[0:00] Okay, get out your copy of the Holy Scriptures and find Colossians chapter 2.! I want to take you through about four or five passages here to begin.
[0:12] We're just going to kind of just bounce from one to the next from left to right. And just follow along. And you don't have to discern anything really from this until I try to put it together and make some sense of it for what kind of a topic I want to look at tonight.
[0:28] And just really a charge that I have for you in a specific area to exercise discernment and caution in your Christian life. So I'm going to read a few verses that are pretty, I think they're very familiar to most everybody here.
[0:43] And as we do, it's really just a sample of what the Scripture says about something. So look at verse 8. Let's just read together verse 8, Colossians 2.8. It's a warning.
[0:53] Saying, They're separate, even in the verse, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
[1:28] And the world wouldn't be the world. It wouldn't be called that if it was for Jesus Christ and they were one. But because they're not, so what is the rudiments or what is elementary basics of the world?
[1:39] It's all sensual, fleshly, carnal. In many cases, sinful. It's just carnal appetites. And philosophy.
[1:51] It's wisdom that comes from the world or from men. You see men listed at the beginning. Lest any man spoil you. The tradition of men. It's all man. It's all man.
[2:02] Apart from God. Separate from God. And the warning is to be cautious of this. To watch out. Because men are going to try to mess with you. They're going to try to spoil you. Get your money.
[2:13] And take advantage of you. And take you a certain direction that is not the direction that Christ would go. So that's reference number one. Now flip over to 1 Timothy chapter 6.
[2:25] Here's a verse we were just at a few weeks ago in this passage. 1 Timothy 6. And verse number 5.
[2:37] Just in the middle of the whole passage here. Just pull this part out. It's speaking of certain men that would teach things other than what Jesus Christ would teach. Or the doctrine according to godliness.
[2:47] And verse 5 says. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is godliness.
[2:58] And the command then from such withdraw thyself. I want to point out that amongst this list here. In 3, 4, 5, 6 it goes on. That these men are destitute of the truth.
[3:11] So they don't have the truth. But what are they doing? They're disputing something. What? What would they be disputing but the truth? They're men of corrupt minds. And they dispute.
[3:22] They fight against. They push back against things that are right. They're perverse disputings. So let's consider that as we go on. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 now.
[3:36] 2 Timothy 3. And again, I'm just giving you a sample of some scriptures that are cautioning the believer. Of some other voices and some things that are out there.
[3:48] Alright, 2 Timothy 3. Let's start in... I'm going to read a few verses here. Start in verse 4. Again, it's in the middle of a context about men being lovers of their own selves and so forth. In verse 4, they're traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.
[4:09] From such, turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
[4:24] Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
[4:37] There's a very stark similarity between this and the last passage with the men of corrupt minds, much like before. And when they were in the previous verse disputing and they were against the truth, they're destitute of it, in this place, they're never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, and they're withstanding, they're resisting again, the same thing.
[5:00] Verse number 6 says they creep into houses. How do they creep into houses? I want you to consider that term as we go forward in a little bit later, but just hang on to that for the moment.
[5:12] How do they creep in to your house and lead somebody astray with sins and lusts and teaching, teaching, teaching? They're ever learning, it said.
[5:23] They're teaching them something, but it's not the truth. All right, look at the next chapter, chapter 4. Actually, I missed verse 13. Go back to 3.13.
[5:34] But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And now chapter 4, and I'm still picking up kind of in the middle of a charge for him to preach the word.
[5:48] Verse 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Who do you think the they is a reference to? Paul's writing to not a church now.
[6:01] He's writing to a man. A man, Timothy, that it's his own son after the faith. And Timothy's charging him to preach the word, Timothy. And they will not endure sound doctrine.
[6:16] The they is the congregation. If you think it's the world or them out there, when did the world ever endure sound doctrine? You can go back and say, yeah, we were a bit more moral in our culture in this land, but you're talking about Timothy and the congregation that he ministered to or the world that he lived in.
[6:33] There was never a time when that culture endured sound doctrine in Paul or Timothy's day. But the time will come that they, when they will not endure sound doctrine, verse 3 continues, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
[6:54] So I'll suggest that this last group is the congregation of the church, is the Christians. They're backsliding. They're not interested in sound doctrine and in the truth, but they have their own lusts, and they're trying to feed their own lusts.
