What Is the Next Step — Matthew 11

0:09 There was a moment there when I thought, oh, did I get my schedule mixed up? No problem, though. I can come back. Morning. Nice to see you all.

0:33 First day of the week, December 5. In the year of our lord 2021. Great to sing Christmas songs. I love the verse on the wall or on the posters. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

1:00 We would all echo as Paul wrote, further on, of whom? I am chief. To know that and to believe that, the great time of year, people celebrating the incarnation of Christ Unfortunately, that's not my task today. The last time I was here Matthew chapter 11. We'll pick up there.

1:43 After a quick word of prayer. Father, we thank you for an opportunity to be gathered to your son. We do so in his come in his name and we come with copies of your word on our laps, on our phones, in our hearts. Certainly, lord, and trust that your spirit would have ample opportunity to penetrate into our minds and hearts and souls in this few moments that we have together that we would endeavor to steadfastly continue in apostle's doctrine for your purposes lord of using this gathering to edify, to build up, to encourage, to comfort, to convict whatever is needful in each of our lives and yet again, even as a whole group. Lord, we thus commit ourselves to you in your hands.

2:32 In Jesus Christ name, amen. One of the greatest promises of course is that which we went over last time. Matthew 11 starting at verse 28 come on to me. All who are weary and burdened. No condition.

2:54 The only condition you would have was to be consider yourself weary or burdened. And believe me, many people on the planet don't meet that condition in their own opinion. They're not burdened and they're not weary. So they have no need of Christ. Why would you come?

3:15 Why would you come to somebody who's offering you something that you don't think you need? I mean, you have no pain, you have no feeling, you have no sense of the burden of living on the planet. You have no sense of guilt, shame, remorse for sins maybe because you've been duped into believing by the world standards that there really is no sin. Therefore, there's no sense being burdened by any type of guilt or fear of judgement. People don't come.

3:49 But that's not us, is it? I trust you sit here because whether you memorize this verse or quote this verse on the day that you came to Christ, this verse is true of you. You came because you are weary and you're burdened. It could be the slightest issue that you're burdened by, but you're still burdened. Some of us are more neurotic than others, of course.

4:15 Alright? We might borderline OCD, alright? Where everything bothers us. Others very very stoic. Nothing bothers us.

4:27 And then anything that does bother us, we're certainly not gonna allow ourselves to let anybody know it bothers us. Because we're totally stiff upper lip Brits when it comes to being you know, as as may may always poke fun of the one movie that, Monty Python made about the holy grail. And the night had the arms cut off and it's only a flesh wound. It's only a flesh wound. Yeah.

4:54 Because they can't admit when something's wrong. We're like that. Just greet each other at the back door on the way in or on the way out and hear all, I'm I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I'm doing well.

5:07 And the reality of it is probably many in this room aren't doing well and haven't done well and maybe not won't do well tomorrow. Needless to say, the lord Jesus Christ didn't say just come once. Did he? The invitation's good whether you know him or not. Today, you're burdened, you can go.

5:31 Today. And the promise is just there. I will give you rest. It's the next part that is, I think, rather provoking. Why?

6:12 And that language is provoking, very intriguing. It requires consideration. Who wants to be under a yoke? That doesn't sound like freedom. But it's under that yoke that Christ is inviting us to and and the purpose is is to walk with him.

6:33 To walk with him. He says there in verse 29, learn from me. I'm gentle. I'm humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

6:51 Well, anybody who's attempted to follow the Lord Jesus Christ would find that it was really quite difficult at times. Nevertheless, this is his invitation. Take my yoke upon you. Not quite sure where that language came from. There are various opinions.

7:16 Myself, I lean towards the practice of the Jewish prayer, which was morning prayer and evening prayer called the Shema, in which admittingly they say before they recite the prayer which is begins in Deuteronomy four. I need to take up the yoke of heaven and I need to take up the yoke of the Torah and I need to always remember. So he had three portions of the Shema that they recited. The first being, of course, hero Israel. The Lord our God is one God.

