The sermon titled 'Ytmp3free' explores the themes of biblical philosophy as outlined in Colossians 2:6-10. The speaker emphasizes the importance of walking in Christ, rooted in faith, and warns against being led astray by human philosophies and traditions that contradict biblical teachings. The sermon discusses the dangers of modern ideologies such as humanism, secular psychology, and the 'woke' ideology, which elevate human reasoning above divine revelation. The speaker underscores the necessity of grounding oneself in scripture and maintaining gratitude, which serves as an antidote to false doctrines. Practical advice is given on limiting distractions, engaging with Christian resources, and avoiding teachings that undermine the Bible's authority. The speaker concludes by affirming Christ as the foundation and ultimate hope for believers.

So it's some pretty serious stuff we've been talking about the last few weeks and again tonight. So I'm going to start you off with a joke. So this is literally, I do this with my class at school. I give them the joke of the week. All right.

Who is the roundest knight at King Arthur's table? Anybody heard this one before? Circumference. I know this is really bad, right? Why was he so round?

He ate all the pie. All right, I just had to put that out there before we got into this because we're going to be getting into, like I said, just like the last few weeks, some pretty deep stuff, pretty serious stuff. So I like to start out my classes too with the joke of the week. But tonight we're going to be talking about According to Christ, the sum of biblical philosophy. When I found out I was doing this, I asked Pastor Rick, like, what do you want me to teach on?

He said Colossians 2, 7, and 8. And I was with Darren and I said hey Darren guess what because this is one of our favorite passages so that's what we're going to be talking about tonight. The series is called the Foundations of the Faith and just like Pastor Rick always starts out with Psalm 11 3 if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do? I actually got this from Answers in Genesis. I really like this picture.

You can see, Right, the people on the left side, the world side, basically humanism, they're aiming at the foundation of God's word, while the side of Christianity is just up aiming at, I guess, the symptoms, instead of the root problem, which is human reasoning, autonomous apart from God, human reasoning. So we need to swing those cannons down and aim at the foundation. And like Pastor Rick also shares the solution, Isaiah 59, 19, So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift a standard against him. Right?

We One of the names for God is Jehovah-Nissa. Anyways, the Lord my banner. And that's what again was mentioned in the last few weeks. The Lord, Christ is that standard. He is that banner.

So Colossians 2, 6 through 10, we'll really be mostly focusing on 6 through 8. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted, built up in Him, established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power." So I took the positive words, what we need to be doing in green, and I guess at the end, who Christ is in green, right?

And the negative in the middle there in verses seven and eight, I put that in red, and we will be talking about both. So I wanna just quick go through what we're gonna go through tonight. We're gonna talk about what we are to do to walk in Christ. We're gonna talk about what we are to beware of while we walk in Christ. And then some practical helps.

And my hope is that we have a little bit of time at the end if you guys have questions, comments, concerns, anything to share. So walk. Colossians 2 says, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Well the question is, how did you receive him? And we have that answer in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Right, so we have received him through faith, by grace, through faith. And that's how we walk. 1 John 2, 6 says, "'He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked, just as Christ walked." To walk in that, in the same way.

As you have been taught. So the Colossians were taught, they were taught the word of God, they were taught the gospel. It says in Colossians one, three through seven, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before, and the word of the truth of the gospel which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf." So they heard the gospel and experienced the grace of God. Epaphras shared it and they received it and that's how they grew in Christ. Romans 16, that great epistle of Romans closes out.

Paul says, now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith, to God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever, amen. That's what they've been taught. That's what they are to walk in and to abide in is the teaching of Christ, right? That they have received the gospel and the teachings of Christ. Abounding with Thanksgiving.

This is not something we think about nearly enough. I have to say, one of the most influential books, especially in the last few years in my life, was by Nancy Leigh DeMoss called Choosing Gratitude. Because it is a choice, And we live in a culture, right, where everything is so easy to complain. Right, we kind of have that victim mentality, but that's not what God's Word says to do. Colossians 3.17 says, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Do we do that? Do we thank God for the good things end for the trials? Right now with my class at school, we're going through James 1. James 1 verse 2 says to count it all joy when we encounter various trials. Not easy, right?

But we are to give thanks in good times and in bad. Give thanks for everything. And that's what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 518, and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. You ever say, Hey, gee, I wonder what God's will is in this situation. Well, you can start by giving thanks for whatever situation you're in.