[7:10] Now let's consider some things. Here's an example of that, rather. Before we do that, chapter 4, verse 10, there's Demas, the backslidden Christian. Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed.
[7:24] Now this is a sufficient sample of what I want to get across tonight, of some warnings in the scriptures to be vigilant and to be cautious of who you listen to and who you follow.
[7:37] In the first reference, it was man. To beware of man, beware of the world and the world system and the philosophies of man. This is, James calls it, wisdom that descendeth not from above.
[7:50] It's earthly, it's sensual, and it's devilish. And Paul says you better beware of that worldly wisdom. It has never one time helped the believer walk by faith. It has never helped you be a pleasure to God and to do those things that are right, and has never challenged you to walk closer to the Lord or to sacrifice more or to endure hardship.
[8:11] The world's wisdom never teaches you that. It says take the easy way. It says do what helps your family or advances you further. It's all about you, promoting you, and your health and wealth and well-being.
[8:23] And so Paul says, I'm warning you against man and against the world. He also, the second couple passages, were warning against deceitful, corrupt men. Men that pose themselves as the ministers of Christ.
[8:37] They have a form of godliness. They seem like they're good people. They dress right. They talk right. But they're not sent from God. They're destitute of the truth.
[8:47] They suppose that gain is godliness. They're concerned with what God is interested in in that sense. It looks right. But the reality is they're destitute of the truth.
[8:59] They're withstanding the way of God, the way of righteousness. They are not God's ministers at all. And the warning is to not be led astray by them. And now the third group.
[9:10] So the man or the world and then deceitful, corrupt men that pretend to be ministers of Christ. That's another group to watch out for. And the third group is believers themselves that are led astray and that are turned away from the truth.
[9:22] And they're turned unto fables. They won't adore sound doctrine. We can just say they're backslidden Christians and they love to have it so. And Paul says you need to beware and be cautious of them as well.
[9:36] Now in addition to all these warnings of these what I put three separate groups, in addition to the warning is a consistent command along each time.
[9:47] Watch this again. I'll kind of go backwards. Work backwards through these passages. In chapter 4 we read verses 3 and 4 and then look at verse 5. But he addressed Timothy now. He says, What does that mean to watch?
[10:02] It's to be cautious and to be alert and to be aware and on the lookout for this very stuff. Within your congregation, Timothy, they're going to heap to themselves teachers having it to turn away their fears.
[10:14] But Timothy, you watch. You stay close. You give attendance to reading. You give attendance to doctrine. And so he warns Timothy of that. And he tells Timothy, You watch in all things.
[10:26] Look at chapter 3, working backwards. We read verse 13 about the evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse, deceiving being deceived. Look what he commands him then in verse 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
[10:44] That charges to Timothy. While they're going that direction and they're destitute of the truth, when they're traitors and heady and high-minded, when they're creeping into the house, all of that, they're withstanding the truth.
[10:57] But Timothy, you continue in the truth. You stay in the book and you remember, Paul refers to himself, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. You know who taught you the truth and you walk in the right ways.
[11:11] Now going back to 1 Timothy 6. Go backwards one more time. This will be the last place. On this, 1 Timothy 6, and we read some of the passage in verse 5 we read.
[11:23] And he continues, at the end of verse 5 he says, From such withdraw thyself. And he continues the thought about them and the love of money. But then in verse 11 he says, But thou, O man of God, flee these things.
[11:38] So Timothy is commanded to flee and to withdraw thyself. He's told to turn away. He's told to watch and exercise caution and be alert in all of these things and to continue in the things that you have learned, in the truth, in the word of God, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
[12:00] Now one more passage to take you to tonight. Come to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians 4.
[12:10] I'm dumping all this on you and then we're going to hit cruise control. Okay? So 1 Corinthians 4. And Paul's writing to the church in Corinth in verse 14.
[12:30] 14 through 17. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
[12:51] Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church.
[13:11] There's a lot of voices out there. Paul knows it. There's a lot of instructors out there. And he says, I warn you. You could follow them, but you're making a mistake.
[13:23] And Paul says, you need to follow me. And I'm going to send Timothy to you because I've trained him. And he's going to remind you of my ways which be in Christ. And he's going to keep you in what we like to call the straight and narrow.
[13:37] He's going to keep them from getting turned aside and after the wrong thing. Now, Paul warns. And those passages, those give you the world, the man's view in the world, the worldly wisdom.
