Don't Stand Down - Stand Firm — Shane Idleman

Because sometimes we need that hard right hook. We need to be encouraged. And I know when I came back to the Lord in 1999, it was from a hard message from a man, and it just cut me right to the heart.

And if all I was doing is being encouraged and motivated, I would really never be challenged. And that's where we change is when we're challenged. So this message though this morning will be both encouraging and challenging.

And actually, I gave this message the same message I told Pastor Abram, I'm gonna give this message again here because I gave it at Rob McCoy's church at their men's breakfast. But I changed a lot of things around.

And the response was actually overwhelming from the guys and many of the people watching it on YouTube. The title of that one was Please Act Like Men. Please act like men. And it was a little bit a rebuke, which we need from time.

That's how I came back to the Lord from a strong rebuke. It wasn't a nice encouraging go-for-it message. I was on my couch, hungover. I know you can't relate, but that was late 1990's. And a sermon came on and it just brought me to tears.

And it called me out. Because if we don't call Him out in love, the Holy Spirit calls you out if you're following God for any length of time. And it called me out. And it talked about the enemy has got you bound.

And it was a story of Samson. And it drew me back to the Lord. And so don't always mock those TV preachers. I would even say His name, but you guys might judge me for it. No, let me tell you the encouragement.

Falling Forward Through God's Mercy

Let me tell you the encouragement. The encouragement is to fall forward. And let's look at Psalm 37. I think this is going to help a lot of people. It's been a big one in my life. The steps of a good man.

So if you know the Lord, you are considered a good man. We're not considered good by something in our hearts and we're so good. And isn't there so much good in us? There's actually not. There's a lot of wickedness.

Who can know the heart of the deceitful and desperately wicked? But the steps of a good man, it means a godly man, a man who loves the Lord. God will actually order your steps. Did you know that? God began to order my steps that day in 1999 on that couch hung over when I cried out to God.

And He gave my love for country music was over. My love for God's Word was now beginning. And this love for worship. And God began to now, okay, now that you're mine, let me order your steps. Not that I wasn't His.

Not that I wasn't learning things, but I was in a state of rebellion. Let me do what I want to do. Okay, prodigal son. Go spend all your stuff on riotous living, the King James would say. Ungodly living.

But then once you commit or recommit, and you might have to recommit quite often. Amen? Guys, it's okay. Your steps are then ordered by the Lord. And God will actually delight in your way. I know that's hard to believe because we have an Old Testament version of God and a New Testament version of God.

It's the same God. He delights in the prosperity of His people. He delights in the ways of His people. He delights in those that love Him and want to honor Him. There's a delight in that, and that should strengthen us.

And I wish it ended right there sometimes, but I'm glad it doesn't. Though He fall... Though He fall... Anybody have fallen before God? I don't know if I was able to define that word but it's to lose status.

For example, if I'm up here and I fall, and I lose status, or you lose status at work or maybe in your home, it's to be cast down. It's to fall flat on your face. It's to lose your footing. Have you ever lost your footing?

Proverbs talks about a man just like a bird who wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from God or wanders from the right path. And the encouragement here, though He fall... Now, it could involve sin, of course, and here's my challenge.

I never want to encourage people to sin, but I never want to neglect giving them the grace and mercy to get back up. Because there's so many people that just Bible-thumping, finger-pointing, how could you, how dare you?

And I think God made me stumble so much that how dare I say that? How dare I say that? I mean, God should have wiped me out dozens of times? No. Hundreds? Probably well over thousands of times, if we're to be honest.

And so, the steps of a good man, they're ordered by the Lord. He delights in them, and though He falls, whether into sin, whether it's into transgression, whether it's into status, or whatever that fall is, look at this, just read it for yourself.

He shall not be utterly cast down. And I'd love to, I would maybe sometimes just teach on this verse, because when you look up these words, especially in the Hebrew language, it's so poetic, it's so rich, and sometimes I ask myself, why didn't they use this word?

Why didn't they say that? But I'm not a translator, and they know better. But you're not going to be utterly forsaken. And that word utterly is to put extra emphasis on what is happening. You're not going to be forsaken and cast down.

God is not going to turn His back on you. For the Lord will uphold you. It's actually He will grab you with His right hand. It's not an accident there, He said, we think of the right hand, but uphold Him with His hand, His right hand of strength, you could say.

