Sermon

Ep 370 | 5 Smooth Stones of Preparation - Don Davis 9-27-09

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. It's very good to be here in Bakersfield.

  2. I know yesterday, we enjoyed very much going to the wedding

  3. Sal and Diana and we wish them the very best and we all pray

  4. for them as they go about their Christian life together.

  5. It's just a wonderful thing that we can band together as husband

  6. and wife as Christians in a congregation and we can help

  7. each other out. We can strengthen each other

  8. looking at this story here in 1st.

  9. Samuel. We look at this Giant Goliath

  10. and Goliath is more than any man can face Goliath is wearing more

  11. pounds of armor than I weigh. And and I'm not at that fighting

  12. weight either. I guess you would say this man

  13. is so big. He's not something that, you

  14. know, the first guy just trots out and And, you know, goes up

  15. against this six cubits. Six cubits is 9 foot tall, plus

  16. another 6 inches. So this guy is very tall, we've

  17. never seen a guy as big as Goliath in our lifetime.

  18. The tallest man right now on Earth is roughly eight foot tall

  19. and I saw a picture of him the other day and his picture was

  20. taken in New York on Wall Street and of all the things that he

  21. was looking. Duvall in the United States.

  22. Something he said was he would really like a little romance and

  23. he would really like to be able to get married someday, but he

  24. just hasn't found that eight foot tall woman yet.

  25. So everything's not great for guys who are nine foot tall but

  26. they are pretty fierce when they come out to battle you.

  27. So in this story the Israelites had a great problem.

  28. There's nobody there who's going to hustle right out here they

  29. are at war with the Philistines. The Philistines have this huge

  30. God, they made a challenge and you know, think about this also

  31. just because the guy comes out in the middle of the field and

  32. says I'm nine foot tall and I can beat anybody in the Israel

  33. army. Why don't you send one man out

  34. here to fight me? That's no reason for the

  35. Israelites to agree. They could have just said,

  36. forget you dude. We're not going to do one on one

  37. here. We're going to send a hundred

  38. guys out to fight this one. Big guy because That's the way

  39. we want to do it but for some reason, the Israelites think I

  40. got a fight on this guy's terms. We have to go out and we have to

  41. fight this guy and no Israel, no, no single guy in Israel by

  42. himself. Can go out and do this.

  43. They knew they had a fight that they couldn't win.

  44. And Jesus told us don't get into a fight that you can't win in

  45. Luke, the 14th chapter verse 31, it says or what king is going to

  46. make war against The king does not sit down first and consider

  47. whether he is able, but 10,000 to meet who him who has.

  48. I'm sorry to meet him who comes out against him with twenty

  49. thousand or else while the other is a great way off.

  50. He sends a delegation and ask the conditions of Peace.

  51. Jesus said, don't just jump into these fights.

  52. When you know, you're not going to win that he said a king

  53. doesn't go out with 10,000 men when he sees another king coming

  54. against him with twenty thousand men.

  55. When it doesn't make sense. So what happened in this story?

  56. What did David do in this story? Look at first Samuel, the 17th

  57. chapter looking down, at verse 32, it says, then David said to

  58. Saul that no one's heart fail because of him, your servant

  59. will go and fight this philistine.

  60. And Saul said to David, you're not able to go against this

  61. Philistine to fight against him. You are a youth, and he is a man

  62. of war from his youth. So here.

  63. Saul the king here. Here's David and David is

  64. talking about going and fighting this Goliath.

  65. And you might think you know the first time he heard this or when

  66. this first came up you might think this is just some Brash

  67. talking teenager and you know, you've all been around teenagers

  68. who thought they could just take the World by the tail.

  69. There were the toughest guys in the world and here comes this

  70. teenager guy, not even the biggest toughest guy in Israel.

  71. Here Comes This. Teenager guy up to the King

  72. saying, don't worry about it. I'm going to go out and fight

  73. this guy. So what do you think the king

  74. thinks? Well, you know, the Kings got to

  75. think what is up with this guy? Does he think he's Invincible or

  76. what? But this was not the case with

  77. David. This was not the case with

  78. David. He did not think I am so young

  79. and tough that nothing's going to happen to me.