[13:49] And then there's those men that are out there deceiving and trying to, with feigned words, use a, there's a long list of these things. Who serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but with good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts.
[14:02] And then there's, there's those that group. And then there's those very Christians that have fallen away and are backslidden or just not interested in hearing the truth anymore and turned on the fables. And Paul warns about all of these.
[14:14] Paul is concerned about these believers. Paul has Timothy to train and to warn him as a young man, you stay strong. You stay away from that stuff. You be careful who you listen to. Here he tells 1 Corinthians, this church at Corinth, he says, you better follow me and I'll send Timothy to make sure you are.
[14:30] Okay. Okay. Now Sunday, I made mention in the message on, on, in Exodus about how the children of Israel abandoned the Lord and how they approached Aaron and said, Aaron, we want you to make us gods that'll go before us.
[14:48] And they were prepared in that moment to walk away from Mount Sinai and to walk away from that cloudy presence of God. and they were fine with that because Moses delayed to come down to them.
[15:02] And I showed you that long before that, well, weeks before that rather, before Moses even went up on the mount, I showed you they had already backed away from a relationship with God, basically saying to Moses, no, you handle that and the people stood afar off.
[15:16] They desired Moses to just take care of all the, the relationship with God for them. And what it revealed was that without Moses present, this people were a, a clueless people.
[15:28] They were carnal and they were bent on their rebellion. They were ready and they were prepared to just go their own direction and leave the Lord behind. And in that thought, I charged you, I know it was somewhere near the very end of Sunday's message, I charged you to beware that you do not allow your personal affinity for a man or a ministry or anything that's out there, any voice that's out there to allow that preacher or teacher, look, I know who I'm talking to tonight.
[15:59] I know that, I'm not putting this on anybody else, but King James Bible believing Christians that waved your King James Bible in the air and said you love it. I know who you are. I'm one of you. I love you.
[16:09] I love that book just as much as you do. And so when I'm talking about listening to men and ministers, I'm probably talking about some of the greatest ones that there ever has been that you folks listen to and adore because I'm just like you.
[16:23] But my caution was to not allow yourself to replace your time with Jesus Christ by listening to a man's preaching and listening to a man's teaching that can be a blessing and can be a help.
[16:39] And I challenged you also not to allow good Christian music though it can stir your spirit and though it can comfort you and edify you, but do not allow that to take place of your personal relationship with the Lord.
[16:52] Do not allow those things to take precedent over the time that you should be spending personally, individually with God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[17:04] And I charged you with that on Sunday and I'm going to circle back on that. Preaching and music outside of church, church, those things are wonderful.
[17:17] I've bathed myself in that stuff for years and years of my life. But what I want to consider and I want to charge you with tonight is that those things are supplemental.
[17:29] They are not your Christian life. They are supplemental to your Christian life and to your relationship with God. You want to listen to a preacher on the way home?
[17:40] That's great. as long as you spent time talking to the Lord already. As long as you're not letting it replace the time that you're supposed to be spending with God on your own.
[17:51] And the reason I'm circling back on this like I said tonight is because today, today, more than any other day or age or time, these mediums for accessing good music and good teaching and preaching, this stuff is so readily accessible and in some cases it's even calling for our attention.
[18:12] Much like all the other things are calling for our attention. But to a good, firm, solid Bible believer, these things can be calling for your attention and can try to steal you from Jesus Christ.
[18:24] You don't think it's true? Has it ever happened? Have you ever listened to a sermon before or never read your Bible but you listened to somebody else teach and preach it today?
[18:36] Have you allowed, I've allowed it to happen. I've allowed my day to carry me away and even found time to listen to something that encouraged me.
[18:47] Something that kind of sparked some interest scripturally. Sounds good, right? Can't go wrong with that. I don't want to put all this as like some gross sin on you.
[18:57] Of course not. I think it's a healthy thing for a good Christian. But it cannot take the place of the most important thing you have as your relationship with Christ. Good stuff that's available to you these days it can be godly, it can be sound or it could be 10,000 instructors.
[19:23] And back in the day that wasn't really available to you. But today in your pocket or in your purse is a device that you're addicted to and you have access to 10,000 instructors.
[19:38] And you better be careful because they're trying to gain your ear and they're trying to gain your allegiance. Now back in my day of coming up spiritually of getting out of the world and getting the dirt off of me I grew just developed a love for hearing preaching and for good music.
