WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.860 Amen. Okay, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. The time I sermon this evening is walk the walk, 00:06.260 --> 00:12.680 walk the walk. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse number 6 says, therefore we are always confident 00:12.680 --> 00:18.400 knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, the famous passage 00:18.400 --> 00:26.180 here in verse number 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight. We walk by faith, not by sight. 00:26.180 --> 00:32.880 The same goes that if we talk to talk we must also walk the walk. The Bible teaches the importance 00:32.880 --> 00:37.380 obviously of speaking the right things. We see this throughout the word of God, both old and new 00:37.380 --> 00:42.060 testament. It says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. The Bible tells 00:42.060 --> 00:47.500 us to speak those things which become sound doctrine. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 32 says 00:47.500 --> 00:52.420 that the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked speak 00:52.420 --> 00:58.200 forwardness. Colossians chapter 4 and verse number 6 says, let your speech be always with grace, 00:58.640 --> 01:03.940 season with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Let no corrupt 01:03.940 --> 01:07.960 communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying, 01:08.460 --> 01:13.440 that it may minister grace unto the hear over and over again. The Bible emphasizes the 01:13.440 --> 01:19.060 importance of speaking the right things, saying the right things and speaking in accordance to 01:19.060 --> 01:25.640 the word of God. But the Bible also equally, if not more, talks about the importance of walking 01:25.640 --> 01:31.760 the walk and not just talking the talk. What is that referring to? Simply referring to having 01:31.760 --> 01:39.640 good conduct, good behavior or conduct and behavior that is in accordance to what you're 01:39.640 --> 01:45.420 saying, right? It's essentially saying, don't be a hypocrite. Make sure that your life, your 01:45.420 --> 01:50.860 conduct, your behavior, your conversation lines up with the things that you say. Philippians 01:50.860 --> 01:56.140 chapter 1, you don't have to turn to verse 27 says, only let your conversation, and the conversation 01:56.140 --> 02:00.640 there is not referring to a dialogue between two people, conversation is referring to the conduct, 02:01.040 --> 02:07.620 he says, only let your conversation as it becomeeth the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and 02:07.620 --> 02:13.540 see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit 02:13.540 --> 02:17.740 with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. What is the apostle Paul saying? 02:18.200 --> 02:23.000 He's encouraging or exhorting the church at Philippi to make sure that their conduct is characterized 02:23.000 --> 02:29.600 by preaching the gospel, that they would be characterized and have this connotation of those 02:29.600 --> 02:33.940 who are soul winners, those who are winning others to Christ and so forth. And so in this 02:33.940 --> 02:39.400 particular sermon, I want to talk about just the various instances where the Bible emphasizes 02:39.400 --> 02:45.160 the importance of walking a certain way. Now you're in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the first thing 02:45.160 --> 02:51.940 we're going to look at here is the fact that the Bible talks about us walking by faith and at 02:51.940 --> 02:56.880 just base level, the most basic of the Christian life is that, making sure that we as Christians 02:57.360 --> 03:03.420 are walking by faith, he says in verse 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Go to Colossians 03:03.420 --> 03:08.540 chapter 2 if you would, Colossians chapter 2. Now what exactly does it mean to walk by faith? 03:09.180 --> 03:13.500 Well obviously if you were to ask some unsaved person, some person who's just critical of the 03:13.500 --> 03:19.280 things of God, they're critics of the Bible, they'll often say, you guys just blindly follow 03:19.280 --> 03:25.400 Christianity, you know, just blindly follow a man, blindly follow your God, you don't really 03:25.400 --> 03:30.400 know if these things exist, you never seen them with your eyes and so forth. And to be quite 03:30.400 --> 03:34.800 honest with you, you know, it is true that we've never seen the Lord, right? But just 03:34.800 --> 03:38.180 because we've never seen the Lord and just because we've never actually viewed him with 03:38.180 --> 03:42.340 our eyes, doesn't mean we're blindly following the Lord, because at the end of the day the 03:42.340 --> 03:47.060 Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Why do we believe 03:47.060 --> 03:51.380 that God exists? Why do we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Why do we believe the promises 03:51.380 --> 03:54.900 of God? It's not because we've necessarily seen them with our eyes, it's because we 03:54.900 --> 03:59.180 hear with our ears. And when we hear the preaching of God's word, when we read it, 03:59.480 --> 04:04.320 when we hear about the promises of God, what does it do? It accumulates faith in us, 04:04.320 --> 04:10.180 in God, in His promises, and so forth. You know, a blind person, yeah, can follow another 04:10.180 --> 04:15.460 individual even if they can't see them because they're basing it off of what they hear. Well, 04:15.500 --> 04:20.540 in like manner, yeah, we haven't visibly seen Jesus Christ, we didn't see him in a dream, 04:21.040 --> 04:25.920 we didn't see him in a vision, we didn't see him 2,000 years ago, we follow the Lord because 04:25.920 --> 04:29.840 of what the Bible explicitly says. So it's not blind faith, it's actually faith that's based 04:29.840 --> 04:36.520 upon the Bible, right? That's important for us to know. So when it talks about walking by faith, 04:36.860 --> 04:41.420 what does it say? It's saying that we should live, we should walk, we should conduct ourselves 04:41.420 --> 04:47.080 based on the faith that we've accumulated from the Bible. We have to know that this is how we 04:47.080 --> 04:52.860 get saved. We get saved by believing on Jesus Christ, by placing our faith in Him. However, 04:53.080 --> 04:59.180 thereafter, it's extremely important that we continue to build our faith in God. Why? Because 04:59.180 --> 05:04.560 the Bible says that He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He's a rewarder of 05:04.560 --> 05:08.780 them that diligently seek Him. Folks, let me just tell you something. Getting saved is just not enough 05:08.780 --> 05:14.560 for you to live the Christian life thereafter. It's not enough for you to just endure, it's not 05:14.560 --> 05:19.440 enough for you to just experience the promises of God, the blessings of God. You actually have 05:19.440 --> 05:24.740 to build yourself on your most holy faith in order to do so. You've got to walk by faith 05:24.740 --> 05:30.180 and not by sight. Now you're in Colossians 2. I'm going to read to you from Jude verse 20. It says, 05:30.740 --> 05:35.640 But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 05:36.060 --> 05:41.180 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ 05:41.700 --> 05:47.340 unto eternal life. And we can summarize this by saying that we need to walk in faith just 05:47.340 --> 05:53.000 as we began. Colossians 2, look at verse 6. It says, As ye have therefore received 05:53.000 --> 05:59.020 Christ Jesus the Lord, which by the way, how do we receive Him? By faith, right? As ye therefore 05:59.020 --> 06:04.600 have received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk ye in Him. And how does that look? Verse 7, 06:05.140 --> 06:09.980 Rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as ye have been taught, 06:10.740 --> 06:15.220 abounding therein with thanksgiving. So, you know, if you're newly saved, 06:15.900 --> 06:20.360 you know, you've got a lot of work to do. Amen? You actually have a lifelong process 06:20.360 --> 06:25.440 of growing in your faith. Obviously, it's important for you to grow in doctrine, 06:25.680 --> 06:31.300 but it's also important for you to grow in your Christian faith, increasing your belief 06:31.300 --> 06:37.140 in the promises of God. Why? Because life comes with challenges. Life comes with problems. 06:37.740 --> 06:42.240 Also, if you want to experience God's blessing in your life, that requires some faith and 06:42.240 --> 06:47.280 obedience to His Word, to His commands. And you know what? If you have a weak faith, 06:47.280 --> 06:50.760 you're not going to be able to see the promises of God. You're not going to be able to experience 06:50.760 --> 06:56.400 the rewards that God has prepared for those that love Him because it requires faith to 06:56.400 --> 07:00.400 continue in the things of God to be established in the faith. You know, a couple of weeks ago, 07:00.980 --> 07:04.660 I preached on the subject of the four grounds and the seed that's sown into the four grounds. 07:05.080 --> 07:09.800 And one of the grounds received the Word with gladness, but the Bible says because they had 07:09.800 --> 07:16.680 no roots, by and by, when persecution arose because of the Word, it fell away. What did 07:16.680 --> 07:21.720 I mean? It means that this person was saved. This person was a believer, but because they 07:21.720 --> 07:25.560 weren't rooted in their faith, they didn't dig down their roots deep into the earth. 07:25.900 --> 07:29.620 What happened? When a trial came their way, you know, they received persecution, 07:30.160 --> 07:34.460 they fell out of the way. They deviated from the paths of God. They got out of church. 07:34.920 --> 07:39.020 They stopped winning souls to Christ. They stopped serving God because they weren't 07:39.020 --> 07:42.940 rooted in the things of God. And you know, if you're a brand new Christian, 07:43.500 --> 07:48.560 every Christian to a certain degree, when they first get saved, they experience what I would call 07:48.560 --> 07:54.060 the honeymoon. Okay? What is the honeymoon? Well, for those who, you know, are married, 07:54.380 --> 08:00.360 hopefully you had a honeymoon. The honeymoon stage is like, you know, you get married and you go on 08:00.360 --> 08:04.540 your honeymoon, you're like vacationing and you're with each other and everything's just 08:05.320 --> 08:11.800 magnificent, right? Everything, right? You know, at least it was for me. You know, it was just great. 08:12.180 --> 08:18.500 It was awesome. Just me and my wife and spending time together and doing what married people do 08:18.500 --> 08:24.220 and just getting to know each other. It was just like awesome, right? But here's the thing. As the 08:24.220 --> 08:29.600 years go by, that does kind of die out a little bit. It's not bad. It's not, you know, 08:29.600 --> 08:35.320 it's not anything evil. It's just that your relationship grows, right? It has to mature. 08:35.720 --> 08:39.960 And they often say, you know, the honeymoon stage is over. What does that mean? It means that, 08:40.180 --> 08:43.720 you know, when you're in the honeymoon stage, you know, your spouse can do no wrong. 