THE MATURING BELIEVER

The main ideas from this information are: - There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is learning and retaining information, while wisdom is applying that knowledge to the right situation. - Believers learn a lot about God's word, but not everything is relevant in every situation. Wisdom is knowing how to apply the word of God to specific situations. - There are two stages of knowledge: learned information and knowing about what you read and whom you read. - It is important to know God on a personal level and to have a sense of maturity in the word of God. - The word of God is necessary for believers to have faith and to discern what is best for their lives. - A maturing believer is constantly growing in the knowledge of the scripture and understanding it more and more. - The word of God is simple enough for a child to understand but deep enough for scholars to study. - It is important to seek to understand, teach, and obey the word of God. - Every We first talked about the first series, I think we talked about integrity, and then we learned a lot in the first series, and then the next one we talked about discernment. And tonight we're going to talk about knowledge. The maturing believer must grow in knowledge. All right, let me say this, that there is a difference between wisdom and knowledge. There's a vast difference between the two of those things. All right, knowledge is learning about a particular thing or a person basically retaining information. Wisdom is taking what you have learned or retained and applying it to the right situation. All right, so knowledge is when we learn something and you can learn something just sometimes, just know how to do it. But the wisdom comes when you make the right application of what you've learned to the correct situation. As believers, we learn a lot about God's word, but sometimes what we learn about God's word is not relevant in every situation that we go through as believers. All right, there are some things in the word that are relevant to other situations. You'll find in the word of God, excuse me, that there is a word that fits every situation in your life, but knowing how to apply that word is what's called wisdom, all right? There are two stages of knowledge that I want to talk about tonight. The first stage of knowledge is learned information. Is learned information, all right? That's the very first thing I want to talk about is just learned information. It's what you retain when you read the word of God. Sometimes when we study, excuse me, not read, I try not to say read. When we study the word of God, we retain a lot of information about the word of God. But then the next stage of knowledge is knowing about what you read and whom you read, all right? Because we learn different situations from different people in the Bible. But the main thing that we learn about when we study the word of God is we learn about God himself. So to know God and to know of God are two different things. And many people know of God and that's a form of knowledge, knowing of God. But to really say that I know God is knowing God on the level that he has revealed himself to you. Now, some people might say, well, I don't know God as a healer because I have never been sick. I ain't talking about with a car. I'm talking about with something terminal that you know only God can do. Or somebody may say, well, I don't know God to be this way or that way because I've never been in that situation. But to me, I can say that God is whatever he has revealed himself to you to be. Now, does that mean you have doubt in God? No. It just means that in whatever your life experience is that calls you to trust and believe in God in that area, then you testify that this is the way that I know God. Some people say Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Raphael. All of those are different names of God. And to each person, one person, he was Jehovah-Jireh. Another person, he was Jehovah-Raphael. Another person, he was Jehovah-Nissi. But it still does not take away that he's still God. But I just know him. Huh? I didn't hear you. Okay. But it still says that I know God on this level. So let's look at the scripture I want to start from is Philippians 1 and 9. It talks about, and this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and the depth of insight. Again, we're back at that scripture when we're talking about the depth of insight where Paul was talking about spiritual discernment. All right. A maturing believer is constantly growing in the knowledge of the scripture because it is the scripture that teaches us to have faith in God. The word says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So we learn how to have faith in God by taking situations that is written in the Bible and we learn to build our trust in God to say, Well, God can't do this, that or the other for my situation because I read where he did this and that. But it becomes a little bit more personal to us when we talk about knowledge when we are in a certain situation and we go and we say, Well, if God could heal this or if God could do this for that person, then I'm trusting that he can do the same for me. And one of the reasons why many people can't discern what is best when they're trying to find a job or when they're trying to pick a mate for their future or when they're trying to make a decision concerning any major decision concerning their life is because people really don't know what the word of God says concerning their life. David said