Joshua Series Pt. 10 - Pastor Greg Addison - July 6, 2025

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

What a beautiful song and message that really describes the joy of salvation and what it means that God forgave us and didn't give us what we deserve.

But Jesus stepped out of heaven and took the punishment that we deserve on the cross for us.

As we've been going through the book of Joshua, that's really the message that we have been trying to get through is that as we study the book of Joshua, as the children of Israel went into the land of Canaan and appropriated that inheritance, it is an Old Testament picture of how we appropriate the salvation that Jesus in his mercy and his grace died to give us.

Now you know last week we talked about Joshua and the famous battle where the sun stood still.

Joshua prayed and asked God to stop the sun and the moon, and he did for a day as they accomplished defeating the enemy that God had given them.

This week, Pastor Dave and I were chatting about some stuff, and he brought me an article that he had found from a history, and I thought it was appropriate coming out of that message last week for uh 4th of July weekend this weekend.

It is a story of Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers, who after the uh the Treaty of Versailles and we became a country, he served as the ambassador to France.

And so here's the story, building on that story from Joshua last week with the sun standing still.

As an ambassador of the United States, Benjamin Franklin was at a dinner of foreign dignitaries in Versailles, France.

The minister of Great Britain, now this is following the Revolution and the independence of America.

The minister of Great Britain proposed a toast to King George III, likening him to the Son.

S-U-N, the Sun.

The French minister, not to be outdone, in like kind proposed a toast to King Louis XVI, comparing him to the moon.

Benjamin Franklin then immediately stood and toasted this to George Washington, commander of the American armies, who, like Joshua of old, commanded the sun and the moon to stand still, and they obeyed him.

How awesome is that! I just thought that was way fun and uh very appropriate from last week.

And uh and since we're on 4th of July weekend, I wanted to take just a parentheses this week uh and uh step outside of Joshua for a moment because not only is it 4th of July, and not only is that significant, but this year we begin a 12-month journey as a nation that will come and culminate in next year, July the 4th, 1776, as the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

You've already begun to get an inkling of what's going to happen over the next year.

Over the next year, our country will enter into a time of discourse and discussion about what it means to be an American, the founding of the country, July the 4th, founding fathers, the Constitution, and all of those things.

As you know, in our culture, there will be an effort to rewrite history.

There will be a lot of discussions about what history means and how it falls, the things in the past that were not good, the things that were good and all of that.

There will be a lot of liberal culture that speaks into those things.

There also is a lack of understanding of how the Great Awakening and the spiritual foundation of things that happened in that period of time led to that spirit of independence, which brought people together to declare independence from Great Britain.

There will be opportunities for the church to speak into that discourse and talk about the spiritual heritage and underpinnings that are a part of America.

There certainly will be people who will look to downplay that or describe it in a different way.

And so I think over the next year, as we see that unfold, it will be important for us as the people of God to understand those histories, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and be able to unpack those and speak into those.

Also to be able to teach our children and others about not listening to some of that or being dismayed or persuaded against some of the heritage and underpinning of our nation.

And so, in order to kind of launch into that period of time to prepare ourselves, I wanted to go back and talk about what it means for us as the people of God to live in and impact a lost culture.

What it means to live in and impact a lost culture, because all of those things often impact the church when we should be impacting the culture around us.

Now, I've chosen for the passage of Scripture this morning, Jeremiah 29, and I want you to turn there.

While you're turning there, I want to remind you of this the context of this passage.

I've preached from this before when we as a church voted on our favorite verses.

This was on the list, if you'll remember, a couple years ago when we did that in the summertime.

But it's very important, and I think it's very instructive for us as God's people.

Because what's happening here is the nation of Israel has been judged because of their sin and because of walking away from the Lord.

And God had warned them, you will be conquered if you do that.

If you don't turn back, I will send a pagan nation as judgment to conquer you, and they will draw many of you out of the land.

And in fact, they did not repent.

They did not heed the voice of God, and so he allowed the nation to be conquered, and many of the people who lived in Israel were taken out and removed as exiles.

Now, as they are living in exile, a lot of false prophets began to come up and began to preach and teach that God was going to send them all back and it was okay, and God didn't really mean the 70 years that he had prophesied that they would be in judgment.