7:53 And thou shall worship the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul. It's that taking up the yoke that I personally believe that why Christ felt comfortable using that invitation. Take my yoke. Take my yoke. Don't take up the yoke of heaven.

8:14 Don't take up the yoke of the Torah, take my yoke. He's already given us rest as he promised in verse 28, but the yoke includes another finding of rest in our souls. You shall find rest for your souls, the verse ends with. And it's that portion that I'd like to address, especially in keeping with what you've had thus in the month of November here during your family bible hours. Okay.

8:44 You've had four messages, the seventh, the fourteenth, the twenty first, and twenty eighth. And I listened to them all. Now I like listening to messages from other assemblies to hear, especially when I'm gonna go there and speak so I can have an understanding. Because I'm a firm believer that the local church functions as a collection of saints that God has brought together for the purpose of self edification. That we edify each other, that your participation and your role and your function as a member of the body of Christ.

9:17 And I'm not talking about gift nor will I talk about gift. I'm just talking about your function. Your function as a member of the body is to encourage the member that you're connected to. And I don't mean your parents, but just rejoined together as a body. He uses that language on purpose.

9:34 So every constricting ligament and tendon has a purpose of moving and when you move you make another part move. And so there is no breakdown. There's no limping parts, you know, atrophy, spiritual atrophy, parts of the body that have never moved and therefore have no strength in themselves anymore because they've been allowed not to move. Because that which is connected to them didn't move. And onward and onward and onward until we're back into denominationalizing just the church on the street with a sign that says, we gather, we spectate, we come, we listen, we leave.

10:23 That's not the design of the New Testament church nor is it our intent to practice that. Every member function. Firm believer in it. And because every member functions, Christ as head has the right and the authority to speak to us as a group. Yes, you're invited to take whatever you want from this message and from any message, as you do in your quiet time or your daily reading, your personal study of God's word.

10:59 You take what you want. It's a grand buffet for your soul. Find what you like the most, eat as much as you want, come back and get as much as you want. To the point where we offer comfort food. Right?

11:17 You can find comfort food menus. You will see food items being advertised as comfort food. Of course, it's always the healthy food, right? And we have all these different ways of feeding the body now. That's all great good stuff, but it's to that end that Christ also allows us to enter into this concept that our souls need to eat.

11:40 Man shall not live by bread alone, Jesus Christ said to Lucifer, but by the words that proceeded out of the mouth of the living God. And hence we have nourishment for our soul, God can speak to all of you as a group. You who identify yourself as being happily in fellowship with those at Westlake Bible Fellowship who call on the name of the Lord and recognize him only as the head. It's your intent to gather, to be gathered and to function as a member of his body under his headship, moving, contracting, constricting, helping, edify, self edification. It'll never be the job of the elders only to edify.

12:28 They can feed. They're taught to feed. But the design of the church is self edification, Ephesians chapter four. So believing then that God has spoken to you. Now I can't tell you that that process is always perfect.

12:51 By that I mean that every brother who said every sentence was divinely inspired for them to say to us at that moment. I can't tell you that nor would I tell you that. But let's, for the sake of the process, understand that for four weeks in November, you came here to hear God speak to you. Different than your quiet time. Maybe some of you needed it repeated during family bible because you ignore them during your quiet time.

13:18 Alright. Your quiet time's gotten too quiet maybe? Alright. Where there's not a lot of real conversation going on? Maybe, I don't know.

13:27 I just poke fun at that just because I've never liked the term quiet time. I use it, but I don't really like So let's let me capture you now with four weeks of what you've heard. I heard by way of your tapes, which you do wonderfully. Alright. 11/07, November 7, brother Andy started with the idea of trying to encourage people from Psalm 31.

14:08 Any cross country runners? Isn't it an anomaly to hear that phrase, run with patience? Not to a long distance runner. Most runners run as fast as they can, except long distance runners. They pace themselves.

