All right. Well, the title of my sermon this morning is fix your face, fix your face.
This is a phrase that I grew up hearing. Who's familiar with this phrase?
I tried to look it up and I couldn't really find out where it was from.
But we've all probably heard this phrase before, either from your mom or dad,
or maybe if you were in the military, you might have heard of this
from a drill instructor or something like this.
But basically, it's the idea of an authority figure
talking to a subordinate and not being pleased with the look.
On their face.
And by way of introduction this morning, I want you to notice number one
that your body language reveals your heart.
Look at Isaiah, chapter three, verse number eight.
It says for Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen
because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord
to provoke the eyes of his glory. Notice verse nine.
It says the show of their countenance, your countenance is just your face.
So when it says the show of your countenance, it's saying the look
on your face, the facial expression that you have.
Look at verse nine.
The show of their countenance doth witness against them
and they declare their sin as Sodom.
They hide it not.
Woe unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
So notice this passage is telling us.
Jerusalem is ruined.
Judah has fallen.
Why? Because their doings are against the Lord.
So this is a very sinful people.
They're not obeying God's commandments.
And what God is saying is saying the look on your face is making me upset.
Basically, he's saying the look of your face is witnessing against you.
And he says what that they're declaring their sin as Sodom.
Now we know that the sodomites were very proud and even the sodomites of our day.
Their mantra, their motto is literally pride.
And it's saying there that they have a look on their face that expresses
that they don't feel bad for their sin, that actually they're prideful
about their sin, they're glorying about their sin, they don't feel bad.
They kind of have a smug look on their face.
The show of their countenance is witnessing against them.
And God says woe unto their soul.
So God's very upset at the fact that these people are sinful.
But yet they're going around pretending like they're OK or being prideful
in the fact that they're sinful.
You know, I saw this video this week and it was this guy, Charlie Kirk,
which I don't really know much about this guy, but it was this guy,
Charlie Kirk, and he was debating like 25 college students on abortion.
And again, I don't know this guy.
I don't know if he's saved or not, you know, condoning of this guy or whatever.
But what I noticed in like the first 15 minutes of this video is that as he's
giving good, sound, logical arguments for why abortion is wrong,
what you see from these college students is that many of them,
they're not interested in truth, they're not interested in logic or facts or reason.
They just have their view that abortion is OK, that abortion is good.
And they have this prideful smug look on their face where they're just saying,
basically like, hey, I'm a baby killer.
What are you going to do about it?
And by the way, abortion is killing a baby.
Abortion is murder.
And, you know, Charlie Kirk has way too soft of a view on abortion
because he's saying that he doesn't think people that commit abortion should get
the death penalty. But I think it's first degree murder to go and kill your child.
And I do think we should pass a law today saying that abortion's first degree murder.
And if anyone does this in the future, that they will be treated as such.
Now, I wouldn't punish someone in the past who's done that before that law was
passed, but I do think that in the future that should be the law.
But what I noticed about this video is they just had the smug look on their face.
I'm thinking just fix your face.
The show of your countenance is witnessing
against you. And what are we talking about?
Your body language reveals your heart.
And when someone is wicked, when someone is in sin and they have a prideful look
on their face reveals their heart that they don't care about God, that they don't
care about authority and even the sodomites of today.
What are they? They're prideful.
You could tell who's a sodomite by their body language.
Can't you? Why? Because your body language reveals your heart.
Look at verse number.
Let's skip down to verse number 16.
Moreover, the Lord saith because the daughters of Zion are haughty.
What is haughty, prideful, arrogant.
Now it's going to talk about the body language that they have.
It says because the daughters of Zion are haughty.
And notice walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes.
These these women are so prideful.
There's walking around the little outstretched neck.
For some reason, I always picture like British royalty.
When I read this, I just picture like the British royalty walking around so prideful.
Right. That's how they're walking around because they're so full of themselves.
They're so prideful.
And many times today you could see women like this where you see just the way that
they walk, they're so full of themselves.
They're so prideful and just their body language can reveal that about them.
Look, it says walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet.
Therefore, the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters
of Zion and the Lord will discover their secret parts.
So notice you could often see what's going
on in a person's heart by the body language that they have.
Right. Can't you tell when someone's scared?
I mean, can you tell when your kids are scared?
Something pops up and scares them.
Right. Or can you tell when someone's very shy?
I mean, when someone's very shy, what is it going to be their body language?
They're going to be like, you know, their shoulders will be forward.
Their head will be down.
Their arms will be crossed.
Something like that. It's showing that they're shy.
Someone's confident. You could see that.
If someone's happy, you could see that in their body language.
Someone's sad. If someone's prideful.
You know, us as human beings, God created us to just constantly,
subconsciously be judging everyone's body language
to learn information about that person.
And it's a good thing because it kind of
reveals where a person's heart is at with their body language.
And so the sermon is basically about how we need to fix our face.
We need to make sure that we're having the right attitude internally.
And then it's going to externally express that through our body language.
Now, go to Genesis chapter number four, Genesis chapter number four.
You know, by way of introduction,
first, I'm just going to show you many, many places in the Bible where body
language is spoken about and where you could tell how someone is feeling by their
body language. Now, there's way too much in the Bible
to show you every example because this is just everywhere.
