But now that you're saved, justified, forgiven, declared righteous, have eternal life, you're going to heaven, you're a child of God, and all those other wonderful terms that God uses to describe what it means to know the Lord and to be a child of God. Now that you are all of these things, God says, obey my commandments. We're going to go back to 1 John again, which is that wonderful book written just to save people. Now up to now, we have looked at many wonderful truths, and virtually all of them were about what God does for us. Today that focus shifts, and we're going to talk about now what God wants you to do for Him. And amazingly enough, Regardless of how it was like before, when you get saved and your spirit becomes righteous, you now want to do for God like never before. That's pretty amazing change, isn't it? Quite noticeable. Well, in 1 John 2, verses 3 and 4, the Lord makes it very plain to us that everyone who has a relationship with Him will also respond in obedience to Him. This is something that everybody who's really saved, always, they all do. Here's what it says. In verse 3, it says, Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. If there's one thing that we can see from what we've learned thus far, it is that God absolutely loves us and has our best interest at heart. He commands us to do those things which create an environment of peace and joy and learning in which you may grow up in the Lord. God wants you to grow up and be strong and be someone who is mature in Christ and absolutely happy. Now, as you can see here on the chart, the things that God commands us to do progressively lead us into a whole new life of worship and service to the Lord. You've got love. It's followed by the first acts of obedience, which lead us to become a part of the church, which enables us to properly worship and gives us a place to serve. It's literally a whole new life in an environment that is going to allow you to become everything that you can be for the Lord. The process begins by establishing the correct motive for all the things that you're going to be doing for the Lord in your life. And that motive, of course, is love. To love the Lord is our first and greatest commandment. Mark chapter 12 and verse number 30, the Lord has given us this command. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength This is the first commandment. Our job is to love the Lord. To love each other is also right at the top of the list. In 1 Peter chapter 4, verse number 8, This word, charity, is the Greek word agape, which is the same word used for love in John 3, 16. It says, and above all things have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover the multitude of sins. The word charity is an archaic word for sin that simply means love. So God says, loving each other. And by the way, that's really the only way we already learned that you can love God is to love each other. So that puts it right at the top of the list. Without love is the motive for all that we do for God. The Bible says that it will all be for nothing. And we're going to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And we're going to read Paul's dissertation on this subject. I'm going to read the word charity as the word love so that we can get the feeling of it a little bit better. He says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. The Apostle Paul did speak all the languages of the known world in which he served, and he did speak with angels, and he did, as he preached to and taught thousands of people. But he said that without love, it was all just a bunch of noise. And the next little paragraph here in our book class that I'm going to share with Tariana is something that has to be in your life for you to be effective doing this. It's the same with these Bible classes that I'm sharing with you now. If I did it just out of duty, or if I did it just because I'm expected to do it, if I did it without the fact that I love you, it would just be more religious noise, just like all the other religious noise that you've heard in your life. You ever heard a preacher preach and even though the facts might have been there, it just seemed like a bunch of noise? Well, without love, that's what it is. It's just noise. And Paul tells us this. He goes on to say in verse number two, though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and he did have that kind of faith, and have not love, I am nothing. What a statement. Paul did have the gift of prophecy. And he did, no doubt, have the apostolic gift of knowledge, and he was certainly not short on faith. Yet even with all that, he said, without love, I am nothing. Verse 3, Paul says, And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, even die as a murderer, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." Paul pretty much did give everything he had and he did live and he did die for the Lord. But he said that without love, there's no profit in it. There are going to be a lot of people faithfully serving, hard working, giving, saved people who get to heaven, hoping for rewards, that will not be there because they served for the wrong reasons. Some serve to be recognized. We all like to be recognized and honored for what we do if we manage to get something done. Some give because they know God will bless them in like kind, and God certainly does that. But again, for the wrong reason. Whatever you do for God, Sorry, I'm going to do it for one reason, simply because that you love Jesus for what He has first done for you. Knowing what He just did for you, knowing what your future is, eternally, all because of His love, kind of makes Him easy to love, doesn't it? This really does. Now that we have our motive proper established, we see that baptism is the very next command. So we're going to go through these Scriptures. Acts 2, verse 41. Here, Peter is preaching the Gospel, and he is instructing these people that they need to believe on the Lord Jesus, And here is what happened. It says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. Did you gladly receive God's word? Same thing they did. Pretty similar. Acts chapter 10, verse 48, Peter is sent to The Gentiles, and actually this is where the first primarily Gentile church was established. Same thing. Acts 10, 48, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. We're going over to Acts chapter 16, verse 31. Paul and Silas are in prison and they are set free by the Lord and the jailer asks them what he can do to be saved and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house And they spake unto him the word of the Lord unto all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized he and all his straightway." Again, the same example over and over and over again. A person gets saved, the very next thing they do is get baptized. Now, in Romans chapter 6, the Bible tells us what baptism represents, what it means. Here in this book, over here, the Lord, through the Apostle Paul, is sending us a message about it. He says, let's read it from verse 4 and 5. He says, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Baptism, as you can see, I have this small phrase underlined. Baptism is the likeness or the picture of his death. He died and was buried and raised again. And that's the symbolism that you see when someone is placed under the water and raised up again. So our baptism says that we are now ready to step forward into our new life in Christ. Are you ready to step forward in your new life in Christ? I thought you would be. Baptism also, Kariana, makes you a part of the church. Now, class, I'm gonna take a small time out from the lesson here and point out a couple of things to you. There is a concept that is widespread that is as false as it can be. And that concept is the concept of spirit baptism. Baptism of the Holy Ghost, baptism by the Spirit of God. Let me explain something to you. The Holy Spirit has never baptized anybody, nor ever will. It has never happened. It never will happen. Jesus baptized the church. on the day of Pentecost in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit didn't baptize anybody. He played the part of the water. He was the element into which the church was baptized. He filled the room where they were sitting, and they were immersed, which is what baptism means, in the Spirit. And he said that would empower them to take the gospel all the way to the end of the world. Well, that didn't need to be done again, and the empowerment is still working, and we saw it work yesterday. Just like God said it would work. And it does. It's the same. We're the witnesses and the power of the literally the dunamis to get to get it done is ours because of that empowerment Jesus gave the church that we came from literally came from. So This idea that the Spirit baptizes you when you get saved, which is not a biblical concept at all. There's one scripture in the whole Bible that appears to say that, but does not. If you'll study it for just two minutes, you'll see the difference. And that is where the whole concept of the universal church comes from. The word Catholic, for example, means universal. There is no such thing as a universal church. Now there will be when all the saved people rise to meet the Lord