08:44.420 --> 08:48.240 Right? You just overlook any of the flaws and any of the things that you would typically 08:48.240 --> 08:52.220 would bother you, it doesn't bother you. They're just perfect, right? But then reality 08:52.220 --> 08:57.260 sets in. You know, she realizes that your feet do stink, that, you know, you're dirty, 08:57.260 --> 09:01.000 you leave your clothes all over the place or whatever. She starts seeing your flaws and vice 09:01.000 --> 09:06.820 versa. And then that begins to fade out a little bit, right? Now, if you don't grow in your love for 09:06.820 --> 09:12.280 your spouse, you can become bitter. You can become resentful. You can become a person who 09:12.280 --> 09:16.440 doesn't appreciate their spouse, which is why it's important for you to grow in your love 09:16.440 --> 09:21.040 for your spouse thereafter. Allow your love to mature for your spouse, right? Well, 09:21.040 --> 09:24.080 the same thing is in the Christian life. You know, it's great when we first get saved. 09:24.080 --> 09:28.600 It's like, man, I just learned about salvation by grace through faith. I learned about all these 09:28.600 --> 09:34.820 doctrines and church is awesome. You know, the pastor says, fag a lot. And, you know, we learned 09:34.820 --> 09:39.480 about all these cool doctrines and it's great. But then after a couple months, you know, it 09:39.480 --> 09:45.020 starts getting a little old, believe it or not. Okay. And maybe you get a little lazy. 09:45.360 --> 09:49.160 Maybe you don't want to come to church as often. Maybe you're not as disciplined as you 09:49.160 --> 09:52.380 were in the beginning. Why, why is that? It's because the honeymoon stage is over. 09:52.380 --> 09:57.440 So in order to prevent that from happening, you need to make sure that you're growing in your 09:57.440 --> 10:03.620 faith. You're getting rooted and grounded, you know, in your faith, in the Word of God, 10:04.020 --> 10:08.540 so that when you do get persecution from family, you get persecution from the outside, 10:09.080 --> 10:14.400 you get pushback from people around you, it doesn't, you know, cause you to be moved 10:15.020 --> 10:19.220 out of the way. It doesn't cause you to fall by the wayside. It doesn't cause you to 10:19.220 --> 10:24.440 stumble and get offended and, you know, stop coming to church and stop reading your Bible 10:24.440 --> 10:30.320 and stop serving God. Why? Because you are rooted. You're supposed to be established in the faith. 10:30.720 --> 10:35.900 And I think every Christian, once they get, you know, once they get saved, they are in 10:35.900 --> 10:39.840 their minds are like, I want to be in this thing for the long haul, right? I think everyone's 10:39.840 --> 10:42.940 desires to be in this thing for the long, it is for me. I want to be in this thing for 10:42.940 --> 10:46.940 the long haul. I'm sure you're sitting there thinking like, I can see myself growing old as 10:46.940 --> 10:51.720 a Christian, getting married, serving God and all that. And you know, that's a great 10:52.420 --> 10:58.420 desire. That's a great goal, but it's an unrealistic goal if you're actually not doing something today 10:58.420 --> 11:07.340 about that. Okay? It's not going to happen. It is a fading dream if you don't actually 11:07.340 --> 11:12.180 attempt to become disciplined in your Christian life and get rooted in your faith. 11:12.840 --> 11:16.920 If you're not walking by faith, you're going to walk out these doors sooner or later. 11:17.820 --> 11:22.640 If you're not walking by faith, you're going to walk out on God. You're going to walk out in your 11:22.640 --> 11:26.260 walk with God. You're going to walk out on soul winning, walk out on church attendance, 11:26.520 --> 11:30.040 walk out on just serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because walking by faith 11:30.040 --> 11:33.820 requires for us to get rooted. If you want to be in this thing for the long haul, 11:34.140 --> 11:39.300 it's important to dig deep, right? And not have this superficial Christianity. It's time for you 11:39.300 --> 11:44.680 to mature. It's time for you to grow up, okay? And so this is what Colossians is telling us, 11:44.760 --> 11:49.620 is that we need to walk by faith. Meaning that, you know, it's time for us as Christians, 11:49.760 --> 11:55.480 especially if you're a newer Christian, to start thinking biblically. Now this is an important 11:55.480 --> 11:58.960 part of the sermon that you need to understand. And obviously people who've been safe for a 11:58.960 --> 12:02.540 while need to understand this too. And you know, you need to be reminded of this, 12:03.000 --> 12:06.760 is that we need to make sure that we approach every aspect of our life, 12:07.480 --> 12:13.020 every trial, every blessing, every opportunity, everything in marriage, 12:13.420 --> 12:16.200 everything with child rearing through the lens of the Bible. 12:17.620 --> 12:23.800 Meaning that you base your decisions off of, what does the Bible say? You say, 12:23.820 --> 12:28.520 what does it mean to walk by faith? It means that you filter everything you do off of, 12:28.760 --> 12:33.480 what does the Bible say about that? You say, well, you know, I don't really do that. I just 12:33.480 --> 12:37.820 kind of figure out what's logical. I figure out what I've learned or the experience that I've 12:37.820 --> 12:44.180 gotten through life. Well, that's called walking by sight, right? You're using your senses. You're 12:44.180 --> 12:48.920 using your own knowledge. But the Bible says, trust that the Lord with all thine heart, 12:49.020 --> 12:54.820 and listen to this, and lean not unto thine own understanding. And all thy ways acknowledge 12:54.820 --> 13:01.300 him and he shall direct thy paths. What is that? Walking by faith, okay? Now this is 13:01.300 --> 13:06.800 going to require some effort on your end, okay? Obviously, at this point right now you're walking 13:06.800 --> 13:10.960 by faith because you're listening to me preach the faith unto you. But you know what? You need to 13:10.960 --> 13:16.040 start digging into the Word of God and, you know, not be a biblically illiterate Christian 13:16.040 --> 13:19.200 where you're not reading the Word of God. You better make sure you're opening the Bible 13:19.200 --> 13:24.740 on a daily basis, reading the Word of God, not just so the Word of God can minister to 13:24.740 --> 13:29.000 your emotional needs, but also to just accumulate the knowledge of the Bible 13:29.000 --> 13:33.160 so that you make proper decisions in life. This is what the Bible means when it says 13:33.160 --> 13:38.880 to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. When the Bible says, be not conformed to this world, 13:38.900 --> 13:42.980 but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, it's referring to the fact that you need 13:42.980 --> 13:47.780 the Bible to be in here so that when you make a decision or when you're faced with a difficulty, 13:48.160 --> 13:52.720 you ask first, what does God think about this? Obviously, folks, you know, not everything in 13:52.720 --> 13:57.160 the Bible, the Bible doesn't tell me how to tie my tie, what color suit I should wear, 13:57.560 --> 14:03.140 what I should do. It's not going to have an answer for every single, you know, detail of my life. 14:04.160 --> 14:09.300 But in general, what does it do? It provides the guidelines, listen to me, and the parameters 14:09.300 --> 14:15.260 so that I make the right decision or at least it narrows down what decision to make. And look, 14:15.520 --> 14:19.780 you know, free will is important, right? So God, what he does, he doesn't give us, 14:20.060 --> 14:23.000 you know, this is what you got to do unless it's really something specific in the Bible. 14:23.420 --> 14:27.900 Sometimes he just provides the parameters and he gives us the liberty to choose between this, 14:28.020 --> 14:32.120 this parameter and this parameter. But here's the problem, a lot of Christians don't even know that. 14:32.840 --> 14:36.980 They don't even make decisions based upon this little, little parentheses right here. 14:37.320 --> 14:40.940 They don't even know that exists. Why? Because they're not reading the Word of God, 14:41.260 --> 14:46.700 okay? Walking by faith requires for us to actually dig into the Bible and see, you know, 14:46.840 --> 14:49.700 what does the Bible say about this? You know, before you make any major decision, 14:50.080 --> 14:52.920 why don't you look to see what the Bible says about it first? You may think 14:52.920 --> 14:57.160 to yourself, man, it's going to take a long time though. Like, what if I need to make a decision 14:57.160 --> 15:00.980 but I don't even know where to look? Then go to a mature Christian that does know the Bible 15:01.500 --> 15:06.140 and they can impart unto you the wisdom of God's Word that they've accumulated from the Word of 15:06.140 --> 15:10.620 God, okay? Which would require for you to go to church, it would require for you to be surrounded 15:10.620 --> 15:16.720 by godly Christians who know the Bible, right? Rather than just, you know, you making a decision 15:16.720 --> 15:20.140 thinking, well, this is the best decision I think, well, you know, you might want to filter 15:20.140 --> 15:25.480 that through the Word of God first, you know, walk by faith and not by sight. This also means that 15:25.480 --> 15:31.960 we need to make sure that we're not just emotionally making decisions either, okay? Now, look folks, 15:32.060 --> 15:37.120 we're emotional beings for sure. I am, you know, if you ever see me when I'm hungry, you know 15:37.120 --> 15:42.880 I can get emotional, okay? You know, anyway, how many of you have ever been hangry before, 15:43.300 --> 15:49.620 right? Yeah, more of you need to raise your hand because I know for a fact that, you know, 15:50.140 --> 15:55.400 we're all emotional beings. We go through emotions and, you know, our emotions are there 15:55.980 --> 16:02.440 because, you know, God expects us to feel things and have empathy and compassion 16:03.000 --> 16:06.880 and weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice. Emotions are important, 16:06.880 --> 16:12.340 but, you know, sometimes our emotions can deceive us as well, right? The Bible says 16:12.340 --> 16:19.660 that the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? So, 16:19.660 --> 16:24.320 it's important. You never follow the Hollywood instruction of following your heart. 