But I do want to show you lots and lots of examples this morning.
Genesis chapter number four, you there in Genesis for look at verse number three.
It says, and in process of time,
it came to pass that came brought of the fruit of the ground and offering unto
the Lord and Abel.
He also brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
But unto Cain and to his offering, he had not respect and notice.
And Cain was very raw and his countenance fell.
Remember that word countenance means your face.
And so you could tell that Cain was mad because his countenance fell.
You know, he's getting the droopy lip here or something that's indicating that he's
angry. And look, you can tell when someone's angry today, can't you?
Look at verse six. And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wrought?
And why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted.
And if thou doest not well, sin life at the door and unto thee shall be his
desire and thou shalt rule over him.
You know, God's basically saying, hey, Cain, fix your face.
Just do what's right and you'll be fine.
Why are you why are you angry?
Why are you wrathful? Why is your countenance fallen?
You know, fix your face and just do what's right.
But look at verse eight and Cain talked
with Abel, his brother, and they came to pass when they were in the field.
The Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him.
So notice because of a of Cain's anger, he act and his envy of his brother.
He actually went so far as murdering his brother.
It's the first murder in the Bible.
And you could kind of see this coming.
Why? From the countenance on his face, go to Genesis 31, Genesis 31,
Genesis 31, verse one, it says, and he heard the words of Laban's sons
saying, Jacob have taken away all that was our fathers and of that which our
fathers of that which was our fathers have he gotten all this glory.
And Jacob, notice, beheld the countenance
of Laban and behold, it was not toward him as before.
So notice Jacob was able to discern
that there was a change in the attitude of Laban.
There was a change in the relationship that they had with each other.
Simply just by the look on his face.
And you see this with people today.
When their relationships change, you see it in their body language.
You know, have you ever seen a boyfriend or a girlfriend that's going about to
break up and you can see their countenance changes?
They're not as happy as they once were.
They're kind of showing through their body language what's about to happen.
They could see, hey,
my girlfriend's countenance is not towards me as it was before.
What is that? That's an indication of her heart.
And here with Laban, it's the same thing.
He's noticing there's a change in Laban's heart here.
And how can I tell that?
Well, by what's written on his face.
Look at verse number three, and the Lord said unto Jacob,
return unto the land of my fathers and to thy kindred and I will be with thee.
And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock and said unto
them, notice, I see your father's countenance, that it is not towards me as before.
But the God of my father hath been with me.
We're not going to get into the whole story this morning.
That's not the point of the sermon.
The point is, notice Jacob being a wise person.
He's paying attention to these cues.
He sees the body language has changed of Laban and he notices that there's a rift
now in their relationship.
Now go to Nehemiah, chapter two, Nehemiah, chapter two.
If you find the one in two books, you got first and second Samuel,
first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah,
Nehemiah, chapter number two, Nehemiah two, verse one.
And it came to pass in the month of
Kisan in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the king, that wine was before him.
And I took up the wine and gave it unto the king.
Now, I had not been before time sad in his presence.
So Nehemiah is coming up to his boss, the king.
And he says, I have never been in the presence of my boss.
I've never been in the presence of the king before being sad.
I've never worn my emotion on my sleeve.
He's never seen that I'm sad.
Look at verse two.
Wherefore, the king said unto me, why is thy countenance sad?
Seeing thou art not sick, this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.
Then I was very sore afraid.
So his boss, the king, he notices, hey, I've never seen Nehemiah sad before.
But now that I'm seeing this change in his countenance,
I could see that there's something wrong with him.
And by the way, it's a good idea to have a cheerful professional countenance at
work and in front of your boss and to not show up to work all mopey and sad and
dragging your feet and having this attitude like, well, boss,
you know, I'll do whatever you say, but I'm going to do it with a sad attitude.
I'm going to do it looking like I want to kill myself, like I want to just end it all.
No, you should be like Nehemiah, where it's like if your boss sees that you're sad,
he's like, this is weird.
I've never seen my employee be sad before my presence.
He's always had a good attitude.
He's always been a good testimony.
You know, that's the testimony we should have as Christians where we wear a
countenance that's a good countenance, meaning what we don't walk around with RBF.
You know, if you know what RBF is, it's just oftentimes it's like a moniker or
some sort of type of a woman that's just her natural state is just everywhere.
She goes. She just looks mad.
Look, men or women or children, we shouldn't be like that.
We should be the type of people where it's
like if someone sees that we're upset, they know that there's actually something
wrong, not just like your default in life is to be mad and angry and sad and just
bad attitude. No, your default in life should be to have the joy of the Lord
because we're saved, because the Bible says daily he loads us with benefits,
because we live in a great place, because we have so much freedom,
because we have great food to eat and we have air conditioning and heaters.
And I mean, I just go on and on.
You know, there's a there's lots of reasons to be happy.
It should be the exception when you're low, when your face is showing something else.
Go to Proverbs, chapter number six,
just showing you how you could tell someone's heart by what they look like.
Now, there's a phenomenon of people called
reprobates or the world calls them psychopaths.
They use body language as a tool to manipulate and harm people because their
brains don't really even process emotion the same way we do.
