1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,760 Amen. All right, so we're going to go 2 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:06,400 ahead and get into our time of Bible study tonight. 3 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,400 And as Austin said, we're normally we would be dismissing 4 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:12,000 our kids right now, but for tonight, the kids are going to 5 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,440 stay in here with us. So we're going to be a little 6 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:16,920 bit more brief. We're not going to be getting 7 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:19,440 super deep and we're not going to be going quite as long 8 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:21,800 tonight. But with this being the last 9 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:24,160 Sunday of the year, we're actually going to just spend 10 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,440 some time digging into our churches vision and talking 11 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:29,640 about what some of our goals are for this coming year. 12 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,240 Talking about like personal goals for us each individually. 13 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:35,520 So if you've been with us any amount of time, you've hopefully 14 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:40,520 heard us say that Portland Gospel Church exists to help you 15 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:42,600 believe, live and share the gospel, right? 16 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:46,080 I say I hope you've heard heard that before because Tucker just 17 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,120 said it like 5 minutes ago. And we try to be really 18 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:52,600 intentional that we repeat this as our vision statement. 19 00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:56,560 And that's actually also the reason that we have the word 20 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:58,520 gospel in the name of our church. 21 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:01,880 We wanted to be so forefront and at the center of everything that 22 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:04,400 we do that people know that that's the intention. 23 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:07,840 That's what we exist for. But with that, it's actually 24 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,480 really important that we define what the word gospel means, 25 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:15,360 because the actual word just means good news, right? 26 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:17,840 And so you can be saying good news about a lot of things. 27 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,240 I don't know if you guys, when we've been out on evangelism, a 28 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:23,560 lot of times I like to ask people with kind of my first 29 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:25,360 question is, have you ever heard the gospel of the Bible? 30 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:28,680 And a lot of times I get people most of the time that will say, 31 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:31,080 Oh yeah, I know what that is. And then they'll go on to say 32 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:35,640 something like, you know, the Matthew is the gospel. 33 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:39,320 And that's that's true. I also had someone ask me once, 34 00:01:39,320 --> 00:01:43,000 they said, oh, are you preaching the gospel of the white 35 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,520 Christian nationalism or the gospel of Jesus? 36 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:47,280 And I said, what? That's a fair question. 37 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:49,560 And so I told him we were preaching the gospel of Jesus. 38 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:52,280 And then she went on to define the gospel and gave me a whole 39 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:55,920 nother definition of the gospel that was totally different. 40 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:57,840 And so a lot of people mean different things. 41 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:00,800 And so the reason I say it's important to define this is 42 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:02,840 because we want to get a biblical definition of what the 43 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,840 word gospel actually says. And we get that primarily. 44 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:10,000 Or one of the verses we get this from is First Corinthians 15 one 45 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,680 through 4. So Paul tells us, he says, 46 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,280 moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I 47 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:20,400 preached unto you, and then going on to verse 3, how that 48 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:23,440 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and 49 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:26,040 that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day 50 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,400 according to the Scriptures. So this is what the Bible 51 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:31,960 defines is the gospel of our salvation. 52 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:36,680 Romans 10/9 says, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord 53 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:39,600 Jesus, and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him 54 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:41,240 from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 55 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:44,120 So we see this is the definition of the gospel and this is what 56 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:47,280 it does in our life is then when we put our faith in this, this 57 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:51,480 is how we're saved. So this believe, live, share 58 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,200 vision that we have. Although we came up with those 59 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:57,360 words in that order, It's not like some gimmick that we've 60 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:00,560 come up with. This is actually the mandate 61 00:03:00,640 --> 00:03:04,120 that God gives to every church. We see this famously in Matthew 62 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:06,720 2819 and 20, what we call the Great Commission. 63 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:12,280 It says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing 64 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:14,040 them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy 65 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:17,120 Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 66 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:21,200 commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even into the end of 67 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:23,960 unto the end of the world. And so maybe that's a little 68 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:27,280 confusing because those terms are a little bit out of order in 69 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:29,280 that passage, because it actually starts with going. 70 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:32,080 That would be the sharing of the gospel and then it comes back to 71 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,920 the teaching people to live the gospel and then teaching them to 72 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,800 then go. But you know, we have to 73 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:39,880 remember that Jesus was actually talking to the group of the 74 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:41,600 disciples that he had already trained and equipped. 75 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,080 So he's kind of giving them that last Commission to say, OK, now 76 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:46,560 you go and do the things I've taught you teach people to 77 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:48,160 believe and live the gospel for themselves. 78 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,840 So we see this and like I said, every church should exist to 79 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,160 help people come to faith in Christ, to grow in that faith 80 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:57,280 and maturity and then to share that faith with others. 81 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:02,080 So most of you guys know that I spent a lot of my adult life as 82 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:06,040 a firefighter. And so I found some pictures for 83 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:10,000 you guys I can share. This is the first department I 84 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,760 ever worked at. This is like, I guess 15 years 85 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:14,960 ago. This is babyface Dave. 86 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:16,360 I'm like the second one on the left there. 87 00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:20,000 So I worked here, I worked in Saint Mary's when we lived in 88 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:21,800 South Georgia. I worked on Jekyll Island, I 89 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:23,160 worked in a few different places. 90 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:26,600 And then when we decided to move to Cartersville, I started 91 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:27,960 working for the city of Cartersville. 92 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:31,080 And I'm kind of on the right side of the screen there, like 93 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,600 4th or 5th from the right. And then this is one of my 94 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:38,120 favorite pictures, and I think this is the last picture I have 95 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:40,760 of the kids when they came and visited the fire station. 96 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:42,320 It's a little cute picture for y'all. 97 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:47,560 So I bring this up to say that there's a lot of things, having 98 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:49,320 spent a lot of my life doing that, there's a lot of the 99 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:51,480 things that I learned in ministry that whether it's on 100 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:54,680 purpose or not, I relate back to my experience as a firefighter 101 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:56,640 and things that I learned in that career. 