  80. He had something else that he knew about and that was God.

  81. In verse 34. It says.

  82. But David said, to Saul your servant used to keep his

  83. father's sheep and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb

  84. out of the flock, I went out after it and I struck it and

  85. delivered. Lamb from its mouth.

  86. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and

  87. struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both

  88. lion and Bear. And this uncircumcised

  89. Philistine will be like one of them seeing that he is defiled,

  90. the armies of the Living God, I'm sorry defied.

  91. The armies of the Living God, moreover David said the Lord who

  92. delivered me from the Paw of the lion.

  93. And from the Paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of

  94. this Philistine and Saul said to David go and the Lord be with

  95. you. So David.

  96. He knows that he cannot face this challenge by himself.

  97. He's not just up at the Kings face saying, uh, you know, you

  98. guys are all scared and all that and I can go out there and do

  99. this. He knows he can't do it by

  100. himself and he knows also, he does not have to fight this

  101. giant by himself. He knows that God is on his side

  102. and when he talks to the king about God and his faith in God,

  103. then the king recognizes that this faith of David is greater

  104. Then the faith of the rest of the army of Israel because they

  105. have just been cowering on their side.

  106. But this man has Faith, even though he's young, he has great

  107. faith. And, you know what I said

  108. before, when you get ready to fight, don't let your enemies

  109. Seth the rules, just because this guy came out and said, send

  110. one guy out here to fight me is no reason why Israel should have

  111. said. Oh well, they've got this plan

  112. for us to fight against them and just go out there on their

  113. rules. That is a problem that we have

  114. when we come up to face evil, we think that we have to face evil

  115. on evils terms when we go up against something we think,

  116. well, that's the way the world works and we try to beat

  117. Temptation on our own. It's just when we have a

  118. Temptation we're like we're going to tough it out or we're

  119. going to just do that. But that's what Satan wants you

  120. to think that's the enemies rules.

  121. The enemy is rules thinks want you to think?

  122. Yeah, it's Satan against me when I have a Temptation.

  123. That's, not it at all. We have God.

  124. We always have God. And when we're in the middle of

  125. the army of God, like this congregation here and we're

  126. coming up against a Temptation, we're coming up against the

  127. enemy. There's no reason for us to

  128. think it's us against them. It's one against one, it's us

  129. against Satan, it's not, it's all of us against evil, and when

  130. we come up against that problem, we need to look around and say,

  131. hey, I need Need some help here. Let's get some help from some

  132. people around here. We don't have a problem with

  133. that. We're all playing tennis were

  134. doing something. The ball goes over the fence.

  135. We see some other people will yell, hey, little help over

  136. there and they go get the ball, they throw it back.

  137. But when we come up against something, we don't think to

  138. turn around to the other Christians and say, how about a

  139. little help over here. That's why we're here.

  140. That's why we're together get some help.

  141. So here's the part of the story, that caught my eye the other

  142. Sunday when when Dwayne was teaching about the King David

  143. and the 40th verse. It says, then he took his staff

  144. in his hand and he chose for himself five smooth stones from

  145. the brook and put them in a Shepherds bag in a pouch, which

  146. he had. And his sling was in his hand

  147. and he drew Heir to the philistine.

  148. You know, in this story leading up to the point here, it's all

  149. about David's faith in God. David is going up against this

  150. giant, not because he's so strong, but because of his faith

  151. in God, It's all about how the God will deliver.

  152. The Israelites, this story is all about how God will deliver

  153. them if they have faith in him, it's about how God is going to

  154. Smite this giant. And we've heard the story before

  155. we know who wins in the end. And personally, I expect God to

  156. do everything for me. If God's going to take care of

  157. something for me, I think that personally, it should be by

  158. lightning. God should have just struck down

  159. this Goliath guy by lightning because I like lightning best.

  160. You know? If it's going to happen, I

  161. should be sitting in my recliner.

  162. I should be seeing it on TV and it should happen by lightning.

  163. That's how God ought to take care of all my problems.

  164. Now maybe you also have your own personal way that you think God

  165. should take care of your problems.

  166. When the evil comes up against you you may just think well, got

  167. out of just stop it at the front door or God ought to just strike

  168. me death. So I don't hear people taunting

  169. me or you may have this this whole thing that you like God to

  170. do things personally mines lightning but that wasn't the

  171. attitude of David. He knew he had to prepare for

  172. the fights and you look at this giant.

