Welcome to the Wilton Baptist Church where we worship God walk with others and win people to the Lord Jesus Christ I'm pastor Steve and our congregation is pleased to share this message with you today And we pray it'll be a blessing and encouragement to you blessings as you listen or watch Good morning Oh, I tell you, they tell you to be ready in season and out of season. Much easier said than done. Pastor was texting me yesterday, and finally I just asked him, are you good for tomorrow? He didn't say it like this, but it was pretty much like, no. Pray for Pastor. It's the first time that I've ever had to fill in for him being sick on a Sunday. There's been a couple of standbys here and there, so he is not feeling very well. Pastors, we don't like to miss Sunday morning because we know we have a message that God gave us for this particular day. And shepherds don't like to miss with their sheep. It's a big deal. And so be in prayer for Him. I thank God for our church. I thank God for all of you and just the spirit that you have here, the friendliness that you have here. You make it easier to preach. You really do. And one of the things I tell Southern preachers when they come up to the North, all right, is Northern people, they do listen, all right? And you gotta look at faces and you can see a smile or an acknowledgment. Down South, they just go crazy loud sometimes. And, you know, they'll amen just about everything. And that's not everywhere. There's stereotypes, we know that, and there's exceptions. But I would encourage pastors as they come up, I said, it's just a different crowd, different culture, and different response, and everything like that. But I love coming into a church, walking into a church, and just knowing that it's friendly, knowing that people are serious, and that's what we have here at Wilton Baptist, and I thank you for that. We are going to be in 2 Timothy chapter three, and I have two slides, this and the response, that's all I have. All right. One, I'm not tech savvy, so if you ask me to do something on the spot, it will be a disaster. And nor did I want to put somebody else on the spot, you know, late at night or whatever it may be. And so you have your Bibles. We'll be in 2 Timothy chapter 3. And I'm very familiar with the outline because I taught this outline a little bit earlier this week with my teachers at one of our teacher meetings. They had the normal version. You get the extended version. All right? And so enjoy. Anyway, 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14 says this, This is Paul talking to Timothy. We know it's God's Word, but this is a letter from Paul. to Timothy, and that from a child, though, has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And I'm gonna say this a little bit later on, but I'm just tell you right now, Scripture gets the job done. Verse 17, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for this morning. We thank you for church. Lord, we thank you for the friendliness here. We thank you for the desire to hear from you. Lord, we thank you for the desire for more people to come to know Christ as their Savior. Lord, help us to not just have a desire for it, but help us to work for it, help us to share. And Lord, I know, everybody in here knows that life just never goes according to our plans. This past year, or the year that we've had so far, probably different than we thought it was going to be. The year before, same thing. The year coming up, the same thing. But Lord, help us to know that you know what is gonna happen, and it doesn't shock you. You don't go, oh, I didn't see that coming. You literally know. everything that will happen and everything that could happen. Lord, we thank you for that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Isn't that amazing to think about that God not only knows the choice that you will make and the consequences of that, but he knows all the choices that you could have made and all the consequences of that as well. God just absolutely knows everything. Everything. There isn't any secret or hidden thing from the Lord whatsoever. And That is including your life and everything that it entails when it comes to kids, job, family, school, finances, elections, all of that. God is not going to be surprised in November. He just simply isn't. Or however long it takes to figure out who really is the president or not. And he's not surprised by any of that. And sometimes we kind of live life like God is surprised as well. And we react in a way where we're just, well, we kind of overreact. We overcorrect. We underreact. We just, we do what we do instead of just trusting God with absolutely everything. One thing that I know for sure is that life is a battle. It really is battle. And we have to approach it that particular way. I enjoy life. Maybe I enjoy battles. I don't know what that means. I enjoy life. And I'm not saying that life should be miserable and it's always a battle, it's a battle, it's a battle. I'm not saying anything like that at all. Because what did I already say? God knows that it's a battle as well. And we sing songs like victory in Jesus. We don't sing defeat in Jesus or oh no here it comes. You know the Lord knows tomorrow. All right. We sing