Babies Grow: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 And we are going to be talking about the newborn baby stage in Christ. There are four baby stages, and they’re not necessarily in order or how they are carried out by God. In 1 Peter 2:2 it says, “As newborn babies,” we’re not in the embryo anymore, we’re not being developed inside, we got an outside birth, “newborn babies.” Number one, the first stage listed here in Peter is “desire the pure,” sincere, “milk of the word,” the genuine milk of the Word, “that you may grow thereby.” And so you don’t want to go to [unclear]’s books, my books, or Robert’s books; you want to go to God’s book. Okay, that is the pure, genuine Word of God. All right, if you go to other people’s books, make sure it lines up with this book. All right, that’s number one, and the reason we need to go to the Word is so we can grow. Young people, you’re not going to grow if you don’t get into the Word, you don’t get into Bible studies in a church where they’re teaching the Word. If they’re just entertaining you, you’re going to wind up being a non-growing Christian.

▶ 1:31 Okay, stage number one. Stage number two, in verse 4: “Coming to Jesus, a living stone rejected by men but chosen by God and precious.” Okay, the second stage of this baby Christianity is they come to Jesus Christ. They don’t come to a church, they don’t come to a minister, they don’t come to a group, they come to Jesus Christ and His righteousness, which people reject, and that’s why they reject Christ: they don’t want to live righteous, they don’t want to live in truth. But newborn babies come to Jesus. Number three: “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.” So the third one is, babies are in a stage of being built by God into a spiritual house, not a carnal house, not an earthly house, not a fleshly house, but a spiritual house, and not only that, they are being built up to be a priest. In the Old Testament we had a high priest and we had other priests, but in the New Testament everybody is a priest.

▶ 2:54 That’s the baby stage, these four. Now if you’re not in the Word and growing, you’re back in the embryo stage of last message. If you’re not coming to Jesus, you come to church for Jesus, not for social structure, social recognition, but Jesus, you’re still in the embryo stage. If you’re not letting God build you by the Word and by the Spirit, you’re still in the embryo stage. This is the baby stage. All right, and if you will not offer spiritual sacrifices unto God, “acceptable to God,” not to you, I don’t care if you accept them, I don’t care if you like it, I don’t care if you want to do it, if you don’t offer spiritual sacrifices to God, you’re not even in the baby stage yet, you’re still in the embryo getting developed. In other words, you haven’t been born again. That’s a fact. See, “born again” means you’re birthed, and when you’re birthed, you’re birthed into these four stages: to grow, to offer spiritual sacrifices, to be built up, and to be a priest, and to come to Jesus only. Not Allah, not Hindu, not [unclear], not Krishna, Jesus Christ is who we come to.

▶ 4:40 Now, you young, got those four things, you see? And you young, how many of you have accepted Jesus into your life and said the sinner’s prayer? Let me see your hand. Say some of you haven’t yet. Okay, okay, all but one. All right, how many, the rest of you accepted Jesus? And okay, you should be past this stage. You should be in the house of God learning the Word of God, getting built. You should be spending an hour a day with God and His Word, growing. And what’s the problem in America’s church? It is growth. We got babies trying to teach babies, and they just reproduce babies, and that’s what I found in nations where I go, that babies are trying to develop new believers, and they are babies themselves. And we got a real problem out there.

▶ 5:53 Okay, okay, so number one: “desire the sincere milk of the word.” So we need to know what the milk of the Word is. Hebrews 6:1-2, I’ve used this before, so we’ll fly through it: “leaving the basics,” the first principles, the milk of the Word, of the doctrine of Christ, “let us go on to perfection,” maturity. Let us go on to the end goal. The end goal is not the baby stage, the end goal is the mature stage. Could that be an amen? All right. “Not laying again the foundation”: “foundation again” is the same word, basic, going back to the basics, the beginning, the milk of the Word. Okay, now he tells us what’s going to follow is going to be the milk of the Word. All right, so “repentance from dead works” is baby doctrine, “faith toward God” is baby doctrine, “doctrines of baptisms”: baptism of water, baptism in the Holy Spirit, baptism into the body of Christ. There’s three baptisms. He says “baptisms,” plural, because there’s three baptisms in the Bible: baptism in the body, where God places in as He sees fit; baptism in the Holy Ghost, where the power of God comes upon you to be a witness unto Him; and the baptism in water, where your old man of sin is put to death and you rise a new creature.