So even though you fall, and I know I'm talking to a wide audience this morning, men who are walking with the Lord, on fire for God, those who are kind of caught in the middle, those who have left their first love, those who maybe don't even know the Lord, and though He falls, falls into sin, falls into this addiction, falls into this thing, if you turn to God, He will pull you back up and put you back up on the right foundation.

Yes, you might have consequences. Yes, there might be some depression you'll struggle through. Yes, there might be some challenges because of the consequences, but now you know that you're redeemed and walking back in God's will.

Isn't that wonderful to know that He actually pulls you back up? Get back up. Get back up. Let me put you back up here. And so that's the encouragement. And I'm always encouraged at the story of the prodigal son.

Strengthening Yourself in the Lord

He was welcomed back to the Father. And guys, in these times, I wish I could even, there's so many different teachings, directions I want to go, but you really have to learn to strengthen yourself in the Lord.

Strengthen yourself on the Lord. And some of the pressure I feel, I know Pastor Abram will agree, is that so many people are relying on us to strengthen them. And they look to us and people will let you down.

Did you know people let you down? And I just, for some reason, I don't know, God's been just dealing with me on a certain subject this week, and just looking and remembering all the people who used to come to this church and actually so many that have left.

I mean, it's kind of mind-boggling. You begin to go, Lord, is it I? But then you realize a lot of it is they don't want to hear what you had to say. Bottom line. They don't want to hear what you had to say.

Or they view you as a person that never gets an attitude, never gets upset. You should resemble Jesus. Yeah, I should, but I'm a work in progress just like you. I was happy digging ditches. I was happy not preaching.

I don't want to speak in front of people. God said, no, here's what you're going to do. And so we're all a work under construction. You ever seen those shirts? Still under construction. And so that's why you have to learn to strengthen yourself in the Lord.

Yes, people will let you down, but Christ will never let you down. And you learn to, okay, I don't feel it right now. I'm not very motivated right now. The church has let me down. Let me tell you, the church will let you down.

It's a group of people. They will let you down, but Christ will never let you down. And that's why I always try to point people to the cross, point people to Jesus. And I even tell them, we get compliments a lot, and you know, you've sure done a great job with your kids.

God has done a great job with kids. There shouldn't be one ounce of, I mean, obviously we steward and we train and we do the best that we can, but me and my wife would both tell you, if we could do it over again, boy, here's the lessons we've learned.

I would probably trade in and get a flip phone. For one, right? Did you know that's the number one thing on the problem kids have right now with their parents in this age is they're on their phone too much and they interrupt their conversations and they're always looking at their phone and devices.

That's one thing we're actually working on right now. Me and my wife got into an argument last week on who's worse at this, you know? And so actually that was my gift today for Father's Day. What are we doing after the second service?

We're turning our phones off. And we'll tell them Monday morning, so. Well, don't clap, I don't know how challenging it's gonna be. But here's, even for young kids, your kids are maybe older, even out of the house, of course, but this is something, actually in my daughter's letter I shared, she wrote something that may remind me of, she actually maybe said this, that you are the father that God has chosen for your kids.

Let that sink in. You are the father that God chose for your children. If that doesn't make you really think things through, I don't know what will. Because sometimes we just, oh, it's a coincidence or this or, but God gave us exactly this dynamic, exactly this role for our lives and He knew the children to give us, correct?

We want certain amount of boys or girls and God gives you the exact amount. It's perfect. Thank God for that. I can tell you a funny story, I think, right? All right. Well, before we had any kids, I thought maybe we'll have four or five boys, right?

Hunting, fishing, chukar, quail, pheasant, duck hunting, 12 gauge, you know, manly things, camping. And then the first one is Aubrey. Oh, a girl, okay. And then, like after the first month, I said, all I want is girls.

I just, oh, I just want girls. And then of course, we had my son and then now I want boys again and girl. And it's like, God just knows, another girl, another girl, another girl. And so, but I just feel so blessed because they just keep you so soft.

I mean, you can just say, I can just say the wrong thing and my daughters start crying. Oh, no, no, no. And it's just daddy, daddy. And then my son and we can do guy things and just loving having the variety.

And God knows. God knows what's best. And even those who are listening online, I know there's here that maybe God hasn't opened that door yet. And it can get frustrating with parenting. Maybe some have been given the gift of singleness.

I've talked to those people before. And just in all things, we have to just trust in God, even in the difficult situations. Those who are barren right now and maybe they're waiting on God or they've never been able to experience that.

