You know, we started talking last week about taking heed, you
know, and it all happened, you know, back around March, I think
it was when we were just reading the word and a lot of things
going on. And, and that scripture just
popped out, you know, out of Let me read that main text that we
read last week out of Mark 4 and 23 and 24.
It says if any man has ears to hear, let him hear.
And he said unto them, take heed what you hear.
Take heed what you hear. And I really didn't camp in on
the hearing side of it. And Pastor mentioned something
about, you know, the scripture that talks about being dull of
hearing. There's lots to say about
hearing, but most of us in our circles understand Romans where
he says what faith comes by hearing and hearing from the
word of God and how important our ears are.
Our ears are in our life to be able to hear what the Word is
saying so that faith can arise within our life.
And he tells us, listen, we need to even take heed.
We need to be beware of what we're hearing.
So there's a lot of things in different directions we could
talk about here where he talks about taking heed.
What you hear, you know, it's not just hearing the word.
You know, we hear things constantly all day long.
We hear bad reports right from the doctor.
Maybe we hear bad reports on the news, maybe right.
We hear gossip. We hear all kinds of, you know,
all kinds of things that are happening in the world, good,
bad, ugly, disgusting, all kinds of things.
And he's saying, listen, you better be a person that takes
heed to what you hear, not just about hearing God's word and the
good things, but you need to take heed on the other things
that you're hearing. Because we know the Scripture
says life and death are in the what power of the tongue?
Because what you hear is delivered through speech or
through the word right from hearing the word of God or from
a word. There is life and death in
words, words. And the thing about it is, is
that we need to think about these things and what we're
listening to, right? We need to think about it.
We need to beware about what, what are the things that we're
listening to? He tells us.
We need to take heed. We need to discern some things.
We need to have some understanding of some things,
right? So there is a good side of
hearing, but then there is a terrible side of hearing if
we're hearing the wrong things, because the wrong things that we
hear can affect our heart because we made the connection
that the ears or what you're hearing is connected to your
heart. Because as the word is sown, any
word, any word, not just the word, the parable of the sower,
any word, as the word is sown it what is sown into a man's heart.
And that's where then it can begin to take root if you don't
take heed, if you don't take heed.
And so we talked about being a person that will take heed is a
person that is a person of discernment, full of
discernment. They're awake, they're paying
attention to what they're hearing, and then they're not.
They're going to take captive every word that they're hearing
and they're not going to listen to some things that they're
hearing or people may be trying to say because they don't want
that to affect their life, their heart.
And actually, we know the Scripture.
I don't even, none of this is even in my notes.
We know the Scripture, see, But when you live the word, it's in
you. It's richly dwelling within you.
So then you have the scripture that tells you what to guard
your heart with all diligence. You know how you guard your
heart. One way to guard your heart is
to put some stoppers in your ears.
What are those things called? Earplugs.
Put some ear plugs in your ears so that you don't hear some of
the things that the enemy's trying to say come on through
someone else. Or you know, whatever it may be,
that is not going to be profitable for your life.
It's not going to be profitable. It's actually going to cause you
harm, right? So He lets us know we need to
not be a heedless person. We need to take heed of some
things that we're hearing. Well, as I was meditating on
this and going through scriptures, I realized that
there was 28 places where He actually tells us to take heed.
And aren't you thankful that we have a heavenly Father that
wants to warn us? Because another word for take
heed or beware is a warning. So not only does our heavenly
Father want to show us everything that belongs to us
and how much we are loved and how much you know we have been
given all of these wonderful promises, He also in His word
will warn us. And that's a good thing.
Warnings are a good thing, right?
He'll warn us. He'll let us know, hey, there's
some things as a believer that you're going to need to beware
of. You're going to need to take
heed of some things. And we talked about obviously,
that we're to take heed of what we're hearing, right?
And then he talked about the fact that we were to take heed
of ourselves. We need to be concerned about
ourselves. We don't need to be a believer
that's going around being concerned about what everybody
else is doing and how they may be growing or not growing or
what they may be doing in there. That's none of our concern.
Our concern is to take care of what he could take heed to
ourselves. Yes, we care for people.
Yes, we want to be there for people.
Yes, we want to help people grow in all of those things.
But we don't want to allow other people's problems to become our
problems, right? This is what I'm saying.
We don't want their issues to become our issues, right?
No, we want to take heed to ourselves.
