Join us for Wednesday Night at Sweetwater Church of Christ

um but we'll have other scriptures that we will be looking at as well um what we're going to be talking about here on tonight is something that all of us i'm sure are familiar with and have talked about at some length throughout your journey as a child of god throughout your journey as a christian and that has to do with the duty of us as children of god and if i would suggest take a moment and just ask what is the duty of those that have been saved by jesus christ now what is it that he has commissioned us to do go tell the lost okay fear god and keep his commandments okay i like that and he tells us that we ought to go out and tell somebody else about what it is that we have heard and about what it is that we have learned about jesus uh so so proverbs chapter 11 and the latter part of that verse uh we read the whole verse but it says that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and then he says and he that wins souls is wise so that's what i want to talk about here on tonight and that is leading souls to jesus christ and i could just ask and say what greater joy could we have as children of god other than leading somebody else to jesus christ because i'm sure when y'all came to know who jesus was y'all to just want to keep that to yourself right but you had some family members that you wanted to tell about that you may have had some some co-workers um some other people that you knew and you wanted to tell them about this wonderful experience that you had because you say hey man surely if god could do this in my life i know he's able to do it in somebody else's life as well and how many of y'all will attest to say you know what preacher that's the best decision i ever made you know was making the decision for jesus christ but the greatest thing that we can do as god's children and that is to allow our testimony to live so loud and to allow our testimony to shine so bright that it becomes infectious in a way in the lives of other people and it would cause them to want to ask the question hey what kind of god you serving because apparently he must be good to you by the way that you're living so i want to know him as well so who can have the privilege of leading people to jesus christ all of god's children you know you don't have to be a preacher to lead somebody to jesus you know you don't have to know you don't have to have to have a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in bible or theology to be able to lead somebody to jesus christ you simply being able to tell somebody about what it is that god did for you is enough for you to be able to witness somebody to help lead them to salvation but it is important for us to know church to know how to win souls it's important for us to know how to win souls and how we are to approach people because what we don't want to do is make the mistakes that has happened a lot of times and that is in our efforts to pull people in we end up pushing people away so that is why it is important and he lets us know hey he that wins souls is wise what do you mean he that wins souls is wise because that lets me know that if a person is going out for the purpose of winning souls they already know what it is that they need to know so that they can relay that over to the other individual so that that person can come to the knowledge of jesus christ and want to have their soul saved as well so every single one of us can be a witness for jesus christ i i don't care how old you are guess what you can be a witness for jesus christ all of us that know him so he said something in matthew chapter 4 and verse number 19. he said follow me and i'll make you fishers of men now these men that he was talking to y'all these people they they their business was fishing they had a fishing but that was what they did they knew all about that but jesus said you know what with the same intensity and with the same strength that you're putting towards your business he said i want you to use that towards my business he said and the fishing that you're going to be doing over here he said you're not going to be catching no real fish he said but you're going to be a fisherman of men you're going to bring people into my kingdom so why church is it important for us to learn how to win souls why is it important okay yeah and you're right i'm glad you said that number one because it pleases god because that is what god has commanded of us to do we know that jesus is no longer walking around on earth as he was so we are his living representatives here on earth and we are the ones that are supposed to be taking it out so number one it pleases god because we his creation are doing what it is that he has commanded of us to do what he told us there in the latter part of the book of matthew he said go out into all the world preaching and teaching the gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be what shall be saved that's still the bible church and from my recollection that's in the new testament scripture and my recollection still served me right we're still living in the new testament scripture so guess who that applies to it applies to each and every single one of us that we're supposed to go out and do that go ahead my sister amen amen amen because you know what would be so sad for us to have all of this knowledge about who jesus is and about the word of god and not to share it with nobody just keeping all that stuff bundled up to ourselves and hiding it all this so good i'm just keeping for myself i don't want to share this with nobody else but the word of god you ought to have that desire to share it with somebody else because you ought to want that same experience that you had in the life changing that has happened in your life you ought to want that for others as well so so why is the human soul of so much value i can answer that because it's going to last forever that's why it's so important that's why well you know you know we say we're saving souls and we're keeping soul same i want to throw another one out there no soul left behind no soul left behind because all souls are important and guess what we got to get that in our mindset because i know all of us have family members and all of us have people that we work with and that we associate with all of us are associated with people that don't know nothing about jesus all of us are associated with people that don't have any type of relationship with christ so it is important for us to be all of who we're supposed to be and know what we're supposed to know so we can be a witness to them to help lead them to jesus christ so um the bible says in john chapter 3 and verse number 36 it says that he who believes on the son has everlasting life and he who does not believe on the son shall not see life but the wrath of god abides in him so we understand that god values the soul of men so highly that he did what he sent his own son down to die so that each and every single one of those souls might be saved elder cross we had your hand up yes jesus servant had had thought that had one talent and didn't use it like the question you asked if we have knowledge and we don't tell anybody about it we don't go and