Good evening. Entitled tonight's sermon, A Warning Label. It's from Job chapter 31, verse 1. Really, as I was thinking about some things, this sermon comes from, my wife and I recently saw some material that was dealing with talcum powder. And in the material that we saw, I was talking about that it was a contributor towards cancer, ovarian cancer, and other sorts of cancer. According to the source, many other ladies that had used the product regularly had cancer, and so there was a researcher back to the 1960s who was even giving some warnings. These ladies, one of the things that they were really wanting to do was they wanted the manufacturer of the talcum powder, baby powder, to put a warning label on the material saying that it could potentially be a cancer-causing substance. Well, the manufacturer came back and said that research proves that there is nothing. And so now you have two sides giving different opinions. But as I thought, I began to really think about that and really think about the convenience and the blessings that we have of the technology of livestream. Even now, it truly is a blessing to livestream. But I spoke with Ben Reimer the other day. Just how much of a blessing is livestream, right? He said, man, I wish I had it. It's a first world problem. Over there, their internet is not very good, so he can't live stream. What he's doing is he's recording all of his sermons, he's editing them all, and then he sends them to a radio station and they broadcast them. He's got two hours, I think, on Sunday and then an hour on Wednesday, doing a wonderful job. As I was really thinking about that, the convenience that we have of the internet. It can be convenient when something breaks at your house. For instance, you go YouTube it and there's some professional that probably has a video out there to help you fix whatever the problem is on your car, your house, something, someone has an answer and the abundance of knowledge. Really one of the things that as I was beginning to think about with the internet. I wanted to give a warning, obviously, as this time many people are stuck at home, many people are just going crazy. I saw a statistic down in the States that alcohol usage was up about 50%. That is staggering statistics. But I would also venture to say that there are other vices of life that people are going into during this time, one of which is the internet, social media and other such ventures on the internet. So tonight I wanted to give a warning label from that. I do apologize for this. Our internet is down at our church. I pre-recorded it. The sound was it was echoey because anyways I'm trying to use a different camera to get a little bit better resolution but with that being said there was one setting that I forgot and so then there's two microphones recording and they're slightly delayed and it makes for not some very pleasant listening so This is the best that we have there. But anyways, Job chapter 31 verse 1. Job writes, I made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there from above and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? He goes on to say, and then he goes, is not destruction to the wicked and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity. But he says, I made a covenant with mine eyes. Job is saying, I don't want to look upon that which is not helpful. I remember a danger when I was a youth was television shows. You would have all sorts, MTV, HBO, Showtime. There was a litany of different shows that a person could watch with indecent and deplorable material. I grew up watching television. My family slipped from the dinner table, sitting around where we would talk together and just have a wonderful time. We slipped from there to the living room where we'd sit around watching television, which was the centerpiece of our family. Well, oftentimes with that being said, it would also be the centerpiece of fights. Give me the remote. No, give me the remote. No, give me the remote. And what if TVs would come with a warning label? Imagine they were to say something. Beware, frequent over usage may result in slothfulness, bad attitudes, perverse thinking, and spiritual apathy or spiritual drunkenness. And what I mean by that is lack of soberness where everything in your life is tainted by the substance or the television or the media with which you're watching. I became hooked on television to the point at one time in my life, I had one of my university roommates and he told me, his father was a chemistry professor He said, you know what, we had a time where we had no television. And I looked bewildered. I mean, I was just totally aghast of not having television. To me, that was a foreign concept. And I asked him, I said, well, what did you do with your time? And as I reflected on that event several times over throughout my life, I realized that that television was my idol. I did not know how to relax or occupy my time without first thinking of the television. I needed a warning label in my life to warn me about how far my watching could go. I needed someone to reach out and say, beware. I'm so thankful for, obviously, the Word of God that gives me that warning. God's put this upon my heart. Now, it's not just the television. It's