to be saved this morning, say amen. The Bible said, know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run not as uncertainty, so fight not I, not as one that beateth the air. but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Chapter number 10, moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock, that followed them and that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three in 20,000. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples. And they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Let's pray. Dear heavenly follower, we thank you again for this morning. Thank you for the wonderful song service. Lord, thank you, Lord, that we have something to be happy about. Lord, we're living in a day and age where there is a void, there's a missing happiness. Lord, we've seen it creep down into the youngest of our generations. Lord, our children are dealing with things, Lord, that we did not deal with at their age, Lord, in our society. Lord, I'm thankful, Lord, for your grace and your mercy. I'm thankful for the change that you can make in someone's life. Lord, thank you for the happiness that you bring. Lord, it is not in our circumstance, but Lord, it is in the truth, Lord, that we are saved by the grace of God. And I pray, Lord, this morning that you hide me behind the cross of Calvary, Lord, you empty me out of myself, fill me with the spirit of God. Use me one more time, Lord, for your glory. Let me just be a vessel in the hands of the master, Lord, a mouthpiece for your glory this morning. And I just pray, Lord, you work in the hearts of each and every person that's here this morning. If someone needs to be saved, Lord, you save them by your grace. Or if there's a Christian here that needs to be challenged, convicted, changed, encouraged, strengthened, Lord, you know the work that every heart needs this morning, Lord, and I ask that you do and have your way in each and every person this morning. We thank you in Jesus' name we pray, amen, and amen. You can have a seat this morning. Thank you so much for standing as we read God's word. We're reading Paul's letter to the Corinthian church there. We know there's two of them, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and it's an interesting book. The devotions I've been sending out, I've been in the book of 1st Corinthians, just taking my time through it verse by verse and just pulling out and allowing to share with you what God has given me. But we understand the metaphor here given to us at the end of chapter number nine. It is Paul writing to the church there and he brings up this metaphor of running a race. Now you may not be an Olympic athlete this morning, and you may not do it on a consistent basis, but at some point in your life, you have ran a race. At some point, you have been in a starting line and pursued a finish line with other people in front of you. It may not have been on the playground, it may have been at Black Friday shopping, but some way or another, you have raced somebody in your life. You understand the concept that is being brought to us this morning. And really, I wanna look at that as an introduction this morning, then work our way down into chapter number 10 this morning. And we understand this one, as a Christian, we are to run the race of our faith, the race of our life, that there is a race that every Christian is called to run this morning. Paul, even himself, said, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Paul understood that his life itself was a race. And we understand this one, and it's not necessarily that we are to just know that we're running a race, but how are we to run that race? What are the ways, and what's the proper mindset to have as we run that race? We know we're supposed to run with purpose. In verse number 24, the Bible says, in chapter number nine, that we may obtain, that we may run to obtain. In essence, how interesting would a race be if everybody got at the starting line and they grabbed that starting gun and they fired it and everybody just said, no, you go first. No, you go first. I don't wanna win. You go first, right? That would not be a very, it'd be a very polite race, but not a very interesting one, right? We understand that when they, it is to pursue the goal at the best of our ability. This morning, the Christian life isn't a sprint, and we can't think of it in that sense, because on the playground, we're trying to beat everybody else. Now, you gotta realize this morning, I was not built for speed. I was never fast, I probably never will be fast. I've missed that boat. But I remember growing up and wanting to run and trying to beat everybody else on the playground and coming in a solid fifth or sixth out of seven. I wasn't always last, but I was very close to it. But that's not how we live the Christian life. The Christian life is not me and you outrunning each other. It is not me and you trying to be better than somebody else this morning. The reality is we're not running so we can be better than someone else, but rather we are running to know that we are giving it our best effort. We are running with everything that is in us. In essence, this morning, we used to say it this way, Mom, we used