopefully does that in here but I haven't seen your kids in a while what happened you know but don't despise children in here when your parents are spanking you they're trying to help you to be a better person and you know the Bible says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child and so kids you know unfortunately you're just gonna do stupid things sometimes and then you're like I didn't really mean to but you know your parents are still supposed to correct you for those things so don't despise your parents for correcting you okay now you're in Proverbs 19 verse 18 what does it say chasing thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying you know and and I think this especially is happens with moms where you know dad's at work or whatever you know like they're making deals trying to not get spanked at home or whatever and then you're just like you know the mom mom is trying to obey and do what's right but sometimes I think that ladies are more soft on their children and hey ladies you got it you got to hold it down while you're at home when your husband's at home he can't spank them you know what the last thing that you want to do really when you get off of a hard day's work is come home and spank kids now I'm not saying you shouldn't you know but it shouldn't be every day the first thing that you hear you know you know what your kids were doing all day today it's like yeah they were supposed to be watched by you but apparently you're having a meltdown you know you know I'm a firm believer you know let your husband come in and have a minute to relax before you just start telling them everything that's wrong with your your kids you know they're always your kids when they do something wrong too right but the Bible says to chase in them while there's hope because there comes a point when you you're just refusing to correct them that there's no hope in steering them the right direction you don't want to get to that point don't let their soul thy soul spare for his crying so when they're they're gonna cry they're gonna plead they're gonna beg I promise mommy I'll never do it again spank them because you know what it's better that you do that and they cry and they correct you correct that thing quit being such a bleeding heart when it comes to your own kids and everybody wants to favor their own kids I get it I favor my own kids too but you know what you can't spare the rod because you know what you are going to make them hate you you're gonna make them hate God you know if you're just being inconsistent and you're not doing what you ought to do as a parent just spank them you know it's so weird I'll watch people just their kids will just be total demons or whatever you know the devil's whispering in their ear no they're being total brats and I just watch parents just like no no now don't do that you know and it's just like just beat that kid spank him spank that girl correct them get it let help them get it right because all they're doing is just torturing you they're like you know small terrorists right and you don't want to you don't want to be where your children are ruling your home you rule your home men and ladies rule your home when your husband's not there that's your jobs Proverbs chapter 23 you can just flip over there real quickly Proverbs chapter 23 verse number 13 says withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die thou shalt beat him with the rod and deliver his soul from hell pastor Thompson where's it say in the Bible that it's a command to spank your children how about thou shalt you know thou shalt is a command isn't it beat him with the rod not with a bowling ball not with a 2x4 I mean I guess a 2x4 is kind of a rod by me that's a little ridiculous right you know the ladle works good it's kind of a rod and you know sometimes they have holes in them and it gives you a little more power but you know spank them on their backside spank their butts and make sure they don't have a bunch of pencils in their pocket when you do it or whatever but the Bible says we're supposed to beat our children and I'm not saying beat as in you know it says you know with the rod you're just like no be in control of yourself and again make it age appropriate okay so Satan's devices are in every aspect of our world right now and telling people not to spank their kids is just another way for the devil to send people to hell do you think that's not an agenda from the devil do the opposite of what the Bible says isn't that what the devil does he wants us to do the opposite so all these children will go to hell what to say thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell why do you think the Bible says that because they're not going to understand the truth without actually getting corrected and spanked for it they're not going to understand consequences well I never got spanked wait I can tell I can tell that's why you're playing video games and you're 35 years old in your mom's basement or you're showing up in protesting churches because you've never had to have a job Proverbs 19 I should have just had to keep your finger there but I already got your finger in Luke 15 Proverbs 19 verse 26 says he that wasteth his father and chases the way his mother is a son that causes shame and bringeth reproach children don't waste your father don't chase away your mother you know you're gonna bring them to shame it says cease my son to hear the instruction that cause it to air from the words of knowledge so don't listen to foolish instructions don't listen to people that say your parents are wrong for spanking you you know and this happens a lot with families doesn't it it happens a lot where they're like well you know if I could just get you out of that cult I would or whatever listen your your family members that are against what you're doing you should not allow them to have some kind of a hold over your children because what is what that is doing is saying hey you're they're saying your parents are wrong for how they're raising you your parents are wrong for spanking you your