Transcript: Guarding Your Faith: A Baptist Church Sermon

brighterdaybaptistchurch.com uh today's sermon is going to be on uh it's called to be uh to be on guard and we're going to be in second peter 3 17 through 18 and uh it's so glad that you're here today uh welcome everybody uh it's going to be a little uh sort of rough i preached the other day and kind of hurt my vocal, so I won't be preaching really loud, but I hope you'll be able to hear me. It looks like my mic is working, so let's go ahead and pray and get started. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much, Lord, for this opportunity to share your word to others, Lord. We pray, Lord, that this will be a blessing to those, and Lord, I just pray for all the ones that are sick and inflicted, Lord, and we ask you, Lord, to be with this service service today, Lord, and just put me aside, Lord, and just work through me, and we just give you all the praise and glory for it, Father, in Christ's name we pray, amen. So again, we're in 2 Peter 3, 17, and 18. I'm going to be jumping around to different scriptures and different verses, so I hope this will be a blessing to you. So we'll go ahead and get started. I'm going to read out of my notes that I took today. so the sermon is called be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the arrows of these wicked people and lose your secure footing and then we go to 1 Corinthians 10 6 these things happened as a warning to us so that we would not crave evil things as they did. And that was 1 Corinthians 10, verses 6. Now we're going to the 7. Or worship idols as some of them, as the scriptures say, the people celebrated with feasting and drinking and indulging in pegging revelry And in verse 8 and we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did caused 23 of them to die in one day And then verse 9, nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and them died from snake bites. and verse 10 and don't grumble as some of them did were destroyed by the angel of death and then we have verse 11 these things happened to them as examples for us they were written down to warn us who live at the end of the this age in 2 Peter 2.18 it says they brag about themselves with empty foolish boasting with an appeal to twisted sexual desires they are lower back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception And in 2 Peter 2, 19, it says, They promise freedom, but that themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. And in 2 Peter 2, 19, commentary, it says, We become slaves to whatever controls us. Many believe that freedom means doing anything we want, but no one is ever completely free in that sense if we refuse to follow God. We will follow our own sinful desires and become enslaved to whatever our body wants. If we submit ourselves to Christ, he will free us from slavery to sin. Christ frees us to serve him, a freedom that results in our ultimate good. 2 Peter 3.18 Rather you must grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all glory to him both now and forever Amen You know these verses and scriptures are so true You know we see the actions of sin what happens to these people. You know, like we flip back here, we can see that, you know, it says, and we must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. And, you know, that something that stood out to me is, for you are a slave, okay, to whatever controls you. Let me ask you today, is sin controlling you? Is sin controlling you? Do you need Jesus today? And if you do, if you're a slave right now to your sin, Jesus Christ can save you. Jesus Christ can save you. If you will just bow your head where you're at and ask, Lord, I am a sinner. Please, Lord, just come into my life and save me. wash me and cleanse me Lord I believe that you died and you rose from the grave and you take going to take away my sins I believe that you're my savior in Christ's name I pray amen and I believe that Jesus will save you if you've prayed that prayer I believe uh that there's a lot of stuff in these scriptures and we need to look and there's a warning there's a warning to us all You know, and that is that there's a lot of people that they think that they are free, but they are corrupted. It says here in 2 Peter 19, they promise freedom, but themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. And is that your sin? I mean, that's your body taking control of you. You know, we are a slave. But it says here, okay, in 2 Peter 2, 19, we become slaves to whatever controls us. Many believe that they have freedom, but means doing anything we want. But no one is ever completely free. If that sense if we refuse to follow God we will follow our own sinful desires So there we go If we refuse to follow God, we will follow our own sinful desires. You know, and I totally believe that there was all these people that was dying, was following after their sinful desires. You know, it says in here in 2 Peter 2, 9, it says, no, should we put Christ to the test as some of them did and then died from snake bites. You know, God is watching, you know, God is watching the sins, you know, and a lot of I believe a lot of death on this earth is caused. by people doing iniquity, doing sin. And we need to follow these warnings because here it says, these things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. You know, So what do we need to really do is ask Jesus to save us and follow him. And then what should we do? It says, 2 Peter 3, 18, it says, Rather, you must grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever. Amen. It didn't say just now, but it said to grow in grace, what? Both now and forever. And that's the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that's the grace. We need to learn the knowledge that we can share God's word effectively across this world. So let's end in prayer. I hope this message has been a blessing to you. It's also been a blessing to me. Let's end in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for this time that we can share on brighterdaybaptistchurch.com and all our other ministries. We ask you, Lord, to please bless this message. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.