all these particular songs because because God knows that we're in a battle and we need to recognize that we're in battle and just acknowledge it. I mean don't shy away from it. I've raised all my kids letting them know that hey we're sinful nature. We have a sinful nature. We're not going to do things right just out of the righteousness of our heart. We're going to need Christ to help us to be able to live right, walk right, speak right, do right. We're going to have to lean on Jesus when it comes to all of that. We shouldn't be surprised when we approach life or we see life and things don't go the way that we think they should. I mean, name one project where everything went the way that it should. It just never happens the way that it is. I think life is kind of like driving, all right? It's like driving. I expect everybody in the road to make a mistake. Absolutely ever. I expect that person to run a stop sign. I expect that person to swerve over and run me off the road. I just expect it all the time. And by the way, I voice my expectations as well. That's not always good. But I was thinking about this driving the church. If I already know that somebody is going to drive, I'm just not going to say any words, wrong, then why do I get upset about it? Oh no, that person stopped in the middle of a traffic circle. You ever see somebody go the wrong way in a traffic circle? That was interesting. All right. And get upset about it. I'm kind of speaking to myself a little bit right now. Why get upset about drivers that are doing wrong when you know it's going to happen in the first place? Life is kind of like that. We can really get bent out of shape when life doesn't go the way that we think it should. Let's go back 6,000 years ago. What did God say was going to enter into the world? A curse. curse. And it's going to be there until the day that Jesus Christ comes and conquers everything that needs to be. So there is a battle that is taking place. And by the way God himself takes this battle very seriously. In Ephesians chapter 6 he gives us the armor of God. Think about that. He says you're gonna battle wickedness and demons and spiritual, all that, it's going to be a spiritual battle that is taking place and it's very real and it's very deadly. And the devil himself is going to be casting his fiery darts at you. He says, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to give you the armor of God. And when we think of the armor of God sometimes in our life, we kind of go to VBS, where I got my little plastic armor, I got my plastic shield, and my little plastic helmet of salvation, and, you know, the sword that bends. Whatever. And we almost treat the armor of God like it's some kind of child thing. When the armor of God, wow, I don't even know what it is. But I know it's incredible, and I know it's strong, and I know it's powerful, and I know it's real, and I know it's needed. Because we're in a battle, and it takes place. So Timothy is getting a letter from Paul letting him know, you need to be ready for what you're going through and what you are going to go through. Because Paul's about to go home to be with the Lord. He's gonna be martyred for his faith, and Timothy's no longer gonna have his spiritual father here on this earth. And so, in one sense, Timothy's faith, which is real, it's gonna get even more real. Could you imagine when Jesus Christ told the disciples, I'm leaving? I'm gonna go prepare a mansion for you. There's gonna be a place for you. I would be the disciple that would be stuck going, wait, wait, wait, wait, let's go back to what you first said. What'd you say? I'm leaving. all of a sudden the faith of disciples is going to have to get very real because they're not going to be walking with Jesus physically here on this earth anymore. At some point in our life we all realize that the life that Jesus has for us is very real. We can't rely or lean on somebody else's faith for absolutely everything. We have to have our own faith in Jesus Christ. We have to have our own plan when it comes to fighting these particular battles. And that is what Timothy is letting, that is what Paul is letting Timothy know. So in verse 14, look what he says here. He says, but continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned. Battle plans always should involve, when we talk about battle, living for the Lord, doing what the Lord to have us do, should involve continuing on. Continuation. Let's continue. That's what he tells them there in verse 14. Continue. Keep going. I'm not going to be here, but you're still expected to take another step for Jesus. I'm not going to be able to tell anybody else about Jesus Christ, you know, as far as accepting Him as their Savior, but you need to continue to teach people about Jesus. You need to teach Christians on how to grow in the Lord. Matter of fact, he says in 2 Timothy chapter 2, In verse two he says, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. One thing I love about Wilton Baptist Church is people are getting saved, people are getting baptized, and we have a lot of little kids. Isn't that amazing? And if you don't think it's amazing, volunteer for Kids Life one Sunday. Just one. And you will be praying for the workers