And while you could have a normal person
who's not a reprobate, who's not a psychopath, they can kind of train
themselves a little bit to, you know, for example, have you ever heard this phrase?
Put on a brave face.
That means what?
It means you're a leader and you might feel kind of scared.
You might feel like you're not being very courageous,
but you're going to put on a brave face
and you're going to let your body language show that, hey, I'm not afraid here.
I'm leading the charge here.
But psychopaths, they take this to a weird extreme where they show with their body
language things that they're not really feeling to manipulate other people.
I want to show you that in the Bible.
Proverbs six, verse 12, a naughty person.
Now, the word naughty is not how we use
it today, where it's like, oh, naughty little child.
You know, he took a cookie like the Bible talks about how a naughty person devises
mischief continually, like a naughty person is constantly dreaming up evil.
A naughty person in the Bible is a sick reprobate, a very wicked person,
a naughty person, a wicked man walketh with a froward mouth.
He winketh with his eyes.
He speaketh with his feet.
He teacheth with his fingers.
You'll also notice like the psychopath,
the reprobate, he'll use his body language just to manipulate other people.
And even, you know, Ted Bundy was very famous for this.
Ted Bundy, Bundy was a very famous serial killer and he would feign himself as
being crippled and he would feign himself as like having a serious injury so that he
could get these women to feel bad for him and help him load his car with something,
help him come to his car and he pretend like he's crippled so that these normal
people are like, oh, this poor man is hurt.
I'm going to help him. And then next thing you know, he's kidnapping them,
harming them and killing them.
And this is the type of person Proverbs six is talking about.
They're using body language as a weapon, as a tool.
And someone that does this, you can know a lot about their heart, too,
that they're a reprobate, that they're a sick person.
Proverbs 15 flip the page there.
Proverbs 15 Proverbs, chapter 15, verse 13, it says a merry heart
maketh a cheerful countenance.
But by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken.
So again, how can you tell if someone has a merry heart?
Can we see someone's heart by their face?
Yes, you can. Because a merry heart make it the cheerful countenance.
You see someone that's happy, that's smiling, that seems pleasant.
It's because they're merry, because they're happy.
Go to Daniel. This would be the last example I show you.
Daniel, chapter number five, you have here Belshazzar.
He's drinking alcohol in the vessels from the vessels from the house of the Lord.
And look at verse number four, it says they drank wine and praised the gods of
gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone.
In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the
candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.
And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote, then the king's notice
countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his
loins were loosed and his knees, smote one against another.
You want to talk about body language.
It's very easy to tell how Belteshazzar is feeling here.
His, he's so scared.
His knees are literally just smacking into each other.
I mean, if you see someone like that, you'd be like, Oh, I deduced
this person is fearful, right?
But what I'm just showing you is that someone's body language
actually does reveal their heart.
It actually does tell you a lot about them.
So that's the introduction there.
Let's get into more of the application here.
Number two this morning.
God wants us to have the right emotions at the right times.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number three.
Now we live in a day and age where people think that their
emotions are always valid.
And this has become kind of like a buzz phrase in our society of
just like my emotions are valid or I want to feel validated.
But I'm just telling you this is not a biblical attitude.
It's just not not all of your emotions are valid.
Not every emotion that you have is the appropriate emotion to
have for every situation.
You know earlier this year I preached a sermon called the
emotions of Jesus Christ and we just looked at all the times
where the Bible tells us the emotions that Jesus Christ was
feeling.
Here's the thing when Jesus Christ is feeling a certain way
about a situation his feeling is validated his feeling is right.
You know if Jesus is showing compassion on someone and you
want revenge and vengeance on someone your emotions are wrong
his a right if the disciples are saying you know Lord should
we call down fire from heaven and devour these men and Jesus
said you know no no not what spirit you're up he's saying
like my attitude is right your attitude is wrong your emotions
are not valid your emotions are not all correct.
