Tim number 305 I must tell Jesus that's page 305
It used to be either being in or out,
but I have both from last week.
Today's the 21st.
Sunday morning service is at 10.30 a.m.,
Sunday evening 4.30 and our Wednesday service is at 5.30.
Then we have the soul winning times at 2 p.m.
I know a group went out soul winning, do we have five?
Five, okay, so now that makes us, we're at.
Well, let me write this down.
We're at 213 for the year, so thank God, much bigger.
Last year we only had 28, so I think we're on track
to beat that, so thank God for that, right?
And then our memory chapter, you guys get a little grace.
It's supposed to be Philippians 1-6,
but we're at Philippians 1-5.
for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day to now. Just remember we are a family
integrated church and then Brother Heath did a couple of weeks ago paint that. We have an updated
baby mother room. It's really nice there in the back and it is just for mothers and babies.
I haven't updated the upcoming activities but I do want to do something for October 31st.
And then there's a couple of things that I'll add to the bulletin over the next couple of days now that I'm
This will be my first week back like to actually try to work and
Just prepare normal sermons and all that stuff
But before we do all that I want to thank brother Marcel and actually his brother
Jornel I got it Jornel for being here. I just found out Jornel's internet famous
He obviously is fought Keith Lee the foot crew food critic. I didn't know that
And then I just I do have a critique for myself first preaching this morning. I was listening to it on the way over here
I don't think you said faggot enough, so I
Don't know what the number is. I just don't know that you and hit it
At some point, I was like, I was like, I'm gonna have to, you know, if we were like a more liberal church, I would have to be like,
Don't know if you know this you do because you you brought your entire choir with you
Which is your family, but when you're one of nine my wife is one of nine
So she's a she comes from a big family. They're really close not all families all like that
It's it's a big deal when anybody celebrate something like that
So we made the effort and then try to get back
Pastor and so I got to listen to several sermons like two sermons on the way up here
I listen to you and I'll listen to pastor Anderson and he preached almost the exact same sermon you preach like except
Things are backwards, but he touched on a lot of the same point
I was like, yeah, you might have gotten together and just like decided to trade off notes or something
So but I really enjoyed I'm looking forward to it
I really appreciate not only Marcel coming and brother Philip and brother Diego, but I also appreciate just pastor Shelly
You guys have a great pastor. He's been a good friend
And when I broke my collarbone at the event, I said, hey, the only thing I really knew,
he's like, what do you need from me?
I said, the only thing I already anticipated is I probably need some people to fill in.
Brother James, I appreciate you.
I think you preach like five or six sermons for us.
So, you know, I'm really grateful.
I haven't had it.
I think I've said thank you to a lot of people,
but at the same time, it's always good to be grateful and cover that.
But I mean, you got me so fired up, I was almost going to cancel.
You can just preach to serve myself.
people preach good service because now I want to preach. I want to be like, I want my turn,
you know. The way that I like it is just moving forward. I'm just going to call it like the tag
team preaching, you know, like you tag me in. Remember in wrestling, like you tag that guy in
after the other one was hurt and then you come and beat everybody up. So I'll do that next Sunday.
But I really did enjoy it. It was really fun. And if you guys didn't get a chance to say thank
you or just fellowship, I saw that you guys went to lunch, do so. I think you guys are trying to
Yeah, so I think it's you guys all came together, but if you need anything, let me know and we really appreciate we're looking forward to preaching tonight and
I enjoy sitting up here with like the whole crew. I didn't realize I was gonna have a I usually come up here
But myself whenever but other than that if there's nothing else, let's turn our handles over to page 323
So I don't want to belabor this so we can get to the preaching send the light send the light
Page 323, page 323, send the light.
They were doing it like me.
Yeah, they were doing the...
The spring press.
The harmonizing.
That's cool.
All right.
We got one more song before we get to the Bible reading.
Song 460.
Song 460, come bow fount.
to read for us while we pass the opera on the plate.
All right, turn your Bibles to Job 2.
We're there in the first verse.
It says, again, there was a day when the sons of men,
sons of God came to present themselves
before the Lord and Satan came also among them.
to present himself before the Lord, and the Lord said unto Satan, from whence comeest thou?
And Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and
down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered, my servant Job, that there is none
like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God in the shoe of evil, and still
he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause.
and satan answered the Lord and said skin for skin yay all that a man had
will he give for his life but put forth thine hand now and touch his bone
and its flesh and he will curse thee to thy face and the Lord said unto satan behold
he is in thine hand but save his life so when satan forth from the presence of the Lord and
unto his crown, and he took him a pot shirt to scrape himself with all, and he sat down
among the ashes.
Then said his wife unto him, Does thou still retain thy integrity, curse God, and die?
But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women, speaketh, What shall
we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?
Now, when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came
everyone from his own place, Eliphaz the Timonite and Bildad the Shuhite, and so far the Nama
Thite, and they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
And they ran to everyone his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none speak a word of to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
Let us pray real quick. I'm just adjusting the volume here so it's not.
Let's go ahead and pray heavily follow Lord. Thank you so much for today. Thank you for the opportunity to be here Lord
Thank you for brother Marcel and brother Jornel being here. Thank you for the Marcel preachy for us
And Lord just let them uh, finish all the spirit and turn her forth to work
And we just ask all this and your precious names you do pray Amen
Amen, I just want to thank
Pastor Reyes again for allowing me to fill the pulpit tonight, and Pastor Cobb.
It's always a privilege and an honor to be able to preach the word of God.
And, you know, it was always a great time to be in Houston.
I had a great day today, fellowshiping, getting some salvation,
eating some good food, drinking some coffee, just doing what Baptists love to do, right?
Sowing and drinking coffee, hearing some good preaching.
So hopefully I could deliver a good message for you guys today,
something I could edify you guys.
Thanks once again for allowing me to be here.
Thanks for everybody for coming out and hearing the word of God be preached.
You should be there in Job chapter 2.
And the title of my sermon this evening,
it comes from verse three.