YouTube and Facebook and other platforms, a bunch of other ones. You might say, Pastor, you're on the very platform that you're necessarily speaking against. I'm not speaking against it, but I am saying you need to be careful with what you're doing with your time. What if we could put a warning on every video it had a warning? Frequent over usage could cause laziness or something else, right? It may become habit form, will replace all other relationships. You may tune other people out or even your most beloved family to answer the message of a distant or internet only friend. Your spiritual life, if you do such, will plummet while your friend connections may multiply. I am not against these, but I desire to give a warning against them. Without a warning label, without taking a step back and thinking about our actions, we may very well get to the point in our life where we do not realize that the Lord's hand of blessing is no longer on our life. It reminded me of Judges chapter 16 verse 20 of Samson where he writes, and she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he woke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. So one of the things that I'm concerned about, and I don't see anything necessarily, it's not projected at any person, but it's just a warning, just to give you something to think about, as we talked about this morning for consider Him, consider Christ, we're going to also talk about Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, looking unto Jesus. Now one of the things that can happen in our life is we can lose that focus, a warning level, a warning label, excuse me. But as we reflect upon our focus in life, there's a lot of time to spend around the house, especially during this pandemic. We are going to be driven to more and more and more media usage until we are less careful and less purposeful with our time. The media can certainly be a driving force for the falling away of many believers. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verses one through three, It says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon saken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Talking about the antichrist as he's coming. But I really began to think about that falling away And in a day and age where there's a consumer Christianity, I saw an article on that recently, realizing this, that there could potentially be, even in our own church, a great falling away. And I don't want you to be a casualty. I don't want you to be a would have been or could have been Christian, a has been. I want you to be a productive Christian for Christ. And that's my concern this evening as I bring this message. And again, I do apologize for the situation, but it is what it is. Satan needs to get the Christians, in order for our world to have a great falling away, all he needs to do is get Christians comfortable with where they're at, comfortable with life. You know what, it can be comfortable staying home, comfortable watching social media, comfortable texting, comfortable YouTubing, comfortable in many other aspects of the internet. You can be so consumed with them and video games and television or any other type of medium that you're watching or looking at that you lose your focus and you fall away. It'll come slow. And so this evening, I'm not trying to come from a position of arrogance or anything. It's a concern. That's all it is that God has put upon my heart. I actually had another sermon that I was working on entitled, The Believer God Uses, and that's an encouraging truth. But this evening, I've got a truth here of a warning label. I've been working on this for several weeks. You know what? Satan's okay with a Christian being of no use to God. It's kind of like a frog. You put them in boiling water, they're going to jump out. But you put them in water, warm water, and you continually warm it up to the point of boiling. You could very well kill that frog, and it won't even notice it. It won't feel that slight temperature change. You know what? That's what can happen in our Christian life. I certainly know and understand of the draw of media. We live in a media-saturated world. Many children do not read books. Some children aren't even very well versed in reading. They can't read well because media has so saturated their mind. The Bible reading is non-existent. And the last book many may read would even be like an audiobook, if you were to ask. And if I was younger, that would probably be what my answer was. You know, even the parents can be consumed with social media and YouTube and really have little sense for God's Word, little sense for, as we talked about this morning, consider Him, but there also needs to be a looking into Jesus, Hebrews 12, verse 2. That which consumes our vision is that which is easy and takes no real effort on our behalf. In fact, it puts our brain into idle or into neutral or into an ease where we can relax. But someone is working hard for that media. Someone is working to make that which you're watching and they have an agenda. There's a message behind what they're giving. Satan has no problem with hard work. He's an incredibly hard worker. He wants you to buy into a message, buy into something that will