We want to be concerned about where our spiritual walk is and
where our life is spiritually and what God is doing in and
through our lives so that we can be the best benefit for others
that we come in contact with, right?
But he says that we're to take heed unto ourselves and then
take heed unto doctrine, right? So we need to be people that
are, you know, making sure that we are hearing the right
doctrine or the truth, right? The truth of God's word.
And then he goes on to say again that we are to take heed in how
we're building our life. What are we building our life
on? What is the foundation of our
life being built on? Is our foundation being built on
the philosophies of this world? We better take heed.
We better take heed that we're not allowing traditions of man
to be built upon, right, nowhere to be building our life upon the
what unadulterated word of God, the truth of God's word, right?
And let him do it. And then we talked about where
he says that we need to take heed ourselves to be people that
will be those that will always offer forgiveness to people.
Because if you choose not to forgive, how many times 70 * 7?
He's letting us know you need to take heed because who are you to
withhold forgiveness when you've been forgiven much, right?
So we need to take heed to make sure that we're always staying
in a position of a believer that you are easily able to forgive
people and let it go and move on, right?
And that should be your heart. And so we talked about that.
Well, today I want to talk out of Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews
chapter 2, verses one through 4. I want to start with it.
I was going to start with Hebrews 3, but I want to start
with Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2, Chapters one through
4 or not chapters one through 4, verse one through 4.
It says this. Therefore we ought to give a
more earnest heed. Say a more earnest heed.
OK, so in all the other scriptures that we read about,
he just said we need to just take heed.
But now in Hebrews 2, he's saying now we need to even take
more heed, a more earnest heed. We need to take it more serious
right now. Look what he says, that he tells
us that we ought to give a more earnest heed to the things which
you have what heard here, now he's letting us know.
Listen, we need to take heed to what we hear.
But now in Hebrews, he's reminding us you need to take
even more earnest heed in what you've heard and what you've
heard, lest any at any time we should let them slip.
That means you can sit in church for 30 something years and if
you are not giving heed to the Word of God and what you've
heard, it can slip. We are never in a place that we
can just coast. We're never in a place that we
can just say, well, I've heard enough of that.
No, he's letting us know. Listen, you need to take an even
more earnest heed to the things that you have heard so that
these things don't slip, that these things don't slip.
Say, Don't slip, don't slip, don't let them slip, lest at any
time we would let them slip. For if the Word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, how shall you escape if
we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord? This is important because you
have to remind yourself when we are up here as people, human
beings, pastors in the fivefold ministry, and we are speaking
forth the Word of God, it is not just our words, it is the spoken
Word of God from Him and what He is saying.
And so many people say, oh, well, that's just Pastor Earl or
oh, that's just Pastor Mike saying, no, it's not.
It is the word of God. It's the word of God and he's
letting us know it was spoken to you, what happened, You received
it and made Jesus the Lord of your life because the word was
spoken to you and revelation came on, the light came on that
you needed salvation. And he said, and it was
confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them
witness, both with signs, wonders, with miracles, and the
gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will.
So he's letting us know there was something spoken to you for
you to be able to get into a great salvation.
But he's letting us know the things that you've heard.
You need to take earnest heed to them so that they don't slip.
They don't slip, OK. And it's so easy for things to
slip. Haven't you heard the state?
Oh, it just slipped my SO A heedless person is one that
gives no thought to what is being spoken.
I mean, I've been in situations and you tell people something
that's going to help them be able to, you know, have a
problem solved within their life, whatever the situation.
Maybe it wasn't spiritual, maybe it was spiritual, but or maybe
you gave them advice about something else and then you give
it to them and they don't take heed to it.
They just let it go in one ear and out the other.
And then they come back to you and ask you another question
because they're dealing with the same situation.
And you're like, well, let me remind you, we just had this
conversation over a year ago and I gave you the answer to your
problem. Did you not give heed to it
right? Did you not give thought to it?
Did you not do it? You see what I'm saying?
You just let it slip. You let it slip.
I mean, you've heard it. You heard me say it.
You heard me give you the answer to be able to fix your problem.
But here you are back again. You're not heeding.
You're not yielding to the words
that are being spoken and given thought to Him and meditating on
Him and put Him in action in your life.
You see what I'm saying? Now let me read that out of the
Amplified Hebrews chapter 2 and verse one for this reason.