Listen, when you get to heaven, you're not going to have all these regrets at all. God is using these things in our lives. Romans 8 .28, that all things work together for the good, for those who love God.

And so with this verse, you can really, there's what I call the security of the believer. Doesn't mean we go and sin. Doesn't mean we do things, but it does mean there's security knowing that God has got my back.

Thank you. Aren't you so thankful for that? Can you imagine if it was some distant God? A distant God that was just not involved? And Shane, I hope you get this together because I'll see you in eternity, but not right now.

And then we're left to ourselves. But this is a God who has us, the security of the believer. And I just want to throw it out there, even especially with men, do you have the security? Is God truly your Father?

Father God. Do you have this relationship? Do you know with certainty? There's no question mark here. I mean, I hope, and I think maybe it's just my passion for this area because I talk to so many people about this and they say, you know Shane, I'm a good person.

That's your hope? That's what you're banking on? Compared to who? Can you imagine, would you like all your thoughts, everything you've ever done flashed on a screen before others? How good would you really think you were at that point?

And so the enemy sometimes will have us, and I lived there in my 20s, have us live in this bubble of, well, I'm a good person. You've got to break that bubble, shatter that glass, and say, Lord, I don't know You.

I need to repent. I need to repent and truly know You. So now I want to give you a little bit of the application from that sermon I was talking about. Don't stand down, stand firm. 1 Corinthians. I'm going to use the Amplified Bible and I'm just going to focus on this verse.

Standing Firm in Sound Doctrine

Men, be on guard. Actually, women, guess what? You can apply this too. Be on guard. But this is specifically a call to men. And I love Paul here. He said, act like men. So be on guard. Stand firm in your faith, which means stand firm in God, respecting His precepts and keeping your doctrines sound.

Act like mature men and be courageous. Be strong. Why is that a command? Because we have the tendency to do everything but that. And I think we all can agree that's really the problem with our nation right now.

Did you know America leads all other countries in the world for fatherless homes? We've reached that wonderful milestone. You plus God equal the majority. Never forget that. I know I've said that before, but you have to remember that.

You plus God equal the majority. And so as men, we say, what can I do in this godless culture? Do you ever say that? Do you ever get frustrated? Anybody in the school districts? The medical profession?

Business? It's like I can't say anything. I can't do anything. I can't make a difference. That's what I want to encourage you this morning in this text. You plus God is the majority. You can make it. Now, it's not going to look like it.

You might not see fruit. Remember my story. I was actually really digging ditches coming home to my wife. No ministry, nothing. No speaking, nothing. And I just committed my thoughts to the Lord. I committed my works to the Lord, and He established my thoughts.

He established my ways. And He called me to do this. And so, God can take a nobody. Nobody can give Him a loud voice for righteousness and what is true and what is right. And I get frustrated. Where's the difference?

I'm preaching my heart out, and California's going to hell in a handbasket. Nancy Pelosi attends a drag queen event and says, this is the hope of America. This is really America. What? Have you lost your mind?

Yeah, okay. But again, we should be able to speak the truth and know that we are making a difference. See, here's the thing. Even if you don't see it, even as excited as I am about Roe v. Wade, do you know that the liberal states are going to crunch even more and make the ungodly legislation even more deadly?

This is not... I mean, it's exciting on that hand, but now it's California and New York. They're going to start infanticide at 30 days maybe at some point. Who knows? And we know with AB 223 and different things, there's so much that...

Are we even making a difference? And many of you don't know, but we had the privilege this morning, Mike Garcia emailed me, our representative in Washington, D .C. He was at our 6 .30 prayer meeting. We prayed over him at 7 .45 this morning.

There's over 100 people here. And I just encourage him that you plus God is the majority. You think you got a hard job, go to a place where they don't even care about godly legislation. They woe be to those who call good evil and evil good.

They crossed that line a long time ago. Your voice doesn't even matter. You're not going to pass any legislation. Who cares if you vote? Nothing's going to change. And still, get up and make that drive.

Praise God. But he's more in Washington. Scott Wilk is in Sacramento. More of a local. You have different state and federal representatives. And things could shift in 2022 with the election. But again, our hope is not in that.

And people just... Sometimes, we must be reading different Bibles. We must be living in a different spot because they get upset about the issue of leadership and godly legislation and thinking it doesn't matter.