distract you off of your focus from Christ. He's okay with lukewarmness, okay with apathy. People are not impressed anymore that we have a website. I remember when I was in university, I wouldn't go to a church if they didn't have a website. Rather, people don't, it's not even having a website anymore. I mean, it has to be a fancy website, all the questions in chat and invitations to church and are you going to come? I mean, there's a lot. It's not just, I remember, if you think back, I remember the 1990s about websites and other such things like that, that it was just. They were rather bland, these websites. We're in a different generation, and I'm all for reaching people. I'm all for a live stream. I'm all for social media and using it appropriately with restraints and obviously, in my heart of the pastors, that you would just really evaluate what you're watching. Because our goal and our command, as Christ has given us, is set forth in Scripture, Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. I want to help you to run the Christian race. Just give you some truths. Just give you something to help in your Christian race that you're not hung up, that you're not stumbling over truths. You're not stumbling over distractions of life, but you can have a strong Christian walk. It is a marathon of endurance against a relentless foe. I cannot look to Jesus if something else is constantly barraging my mind. And that's the warning label this evening. And so I've entitled this a warning label, but here's the principle. Be careful, little eyes, what you see. Let's go, Lord, and ask for his blessing upon this time. And then we will pray, or then we'll pray, and then we'll look at the message this evening. Dear Heavenly Father, God, I'm so thankful for your grace. Father, I pray for wisdom as we go forward. I pray that you would be exalted. Lord, I pray that this technology would work. I need your help, Lord. God, I need your strength. Father, I pray for each and every person that we would just evaluate our life to see where we're at. That, Father, we would draw close to yourself. That, God, we wouldn't be sideswiped. We wouldn't just become apathetic. We wouldn't just slowly fade away, fall away. God, I pray for the believers of our church, the members of our church, that God, they would stay fervent during this time and rather than going into a greater depths of media usage, but God, that they would get into the greater depths of your word and relationship with you, really considering who you are. God, I hope that for myself and pray that for myself and my family. Lord Jesus, I love you and I thank you for your grace. Thank you for the opportunity to bring forth your word this evening. In Jesus' precious name I pray, Amen. So this evening, first of all, I want to look at a need for warning. I saw that poem, Be Careful, Little Eyes, What You See. Oh, be careful, little eyes. And it comes from childbiblesongs.com. And the verse goes, oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see. And it repeats that twice. There's a father up above, and he's looking down in love. So be careful, little eyes, what you see. And then it also repeats that same type of framework with what you hear, what you do, where you go, what you say. You know what, that is a wonderful truth. We need to take heed to this warning that it takes just a little bit, just a little bit of sideswipe, just a little bit out of God's will for us to become a disaster. You see in Matthew chapter 27, verse 20, Matthew chapter 5, verses 27 through 28, excuse me. Matthew 5 27 to 28 you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in His heart. It's just a thought just something small and you know what on social media. There are a lot of bad images bad ads, bad things to see. You know what, if you look at the life of David in 2 Samuel 11, if you'd like to turn there, 2 Samuel 11 verse 2. And it came to pass in the evening tide that David, actually go to verse one. And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when Kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him. So David doesn't go to battle. He's not doing what he's supposed to be doing. And all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. He's back. Nothing bad. He's just staying back. And it came to pass in an evening time that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, It is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived and sent, and told David and said, I am with child. It happened just very innocently with David. He stays home. You know what, I'm tired. I don't want to do this. And that's the truth. In social media, I know I should probably be doing something else, but is it really going to matter? It's an innocent thing. I need to rest. David, I don't need to go to battle. I'll send Joab. Someone else can do it. You know, and he also goes up, then he goes up to the rooftop to relax. Nothing wrong with that. But he's not doing what he should be doing. And this spiral of just some casual decisions, less focused decisions, leads to devastating consequences. And our destruction through social media, potentially, is very subtle and innocent. We need a warning label. And so if you go back and you look at, really, the