16:24.920 --> 16:29.580 Such a, it's wicked sometimes, you know, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts, you know, 16:29.700 --> 16:34.220 blasphemies, fornications, adultery thefts, all these things. And so, you can't really trust your 16:34.220 --> 16:38.880 heart. You can't really trust the seat of your emotions all the time. Now, I get it. Sometimes 16:38.880 --> 16:43.400 people are like, I got this gut feeling about this situation, right? You know, I got this 16:43.400 --> 16:48.440 instinctual gut feeling about this certain situation and I'm not against that as long 16:48.440 --> 16:52.300 as it lines up with the Bible. But, at the end of the day, even if something feels off, 16:52.460 --> 16:56.520 if it's biblical, you need to go with what the Bible says. So, when the Bible talks about walking 16:56.520 --> 17:00.140 by faith, not by say, it's saying, don't rely on your senses to make certain decisions 17:00.820 --> 17:04.660 because sometimes you're just emotional. Sometimes you're just, you know, sad, 17:04.860 --> 17:11.140 you're depressed, you're angry, you're overly anxious, right? You're worried and that can 17:11.140 --> 17:15.900 cause you to make a lot of bad decisions. We need to make sure that we as Christians 17:15.900 --> 17:22.840 stick to making faithful decisions, faith-filled decisions, faith, you know, full of faith 17:22.840 --> 17:29.720 decisions. We're based on what the Word of God says. Everyone with me? So, the Bible's telling 17:29.720 --> 17:34.460 us here that we have to walk by faith, not by sight. Our sight can deceive us. We can often, 17:34.660 --> 17:40.200 you know, conjure up imaginations or an outcome that's not really real. Therefore, 17:40.200 --> 17:46.620 we need to allow the compass of God's Word to direct us, okay? And, you know, sometimes you make 17:46.620 --> 17:50.600 a decision based off of God's Word and you're just like, I don't know about this, you know, 17:50.720 --> 17:55.600 because it seems as though if I make a certain decision, you know, I think this is a better 17:55.600 --> 17:59.980 decision instead of going with the Bible says, but you know what that requires? Faith on your 17:59.980 --> 18:06.060 end. Because what is faith? It means that you've got to trust God. If God says something, 18:06.060 --> 18:11.460 you've got to go with what God says, even if it doesn't make sense to you. That's what faith is. 18:12.220 --> 18:15.320 Let me also say this. This is a way that you increase your faith as well. 18:16.520 --> 18:22.740 How do you increase your faith? How do you become a person who is fully persuaded in his own mind, 18:23.600 --> 18:30.540 who believes the Lord, believes the promises of God, is not derailed, is not caused to move 18:30.540 --> 18:34.260 out of the way? I'll tell you how. You obey God even when it doesn't make sense. 18:36.060 --> 18:40.680 That's how you increase your faith. Because when you're faced with a situation that's very 18:40.680 --> 18:44.920 difficult, but you see in the Bible this is what the Bible says and you go with what the 18:44.920 --> 18:49.180 Bible says instead of your own emotions, your own conclusions, guess what? You come out 18:49.180 --> 18:53.640 winning on the other side, your faith has increased and you're like, man, I'm glad I went with 18:53.640 --> 18:59.680 what the Bible says. And so it's important for us to recognize the importance of walking 18:59.680 --> 19:04.200 by faith, walking in accordance to the Word of God. Now you're sitting there thinking, well, 19:04.960 --> 19:09.320 we know that though. Is that really an issue amongst Christians? Yeah, it is actually. 19:10.240 --> 19:16.180 I mean, there's tons of churches out there that don't walk by faith. They base all decisions off 19:16.180 --> 19:24.340 of emotionalism, their own understanding, their own interpretation. I just think that God, 19:24.520 --> 19:28.240 I feel like God wants me to do this instead of actually going to the authority of God's Word 19:28.800 --> 19:34.700 and basing their decisions off of that. If you want to be a great Christian, if you want 19:34.700 --> 19:40.100 to be a Christian who's blessed of God, you need to make sure that you are endeavoring 19:40.100 --> 19:45.440 to grow in your faith. And look, folks, aside from just reading the Word of God 19:45.440 --> 19:49.640 and increasing your faith in that manner, again, like I mentioned, you have to actually 19:49.640 --> 19:55.520 be put into situations where you're kind of forced to obey God even when you don't want to 19:55.520 --> 20:04.300 or even when it seems outside of your capabilities. This is how God stretches our faith. He causes us 20:04.300 --> 20:10.900 to recognize. And sometimes you'll talk to Christians and they'll think like, well, 20:10.940 --> 20:17.260 I just feel like God's not really doing anything right now or he's not working. But we're 20:17.260 --> 20:23.040 relying upon our senses at that point. And let me just say this. Sometimes we go through 20:23.040 --> 20:28.520 situations in life and because we're going through such a hard time, that can often blind us to what 20:28.520 --> 20:33.500 God is actually doing. That's just the reality of it. You know, sometimes we don't realize 20:34.160 --> 20:37.920 and you say, what do I do in that point? Well, number one, like I said, walk by faith. 20:38.100 --> 20:42.260 But also, you need to surround yourself with Christians who are actually level-headed to 20:42.260 --> 20:46.520 kind of direct you where to go. Right? Like you need to surround yourself with 20:46.520 --> 20:50.800 Christians who are not emotional. Okay? So if you ever experience a hard time 20:50.800 --> 20:54.900 and you're having a hard time putting your faith in the Bible, then go to someone who's outside of that 20:55.560 --> 21:02.260 and ask them for advice. Ask them for counsel. Allow them to direct you because, you know, 21:02.300 --> 21:07.080 your decision maker is kind of broken right now. You understand what I'm saying? It's important 21:07.080 --> 21:11.820 for us to recognize that when we are experiencing a hard time and it's hard for us to step out 21:11.820 --> 21:16.260 in faith, sometimes we need the assistance of others to kind of direct our faith as well. 21:16.700 --> 21:23.220 Okay? And so walk by faith and not by sight. Increase your faith by obeying the Bible, 21:23.280 --> 21:28.260 even if it doesn't make sense to you. Increase your faith by, you know, even if you doubt. 21:29.020 --> 21:31.440 And by the way, when you doubt, it doesn't mean you don't have faith. 21:32.100 --> 21:35.760 It only means if you don't have faith, if you actually act upon that doubt. 21:36.480 --> 21:40.240 Understand? Meaning that, you know, you think of the man in the Gospels who said, 21:40.240 --> 21:46.560 you know, I believe but helped I doubt my non-belief. You know, you're only doubtful if you 21:46.560 --> 21:50.500 actually act upon that doubt. But if you're doubting and you want to have faith and you 21:50.500 --> 21:54.940 act upon your faith, guess what? You just completely destroy your doubt and increase 21:54.940 --> 22:01.820 your faith in God by doing so. Okay? And so walk the walk. You know, I know you believe 22:01.820 --> 22:04.720 right, but I need, you know, we need to make sure that we're walking right, 22:05.040 --> 22:09.660 that we're walking by faith, that we're always making sure that we are putting the Bible 22:09.660 --> 22:14.420 first, that we're filtering our decisions through the Word of God and recognizing that, 22:14.620 --> 22:18.480 you know, there's going to come times in our personal life where we're faced with extreme 22:18.480 --> 22:22.520 difficulty, like hard decisions that we have to make. And you know what? 22:22.840 --> 22:27.920 The promises of God are still true though. They're still true. The Bible does not alter 22:27.920 --> 22:33.780 based upon the level of difficulty that you're experiencing. Right? It's not like, well, 22:33.960 --> 22:37.540 you know, the Bible applies in this situation but not for your situation. No, it applies 22:37.540 --> 22:43.860 in everyone's situation. Okay? And so it's important for us to make sure that if we're 22:43.860 --> 22:47.720 talking to God, we need to walk the walk by walking by faith. Go to Ephesians chapter four, 22:47.840 --> 22:54.920 if you would. Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. Now you may be sitting there 22:54.920 --> 22:58.520 thinking, well, you know, I'm not really struggling in my faith. You know, actually, 22:58.580 --> 23:03.280 I'm not really like, I feel like I'm good. You know what I mean? Okay, then here's 23:03.280 --> 23:08.960 the challenge to you. Increase your faith then. Increase your faith. You know, make your faith 23:08.960 --> 23:15.200 stronger because the reality is everyone's going to experience a time where your faith is shaken. 23:16.000 --> 23:22.320 Okay? And let me also say this. You know, if you need to make sure that your faith is so strong 23:22.320 --> 23:28.300 that it doesn't matter what happens in our church, what happens in other churches, 23:28.840 --> 23:33.660 you stay in this thing for the long haul. Now my goal is to pass through this church for the 23:33.660 --> 23:39.080 rest of my life. But if I don't, you better make sure you stay in this church. You know, 23:39.120 --> 23:41.980 if I die tonight or something like that, it's not going to happen. Hopefully not. 23:42.560 --> 23:45.800 You know, if the Lord wills. You know, if, if something were to happen to me, 23:46.020 --> 23:50.760 or let's just say I become severely backslidden, something happens, I get involved in sin, 23:51.040 --> 23:55.740 you better make sure you continue in the faith. And, you know, just because, 23:55.740 --> 23:59.980 you know, something happens to me doesn't make what I taught in times past null and void. 24:01.540 --> 24:05.040 You know, you better remember like, yeah, he's not in church anymore, but he did say to continue 24:05.040 --> 24:10.460 in the faith and that was true. Okay? You know, don't base your faith off of someone else's faith 24:10.820 --> 24:14.980 to the point where you fall out of church because someone else gets out of church or something, 24:15.060 --> 24:19.560 or someone else gets out of the fight or whatever. You better make sure that you run your course. 24:20.520 --> 24:23.620 And you know what? Jesus doesn't change. Jesus is always going to be, 24:23.620 --> 24:28.080 he's the same yesterday, today and forevermore. He'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. 24:28.540 --> 24:33.960 Don't allow your faith to be shaken by these things. Okay? And you know, obviously we need 24:33.960 --> 24:40.040 examples in our Christian life. You know, I talked about this, about this last Sunday night where 24:40.040 --> 24:45.820 I had great examples in my Christian life of people that I wanted to be like, people that I 24:45.820 --> 24:50.320 emulated, people that I esteemed. And you know what? They're not even in church anymore. 24:50.320 --> 24:55.120 They're not even serving God anymore. And you know, when it first happened, it just like, 24:55.300 --> 24:59.340 it just kind of shook me to the core because it made me think, well if this person couldn't make 24:59.340 --> 25:03.920 it, what makes me think that I can? Right? That's like, that's the feeling that I got 25:03.920 --> 25:08.320 when this person, you know, got out of church. And this person, it's not like this person just 25:08.320 --> 25:12.500 stopped, you know, working full time for the church or something. They like completely 25:12.500 --> 25:19.440 backslid. They got completely out of church. They got into drinking and worldliness and drugs 25:19.440 --> 25:26.860 or whatever and just deviated from the things of God. Okay? You know, they basically, demons 25:26.860 --> 25:30.960 have forsaken me having loved this present world type thing. You know, that kind of shook 25:30.960 --> 25:35.120 me to the core a little bit. Because again, it made me think like, if this person can't make 25:35.120 --> 25:42.960 it, what makes me think that I can? Well, the Bible does. Okay? And if someone falls out of the 25:42.960 --> 25:48.360 way or whatever and they get out of church and you esteem them as being a righteous person, 25:48.360 --> 25:53.560 you would want to exemplify, you would want to be like, you know, don't use that as an excuse 25:53.560 --> 25:59.980 for you to get out of church though. Well, I can't make it. I can't serve God. I can't, 25:59.980 --> 26:04.380 you know, go soul-wining. I can't do this, that and the other. You have a weak faith if that's 26:04.380 --> 26:09.480 you. You have an extremely weak faith if that's you. And if that's you, if you're 26:09.480 --> 26:12.840 listening to the sound of my voice and you think to yourself, yeah, that is me, 26:13.100 --> 26:15.960 you better make sure you start getting rooted and grounded in the faith. 