Always Be Ready

Help me to preach this message smoothly and help people to

hopefully gain something from it and choose his name.

Amen. OK if y'all would please turn to

First Peter 315 for me, I'd like to ask a question.

Have you ever been in this situation or where a

conversation came up about your faith to a non believer and were

you able to defend and communicate what you believe?

Because some people in this situation are are unable to do

these two things or try to avoid the topic, which we shouldn't do

and in some instances have no idea what they're talking about.

Today we're going to dive deeper into this.

So since you all have turned to it, let's read first Peter 315

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always

to give an answer to every man that asketh you for a reason of

the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

The title of my message today is always Be ready.

Here's a quick story. When I myself had a situation

where I was able to share my faith with someone, I was at my

work. Not not with Johnny but at my

second job at Chick-fil-A. I heard my Co workers talking

about what they were going to do that Sunday and one of the more

interesting of the few said he was going to church.

So I asked asked him what church do you go to?

I don't really remember the name.

It was some sort of Community Church, but it was one of those

I could tell it was one of those like left wing pride flag

churches that support abortion, gays and always have a woman

pastor. So then he started explaining to

me what he believed at this church, which was pretty much

that they didn't believe that there was like a God that

believed that God was all around us and in each one of us.

So pretty much each one of us is a part of God, which is kind of

weird. So I used that opportunity to

tell him, and he called himself a Christian.

So I used that opportunity to tell him what real Christianity

was and why I believed what I believe through that.

Which leads me to my first point.

We need to always be ready to share the gospel.

So in order to share the gospel, we need to make sure we know the

gospel and what is in the Bible. Being able to share that we are

all sinners in need of a Savior and by accepting God's gift,

salvation through faith and repentance, we are able to avoid

an eternity and hell and be be able to spend that time with in

heaven with our Lord and Savior. If you turn with me to Matthew

724 through 27, we'll read that after my second point off of

this. Secondly, we need to have a

strong foundation, as mentioned in Matthew 724 through 25, that

is rooted in God's Word, and we'll go ahead and read that.

Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth

them will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon

a rock. The rain descended, and the

winds blew and beat that house, and it fell not, for it was

founded on a rock. And everyone that here with

these sayings of mine, and do with them not, shall be likened

unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.

The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew

and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was the fault of

it. There is no way we can expect to

be able to share the gospel and the wisdom of the Bible if we

don't even know what is in the Bible.

Which one of the reasons that which is one of the main reasons

we need to be spending time in God's Word constantly so that we

can be ready to answer questions that arise.

Also, if you think your faith comes from your parents which is

going to church every Sunday, following the steps, walking the

walk but not actually believing it, you have a weak foundation

and it will crumble and fall. The Third Point off of that I

have. Thirdly, you must always live

out and exercise your faith. You can't live 1 life for God

and a whole nother life for yourself and the world.

I have two verses that back up this point.

Matthew 624 No man can serve 2 masters, for either he will hate

1 and love the other, or else he will hold to 1 and despise the

other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

And then the second one, one that we recently memorized,

Galatians 110 For do I not now persuade men or God?

Or do I see Or do I seek to please men?

For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of

Christ. Just think if Pastor Boots

somehow someway tried to live a double life where every day he

would go and try to serve, do whatever that pleased his flesh

and did nothing in his life for God, but then came to church on

Sunday and acted like he was a good Christian.

Not not many people around him would look at him and say wow

look at him. I can really see a difference in

him and what he has because in this instance they already have

what he has, living for sin and self and they aren't happy with

it. We need to try our hardest to

live our lives the way God wants us to live them.

So people do see a difference in US.

Also off that point, we also want to not just wait for people

to come up to us, say, hey, I see a difference in you, but we

want to try to make a try to put Christ in our conversations

around us, trying to create those conversations, not just

wait for them to pop up. Second, my second point of

today, my first one was always be ready to share the gospel.

My second one is going to be always be ready to defend your

faith. There's always going to be

people who you try to share the gospel to them, but they end up

rejecting it completely and trying to pushing their own

beliefs. So my verse for that is going to

be Jude 13. Beloved, when I gave all

diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was

needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should

earnestly content for the faith which was once delivered unto

the Saints. When defending your faith, we

need to understand that doctrine matters.

Being able to explain that you can't just live your Christian

life however you want and expect God to forgive you every single

time you sin and take advantage of His grace that He's given

you. Knowing that once saved we

should try not to sin and understanding that we don't stop

sinning in order to be saved, but we stopped sinning because

we are saved. And then my verse for that First

Timothy 416 to keyed Take heed unto thyself, and unto the

doctrine. Continue in them for enduring

this Thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee

better be here. I have that we should always

know our enemy. We see in the military that it's

important to know your enemy and know how they think, so we can

have the best and most accurate plan possible.

We need to prepare for the most common attacks on our faith,

like one that science has replaced God.

Apparently there is no way that this could be true.