Now here's the thing if Jesus is angry at someone and he's
whipping people in the temple he's fashioning a whip and he's
going into the temple and he's whipping the money changers and
you have an attitude that says let's just be loving let's be
merciful to them. Let's show them long suffering. Your
attitude is wrong. Your emotion is wrong. Jesus's attitude is
right. God wants us to fix our face and have the right
attitudes. The right emotions during the right time
Ecclesiastes three look at verse one to everything there is a
season and to ever and a time to every purpose under heaven. So
notice there is a time to think feel say certain things and then there's times
where those same things would be inappropriate why because it's based on
the context of the time look at verse 2 time to be born and a time to die a time
to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted a time to kill and a
time to heal a time to break down and a time to build up a time to weep and a
time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance notice there is a time the
Bible says where it is appropriate to weep there is a time where it is
appropriate to mourn now stay there I want to read for you James 4 9 it says
this be afflicted and mourn and weep that's a commandment right there that's
the Bible saying be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaviness you know the context of this is saying if
someone is living a super sinful life your attitude should be mourning and
weeping and fearing feeling sorrowful and feeling repentant not like the
children of Israel and Isaiah 3 where they're the show of their countenance is
witnessing against them that they're just proud of their sin they're fine with
being in sin no the Bible says if we are in sin we should be mourning and weeping
that's what our face should look like you know a face that's humble and
contrite not a face that's just lifted up and prideful about our sin you know
when are some appropriate times to weep well elsewhere in the Bible the Bible
says weep with those that weep you know if you have a family member or a brother
or sister in this church that's in the hospital and some extreme tragedy has
struck their family you know God forbid this would happen but you know someone's
child dies someone gets in a car accident and their loved one dies you
know that would be a time to weep with your brothers and sisters in Christ that
would be a time to cry that would be a time to be sad you know it'd be an
inappropriate expression on your face is walking into your brother sister in the
hospital they just lost a loved one with a big old smile on your face with all
this joy that'd be inappropriate and so this proves that there's times where we
need to fix our face where we need to control what we look like control the
look on our face and again people just think like well I can't control how I
feel you know what that's true to an extent but we are supposed to as
Christians be spiritual and look at the Word of God and say this is the way God
wants me to feel and try our best to acquiesce to what the Bible says not
just let our flesh rain you know here's another time where it's appropriate to
weep for lost souls and the Bible says he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing
precious seed right it is appropriate to be sad to mourn to even weep over the
fact that there are lost people out there that are dying and going to hell
you know it wouldn't be appropriate to joke or make fun of Joe Plummer going to
hell that's just not appropriate you know the appropriate emotion to have
towards someone dying and going to hell and we're not talking about reprobate
it's just your average Joe would be that of sadness tragedy mourning weeping it's
not something that's funny you know when when you see injustice done in this world
when a wrong is done unto someone you know that's a time to feel sad for your
brothers and sisters in Christ that's not a time to joke around and look I
like joking around from time to time but we kind of live in a society that values
joking around way too much we live in a society that values being sarcastic way
too much and sometimes as Christians there's a time to be serious there's a
time to weep there's a time to mourn now you know here's another appropriate
time to weep you know let's say that you and your co-worker are up for a
promotion and your your buddy got the promotion and you didn't you know that
wouldn't be a time to cry and feel sad for yourself that would be a time to
congratulate your co-worker and to show respect to that person not just wallow
in your own sorrow but the Bible says there's a time to laugh right there's a
time to laugh when are you not gonna laugh you're not gonna laugh at the
hospital bed you're not gonna laugh at a funeral okay you're not gonna laugh when
your boss is giving you instructions you're not gonna laugh when your boss
is correcting you you're not gonna laugh when your pastor is correcting you you're
not gonna laugh when your mom and dad is correcting you that would be a time where
you need to fix your face and us as when we were children some of us may have
heard that from mom or dad when we weren't having a proper attitude we were
being corrected and they said fix your face or I'll fix it for you and we need
some parenting like that again in America you know I looked it up and and I saw
online was saying like this is such a toxic terrible phrase well not according
to the Bible because I'm seeing in the Bible where it's telling us there's
appropriate times to have certain emotions and other times where that would
not be an appropriate emotion we do need to fix our face go to verse 5 of
Ecclesiastes 3 a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones
together a time to embrace and a time to refrain from an embracing a time to get
and a time to lose a time to keep and a time to cast away a time to rend and a
time to sew time to keep silence and a time to speak a time to love and a time
to hate a time of war and a time of peace notice the Bible says that there is a
time to love and a time to hate you know now in our society people think that it's
only ever time to love it's never okay to hate but look there is a time to love
meaning that there's a time where it's appropriate to be loving you know when
is the time we should be loving how about when we go out soul winning you
know when we go out soul winning what should our faces look like it should
look like facial faces that are happy that are joyful and that are
compassionate wanting to see someone get saved not someone where you just look
like you don't care what you're doing you don't care about lost souls you don't
care that you're there you know it doesn't looks like you don't want to be
there that's not the countenance you should have while you're out soul
winning because some people are like this some people are really stoic they
knock on doors like hey do you want to get saved if you're died today do you
want to go to heaven no okay bye it's just like that's not the right attitude
you should have you know the Bible says that we should be earnestly pleading
with people that we should be like begging people in Christ's stead be
reconciled to God right we should be excited we should be passionate we should
go out and care really care about someone's soul and think about if this
was my mother if this was my brother how would I want the soul winner to act not
