Ep. 035 Toxic Ideas

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your

host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing

to you and bring you closer to God.

Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. My name is David Bigford.

I am the pastor of the Potter's House. For those of you who are new to joining, I basically

take the sermons that I have preached in the past few months and I upload them as a podcast

and I will be getting them eventually sorted out to be videos on YouTube. Right now they

are available on audio on YouTube as well. We are going to continue to work that out

and get broader and broader reach so we can get the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ

out to as many people as possible.

Today's message that I put together is called toxic ideas that are polluting your mind.

The one that we are going to really focus in on today is idolatry because it is so prevalent

in our society and we all come in contact with it daily. The text we are going to be

working off of is going to be Genesis 3 verses 1 through 7. Basically as I am putting this

Genesis 3:1–7

message together, some ideas and ideologies came to mind that are powerfully at work in

our world and I wanted to kind of look at some of those and the first one I was going

to take a crack at here is idolatry. So as individuals we are impacted, shaped and motivated

in accord with weather and how we embrace these ideas. We want to examine these in light

of the Bible and make sure we get some sort of scriptural context so that we can combat

them in our lives.

So let's go ahead and jump in. The first of these ideas we are looking at as I mentioned

is idolatry or the worship of idols. An idol can be an image, it can be any material object

that represents a person's placement of worship. Idolatry can be anything that we place above

our God. Anything that absorbs your heart or imagination more than God. We need to guard

our hearts against these human tendencies and this is something that is warned about

throughout both the Old and the New Testament.

So let's take a look at our text in Genesis chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. Now the serpent

Genesis 3:1–7

was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said

to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the

woman said to the serpent, we may eat of any fruit of the trees in the garden, but God

said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither

shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die,

for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God

knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it

was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took

of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.

And then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. It's a troubling

piece of scripture and a lot of people have a hard time dealing with this reality because

one of the things that this piece of scripture shows us is that even from the beginning man

was marked by sin. This very act spreads down into all of our lives with the reality that

we were born into sin. So in 2022 season of the TV show, America's Got Talent, we see

many highlighted moments but one of the not the least of these moments is something that

we notice with the performance of the 11 year old Madison Taylor Baez of Yorba Linda, California.

And so I like to watch some of these golden buzzer moments and different things that come

from some of these shows on YouTube because I just I find it really interesting to hear

you know, tremendous talent, whether it's singing or whatever else, right. But rather

than having a regularly scheduled audition, Madison had been invited by the producers

to sing for the audience during one of the breaks from the scheduled audition. Only then

was she invited up on the stage to perform. She absolutely stunned the audience and the

judges alike with her extremely emotional rendition of the Christian song Amazing Grace.

Madison sang it with authority, passion, and she believed in every word that she was celebrating

and that she was celebrating the truth that it's conveyed in those lyrics. So moving

was the performance that the judge and former Deal No Deal host, Howie Mandel, reflexively

reached the golden buzzer, assuring the young Madison a place in the live show competitions

where they have a chance to win a million dollars. So here she is. She's just a member

of the crowd. She gets ushered on stage. She sings in this amazing thing happens to her.

The accolades come running in from all sides, from the hosts, from the judges about how

amazing this performance was. Terry Crews is quoted as saying incredible. And then you

know, Simon Callas is, you know, he's also quoted that he mused sarcastically, I normally

leave during the break because people do sing. So this is actually the opposite. He says

that the singing drew him back into the room. And so Mandel then proclaimed, everybody is

going to know your name, young lady. What I find interesting about this, the strong

reactions that the judges had to this performance is their tone deafness to the reality of the

lyrics. So Crews found their performance incredible. Cal was drawn back into the room by the power

of it. Mandel exclaimed that he had wanted to be sure everybody would come to know her

name. One critical component of the performance was left utterly ignored. The very subject

of the song was not dealt with. Young Madison had a, you know, it was has a talented voice.

She was extolling the virtues of the God that created her, the God that created all of us.