way with which Satan works in Genesis chapter 3, It was an alluring figure. The serpent was subtle. It talks about him in Genesis 3.1. Just look at that here. Genesis 3.1. It says, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. He was challenging God's sayings. Nothing bad, but he was challenging it. Nothing seemingly bad, it was bad, but nothing apparently bad. Did God really say this? Challenging the woman. And the woman, when she responded, she responded that God said that we can't even, we can't eat it, which God did say, but she also said that God said we couldn't touch it. Now, so here's some principles of temptation if you think upon them. They come, temptations are subtle. And as you're there with your phone or your tablet or, computer or television now, if you have Apple TV, Google or I don't know if it's Google TV or what they call it, Amazon TV, Roku or any other such type of device that connects to the internet, it could be simply something innocent, something simple. I need this. I need a little relaxation. I'm going to watch Subtle. You know what, subtlety of temptations do not refute God's word. He didn't say God is bad. No, he just said, did God really say this? So he's giving evidence that there is a belief in God. Temptation to wrong seeks to question God's authority, his character, but it didn't question him. You see, then it goes on and may even look religious. To the extent of the rules, did God really say this? Temptations don't let you know, though, about the negative consequences. They begin in the mind alluring desires. Hey, that's an interesting video. I think I'll watch it. Curiosity to evil begins with seeking answers to your questions of the unknown. I'd really like to know about this, but you know what? There's some things we ought not to know about we don't need to know about. Temptations do not like outside godly advice. They don't want the warning labels. They don't want truth because truth exposes lies, and they feed on instantaneous decisions. I think I can watch it. It'll be safe. Ah, just a little bit of bad. You know what, evil temptations exaggerate God's laws and all that you cannot have. And Eve would do that very thing. God said we couldn't eat it and we couldn't touch it. And one theologian said, sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is it sin, it is a perverse distortion of the image of the creator in us. All these good things and all our security are rightly found only and completely in him. That comes from sermonillustrations.com. But the truth is sin does come seemingly innocently. For David, staying home. For Samson, It was just a relationship with a woman, little by little. And he compromised, and he became a has-been. Eve's response was alluring to the eyes. Verses six and seven, a woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes. And the tree, to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. Curiosity with sin can be stopped by ignorance, but in the company of others who have tasted and known its delights, it ensnares. Sin perpetuates itself and feeds on ensnaring others. Here's some things, what happens when you begin to go down that road of compromise, you begin to go down that way of, of, uh, of sin and begin to go down the way with which is not helpful. Just a little decision. When you begin to not look unto Jesus so much, you're still looking to him, but not completely. Here's something that Adam and Eve lost innocence. Rebellion focused on what they could not have, the desire to be a God. Desired for greater knowledge. I need more knowledge. It's not okay to learn. I like learning. But the problem is, is you can learn a lot from social media, a lot. Some is good, some is bad. And just the learning is not bad. However, to the extent with which you give it a preeminence in your life, man tries also to hide his guilty conscience. You begin to maybe watch some things you ought not to and you hide it. Your relationships with God is now broken. Guilty conscience, blaming others for environmental influences. Well, I'm only watching it because I'm man, am I ever bored? I'm at home, I'm stuck, the government won't let me out, I can't do things, da, da, da, da, da. I mean, the excuses can go on and on. And you're blaming environment, your family. I mean, they're driving me crazy, I've just got to get away. You have a guilty conscience. You blame others for tempting you. You sent me this image. I mean, and then you began to just look at video after video after video and you find yourself going down a way you ought not to do. Pain is introduced. Then there's, obviously it goes on and talks about women's painful delivery, desire for a husband over God. You want a desire for friendships with humans and others over God. More friends on Facebook than friends in real life. A man's appointed authority over perfect godly authority. The ground is cursed, thorns and thistles in the ground, death required to cover the sinfulness of man, and you're evicted from God's best environment. And that's what Samson lost. He lost his life. He lost his life from the best. You know what? There's a need for a label. I love this truth, which Donna Bragg, she mentions this. She said, I can have everything in