for the rest of your life. Now, it's amazing. It's incredible. And we do discipleship here as well. If you know Christ as your Savior, you want to be able to grow in the Lord, we'll use different discipleship materials. And this is one of those that we will use. Notice the word. What's the word, everybody? Thank you, I'm getting ready for school. All right, continue. Because the idea is, I don't want the faith in Jesus Christ to stop with me. How pathetic. I don't want that. I want my kids to know Christ as their Savior. And they all know Christ as their Savior. Thank the Lord. I want my grandkids to know Christ as their Savior. I want my students in my class to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. But not only do I want them to know about Jesus, I want them to walk with Jesus. I want them to grow in Jesus. I want them to serve Jesus. 20 years from now, if I'm still here, all of that, I still plan on serving Jesus, but it's not gonna be like I am now. I'm already wearing out. I'm gonna need somebody else to be doing what needs to be done. And it just needs to continue on, needs to keep going and going and going. There's a church in the local area, they just celebrated their 240th anniversary. that's amazing. That's incredible. And they're still preaching the gospel. And they're still sharing the gospel. And they have kids in their church and they're raising the gospel. We need to make sure that our faith is continuing on. That's part of the battle. Honestly, that's part of the battle. That's what we lost here in the United States of America. We stopped preparing our country, our generation, to be better than our generation. And if you think about it, if you prepare the generation to be stronger than you, then you are preparing a stronger church, a stronger family, a stronger country, whatever it may be. That's a very unselfish way of doing things. Making sure that other people are prepared when it comes to serving Jesus Christ. We have to continue. Now I have six children, you know that. My first four were girls. And we had four girls, and we stopped. I was like, it's not happening, boy, it's not happening. All right, four is a good number. All right, it's a good number. They'll have their friends and everything, it's a good number. And so we just stopped. Now, several years later, we knew that the Lord wanted us to have more children. We did. And I had to come with, I basically had to accept the fact that God wants me to have more children, whether it be boy or girl. Now it wasn't a big deal. I love my girls. And I raised them to be tough as men, so whatever. They beat up their husbands all the time. It's great. Anyway. But I'm the last Newcombe. That was it. I'm the last one. No more Newcombes. That was it. That's a lot of pressure. And finally, I was just like, whatever, we're done. And then later on, God says, hey, I want you to have more children. Okay. He didn't let me know I was going to have a boy. He didn't like give me some revelation. You will have a son. All right, but we did. Like seven years later, we had Matthew. All right, and that was incredible. And then Jennifer and I were talking, like, we figured this out. Let's have another. So we had two boys. It was amazing. But now the name continues. And that's kind of cool. I think it's kind of cool, right, that your name continues. And it was either that or I was going to have to convince one of my girls to convince her husband that they're going to take on the Newcomb name. That would have been a fight. But anyway. Look, here, because it's my family, and I think the family name continuing is kinda cool. I like it, I thought it was important. My dad even, he told me this story one time, where he knew that I was the last newcomer, and he knew that we had four daughters, and that was pretty much it. And then one day, he was kinda thinking about it, and he pulled over on the side of the road, and even had a talk with the Lord, saying, yeah, I'm at peace with that, that's awesome, that's whatever you want, Lord, that's great. And then I think like that day or the next day, I called and told him, hey, Jennifer, we're having a baby. And he told me it's going to be a boy. My dad did. I said, well, no, he didn't say that, but he knew it was going to be a boy. And all of that. That's pretty neat. Because it's family. And the Newcomb family will continue. But one day, the Newcomb family will probably end. Because everything on this life, on this earth, ends. How much more important is it for my children to be part of God's family? As important as it is for my daughters to be my daughters and my sons to be my sons, it's more important that they are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, they don't get away with that. Well, hey dad, we're brothers in Christ. No, no, you're my son, do what I say. We fight a much better battle if we have a goal. And that goal is to continue. What will change America is people coming to know Christ as their Savior. That's what will change America. Judges won't change America. Presidents won't change America. I won't change America. If Jesus can change people one person at a time, that's what gets the job done. We have to make sure that we're continuing. Now, so let's