And his amazing grace and how, you know, he, you know, he came to the earth to set us free

from the bondage of sin. As the words say, he saved a wretch like me. This, of course,

was not something that, you know, Simon Cowell was going to get involved with, right? It's

a talent competition. It's not a church service. But what, you know, like I mentioned, what

a picture of tone deafness and how this, this amazing song that cuts through and it's, it's

so widely known, but people will so easily ignore the power of those lyrics. How lost

is humanity to ignore the power of God's amazing grace. The fact that we're fallen creatures

living in a fallen world, the audience, the judges should have jumped to their feet first

and foremost to celebrate and laud and praise God's amazing grace and extol our Lord and

savior. That's what Terry Crews should have done when he said that he found it incredible.

He should have praised God. It would have been a message that, that, that it should

have been the message that drew Simon Cowell back into the room. Should have been the name

of the most high God that Howie Mandel would want everybody to know and recognize. So while

human talent is no left to God, a gift from our God, its purpose, like any of his other

gifts is to bring, is to draw people and focus them in on the Lord who bestowed it. They,

they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather

than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. That comes from Romans chapter one, verse

25 and James one 17. It says every good and perfect gift gift is from above coming down

from the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows.

So as we think about this amazing illustration, let's dive in with my first point, which is

ideas are powerful things. Ideas have consequences. Hitler's Germany is, is a picture of one worldview.

And then you have Roosevelt or Truman's America, which is a very different worldview. Who can

lead you know, the society to wonderful development. Democracy can cure, you know, cancer and can

put man on the moon. Whereas communism, fascism, you know, these are theories of social organization

based on the holding of all property with the with communism, it's holding it all in

common with the actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or the state.

But another definition of communism could be that this is a system of social organization,

which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated

by a single and self perpetuating political party. Fascism is only slightly different

about that. But let's think about some other ideas of radical ideologies before we really

dive into the difference between Germany and the US during the period of World War Two.

So these ideas of communism, the isms, stuff like that have caused the death of millions

and in many, many people in many countries. But if you think of idea of just deism itself,

where people think God doesn't intervene, the beliefs and the existence of God on the

evidence of reason and nature only with the rejection of supernatural revelation, revelation,

this kind of idea doesn't give any morality to a Godhead because God does not intervene.

And if he's not willing to intervene and apply justice and judgment, well, then he's not

going to reward someone who lives a pure life. It's a very interesting idea that the idea

of deism as I touched on with communism, it's got its little brother, socialism, which is

a redistribution of wealth. We can look to examples of socialism with the Occupy movements.

These are ideas that are really just Trojan horses to communism and eventually totalitarianism.

So when you think of even other faiths to a certain extent, there's a certain faith,

Mormonism, that believes that as man is, God once was and as God is, man may become. That's

one of the big tenants that separates Christianity from Mormonism is the fact that there's this

belief that you can ascend to Godhood yourself. In Islam, you have a very, very strong sense

of fatalism, which is not not rooted in Christianity. They say in Shala, which is as God wills,

which we do believe God's will be done, but we do not believe that we are without free

will. In fascism and Nazism, you can refer to these systems of government, these political

movements because they're led by a dictator. But typically what ends up happening with

these two, these ideas is you have forceful and violent suppression of dissidents, the

promotion of nationalism and often racism. Nazis more specifically refer to the principle

method of the Nazis, Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. The thing that people miss

with fascism is that they don't understand that fascism and communism are so closely

aligned. In fascism, you have a government that is controlled by businesses fundamentally.

There's still a leader of the fascist government that basically controls the businesses, but

he manipulates the government. He organizes the government through monopolistic businesses.

And then they control everything there, but it's still a totalitarian government style.