▶ 7:15 All right, and if we haven’t been water baptized, you better get with the program. It is a very important, uh, experience in God, developing experience in God. Number four: “laying on of hands,” for impartation, for blessing, and for healing. Okay, and the next two are the second coming. Jesus is coming again, and when He comes there’s going to be a resurrection of the dead. Everybody’s going to rise. I don’t care if they were buried at sea, God’s going to bring their dust back together, and He’s going to raise them up and put their spirit back with that body. There’s going to be a resurrection of the dead. I don’t care if you were cremated. God knows how to find those ashes wherever they at. You can scatter them, I don’t care where you scatter them, God’s going to bring them back together. He knows exactly where they’re at. He’s going to put His Spirit back in that body, and you’re going to live with an undecaying body forever, either in hell or in heaven.

▶ 8:19 All right, and when He comes back, He’s going to come back to judge. You see, He’s coming back to judge, and the Bible tells in Romans 14:12, “Everyone shall give account of himself to God.” Young people, we can laugh through this, and a lot of adults do, they just mock and everything else, but one day they got to stand before Jesus and give an account of everything they said and everything they did, and that is no joke, it is no laughing matter. All right, that’s the milk of the Word. So let’s look at the coming to Jesus, and proofs of babies coming to Jesus, evidence that we’re coming to Jesus Christ. Matthew 11:25 and Luke 10:17, we have account of the same statement: “You have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and have revealed them unto babies.” The “wise” here is not Bible wisdom, it is theologians.

▶ 9:19 All right, philosophers, people that logically and with their intellect. “Prudent” here is not wisdom like it mostly is in the Bible, it is intelligence. You can’t just use secular mental intelligence. All right, He’s hidden these things from the theologians, He hasn’t given it to these people, but He’s revealed it under babies. Now you may be a baby Christian, but God has given baby Christians some tremendous revelations. Okay, let’s look at them. Let’s look at these revelations, of proofs that we are in the baby stage. All right, Matthew 11:21, He said it, and then if you go before it and after it, you’ll find out what’s revealed. Okay, what’s revealed is the mighty works: “If they had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago.” So what’s revealed in babies? Repentance. You see, a baby Christian is one that’s turned from sin. They stop being a thief, they stop committing sexual immorality, they stopped getting drunk and high on drugs, and they turned to right. That’s what repentance is. How many of you are in the stage of repentance, you’re turning from? Come on, let me see your hand.

▶ 10:44 Yeah, see, if you’re repenting, see, God has revealed that to you. You may be struggling with some of these things you’re turning from, but you’re turning from them, that’s the baby stage. All right, then in verse 28 of Matthew 11: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.” I had to learn as a young Christian to go directly to Jesus Christ. These ministers, these people I thought were so great, they would never lie to me. I had to push them aside and start learning from Jesus Christ Himself, and that means I had to go to this Bible, and I had to line my life up with Jesus Christ. See, when you’re yoked, when two oxen are yoked, one is a strong one and one is a weak one, and the weak one follows the lead of the strong one. And so I had to yoke up with Jesus. He had to be my example, He had to be my teacher, not some “brother so-and-so.” Well, “brother so-and-so does it.” It doesn’t matter what brother so-and-so does. I got to what? Learn from Jesus Christ. He is my example. Amen, yes.

▶ 12:07 Amen. How many will make a commitment to learn from Jesus? Yeah. Be careful of theologians and all these books that are out there. Be careful. “I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” There’s rewards in repentance, there’s rewards in learning from Jesus, and I, as a young Christian, hooked up with Jesus, and that made the difference in my life. Luke 10:19, again He repeats, He’s revealed these things unto babies. What did He reveal? “I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Babies have a revelation of the power of God working in their life to say no to Satan, to say no to the kingdom of darkness.

▶ 12:58 Amen. Now they may not be possessing it, but they have the revelation that there is power in this Christianity, in this following Christ. There’s power, and I don’t need some ritual in the church, I need that power. Amen. And young people, there are people that take the Word of God and do funny things with it. Some of them, they handle snakes and so forth, and drink poison and all the rest, thinking they’re showing their faith in God. But let me show you how simple it is to understand this. Are you ready? All right, watch how simple it is to understand what serpents and scorpions is. All right: “Nevertheless, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you.” So what is the serpents and the scorpions? Spirits of the kingdom of darkness, that kingdom that wants, you, trying to lead you to wrong. You’re not taking up serpents and controlling them and driving them out; you’re taking up the powers and principalities of darkness, you’re destroying them, and you’re tearing them down. Amen.