  173. You look at Dave and you go, what's this guy going to do to

  174. prepare for the fight? You know what, you're not the

  175. first person who thought that you look at the story.

  176. You'll discover that there were other people who are saying,

  177. what's this guy going to have to do to prepare for to fight this

  178. giant, you all. Look at this store and you'll

  179. see the king brought his armor in and said, put this armor on

  180. David because David has to prepare for this fight, they put

  181. the armor on David and was all just too heavy.

  182. It was cumbersome for him to do anything and you're reminded

  183. that David fought many battles after this.

  184. He fought battles his whole life and all that.

  185. Models. We see David after this, he's

  186. wearing armor, he's wearing a helmet.

  187. He's got a sword. He's got all these different

  188. things. David always prepared.

  189. He didn't say, well, I went and beat a giant with a slingshot.

  190. So the rest of my fighting career, I'm just going to carry

  191. a slingshot didn't happen that way.

  192. David always prepared. and this time, he prepared five smooth

  193. stones out of the creek, Five, smooth Stones.

  194. He went down to the creek and he got five, smooth stones.

  195. And you look at this, you look at this giant.

  196. And you look at David and throwing rocks at a guy, 9 foot

  197. tall is just pretty ludicrous. He didn't just go out there and

  198. grab some stones and and say, I'm going to throw rocks at this

  199. guy until he goes home. It didn't work that way.

  200. He went and he got five smooth stones.

  201. The same is true of our weapons to defeat sin.

  202. Some of them sound pretty ludicrous to the people in the

  203. world around us. They don't think a guys going to

  204. throw rocks at a giant till he goes home or dies.

  205. But it is through works of righteousness and it's our that

  206. our faith is perfected. It is through our faith that we

  207. can, we can defeat evil, but we have to do the things we have to

  208. do the things to prepare. To fight against evil.

  209. Look at first Samuel, the 17th chapter reading the story

  210. through here. In verse 45, it says then David

  211. said to the Philistine you have come to me with a sword with a

  212. spear and with a javelin but I come to you in the name of the

  213. Lord of hosts, the god of the armies of Israel.

  214. Whom you have defied this day, the Lord will deliver you into

  215. my hand and I will strike you and take your head from you.

  216. And this day I will give the carcasses one of the camp of the

  217. Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the

  218. earth that all the Earth. May know that there is a God in

  219. Israel, then all of this assembly shall know that the

  220. Lord does not say with sword and spear for the battle is the

  221. Lord's and he will give you into our hands.

  222. And so it was when the Philistine Rose and came Drew

  223. and Drew near to David that David hurried and ran toward the

  224. Army to meet the Philistine. Then David put his hand in his

  225. bag and took out a stone. Phone and he slung it and struck

  226. the Philistine in his forehead so that the stone sank into his

  227. forehead. And he fell on his face to the

  228. Earth. So David prevailed, over the

  229. Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine

  230. and killed him. So this is the story and we've

  231. heard it before David, took that stone, one of those five stones

  232. that he gathered up and incidentally, he didn't just

  233. take one smooth Stone. We only know that he put one in

  234. his sling and he killed this Philistine and he cut his head

  235. off, and they went on and they defeated the army of the

  236. Philistines. And three points.

  237. I want to make about this story number one, David said before

  238. the fight that the Lord was going to save him.

  239. David said, the Lord is going to save me before this fight, and

  240. after the fight David said, God has saved me.

  241. But in between he made preparation for the fight and he

  242. fought now all the time before, when I looked at this story, I

  243. remembered he said, God is going to Me and when God did save him

  244. he said God did save me but I never remembered that in the

  245. middle. He made preparation and he

  246. fought and I think that's my problem, a lot, I read and I

  247. study, I have faith in God and I think God is going to save me

  248. through faith. God is going to save me.

  249. And when I get through a Temptation, I say, God saved me

  250. from that temptation. But I don't always remember.

  251. I got to get ready to fight. Fight and I got a fight when

  252. it's happening and that's the thing about the story that I

  253. always forget. I always remember God's going to

  254. do something, but I don't remember.