26:16.940 --> 26:21.880 Okay? Because you got into this thing for the Lord Jesus Christ. Got into this thing for 26:21.880 --> 26:27.120 serving God. Okay? But, you know, if that's you and you're just like, well, I'm not, 26:27.180 --> 26:31.920 I'm not shaking. I'm good. I'm not really, you know, I'm not really struggling. Okay, 26:31.980 --> 26:38.680 then big shock. Increase your faith then. Walk out on water like Peter did. Okay? You know, 26:38.860 --> 26:44.640 start taking, start stepping out in faith and doing things that's gonna stretch your faith, 26:44.640 --> 26:50.580 increase your faith, put yourself in situations in accordance to the Bible where your faith is 26:50.580 --> 26:57.260 gonna be tested so that you can increase it. Okay? You know, the Bible tells us about Abraham 26:57.260 --> 27:01.620 by faith when he was called to go on to a place which he should after all receive for an inheritance 27:02.340 --> 27:08.500 obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went. I like what Jonathan said in 1st Samuel 14 27:09.040 --> 27:13.040 and verse 6. He says, come let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised. 27:13.040 --> 27:19.180 It may be that the Lord will work for us for there's no restraint to the Lord to save by many 27:19.180 --> 27:27.080 or by few. You know, by sacrifice or resources, time, talents, you know, whatever it is, our 27:27.080 --> 27:33.780 service, we can increase our faith in the Lord. Okay? Now, you're in Ephesians chapter 4. 27:33.900 --> 27:39.800 The title of the sermon is Walk the Walk. Make sure that you are walking by faith. 27:39.800 --> 27:42.920 And you know, as parents, we need to make sure that we increase the faith of our children as well, 27:43.340 --> 27:47.220 right? That we're talking about the Bible to our kids. We're helping them to step out in faith, 27:47.440 --> 27:51.460 to believe in God, because quite frankly, we are the pillar of their faith as of now. 27:51.980 --> 27:54.960 But there's gonna come a time when we're not around and we want to make sure that they can 27:54.960 --> 28:00.140 stand on their own two feet serving God because they have the conviction to serve the Lord. 28:00.560 --> 28:05.860 You understand? But point number two is this. Walk worthy of the vocation where with 28:05.860 --> 28:10.380 you are called. Look at Ephesians 4 verse 1. He says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord 28:11.180 --> 28:18.180 beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation where with you are called with all lowliness and 28:18.180 --> 28:23.640 meekness with long suffering for bearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity 28:23.640 --> 28:27.960 of the spirit and the bond of peace. Now, I love this passage because it's essentially 28:27.960 --> 28:34.900 implying that we're not worthy. Okay? The vocation there, the definition for a vocation, 28:34.900 --> 28:39.960 I was looking this up. Here's a couple different definitions. A vocation is a particular occupation, 28:41.140 --> 28:47.780 business or profession or calling, a divine call to God's service or to the Christian life, 28:48.200 --> 28:54.580 a function or station in life to which one is called by God. So the Bible is saying here that 28:54.580 --> 29:04.640 we need to walk worthy of that occupation, of that business, of that profession. You know, 29:04.640 --> 29:09.420 Christ Jesus unto good works which God had before ordained that we should walk in that. 29:10.280 --> 29:13.260 So when the Bible says we need to walk worthy of that, it means like act like it. 29:14.580 --> 29:17.920 You know, if God's called you to be a servant, called you to be a great Christian, 29:18.420 --> 29:24.720 act like one. Right? Meaning you should try to behave as a Christian as much as you possibly 29:24.720 --> 29:31.020 can. Meaning that you should, you know, live in holiness. You should seek to be a 29:31.020 --> 29:36.820 righteous person, an honest person, a just person. Enough of this, well, you know, 29:37.440 --> 29:44.260 I'm just not perfect. We know that, bro. Like, we know that. You demonstrated that very well. 29:45.040 --> 29:49.480 But walk worthy of the vocation though. Meaning start acting like it. Okay? 29:51.040 --> 29:55.480 You know, we're saints even though sometimes we miss the S. You guys can spell? All right, 29:55.740 --> 29:58.660 ain't? Okay, there you go. I know that's not grammatically correct, whatever, but 29:58.660 --> 30:04.700 I got that from the old IV. What is the Bible telling us here? It's telling us that, you know, 30:04.800 --> 30:08.380 we need to walk by faith. But as we're walking by faith, we need to make sure that we're 30:08.380 --> 30:13.820 endeavoring to be a part of this process of sanctification. Be more like Christ each and 30:13.820 --> 30:16.800 every day. And you know what this means? It means like, you know, in the old IV, 30:16.920 --> 30:21.600 they used to say this, you know, the process of sanctification is when we're less like us 30:21.600 --> 30:26.480 and more like Christ. Now I think we could all agree none of us will be exactly like Jesus 30:26.480 --> 30:30.980 this side of eternity. But should we just give up because of that? Should we just be like, well, 30:31.040 --> 30:35.620 I'm not even going to try. I'm just going to be the most worldly person, the most carnal, 30:36.180 --> 30:40.700 godless person. I'm not even going to work on my sanctification. I'm just thankful I'm saying 30:40.700 --> 30:45.220 I'm just going to leave it at that. Wrong. Walk worthy of the vocation we're with your call. 30:46.440 --> 30:52.580 Meaning, you know, put in some effort. Okay, actually try a little bit to live a life that's 30:52.580 --> 30:56.700 pleasing unto the Lord and try a little bit. So maybe someone might mistake you for being a Christian. 30:59.040 --> 31:04.420 I know that's shocking. You know, it's just like, well, no one knows I'm a Christian. I know. I know, 31:04.500 --> 31:10.020 bro. I know. But you know what? It should be that, you know, we let our life so shine before men 31:10.020 --> 31:13.660 that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. This is not just 31:13.660 --> 31:18.040 in our speech. It's in our context. It's just the way that we live. You know, be a good 31:18.040 --> 31:23.100 neighbor. Be a good testimony where you're at home. Be a good testimony to your neighbors. 31:23.300 --> 31:28.140 Be a good testimony just in public period. Now look, folks, this doesn't mean that there's going to be 31:28.140 --> 31:33.240 instances where, you know, the unsaved, the public are going to think that you're un-Christian 31:33.240 --> 31:37.000 because you're actually enacting biblical principles. You can't do anything about that. 31:38.020 --> 31:41.940 But you know, if you are a Christian, may none of you suffer as an evildoer though, 31:41.940 --> 31:50.660 so the Bible says, right? Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Paul's simply 31:50.660 --> 31:56.640 stating that we should live up to that expectation. You know, endeavor to meet the saintly standard 31:57.220 --> 32:02.920 on a daily basis. Again, not striving necessarily for perfection because we'll never meet that, 32:03.180 --> 32:08.800 but just, you know, strive to be sanctified of the Lord on a daily basis. Improve your 32:08.800 --> 32:14.800 speech, improve your behavior, improve your way of thinking, improve your lifestyle, 32:15.700 --> 32:21.140 and you know, bring it in line to the Bible. Go to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, if you would. 32:21.880 --> 32:29.980 1 Peter 1. Again, the apostle Paul, walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. 32:30.300 --> 32:35.060 God has called you to an occupation. He's called you to a work. He's called you to a labor. 32:35.060 --> 32:39.720 He's called you to fulfill a role. You better walk worthy of it. And if we're to get specific, 32:39.920 --> 32:45.140 you know, hey, married man, walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Meaning, 32:45.220 --> 32:49.800 love your wife as Christ loved the church. Be an example to your children, right? If you're a wife, 32:50.100 --> 32:53.600 walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Submit to your husband. 32:54.440 --> 32:59.040 Be someone who's golly. Don't be a whisperer, a backbiter. Don't be someone who usurps 32:59.040 --> 33:03.300 the authority of your husband. Don't be a feminist. Walk worthy of that vocation 33:03.300 --> 33:07.080 wherewith ye are called. If you're a young man, be a virtuous young man. 33:08.460 --> 33:13.020 Hey young men, you know, walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Don't be lazy. 33:14.800 --> 33:22.380 Don't be lazy. Don't waste your time. You know, be a masculine godly young man who's serving the 33:22.380 --> 33:25.620 Lord, who's doing that, which is right on the side of the Lord, who's an example 33:25.620 --> 33:30.620 in chastity. You're an example in your speech. You're an example in zeal. 33:30.620 --> 33:35.000 You're an example in just character. Get a job. Live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord. 33:35.240 --> 33:39.020 May you not be characterized as like these unsaved, 33:39.640 --> 33:44.820 worldly young men who just have no character whatsoever. They're not putting other things 33:44.820 --> 33:51.540 of God first. They're just lazy, effeminate, spineless people. Okay? You know, it should 33:51.540 --> 33:59.600 be that the young men in Christianity are different than everyone else. Okay? Different how? Well, 33:59.600 --> 34:04.760 you know, you should be different in the way you look for sure. I believe that. Okay? Meaning like, 34:04.940 --> 34:09.080 you know, dress like you're like you're like you're important or something. Just like you're 34:09.080 --> 34:12.700 going somewhere. First and foremost, you know, I'm not saying you have to come to church with 34:12.700 --> 34:17.820 a shirt and tie and suit wouldn't hurt. But you know, you know, don't just come to church 34:17.820 --> 34:22.620 like you just rolled out a bed or something like that. You're like, what if I did? Then get 34:22.620 --> 34:26.960 up a little earlier and then get dressed and then come to church. Okay? You know, 34:26.960 --> 34:33.880 don't come to church the way people go to the airport or the way they go out to Walmart at midnight 34:33.880 --> 34:40.260 or something. Walk worthy of the vocation or whatever you're called. Hey, think the way a 34:40.260 --> 34:43.820 Christian is supposed to think. Talk the way a Christian is supposed to talk. You know, 34:43.880 --> 34:47.860 have the character of a Christian. And look, folks, you know, obviously maybe some of us 34:47.860 --> 34:51.700 didn't grow up in a Christian home. We grew up with parents that taught us character. 