to say it this way growing up, and it's not really about winning or losing, it's about did you give it your best? Did you play your heart out? Did you leave everything on the field? Are we giving everything that we have to the Lord? We are to run with that kind of purpose, right? I sold out a committed life to Christ that gains that eternal crown that we're able to cast back at the feet of Jesus. So we're to run with purpose this morning, but also we are to run with temperance. Verses 25 and verse 26, tonight we understand this word, and we see it there, and every man that striveth for the mastery, in essence, to be the best at it, must be temperate in all things. The word temperate means to be disciplined, to be self-controlled, to have, when they temper metal, they bring it down to a certain point where it is strengthened, and it is hardened in that sense, and it is the best that it can be, but it's a process that takes time, The reality is in the Christian life, you and I cannot live the Christian life effectively or in a way that glorifies the Lord without discipline this morning. You will not live the Christian life by accident. You will not accidentally read your Bible. You will not accidentally pray. You will not accidentally share the gospel. You will not accidentally develop a routine in your life that allows you to be in the word of God on a consistent basis. It takes discipline. Discipline, and can I say by nature this morning, you and I do not like discipline. We do not like getting up early. We do not like staying up late. We all have things that we don't like, and discipline says, though I don't like it, I understand the necessity that it is beneficial for me. Therefore, I will push through what I don't like in order to get what God has for me. So we see at this point, we are to be, you know, think about someone running a race. They have a disciplined diet. They only eat certain things and they stay away from certain things. That's not good for me, that is beneficial for me. I'll get as much of this as I can get and stay far away. There's a disciplined determination this morning. In essence, I'm not giving up until I cross that finish line. There's a lot of things that we cannot be in life because we don't have the gift, we don't have the talent to do it. You may not be able to sing, you may not be able to teach. In essence, like somebody else does, you may not be able to do great math or great reading abilities. You may not have those kind of things, but there's something that you and I all can be, and every single one of us can be faithful. but it takes discipline, and it takes determination. There must be a disciplined schedule, the disciplined routine, in essence, and not just in our personal Bible, but Saturday nights before church, get in the routine of saying, I'm gonna pick my clothes out, I'm gonna set the alarm, I'm gonna go bed on time, I'm gonna trust the end of the game into the hands of the Lord, because I know I gotta be up for church in the morning. But we realize that when it takes a disciplined schedule, disciplined routine, it takes disciplined safety. But I'm going to stay away. I'm not going to try to get as far, as close to the edge as I can. I can understand on the other side of the edge is danger. Therefore, I'm going to stay far, far away from it. Could you imagine this morning if we got on a church bus together, and I'm driving it, and we're going down the road, and we're on the side of a mountain, and it's got that little steel aluminum thing right there, guard rail on the side of it, and I say, you know what, I'm gonna see how close I can get to that, and keep going down the road. None of y'all be like, oh, preacher, this is so fun. Preacher, this is wonderful. Preacher, get as close as you can. Preacher, even rub a little paint if you want to. You'd be saying, preacher, stop and let me off. I'd be much safer walking by myself than letting you drive. Boy, there needs to be a determined and disciplined safety in the Christian life. We are to run with temperance. We are to run with purpose. Then notice verse 27, we are to run with inflection. We are to run with inflection. In essence, you're not to run with the wrong mindset. You're not to run with this mindset. I'm gonna run so great, and so much better than everybody else, nobody's gonna wanna run after me. That they'll just look and say, there's no way I could ever do that, so I'm just gonna give up and quit. They are the super Christian. I'm just, I'm never gonna do that. That's not the mind. I'm not trying to run to impress nobody. I'm not trying to run so you can have wonderful perception of me. I'm running because I am persuaded that Jesus is worth running for. I'm persuaded that Jesus is my reward, Jesus is my goal, and I'm gonna give him everything, and I have to get up every day. You have to get up every day and tell yourself, Jesus is worth living for. And we see it this morning that we must run with inflection. The mindset is to run in such a way that those who run after us are inspired to run. They said, man, if God can use somebody like that and God can do something with their life in that fashion, I wonder what he could do with me if I sold out like