14:28 They know the distance. I can't run a 100 yards sprint. I'll only go a 150 if I do. If I'm gonna run 3.5 miles or whatever it is now, I have to set a pace, keep the pace, work at the pace. Maybe have a negative split which means after the halfway point I can pick up the pace, but I'm basically gonna pace myself.

14:49 Let us run with patience. The race that I've set before us, the writer here. Hebrews chapter 12 verse one. Move forward is what Chris Schroeder brought to us last week. Just going from the first week of November to the last week of November, you got the same message.

15:07 Move forward. Right? He used Hebrews 10 and Hebrews five, but also the book of Hebrews. And those two great passages that the world loves to throw in our face and say, you can lose your salvation are two of the best passages to prove you can't, by the way. Which he did an excellent job doing.

15:25 It's those two passages that guarantee that you don't lose your salvation, but ever the world wants to misread it, misrepresent it, misinterpret it because in their fearfulness, And they describe themselves. What a fearful looking for of judgment. Yeah, because you're deliberately going against what God wants you to do. You should look for judgment. You should.

15:45 If you're deliberately going against what God wants you to do, you should not be at peace. You should not be. You'd want God to rattle you a little bit so you know that you belong to him. Because him whom he loveth, he chastens. He corrects.

16:05 Right? That's the first in this last week of November. Week two of November was Denzel. Right? Book of Judges, talking about history, learning from history.

16:20 Alright? How important it is to know the Old Testament so that we can preach Christ from any passage. Any passage to know the Old Testament and how good it is for us to read the whole tenor of scripture, the things that God breathed out. Canonized by Ezra? Yes.

16:38 Much dispute about extra books that we don't read? Yes. Maybe some are good historical documents, maybe not. Depends on who we lean towards as accurate. One thing we know when we read the bible, it's accurate.

16:55 That doesn't mean that we have some translation issues because translators, no matter how much they insist that they consistently translate by word, translate by context. How do we know that? Because one word here translates this way based on what was said in the paragraph is translated from over here based on what was said because that's what translators do. And then just have fun with that. I just have fun with it.

17:24 You know, understanding the culture of the times. Right? Anyway, from the book of Judges then, which is about roughly two hundred and seventy five year period, which I asked my daughter how long have we been in America now? We not being me, but Americans been in America roughly two hundred and forty five year. But we're getting close to the same amount of years that we existed as the history of the nation of Israel in the book of Judges.

17:51 And then on the twenty first, we had Tim and Mason. Wonderful job, brothers. The glory of the Lord. Glory of God. Great great job bringing those passages to our attention and sharing the time.

18:12 Always good. Always good. Alright? Share the time. You don't have forty five minutes.

18:17 That's fine. You got ten? You have... Yeah. Share the time.

18:22 Great stuff. But step back and look at all four. What's God telling you as an... As a group? What do you take as a group?

18:31 This is what God's saying to Westlake. Hey, you know he wrote seven letters to seven individual churches in the Revelation, you know that. And then Paul wrote letters to individual churches. And so individual churches, individual localities got one. So if you were to capture, let me just write down my notes from the four messages and say this is what God spoke to us in a letter form to Westlake on Hilliard Avenue in Cleveland for the month of November.

18:58 Do you have one? Should. You should have one. And you don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss what God's saying.

19:07 Here's the warning. To him that hath ears, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. That's what you want. Yeah. Take whatever you want personally.

19:23 Go out and pig out if you want. Eat as much as you want as comfort food, but don't miss what Jesus Christ is saying to Westlake. I'm not talking about what he said to Colossians or Philippi. What God say to Westlake? So let me ask you based on what I got from the four messages.

19:48 What's your next step? Move forward. Move forward. And as brother Schroeder made it very clear, this we will do if God permits. We can't design revival.

20:05 We can't design. We have to let God design. We have to let God lead. We have to let God. This in the will of God, we take another step.