Nobody had it worse than Job. I'm convinced no every bad day that we've all had put together isn't one-tenth of what Job went through in that one day. And yet it says that Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground and worshiped, said, naked I came from my mother's womb, naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Not going to be our first response if what happens to Job happened to us.

But that was his response. He was thankful. He blessed the Lord. William McDonald says, "...Thanksgiving for the blessings of Christianity is a wonderful antidote against the poison of false doctrine. And we need more of this today.

We need to not just next month when we have the turkey and the stuffing and all that good stuff. But we need to be giving thanks year round to God. Like Paul says in 2 Corinthians, thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. So those are some positive things. But there are negative things.

And you'll notice when you read the New Testament in pretty much every epistle, there are the positives, right? The edifies, the hey, do this. There are also things to avoid. There are dangers. To avoid.

There are dangers. Paul knew this danger when he wrote to the Ephesian elders, when he gave his speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. He said, Therefore take heed to yourself to all the flock which among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood for I know this after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock also from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears." Alexander Struck in his book, he wrote a whole book on this one subject, this one passage. He said, wolves are strong and cunning hunters.

They have bravado. They are persistent and seem to have boundless energy. They attack from every angle. They are violent. They are insatiable and merciless if allowed to infiltrate the flock.

So this is very serious, right? When your elders are here or anyone, right, sharing God's word, but especially the elders, they have a very serious charge because these things will happen. They are happening. They're happening all over the place today. You go on the internet, you turn on TV, and you see some of these preachers and these people saying things in the name of God that are completely unbiblical.

This is that warning. And if you've been in Christ any time and you've been around churches, you've seen this. You've seen this being fulfilled. So it's very serious. We need to make sure we're not let away captive by these things.

It's the idea of plundering. Adam Clark says, their goods were the salvation they had received from Christ, and both the Gentile and Jewish teachers endeavored to deprive them of these by perverting their minds, leading them off from the truths of Christianity. They had received the truth in Christ, and there were these Jewish leaders that said, no, this isn't right, the Judaizers that said, no, you have to have these things too. The circumcision, keeping Moses' law, the ceremonial law and all that stuff. And then you had these pagans with the Gnostic teaching and all this other stuff, trying to pull them away.

Elbert Barnes said, these false teachers would strip them of their faith and hope as an invading army would rob a country of all that was valuable. There's some scriptures that talk about not being led away captive. In Jeremiah, there's this warning, Jeremiah 29, eight, and nine, for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, don't let your prophets and your diviners or diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to their dreams which you cause them, or which you cause to be dream, for they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord." Right, this is very applicable to today. I just think, right, so many people, God told me this, right, you know, they prophesy this and that, and it's still going on today.

And the Lord warned, don't listen to them. If they're not keeping in accordance with God's word, if they're saying something that contradicts God's word, run the other way. Hebrews 13, 7-9 Remember those who rule over you, have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines.

It is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them." It's interesting if you study these passages that there's a flow to this. There's a logical flow. So Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Right, so that's the base. And then it says, don't be carried about with these doctrines.

Be established by grace, not with foods, not with these legalistic standards that some people today still say, hey, you know what, you can't have red meat on Fridays or whatever it is, right? You can't eat this, you can't do that. And they're holding on to things that are not biblical. Paul warns in 1 Timothy 6, O Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, professing it some abstract concerning the faith. Grace be with you, amen.

So we are to guard against, and there is so much today called knowledge, right? People that say they know a lot, but what they know is based in their own head. It's not based on the Word of God and so we again we test everything against that word. So the word cheat, where it says to not beware lest you be cheated means to lead away pillage or steal from you. Think of this verse in John 10, 10, the thief does not come to steal, kill, except to steal, kill, and destroy.

I have come, Christ has come, that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. So there are three different ways or there are many different ways the enemy can look to steal from you but Paul lists three. Philosophy and empty deceit, the tradition of men, and the basic principles of the world. And we're gonna look individually at these three. Let's start with philosophy and empty deceit.

William MacDonald kinda helps to understand what's meant here. He says, here the word is used to describe man's attempt to find out by his own intellect in research those things which can only be known by divine revelation. It is evil because it exalts human reason above God, worships the creature more than the creator. Again, what's in their noggin, that's what they're going by. And it's not that you can never write, you should be using your mind, but when you think something and God's word says something else, we need to go with the word.