And so if we just hang on and all of that, then God's going to restore us all.

And so there are these false prophets speaking to the people of God who are telling them things that are wrong, and they are actually speaking against the prophetic word of God, where he had laid out what his plan was.

You will be judged, you'll be in exile 70 years, and then after 70 years, I will begin to bring you back and re-establish you as the nation of Israel.

So that's the context of this letter.

And so I want you to read what the Word of God says.

Jeremiah 29, verse 1.

Jeremiah 29:1

This is the text of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exiles, those people who had been taken out as a captured people and removed.

The priests, the prophets, and all the people Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

This was after King Jacob, the queen mother, the court of officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, all the metal slamis had left Jerusalem.

This letter that Jeremiah, the prophet of God, is sending, was sent by this man, and it says at the end of that verse, the letter stated.

So now you're going to read the context of the letter.

This is what God told Jeremiah to tell the people.

This is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles, I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Build houses and live in them.

Plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and have sons and daughters.

Take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage, so that they may bear sons and daughters.

Multiply there.

Do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to.

Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it has prosperity, you will prosper.

For this is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says.

And then God says, as an encouragement to his people, while they're living under this period of judgment, for I know the plans I have for you.

This is the Lord's declaration.

Plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with your whole heart.

I will be found by you.

This is the Lord's declaration, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you.

This is the Lord's declaration.

I will restore you to the place I departed you from.

You see, God's judgment always has a purpose.

It is always to bring us back to Him, to cause our repentance, to teach us to follow Him, and then restore us to being His people on mission with Him.

Now I'm going to give you five principles of Christian citizenship, if you will, in the nation in which God has planted you.

Now, for us, He has planted us at this time in the United States of America.

Now, before I get to those five principles, let me just comment on something here.

Often when we'll step into something that some people view as politics, they will get on to the preacher as if the preacher is doing something wrong.

Well, let me just take you a moment and stop and show you that right here, this is the word of God through the prophet Jeremiah and through the other prophets that he raised up to speak this message.

God has raised up men of God, prophets of God, to speak into the culture of God's people, regardless of what the topic is.

If we believe that God's word applies to all of life, then there should not be any topic covered in Scripture which is not appropriate for the people of God.

Especially at a time when they live at particular risk and circumstances.

It may be a time as before this judgment when they were sinning and God was warning them, and he sent prophets to warn them that God will judge them if they do not repent, or in a situation like this where they live in a culture that is different, and they're living as slaves and a conquered people in Babylon, and men rise up just to tell them things that they want to hear and create this situation where it creates false hope and all sorts of other things.

And God steps into that moment and he raises up the prophet of God to speak and to remind the people of God of the Word of God and the work of God.

And it is always appropriate.

And it is always important for the men of God to preach the word of God to the people of God, to draw them to the plans and the person of God.

Let me say that again because I want you to hear that.

It is important for the men of God to preach the word of God to the people of God to point them to the person and the plan of God.

And so as we speak to this, God is speaking to them directly about their citizenship in the land in which they have landed because of God's work.

And he speaks to them directly as citizens of that land, as sojourners or pilgrims in that land.

And so he tells them how to function.

So for us as God's people, that's why this is such an instructive passage, because we live in a culture that is not a Christian culture, primarily.

We live in a time where people are standing up to speak and to say God is not real or this is who God is, different from his word.

We have people who would uh try to say it's inappropriate for the church to be involved in these matters or speak to these matters, when it is in fact the heritage of our nation and the foundation of our country and the ethos that was created that men of God have always spoken to the people of God about the plans of God in these times.

And so I just wanted to take a moment to say that.

Now, you can go ahead and send me your text and email and tell me I shouldn't preach on patrons.

Okay, it's fine.

You can send them this fine, it's not a problem.

But I want you to see here that this is a prophet of God being raised to the raised up to speak the word of God and to call God's people back to his purpose and to tell them how to be citizens in a culture that was not the one he planned for them.

And so here we go.

Five things I want you to see.

They just come directly from the Word of God.

I want to remind you again of this first part of this scripture.

Here's what the Bible says in verse 4.

This is what the Lord of the hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles, I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Build houses and live in them.

Plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and have sons and daughters.

