I love my mother-in-law even though I inadvertently locked her in a room this week and she has not yet forgiven me. So pray for her to have God's grace in that matter. It was an accident. It really was. I'll tell the story some other time when she's not here, okay? All right. Numbers chapter nine this morning. We're once again in the book of Numbers going through it on Sunday mornings. Living by Numbers is the name of this series. And we were in chapter nine last Sunday. We talked about unexpected grace from this make up Passover that God instituted. But we're gonna look at part of that same portion of scripture again this morning and then we're gonna finish Numbers chapter nine this morning. and learn a little bit about following God. That's what we were saying about this morning, was God leading us and us following Him. And so we're going to start in Numbers 9 and verse 6. I'm going to read down through verse 8, and then we're going to skip on down to verse 15 and finish the chapter. So Numbers 9 and verse 6, And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man, but they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man. Wherefore are we kept back that we may not offer an offering of the Lord in His appointed season among the children of Israel? And Moses said unto them, What do you say? Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you." Now verse 15. And on that day, when the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely the tent of the testimony. And at even there was upon the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire until the morning. So it was always. The cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed, and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched. As long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle, they rested in their tents. Now verse 19, And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle, according to the commandment of the Lord, they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed, whether it was by day or by night, that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not. But when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. They kept the charge of the Lord at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses." And all God's people said, Lord, we thank you for this wonderful Lord's Day and just for the beauty of it and for the comfort of the temperature. It's just a beautiful day, Lord, it is. And Father, it's wonderful to be in your house this morning, to be among your people, to have your word as our guide, as our only rule for faith and practice. And Father, this morning we do pray that the word will be rightly divided. And it will be a great help to each and every soul who has chosen to attend here this morning and to worship you in spirit and in truth. Father, we pray for the believer this morning to be strengthened and to be encouraged by the preached word of God. And Father, if there be anyone here today who's never trusted Christ as their Savior. Maybe they're having doubts about their salvation, doubts about their faith. doubts about their walk with you. Father, I pray you'd work on their hearts too. That you'd show them their need and you would show them the way. And Father, again, if there would be anybody here today who has never trusted Christ, that today would be their day of salvation. That they would be rejoicing among the angels of heaven of another sinner coming to repentance. And Father, we ask your blessings upon this service and for your power upon this service. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. The boring book of numbers, right? We're having a great time with the Book of Numbers on our Sunday morning series, and today we're going to talk about following God. And following God, when you first say, I'm a follower of the Lord, it sounds like a good thing to be. And really, you think about it, it sounds like it shouldn't be that hard to do, because God is God, and He is the Creator, and He is our Savior, and He is the sovereign over all of the universe, isn't that right, saints? But when it comes down to between faith and practice, it's not always as easy to be a follower of God than it is to say that we are a follower of God. And I even think about in our own lives and in the practical, physical realm that we live in, when we're doing something for the first time again, It's kind of a time of interpretation and apprehension. It's been a while since we've taken on a task or tried to do something or even maybe attempt something for the very first time. A little fear comes in, a little anxiety might come into our lives. And so we're dealing with those first-time jitters, if you will, that beginning or starting over again. And I know in my own life, and maybe it's in your life too, there have been times in my life, and maybe times in your life, where you are a follower of God, you are a disciple of Jesus, you are on board, and you are on fire, you are on the straight and narrow way, and there was just nothing you would say to veer you from your path. And then something happened along the way, and it happened to me, it might have happened to you, where you got sideways, where you got sidetracked, where you got off track, and off that narrow way, and you found yourself in a heap of a mess, and you found yourself really as far from God as you can recall in your life. But you knew in your heart of hearts, you knew down deep in the depth of your soul, it was time to follow Him again. It's not always easy to do that even the second time or the third time. It feels like it's the first time all over again. You know, and it's not always the easiest thing to do. It's easy, like I say in a word, it's easy to say these things, but it's hard to do these things. It's hard to know where to start. Where do I start on this path? How do I get going again? And you know, we have that Chinese proverb that we've been reiterating over the centuries. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. You know, it's that first step, it's that one step, it's starting over with God again, and starting to follow God again. And you have to remember, the children of Israel have been camped around Mount Sinai for about a year now. For one year they've been around Mount Sinai while Moses has been going up the mountain and down the mountain, getting the law from God, getting the pattern of a tabernacle from God, getting instruction from God on this issue and that issue, and this offering and that offering, and for one year they have kind of watched this camp develop. They have seen Moses come down the mountain. Remember this in the book of Exodus. He came down the mountain when he had been in the presence of God and his face was shining. And Moses had no idea that his face was shining, but the people saw it and they knew that he had been with God. Then Moses told them the law, especially those first ten points of the law, the ten commandments. You know, those elementary issues and precepts of law. And he gave them those commandments. And then there was more of the law to follow. And this pattern of the tabernacle, and Moses repeated this pattern of the tabernacle to the camp of Israel, and they were skilled and cunning, and men who were endued with wisdom from on high, who put together the pieces and the parts of the tabernacle, and the whole camp got to watch this tabernacle being constructed, being fabricated, and being set up for the first time. And remember what happened when the tabernacle was set up. The glory cloud of God came, and it kind of rested over that holy of holies, the most holy place. And it looked like a cloud of smoke during the day, and like a pillar of fire during the night. They would look at it during the day, and they would see that cloud above it, and they knew that was the presence of God. And at night they'd look over there and peek out their tents. They would see that shining, fiery glory of God abiding over the tent of the tabernacle. And they knew they were dwelling in the presence of God. But imagine this. Every day for a year, it's the same old thing. It's the same old pillar. It's the same old fiery pillar at night and the smoky cloud during the day. Then all of a sudden there's a, can you imagine this, a little whispering, a little murmuring, a little talk in the camp, saying this, the clouds moving. What do we do? The clouds moving. What do we do? And so they knew from the commandment of Moses, because he had been God's spokesman for the children of Israel, hadn't he? They knew by Moses' command and instruction that when the cloud moved, the people were supposed to move. And so now, for the first time in over a year, they're going to follow God. And you think about this, a lot of these people didn't really know God all that well. They were only about a year from being delivered from Egyptian bondage. 400 years or so of Egyptian bondage. And we know from the Bible account that many people had really forgotten who God was during that time. We're talking about several generations of Hebrew people. And the only, you know, there was just a little smidgen. We call it a remnant of believers who were left. in that Egyptian time. They had adopted the superstitions and the false religions of the Egyptian people, the Egyptian custom, the Egyptian way. They were slaves. They were beat down. They were oppressed. Then all of a sudden, kind of out of the blue, God raises up this man named Moses who the people didn't really know that well. He was the guy who grew up in Pharaoh's court. He grew up in opulence and in riches and wealth. And now here comes Moses and he says, we're going to leave Egypt. Who says? God says. Who's God? And he reminds them, tell them that I Am hath sent you. And so they had to go back in their minds saying, oh yeah, the I Am. Jehovah, the ever-existent, all-sufficient, eternal One, who has needs of no thing or no one. And so they were reminded of that truth, and it's amazing to me, after the plagues and after the things that went on, that Moses was able to lead them out of Egyptian bondage, through the Red Sea, and then they're going to go in now to a 40-year wilderness wandering, but they didn't know God all that well, but yet God sent them a leader and they followed that leader as he followed God. Amazing. Amazing also that when the cloud moved, the people moved. Because when you read the history of the nation of Israel, they weren't the most obedient people on the face of the earth. They were more than likely some of the most disobedient, rebellious, stiff-necked people on the face of the earth. But they knew that something was going on when that cloud moved. It