this in the Bible. He said, Lord, your word is a lamp unto my feet and your word is a light unto my pathway. That's Psalms 119, 105. When the lights are on, it's easier to discern where we should go. It's easy to make, it's easier to have discernment and it's easier to make decisions when the light is on. So if the Lord's word, as David would say, will be a light unto our feet and a light unto our pathway, the word of God is certainly necessary for us to have in our believer's life. And we can't know what's best for us if we don't know what the word of God says concerning our lives. It's necessary to have a sense of maturity in the word of God after we learn what the word of God says in order to help us in our believer's walk of life. We're constantly abiding in the knowledge of the word of God. No one person can sit and learn of God and that's it. You know, and many people try to feel as though or try to make you feel as though they went to theology or Bible school and they learned the Bible and oh I know this and oh I don't have to continue to read the word because I know what the word says. But the thing about the word of God is when it says the word of God is life, you can take the same scripture and you can read the same scripture 30 different times and you'll get 30 different revelations. Now I didn't say interpretation because interpretation is our perception or it's our, I'm looking for a word, not perception, but it's our, basically it's how we understand it. That ain't the word I'm looking for. My word's failing me. Ain't the word I'm looking for. But it's basically how we, comprehension. It's how we comprehend it, all right. But revelation is what God reveals in his word to us, okay. So you could take the word of God and take one scripture, read it 30 different times and get 30 different revelations. Also, you'll get 30 different ways to comprehend that in a natural sense, all right. So we never peak understanding in the word of God, basically what I'm trying to say. You could never peak out in knowing what the word of God says. We'll never be able to master what the word of God says. And a maturing believer would understand that I'm constantly growing in the word of God. It's a constant process as long as we're alive and we're here on earth and we are following Jesus Christ, we're going to constantly learn more and more about him. It's sort of like when you're in a relationship with a person. And when you're in a relationship with a person, you learn about that person, yes. But it's like when you learn what you learned about that person, it's like out of the clear blue sky, there's something that you didn't know about that person. And many times you'll be like, well, I thought I knew you, but where did that come from? I didn't know that about you. It's because you can never learn even about anyone in the natural and just know everything about them. That make sense? Am I losing somebody? So it's the same way in the word of God that we may know how God responds to a certain situation, but yet still not know everything there is to know about God. The word of God is simple enough that a child can understand it, but deep enough that a scholar can drown in it. A mature believer is not stagnant in the learning of the word of God. A mature believer is always seeking to abound in it, seeking to understand it more, seeking to teach it more, and seeking to obey it more. Watch this. There were some things that I want to point out in the notes that we're seeking to understand the word of God more, seeking to teach it more, and seeking to obey it more, which means you don't have to be called to preach to teach the word, because everybody is a minister on whatever level they're on in their believer's walk, because there's some people that you're minister to that you can reach that I could never reach, and I'm a prophet, but that don't mean I'm going to reach everybody. But there are some people that you deal with in your everyday life because of your knowledge in the word of God, you better reach them in a place that the prophet can't reach them. You better reach them in a place that the apostle or the evangelist or the pastor can't reach them, all right? So this is why it's important that the word of God says that we study to show ourselves a proven one to God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, because when you learn how to rightly divide the word of truth, it's the same thing I said when we go back to the definition of knowledge, is that applying wisdom, applying what you have learned and what you have retained as knowledge to the right situation, all right? And so, again, there may be somebody that you come in contact with in your everyday life that you can reach that others may not can reach. Why it's important to have good character as believers. Remember I told you some weeks ago that people sit back and they'll watch you, but they'll never come to church. They'll sit back and they'll watch you, but they'll never ever step foot in the church. They'll never call our prayer line, but they'll watch your life. So it's always good that when we're dealing with people to always keep our character at a place. We shouldn't be cussing and acting crazy. We shouldn't be living unseemly. That's against our believer's morals, because the thing about it, you learn and you have knowledge in the scripture because it helps you to become a better believer. Let's take the Muslim faith. Now those guys, I'm going to get into what people believe. I'm not one to say what they