Ishmael LaBiosa: It really is amazing grace that Liberty Baptist Church has made it to its one hundred and ninety-second year, celebrating Harvest Day today. Man, what has what God has done through this church has been simply amazing. It really is. And we praise the Lord for it. 1834. Man, so long ago. That's the year that our church was established with thirty-nine people being transferred from Rocks Baptist Church in Pamplin. Which is where we had our baptism, our creek baptism not that long ago, where 17 people were dunked in the shallow creek that we had. And ⁓ this world looked different in 1834. A lot different than it di does today. In 1834, there was no electricity. In 1834, there were no automobiles. So there were horse and buggy and walking, right? Trains had just really been introduced into our culture. So 1834. was very, very different. And the church survived difficult seasons. Many difficult season and seasons in this one hundred and ninety two years to include the bitter civil war. ⁓ when I when I tell people that I'm I'm in Appomattox, I say really we're only famous for a couple of things. It's where the Civil War ended and we have a Walmart. Those are the two big things. And you know, but that's a big thing that the Civil War took place right here in our backyards. We you know we had wounded Union soldiers that ⁓ were actually ⁓ use our our pews, our church pews as hospital beds during that season. Appomattox County had a front row seat to the battlefront, and we even experienced the end of the Civil War right here. The church made it through the Great Depression in the 1930s. And then in the nineteen forties, young men from our church were called out to serve in World War II. So they went to battle. The 1990s brought about a conservative resurgence that affected all churches in Virginia. A former pastor of Liberty Baptist Church would be the one to gather like-minded churches to establish the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. That man was Doyle Chauncey. He did this in 1996, and he was one of our pastors here from nineteen seventy-four until nineteen seventy-eight. You might remember if you were here last year for Harvest Day, we had Doyle's son David Chauncey, who was our guest speaker. And what a great family they certainly are. And this this man, Doyle Chauncey, established the SBCV. In the early two thousands, Liberty Baptist Church fully aligned with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. And even among the division in this season, the church pushed through. At that time, there weren't enough people here to even fill up the fellowship hall. So if you've been in our fellowship hall of the church, we didn't have enough people to fill that space. And that is where you will have lunch today, just so you know. And yet over time, God continued to bless our church to the degree that two Sunday morning services were needed. Fast forward to the Easter Sunday service of this year here at Liberty Baptist Church, we had more than 900 people attend. Praise the Lord for what He is doing. And and since 1834, we've only had thirty-two pastors lead our congregations. And we are very blessed to have. Pastor Rusty Small as our lead pastor. We are very blessed to have him. But wait, there's more. Pastor Rusty has served just as long as only one other pastor, John C. Hammer, who served from 1849 to 1867. Pastor Rusty started here as a youth pastor, and next year he will begin his 19th year as our lead pastor, and he will be the longest serving pastor, lead pastor of our church. And we say thank you, Pastor Rusty, for your service. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you, James, and thank you, Thomas. Only the Lord Jesus Christ knows how many lives have been saved and transformed through this ministry. And to all that, we should shout, Hallelujah, praise God, and praise God. And he is not done working through our church. He has more work to do. And you are a part of that story. My family and I have been attending here for 15 years. We were blessed to call this our church home. We've benefited from all the biblical teaching from Sunday school classes through the children's ministry, youth ministry, small groups, men's ministry, women's ministry. And then two years ago, God called me to be the associate pastor. Well, one of our church elders, Don Jones, who gave the welcome this morning, ⁓ told me, he said, Look, I'm an old man and I want you to be ordained before the Lord calls me home. And so over the last two years, Don has been working at me to get this done. We've just been so busy we kept putting it off. And so finally on Thursday night, as Don shared with you, two and a half hours that I was grilled with questions, but good things. Asking about my personal testimony, asking about my home life, asking about my professional life, asking how I can defend the faith. In our culture today. Our culture today likes to bend the truth in the little bit that they can to make it seem like the Word of God is not the ultimate authority. But I tell you, friends, today, that I believe that the Bible is the ultimate authority, and I hope you believe that too. And so certainly they stretch me thin on this, and I am glad to say that I've got that behind me now. I cannot wait to get lunch in my belly and celebrate with you. If you and I invite you to come back at four o'clock today after lunch, if you're not Comatose taking a nap from the wonderful lunch you're about to have. Four o'clock in the sanctuary. I'd love to celebrate with you because really this ordination is just as much part of your story as it is my story. And I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Those of you who've prayed for me through this season, I made it through. God