20:15 Now I'm telling you, there are assemblies who will not take another step. I'll repeat that. There are assemblies in America, in The UK, gatherings of Christians who have met faithfully to the doctrines that they hold to dearly, that we hold to dearly. They will not take another step In ten years, they won't be there because they refuse to listen to what the spirit says to the churches. Alright?

20:55 Your faithfulness to the meeting is not as important to your faithfulness to listening to what the spirit of God is saying to you. What is Westlake's next step? Alright. I know you've had a lot going on. I I I remember just how many months ago?

21:16 Yeah. Pay close attention spiritually. Please, beloved. We don't know when the Lord's come back. Brother Bob, remind us.

21:27 We do this till he comes. He's coming back. Now no more. But until then, we want to be found faithful, not just to what we believe, but to what he's saying that we should do next. Alright?

21:40 And one of the great things about young people, there are many great things about young people. One of the greatest things about young people is that they use abbreviations when they text. And I try to sort them all out. I'm that dumb. Somebody writes me, you know, back in the day they would send me these texts and there'd be like three letters, they mean something, and these three letters mean something.

22:12 At the end of a phrase, there's three letters. And I'm like, what? Why don't they just tell me what it means? Because when you text, you don't spell the words out. You use abbreviations.

22:24 And I would struggle so much. I have to go to Google. What does this mean in a text? Google has a list. A cheat sheet.

22:34 You just hope it's accurate? You never know. You're fear to use them and then they mean something you don't want them in. And I'm sure you can think of some of them. So instead of fighting that whole system and worrying about it, I just started making up my own.

22:55 And people write me and say, what do you mean by those three letters? You gotta appreciate the the preciousness of young people. So, I have for you today three, alright, three, l, f m's. Alright. Less frequently memorized passages.

23:23 I say that because so much scripture is memorized. In each of the messages, you hear people say, we know this verse, we've read this verse, da da da da. And I didn't deliberately look for three verses I thought you would never read. In fact, I know that you've read them. I know that you've read them.

23:38 I know that you've read them. But when Jesus Christ offers you to be under his yoke and walk with him, and he's telling my yoke is easy, my burden is light, but just walk with me and you'll find rest for your souls. He doesn't mean because we're out looking for it. Finding something when you're looking for it is one kind of find in the bible. Finding something you're not looking for because you come upon it, like you've discovered it at your feet, is altogether different.

24:08 People look for their golf balls. And then people discover a ball that's not their own, they put it in their pocket. I always thought it was stealing. You know it's not yours. Why would you pick it up?

24:19 Well, it's lost. Well, you know it's not yours. You know it's not yours. It's somebody else's. They pick it up.

24:28 When Jesus Christ said, if you walk with me in my yoke, will find rest for your souls, that means that, what? The next step, you might look down and realize, wow, there's a lot of peace here. There's a lot of rest here. When you take the next step, the current step you're in, you know that you haven't found it yet. You take the next step, well, there's the rest.

25:10 This is the first LFM. Alright? And Denzel mentioned it earlier at the Lord's Supper. Didn't get to exactly where I'm going to, but he he mentioned it. These are the nations, verse one.

25:26 The Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan. He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not previously battle experienced. The five rulers of the Philistines, stop. The five rulers of the Philistines. So, Lord, we wanna know why'd you leave the Philistines behind?

25:59 Because there's a generation of who grew up, they were little when you were fighting, and now they're adults. And then guess what? They they never drew a sword. They don't know how to fight. They don't know what it means to be in a battle.

26:13 They don't know what it means to battle. Is there generational decline amongst Christians? I would have to say yes, in my opinion. Generational spiritual decline. Why?

26:34 It could be the time, it could be... I don't... I could not give you one specific reason why, but I've noticed it. And I say that because I'm paying attention. And I say I'm paying attention because guess what?

26:50 As I've told you numerous times, I'm first generation. My parents were saved after I was saved. But my daughter is generational. She's second generation. Key comes to the meeting because I brought her there.

27:09 I went to the meeting because I rejected the lies of denominationalism. Rejected it. Couldn't find it on the pages. Has to be a different way. There has to be a simpler way.