[19:56] I had to replace a lot of stuff that was in my heart. And so that just made sense to me to replace it with some good stuff and so I did. But you know how I obtained those things back then?
[20:06] I don't know if maybe some of you can relate to this but back then there was some websites some ministries had websites that really wasn't a big thing but some of them I'd have to print off a paper or it was their periodicals that they would send out and I could get a hold of that.
[20:21] And what you'd have to do is you'd have to go through and check a box of the sermon you wanted to order and pay for. And I'd be ordering cassette tapes nobody gasp.
[20:33] I ordered cassette tapes by the maybe five at a time ten at a time sometimes and I don't know if they were like $2.95 each or three bucks or something like that and then I would have to get a money order because I didn't have a checking account and I would send that paper with my money order in the mail and a couple weeks later I'd receive a little box wrapped up in tape from such and such ministry with preaching and I was excited because now I'm going to get in my car and drive to work and I'm popping in that preaching tape.
[21:04] And it was a lot more involved back in my day and that's how I had to do it. And there was ministries a couple in Florida and one in Tennessee I can remember I think one in Ohio and if I recall one in New York at the time I don't think they're any good anymore but they were out there if you were looking for them and you could get a hold of good Bible preaching beyond just your Sunday services.
[21:28] But that is a far cry from what I can access on my phone today and from what you can access. And because of this access and because of the availability I want to do a little quick a quick comparison to the local church and to YouTube.
[21:46] And I'm saying YouTube not because it's the only thing to pick on or point at but it's definitely the most popular and I bet that everybody in here is probably on it at one time today. If not today definitely this week you've been on it.
[22:00] And so let's just let's just do a little quick comparison. I told you that we're going to be kind of on cruise control here for a minute and I already showed you the Bible verses I wanted to show you.
[22:11] I already showed you that we need to use caution and we need to discern between those instructors that we may or may not be listening to and maybe Paul's being a little hyperbolic in his language of 10,000 instructors.
[22:25] But I don't think we are today with YouTube. I think 10,000 is a pretty good number to go for. That's a reality. Now like I said YouTube's not the only medium but it surely is the most popular and many go there to get their news or to get tutored on something or even to get nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine.
[22:47] And so let's contrast YouTube as a platform for being fed spiritually versus the local church. First of all when we consider the local church God ordained and God himself established the local church.
[23:05] It is very clearly his will for his children to come together and to assemble and to be unified together in prayer and in submission to the word of God and in the efforts and propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[23:21] There's no question about that. The local church is God's medium for all of this activity. But let's contrast that with YouTube for a moment. YouTube is not at all established or ordained by God.
[23:35] It's not even close. Go read the terms of news. You won't see the name God mentioned anywhere. And to get on that platform and upload or have an account you're not agreeing to anything spiritual at all.
[23:48] So it has nothing to do with the Lord and he did not institute that for his believers. Yes, it is used as a tool much like the radio waves have been used as a tool to get the word of God out much like there's many different avenues over the years and so that you could even the cassette tape ministries that I ordered that was just an avenue.
[24:10] Yes, YouTube is just like one of them in one way. But I'd have to admit that maybe you would too that YouTube is used for evil in more ways than it's used for good.
[24:25] And even in the what you might consider neutral content even that neutral content its design is to keep you viewing it as long as possible and to get you addicted and to entertain and not so much train.
[24:43] So the local church though is here for your good for your what negative things can you say that God has for you in the local church?