just you know looking like you hate your life there's and I've seen this many
times this is just something that's common unfortunately where soul winners
they just are so lackluster and have no energy no enthusiasm look fix your face
ready ready I know it's hard sometimes it's really hard but you can smile you
can do it okay and when you knock on someone's door hey we're from said fast
Baptist Church want to invite you to church is that so hard no but that's the
attitude that we should have you know love love your brethren love your family
you know man when you come home from work be sweet to your family love your
wife love your kids smile hug them you know don't have just this down sad
attitude all the time there's a time to love but you know what also there's a
time to hate and some people need to fix their face fix their countenance fix
their attitude where it's like I just love all school shooters and I just want
God's mercy and love on all the school shooters and we just need to forgive
them and you know Jesus loves them it's like no how about we just pray that the
police actually do their job unlike you Valdi where they're sitting in the
hallway putting hand sanitizer on for an hour it's like no put a bullet through
the school shooters brain immediately no mercy no love for the school shooter oh
you know we just need to give pedophiles a second chance no pedophiles need to be
executed there's no love for them there's no love for these people that go
around and just harm other people you know serial killers pedophile school
shooters how about this false prophets you know my countenance when I
experience Mormon missionaries is not a friendly one I fix my face when I'm
around them and it's anger and it's being rude and it's not being nice why
because the Bible says that it's actually a sin to bid them Godspeed or
to invite them into our house so you know my wife doesn't even like that I
do this sometimes but we'll be we went on a walk one time in Washington and
these little Mormons come riding by they're like hey how you doing it's like
go to hell and she's like oh Dylan this is like I don't care because they're
false prophets and they're going around damning people to hell and I want them
to be afraid I want them to be afraid to approach people with the gospel their
false gospel of course I want them to be afraid to walk up to someone's door and
they're like man I just keep getting yelled at people just keep treating me so
mean you know what we could actually help them stop doing what they're doing or at
least be afraid to do it if every time someone knocks on your door with a false
gospel you just rebuked them in the name of Jesus Christ rather than being like
let me just show you I just don't think you understand Romans chapter 3 let me
it's like they're they understand they're false prophets and my view with
Mormons is that if you've been on your missions trip you're toast Mormons that
go around preaching a false gospel or reprobate now I have gotten Mormon saved
and every single Mormon that I've gotten saved has never been on a missions trip
every single time a Mormon goes on a missions trip that person's conscience
is seared with a hot iron they go around they hear the truth all day long they
preach lies they are absolute reprobates and I'm not gonna be nice to them why
I'm fixing my face the Bible tells me how to treat false prophets and it's not
to treat them nicely it's not to give them love and mercy it's to rebuke them
it's to call him out it's to preach against them go to Matthew chapter
number six Matthew chapter number six we're talking about how you need to have
the right attitude for the right times and we already learned that your attitude
is revealed through your body language right well look at Matthew chapter six
verse 16 Jesus is giving us a time where we should feel a certain way moreover
when you fast be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance for they disfigure
their faces that they may appear unto men to fast verily I say unto you they
have their reward so notice Jesus is telling you when you're fasting you're
not supposed to walk around with a long face with a sad look on your face so
that everyone knows that you're fasting it's like you're just walking around
you're sad you're just act you're like oh man you guys hear my stomach rumbling
right now oh it's like what's wrong I'm fasting that's what you wanted everyone
to ask you isn't it because you're walking around with a sad face and your
body language is telling everyone just please ask me if I'm hungry and think
about this the Bible literally says Jesus said they disfigure their faces
for they may so that they may appear on demand to fast so they do something to
their face to change it so that everyone that sees their face knows that they're
fasting you know what this reminds me of it reminds me of the Catholic Church
because during Lent what do they all do they all get ash they've ash Wednesday
they put ash on their forehead they disfigure their face and what are they
doing they're telling everyone hey guys I'm fasting which is literally exactly
what Jesus told you not to do so you just take it to the bank anyone that's
got the ash cross on their forehead doesn't care what Jesus says doesn't
care what the Bible says but he tells us what should be our attitude verse 17 but
thou when thou fastest anoint thine head and wash thy face that thou may appear
not unto men to fast but unto thy father which is in secret and my father would
see it in secret shall reward thee openly so notice when you're fasting you're
supposed to be fasting in a way where other people can't just take one look at
you and know that you're fasting and of course what we're talking about right
now is when you're doing a spiritual fast we're not talking about like hey
you want to lose some weight and you want to do a fast like that's not you're
not gonna get any reward for that because that's just a carnal thing that
you're doing and this also isn't telling you that you can't tell anyone
whatsoever that you're fasting because here's the thing if you have a family
and you're fasting and your wife makes dinner and then you're just like you're
not gonna get she's gonna be like honey what's wrong it's like she's gonna be
like did I put poison in your food like it's okay just be like hey honey I'm
fasting and just keep that between your family but it's about your heart that
your heart is not going around just blowing a trumpet look at me I'm
fasting look it's okay if someone finds out or someone directly asks you don't
lie of course but the spirit here is that you're not trying to bring attention to
yourself through what through your countenance so when you're fasting fix
your face go to Jeremiah chapter 3 Jeremiah chapter number 3 verse 2
Jeremiah 3 lift up thine eyes unto the high places and see where thou hast not
been lying with in the ways hast thou sat for them as the Arabian in the
wilderness thou has polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy
wickedness therefore the showers have been withholding and there hath been no
latter rain and thou hast a whore's forehead that's gonna describe what a
whore's forehead is thou refuses to be ashamed and there's people out
there today that are complete whores or complete whoremongers and they're not
ashamed of that rather they're proud of that and you know there's
men in high school and college that'll go around and beat their chest and brag