testify that's kind of the same as when jesus called that servant wicked and slow yes sir because he kept it to himself and if we do the same how are we different is that that's just like somebody come up to you and give you a a bunch of different seeds and they said man if you go out there and plant them seeds and you water them guess what this gonna come up it's gonna come up when it's harvest time you're gonna have this and you're gonna have that now you can't be upset if with harvest time come ain't they're not there because you ain't planting no seeds because you kept it to yourself because you harbored it for yourself so guess what if god has given us knowledge guess what he wants us to share that church if he's giving us some knowledge about something if you know something that's just like here on on this evening just like moments like we have right now we all not take this for granted because guess what even though the things that we may be studying maybe things that you know guess what there's somebody that you know that does not know this so just the little things that we say oh i've heard that before guess what somebody never heard it before and they need to hear it so that they can be brought into a saving relationship with jesus christ and you know and i've said this often that the jesus in you is the only jesus that a lot of people are going to see everybody can get a bible but everybody ain't going to read the bible some people are looking at you to see what they're supposed to be doing so we got to make sure that we're what living how we're supposed to be living and we got to make sure that we're setting the right example because that's why and if we just open our eyes that we'll see in so many places the church is on decline why is that we're not reaching out to another people another reason is our young folks they come up in the church when they go off to college school we don't keep contact with them amen so they don't have no relationship and then another reason is our lifestyle we can't confess that we're christians and people see how we live and it don't relate they don't they don't match up so i like that last example that you get because y'all all heard this if you walk like a duck and crack like a duck what it is must be a duck somebody said a cow no it must be a duck so so and that's why and that was the example that i was going to give that we see the church in so many places is declining and it's going downhill because people on the outside look at us and see no difference people on the outside look at us and see what's used to be going over there i'm living just as good as they living and they and truth be told half of the people out there living better than the people that are in the church because so many of us we feel like just because we got jesus that we got a a pass on sin in the past or what oh i just go to god there's god to forgive me and everything gonna be all right we gotta get that right and i love the other example that you gave because we're not reaching out you know church if you don't see multiple generations represented in a church the church is on decline and dying if you do not see multiple generations of people within a church the church is on the clan so that is why it's important that we share our faith that we share this world with other individuals so that the body of christ can continue to go forward and the work of christ continue to go forward and who's going to have to do that that's going to have to be us not just the elders guess what it's going to be us not just the deacons and a preacher that's going to have to be all of us working hand in hand doing the work of ministry and being who it is that god has called us to be and and i got to teach all that i love the other example that you gave because and that happens everywhere people grow up in the body of christ and then they get to a place you know they graduated with heavy and they go off and they think about jesus they think about jesus i know one good example that i can give i can say um i dislisted right here god bless you um her son had uh reached out to me you know whatever when he went off to school you know whatever about uh uh attending services and things of that nature and that lets you know that there was something that was instilled in him for him to know about that and to have that desire so we got to make sure that even after people have graduated and gone away that we keep in contact with them not that you're trying to hound anybody down but that you're just trying to keep them encouraged in the lord because you don't want them to fall away by the wayside so we got to use the word of god if we're going to be able to lead souls to christ we're going to have to use god's word not not not gimmicks and all this kind of stuff but we're going to have to use the word of god to win people's souls now to win souls you got to know how to use the word of god and as we stated a while ago you know it does you know good trying to go out and witness to somebody and you ain't got the right information well it does it's no good to go out trying to witness to people not only without having the right information but having the wrong attitude when you're trying to witness because this is what mess us up and don't be real with us we go out and we have this mindset i know more than you i already got it so you need to listen to what it is and i'm trying to say and when you have that kind of mindset people are automatically they turn you out they don't want to hear what you're saying they're already turning you out because they feel like okay this person feels like they know everything and they're already condemning me the bible says he said with love and kindness have i drawn thee you can't draw people with that kind of attitude we got to have the same kind of spirit that jesus had and jesus loved people enough to not um to not have to require them to come up to a certain level before he could deal with them but whether jesus met them right where they were but guess what he didn't leave him where they were he made a change in their life he made the difference in their life so just like a doctor does not give the same prescription to every patient the same verse ain't gonna help everybody the the same verse of scripture is not gonna meet every person's need you gotta have a working knowledge of the bible and it is a shame for a person to have been in the church for 30 years and can't tell nobody about jesus it's a shame for a person to have been in the church for any lengthy amount of time and you cannot share with anybody your personal conviction about jesus christ why it is that you believe what it is that you believe and then on the other hand you must be able to not just share your conviction with somebody and tell them something you got to show them where it is in the word of god how am i going to be able to do that i got to first of all be studying for myself i got to first of all be making it my business to become acquainted with god's word so that i'm able to share it with when i have that opportunity what he said think not in that hour when men ask you a reason of the hope that is in you what you say he said because the spirit