It says in the Lord said unto Satan,
has thou considered my servant Job
that there is none like him in the earth,
a perfect and an upright man,
one that fears God and a shoe of evil.
And still he holds his fast, his integrity.
Although thou moveest me against him
to destroy him without cause.
And that's the title of my sermon.
It's inspired from that verse right there.
where it says, still he holds as fast as integrity.
And the title of our sermon is, hold fast than integrity.
Hold fast than integrity.
Now, what is integrity?
Integrity means having strong, consistent,
or moral and ethical principles,
and doing the right thing,
even when no one is watching,
regardless of the situation.
So a person that has a lot of integrity
is gonna be a person who does the right thing,
no matter what position he finds himself in.
So he might be in a position of prosperity,
and God blesses him with prosperity,
and he's still gonna have integrity.
He's not gonna forget God.
You can have a man who is in poverty and he's still gonna have integrity. He's still gonna serve God
He's not gonna curse God. So
That's what we're gonna look at tonight
How should we respond when we find ourselves in different scenarios in life?
And the question is is, you know, are you gonna have integrity when you find yourself in different scenarios now?
Job is a perfect example of a person who exemplifies integrity because when Job, he was prosperous.
He didn't forget God, Job, when he was in poverty, he didn't curse God and his partnerships
and his affairs.
He remained faithful and in his persecution, he held fast his ground and what he believed
what he stood for.
You know Job he didn't assess he didn't set aside his integrity when it was easy when life was easy
He didn't just set it aside and he didn't set aside his integrity when it was hard
You know, he was a man that was known for his integrity and that's what makes Job a special guy because
The whole book of Job is pretty much
Job's integrity being questioned being tested and if you would he should be there in Job chapter one
I will go to Job chapter one
Now Satan, he has an accusation against Job that his devotion is not genuine, genuine.
And Job's, Satan's claim is that Job is only serving God because of God's blessings.
So Job is actually questioning his integrity.
He's actually questioning Job's motives.
And it's real important as Christian that no matter what we do, we have the right motives,
You should be there Job chapter 1, Luke 6 and verse 8 and the Lord said unto Satan has now considered my servant Job
That there is none like him in the earth a perfect and upright man one that feareth God and a shoe is evil
Then Satan answered the Lord and said does Job fear God for not?
So he's pretty much saying the only reason why God, you know Job is fearing you is this for a reason
Why why is Job fearing you? This is what Satan is claiming. This is the reason why Job is fearing you and verse 10
It says has thou not
has not thou made an hedge about him and about his house
and about all that he hath on every side,
thou hast blessed the work of his hands
and his substance is increased in the land,
but put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath,
and he will curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan,
behold, all that he hath is in thy power,
only upon himself put not forth thine hand.
So Satan went from the presence of the Lord.
So we're gonna actually see if Joe if a safe accusation is accurate or not
We're gonna actually see is Joe still gonna serve God if God takes away all that he has now what's interesting is
that
Satan breathes his accusation before God and he says,
has thou not made a hedge about him?
And it's like, how does Satan know
that Job has a hedge about him?
It seemed like Satan was trying to attack him before
and all his devices failed.
Everything he's done never worked out.
And he realized, you know what?
God has a hedge of protection around this guy.
So, you know, it makes me,
another thing that makes me think about,
is like, God's like, have you considered my servant, Job?
So like in heaven, God might say,
have you considered my servant, James?
And if he does that, just be ready for a battle, right?
So he brings his accusation before God.
He says, Job is only serving you because you're blessing him
and he's questioning his motives.
And the question we need to ask ourselves
is why are we serving God?
Why are we doing what we do?
Is it because you want God to bless you financially?
Why are you doing what you do?
And here's the clear answer.
You should do what you do because you love God.
Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
Everything you do should be out of love for God.
Everything you do should be out of gratitude for Jesus Christ,
dying on the cross for all of your sins,
and giving you the free gift of salvation.
That should be the motive of everything you do.
That should be the basis and the foundation of what you do.
Now God can use poverty and loss as a proving ground for integrity and Job
experienced this firsthand. Now look what it says in Job chapter 1 verse 13. We're
gonna see if what Satan accused Job of is true or not.
Remember Satan said that if you take all that he has he will curse you this is the accusation
He will curse you if you take what he has in Job chapter 1
My first point tonight is hold fast that integrity in poverty hold fast that integrity in poverty
Job chapter 1 verse 13 the Bible reads and there was a day when his sons and
daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and they
came a messenger unto Job and said the oxen were plowing and the ox is feeding
beside them and the Sabians fell upon them and took them away yeah they have
slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only escaped alone to tell
While he was yet speaking they came another and said the fire of God has fallen from heaven and have burned up the sheep and
The servants and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to tell thee
While he was yet speaking they came also another and said the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camel and have carried
Them away. Yeah, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee
So we see in this portion of scripture here that Job's livestock and his wealth was destroyed
Not only do we see that his livestock and his wealth was destroyed
We see that it said his servants were killed. So in a moment, he loses all his finances
He loses all his animals and he loses his servants
Let's keep reading
Now verse 18
And says why he was just speaking there came also another and said thy sons and thy daughter were eating and drinking wine in their elder's brother's house and
Behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men
And they are dead and I only am alone and I and I alone am escaped alone to tell thee
Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped
And said, Naked came out of my mother's womb, and Naked shall I return thither, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,
Blessed be the name of the Lord, and all this Job sin not, nor charge God foolishly.
So we see that when God...
Hits, you know hit him with the lowest blow taking his children now if you have children you understand that there's nothing more pressure than your own kids
Kids are wonderful kids are beautiful, but when you have your own kids
They're the most special most wonderful gift that God can ever send you the Bible said that they are a reward
And if you have children, you do a lot of sacrifice to raise them.
You know, you work really hard to pay the bills, to feed them.
Moms have sleepless nights just to make sure that the babies are fed.
If they're sick, they're up all night with them. Moms are having to sacrifice
so much for them. Dads are sacrificing so much for them.