in the air and we assemble in heaven, then we will be in assembly with everybody that's saved in it. But that's not what a church is. A church is a local body of baptized believers that are covenanted together to carry out the commission of the Lord. And there's nothing bigger than that. There is only one kind of baptism, and it's in water. Ephesians 4 tells us there's one baptism, and it's water baptism. We just read four or five examples of it here. And so I just want you to understand that it is water baptism that joins you to the church. The Bible says that we are, verse 3 of Romans 6, know ye not so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. That is referring to the church in its role as the body of Christ And that's where and that we are baptized into the body of Christ is the church And it's a local church not some universal something that cannot be seen Now that's that's extra for you, so that you'll understand what you're teaching now Baptism also makes you carry on a part of the church and When the believers we read about in Acts 2.41 were baptized, the Scripture says that they were added unto them. Let's go back over here and read that one more time. Acts 2.41. Then they that gladly received this word were baptized, and the same day they were added unto them about three thousand souls. Well, if you go down to verse 47, it tells us who they were added unto. says they were praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. These people were saved when they're baptized, they're baptized into Christ the body and they're part of the church at that point. God wants every believer motivated by love and by his or her own choice to be part of his church, wherever that church is, in which he has chosen to place you. Now, it's pretty obvious where God's chosen to place you, isn't it? I mean, that's where he saved you. There's no rocket science about figuring that one out. So in Acts chapter 5, verse 14, the Bible says, and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." There are three things, Kariana, that are present in a real baptism. First, a person must be a believer. We call it believer's baptism because until a person is a believer, in other words, until they've trusted in Jesus and been saved, they're not ready for baptism. A lot of people are dunked in water or sprinkled with water by some religious person before they're saved. And that happens a lot. And Baptist class got their name because they were re-baptizers and wouldn't accept that. Because the Bible says, obviously, that it's for people who are trusting in Jesus Christ and are believers first. We're gonna see that in the scriptures as we go along. It's easy to understand that unless salvation precedes baptism, there's no having trusted in the gospel and there is no newness of life to begin. So a person must be a believer first. Next, a person must be immersed in water. In Acts chapter 8, in verse 38 and 39, we see here Philip, the evangelist, is preaching to a man from Ethiopia who had been to Jerusalem to worship and was headed back, and the Lord sent him to tell this Ethiopian about how to be saved. And he did tell him, and the man did put his trust in Christ. And it says here in Acts 8, verse 38, that he commanded the chariot to stand still, And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. So you see that he's immersed in water there. It takes an immersion to symbolize a burial. That's why we immerse, we will immerse you in water for your baptism. And third, it takes a biblical authority to baptize someone, and that job was given to the churches. We'll read that here in a moment. Class, in the book, I spend just a very short amount of time on this part right here. Very often, you're gonna need to spend more time on that. If the person's background is from perhaps a church of Christ or something where they were dependent on the works of baptism to save them, or if they were perhaps Mormon, and people say, you mean Campbellites and Mormons can get saved? Yeah, they can and do. You take somebody through these classes, they're gonna see the truth and they're gonna trust Jesus. It happens all the time. We have seen, I have seen every, literally every denominational group there is, I've seen people from those groups trust Christ in these Bible classes over the years. The power of God is bigger and badder than Satan ever thought about being. And that's just wonderful. So you may need to go through this and tell them about how Philip is sent to the Ethiopian and that he's reading the prophet Isaiah and doesn't understand what he's reading. And Philip opens his mouth at the same scripture and explains that this is talking about Jesus. And that Jesus is the one that he heard about in Jerusalem. And all those baptisms, you know the 3,000 we just read, well that's when the eunuch was in Jerusalem. He saw some baptisms and he got to the water and he said, hey, here's water, can I be baptized? And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, then you may. And there's that condition of belief. And of course, that's left out of the modern versions. It's only gonna be found in the footnotes. Again, one more good reason. to stick with your KJV and love the Word of God. So he says this, they both go down into the water. When Jesus was baptized, it says the same thing. It's kind of like that God labors that point so you can't miss it. They both go down into the water. You don't have to both go down into the water to sprinkle somebody. But you have to both go down into the water for that person to be immersed. And there is a story. that you should know about the authorized version of the Bible, which is the KJV. The KJV was written, or rather translated, I should say, by 146, I believe, scholars, most of which, if not all of which, were Episcopals in their church memberships and practice. Now these men were not doctrinal favored men. These men were real scholars. There had never been an assembly of real scholars like was gathered by under the authority of King James whenever this was done back in the early 16th century. These men were extremely accurate in their scholarship most of the time. Now they translated a couple of things that were a little bit weird. They translated the word Pascha, which means Passover, into Easter because it was a designation on the calendar that they understood more than they understood Passover. And so they basically translated it so that the English speaking people they were translating for would recognize the calendar time rather than the fact that it was Passover. which now has resulted in thousands of churches doing bunny hunts and egg hunts instead of worshiping the resurrected Savior on Resurrection Sunday. So, you know, not such a good thing as it's turned out later. However, the King James Version of the Bible, when it gets to this term baptize, they had a dilemma that they had to face. The only word in English that baptizo, which is the Greek word we'll translate to, is immerse. And guess what they did not do in their churches? And so they had this dilemma. They could not translate the word without basically defying their church's authority. So they didn't translate the word. They did something that is called transliteration. They took a word out of one language and stuck it into the other and left it in its original form without translating it. And that's why we understand the word baptized today. It's really not an English word at all. It's a Greek word, baptizo, modified to fit an English pronunciation of baptized, and that's how we use the word. So I think it's just kind of funny, really, that they weren't about to get in trouble with God by inaccurately translating it. So they found a way to compromise between not offending God, or at least they thought, and getting by with their church authorities as well. So it's kind of a, I guess they were the first compromising bunch that we know about from the King James Version. So however that works, but it'll help you to know that because this is a Greek term that you're talking about here. Well, the third qualification for a baptism that's real. And now you've met the first the first criteria, which is you're really saved, right? Okay. The second one is that you're baptized or that you're immersed in water. which is pretty easy to do. But who do we want to do that? Well, it needs to be the person God chose to do that, not just somebody in a swimming pool or a river or whatever. I mean, we're going up to San Marcos with a picnic here in June to do a family camp and we could baptize people in the river, couldn't we? And if somebody gets saved just before we go, we may well do that, because the church will be there. But here's the thing. Matthew 28 gives us the instruction from Jesus on who has the authority to baptize. Matthew 28 tells us, in no short order and in no uncertain terms, all about the authority to baptize. Jesus sends his disciples back to the mountain where he had appointed them apostles in the first place. And in verse 18, Jesus came and spake unto them, and here's what he said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach and baptize. Now, this word power in verse 18 is the Greek word exousia. It's another one of those legal terms, and it