This empty deceit, McDonald says, refers to the false and valueless teachings of those who profess to offer secret truths to an inner circle of people. There's really nothing to it, but it gathers a following by catering to man's curiosity. Also, it appeals to their vanity by making them members of the select few." And this is what the Gnostics were doing in the first century. It's interesting, years ago we were working at the fair booths and I happened to see a piece of literature I believe is from the Seventh-day Adventists and it was called secret truth and it's tying into this exact principle that there are these secrets that only they know and they can share them with you, right? And if you get on the inside, but it's only through them, only through their church.

Really no different than what was happening with Rome back in the dark ages for a reason, where the Word of God was suppressed and kept everything was in Latin and all of that, right, so just the select few would know that's not the way God operates. He wants His Word available to everyone. Quick disclaimer by the way, William MacDonald, Believer's Bible Commentary is an excellent commentary, easy to understand. If anybody would like to see it or like a copy of it, let me know and I'll hook you up with one. But it's one of the easiest commentaries to use but yet it's not dumbed down and I use it pretty much every every study I've done.

J. Vernon McGee says if you were to follow the history of philosophy beginning with Plato including many of the Church Fathers and coming down to more recent times with Immanuel Kant, John Locke, and Boltman you would find that none of them had a high view of the inspiration of the Word of God. And when you don't have a high view of the inspiration of the Word of God, you're going to have a high view of man. Man's reasoning, man's thinking. The higher your view of the Word of God, the lower your view is going to be of human reasoning.

So philosophy and empty deceit. Big passage here in 1st Corinthians. For The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. To us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world. For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because of the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And when you look at that passage, right, when people take the word of God, most people, right, and they take the ideas of man, most people are gonna elevate the ideas of man, even if they say they believe the word of God, in theory, in reality, they're holding on to and elevating the ideas of men. That's what this philosophy is.

It's a really broad category. It's just anything of human reasoning that contradicts the scriptures. And it is trash. Alright, so I'm going to give some examples. First of all, I couldn't help but start with evolution.

Evolution, I believe, is responsible in the way it's evolved. Since it started to be promoted in the late 1800s, early 1900s to a low view of scripture, what was called higher criticism in Europe and then came over here. As far as abortion, the sexual revolution, communism, anything with negative implications, really, if wasn't started with a belief in evolution, they certainly hold to the belief in evolution because evolution teaches, hey, we're just here by accident. So what difference does it make if I go and kill millions of people, right? Like Hitler, Stalin, whoever, Because I don't have anyone I'm accountable to.

There's no God. I'm not created. I'm an accident. I could talk a long time on this. I don't have a long time.

Secular psychology. I got this phrase from Darren. And I'm going to use it because it's good. Because psychology is just a study of the mind, which isn't wrong in and of itself. But when it comes to a humanist worldview, an unbiblical worldview, that's what we're talking about here.

The victim mentality. That's everywhere today. These things, self-esteem, self-worth, self-affirmation, etc. They are unbiblical. Right?

Actually, technically self-esteem is in the Bible. It says we are to esteem others better than ourselves. But, in all reality, this is a completely unbiblical concept and we're told to deny ourselves. J. Adams has a really good book on that whole topic.

Labeling! Everything's a label these days. And the labels are made by people who do not believe in the God of the Bible. So all of these labels and many more are not really the reality. They're just what people have created to put on behavior that isn't right.

Mental health. I may be stepping on toes, I don't really care, but this whole mental health issue is a construct that has been created in the last few generations that does not line up with what God's Word says. I'll just put it with that. Woke ideology. Maybe some of you have heard of that, don't know what it is.

Basically, we have to awake to the fact, right, especially us white people that were wrong. But it's a bigger idea than that. There's cultural, they took the teachings of Karl Marx and communism and applying it to all of culture. Kind of the haves versus the have-nots. This ties in with sexual orientation identification, transgenderism, anti-racism, white privilege, and all of these things.

Right, And where this is especially detrimental is in the church because God's word teaches us that we're all on the level playing field when it comes to Christ, right? We all come to Calvary, we're all equal, no matter how much money, no matter what race you are, no matter what gender you are, any of that, we're all equal. But the woke teaching says, well, you know, these people have it better than these people, and they're at a disadvantage, they're at an advantage. So we have to put them at a disadvantage and we have to even out everything. And we have to make everything equal financially and all of that, and that's not scriptural.