will bring to your remembrance those things that you ought to say how can the spirit spirit bring back to your remembrance what you ain't first of all study so that's why we count and a lot of people find themselves caught up god when they're going out one of the witness to other people and you got to be careful because you never know who you're walking up on and this person may have knowledge may not be the right knowledge but this person may have some knowledge and you go out there and trying to convert somebody end up getting converted yourself so we got to have the word of god and the right knowledge of the word of god in order to be able to witness to other people and along with that having the right attitude so that you can be a soul winner so that you can draw people to jesus christ so we're going to be soul winners we also need something else and that is the help of god because y'all know we can't save nobody you can witness to somebody but none of us have the power to save anybody because we can't make ourselves do something so how we gonna make somebody else do something so so so we we cannot do it by ourselves we need the help of god we need god's power we're helping us so he and he told us that in acts chapter 1 and verse number 8 he share and you shall receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you he's given us aid he's given us a power that we need to be able to witness to people and be able to deal with the other issues that we have in this life so to every believer we got help because we have the spirit of god living on the inside of us to help us with this thing and again we can't have the mindset that we are the ones that are saving people because when the time comes that people don't want to hear what it is that you got to say you're going to be disappointed when the time comes that you're trying to witness to somebody and maybe you're going to knock on the door and you've seen them walk in the house but they don't come to the door or something like that and we'll take it to heart but you won't take it to heart when you recognize hey i'm just an instrument being used by god i am just a vessel that has been blessed to be able to share the message of jesus christ and i've done my job simply by telling somebody or trying to be a witness for jesus christ the other cries that you hand up yes i know you're still talking about the decline of the church one of the things that i've seen is that sometimes we just have never ever been convinced or convicted ourselves true yeah and so when some wind blows we're like we're like the seed that fell on top of ground we we never took root and so that that that's one of those factors that can cause material i i heard it said like this that a lot of people were convinced but not convicted because if you were convicted you would have some kind of stick-to-it-ness about yourself and that you won't be so easily swayed and and tossed about by everything that is thrown your way and and we have to be honest about it that a lot of kind of different contexts that it's not that churches are growing churches are actually swelling because it's not that new people are coming in it's just you just rotating a bunch of people and that's what happens in a lot of instances but we got to make sure that we are doing with it what it is that god has called for us to do because how else is the church going to grow unless we go out there and we share this message with other people everybody ain't going to hear it inside these four walls everybody's not going to watch the live stream you got to go out and be a witness to somebody church you got to go out and share i'm always saying that when you tell someone the word of god the scripture you should tell them scriptures because if you tell a scripture they can't get mad at you they'll be getting mad what paul said paul said hell i become your enemy because i tell you the truth and you know you know a lot of us shy away from witnessing the people because we are afraid of how they gonna look at us afterwards yeah we're afraid of rejection especially when it's a family member or when it's a friend or somebody like that it's two topics that'll get you in a fight religion and politics the two top ten you man what you're saying you know what there's two topics that'll take you in a totally different direction but but if god has been good to you and you are glad about the fact that you're saved you're going to want to share the gospel with somebody and why is that because somebody give me the definition of what the gospel is all right all right looking for something else though there you go it's the good news and in a world full of bad news who wouldn't want to hear the good news that somebody loved you enough to lay down his life so that you could have everlasting life go ahead dean well when i came in uh talking about you know we we don't we don't keep up we don't want to tell people and like i said because we are afraid of rejection okay but at the same time most people rather see a sermon than hear certain yeah he goes because you won't have to do all that convincing if they see you living amen the gospel but you know i used to work in a dna iniquity when i was in the military anything and everything was going on the military notice okay but yet still there were times when they said something around me or did something first they came out about oh i'm sorry stop oh man we didn't know you was in here because they had respect because they gave you they gave you that respect because when they started the foolishness you got away from the food when they started talking about what they were talking about i ain't trying to hear that man all right just a workplace i ain't trying to hit it and the same thing was in my job before i retired you know they had enough respect for me because they saw how i carried myself every day every time they turn around i'm talking about the church okay so they like i like to tell them all you gotta talk about that little church or whatever so you know but if you live in it because like i said most people rather see a sermon yeah than your son and then you gotta remember what paul said too you ain't gonna see the change of that paul said i planned apollo's war but god gave me that yeah so you may never see the change coming but all you can do is what you can do yeah because you gave them that word and then and then we have to ask ourselves are you even able to witness to your friends and if you can't why because of what he just said [Laughter] exactly because of what he just said because you're trying to go tell the person that you was just at the american legion went the past weekend or whatever y'all was this and that and you said oh come to church with me certainly man i'm gonna be hungover just like you why why i'm coming to coming to service you know or whatever like that how about i'm a witness to you you know whatever like that so the best example that you can give somebody is not a lip service but it's something that you've given them an example of right and i think that especially for the older generation looking at the younger generation it's best to share with them your examples of your life and things that you have