102 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,680 And one of the things that I learned during my time as a 103 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,360 firefighter is that training never really ends. 104 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,320 You never really get to the end of it, no matter how long you 105 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:07,960 spend. Honestly, the day that you think 106 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:10,280 you can't learn anything else is probably the day you need to 107 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:16,600 retire. And throughout, throughout the 108 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,160 fire service, there's a lot of different specialties. 109 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:22,000 Like within those specialties, there's a lot of very job 110 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,360 specific training. And the whole intention of that 111 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:28,880 training is to bring you to a level of competency that you can 112 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:32,320 effectively and safely accomplish whatever your mission 113 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,120 is. It's designed to make you very 114 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:36,440 proficient at a specific type of rescue. 115 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:39,440 And so that training is accomplished through a 116 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:42,840 combination of growing in experience and in knowledge. 117 00:05:42,840 --> 00:05:44,480 It's both of those things work together. 118 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:48,640 A lot of the specialty training is broken up into three levels. 119 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:52,040 And so as an example, when we're talking about hazardous 120 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:55,040 materials training, this is one that I trained in a little bit, 121 00:05:55,040 --> 00:06:00,200 so it's a little fresher to me. There's 3 levels of training for 122 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:02,280 you to be like the most proficient at that job or at 123 00:06:02,280 --> 00:06:04,840 that rescue that you have to go through 3 levels of training and 124 00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:06,760 with those there's different responsibilities. 125 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:10,720 So pretty much everything starts at what they call awareness, and 126 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:12,240 that's basically what it sounds like. 127 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:17,320 Your job is to identify and be aware of specific hazards. 128 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,000 You're not necessarily on the hazmat team. 129 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:24,880 It's not your job to mitigate or fix the situation, but primarily 130 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:28,320 it's for you to recognize that there is a situation and for you 131 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:31,000 to warn by standards and just have a general understanding of 132 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:33,000 what's going on to keep yourself safe. 133 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:36,400 So typically that's things like identifying the placards, 134 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:38,840 knowing that if something has a placard, by definition it 135 00:06:38,840 --> 00:06:42,080 contains a certain amount of that chemical, the numbers on 136 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:43,680 it, the symbols on it, the color of it. 137 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,800 All of those things work together to let you know what's 138 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:48,400 going to happen. It lets you know, do you need, 139 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:49,920 is this a liquid? Is it a gas? 140 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:52,120 Is it flammable? Is it toxic, corrosive? 141 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:53,960 Do I need to stay uphill or upwind? 142 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:57,120 How far away do I need to be? These are just basic awareness 143 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:00,520 things that you need to know. The next level up of that is 144 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:03,360 what they call operations. And at that operations level, 145 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:06,000 you're a lot more a part of the response team. 146 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:09,520 So the expectation is that you're going to have a hands on 147 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:13,200 role, primarily defensive, but your job is to help keep things 148 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:15,040 contained. You'll probably help with 149 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:19,840 evacuations, team and bystander decontamination, victim rescue, 150 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:22,160 things like that under the supervision of the technicians. 151 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:26,200 And then the third and final level of training is what's 152 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:28,760 called a technician. And at that technician level, 153 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:33,520 you've basically you're expected to be an expert in hazardous 154 00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:36,040 material response. You're expected to know how to 155 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:38,360 assess the scope of the incident, select and use 156 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:40,680 advanced monitoring, detection and testing equipment. 157 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:44,160 You're expected to select and use the correct personal 158 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:45,960 protective equipment to keep your team safe. 159 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:48,040 You have to decide what that is, What is this chemical? 160 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:50,160 What is it going to do? What do we need to wear to be 161 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:51,800 safe? And you have to decide that for 162 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:53,520 the team. You have to decide the 163 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:55,640 procedures that you're going to use to contain the incident. 164 00:07:56,520 --> 00:07:58,760 And most technicians would be expected to have enough 165 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,960 experience to lead a team of other technicians into what they 166 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:04,520 call the hot zone where like the actual chemical spill has 167 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:08,280 occurred. So that's a very long winded 168 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:11,000 explanation. And my point in saying all that 169 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:13,960 is that we kind of understand that it's not realistic to go 170 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:18,320 from being brand new one day to being a team leader in one of 171 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:21,560 these situations the next day. It requires a lot of very 172 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:24,840 intentional training, both classroom study and on the job 173 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:28,160 experience to to reach that level of proficiency. 174 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,520 So in our spiritual lives, it's equally unrealistic to expect 175 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:35,520 someone to get saved one day and then like be ready to pastor 176 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:37,240 church the next day. That doesn't just happen by 177 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:41,559 accident and the Bible actually calls this growth process going 178 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:46,240 from being unskilled or being a babe to being of full age and 179 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:51,000 having discernment. Hebrews 513 through 14 says for 180 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,640 everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of 181 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:59,840 righteousness, for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to 182 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:03,760 them that are a full age. Even those who by reason of use 183 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:08,360 have exercised, have their senses exercised to discern both 184 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:11,880 good and evil. So we see there's a progression 185 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:16,400 from being unskilled or being a babe to being a full age. 186 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:20,440 And it actually tells, it gives us a hint in there that you do 187 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:22,720 that by reason abuse. There's there's a, we used to 188 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:23,800 have a saying in the fire service. 189 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:25,920 There's a difference between seniority and experience. 190 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:27,840 And it's the same with our Christian walk. 191 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:30,560 Just because you've been saved for 20 years doesn't actually 192 00:09:30,560 --> 00:09:34,960 mean that you're very grown. You can being, having that much 193 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,080 seniority just means that you've done the bare minimum to not get 194 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:39,000 fired for 20 years, but it doesn't mean that you are 195 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,000 actually an experienced person that can lead others. 196 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:44,440 So again, our our spiritual walk is the same way. 197 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:48,720 So what my goal is for today is that I just want to very simply 198 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:51,560 lay out the steps that we have as a church that are intended to 199 00:09:51,560 --> 00:09:54,520 help you grow in your faith. And my personal goal is just to 200 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:58,080 challenge you to identify where you think you're at in that 201 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:00,760 spiritual growth process. Like of these levels that we're 202 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:03,320 going to talk about, where do you think you are? 203 00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:06,600 And then to just set a personal goal for 2026, like what is the 204 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:08,520 next thing that you need to do? Because you can't look at the 205 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:09,920 end and say, well, that's where I want to be. 206 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:12,360 You have to say, well, realistically, where am I and 207 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:13,800 what is the next thing I need to do? 208 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:17,240 So we're going to go straight to point #1 in your notes, and 209 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:21,600 that's believe the gospel. And again, this hopefully I gave 210 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:23,520 you some blanks, but hopefully you guys can probably guess what 211 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:25,720 these are, right? This is, we've said this a few 212 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:28,120 times, right? The first thing we want to help 213 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:29,840 everyone do is believe the gospel. 