  255. I got to do something. There's a job in here for me if

  256. we're going to fight on the Lord's Side, we have to make

  257. preparation and we have to engage in the battle.

  258. We can't just sit in our recliners and expect God to take

  259. the fight to everybody for us. You know, something that we have

  260. to prepare for this fight, as we have to prepare our hearts to be

  261. ready to find on God's side before the Israelites went out

  262. to fight the Philistines. The prophet Samuel told them

  263. that they must first prepare their hearts looking in.

  264. First Samuel, the seventh chapter looking at verse 3.

  265. It says then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel saying if

  266. you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away.

  267. The foreign gods and the astronauts from among you, and

  268. prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only, and he will

  269. deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.

  270. So the children of Israel, put away, the Bales and the

  271. ashtaroth and serve the Lord only You know, we receive a very

  272. helpful lesson here from the prophet who says, put everything

  273. else out of your heart, put all of those other things out of

  274. your heart that you're serving so that you can serve God.

  275. We have to purify our hearts. It's one of the first steps we

  276. must take to be ready to serve God and to defeat Satan in this

  277. case the Israelites had to get rid of all the practices of

  278. worshipping idols. Nothing could come before God

  279. and their particular life. It's the same with us.

  280. Today, we have all sorts of religions in the world around

  281. us. And some of those religions can

  282. just sneak into your thinking, if you're not careful and a lot

  283. of this stuff has come into our culture that we don't really

  284. realize. Now, I was at work the other day

  285. in a meeting. And someone said, let's all

  286. think positive salt thoughts, so that we have good karma.

  287. I don't have good karma. I'm a Christian.

  288. I'm not Hindu, I don't Worship in the Hindu religion.

  289. Karma is a Hindu religious thing so I don't have good karma and

  290. my response back to them. My karma is a Corvette with my

  291. after it. I don't have it.

  292. I'm a Christian and that's the things we have to think about.

  293. And we can't just let the religious things of the day.

  294. Sneak into our minds sneak into our our talk, So many times we

  295. hear people say mother earth this and Mother Earth that the

  296. Earth is not a mother. The Earth is just another

  297. possession of God. And when God has done with this

  298. Earth, he will, he will do away with it.

  299. So, we can't just let these things sneak into our brains,

  300. and suddenly were saying, okay, everybody in the room, have good

  301. karma, we're Christians. We don't have good karma.

  302. We're not part of the Hindu religion.

  303. We must purify our minds purify, our hearts and second Quran,

  304. Chuckles. The 12th chapter verse 14.

  305. It says and he did Evil because he did not prepare his heart to

  306. seek the Lord, Psalm the 10th. Psalm verse 17, Lord, you have

  307. heard the desire of the humble, you will prepare their heart,

  308. you will cause your ear to hear. So, we must prepare our hearts

  309. to worship God and to serve, God and put all of these things of

  310. our culture. All of the other religions of

  311. our day, out of our minds. We also Have to prepare for our

  312. worship. We can't just, you know, stumble

  313. through life and show up here, every now and then.

  314. And and think that that is serving God, when the Israelites

  315. worshipped in the way that God required of them, it took them

  316. days of preparation before their big feast days.

  317. You know, we have an example of the disciples getting ready for

  318. celebrating the Passover with Jesus.

  319. In Matthew, the 26th, chapter Matthew, 26 verse. 14.

  320. It says now the first day of the Feast of unleavened bread, the

  321. disciples came to Jesus saying to him.

  322. Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?

  323. Now, it was the first day of the Feast of unleavened bread and

  324. these disciples. They knew that at the end of the

  325. seven days of the Feast of unleavened bread, the Passover

  326. was to be observed there, so they made preparation for it.

  327. It was a reminder to them. Hey, at the end of these seven

  328. days is going to be the past, Or we have to get ready to

  329. celebrate the Passover somewhere, so they talk to Jesus

  330. about it. You know, we know that the end

  331. of every week, another week generally starts, unless Jesus

  332. comes to take us home. So, we know, when we're getting

  333. to the end of the week, another week's going to start.

  334. There's going to be a first day of the week coming up here

  335. pretty soon, so we need to make preparations and it may be as

  336. easy as, you know, getting our life in order.