Take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage.

Now that part, as the father of a daughter, has always given me a little trouble.

But it's okay because now I have a grandchild and I get it.

It's awesome, right?

Take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage, so that they may bear sons and daughters.

Multiply there, do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city I've deported you to.

Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it has prosperity, you will prosper.

So here's the five things I want you, and this will become important over the course of the year, and the discourse that will go on in our culture and is already going on and all of that.

The first thing is this trust that God is at work as He has promised.

Always trust that God is at work.

God is on the throne.

You know, as we go through life, some things ebb and flow.

There are times when people talk about God, and there are moves of God, and there are things that happen, and then there are times when it seems like Satan is winning, and all of that stuff is happening.

It ebbs and flows and it moves up and down, and all of those things shift.

And sometimes we rise and fall on what it seems like is happening in the culture.

And we should never rise and fall on what we think is happening in the culture because we are the people of God.

We are standing on the promises of God.

We are pursuing the purposes of God and the plans of God, trusting in the person of God.

And so when we are doing what we are doing and we are living these things out, we should always do it, understanding that God is at work and we are pursuing the work of God as He's doing it.

Now, here it would be easy for people in this culture to think, oh no, life is over and this is miserable, and we're living in bondage, and I'm living in Babylon, and these people are crazy, and what are we doing here, and all of that.

And listen, God had made clear his plan.

Before the judgment, I'm calling you to repentance.

They did not repent because they did not repent.

False prophets came up telling them, Don't listen to God, do this, or God really meant this, or they're coming up with all this other stuff, and God is sending a prophet to remind his people, I am God, have not changed.

I am doing what I said I would do, I'm doing it the way that I'm going to do it, and I can continue to do it.

And God reiterates in this message: you are to live there, you're going to be there 70 years, and then he says, Do not be discouraged, for I know the plans that I have for you.

Plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

I am still your God.

You will call to me and come to me and pray to me and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with your whole heart.

That is what God is doing.

He is always at work.

And so for us as the people of God, living in this place, we are not to get discouraged by the rise and fall of what happens in culture, but we are to be the people of God, pursuing the plans and the purposes of God, trusting in the promises of God.

If we are living according to God's word, and we are evangelizing and sharing Jesus, and we are celebrating, and we are living out our faith as the people of God because we trust in His promises and His hand, that is how we will impact the culture and the culture not impact us.

Now I get it.

There are a lot of times that it's depressing to watch the news.

I go back and forth.

Sometimes I watch and sometimes I don't.

You know, after I lost about three televisions where I took my shoe off and threw it through the television during the news report, I figured out that's not really the way to handle this, Greg.

And so we get all that.

So I pay attention and I listen and I study and I work through all that and I follow the economy and all that kind of stuff.

But listen to me, God is still on his throne.

The gospel is still the power of God unto salvation.

And in large measure, one of the major reasons that we do not have rampant revival in our culture in America today is because the church doesn't believe that revival is possible.

Now I want to remind you this.

God says in this passage of Scripture that he reminds them he had promised to restore them if they would repent.

One of the verses that people love, and we quote often, it's a fabulous verse, comes from 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse 14.

2 Chronicles 7:14

You know this verse.

It is the dedication of the temple, and Solomon is speaking, and he gives the promise of the Lord, and he says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will heal their land.

And he goes on to say, I will draw them back and restore them to the places from where they have scattered.

He repeats that promise here in this passage of Scripture and this message to them.

But what is he saying?

He's saying, Listen, if you will seek me and repent, I will do the work that I promised to do.

But it requires the people of God to be the people of God and to trust in the work and the promises of God.

And so the question for us is, why don't we have revival?

Don't you think Jesus wanted revival to break out?

That's why he died on the cross to save people from their sins.

That's why he conquered death and sin.

That's why he stepped out of heaven and he created the plan of salvation for people to be saved.

If it is his desire and plan for people to be saved, and it is his desire for his people to call out to his name and follow him and for him to use them in that purpose, then why is it not happening?

Something is broken down, and what is broken down is not, and it is never the promises of God that break down.

God is honorable and honest with an integrity we cannot even understand by his holiness.

And he will literally never break a promise.

And so God has promised to work through his people.

He has promised to spread the gospel.