means authority or jurisdiction. There are two roots that power is translated from in the New Testament. One is the Greek word exousia, and one class is the Greek word dunamis. When Jesus said in Acts chapter two, but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, when he's talking about the church being baptized in the spirit, that word is dunamis. That means the ability, we get our word dynamite from it, if that tells you a little bit more. That means that's where they receive the ability to get it done. In Matthew 28, this is where they receive the authority to go do it. No one who has not been given the authority to do this has any business doing this. And the authority was placed not in individual Christians, but in the church itself. And you'll see how that works here in just a moment. So Jesus said, because I have all the authority in heaven and earth, I'm telling you to go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and then teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen. Now, these men, these individual Christians didn't last to the end of the world, did they? But Jesus wasn't talking to them as individual Christians. He was talking to them as the elders of his church. which was gonna go to the end of the world by being perpetuated church to church to church all the way down. And we are the literal product of that. What's going on here today, class, is the fulfillment of what Jesus said was gonna keep happening until he comes back again to the very end of the age. We are still teaching, and we're still gonna be baptizing, and then we're gonna continue teaching all the things that he commanded when he was here. Now, since baptism by the church authority, you'll hear us say, by the way, you've been here when we baptized somebody before, right? What you'll hear us say is by the authority of the Lighthouse Baptist Church, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I don't have in myself, but even though I'm the pastor, I don't have the authority to baptize. It's in the church. That's making sense, I'm sure. Now, since being baptized makes you part of the church, it makes sense that the authority to baptize is placed in the church. When you come up out of the water, you're going to be a member of Lighthouse Baptist Church. which you may not realize it now, and I'm sure most of our members don't, but when we get to glory, we're gonna realize it. It's one of the most, if not the greatest, it's one of the greatest privileges you're ever gonna have on this planet, to be a real living, breathing, working, serving part of a real church where Jesus runs the place and is saving people and baptizing them into the body according to his command. Your church, Kariana, is where you are to bring glory to the Lord. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 21 tells us this very clearly. Let me get over here to it. Now, we're to bring glory to the Lord with everything in our life, but especially, look what it says right here. He says, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. This is something that's never gonna get out of style with God. That's what our church is for, is to bring him glory. There's a reason, special reason for this, down in Galveston. You've ever been down to Galveston? Obviously you have, right? There's a special hospital down there, and it's world renowned. It's a hospital for children, and it's run by the Shriners. You ever heard of the Shriners Children's Hospital in Galveston? You never heard of it? Well, it's run by the Masonic Lodge, otherwise known as the Shriners. And it's one of the best centers in the world for the treating of burn victims. It's operated entirely as a charity. They will give a burn child the best medical treatment in the world and not ask for a dime. I doubt that anyone could say that this is not a good work. It's a really good work, a wonderful work. Yet for all this good work that happens at that burn center down there, who gets the glory for that? Who gets bragged on and recognized and lifted up and honored? You know who that is? The Shriners. That's why it's called the Shriners Burn Hospital. They have banquets and all kinds of honor events for that very reason, and that's who gets honored. Here at Lighthouse, Kariana, we operate a burn prevention center. Think about that for just a minute. Figure out what I meant with that? Yes, you did. Keeping people out of hell is our job. Now there's only one kind of organization in the whole world where Jesus gets all the glory for every good thing that's done. And that kind of organization is one of his real churches. There's no other place in the world where Jesus gets the glory for everything good. And by the way, class, we take that very seriously here at Lions. It's one of the reasons that there's no name on the sign. You're not gonna know who the pastor is when you first get to Lighthouse until somebody introduces you. This is not Charles Dale Ministries. This is Lighthouse Baptist Church, one of the churches of Jesus Christ, and he runs this place. And he gets all the glory for everything good that's done here. He's the inventor of these lessons. He's the power that moved you from death into life. And he's the one that's gonna give you an incredible life that lasts forever and never ends. And there's only one name that deserves the glory for any good thing that's done. And there's only one organization in this entire world that will give it to him. And that's a real church, like this one right here. And so one of your jobs as you become a part of the church and as you grow up and live your life as a part of God's house and his body is to make sure that it stays that way. Amen. That's don't ever forget that. Now, we're going to go look at some basic instruction on how to come to church. You would be surprised and how little people know sometimes about how to come to church. When class, you do what the Lord said to do by, as a part of this church, going out and sharing the gospel with every creature, that means that rich or poor, nice or not, matter who you're going to invite people to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're going to be willing to teach them regardless of their background or who they were before. That means that people are going to get saved who know absolutely nothing about church. And they're going to come in green as can be. They're not going to know anything. They're not going to know how to worship. They're not going to know what to wear. They're, you know, some people sometimes people ask me, well, how, how do you dress when you when I expected to dress when you come to lighthouse? I say, Well, I'm just thankful if they dress at all. Because, I mean, we're winning people straight out of the world. And just, you know, we're just thankful for some clothes. We really don't care what kind of clothes. Just something. Wear something. And, you know, that's humorous, but there's a lot more reality to it than you might think. But people don't really understand, you know, what's it like to come to church? And Hebrews tells us the basics of how to come to church. And we find this in chapter 10. It starts in verse number 21. It says, having a high priest over the house of God, and the Bible says the church is the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. You can do that now. You have full assurance that your faith is in Jesus Christ, and you know Him, and He's your Savior. See, church is really for saving people, isn't it? He says, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Now, you can do that, too. That's what we learned in our last lesson, that we confess our sin, and the Lord cleanses us from all sin, and we come with a clean heart. Matter of fact, we stop in the early part of our service every Sunday after the first song and just stop and make sure, we make sure we do that and make sure so that we can worship with a clean heart. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And people say, well, Pastor, is that baptism? No, it's not. It means take a bath. It's so practical. Isn't God practical? It's just what it says it is. I mean, these people have already been baptized. It's not baptism, you're gonna be assembled together with other Christians in a close environment. God says, take a bet, what's your bet? This has to be, class, the origination of the famous Saturday night bath, whether you need it or not, right? And it says here, and let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. How can we trust Jesus and never waver? It's because He is faithful that promised. Remember what faithful means? Oh yeah, Jesus is faithful and He's the one that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke and to love and good work. Now that's another reason why fellowship is so very important with God's people. And then he says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Kariana, if it's Sunday, I'm going to be in church somewhere unless some kind of strange circumstances means that I absolutely can't do it. I mean, if I've got a job and I need to work on Sunday, I'm going to put that job off until Monday and let God help me deal with the consequences. If I'm sick and I'm contagious, well, I'm probably not going to come. but I'll maybe try to get online and catch it that way so at least I can know what God had to say to me and preach. But if I've got a sinus thing and an allergy and it's not contagious, I'm gonna still be here sniffling away. I'm not going to forsake the assembling of myself together with God's people because I need to be there for several reasons. One, because I need it, and more than that, the Lord, deserves his worship and his glory. And I'm not, he's not gonna get it if I don't show up. And so that's just why that has to be that way. And I don't want to be one of these some is people, okay, as the manner of some is, I think you want to be one of those some is people even be. All right. Churches for people who know they're saved, people who confess their sin and stay in fellowship with God and take a bath. And we're to stand fast on God's promises. We're to encourage and challenge each other to do good work. Now, we're not to forsake assembling ourselves. We are to be faithful in worship. Now, we learned what it means to be faithful. John chapter 4, verse 23. Let me get over here and read this. Jesus said, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Only obedient, saved people who keep themselves in fellowship with God can be the true worshipers that the Lord is requiring here. There are many biblical expressions of worship. Do you know what the very definition, if you look up the word worship as you see it literally hundreds of times in the scripture, if you look up the word, do you know what the basic definition of that word is? Anybody here in class can tell us? It means to bow down. To make obeisance, to bow down. That's what it means. This is why at Lighthouse, we bow down. I've been setting that example for you since the first day that I came. And the first day I came, I was the only one doing it. But I'm not the only one now. lifting one's hands in praise, clapping, applause, shouting amen in agreement. There are always biblical ways to participate in certain aspects of worship. But there are actually five formal acts of worship that are mentioned in scripture that we as a part of the church are to practice corporately every single week. One of them is singing. Now that one happens to be something I know you already enjoy doing. The Psalms are especially filled with instruction to sing praises to the Lord and to worship him with music. Over here in Colossians, let me get over here to it so I can read verse 16, chapter three. Oops, I passed it. Here we go. Let's see. It says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. There's that fellowship that we have again. It just keeps coming up. In Psalms, in hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts too. the Lord. Our worship is to be a serenade to the Lord Jesus Christ is to be the best we can make it is to be to him and for him and of him and by him and through him. Singing is a is a big deal. Another form of worship, Kariana that that we do on a weekly basis is giving. We're commanded to give weekly as God has prospered us. Now, I'm kind of famous at Lighthouse, I guess, for the fact that I like to preach on giving. I enjoy it. I really do, actually. I especially like it because it's one of the first tangible ways that new believers get to see God in action. And it's just such a blessing and such a joy to get to see that happen. I mean, not everything that God does is something you can see, but this you can. Here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, I mean, chapter 16, verse number 2, here's the command. It says, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him that there be no gatherings, Paul said, when I come. Every Christian is upon the first day of the week to put in a storehouse, which is the Lord's church, according as God has prospered him. Now, our first step in giving, what do you think that might be? You ever heard about it much? The what? The tithes and all, well the tithe is the first step in giving. The offering would be the second step. Leviticus 27.30, tells us what the tithe actually is. Let me find that right over here. Chapter 27, which is the end of the book, and it's verse number 30. This tells us a tithe. Do you know what the word tithe means? Tenth. Yeah, one tenth. Tenth. Look what it says, verse number 30, and all the tithes of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree. In those days, they weren't they weren't buying and selling with dollars and denarii and money, necessarily. It was mostly food for food, that sort of bartering, that sort of thing in a market, all the tithe of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree is the Lord's. That's interesting, isn't it? It's His. It is holy unto the Lord. The tithe, which is the tenth that God specifies, it belongs to the Lord and it's holy unto the Lord. Now tithing, unlike what some teach, tithing in the Bible was practiced in all periods of biblical history. We see tithing was before the law with Abraham and Jacob, tithing was administered under the law as we just read in Leviticus. And tithing was commended by Jesus in the New Testament after the law was fulfilled. In Matthew 23, verse 23, He told the Pharisees that the tithing should not be left undone. Tithe means 10%. It's not just any of those 10%. Let's say, Kariana, that you said back in lesson number three that you had worked and earned a paycheck from time to time. Is that right? Okay. What would be a really good paycheck, do you think? Let's say you made $1,000 last week. That'd be a pretty good paycheck, wouldn't it? You'd probably like that, wouldn't you? Well, you'll probably be doing a lot better than that at some point in the future here. Let's say that you got paid $1,000 last week. And you, of course, you're out on your own now, right? We're kind of fast forwarding into your future here a little ways. And you pay the rent, and you buy your groceries, and you pay for your cell phone bill. And then you come to the church and you write a check to the Lord for $200. Did you tithe? That's the question. It's kind of a little math problem. No? You don't think you tithe? Tell me why. You what? What's a tenth of 1,000? It's $100. 10th of 1000 is $100. It's just point one times whatever it is. That's easy. God did make that easy. So and you gave but you gave $200. So did you tie? Yes. It's a trick question. No, you did not. Now, the truth actually is that you did not tie. The tithe is not just any tenth of what we receive. No, the Bible says the tithe, not a tenth, but the tenth. And it tells us what the tenth is. The tithe is not just any tenth. The tithe that belongs to God is the first tenth. Now, I've had people say, well, that's just stupid. What difference does it make? Well, it makes a lot of difference, and I'm gonna show you in the Bible why it makes a difference. Here in the book of Proverbs, chapter three, you're gonna find a principle about giving, about tithing. Now, tithing and giving to God is not about, as most people think, it's not about money. Do you think God needs our money? It's just kind of, no, he doesn't. He owns it all. God doesn't need our money. So tithing is not about God needing money. Do you think the church needs our money? Well, a varying opinion on that. Well, let me point out something to the class here. This church is sitting on property that's estimated in value of well over $3 million. We put that together and obtained this property when we were down to 18 people and not a one of us had any money to speak of. Do you think that it was our tithes that put us on this property? No. Do you think the church has prospered? Of course it has. According to our tithes? No, way, way beyond what so far beyond what we know. Now, the truth of the matter is the church doesn't need our money either. If it did, if the church had to have every member tithing in order to stay afloat, we had to suck a long time ago. Now, the church doesn't need our money. And God doesn't need our money, because the church belongs to God. And He is the one who takes care of it. But He gives us an opportunity to do something special and wonderful. And that opportunity is to honor Him. Tithing and giving is not about money, it's about honor. That is all that it's about. Now, as we read this, you're going to see this in verse number 9 of Proverbs chapter 3. Now look what this says. What's the first word? Honor. Honor the Lord with thy substance. And with the what? What's that next word? First fruits. What's first fruits? That means when the farmer reaped his harvest and collected his grain or his grapes or whatever it was, what part went to the Lord? The first part. Not the second part or the last part. Only the first part goes to the Lord, because it's honor. If I came to your house, and of course, I'm not going to stress this in the book, but if I came to your house for dinner, and you had your whole family there, and you wanted your family to meet the guy that introduced you to Jesus, and you wanted to honor me. And you had the table all set with the food. Where at the table would you put me if you wanted to honor me? Where would you put me? At the head of the table, you would. That's because it's an honor thing, right? If you brought out the fried chicken, and everybody knows you're