That is because of God's final revelation in His Son Jesus and
because of Jesus's superiority to angels.
We must pay closer attention than ever to the things that we
have heard so that we do not in any way drift away from the
truth. Truth is vital in the hour that
we are living, vital in the hour that we are living.
And we must take earnest heed to the truth.
I mean, pay more attention to it than ever.
The things that you've been taught, the things that you have
heard so that you don't let them slip, because there is a lying
spirit out there that is trying to get lots of people to
apostasize in these last days from the truth, from the faith
of the doctrine. That's why he told her.
You need to take heed yourself and the doctrine.
So if what people are saying doesn't line up to scripture,
you better take heed and not listen with an ear.
Do not be an ear for someone to funnel lies through because it
will affect your life, it will affect your life, it will infect
your life. So don't just give your ear to
anything and anyone. Amen.
We have to be smarter than this, and we would be if we actually
took heed to the Scripture that we've been reading for years and
if we're not allowing it to slip.
The things that we've heard, you see that what the things that
we've heard through doctrine, through Scripture, Amen.
So that you do not drift away from truth.
Now go to Hebrews chapter 3, Hebrews chapter 3 and verses 12
through 15. Here we see He's letting us know
this is what happens when you are a person that will not give
earnest heed to what you've heard.
You will slip and then slipping is going to develop into what
we're getting ready to see right here in Hebrews chapter 3.
This is the process. Hebrews chapter 3, verses 12
through 15. Take heed, brethren.
Who is He talking to? Believers.
This is very important that you realize this.
Take heed, brethren. He's talking to the believers.
He's talking to, brethren, he's talking to the church in
Hebrews, lest there be any of you with an evil heart of
unbelief. And when you look at this word,
what does it say in departing from the living God?
When you choose to be a person that will not give earnest heed
to what you've heard, earnest heed to yourself, earnest heed
to truth when you allow yourself to slip from the truth that you
know which the Bible says. I don't even have this in but
see the Word lives in me. The Bible says that he who knows
what to do, that means you've heard in Scripture what to do
and you didn't give heed to it, so it became what to you sin?
So a person who will not take earnest heed to what they've
heard to themselves through doctrine, through teaching,
through the truth of God's Word, if we allow it to slip, then
it's going to move us into a posture of unbelief.
So I don't care if you're sitting in church and you keep
hearing, if you're not doing what you've heard, you're
slipping. You're slipping.
And where are you slipping into unbelief because you don't
believe the word that you've actually heard.
You're slipping into unbelief. All right.
So then what does he say? And that you can begin to depart
from the living God, but exhort one another daily while we still
have today, while we can still call today, today we are to
exhort you, we are to encourage you, we are to admonish you.
And all of you that are mature believers are should be doing
that to everyone else you're coming in contact with.
You ought to be right in a position that you are exhorting
one another every day as long as we still have the day least any
of you what become hardened. So when you get into a posture
of slipping and not doing what you've heard, you move into
unbelief. But as a believer, it's more
dangerous because you don't just move into unbelief.
You start hardening. You start hardening, You start
hardening yourself through what? The deceitfulness of sin, of
sin, because you know what to do and you're choosing to allow
yourself to not do what you've heard.
And you've moved over into unbelief.
You move over into a place of sin and you begin to allow
yourself to become hardened through being deceived that you
think because you're here, you're still hearing.
But you're, we know what James says, Be ye, what doers of the
word that you hear. Be ye not hearers only, but be
ye doers of what you heard. So this is very important.
Being hearers of the word is not good enough because you have to
do it. And if you don't do it, you'll
slip from even the things that you heard.
Then you'll walk into a place of sin and deception and unbelief
and begin to start hard. That hardening process will
begin to start happening. For we are made partakers of
Christ. So he's reminding you, listen,
you've been made a partaker of Christ.
If we hold what the beginning of our confidence steadfast until
the end. What was the beginning when we
got born again, when we were in a place of faith when we heard
the word and we became obedient and we became a partaker of
Christ because he was, you know, talking about this great
salvation that we've been given in chapter 2.
And so he's moved on over. He says, listen, you've been
partakers of Christ. And if we hold to the beginning
of our confidence, what steadfast until the end.
While it is said today, if you will hear His voice hearted, not
your hearts as in provocation, you see that here is voice, here
is voice. Another thing you can say is
hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
Hear what the Spirit is saying through the word of God.