believe is right or wrong. Now let's take their character though. They learn what they learn, and they believe what they believe. And guess what they do? They stand on what they believe without error, without failure, and without excuse. All right, because they're true to what they believe. I'm talking about real Muslims. Now you got those, you know, certain Muslims that say they this and they big and talking about they don't eat pork, but a lot of other stuff they do is out of the character of what they believe. But I'm talking about those that are true to what they believe. They do it without failure, without error, and without excuse. So then when people look at us as believers, what is our problem when it comes to our morals, when it comes to our character? Why we always got to be working on something? Why we got to always be the ones? We say we believe in the truth and the living God. We always got some process that we have to go through. Is it really us going through a process or are we really the process? That's the question to ask yourself. Am I really going through a process or am I the process? Am I the reason why I can't get to where I need to be? Am I the reason why I'm not all I should be in God? Sometimes it's not us going through a process, but sometimes we can be our greatest hinder. We can be our greatest failure as believers. Sometimes we cause ourselves to fall short of God's glory because sometimes a lot of us have a me problem, all right? And when you have a me problem, the only thing that matters to you is you, all right? It doesn't matter what God wants. You'll give God an honorable mention and say, oh, I thank God. But at the end of the day, what God requires of you won't be a priority because when we have me problems, then the only thing that matters is what I want, what I think, what matters to me, what makes me feel good, what makes me look good, all right? You got people like that all over the place. They're in the church. They're in the world. I mean, you encounter people that's like that every day. They'll tell you, oh, I'm trying to get the bag or I'm trying to, you know, whatever the slang is for the young folk. I think getting the bag means getting the money, if I ain't mistaken. But you got people that just think that it's just all about them. And sometimes the only way that God can reach them is he has to allow them to fall in places that only he can get them out. Notice I said he allows them. I didn't say he does it. But he allows them to fall in places that only he can get them out. So when we retain the word of God, the word of God to us in the scripture, and the reason why we're constantly growing in the scripture, because there may be a situation that you fall into that you've never fell into before. And you have to go back to the scripture to see, well, God, how am I supposed to handle this situation according to your word? It's sort of like when you're baking a cake and you may have the recipe, but somewhere along the line, you forget to put some ingredient in and you have to go back, what, to the recipe book and say, oh, well, I missed, do you put baking soda in? I don't know. I don't know what you put in the cake without the ingredients. I use recipes. But anyway, I'm just saying, you probably didn't put the baking soda. It probably called for a pinch of salt or whatever the instructions. And it may have been something very small that you think that you can cut the corner, or maybe you just forgot. And it threw the taste off, or the cake didn't come out the way it should have came. It's the same way in our believer's life that we can't cut the corners. Whatever the word of God says and instructed us to do, we have to do it exactly the way the word of God says for it to do in order for us to be what? Righteous. And righteous means being in good standing with God. Now, not only do we learn the scriptures so that we can understand it, and that's good to understand the scripture, but the main thing about learning the word of God is obeying it. Because people know the scripture. The Pharisees knew what the word said, but they failed to obey it because Jesus was standing right next to them, and they rejected him. They sent him to the cross. They crucified him. It wasn't until he died when they realized, we messed up. All right? So, obeying the word of God can also help keep us out of places and out of situations that we don't have to go into. All right? The next thing, my next note is, the mature believer is always growing in the knowledge of God. It goes back to what we said at the beginning of our study. There's a difference between knowing information about God, because you learn information about God through the word of God, but then do you really know God? In what level has God revealed himself to you? All right? Again, everybody can't say that I know him as a healer. Everybody can't say that I know him as this, that, or whatever your situation may be, because your situation may not be like mine, but whatever level God has proven himself to be, then that's who he is to me. All right? So, maybe I'm believing in some other God, but, you know, if you haven't been to a place where you really needed God in an area, you can hear other testimonies about God, and you can say, yeah, well, I don't doubt that God ain't that to you, but to me, this is what he is. To me, this is what he has done. To me, it's a personal walk. You know, it's a personal thing. And this is why there are many attributes to God. There are many things you can call him, but