The earth did not come from absolutely nothing and some Big

Bang. There's so much evidence that

evolution is wrong, I don't know how anyone could believe it.

Pastor said this morning actually that the evolution, the

science that people have made-up is more myth making than science

lately #2 for that we need to be prepared for the attacked that

there is apps, that there is no app, that there is no absolute

truth. The theory for this is

completely wrong. We know this because we can find

all of our truth in the Bible, which kind of goes back to my

last point. We need to make sure we're

reading the Bible and make sure we know the truth that's in the

Bible so that we can back up, so that we can compel the wrong

truths or the twisted truths of the world of people trying to

push their false doctrines or faiths on us.

And then John 1717 is a good one for that.

Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.

You should want to know the truth because one of the main

areas, the devil and the people around you try to trip you up,

is by twisting the truth, making it sound just close enough to

the real truth that you could believe it.

For we know that Satan is the father of lies.

John 844 Ye are of your father, the devil, the devil, the lusts

of your father, ye will do. He was a murderer from the

beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth

in him. When we speaketh a lie, he

speaketh his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.

So in closing today, I would like to ask the question, do we

spend enough time in our Bibles to be able to share and defend

our faith in everyday instances, whether at work or wherever else

you could be? And Are you ready to do that

today? And I will close this in prayer.

Dear Lord, thank you for bringing us all out here

tonight. I pray that hopefully I was able

to put my point across and I was people will be able to take

something from this message and use it in their everyday lives

in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.

Amen. I think the future of our church

is strong and got a lot of potential in here for these

young men. And I appreciate the message.

I appreciate them stepping outside of their comfort zone.

That's difficult, you know. I mean, I remember how it was

for me when I first started doing it.

And now I'm just as comfortable here as I am sitting there, you

know, In fact, I'd, I'd rather be here a lot of times, you

know, but it's not that way for people who don't do it all the

time and leading songs and everything else.

I think we ought to have a men's service and get all the men to

come up here and do that right? Make the men preach, make the

men lead the songs, make the men do the different things.

A lot of you are doing it already, but pull you out of

your comfort zone, make you do some things like that.

But it's, it's good. It's a good experience for them

and I'm excited for them. And listen, I, I hope God calls

every one of them into the ministry.

I don't know if he will or not, but even if he doesn't, he can,

He can do the same thing with them that he's doing with a lot

of you. Just be here, be faithful, serve

in the ministries of a local church.

And as of tonight, I am making a decision that none of them are

allowed to leave and go anywhere else.

So they have to stay here and raise their families here and

they're not allowed to leave. So I don't know what they're

going to do, but we'll see what happens.

So now I know it's, it's it's, it's not possible to keep

everybody here because God calls him to different places.

Johnny's going out to California tomorrow.

Johnny Junior and he's getting stationed out there and he'll be

out there probably for a few years, I'm guessing.

But you know, you just never know where, where God's going to

call somebody, where they're going to end up.

But I hope that wherever they do end up, they'll be a huge

addition to that church and be a huge help because they got some

experience doing it here. And just give them a heart for

the ministry and a heart to do things for the Lord.

And I'm, I'm thankful for them and thankful for the families.

I'm thankful for all of you who are raising your young people to

to love the Lord it and I don't want to preach a message, but

you know it. It starts at home.

We can preach all we want to. I can I can preach so I'm blue

in the face and you can hear every message exactly perfect

the way that it needs to be preached and everything else.

If you're not doing it at home, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. It helps it helps, but at home

is where it counts. And so I appreciate what you're

doing there and I want to do. I want to encourage you to just

keep, keep doing it and it's worth it.

It's worth it. And boy, I can imagine if every

one of our young people grow up and live for the Lord, I don't

know why we have to pretend like we have to lose some of them to

the world. We don't have to lose any of

them. They can all grow up and live

for the Lord and do something for him.

So we'll go ahead and stand, we'll close in prayer, and then

we'll sing our song and be dismissed.

I think the weather's probably all right for now.

But if you feel like you're need to drive safe, it's still a

little bit light outside. So maybe you get out of here

right away and get home and it'll be fine.

But thanks for being here tonight.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness. Thank you for an opportunity we

have to be here together. Thank you for the young men and

for their willingness to step into these roles that are

uncomfortable for them, but that are going to help them for later

on and, and, or even help to us tonight.

Thank you for the message. Thank you for the, the singing

and the, and the special music and all the things that the

young people did this evening. God and, and I do thank you that

we have families in in our church that are serious about

raising their kids for you and about having them grow up and

serve you with their lives. And I pray that I pray for every

one of our kids. I pray that every one of them

would grow up and make a decision that they're going to

live for you, that they're going to follow their your will for

their lives and that they'll do that to the best of their

ability, that they'll be even stronger than we are here today.

And I pray that you would just bless them for the work that

they'll do for you. Thank you again for all you do

for us in Jesus name, Amen.