supposed to serve preacher fried chicken, right? If you brought out the big platter of fried chicken and you brought it up to the table, who would you give the first piece to? That's right. Whoever it was you wanted to honor. This is why God gives the first. Not just any part. Let me just point out, it's far more important that you give God the first tenth than it is how much you give God at all. It's just simply not about the money. We know that God does not need our money. The Lord's work is gonna get done whether you learn to give or not. It is we who need to honor the Lord with the first and the best of all he gives us. So to obey God and start with tithing, then learn to give offerings above the tithe as you see God bless and prosper and enable you to do that. And I've encouraged people by example and by teaching to do that for many, many years. And our blessings are amazing. We don't do it for the blessings. We do it because we love Him and because we want to honor Him. But it sure is fun to watch what He does as a response. Next we see prayer as an act of worship. In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 18, The Bible says that we're to always be praying. Here, oops, let me get over here to 6 in verse number 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. I don't have a lot of teaching on that in here, but just class, just so that you know as a teacher when the questions come up, somebody's gonna say, what's supplication mean? There are different types of prayer. Prayer is conversation with God. What's the most desirable prayer that God wants to hear? Thanksgiving, praise. A lot of prayer is not about asking for stuff. But supplication means asking for stuff. That's what it means. So the Bible says that we're to pray with prayer and supplication. And which one should come first when you pray? Praise. The praise and the thanksgiving before you start asking. When your children come and they say, Mom, can I have $5? It's probably going to be more likely to get the five bucks if they come and say, Mom, I love you. I love you. What do you want? And mom, thank you. Thank you for that five bucks you gave me last week. And mom says, well, what do you want? Well, here's another five bucks. Prayer should always Prayer of Thanksgiving and praise should always come before asking for stuff. And that's why you do what you do for Sunday school. What'd you say now? That's why you, that's how we do it in Sunday school. You do the praises first and then at the end we do asking. Exactly. That's exactly right. You're paying attention. How cool is that? You made my day. Alright. Our church is also to be united in prayer. Now you mentioned that in our lesson three that you were in your closet on your knees praying at one time. That's a good thing. The Bible teaches us that we should get alone and pray. And by the way, as long as those knees still work, on your knees is the very best place to do it. It leaves no doubt as to who's who in the conversation. But in Acts 1, look at the value and the necessity of corporate prayer. And here in Acts 1.14, and this is when they were selecting an apostle to replace Judas who is dead now. He said, These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. They all continued in one accord. Now somebody thought that that means that that's a new Guinness World Record as to how many could be put in a car. 120 people in one little Honda Accord, right? Nevermind, okay. Bad joke. All right. Now you're smiling. Okay. So we're to pray for many things. First Timothy, chapter two, verse one, tells us the next part of worship that we're to participate in, and that is the preaching of God's word. In First Timothy, chapter two, verse one, let me find it here, chapter two, get back to it, Paul said, I exert, exhorts, therefore, First of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and am I doing this right? First Timothy. Chapter four. This is not right. We got another typo in the book. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is this the wrong part. I messed up in my own lesson here. But you forgive me, right? Okay. This is this is still on prayer. We're to pray for giving a thanks made for an intercession for all men for kings And all that are in authority, that means we're to pray for our president and our congressman. And that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. where this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. That probably even means that we're to pray for the policeman that gave us tickets and stuff like that. Imagine that. Now let's go on to the preaching part as one of the other parts of worship that we're to participate in. This is 1 Corinthians chapter one. And by the way, class, you can see that doing these two classes back-to-back is a bit taxing. It's one of the reasons you go week-to-week. So you're having, she's having to really concentrate, work on staying alert here for the second one. My attention span's waning a little bit myself here, so. First Corinthians 121. for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The preaching of the word of God is very important. It is not to be our opinions that we preach, it's to be the word of God that we preach. 2 Timothy 4 over here, it tells us, let me get to 2 Timothy 4, here's what we're supposed to preach and participate in. Paul says, I charge thee, and he's talking to Timothy, who's a preacher, before God, the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus, who shall judge the quick or the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. We're commanded to preach God's Word, not our opinions. And by the way, you'll find that you get a lot of Bible at Lighthouse. And that's the reason, because we're commanded to do it that way. We're commanded also to maintain the observance of the Lord's Supper. Here in 1 Corinthians 11, And this is something, by the way, that seems to fall in line class with the lack of fellowship with God's people. It also seems to correspond with the lack of observance of the Lord's Supper that we practice every Sunday morning to observe this ordinance. First Corinthians 11, verse 23, it says, I received of the Lord that which I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he'd break it and said, take ye, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. And after the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. If we want to show people why Jesus died, the Lord's Supper is one of the ways we do that. And that is no doubt the reason that the early church started practicing it on the first day of the week instead of just once in a great while. We observe the Lord's Supper every Sunday morning because we want to show the Lord's death. Now, class, let me give you something a little bit extra on this. The gospel is preached when we observe the three ordinances of the church. Most people preach that there are two ordinances of the church, but there are actually three. These are the practices that were installed after the Lord's resurrection. The death of the Lord is administered As we just read, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. The Lord's Supper demonstrates in an object lesson that you can see the death of the Lord. Baptism, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. Baptism paints the picture of the burial. of the Lord in its primary function. The fact that we worship on the first day of the week, not the Sabbath, which is Saturday, is we worship the first day because we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord. So those three practices that are ordained for the church to practice all the way down through the ages Those by very existence preach the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord, and they show the gospel in a clear picture without even saying a word. It's just an amazing thing that there's no scripture in the Bible that tells us that these three things show the gospel, but there it is. It's in plain sight once you realize what you're looking at. It's a pretty wonderful thing, isn't it? So as you worship the Lord more and more, you're gonna develop an intense desire to serve the Lord, because we were created, Kariana, to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, tells us that we were created for that very singular purpose. Let's go on over here to the book of Ephesians. So what was the third ordinance? Sunday worship. worship Sunday worship. Because we celebrate the resurrection is why we worship Sunday. Ephesians chapter two. Remember, remember the verse for by grace for you say through faith and that knowledge yourselves it's a gift of God. Not of works. Let's say man should boast. So the next verse says for we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus on two good works. And the sacraments, who's included in that? The what? The sacraments, or the Lord's Supper, who's included in that? Well, we'll get to that in a minute. But first of all, it's not a sacrament, because the word sacrament means it infers saving power. There's no saving power in it. But the ordinance includes the church. It's the church, not anyone else. I'll come back to that in just a minute when we finish up and address that issue for you. When the Lord saved you, Kariana, he created