Obey it, do it, don't let it slip.
Be a person that's going to take heed to what's being taught, to
what's being said, and I'm going to apply it to my life and I'm
not going to let it slip. I'm going to actually stay a
person that's constantly in a position of faith and doing
God's word so that I don't fall into unbelief.
And we know this whole chapter in chapter 3 is talking about
given the example of the children of Israel when they
were in the wilderness. And let's read that real quick
just as a reminder because He let us know that they were a
type and shadow of what we could look at in the New Testament as
an example for our lives. It doesn't matter that they were
not born again and have the Spirit of God living in them.
He still used them as an example for a believer to take heed of.
Look what He says, and I'm going to read it out of the amplified.
I'm going to read chapter 3, verses 7 to 19.
It says. Therefore, just as the Holy
Spirit says today, if you'll hear His voice, remember we're
talking about taking heed to what you hear.
Do not harden your hearts as your Father's did in the
rebellion of Israel at Meribah on the day of testing in the
wilderness where your father's tried me by testing my
forbearance and tolerance and saw my works for 40 years and
found and I stood their test. Therefore I was angered with
this generation and said that they always go astray where in
their heart and their art. That's why he's saying listen.
That's why he's given this example.
You've got to, you've got to not let your heart become hardened
because of unbelief. And they did not know my ways
nor become listen to this progressively better and more
intimately acquainted. So they could have known him
better and been more acquainted with him in the wilderness.
And they chose to stay in rebellion and not hear His voice
and harden their hearts towards him, trying to speak to them
while they were there. And then what did he say?
He said in verse 11. So I swore an oath in my wrath.
They shall not enter My rest, the promised land.
Take care, brothers and sisters, that there not be any of you, a
wicked and unbelieving heart. You can have a heart that has
been recreated in Christ, but because of not doing the word,
slipping from what you've heard, continuing to walk into a place
of unbelief and sin and harden your heart.
And this is what it's saying, an unbelieving heart which refuses
to trust and rely on the Lord, a heart that turns away from the
living God. You can be a believer and fall
away from the living God. And that is the progression of
how it works. You see that and then he goes on
to say, but continually. This is why I say encourage one
another every day as long as it is called today and that there
is an opportunity so that none of you will be hardened into
settled rebellion. Rebellion is not just saying I
don't want God. Rebellion is is not doing what
you know God has said to do. See, we just think rebellion is
all this heinous stuff that people do.
Again, no. Rebellion is when a believer
sits here and knows what to do and refuses to do it.
It's sin. It's rebellion.
You can still have rebellion in the house.
Because there's people that will choose not to forgive when we
know God said you have to forgive.
That's rebellion. It's rebellion.
You have to call it what it is. It's not just some person
running around, you know, doing drugs and doing all.
No rebellion in the house is when you know what to do and you
choose not to do it. You're disobeying God.
You're rebelling against what He has said, and when you
constantly do that, you become deceived and you become
hardened, an unbelieving heart which refuses to trust.
You're refusing to trust that God's Word can actually pull you
out of whatever it is He's telling you to do.
You see, you refuse to trust Him.
You refuse to rely on Him, and so verse 13 says, but
continually encourage 1A day at one another.
Then it goes on in there and it says so that none of you will be
hardened into settled rebellion by the deceitfulness of sin.
It's cleverness, right? For we believers have become
partakers of Christ sharing and all that the Messiah has for us.
If only we hold firm our newborn cons confidence.
What is our newborn confidence? The day we got born again and we
were a babe in Christ, That's that newborn confidence.
That's your great day of salvation.
And so he's reminding us, listen, you better hold on with
confidence and faith, just as you did on the day that you
trusted him and believed him that He could save you and
deliver you from hell. Rich originally LED us to him
until the end. While it is said today, while
there is still opportunity, if you hear his voice and do not
harden your heart, as they provoked me in the rebellion in
in the desert. For we were excuse me, for we
were they who heard and yet provoked him with rebellious
acts. Was it not all those who came
out of Egypt led by Moses and with whom he was angry for 40
years? Was it not those who sinned,
whose dead bodies were scattered in the desert?
And to him he did swear an oath that they would not enter into
rest, but to those who disobeyed, those who would not
listen to His word. So we see that they were not
able to enter into His rest or the promised land because of
unbelief and unwillingness to trust in God.