You know, so that way we can raise great, godly children.
And for one of them to die, not only does it suck that you have a loss, but you
And, you know, nobody wants to work and do something for no reason, for no cause.
You want there to be some purpose in what you do.
And Job, he loses his children.
He loses his finances.
He loses his wealth.
Job has come to extreme poverty.
But how does Job respond when he's in extreme poverty?
He says, Naked came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return dither.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
So, Job, he wasn't serving God for his children.
He wasn't serving God for his finances.
Job wasn't serving God for all his money, his servants.
He was serving God because he loves God.
And the Bible is very clear, when God took everything away from him, he blessed the name
of the Lord.
How many of us today can say if God took away everything from us right now that we will
that we will still keep serving God.
We will still keep doing what we're doing.
How many of us can say that today?
Now, we will all like to think we would.
I mean, me personally, I would love to think that
if God took all of my children today,
maybe took all of my finances today,
God took everything from me
that I will still say blessed to be the name of the Lord.
In my inward man, I feel like I will say that,
but I'm not gonna be so prideful and say,
yeah, if that happened to me, I'm gonna say that.
I would love to think that I would but in reality when you're actually faced with the when you're actually faced with this
You know Job literally just shaved his head and he just said make it came out of my mother's womb because at the end of the day
The Lord should be the portion of your heart right the Lord should be the reason why you wake up every day
And you're happy when the Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul
No matter what you lose no matter what you have there should be nothing more important than the Lord Jesus Christ
And you know sometimes God has to put you in these positions
to test you, to try you, and the Bible says that the Lord tryeth the righteous. God wants to see
what's inside of you. God wants to see how you're going to respond on your backs against the corner.
You know, this would tell me something about somebody. Not when things are going good.
What shows me a lot about somebody's character is when things are going bad.
You know, whenever, like, you know, me and my brother like to watch fights and boxing
and stuff like that, you know, we want to see how the guy's going to respond in the
10th, 11th round when he's been getting beat up the whole night.
Is he going to still come out swinging?
Is he still going to come out fighting?
Or is he going to just cave in?
You know, and I love to see, you know, a man that has been losing the whole night and he's
still fighting his heart out to the very bitter end.
And that's how we should be as Christians, no matter what happens to us.
we should have the integrity that no matter what happens we're still going to sew in,
we're still going to go to church, we're still going to love God, we're still going to pray,
we're still going to read our Bible regardless of the situation. If you will turn to Deuteronomy
It says in Deuteronomy chapter eight, look what it says in verse two.
It says, and thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years
in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee.
What is proving you?
He's trying you.
He's testing you.
God led the nation of Israel 40 years in the wilderness to try them, to test them, to
prove them.
He says, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
And He humbled thee, and He suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knew as not.
Neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know, that man does not live by bread alone."
Thank you, Pastor.
Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that preceded out of the mouth of the Lord God.
Does man live?
So we see right here that he led the nation of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years,
and he says, why? To prove them. You know, what God likes is to see your back against the wall
and see how you respond. When God takes something from you, are you going to still hold fashion
By pure words Baptist church, you know when this guy took over this church
He don't even deserve to get his name mentioned right right?
He was blessed to have a congregation full of people ready to so when ready to serve the Lord
And just because things wasn't going in his favor. He shut the church down
How can you say you have integrity when you're blessed with the flock of God to do all this great work
and you literally just shut the church down because you didn't like certain circumstances
or you didn't like the sending pass or whatever the case may be?
You know, at the end of the day, even if you lost all of his church members,
his job was to go preach the gospel to every creature and to fill up the house of God,
you know, with everybody, with help or without help, his job didn't change.
You know, and then you have evangelists or bandit in the Philippines with no church, no congregation
And he's there for a whole year and a half getting thousands of people saved
And then he starts a church from scratch and another half people, you know, this church over here
They wasn't having, you know, a bunch of people in the church and they were still here faithful year after year
Serving the Lord and look God blessed them with some church members because they're trying to show him
They're trying to do the work of God
Why is it that you need to have a bunch of people to get church going?
Why can't you just do it with nobody?
Why can't you do it by yourself?
You know, and then if God gives you a bunch of people, don't change just because God blesses you.
No matter what happens in the church or in life, your situation doesn't change.
But how many people today?
You know when something bad happens to them let's say they lose a job or they lose their finances
They go and curse God they say why did God allow this to happen to me?
Why did God let my family die? Why they got they always want to blame God for every scenario
Instead of just blessing God because he gave you something the Bible says every good gift and every perfect gift from from above
So God gives you something be be thankful. God doesn't owe us anything
God doesn't have to give us anything at all. Everything we have is because of the grace of God
We have salvation because of the grace of God we have this church because of the grace of God
We're able to go preaching that preaching the gospel is an a blessed opportunity to be able to work for God
We don't deserve to work for God
We're not so holy and righteous to be able to say yo I can go work for God
No, we only serve God because of his grace
Everything we do is because of his grace
And most people, when they're backs against the wall,
how do they respond?
They just curse God.
And this was saying in accusation,
take all that he has and he will curse you to your face.
And how did Job respond?
When in poverty, he held fast integrity.
He said, bless and be the name of the Lord.
And this is what Job said as well.
He says, though he slayed me, yet will I trust in him?
But I will maintain my own ways before him.
So Job says, even if God slays me,
I will still trust in Him.
So if God slays you, if God takes everything from you,
are you still going to trust in Him?
That's something that we have to think about ourselves.
So in poverty, how should we respond
whenever we're going through a hardship
and difficulty in life?
Just say, bless me, the name of the Lord.
And we still trust in the Lord.
We may not understand why we're going through
a certain situation.
But we can know that God is still with us, God is going to lead us, God is going to guide us.
Even if you feel like you're in the wilderness, you know, if you feel like you're in the wilderness,
it's because God's trying to prove you to see if you're still going to serve Him.
God's trying to prove you to see if you're still going to hold fast your integrity.