continue. Let's move on. And let me, before I move on, and I just think this is really... The Bible's real people, right? The Apostle Paul, he's a real person. Now, I don't, he just, I don't know what they, I don't know what he did for fun. I don't know, he hung out, he hung out in prisons a lot. I'm gonna hang out with Paul today. Where are you going? To the local jail cell, whatever it may be. And look what he says in verse 12. Look what he says in verse 12 of 2 Timothy chapter 3. He says, yea, and all. Everybody see that word? And yea, and all that will live. What's the next word? Godly. All that will live godly shall suffer persecution. Paul did not lie to Timothy. He didn't sit there and say, if you follow God, man, it is going to be incredible wealth and incredible health and incredible, everybody in the world's just gonna absolutely love you. They're gonna fall down at your feet. It's gonna be amazing. It's heaven on earth. He didn't say that at all. He says, if you live for Jesus Christ, you will suffer persecution. Paul, who was shipwrecked more than once, who was stoned to death most likely, who was whipped, who was beaten, who was stripped of his clothes and whipped and beaten and thrown into prison after prison after prison after prison. He was ridiculed. He was mocked. He was persecuted. He was absolutely hated over and over and over again. And he said, Timothy, this is the life for you. Be a good soldier, that's what he says in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Keep going, keep fighting. Continue thou therein. Let's not lie to our kids, okay? Let them know that the life that they have in Christ is by far the best life that they could ever have. But let them know it's going to be a life that is going to be battle after battle. But if there's battle after battle in Jesus, there's also victory after victory. Which brings me to the next point. We need to continue, but then also, look what he says in verse 14, but continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. We need to have confidence. If we're going to go into a battle, you better go into it believing you can win. You just better go into it believing that you can win. More importantly, you better go into it believing that Jesus will win. Right? Have you ever, have you ever, you're raising kids or maybe you're coaching a soccer team or a basketball team or somebody's about to do something and they get on the court or about to get on the court and they watch the other team practice. I've had, I've had students before, athletes that would watch the other team practice and then they would, and then they would look at them and they'd go, we're going to get wiped. I've been doing it a long time, so I can kind of judge ability and things like that. And secretly, I wanted to go, oh, absolutely. No, what do we say? We say something along the lines of, yeah, with that attitude, you know, we give it your best, all that, leave it out on the court, that type of thing. And sometimes that's a reality. They're just a much, much better team than you, and that's just going to happen. But there are other times where people, they just, they go into it with, this isn't going to work, this is going to fail, this is going to... this is not going to succeed, this is so bad, this is going to break, and all of that. And then what happens is you really don't put your all into it, and you don't have a good attitude with it at all as well. I'll tell you something right now. I think what brings Christianity down more than anything is just a sour-faced Christian. I really do. And I'm speaking to myself, believe me. A pessimistic, the world is going to end, Christian, and by the way, if the world's gonna end, I'm gonna be with Jesus. Win-win. What happens is we lose confidence in our ability to be able to serve the way that Christ would have me to serve. And we can't lose confidence in Jesus. We can't lose confidence in the plan that he has for us. It isn't going to do anybody any good. whatsoever. He says, but continuing on things which y'all has learned and has been assured of. He says, Timothy you have learned these things and now you have been assured of these things. Do you know what assures you more than anything in the world to me? An answered prayer. One of the things that I have taught my children, and even now as they're adults, I try to teach them the same thing. They'll come to me with a particular problem, a situation, whatever it may be, and I say, this is my phrase, and I love this phrase, and I think it's a good phrase, and you should use it too. Pray it through. Pray it through. Don't just lift it up once. Pray it through. All the way to the end. Whatever the answer may be, pray it through. You're asking God to give you a particular job. You pray for the job. You pray for the interview. Pray it until they say yea or nay. Pray it through. You know somebody who needs Jesus Christ as their Savior. You pray it until they're no longer here on this earth. You pray it through. You just keep praying, you keep lifting them up. You pray, and you pray, and you pray, and you pray. And then when my kids, or myself, or my wife, or whoever it may be, says, this is what we brought to the Lord in prayer, and this