These ideas all have something very similar in common too. They all place a man in the

place of the Godhead. They place the power of the creation above the power of God. So

when we look at the root of these worldviews, the world is attempting to provide a comprehensive

understanding of reality. It's trying to find a bias or like a mindset that's going to be

biased towards tendencies that they approve of. That's going to be using those biases

to determine how we interpret life. And don't get me wrong, within Christianity, you have

the simple understanding that you have to accept that God is a father. Jesus is the

son of God. He came to earth. He died for our sins and he rose from the grave. Those

are the tenets of Christianity and they lead to freedom in Christ. So let's take a look

real quickly at the background of Hitler because we want to understand how an ideology like

his could grab ahold of a nation and lead to the death of millions. He was born in 1889

and he was born on a land that was then known as Austria-Hungary. As a young man, he fought

in World War I and was decorated for his valor and service to his country. But after the

war, he entered politics and launched a failed coup against the leadership in Germany. For

this transgression, he was imprisoned and after his release, he wrote a book bearing

the title Mein Kampf. That man, of course, being Hitler in his book was full of these

dreadful ideas that ended up altering the course of the entire 20th century, leading

to the millions of deaths of Jewish people and on many others as well. The power of ideology

is seen in the story of Adolf Hitler. It doesn't start or stop with Hitler, though. Through

history, we see the rise of ungodly ideologies that have ravaged the world. Whether those

stories or those tales are about Lenin, Stalin, Mao's communism, destroying tens of millions

of people, even now we are seeing millions suffer because of the new secular humanist

pagan religions that cloak themselves in the pseudoscience of neo-Darwinism. They start

from a premise that's unprovable, to drag people away from a godly creator so that they

can live a life full of sin and free of judgment. We look for our answers from the atheistic

scientists, the scholars, the politicians. These are the robed men. They quite literally

wear white lab coats. They're robed men. They're the clerics of these new ideologies. Our politicians

are the bishops and the leaders. Is there any doubt that we are worshiping ideologies

that run contrary to God's word? So much of what is posited or placed in society by politicians

is really just stuff that comes from the inside of these men that we give our lives over to.

I'm not leaning to any political party. I believe that there's a party that you can

reside in, and that's God's party. I believe that if you're a Christian, you vote according

to your conscience, and your conscience is based off the word of God and not man. Everything

comes up to you to follow through on God's word and to follow through with how you live

your life. But how do these ideas lead to idolatry? How can they lead you to idolatry?

The consequences of the fallen man can be seen by their actions. When we look back in

the garden, we see Eve deceived by the serpent, the lure of knowledge and power to become

like God, knowing good and evil. This temptation won over Adam and Eve and led them to the

sin and led to sin entering into the world and affecting all of us. In Genesis 3 verses

Genesis 3:3–5

3 through 5, it said, But God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in

the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said

to the woman, You shall will surely not die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your

eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The idea led to a thought

life that was unbridled and eventually idolatrous and full of sin. We have to be governed in

our own minds. We have to govern our lives and our mind and our thought life, or else

will allow our hearts to deceive us and lead us in the trap of rebellion. How often do

you sit there and think about something that you know is wrong and eventually convince

yourself into doing it? I'll use a simple, simple example. Let's say you're on a diet,

you're trying to eat healthier, you're trying to change your diet. You don't want to be

on a diet, but you want to eat better. But then you sit there and think, man, a Dairy

Queen Blizzard sounds really good right now. Man, does a Dairy Queen Blizzard seem really

good. I really like that Dairy Queen Blizzard, you know, the one with like the score Blizzard

with the Reese's added to it. It's just, you know, oh, it's such a good ice cream. It's

so tasty. And then you keep saying that stuff into your head and before long you find yourself

driving down to Dairy Queen and getting the ice cream and paying over, you know, like

almost eight bucks for the darn thing for like a small. And then after you eat it, you

feel horrible because you allowed your thought life to build and build and build and build

and leading you into sin. I'm not saying ice cream sin. Don't get me wrong. I've just,

it's just an example of how your thought life can betray you. In first Samuel 15, 23, it

says for rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as an equity and idolatry

because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He has also rejected you from being

king. So the God players in the, in the center of every human heart is a throne. It is always

occupied. Not a person in the world is without a throne and someone occupying that throne

at all times. The throne can only be occupied by God, the self or the prideful self, the

self centered ego. If God is in throw, the prideful egos dethrone and the human spirit

is correctly positioned under God and with the, and with people. But when the ego is

self enthroned, God is ignored while man who is now out of position in his world plays