27:23 And so I rejected it. Okay? My love for the Lord has to be mine. My response in love has to be mine. It can't be what my father gave me.

27:44 It can't be because while you were raised Christian, that it'll never do for genuine love for the Lord Jesus. I'm talking about love for the meeting. I'm not talking about love for the church. I'm not talking about love for your bible. I'm talking about your personal love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

28:05 Alright? Jesus Christ is an alive person with a body and he's up there. He physically rose from the dead. He physically ascended. He's physically coming back.

28:23 He was physically here. He was away in a manger. They did pick him up and say, what a cute little baby. He looks like his dad. Really?

28:35 No, he doesn't really look like his dad. Joseph, you look a lot... Yeah. Yeah. And I'll say this, and I don't mean to embarrass you.

28:46 They had to change his diaper. He was a real baby, and he really grew. They fed him every day. They fed him. And one of the great truths of the promise of the virgin birth in Isaiah chapter seven, given to a king Ahaz, right?

29:06 You know this verse. For unto you a child will be born. A virgin shall conceive. His name shall be called Emmanuel. And the next phrase, and before he's done eating the milk and honey, the curds and the honey, he will know to choose right and reject evil.

29:30 Yeah, he grew. He grew in wisdom and stature as we know that Luke wrote. Right? And the quality of his life that he lived dependent on his father qualified him for the death that he died on Calvary. Cause had he lived like me or you at any given time saying, No, I'm not doing that today, dad.

29:51 No, father, I'm not gonna obey you today. When he got to Calvary, he'd have been dying for his own sins. He lived thirty three years spotless. He and he alone, I only do what my father tells me to do. You see?

30:11 Now he's qualified to be the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. Loving him when we don't see him is hard. Let's admit that. You know, it's easier to love what we see. Who are we?

30:27 I mean, that's just easier. So in John 14, now he's on his way, he's left, and he's on his way to... Right? The garden, Gethsemane Gethsemane, then Golgotha, the three g's. Right?

30:42 So he's on his way and he says these words in John 14. Who really loves me? I'll tell you who really loves me. The person who does what I tell him. You see, because we can get to this, Lord Jesus, I love thee, I know.

30:59 We can get that easy. We love singing it. What Jesus say? Thanks. A little off key sometimes.

31:11 No biggie. If you love me, do what I'm asking you to do. It's always in what we're doing. It's always in what we're doing. And you know that.

31:23 I mean, think about the church at Ephesus and the Revelation. And I know that clock's not right. Because I know you didn't start out of ten. I was outside talking to the Bingham boys that quarter after. No way it started at ten.

31:41 Anyway, let me speed up. So the truth of Revelation. He says, listen, you left your first love. You don't love me the way you used to. What's he say next?

31:51 Consider how far you've fallen. And do, do what you did at the beginning. What? Do? You mean feel like I used to feel?

32:04 No. He's not telling any church at Ephesus to feel better about loving. You do what I told you to do at the beginning. You do that. Love is always demonstrated by what you do, not how you feel.

32:26 Okay? So we have all these five Philistines, and they're left to teach the younger generation. Because we taught them to love Jesus by singing. We taught them to love Jesus by attending. We taught, no, you love Jesus Christ by demonstrating through your behavior, obedience, obedience.

32:51 And when you don't obey, you should know It's because you don't love enough. Peter, do you love me more than these? And what did he say when Peter answered him? Feel better? Pick up the pace?

33:06 Get stronger in your love for me? No. What did he tell him? Do something. Feed my sheep.

33:12 Do something. If you love me, do something. If you love me, do something. If you love me, do something. It was always connected to doing something, always for others.

33:36 I spent too much time in opening. Sorry. Nevertheless. So now the Philistines come and go. Raiding parties, they take over.