they're sold out. We ought to be encouraging this. And we also shouldn't run so poorly that those after us could care less about running. We run in such a poor fashion that those who come after us say, well, that's all that is. I don't want anything to do with that. I don't wanna do that, I would rather do something else with my life. We may not be the quickest or the fastest, but we should be the most committed and consistent ones out there. We show up every day, we put in the necessary work, we may not be the best, we may not have the recognition, we may not have the sponsors like everybody else has, but we are gonna run with everything that's in us. We had to run with inflection. And here's the thing, Paul even said it this way in verse number 27, he said, I keep under my body and bring in a subjection, lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I think Paul stayed in the ministry, and Paul went through what he went through, not just because he loved Jesus, and he loved the Lord, and he knew that Jesus was worthy of it. Paul realized, I have preached to a lot of people, and I've told a lot of people that Jesus is worth living for, and Jesus is worth running for, and Paul said, if I quit, what effect is that gonna have on them? How are they gonna overcome that, and how are they gonna receive that? I'm with Paul as well, I don't wanna be a castaway. I don't want to have to look at my children or my children look at me and say, I remember when daddy used to run. Now I'm thankful this morning that though we do fail and though we do fall, God is gracious and forgiving. But we ought to purpose in our hearts, I ain't going back that way. There's nothing back there worth going back for. And by the grace of God, I'm gonna pursue the high calling of Jesus Christ, I'm gonna press forward, press toward it, and I'm gonna run with everything that I have in me. I don't wanna be known as a casual preacher. I'm a retired preacher. Well, you may be retired from a job, but your Christianity is not a job. It is who you are. So I've got good news for you. There's no such thing as retirement in the Christian life. God has something for you to do today. He has that part of the race, your leg of the race today for you to run. Whether you're 89 or nine years old, the common factor there, the requirement there is not your age limit, but rather your salvation. If you've been saved by the grace of God this morning, you are to run the race and run with everything that you have in you. But then we come down to verse, or chapter number 10 this morning. Now we have to remember this morning, when Paul wrote this letter under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost to the church at Corinthians, he didn't write chapter 10, verse number one. Those were added in later so you and I could have a reference point. It would make preaching easier in that sense, and it'd help us to understand where the preacher was. Could you imagine this morning if I walked in here and said, take your Bibles to the first letter to the church at Corinthians, and turn to the seventh paragraph in the 37th word. We'd be here until 12 o'clock trying to find that. And so when we come here, these were brought in to help us understand and help us as a reference point. But when Paul wrote this, there would have been no chapter number 10 right here. It just would have carried over into the next part of his letter. And so Paul has given us this great admonition to run the races before us, to run the right way, to run with great zeal and great excitement and great faith, believing that God is the diligent rewarder of those and diligently seek him and run for him. Then he goes in chapter number 10, verse one, moreover. It's a fancy word for but. So the next time you have to use that conjunction but, I'd encourage you to use the word moreover. People are gonna think you're sophisticated and smart. I was hungry, moreover, I got something to eat. Wow, he probably got a college degree. But he says, moreover, this is not just run the race right and run with everything you have. He starts off chapter number 10 to tell us don't run the wrong way. And this is no, yes, we know we're supposed to run the right way. We understand that. He said, but I wanna make sure that you also know don't run the wrong way. You would think, well, preacher, that's pretty self-explanatory. That's pretty much common sense. Well, you gotta realize, even in Paul's day, I don't think common sense was as common as we think it is. So Paul says, moreover, don't just run the right way. There's more I wanna preach on this thought. Don't run the wrong way. Don't run the wrong way. In verse number six and verse number 11, we see the word example. In verse number six, we see the word example. In verse number 11, they both mean pretty much the same thing. There was an example given to you and I of what running the wrong way looks like. And we're gonna see here in chapter number 10 that God gives us some warning signs. That if we are running in this direction and we see these warning signs, we are running the wrong way. The other day I was at our bank, which is off of one of them roads over on the other side of town. I don't know, it's not Washington