And I know it's not our hope, but shouldn't we protect those who have no voice? Shouldn't we come against perversion in our schools? Shouldn't we? I don't know. Just stick to the Gospel. Well, the Gospel affects everything.

If I love the Gospel and Jesus has changed my heart, changed my heart, I should say, it's not okay to let the transgender group read to kindergartners. Why is that? Why is that? Well, hold on. I'm gonna get in trouble here.

We have to keep our videos on YouTube and Facebook, right? No, I'm kidding. But why is, if a man maybe says some things sexually to a woman in the workplace, it's sexual harassment. Why isn't that sexual harassment?

That's what I wanna know. Six, seven, eight-year-olds looking how to do strip moves and listen to a transgender. We have lost our mind. That is calling good evil and evil good, no matter how you slice it, dice it, or cut it.

That is wrong. And so, we need to say something. Now, things might get worse before they get better. They might not get better, but I will not go down with this ship without saying something. And here's why this is so important.

The next generation, did you know there's competing worldviews? And that's why there's a big problem right now. All they hear is the media screaming about sin, screaming about that God's Word's not true, and they're getting influenced.

So you have to have an ulterior voice that says, no, that's not true. But Shane, I have no voice. I don't have that much of audience or this, but that's okay. You plus God, God magnifies your voice and gets your voice out there to counteract all of these things.

We don't even know now. People estimate people hear this message, 100 ,000 people will hear this message next week on radio. Where does that come from? You plus God is the majority. And just being faithful, God says, I want to get My Word out there.

I want to elevate My Word. Making a difference. But I better get into the sermon. We're running out of time here. You guys always do this to me. So number one, be on guard. Be on guard. Here's the thing about guarding, men.

Guarding Spiritual Health Against Distraction

Protection doesn't just let something in. It also doesn't let something out. When you're guarding your family, when you're guarding your own spiritual health, you must guard yourself first. You don't let the wrong things in and you don't let the right things out.

So when Paul said, be on guard, he's not talking about physically guarding something necessarily. Although I believe that is the role of the man. That's why I believe 2nd Amendment. I believe that you can protect those from those who want to do violence against others.

And so on that note that this is a spiritual battle, we must guard ourselves first spiritually. And I see so many men, and I've been there, we want to guard our family. We want to get them into a good church.

But we forget that our spiritual health is what is first and foremost. Because from that comes everything else. Comes the guarding of our family. And distractions are what is distracting us. Distractions are distracting us.

Here's the big thing when it comes to this verse. Be on guard. The image is of, you can picture somebody guarding something. A guard, whatever it is, of the unknown soldier. Have you seen those guards before?

Or Fort Knox, or they're guarding. And what happens? What takes away a guard from his position? What was that noise? What was that noise? What is that? And they pull you away. Could be a Delilah. Could be too busy.

Could be too much media. Could be too much distractions. Too much sport. Whatever it is, there's a distraction that pulls me away from my position of guarding. And that's what's happening to men. Most men, we aren't just bad guys.

We want the best. We want to be godly husbands. We desire it. Lord, we pray for it. But we get away from our position of guarding by distractions. We can no longer guard because we're distracted. And that's this whole meaning.

Matthew 26, I've talked about this a lot. Watch. Isn't it interesting? He says, watch and pray. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation because we can be praying and we can stop watching and be distracted.

But it's this whole position of watching and praying. Women too as well. And then the next point, stand firm in the faith. Stand firm in the faith. What does that mean? Respecting God's precepts and keeping your doctrines sound according to the Amplified Bible.

Sound Doctrine and the Authority of Scripture

Has anyone heard the phrase sound doctrine? That's where it comes from. Sound doctrine right now, I would say is up there at the top of the list of priorities in the church. You are seeing churches right now, ones who do not embrace sound doctrine and those who do.

The big political divide in our country with churches are those who embrace sound doctrine and those who don't. Now let's break it down for just a minute. Sound meaning integrity. Meaning it is secure.

It is right. It is absolute. And doctrine is your knowledge or our thought process about God. And I'm pretty sure God wants us to think the right things about Him. Correct? So, Joy, I just saw your daughter's here today.

Two such blessings here come in. Finally out of the hospital. Couple months, we prayed for you guys. So good. Hope it's okay to interrupt the sermon for that because this made my morning when I saw her coming in.

Sound doctrine. To know who God is. How do we know who God is? Thank God for the Word of God. I want to throw out this question. Why aren't more of you buried in the Word of God? Because that's how you know God's character.