▶ 14:15 Hallelujah. See, it’s that simple, how to understand God’s Word, but you got to be in the book to get these revelations. “But rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” God has a book up there called the Book of Life. He’s saying the babies have their name written in the book. Not the embryo, the babies. Hallelujah. So the baby stage is okay, isn’t it? Yes. Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with the baby stage if that’s where I’m at. Nothing wrong with it at all. I got to grow in this power, you see. I got to thank God, you see. The Bible says rejoice. Thank God, you know, praise Him for, if nothing else, because your name’s written in the Book of Life. Amen. You’re going to live forever, man, that’s something to be excited about, [unclear] hallelujah. You don’t have to have things going for you, everything is just rosy.

▶ 15:18 Rosy, that’s babyhood. It’s powerful. Babyhood is very powerful. Again, Luke 10:22: “No man knows who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.” And so babies have the revelation of the Father, and they get it through the Son because they’re one. You got to have God the Father, you got to have Jesus the Son, and babies have that. They may not be able to explain it, but they know who the Father is. All right, and you’ll see that as we go up in these steps, you see.

▶ 16:12 Now that’s evidence that you’re in a baby stage, and that’s powerful things, don’t you think? Amen, young people. Yeah, this baby stage is pretty good. All right, 1 Corinthians 3:1, here’s babies’ weaknesses. This is the weakness of babies, that’s why we got to go on to the next three stages. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1: “I couldn’t speak to you as unto spiritual but as to carnal,” fleshly, “even as babies in Christ.” So babies in Christ may still have some fleshly things working in their life, some carnal things. “I fed you with milk and not with meat.” So babies drink milk, but the next stage is eat what? Meat.

▶ 17:09 Yeah. Hallelujah. And then he tells them why they are babies and carnal: “you envy.” You are jealous, you quarrel, you argue about everything, you’re always in contention. You’re jealous if God uses somebody or God blesses somebody, you’re jealous. See, that’s what the world is. “And you are sectarian.” Now, the word “sectarian” isn’t in your Bible. The word “division” is, and it’s in italics because they added it, and they added it because of the following scripture. All right, they added it because of the following scripture says, “I’m of Paul, and I’m of [unclear],” “I’m a Baptist,” “I’m a Catholic,” “I’m a Methodist,” “I am Independent.”

▶ 18:08 None of that is in the Bible. The word “Catholic” is not in the Bible. The Baptist name of a church is not in the Bible. See, we put names on things, and that’s where we make our error and we become sectarian. And what it is, sectarian means you’re bigoted. Okay, you’re intolerant of other people. Baptists won’t have anything to do with Catholics, Catholics won’t have anything to do with Protestants. That’s sectarianism. You’re bigoted, you’re intolerant, and you don’t know how to love. The new commandment that Jesus gave us was what? Love one another. We quote it, but we don’t do it, right?

▶ 19:01 We’re scared to death of one another. When you possess God and you possess His Word, you don’t have to be afraid of anybody’s doctrine. I’m not afraid to be around anybody, and I haven’t been since I was a year or two old in God. Man, I knew who I was, I knew where I was going, I knew this book, and what I didn’t know of the book, I knew He would reveal it to me and keep me on the middle of the road. Are you there? So I could mingle. I wasn’t looking for people to direct me. Jesus was directing me. I’m yoked up with Him. Are you there? And that’s what the baby stage is. “And because you envy, you quarrel, and you’re sectarian, you walk as mankind.” You walk as humans. That’s what the secular world does. You’re doing exactly what the secular world is, you’re doing exactly what you did before you came to Christ. That’s babies’ problems. Now we’re going to amplify that. You’re ready for the amplification? You need the amplification of this fleshly thing, because you really need to know what you need to work on.