So he's letting us know here we must take earnest heed.
We must take heed. We must not be people that know
what to do and choose not to do it because we will begin to
slip. We will begin to become
deceived. We will begin to partake in sin
and become hardened in our heart.
And those people are the ones that are going to fall away in
the last days. They're going to fall away from
the faith. That's what that means.
They're falling away from the faith.
They don't believe God. They may come to church and sit
here religiously, but they don't do a thing that he says to do.
They don't do a thing. OK?
So we have to take heed. We have to recognize this
because, you know, we've been talking a lot out of First
Timothy chapter 4, where he says the Spirit speaketh
expressively, that in the latter time some will depart from the
faith. And the reason why they can
depart is because they have been hardened to the truth and they
will become deceived and by the lives of the enemy, they'll be
seduced easily because they refuse to even do the truth that
they've heard. So they'll be easily swayed,
they'll be easily seduced. They'll be easily able to be
talked out of their faith in God.
And who are they being talked out of it with?
The enemy with other people. So I told you that that
religious stuff didn't work. I told you that wouldn't work
with your marriage. I told you no.
He's trying to get you off the truth of God's Word, and He's
trying to get you to rebel against what God has said that
He can do for you. If you'll trust completely in
Him, if you'll have faith completely in Him, if you'll
actually do the things that He tells you to do, then you'll see
these things happen in your life.
Second Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 3 says this.
Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will
not come unless the apostasy comes first.
And that is the great rebellion, the abandonment of the faith by
professed Christians. This is what's going to happen.
This is what is happening in the hour that we're living, people
that have professed Jesus as Lord, as a Christian, they got
into rebellion and they have pasta sized for their faith and
now publicly proclaimed they're no longer a Christian and a
believer. Many people I know that have
done that. And then you have the people
that say, well, they really weren't a believer.
Yes, they were because I don't believe Scripture can uphold a
once saved, you're always saved philosophy or doctrine that is a
doctrine. Scripture doesn't uphold that
you can reject, denounce, harden yourself, turn away, walk away
from the truth that you know you can do it.
And I know people who have. And so we have to then be people
that recognize there's plenty of warnings in his scripture for us
as believers that say we must take heed and many and multiple
ways of taking heed to ourselves, right?
And so then he goes on to say in Luke 18, because we've said this
Scripture multiple times, This is why, you know, Jesus says, I
tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, will he find faith
in the earth? That's what he's coming back
for, faith. Will he find faith in the earth?
Will he find actually a group of people, his body, his church,
that have faith, true, unadulterated faith.
And that's what he's looking for.
And we have to be believers that say, yes, I believe God not just
in Word, but in deeds. I do what I've heard to do in
every circumstance in my life. I may fail, I may not be
perfect, but I get back up and I put the word to work in my life
again so that it don't slip and I don't become deceived or
rebellious or hardened towards what I know I'm supposed to do
as a believer through the word of God.
Amen and see you as a believer. If you have the word of God
because you've meditated in and day in and day out, you have it
richly dwelling on the inside of you.
How can you not do what the word says?
It boggles my mind. If you know what God's Word has
said and you say you read it every day and not let's put the
cherry on the top and you're filled with the Holy Ghost and
then you still don't do it. You are rebellious.
That is just the bottom line. You don't want to do it.
Hallelujah, you don't want to do
it and blows my mind. I'm like, how could you not want
to do it? I mean, I just want to do
everything that he says so that I am taking heed myself, right?
Why would you not want to do it when it's guaranteed promise and
victory in your circumstance and in your situation and in your
life, it's guaranteed a promise. Amen.
For those who will believe and those who will do what the word
says to do. Now look at Hebrews chapter 10
back to good old Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38.
It says now the just shall what live by faith shall live by
faith. But if any man, what draws back?
So here's another scripture that shows that just because you may
have lived by faith, you can draw back and not live by it any
longer. You can draw back, you can slip
away. You can pull back from doing
what you may have once done earlier in your walk with the
Lord. And so he's saying, listen,
don't be one that's going to draw back.
Why? Because my soul will have no
pleasure in him. God has no pleasure in a person
that will pull back and draw back from their faith in Him.
You see that? Now let's look at another.
Take heed. Here we see in Luke 2134 it says
this take heed to yourself again.