34:52.200 --> 34:54.880 We didn't learn discipline, but you're a Christian now. Now you're supposed to 34:54.880 --> 35:00.320 learn discipline. Be a disciplined person. Hey, get up on time to go to church. You get 35:00.320 --> 35:04.980 up on time to go to work. Get up on time to come to church too. You know, you have the 35:04.980 --> 35:09.440 discipline to earn money. We'll get discipline to earn some eternal rewards by coming to 35:09.440 --> 35:13.640 the house of God. And you know, if you're a young man, stop falling asleep in church too. 35:14.080 --> 35:19.860 I ain't that boring. Okay? You know, I know I could, you know, I know dispensationalism 35:19.860 --> 35:25.240 is not that, not that exciting or something, but you know what? You should have the character 35:25.240 --> 35:30.780 to keep your eyes open and pay attention to the word of God. You're a young man. You don't have 35:30.780 --> 35:35.220 kids. You don't got six kids keeping you up at night with the fever. You don't got a wife. 35:35.540 --> 35:39.300 You don't got none of those responsibilities. Guess what? You should be a person of character 35:40.140 --> 35:44.900 to actually come to the house of God and be an example to everyone else. Walk worthy of that 35:44.900 --> 35:50.220 vocation. You should be the one provoking others unto love and to good works. People should be 35:50.220 --> 35:55.020 looking at you as a young man saying, see, that's the kind of fire I want to have. Not like that, 35:55.180 --> 36:01.640 see right there, that's the kind of nap I need right there, you know. You got like an 36:01.640 --> 36:09.940 exorcism in church on a Sunday morning. We need to make sure that we exemplify what 36:09.940 --> 36:13.160 it is to have Christian character. And you know, if I put on your favorite movie, 36:13.160 --> 36:19.420 I guarantee you wouldn't fall asleep. Right? You know, if I put on your favorite video game, 36:19.480 --> 36:25.440 I guarantee you wouldn't fall asleep on that. Right? You know, if I put you to play your 36:25.440 --> 36:29.820 favorite video game, your favorite movie, you'd be all, you'd be attention on deck, 36:29.960 --> 36:32.900 you'd pay attention to every single thing. You know why? Because you're a carnal, 36:32.980 --> 36:37.240 that's why. You need to walk worthy of the vocation we're with you're called. 36:37.800 --> 36:43.480 Be an example, be a person of character. Oh man, you're mean. Then go to some limp-wristed, 36:43.980 --> 36:48.940 watered-down church where they'll call to you. They'll probably have a video game night there as well 36:48.940 --> 36:55.660 where you can compete with other losers and you'll win a gift card or something for 36:55.660 --> 36:59.640 beating someone on Call of Duty or something like that. Go do that over there. Don't bring 36:59.640 --> 37:04.180 that nonsense over here. We have enough of that in the society. We need to raise up some 37:04.180 --> 37:09.480 Godly young men who take life serious. And if you're going to fall asleep, you might as well just, 37:09.900 --> 37:13.460 you know, walk your rear into the back of the building and just go fall asleep back there so 37:13.460 --> 37:22.780 no one, not everyone else is watching you. Amen? You know, I remember, you know, being in Bible 37:22.780 --> 37:27.600 college is just, I'm sorry for even mentioning that, but you know, I went to Bible college 37:28.500 --> 37:34.560 and, you know, there was times when I was exhausted and I remember students, we learned not to fall 37:34.560 --> 37:39.260 asleep in Bible college because they would just call you a hardcore. You know, I'm calling you 37:39.260 --> 37:43.140 out now, but I'm not calling any names. You know, back then they would call your name out, 37:44.000 --> 37:48.460 you know. And Brother Hernandez could have tested this because you know how he falls 37:48.460 --> 37:51.780 asleep today? You know, it's the same way he did it back then too. You know, one time 37:51.780 --> 37:56.700 he was just in the front row and he's just like, and one of the missionary teachers was 37:56.700 --> 38:01.620 just like, hey Garfield, you know, he's just like, get this guy up right now and he's just, 38:01.700 --> 38:08.600 he got on him hard. He just never fell asleep after that. You know, but I remember being in 38:08.600 --> 38:13.160 Bible college, working a full-time job, serving in the ministry, and you know, obviously we 38:13.160 --> 38:16.740 stay here till like 10, but back in those days, we wouldn't get home till like midnight because 38:16.740 --> 38:21.440 we're dropping people off or we're preaching, we're serving God like throughout the entire 38:21.440 --> 38:25.800 Sunday. So we're just exhausted, but you know what, even then we made sure, and even 38:25.800 --> 38:32.320 if I was tired for my Monday classes in the morning, I stayed awake. You'd say, well, 38:32.340 --> 38:35.500 what do I do to stay awake? Well, we didn't even, we didn't even pound Red Bulls back then. 38:35.760 --> 38:40.960 Let me just say that. Like, we got Red Bulls now. We got, we got, we got a Red Bull guy 38:40.960 --> 38:44.900 who brings Red Bulls for everyone. You know, you have the, back then they would, they would 38:44.900 --> 38:48.380 say just pull the hairs off your leg if you want to stay awake. But I know some 38:48.380 --> 38:54.660 of you don't even have that, so. Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're 38:54.660 --> 38:59.520 called. Be a young man with character. Be a young man at your job that doesn't show up 38:59.520 --> 39:05.500 late, that gets the job done. There is an example where the boss favors you because 39:05.500 --> 39:09.700 you're a hard worker. But you know what, may not just get favor at your job. May 39:09.700 --> 39:13.460 you get favor in church too. May they look at you and say, man, this guy is a 39:13.460 --> 39:18.820 person of character. This person got his stuff together. This person is zealous 39:18.820 --> 39:21.760 for soul winning. They're zealous for the things of God. They're an example 39:21.760 --> 39:25.360 to all of the believers. What is that? Walking worthy of the vocation wherewith 39:25.360 --> 39:29.560 you're called. Okay. And you know what, same goes for the ladies too. Amen. 39:30.440 --> 39:33.520 You know, be a young lady. We got too many boss babes out there. 39:34.100 --> 39:38.200 Too many ladies who just want to do their own thing and just make their own 39:38.200 --> 39:41.900 money and do this, that and the other. And they want to have their own 39:41.900 --> 39:46.200 podcast, a Christian podcast and teach everyone how to be a wife and how 39:46.200 --> 39:49.980 to be a homemaker. Shut up and get in the kitchen and go 39:49.980 --> 39:53.820 make your husband a sandwich. How about that? Forget the podcast. We don't need a 39:53.820 --> 39:57.900 podcast. Just chat GBT a meal. How about that? 39:59.180 --> 40:03.100 We don't need other women telling other women how to be a wife. It's super easy. 40:03.500 --> 40:07.700 Just just cook, clean, please your husband. Amen. 40:09.040 --> 40:13.140 It's pretty simple. You know, but we have all of these 40:13.140 --> 40:17.420 feminist podcasts out there where they want to assert as though they're 40:17.420 --> 40:22.120 actually promoting the tradwife movement and they're all about 40:22.120 --> 40:25.120 pleasing their husband. Really? Then why are you the only one that we 40:25.120 --> 40:29.360 see? Why is it that you're the most important 40:29.360 --> 40:32.200 person that everyone has seen there? It doesn't sound like you're really 40:32.200 --> 40:36.020 walking worthy of the vocation because the vocation is for you to serve 40:36.020 --> 40:37.900 your husband to be a help meet unto your husband. 40:40.260 --> 40:44.360 We don't need any more boss babes, independent women. 40:47.560 --> 40:49.260 And masquerading, these Christians who are, 40:49.840 --> 40:52.680 they're masquerading as Christians, but they're actually feminist at heart. 40:54.960 --> 40:58.900 How about this? How about you just be meek? How about you just be quiet? 40:59.780 --> 41:02.080 That's what the Bible says. To be meek and quiet, right? 41:03.020 --> 41:05.500 Oh, this is offensive. Yes, because you're not walking worthy of the 41:05.500 --> 41:07.020 vocation we're with here called. That's why. 41:08.500 --> 41:11.080 How about this? How about you just stop usurping your husband's 41:11.080 --> 41:14.380 authority? How about that? How about you stop trying to nag your 41:14.380 --> 41:17.780 husband? How about that? How about you stop trying to, 41:17.960 --> 41:19.880 you know, what else? I'm trying to think about the things here. 41:20.860 --> 41:27.700 You know, just stop being an Eve, okay? 41:28.580 --> 41:32.140 Stop being like Eve, actually walk worthy of the vocation. 41:32.420 --> 41:35.460 And again, both male and female, you know, we're not going to 41:35.460 --> 41:39.120 fulfill these roles perfectly. You know, we're supposed to love our 41:39.120 --> 41:41.800 wives as Christ loved the church. And yeah, of course we fall short in that 41:41.800 --> 41:45.520 area. And you know what? Men need to not make sure, 41:45.560 --> 41:47.880 you need to make sure that you're loving your wife. You need to make sure that 41:47.880 --> 41:49.960 you're patient with your spouse. You need to make sure that you're a good 41:49.960 --> 41:51.980 leader. You're being benevolent towards your 41:51.980 --> 41:55.100 spouse and towards your children. And not be such a pushover. 41:55.420 --> 41:59.000 And make sure that you're actually taking the lead and not allowing your 41:59.000 --> 42:02.660 wife to run you and run the house spiritually. You need to make sure you 42:02.660 --> 42:07.160 take the reign, amen. Walk worthy of the vocation 42:07.160 --> 42:10.020 wherewith ye are called. This is important. 42:10.380 --> 42:12.580 Look at 1 Peter 1.14, it says, as obedient children, 42:13.360 --> 42:16.240 not fashioning yourselves according to the form of lust 42:16.240 --> 42:20.020 in your ignorance. But as he which hath called you is holy, 42:20.520 --> 42:24.580 so be holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written, 42:24.980 --> 42:29.580 be holy for I am holy. What does the Bible say in here? 42:30.080 --> 42:33.160 It's saying that we should be set apart unto the Lord and behave as such, 42:34.100 --> 42:37.500 okay? Act like it. Act like a saint. Act like a Christian. 42:38.400 --> 42:41.960 It's not telling us to be perfect, but at least strive for sanctification. 