214 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:34,680 And just like the first level of training or growth, it's simply 215 00:10:34,680 --> 00:10:37,440 believing the gospel. Like the awareness level of 216 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:39,720 training that we defined in the, in the firefighter world. 217 00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:43,520 We just want you to have a personal and basic understanding 218 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:46,440 of what the gospel is. Again, like I said a minute ago, 219 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:48,600 just to be able to define it, to know what it means, to know what 220 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,760 it means to you, to be able to just at least in the very basic 221 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,600 sense, understand if someone is telling you something different 222 00:10:54,680 --> 00:10:56,240 than the gospel that you've received. 223 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:01,760 So within this believe category, we have 4 basic steps to help 224 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:02,960 you be established in your faith. 225 00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:06,200 The first one is attending church. 226 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,440 So again, we want you to start by just simply attending and 227 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:16,640 hearing God's Word. Romans 10/14 says how then shall 228 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:19,440 they call on whom and whom they have not believed? 229 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:23,080 And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? 230 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:25,720 And how shall they hear without a preacher? 231 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:30,920 Now, a lot of times when we use this verse, we associate it 232 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:33,480 specifically with evangelism, which is definitely true. 233 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:35,760 It's talking about taking the gospel to people who have not 234 00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:38,000 heard it. But the basis of what it's 235 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:40,120 saying, though, is that people can't believe something that 236 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:42,920 they've never heard. And so we just simply want 237 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:44,480 everyone to come in to hear the gospel. 238 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:46,800 And again, if we can meet them on the street, if we just happen 239 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:49,360 to run into those one out of 1000 person that is ready to 240 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,800 hear the gospel, that's great. But it's much more effective if 241 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:56,120 people can come and consistently hear the gospel spread over not 242 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,720 just a 3 minute conversation, but multiple weeks in a row to 243 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:00,560 really understand what the gospel is. 244 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:04,120 And honestly, it's OK if you don't think you agree. 245 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:06,400 It's OK if you're still figuring out your faith. 246 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:10,480 We just want anyone who is open to be able to come and to be 247 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:13,320 able to hear what the Bible says for itself. 248 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:17,760 So in your notes, there's a little section that say next 249 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:20,800 steps and these are just like some actual things, activities 250 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:23,240 that we have that you can join us for. 251 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:26,680 So we have Bible studies and as I'm looking around, I think 252 00:12:26,680 --> 00:12:28,160 almost everybody here goes to a Bible study. 253 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:30,440 So you guys know what those are. We have three different Bible 254 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:31,440 studies. We have one in the Pearl 255 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:35,400 District, we have one down at the college campus at PSU, and 256 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:37,640 then the ladies host one in their home as well. 257 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:40,120 So we have multiple Bible studies throughout the week. 258 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:42,480 We have church services every Sunday, we have church 259 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:45,760 fellowships, and we also have all of these sermons are on 260 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:47,680 YouTube. So if you're not able to be 261 00:12:47,680 --> 00:12:49,520 here, at least you can go back and you can listen to them. 262 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:53,000 But as much as technology is great, that's kind of, we'd hope 263 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:54,800 that's the last resort. Like we want you to be here to 264 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:59,240 be in fellowship with us. So the next thing we want for 265 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:01,600 you, if you're still in this belief category, you're figuring 266 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:04,000 some things out. We want you to be able to read 267 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,080 the Bible. We just want everyone to just 268 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:13,200 read the Bible for themselves. Luke 44 says, and Jesus answered 269 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:16,920 him saying it is written that no man shall live by bread alone, 270 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:22,800 but by every word of God. So again saying most of you guys 271 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:26,520 are in our Bible studies, you guys know that typically what we 272 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:29,240 do is we we take a passage and we like to break it down into 273 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:32,920 what we call columns. And typically that first column 274 00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:36,040 is we call it the God column. And So what we want to do is we 275 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,400 want to take that passage and say, what is this saying about 276 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,120 God? What does it say about God? 277 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,280 What does it say about man? What are commands that we see 278 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:43,960 and how do we apply those things personally? 279 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:48,320 And almost always, just about every time we're studying a 280 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:51,960 passage, something that goes in that God column is that we see 281 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,280 that God speaks, right? He doesn't want to be hidden or 282 00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:57,640 mysterious. God wants to be known. 283 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:01,640 He wants to communicate with us. And we know that in our time, He 284 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:05,560 does this through His Word. And so, you know, it doesn't 285 00:14:05,560 --> 00:14:07,040 really do us any good if we're not reading it. 286 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:13,000 So our next steps for reading the Bible is to follow our 287 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,720 reading plan. So as we are wrapping up the New 288 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:19,360 Testament this year, you should be finishing Revelations, which 289 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:21,080 that's a tricky book. That's all right. 290 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:23,080 Just push through it. And we're going to start in a 291 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:24,480 new book in the beginning of the year. 292 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:26,280 I think we're going to do something a little bit 293 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:27,400 different. I think we're going to be in the 294 00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:29,920 Old Testament for a little while, but we like to read the 295 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:32,040 Bible together as a church. And that way if you have 296 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:34,360 questions, maybe you don't fully understand what it's talking 297 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:35,880 about, maybe it's a little confusing, That's all right. 298 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:37,400 Just come to church because that's what we're going to be 299 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:39,480 talking about. Or even if we don't cover your 300 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:41,440 question, there's going to be somebody that you can talk to. 301 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:44,240 If you're being discipled, you can talk to your discipler about 302 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:45,480 it. If not, you can talk to Thomas. 303 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:49,040 You can talk to one of us other leaders in the church, and we 304 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:51,280 can help you understand what it's talking about. 305 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:58,160 At the next thing in this believe category is we want for 306 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:01,240 you to be saved. We want to make it really clear 307 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:04,400 that our desire is for every person to know Jesus Christ 308 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:10,280 because that's what he wants. John 317 says for God send not 309 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:13,760 his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the 310 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,280 world through him might be saved. 