You know, everybody claims to have integrity when things are good,
what about when things go bad? Are you still going to have integrity?
That's what truly tests your character. Can you still do good when things are bad?
If you would, turn your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 30.
Proverbs chapter 30.
My second point is this.
holds fast that integrity in prosperity.
So we see that we should hold our integrity and poverty,
but we should also hold our integrity and prosperity.
Prosperity also is another way for God
to actually test our integrity.
You know, sometimes being prosperous
is actually not the greatest thing for you.
You might not know how to deliver,
you might not have integrity if you're prosperous.
A lot of people that God blesses them,
they're, you know, the integrity is out the window.
They just kind of forget really quickly.
And it says in the Proverbs chapter 30, look at it, it says in verse 8.
And says, remove far from me vanity and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me
with food convenient for me.
Last, I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord, or lest I be poor and still and
take the name of my God in vain.
So we see here that the Proverbs is saying, like, you know, don't give me poverty nor
riches.
He said, I want to be in the middle because he understands that if he's full, he might
curse God.
We make sure I'm reading that right.
He said let's not be fool and deny thee. So he knows that if he's fool, he's gonna end up denying God
What does it mean? He doesn't trust in God no more. He doesn't he feel like he doesn't need God anymore
That's why it's hard for a rich person to be saved because they don't put their trust in God
They put their trust in their money and their riches and that's a problem with rich people
They don't trust God that trust in their riches. So a lot of times God could bless you prosperity
But the problem is you're gonna start trusting in your prosperity. You're gonna start trusting in your riches and people who are in poverty
what they do, they steal, it says less I'll be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain.
So sometimes if you're in complete poverty, that might make you also lose your integrity
and take the name of the Lord God in vain. If you will turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8,
I'm going to read to you from Hosea chapter 4. It says,
Therefore, I will change their glory into shame."
So you're talking about the nation of Israel.
He says, as they were increased,
so they sinned against me.
So when the nation was increased with goods,
that made them to sin.
It talks about another verse in Deuteronomy
that they waxed fat and they kicked when they were full.
You know, sometimes you want to be prosperous so bad,
you want to be rich so bad.
But you don't understand, that might make you kick against God, that might make you curse God,
that might make you deny God and trust in your riches, which is also
very bad because he's trusting the Lord like God with all that heart in every scenario.
Like Paul says, he said, I know how to be a base and I know how to bound.
You know, God may not prosper you because you may not know how to bound.
You might not know how to deal with a lot of finances.
Now Job, the Bible says that he was a perfect and upright man, but let's see what Job had.
You're gonna do the right thing. I'm just gonna read this to you for the quickly it says that the they said there
Was a man in the land of us whose name was Job and that man was a perfect and upright man
Perfect and upright one that fear got in the shoot evil
His stuffs and there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters
His substance also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she asses and
A very great household so that this man was the greatest
all the men of the east. So, Job, when he was prosperous, he didn't curse God. He didn't lose
his integrity. He was actually full of integrity. And that's why I say he came to him, because he
said, you know, he's only serving you because of everything that he has. So, if God ever blesses
us with a lot of prosperity, we need to make sure that we hold fast our integrity, even in prosperity.
You should be there in Deuteronomy chapter 8.
That thou forget not the Lord thy God and not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes
Which I command you this day
Lest when thou has eaten in our full and has built goodly houses and thought they're in and when I heard my flocks
Multiply and I silver night gold is multiplied and all that that has is multiplied
Then thy heart be lifted up and I'll forget the Lord thy God was brought the fourth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage
He says right here that you need to be where you need to be careful and make sure you're thinking about this one if God
Multiplies your silver. He multiplies your goal
And he says and you're full and you have built guilty houses
And he says when all your herds is multiplied
He said that that heart be lifted up and the problem with prosperity is that your heart can get lifted up
And it's very important that if we are prosperous,
that we don't allow our heart to be lifted up.
And the Bible prescribes the remedy
of how to not allow your heart to get lifted up.
It says in the Deuteronomy chapter 17,
he says, you gotta read the word of God every single day.
This is the structure he gives to the kings.
He says, you read every single day
that your heart doesn't get lifted up above your brother.
And the problem is when you're all prosperous
and things are going good for you,
you start kissing your own hand.
If you would go to Job...
Chapter, go to Joke 31.
So, you know, if we're prosperous,
what we should do, we should be blessing the Lord.
And understanding that everything comes from God.
But the problem is when people are prosperous,
they think they got it because of their own might.
And the Bible says that God gives us the strength
to get wealth.
God is the reason why you're able to get
all the wealth that you have.
And says in Job chapter 24, sorry, in Job chapter 31 verse 24,
this is what Job is saying.
Now, Job is the richest man on the earth.
He says, if I have made gold my hope
or have set up to the fine gold hour, my confidence,
if I rejoice because my wealth was great
and because my hand had gotten much,
If I beheld the sun when it shined or the moon walking in the brightness and my heart has been secretly enticed or my mouth
Look what it says right here has kissed my hand
So instead of you blessing God and saying, you know, I got all of this because of God God gave me the strength to get well
He's saying that he didn't kiss his own hand blessing his own hand and getting his heart lifted up
Look what it says in verse 28. This also
Were an iniquity to be punished by the judge for I have to deny the God that is above
So if God ever prospers you and God ever blesses you and you kiss your own hand
You're denying the God that is above
And this is the question you need to ask yourself.
If God gave you all these riches,
you might say right now, I wouldn't kiss my own hand.
But there's definitely a temptation that you can face.
Don't think you're above not being tempted with riches,
because the Bible says, great men of God
have been tempted with riches.
Let me give you an example.
Go to Uzziah, sorry, sorry, go to 2 Chronicles, chapter 26.
It should be to your left a little bit.
So if you go backwards, you got Nehemiah, Ezra.