God gives some people more money so that they can help others, for example. But these are just some of the philosophies. And then the big one, right? Name it and claim it, blab it and grab it, right? Prosperity preaching, word of faith, these people that wanna use God basically to say, hey, you get rich.

This is all part, these are just a few that came to my mind like I didn't want to keep you guys here till midnight so I just limited it but this is A lot of what's philosophy and empty deceit. So the tradition of men. McDonald says that tradition of men here means religious teaching, which teachings which have been invented by men, but which have no true foundation in Scriptures. And trust me, those also are everywhere. David Guzik says, the Colossian heresy promoted itself as traditional.

It could trace some of its ideas back to traditions among the Jews or Greek philosophers or both. Paul warned the tradition of men has no equal authority to the word of God. What does God's word say about the tradition of men? Well, here's what Jesus had to say. Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, these people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. And then later on in Colossians 2, Paul says, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations – don't touch, don't taste, don't handle – which concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men. These things have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh." Well, Josh, what are these? I'll give you a few. Church rituals.

It's not just in the Catholic Church. They're all over, right? The way certain things are done, the way people pray or how, whatever it is. There are so many things. Denominations are a big one.

I don't know necessarily, I've heard all kinds of arguments. I don't know if denominations are right or wrong. You probably have your view, but I'll say this. You know, depending on a denomination for salvation is certainly wrong. And we need to, above all things, focus on promoting Christ in the gospel.

Personal convictions imposed on others. So I used to think, right, like, because I always dress up for Sundays I think why everybody needs to everybody all guys you know need to wear a shirt and nice button-up and a tie and all that and I realized that's not in God's Word you know so those personal convictions that can be imposed on others, that's just a tradition of men. And we need to not impose them on others. Now, if they're doing something that violates God's word, that's a different story, and we need to talk to them in love, but just because they dress differently or something doesn't, again, it's just a tradition of men. Dietary restrictions, right?

Different people eat differently. And again, we see in the New Testament those dietary restrictions taken away. Celebrations of holidays and feast days works as the part of salvation, as people depending on it for salvation. Basically, anything that eclipses Christ's glory instead of adding to it. It's all the tradition of men.

Probably another one I could have added in there is Bible translations, right? Those who like to use only the King James. And some people, right, they like to impose that on other people. Most of the people that do that have no idea how the Bible was translated from the original languages. They just think that God somehow revealed Himself in Shakespearean English to the people who worked on that particular translation.

But you know these traditions they die hard, right? And people like to hang on to them because they're easier to hang on to than actually following Christ. That's what it comes down to a lot of times. Like Paul says in Colossians two, those things have an appearance of godliness, but they don't do anything to actually make you godly. Basic principles of the world.

Oh yeah, Mr. McGee says, after the rudiments of the world, not after Christ. The Greek word for rudiments is that, which means that, which is basic, the ABCs. Some people try to build their Christian living on a worldly system that seems so simple. Our base is not philosophy or a worldly system, our base, our foundation is Christ.

If you keep that in mind it makes it a lot simpler. Matthew Henry says that this plainly reflects upon the Jewish pedagogy or economy as well as the pagan learning. The deceivers were especially these Jewish teachers who endeavored to keep the law of Moses in conjunction with the gospel but really in competition with it and contradiction to it. Galatians 4 tells us that, now I say as the heir, as long as he's a child, doesn't differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world, or these basic principles of the world.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. Right? And that's what we are to build our foundation on, not on these elements of the world that we were in bondage under. And then a little bit later in verse nine, he says, but now after you've known God, or rather you're known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage?" That whole book of Galatians, Paul's like, man, you guys were saved by grace through faith and yet somehow you're going back under this law and especially under the ceremonial law and all these things that can't save you. Colossians 2 20 says if you've died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why is the living in the world do you subject yourself to its regulations?

Well look at a few of these. Of course, at the time of this writing, it was Jewish and pagan thinking, especially the Gnostic doctrines. But for us, right, can be old ways of thinking, old habits, former religious views. Right, Sometimes it takes a while to get rid of those old views we had before salvation. Paganism, just worldly thinking.

That philosophy and empty to see. There's really only two religions. Paris Reid had in his famous tent shekels and a shirt says, Christianity says the end of all being is the glory of God. Humanism says the end of all being is the happiness of man. One was born in hell, the deification of man.