God. How much of what is going on in society today is man playing God? Everything that

the government says they're going to do to save you. It's amazing how they use those

words. We're going to help people do this. We're going to help you live a life that's

full and we're going to help you to do this and help you do that. Yet when a Christian

comes and offers you freedom in Christ, you say, I don't believe in that stuff. Why would

I want to follow some rules that God has? Then as soon as you're done blowing that guy

off, you go and you say, Oh, I really like this politician. Of course I'm going to follow

their rules and wear a mask and stay however many feet away from it because they've got

my best interest at heart and they only want to do what's right for society and the greater

good. So you're so willing to accept the, the tenants of faith demanded by a political

party or by an organization that she, that allows you to live your life in sin. As long

as they're not touching your sacred cow, you're along the allowed to, you're, you're more

than happy to go along. But how wicked of an idea is that when you, when you tell the,

the one true living God, I don't have time for you and your rules, but I will gladly

put myself under the bondage of that man, that creations rules. So ideas that are contrary

to a God centered view rooted in the power in a powerful spiritual. So we can begin to

make ourselves the idol, right? Our identity might be one of the biggest idols worship

today. We have largely abandoned who we are in Christ and placed our identity in other

things, whether it be our social media following or our position at work, our abilities, our

skills, the achievements we are after many have their identity wrapped up in the wrong

thing. I've fallen victim to this where I, for you know, for a long time chased, you

have certain positions of work, certain positions of work that would have taken me away from

my family and would have taken me away from my church and my responsibilities at the time,

all for thinking that I was doing, you know, what God might want me to do, which is move

up, but in reality always led me away from his will and his purpose for my life. And

Ephesians two, two, it says in which you once walked following the course of this world,

following the Prince of the power of air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons

of disobedience for some, their identity has become an idol. It may not be a physical object.

We tend to associate with idol worship, but this subtle form of idolatry is often worshiped.

Many have placed more value on who they are rather than in God, who they are meant to

be in Christ. We see that today, you know, God's not trying to take away your, you know,

your individuality, but yet we are all supposed to move closer to be more like Christ according

to the word of God. So if we're supposed to be continually moving closer to Christ through

the Holy spirit in the, in, in the divine nature of our Lord, then that means that on

the edges you're becoming more and more like Christ. And yes, you are changing as a person.

It's called sanctification. You become more and more Christlike. You're more concerned

with the loss. You're more concerned, concerned with helping the hungry. You're more concerned

with seeing people get her, sorry, seeing people get saved and turning from a life of

sin. People tend to twist, distort, seduce, and deceive themselves when they're dealing

with idolatry with the advent of social media. Almost anyone has the opportunity to become

a famous or gain influence, even if it's only like 300 followers or less or something like

that. All it takes is one viral video or one hot take. And suddenly you can have thousands

and thousands of followers. Past generations tend to idolize their jobs and their social

status. Younger generations are more drawn towards fame and influence. This has led to

many endless chases, thus creating another modern day idol. Rather than pursuing God

and Christ, we are wrapped up in a pursuit of fame, status, power, identity. These are

tools that the devil can use to twist, distort, seduce, and deceive you into a life away from

God and one headed directly towards God's judgment. John 8.44 says, you are of your

father the devil and you will do as your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning

and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in them. When he lies, he speaks

out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. Genesis 3.1 says,

now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the

garden? Second Corinthians 11.3 says, but I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve

by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to

Christ. And finally, in second Corinthians 4.4 it says, in their case, the God of this

world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the

gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God. We have to be able to identify

that the devil will use these tactics. The devil will use whatever is distracting you

to take you away from God, hopefully to take you away from God up to the point where you

can't come back. We also know that he is shrewd, cunning and manipulative. Satan masquerades

as an angel of light. This reminds me of the allure of the shining city lights, the lights

that block out the majesty of the heavens and trap many to only look at the glitz and

glamour of man's creation. So we just recently all got to enjoy, if you live in the Northern

hemisphere, we got to enjoy a tremendous aurora borealis event. There was a solar event that

was quite amazing. Many people got to see the Northern lights in areas where they typically

don't get to see the Northern lights. And I remember looking at it and I only got to

barely see it because I go to bed early and I wasn't going to stay up late enough to

see it apparently. But what I saw was fairly limited, veiled lights. Really kind of looked

like slightly green, misty smoke. And I remember thinking about, man, if I would have gone

to a darker area, if I would have gotten away from the city, we call them dark sky areas

because we've polluted our cities with light all through the night. And that light just

takes away the majesty of the sky. But we're so happy to live in these self-contained little

bubbles away from the presence of God and the stars, just the majesty of the stars.