dealt with because guess what it's one thing to tell me something i want to see you living so that i can see the example that i'm supposed to be and we're going to come here and then we'll come to you right and that's that's one of the very opposite signs you're going places where other people are going there and then you're trying to get them to come here but it also goes as how you treat people nasty exactly i mean i got some you know friends or people um that i work with that you know i look and i say well yeah they live a good moral life but just as nasty yeah so so what good thing what was good for me to go out oh i'm in the church of christ oh i'm on my way to heaven but i don't know how to talk to nobody right oh i've been in the church for 40 30 years but guess what you don't know how to speak to nobody you got a nasty spirit about yourself you're envious you got you got a jealous spirit about yourself now here you know and you know just like when we touched on that sunday who was talking about the church at ephesus then revelations and the first thing he did was talk talk about all the good things that they had did then he said you know what i just got this one thing against you church let's not let god have one thing against us let's be who god has called us to be so that we can witness to somebody go ahead a lot of people can't see past you right yeah a lot of people can't see man look i changed your life i wiped your nose you know and they they can't they can't look past that to see the change that god has made in your life but again you know even when you can't do that you're just simply living you're just simply living and be who god has called you to be and god will change the heart of an individual god has changed the heart we had a hand right here i just wanted to add for the younger um generation that when it comes to church a lot of times we're expected to live life but we're not allowed to talk about it so it's a lot of things that's going on in the church that we're going through that the older generation has gone through they've come over whatever but we're not allowed to have life conversations yes you know even when we refer to the people the people involved they had struggles and sometimes we identify those strokes but we don't connect them with the young people that's having some of those same struggles so they're not allowed to have those conversations so they feel well i don't fit in you know let me go this way and i'll get with people that can kind of help me in a sense and when i get together maybe i'll be back and i think that's where the disconnect is a lot of times because you know sometimes we're not just willing to have a conversation about something we're not not willing to talk about things you know and and be honest about them and you know you don't even recognize that your honesty about things that you've dealt with and what you've been through can be a blessing to somebody else's life you know what what you've dealt with and what you've been through you know and not always you know what well you know i did you know this and that and and telling somebody something you know you know because i think that you know we can get so spiritual i'll say and so you know christianized that we'll forget where it is that god brought us from you'll forget what it is that god has did in your life and you'll forget that if god didn't catch me when he caught me i'd be i'll be pitiful i i'll be somewhere right now in a cuckoo house you know or whatever but i thank god that he came and he found me where i was so i think that you know and every older person has some kind of connection with somebody younger and i think that you can be a blessing to them by simply being honest about the struggles that you've had to help them to deal with some of the same things that they're gonna do did you help yeah then we're coming to you yeah but when could your mama have said the same thing about you yeah yeah and i think that i think that kind of goes on both sides because you got young people that want to be just like the older world at some point because if you be real with yourself somewhere in your late teens in your early 20s you lost your man it came back to you at some point but guess what you lost it you was out there in a far country spending all your money on writing's living and you found yourself face down in a hulk pin then you came to yourself what think about no church what think about jesus what they think about one thing about any of that and i think there's a disconnect because on the other on one side you got those younger people that are wanting to make their choices and wanted to do these things wanting to figure it out on their own and then you have the older generation we're looking at and say hey well i've been there and you need to avoid this and you need to avoid that you know and all of us have had a hard head and we know what that makes and all of us are going to be brought to a point where you're going to have to face those decisions that you have made and i believe all of us including me can say that we've been brought to a point to where we say man i wish i wouldn't listen to what my mama or my auntie or my uncle maybe you remember something that a teacher told you one day you i don't want it not recognizing that they were trying to tell you something that was going to benefit you in the long run down the road uh yeah coming over here i was thinking the scripture was on my mind earlier earlier when i was looking at the scripture where paul talks about in galilee chapter six the man be overtaken in the fall he reached our spirit to restore such a one in the spirits of meekness but if he goes also goes down and say considering thyself that's a lot of times we don't set ourselves there we also may follow and that ain't like james says with the temptation it ain't we it ain't it's when it's gonna happen yeah yeah it's gonna happen yeah and so when you catch up when another brother starts to get in there you know you're so quick to do that but my mom always said when you got one point finger she said why punch your finger at me she said you got a little finger pointed back at you so that's that's the wisdom that came from them but still we're gonna in on states but he said he was a spiritual restored such one in the spirit of meekness yeah see that's why it's so cool about the fruits of the spirit a lot of times we don't want halloween people in the spirit exactly exactly and and we'd be honest that's why a lot of people that at one point had faith have been damaged in their faith because when they wanted to come back they weren't received in the right spirit and you see how jesus just dealt with that situation he just went down and wrote on the ground how he did yeah but and the way that and a lot of scholars wonder what was jesus right on the ground i think he wrote that joker name on the ground that was there the night before and he was in that crowd and he saw his name he's like hey man i ain't gonna deal with this y'all got this i'm going i'll be back another day as is people have to listen to young people the world they're growing up in and the world we grew up in two children i mean they got they can