We already read it in First Timothy chapter 4 where we
talked about, he said take heed to yourself and to your
doctrine. Now here's a second confirmation
where he says now you need to take heed to yourself again.
Say again, So he's letting us know, and you know what this is?
This is Scripture letting us know that God cannot do this for
you. He says you are to take heed.
He's not going to do it for you. You are to take heed.
In all these scenarios that we just talked about through
Scripture, You're the one that has to take heed.
God can't do it for you. And so here in this one, he
says, listen, take heed yourselves, lest at any time
your hearts be overcharged with drunkenness and the cares of
life. I don't know how to pronounce
that other word. Y'all can say it.
Dissipation. OK.
My. Yeah.
The suffer it. What is that word?
How do you pronounce it? Huh.
Surfing. I'm just joking.
How do you pronounce it? Nobody's saying it.
Surfeding. Surfeding.
OK, OK, I get it now. I understand it.
OK. And drunkenness and the cares of
life so that the day that day won't come upon you.
What? Unaware, right?
Unaware. What day is he talking about?
The day of Christ return so we can get, so he's telling us,
listen, we need to take heed ourselves and make sure we're
not in a position of sin as a believer because the day that he
returns, we could be caught unaware.
I don't want to be unaware of the trumpet because I don't want
to. I don't want to have to live
through the tribulation. I want to be taken up out of
here, so I'm not going to put myself as a believer in any
situation that's going to bring what my heart being overcharged
with drunkenness and the cares of life and that word that we
said so that that day won't come on me unaware.
See that? So he's letting us know we need
to take heed so that we're not caught unaware and actually be
left behind because I believe you will be left behind as a
believer if you're unaware. So we have to be aware because
that's what he means by take heed.
Remember, beware, have discernment, take heed.
Don't be heedless. Don't be thoughtless about this
thing. Think about it, meditate on it,
be able to discern what's going on through scripture and what's
going on with what we're seeing take place in lives, right?
And don't get caught in the drunkenness.
Now, this is not just talking about drunk with alcohol, though
it is for all those that still believe in drinking.
As a Christian we do not one because of this scripture
because he tells us to be sober minded and not intoxicated.
And that's what this scripture is talking about.
You're so intoxicated, not just with alcohol, which it does mean
with that as well, but you are so intoxicated with the cares of
the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the busyness of life,
the things that you have to do just to survive in life, work,
you know, all the things that you get so intoxicated you can't
even think straight. This is what it's talking about
as well, but it also isn't talking about intoxicated with
alcohol. OK, so I don't want anything
now. When I was a teenager, I didn't,
you know, I want, I wanted to drink.
I wanted to do all those things. I wanted to be intoxicated.
But when I got born again, I wanted to have a sober mind and
a clear mind because I know what I did when I was like that.
You'd wake up and not even know what you had done, right?
So this is what he's saying. Listen, don't be deceived, don't
be deluded. You need to be sober minded.
You need to not allow things of this world, the cares of life,
all these things to get you intoxicated that you are caught
unaware of his return. Right.
OK, now look at Luke 21. This is good.
I know this is heavy teaching, and it's not, you know, popular
teaching. But guess what?
It is? It's truth.
I'm going to even get closer to
you, Luke. Oh, I want to read that in the
Amplified. That's what it is.
I want to read Luke 21 in the Amplified.
It says be on a guard so that your hearts are not weighed down
and depressed with the giddiness of debauchery and the nausea of
self indulgence and the worldly worries of life.
And then that day when the Messiah returns will not come on
you suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon all those who
live on the face of all the earth.
So be alert, keep on alert at all times, be attentive and be
ready, praying that you may have strength and ability to be found
worthy and to escape all these things that are getting ready to
come and take place. And stand in the presence of the
Son of Man at His coming. See that.
So he's letting us know. Listen, we need to take heed.
We need to recognize the signs of the times.
We need to take heed ourselves. We need to, you know, be a
person that is expecting and ready and staying sober minded
in these last days and not letting things overtake us.
Amen. Now look at this is our last one
we're going to talk about and then we'll close.
And this one is very important because I'm, I'm starting to get
very concerned about no one heeding this scripture.
Matthew 1810. Take heed that you despise not
one of these little ones. For I say unto you, that in
heaven there are angels always. Behold the face of the Father,
which is in heaven, and he's talking about here being a
stumbling block to little ones. And we're not just talking about
little ones as children, though He is.