33:46 You know all the fights who... You got Jephthah, you got Samson, you got all these different you got Shagar, all these different people who fought Philistines. Because they were five kings who lived on the coast and it was an area and they were constantly... All the way up till Solomon, really, the Philistines were a pain in the neck for the nation of Israel. But this one little description here in first Samuel 13 starting at verse 19.

34:09 Not a blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel because the Philistines had said otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears. So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plow points, mattocks, axes, and sickle sharpened. And then they had to pay this much money for it. And so on the day of battle, verse 22, none of the soldiers had any weapons. That's just a strategy of conquering an enemy.

34:37 Germany and Japan didn't rearm after World War two for a long time. We wouldn't let them have any weapons. Brothers and sisters, that's a ploy of the five kings that God left behind to teach a whole generation how to fight. They took away their weapons. And it feels sometimes like we're very, very dull?

35:01 The church is dull. We have no sharp points. We make a point anymore. We we don't have a point. So many Christians don't have a point in their testimony.

35:17 What's the point? Really? The Philistines took away the ability to have anything sharp. That's how the church feels. You can't say anything sharp even to each other.

35:31 It'll be offensive. We're asking Jesus Christ comfort food. Please, just comfort me. No. No.

35:42 No. No. We go out and engage in conversation for Christ and all we wanna do is make friends. No. No.

36:02 Sorry. The last week of Christ's life, here's one of the things the sadducees came to him and said, oh, we don't believe in life after death, so we're gonna prove it. We're gonna ask you a hypothetical question. This man died. His wife had no kids, so he had to marry the brother.

36:22 The brother died. And what was Jesus' response to that nonsense? You're wrong. Two reasons. One, you don't know the scriptures.

36:34 You do not know the scriptures. Why would you say that? Well, because first of all, it's not scriptural. The brother had the right to deny it. It wasn't mandatory.

36:45 Number two, because you don't know the scriptures, you also don't know the power of God. Isn't that just a condition that reeks among Christians? You don't know the scriptures. Study to show yourself approved. Study the scriptures.

37:05 Not just have a five minute drive through devotional on the way to work. Can I have me to stop and get coffee? They're gonna give me a little piece of paper. It has a thought for the day. Never gonna be the study of scriptures.

37:19 The enemy has taken away our sharp point. We're powerless in the world. And and and how do I know that for sure? Because the church isn't talking about Christ anymore. Talking about COVID.

37:39 Talking about Biden. We're talking about Jesus Christ. He's the king of kings. That's our point. We have no other point to make.

37:58 Jesus Christ. What do you say about him? When the enemy takes away our point, then we are at the mercy of the process, aren't we? Whatever is going on in the world, we will join in and we will be part of it. We'll be part of a movement.

38:16 What were they called? Moral majority or some... Just nonsense. Absolute nonsense. You got more faith in the Supreme Court of America than you do in the power of Jesus Christ.

38:35 They're gonna change something that's important to you? I mean, we have... That's our point? Our political persuasion? Ashamedly, brothers and sisters, we'll let the world dull our points.

39:13 Those first two are rather easy, in my opinion. It's a little bit more delicate. Why? Because of the way that it's written. So, you know Solomon wrote three books.

39:25 He wrote one book called The Song of Solomon when he was just so taken back with the beauty of a woman. Men go through the stages. So he's just writing Song of Solomon, it's a great book. Then he wrote a book called Proverbs where he was instructing who? My son.

39:44 My son. So he realized, I got a generation after this woman, I got to instruct him. Then he wrote a third book called Ecclesiastic the Preacher. He's the king in Jerusalem. And it seems like he's an old grouch.

39:58 I really have a long time I questioned why God inspired him to write such words and I'm convinced to make this point. I'll give you everything you want, you'll still be grouchy. You'll still be grouchy. Because as wise as you were, you still ended up immoral. And you were guilty through your wives to have all these bad altars around Jerusalem.

40:21 One of which was a god called Moloch, where kings in the line of Judah sacrificed their children. That's pretty bad. That's pretty bad, Solomon. Sorry. I'm glad that you had 300 wives and 700 concubine...