about how many women that they've been with what are they they have a whore's
forehead or a whoremongers forehead why because they refuse to be ashamed you
know this idiot Tristan Tate the brother of Andrew Tate he went on and he bragged
about how his goal is to find as many virgins as possible and just defile them
and then just move on to the next virgin and he's proud of it he's bragging about
it that's someone that should be ashamed you know that's someone that if you said
that the entire country would just think that you're a complete wicked piece of
crap because you are but yet many people today idolize Tristan Tate idolize
Andrew Tate and all they are human traffickers people that have made their
money off of literally trafficking women and what are they they have the horse
forehead you know Andrew Tate so prideful why because he's got some
Bugattis he's got mansions he's got money you know what though God is gonna
judge him and he's gonna split hell wide open you know what he's not gonna be all
prideful then he's gonna be screaming and wailing and gnashing of teeth and
you know we live you know same thing with with women today you have this
phenomenon of women just selling their bodies on the internet and they don't
see anything wrong with that they're not ashamed of that they think like look at
me I'm making all this money isn't that something great and it's like no that's
not something great that's something shameful that's something dirty that's
something that's disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourself but
instead people today they have a hoarse forehead look at Jeremiah chapter 6 verse
15 were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not
at all ashamed neither could they blush therefore they shall fall among them
that fall at the time that I shall visit them they shall be cast down sayeth the
Lord thus saith the Lord stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths
where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls
but they said we will not walk therein you know the Bible teaches that there's
some things that you just need to have shame over and God's saying were they at
all ashamed when they committed these abominations the answer was no you know
today in America there's so many abominations in our country that our
country is just not at all ashamed of you know people in the workplace today
will brag and think it's so cool to drink alcohol to smoke marijuana to point
out other women when they're married they have no shame at all and what our
country should do is go back to the old paths where is the good way and be
ashamed of where we've come as a nation you know it is a shame when you judge
2024 America with the founding of our country how much we've changed it's a
complete shame and you know what we are a shame to many other countries in this
world that look at us and they see us promoting LGBT they see us you know
transitioning children and mutilating children you know do you think that
people in Russia have respect for Americans that transition their children
do you think that people in other countries have respect for men they get
married their wife transitions and it's just like they're like oh that's fine
you know I support you it's just no problem is that really how you feel okay
then I support you it's like no these are things that as our country we should
be extremely ashamed of in our country today needs to fix its face on these
issues and I just get so sick and tired of seeing these interviews of these
videos of these young people just bragging about how many abortions they've
had and you know it's like it's not enough it's not enough that you just
have to murder children it's not enough that you just have to brutally murder
children in the womb but on top of it you just have to be proud about it and
it's sad that we live in a country where you can get away with bragging about
murdering children you know Roe v Wade hasn't really changed that because in a
lot of states you could still murder your child and nothing really happens
and you know this law that passed in Texas a few years ago made it to where
you could sue a doctor if they do it but you know what we need to have some more
punishment than just suing someone you know when you're mutilating a baby it
should be the thing that us as a society protects with all of our being and it's
like a lawsuit really that's not really a good deterrent to stop people from this
you know we need to deter evil with the way that the Bible says which is life for
life you want to kill a child well you just sealed your ticket it's time that
you get executed yourself go to Proverbs chapter number 6 Proverbs chapter number
6 remember we need to have the right attitudes at the right times there's a
time to be ashamed Bible says you know when it's never you know it's never a
time to do this it's never a time to be prideful there's never a time for that
there's never a time where it's okay to have a proud look or to be lifted up or
arrogant look at Proverbs 6 verse 6 16 these six things that the Lord hate yay
seven or an abomination unto him notice verse 17 a proud look a proud look we
all know what this is you know you see some celebrities some movie stars some
athlete and they complete some you know accolade or some important feet and they
have this proud look on their face where they think I'm so great I'm all that you
know think about think about sports when someone scores a touchdown in football
what are you gonna see them do they're gonna cross their arms they're gonna
spike the ball they're gonna dance they're gonna look all prideful right and
you know one one thing I really appreciate from my childhood I had this
one baseball coach that really really taught us some good things and he taught
us he said hey baseball is a gentleman sport which I don't think it's like that
anymore okay but he taught us like if you do something good you hit a home run
if you make a great catch if you make a great play he's like I don't want to see
your celebration on your face he's like I want you to stand up and run back to
the dugout and he told us this look like you've done it before meaning like your
countenance when you make a good play should be like cool I helped the team
let's move on let's do the next task like that's what my coach taught us and
he would punish us if he saw us showboating bragging dancing any of this
stuff and he was a great coach I really appreciate that he taught me that and
what I hate is seeing people playing sports and even baseball now you see
this where someone hits a home run and you know they're gonna watch they're
gonna watch the home run hold the bat flip it start doing cartwheels down the
line it's just like dude that's just not okay it's not right God doesn't like
your proud look okay and hitting a baseball 400 feet isn't really anything
to the Lord he's not impressed by that okay you know it's just like so silly to
be prideful it's never an appropriate thing to be prideful and you know you
need to check your body language how is my countenance expressing right now do I
look you know as a lady am I'm walking with an outstretched neck and a high
nose or as a man you know am I walking around with a prideful look on my face
you know we need to fix our face and be humble at all times go to Psalm 95 Psalm
95 now what about our body language during this situation what about when
you're worshipping or praising the Lord what should our body language look like