Road, Wheeler Road, there it is. And I was coming out of our bank. I said, I'm pretty sure there's a back route this way. And so I'll go down this way instead of getting back on Wheeler. I'll go the back way. And so I turned my GPS on to wherever I was trying to get to. And it took me down the back way. And I'd never been to that part of Augusta before. And I end up coming behind and coming out behind a doctor's hospital. If you've ever been to a doctor's hospital, you know there's a loop around it. Somehow, I would like to blame it on the GPS, but it's not the GPS's fault. I got going the wrong direction. How did you know, preacher? Because I seen the sign, it said, wrong way. And I said, if I can read that on this side of the car, that means I'm going the wrong way. What'd you do, preacher? I said, well, I just got mad at everybody else going the right way. What's wrong with these people? They think they're better than me? Why are they so judgmental? I'm just trying to be me. I'm trying to live my life. Why don't they just quit judging me? That's not what I did. I realized I'm going the wrong way. And for my safety and for my benefit, I need to turn around. So I turned around right in the middle of the road and started going the right way. This morning, through the preaching, God, the Holy Ghost, brings up some of these warning signs in your life. Don't get mad at the preacher. I'm not judging you this morning. I didn't come here with axes to grind. I don't even own an axe. I own a chainsaw, amen, it's a whole lot easier. I didn't come with no personal vendettas this morning. But if these warning signs in your life, the Holy Ghost this morning is trying to tell you, turn around. Turn around, you're running the wrong way. Because here's the thing, if you keep going the wrong direction, you're gonna end up somewhere you never dreamed you'd be at. And yes, there is grace and there is forgiveness, but he gave us an example. And here's the thing, the things that God gives us an example for, we are to learn from. In essence this morning, God gave us 1 Corinthians chapter number 10 verses one through 11 as an example. That way we can learn from the example and not have to learn from experience. God gave us the example so we wouldn't have to learn from experience. Now this morning, I could probably say, raise your hand if you know God is gracious, because you've, through experience, you've experienced the grace of God through failure and faults. We understand that this morning. But the reality is this morning, God gave us the example so we don't have to go there. We don't have to experience that. So this morning, I wanna give you some examples this morning, some warning signs that we find here in 1 Corinthians chapter number 10, and I want you to learn from it. And if they pop up in your life, Spiritually put on the the the brakes and do a u-turn and start following the Lord again. We call that repentance Getting right with the Lord. We give you four wrong way signs that will tell you you're running in the wrong direction Number one we see the warning sign of idolatry The warning sign of idolatry look at verse number seven this morning of 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. Neither be ye idolaters. Now, we gotta realize that when Paul is speaking here, he's speaking to God's people, no doubt, in the church of Corinth, but he's also speaking about God's people in the Old Testament. He's speaking about those who knew who God was. How do they know who God was? Well, they walked through the Red Sea. They literally were following the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day, which was representing God's presence to them. He wasn't talking to the heathen. He wasn't talking to those who knew nothing about God. He was talking about those who had known on a personal level through experience that God was true and God was real. God had changed their life. He had brought them out of Egypt in pursuing the promised land. But notice here we see the first warning sign of idolatry. In verse number seven, neither be you idolaters, as were some of them. Who? God's people. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now, to be honest with you this morning, I've never really been part of an idol service. I grew up Roman Catholic and there was no doubt there were some times where we did some crazy things. I watched the entire church kiss the feet of a cross. And then I remember going through that as a teenage boy thinking, that's weird. That's kind of nasty. And I'm thinking, what do they do post-COVID? How do they do that now? Right, but we see this point, oftentimes, we think of idol worship, you're in a dark, smoke-filled room, and everybody's got hoods on, and they're chanting things, and they bring out this idol, and everybody bows down to it and chants some stuff to it, and, oh, preacher, I'd never get caught up in that. Well, I hope not. But the reality is, at this point, our idol worship doesn't look like that. Notice the results, or notice the description here in verse number seven of what it looks like and what it produces. The Bible said neither be idolaters as were some of them as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. In