I mean Esther Nehemiah Ezra go to 2nd Chronicles chapter 26 for 16
Well, actually let me let me read a little bit more context for you so this was either king and chapter 26
Look what it says so I give you content so you can kind of see the whole picture in verse one
It said then all the people of Judah took was I who was 16 years old and made him king in the room of his father and
Verse four look what it says and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord
According to all that his father Emma's I did
He sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding of the visions of God and as long as he sought the Lord
God made him to prosper. Now here's the reality. God wants you to prosper. God wants you to do well
It's not like God doesn't want you to prosper
But a lot of times you're not prospering because you're not listening to certain principles
of the Bible.
Maybe you're just not being diligent in your business.
The Bible says the man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings and not before
mean men.
And even if you are being diligent and you're doing everything right, ultimately God is
going to be the one that's going to bless your business, bless your finances, and if
God decides to bless your business, if God decides to bless your finances, if God decides
to make you prosperous, which he wants to do, then you just got to make sure that your
Uzziah, he becomes prosperous, why?
Because he sought the Lord.
If you seek the Lord, you're going to become prosperous.
Uzziah seeks the Lord, he becomes prosperous.
But look what it says, and uh...
Where did I have you go? Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm sorry my brothers. Yeah. Thank you
So, yeah, so you're in chapter 26 look at the sense of verse 16
About Uzziah, but when he was strong
His heart was lifted up to his destruction
Free transgressed against the Lord his God and went to the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense
So Uzziah that says right here that when he was strong his heart was lifted up when he was prosperous
His heart was lifted up
And it's very important for you to understand
that if God ever blesses you financially,
if God ever prospers you,
that you don't allow your heart to get lifted up.
You don't kiss your hand.
But what should you do if you are a prosperous
and God does bless you and you're not kissing your hand?
The Bible tells us what to do.
If you would, you could go back to Job 31.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6 says,
Charge them that are rich in this world,
that they be not high-minded.
That's being lifted up.
Nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who give with us richly all things to enjoy.
So when you are increased, you should trust in the living God who gave you that.
And obviously who give with us wish we all things to enjoy literally said that they do you don't have to be you're not you're not there
But it says that they do good that they be rich and good works ready to distribute willing to communicate
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life
So the Bible says right here that of a person is as prosperous in his life
and said that they learned with their riches,
that they do good with their riches,
that they be rich in good works,
that they're ready to distribute.
And Job, he was a man that held fast his integrity
because even when he was prosperous,
he was ready to distribute.
He was ready to help the poor.
Laguna says,
Job 31 you should be there. See Job he didn't hoard his wealth. He cared for the poor the widows and the fatherless
Look what it says in Job 31
He says if I had if I have withheld the poor from their desire
Or I've caused the eyes of the widow to fail or have eaten my morsel myself alone
And the fatherless has not eaten thereof for from my youth
He was brought up with me as with the father and I have guided her from my mother's womb
If I've seen any parish for want of clothing or any poor without covering if his loins have not blessed me
And we're not warm with the fleece
With the fleece. So we see right here that Joe. What is he doing with his prosperity?
He's not withholding the poor from the desire as it states in verse 16. I
Want to point this out as well
So Job was making the claim that if he horded all of his wealth,
if the poor didn't bless him, if he held back his riches,
he didn't help the poor, like the Bible prescribes us to do.
And verse 24, in verse, I'm sorry, I lost my plan.
Verse 22, it was start 21.
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless
when I saw my help in the gate,
then let my arm fall from my shoulder blade
and my arm be broken from the bone.
So Job is saying like, if I didn't help the poor,
if I didn't help the fatherless and the widows,
he said, let my arm fall from the shoulder blade.
Now, Pastor Reyes, I'm starting to wonder
why your arm fell off the shoulder blade.
I don't know, you got a little money,
you're not helping the poor with it.
But this is what Joe was saying. He's like if I was held from the poor his desire
He said let my arm fall from the shoulder blade
And if you are ever in a position where God who blesses you financially, you know
I have the Bible prescribes for Timothy 6 that you be rich and good work that you're ready to distribute willing to communicate
That's the reason why God gives you finances. It's not for you to enjoy for yourself. It's for you to bless others
It's for you to help others and here's the thing
The Bible says in Matthew chapter 6 that if you give, it's going to be given unto you good measure, pressed down.
So like, if you're a spiritually-minded person, you should know that if you give to the poor, God's going to give it right back to you.
And not only is God going to give it right back to you, the Bible says you're going to receive a hundredfold in heaven.
So why wouldn't you go and bless the poor if you give a couple cold water to one of these my brethren?
So one of the least of the saints you shall in no wise lose your reward
There's plenty of times in my personal life when I've blessed others and God has literally blessed me right away
But I'm not doing this or God can bless me. I'm doing it because I love the poor. I love the brethren
I love the people and I want to bless them
But and that's the kind of person that God God wants a man of integrity. That's what God
That's why he blessed Joe because he knew that if he prospered job
That Joe wasn't gonna just hoard all of his money or all of his wealth
He's gonna actually take care of the poor and that's what he did
remember his remember
Joe's integrity is being questioned in this whole book
And Job is like defending himself.
He says, I will not let go of my integrity.
There's nothing that you can ever do to make me stop having integrity.
Like, God can take everything away from you in this life,
but he can't take your salvation and he can't take your integrity.
You have to give up your integrity.
And the good thing is you can't give up your salvation, amen.
Because you go to someone and sometimes he will say,
well, you could just give the gift back.
Like no you both are like, you know, I'm not even wasting my time with you because you're just a bullseye
I'm not gonna sit here and you feel like you want to give it back
Let me find somebody who doesn't want to give it back
Because if somebody say hey look you can have eternal life. You're safe forever
The thought doesn't come on my mind. Hey, well, I might I might give it back someday like I know I'm not going now
So
We see number one that Job held fastest integrity in poverty. He didn't curse God
We see that Job he didn't kiss his own hand when he was prosperous
Point three is this you need to hold fast your integrity in
Partnerships now if you know what I'm trying to keep them to the peace, you know
Poverty prosperity and partnerships, but I'm really gonna just focus on your your your affairs in life like marriage and
different aspects of your life as well
But one thing I want to focus on is marriage because you know marriage and life affairs can also test your integrity
You know, it's real easy to do good to your spouse when they're doing good to you
But can you do good to your spouse when they're not doing good to you?