is the answer prayer that we got, I say, remember that. Remember the no, remember the yes, just remember that God answered it. Because then the next time, when you bring something to the Lord in prayer, you will have confidence that he hears ya. You gotta have confidence that God hears you. You gotta have confidence that you can talk to him. You gotta have confidence that he hears you. You gotta have confidence that he will answer you. All right, dads, I'm gonna speak to you for a little bit. I don't know if you're this kind of dad or not. I can be this kind of person. My kids can literally talk to me, ask me a question, and I could just sit there and ignore them the whole time. And then finally they'll be like, dad, did you hear me? Yes. And then that's it, that's all. But they start losing confidence in the communication. They're sitting there talking, they're sitting there, and I'm just sitting there, whatever, I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe I'm sleeping, who knows, whatever. And they're just like, they're frustrated by that. Man, I tell you what, God does not want you to be frustrated with prayer life. He wants you to know that you can talk to Him. He wants you to know that He hears you. He wants you to know that He'll answer you. That's what God does. We need to have confidence in the things that are taking place in this world. When we have confidence in something, then our actions and our speech follow. Right or wrong are actions that our speech follow. Guess what's going to take place in a couple weeks? The NFL is about to start. I'm so excited. I love football. Sorry. Oklahoma college football is about to start. NFL is about to start. You know what I found out about New York when I moved up here 20 years ago? New York Jet fans are delusional. If there's a jet fan in here, I'm sorry. I'll pray for you. I'll pray it through. Every year. Do you know what fan is short for, right? It's not fantastic. It's fanatics. All right? And fanatics just don't see reason. They just hope beyond reason. And I have a couple of friends that are Jet fans, and every year it's going to be our year. Every year it's going to be our year. Every year it's going to be your year. And every year I say, it's the Jets. It's not going to be your year. And then last year, they had a great defense. They had a good offense. And they got a Hall of Fame quarterback to lead their team. And I think it was four plays, all right? Four plays into the first game of the year, he tore his Achilles. And you know what the Jet fans did? Next year! And so this is the year. This is the year that they think they're going to win the Super Bowl. And some of them are so absolutely crazy they actually bet money on it. I was like, have you looked at history at all? It is not on your side. All right? And I'm a Falcons fan and it's not much better. I say all of that because not that we gamble or not that we bet on it. But I'm confident that no matter what battle takes place in my life, God will help me win it. I like that. I'm confident in prayer, not only for me, But if I were to tell you, hey, you know what you can do? You can pray to Jesus and he will listen to you and he will answer you and he will talk with you. My confidence in prayer is not just for me. I have complete confidence that you can pray to God as well. I have confidence that God loves me. I have confidence that God loves you. We need that confidence. And sometimes we need that confidence not just for ourselves, but we need it for other people as well. Because if life didn't go according to your plan this year, guess what? It didn't go according to somebody else's plan as well. And we need to have that confidence that God knows what He's doing and He's got it and it's under control. And we don't have to be fanatics about it because it's very real. God is in control. God does know what's taking place. And we can have confidence in God. There are so many things in life that we cannot have confidence in. We can't have confidence in the weather. Right? We can't have confidence in that. I saw a progressive commercial. You know, the don't turn into my parents commercials? There's a new one out about weather, how older people are obsessed with weather. I just turned it off because it was just too hard. Anyway, we can't have confidence in the weather. We can't have confidence in politics. And by the way, nor should we. Right or left, nor should we. I tell you what, one, I'll just say this, you gotta pray for our country. The Democratic National Convention is rolling up an abortion on wheels. You gotta pray for our country. We do not need to have faith in men, we need to have faith in God, all right? We need to have confidence in his leading, confidence in his will, confidence in raising our kids according to what Jesus would have us to do, confidence in serving Christ. When it comes to Jesus, are you confident? Do you know him as your savior? Are you confident that you're on your way to heaven? How can you be confident? Because God himself lets you know. The Bible says in Romans that his spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. I love that. Nobody has to convince me that I'm going to heaven. God just lets me know that since I