42:43.460 --> 42:47.260 Don't use your liberty as an occasion to the flesh, 42:47.980 --> 42:51.300 okay? And look, I don't need to know what kind of music you listen to, 42:52.180 --> 42:54.260 okay? Because it might be super gay and I don't want to know, 42:56.140 --> 42:58.780 okay? But if you're not accustomed to listening to 42:58.780 --> 43:03.860 godly music, okay, you know, whatever. If that's your thing, 43:04.000 --> 43:06.900 a lot of people are giving me the look right now. Maybe I need to talk about this a little more. 43:07.660 --> 43:10.160 You know, let's just assume you're listening to Mozart or something, 43:11.020 --> 43:14.300 I don't know. I don't know what kind of music you like to listen to, 43:14.900 --> 43:18.200 but do me a favor. Don't come into the church parking lot, bumping it on like 43:18.200 --> 43:21.780 full blast so that everyone else can see what kind of music you listen to. 43:22.000 --> 43:26.160 Actually have some shame about yourself, okay? I remember back in the day we used to have 43:26.160 --> 43:31.220 a church member that would come just bumping CCM, just the gayest music you could ever even think, 43:31.360 --> 43:36.700 like I would have preferred Tupac over that. I would have preferred, you know, 43:38.360 --> 43:44.300 I would have preferred NWA over that or something, but they would come in playing CCM, 43:44.500 --> 43:49.180 just blasting it, just the most faggoty music you could ever think of. It's just like, 43:49.620 --> 43:56.080 have you no shame? Like, you know, if I was into CCM, which I'm not, never will be, 43:57.080 --> 44:04.300 okay? There's not a feminine bone in my body, okay? Not gay whatsoever, okay? 44:06.020 --> 44:10.380 I got saving a fundamental Baptist church and I was put on those hymns right off on the back, 44:10.540 --> 44:15.360 okay? I'm all about that traditional hymn life, okay? You know, I'm not all about that 44:15.360 --> 44:26.200 sensuality and all that gay stuff. But you know, if I did like CCM, let's just pretend, okay? 44:26.780 --> 44:33.120 First of all, I'd be super ashamed about it, okay? Especially if I was coming to church like this, 44:34.000 --> 44:39.000 okay? I'd be like, man, I hope no one ever finds out that I'm gay. I mean, did I like CCM? 44:39.720 --> 44:45.820 Okay? I hope no one ever finds out about this, you know? And you know what? If I did play CCM 44:45.820 --> 44:50.680 and I'm coming, if you needed to get in the spirit when you're coming to church, 44:51.040 --> 44:58.440 you know, turn it down a little bit at least. Yeah. Have you no shame? Like, here I am to what? 44:58.460 --> 45:03.240 It's the only one that I know. Here I am to worship. And then you're just like, 45:04.340 --> 45:08.080 at least turn it down a couple of decibels before you bring it in here. And you 45:08.080 --> 45:14.140 said, what do you got against CCM? It's super gay. Most of the people who actually perform these songs 45:14.140 --> 45:21.680 and any former liberal in our church can tell you this, right? Oh, you're so mean. Ask the 45:21.680 --> 45:26.020 former liberals in our church. They'll tell you the same thing. I preach against this stuff. 45:26.360 --> 45:31.140 Yeah, Cody, you know, I say this stuff because it's right for me to preach. But let me tell 45:31.140 --> 45:36.140 you right now, people who've been in non-denom churches agree with me 100%. You know, 45:36.140 --> 45:41.280 they've been to these liberal non-denom churches and they know how faggoty it is. And you know what? 45:41.320 --> 45:44.820 They could even tell you that people who perform these songs are also homos or at least 45:44.820 --> 45:49.900 fornicators and adulterers. Some of the most godless people are the ones performing these 45:49.900 --> 45:53.920 songs. Okay. All right, let's talk about this more because I'm getting looks right now. 45:54.460 --> 46:01.120 CCM is gay. You know what? It's stupid music. It doesn't uphold actual sound doctrine. 46:01.620 --> 46:07.440 All it does is get you in a sensual mood. It makes you all soft and sensitive. You know, 46:07.500 --> 46:12.020 how about traditional hymns that actually exalts doctrine? They reinforce the doctrine 46:12.020 --> 46:18.020 instead of repeating the same thing for seven times. God is good. God is good. God is good. 46:18.240 --> 46:26.940 God, we know. I like the hymns that actually uphold doctrine. I like hymns that actually give 46:26.940 --> 46:34.380 hope. Hey, until then, it's awesome. I love that song. We need that song here, man. And you know 46:34.380 --> 46:48.190 what? I don't want to listen to some chick making love to a mic, talking about Jesus. Right? That's 46:48.190 --> 46:54.510 what it is. Alex, am I right about that? That's how I say it. He used to be in one of those 46:54.510 --> 47:00.370 bands. Yeah. He said, why didn't he say anything? Because he's ashamed of it, you know? 47:00.790 --> 47:05.370 But he knows what's up. You're like, dang, he called him out. Like, he could tell you? Go talk to him 47:05.370 --> 47:10.410 after the service. He'll tell you how gay it is, how sensual it is. But let me say this. If that's 47:10.410 --> 47:14.710 what you're into, okay, you know, if what I just preached is not shame you out of CCM and you 47:14.710 --> 47:17.850 want to continue to listen to that gay music, okay, but don't bump it while you're coming to 47:17.850 --> 47:22.910 church, please. You know, if you're into, what is the most famous rapper right now? 47:24.730 --> 47:31.210 Ah, very good, very good. You know, I almost caught you guys. You know, let's just say Drake. I know 47:31.210 --> 47:37.730 about Drake because he's a Jew, okay? You know, if you're into Drake or something like that, 47:38.490 --> 47:41.910 you know, and he's just like, I just struggle with Drake. You know, you need to get off the 47:41.910 --> 47:46.430 Jew and, you know, he's got a lot of problems or whatever. If you're into... 47:50.190 --> 47:53.970 I won't think that you're listening to this if you know what I'm talking about. Kendrick Lamar. 47:54.050 --> 48:01.150 If you're into Kendrick Lamar with his little bell bottoms, okay? Okay? Okay, you know, I don't 48:01.150 --> 48:06.010 agree, but if that's what you're into, all right. But why don't... When you roll into church, 48:06.170 --> 48:09.270 walk worthy of the voc... Drive worthy of the vocation we're with you are called. 48:10.950 --> 48:16.010 And don't, you know, just bump it in super loud. Everyone's watching you. Kids are around. 48:16.010 --> 48:20.890 It's like, can you act like a Christian at least? Aren't I being fake? Well, you know, 48:20.970 --> 48:25.050 we kind of prefer you to walk... It's called walking worthy of the vocation, not being fake. 48:25.610 --> 48:33.210 It's called being ashamed actually. No, I just think I'm real. Yeah, yeah, real stupid, 48:34.090 --> 48:41.850 real worldly. That's what it is. You know, it gets to a point that we need to make sure 48:42.270 --> 48:48.390 that we are... Look, look, obviously we understand we shouldn't care what everyone thinks. I get that. 48:48.570 --> 48:55.430 I know that for sure. Okay? I don't care what people think about me. Okay? To a certain degree, 48:55.570 --> 48:59.770 obviously. But there comes a point where we need to make sure that we like recognize that we're 48:59.770 --> 49:05.570 ambassadors for Christ too. Okay? There were representatives of Jesus, representatives of our 49:05.570 --> 49:12.150 church, you know? And, you know, when you're out in public, you know, you should... I'm not saying 49:12.150 --> 49:16.710 you should just be looking like a fundamental Baptist everywhere you go. But you better not 49:16.710 --> 49:23.590 be looking like a hoe either though. And I'm talking to the dudes, now I'm just kidding. 49:25.350 --> 49:28.710 No, I'm just kidding. You better not be looking like a whore either. 49:30.270 --> 49:34.610 You know, it's good that you come dressed like a good Christian woman when you come to 49:34.610 --> 49:38.810 church. But, you know, this should be like an all-around thing when you like at all times though. 49:39.570 --> 49:42.450 Like, even when you go like, even like home and stuff. 49:46.430 --> 49:49.970 You know, you said, why? I don't know because maybe the Lord's there. 49:51.350 --> 49:56.350 Right? Because God is watching. You know, Joseph, when he went to Egypt, he's just not like, 49:56.350 --> 50:01.270 all right, time to party. I'm in Egypt. Where's Potiphar's wife, you know? 50:03.410 --> 50:08.690 He's just like, you know, my parents aren't here. He's just like, how can I do this great sin before 50:08.690 --> 50:16.490 God and sin against God? You know, go out in public, walk worthy of the vocation we're with 50:16.490 --> 50:21.290 you're called. You're like, are you saying that I should just wear a skirt like at all times? 50:21.930 --> 50:29.670 Yeah. Like, how? I can't show you because I have, you know, I don't believe in cross-dressing. 50:30.710 --> 50:35.710 But, you know, there's plenty of women who do that all the time. You know, I've had women ask me, 50:35.710 --> 50:40.510 like, well, how am I supposed to, you know, carry out this particular activity or do this 50:40.510 --> 50:44.470 particular thing and address? Well, and the philosophy is this. Well, if it requires 50:44.470 --> 50:46.350 for you to wear pants, then you probably shouldn't do that activity. 50:50.950 --> 50:57.750 If you know make, if you got to do backflips, you know, you probably should be doing backflips. 51:03.210 --> 51:10.090 Right? Amen. That's how you say it. Amen. You know, we need to make sure that we walk 51:10.090 --> 51:13.830 worthy. You say, well, I just don't think that's possible. Well, how do my daughters and my wife do 51:13.830 --> 51:24.470 it then? They do everything in a skirt. They even swim in a skirt. That's homage. No, they got this, 51:24.490 --> 51:28.330 you know, swim skirt that you get or whatever. You know, I can't really, they got something 51:28.330 --> 51:32.390 from Mrs. Anderson where, you know, it's, it's custom made so you can swim and stuff. 51:33.010 --> 51:35.930 But you think I'm gonna be like, well, swimming is different. Go ahead and put on, 51:35.930 --> 51:40.410 go down and put on a swim bathing suit or something like that. That's, that, that, you know, 51:40.850 --> 51:45.130 that's the exception to the rule. No, it's not. Walk worthy of the vocation worthy you're called. 51:45.550 --> 51:51.110 You know, be a Christian. Be a good Christian everywhere you go. And here's, here's what I'm 51:51.110 --> 51:55.230 saying, folks. And I know people get offended at this stuff, but I'm telling you, because I 51:55.230 --> 51:58.330 want you to walk by faith. I want you to walk worthy of the vocation worthy you're called. 51:58.750 --> 52:01.830 You understand something? The Christian life has to be something that you do recognize 52:01.830 --> 52:07.930 and that God is always watching. You do things out of conviction, right? And you know what, 52:08.050 --> 52:12.490 it may start off as, well, you know, I don't want to do that because I'm, then I'm just 52:12.490 --> 52:17.630 being performative. Okay, but why don't you just go ahead and perform for the Lord then? 52:17.870 --> 52:24.590 How about that? Right? You know, and I can tell you stories about like in times past, 52:24.670 --> 52:28.890 not here, but like it at our old church where, you know, my father in law preached 52:28.890 --> 52:34.030 hard against pants on women and preached about women wearing skirts and stuff. And he 52:34.030 --> 52:39.310 passed through the church of like 1300. So, you know, there's like a good percentage of that are 52:39.310 --> 52:43.790 getting offended at that sermon, right? And he's just letting them have it. So he obviously 52:43.790 --> 52:48.450 understood and people understood what the standard was at the church. And so a lot 52:48.450 --> 52:52.450 of people were abiding by that rule, but you know, they wouldn't necessarily abide by 52:52.450 --> 52:56.710 that when they're outside of the walls of the church. Right? So, you know, sometimes 52:56.710 --> 53:05.070 we're in public, right? And we run into one of the sisters in public, you know? You just run 53:05.070 --> 53:11.390 into them. And it's just like, hey, they're so-and-so. And she's like, hey, you know, 53:11.970 --> 53:15.790 just hiding behind like some sort of, you know, just something, hey, I gotta go. We'll see you 53:15.790 --> 53:20.650 later. You know, why? Because obviously she wasn't in a skirt. And it's not like we're like, 53:29.650 --> 53:35.510 you know, we're in, we're in judging and like that. And in fact, I don't think we even paid 53:35.510 --> 53:39.530 attention to afterwards. Like, why was she acting like that? Why did she jump like that? 53:39.830 --> 53:45.170 Why did she hide like, oh, it's because she's wearing pants, right? It's like she's wearing pants 53:45.170 --> 53:49.530 or whatever. And then, but, but here's the thing, like in her mind, she automatically knew. 53:50.970 --> 53:53.710 So, you know what that tells me? It tells me that she understood that I was wrong. 