[24:54] It's for your growth it's for your spiritual maturity and we could read it in Ephesians chapter 4 of what God gave the offices to his body and what they're for. So YouTube local church the one is completely of the Lord the other one even in its neutral manner can be ugly it can be a tool it can be used in some good way and if that was the only case listen I'm not preaching against YouTube and you watching videos because I watch them too I'm not getting on you for that that's not the message tonight if you think I'm trying to tell you to go delete your accounts or get off it if the Holy Spirit is dealing with your heart about it because you know you're doing something wrong then that's a different case do it listen to him but that's not my message tonight God ordained the local church secondly the local church when you come here you can't pick the sermon you don't get any say in that you don't even know from week to week or Wednesday to Wednesday or who might be behind this pulpit you don't get to decide what's preached what comes out what do you do as an individual that comes in the door you come in carrying your
[26:03] King James Bible and you come in God willing with an open heart and you hunger and thirst after righteousness trusting that you shall be filled you come in seeking to hear from the word of God to be challenged to be rebuked or reproved or be corrected or instructed in righteousness and you expect that to come from the word of God no matter who the preacher is but when you come in you don't get to choose click which one you want do you but on YouTube you can pass up all the good stuff you can whatever you can pick exactly what catches your eye and you can listen to it for 10 minutes and say nope this isn't what I want next next what if that could happen here you know that show I don't really know the name of it but I know they buzz buzz buzz like if everybody gets buzzed then they're out I think that's how it goes I don't know what if we had that where it was like 10 buzzes now okay next sit down next guy gets up and then start buzzing that preacher don't want to hear that today next no
[27:12] God adained in this local church you don't decide what gets preached you on YouTube however whatever feeds your appetite you click on that what I'm saying about it is it's completely unbalanced the algorithm the algorithm for YouTube does not care about what you need spiritually and the algorithm does not care what is right or what is truth from the word of God if you click on something and you watch that you know it's gonna just dismiss a whole lot of stuff and just start feeding you more of that as soon as you start clicking something political here it comes as soon as you lean one way here it comes so one click on one thing and now this is about all it's just channeling you to continue down that avenue you know the bible says how's that verse go I've not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God YouTube can't do that for you it by design will not do that for you it will narrow its results into one vein of category or study it does not attempt to address flaws in your life or to fix anything at all it just tries to feed you what you want or what it thinks you want it's a big difference than the local church is it not a couple more things quickly
[28:39] YouTube the publishers have no accountability they're free to put out anything conceivable and claim that it's true what are you gonna do email them and say you're gonna put a comment on their channel and say I don't like what you said you haven't done anything sometimes you can't even do that but they're free to publish whatever they want and you'll never see their face they'll hide behind a screen if they choose to and they'll deceive you if that's their desire but in a local church there is absolute accountability you're accountable we're all accountable to this book right here that's why it's up on top in front of us the pulpit the word of God that's what we're accountable to and we're accountable to one another I can't hide behind a screen here up here tonight and the preacher that comes whoever the preacher is that comes in here they're approachable after the service they say something they're standing right here we don't just get to poof disappear with a power button and so there's accountability but YouTube publishers can hide their identity even ministries you don't consider this but even ministries that put out sermons and put out their services they can clip those things and trim them down and just show you what they want you to see
[29:52] I'm not accusing everybody of doing this but I'm telling you you don't know for sure what you're watching all the time they can omit things and the viewer you would be none the wiser that brother we had just recently the other week he went out to eat before Friday night before we came and he gave his testimony and he just like brother what do you want me to do tonight what do you want me to do Saturday and I told him about giving his testimony and we'd already discussed all that but Saturday I was like I just want you to preach I said guys are going to come they're going to be hungry just preach the word of God I don't have a theme I'm not going to steer you I'm not going to tell you the church needs this or the church needs this or this family needs this I'm not going to tell you anything you just preach the book and he just said amen I can do that and I was putting it on him you go pray you go get with God and let God move your heart and guide you a direction and when he does he comes in here and he preaches and he's not hiding behind something else or behind a screen or this is my four messages that I preach it's a difference it's a big difference between the accountability of a local church versus YouTube
[30:58] I'm almost done but I've got a few more in YouTube there's something in it for the publishers the more views they get the more money they make the more popularity the higher ratings the more they get pumped up to the top of your feed and list the incentives are earthly and they're carnal but in a local church could spend hours and hours creating content for you and the rewards are not going to be seen down here likely maybe see somebody get some help or somebody some of that stuff happening maybe there's some things that happen like that but ultimately it's about just glorifying God and doing what you're supposed to do and just being a pleasure to him that's the reward for me there's no income coming out of that like the more hits you get the more popular you get no but here we're just in it for the Lord Jesus Christ that's it and YouTube you can purposely attract people with gimmicks with controversial topics my sermon this morning is about and it's going to go into some political thing because that's what everybody's just addicted to and they're watching and they're excited and if I give them those kind of titles and exciting content like YouTube does every single day they're just pumping out content