you call him these things based upon what he has proven himself to be to you. Again, when I went through the Jehovah names, each one of those names was how he was to that particular individual. They called him Jehovah John, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Rapha, and all of those names, but it's still one God. It's still the same person. Just got many other names. It's sort of like having nicknames. Your name may be Pearl, but they may call you Pearly Gates or Pearly May, but your name is really Pearl. Does that take away of who you are? No. That's just what they know you by. You know, your family give you nicknames. Maybe Buster, maybe Gene, whatever your nickname may be, but does that take away from you being who you are? No. All right? That's just what they know you by. But I may know you as Steve, but they may know you by something else, but you're the same person. All right? I think that's a good example. I think I broke that down pretty good. All right? So, we see that Paul is praying all the time on his letters, and consider what he said to the Ephesians and to the Colossians. He said that I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom. Notice he didn't say knowledge. He said that he would give you the spirit of wisdom, and here come this word again, revelation, so that you may know him better. That's Ephesians 1 and 17. Now, this was the prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed on the behalf of the people, that God would give them the spirit of knowledge and revelation. In other words, God, make yourself real to them. I know you on a certain level, but Lord, they need to know you for themselves on this level. I think that the scripture and a personal experience or a personal relationship with God helps us to know him on a different level, okay? And then Paul says also in Colossians 1 and 9, for this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with knowledge of his will through our spiritual wisdom and understanding. Now, this knowledge is not primarily academic that Paul is talking about, but it's experimental, going back to what we talked about. The Greek and the Hebrew word for know is typically means to speak of a deep, intimate, and an experimental knowledge, all right? That's the Greek word for know. In other words, there were places in the Bible where it talks about, and Abraham knew Sarah, and Adam knew Eve, wasn't talking about know them, not talking to them socializing, but there was something a little bit more deeper with them knowing each other. They know involved some other activities, but they knew each other, all right? So, it's a deeper experimental knowledge of knowing, and here we go. In the Old Testament, it was used for sexual relations. Adam knew his wife, and that's Genesis 4 and 1. A mature believer is growing in an intimate knowledge with God. That's why I said that. We have to be in a place where we can be intimate with God. That means that there's a bond between you and God that should be an unbreakable bond. Now, I'm going to say this. The others always remain faithful to us, but do we always remain faithful to God? God never changes what he says concerning us. I don't care what we do. I don't care what we get into. He never changes, but now I'm going to throw a monkey wrench here, and this is absolute truth. Now, while God never changes, we have the power to change what our destiny becomes, because God is one way. He's just straight. I got this for you. You can have it, but now if we decide and God say, all you got to do, I heard Apostle Mary's grandmother used to say, if you want to know how to get to heaven, she'd say, turn right and keep straight. So, if God says, turn right and keep straight, but you turn right, you hit a left, then take a curve and a crook, and it takes you longer to get where you're supposed to be. Is that God's fault? But the direction is, turn right and keep left, and you'll get what you need. But if you fail to make it there, just know that God never changed what he said about you. God never changes his mind. I'm going to say this. If you look at the children of Israel, it took them 40 years to get out of the wilderness. Some of those folk died and never made it to the promise, but because God promised them that they could have it. Their children were able to walk into the promise. Their children's children were able to walk in the promise because God never changes his mind concerning you. Now, you yourself may not never see it, but your seed, your seed will. Your children, your children's children, they'll see the promise because when God promised it to you, he promised it to your whole lineage, all right? So, God never changed. A lot of them died because they had some personal issues that they got in there. They started doubting. They started doing other things, worshiping idol gods, started getting with other folk, and started doing other things that was against what God said. A lot of them got old and they died because it took them 40 years. The thing about them traveling in the wilderness 40 years, if you go back and you read that, they were just traveling around one mountain in a big circle for 40 years. They were just going around in a circle, and they never knew it. Now, let me say this. It seemed like to me, at some point in your life, if you keep doing, if you keep passing the same thing over and over and over and over again, seemed like something in your mind would tell you that I need to go a different direction. It wasn't until Joshua took over that