parents are wrong for making you wear dresses ladies your parents are wrong for all this stuff and you know what that's straight out of hell so don't allow I don't care who it is I don't care if it's your mom your dad your grandparents or their grandpa whatever whatever person that is in your family if they're causing some kind of wicked influence on your children and they're trying to divide them against you then you need to cut those people out of your life sorry not sorry like that's my mom you know Jesus said he came to bring division not to he didn't bring to come to bring peace but division okay and sometimes we have to divide from people and you know sometimes that process happens naturally they're like well you're in a cult you realize that right and then you know just gets worse and worse from there you're not gonna let your kids you know do Halloween you're not gonna let your kids dress up a trick-or-treat you're not gonna let your kids carve a pumpkin and you know all that stuff is just pressure that's put upon you hey just cut that stuff out just cut it out of your life and again I'm not saying to just turn your back on your family for any little thing I'm just saying that like if they're strongly influencing your children in a way that you know is wicked and wrong you don't have to have them around them you can have supervised visits you don't have to let them stay the night okay so number two God is gonna punish you if your backslid number three being backslidden gets you dishonor it gets you dishonor when people find out that Christians are backslidden it's a dishonoring thing isn't it look at Luke chapter 15 verse 15 the Bible says and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country so wherever he went he went and joined himself to that citizen so I guess that would be another way of saying like the world he went out into the world joined up with people worldly people people that aren't godly and it says and he sent him into his fields to feed swine so you know you end up you know having some worldly friends your backslidden you're away from God you're away from your family you're away from church and you end up going back to the world you end up going back to Egypt you end up going back and then the next thing you know you're feeding swine now a young Jewish boy you know this isn't really a good thing for him to be doing right feeding swine I think Jesus is kind of mentioning this because to the people he's talking to at this at this point it's it's it would be very horrifying for them to actually be dealing with pigs and not only does he feed the swine he ends up eating with them right and so we don't need to go you know if you're back in the hog pen you know what do people do when they when someone gets backslidden and you you hear about how they're doing it's like oh they're doing this they're doing that you know they're back they're out drinking again they're doing drugs again they're you know fornicating they're committing adultery or whatever it is and it's dishonoring there's nothing honorable about that and the people that are doing those things they know that it's dishonoring and and you know sometimes people just get trapped into these things and they just continue to do them because coming back and repenting is not something that they really feel like doing but let me just tell you this going back to the world there's nothing back there for you there's nothing back there for you hey don't look back when you're pushing the plow go forward don't get back slim don't go back to Egypt don't go back to the things of the world because you know what it's not gonna feel as good as it used to it's not gonna it's not gonna satisfy you you think the leaks and the garlic are gonna be something that you really just miss so bad that I can't believe I was just going to this church and you know people just do all kinds of weird gymnastics in their minds to get out of church they really will and once you start doing it more and more it's gonna it's gonna be easier for you to continue in that sin and let me just tell you you're not gonna feel better about yourself you're gonna feel worse if you're saved and you're just in all kinds of wicked sin it's not gonna feel good it's not gonna feel like it used to because you know what you're a child of God and you know that what you're doing is wrong it's I mean if you have any conscience whatsoever you know they're getting backslitting and getting back into the world and going into the hog pen so to speak this guy real literally was in a hog pen you know it's not it's not good for you turn to 1st John chapter 2 verse 15 1st John chapter 2 verse 15 the Bible says love not the world it's not about it's not talking about people in the world it's talking about love not the world the things of the world the thing you know again Egypt is like a picture of the world in the Bible and that's why God says don't go back to Egypt don't go back there there's nothing good for you there and love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man loved the world the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world so all these lusts and things that you used to do that's the world whatever it is that struck your fancy whatever it was that you were involved in the the lust of the eyes the pride of life you know people have pride in all different types of things don't they they they they're their cars that they want to work on or their gun collection you know I'm talking about manly stuff here the canning things that you do or whatever the video games the movies all this other stuff you know those things are the pride of life and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh you know and and whatever it is that you used to do whatever it is that you had a proclivity to do you know it is gonna be more hard once you get back into it to get back out of it so but this is the world pass at the way and the lust thereof so all this stuff is gonna be gone someday all this remember I talked about all the all the predators are gonna be gone someday