He has promised that the gospel is the power of God and the salvation.

And one of the most important things that we can do as the people of God is to be the evangelistic people of God.

To live out the gospel, preach the gospel, speak into the culture in a way that we are speaking of the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God specifically in speaking to his people reminds them there is a plan, there is a promise.

I have promised this to you.

I am at work, you stick with me, and you follow my work.

And so it is important for us as the people of God to pursue the plans of God.

And that is to share the gospel, to be salt and light, to reach out and to love people in a way that they understand how much ultimately Jesus loved them and gave himself for them on the cross.

So it's important for us as the people of God to be the people of God in the place where He's planted us.

The second is, he's very clear, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce.

He tells them to build and work.

They, even though they are in judgment, even though they are living in a foreign culture, he says, Listen, you build houses and you plant gardens and you be fruitful and you be successful and you take care of your people and you work hard and you build your culture and you take care of things.

We live in a culture now where work is a lost ethic in our culture.

It's not just because of the deterioration of society, but there are also things that go on in politics and the tax code and everything else that go on, policies that were created during COVID that are depressive to the truth of work.

And what God knows is to be the people of God, he says in the book of Ecclesiastes that he has given us our work as a gift from him.

He created Adam and Eve in the garden, and immediately he told Adam, You are to be fruitful and multiply.

You are to tend and keep the garden.

He gave him ambition, he gave him skills, he gave him talent, and then he created Eve and he said, You go work alongside him.

I've created you as a companion in this process.

There is a theology of work built throughout Scripture, and we are now in a place where the people of God, the truth of God, is the antidote to one of the struggles in our society.

If we understand what work is and how we work, we go out into the marketplace and we build homes and we plant gardens and we see them fruitful, we will have a voice and a platform in culture that you have never seen the likes of before.

I mean, we're literally, if you read any kind of corporate literature or any kind of HR personnel, any of that, if you follow anything in the news, you understand that we have generations now that are struggling with the definition of work.

They don't understand what work is, they don't understand its value, they don't understand how to approach it.

I mean, I literally saw a report this week where companies are having to hire life coaches to come in and take their young new employees and teach them this is how you dress.

You look someone in the eye when you talk to them, this is how you shake hands, this is how you address them, because they are raised in a culture that is anathetical to work.

Now it's not a critical thing, and we don't need to be critical about this.

We are living in a culture that is different from biblical culture, but that's a blessing because it creates an opportunity for us to live out scripture as the people of God and show the hope that exists and the power of God in our lives, and we have the opportunity to mentor generations through our behavior and our voice and our teaching in a way that literally can revolutionize the culture around us.

And all of that ends back up to the gospel through the Word of God.

And so listen, as Christians, I grew up hearing this, and I'm convicted, I need to make sure our young people hear this.

Christians should be the best employee in every company that you work for.

People should want and look for Christians because they get more done than anybody else, and they never create drama in the workplace.

They put their nose to the grindstone and they work hard and they get things done and they serve people around them and they ride for the brand and they build things because Christians are builders.

The God we serve is the creator God of the universe.

And what he told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which is the model for how we work, is you be fruitful, you be multiplying, you tend the garden, you make it flourish.

I have given you this opportunity.

The Bible tells us in Genesis 3, when sin occurred, that one of the impacts of that is that work became hard and fruitless in a fallen world.

It does not change the command of God.

It does not change that God made us in his image and that we are to be fruitful and multiply and create and all those things that reflect him as our God.

But it means sin broke that image in us and it broke the world around us, and now it becomes hard.

God told Adam, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and eaten the fruit that I'd commanded you not to eat, this will happen.

He said, Now you will work by the sweat of your brow.

You will plow the ground, and it will only have thorns and thistles that come out, and then you'll die.

What that means is work has become hard.

The taint of sin has affected us and how we understand it and how we approach it and the world around us, but it does not change the fact that God created us to work, and he's given us that desire and engine and capacity to do that.

And when God steps in and he redeems a life, he redeems all of that life.

And when he redeems all of that life, he redeems how we work, how we do marriage, how we raise our kids, how we handle our money, how we envision the future, how we take people around us.

And when God redeems, he redeems completely and totally.