he said, now, you surpassed this mountain long enough. In other words, you've been winning circles long enough. Joshua told the people, y'all went around and around and around and around and around. You still haven't learned, but he told them it's time for a new direction. They knew of God. They had an experience with God because God told them, he said, I'm going to lead you in the way. He took them through the wilderness to protect them from the enemies that were waiting to kill them when they came out of Egypt. Also, the other folk that wasn't necessarily Egyptians, but they were their possession of land. God took them by way in order to protect them, but they thought the wilderness was to hurt them. He said, listen, I got you. I'm going to lead you by a cloud by day. You just follow the cloud. A pillar of fire by night. You just follow that. They got to, oh, we hungry. We this and we that. He rained manna down. Some of the manna had raisins in it to give the bread a little bit of taste and they had water to drink and still it just was never enough. It was never enough. So the knowledge of God, this is an experimental thing. It comes from being intimate with God. We see in the narratives and the writing of the mature believers in the Bible, Moses, who spoke face to face with God, who prayed for God to show him his glory. He prayed to see God even in a more intimate way. David prayed that God would show him himself. He said, as the deer pants for the stream of waters, my soul pants for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for you, God, for the living God. When I go and I meet with God, and you'll find that in Psalms 42 and 1, that about David, you'll find in Exodus, I mean that about Moses, you'll find in Exodus 33 and 18. It was Paul said this about Christ. I want to know Christ and in the power of his resurrection and in the fellowship of his suffering, become like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection for the dead. Ephesians Philippians 3, 10 through 11. Paul said, basically, I want to be just like Christ. Whatever Christ did, I want to do that. Even until his death, he died to please the almighty God. David was desperate to know God and so was Paul wanting to suffer and die just like Christ. He wasn't just looking for the academic knowledge, just learning something, but he wanted to continue his experience or have a continuous experience with Christ. Now, do we just want to just learn of the word to just retain knowledge and do nothing with it to just to have a conversation to say, oh, I know this or do we want to use what we learned about the word of God to have an experience? So, Paul wanted the power and the sufferings of Christ in his life. All right. This is the characteristic of a mature believer. They are constantly or we are constantly seeking to know God more and we're seeking his knowledge and we're seeking his guidance and his knowledge allows us to discern what is best for our lives as believers. I'm almost done. I've got 10 minutes. Proverbs 9 and 10 talks about the fear of the Lord. All right. The mature believer is growing in the knowledge of others in order to discern what is best for your children or for your family members. You need to know what the word of God says and need to know God more to understand how to make decisions on behalf of your children or other members of our families. When it comes to those that have children, it says train up a child, Proverbs 22 and 6, in a way that a child should go and he or she will not depart. It says he will not depart from it, but he or she will not depart from it. So, when we're making decisions even on behalf of a spouse or it may be other members, other believers of the church, we have to understand that we have to know what the word of God says in order to draw people. The word of God says this. It says that if your brother be overtaken in a foul, you that spiritual restore such a one lest you also be tempted. Now, I want to pause there. I want to ask a question. If I find out my brother or my sister is doing something that's unseemly, why would it say you that spiritual restore such a one? Because the one that's spiritual is matured in the word. They know what the word says. They're mature enough in the word to apply the wisdom of God to the situation because as two things can happen. I can either hurt my brother and lose them forever or I can gain my brother and gain them back to the kingdom of heaven. Heaven wins. But, and it's all based upon your approach and how you handle the situation. All believers' lives are very delicate lives. All right. And based upon what source you use or what source uses you can determine how your brother or your sister receive you when they're overtaken in a foul. So, knowing the word of God because you got some people that know the word of God and they take the word of God to apply pressure to their brothers and sisters. And yet what they're saying is true. But your approach of how you handle the truth is one thing. You know, I don't know if the old folks said, but I just heard. It ain't what you do, it's how you do it that matters because you can have the right motives and your intentions may be right, but your methods may be wrong. All right. A lot of times, even in our own walk, we may have the right motives, but the wrong methods could take us to a place where we fall short of God's glory. So, as it relates to our brothers and our sisters, our family, because so far, I'm just going to tell you the truth. I don't care if you don't like