have information instantly just like this they don't have to get no encyclopedias like we had they can look at videos and i'm just challenging for parents today because they can get on youtube they information but i had an opportunity to work with young people and one of the things i learned from working with young people is listen to them listen at this side of it before you start to push anything on just listen to their version of how they feel or what this is and then you can gain their respect and once you respect people they can reciprocate that right to you so now that they respect you you respect them they'll respect you now you listen to them and hear this side of they don't always have it right right but i i just just look at me i was tore from the floor yourself and telling y'all young people i don't prejudge them i don't talk down to them i'm listening saying what can i do to help you with this and i think we have to be more in that mindset than push yourself on top of them listen and what they're saying and figure out how can you help them but you need to be an example to them your lifestyle attitude your behavior if you're talking to so we have to learn how to respect our young people as we're trying to help them if we be honest everybody just want to be heard that's it everybody just want to be heard and listen to the sister go ahead people we gotta understand you know sometimes we got that perfect person in my cdf baptist and i'm gonna tell them about that we're throwing out a net win so i don't care if you're drunk on the street or homeless but we're gonna teach and our our we look at our youth but we need to look at people hearing the adults have lost their mind like yeah you have to get in people's head and see what so i was asking him some questions he's gay and he lived with a man that died recently from cold he had it too and he moved quickly to the with this spring but i knew he knew the friend but knowing all along well come to find out the day he said when they when the navy him and the friend teenagers was kind of you know actually married his sister okay they never divorced but they had a child that broke up now his father died he met with the freedom so that's the stuff that our children our youth have to look at that's acceptable by this world we're living in drugs and lifestyles and having children out of the way all that stuff is acceptable for them and they'll look at you the teenager right now in school and say oh what's wrong with that because what's wrong with that guy's wearing all kind of clothes and stuff that's what we have to work like you said getting their head where's your thinking and bring them back to the world so us adults need to get ourselves together then we can raise up this new generation with a little bit more substance of the word than we switching out you got grown women jumping in the fence man had children now they over with a woman you got me that's what that's the enemy how he's roaming down you know young people that's why they don't want to come in church because you got half of and be more of and be willing to teach anybody don't just look it because oh they they don't believe in baptism at their church well it's not just them yeah we're going to teach them too but there are people over here that are struggling thinking i'm not good enough amen i mean i myself got of course who are kid people that we grew up in church that got all kind of issues older people my age sisters and sixes and they hung up on what they think they're good enough to come back to church or to be part of church so that that's some work that we gotta do you know and then we the lord will give the increase amen amen yeah the word was true when it said that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities like the powers the rulers of the darkness and spiritual wickedness set up in high places and those high places you recognize because our legislators our congressmen our senators those in high places are the ones that are setting this stuff up in order to change it and then we got to look at it because we're in a westernized civilization 90 of the stuff that is acceptable here you go back to the homeland they don't accept that kind of stuff you go back even to the land that jesus walked they don't accept that kind of stuff but it just shows you the culture and the life and the time that we live in and i agree and i will say that you know to a degree the world that most of you grew up in is totally different now things are totally different i mean i mean we was watching tv before we left the house and i like law and order and stuff like that and the chief of police she got a wife now you know i didn't know that that's a new one you know whatever and you know all this stuff is being put out there it's being professed and you know when you're when some of you were coming up you you wouldn't dare have a child out of wedlock and that's the thing you know you know go go go have five six of them raise it by yourself you know you can get some federal assistance get you some food you live in that that's what's being set up but where did they come from we don't even know where that's where they even come from because you know okay we'll take you out the field and we'll give you a little house and give you some government assistance but the man can't be in the house so now you got to raise them by yourself breaking up the house breaking up the home then we wonder why crying exactly yes sir go ahead i was just going to say one thing on what she said she said the word even though the world is different this has not changed amen okay this has not changed and we um and i mean i'm i'm 50 too i'm not trying to act like i've been a parent so long but i do have a 24 year old and a 20 year old even in all of our talking and all of the methods that we have to change because like he said they didn't have a tv well ours got a tv phone all this stuff we can't really use the same methods in the same way that were used you know for us because it may not always be effective they have so many other influences but bringing it back to this has not changed what god teaches the same and it may come to a point where you have to say i'm just going i have to let this go i just got to pray for this they are an adult and they make their own decisions but i'm going to give it to the lord yeah you know and then we're witnessing or trying to teach other people know when just you do right you go tactfully you go with the right intentions on trying to help someone but you can't like you say it force anybody to do anything god did not leave us to be taliban amen over the church of christ okay he wanted us to teach and live what we are commanded to live in his word that doesn't change and then he'll do the rest yeah because if we be honest with ourselves there's not one individual that has ever stepped foot in this building that was jesus that didn't have some type of something about whether you knew about it or whether you didn't know it about it they may have just hit theirs better than somebody else but but we all got got that going on and that is another reason why the church is on such a fast decline is because and it's said somewhere i'm