311 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,680 Second, Peter 39 says the Lord is not slack concerning his 312 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:24,960 promise as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering 313 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,280 to us word not willing that any should perish, but that all 314 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:31,720 should come to repentance. So we're, we're not trying to 315 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:34,560 trick anybody. We want to be really clear that 316 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,200 the first and primary reason that we want people to come to 317 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:40,280 church and to read their Bible is because we want them to come 318 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,160 to personal faith in Jesus. This is really the the 319 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:47,200 culmination of this whole first level of growth is having a 320 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:49,840 personal understanding of what the gospel is. 321 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:53,120 Before a Christian can go on to do anything else, this is really 322 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:55,800 where they have to start. They have to have a personal 323 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:57,560 conviction of what the gospel is. 324 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:02,960 So whether you're new to the faith, whether you had you were 325 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,640 in church as a kid and as an adult, you're returning to 326 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:07,680 figure what out what this means for yourself. 327 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:10,080 This is just the beginning of everything that we do. 328 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:11,280 We want everyone to come to faith. 329 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:15,040 We want all people to attend church to learn and to grow so 330 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:16,680 they can believe the gospel for themselves. 331 00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:22,400 John 33 says Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I 332 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,400 say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the 333 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:31,040 Kingdom of God. I letter D in the last of these 334 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:34,640 believe steps is it we want you to be baptized. 335 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:38,360 So a baptism is not a part of your salvation. 336 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,120 You don't have to be baptized to be saved. 337 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:44,600 It is the first step of obedience that we're called to 338 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,920 after being born again. We see this in the Great 339 00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:50,000 Commission that we talked about just a few minutes ago. 340 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:53,200 And then we also see this is an example in the early Church of 341 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:55,320 people being baptized after they came to faith. 342 00:16:55,800 --> 00:17:00,880 Matthew 2819 and 20 again says to go ye therefore and teach all 343 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:04,760 nation nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and 344 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:06,839 Son of the Holy Ghost. So we would say that that 345 00:17:06,839 --> 00:17:09,119 teaching all nations is sharing the gospel and those that 346 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:12,119 believe are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son of the 347 00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:15,480 Holy Ghost. Acts 812 gives gives us an 348 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:18,119 example of that in the early church it says but when they 349 00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:21,800 believed Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of 350 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:24,800 God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both 351 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:27,720 men and women. So we see that after they 352 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:29,600 believed, then they were baptized. 353 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:36,000 So that kind of concludes our first few steps in this believe 354 00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:40,320 category of growth. So the next thing is living the 355 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:42,960 gospel. You said there's the belief, now 356 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:47,680 we're on to living the gospel. So this kind of second level of 357 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:51,400 training or growth is learning to live this gospel out in your 358 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:55,200 daily life. So in our firefighting training 359 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:58,040 analogy, this would be like that operations level of training. 360 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:02,600 So after a person has been saved, they believe the gospel 361 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:05,200 and accepted Christ as their savior, we want to help them 362 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:08,120 become a faithful disciple of Jesus in an active participant 363 00:18:08,120 --> 00:18:10,360 in ministry. So again, like in our 364 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:12,960 firefighting scenario, you're not a bystander. 365 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:14,440 You're not just cording off of me. 366 00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:16,480 Like, yeah, watch out, there's something down there. 367 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:20,800 You're expected to be involved. So at the operations level, by 368 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:23,240 the way, these guys in the brown suits, that's like a job that 369 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,160 someone in operations would do. The guy in the green suit just 370 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:27,800 came out of the what they would call the hot zone. 371 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:30,840 He's getting decontaminated so he can take that off and refill 372 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,240 his air container because you get a bubble of air and that's 373 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:36,280 it. So these guys though, their job 374 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:38,160 under the supervision of technicians is they're going to 375 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:39,840 set up decontamination. They're going to be a, but 376 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:41,280 they're an active part of this team. 377 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:45,480 So that for us in the church, the first step that we have in 378 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:51,720 that process is being discipled. So we want you to learn to walk 379 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:56,000 with God from someone else. And the way we do that in our 380 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,040 church is we have a discipleship ministry that the whole 381 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:01,960 intention is that it pairs you up one-on-one with another 382 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:03,360 person to study the Bible together. 383 00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:10,280 Ephesians 414 says that we henceforth be no more children 384 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:12,720 tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of 385 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:16,880 doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby 386 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,840 they lie and wait to deceive. It's telling us that we should 387 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:22,280 grow right. There's a reason that you 388 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:25,640 shouldn't be like a child your whole life because then you're 389 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,480 just tossed to and fro with whatever people tell you. 390 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:30,520 It just, it moves you back and forth because you just don't 391 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:33,680 know what to believe, right? So Ephesians telling us there's 392 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:38,160 a reason you need to grow and a verse that tells us how to grow 393 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,480 is second Peter 1/5 through 7. And if you're in discipleship, 394 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:43,720 you should have heard this verse by now, right? 395 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:46,480 It's kind of core to what we do in discipleship. 396 00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:50,880 It says, and beside this giving all diligence, add to your faith 397 00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:56,520 virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge, temperance, 398 00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:00,400 and to temperance, patience and to patience, godliness, and to 399 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:02,600 godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, 400 00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:05,520 charity. So again, hopefully this is a 401 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,160 familiar passage to you, but it's giving us, we call this the 402 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:11,000 process of spiritual growth. You don't go from the beginning 403 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,720 to the end. It gives us a clear progression 404 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:17,040 of adding things to your faith. One thing builds upon another. 405 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:19,840 We see that we're called to add these things and. 406 00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:23,320 So in discipleship, kind of the primary goal that we have in 407 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:27,000 our, in this personal discipleship ministry is to 408 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:28,680 establish you in those first two things. 409 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:31,960 We want you to be established in virtue and in knowledge. 410 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:35,560 So simply stated, we just want you to learn the the basic 411 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:39,560 doctrines of God's Word, and then we want you to learn how to 412 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:41,040 live those truths out in your life. 413 00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:47,200 So after discipleship letter B is become a member. 