was time for us to move. So I want you to take some time this morning. I got a lot of Bible for you to consider this morning. We're a Bible preaching church. Can I have an amen there, please? We're going to talk about the Bible and talk about following God. Getting that first step under ourselves again, getting that stability, and working through what God would have us to do. In this first point, I hope it catches your imagination that the next step may be a stop. The next step in your Christian journey, your walk with God, may be a stop. Go back and let's be reviewing here Numbers chapter 9. It was time for the Passover. This is the first anniversary of the Passover. They had the first Passover there right before they left Egypt, and now they're here in the wilderness, and they're going to celebrate the Passover again, and it was a solemn occasion. It was a time of remembrance, a time of decision-making, a time of understanding what God had done and who God was. and the people were all on board with it, but there were some men in the camp who could not take the Passover because they had come in contact with a dead body. Whether inadvertently or there was a burial or whatever the case may be, they came to Moses in verse number 6 And they wanted to keep the Passover, but they know they couldn't keep the Passover. And in verse 7 it says, And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man, wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel. They wanted to. Their heart was right. Their motive was pure. But they understood by the law they were now defiled, and they were ceremonially unclean to partake of the Passover. And instead of Moses saying, I know exactly what to do, he said this in verse 8, And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you. And it's refreshing to know this, is that Moses didn't have all the answers. And I consider Moses a pretty good student, amen? A pretty good follower of God. A pretty well-established leader. And he said, I don't know what to do here in this case, but I know who does know what to do. So you men stand still. Don't do anything. Wait here. I'm going to talk to God about this situation and see what God says about the matter. And I'm telling you what, I mean, there are so many arenas and avenues and places in the Christian life where we come to a crossroads, we come to a fork in the road, we come to a turn, and we don't know what to do, and we don't know where to go. Some of the best advice I can give you as a pastor, as a fellow Christian believer, is to do this. Stand still. Stop. Pause. This is how I tell people all the time when I'm on the phone with them or I'm having a time with them and they are fretting and they are pacing and they're wringing their hands and they're really in a frenzy in many ways. And I'll look at them of all calmness and directness and say this, breathe. Just breathe. Let's take some deep breaths here. Let's slow down. Because life is fast and life is busy and we need to take some time to stand still and to breathe. There's a portion of scripture where we're reminded that God speaks to us in a still, small voice. This is my thing. Small voices are heard by small people. in getting small before God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the mourn, they shall be comforted. We've got to get small before God. And still voices, this is going to blow your mind, are heard by still people? Yeah. Small voices are heard by small people? And still voices are heard by still people? This is so deep! It's quietness. It's stopping. I know we've come from the 80s, the 70s, Jesus movement in the 80s. You know, bless God, burn the candle at both ends movement. And everything was go forward and go on and don't stop and don't think. And bless your soul, don't you rest. But we need to stop. We need to stop and consider. ponder, think a while, rest a while, breathe a little bit, and see what God has to say on the matter. This is not the first time that Moses told the people of Israel to stand still. The very first time was one of my favorite portions of scripture as they're leaving Egypt. They're on their way, they get to the Red Sea, and Pharaoh has decided to chase after the Hebrews, the children of Israel, in rage and in fury. And I'm just telling you this, it was not Pharaoh's intent to take them back alive as servants. It was his intent to slaughter them there by the shore of the Red Sea. And the people saw the Red Sea facing them, and they felt the Egyptian army coming down their necks on their backs. and they had nowhere to go, and they did what most humans would do, and they were concerned about their future, and their welfare, and their safety. They said, thanks a lot, Moses. Thanks for bringing us out here so we can die on the beach rather than dying in Egypt. Come on, saints, help me. Thanks a lot for the effort, and for the failed leadership, and the flawed plan you had. Thank you for those things. And Moses said this unto the people, Fear ye not, do what? Stand still. Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. That's a real bold promise. Amen? Or Moses knows what God's about to do. Doesn't know how he's going to do it, but God's going to do something. God's going to make a move here. It's going to be what we call impressive. It's going to be a God thing. Come on, help me this morning. Help me preach today. We're going to stand still. What do you mean we're going to stand still? We've got the ocean in front of us. We've got the Egyptian army with their chariots and their horses and their spears and their swords. They're going to come cut our heads off. And you want us to stand still? Yep. Stand still. Breathe. Stop. Rest. What's going to happen? You're going to see the salvation of God today. I'm so glad that we can know and serve a saving God. Amen. I think it's good for us as Christians to stand still and remember our salvation. Even when we're off track, and we've gone sideways, and whatever term you want to use for that position you are in reference to God and your salvation, it's good to look back to your salvation again. Because I've got good news for you. In 2,000 years, the cross has not moved. Amen? You want to get a good view of the cross, you stop. You know, I've gotten this bad habit, and I know your husband has too, of trying to take pictures while I'm driving. What's wrong with me? Amen? You know, and I'll say, well, that'd be beautiful. And I'll sit there and I'll try to get a picture while I'm going 45 or 55, maybe 65 miles an hour and take a picture. And then I'll look at that and I'll say, wow, that's kind of blurry. That's kind of out of focus. It's because the object is stationary and I'm moving. And that'll preach right there. Because the object of our affection and our salvation is the cross of Calvary. And we're moving, moving. I mean, we are like bumblebees to a flower, aren't we? I mean, we are moving, moving, moving, moving. The cross is back there somewhere. It's never moved. Amen. The blood has never lost its power. The cross has never moved. The only thing that moved that you should be concerned about concerning your salvation is the rock did move. Can I have an amen there? And I'm glad that it did. And the tomb was empty today. And our salvation is found in that old rugged cross and the shed blood of Calvary and the rock, the empty tomb that was moved. Praise the Lord for all those truths. That is saints your salvation. We can look back there and stand still and remember our salvation. Remember the sacrifice of God our Father. Remember how the Son died on the cross of Calvary when He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? In the beautiful words, it is finished. It's done. Can I have an amen there? Praise the Lord. Another time Stan Still was mentioned in our Old Testament was the prophet Samuel. He was an old man now. He was discouraged by the heart of the people of Israel. They wanted a king. They didn't want God as their king any longer. They wanted to have a king, a human king, like all the other nations wanted or had. And so they picked Saul to be their first king. Saul was a Jewish man who was of the tribe of Benjamin, but the thing about Saul, what the Bible says about him, that attracted the people to make him their king was that he was tall. What a good reason to elect a king. Can I have an amen there? You know, he was tall, and so he stood head and shoulders above the crowd. And so, we want Saul to be our king. And I want to say it like this, Saul was a failed king. Saul was a bad choice. Can I have an amen there? In the history of Israel's disobedience. And so, Samuel's going to give them a little bit of world history, or excuse me, Jewish history, hinging on this thought right here. He said, Now therefore, stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which He did to you and to your fathers. And as you go down and read the rest of chapter 12 in 1 Samuel, you'll see all these wonderful things that God did in the history of Israel. calling them, delivering them, choosing them, just wonderful things time and time again. And I tell you what, I'm guilty of this, is sometimes I forget just how good God's been to me. Anyone else in that camp every once in a while? I mean every once in a while. I know you're all better than I am, but I mean every once in a while. Come on, laugh a little bit this morning. We do, we forget these things, don't we? We forget how good God has been to us. That's why we have God is so good Sunday. Because I want you for at least one day out of the year to remember how good God has been to this church. And in your home. And in your own individual lives. God is so good. In the righteous acts that He has done on our behalf, we are so undeserving. What did we call it last week? Unmerited favor. God giving us what we do not deserve. That's called grace. Saints say amen. And He's been so good to us and done so much for us. We've got to stop and stand still and remember. What are we going to do while we're standing still? We're going to look at the salvation of the Lord. We're going to consider the righteous acts of God on our behalf. But there's some more things that you can do in the here and now that will help you when it's time to take the next step, and that is to really take time to look at God's Word. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." You understand that in the age of grace, during this dispensation that we are blessed to live in, we're not going to hear the audible voice of God. but we have the perfect, inspired, preserved Word of God that answers to the issues, that answers to the great choices and questions of life, and our only excuse for not knowing God's Word is not looking at God's Word? Not reading God's Word? Why is it, preacher, that every Sunday you're telling us to read and pray? Because that's where you're going to get your answer from God on what your next step should be. That's where you're going to build up your repertoire of how God answers, and how God moves, and how God convicts, and how God convinces, and how God chastens, and how God encourages, and how God informs, is by studying His Word. The psalmist said this, Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Aren't you glad, this morning? We don't have to be stumbling around in darkness and trying to find our way. The Word of God is a perfect light. It will light our way. Amen? Now, caution. Don't be guilty of playing Bible roulette. Know what that means? Okay, Lord, I did the answer. I'm not sure where it is in here, so I'm going to play Bible roulette. I'm going to point to a verse, and God, that must be your answer. Let me give you an example of how that could go awry. And he went and hanged himself. Next. Then said Jesus unto him, go and do that likewise. Next. that thou doest do quickly. That's Bible roulette right there. That might not be God's answer for your situation. Can I have an amen there? And so we're careful to not be to pick and choose. When I was young, my wife, well my wife, she was my girlfriend then, she bought me a Bible for Christmas. King James, Schofield Notes. I mean, I was, wow, I hit the spirit there, didn't I? Amen. But anyway, you know, that's what I got for Christmas and I didn't know what to do. I started out in Genesis, you know, like everybody else does, right? And I read through that. That's some pretty cool stories. Amen. And then I got to Exodus and that, awesome, right? Anybody know what's next? Leviticus, then Numbers, right? So I started doing Bible roulette and say, OK, I don't want to read numbers anymore. So I started doing one of these things and started reading, you know, pointing and choosing where I was going to read my Bible. I was 16, 17 years old. I didn't have any sense about meaning. Neither did you, eh, man? Right. But you can't really get what God's trying to tell us by going willy nilly through the Word and choosing what we want to read and what we don't want to read. Because all of it's inspired. It really is. I got to say this. All of it's good. Even all those numbers and names and lineages and genealogies, all that stuff, God put it there for a reason. And the older we get and the more that we're growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the more we're understanding why God put those things there. For us in the 21st century, for our admonition, for our learning, for our example. Amen. So it's important that we have some kind of systematic way. of reading through the Bible and learning what God's Word has for us. If we're going to take the next step, we ought to take it based on what God's Word is and how it's lighting our path and our way. Can I have an amen there? So we're careful about that and we have to be doing those things. And so we can do a lot of things in what we would call Christian ignorance because we didn't know that we were disobeying the Word of God and really our only excuse for our ignorance is just not looking into what the Word says. Amen. Okay. It's getting quiet now. It's time to move on. Amen. The second step is this, or thought, pretty simple. When God moves, move. No, no. When God moves, move. You've been there long enough, he'll say. You've stood there long enough. You've taken enough deep breaths. You have the tools. You have the weapons of your warfare. You've been focusing and meditating on the sword of the Spirit. You've been studying to show yourself approved. And God says, now we're gonna move. Who's still a little bit afraid? Because that's gotta, now we're gonna bring a new thing into the equation. Faith. Faith. Faith is holding that unseen hand, isn't it? Faith is trusting in a God who has never audibly spoke to you. He's never reached down from heaven and patted you on the back, I mean in a physical way, and pat you on the back saying you're doing a good job, you're going the right way. And so now we have to take this step of faith and trust that the God that we're following is God. There's all kinds of things out there. There's all kinds of things out there. There's tarot cards. There's astrology. There's crystal balls. There's soothsayers, fortune tellers, right? There are those who somehow they have a touch on the other side and can tell you all about your past and all about your future. There's all kinds of confusion out there. There's wizardry today. It's popular among our young people today. This idea of wizardry and dungeons and dragons and all these things and trying to learn from false spirits, wrong spirits, misguided spirits. Spirit of Antichrist, John called it. I heard it over there. Darkness, it comes from principalities and powers. You know, from the realm of darkness. You know, we're, hello, we're impatient people. We're impatient people and we've been standing here long enough and we feel like now God's moving and the Spirit's wooing and we've got to go. And I mean, how many times have we taken the wrong step? It goes back to that first point when we weren't in the Word. Let alone in church. Did he say that