sure you've probably seen it we act like the church is a museum for the saints when it's really a hospital for the people that are sick we think we're doing something just because we come here on a sunday right and we sing and the offering is done and we commune and we hear a word and we go home to be the same people we were before we came nothing changed no difference right we don't see no wrong in that but yeah we can tell every baptist they go in here you don't see nothing wrong with you lying to everybody because that's what jesus told him when when the pharisees came around and jesus was with them he was with the hollis and the public they said the pharisees say why did your lord why your lord sit there with holler exactly we're recovering from something yes we come we come that's what we come from amen and another thing i want to say you you have never just i mean a lot many times now quote that scriptures read that scripture where paul talks about in ephesians in a war zone and you can't even see it that's the thing but you can see the activity of it and the things that are going on around us everything that's being set up and that's why we got to be on our knees in the presence of god talking with god asking god to help her make sure that the blood over your doorposts so so when death get to pass the matter pass on over your house and no matter what decision everybody else is making just make sure you're making the right decisions for you and for yours so that when that day comes you will be able to be found safe go ahead one of the areas of growth for me has been uh as as others have said i've restored such a one in the spirit of meekness for example i have been able to be much more patient with other people's kids and young folks when i was talking to them but then i found myself too close to a situation sometimes with my own you know i have young kids they are in all this and sometimes i find myself being less tolerant with them yeah and i had i had to pull back because i was losing you know i was i was provoking my children to write and so i had them i had to pay attention to that and so for for some years now i've been trying to do better in that area so when we talk about the decline of the church there's some strategies that we gotta get employed in different situations amen i talked to everybody's kids they just they talk highly of them but then when i got my own i had to be careful and i think that's what's going to be the start of the church growing and going forward when we all take a moment and do some self inspection of ourselves and be honest about it and don't act like we're there where we're supposed to be be honest with yourself see where you're lacking pray for god to meet you in that place of lack and wherever you have weakness pray for god to give you the strength so that you can overcome it because you got to get this out your head that this is just the only time that you're going to be going through warfare warfare is going to continue to come battles are going to continue to come the fights are going to continue to come and that's why you got to stay in a place where god can bless you on your knees and his presence asking god for those things that you need here then we're coming have come because to church they're still not they're still not in the right sphere so it's like a cop used to teach about them all the time it was like we got a facade and asked me if other people because they're here but they're not in the right sphere so that's when you got to go through that self-examination that's a man examining you got to start by and it don't stop here i mean i'm scared to tell this this starts at home with an example with uh us examining ourselves and making sure that you're doing the things it's not enough with the spirit because young people now that i can find out they don't even know who they are and they're being told that hey you could be the instrument but they got to see the child of god when i study more to take those fears away because they got a whole lot of other temptations that we have my biggest thing is they being told you know that you can be this and you can be that and it's okay man it's okay yeah one thing i learned a long time ago if you don't praise god in your house you won't praise him in his house if you don't worship god in your own home you won't worship him here if there's no type of relationship with god outside of this place it'll show in your praise and your worship it'll show and that's why as you stated this is just the prime minister you are not waiting to get here to start spending time with god and getting to know god and being drawn close to god that happens every single day in your life in your own personal devotion and your own personal walk with god did he have hit up yeah you know i think it's key man and others have said about that self-examination that's why you need to have people around you that in in the thing with the camera that says that quote that scripture about uh have i offended you because i told you the truth and quote that scripture said amen you know and that's why i thank god for my wife because she tell me the truth but i like it love it at least and i'm glad about it because i know me if you let me go down the road i'm gonna go on down the road so somebody needs to pull your coattails every day okay somebody need to put your cookie and she often tell me when i'm getting on the kids about stuff and you that make more out of it than what it is like other problems saying you like make more out of it than what it is and she and she you know she'll do it in love and take me in the room somewhere and she'd be like the only reason why you're making a big deal because you were off the chain and you were there you just assumed everybody else when they were there yeah you know all they all you want to do is go to burger king after the game we forget all of a sudden that people in church that we were we've been missing mrs holy of for the last 56 years like we don't want to have them conversations we don't want to have them compensate to tell the truth about how god had brother i'm glad to have a conversation when i used to teach a teen class and and i said it in my adult class when i was teaching i'm glad to tell anybody how far god brought me cause i should have been dead and locked up a long time ago but but for the grace of god thank you because somebody took the time to pray for me yes sir yeah yeah me old school right now let's get them let's get one thing they understand the best product i'm gonna call you new school and we got that and we'll be able to talk and then do like you said like marshall saying they'll open up tell them you'll be surprised at what stuff they're telling you they'll show you stuff on their cell phones and stuff with new children and i'm like what does it and the huge brother carpenter i i say it from a lot of times for the full people that stuff change that stuff in the matrix yeah the stuff that you're chillin you stuff on the phone [Music] and i'm talking about not just people that's on your job i'm talking about 10 them 12 years old and younger is where it is happening and that's where it's going all that stuff is starting