40:39 Concubines, but you weren't wise enough to avoid that. You weren't wise enough to avoid that type of immorality. To avoid that type of immorality. So, I read Ecclesiastes and I go, wow, this guy's on it but I would say at the end of it, I hope that I meet him in heaven when I say that jokingly because I'm sure I'm going to but the reality of it is, he seems like god gave him permission to write things on the downside of his testimony. This is his testimony about a man who had everything.

41:09 Instead embraced all this. And he brags about it. I have this, I have that, I have that, it's all empty. A lot of Christians like that. I have a great walk with the Lord.

41:22 I feel empty but I have a great walk with the Lord. No, you don't. No, you don't. Anyway, that's why Ecclesiastes is so hard. Verse 11, chapter 12.

41:35 The words of the wise are like golds. They're collected sayings like firmly embedded nails given by one shopper. And be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Alright? Now, we don't use the word goad very much anymore.

41:53 Go back a generation. We use the word goad to provoke, to prick somebody with a thought. Don't goad... Don't try to goad me into do something I don't wanna do. Very scriptural word.

42:07 Keep in mind the Philistines said, you can't even sharpen your goads. And at the end of Judges three, it's where that one judge, Shamgar, he used the goad to kill 30 Philistines. But here's Solomon saying, listen, wise words are like goats. Right? Embedded nails.

42:29 Now the goat at that time had one use and that was sometimes connected to the yoke in the back. And when the ox didn't go forward, the driver of the ox with the plow, he used the goat. And the understomach, underside of the ox, and the ox would feel this sharp thing, it make them go forward. Make them go forward. And the Jewish Targum, the commentary of the Jewish law, they believed that gold is what produced life.

42:56 Because the gold drove the ox, the ox planted the seed, the seed brought forth fruit, the fruit fed the people. Without the gold, you got nothing. That's what they believe. That's how serious it is to be driven forward. Now none of us want to sit here and think, my walk with the Lord is going to involve being goaded with a sharp stick to move forward.

43:31 You can't be afraid of it. The writer, Solomon goes on and said, not just a goat. Listen, because goats can be moved. Oh, I'm not applying it. He takes it to another step.

43:43 I'm gonna pound nails through a piece of wood and fasten it to you. So you go forward. So you go forward. Now, are you that serious about the next step? Or do you wanna take it by your invitation whenever you're ready?

44:02 Whenever the lord lays it on your heart. You have got to understand if you're in this yoke with Christ, you're gonna go forward. And as Paul gave testimony in Acts chapter 26 about his salvation experience of Acts nine, quoting it now to Festus in front of King Agrippa and his wife Bernice. He says, it was like I was kicking against the goats. Don't do that.

44:27 Don't do that. And that's a quote from one of the Greek tragedy writers. Right? Esclaw, back in five hundred BC, he originated that quote. Don't kick against the goats.

44:43 Why? Why? Because you hurt your own foot. You hurt your own foot. It's injury to you when you refuse to go forward.

44:55 You're the injured person. You're the lame one. Because you damaged your own foot in resisting what God wants for you. Beloved, what's the next step? What's the Lord have for you next?

45:16 And again, you can take this individually because some of you might need to. This is just for me. I'm okay with that. I don't know. But as a group, you heard their brother announce what they're trying to do with the teaching team?

45:29 Participation, what should we do next? What's the next step? What's the next step? Closing prayer. Father, we thank you for your word.

45:42 We thank you that you have provided for us in it everything we need to live lives godly, to follow after you certainly, Lord. Your grace has appeared to all of us, teaching us to deny ourselves, to deny the world, and to live with you. We pray that your grace, Lord, would be experienced by all of us as we endeavor to follow after you with our whole heart. And to this group of Christians here at Westlake, I commit to you and to your hands. For what you have for them in future, their testimony in this neighborhood, in this area, in their homes, in their workplaces, in their schools, Lord.

46:25 To do a mighty work as they follow you and commit them to you in Christ's precious name. Amen.