And one of the things you learn in the New Testament is when Paul and others are speaking to Christians, he talks often about their work life and how we work and what we do and providing for our families and work as unto the Lord.

And whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

And so we have an opportunity in our culture if we step out and we work hard and we build things and we build our families and we build businesses and we build careers and we build homes and we build finances and we do all of those things.

God blesses all of that, and it's a part of the redemption of his people, and it's part of what makes us stand out.

And people come to us and they turn to us and they say, Why is that happening?

Because God is good.

And because God has a plan for life, and God is a plan for your life, and God wants to redeem your work life and your family life and your children and what you see and how you do, and God is good.

And when we build and we work and we grow and we model what God created us to work, it impacts our culture in ways that are deeply profound.

And we live in a time when that is a question and a struggle in our culture, and God has given us the answer to the question.

The same thing is true for families.

Look at what he says.

Families have always been a priority, it has always been God's design for how things work.

Recorded human history begins in the Garden of Eden with a wedding between Adam and Eve.

And the Bible says that God brought the woman to the man and he defined family and structure.

The Bible tells us that eternity begins for those who are followers of Christ who've been redeemed.

As we look forward to entering into eternity and being with our Savior forever, there is such a joyous event that the only way the Bible could penetrate our understanding and get us to understand the joy and the power of this moment is he describes it as a marriage ceremony.

He describes Christ as the bridegroom in the church, as the bride of Christ.

And when we are reunited and we begin eternity together, he calls it the marriage supper of the Lamb.

He is trying to get through for us to understand in this incredible moment of joy in a marriage, man, that pales in comparison to the joy when we begin eternity together with our Savior.

Marriage has always been God's most complete and beautiful picture of salvation.

Why do you think babies come the way they do?

Because the most important thing in a baby's life is for mom and dad to be solid and to be in a family and have a father who models a picture of Christ, and the mother who models the picture of how you receive the salvation in Jesus.

And so all of this he has structured.

He has wired into the family in every history period of time, in every epoch of time, in every culture, in every people group, in every native tongue, on every place in the planet, wherever that happened, everyone came from a family and wants a family.

He has wired the search for Jesus and salvation into family.

And that's why God tells his people, y'all go get married and you have babies and you have grandkids and you build families because in that structure of family is the definition of how God loves us and has created salvation.

Paul comes in in the New Testament and he says, Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.

We live out that picture of Jesus before our families.

And when you live out that level of sacrificial love, how did Jesus give himself for the church?

He died for the church.

And as we die for our wives, people want to know how do you receive that salvation?

Wives, submit yourselves in everything to your husbands as to the Lord.

The wife pays out that picture of how we receive Christ as our Savior.

We take everything we've been, we are, and we ever will be, and we give it all to Jesus because he loves us so much that he died for us on the cross.

And the world wants to turn that into a punchline.

It wants to turn it into an organizational chart.

It wants to say, as Christians, that we are sublimating women and all that kind of stuff.

None of that is true.

That is all a lie from the pit of hell.

That is not what Scripture teaches.

Scripture teaches that marriage is a mystery that is an incredible picture of salvation.

And when we live that picture of salvation out, it is also a picture of salvation and that it is the abundant life in Christ.

I mean, people want to be married.

I read a thing today about some woman in Hollywood.

She's been divorced four times and she's looking for another husband, and she says, I'm in love with love.

I heard somebody say that the army and marriage are the only things people re up for when their last term is over.

Why?

Because there is a God-given drive to be in a family and to have a family.

And so what he's telling his people is that you are to go out and build families, build godly families, have lots of children, have lots of grandchildren, and grow your families.

Listen, we live in a culture today that is attacking families at every level.

I was listening to a news podcast this week, and two weeks ago, the New York Times had a long story, and they compared it with all these videos on their website where they collected all these young moms who were weeping and crying and saying about how awful it was to be a mom.

I mean, they're just talking about how terrible it is, and we had to put our corporate dreams aside and do all of this because they're, and I'm thinking, you know, your kids are gonna grow up and at six or seven, they're gonna know how to use the internet probably sooner than that, but at some point they're gonna watch what mama said about them.

How deluded are we in our culture?

And the culture is speaking, trying to create a depressive effect on families.

And it's about time we elevated motherhood again.

