John K. Jenkins Sr - Faith Towards God

Father, we thank You for the privilege of being in the house of worship. We thank You for these young people in 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 receive the glory. Save somebody, reclaim some lost soul, Father- some unsure person, or some unchurched person, or some struggling person. Let Your Word accomplish what You desire. In Jesus ' name, amen and amen.

You can be seated. Yeah, I am impressed. I thought to myself, «Is that really them singing?» but y’all did a great job! Let me salute you 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-uh, I have this focus this year. If this is your first time today, let me just bring you up to speed. To the regulars, let me see who the regulars are who come here every Sunday. You’re here every week, okay, good. Now, let me see who this might be your first time today-let me see what you look like. Okay, all right.

So, you all 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, as well as the call of God for me, is to make sure our church is discipling people. We have a number of discipleship programs, and we want to ensure that every person is discipled. Lean over and ask your neighbor, «Which discipleship program have you gone through?» Ask them! Go ahead, open your mouth-ask them! Wait for an answer. Now, ask someone on the other side. I want to make sure everybody gets asked this question.

Now, the commandment from the Lord is that everybody is discipled. If you have not been through a discipleship program, if you have not been discipled, you are failing to do what the Lord has commanded us to do. That is a clear instruction from the Lord: Matthew 28: 19-20. Very clear instructions in the latter part of chapter 28: «Go, ye therefore, and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And lo, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the world, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.» That 's discipleship. I want to ensure we are trying to make 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! Thank you very much. I’m also feeling a call to challenge members that not only have you been discipled, but are you discipling somebody? You are an influencer; you are influencing someone. The assignment that I feel God wants us all to do is to ensure that we are discipling others-the people that you have influenced, that you are making a deposit into and teaching. That 's the call from the Lord.

And so, that’s what we started on December 31st, telling you. For the last several Sundays, I have been talking about that. The first Sunday in January-I’m sorry, I talked about how we do it, who we are to disciple, and the way we are to do it. I talked about that the first Sunday. Last Sunday, I started teaching on the things that you should know and understand. So let’s go to Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5-I have to start chapter 5, and I have to start reading at verse 12. That 's where I want to start to get to chapter 6. I am going to 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 have 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 ways 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 so that you can determine, make the decision, and know what’s right and what’s 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! They 're over here-let me come over here. Therefore, verse 1 of chapter 6, are y’all with me? Are y’all following with me?