gets the glory and honor, and we celebrate at 4 o'clock today. We're certainly glad that you are here. We hope you've been ⁓ challenged in the sermon series that Pastor Russi has been sharing with us. Multiply. We've been taking a look at the truths of scripture and what it looks like to tell others about Christ, to make disciples of Jesus Christ. I hope you have a Paul in your life. I know that ⁓ churches today struggle in this area, the struggle of the idea of mentorship. But I know that there are plenty older guys older than me that have a lot more wisdom than I have that I need to lean into. And so my I need to put my pride to the side and say, teach me, what do you got for me? I want glean from it. And so I welcome that. And there are other young men in this room, other young women in this room who have that same concern. But I also hope that you have a Timothy in your life. I hope you have somebody that you're investing in because God has laid a foundation of truth in your heart. And so certainly God has gifted you with many things to be able to point them to truth in Scripture. So I encourage you, friends, that you continue to do that. Pastor Russell will continue this sermon series next week. We're going to take a little break into the message of. Today, but certainly it is it made me evaluate how I have those two kinds of people in my life. We all certainly knew that, no, ⁓ need that. And Satan wants you to think that you don't need that. Satan wants you to think that you don't have the gifts that you need to invest in others. But God says otherwise. God wants you to be part of his mission. It's it's because of this mission that we're able to tell others about Christ. and multiply. Some of you may have heard of the name David Ring. He was an evangelist that I got to meet years ago when I was a student at Liberty University. ⁓ David Ring was actually born dead. He was resuscitated after birth to survive a hard beginning in life with a cerebral palsy diagnosis. It limited David physically in the way he walked and the way he talked But God worked through David to pa to provide a powerful testimony to be able to point people to Jesus. I first heard David ring, ⁓ I it was the first time a pastor had ever moved me to tears. Because I would watch this man who struggled to speak, who struggled to be able to walk. ⁓ I remember ⁓ he would often talk about his ⁓ limitations in life, but he didn't let that stop him from proclaiming the name of Jesus. He would say, I have cerebral palsy. What's your problem? And boy, that would sink in. And man, that made a big impact in my life. Well, this past week, God called him home in his sleep, and he no longer talks funny. He no longer has a lump when he walks. He is dancing in the arms of Jesus. And his testimony still lives on. And we can't forget powerful people like that in our lives. And you can be used that same way. You have a testimony, you have a story. We talk about this often in here, but I encourage you to use your story like David Ring to point people to the one who saved you from your sins. As God calls you to lead, you may feel unqualified. I certainly have felt that ⁓ over in my years of ministry. And but God has a process of growing his people in holiness, and the more that you Lean into this process of growing into holiness, you get a little more confident in your spiritual walk. You get a little more confident in how you can lead people to Christ. And so we're going to take a look at that today. God invites you to be a part of His mission. He is doing a good work in you and through you, and God will see it through until Christ returns or calls you home first. The Bible gives us a salvation guide. It starts with regeneration. Or new birth. It's when you're born again. When you admit of your sins and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are born again. You are a new creature in Christ. Repentance is turning away from sin and living for God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment to serve Him as your Lord and Savior in all things. I like to encourage a new believer. When I'm when I meet with someone who's ready to make that decision to follow Christ, I like to tell them, hey, this is just day one. Okay? You've made this decision, praise God for that, but now you've got work to do. You've got to read the Bible. You've got to pray. You've got to soak in God's word. He's got to work in your life. It can't just be a, hey, I did this and now I'm just gonna go back to how I was living. That's not how this works. Justification is part of salvation. This is God's gracious and full acquittal of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer in a relationship Of peace and favor with God. Doesn't that sound good to have peace and favor with God? Sanctification is this experience from day one of your salvation until glorification, when we receive a new body and we'll spend eternity with Jesus. The end goal of sanctification is to be like Jesus. That's the whole process of sanctification. I don't know if you guys ever watch. T V. I certainly don't have a lot of time to be watching TV these days, but I have for the channel a few times and watch these these home fixer upper shows. You ever watch these things, these home fixer uppers? Sometimes they're very fascinating because of of the things that they do to repair a home. My wife is an interior designer. ⁓ she got her degree as an interior designer. There there are times when I come home and I have found that some of the home has been rearranged in a new way. And even with a hurt back, she will still move things around that she shouldn't be moving things around. There have been times I've gone to the kitchen to try to find a fork to eat my my lunch. I