You know God called Hosea to marry a woman of Hortom and to love a woman of Hortom's and
To to buy her back just like the nation of Israel. They departed from God
They served idols and God literally purchased them back
He gave them the redemption plan of Jesus Christ or something. He still tried to bring them back
You know, are we gonna be able to do the same exact thing?
If you would turn to Matthew, actually, you're in Job.
Go to Job chapter two.
Now, you know, when you get married,
you know, you give these vows for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.
You know, you're a volunteer, love this person
till death do you part, no matter the circumstance,
because they give you these vows
because when you do get married,
It's gonna be for the better and it's gonna be for the worse.
You're gonna have great times and you're gonna have horrible time.
You're gonna be rich and you're gonna be poor.
You're gonna have health and you're gonna be sick.
And in all these scenarios, you still have to love your spouse and do good by your spouse,
no matter what scenario you find yourself in.
And it's real difficult for us to do good to somebody who's not doing good to us,
but that's the true integrity.
True integrity is being able to do good to other people, even if they're not doing good to us.
Now you should be there in Job chapter 2. Stay in Job 2. I want to read to you from Matthew chapter 5 really quickly.
It says, you have heard that it has been said,
thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, love your enemies
and bless them that curse you.
Do good to them that hate you
and pray for them which despitefully use you
and persecute you.
That you may be the children of your father
which is in heaven.
For he maketh his son to rise on the evil
and on the good, and he sent his reign
on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love them which love you,
what reward have ye?
Do not even the publicans the same?
And if you salute your brethren only,
what do you more than others?
Do not even the publicans so?
Be therefore perfect even as your father,
which is in heaven, is perfect.
So I love this portion of scripture
because he's telling you to be complete,
to be perfect.
You know, most people are gonna just love
people that love them.
But God has said, no, love your enemies.
Most people are going to salute people.
That's a little dumb.
No, salute everybody.
And I'm always thinking it was just weird.
Like, if you come into a building full of people,
and like, hey, I know James High James,
I know Pastor Reyes, you know, Bo, everybody else,
I'm not going to salute you.
I'm not going to say hi to you.
I don't know you, I'm not going to say hi.
Like, wouldn't it be better to salute every single person
in the building and greet yourself and say hello?
It's how you doing?
that's a more complete person and he's not you know the world that's what they do
you know whereas Christianity we shouldn't do that we should be able to be complete
and do good unto people that don't do good unto us now if it's a faggot then you don't do good
unto them you stay away from them as far as you can that's the only exception because they're not
But I want to show you that even in marriage you're gonna have times where things are very difficult in marriage
And I want to show you how does Job?
Responding marriage does he have integrity in his partnership that he has integrity in his affairs and life with his with his peers
Look at Job chapter 2
Look what it says in verse 7 so went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smoke Job with sore boils
From the soul of his foot unto his crown now
This is the second time that Satan is coming to God and this is where we get that statement from the title
And I'll just read it again
If you would just look at Job chapter 2
Verse 3 it says in the Lord said unto Satan has not considered my servant Job that there is none
Like him in the earth a perfect and upright man one that feareth God in the shoe of evil and
Still he holdeth fast as integrity although thou moveest me against and to destroy him without a cause and
Satan said in verse 4
And answered the Lord and said skin for skin. Yeah, all that a man has will he give for his life
But put forth on hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to his faith
So Satan is not he's not he's not sold on the idea that Job is only serving God
Because he loves him. He still thinks that Job is serving God because he has health now
He's like he took everything away, but like well if you take his health away
He's going to curse you to your face.
And this is what's going on right now.
So verse seven, it says,
So Satan went forth from the president of the Lord
at smote Job with sore boils,
from the soul of his foot unto his crown,
and he took him a posture to scrape himself with all,
and he sat down among the ashes,
then said his wife unto him,
does thou still retain that integrity?
Curse God and die.
But he said unto her thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh
What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil and all this did not Job sin with his lips
and even when God
Allow Satan to take away his health Job still help fast his integrity. You know and if God takes away your health
You need to still hold faster integrity and we see that his wife
You know, she just tells them are you still holding on to your integrity? Just curse God and die. I mean that is
Brutal if you ever heard of the the saying I don't know like perfectly, but it says like hell has no fury like a woman's score
I
Mean I understand why she's pissed off. I mean she lost all of her money, too
She lost all of her children that she's been up with every single day
It's you know sleepless nights and all that so I understand why she's upset
And then she goes, you know, this is Satan's last attack against him.
I'm gonna just send his wife to Nagam and say curse God and die.
And you know what, Joe, you know, most of us would probably just flip the wife off, curse
them out, tell them go to hell.
But Job, he says, thou speakest as one of the foolish women speak.
And you know what, it doesn't show any indication that Job divorced his wife.
It doesn't show that Job, you know, mistreated her.
He just said thou speakest as one of the foolish women speak.
And then he begins to edify his wife and teach her some good doctrine.
Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall not we receive evil?
So he's telling her, look.
You have to understand in life you're gonna receive good and evil from God and that's the job of a husband
You know when your wife is modeling off to you
Correct her
By telling her the truth and the truth is look shall we receive good and not evil at the hand of the Lord
It's still a spiritual battle
You know when she's testing your integrity
You just fight back with the word of God and this is how it is reality
But what does the world she teach?
You know, they teach you just get a divorce
You know are you gonna lose all of integrity are you not are you gonna just you know?
Give up on all the vows you just said when you got married for better for worse rich for poor
You know you don't have a lot of integrity if you just divorce your wife
You know and Matthew 19 it talks about you know shall we divorce our you know wife for every cause?
You know they're testing Jesus
And he says, well, have not God made them in the beginning from male or female shall not they leave father and mother to clean
Which is why these two shall be one flesh what God has joined together. Let not man put us under
So it doesn't matter how bad your marriage may be may get
You need a whole faster integrity and stay married to death. Do you part you need a whole faster integrity and love your wife?