essence this morning we see that the result of idol worship causes you and I to have the wrong mindset. It's all about comfort. It's all about fun. They rose up to play. In essence, they understood that there was a responsibility, there was a work that needed to be done, but due to whatever their idol was, we could go back to the book of Exodus, see the golden calves, all those kind of things. But as their focus got on an idol and off the Lord, they quit caring about their service, they quit caring about their sacrifice, they quit caring about serving the Lord, and I just want to play. The Bible said they rose up, they sat down, they had fellowship, they had consumption there in verse number seven. The Bible said they rose up to play. We let things become idols in our life, we'll spend more time playing around with them than doing what actually needs to be done. God didn't call Israel to play around in the promised land. He didn't say, listen, I'm gonna bring you out of Egypt and I've got a jungle gym over there in the promised land. Y'all will have recess 24-7, it's gonna be wonderful over there. Now, he told him to march in, to be victorious, to that which he had already promised him, to go and occupy and possess for the glory of God. The reality is this morning, Brother Lester Roloff used to say, listen, it's not a recreation room, it's a battlefield, brother. And the reality is we've begun some modernizing our Christianity. And so, most of what I'm looking for, not just emotionalized, but also entertained in Christianity and in churches nowadays. We think that churches just make me feel good and help me feel better preaching. I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna just enjoy my life. The reality is, yea, the godly shall suffer persecution. The just shall live by faith. And we're not promised easy days and fun days and playgrounds and wonderful times. We are called to serve the Lord. And the real problem is when we get fixated on idols, we no longer care about what God wants. We get consumed with what the idol's telling us. I remember reading somewhere the average American over four hours a day on social media. Let me ask you, has it ever changed your life? Has it ever produced a better, have you ever got off and said, you know what, I have to read now, I'm gonna go serve the Lord. Normally, we get so consumed with those things, we just wanna get up and go play. The warning sign of idolatry. Growing up, going to public school, and going to especially Richmond County Public High School, I can't tell you how many times, because of my personality, how many times I heard, boy, you play too much. And that's to say, they were expecting me to be serious, that it was a serious moment, here I come in being funny. They say, boy, you play too much. The reality is, that could probably be said to be about most Christians today. Well, we play too much. We are so consumed and concerned with what doesn't matter that we're not willing to do what needs to be done. Let me ask you this, do you have idols in your life that have caused you to spend more time playing than pursuing God's purpose in your life? Number one, the warning sign of idolatry. Number two, the warning sign of fornication. Well, how many believe a preacher ought to preach the Bible? Amen. I didn't come up with the word, God did. Look at verse number eight. Neither let us commit fornication, some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Now today we live in a sexual in a central society. We were watching the debate the other night and they had two commercial breaks in at one point I literally had turned my head and turned the volume down and told my wife could they not find any other better commercials for a presidential debate? I had the children's Bible songs on playing on the van the other day, because that's what Shiloh wants to listen to. Turn on my music. Turn on my songs, Dad. She's got some on CD, and the others I was playing off Spotify. And boy, we was getting down. Father Abraham had many sons. Oh, driving down the road, pumping arms, everything. It's kind of scary when you hit the brakes. Trying to move your left foot. You know, you're supposed to use that foot to drive. But we're getting down the B-I-B-L-E. Wise men build his house upon the sand. And then in the middle of it played an ad for alcohol. I know they're listening to me. I know Google's knowing what's going on in my car right now. Why in the world would they play that? I'm listening to kids' Bible songs. And that ad comes up. We are living in a society that is inundated with that stuff. Right, we're living in a sexual central society, and here's the thing, since we're so inundated with it, right, it has become somewhat comfortably numb to it. It's lost its shocking sting. If you were to go back and find somebody in the early 1900s, bring them back into our society today, they'd probably have a heart attack with how things have changed. Modesty's gone out the window. Oh yeah, preach on them women wearing dresses. Can I say, I believe modesty ought to be practiced by women and men. No, I don't want to see you cutting your grass with no shirt on. Men or women. Well, when we go to camp, the guy's got to