a new spirit within you. And he created you for good works. That's what you're made for. Which God has before ordained, we should walk in them. It's those good works that's gonna replace all the junk and make your life sweet and happy and joyful. It's very important. The Bible tells us that we indeed were made to serve the Lord. Hebrews chapter 12. Let me take you over to that shortly here and show you this passage. Verse number 28. It says, Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. There's an acceptable way to serve God, and the Bible tells us what that is. Now, our last verse of Scripture, 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. Study to sow yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word and truth. God tells us to study so that we can work. and the Lord, able to rightly divide God's word, to explain it properly and clearly. As you become faithful in attending church and spending time learning God's word, acting upon what you learn, you're gonna experience the very best life has to offer. Our next class is 9.30 at the church this Sunday morning. And it goes on from there. I'll save you a seat. and basic Bible preaching. Kariana, when would you like to be baptized? Tomorrow. We'll be ready. We will be ready. Man, it was sure hard to talk her into getting baptized. Good, time-wise. But we're not through, so don't get too antsy. We're going to go back and do some review here to make sure we've got some of these things clearly under our belt. Joseph asked about the Lord's Supper. The one thing that we're going to do here at Lighthouse, above everything else that we're going to do, we're going to be honest with the Bible. no matter what anybody else thinks or likes it or whatever. And being honest with the Bible means that we're going to teach 1 John 1-9 the way it is and not try to be the policeman instead of letting the Holy Spirit do it. We're going to teach what it says, which we've done and will continue to do. The ordinances of Scripture. If you read in 1 Corinthians, if you read about the Lord's Supper there in in chapter number 11. And I'm not going to take the time to do this, but this letter is written, chapter 1 verse 1, unto the church of God which is at Corinth. The ordinance of the Lord's Supper is to the church to show the Lord's death not the individual Christians. It's just like the authority of baptism, it's just like the other things. There are a couple of details that have to be addressed as to who is allowed or invited to participate in the Lord's Supper. Kariana, after you're baptized, you're going to be invited to observe the Lord's Supper with every other member here at Lighthouse. Chapter 10 tells us that it is the communion of the Lord. There is a necessity that we are in fellowship, in unity with our church before we observe the Lord's Supper. There is another necessity that we are not harboring any grudges about something, according to anyone, before we observe the Lord's Supper. Other scriptures that talk about our preparation of examining ourselves. You can't serve, you can't drink of the Lord's cup and the cup of devils. You have to be in fellowship with God and each other in order to be prepared to observe the Lord's Supper in a scriptural way. The church at Corinth did not do that. They turned it into a love feast and made a party out of it, and some of them died because of it, and many people were sick and devastated with disease over that. So basically what it comes down to is this. To be observing of the Lord's Supper here at Lighthouse, you need to be saved, you need to be scripturally baptized, and you need to be in fellowship with this church. Some people say, well, It should be closed communion and thus no one from any other church should be allowed to participate in it. We don't practice that here. We practice something called close, C-L-O-S-E, communion. And the reason, and it's only one exception, the reason we practice it in that manner is because that if you come from another church of like faith and you are in fellowship with that church, We will accept your baptism to allow you to become a part of this church based on your participation in that church. Baptism is one of the ordinances. The Lord's Supper is one of the ordinances. For us to say to you who came from another church of like faith, who are in fellowship with your church and know what we believe, if those things are there and you feel like that the Lord wants you to to honor his death by observing the Lord's Supper with us, we're gonna allow that if those conditions are met. But that's rare because, let's say I go on vacation, which we're hoping to do. We're way behind on doing that, by the way. And when we go on vacation, if we miss a Sunday here, we're going to find a place to go to church and to worship the Lord while we're gone. Well, the chances are, I won't know a whole lot about what that church really does believe or does not believe. And believe me, I have visited a couple that, by the end of the service, I was pretty sure they weren't one of the Lord's real ones. All right? I mean, it was like a Sunday wasted, except for the education of it. So I'm not going to participate in the Lord's Supper with them because I don't really know what they believe or not. And you can't be in unity with this church if you don't know what we believe and you're not in line and in agreement with that. So you shouldn't be observing the Lord's Supper here until you know pretty doggone well what we believe and stand for and you are on the same page with us with that. Does that make sense to everybody? So that's basically who should or should not observe the Lord's Supper. One thing about it, when you take your student through basic Bible truths and they get saved, and they come in here and they get baptized, they're ready to confess their sin and to observe the Lord's Supper and to participate in all the attributes of worship. Now there are a couple other things that I want to give you before we close it out and I'm not gonna take the other break I thought we'd take. I'm just gonna kind of keep going and we'll finish up. Can you stand another little while? Everybody good? Okay. the All right, so my train doesn't jump my track here mentally. Kariana is ready to get baptized. She got saved. That's a straightway baptism, folks. That's the way it should be. And that's generally the case that you're going to that you're going to see the very, very often people are going to want to put a Sunday or two between it so they can invite their families and get people here so that they can see the death and the burial and resurrection of the Lord demonstrated. And we don't have a problem with that. But for those who say, yes, I trusted Jesus, but I don't want to get baptized and be a part of the church, something wrong with that story. There's something wrong with that scenario. Let me ask you, after you got saved, and many of you here today did get saved in basic Bible truths, how did you feel about baptism once you learned what the scripture said? What were your thoughts? I wanted to get it done. You wanted to get it done. Why wait? Why wait? I want to be a part. Yeah, it's, I would use the word, it's natural to want to get baptized, but it's actually not. It's supernatural to want to get baptized after you get saved. Your spirit is in total agreement with whatever God wants. God says jump, your spirit says, this is as high as I can go right now, I'm gonna get higher later. I mean, it's just whatever God wants, that's what God gives, and we are thrilled to get to be yet to be obedient to the Lord. There is a joy that comes when we know we're obedient to the Lord. I want to tell you a little bit about baptism here at Lighthouse. When Kariana comes up out of the water tomorrow, what's going to happen? Did we make you mad? I'm just teasing. I know, I know, you gotta go, go ahead. All right. All right, no problem. What's gonna happen when she comes up out of the water tomorrow? There is going to be an explosion of joy in the congregation. I wanna just point this out to you because you have never heard me one time teach the congregation, teach people to do this. I've never taught it. You ever heard me teach it? You've heard me comment on it. One time we did a home team, this was what, five or six years ago maybe, and the home team was on music. And we were going through the Psalms, and we were looking up all the musical stuff that was going on, and we got to the scripture that says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. And when you look that terminology up, We always use that as an excuse to sing badly or poorly. I'm just making a joyful noise unto the Lord. Well, I guess that God tells everybody to sing, so do with what you got. But that's not what that scripture means. That scripture is talking about a spontaneous outburst of joy. It's spontaneous. It happens without any provocation. It is, well spontaneous is really the only word that fits it that I can think of. And that which happens when people get baptized here at Lighthouse is the joyful noise that you read about in the Psalms. The joyful noise, and it is a joyful noise. First of all, it's real noise. And the joy that's there is, it's like no other