For richer for poor for better for worse and why is the same exact thing?
It doesn't matter if your husband is not doing well financially your job is still to reverence your husband
Your job is still to submit to your husband as unto the Lord if your husband is doing if he's prospering
Your job is still to reference your husband and to submit him as unto the Lord
Nothing changes for you wives
No, you're supposed to just bear children, love your children, love your husband, and
keep the home.
Your scenario doesn't change, whether you have a lot or whether you don't have a lot.
Your main job is to just help your husband.
And you don't have integrity when things are going hard
and you're disrespecting your husband
because he's not doing well financially.
How can you say you have integrity
when you're just disrespecting him
and you're mobbing off to him?
And we see Joe's wife, she doesn't have much integrity
because when things are going bad,
she's just modeling off to her husband.
I guarantee you, she did not tell her husband to go die
when he was filthy rich.
Right.
But now that he's poor, she's telling him to go die.
You know what I mean?
Black integrity, but you know as Christians, you know, we shouldn't be the same exact way
We should have integrity if you will turn to Job 31 again
Not only was Job have a lot of integrity because he didn't divorce his wife
Also as a man, you know, you need to be faithful to your life
Why do you need to be faithful to their husbands if your wife's not around and you're committing adultery?
you're lacking integrity because
You vowed to love your wife till death do you part to have her and nobody else and you need to have integrity to keep your word
Same things for wives to husband Job chapter 31
Look what it says in verse 9. He says if my heart
Have been deceived by a woman or have laid weight at my neighbor's door
Then let my wife grind up to another and let others bow down upon her for this is an heinous crime
Yet is it iniquity to be punished by the judge for there's a fire that could assume it to destruction and will root out all my
Increase so Job knows that he will lose everything because committing adultery and let me tell you something
If God ever proffers you and you commit adultery God will take everything away from you
because he didn't prosper you for you to just go and just commit adultery to live however you like.
No, he prospered so he could, he can use you as a vessel to do his will, to fulfill his will.
And we see that Job, even though his wife said, go curse God and die,
it shows in his lifetime he's never committed adultery. He said, this is a heinous crime to
be punished by the judge. Another man of great integrity is Joseph. You know, when Joseph was
You know, and I'm sure you know if he's Potter for he's a wealthy guy
I'm sure he had a pretty beautiful lady and she was trying to come up on him and sleep with him and he held fast
His integrity and he left and he did not commit adultery with her
You know, so teenagers kids men woman if you ever find yourself in a position where you're alone with the opposite gender
You need a whole faster integrity and like the mama says flee for the case
You need to flee and run as fast as you can so that way you don't commit to that because unfortunately
You know, if you know men in the Bible, like David,
when they see a woman upon the rooftop,
they end up losing their integrity
and committing that sin.
Whereas Job was a man full of integrity.
He's never committed adultery.
He didn't have multiple wives either.
Like he had one wife.
Like the Bible says, he was a perfect and upright man,
a man full of integrity.
And we should also be full of integrity just like Job was.
and his partnerships and you know what and good and partnerships could go
further than just marriage you know to your pastor you know if your pastor wants
things done a certain way you do it how your pastor wants you to do it you have
integrity even if pastor says hey vacuum the floor this way and don't vacuum it
this way you do it the way your pastor wants it to do you go where your pastor
sending you go so when you support your pastor you back up your pastor and you
love your pastor because you're a man of integrity don't and let's say your pastor
You still love your pastor. You still do good to your pastor. You still support your pastor. You still support your church
Look at Saul and David Saul was literally trying to kill David and David still love Saul
David still talk positively about Saul when he died and David still backed up Saul and as men
We need to make sure we back up our pastor no matter the scenario same thing with wife
If your husband is treating you bad you still be a good wife to your husband
And Peter chapter, you don't have to turn there.
In Peter chapter three,
it says likewise you wives being subjection
to your own husband that if any obey not the word,
that they also may without the word
be won by the conversation of the wives.
So if a wife has a husband that is not saved,
She should still be good to her husband. And if he's not saved that means he's not living a godly life
I mean, he's probably committing adultery. He's probably doing wrong things
But it doesn't matter the scenario that a woman finds herself as she should still love her husband and
Revards him as unto the Lord
It says, why they behold your chaste conversations coupled with fear.
You know, as a Christian, people need to behold your chaste conversations coupled with fear.
Because we fear God, that's why we have so much integrity.
You know, if you have a boss, and your boss wants you to do things a certain way, you
do it the way your boss wants you to do it.
You don't cut corners.
You know if you have because plenty of jobs you probably work remote
You probably not in front of your boss people just want to do you know service as unto men as you know
What they want to do things as with eye service as men pleasers
But we don't need to do things with eye service as men pleasers. We need to do things as unto the Lord
So whatever we do whether in a good scenario bass and we need to do everything as unto the Lord because we love God
So we see that only in partnerships
Should we hold fast our integrity when things are going good?
But also we need to hold fast our integrity under pressure
Because we're all gonna be under pressure to fold to cave in and we need to hold fast our integrity and Joe chapter 31 verse 34
You guys on Joe 31 right now
Man Joe, I mean this guy's a great character man, I mean like
Full of full of integrity full of character
It said, in Job 31 verse 34, it said,
did I fear a great multitude or did the contempt of families
terrify me that I kept silence and went not out of the door?
So Job, with defending his integrity again,
and he said he did not let fear of people or social pressures
silence him or cause him to hide his convictions.
He didn't allow anybody to silence him or to hide his convictions
Everybody knew what Joe believed everybody knew what Joe stood for he said that did I did I fear great multitude?