▶ 20:10 Ready? Galatians 5:19, the works of the flesh. Now what do babies do? They work things of the flesh still. They’re working on these weaknesses. Okay, “the works of the flesh are evident,” they’re plain, “which are adultery, fornication,” sexual immorality. Churches that are buying into this, homosexuals and acceptable lifestyle, they are not even in the baby stage, right? They’re still trying to get formed in the embryo stage. See, we should be telling people to come out of sexual immorality, pedophilia, sex with children, and all this stuff. “Impurity,” profanity, “idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions.” How many you know Christians that use profanity like a secular truck driver? They just curse and, yeah, there’s something wrong. You say what? They need to grow on up. “Outbursts of anger”: they hate one another, they lose their temper. You don’t know anybody loses their temper, I bet. How do you? Yeah.

▶ 21:29 “Selfish.” They only think of themselves. I’m not going to do this because I’m selfish? Oh, they don’t say “I’m selfish,” but that’s why they’re only concerned about their feelings and no one else. They’re only wanting things that benefit them. They’re not interested in anybody else. Very selfish. See, they’re babies in Christ, they need to change this and go on to the next stage. Could that be an amen? Amen. Yeah, see, we need to recognize where we’re at. And I was watching Killing Kennedy, and [unclear] Oswald said, “I’m the man of the house. I’m the man of the house.” He needed to get Christ in his life and be the man that Jesus told him to be. Amen. Jesus Christ should be the man of the house. That’s scripture. That’s right. Hallelujah.

▶ 22:40 Okay, “selfish ambitions”: they’re only looking for things that benefit them. They’re rebellious. You see, when the Bible says “lift up your hands and your name” and they won’t do it, what’s that called? Rebellion. When the Bible says “watch with Me one hour” and we won’t give one hour to God, what is that? Rebellion. When the Bible says pay your tithe and we won’t do it, what is it? Rebellion. Aren’t you glad you came to church today? You see, a rebel draws attention to himself by being out of sync. Hallelujah. The Bible says assemble yourselves together, “even the more so as you see the day approaching.” “I’m not going to church, all those hypocrites, and oh, those churches, they’re so phony, and they’re a mess.” Well, come in and change it. You got to obey the Scripture. You’re rebellious when you want to do nothing but criticize the church instead of saying, “Hey, I’m going to come and I’m going to contribute to the healthiness of the church.” Could that be an amen? See, that’s rebellion, and that’s what babies do. They rebel because they’re selfish, they only think of themselves.

▶ 24:10 “Heresies.” Heresies is doctrines that contradict Scripture. All right, and I got that a big one in there, because heresy can be out of ignorance. You know, there’s people that have the ladies wear something on their head to come into the house of God, which the Bible doesn’t say at all. They got that all messed up, but it’s, I’ve been around them, it’s ignorance that they’re doing it. They’re not trying to purposely oppose God’s Word, they’re just really ignorant. They’ve been taught in that group, and this is the problem with group theology: when you’re only fed on one group’s theology, you become a clone of that group, and it may not all be truth. Yes. Wow, that was good. I don’t even know if I can repeat that, but that was good. See, we’re not following a group, we’re not following some new event, we’re following Christ and His Word. And some people, they twist the Scriptures to their own destruction. They do it on purpose because they want to sin. Okay, they want to sin, and it’s on purpose.

▶ 25:29 That is the horrible heresy, and you got to be careful of that. The heresy out of ignorance won’t do much to damage you, but the one on purpose will. “Envy, murders, drunkenness, partying.” So that’s babies. So when Christians do that, they’re babies. Now the party group, they laugh at the heresy group, and the heresy group laughs at the rebellious group, but we’re all in the same stage, and what stage is it? We’re babies. We got to grow up, we got to go on to maturity, we got to get this meat of the Word in us.

▶ 26:09 What is the spiritual house and the priesthood being built up? Hebrews 3:6: “Jesus Christ, His Son over His own house, whose house are we?” We are the house of God. Crystal Cathedral isn’t the house of God, this barn isn’t the house of God, the people are the house of God. “If we hold the confidence and rejoicing of hope firm to the end.” You know, once saved always saved, don’t believe it. You got to hold on until you die or Jesus comes. “Upon this rock,” Matthew 16:18, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Very powerful, young people. He wants to build you up to where you are the aggressor and tearing down the strongholds of the enemy, and the gates of hell cannot keep you from, uh, setting captives free and all the rest. That’s the baby stage.