  337. So that something Doesn't come up unexpectedly on Sunday

  338. morning and we just drive over to our local congregation, but

  339. you might be doing something special and you may have to make

  340. some preparation and I don't say this to brag, but I will say

  341. this that you have. Sometimes you have to think

  342. months ahead to prepare for worshipping now, I was just in

  343. Hong Kong and I don't know of a church in Hong Kong.

  344. I know of a church in the Philippines and I know of a

  345. church in Malaysia. So, Months ago when I was making

  346. my preparation to Hong Kong, I bought an airline ticket that

  347. was going to fly me for hours from Hong Kong over to Malaysia

  348. so that I could worship on Sunday.

  349. Now, that's a case of making preparation.

  350. That's a making preparation, physically.

  351. I didn't wake up on Sunday, morning in Hong Kong and say,

  352. how am I going to worship God today?

  353. You have to make preparation, you have to get ready for it in

  354. advance. I knew I was going to Worship

  355. the Lord on Sunday because I had bought a ticket some months

  356. earlier, and I was going to be there.

  357. Now, it may be in your heart that you need to make this

  358. preparation. You may have done all kinds of

  359. things on Saturday, you may have gone to the best college

  360. football game. You may have done all kinds of

  361. stuff, your team may have one. You may have gone to bed late

  362. and get up on Sunday and go. Oh, I just can't make it.

  363. We have to make preparation every single week that we can

  364. worship God, that we can serve our God.

  365. We should be making plans and preparation always Hebrews.

  366. The 10th chapter verse 24 and let us consider one another in

  367. order to stir up. Love and good works, not

  368. forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner

  369. of some, but exhorting, one another and so much the more as

  370. you see the day approaching. So we should be helping each

  371. other. We should be making our own

  372. Operation and helping each other make preparation.

  373. So that when it's time to worship, God, we are here.

  374. We are in the right mindset. And, you know, when service is

  375. about to start, we need to to prepare our minds for worship

  376. also and I know we love to see each other.

  377. We like to hug each other shake hands, you know, talk to each

  378. other about what's going on in our life.

  379. But there's going to come a time that we have to be ready to

  380. Worship in. In the first chapter verse 9, it

  381. talks about John. It says, I John both your

  382. brother and companion in the tribulation and the kingdom, and

  383. the patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island.

  384. That was called Patmos for the word of God.

  385. And for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

  386. And I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.

  387. I don't know exactly what in the spirit on the Lord's Day.

  388. Means I, I just don't know that, but I know that John was ready,

  389. John was prepared to Worship in his mind on the Lord.

  390. Now other things we have to do, we don't just come to this

  391. building, we have to prepare to do.

  392. Good works in our lives, and God knew that we needed to prepare

  393. for everything and we do need to prepare to have success.

  394. The Apostle wrote this to the Corinthians in second

  395. Corinthians, the ninth chapter. Second Corinthians.

  396. And I chapter verse 5, it says, therefore I thought it necessary

  397. to exhort the Brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare

  398. your Generous gift beforehand, which you had previously

  399. promised that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not

  400. as a grudging obligation. So God knew that we as humans

  401. need to set some money aside in advance in order to do good

  402. things and to take take care of the needs of the church.

  403. And The Corinthians had said we're going to do this, we're

  404. going to help these people that are in Jerusalem out because

  405. they're having a famine and they can't work as much as they would

  406. like to. And they're we're going to help

  407. them out and the Apostle, Paul knew that they were human just

  408. like the rest of us. So the Apostle Paul wrote them

  409. letters and said, hey remember you said you were going to help

  410. the people out in Jerusalem? Well now's the time to be ready

  411. to do this, not the day I show up but weeks ahead.

  412. Once ahead, you need to set aside money in a treasury so

  413. that you can do what is good for the church.

  414. What is good for the people in Jerusalem.

  415. Not when I show up, then you go you Grumble around you.

  416. Oh man Paul's here already and we didn't put any money aside

  417. and and you know I got to make a payment on that boat and he's

  418. going to want money from us. No, they were to prepare, we are

  419. to prepare. If we didn't give every Sunday

  420. to the Lord, there wouldn't be much.