I just think it's a very interesting thing how we hide ourselves in the glitz and glamour

of our own creation. In 2 Corinthians 11, 14 it says, and no wonder for even Satan disguises

himself as an angel of light, because reality is the battlefield is in our mind. In Ephesians

2, 3 it says, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out

the desires of the body, the mind, we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest

of mankind. We want to hide ourselves from the light of God. We want to allow ourselves

to live according to our own will. In Ephesians 4, 17 it says, now this I say and testify

in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

And then in 2 Timothy 2, 26 it says, and then they may come to their senses and escape from

the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. We need to escape the

world and the world's idolatry, whether that be your social media, whether that be your

job, whether that be your hobbies that take you away from church or take you away from

what you know to be right. We have to look at our attitude, our morals, our addictions

that are enslaving us to the God of this world, to the devil. But we also have to remember,

especially us as Christians, the whole point of everything is the redemption of God. And

Jesus Christ can deliver anybody who comes to him, just like he delivered us as we gave

our lives to him. This is a legal and comprehensive action, the deliverance that comes from Christ.

And Hebrews 2, 14-15 it says, Since therefore the children share in the flesh and the blood,

he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one

who has power over death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who were through fear

of death were subject to his lifelong slavery. There's no fear in death because in Christ

death has been beaten. In Colossians 1, 12-14 it says, Giving thanks to the Father who

has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints and the light, he has delivered

us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom

we have redemption in the forgiveness of sin. The sin has been covered. When you come to

Christ all your transgressions are covered, just like the song Amazing Grace. You're washed

clean by the blood of the Lamb and you can have forgiveness of your sins. In Romans 4,

25, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justifications? Jesus was

lifted up on the cross. He was the perfect sacrifice as sinless man, the Son of God who

died so that we might be able to in him be set free from the bondage of sin and accept

that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. In Romans 12, 2 it says, Do not be conformed to this

world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, by the testing that you may discern

what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Now you must, you

might think, wow, there's been a lot of Bible verses in this message and that's true. There's

been a ton because the reality is, how are you ever going to discern if you don't read

the word of God? And I challenge you, if you're unsaved, give first, give your life to Christ.

If this isn't convincing enough to you, though, read the Bible, read the word of God and let

the Holy Spirit convict your heart and lead you to Christ. We must claim this by faith

though. Faith is taking God at his word. In Ephesians 4, 17, Now this I say and testify

the Lord, you must no longer walk in the Gentiles as the Gentiles do in the futility of their

minds. I already read that. And the reality of it is, is that when you come to Christ,

you can't just think the way the world thinks. You can't just think this politician is going

to save the day. This leader is going to save the day. That singer has really got it all

figured out. That movie star really knows what's going on. You need to look to God for

your answers, not to men, not to pastors, not to preachers, to the word of God and allow

the Holy Spirit to deal with you. And then, you know, the whole purpose of the church

is to allow the fellowship, the brethren to sharp, you know, iron sharpening iron. We

all come together in the word to challenge each other so that we can grow towards God

in our grow in Christ likeness and sanctification. In Second Corinthians 10, five, it says we

destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every

thought captive to obey Christ. And First Corinthians 2 16, it says, for who has understood

the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. So as we come

to an end, we want to remember to get that it's important that we work towards deliverance

in our mind. And we only get that through the remission of sin. We get that through

repentance, accepting Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and praying that God will continue

to help us in our mind and that battle of our mind. We have to stand against false teaching

in Second Timothy three eight. It says, just as jam, James and Jambres opposed Moses. So

these men also oppose the truth. Men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.