▶ 27:06 Ephesians 2:19-20: “You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.” I trust that that is your goal, to only listen to the teachings of the apostles and the prophets. Be careful of people’s opinions. “Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” See, we’re growing into a temple, and we’re growing into righteousness. All through my Christian walk, I’ve heard these people say, “Well, you know, I used to couldn’t do that, but I’m mature now.” It is a holy temple we’re growing into. You see, a righteous temple we’re growing into, and when you say, “Now I’m at a place where it’s okay for me to violate God’s Word,” that’s not maturity, that’s stupidity.

▶ 28:09 “You also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Now this is the power of the corporate body. When we come together, we’re supposed to come with something. It says in 1 Corinthians 11, we don’t come to get, we come with something to give. And the corporate place is where God has designed the real growth. When we come together, we grow into a habitation, a dwelling place. God comes and dwells, and He ministers to us, He teaches us, He changes us, if we allow His presence to come. And so the goal of assembly is what? His habitation. Not to get a lady, not to get a man, not to get someone to buy my product of my business, but the main goal is we assemble together for His presence to come. That’s where Dave Kincer learns, that’s where Dave Kincer gets changed. 1 Peter 2:9: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” Now, young people, this is powerful. Jesus said, “You haven’t chosen Me, I’ve chosen you.” He came along and touched your life and you responded. You are a royal, kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a special people. “Peculiar” doesn’t mean you’re weird and you do weird things; it means you’re special, you’re valuable.

▶ 29:59 “That you should show forth” the what? “Praises of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.” Revelations 1:6: Jesus has made us kings and priests unto God. Now, if you know your Bible, priests both ministered to God and ministered to the people. So see, I come to minister to God through prayer and worship and learning His Word and so forth, but I also come to serve the people. And when the people aren’t in my agenda, I’m off balance, and when God isn’t on my agenda, I’m off balance. I’m a priest who ministers to God, and then because I minister to God and He touches me, then I can, then I can with some power minister to others. All right, you guys got that? Now we are the spiritual house being built up. Very powerful stuff.

▶ 31:06 All right, now we’ll go to the fourth one: what are the four spiritual sacrifices of babies? You know, the fourth stage was they offer up spiritual sacrifices. What are these four spiritual sacrifices of babies? Okay, number one, Hebrews 13:15: “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of” what? Praise. You learned Friday what the word “praise” means. What does the word “praise” mean? I heard you guys say it: to boast about, to brag about. Okay, Jesus Christ and His Word. Okay, that is “the fruit of your lips.” It tells you where the praise comes from. If I zip my lip, there’s no praise. “The fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Now, how many know we should be thankful that our name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Yes. We should be thankful that Jesus forgave us. If nothing else, “Lord, thank You for saving me. Thank You, Lord, for putting my name in heaven.” You got powerful things to praise Him and thank Him for. All right, that is number one, the sacrifice of praise. Say the word “praise.” Praise, praise. Praise should be a very high priority in the church. Praise is mentioned in joy way more times than mourning and sorrow and all that stuff. Number two, Hebrews 13:15 and 16: “Do not forget to do good.” And number three, fellowship, “for with such sacrifices,” plural, “God is well pleased.” So these sacrifices are three. Fellowship is not what you think it is here. It isn’t just us coming together and talking.

▶ 32:59 Fellowship here is partnership, koinonia, partnership, commitment to work together, to partner together to the end result that’s profitable for the whole. See, I can fellowship with you without partnering with you. I can come in, fellowship and say, “Hi, Jacob, how you doing? It’s good to see you,” and, but when I partner with him, I work with him for the end goal of the church. It’s not me doing my thing, it’s not him doing his thing, it’s us doing what we need to do to reach the goal of the church. Are you with me? So when you’re a partner in a business, you make sure you are productive and the product is the best quality, because the end result is a profitable business. And that’s the word in here, “partner.” I must show up for work, I must be involved in this.

▶ 34:10 Jesus said unto them, “Have you never read?” I want to show you why your praise is so important. “Have you never read?” And that’s the problem, we don’t read. “Out of the mouth of babies,” out of the mouth of what stage? Babies “and sucklings You have perfected,” or prepared, “praise.” See, this is Jesus talking. All right, then we go to Psalm 8:2 that He quoted, and it says in Psalm 8:2, “Out of the mouth of babies and sucklings You have ordained,” or appointed, “strength, because of Your enemies, that You might still the enemy and the avenger.” Now, young people, God has given babies, young Christians, a very powerful tool. If you will praise Him, if you will thank Him, He will use it as a tool to defeat your enemies and defeat the avenger, who is Satan. You see? Are you there?