but you know what also the lusts of the world is gonna be gone the worldliness and the allure to go back to these things is gonna be gone it says but he that do it the will of God abideth forever so think about this instead of getting backslidden instead of going back into the world why don't you just keep redeeming the time here on earth while you're here you already are in church you're already doing the will of God don't turn back don't go back to the world don't go back to Egypt don't go back to your old sins but you know what you need to do just keep moving on and pressing forward towards the mark and you know because all those works they follow after you the works that you do here for the Lord they follow after you and you get rewards in heaven for that but if you get backslidden you get out of church guess what you're gonna lose rewards you're gonna lose out on the things that you could have had while you're here but instead you just decide well you know maybe I'm just gonna go back to the hog pen for like a couple years and I'll come back you know when you when you leave and come back it's not the same you forget all your scriptures all the scriptures you had memorized gonna be gone because you know what if you don't use it you're gonna lose it and that's a fact the things that you were all settled in is gonna be gone you're gonna come back as like almost a brand new baby baby Christian don't get backslidden because you know what it's a shame it's a shame and then when you have to come back you know a lot of people won't come back because they feel so ashamed that they just won't come you know so I'll talk about that here in a few minutes but listen our works are gonna follow us we're gonna abide forever so you do you want to abide with your rewards or do you want to abide by the you know you're gonna still be saved if you're if you're a Christian but you can lose you're gonna lose out on rewards your chance to gain rewards number four being shunned by family friends and God can get the sinner to realize they're in sin in this story look back at Luke chapter 15 verse 16 being shunned by family friends and God number four can get the sinner to realize they're in sin once someone is backslidden maybe they're a family member of yours maybe it's you maybe it's somebody else but I personally believe that shunning is the correct way to get them to come back so because a lot of people you know well that's I know that so-and-so committed adultery but you know I'm just gonna go ahead and give them a pass because I'm their mom or I'm their dad or I'm their brother I'm just I'm still gonna hang around with them that's not the right way to look at things look at Luke chapter 15 verse 16 it says and he would faint have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and what does it say and no man gave unto him no man gave unto him so in my mind this is you know God not allowing him to receive anything because you know what when you're backslidden you're out of church you're out of you know you're away from your your godly family that you were that you were raised with or whatever you know instead of just helping them and you know helping them get by and you know I'm not saying turn your back on them spiritually you know if they want to come back and talk to you about things spiritually that's another story but we should not give unto them let them twist in the wind until they're willing to come back because I believe that shunning is the way that we're supposed to do that so it says no man gave unto him not his family not his dad not God not his friends no man gave unto him and you know if you're just helping these people out these people are backslidden if you're helping them monetarily or any other way you're just basically teaching them that it's okay it's just fine you know they're just a little messed up right now hey you got to turn your back on them I don't care who it is turn your back on that person if they're fully backslidden in this way that's what I'm not talking about people that are just like kind of having a problem or something and then I'm talking about people are kicked out of church I'm talking about people that are you know kicked out of they left their family to go you know live it up or whatever I don't think that we should allow them you know if they're saved don't eat dinner with them I don't care if it's your sister I don't care if it's your brother I don't care who it is you don't eat with them so shunning is the key to helping them throwing people out of church is shunning them isn't it why do we kick people out of church so they can get it right so that the destruction of the flesh can happen God's gonna turn Satan loose on them right and we why does God allow that so that they can get it right you know and sometimes people just are never gonna get it right some people obviously you don't want to bring back and you know what type of people those are so when we shun people it's gonna help them to repent I believe throwing them out of church having no fellowship with them outside of church is shunning them so when someone gets kicked out of the church don't go hang out with them you're just showing them that someone is going to you know help them out you don't want to help them out in that way you want them to get right with God and come back and the more you coddle them the more you handle them with kid gloves the more you just you know enable their lifestyle enable their sin you know that's that's kind of like a drug recovery term enabling but it's true you know people will have moms that will just keep giving them money keep handing them money and they're like oh mom I'm just gonna use this to do the laundry or whatever and then it's like they're are just out doing drugs with it and then it comes you know mommy's gonna help them and so hey mom won't care if I just break into the house and steal money mom won't care if I just break into the house and hawk things dad won't care if I just you know take his car out and take all the parts out of whatever it is look you know if