You can see those who are corrupted by the fruit that their life is creating. First Timothy

six five, it says in the constant friction among the people who are depraved in mind and deprived

of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. There will be people who are

striving to use the gospel message just simply for gain. There are people who will dabble

on the edges. They're rock stars who will get saved. And then you'll start seeing that.

Are they really saved? Are they really living for Christ? So we have to avail ourselves

to God's truth in Colossians one twenty one through twenty two. It says, and you who were

once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds has now reconciled in his body of flesh

by his death in order to present you wholly and blameless above reproach before him. And

Ephesians four twenty three and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So in the end,

we have satanic programs that are striving to cause mankind to embrace his worldview.

And these present us a problem. For the people who live in Western society primarily, because

we are we were founded on godly foundations and so much of the world is trying to push

against those. Here's a quick excerpt that I found from John M. Perkins from a from a

book called Dream With Me, and it's entitled Bail in Canada. I know most Canadians today

do not worship bail, but when I look at the church in Canada, I fear that we have our

own bales that demand our worship. I see so many people bowing down before prosperity

theology and the idea that God wants to make us wealthy and happy. I see people entrapped

by this by the isms, racism, sexism, ageism, classism and so many others that divide our

church, choosing first to obey and revere these divisive systems rather than the God

who has called us all to be reconciled to one another and to be one in Christ Jesus.

We surround ourselves with people who are like us and value like mindedness over genuine

love and care for our neighbor. So as we close, if I could have every head bowed, every eye

closed, if you're driving, keep your eyes on the road. It's a stupid joke. I say every

week. The reality is, is that we need to fight against the idolatry that's within our hearts.

We're constantly looking for something to fill our hearts, to give us understanding

that allows us to live a life away from God, away from the judgment of God. And it's so

interesting that in that fight, we're so willing to put our faith into men, into women who

are just creations like we are, but we'll put our faith in them, expecting them to save

us. And then when they fail us, we become depressed. We become isolated. Turn to Christ,

turn to Jesus, submit to the will of the Father. Give your life over to him. If God is dealing

with you right now and you know you're not saved, you're not right with God, I want to

lead you in a quick sinner's prayer. And it's just something like that. I've had to you

if you've risen your hand, then you want to signify that wherever you are, I can't see

it. God can see it. But if you want to raise your hand and signify that you want to change

in your life, God sees that hand. And I want you to repeat this prayer with me. Dear Lord

God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you sent your son, Jesus Christ, and

that he died for me on the cross. I repent of my sin. I accept him as my Lord and Savior.

I thank you for God's grace in Jesus name. Amen. That simple prayer is all it takes.

Now, of course, there's always the next step. It's a journey. It's a path. It's the less

traveled path. It says in the Bible, you need to find a church to lock into the purpose

of the church is so you can hear preaching. It's so you can have fellowship with other

brethren so that you can grow together and grow towards sanctification and Christ likeness

and so that you can have impact in your town for Jesus. If you're in Sam and are please

reach out. We have service 1030 on Sundays. We have Bible study on Wednesdays, and I'd

love to have you join us. All the contact information is in the show notes. If not,

we have 3500 plus churches globally, and I'd love for you to go to one of our fellowship

churches and just really serve God. Let him change your life. Let him change your heart.

With that, the last thing I want to ask is that if this message has impacted you, if

you've seen value in it, I'd appreciate if you'd share the this podcast or this video.

I asked that you'd like it. Subscribe. It really does help us to get the word out. We

pay for this as a church so that we can get the gospel message out to as many people as

possible. It's just part of our outreaching tools to just to get the gospel message out

to anyone who who hasn't heard it yet. So send it. Send it out. Don't be afraid. The

Bible tells us that God's word will not go and return void. And so I just pray that God

will help you this week. And I'm just going to close in prayer real quick. Dear Lord,

I thank you for everything that you do. Even with this little podcast Lord God, I pray

that you would work in people's hearts and lives this week. Bless them in Jesus name.

Amen. Thank you for joining me this week. Can't wait for you to come back next time.

God bless.