on Sunday morning? Yeah. Let alone being in church, but we weren't in the Word either. Then we found ourselves in a mess and now we're looking up and Mark said this morning, we say, why me? Why am I here? Why am I thus? Right? So we've got to make sure that who we're following, that God that we're following is the God, the one and true God. Can I say this? The only God. He is the only God. And so we've got to be careful about this so when God moves, we move. And just a few things this morning. People will ask, and it's a fair question, young people especially, Pastor, who should I marry? I met this cute guy and he's really nice and he's got morals and his hair's groomed and he drives the speed limit. And every time we've gone out, he's bought my dinner. I mean, this guy, he's up there, right? And people will say, well, who should you marry? There's always two answers you have real easy. Number one is you marry someone from the opposite sex, even in America. We're going to keep it there until God takes me home. Amen? That's just how it's going to be. And then the second thing is this. We don't want to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. So we get those first two things out. Mrs. Hoffer needs some help, I think. Somebody want to attend to her back there? Go ahead, Marcus. We want to make sure that we're not unequally yoked with an unbeliever. Here's the thing, even though they're really nice and they're really good and they're really cute, there comes a time when the unbeliever and the believer are going to come to a battle point. And it creates misery in the home. And maybe you're married to an unbeliever and if you felt like it, or boldness, you could stand up and say amen right now, you're a right arm preacher. And so you're careful about that and you also need to be careful about even if they're a believer that they believe like you believe. Because here's where, this is where the angst will come in is when children's enter into the family and then all of a sudden we're going to have this battle again. How are we going to raise them? How you believe or how I believe? Come on, help me. And so, you know, once again, these things aren't mysterious and these things aren't as spooky as we make them out to be. And so that's just a little bit of a free thought this morning. I don't know who's getting married and who's not getting married, but I say it for the pulpit about once a month, when you do marry, please pray about it and please try to marry right. Amen. Now, when God moves, we move. Oftentimes God moves through His Word. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net. I can relate to Simon Peter right here. I've been skunked fishing more times than I'd like to share this morning, and I'm telling you this, if some voice came for me from the heaven and said, one more cast, I'm thinking, not gonna happen. Amen? It's just, you know, you're just done. You've had no luck, the fish aren't biting, don't have the right bait, you know, on and on and on. But Peter had the right attitude. Simon Peter did. When God said, I want you to let out your nets for a draught, and they let out their nets for a draught because God told them to. And then when they did, they caught so many fish that the net couldn't hold all the fish, and the net actually broke. How do you explain that? I can't explain that, but God said do it, and they did. That's faith. That's obedience. That's trust. That's a lot of things that need to go into motion in the 21st century brand of Christianity. Amen, preacher. You're right on this morning. Yeah. So we have to be obedient to God's command and His number one command is His Word. We are to look to His Word. Now, we have to be careful that when we're quote-unquote following God that we stay within the boundaries. I'll say it again. We must be careful when we're following God that we stay within the boundaries. This book is full of boundaries. It's full of general principle, general direction, guidelines, but there's specific direction and specific principles and specific instruction also in the Word. And God's Spirit will not lead you in a direction that goes contrary to His Word. We have to stay within the boundaries. Amen. Here's a verse of the Old Testament in Proverbs 22-28. Those ancient landmarks were how they would mark off the property in the Old Testament times. They would take big rocks and they would put the rocks on the corner of the boundaries of the property. Well, do you know what some people would do as time went on, as generations came around? They would say, hey, I want a little bit more land. So they would take that rock and kind of move it out and try to increase their property lines. Get more acreage. More acreage means more money, amen? More money means greater inheritance for the grandkids and all those things. And so, you know, the money talks, kind of an attitude, is remove not the ancient landmarks. but we have also these landmarks that were set forth in the Word of God. And we are to live within the boundaries of God's Word. We have to live within the boundaries of God's Word, and we can't be guilty of taking our foot and kicking the rocks. So we can say the boundary has expanded, therefore I can live within this boundary now. Hello, pastor? It's the 21st century. It's time to wake up! Spill the coffee! Get progressive! No, it's not going to happen. We're not going to remove the ancient landmarks, not only what the fathers have sent, but what my Heavenly Father have sent. And so we want to stay within that boundary and within that confine and not be drawn or lured to, tempted to go outside of God's boundaries. Bad place to be. Amen. How do you know when you get outside the boundary? God gave us the Holy Ghost. We have the Comforter. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your, what? Remembrance. Whatsoever I have said unto you. I have heard it a thousand times. I'm not very good at memorizing Scripture. Neither am I. But I have learned this. that God's Holy Spirit will remind you of His Scripture when you're about to break His Scripture. when you're about to violate it, when you're about to transgress, when you're about to go the wrong way. You know, if our hearts are sensitive and our spirit is softened, when He convicts us, we'll stop. We'll take a step back. But when our hearts are hardened, when our conscience has been seared, we're lucky to keep on going and to keep on going and to keep on going. And again, it comes back to that ability and that desire to be small and still before God. sensitive to His Spirit. Say, Pastor, explain to me how the Holy Spirit works. I can't tell you how He works, but He works. Man, does He work. Remember when you got saved and you knew you were a sinner? You were on a hell-bound train. Come on, saints. And God knocked on your heart's door and said, you better do something, you better make this right, you better get right with me. That was the Holy Spirit of God telling you, this is truth and you better respond to this truth. And the same thing was true, your salvation is still true and in operation in your Christian life. He's saying stop. Don't go there. Don't open that door. Don't turn that way. Keep on the straight and the narrow way. That's what Christ said. The Christian life is going to be the straight and narrow way. How does His Spirit work? I can't tell you how His Spirit works. I can simply tell you His Spirit does work. I want you to think about this. In the life of the Apostle Paul, He was out church planting. He was a missionary. He was out preaching the gospel. Souls were being saved. People were being baptized. Churches were being started. And Paul and his team were ready to go into Asia and to hit the next city, knock on the next door and see what God was going to do in Asia. And look what the Bible says about this. Now, when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. How did that work? How did the Holy Ghost stop Paul from setting foot into Asia? Do you think that he felt a force? Do you think it was like that science fiction thing, the dome? And he couldn't get in, he couldn't get out? This is a man who was receptive and he was responsive. And he answered to God's Spirit. God said, don't go into Asia. Audibly? I don't think so. He was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to go into Asia. Paul said, okay, we're not going to Asia. Okay, where are we going? I don't know. Paul goes to sleep. He gets a vision of the night. Here's a Macedonian saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. And next thing we know, Paul's going into Philippi. And boy, did life change there in a great and miraculous way. And I want to say that we as Americans should be so grateful that God sent the gospel west. It's changed the founding of America. It changed the nation that we are. It changed the ability for us to come together and worship in liberty and freedom. We don't have to come together just on Sundays. Any day of the week we can come together and worship and praise and give our thanks to God. You know, I know we have problems in America, but I tell you this, there's no other place I want to live. and this place right here. And a lot of it we have to go back and say, thanks to the Holy Ghost of God that we are even able to be here this morning. It's listening. It's responding. It's knowing when you're being convicted and not going forward with that next event or task or move. Stopping. Breathing. Listening. Waiting. And then the next step. And the next step. And the next step. God is so good. Father, we thank You for this time together this morning. Lord, I know that this following God idea becomes very abstract. And it's very hard for us to get our minds wrapped around it. It's hard to explain what faith is. And Lord, it's impossible to put into words how the Spirit moves and what that feels like. But Lord, I know this, that anybody in the room who has experienced that knows exactly what I am speaking of this morning. Whether it was conviction, or leading, or encouragement, whatever it might have been, Lord, when that feeling came, that touch from heaven fell upon us, we knew that we were to do something. Maybe it was to stop and stand still. Maybe it was to take the next step. And Lord, I want to pray a prayer for our congregation this morning, for our guests here this morning, to make it a motive and intent of our hearts to read your Word, to study your Word, to put it into practice. in our lives. Father, I do want this church to be known as a Bible-believing church, a Bible-following church, a Bible-preaching church. Help us in that regard. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.