This is in context. I I don't know why I didn't put
that in full context, but I didn't so y'all can read it.
Despise not one of these little ones.
Little ones is. It could be a child, but it also
can be an immature believer. And you as a believer must take
heed to not being a stumbling block to a babe in Christ.
So that means we should be living what the standard is in
the Word of God before them so that we don't become a stumbling
block them and cause them to sin or cause them to have doubt in
God or to cause them not to be able to trust in the
establishment of God's Word and what He has ordained through His
Word being a stumbling block. And he actually said woe to
those who are stumbling blocks, that you might as well tie a
millstone around your neck and throw yourself into the lake.
If you call somebody to stumble, what does that mean?
Somebody to doubt God's word, Someone to think, well, you're a
hypocrite. Why would I want to live for the
Lord? You're living a life of sin.
You're a stumbling and this is to a new believer or even a
child, because a child looks up, looks up to us.
And we and This is why I say the most dangerous thing as a
believer in Christian marriages is that you are upholding the
standard of what your children are hearing in the word in the
church, because they'll know whether or not you're living it
because they're hearing it and they're thinking, well, Wyatt,
mom and dad doing that and you're being a stumbling block
to your own children. And This is why a lot of
children don't want anything to do with God, right?
And it's your fault. You were the stumbling block.
You were to your own child's life.
Look at Mark Mark Chapter 9 and verse 42.
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe and
trust in me to stumble, that is to sin or lose faith.
That's this is the amplified reads it like that.
It would be better for him if a heavy millstone 1 requiring a
donkey strength to turn it were hung around his neck and he were
thrown into the sea. There it is.
I already said it, but here it is for you to see with your only
eyes, because it's not me who's saying it.
It's the word of God that's saying it right.
So it's very important that we take heed ourselves and, and,
and we take heed to saying, am I being a stumbling block to
someone in the church? Am I saying something I
shouldn't be saying that's going to cause them to fail?
Am I saying something that's going to lead them down a wrong
Rd. of belief or wrong path or causing them to doubt God's word
because they're not seeing it in my life because I'm saying it's
not working. So we have to be responsible and
take heed. Now look here at Romans chapter
14 and this is what we're going to close with Romans 1413.
Then let us no more criticize and blame and pass judgment on
one another, but rather decide and endeavor never to put a
stumbling block or an obstacle or an the, the King James
Version says, or an occasion for your brother to fail or a
hindrance in the way of a brother.
We have a responsibility that if we come to this house and we're
saying we're believers and we're knowing what we should be doing
in Scripture when we choose not to do it, and someone that may
be more, less immature than us in the faith sees us not uphold
the Scripture properly, it's going to cause them possibly to
stumble. And you're going to be the one
that's going to be held accountable for that.
That's going to have to stand before God for that.
He said it'd be better for you to go jump into the sea with a
rope and a rock around your neck than to call someone to stumble.
And I'm seeing it happen. Seeing it happen.
And as pastors over the flock, we have a responsibility to
protect the little ones. And so we have to bring
correction to the ones that know better and say, what are you
doing? They're a new believer.
Can you not discern where they're at spiritually?
Why are you telling them that? Amen.
And do you know that's good? Because we're the ones that are
the accountable to that to watch over people's soul to, to, to
make sure that they are going to be able to grow properly and
nothing's going to be able to hinder them for properly seeing
the truth of God's word. That is safety.
That is the pastor coming in and protecting the flock when we
have to bring correction to people and say you, you've been
in the church 10 years. What in the world are you doing
in front of this person and acting like you don't even know
what the Word says? We love you, but you ought to
know better. You know what to do.
Why are you doing this? You know, come on, make an
adjustment. And you know what else?
You need to go ask that person to forgive you.
We've done it to protect little ones.
You need to go ask them to forgive you because what you did
just could cause them to stumble and actually has caused them to
stumble and question their faith.
Question and trust in their trust and ability to believe
God's Word. Amen.
And he lets us know, listen, we all have these responsibilities.
We're all supposed to take heed to these things.
It's not just our responsibility, it's your
responsibility. And as a believer, it's your
responsibility as you read and we read in the Scripture that
every day we, as long as we have a day, we ought to be
encouraging one another, strengthening one another,
building one another up. What in faith and in God's
truth, and speaking the truth in love, and actually doing the
Word so that we don't deceive ourselves lest we slip and fall
away?