The other was born in heaven, the glorification of God. One is a little Levite serving Micah, that's referring to Judges, story in Judges 17. The other is a heart that's unworthy serving the Living God because it's the highest honor in the universe. That should be our heart. And if that's our heart, we're not going to be going following these humanistic teachings.

The foundation is Christ, but the foundation for us is in God's Word. One of the greatest needs of the church is to return to a true belief in sola scriptura. Scripture alone is sufficient. That doesn't mean you can never read another book. I'll get to that in a little bit because I read a lot of books.

What it means is that the Word of God is the final authority. And that it alone is enough. So when you have people that say, well, I need to go to this, you know, see this shrink or I need to go, you know, they buy into something of the world. And it's like, wait, God's word has the answers. Right?

And that was the whole thing in the Reformation that they said, hey, wait a second, all these traditions, all these things, all these philosophies, empty deceits, traditions of men, This is all made up. This isn't even what the Word of God teaches. When they translated the Word of God into English, into German, into these languages of the people, they're like, whoa, wait a second, we've been duped. God's Word gives the answers. In 1644, probably the most famous confession, the Westminster Confession of Faith, a bunch of guys got together and this is what they said about God's Word.

They said, the whole council of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men." That's pretty all-inclusive right there. And that's saying it's sufficient for our lives. This doesn't mean that some people think that God's Word contains all the truth there is. Well, no, there's truth outside of God's Word. But number one, God's Word is 100% true.

Number two, anything which contradicts God's Word is false. And so you keep those two things in mind and you'll be pretty well set. Practical ways to help. These are just some things I thought of. I mean, I'm sure I didn't, I'm sure you guys can come up with some as well.

Get in God's word. That's the numero uno, Right? And I'm sure Darren can tell you and testify, because ever since I've known this guy, he's been in God's Word reading multiple chapters every day. I don't say that to lift him up, but I'm saying, right, this is important to him. He's in the Word daily, he knows the Word, and I know other people, Lorenzo's a great example of someone that knows God's Word, right?

We need to be in that Word daily, because that is again our source of truth. Limit screen time. Alright, this is tough for all of us, right? Our phones, our computers, our whatever. But these are things which often distract us from God.

Right? So we need to make sure that we are in the word and we limit the screed time. Read! Read a lot. This is something I've done more recently.

I'll show you in a few minutes what I've read and listened to because I believe in audiobooks too. But yeah, the Puritans are great, they're a little hard to understand sometimes. So maybe you go to something more modern, maybe something by John MacArthur, A.W. Tozer, whatever. But there are so many good books and we need to be reading.

Use helpful Christian resources, I'll get to that in the next slide. Spend time with other believers, right? So tonight's a great example. You take an hour, hour and a half or whatever, maybe you know, have a little fellowship time after. You're spending time with other believers, being strengthened, iron sharpening iron, praying, being in the Word, just spending, just as they say, doing life together.

And this is so important. We need to be with God and get in His Word and then we also need to be with other believers. Avoid psychologists. I'm going to use that as a broad term. And so what that means is basically anybody that shares advice is that you're just giving you advice that's going to contradict the Word of God or undermine the Word of God.

And I don't have time to go into it tonight. There are resources. I'll give you one on the next slide, but that talk about the danger of secular psychology and I'm just gonna say if you know anything about B.F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, or Carl Jung, there is no way you can adhere to any of their disciples which are basically what modern psychologists are teaching. Their system, their way of doing things, and their beliefs are rooted in things completely different from God's Word.

I'm going to say this again at the risk of getting people misunderstand or upset at me and I say it out of love steer clear of government education. When I say government education that's what public education is. I have studied this in depth. I have researched it and I know what is going on in the public schools and government schools and it's terrible. As far as Christian schools go, they're definitely all over the board.

But I will say putting your child in any Christian school is going to be better than putting them in the best public schools. The things they are teaching, as I said, they're just drawn completely contrary to the Word of God. And I don't have time to get into all of that because I could talk a lot about that. And I'm tempted to, and I'm gonna just leave you with this quote by Luther who said, I'm afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the holy scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth. And for parents and for grandparents, that is your job.

That is your job is to explain the scriptures and engrave them in the heart of the youth. And if you do that, you will have succeeded. And if you don't do that, you will have failed regardless of what job they get, who they marry, or whatever the case may be. And it's not just something I feel strongly about, it's something I believe strongly about because again studies have shown research I've done and just quotes like this from this great man and what the scriptures teach us most of all all show this right Homeschooling is an option too, I understand, maybe not for everyone, but I wanna give you some resources. Got questions, Should really be called got answers because if you have questions, they've got answers.