▶ 35:11 Now everybody wants to call on a prayer hotline or 24-hour hotline or something else. I guarantee you, if you will operate this principle and get up in the morning and praise and thank God and come to church and praise and thank God, that God will go before you and defeat your enemies and defeat the avenger. You see, the avenger has a right to come and hold you accountable for your sin, that’s Satan. But praise, God says, “Back off.” Amen. Yeah. Yes. You see, we need God in here. When you praise Him and you speak well of Him and you boast to Him, when the Satan comes to say, “Hey, this guy deserves to be punished, be sick and lose his job and all this because he’s disobeyed in this area,” God says, “Back off. He’s a baby growing, and he’s praising Me. Stay in your place.” Very powerful tool.

▶ 36:22 Hallelujah. You always hear baby Christians say, “I pray about it.” Well, let’s pray about it. You never hear them say, “Let’s praise about it.” You know, “I got this problem in my life.” “Well, let’s pray about it.” Why don’t you switch it around and say, “Let’s praise about it”? God said if I, as a baby, would praise Him, I would thank Him, I would lift up my voice unto Him with my lips, that He would still the enemy and the avenger. Wow, that was good. You got that, young ones? Sometimes you can’t follow these older ones. They get into retirement and the old folks’ mentality, and they just kind of putting in their time, you know, punching the clock, waiting to die and go to heaven. You got to follow people that are following Christ, like Paul says, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”

▶ 37:19 Hallelujah. That’s true. A lot of Christians, older ones, just waiting to go to heaven, watching the clouds go by, or watching the TV screen go by, or bowling, or whatever else, just waiting for the rapture, and they’re not operating the principles that bring power to the church. They’re selfish. They don’t come to church with praise because they’re not interested in where God delivers other people or not.

▶ 37:53 The fourth one: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Bible, the people always tell me, “Well, I don’t want to be in the flesh, I want the Spirit, I want to be in the Spirit.” The Bible says, “Let all flesh praise the Lord.” How you going to lift your hands without your flesh responding? How you going to bow until you tell your body to respond? Your body has got to be involved. So present your body as a what? Living sacrifice. Not only living, holy, but doing the things God tells us to do: lifting our hands, lifting our voices, kneeling, bowing, dancing, playing instruments, worshiping God, praying. You see, the body’s got to be involved. You’ve got to engage your body to get this stuff done. “And do not be conformed to this world.” Don’t imitate the world, young people, “but be transformed.” That word “transformed” is “metamorphous,” changed into a beautiful creature. You see, changed into something beautiful, change totally, and it is a process. That’s why we’re in the baby stage, we’re in a process. And when you’re in the baby stage and you know it’s okay, don’t throw babies out of the church. Don’t throw yourself out of the church. Just recognize, I’m a baby, I’ve got to change.

▶ 39:20 And we do that by giving our bodies a living sacrifice. And the word “renewing of your mind” really means the complete changing of your thinking. How many need some changing in your thinking? Yeah. And it comes from the sacrifice of your body: reading the Word, studying the Word, going to church, praying, discipline this body to do what God said to do, and then God takes it and makes it a spiritual power. Thank God for the baby stage. Now see, somehow I learned this as a young Christian, and when people would attack me and accuse me, I didn’t worry about it, because I knew I was in the process of being changed. I couldn’t teach it like I’m telling you, but I knew I was in that process, and I knew somewhere tomorrow this problem I had, this sin I had, the selfishness I had, would be gone, because that’s what He promised. But as years went by, then I can teach it clearly because I understand, and it’s in the book. Look, the sad thing is people are staying babies when they need to go on.

▶ 40:34 All right. Now in closing, does praise work? Okay, and you’ll see I do this with a lot of God’s principles. I go back to the Bible and I check out if it worked, because God is the same what? Yesterday, today, and forever. Okay, so we go to [unclear] Chronicles 5:13: “As the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound in praising,” what’s the word? Praising and thanking the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever,” that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. The presence of God came when they praised Him. Music is very important in the church, but let me tell you, it is not to be worshiped. Jesus, we got no record of Him using music, we got no record of Him having concerts, but we do have a record that it is a tool that the church is to use to praise and worship Him. Are you with me? Don’t worship music, use music to worship God.