that happens because people don't just cut people off immediately just cut them off and so that means not having them over for family events if you know they're a drunkard then don't have them over if they're a brother or sister in Christ right that's what the Bible says I have a couple examples in my life that I'll change the names and who they were for you know just because I don't think it needs to be said but there was someone in our in my wife's family that they had committed adultery and we were over at the family at the family's house for Christmas and one of the women in the family there was a independent Baptist by the way this part this this woman was was having an adulterous relationship and they allowed that guy to come over while she was still married to this other guy and one of the most horrific things I've ever heard in that situation was when are you gonna make him and on you know when are you gonna make her an honest woman she says to this guy this independent fundamental Baptist who's not she's not divorced by the way says to this other lady in the family or says to the the boy the new boyfriend of this other lady in the family when are you gonna make him an honest woman do I sound parched thank you that's wicked why would you do that why would you allow that and to be an independent fundamental Baptist and say that was disgusted the person should have been shunned that person should have never been allowed to come over to that house they should have been ostracized from the family and you know what if they would have ostracized her from the family a little bit maybe she would have went back to her husband instead of getting a divorce that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about you can't just you know allow this stuff to continue on in your family and in your church you know why don't why do we kick people out for for the the reasons that are said in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 why so they can get it right and it's it's called shunning that means you can't come back to church so I've also seen where people will move away from a good church and I always get when people ask me what do you think about me moving to this place there isn't really a you know there's not a church like ours there but you know there's like a Presbyterian Church or there's you know there's a you know people think that they can just come from a church like ours and just you know get grounded into some old IFB Church and it's gonna be just like this church and I always tell them don't move to a place where there's no good church don't do it because what's gonna happen is they're gonna get backslidden you know if there is a good church to praise God but I would never tell somebody to move from a good church in their area and whether to a place where there is no good church because you know what it might take a year it might take two years it might take three years but eventually you know what they're gonna be out of church so don't be stupid I know stupid is a bad word sometimes to people but listen foolish means stupid okay the Bible says foolish lots of times don't be stupid don't move away from a great church and think that you're everything's gonna be fine with your family because you're moving for money don't ever move for some stupid job you know God's gonna provide for you where you're at in a place where he wants you out and why would you move away from a good church when you're gonna earn more rewards and and have a better Christian life in the place that you're already at versus being in no man's land no God's land you know away from your family away from your away from a great church you know it's it's important number sit our number five tonight after realizing they are cursed and shunned it can help them see their need to repent and get right so you know shunning helps the sinner to realize they're in sin but you know shunning also will help them realize hey I'm in a bad way here I need to get right with God look at Luke chapter 15 verse 17 Luke 15 17 the Bible says see no man gave to him now the next the very next verse look over 17 and when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger he's like you know what I'm getting smoked out here nothing's working out right everybody's against me nobody's helping me and what's he do he came to himself he realized hey you know what God's my father or you know I need to get right with my dad or whatever it is and you know my dad's gonna help me out if I go back to him and here's his plan here's what he's gonna say I will rise and go to my father and I will say unto him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants and he arose and came to his father but when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him you see that what happened is that he was cut off from everything he came to himself and he realized hey I need to repent and get things right you see how the path you know this is the pattern that should actually happen but see people are just too weak to do what God says to do you're hurting people by just allowing them and coddling them and enabling them to just continue in sin and you know what it hurts people when you cut them off it's like hey maybe this maybe I'm just thinking about things wrong maybe I need to get right with God and that's what he finally realizes he goes back to his dad and you know he probably thought well I'm just gonna you know I'm just gonna you know I'll have a meager existence you know I already got all my stuff but he would rather be a servant in his father's house than to be out eating with the pigs eating husks I mean that husks are like the outside of a corn you know corn and the Bible is usually talking about like barley or something like that not the corn that we think of but if you want to think of it as our kind of corn then you're more welcome to because the husks of corn are still disgusting either way so but listen if you're backslidden get right come back to God God will accept you with open arms in fact once he sees you coming towards him he's