[32:14] I read an article yesterday when I was looking up some statistics about church online and how much people how many people watch their sermons online versus even attend church it was like it was like 20% of people that quote unquote belong to a church they don't even show up anymore they just watch it online and as I was reading it it led me to another article that caught my attention and it was all about getting more clicks on your sermons on YouTube and what it was doing was teaching you how to enhance your visibility on YouTube and you do it by cleverly wording your titles and putting the thumbnail at such that it attracts and you guys know this stuff you know it's clickbait and so now they're training people in the ministry or in the sound booth or tech guys of let's pitch ourselves witty and convenient and funny and wise or something subtle if you put catch words in it people will click on you and they're kind of pretending like that is getting people help or exposing them something I read in my Bible
[33:20] Peter said to feed the flock of God which are among you I don't want to get excited about clicks or get discouraged about how many clicks or any of that I don't want to even care about that I don't even think about that one time I don't want to ever think about that from being up here to thinking oh is it going to get popular out there but guys get that way and Peter said feed the flock of God which is among you using this to get the gospel out to the world's one thing but the weekly feeding is for the flock it's not for everybody else out there I just don't I'm not into that I don't get into that now if you want to preach the gospel that's what the world needs if you want to get the gospel out do that but the weekly feeding is not about and you online that are watching right now just can't can't go that direction guys the local church you come and you get fellowship you get fellowship with like-minded believers people that work in the same world you work in that live in the same area you live in if it's raining we all brave the rain to get to church if it's extremely hot we all deal with the same heat we come into the same place in the air conditioning it just doesn't get it done some days and we're all dealing with it's the same it's a local church we share that experience together we don't let any of those things alter or deter us from coming together but YouTube don't share anything with anybody you don't have fellowship on there what's on there mostly in the interaction is debates and strife and division and fighting and arguing about you just watch a full 50 minute sermon and then afterwards all you're going to see is look at what he said right here and on and on and on endless people just live for that
[35:10] God help us if that's how we respond to the sermons here in the local church you can't hide or be a wolf in sheep's clothing for very long because God's people discern it they're walking with Christ they'll catch it it'll something won't be right but on YouTube that place is filled with deceivers and filled with wolves and filled with enemies of the gospel of Christ and liars and people that don't have the form of sound words and yet if you're not careful you'll allow them to communicate their nonsense right into you now I'm closing this now but I listen to sermons but please consider this when you're listening in on a pastor at another church even great men I mean like cream of the crop of our age when you're listening to those pastors feed their flocks you're feeding alongside of them does that make sense too you're kind of coming in and peeking in on it and trying to get something for yourself and I'm not saying it's all wrong but I will warn you about this what God has for that flock may not be what is needed in your life or in this church or vice versa it's something that God has special inside these walls for this group and another group he has something for them
[36:48] I'm not saying don't listen to the sermons it's not for you but you get an idea don't get yourself hooked on it or don't get yourself imagining that something he said that you now have to start implementing it could be that God's dealing with something in that church you need to have that discernment and you may not have that on your own so use caution church be discerning but above all above all the message tonight is do not allow the online platforms to rob you of your time with the Lord Jesus Christ because they will it's easier to listen to a sermon than it is to sit down and read your Bible it's easier to listen and sing music than it is to get on your knees and talk to God it's easier and those things are good you know they're good you should know me by now with that but don't abandon the Lord even for a Bible believing preacher or for godly music don't abandon the
[37:49] Lord and then wrapping up the other thoughts YouTube's algorithm is not the Holy Spirit don't think for one minute that it is and don't think oh this video popped up it must be the Holy Spirit it's not it's not and YouTube can never ever ever ever replace meeting with your brothers and sisters in Christ and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ in a room together it can't do it so allow those things to supplement your Christian life that you already established and are faithful to if you don't go to the book and the prayer then maybe catch yourself and say I'm not going to those things either hope that helps you hope that's something that you can receive Paul had a lot of warning to say to his believers that he had taught and trained in the gospel and he concerned about those 10,000 instructors that are out there and I have to say I am too and I know there's really good preachers
[38:52] I like to listen to them they help me and have helped me a lot but exercise caution and watch thou in all things father please use the message tonight to help each one of us to be stronger in the Lord and Lord may what comes through that maybe what you use my prayer is that each individual here has a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ one that they will not neglect one that they will not replace with anything on this planet God draw us to a stronger more fervent real relationship with you strengthen us by your spirit with might in the inner man and Lord may we have boldness then to preach the gospel and to be a witness and to be a testimony and to shine in this wicked world but Lord fix us first help us to do this and take this serious and may the other things that we allow in our lives and listen to be a blessing and a help and encouragement and may that be what they are only we pray in
[39:53] Jesus name Amen Amen Amen