look at Psalm 95 verse 3 for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all
gods in his hand are the deep places of the earth the strength of the hills is
his also the sea is his and he made it and his hands form the dry land I mean
when you think about the status of God that he created everything elsewhere the
Bible says that all things are upheld by the word of his power the universe the
galaxies the planet the stars the sea the hills everything God created you know
it's like who are we why would we be prideful when we're living on this
spinning globe by the way it's a globe okay in the middle of a vast universe
that God created what right do we have to be prideful no what should our
attitude be look at verse 6 oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel
before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand today if you will hear his voice so notice the
attitude that you'd have because God is so powerful because he's so great and
magnificent and holy our attitude should be that when we think about him when we
worship him that we would bow down that we would literally lower ourselves and
you know sometimes I don't think this would be appropriate thing to do in
church and just draw attention to your to yourself but sometimes in your prayer
closet at home you know sometimes you should get on your face literally you
should get on your hands and knees on your face before God why because you're
lowering yourself acknowledging that you're not great you're not special that
he is that he's so much higher than us and you know there's times in our life
where we really need God or we just really want to acknowledge him and
something you could do is to literally lower your physical body change your
body language to God to show that you are in submission to him to show
humility and look we don't want to get all charismatic and Pentecostal in here
I don't want people coming up to the stage and kneeling like they do in a
lot of churches I think that's weird and uncomely alright but there's times in my
life where I get on my face before God and that is something that I think that
people should do I'll read for you Matthew 26 39 says and he went a little
farther and fell on his face and prayed saying oh my father if it be possible
let this cup pass from me so notice even the Lord Jesus Christ when he was going
through something really hard you know he's in the Garden of Gethsemane he's
about to go to the cross what did Jesus do who is God by the way God himself
even fell on his face to pray to the Heavenly Father and you and I can't fall
on our faces before God of course we can and that would be an appropriate body
language to have with God now go to if you would Colossians chapter number three
Colossians three so we're talking about how God wants us to have the appropriate
attitude at the right times number three God wants us to perform the right
actions with the right attitude so we want to combine what we just talked
about in point two which is your internal state how you're feeling the
attitude that you have in different situations we want to combine that with
doing the right actions with the right attitudes you know some people just go
through the motions and I'll be honest going through the motions is better than
doing nothing you know obeying God's commandments just because you just want
to stay on track and your heart really isn't in it that is better than nothing
but of course God desires for us to do the right actions in life with the right
attitude and part of this is gonna be about fixing our face what are some
examples of this how about in the workplace look at Colossians chapter
3 verse 22 it says this servants obey in all things your masters according to the
flesh not with I service as men pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God
so notice the Bible says that servants or you know a modern-day application of
this could be employees to their bosses that employees are supposed to obey
everything their boss tells them to do you know what that means that means that
you don't sit there and have a prideful look on your face when your boss is
giving you instructions and tell him well that's not in my job description no
if the boss tells you to do anything you're supposed to obey you're supposed
to listen to him and do what he tells you to do but here's the thing not only
should you just obey because look at the rest of that verse it says not with
eye service as men pleasers meaning you're not going to just listen to what
the boss says when he's in the room with you watching you why would why would
that be because then what are you you're just a man pleaser you're just saying
like well I just want to make my boss happy so when he's here I'll do what he
says but when he's gone I'll slack off and not work not only that look what it
says but in singleness of heart fearing God and whatsoever you do do it
heartily as to the Lord and not unto men meaning that when your boss gives you
instructions when your boss tells you to do something you actually do it heartily
meaning with all your strength with all your might with a good attitude with a
positive expression on your face without complaining without murmuring without
asking well can I have this other job to do instead you just do what the boss
tells you to do and you do it with a good attitude and here's the thing you
reap what you sow and I've thought about this since I was a young teenager when I
learned as a young teenager that the Bible says to obey your parents I
thought in my heart well I want to be a parent someday I want to be a dad
someday and so I was definitely not perfect by any means but I really tried
hard to respect my parents to obey what they told me to do and because I wanted
to be respected by my kids someday I wanted my family to respect me someday
and same thing in work you know who among us men wouldn't want to grow and
someday be a manager or a leader or a boss and whatever company or an owner of
their own company you know most men desire that and I just I thought from a
young teenager I'm just gonna do whatever my boss says to do with a good
attitude and I'm telling you if you do this you will stand out in the workplace
so fast it's not even funny and it's not even hard like it doesn't matter what
sector you're working in doesn't matter what type of job you have most people
are disrespectful to their boss that's what I've seen in my life it doesn't
matter what type of job most people are disrespectful to the boss most people
when the boss is gone they're gonna sit around in a circle and talk crap about
him and if you don't do that you will stand out in the workplace why because
that's the way God wants us to act God wants us to fix our face in front of our
boss why because we're not doing it as unto men we're doing it as unto God and
so we look at our bosses as an extension of God in the sense that God has given
that boss authority and if that authority is telling me to do something
I'm gonna do it whether I like it or not and I'm gonna do it with a good attitude
go to Ephesians chapter number five Ephesians five I'll read oh actually
Ephesians chapter number six Ephesians six Ephesians six verse five says servants
be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh notice
with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye
service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God
from the heart so notice you should put your heart into it you should put your