young and which is why you know you need to pay attention to stuff that's going on because you don't know who inboxing your child who trying to snapchat and stuff like that the young brother didn't yeah as they asked me to pray for is that who's got to pray for him one of the prayer requests that i'm i'm going to go ahead and reveal to y'all now that i have tonight my daughter asked for my support for example talking about having the world at your fingertips she got an offer to become a video model out in california now what is a video that could be a wide range of things and so she was all excited you know her ship had come in she was getting ready to go out and do this thing you know got to worry about the tail i had to i couldn't just shut her down immediately i had to let her talk it out and then we have a little dinner and then let's go for a ride let's get all the details let's talk all those things and then let's kind of let's let's get in there do the research how much information do you really have yeah when you get out there what what what are the requirements well she was gonna have to pay her away and pay them to take pictures of her no and this is a scam but but but you don't know what i mean she could wind up out there a lot of girls go out you'll never hear them again exactly end up in some traffic but just think about the amount of people that didn't have somebody that cared enough to look into it or to ask questions and they went out there and i like i've been out there like you go out like to la all young people my age homeless sleeping on the side of the road and stuff like that because everybody was going for their big shot they was i mean it was going to be their big shot it was going to be a big break and they end up out that side of the road yeah because they didn't one thing we don't talk about as much as we should is human trafficking oh yeah we need we that's a hard subject for some people to talk about yeah and then and from for my children even though you talked with them about it and you you're sitting you're showing all that all the debt and everything it still didn't necessarily come out as real to them so you got to love them all through it too i was just watching the documentary it's funny that you brought that up i watched it and somebody can literally be in broad daylight somebody that you see often and you never know that that person has been kidnapped and has been held captured yes but because they're so washed in their mind they'll never come out and tell you about it you may think that child coming to school and just going home to their parents not knowing that they're going home to somebody that picked them up a long time ago or what have you we don't know we don't know uh last thing then we're gonna close place at the up time they they ain't had no business whatever that's what happened but not necessarily and i remember i was having this conversation with iris the other day i said india walks home and they glued to those cell phones yeah i said iris she don't need to be walking and with no cell phone looking down because these people are driving up yeah no this is information you need to be aware [Music] you know let me show you why this is wrong this is not i want us to be a church that's not reactive or rather proactive yeah well we could be a place to where we can address that kind of stuff to where we can be some change agents to help stop and some of this stuff happen why not start teaching those things at the church i know i do lessons on that with the students at my school every year we talk about trafficking and a lot of the other concepts that have come up tonight i do that all the time so why not do that at the church we're already equipping our children our teams our young adults and even our adults and older adults with those tools so they know what to look out for and what so now that you've made known that god has given you the ministry to be able to do that now we know that somebody we got that can give the information to somebody and see just little stuff like that because you know what every single one of us in here got a ministry yeah man every single one of us in here god has blessed us with something that we can use that could help with the furthest of his kingdom and just something something like that us being able to share that with people around us you don't know whose child they could say whose child they could bless that may come in contact with something like that good class tonight wonderful wonderful wonderful class on that thank all of you that came out um any more questions or comments or anything good place for a club the scdc sweet water community development corporation that's a it's a 501 3c but that's part of the mission of that is to reach out to the community and to also as in this particular example you could talk to young people not just in the church but all of those that like like battered women and all those kind of situations would fall under that umbrella and and human trafficking wouldn't fall under that that type of unbrother and that's one of those areas that we need to grow in in the church where the pandemic can kind of push that thing to the side but eventually we're going to need to look at broadening our horizons and reaching out to the community because that's a function that would be available to the church and it's also a way to build the church amen it's an outreach amen so but the one thing that's going to be important in that and with everything when i close with this let's not just talk about it because it's one thing to talk good about something oh this could happen oh we do that but then when the tie hit the road we got to be ready to make some things happen and put some put you know put some you know put put you some elbow power in that thing to make it happen you know put and put some effort towards it to make sure that the thing becomes successful um as again um great class on tonight we thank those of you that watched us here on this evening we pray god's blessings upon you um at this time maybe you're watching us at this moment and you don't have a relationship with jesus christ you come by hearing his word believe in the same repent of your sins confess christ as your savior be baptized for the remission of your sins and the lord himself will add you to his body maybe you're watching us on tonight and you have a prayer request you can comment um in the comment section use message us let us know how we can pray for you for truly the prayers of the righteous they are veiled much do we have any prayer requests from the floor at this time uh brothers and sisters i'm asking y'all pray for me to have traveling grace on monday morning i was informed that just by my closest first cousin died of totally 19. so uh my family does expect me on these occasions since i'm just about the senior member of the family uh of this generation to come on home and be a part of that so right now i'm looking at leaving on friday fema will be saturday and i'll probably come back sunday on monday probably monday i haven't made any arrangements yet but i do ask y'all to pray for me to be safe because this could very easily be a super spread and everything so the