place my faith in him, I'm headed there. And we can have, and you, if you don't know Christ as your Savior, you can have that same confidence. It isn't because I'm special, it's just because God is amazing, and God loves me, and God did what was necessary in order for me to be able to have a home in heaven, so thank the Lord. But let's be confident. You know what, if you aren't confident in something, you won't give it your all. You just simply won't put your all into it because you simply aren't confident. And also, if you're not confident in something, you rob yourself of joy. Do you know what I love to do? I love to preach. I do. I love to preach. It is one of my favorite things to do. I don't know if other people love it. I don't care. I love to preach. You are captured for like 45 minutes. Now I have a couple of rules when it comes to my preaching. One, I try to keep it simple. Alright? If I'm told last night, you're preaching this morning, it's very simple. Okay? And then two, when I start to bore myself, I'll be done. I'm very easily entertained though. So, moving on. I love to preach. A question I've asked my wife for years, and I'll probably ask her again today, and she hates this question. How did I do? And if it's not like, that was the most eloquent, soul-stirring, life-changing sermon I've ever heard. No, it's like, oh, you did all right. Thanks, love you too. But I used to really beat myself up over it. We can get better at anything, all right? We can try to knock out words that maybe we say a lot. I have a lot of actions. I'm always moving with my hand. I can't do this. I'll just be like, whatever. I can't hold all of that. But one of the things I used to, I was like, I would walk away from going, I hope they liked it. And I wasn't looking for men's approval. I really wasn't. It wasn't like that at all. I didn't want to be the popular, anything like that at all. I just wanted to do a good job. you And I just, I was kind of beating myself up over and over and over and over again. And finally my wife's like, did you articulate what you needed to for this morning? And the answer was yes. And then she said, then leave the rest to God. So let me articulate this morning. There's a battle. Be ready. You need to battle like it needs to continue. Not only do you need to win it, but your children need to win it. Okay? Then have confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't have confidence, other people around you might feed off of that. It means you're living a fearful life and not a confident life. When we did the teacher's meetings, I wrote in my notes, kids are like dogs. Give them a treat. No, I did not say. You ever have a big dog come at you? What do they say when there's a big dog in the room? Don't show fear. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not afraid, whatever. And they tell you as a teacher, if the kids know that you're afraid of them, you're toast. Parenting, wow, right? Woo! We don't always have confidence in our parenting ability, but you can't let the kids know that, or you're toast. You're just absolutely, they're gonna take so full advantage of you, it's gonna be crazy. Hey, let me just tell you something as well. As Christians, if we're not confident in the life that God has for us, then all those battles that we're gonna go into, man, the world will take advantage of you, the devil will take advantage of you, lost people will take advantage of you, your own flesh will take advantage of you. if we don't have confidence in Jesus Christ. There is a battle. You gotta be confident. You gotta know that you can win it. You gotta know that there's a step that God has for you, and you can continue on, and you can keep going. And you can have joy, you can have joy in keeping on. And then last, he says in verse 15, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. If we're going to enter into the battlefield, and let's just not even talk about that in the sense of if you know Christ as your Savior, you're on the battlefield. It's there. When we get to heaven, battle's over. It's won. But here on this earth, there is a battle. And we can win it. And it's part of life. You need to know your Bible. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. That word thoroughly furnished means that you are outfitted for your expedition. That's what it means. that you have all the necessary tools in order to be able to not just go on the journey but to enjoy the journey to have victory in the journey and to be able to help others as well. And it's all wrapped up in the Bible. You ever been on a trip where you weren't prepared? Yeah. When we go on a trip now, we just tell Michael we're going on a trip. That boy packs bags to go to the mall. I'm telling you, it's incredible. He thinks about everything. Snacks, bigger snacks, smaller snacks, things to do, things to do when you don't have things to do, more things to do, and other things to do. And sunscreens, whatever, I'm telling you, he's the ultimate planner. I remember several, several years ago, we went to the Bronx Zoo. Went to the Bronx Zoo, I've only been one time. Yeah, anyway, we took a bunch of kids, our kids and other kids, we all went to the Bronx Zoo. lovely time. So we get