53:54.650 --> 54:02.170 That's what it was. Walk worthy of the vocation. Try. Okay? You know, if you are a young man who's 54:02.170 --> 54:07.810 accustomed to just being really soft, super effeminate, very emotional, act like a man. 54:09.430 --> 54:12.730 Walk worthy of the vocation, worthy of what you're called. You know, if you grew up 54:12.730 --> 54:19.570 where it's just, you're just emotional, you're just easily just offended, you just need to be 54:19.570 --> 54:25.830 coddled all the time. Stop. Just walk worthy of the vocation worthy you're called. You know, 54:25.970 --> 54:31.430 here's a novel thought. Just act like a man. And in fact, that's literally a biblical concept. 54:32.010 --> 54:37.710 The Bible says what? Quit ye like men. You know what that means? Act like a man. So, 54:37.890 --> 54:42.550 you know, I get it. Maybe you didn't grow up with proper masculine and a proper masculine 54:42.550 --> 54:48.090 environment. You never been punched in the mouth. You've never had older brothers. Maybe 54:48.090 --> 54:51.970 you didn't grow up around thugs and gangs and maybe it was hard. You know, you're just kind of, 54:52.070 --> 54:56.770 you're kind of like a Solomon, right? You're just kind of soft all the days of your life. 54:57.070 --> 55:02.310 Okay, you're a Christian now. You know, it's time to man up. It's time to man up. You know, 55:02.350 --> 55:06.130 like, yeah, but then I don't want to like just be performative. I don't want to just act. Well, 55:06.150 --> 55:11.750 the Bible literally commands you to act like a man though. Because he knows that sometimes 55:11.750 --> 55:16.330 it's hard for some dudes to act like men. Okay? And we're not just saying act like 55:16.330 --> 55:21.630 a man, like be macho. Okay? You know, it's good that you lift weights and do all that stuff. 55:21.870 --> 55:27.310 I'm talking about just be masculine in your emotions. Be masculine in the way that you think. 55:27.750 --> 55:33.610 Don't think like a woman. Don't have the emotions of a woman. You gotta man up emotionally. You 55:33.610 --> 55:39.470 gotta be emotional. You have to have emotional fortitude and not fold under pressure, right? 55:40.650 --> 55:45.070 Oh, it's so hard for me. Then you know what? Then what you need, number one, 55:45.070 --> 55:51.230 is to be filled with the spirit. You need to be around men who will exhort you to act like a man, 55:51.890 --> 55:57.670 right? And to correct you and to help you because we don't want you, God doesn't want you, 55:57.810 --> 56:02.270 to be feminine. And we think of being feminine as like someone who's just a little light on their 56:02.270 --> 56:10.950 toes or something. You know, he gets a manicure or, you know, he, you know, is very flamboyant 56:10.950 --> 56:17.950 or something like that. He puts lotion on his hands or something, you know? Oh man, I don't know if 56:17.950 --> 56:21.830 someone does that. You know, you put lotion, you know, people think of that, but really 56:21.830 --> 56:27.570 being feminine doesn't include that. But being feminine is also just being womanly in the way 56:27.570 --> 56:33.430 that you think and the way that you act in your emotions. Okay? It's like, you don't 56:33.430 --> 56:37.230 experience that time of the month, sir. That's why you act unlike you do. 56:39.950 --> 56:45.150 Right? You know, you don't, you don't have those hormones. You're not made like that, 56:45.310 --> 56:48.650 so you need a man up. Act like a man. Walk worthy of the vocation, 56:49.350 --> 56:53.910 wherewith you are called. And look, you know, I'm thankful that when I went, you know, I didn't 56:53.910 --> 56:59.770 grow up with my father. I grew up with my mom, my brother, and my sister. And obviously, 56:59.930 --> 57:03.710 I had some bad influences growing up that helped me to toughen up a little bit. 57:03.710 --> 57:09.310 But here's the thing, when I got into church, I was surrounded by a lot of just masculine men, 57:10.230 --> 57:12.510 and I'm not talking about like, they're like punching me or something like that. I'm not 57:12.510 --> 57:17.230 saying we need to punch each other, though that, you know, doesn't hurt every once in a while, 57:17.510 --> 57:21.530 you know, just to be, you know, tough or whatever. But I was around masculine men who 57:21.530 --> 57:27.350 just exhorted me to be strong in my emotions, be strong in my mind, to act like a man, 57:27.350 --> 57:33.610 to take lead, right, to not be easily offended, to not be coddled, and things of that nature. 57:33.870 --> 57:37.190 And I'm thankful for that. And you know what? We have the same thing in our church. We have 57:37.190 --> 57:44.930 enough men in our church to kind of help you and mold you to be a proper man, okay? And until 57:44.930 --> 57:49.690 then, just walk worthy of that vocation. Man up a little bit, okay? A lot of bit. 57:52.050 --> 57:55.630 What's the sermon? Well, this is just my second point. I'm not done yet, actually. 57:57.350 --> 58:01.290 But you know that second point, it's important for us to talk about that. 58:01.610 --> 58:07.170 You know, it's, go to Ephesians 4. Look at Ephesians 4. It says in Ephesians 4, verse 17, 58:07.810 --> 58:11.210 this I say therefore and testify in the Lord. Listen to what it says. 58:11.650 --> 58:18.130 The henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds. What is it saying? 58:18.450 --> 58:23.270 Don't act like an unsafe person. Don't have the philosophies of an unsafe person. 58:23.270 --> 58:28.970 Don't behave like an unsafe person. Don't walk like other Gentiles here in this context is simply 58:28.970 --> 58:33.830 referring to those who are unregenerated, okay? You should be different from everyone else. 58:34.190 --> 58:38.610 And again, I fall short, okay? I joke about this, but I'm serious. You know, 58:38.650 --> 58:43.650 sometimes I'm a little worldly. I'm just not perfect. I'm just a worldly person sometimes. 58:43.850 --> 58:47.510 You know, I didn't grow up in church. You know, I'm a little rough around the edges, 58:47.690 --> 58:50.470 and maybe that's why we have worldly people in our church. I don't know. 58:50.470 --> 58:55.730 You know, I struggle. I'm not perfect. But you know, one thing I can say is that I endeavor 58:56.510 --> 59:02.150 in sanctification, though, okay? I endeavor to be sanctified, to live a life that's pleasing unto 59:02.150 --> 59:06.710 the Lord. And you know what? Just because I fail or I fall short, I'm just like, all right, well, 59:06.990 --> 59:10.850 I'm just going to be a gangster. Just going to be a complete thug. Just going to go out 59:10.850 --> 59:14.750 into the world. No, it's just like, you know what? I need to correct my ways. I need to 59:14.750 --> 59:18.810 make sure I correct my way of thinking, my way of speech, my way of behavior, 59:18.810 --> 59:25.070 and align it to God's word, because God doesn't want me to walk as other Gentiles walk in the 59:25.070 --> 59:30.630 vanity of their mind, okay? You know, the Bible tells us wearing in Ephesians 2, 59:31.390 --> 59:34.790 you have the Quicken who were dead and trespasses in sin, wearing in time past, 59:34.930 --> 59:38.730 you walked according to the course of this world. According to the prince of power of the air, 59:38.830 --> 59:44.190 the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among also we all had our 59:44.190 --> 59:48.530 conversation in time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh 59:48.530 --> 59:52.050 and of the mind, and we're by nature the children of wrath. What does it say? That's how 59:52.050 --> 59:57.250 you used to be, change that, okay? Now, we don't preach sinless perfection in here, 59:58.170 --> 01:00:03.630 okay? It's no such thing. But let me say this, when you get saved, you should sin less though, 01:00:04.750 --> 01:00:11.370 right? It should be less than what you were doing before. It should be that you no longer 01:00:11.370 --> 01:00:16.650 drink, smoke, and run with those that do. It should be that as a Christian you surround 01:00:16.650 --> 01:00:24.550 yourself. Let me give you this novel thought with other Christians, right? Like your closest people 01:00:24.550 --> 01:00:29.190 should be other Christians, because we're intentionally seeking out to serve the Lord 01:00:29.190 --> 01:00:34.750 and do that which is pleasing in his sight, okay? Go to 1 John, if you would. 01:00:38.410 --> 01:00:48.350 1 John, look at chapter 2 of 1 John. It says in verse 9, 01:00:48.550 --> 01:00:53.390 he that saith, he is in the light and hated this brother is in darkness even until now. 01:00:53.730 --> 01:00:57.770 He that loveth this brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion 01:00:57.770 --> 01:01:03.290 of stumbling in him, the Bible says. And in chapter 1 it talks about walking in the light. 01:01:03.290 --> 01:01:09.390 You know what? As a Christian, we need to make sure, right, that part of walking in the vocation 01:01:09.390 --> 01:01:15.810 where we are called is that our love for the brethren increases, not hatred for the brethren, 01:01:16.610 --> 01:01:23.090 okay? It's a big issue when Christians hate other Christians, right? And are seeking their 01:01:23.090 --> 01:01:27.330 downfall. They want them to be destroyed or whatever. That's wrong, you know? And here's 01:01:27.330 --> 01:01:32.130 the thing, there's a lot of Christians that I don't like, right? But it doesn't mean I hate 01:01:32.130 --> 01:01:38.250 them. I just don't like them. He's like, that's kind of awkward. I told you, I'm not perfect. 01:01:39.170 --> 01:01:43.830 I'm just being transparent with you. And it's okay to not like someone as long as you just 01:01:43.830 --> 01:01:49.410 don't let that get into hatred, right? Now, I will say this is that I for sure hate people 01:01:49.410 --> 01:01:53.830 who claim to be Christians, who are fake Christians. They're masquerading as Christians, 01:01:53.930 --> 01:01:59.790 but they're actually godless reprobates and false prophets, okay? And we've had a lot 01:01:59.790 --> 01:02:05.450 of people like that even in the new FB. Even within recent years, a lot of people are starting 01:02:05.450 --> 01:02:08.030 to come out and you can start to wonder about these people if they're even saved or not. 01:02:08.650 --> 01:02:15.110 Just because they have such a deep hatred for God's people. And let me just say this, 01:02:15.250 --> 01:02:19.550 you know, if I had something against a pastor who is saved and I didn't like that pastor, 01:02:19.770 --> 01:02:23.430 you know, I wouldn't spend the rest of my ministry trying to bring that person down. 01:02:24.530 --> 01:02:28.210 Because a lot of people out there I don't like, but I don't spend my life trying to bring 01:02:28.210 --> 01:02:34.030 those people down. Why? Because I got business to take care of. I got to walk worthy of a vocation. 01:02:34.410 --> 01:02:39.730 I got to occupy myself in the ministry, but I'm not going to just spend day and night 01:02:39.730 --> 01:02:43.190 trying to bring a person down like that. That's kind of a marker of a false prophet. 