Can you imagine if we didn't have that? Well, I think God is this. Well, I think God is that. Well, I feel this way. Well, I don't feel that way. It would be a mess. And that's actually right now the big problem in our country too.

I feel versus what God says. Big difference. I feel versus what God says. So the only way to really stand on guard and to act like a man is to have sound doctrine. But Shane, I don't know if I believe it.

You know what? That's an okay spot to be if you take it to the Lord. If you say, Lord, I want to trust You. I want to know that this is really Your Word. Would You show me? I remember there was a greater preacher than Billy Graham.

His name was Charles Templeton. He was going to be the next Billy Graham. But he got caught up in what we would call liberal theology. You ever watch that movie, American Gospel, part two? I think it's the one on Christ alone.

It's whatever part two is. I keep forgetting the subject. What is it? Christ Crucified. Thank you, we watched it last night. When our intellect gets in the way, I don't believe in a God that would send people to hell.

Now, I would say I don't quite understand the concept. You know, you live here for 70 years and now you spend eternity separated from God. I mean, but I'm not going to go to hell over a mystery. I'm not going to reject God over a mystery.

That's actually pride. It comes across as humility, but it's false humility. That's pride. I don't believe this about God. And that's why that whole thing shows both sides. These people drift from sound doctrine.

And that would concern me. Where do you stop? Because they would say, well, Paul really wasn't talking about that. I don't believe the Bible in that area. This area I do, that area I don't. Why believe any of it?

And so they start, they don't have a solid relationship with God. And this is what many times we would call a false teacher, a false prophet, apostasy. They have drifted from sound doctrine. Now, a lot of people are being called false prophets that are not false prophets.

You just don't like, you know, they're just kind of weak and maybe they're motivational speakers. That's not false prophets. False prophets are coming in and destructively and taking people away from the Word of God.

They're teachers and they're drawing people to themselves and away from the Word of God. So to really to act like a man, you have to have sound doctrine. You have to have right understanding about God.

So you need to bury your face in God's Word. But Shane, I have doubts. Okay, take those doubts to the Lord. I can honestly say this as God is my witness. I don't doubt God's Word in the sense of, I don't know, I don't think that.

I have questions, like I don't understand this. I spent a half hour one day thinking about the Trinity and I got a headache. Here, O Israel, your God is one. But I reveal Myself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three Persons of the Godhead.

Yet I am one. Okay, help here. Why would a loving God send people to hell? But you have to remember, love is not just one attribute and He doesn't have a portion of love, a portion of truth. He is all of His attributes.

So He is fully love, but He's fully just. Why couldn't God just save everyone? Good question. Good question, ask Him when you get there. But I'm not going to have that now meet you because I really doubt God's Word because the bottom line is, in order to give someone the chance to love Him, He can't put a gun to their head or make them do it, then they become a puppet, then it's mechanical.

True love is given the ability to accept or reject and then the consequences of rejection, see, here's what people don't understand about, hell, this is a whole other rabbit trail, I didn't even go in the first service, but is it's not this mean, vengeful, God, ha, ha, ha, go punish in hell, it's they are rejecting God.

And you can't live with the holy, righteous God and communion with Him and fellowship with Him. Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ paid that price, it bridged that gap, it's called penal substitution.

He paid the penalty, He took the place of you. He substituted you. So now because of that, I can stand before God. Without that, I would be separated eternally away from God in this place where I wanted to go because I don't want there to be a God.

I reject God. So that's what it is, God doesn't make people or throw them there. Well, I don't want to get into the whole election debate, but God didn't create hell, He created hell for the devils and His angels.

And then people either decide to follow God, to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, or they reject God, and that is where people go who reject Him. So based on the Bible's definition of all that, I understand it.

I have questions, oh boy, but I'm not God. Who am I when you look at the scope of the universe? And I'm going to sit down here, and you'll find these guys without sound doctrine, they're usually hooked to some type of medication because they're depressed or confused, they lead people astray, there's no passion in their lives, there's no powerful sermons being preached.

It's all like, let's dialogue, let's debate, let's discuss, I don't know, what do you think? And nobody changes. And without sound doctrine, folks, we are lost. That's the absolute truth of God's Word.

So maybe let me encourage some of you, if you're young at all, if you're watching, that's easy for you, you're a pastor. Oh, back to my Templeton story, sorry. You guys got me off track. So he was to be the next Billy Graham, but he got caught up in liberal theology.