it. Well, right there. If you were talking to me, I'm just talking about me. I don't know how y'all are, but if you were talking to me like that, I'm going to shit you all the way out. I'm not going to hear nothing you said because you've already offended me. And a lot of times when you offend somebody initially at the start, your approach is how a person is going to receive you. You could tell me the truth, but it's a certain way that you got to approach me to make me understand the truth. Because when God shows you the truth about you, he don't just come and say, oh, I'm going to tell you this because I'm God. No, the Bible says, with love and kindness have I drawn thee. God draws us with his love. Remember we talked about some weeks ago about being the reason why we have salvation. And I asked the question, well, did you get saved because you were scared to go to hell or you got saved because you were taught about the love of God? And the average answer that came across was that we were taught about hell, but we were never taught about God's love. You see what I'm saying? So now let's look at this from another perspective. If I'm scared into something, don't you think it'd be easy to be scared out of it? Because I was scared into it. So whatever got me into it can easily get me out of it. But now if I start learning about the love of God, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but sent his son into the world that we might be saved. So right there it wasn't even about hell, but it was about God's love. You find that John 3, 16 and 17. And the church teaches us just the 16th, John 3, 16. But now let's talk about 17. He sent not his son into the world to condemn it, but he sent Jesus that the world might be saved. That's the next verse after that. So in the context of learning that about God's love, we have to learn everything about his love. And so sometimes our approach or how we were approached about things sometimes helps change the perspective of the situation. And we look at it differently. So now that we are maturing believers, we learn that I'm not saved to keep me from going to hell. I'm saved because of the love that God had for me when I was tore up, when I was messed up, when folks casted me, treated you as an outcast, when you were going through situations and you kept going through it and you kept going through it and you kept going through it. It wasn't until you realize that, hey, you know what? God really loves me because every time I mess up, he's right there to pull me out. Every time I get in trouble, he's right there to help me. Every time I need God, he's right there. So he must love me. When you start looking at God like that, you're going to be like, you know what? Man, you know, man, God is awesome because how many times can I mess up and he's right there to just show me I'm right here. Now watch this. Paul has a question. Shall we continue in sin, though, that grace may abound because we can't take it for granted even. We got to realize he's still a holy God. We got to realize he still have his standards as God. But shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now, is that a contradiction? Because, see, the enemy will tell you that that's contradicting itself. Is that a contradiction? No. But let me tell you something. You can wait on anybody's patience long enough and they're going to get tired. You know, I can love you and love you. You can love me and love me. But after a while, you're going to be like, now, preacher, check this out. Now, I didn't give you so many chances. Now, let's just be realistic about this. You're going to have to do something. And God is the exact same way. Now, listen, I love you. And I want the best for you, according to Jeremiah 29 and 11. But you're going to have to make some right choices. You're going to have to make some right decisions. Because our lawyer, our attorney, our advocate, Jesus ain't going to keep covering for us. You know, if folks say hell ain't real, I beg to differ. Because I'm like this. And it may seem like I'm babbling. But as it comes to me, I'm saying. So folks say hell is not real. And all through the scripture, it tells you that hell is real. And that there is a place called hell. And then there's also the lake of fire. All right. So people say that hell ain't real. If God is such a loving God, then why would he do that to his people? Because the fact is, it's not God that did it to us. But we did it to ourselves. That's why the scripture says, there is a way that sings right unto man. But the end of is destruction. It's sort of like when I told y'all a few weeks ago, maybe it was last week. But I remember saying it. I don't know when I said it. But I said it. That the Lord said, behold, I set before you life and death. And then he turned around and said, choose life. Now, he done told you, I done put life and death here. Then he told you what way to take. Now, if you take any other way, it ain't his fault. Because he told you, I put life and I put death here. Choose life. Now, I mean, I don't know how much plainer that could be. And if we choose the wrong path, the path that leads to destruction, we can't blame God for that. Because he said, I set both of them before you. Now, choose life. In other words, choose me, and you're good. But still, somewhere in our mind, and people come up with all these different revelations. They take the scripture. They take the scripture. They, and the Bible say, they take the truth of God and they twist it into a lie. You want to know