▶ 41:52 All right, next one. Hebrews 8:5 in Exodus 25:40: “Make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mount.” Mr. Barnes covered this clearly. There was a pattern that had to be followed, and when it was followed in Exodus 40:34, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. But they had to first follow the pattern, they had to first follow God’s order, then the presence come. We want God to bless what we decide we want to do. We don’t want to lift our hands, we don’t want to bow, we don’t want to shout to the Lord with a voice of triumph. So, you know, we go, “This is us, bless me.” God says, “No, you change, and I’ll bless you.”

▶ 42:40 Amen. Hallelujah. We got to follow the pattern. All right, now Jonah 2:9 and 10. You guys all know the story of Jonah, right? Yeah, he rebelled against God, didn’t want to go preach to the sinners, so they threw him overboard and a fish swallowed him. Now he’s down in the belly of this big fish that God created, special fish. Okay, special fish God created, and if you don’t think God can get you, He’s got a lot of fish waiting for you. You may not be a fish in the water, but He’s got a fish waiting for you. That fish swallow you.

▶ 43:19 So here’s Jonah in the dark belly of the, well, all right, and this fish is swimming all around the ocean and all this, and Jonah comes to his senses, and this is what he did before he was released from the fish: “I will sacrifice unto You with a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed.” And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. See, Jonah said, like we do, “Lord, I’m going to serve You,” and then he decided he didn’t want to in this area. All right, so in the belly of the fish he came to his senses. Instead of praying, instead of calling the 24-hour hotline, he began to praise God and thank God for this fish, thank God for being thrown overboard, thank God that God would come and tell him to go to Nineveh with a message. And then God spoke to the fish and, whoop, Jonah was released from his situation. See, it does work. It worked back then at midnight.

▶ 44:34 Midnight, Paul and Silas are in prison. They’re shackled, rats running all over, human dung everywhere, human, ear, on everywhere. They had to go to the bathroom in the shackles, they, you, ah, it was the pits, it stunk, it was horrible. Now they are there, they had just been beaten for the testimony of Christ, for preaching the gospel, so their back is raw, they’re in these shackles. Instead of calling the 24-hour hotline, instead of saying, “Church, pray for us, oh God, that’s such a bad thing,” they prayed and sang what? Praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. What? None of this silent stuff. The prisoners heard them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so the foundations of the prisons were shaken, immediately all the doors were open, and all the prisoners’ bands were loosed. Every prisoner was set free. You want to be set free from the bondage of sin, from bondages of habits and addictions and so forth? I guarantee you, if you will use this principle of praise that babies have a right to use, you may not be perfect yet, you may have some sin in your life, but if you will use this principle of praise, God will liberate you, and God will spew you out of your predicament.

▶ 45:54 Amen. But not the American church. We want to come with the latest band, we want to come with the best singers, and we want to enjoy music like we do Monday through Friday going to work. We want to hear the same kind of music, you know, just put a little God, you know, word “Jesus” in it or something, and, uh, music does nothing for you. You’re not meeting with God, nothing is happening in your life. Why? Because you’re not operating the principle of praise, and you’re not focusing on Jesus, who is the liberator, the healer, the deliverer, the forgiver, the builder of the church. You’re not focusing on Him, and so you’re going and you’re coming, day after day, Sunday after Sunday, week after week, and no growth. And God forbid that you get up in the morning and thank God and praise God first thing. But I submit to you, praise works.

▶ 46:58 How many want to see [unclear] reach for the gospel? America. Okay, look here. Jesus had been to Jerusalem every feast day since He was born, and nowhere is this recorded that the city was moved when Jesus came in, but a great multitude would spread their clothes and the tree branches on the road, crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when He had come into Jerusalem, the city was what? Moved. It was shaken, and they responded and said what? “Who is this man?” He had been there every feast day since he was born, and they never, ever were moved to ask who Jesus was. And I submit to the church in America, if we will come in and sacrifice the praise, the fruit of our lips, lifting our hands, lifting our voices unto Him, that God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the God who promised these things also has the power to perform them, and we can see our families moved, we can see [unclear] move, we see California move, and America moved, because God will move them. Amen. Doesn’t matter who’s elected and all this stuff; it’s going to matter what God does with the ones who are elected. Now I’m not saying don’t vote, don’t take that wrong. I’m saying don’t lean on the fact if we get the right person in office, things are going to change. We got to change things from the top down, and that’s Jesus.