  421. We ahead to support preachers. That wouldn't be money to

  422. maintain this building. There wouldn't be money to put

  423. out flyers when there's a meeting all this kind of stuff

  424. because stuff happens to us every day in the world and

  425. things come up unexpectedly and we are to prepare to do.

  426. Good works. We are to prepare to do the work

  427. of God and to spread the gospel so that when something

  428. unexpected comes up, it doesn't bother us.

  429. Have you ever made a commitment to someone?

  430. And when it came time, you just weren't prepared for that guy.

  431. Calls you on the phone and goes up, this is the Saturday, I'm

  432. moving. Yeah, you said you'd bring your

  433. truck over and help me move. And you go, hmm.

  434. My football teams on in 10 minutes, what am I going to do?

  435. Well, you make preparations. You set that VCR or whatever,

  436. they call these days and record that game.

  437. And you go over and you help this guy with your truck but it

  438. can put you in a bad mood. When you drive over to that

  439. friend's house and you're not watching your football game, you

  440. might start grumbling and you might just shuffle along when

  441. you're moving the furniture and Grumble about everything.

  442. That's not what God wants us to do.

  443. And the matter of giving and second Corinthians tonight,

  444. chapter verse 7, it says so. Let each one of you give as he

  445. purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity for

  446. God. Loves a cheerful Giver.

  447. So we're always Drew prepared to goo do good things and we're not

  448. to Grumble about them we're to put ourselves in the right mood

  449. so that when we're doing something good we're not just

  450. shuffling along and grumbling about it.

  451. Oh yeah. You know these people needed

  452. some Open. And go on like that work.

  453. To prepare our minds work to prepare our lives for doing

  454. things that are good. We're also to prepare for

  455. eternity, there's more after this life.

  456. It's not over. When when we pass from this life

  457. we're going on to greater things.

  458. And here are some words that are spoken about Jesus around the

  459. time of his birth, by a prophet in the temple.

  460. That talks about that Luke the first chapter, Luke 1 verse 76.

    Luke 1:76

  461. It says, and you child will be called the prophet of the

  462. highest for you will go before the face of the Lord.

  463. Prepare his ways to give knowledge of Salvation to his

  464. people by the remission of their sins.

  465. Through the tender mercy of God with which the Dayspring of the

  466. from on high has visited us to give up to give light to those

  467. who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our

  468. feet into the way of Peace. So while we're on this Earth, we

  469. are preparing for eternal life. We need to prepare by listening

  470. to the words of Jesus. So we will gain the knowledge of

  471. Salvation. Jesus came here to give us the

  472. knowledge of salvation And we are to hear the gospel of

  473. Salvation. So we know what to do to be

  474. saved. We need to know how to gain

  475. remission of our sins. So we can have peace with God

  476. and we can be his children. Jesus said, in Mark the 16th

  477. chapter verse 16 and 17, he said, he who believes and is

  478. baptized, will be saved. But he, who does not believe

  479. will be condemned the Apostle Peter in the First Gospel,

  480. sermon in Acts 2, verse 38, then Peter said, to them, repent.

    Acts 2:38

  481. And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus

  482. Christ. For the remission of Ends and

  483. you shall receive the gift of the holy spirit for the promise,

  484. is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off as

  485. many as the Lord, your God will call.

  486. And in Matthew the 10th chapter Jesus said therefore whoever

  487. confesses me before men him will.

  488. I also confessed before my father who is in heaven, but

  489. whoever denies me before men him.

  490. I will also deny before my father who is in heaven and in

  491. Luke the 12th chapter verse Rt7 says, and that servant, who knew

  492. his master's will, and did not prepare himself, or do according

  493. to his will shall be beaten with many stripes but he who did not

  494. know yet committed things. Deserving Stripes shall be

  495. beaten with few for everyone to whom much is given from him much

  496. will be required and to him much has been committed of him.

  497. They will ask the more. So we have been giving the

  498. gospel We are the age that has been given the gospel.

  499. The remission of our sins. We have received Jesus Christ on

  500. this Earth and Jesus Christ has taught us what to do to be saved

  501. and we have to make preparation. We can't just hear.