And I read these people sometimes that question the Bible, and to me, I think they're very weak, very immature. I don't know how people buy into it, honestly. Because it's man's opinion. So anyway, he started to believe it.

And he started to tell Billy, Billy, you can't really believe that stuff. How do we know it was written by man? Don't you know the Council of Nicaea, and it was really put together by men who wanted to manipulate and control power, and why did they only choose these books and all kinds of stuff?

All of that has answers to it. Very solid answers. And he started to question God and wrestle with God, and almost walked away. You can read it in his biography. But he found a tree stump over by Lake Arrowhead.

And he put his Bible down, and he said, God, I'm so confused. I don't want to drift. I don't know, from this day forward, I am going to have faith in You that this is Your inspired, inerrant Word. And from that day forward, he never wavered.

And that is when we started to hear the name of Billy Graham more so. And so see, it's okay to like, Lord, I have these challenges, but what are doubts? Or if a young adult, I tell young adults, Shane, I don't know what to believe.

I don't know that's really God. Take it to him. You think he's going to genuinely turn away a genuine seeker? Genuinely turn away? You think he's going to turn away a genuine seeker? You try speaking for an hour, not messing up.

Man. That's a whole other topic. But if you can get that into your kids, sound doctrine, and you don't push it down their throat. I never push Scripture down their throat. I tell them, here's what it says.

Here's why. What do you think? Let them have their own views. You know it's okay to let them have their own views? And say, okay. Okay, have your own views. Have your thoughts. Here's what the Bible says.

And you can't force it, and you lead by example. You lead by example. And do you know people begin to, why do they run back to the Word of God? Because after they get in their 20s, they find out they can't figure out anything.

So it begins with belief. You have to believe, Lord, this is Your written Word. And I often challenge people, nine times out of 10, those who come against God's Word have never even read it for themselves.

Have never even studied the scientific, scientific accuracy of the Bible. I could preach a whole sermon on the scientific. We hear a lot about science. Don't question the science. No, science questions science.

That's really science. The scientific proof in the Bible. What about the historic proof? You can go and see where Jesus walked. You can find coins from the Roman Empire. Did you know as of today, nothing in the Book of Romans can be found anywhere.

No kingdoms, no tools, no archeological discovery. Nothing, absolutely nothing. It's almost as if it's a myth. Now hold on, people are going to say that's arrogant. No, it's not, it's truthful. Trust me, I'm not being arrogant.

Why is telling the truth arrogant? Can somebody please tell me why telling the truth is arrogant? Because that's how they get out of it. That's the truth. There's no historical evidence. The Bible has historical evidence, scientific evidence, prophetic evidence, prophetic evidence.

One thing that always amazes me, I remember reading it, and I won't know exactly because it's been so long, about the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This really helped with me. There was a little shepherd boy, he threw a rock into a cave, and I think it's Quram, if I pronounced that correctly, Q-U-R-A-M, Qumran, thank you.

I get that and the Quran mixed up. But he heard this noise, he went in, he looked, and here's these scrolls. I don't know how many years old. Same person, do you know how many years old? A thousand years old were those scrolls?

Wait, see, if they just found them, no, they were older. They predated Jesus. And it's the same book of Isaiah that we read today from before Jesus on scrolls. And you look at the prophetic accuracy of the Bible, of the fulfillment of Jesus, and all these things from Cyrus and Daniel to the building of the temple, and re-temple in the walls in Nehemiah, and when the Messiah would come and the Messiah would be cut off and what Jesus said, the prophetic accuracy, the scientific accuracy, the archaeological accuracy.

Prophetic, I mean, there's just so much to it. What about the truth accuracy? I asked an atheist, I keep asking him, show me one area where the Bible is wrong, scientifically, prophetically, archaeologically, discovery.

I mean, where is it wrong? Now, there's things you might not quite understand, but it's truth. That's why we say times change, truth does not. So when you have this area of sound doctrine though, you have to make sure you have a lot of humility.

A lot of humility. And then it says act like, not just men, act like mature men. Act like mature men. And men, let me just give you a secret here to maturity. It is directly related to obedience to the Word of God.

Do you want to grow spiritually, men, women, young adults? You want to grow and be mature? A mature Christian is just a by-product of somebody who's been applying God's Word. Not perfectly. They've been hit.