order biblically and yet be carnal. I may dress right, do right, teach right, talk right, give right, and be faithful. But it's just empty effort that the Holy Spirit is not working through me. I can be clean outwardly and dirty inwardly. The inward man is what counts. When the inward man is controlled by the Spirit, then the outward man will do what is right. When I look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, You know, at Hebrews chapter 11, you think about the martyrs. It says in Hebrews 11, 35, others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Verse 39 of chapter 11, and these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise God having provided some better things for us, that they without it should not be made perfect. They had a different hope. They had a different perspective. They had a hope and a perspective of looking into Jesus rather than looking unto themselves. They weren't looking at their own desires. No. Why would you go to death? You're looking to Jesus. You're not looking at someone else. And so we find this, if we have the wrong focus, we're going to be like Lot. And I'm going to be talking about him. But if we find an authority in waiting, an authority who's there, that's Jesus Christ. Looking unto Jesus. In Philippians chapter three, verses 13 through 14, it says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. There's a different perspective. And we, during this time of the pandemic, have an opportunity to slow life down. Psalms 46, I believe verse nine talks about be still and know that I am God. We have a great opportunity for that, but I want to show you something that Lot did. He didn't heed the warnings. He went down a bad path. Here in 2 Peter 2, verses 7-8, it says, "...and delivered just Lot." Here's the key, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling in among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Realize that law lived in a very comfortable town, a very perverse town. It mentions the conversations, that is conversations allow speech and lifestyles. I'm telling you in social media, there are some speech and lifestyles and things that are just completely in direct contrast to the holiness of God. And we no longer have to close our binds. I remember a story when I was a young kid. We went across the street to this lady's house, and she was listening to some music that wasn't so good. And so she put a sheet over her television, and blind, she closed them. So others wouldn't know what she was listening to. I don't remember the music at the time. Obviously, it probably wouldn't have been a good thing for me to be over there. But nevertheless, we were listening to some music and some things that were not good. We don't have to hide out anymore. No, you can take your smartphone and go anywhere and everywhere, and people just think, ah, they're just on their smartphone. We can allow ungodly conversations, immoral lifestyles. We can allow pictures and videos of children who are foul-mouthed and rude to their parents, who dress up in ways that are ungodly. They can dress in ways that you can look at things that just, women that aren't dressed well, and a host of other things that are clearly against the word of God. Recently, I had a conversation with a professing Christian film producer and he was voicing his opposition against a particular stand that I took and he accused me of certain undesirable traits. In the conversation, he said, your people are watching the videos of Hollywood. I don't know if our people are or not. I don't know what you watch. But as the Lord has been working in my heart, and after thinking through all the idle downtime that many people have, or stuck inside, I wanted to give some warnings on this. And so that's really the product of this sermon. I'm doing this from a position not of arrogance, loftiness, again, or self-righteousness. I just don't want you to become a casualty of life. To have the testimony of Lot where you vexed your righteous soul from day to day and you fell away. Where your own children won't even listen to you. They don't want your truth of your Christianity. Lot allowed his family to fall so much in love with the world that when the warning came, he said, flee Sodom, flee Sodom. Get out of here, dad. And they made fun of him. Yeah, right. Ha ha ha. Impending and imminent danger to the city was not enough to stir them to action, because Lot's life was that of utter and complete, not complete, but utter compromise, over and over again. It was Lot's desires, Lot's will for life, Lot's hobbies, Lot's job, Lot's wishes, not God's. You find something here in Colossians 3, verses 1 and 2. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. And my friend, we can get so in love with social media and internet that we lose our love. We lose our focus. If I allow the filthy conversation of the world to be the emphasis of what I watch, then I will not produce fruit for Christ. And 1 John 2, verses 16 and 17 says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away. Our world is passing away, as I've thought about this. It goes on to say, "...and the less thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." As I've thought about this pandemic, and really as it has so radically, drastically affected our world, it could very well be that Jesus could come at any time. If you were to look at 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 16-18, it says, "...for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." And the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another." With these words, Jesus is coming back. My friend, with all that I have seen going on around us, it wouldn't be much for the world. It's even been suggested forming a one-world government. With the ease that the government is really controlling people's activities or travels, even their workplace, saying this is essential, non-essential, and vice versa. I don't know why they say alcohol is essential. They need to close those places down, but with the ease with which the government is doing this, it would not be very hard for the antichrist to come on the scene. Our currency could very quickly, excuse me, very quickly and completely turn to all digital because you don't want money. It's dirty. It can spread viruses. And so you put a chip in your hand and you touch nothing. So you don't need to spread it. They very quickly impose, the world could impose, as China is doing, a good social credit score, you can travel or not, based upon whether the government thinks you're a good citizen. Very opposedly demand people to be, have the chips, and the prospect of a revelation, as I began to think about Revelations 13, verses 16 through 17, and he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark of the name of the beast or the number of his name. Now this is written during the tribulation period when Christians will already be gone during that time. Now there will be Christians that will be saved and go through it, but up until the time of the rapture before the tribulation starts, Christians will be out of here. But the Christians could very easily, even coming up into this period before Jesus returns in the rapture, could be persecuted and tortured. We've got to have our focus upon Christ. I mean, he could come tomorrow. He could come five or 10 years. We don't know, or even further. I don't know. But what it has done is really caused me to think how can the world all shut down so quickly over something so benign. And I'm telling you, if we are stuck on social media, I'm, I'm not producing fruit. I'm not doing that necessarily. It can be simple, innocent things. I'm not saying it's wrong at all to watch. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is be cautious and warning you to say, listen, there are dangers. You could fall away because you just get sucked into something so innocent and you lose so much. Nero in the first century would blame the Christians for burning the city. He was the one that most likely had started it because he wanted to rebuild Rome, but he blamed it on the Christians and persecuted them. And I'm not telling you this to give you a spirit of fear or anything else like that, but I don't want you to fall away. That's the key. Please don't fall away. Don't let television or movies or entertainment or internet or social media or Facebook, YouTube, obviously that's what those are, but nevertheless, these other platforms, games, video games, online games become so consuming. You lose your, your focus. You're not looking into Jesus. Your race is distracted. You're detoured. We understand the rapture in 1 Corinthians 15, 52, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Christian, we have the greatest deliverance from Egypt ever, or the time for the world. Romans 8 15 for you have not received the spirit of a bondage again to fear But you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father We have freedom. I don't want you to go back into into prison or into the bonds of sin Jesus freed us from that. There's a whole bunch of freedom in Christ He gave us a ransom for our souls and our sinful state and Paul's focus according to Philippians 1 20 is According to my earnest expectation and hope, and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. You know what our responsibility is, Christian? As we have the missions conference coming up, I need to be thinking about what I can do for Christ. I need to establish my relationship with God, and I need to establish my relationship with others to be reaching out to get the message. Jesus is coming back. He's coming back soon, and we need to be working for Him. John chapter four, verse 35, say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest. In our watching of whatever we're watching, whatever's consuming our time during this time where we are under confinement, we need to be saying, God, what else can I do for you? With the constraints of obedience where I'm at with the government, what can I do? There is a great need for believers, and I would also encourage you not only watching your time, but also having accountability with what you're watching. If you're in your house, parents, if you have children in your house, whatever their age, we ought to have accountability. You need accountability. I need accountability. I have accountability myself. We cannot put our lives on hold, waiting for COVID-19 to go away. We need to press forward for Christ. And