  502. Jesus say repent and be baptized.

  503. We can't just hear. Jesus say believe and be

  504. baptized, we can't just hear Jesus say Confess me before men

  505. that we have to do these things so that we are prepared for

  506. eternity. So we are prepared for meeting

  507. Jesus Christ. At the end of this life because

  508. Jesus is doing his Parts. Jesus is right now preparing for

  509. us, a place in heaven. He has given us the way to

  510. Salvation and he is now preparing in heaven and John the

  511. 14th chapter verse 1. It says let not your heart be

  512. troubled. Believe in God believe.

  513. Also in me in my father's house are many mansions.

  514. If it were not. So I would have told you I go to

  515. prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you,

  516. I will come again and receive to you to myself and where I am,

  517. there you may be also and where I go, you know, and the way, you

  518. know, so Jesus delivered to us the way he delivered to us

  519. salvation and he is making preparations for us, you know,

  520. we all know the The power of God and and we would think if I

  521. showed up on the doorstep of heaven today.

  522. I know that God and Jesus could whip up something, just

  523. wonderful for me a place for me to live, but he's not doing

  524. that. He's not waiting to the last

  525. minute. He's not waiting until you show

  526. up on the doorstep, Jesus is preparing the place right now.

  527. He's making something very good. Not just something that he can

  528. whip up in a second. He's preparing A Place For Us in

  529. heaven. But just like our Earthly

  530. parents prepared a place for us. When they knew that we were

  531. going to be born, I don't know. When we had children before, we

  532. had children, we had extra bedrooms and then when we found

  533. out, we're going to have a child suddenly.

  534. We had a baby's bedroom or Nursery if you call it or

  535. whatever and that Nursery looked a lot different than the room

  536. did before we knew somebody was coming.

  537. A child is coming. So we started I'm painting it

  538. and you know soft baby colors. We got a different kind of bed

  539. so that the baby didn't just fall out of the bed on the first

  540. day. All kinds of stuff like that.

  541. Good preparations when we knew a baby was coming.

  542. Well, Jesus knows. Christians are coming to heaven

  543. and he's making a really nice place for us.

  544. And we have to make sure that we don't lose our focus and we do

  545. our part to go to heaven in John.

  546. The 14th chapter verse 5 is Thomas said to him.

  547. Lord, we do not know where your you are going and how can we

  548. know the way and Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and

  549. the life. No one comes to the father,

  550. except through me. So we have lots of preparation

  551. to do just like David did David looked at the situation he saw

  552. the shoots giant. He says I can't do this by

  553. myself. Matter of fact, everybody in

  554. Israel said we can't go fight this giant by ourself And so

  555. they said we're not going to fight him on his terms.

  556. We're gonna fight him on our terms and David said, I am going

  557. to ask God to help me defeat. This big huge giant I got in

  558. front of me and he went out there.

  559. God was going to help him. God did help him but he fought

  560. the fight in the middle of it. We can't defeat sin by ourself.

  561. We can't go out there and do something that is going to rid

  562. our life of sin. We have to rely on We know God

  563. has already made the preparation for us.

  564. Jesus Christ has been sacrificed for our sins.

  565. We have to do something about it.

  566. We have to believe in Jesus Christ.

  567. We have to turn our lives around, repent of our sins, walk

  568. for Jesus Christ. We need to confess that Jesus

  569. Christ is the Son of God. We need to be immersed in water

  570. for the remission of our sins in baptism.

  571. If we've done those things, we have to keep on fighting.

  572. We are not to just sit down after we are in the middle of

  573. the fight, we need to prepare ourselves.

  574. If every day to go out and fight against evil and fight against

  575. our Temptations and ask people around us in the church.

  576. Hey come help me. I got to fight this evil.

  577. I got to fight this temptation but we might fall back into

  578. temptation. It's not a reason for us to fall

  579. down and and and give up, they say the difference between

  580. successful people and unsuccessful people are not that

  581. that successful people never fall down.

  582. It's that success be successful people.

  583. Get up after A falling down. That's what God has.

  584. Offered us a chance to get up. You fell down, you said, get up

  585. pray to God, asked for him for strength, but ask, for

  586. forgiveness, forgiveness of that sin so that you can get back up

  587. and the fight the battle once again.

  588. We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

  589. Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

  590. would like any additional information or you would like to

  591. receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.

  592. Please email us at info at True Church of Christ

  593. Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays

  594. at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.

  595. Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

  596. honored guest.