01:02:44.750 --> 01:02:52.230 When you have deep hatred towards another brother in Christ, that's a red flag there. 01:02:52.630 --> 01:02:56.910 You're potentially dealing with a psychopath, a reprobate. That's a fact. You know what? 01:02:56.910 --> 01:02:59.790 I'm not even going to say any names, but if someone clips this and says the name of the person, 01:02:59.950 --> 01:03:05.870 they're just proving my point of who I'm talking about. Because they know exactly who that is. 01:03:08.510 --> 01:03:12.570 And look, we should grow in our love for people. We should love people. 01:03:13.890 --> 01:03:17.230 And you know, there's pastors out there that I don't agree with. I think they're stupid. 01:03:17.390 --> 01:03:20.890 They're retarded. I think they made some bad decisions, but I don't hate them at all. 01:03:22.090 --> 01:03:24.350 Like, I don't desire for them to die or anything like that. 01:03:25.010 --> 01:03:31.610 You know? I don't desire for them to just, you know, for just God's cursing. You know, 01:03:31.790 --> 01:03:35.950 for me, it's just like they're just complete idiots. And because they're saved, 01:03:37.010 --> 01:03:41.150 I'm kind of forced to love them a little bit, but I don't have to like them. 01:03:41.630 --> 01:03:45.870 But then there's other pastors who I don't believe that falls upon them because I don't 01:03:45.870 --> 01:03:50.950 believe they're saved. I think that, you know, to walk worthy of the vocation we're 01:03:50.950 --> 01:03:54.050 worth, we are called, we need to make sure that we grow in our love for the brethren. 01:03:54.430 --> 01:03:56.310 And you know what? Don't worry about the people on the outside of the church. 01:03:56.650 --> 01:04:01.950 You know, work on loving the brethren in the church. Grow in your love towards the brethren. 01:04:03.530 --> 01:04:08.290 May that abound in you to love the brethren. And how do you know if you love the brethren 01:04:08.290 --> 01:04:13.050 if you want to be around the brethren? That's a good way. You want to be around 01:04:13.050 --> 01:04:17.210 the people that you love, right? That's why I've never agreed with like this old 01:04:17.210 --> 01:04:23.090 life B pattern of once the service ends. People are praying that there's just like, 01:04:24.230 --> 01:04:28.090 you know, they're out. You just don't want to be around anybody. You know, 01:04:28.330 --> 01:04:30.990 and I get it. Sometimes people have to work or they got responsibilities. I'm just talking 01:04:30.990 --> 01:04:34.030 about you got no responsibility. You just don't want to be around the brethren. 01:04:35.010 --> 01:04:38.990 You know, the love of the brethren wants to see the brethren. And believe it or not, 01:04:39.130 --> 01:04:45.010 I'm sure you believe this. I want to see you. Yeah, you. I want to see brother 01:04:45.010 --> 01:04:48.990 Hike, believe it or not. I get excited about that. Yeah, I know it's crazy. 01:04:50.670 --> 01:04:56.970 That's what I'm saying. I want to see brother Adrian. You know, I want to see brother Cody, 01:04:57.850 --> 01:05:04.970 even Chris, even Chris. Yeah, I want to see you, you know, like when I come to church and I see 01:05:04.970 --> 01:05:11.190 people, I'm just like excited to see them. You know, brother Tim, I get excited to see 01:05:11.190 --> 01:05:16.030 brother Tim. I'm like, man, maybe it's because I'm a pastor and I love my people and it just, 01:05:16.210 --> 01:05:20.250 you know, I like to see people in the house of God, but I genuinely love to see the people in 01:05:20.250 --> 01:05:24.610 our church. When new people start making church a discipline, you know what? I love that. 01:05:25.730 --> 01:05:29.470 Those people who are new to our church, new to Sunday nights, you know what? It rejoices 01:05:29.470 --> 01:05:35.710 me to see them. Why? Because I love the brethren. You know, I love to see them, 01:05:35.710 --> 01:05:41.990 commune with them, talk to them, yell at them, preach against them. You know, I love to do it all. 01:05:43.990 --> 01:05:48.670 Look at chapter 2 of 1 John, but whoso keepeth this word in him barely is the love of God 01:05:48.670 --> 01:05:55.270 perfected. Hereby no weed that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself 01:05:55.270 --> 01:06:02.110 also so to walk even as he walked. What does the Bible say? It's saying that if you want to 01:06:02.110 --> 01:06:06.650 walk the straight and narrow, if you really want to walk according to the vocation we're with here 01:06:06.650 --> 01:06:12.250 called, here's a good example. Walk like Jesus, right? You're like, I need to know how this looks 01:06:12.250 --> 01:06:15.710 like on a practical level. Well, we have four Gospels that highlights the life of Christ. 01:06:16.710 --> 01:06:23.030 Be like Jesus. What would Jesus do? How would Jesus walk? It's all there. Just emulate the 01:06:23.030 --> 01:06:27.850 Lord Jesus Christ, right? And I'm not going to get into my pet peeve of people telling me I'm 01:06:27.850 --> 01:06:34.410 not like Jesus when they don't even know how Jesus is. How can you do that to that bum 01:06:35.130 --> 01:06:40.210 and that homeless person? You know, what would Jesus have done? Well, I didn't have time to make a 01:06:40.210 --> 01:06:47.370 scourge of small cords. There was no tables available. If you really want to know, that's 01:06:47.370 --> 01:06:53.370 what he would do. He would be like, you're lighting the church on fire. That's what he 01:06:53.370 --> 01:07:00.650 would have done, you know? And then Jesus of Revelation would have done what Brother Marcos' 01:07:00.850 --> 01:07:10.890 meme showed, remember? But be like Jesus. Walk like Jesus. Here's another way of saying it. Walk in 01:07:10.890 --> 01:07:15.990 the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Okay? All right, here's the last 01:07:15.990 --> 01:07:18.930 one in Ephesians 5 and I'm done here because we got the lovely little ladies they got to 01:07:18.930 --> 01:07:24.510 meet and we got nachos and whatnot. We got to show each other we love each other and you know, 01:07:24.530 --> 01:07:30.330 be happy to see each other and all that. Amen. All right, lastly is this, you know, walk the walk 01:07:30.330 --> 01:07:35.930 and what does that mean? It means walk carefully. Walk circumspectly. It says in Ephesians 5, 01:07:36.050 --> 01:07:42.290 verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time 01:07:42.290 --> 01:07:48.250 because the days are evil. I love this verse because it's basically telling us we need to behave 01:07:48.250 --> 01:07:54.930 ourselves in a very careful manner. We can't be careless about the Christian life, right? In other 01:07:54.930 --> 01:08:00.590 words, we need to make sure that we look at what steps we're taking. The steps of a good man are 01:08:00.590 --> 01:08:05.310 ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. We need to make sure that we're walking 01:08:05.310 --> 01:08:10.850 carefully. We're walking circumspectly because of the fact that we have a lion known as Satan 01:08:10.850 --> 01:08:15.540 who's walking about, seeking whom he may devour. We need to make sure that we're 01:08:15.540 --> 01:08:18.400 redeeming the time because the days are evil. He says in verse 17, 01:08:18.780 --> 01:08:25.760 wherefore be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Let me read to you one more 01:08:25.760 --> 01:08:32.580 verse, Psalm 18 verse 36 says, thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. 01:08:33.220 --> 01:08:37.160 What is this referring to? It's referring to the fact that it's important for us as Christians 01:08:38.440 --> 01:08:44.300 to live with intentionality, okay? Meaning don't let just a week happen to you. 01:08:45.540 --> 01:08:50.100 We should intentionally know we're walking. Don't just wake up and be like, what am I going to do 01:08:50.100 --> 01:08:57.940 today? I think I'll read my Bible. Nah. Play video games for a little bit and then I'll read my Bible. 01:08:59.140 --> 01:09:05.900 I'm going to pray later. You're just kind of like flippantly going through life. You know 01:09:05.900 --> 01:09:11.900 children are like this, right? Especially during summer break, okay? We need to make sure that 01:09:11.900 --> 01:09:16.540 we are intentional about our days, right? Make sure that you're walking circumspectedly. Why? 01:09:16.780 --> 01:09:21.340 Why do we need to walk carefully? Because you've got an enemy. You've got a spiritual enemy who's 01:09:21.340 --> 01:09:27.740 constantly looking to take you down, to destroy you, to discourage you, to cause you, to deviate 01:09:27.740 --> 01:09:31.240 from the paths of God. So we need to make sure that we're not walking where there's 01:09:31.240 --> 01:09:36.480 minds around, right? Landmines that can just blow your leg off spiritually speaking. 01:09:36.480 --> 01:09:43.440 We need to make sure that we are walking in such a manner that we're pondering the path of 01:09:43.440 --> 01:09:49.280 our feet, as the Bible says, right? Letting our ways be established in the Lord. What's the sermon 01:09:49.280 --> 01:09:56.480 this evening? Walk the walk, man. It's just a sermon encouraging you to just improve your conduct, 01:09:56.960 --> 01:10:01.540 bring your conduct and alignment with God. And I'm with you on this. I'm not perfect. 01:10:01.540 --> 01:10:06.760 I work on this too. I've been working on it since I got saved. No one has arrived and I don't expect 01:10:06.760 --> 01:10:12.020 you to arrive. But you know what? Let's put some effort into it though, okay? Let's try to be 01:10:12.540 --> 01:10:18.680 a sanctified person, okay? And, you know, walk worthy, just at least focus on that second point. 01:10:19.620 --> 01:10:25.980 Walk worthy of the vocation we're with here called be a person who's at least trying 01:10:27.340 --> 01:10:32.880 to live in accordance to God's word and meet the standard that God has for us. And you know what? 01:10:33.280 --> 01:10:37.540 If you do that, listen to me, if you do that 10 years from now, you'll see that you've made a lot 01:10:37.540 --> 01:10:42.980 of progress. You look back 10 years prior and be like, man, you know, I'm not where I should be, 01:10:43.020 --> 01:10:46.960 but I'm definitely not where I used to be. And that should be the goal, man. Let's pray. 01:10:47.040 --> 01:10:52.200 Father, we thank you so much for your word and thank you for receptive hearts. I know 01:10:52.200 --> 01:10:56.660 there's a lot of truths within this sermon that could rub people the wrong way. And I pray that 01:10:56.660 --> 01:11:02.680 it falls upon good ground, ready to receive the word of God, to be exhorted unto righteousness. 01:11:03.100 --> 01:11:08.120 And I pray that you'd help us, Lord, as your people, to conform ourselves to the structure 01:11:08.120 --> 01:11:16.100 of the Bible, to talk to talk, but also walk the walk, to conduct ourselves and have a conversation 01:11:16.780 --> 01:11:22.920 that is in accordance to the principles of the Bible. And Lord, may you help us through this 01:11:22.920 --> 01:11:28.040 process of sanctification as we better ourselves and the Lord. And I pray that you continue to be 01:11:28.040 --> 01:11:32.060 gracious with us and merciful. Bless the meetings, Lord, the lovely little ladies who are 01:11:32.060 --> 01:11:36.580 meeting afterwards, Lord, as they also endeavor, Lord, to just walk worthy of the vocation. 01:11:36.580 --> 01:11:40.040 Bless the fellowship. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.