praying and asking the Lord what I can do to be busy for Him, and we must not lose focus, Christian, as I get to the conclusion. But as Hebrews 12, 2 says, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. He's interceding on our behalf. But he didn't come and die. He didn't give us salvation and us receive it for us to sit around idle watching things hour after hour after hour. Why don't we get back to Job. I made a covenant with my eye and eyes. Why then should I think upon a maid? I would also say not only thinking upon a maid or thinking upon that which is worldly like a lot. He just got distracted. The world was more alluring than God was. and his children would not listen to him. He lost everything. His wife, his daughters, he lost it all. Now he did have his daughters and there was some great perversion that happened. But we must be careful and cautious about our warning level. I love this truth that Mrs. Charles E. Cowman in Streams in the Desert, it's a devotional, she wrote this poem. I want to read it for you. Utterly abandoned to the Holy Ghost, Seeking all His fullness at whatever cost, Cutting all the shorelines, launching in the deep. Of His mighty power, strong to save and keep, Utterly abandoned to the Holy Ghost, O sinking! sinking until self is lost, until the empty vessel lies broken at his feet, waiting till his filling shall make the work complete, utterly abandoned to the will of God, seeking for no other path than my master trod, leaving ease and pleasure, making him my choice, waiting for his guidance, listening to his voice. Utterly abandoned, no will of my own, for time and for eternity, his and his alone. All my plans and purposes lost in his sweet will, having nothing, yet in him all things possessing still. Utterly abandoned, his so sweet to be, captive in his bonds of love, yet so wondrous free. Free from sins and tanglements, free from doubt and fear, free from every worry, burden, grief, or care. Utterly abandoned, though the rest is sweet, as I tarry waiting at his blessed feet. waiting for the coming of the guest divine who my inmost being shall perfectly refine low he comes and fills me holy spirit sweet i in him i'm satisfied i in him complete the light within my soul shall nevermore grow dim while i keep my covenant abandoned unto him end quotes and so my heart this evening is that you I apologize. Let's try that again. My heart this evening is that you would not get to the place in your Christian life where the glory of the Lord is departed from you and you don't even know it. His hand is departed from your life and you don't realize it. And my friend, I don't want you to be a falling away. Would you stay fervent? As I've seen our church members growing and it's been so encouraging through the RU curriculum and I've seen people get focused in doing their devotions and making God a priority. And you know how much of a blessing that is? And you too could become a casualty like Lot, like Sodom, like David, and a host of others. I don't know why I put Sodom in there, but it's the understanding that Lot and David, or Samson is what I meant to say, excuse me, and a host of others who innocently lost their focus because they avoided the warning label. Here's the warning label, be careful, don't fall away. look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And when we do that, we can have a well-run race. We can end our race strong if Jesus comes tomorrow or in 10 seconds from now, we don't know. But my friend, if you don't know Jesus, He's coming soon. You better prepare, you better put your faith and trust in Him if you've never done that. To become a Christian, all you need to do to become a child of God, receive the greatest gift ever of forgiveness of sins, Acknowledge that you're a sinner. You deserve God's punishment for sin. Believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again, and then confess it. And Christian, don't become a casualty. Don't fall away. Please heed the warning label. Look unto Jesus. Let us go to the Lord and ask for his blessing. And I want to say thank you so much. Dear Heavenly Father, God, I love you. God, I thank you for your grace. And I thank you for this challenge from your word. God, there's those in Hebrews 11 that have had a hall of faith chapter. God, they have lived righteously, and some even like Rahab have lived a life before that was not so good, but God, You redeemed it and made her something great. And Father, I pray that our Christians and believers would not become sideswiped, sidetracked by the things of life, but Father, we would focus upon you. And Lord, I pray that even for myself, that when I begin to get distracted and begin to do things that aren't necessarily bad, but Lord, I do things that are just not the best and wasting my time. Father, I pray that you'd prick my heart. And God, would you help us to be found faithful? I pray for the person that doesn't know you as their Savior, that they'd be saved now, that they'd reach out. And God, I also pray for our church members and other attendees that, Lord, you'd keep them strong. Father, how much I love you, and I thank you for your grace. God, thank you for all that you'll do. In Jesus' precious name, I pray. Amen.