why people do that? Because they want the Bible to fit them and they don't fit the Bible. But they want the Bible to fit their lifestyles and fit their beliefs. But they don't believe what the word of God says. And so, they take it and they twist it. They turn it. They do this and they do that. And then sooner or later, because anything that's not a whole truth is what? A whole lie. So, if you take one context away from the word of God and you change it to fit you, or you change one word of it, it changed the whole context. So, then it becomes a lie. You know, a half a truth is a whole lie. And so, once it becomes a lie, then deception comes in. Well, God didn't really mean it like that. This is why we have to be knowledged in the word of God. So, when we're watching other pastors and we're hearing other preachers teach the word of God, or other teachers teach the word of God, we're able to discern what's truth because we know the truth. We retain the knowledge that the word of God has as far as learning. But then we have a relationship with God that comes with discernment to say, hold on, something's off about what that brother, what that sister's teaching, because that ain't what the word of God says. See what I'm saying? If you don't know the word, it's easy to be taunted by every wind of doctrine that comes up because what sounds good may not always be truth. In this hour that we live in, 2024 and beyond, it's going to be a very pivotal time for the believers. You have to really be knowledged in the word to know what's truth and what's not truth. This is why discernment is being taught. It's why these things about the mature and believing, all this God gave us this, because we're going to have to know in this season what is true and what's not. I ain't worried about if the preacher real or not. See, that's just wasting time trying to figure out who real and who ain't. You'll know who real by what they teach. You'll know who real by what they believe. And if what they believe is contrary to what the believer's walk is, you already know they're not real. I know by what you teach you ain't real, so I already know I don't need to be listening to that garbage and letting it filter out the truth. Let me tell you something about lies. Lies come to filter out the truth of God so that the untruth about God can take residence in your spirit, and then you'll fall from grace. And then you'll become reprobate, what the Bible says. What is reprobation? I'm doing wrong, but I'm thinking I'm right. See, reprobation makes the wrong thing look right and the right thing look wrong. Now, if you look at the world today, and I'm closing because my time is up. There's an hour. So if you look at the world today and look at what's being projected from a Christian aspect, from the church, look at how these folks walking it out in church. I ain't talking about nobody, but I'm just saying how they're dressing in church. These men's pants be so tight. And I'm like, well, when are men going to go back to dressing like men? That was a time of the dress apparel that's out here in the world now. Back in the day, real men wouldn't have that. You wouldn't find no man wearing stuff that looked like it should be on a woman. I'm just going to keep this real. But we bring all this in the church, and when the preachers say something about it, we try to say he's judging. Well, we have a right to judge because based upon what a believer's characteristic is, then certain things are just unseemly for a believer to do. We have a right to judge that. We ain't telling you you're going to hell, but we're telling you that how you're acting, what you're wearing is not saying that you're a believer. I can't say you're a believer. I said it like this, that I'm not judging you, but I'm just a fruit inspector. So if I'm a fruit inspector, I have a right to call an apple an apple and an orange an orange. I'm not condemning you to heaven or to hell. That's not my place. I can't do that. I'm not Jesus. I didn't purchase you with my blood. But because I am a believer, because I am an ambassador and a representative of the kingdom of heaven, such as you all are, you have a right to say that no, you shouldn't do that because it just don't look like something morally that a believer should be doing or should be wearing. And I just think that the church needs to get back to the point where we start teaching men and women how to dress in moderation, all right? But it's just now, it's a spirit that's just out here that when you begin to say any little thing to folks, I've got to find me another church because that preacher don't know me well. I mean, I just think that if you're a believer, you ought to act. You ought to look like a believer. There are times I get called on things. I can't get mad when somebody says, you know you shouldn't be talking like that. I can't get mad about that because I say I'm a believer. I say I'm a preacher. So there should be certain characteristics that when my life is before people, I should act and look a certain way, all right? Any questions, any concerns? I'm sorry, I went on into a rant. Any questions? Here's a question to think about. How do you rate your growth in knowledge? Knowing God's word, knowing God, and knowing others. What strategy do you believe God is calling you to implement to increase your knowledge? What area do you feel like God is calling you to implement that will help you to increase your knowledge? I'm going to tell you this, that God is calling you to increase your knowledge.