thing that happens. Why do you suppose that is? Because a lost sheep has come home? The lost sheep has come home? Because there is no experience like that. Yeah. There's really no other experience like that. It's got to be. You know how the Bible says in Ephesians that He's made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus? It's talking about in the church when we're worshiping and serving the Lord. That, I believe with all my heart, is what heaven's going to be like pretty much continually. Just one spontaneous outburst of joy after another, after another. We get to experience when those new believers come up out of the water. You know, the Bible says whatsoever is bound on earth by the church shall be bound in heaven. So she's not just she's not just put on a membership role here at Lighthouse. Now, we can put a lost person on the membership role here at Lighthouse and have done so. Actually, that's proved out a few times, unfortunately. But no lost person gets put on the role in heaven. And she's gonna be put on the role in heaven, not for eternal life, but as a part of the body. She's already on the role in the book of life. And that will never be blotted out. So that's a wonderful thing. Now, there's one thing I want to teach you that we do not, sometimes, we do not spend the time in the class to do it. It's not in the book. But that is, when we're teaching in the beginning of lesson number 5, go to 1 John with me and we're going to learn something. Many of you have heard me teach this in Sunday School class. But I want you to be very familiar with it as you're teaching basic Bible truths so that when the questions come up and to prevent the misunderstandings, you'll understand what this is talking about. Somebody read for me, let me find it on the sheet here. Somebody go ahead and read for me 1 John 2 3-4. And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and a truth is not in Him. Ok. To keep the commandments of the Lord, you're going to have to know what that's talking about. What it's not talking about are the Ten Commandments. We're instructed as a church, Jesus said, All authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Jesus is talking about the New Testament commandments of Jesus Christ, not the Old Testament law. Praise God for that. Because if that were not the case, that verse could not possibly be true. Now, the New Testament commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ are exactly what we have encapsulated in lesson number five. We're to love one another. We're to love God. That's to be our motive for everything we do as Christians. We're to get baptized. And He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. It's a New Testament command. If the church is commanded to teach them how to be saved and then baptize them, then obviously that command extends to them, because it's kind of hard to do it if they don't agree, OK? They don't cooperate. I mean, I could probably do it, because I'm pretty strong and all that. But I don't think it would look very good in the newspaper for us to be holding people underwater for a little bit and letting them up. What was it the little girl said recently? It was last year. She'd never been to, she was a fifth grader. I think it was fifth grade. She'd never been to church in her life and one of our members brought her to church for the first time. And her mom's boyfriend asked her the next day how she liked church. And this is not a made up, this is what she said. She said, some guy got up and got all excited about somebody named Jesus. And then they try to drown somebody. That was her first experience of church. That was precious. I'll never forget that. Being baptized makes you part of the church, which puts you in the environment of being able to be taught all things whatsoever Jesus said I've commanded you. See, this is a system that the Lord has invented that works beautifully and has never stopped working. Now, our modern day concepts of church and religious activity don't really follow this very well. But we're going to do our best to follow it. Amen? What is church for? What are we supposed to do in church? A lot of things, but number one is worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Worship Him. become involved in the worship. The five formal activities of worship are singing. Well, yeah, you're going to have a lot of motions. You're going to have a lot of subheadings under what to do. But you're going to clap your hands. You're going to sing loudly. You're going to hopefully sing sweetly and in unity. Giving. Every one of you lay by Him in store. There are no exceptions here. People say, I can't afford to tithe. You don't understand tithing. You can't afford not to tithe. Tithing is done before you get any money to do something else with. Because it's the first tenth. Everybody can tithe. I don't care who you are or how little you get paid. Everybody can tithe. You take the first tenth, you set it aside for God, and you bring it to God's house. and then with what's left. Recently, I used an illustration of the loaves and the fishes to illustrate tithing. I want you to think about something, and I've never used it in Bible class before, but it may come up. When you tithe, you put the person in charge of the 90% that's left how far that's gonna go. He's the same guy that took five loaves and two fishes and fed 5,000 men plus the women and kids. That's the person I want in charge of my 90% that's left. If you know what the Bible says and you're not tithing, there's something wrong with your brain. You've got a mental issue or something that you need to go get, you need to see a doctor, I guess. But if you understand what the Bible says, and you're not tired, then you just must hate having enough money to go around. Anyway, giving is essential. It's about honor, not about money. Praying. Seeing those prayers answered. The text ministry that we have. You can't do what God tells you to do if you're not a part of the body. You can't do it. It's not to mention the fact that we need to be under authority. Now you ladies, you know how often you get told that you're supposed to submit to your husband, right? And you put up with that. But let me tell you something, fellas. God tells us that we're to be in submission to Christ, and it's not talking about the invisible Christ we cannot see, it's talking about the body of Christ. Where the elders and the pastor, you have to look in the eye like the ladies have to look in yours. It's the truth. Without being under authority, you're a mess. And there will not be anything good coming of it. The answering of the prayer. The preaching. People don't realize that every member is to participate in the preaching of the Word of God. It does not mean that you're the preacher, but it means that you're to participate in it. It's not a one-way conversation. When I say, Jesus said He's the way, the truth, and the life, you're just going to say, no. No. No. What's amen mean? It means I agree and I'll pay my share of the expenses, John. That's that additional version of the definition there. But it means I agree. If you agree, What's the Bible say? It says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Amen? Amen. I mean, now sometimes I get a little too much help on occasion, but I'd rather have that than not enough. When other people are coming into the building, and we have new guests every single Sunday that we've been in this place, we've had new guests, I think that's a marvelous thing to be thankful to the Lord for. They're going to judge what I say based on the reaction of you sitting in the congregation. If you are excited about the truth and in agreement that it's true and enthusiastic about receiving it, that's what they're going to take. And if you're sitting there like two bumps on a log and It's not affecting you, and it doesn't mean anything, and you're just not, you know, just into it, and you're nodding off or whatever. Now, I'm doing my best to keep you from nodding off, but... Let me tell you something. The effect of the Word of God going forth has a lot more to do with you than you think it does. It's not just the preacher's job. It's our job. Don't forget that. When you bring somebody to church for the first time that you've been taken through basic Bible truths, you're going to want to see them light up like a light bulb when they get to experience the presence of the Lord in the congregation and the joy of the Lord in being able to receive His Word. Worship in spirit. Spirit is attitude, ladies and gentlemen, and truth. I'll provide the truth. You provide the attitude. That's a team job. That's a team operation. Amen? Amen. Alright. The Lord's Supper, we already talked about that. Serving the Lord. Opportunities for service. Teaching. People in the beginning aren't going to be ready to teach. People in the beginning shouldn't be teaching. They should be in class learning. at least a year or so, if not two or three. I know that we get to needing teachers and we get them out there teaching and they're missing Bible class. But hopefully, electronically we've helped with that. Our Bible class, Lighthouse Bible class, we're in the classroom now, gets more hits than the sermons. Yeah, I found out that we've got about 50 people coming to class online besides the ones that are here every Sunday on a regular basis. Because we put the class, the discussion, online. And I think they're just tuning in mostly to see what John's going to say next. I'll take it. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. By the way, you should really come to camp. because Don Cleaner and John are both going to be at camp, I think. And I got to see that. I just got to see that. That is going to be worth paying admission to see, I'm going to tell you. We may figure out a way to record, just to record the conversations. All right, can you see the circular process of what we're doing here? Basic Bible truths is just that. It's all basic. But it opens the door, and done properly, it will plant your students in God's house where all things that the Lord has ready for us will then be possible and profitable. Many of you came through the classes, you got baptized right after, and you've been steady and right here serving the Lord ever since. Jessica, that's you. Same over here. Same back here. Same with Kariana. This is the way it's supposed to work. This is the way you read about it working in your Bible. Let's go do our jobs. Have you got somebody lined up to start with? Two? Got anybody? Not yet, but I'm planning on sticking a note out on my mailbox. How hard is it to set up a class? God said you have not because of something. What is it? That's the only thing that's going to keep you from setting up a class and teaching somebody. That's the only thing if you don't ask for it. You don't mind if I said, if I said, folks, I got to have a new kidney operation and my insurance won't cover it. I need you to go out and ask your friends if they'll donate to help save my life. Would you go ask them? You would. You'd do it in a heartbeat, wouldn't you? Yeah. Yeah. But the money to get that one in here is, you know. But you would do that. And you would not hesitate. You would ask a dozen people to write a check to save my life. Will you ask them to sit through these classes with you to let you teach them to save their life? Would you do that for them? Because that's what we're talking about. And what can they do? All they can say is, well, I don't think I'm ready for that now. So you just say, OK. You don't go, oh man, they hate me, I'm just rejected and they don't love me. What if somebody does treat you rudely? I mean, I think Satan would probably go out of his way to make that happen so that you wouldn't become a regular teacher of this. What if they treat you rudely? Are you going to get all affected by it? Unleashed. That's right. It's not personal. Hey, someone's been to Sunday school class. Amen. So it's this way. This is about them and Jesus. And you're just the messenger boy or girl, okay? I'm just the messenger. So what if they want to shoot the messenger? Well, you know, Paul said you'd be willing to take that if you have to. But I'm going to tell you something. If you do witnessing the way God says to do it in the Bible, have you ever seen any scripture? Now, you already said you never saw any scripture where the apostles commanded somebody to ask Jesus into their heart, right? It's not in the Bible. Well, let me tell you what else is not in the Bible. Jessica, if you died today, would you go to heaven or would you go to hell? If Jessica, I scared her here and she knows me. 78% of the people that walk in here believe they're going to heaven. All right, you're thinking, okay, what can I say to get rid of this person? And that's all they're going to think about is to want everything to say to get you out of their face. The way I thought, I know everybody thinks that way. I don't blame them. What's God say to do? You know, teach. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Praise, constant praise. If it's a beautiful sunny day, somebody said, I thought it was going to be cold and I walked outside and it was wonderful. Well, how are you going to say that in front of people? It's a wonderful day or God gave us a wonderful day. Who gave you the wonderful day? God. When they hear you talk about the Lord, it can be phony. How many phony people talking about the Lord, guys on TV? You know they don't talk like that when they get on. You know they're not rejoicing in the Lord always. How many people do you know that know you're a Christian so around you they act religious? I actually, my neighbor will be sitting in the living room and he'll be like, they'll be talking about something and he said, oh, you're religious, I'm sorry, we shouldn't be talking about that. The next time he says it, I'm gonna ask him what exactly he means by that. I tell him, I tell him, say, hey, it's not me you need to worry about. And, you know, but this is it. And you can, I dare say, you can see it when it's phony. You can see through it like it's glass. You know when it is. Because you know what the real thing, it's like the counterfeit money. You know what the real thing looks like, so you recognize what's not. All you have to do, all you have to do is just be real in praising and loving the Lord. And the Bible says, then be ready to give an answer to them that ask a reason of the hope that lies within you. That's all it takes. I haven't chased anybody down to beg them to take Bible classes in years. Yet, I stay busy teaching them all the time. Well, that's just because you're... No, it's not. It's just because I praise the Lord, and I love the Lord, and I'm still a mess, ladies and gentlemen. I am still a mess, a sinner just like you. I've got... I've got every kind of problem everybody else has got. I had a little enthusiasm. Yeah, that was a little too enthusiastic. Except I really do love the Lord. And I really do want to see people saved. And I want you and I want them to have what God has given me. And it's a heart thing. It's from the heart. And when it's real, they know. And they'll ask a person when it comes time that they need to know. They're going to ask the person with whom it's real. And then you're going to be that person. So you don't have to worry about how you're going to set this up, but you do need to ask people. The people that are friendly toward you, that you know, tell them about this exciting course. Was it exciting? It's always exciting. And I tell them, that you're gonna know more than 98% of all the TV preachers when you finish this course. And I believe with all my heart, that's absolutely true. Those TV preachers, there's only about two of them on the whole tube that know much of anything, or maybe more, but there's so many that don't. They don't even know what happens when a person gets saved. And you're gonna know that when you finish this course. So, questions, comments? We're going to cut you loose here in just a little bit. Yes. OK, since I wasn't able to come last night and all of you got to watch Kariana Trust Christ. You know, serving the Lord is our life. And then we have vocations to earn money to pay the bills. But it sounds like you give up a lot when you do that. But there's nothing. in any other aspect of life that compares to that experience of watching somebody get it and somebody trust Christ. And there's one lady I'll never forget. She's a lady we met through somebody else at church that worked in Seabrook in some business. And we went to her house years ago and taught those classes. She was Catholic, and she had her big, fancy Bible. And she insisted, so it did take a long time, she insisted on finding every verse because they told her she didn't need to read her Bible, they told her what she needed to know. And when she got saved, she saw the verses that have the gospel in them, and she saw the verses and said, believe. And I'll never forget, she was holding that Bible like this. And she said, I believe, I believe, and the light in her eyes, and it was, I've never seen anything to compare to that anywhere. That was awesome. Well, like I said, the variation of responses that you'll see emotionally and otherwise are, everyone's different. I don't suppose I've ever seen two the same, and I've gotten to see In my life, a lot of experiences like this. I'm blessed beyond anybody's imagination. I've got to sit across the table and watch people get saved now. But it's never become a routine. It's never become mundane. It's never become anything less exciting than it has been every time. It's the same. Go out there and get you somebody and teach them about Jesus Christ. Go do it. Don't just set on this knowledge. Do you understand that first verse I started out with? It's to those, to whom much is given. Oh, you've just been given much. I hope you realize it. You've been given the You've been given a combined wisdom of many men working toward doing this the best we know how to do it. This is not just what God's given me in wisdom. This is what I've taken from others and what God's added with me and there's a lot of study, there's a lot of development, there's a lot of seeking the wisdom of God in all of these goofy little illustrations even. But they are so effective. You will get to see, again, what you just saw right here in our seminar. So, if you don't have any other questions, anybody? Go forth and preach the gospel.