gonna run out to meet you the Bible says in James chapter 4 go ahead and turn to James chapter 4 not only will God accept you he will forgive you he will forgive you look at James 4 8 says draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you isn't that what happened in the story he comes he draws nigh to he draws nigh to the father and then the father runs out to him right draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded what did it what did the guy in the story do what did the prodigal son do he got right didn't he he said you know I'm gonna rise and I'm gonna go to my father and tell him I've sinned against heaven and before thee he's or he already knows what he's gonna do and then once he says I'm gonna go in the right direction God meets him or the the father and the story meets him and you know grabs him he has compassion he falls on his neck and kisses him right God wants us to be right with him it's not like he enjoys smoking us and spanking us and us being in trouble all the time he doesn't enjoy it he wants us to be right Bible says be afflicted here and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to morning and your joy to heaviness humble yourselves in the side of the Lord and he shall lift you up and you know what when you're repenting or in repentance for something you know what you don't come back with a prideful attitude you come back with a humble attitude this is not what this guy is doing he's getting right with God because all the the right things are happening here and God's kind of just showing us the process of repentance for a person that's saved and is not right with God and wants to come back right look at Luke 15 21 it says and the son said unto him father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son you know and you know what none of us are worthy to be called sons of God none of us are worthy to be called the daughters of God and God knows that and when we have a humble attitude God is going to be there for us so how do we apply this to family well if you've done wrong to your family why don't you humbly go and apologize to them why don't you make things right maybe you've been an overzealous Christian at some point and like you know because this happens sometimes people get so on fire that they just torch their family and friends like just going over the top of stuff maybe they just want you know maybe they saw and I'm not saying don't try to get your family and friends saved I'm just saying that sometimes also when people get saved they will also try to imply the same rules onto their family members that of people that aren't they're not even saved so like why would you expect them to be like you are now obviously you can keep the company that you want to keep with the rules that you have but like you can you know sometimes people can go over the top I was over the top I was like trying to get everybody saved all my friends all my family and they probably and I'm sure they just thought I was weird but you know after a while I realized that that approach of just like batter ramming people giving them the gospel over and over again why because we want to see them say this it's good to be zealous obviously but sometimes I think that we can go a little too far with that and you know have you have you messed up things with your families are things that you can get right with them without having to be a compromiser I'm sure there is and you know there's people that get kicked out of church and sometimes they're able to come back you know we don't kick people out necessarily all the time with the with the thought that they're never coming back now if they if they start telling people in this church that they're the son of God they're probably never coming back okay so there's certain things that just you know they can't come back from you know if they're like obviously saying that kind of garbage they're not coming back they're a false prophet they need to go forever right number six tonight when you get things right with God and man you can live a blessed life again you can let you can still live a blessed life there's still plan B and C and all that you know obviously if you've messed up things with God and you've messed up your life in some way then God can still bless you God can still love you and take care of you again in fact he's never gonna quit loving you but when your backslidden you come back you can still be blessed look Luke 15 verse 22 Luke 15 verse 22 Bible says but the Father said to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry sounds like his father's blessing him right verse 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again and he was lost and is found and they began to be merry so here's the peaceable fruit he got the chastisement you know he was shunned he got right with God he repented and then God you know gives him that peaceable fruit of him getting right with God you know I mean obviously God is represented in this story I keep saying God but you know it's his dad the prodigal son's dad but obviously this represents God the Father and then you know the two sons that are one is doing right and one is obviously living a bad life so let's look at 1st John 1 1 John 1 7 now this is a a passage that talks about getting right with God it's not talking about salvation because a lot of people you know will use for 1st John 1 9 as like every time that they sin they have to get saved again or something you ever heard people apply it that way false prophets usually people that don't understand salvation but what it says in 1st John 1 7 says but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us every day in our daily life we're gonna have sin and what's the Bible say that we're supposed to do when this is when this is the case well it says if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness see you know you can still you can have a relationship with your dad that is good or bad if you're always doing wrong and you're never being repentant to your dad about things or your mom about things then you're