process is going to continue to pray for pray for the family to pray for him and his process to go through it amen amen amen yes i have two forever the first one is continuing a couple weeks back active press with my cousin freda stark who had been in an accident on my job at fedex but she basically got run over by forklift and it basically to all the ligaments from a leg they thought they were gonna have the amplitude thank god somebody was there they used to be a medic and stop the bleeding she would have bled to death and basically pressed the leg they had to reconstruct it but they were able to save the lady we're able to say that today said she's gonna walk with her lymph but thank god she's gonna walk but uh they're getting ready to put her in the rehab center and they said she probably meet up for six months to a year learning how to walk again and my second request is for one of my best friends eventual friends for years and years we started a basketball corporation together the jacksonville nets his name is kareem karim shepard he had triple bypass surgery this past monday and he had to have the surgery took my while to come to that because he needed a kidney transplant but they couldn't do the kidney transplant without fixing the heart earth but they were scared they were gonna lose him on the table so he said he's out of icu now he's at the mayo clinic and he's he's fighting he's fighting he's fighting and you know right now we're just praying that he don't catch an infection you know so he's still in that stage where they're scared he might catch him in faith but we just don't continue to pray him through this so he can get his heart fixed so therefore you can get the kidney transplant so please pray for korean shepherd amen man i also want to keep my aunt and your prayer alicia uh peterson she watches us she they were at a football game the other night and she was walking to the car and vehicle was coming they did see her and they hit her ran into her and she's already handicapped walks with the walker and everything so she broke her leg when they hit her or what have you so just keep her in prayer and she's going to have some procedures possibly and things coming up in the near future keep brother calling you pray yes don't forget to pray that we're able to convince sydney restoring such one of the spirit of meekness and love that this thing in california is not something she needs to try to pursue and also want us all uh to be in prayer and we know um come right around the corner at the end of october we'll be having our family week um our revival here i was gonna be in-house so i want all of you to be in prayer for that efforts uh prayerfully in the next week or two we're going to have some literature put together so that everyone can go out we can invite and share with others i can share we have our topic for this year will be biblical foundations for family living we're going to be dealing with prayer and fasting as families together we're going to be dealing with how to raise your children to honor god we're going to be dealing with honoring god in your marriage as well as honoring god in your home so definitely for the family and i want all of us to strive to do something bring your family with you amen you know even some of those that may not be members here want you to invite them out so they can be a part so this could be a blessing to all of us um there'll be nothing else um at this time we're gonna have a prayer if you all would please stand at this time father god in heaven we are grateful we're grateful first of all god because of who you are and because of what you've done for us we thank you for this opportunity that you blessed us with on tonight that we were to come together father and study your word father i pray that everything that was said on tonight was not just seed that fell on hard ground that will not bring forth any produce but father i pray that it fell down on good ground and i know in due time you'll bring forth the increase father i pray that you will work on each and every single one of us for father individually first before you work with us collectively father i pray that you will work on our inner man deal with those things that are on the inside of us take away those things that you are not pleased with so that we can be who you called us to be father i pray that you would bless us as a sweet water congregation with those things that we stand in need of father i pray that you will bless us in such a way that we can be that city that sits high upon the hill father that cannot be hidden so that we can share your good news with all of those that we come in contact with so that somebody will come to the knowledge of who you are and want to have you for salvation father i pray for those on tonight father that have made prayer requests father i pray at this time for elder crosby and his family at this time as they are dealing with the loss of their loved one we pray for strength in that family and we also pray for traveling grace for him fathers he's going to be traveling father i pray at this time for his daughter father in the quest that he's made father i pray that you will work on her heart and father i pray that you will work on her mind and father help her to make the decision that is right father in this case and father i also pray that you would be with elder crosby as well as sister crosby that they can be those examples to her father to help guide her father in the path that she should take and father i pray most of all that she will look to you father for guidance father i pray at this time as elder cow deacon campbell has made the request for his nephew his grandson at this time father we give you praise and we give you glory for what you have done for him so far god we thank you for how far you have brought him in such a short amount of time and father i pray continuously for him i pray for his mindset that you will not allow him to become depressed because of what's going on but father i pray that you would give him strength every day father strength and more and more father's zeal and desire to continue to live his life to the fullest father i pray at this time for deacon starks as she has made the request father for his cousin father i pray that you would be with them and bless them with those things that they stand in need of at this time father bless their health father and restore them to the place that you desire for them to be father i pray also father for his friend who had the the heart procedure father i pray that you would bless him and father i pray that you will strengthen him be with those doctors and nurses that are attending to him at this time and father i pray for each and every single one of us father in this place at this time somebody needs you for one thing is somebody need you for another but the truth of the matter is we all need you right now and i pray that you would be god in every single one of our situations bless us and keep us is our prayer in jesus name we pray amen

Channel: Sweetwater Church

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Id: WFRyU2zd7rw

Length: 70min 44sec (4244 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 30 2021