414 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:52,520 So we talked about attending church at the beginning, but 415 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,280 becoming a member is more than just attending. 416 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,560 It's really committing to living and serving together as a body. 417 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,840 Every believer is designed to live in community together with 418 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:07,360 other Christians. And the Bible often references 419 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,400 the church as a body, as a living entity, where we are 420 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:15,600 members one of another. Romans 12/5 says so. 421 00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:20,880 We, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one 422 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:24,200 of another. It says it this way in Ephesians 423 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:26,760 416. From whom the whole body, fitly 424 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:30,320 joined together, and compacted by that which every joint 425 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:34,920 supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure 426 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,000 of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of 427 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,280 itself and love. So it's not only that we're 428 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,440 members of the same body, but it's telling us that every 429 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,160 member has a specific role to play to make that church 430 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,600 stronger and to be able to reach the World with the gospel. 431 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:56,120 The next thing in our progression is to steward well. 432 00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:59,640 We want you to learn to use your time, your talent, and your 433 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:04,200 treasure for the Lord. So the in these categories, 434 00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:05,960 we're going to break those down a little bit further. 435 00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:10,320 And the first is time. Time is participating and 436 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:12,000 serving within the body as a whole. 437 00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:19,280 Ephesians 515 through 17 says see then that you walk 438 00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:24,440 circumspectly, not as fools, but is wise redeeming the time 439 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:29,600 because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but 440 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:31,560 understanding what the will of the Lord is. 441 00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:35,360 So within these categories of you know, we're going to break 442 00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:40,080 down time, talent and treasure. Time is maybe the least unique 443 00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:43,520 of the things that we have, but it's actually one of the most 444 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:47,600 valuable resources that we have. Because I say it's not unique in 445 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:49,800 the sense that all of us have 24 hours in a day. 446 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:51,880 So it's not unique that some people have more time than 447 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,920 others per SE. I mean, granted, if you have 448 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:57,520 some responsibility, if you have kids, if you don't, if you have 449 00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:59,600 work and school and all these things, those are all pulling 450 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,280 your time, but we all actually get the same amount of time, 451 00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:03,640 right? So it's not actually unique that 452 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:06,560 some people are just gifted with more, more physical time in the 453 00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:09,720 day. But I say it's valuable because 454 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,280 money can come and go. But no matter how much money you 455 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:15,720 have, you can never go back to yesterday and use that day for 456 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:17,760 something else. Like when it's gone, it's gone 457 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,360 for everybody. So it's something that the, you 458 00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:24,120 know, the Bible again in Ephesians says to redeem that 459 00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:26,200 time. And especially as we live in 460 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:28,800 days that we know the days are evil and we know the time is 461 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,520 getting short and there's there's not going to be a chance 462 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:34,280 to go back and live your life differently later when it's 463 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:39,320 over, it's done. The next thing that the Bible 464 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:42,360 tells us that we need to invest in the mission is our talent. 465 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:44,800 So these are your specific skills, your gifts, your 466 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:48,000 abilities and your experiences. And I'm going to break this down 467 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:53,080 into even 2 further things within our talents. 1 is we see 468 00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:58,280 skills. Ephesians 210 says, for we are 469 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:01,920 his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, 470 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,800 which God had before ordained, that we should walk in them. 471 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:09,400 So some of these physical skills can be things like, you know, 472 00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:14,320 learning to play an instrument. That's something that you can do 473 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,760 and enjoy yourself, but it's also a skill that you can use to 474 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:18,520 serve the Lord like like we did today. 475 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:21,800 I'm really glad that people Jay and Nathan and Talia, I'm glad 476 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:26,000 that you guys can can lead us in worship because that's not a 477 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,040 skill that I have. If it was up to me, we would 478 00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,440 like play Spotify and sing along with her or something because I 479 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:34,640 can't play music, I Can't Sing. It would be really dull without 480 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:37,240 people who have a skill set that they're willing to use for the 481 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:39,040 Lord, They're willing to put themselves out there to play 482 00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:40,760 music. This is something that that 483 00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:43,920 leads us in worship. So those are skills and and 484 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:45,920 there's others. That's a really easy example 485 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,440 because we see it every week. But things like, you know, if 486 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:53,120 you have video, audio, physical labour, bookkeeping, if you know 487 00:24:53,120 --> 00:24:55,760 how to do marketing, build websites, like that's all been 488 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:58,360 things that have been super valuable that we've dabbled 489 00:24:58,360 --> 00:24:59,760 with. But you know, there's been 490 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:01,400 people that have that have helped us along the way with 491 00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:03,200 those things. Those are really valuable skill 492 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:08,520 sets. The other thing in those talents 493 00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:11,040 are gifts. And what we mean by gifts are 494 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:14,560 spiritual gifts that God gives Christians specifically to serve 495 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:16,120 in the church and to minister to others. 496 00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:20,560 First Corinthians 12/7 says, but the manifestation of the Spirit 497 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:22,880 is given to every man to profit with all. 498 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,680 So we would say that every Christian has at least one 499 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:30,160 spiritual gift that is intended to benefit others. 500 00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,840 Romans 12/4 through eight. I know this is like it's a 501 00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:36,760 little bit small. So if you guys can read that it 502 00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:40,960 says for as we have many members and one body and all members 503 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:45,640 have not the same office. So we being many are one body in 504 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,280 Christ and everyone members one of another. 505 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,240 This goes back to what we were talking about it earlier. 506 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:54,960 We're all in this together. And verse 6 says having then 507 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,680 gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, 508 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,600 whether prophecy, let us prophecy according to the 509 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:04,240 proportion of faith or ministry. Let us wait on our ministering, 510 00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:07,680 Or he that teaches on teaching, or he that exhorteth on 511 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:12,000 exhortation, or he that giveth, let him do so with simplicity, 512 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:15,920 he that ruleth with diligence, and he that show with mercy, 513 00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:20,400 with cheerfulness. So if you've been saved, we want 514 00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,000 to help you develop your gifts to use for the Lord. 515 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:25,960 This is something he's giving you again, it's not for you to 516 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,120 glory yourself in and it's not necessarily something that you 517 00:26:29,120 --> 00:26:31,680 use for yourself. It's to profit with all it's to 518 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:35,560 profit the body of of Christ and to serve a specific purpose that 519 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:41,000 he's put you in the body for the last category under this 520 00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:45,760 stewardship point is our treasure. 