gonna have a bad relationship right so if you're always doing wrong and always being a pain in the neck as a kid you know you're gonna you're gonna have a bad relationship with your parents but you know what when you know what parents like kids when you come up and sincerely say you know what I'm sorry I messed up I really messed up and and I'm sorry for what I did will you please forgive me and you know what any parent that's a good parent or a good person and whatsoever is gonna say I forgive you and I love you and they're probably gonna give you a hug they're probably be very happy that you did that but see that's how we should be with God too when we screw up and we mess up that we need to go to God and just remember that we should confess our sins to him not to the priest not to the Catholic Roman Catholic Pope to God himself because you know what we have access to the throne room of God through the Lord Jesus Christ who shed his blood for us he put that blood on the mercy seat so he could be our high priest and we go right through Jesus Christ to the throne room of God and he's gonna forgive us for what we do look what it says verse 10 if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us so what does you know it's kind of contrasting here the difference between someone that's humble and someone's not we should be humble and confess what we've done to God number seven be happy with those that get things right be happy with those that get things right so look back at Luke chapter 15 verse 25 it says now his elder son was in the field and he came and drew nigh to the house he heard the music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said unto him thy brother has come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he hath received him safe and sound and he was angry and he would not go in therefore came his father out and entreated him and he answering said to his father lo these many years do I serve thee neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment and yet that was thou never gave us me a kid that I might make merry with my friends you know it's kind of like why are you so happy that the our brother the brother you know my brother's come back why are you so happy about this he just wasted everything and you never you never did this for me dad you know but he's been enjoying the blessings of being you know one that follows God's commandments and everything and so he didn't have to repent and go through all this problem and and have all these issues happen in his life because he was living his life right but his attitude sucks towards his brother that comes back who it says but as soon as this thy son was come which hath devoured thy living with harlots thou has killed for him the fatted calf and he said unto him son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine it was meat that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found so he is got you know the the dad in the story is trying to explain to him hey you know he was lost he was having issues I mean shouldn't we have grace towards people that are out or maybe they screwed up and got out of church maybe they fell into sin and when they come back shouldn't we receive them merrily like you know he was received by his dad here absolutely we got to let people live things down folks no one's ever gonna want to come back if they know they're gonna have to come back to people going like this when they see them you know what I mean like you know when people say we lack grace I don't I don't agree with them but there's times when Christians do lack grace and sometimes I think it's because they're like well we shouldn't you know they were bad they got kicked out it's like yeah but they're back they're back and they're right with God if they're if they're in this church it's because Pastor Shelley allowed them to come back right and I'm sure that it happens I'm sure that it happens in every church not everybody is Tyler Doka not everybody is the world's worst person I know obviously there's a lot of people that have been but not everybody's like that and you know what we need to be able to restore people that have sinned and want to come back and get things right look at second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 5 second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 5 this is my last point doing good I said that last time that was like an hour and a half later okay let me get fast here second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 5 says now this is talking about this is referencing a man that was kicked out of the Corinthian Church for having you know communion fornication with his father's wife which is a really wicked sin says the Gentiles you know didn't even do that kind of stuff and they he Paul said kick him out put away from here among yourselves that wicked person so when someone's doing something that is worthy of being kicked out of church he says get him out but see now he's been reached he's being restored look at what Paul says in verse 5 but if any have caused grief he hath not grieved me but in part that I may not overcharge you all sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many so this man was kicked out after Paul said to do it and it says he was sufficient you know he deserved what he got that's what he's saying so that contra wise he ought rather to forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow what is this talking about it's saying hey once they've gotten right once they're allowed to come back we need to forgive them everybody in this church would need to forgive a person like that less perhaps they should be swallowed up with over much sorrow it's like hey not even the Christians are gonna accept me back I thought that we were about forgiveness and grace so we can't have this attitude the Apostle Paul's admonishing them here wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him for to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you whether you be obedient in all things to whom you forgive anything I also I