It doesn't have anything to do with an organizational chart or anything else.

God created mothers and he made them incredibly, eternally powerful and impacting our lives.

The Bible says that God designed Eve in an incredibly creative and purposeful way.

She was an advantage to Adam.

And having children was an advantage to who we are as people, and God created a purposefulness in that.

I remember when I was a singles minister, and I was I was doing singles ministry, and I was we were planning things, we were doing things, and I'd get so frustrated with these guys.

I was trying to disciple guys, and we were planning stuff, and and Janet and I, we were college sweethearts.

We got married right after college, went through law school together and all of that, went through the call to ministry together after practicing law, and did all that.

So I'm about 32, 33, and I'm doing this, and I'm working with these guys, and they're single, and they were great.

And they had all these talents and all these skills, and I would get so frustrated because they would just wouldn't show up for stuff, or they wouldn't do this, or they would be late.

And I'm like, they got all this talent and they're not doing all this stuff, and what's going on?

And I'm just grousing, I'm frustrated with all these guys.

I'm just in the flesh, I'm mad.

And Janet looks at me and she says, Greg, who do you think you would be if you didn't marry me?

And I said, Boy, that praise God, she is dead right.

God looked at Adam and he said, It is not good that Adam is alone.

And he made for him Eve and a wife and a mother and a companion and a helpmeet.

Listen, it is in nations with a history of a Judeo-Christian or biblical worldview that women are freed and elevated, and it is in pagan cultures where women continue to be treated like property and are held down.

And we let the world say these things and we do not push back.

And yet they keep looking for an answer, and we have the answer in the Word of God.

Families are important.

We need to have families.

People need to get married.

We live in a culture today where they have been so down on marriage and we have we have uh eliminated marriage in the conversation, or it is a punchline to whatever.

And here's what happens now.

You now have in American culture, we have the oldest average date for both men and women when they get married.

The average date is pushing 30 in men when they get married.

That's the average.

Women are 29, the average time that they get married.

There are less people getting married, there are less people having children.

And we're talking about all the time about how our culture is depressing all that, and you can't afford to get married, and you can't afford to have children, and you can't have afforded all this.

Listen to me, God makes a way for all those things.

And the Bible commands us as a people that we are to have families and build godly, growing families.

Praise God for our young people that are getting married and have kids and building families and building homes.

Praise God for that.

Praise God for a church that we have a heritage.

We have families in our church of multi-generational families.

Praise God for that.

That's what the body of Christ ought to look like.

That's what it should look like.

And people are struggling with these answers, and God has given us the truth and the answer to what society seeks.

Even in bondage in Babylon, God is thinking about my people can accomplish my purpose, and they can present the promises of God to a people.

Here's what he also says.

He says, Multiply, do not decrease.

See, here's what we need to understand.

Yes, they're going to be in 70 years, in bondage for 70 years.

Yes, they're going to be struggling there, but God has said, My plan is to restore you, and I will restore you.

And when you go back, we are going back to get busy with the work that I called you to do as my people.

And if you are decreasing, you are not strong enough to do what I've planned and called you to do.

You are to multiply and get as strong as you can and be who you are and build yourselves because I am going to continue to use you.

And as the people of God, we should always multiply.

We should always move forward.

We should always be looking for new people to lead to Christ.

We should always be looking for new families that we can help.

We should always be reaching out to strengthen those.

We should always be reaching out in the culture.

Growth is our DNA as the people of God.

Because the plans of God are moving forward, and He is always trying to get us to grow and to move forward as His people.

There's a whole message right there that I need to move on from.

Multiply, do not decrease.

Here's the next thing.

Seek the welfare of the city I've deported you to.

This is where we start talking about Christians and patriotism and citizenship and all of that.

Listen, we should be, American Christians should be the best citizens in America.

Period.

English Christians should be the best citizens in England.

Chinese Christians should be seeking the welfare of China more than anybody else who lives in China.

God has commanded us to be his people wherever he has planted us.

He has planted us here.

And so we should do everything we can do to seek the welfare of the city that he has put us in.

We should be involved in civic matters.

We should have judges and mayors and city council people and people on the school boards and governors and senators and congress people and all of that.

We should be the heart of the police department and the fire department.