521 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:50,160 Now this this topic gets really tricky, right? 522 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,440 It gets kind of sticky because we don't, we don't want to make 523 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,600 people feel uncomfortable talking about their money. 524 00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,560 And I think that's probably because deep down we know that 525 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,920 money is probably what most people value more than anything 526 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:02,800 else. Like that might be a deal 527 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:04,320 breaker. If we say, hey, you should be 528 00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:07,040 investing your money in God's mission, they, they might just 529 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:08,560 walk away. That might be too much, right? 530 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:14,120 But the, the reality is that God doesn't talk about money because 531 00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:18,240 he needs your money, right? Matthew 621 says For where your 532 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:20,800 treasure is, there will your heart be also. 533 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,200 God doesn't need your money, He just wants you to love him more 534 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:28,560 than your money. He wants you to be so invested 535 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:31,880 in the things that he cares about that you will happily give 536 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:36,920 up the things that you care about to serve him with it. 2nd 537 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:40,320 Corinthians 97 says every man according as he purposes 538 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:44,320 purposes in his heart. So let him give, not grudgingly 539 00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:46,880 or of necessity, for God loveth A cheerful giver. 540 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,720 So we want you to use the the skills you have, the gifts that 541 00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:55,720 God has given you and the possessions that he's entrusted 542 00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:57,280 to you. We want you to learn to use 543 00:27:57,280 --> 00:27:59,720 those things to steward them for God's mission. 544 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:06,720 And the last thing that we have in this living category is study 545 00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,480 the Bible. So earlier we talked about 546 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,600 reading the Bible like it's a beginning step, right? 547 00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:13,640 That's that's a beginning step in someone's faith. 548 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,560 But what we're talking about here is learning to truly study 549 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:20,680 God's Word. It goes a whole lot deeper than 550 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:24,520 just reading it as John, as Jesus says in John 831, He says 551 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,360 if you continue in my word, then are you just my disciples? 552 00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:31,000 Indeed, that's also important to know. 553 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:33,480 When he says continue in my word, this isn't to earn your 554 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:35,000 salvation. He's not saying if you continue 555 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:37,320 in my word, you'll be saved. He's saying if you continue in 556 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:45,560 my word, those are my disciples. Second Timothy 215 says to study 557 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:49,760 to show thyself approved unto God a Workman that need is not 558 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:52,200 be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. 559 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:56,040 This is one of so Lori and I let Awana's back at Oakland Heights 560 00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:57,240 and Lauren served in there with us. 561 00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:02,280 So this is like the the main theme verse for Awana's is study 562 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,080 to show thyself approved. And again, this is not talking 563 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:07,720 about approved as in you need to earn your salvation. 564 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:11,560 It's saying approved as in you are doing the the diligence you 565 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,880 are diligent, you are studying to understand what God wants 566 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:15,320 from you. You're studying his word. 567 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:18,560 We have to study to have a firm grasp on doctrine. 568 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:22,680 It tells us right there in that verse to rightly divide the word 569 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,400 of truth. So by implication that tells us 570 00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:28,360 that there is a wrong way to divide God's word. 571 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:30,880 There's a wrong way to apply it to your life and understand it. 572 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,520 And in fact, like this whole chunk of verses in Second 573 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:36,600 Timothy is warning US against bad doctrine. 574 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,000 And verse 17, Paul is name dropping some guys. 575 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,920 He's letting everybody know that their doctrine is wrong, and he 576 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:47,920 says that concerning the truth, they have heard a good English 577 00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:49,280 word there, that they have erred. 578 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:51,880 Specifically, it tells us what they were doing. 579 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:55,000 It says that they were reading future prophecy and teaching it 580 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:56,880 as something that had already passed. 581 00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:59,760 That would be an incorrect division of Scripture. 582 00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:01,600 And Paul's calling them out to the church. 583 00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:03,200 He's saying watch out for those guys. 584 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,520 They're they're wrong. So for us, it's really important 585 00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:09,840 to learn how to properly study the Bible so that we have a firm 586 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:12,720 grasp on doctrine before we can teach that to anybody else. 587 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,560 So this brings it, that concludes our living category. 588 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,240 And then the last of our believe live share is sharing the 589 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,480 gospel. So within our, again, our fire 590 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:30,200 department analogy, this would be like the technician level of 591 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,960 training. So it's not just about learning 592 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,080 to be a part of the team, but this level of growth is about 593 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,080 learning to perform the work of the ministry on your own and 594 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:43,560 being able to lead others in it. So if you want to be on the the 595 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,600 Michelin man SWAT team, you got to put in the work, you got to 596 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:48,880 study. You were expected to have a lot 597 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,480 of understanding, a lot of knowledge, a lot of on the year, 598 00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:55,000 on the job experience, a lot of years of training to where 599 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,880 you're fully equipped to be safe for yourself and also to lead 600 00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:03,240 others. So this starts our expectations 601 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:07,200 will start with letter A in your notes, which is winning souls. 602 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:13,000 So kind of in a a full circle moment, the share and believe 603 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,760 live share is leading others back to the beginning to believe 604 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:21,320 the gospel for themselves. We want you to be a soul winner 605 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:26,640 and participate in outreach. Proverbs 11/30 says the fruit of 606 00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:29,600 the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is 607 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:31,800 wise. We want you to be wise. 608 00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:37,800 John 15-8 says, herein is my father glorified that ye bear 609 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,880 much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. 610 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,800 And again, bearing fruit is not how you prove your salvation. 611 00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:47,680 It's how you prove that you're truly a disciple. 