Like hundreds of thousands of answers to commonly asked questions. And all from using scripture, biblically. You can get the app, you can use the website. Highly recommend it. Daniel Berger, he talks, he has an extensive knowledge of secular psychology and he very, very kind and gentle man, he addresses these issues and the problems he has with it and where it contradicts the Word of God.

Of course, probably all of you know John MacArthur, grace to you. Of course, John passed away last year, but his sermons and books and messages and everything still live on. David Guzik, great commentary, enduring word commentary, you can find it online. Mike Winger, Bible thinker, he's on YouTube, he has his own website, he addresses so many issues. Progressive Christianity, or basically pop Christianity, prosperity preaching, all sorts of stuff.

And he again, he's quite gentle most of the time anyways and very biblical. Scott Brown, Church and Family Life. If you're looking for stuff for family worship, maybe for the kids or the grandkids, that site is loaded. Our church is actually on their network because we're what we're called a family integrated church that means that especially on Sunday mornings we have everybody in here because we believe that the Word of God is for everyone they should grow up listening to it not be segregated by age but they're wonderful website Most of you I think familiar with Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis, a man who is still I think well into his 70s and just a burning heart to serve the Lord and stand strong for the truth, great comfort, same thing you guys have heard of him living waters. Those are my resources that I would recommend.

These are just a few that came to mind. But I would highly recommend getting into some of these resources. We have so much today. Just a couple genera- probably when some of you were younger. Even when I was younger, we didn't have the internet.

I think I was like 12 years old when we first got internet. But I mean, just the expansion of everything how much we have like I have ESORT on my laptop, and I've got 1000s of dollars of resources at my fingertips, that would otherwise be like a bookcase filled that I would have to go through everything, you know, and it's so easy. And yet it's so easy for us to neglect. But I would encourage as you study the Word and things, get into some of these resources if you want help. You can talk to me.

I can help set you up with that with eSword or with other of these resources kind of point you in the right direction. Next thing I want to do is I'm just showing you this is like probably since June I'm like how many books did I read or listen to? And that's the list up there. And what I want to show you is like you should, like I believe in reading diversely. Not like some people think of diversity, right?

But like all sorts of different things. I believe in being well-rounded, right? So you see stuff from like Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott up there. And I have like theological books and other of all different kinds of books about teaching, right, that as I'm getting into teaching, I had to read and just like I so my encouragement to you again is to read. And so, again, audio books are good too.

Maybe you're like, hey, I'm on the go a lot, but maybe you can put in your earbuds or whatever and listen. Maybe you like to sit down and read. That can be good. Maybe some of you don't have as much time to do that, but I would just encourage you to read, whether it be with your eyes or your ears to listen or both. It really helps spiritually.

Of course, the Bible, that's the most important, that we are in God's word every day. I always say, if you read nothing else, and I strongly encourage reading or at least looking at commentaries and stuff, but if you read nothing else, at least read your Bible every day. Like that's the minimum. So it's so important. We need to remember when we come to this right the negative we think of all the beware don't be deceived by these things this philosophy this empty deceit these traditions of men, the basic principles of the world.

Hey, just remember Jesus is everything. Christ is all and in all. And that's the most, if you take nothing else out of this, just remember that. He is our only hope. He is our only hope.

And that's just reminded me of this. I'm not going to sing because I'm Unlike Pastor Rick, I don't have any kind of singing. But like his is, mine is just no good. So we're not gonna sing it. But these are just some of the words.

Probably most of you recognize this hymn, right? My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand." All other ground is sinking sand. And then the next verse, when darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace, and every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil." Right?

And like some of you, I was privileged to grow up in churches, different churches, that sang hymns. And so I have a rich knowledge of that and they can be, as well as Scripture, of course, scripture first but hymns can be a real comfort in times of you know discouragement or when we need to regain our focus. But Christ is the solid rock. Christ is the one that we need to stand on and everything else is sinking sand. And then I'm just gonna close with this and then if you guys have anything to add.

Ephesians 4, 11-16. He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by these things that we just talked about tonight, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, that is Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Again, so it's Christ who's the Saint. Christ is the head. We just keep that in mind and we're going to avoid ourselves a lot of trouble.

Hoping this was helpful to you tonight.