We should be teachers and principals and bus drivers and coaches and we should be impacting the culture.

We should be seeking the welfare of the River Valley.

We should be involved in every place that we can possibly find to get a way to get a place to be involved as the people of God.

We should be the best citizens in the River Valley that they've ever seen.

People should want to come and join First Baptist Church or Grand Avenue Baptist Church or whatever Baptist Church because they think, man, those people love the city where God planted them.

And I want to be a part of those people.

We should always be a part of the solution.

We should always be building things.

To seek the welfare of the city where we've been planted, we should also be salt and light.

If we don't speak about certain matters like life and marriage and family and all of that, then who will?

If we don't speak into matters of truth as God has called Jeremiah and these prophets to do, then we have left the discourse to the world.

And Jesus described it clearly for us.

Satan is a liar and the father of lies, and he seeks to steal, kill, and destroy.

That's who Satan is.

And if we are not involved in our culture as citizens, as servants, as volunteers, as prayers, as people involved in that, then what's going to happen?

We have left our culture to the enemy who will steal it, who will kill it, and seek to destroy it.

And finally, He says, pray to the Lord on its behalf.

Pray to the Lord on its behalf.

For when it has prosperity, you will prosper.

Listen, when we are praying for revival in our country, in our state, we are living in a place where revival occurs.

What better way for God's people to flourish than in a place of revival?

What better place for God's people to flourish than in a place where we are praying for legislators and praying for leaders and we are praying for first responders and all of that, and they are blessed and they are moving and they're in a culture that is supportive and all those things are happening.

Listen, that is the best place for Christians and the gospel to flourish.

I had the privilege years ago to serve as the chaplain of the House of Representatives here in Arkansas.

Now listen, I got as much politics as anybody.

Alright?

Remember, I'm a lawyer.

I learn, I know, I know how that is.

I watch all that.

I'm involved.

If y'all want to go have a cup of coffee or get a milkshake, I'll be glad to talk about all the politics you want to talk about.

All right?

I'll even buy if you want to do that.

We can dig through all you want to.

My son is on the editorial staff of a political magazine.

I got all you want, right?

I got all you want.

So I go into the House of Representatives and I'm thinking, man, this is an I got all this, and how am I going to speak to this and all that?

Let me tell you what God taught me in that deal.

He taught me to keep my mouth shut and not argue stuff with them because in that role as a chaplain, a prayed-for legislature later is a better legislator.

Period.

A prayed-for legislature is a better legislature, period.

A prayed-for governor is a better governor, period.

A prayed for president is a better president, period.

A prayed for senator is a better senator, period.

And the people of God, our first way that we should be patriotic and be citizens in our country is we should pray for our leaders and pray for revival.

And God has commanded us in the book of Peter, God has commanded us in the book of Romans, chapter 13, that we are to pray for those in authority over us, that we are to pray for the government in which we live.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

And if we were praying for our president and praying for our governor and praying for our mayor and praying for our city council and praying for all those people, if we were praying for our principles, if we were praying for all that stuff, imagine how much differently it would be if the people of God were constantly on their knees before God, pleading for God's blessing and to move in the community in where we live.

Listen, God has commanded it.

And if God has commanded it, God will answer it.

God will answer it.

You will prosper.

So as we begin this year, I just want to lay those out for us.

But of course, all of that begins with the first principle of trusting God as his people.

And if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, all of this is about us living out the gospel.

Jesus loves you so much that he died for you on the cross.

As Jacob and the team sang, his mercy to forgive us of our sins was accomplished when Jesus stepped out of heaven, went to the cross, paid the price for our sins, and rose again.

In a moment, I'm gonna lead us in a prayer, and God's people are gonna stand and sing a testimony of God's love.

But I want to invite you, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, that's what all of this is about.

We want you to see Jesus.

Why don't you ever bow your hands?

Pray with me.

Lord, we love you and we thank you for who you are, and we pray, Father.

We pray that you'll help us to be the people of God, stand on your promises, pursuing your purposes so that the gospel goes out and people are saved.

We want our community to flourish so that the gospel can flow freely through our community and people can be saved.

And Lord, today as we close the service, we want people to be saved.

Give us the freedom now to respond.

In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.