612 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,080 If you're truly a disciple of Jesus, then you're going to make 613 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:56,200 time to share the gospel. And again, we if you've been 614 00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:58,440 around for a minute, we know we invite everybody to come with us 615 00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:01,240 on evangelism. The different, the difference 616 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:04,000 here is that we're at first, we just want you to come. 617 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,560 We want you to participate. We can hand out Flyers, but at 618 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,320 the point of being a soul winner, the expectation is you 619 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:12,520 can go out there by yourself. We can send you to a corner with 620 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:14,080 a team. We can send you with another 621 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,400 group of people and whatever questions may come up. 622 00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:18,040 It's not that you know everything, but you are 623 00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:20,840 confident enough and understanding of the gospel and 624 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:23,680 how to lead someone else to come to faith that we can just trust 625 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,360 you to to do that on your own or lead a whole nother team of 626 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:28,880 people to do that. You're kind of the the leader in 627 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,680 that group. So again, there's a place for 628 00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:33,640 everyone. We want everyone to come, come 629 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:35,440 to our reach days, come to our evangelism. 630 00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,880 But if you're a soul winner, then you know how to do this on 631 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:40,360 your own. You don't need to be LED into 632 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:45,560 it. Next in that progression is we 633 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:49,440 want you to make disciples. It's time for you to invest your 634 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:53,240 growth into someone else. So everyone that has been 635 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:56,840 discipled now has an investment to make in another person. 636 00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,240 And that's going to be a combination of the things that 637 00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:02,560 you were taught along with the things that you have learned as 638 00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:04,440 you have grown and matured in your own faith. 639 00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:06,400 You're going to you're going to bring those things together and 640 00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:08,440 you're going to reproduce the maturity that's in you and 641 00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:12,360 someone else. Second Timothy 22, this is one 642 00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:14,800 of our key verses for our discipleship ministry. 643 00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,280 It says in the things that thou has heard of me among many 644 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:24,240 witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be 645 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:28,000 able to teach others also. So there's there's a biblical 646 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:31,320 command to not just hoard up the things that we learned for 647 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:35,720 ourselves. We're instructed to commit these 648 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:39,680 things to faithful people who can then teach others. 649 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,240 So if you were kind of in that process of being discipled, you 650 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:46,760 need to know that one of the qualifications for that is for 651 00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:49,880 you to be faithful. You can't be invested in if 652 00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,480 you're not even faithful to attend and to read your Bible on 653 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:53,920 your own. That's not a faithful person. 654 00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,720 So we expect people to be faithful so that we can invest 655 00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:58,760 in them, so that they can invest in others. 656 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,280 Letter C in your notes is teaching the Bible. 657 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:08,120 So we want you to be a soul winner. 658 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:09,639 We want you to have a grasp on the gospel. 659 00:34:09,639 --> 00:34:11,360 We want you to be able to make disciples. 660 00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:13,719 We want you to be able to reproduce maturity in others. 661 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,560 And we also want you to be able to teach the Bible at some 662 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:19,719 point. Every believer should be willing 663 00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,800 to teach God's word and the best in people, not just one-on-one. 664 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:27,000 But in a broader sense, we see that the church may only have 665 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,199 one pastor. Sometimes as churches grow, they 666 00:34:29,199 --> 00:34:31,280 have assistant pastors and that's good. 667 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:38,320 We see that in in the Bible. But in Acts 13, one, we see a 668 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,400 multitude of teachers. It says now there were in the 669 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,520 church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as 670 00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:49,040 Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of 671 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:52,600 Cyrene and Manaean, which had been brought up with hair, the 672 00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:55,040 tetrarch and Saul. So what we noticed there is that 673 00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,680 there is a plurality of teachers in this church in Antioch. 674 00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:02,160 So like for today, I'm not a pastor, but while Thomas is 675 00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:05,320 gone, I get the opportunity. This is a place for me to grow 676 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:10,000 to be able to to teach tonight. So we would hope that a church 677 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:11,840 has more than one teacher. Otherwise every time someone 678 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:13,360 gets sick or they're out of town, we're just going to have 679 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,200 to cancel church. But we see this it's not just 680 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:18,160 for practicality though. We see this is a biblical 681 00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:22,520 example that God wants the church to reproduce teachers of 682 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:26,280 of his word. And the last point in your notes 683 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:30,520 is reaching the world. So we want you to be prepared to 684 00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:35,280 be called to ministry. Acts 13, two through three says 685 00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:38,840 as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 686 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,960 separate me, Barnabas and Saul for the work, where unto I have 687 00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:44,480 called them. And when they had fasted and 688 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:46,960 prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. 689 00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:52,200 So it's very possible that God may call you to go into lead 690 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:54,360 ministry in some other part of the country or some other part 691 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,520 of the world. It's not every Christian is not 692 00:35:57,520 --> 00:36:00,680 called to go. But if we're doing our job as a 693 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:04,400 church and we are preparing people to be fully mature, fully 694 00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:08,280 equipped, fully willing ministry leaders, it's very likely that 695 00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:11,280 he's going to call some of us at some point to be separated for a 696 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:13,480 new work. We saw that in that passage. 697 00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,560 It's important to note that it wasn't just the church's idea. 698 00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:18,720 It wasn't just to accomplish their vision statement. 699 00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:22,600 It says the Holy Ghost said separate me, Barnabas and Saul 700 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:24,720 for the work whereunto I have called them. 701 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:29,480 So we see that there's both a combination of a calling from 702 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:34,760 God, but there is a sending from the church And we're, we know 703 00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,960 that we cannot send or lay hands on people who are not equipped. 704 00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:43,560 First Timothy 522 says lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be 705 00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:46,680 partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. 706 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,200 And we know through context this laying hands. 707 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:51,760 It's not talking about fighting with somebody. 708 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:53,040 It's not saying put your hands on them. 709 00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:56,120 It's saying when it says lay hands, it's talking about 710 00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,400 ordaining men to ministry. It's saying to lay your hands on 711 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:01,520 them. We saw that again in Acts 13 712 00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:03,600 that says that they lay their hands on them and they send them 713 00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:07,440 away. There is a ordination process 714 00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,920 that we see as a church that we see examples of in Acts where 715 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,120 they laid their hands on men who had been trained, who had been 716 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:17,320 equipped and they sent them to do other, other ministry. 