forgive also for if I forgive anything to whom I forgive it for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ and then it says less Satan should get an advantage of us for we're not ignorant of his devices so listen Satan's gonna get an advantage of us if we're not you know restoring people that are repentant right is that what it's saying now turn back to Luke 15 in our text says then drew near on to him verse number one Luke 15 one says then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying this man received the sinners and eateth with them and he spake this parable unto them saying so he's these parables are written because of these Pharisees that are saying he's eating with sinners these are people that are repentant these are people that have been saved these are people he's trying to help and then what's the attitude of the Pharisee to not be kind to them to be shunning them still even though they don't deserve to be shunned right it says and he spake this parable unto them what man of you having a hundred sheep if you lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which was lost until he find it when he had found it he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he cometh home he called together his friends and neighbors saying unto them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance what's he saying hey when someone gets right with God that we should rejoice with them right so that's how we should be we shouldn't be you know what's the Pharisee thing to do the Pharisee thing to do is like well I still don't trust them you know don't let them back into church pastor Shelley or you know don't let don't let that person come back into your family or don't let that person you know whatever they would say you know they they don't want to let people live things down and that is the attitude of a Pharisee that is the attitude of someone that has wickedness in their heart it says either that either that woman having 10 will get verse 8 either that woman having 10 pieces of silver if she lose one piece doth not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it and when she had found it she call with her friends and her neighbors together saying rejoice with me for I have found the peace which I had lost likewise I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels over of God over one sinner that repentance so God is very happy the angels in heaven are happy you know and you know what we should be happy we should be happy when someone gets something right when the prodigal son returns when the prodigal daughter returns you know not necessarily just a church but even to your own families they get things right with God and they want to come back and live a blessed life you know what we shouldn't stand in their way because you know what's gonna do it's gonna turn them back and and you know the whole formula all seven points work together to have you know that perfect you know peace that that that perfect piece of goodnight can't think of it Biden time again you know that that fruit that that peaceable fruit that's what it was all right all right last scripture let's look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32 you know what if God is going to forgive people that spit in his face and break his commandments you know they're ultimately their ultimate person that they're that they need to look to is to God but we as Christians are supposed to love our brethren we're supposed to love our brothers and sisters in Christ and the Bible says in Ephesians 4 32 it says and be kind one to another tenderhearted isn't God kind isn't God tenderhearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you so if Christ has forgiven them if God's forgiven them shouldn't we be tenderhearted and forgive people that go astray shouldn't we be gracious to the prodigal son or the prodigal daughter or whoever it is shouldn't we be graceful to them absolutely we should so when someone gets backslidden they can come back from it it is possible the Bible has this whole chapter that's what it's about but it takes the right correction it takes the shunning it takes the realization it takes the repentance and then it takes the forgiveness so and we have to be forgiving as Christians and not be ungraceful to people that get things right all right let's have a word of prayer Heavenly Father we thank you Lord so much for this great church and Lord I again I ask you that you would protect this church protect the pastor and his family protect every single member here and Lord help us to to think on these things that we've learned tonight Lord and help us to not have a Pharisee attitude when someone wants to get things right and come back Lord and we pray these things in Jesus precious name amen you thank you pastor Thompson for preaching for us and coming to visit all right if you would grab your hymnals turn to our last song for the evening 217 he included me 217 he included me I am so happy in Christ today that I go singing along my way yes I'm so happy to know and say Jesus included me too Jesus included me yes he included me when the Lord said whosoever he included me Jesus included me yes he included me when the Lord said whosoever he included me gladly I read whosoever may come to the fountain of life today but when I read it I always say Jesus included me too Jesus included me yes he included me when the Lord said whosoever he included me Jesus included me yes he included me when the Lord said whosoever he included me ever God's Spirit is saying come hear the blessing no girl but I am sure we're not calling oh Jesus included me too Jesus included me yes he included me when the Lord said whosoever he included me Jesus included me yes he included me when the Lord said whosoever he included me freely come drink the walls to thrill always what joy that my heart do fail for when he said whosoever well Jesus included me too Jesus included me yes he included me when the Lord said whosoever he included me Jesus included me yes he included me when the Lord said whosoever he included me