can't find the forks because they're in a new place now. They're in a new drawer. I have to ask my wife, where are they? ⁓ but that's the interior design mind. I I don't have that mind. I'm kind of stubborn. I just say just keep it right here. This is a good place for it, right here. and you know, this fixer-upper concept, you know, where where ⁓ a homeowner will will buy a home. That might be just kind of run down. You might have a leaking roof that's been damaged. The foundation is cracked. Water is coming in. The kitchen needs a whole rehaul. It just looks like it's back from the 1960s. You know, you got the bathrooms, pinks and greens. I hope I'm not picking on anybody today. and I can't help you with that, so don't ask me. but you know, you have all these problems with some of these older homes. And and a homeowner, ⁓ a fixer upper team will come in and they'll repair it all. They'll they'll they'll board up the cracks and the holes in the roof, they'll put new shingles on, they'll go into the foundation, they'll seal the cracks, prevent the water from coming in. They'll go into the kitchen, they'll rip out all the old cabinets and the old island, put in some new stuff, and they'll rip out all the old tile and the pinks and greens of the bathroom and make a shiny new bathroom that you want to go walk in and just do your devotions. I don't know if y'all do that. Anyways, ⁓ This this concept of of ⁓ of a fixer upper is kind of like how God works in our life. We're we're all a fixer upper. We all have problems. I don't I don't know if y'all have any problems today that that might be going through your mind, your soul. We all have issues, don't we? And just like a fixer upper home, God works continuously in a believer's life after salvation to chip away at sin and build up Christ's likeness. Sanctification is a process. By which, according to the will of God, we are made partakers of His holiness. This is a progressive work. When you are born again, it is carried on the hearts of believers by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification means to be set apart. And this is where I want to spend time today. This is the place where Christians grow in spiritual maturity. And to be effective Christians here at Liberty Baptist Church, this is an area we should understand. So that we know what to expect and how to establish some important habits in our Christian walk. So if you have your Bibles, open up to First Thessalonians chapter four. We're gonna look at the first eight verses in First Thessalonians chapter four. My first point today: to grow in spiritual maturity, we should understand the foundation of sanctification. Join me in verse one. It says this: Finally, then, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus. That as you have received from us how you must walk and please God as you are doing, do so even more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is God's will, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, so that each of you knows how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not with lustful desires, like the Gentiles who don't know God. This means one must not Transgress against and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an ⁓ an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity, but to sanctification. Therefore the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you his Holy Spirit. Paul encourages the church to honor the Lord in how we act. It he reminds us to obey the commands given to us through the Lord Jesus. Let's not forget the damage that took place in creation. In Genesis, we read that Adam and Eve decided to disobey God's commands, and this sam sin damaged the relationship God intended for them and for all of us. In First Thessalonians, Paul points out that we need to be set apart from what the world is doing. It appears sinful behavior is Is as widespread then as it is now. Sin is so bad, isn't it? We can just see it so easy. I mean, some of us who are just, at least in my I'm 44 years old, and I can just see the difference from when I was a kid to where we are today, just how our culture has accepted more and more sinful behavior that is not good. It's not going to keep us sanctified in God's word. We need to abstain from sexual immorality. Our culture Has obscured what God originally created between what should take place between a married man and a married woman. We were commanded to keep procreation between a husband and wife to avoid hurting one another, our relationship with God, and our testimony with others. How quick does our testimony get ruined? It only takes seconds for us to make a wrong move. And guess who's watching for us to make the wrong move? The world is. The world is watching the Christian, right? They're watching the Christian to see how faithful are you to the one you say you were you were faithful to. They're waiting for us to make a mistake. And Satan is trying to trip us up, isn't he? Always. He's always trying to tempt us and and teach and trying to get us to fall into sin. But God gives us a way out. Verse three shows us that sanctification is God's will for you. It is part of his plan for you to be sanctified or made holy. And this is the process of living the Christian life. It cries out to us to take this very seriously. We don't have to ask if this is God's will in our life. You know, a lot of times we're we're trying to figure out what is God's will in our life. Well, God's made it pretty simple right here. He says, this is God's will for your life, to be sanctified. This is part of your journey, your spiritual journey. So believe it. If God says it, believe it. And while we can understand this is God's will, Romans 6 shows us that we will still struggle in our spiritual maturity. So if you have your Bibles, you can open up to Romans chapter 6, and we're going to look at ⁓ chapter 6, verses 1 through 14, which leads me to my second point. To grow in spiritual maturity, we face a battle between the old sin self and the new creation in Christ. Starting in verse 1, it says, What should we say then? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may multiply? Absolutely not. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life. For if we have been joined with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him, in order that sin's dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin's claims. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead no longer dies. Death no longer rules over him, for in that he died. He died to sin once for all, but in that he lives. He lives to God. Verse eleven So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires, and do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead Offer yourselves to God and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law, but under grace. If you've been a Christian for any long period of time, you know that this spiritual journey is a battleground. We can face a war between the old sinful self and the new creation that we are in Christ. Paul gives us A battle plan here in verse 11. He says, to consider yourself dead to sin. Take account for what is actually true. Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross, even while we were still sinners. He did this, he conquered death and rose from the grave. Jesus broke the power of sin over your life. We are encouraged to not make sin as weapons for unrighteousness. Paul says, Turn this around and make weapons for unrighteousness. Righteousness, sin will not rule over you. And don't forget what we read in First Corinthians ten thirteen. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. It takes intentionality, right? It takes us leaning into the Holy Spirit and God's work to overcome temptation. And God gives us a way out. You can bet your bottom dollar that you are going to be tempted at some point, okay? The question is, how will you respond to that temptation? You know the area in your life that's weak, that you have some weak chains, that every once in a while that sin will kind of creep in. And you gotta ask yourself, am I gonna fall into that sin and disobey God, or am I gonna? Am I going to overcome that sin, that temptation? Because God gives you a way out. So just remember, friend, anytime that you are tempted in sin, you got a way out. You got a free ticket to say, I'm good. I'm good, Satan. Get behind me. I'm going to worship and glorify his name because that's who I do. The Bible tells us to take up the cross daily. By doing this, sanctification changes the desire before the behavior. I'm going to read that again. By doing this, sanctification changes the desire before the behavior. So our desire should look really different. As we're being sanctified in Christ, as we're looking more and more like Jesus, we're not going to want to have a desire to want to sin because we our desire should be to glorify who? The Lord. We cannot be set apart in our own strength, though. We can't be made holy in our own strength. The engine of sanctification is. The Holy Spirit. This is why Galatians 5 16 encourages us to say this walk by the Spirit. So I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And Jesus said that the Holy Spirit lives in us and will teach us and remind us all that Jesus taught. As our old sin self battles with a new creature, we are in Christ, we need to lean into the Holy Spirit to live in righteousness, which leads to my third. And final point to grow in spiritual maturity, we need to establish essential habits in our Christian walk. Jesus said in John 17, 17, Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. Where do we find truth today? The world is constantly asking that question. Where do we find truth? Well, as a believer in Christ, we know where to find truth. It's in God's Word, God's holy word from Genesis. To Revelation. Romans 12, 2 instructs us: do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Every day we should wake up and say, God, renew my mind. Help me to think about you. Let me glorify you. Don't let me lean into my own selfish desires. It is so easy for us to do that. Pick up your phone, turn on the TV, go to the mall. I mean, the world wants us not to be following Christ. So every day when you wake up, your prayer should be, Father, renew my mind. Help me glorify you in what I think and what I say, how I drive. How I act. All the things, right? All these things matter. The world is watching us, and we need to be good, we need to be good examples of Christ-like character. And the more we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us to look more like Jesus, we begin to see fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5, 22 through 23 tells us what this looks like. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Goodness and self-control. Don't those things sound good to you? Don't doesn't it sound like there's order there? I want fruit of the Spirit. I want love, joy, I want peace. I want peace. I want patience and kindness. I want people to have goodness and faith in the Lord and gentleness and being able to have self-control. Refrain from from saying something Satan wants you to say. Refrain from acting. How Satan wants you to act. Instead, let's lean into how God wants us to act. We should live righteously. And there are three basic habits to keep you on the right path. You know these. They're very simple. The first is to spend intimacy with the Word of God. Meditate on it day and night. The Bible says, meditate on this day and night. Know God, know the author of the scriptures. Know the one who's given you his word. Memorize the scriptures so that you can be ready to defend his word. On Thursday, I was asked very difficult questions about defending my faith. And it stretched me. And I was telling ⁓ Pastor Rusty's brother Scott Small this morning, I was like, you know what? I think every Christian should have to go through what I went through on Thursday night. I was not looking forward to Pastor Russi's questions, and ⁓ the the he he challenged me, that's for sure. And I'm thankful for that. But I think all of us need to be stretched in that way. We need to be ready to defend the faith because the culture is ready for us. To not understand the scripture enough to be able to defend it. So know, know what you worship, know the word of God. The second is to practice daily repentance. Even as Christians, we stumble, we make mistakes, ⁓ mistakes. Ask God to forgive you. Ask others to forgive you for where they've wronged you. Get right with people around you, and then watch God do something amazing with that act of obedience. Haven't you seen this in your life? Where you obeyed God's word, it was something tough that you really didn't want to do, but you knew it was the right thing to do, and God just did something amazing with it. Follow God's command. Thirdly, commit to the local church. Some of you today might be visiting Liberty Baptist Church for the very first time. Some of you maybe have not been here in a long time. Some of you are regulars. Either way, we need the local church. We need to hear Bible-believing preaching to keep us on the right path. We need to be in a small group for accountability and encouragement and be able to be challenged. These things are very important, friends, because the world is going to get you after we leave these doors. Liberty Baptist Church has seen so many faithful people come in and through these doors and follow Jesus Christ in 192 years. And I'm excited to see what the Lord has for us. I want to ask you are you taking sanctification seriously in your life? Are you intentionally walking with the Spirit? Are you recognizing what He's doing? Are you asking God to renew your mind every day? Are you walking the walk while you talk the talk? Do you take captive every thought? These are the things, these are the principles that a Christian should be thinking through daily. Daily. Imagine what the church experience would be like if we all followed this. Imagine what the community would be like. Imagine what this country would be like. This can be so, but it takes humility, it takes understanding of who God is in our life, and it takes us recognising the Holy Spirit at work. And all this starts with you and me. You might be here today where you don't understand this whole message of sanctification. That's because you have to be born again first. There's no better decision that you can make in your lifetime than putting your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ. It's understanding that you're a sinner. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. And God sent his one and only Son to pay the ultimate penalty for you and for me and the entire world. Understanding that. And then Watching God work in your life. If you've never made that decision, I invite you to come forward this morning. Pastor Rusty and I will show you what it looks like to become a Christian. But also, God might be stirring your heart this morning about this idea of sanctification. Maybe you're preventing the Holy Spirit from working in your life. Maybe there's some bitterness or some sin in your life. It's preventing God from doing something new in you. Well, my friend, the altar is open. You are welcome to kneel here, to stand here, and ask God to Just get right with the Lord. All of us fall short. None of us should be looking at someone coming forward saying, I wonder what's wrong with them. Instead we should be saying, Am I right with God? This altar is open for you, why don't we pray? Heavenly Father, I just thank you for your grace, your mercy, your love. Father, for your faithfulness. Father, I'm thankful that you have saved us from our sins by sending your one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Father, I'm thankful that there's this process of sanctification, that you are having us to be set apart, that you are making us holy more and more as you work in our life through the Holy Spirit. And so, Father, forgive us when we prevent this from happening. Forgive us, Father, when our selfish desires take priority of you working in our life. And so, Father, I pray for every family that's here, Lord, for the Holy Spirit to be present and working in their life. I pray, Lord, that they will humble themselves. And they will accept the plan that you have for them. And Lord, that they would just welcome the molding and making of what you have. Who you want us to be for your glory and for your honor. Father, we know we have work to do. And Father, we know that we have times where we stumble. Father, forgive us where we fail you. But Father, please bless us. Please bless Liberty Baptist Church, our church family, our community, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you continue to use us. You you look at us, Lord, as as humble, faithful servants to tell people about your goodness. Father, we're just thankful for the 192 years that you gave us already. Father, we're thankful that we're able to celebrate what you're doing. We're thankful for this food we're about to eat. We just love you, Lord, for all that you're doing in our lives. And Father, we just can't wait to see what you do in the days to come. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.