wear shirts too. I ain't trying to hurt you or all men, I still don't want to see it. We see this morning, personal hygiene's gone out the window too. I don't know who came up with the great idea that muskie smells good. I'm gonna go find that person. Power bomb them through three tables. Here's the thing, just because we live in a sex-crazed, revealing flesh society doesn't mean we get a pass on it. Doesn't mean God says, oh, never mind. Your society is too crazy. Here's the thing this morning. He said, preacher, but it's just one time. It's just one look. You know, we've already talked about this through preaching throughout here that it's not just a physical act that God is against, even through the mindset and the thinking about it that God's against. If a man, Jesus said, if a man looks upon a woman and his heart lusts after her, he's committed adultery, committed fornication. Right, we understand that it's not just the act, but even the viewing and the looking at it at this point has an effect on us. Preacher, it's not that bad. Well, take that back up with Israel. In one day, how many people died? Three in 20,000. That's 60,000 people in one day. Preaching one time's not that bad. What if that's the same result for you? Here's the thing this morning. You make the choice, but you gotta live with the consequences. And you may not know this morning, you may not realize that you're gonna, just one look or one action, one thought this morning can cause you to lose everything that God's built up in your life and given you. If you're running towards that stuff, you're running in the wrong direction. You're about to have a mess that's way bigger than you can handle this morning. Let me ask you, has your mind been so affected by fornication that you've begun to justify it instead of running away from it? Then notice number three, this morning we see the warning sign of unfaithfulness. Verse number nine of 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of the serpents. A sold out, sincere, wholehearted, faithful Christian would never tempt the Lord. Matter of fact, when you read your Bible, when you look at your Bible, I only found two people that tempted the Lord. One was Satan, one was unfaithful believers. Those who did not and were not faithful to the Lord, not believe the Lord. When you become unfaithful to the Lord, that means you have become faithful to someone else or something else. When you quit being faithful to the Lord, you start being faithful to a serpent. In essence, if you're faithful to anything else but the Lord, Right, it's gonna be a serpent. Here's the thing about serpents, sooner or later they're gonna bite. Oh, preacher, it's a good snake. We've got Husker, he's a pit bull, and he just showed up on our property one day and we started taking care of him and his sister, Georgia, we since had to put her down, but we still got Husker, but I remember our landlord came over and he said, hey, will that dog bite? I said, well, he shouldn't. He said, what do you mean he shouldn't? He's a dog, I don't know. He don't talk to me. He don't tell me, hey, listen, I ain't biting nobody. I'm done with that, I put that behind me. I said, he's a dog. He may or may not, just be careful around him. He was like, can you like move him there? One of them people, I mean, if them lions could bite Siegfried and Roy, that was what their names were, I don't remember what their names were, those magicians on Las Vegas who had all those lions. If those lions would bite them, they worked with them for 20 some years. Know this, you start messing around with serpents, they're gonna bite. They're gonna bite. You start being unfaithful to the Lord, whatever you're being faithful to will sooner or later bite you. Everything this world has to offer you has a sting to it, has a bite to it, has venom to it this morning. The danger of that unfaithfulness in our lives, it puts us in a position that allows Satan to destroy everything that God has built and given you in this life. It allows Satan room to destroy the testimony that God has given you. And boy, if you've ever had to build that back, you know how difficult it is. We see this morning the warning sign of unfaithfulness. Make the choice now to be faithful. If you can be anything else, if you can be anything in your life, be faithful. Be faithful. Let me ask you, you become unfaithful to the Lord in certain areas of life, do you realize the danger of destruction that brings into your life this morning? This is not how you run. These warning signs are up in your life. It's time to do an about face and run back to Jesus. Run back towards the Lord this morning. Then notice number four this morning, we see the warning sign of complaining. the warning sign of complaining. You say, well, preacher, I was three, I was over three, preacher. Why you gotta say complaining? That's my spiritual gift, preacher. That's what I'm good at. Where do you get, I don't see the word complaining in this chapter, pastor, it must not be in there. Look at verse number 10 this morning. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Well, that last part of that sentence don't sound good at all, does it? Destroy it or the destroyer. But what is murmuring? It's complaining. Now, you may not know this about me. I was born with a heart murmur. As an infant, I had a small, tiny little hole in my heart. Now, it was not so severe that I had to have surgery or anything like that, but I had a hole in my heart. I remember growing up hearing that all the time. My mom would always tell every doctor, I had a heart murmur. He's got a heart murmur. He's got a heart murmur. Five, six years old, I didn't know what she was talking about. having an average child or a regular child had played sports, all that kind of, but I had a heart murmur. Only thing was different, every time I went to the dentist, I had to take amoxicillin. And I just thought that's what everybody else did. But I remember growing up, telling me I have a heart murmur. Then one day we went and visited a doctor. We went to the doctor there on Fort Gordon. Mom said, you know, he's got a heart murmur. He said, I know that. And she said, how can you tell? She said, when I was listening to his heart, he put that ice cold stethoscope on my chest and was listening to my heart. He said, because the average person's heart goes, He said, I could tell he had a heart murmur, because his went, da-dum-ch, da-dum-ch, da-dum-ch. He said that faint sound at the end was the blood hitting against the back of the heart. In a nutshell, here's what it means. He said, your son has unnecessary noise in his heart, and it's having an effect on him. It's a heart murmur. You know what murmuring is in the Christian life? Unnecessary noise that doesn't need to be there. We have no spiritual need of complaining. We have no spiritual need for murmuring. If our life is full of nothing but you and I complaining about life, we're running in the wrong direction. Murmuring in the biblical sense is somewhat the same. It is when unnecessary noises, complaining is found in the heart and the life of a Christian. Complaining is nothing more than us telling God that he isn't doing a good job and he's not doing things the right way. And when we had that attitude, Right, because every word that comes out of your mouth first comes out of your heart. Right, out of the abundance of the heart that what mouth speaketh. Those complaining words coming out of our mouth are coming out of the heart that is full of complaining. And when our heart is full of complaints under the Lord and about what the Lord's doing, we don't realize how vulnerable we're allowing our heart to be to Satan. In essence, Satan's gonna hear those complaints and he's gonna move right in and make sure they don't stop. Make sure that they don't get better. It leaves us open to the destroyer and some of the hardest people to minister to are not the drug addicts. They're not the druggers. They're not the unlearned, unchurched crowd. Some of the hardest people you'll find out to minister to are bitter Christians whose complaining has allowed that root of bitterness to spring up in their life. and they're some of the most difficult people to try to minister to and to help, who've allowed Satan to use their complaint to completely turn them against the Lord. One of the worst things Satan can do is destroy our confidence in the Lord, to agree with our complaints, to help us feel like there's some substance behind them. Complaining, murmuring gives him the ammunition to do so. The warning sign of complaint. Let me ask you this morning, how much complaining have you done lately? compared to the amount of praise and thanksgiving. Nowhere in our Bible are we told, be ye complainers. Complain a little bit. It does the heart good. But over and over again, we're told to praise the Lord. We're told to give thanksgiving in all things. Why? God knows our heart needs it. Which is one of the warning signs of complaining. reminds us all these things happen unto us, or unto them, for our example. In essence, not to be on our spiritual high horse, but we can look at 1 Corinthians 10, verses one through 11 and say, I sure am glad they went through that so I don't have to. Lord, help me to learn from that so I don't become that. Let me ask you this morning, are you gonna follow their example and keep going in the wrong direction, or will you learn from their example? and turn from and find yourself in chapter nine, verses 24 through 27, saying, I'm gonna run with everything I have. I'm gonna run in the right direction. And please, Lord, help me not to run the wrong way. Because here's the thing, when we run the wrong way, all we're doing is wasting everything that we have. You could give the same amount of effort. You could go at the same amount of pace. You could go as long as everybody else is going, but if you're running in the wrong direction, you're going in the wrong direction. And there is no benefit from that tonight, or this morning. I'd encourage you to follow and learn from their example. And say, you know what? I don't have to experience that, because I already know the outcome from it. Lord, help me to find myself running the race as I'm supposed to run it, and Lord, not running in the wrong way. Let's all stand as one, every head bowed, every eye closed. As we're coming for a time of invitation, play something soft and, I don't know,