He didn't fear great multitude or to the contempt of families terrify me when people were pretty upset about what he was standing for
Did that terrify him? Nope that I kept silence
No, he'd let it be know what he believed and went out the door. He wasn't a coward. He wasn't a punk
And second Timothy chapter three. I like this verse because I feel like it goes head-in-hand
Paul he tells Timothy but thou has fully known my doctrine
Manor of life purpose faith long-suffering charity
Patience persecution afflictions which came up to me a Antioch an Iconium elistra
And what persecutions I endured bottom them all the Lord delivered me
So Paul saying you fully know my doctrine my faith and people are gonna try to pressure you to change what you believe to change your stance to change
you know, where you go to church to change how you preach the Word of God, to change everything,
but we cannot cave under pressure. It doesn't matter if we're protested by
thousands of sodomites. We need to just hold fast our integrity and preach what the Bible says
about sodomites. It doesn't matter if our church is full of adulterers and they want us to stop
preaching on adultery. You know what? Let them run, but church is not supposed to run. The pastor's
not going to back up. The preacher's not going to back up. He's going to hold fast his integrity
When people are giving you a dirty look because of what you're saying
You're not gonna succumb to that pressure and you're gonna just keep doing what the Bible says
If you would this is this is another
Your story turn to Daniel chapter 6
Daniel chapter 6
under pressure you know we should have changed who we are for no one you know
ladies you shouldn't stop wearing dresses because it's not popular men you
shouldn't stop acting like a man because it's not popular you shouldn't just
become a feminine because it's how the world is becoming you know kids
You know, if you ever get pressure to do drugs if you ever get pressure to commit fornication
You don't let nobody pressure you to commit sin you hold faster integrity you hold fast the thing that God has given you
You stay pure you don't defile yourself
And Daniel chapter 6 verse 5
Look what it says I
Said then said these men
We shall not find occasion against Dan against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the law of his God
So they're trying to find an occasion against Daniel because they want Daniel to stop doing what he does stop serving the Lord
But Daniel didn't fall to pressure. He didn't care
What the outcome was what would happen to him?
He says pretty much if I perish I perish just like an Esther and that's the attitude we should have
But look at it says in verse 10
It says now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed
He went into his house and his window being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem and he kneeled down upon his knees
Three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a fourth time
Then these men assembled to found Daniel praying and make a supplication before his God. We see that Daniel
He didn't stop praying three times a day at his window because people pressured him to
He wanted to keep serving God, and he was thrown in the lion's den as a result.
So, if God wants to throw us in the lion's den, allow us to be tested in that way,
we need to just hold fast our integrity.
You know, if our church is being protested, we need to just hold fast our integrity
and preach with the Bible preachers, regardless of the scenario, regardless of the situation.
We need to hold fast what we believe.
I'll just make this last point really quickly.
We also need to hold fast our integrity and persecution.
So in poverty, in prosperity, in partnerships,
under pressure, and in persecutions,
turn of you with to Job chapter 19,
we'll make a couple concluding statements.
You know, in every season,
whether we're prosperous or in poverty,
God is looking for people like Job who will say,
till I die, I will not remove my integrity from me.
God wants us to hold on integrity to the day we die
And the reason why people persecute you is because they want you to stop serving God.
They want you to stop doing what you're doing. You're a threat to them.
Satan is trying to stop you because you're a threat to him.
It says in Job chapter 19 verse 1, then Job answered and said,
How long will you vex my soul and break me in pieces with words?
These 10 times have you reproached me.
You are not ashamed that you make yourself strange to me.
So they're accusing him of committing sin and being in sin. They're pretty much accusing him
Of the same exact thing that he doesn't have integrity in verse 21
He says have pity upon me have pity upon me. Oh ye my friends for the hand of God has touched me
Why do you persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh?
He like look just be satisfied like I know you're happy because I'm down right now
And right now you guys are in a better position. Just be happy with the scenario
I'm in you don't need to just persecute me on top of it and just kick me while I'm down
You know, and here's the scenario, even if we're in persecution, promises rejoice because we're partakers of Christ's sufferings and we need to stick to what God has promised us that He would deliver us if He likes to.
But just know this, if you live Godly in Christ Jesus, you will suffer persecution.
And if we do suffer persecution for the name of Jesus Christ,
count it as an honor, as a blessing,
to be able to be his vessel to be used,
because it's a blessing, it's a privilege.
And if God ever allows us to suffer persecution
for his name's sake, hold fashion integrity.
If God ever takes away everything from you,
bless him, hold fashion integrity.
If God makes you prosperous.
Don't kiss your hands bless God holds fashion integrity
You know if in your affairs of life, you know
If you don't want to hold fashion integrity because of the person you're with your marriage your boss
You hold fashion integrity because of God you're doing the right thing because is right in the sight of God
So hold fast your integrity. Don't let no one take it away. I don't ever give it up. Let's pray
Lord God, we thank you for this day, Lord.
Thank you for the word of God.
Thank you for the Bible, Lord,
that we can be able to look to the scriptures, Lord,
and be edified by it, Lord.
We ask that, Lord, you just continue to help us
to stay strong in times of persecution,
to stay strong under pressure,
to hold fast our integrity in our affairs and life
with our partnerships, hold fast our integrity
when we're prosperous or we're under pressure.
Thank you, God, so much for being gracious towards us
and allowing us to be able to serve you, Lord,
the way we do it, to be able to go soul winning.
Thank you for the church,
Springcrest Baptist Church Lord.
I ask that you bless them Lord
and continue to help them,
do great and mighty works for you Lord,
to thunder your word from behind the pulpit
and to continue to disciple people,
get people saved and fulfill the great commission.
We love you Lord.
We thank you.
We ask that you get us home safely.
In Jesus' name we pray.
All right.
If you would turn in your hymns to song 499.
close out with song 499 when the roll is called up yonder song 499
brother Marcel they're on their way out because they're gonna drive all the way
back to Dallas but they gotta eat anyway so there's a Chipotle which is like
10 minutes from here I'm gonna give the address whoever wants to join us great
but if we can just leave here the next 15 minutes that'd be great because we
just drove that way so we just know it takes a while to get home and we don't
want to we don't want to put them in danger with their family so but we do
want to feed them and fellowship