717 00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:22,240 But, and Paul, Paul is telling Timothy to not do that. 718 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:24,520 Suddenly you have to make sure that people are equipped and 719 00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:26,360 prepared to the ministry that you're sending them to do. 720 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,360 So in conclusion, like I said at the beginning of our sermon 721 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,880 time, I hope is that tonight's a night of self evaluation. 722 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,440 So at the bottom of the second page of your study guide, 723 00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:39,920 there's a section for you to fill out. 724 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:43,040 And this is not for you to turn into anyone. 725 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:44,880 It's it's not for you to turn into me or Thomas. 726 00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:47,280 My intention is that this is just for you. 727 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,440 And so since it's just for you, what I want you to do is to 728 00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:53,240 circle where you think you're at tonight in this growth process. 729 00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,200 If you think you're in this belief stage, that's totally 730 00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:58,680 fine. We're not trying to shame 731 00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,080 anyone. We don't want anyone to think 732 00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:02,960 that we think less of them because of where they are in 733 00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:06,080 their growth because this is where everyone has to start. 734 00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:08,560 But if you're not 100% sure that you would go to heaven if you 735 00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:11,440 died tonight, then you're still in that belief category. 736 00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:13,040 You still got to figure out your faith. 737 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:18,080 You need to decide if you believe that, that the gospel is 738 00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:19,480 true. Like Tucker said, everyone has 739 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,960 to come to a place of personal conviction to say what I'm 740 00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,240 hearing, what I have. Again, how can they believe 741 00:38:25,240 --> 00:38:27,440 something they've not heard? What I've heard, what I've read 742 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:29,000 in the Bible. I either believe that this is 743 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:33,680 true or I don't. So if you, if you have been 744 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,120 saved, then maybe you're in the live category. 745 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,760 If you're sure that you're saved, then your next step is to 746 00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:42,160 grow in your faith. It's to be grounded in doctrine 747 00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:44,320 and to serve in ministry as a part of the body. 748 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,600 Maybe you're at the share category and maybe you think 749 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:50,880 that God may be calling you to ministry. 750 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:54,200 And if so, that's great. We, we want to help equip you 751 00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:57,720 for whatever God call, whatever call God has on your life. 752 00:38:57,720 --> 00:38:59,400 And that's going to be different for everybody. 753 00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:01,960 We know his will starts with God wants everyone to be saved. 754 00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,600 But after that there's there's a lot of pass and a lot of things 755 00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:06,280 that God has called people to do. 756 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:08,520 We want you to figure out what that is. 757 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:09,960 And then we want to help equip you for it. 758 00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:15,520 After you've identified what stage you think you're in, you 759 00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:17,160 can just circle that. Whether you're in the the 760 00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:19,600 believe live or share, you can circle where you think you are 761 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:21,360 in there. And after you've identified 762 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:25,960 that, there's a spot that says, my next step is So what I want 763 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:27,800 for you to do. And again, this is just for you 764 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:30,840 is just to write down what you think your next step is for 765 00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:34,120 2026. So if you're, if you're saved, 766 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,000 but you've never been baptized, well, then I can tell you 767 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:41,000 baptism is your next step. Maybe you're for sure that 768 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:42,480 you're saved, you've been baptized. 769 00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,440 Well, then the next thing is for you to grow, you need to get 770 00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:46,840 plugged in. You need to be a faithful 771 00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:48,000 member. You need to come and you need 772 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,120 to, to study God's word, You need to be disciple. 773 00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:56,200 So again, this is this is not something to turn in, but my 774 00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,320 hope is you can put this in your Bible and throughout the year 775 00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:00,520 you can be remembered. Put a stake in the ground and 776 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:03,600 say, what is it that I said? As much as I hate New Year's 777 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:06,440 resolutions, this is I think a worthy thing to do is to say, 778 00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:08,560 what is your resolution for your faith this coming year? 779 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:10,560 Where do you want to be? How do you want to be different 780 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:14,840 in 2026 than you were in 2025? If we know God's called us all 781 00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:16,760 to grow and to change, what is the thing that he's showing you 782 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:18,200 you need to do? Do you again, do you need to be 783 00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:20,040 discipled? You can talk to me or you can 784 00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:22,360 wait until next week and you can talk to just write it down and 785 00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:23,680 talk to Thomas and say you know that. 786 00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,520 I know I'm saved. I'm not doubting my salvation, 787 00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:29,440 but now I don't want to be tossed to and fro. 788 00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:31,800 I want to understand. I want to understand what the 789 00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:34,280 Bible teaches. That's your next step. 790 00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:38,760 So in conclusion, I want to pray for us. 791 00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:41,720 I'm going to give you just a minute to maybe write down in 792 00:40:41,720 --> 00:40:44,640 your notes there you can circle where you're at, put down what 793 00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:48,320 your next step of growth is, but I'm going to pray for us. 794 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:51,440 And then if Jay and Nathan, if you guys are ready, you can give 795 00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:53,920 us another minute or so and you guys can come up and conclude 796 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:55,800 this with the last song. And then Lauren's going to give 797 00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:58,120 us some announcements. So let me pray first to close. 798 00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:01,400 God, I thank you for this evening. 799 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,160 I thank you for the opportunity you've given me to, to share 800 00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:06,400 your word tonight. The things that I learned by 801 00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:09,640 studying and the time it takes to study through your word, the 802 00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:11,960 things that it, it grows in me. I'm thankful for that 803 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:14,960 opportunity. I, I pray for Thomas and for his 804 00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:18,440 family as they're traveling, as they're doing what you've called 805 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,320 them to do and they're able to be mission focused. 806 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:22,960 We pray that you'll bless them, keep them safe as they're 807 00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,480 traveling. But God, I pray for us that 808 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,880 you'll identify for each one of us what it is that you want. 809 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:32,200 Not, not what I say, not the steps that I'm telling people 810 00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:34,480 they need to take, but they can see in your word that these are 811 00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:35,720 the steps that you want them to take. 812 00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:38,600 And I pray that you'll just give us all the clarity individually 813 00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:41,360 to know what it is that you're calling us to grow in over this 814 00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:43,320 next year. And that not only will we know 815 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:45,640 what it is, but then we'll have the commitment to follow through 816 00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:48,080 with that, That we'll put into action the things that you teach 817 00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:51,000 us and that we will have a desire and a willingness to grow 818 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,400 in our faith. Now, I thank you for everyone 819 00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:54,800 that's here tonight. I thank you for the opportunity 820 00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:56,120 we've had to be together and fellowship. 821 00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:58,080 And I pray that you'll take us home safely. 822 00:41:58,680 --> 00:41:59,800 Each to our own homes. Amen.