there, and we have strollers, we have kids, we have all the stuff going on, and we didn't bring hardly anything to drink, and I think we had like two granola bars. That's about it. I was like, we'll just get something at the zoo. Not a big deal. It's like 15 bucks a hot dog. I'm not joking. It was just crazy insane for a hot dog. I'm like, I'm not, I'm not paying $15 for whatever this may be. No way. I can't afford the hot dog at the Bronx Zoo. And there's a bunch of us. So it's like 15 times whatever. I just, ah. So we're going through the zoo and we're all like, we're sharing the granola bar. Here's your little piece. Here's your little piece. Here's your little piece. Whatever it may be. Okay. It's crazy. And uh, I have a point. All right, so we're going through it, and we're just starving. Finally, the zoo closes. Because you went all the way to New York City. It went all the way to the Bronx. You got to stay. You paid for it. You got to stay. I mean, we're walking. I think everybody's stomach is growling louder than the lions. I mean, it is just like, rawr, whatever it may be. And so then we have to get out of the city. I don't want to stop anywhere in the city. I grew up in the South. There's no way I'm going to not only get lost, I'm gonna die. All right, we gotta get out of the city. I am so unprepared for the Bronx Zoo. So finally we get out of the city and we stop at a Burger King. And it is the greatest Burger King there ever was. They could have sold me a frozen Whopper and it would have been the best thing ever. I mean, all of it was good. I think we just had it over our faces. Oh, this is so good. I mean, we just downed it. And it was just, oh, it was amazing. It was incredible. And here's the sad thing. I really don't remember much about the zoo at all. I really don't. I remember the Burger King. I was glad the zoo was over. I probably need, it was one of, it was Elisa's trip. I probably owe her a trip to the Bronx Zoo with a lot more granola bars. I just remember the end because I hated the other part of it. I don't know if I saw baboons. I don't know anything. I don't remember anything. I just wanted to leave. When we are ill equipped for something, It is going to come up and it is going to be frustrating and the only thing that you are going to remember is the end instead of what could be. Let me give you an example. Somebody comes up to you and they start talking to you about Jesus and Christianity and you have no clue really how to answer their questions out of the Bible. The only thing you are going to remember is this. I am glad the conversation is over instead of what it could have been. That's why we're having the apologetics conference. And that's pray for me. One of my, my, my segment is how to talk to an atheist. I have talked to atheists before and I will talk to them again and I know what to say and I say what needs to be said and God does the rest because they have confidence that God does a lot more talking than I do. But I don't ever want to walk away from a conversation with an atheist going, I'm just glad that conversation was over. I want to be able to walk away from an atheist saying, I was able to share the truth with them, and now it's up to them, you know, and obviously God working in their heart to be done what needs to be done. We have to be well-equipped, and we cannot expect to have the life that God wants us to have if we ignore His Word. We can't. We want and need the power of God. We want and need the direction of God. We want and need the strength of God. We want and need the wisdom of God. Then we have to quit ignoring, belittling, mocking, or minimizing the Word of God in our life. The Word of God is not for somebody else to do it for you. The Word of God is for you to pick it up and to know what God has for you in your life for that particular day. Tell me one day that's ever gone perfectly. Not one day. So if one day never goes perfectly, then we have to understand we need equip, we need to be equipped for each and every single day of the year, and each and every single day of our life, which means we need God's Word. There is an attack on God's Word like, like you couldn't believe. Even within, and I use quotation marks, in, in Christian circles. There's a phrase going around now, and I've heard it quite a bit in the last year, well we don't want to make the Bible an idol. I've heard that particular phrase. If you hear a younger person saying something like that, you can do what I do. Just laugh out loud. In my notes, I don't have my phone with me. I should have got it. In my notes I was writing this particular down, this thing down, and I, and I, and I put in there the phrase, we don't want to make the idol a Bible. And then I put LOL because I did laugh out loud when I heard that particular phrase. And it's not because I'm laughing at them or mocking them, but you can't make the idol a Bible. Or you can't make the Bible an idol. You know what I mean? You can't make the Bible an idol. Because the Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. Let me read it to you. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 it says, You can't make the Bible an idol because the Bible's not dead. The Bible is real and it's alive. And it very much is needed in each and every single one of our lives. You can't ignore the Bible and expect to get the power of God. You can't ignore the Bible and expect to get the wisdom of God. You simply can't ignore the Bible and expect God to bless your life the way that it could be. Because the Bible is God's Word. The Bible is not an idol because it is very much alive. The Bible is not an idol because it will never be diminished. It will never go away. Psalm 119 verse 89, forever O Lord is thy word settled in heaven. The very first temptation. was the devil getting Eve to doubt God's Word. He hasn't changed his temptation. We need the Bible. you need it in your life. Men you need it in your life. Parents you need it in your life. Your children need it in their life. The Bible in Deuteronomy lets us know that our lives should be saturated with the Word of God. When a sponge is saturated what happens? What do we do? We squeeze it and all the water comes out. I'm going to say it because it's just me. What happens if somebody squeezes you? You ever hear that phrase or that joke? I was in the Christian bowling league until I dropped a bowling ball on my foot. Some of you are still thinking about it. Drop it on the other one, you'll get it. Wouldn't it be amazing if life just puts a squeeze on us and out comes scripture? Out comes confidence in God? Maybe it doesn't have to come out. Maybe it just needs to pop from here into here. Instead of getting frustrated and upset, you're like, I can do all things through Christ who is strengthened with me. Maybe your week is just as bad as it can be. And you just need to remember, He'll never leave me nor forsake me. Maybe you feel like there's no hope for your life whatsoever, but the Bible says, for God so loved the world. Please, for your sake, for your family's sake, be equipped with the Bible. Know God's Word. Share God's Word. Live God's Word. no greater battle plan than to be able to pick up God's Word and saying, yep, God has exactly what I need. It's not an idol, it's God's Word, right? It's quick, it's powerful, it's life-changing. Not only will it change my life, has changed my life, but it'll change other people's lives as well. We have to get back to the Bible. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you, we thank you for your Word. Lord, I thank you for our pastor. We know that he's not feeling well. And this is true. It's absolutely true. I would just never say this to say it, but I have come into church, into his office hundreds of times and seen him studying scripture. I thank you for a pastor who knows the importance of the Bible and shares that and teaches it and preaches that and shares that. Lord help me as a pastor to do the same thing. Help me as a parent to do the same thing. Help me as a concerned citizen just knowing that there are people that are lost and they need to hear about Jesus. Help me to be equipped In this battle help me to continue help me to have confidence and just help me to share your word Lord, we just thank you so much for your son. We thank you for everything he does for us And when we just give this time to you help us to think about what you have and as we continue in prayer Just there's some responses on the screen and one of those is am I preparing daily for the battle? Don't quit preparing for the battle One of the things that I am terrible at is daily lesson plans for a teacher. I just, I'm not very good at it. As I will say this, the teachers that are great at it, they are prepared every single day. As Christians, we need to be prepared every single day. Maybe today you're seeing this, you're hearing this, you're like, man, I need to trust Christ as my Savior. I've never done that. If you've never done that, Please come see me after the service. Reach out to the church and just inquire more what it means to know Christ as your Savior. Know that you have your sins forgiven. What was that baptism all about? And then as a Christian, am I continuing to trust Jesus and encouraging others to do so as well? Honestly, your trust in Jesus will be tempted, if not daily, on a weekly basis. Am I continuing to trust Him with my family? Am I continuing to trust Him with my finances? Am I continuing to trust Him just with my life, with my emotions, with my mentality, just with my walk, just with absolutely everything? Am I continuing to trust Jesus? What area am I holding back and I know I need to trust Him with? That's a question for each and every one of us all the time. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for our church. I thank you for the friendliness here. I thank you for the great spirit here. I thank you for the guests that we've had. Lord, I thank you for people coming to know Christ. I thank you for being able to baptize. Lord, thank you. It's all for your honor and glory, and I thank you so much for that. Lord, help us have a great rest of the day. Help us have a great week. We pray for our students, Lord, that are going back to school. We pray for the ones that are entering into the military. Lord, we just pray for our students as they are taking next steps and following you. Lord, we love you. We thank you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.