John K. Jenkins Sr - Bible Study, Faith Towards God

Father, we thank You for the privilege of being in the house of worship. We thank You for these young people and their worship of You. We are so thankful for Your hand upon their lives. We pray for Your continued blessing. Bless our time in Your Word today. Father, give me clarity of thought. Let hearts be open and receptive to receive, and let Your name get the glory. Save somebody; reclaim some lost soul, Father- some unsure person, or some unchurched person, and some struggling person. Let Your Word accomplish what You desire. In Jesus ' name, Amen and Amen.

You can be seated. I’m impressed! I thought to myself, «Is that really them singing?» But y’all did a great job! Let me salute y’all for coming out today in this blistering cold weather. I’m proud of you. To tell the truth, if I weren 't a pastor, I might be at home, but I’m grateful for your presence today. I’ve started a focus this year. If this is your first time today, let me just bring you up to speed. The people who are regulars, let me see who the regulars are who come here every Sunday. You’re here every week? Okay, good! Let me see who might be here for the first time today. Let me see what you look like. Okay, alright, so you have to make the rest of the people sit through what I’m getting ready to say today so that you can follow along with us.

Our focus for 2024 is about discipleship, and my passion-God’s call for me-is to ensure our church is discipling people. We have several discipleship programs, and we want to make sure every person is discipled. Lean over and ask your neighbor, «Which discipleship program have you gone through?» Ask them! Go ahead, open your mouth and ask them. Wait for an answer. Now ask someone on the other side. I want to make sure everybody gets asked the question.

Now, the commandment from the Lord is that everybody should be discipled. If you have not gone through a discipleship program, you are failing to do what the Lord has commanded us to do. That is a clear instruction from the Lord in Matthew 28: 19-20. The latter part of Chapter 28 says, «Go ye therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the world, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.» That is discipleship.

I want to ensure that we are making sure that every person who calls themselves a member of the First Baptist Church of Glenarden has been discipled. Amen? Thank you, I appreciate it very much! I’m also feeling a call to challenge members that not only have you been discipled, but you should also be discipling somebody. You are an influencer; you are influencing somebody. The assignment I feel God wants us all to fulfill is to ensure that we are discipling others. The people you have influenced, you should be making a deposit in and teaching them. That 's the call from the Lord.

So, on December 31st, we started telling you this, and for the last several Sundays, I’ve been discussing that. On the first Sunday in January, I talked about how we do it, who we are to disciple, and the way we are to do it. Last Sunday, I started teaching on the things that you should know and understand. So, let’s go to Hebrews chapter 5. I have to start reading at verse 12; that’s where I want to begin to get to chapter 6. I will go to chapter 6, but I have to start at chapter 5. It says in verse 12, «For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God.»

He said, «Look, you 've been around church long enough that by this time you should be teachers; you ought to be teachers.» Verse 12 says, «But the truth is, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you’ve come to need milk and not solid food.» That 's the instruction from the writer of Hebrews to the Hebrew Christians — those who were Christians but were thinking about backsliding and going back to their old way of living. He says, «By this time, you ought to be mature enough to handle your struggles in life.»

He says in verse 13, «For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe; but solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.» There ought to be a level of maturity in you that allows you to determine what is right and what is wrong. I’m discovering that we have a lot of people who don’t know the difference between right and wrong. Amen? Praise the Lord! Thank you.

Therefore, in chapter 6, verse 1, are y’all with me? Are y’all following along with me?…»