energy into making your boss happy not because you're some suck-up and really
care if the boss likes you that much but it's because you care if Christ likes
you you care if God is pleased with you verse 7 notice good will doing service
as to the Lord and not to men you know when we go to work we should have good
will towards our bosses we should have good will towards our company desiring
that the company does well desiring that the bosses orders get fulfilled and his
vision gets accomplished you know doing goodwill to our bosses from our hearts
you know I've seen this one guy I don't know what his name is on the internet
but he makes all these short videos and his whole shtick is just making fun of
customer service experiences and basically where he works at IKEA and all
these people come up to him be like hey do you have anything in the back and
he's just like you know do you think I really care about working here they pay
me this amount of money and you know some of you have probably seen this let
me tell you those are stupid videos like you should be ashamed yourself if you
think those are funny because the Bible actually teaches that we should do good
will to our bosses meaning when we're working for a company we should want the
company to succeed if you're giving customer service you should care that
the customer is actually pleased with your business meaning when you're
talking to a customer you're thinking hey is this customer gonna think
positively about my boss and about my boss's business based on his interaction
with me or you're just gonna have a bad attitude you're gonna make fun of the
customers you're gonna talk crap about them behind their back that's a bad
attitude and what I don't know since when Christians have believed in this
communist idea we're like corporations are bad businesses are bad making money
is bad look I don't know about you I'm not a communist and if a boss went out
and took a risk to build a business and he's making money and he's hiring me to
help him then it's my job to help him not my job to talk crap about him or to
make the customers unhappy good Ephesians 5 I'll read for you 1st Peter
2 18 says servants be subject to your masters with all fear not only to the
good and gentle but also to the foward so it doesn't matter if your boss is mean
it doesn't matter if he's a nice guy it doesn't matter if he's saved or unsaved
or drunk or it doesn't matter no matter what if he is your boss you're supposed
to obey him you don't like that then find a different job but don't start
treating your boss poorly we talked about the workplace you know let's fix
our face in the workplace how about the home you know this is another realm of
authority that God has ordained in our lives and there is real authority there
and people there that are in subjection the home need to fix their face look at
Ephesians 5 verse 22 wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as
unto the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the
head of the church and he is the Savior of the body therefore as the church is
subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing so
notice the Bible says that wives are to submit to their husbands they're
supposed to be subject to their husbands elsewhere it teaches that they are to
obey their husbands look there's no question about this in the Word of God
that the Bible has ordained the man as the human authority in the family and
what the man says should go and wives today should obey their husbands and they
shouldn't have this rebellious spirit you know many wives today have a
rebellious and hard heart towards their husbands where their husband tells them
to do something and it's just how dare he tell me something to do or just like
spend more time with me love me it's just like hey fix your face alright this
is how a lot of women are today here's the thing obeying your husband is not
just doing what he told you to do it's doing it with a good attitude let me
explain to you what obedience is obedience is not doing something that
you already agreed with that your husband told you do you're like cool I
would have made the same decision or it's like hey can we go here no it's
like cool I wanted to go somewhere else instead that's not obedience obedience
is when you disagree with what your husband says you're not happy about your
husband's decision and you go with it with a pleasant attitude here is here
is this is not obedience it's like hey can I buy this no it's like this is
like I'm gonna give you the silent treatment for the next five days that's
not obedience even if you didn't buy the thing that your husband told you not to
buy if you treat him poorly if your countenance has been changed towards him
if you now have a bad attitude towards him that is not obedience how would you
treat that with your children because I know what I would do with mine I would
tell them to fix their face and if I tell my kids to do something but they
do with a bad attitude dragging their feet slumping their shoulders you know
rolling their eyes they're going to get a spanking why because their heart is not
right but in our weird culture where everything's backwards and many
marriages today the wife is the one in charge you know a lot of women think
it's okay to roll their eyes at their husband to look angry at their husband
even if they do what they say look that is not right many wives today in our
country need to fix their face and not just do what their husband says but do
it with a good attitude and I just I don't know why women think this this is
just a universal thing they think like I'm not pleased with my husband I want
him to be more loving to me I want him to spend more time with me and so what
What they do is they nag and they complain and they get a bad attitude and a bad face.
But this is the exact opposite action you should take if you want your husband to spend
time with you.
Because having a negative face towards him is just only going to drive him away farther
to the attic or to the wilderness like the Bible talks about.
But if you actually want your husband to love you and be gentle, you know what you should
be?
You should be kind.
You should be pleasant.
You should be loving around him.
You shouldn't have RBF around your husband.
You should fix your face.
And look, people get really offended by what I'm saying right now.
But I was just talking about the men at work and a lot of men are so soft that if they
heard that part of the sermon, they'd be really upset too.
That I think that they have weak character, that I think they have weak moral character
at work because they're not obeying their boss.
But then all of a sudden we talk about wives obeying their husbands.
Now it's just like this guy's a hate preacher.
This guy's a terrible person.
It's like the Bible is right here in front of us.
It said what it said about employees.
It says what it says about wives.
Why don't we as Americans, as Christians, just fix our face?
Just fix your face to your authority in your life.
Go to Ephesians chapter number six.
While you go there, I'll read for you 1 Peter 3, 5 or 3, 6, it says, "Even as Sarah obeyed
Abraham calling him Lord."
So notice Sarah did what Abraham said, but in her heart she called Abraham Lord, meaning
boss.
Meaning when Abraham told Sarah to do something, she did it with a good attitude.
That's what obedience is.
And that is a great example for wives today to look at Sarah and say, "Hey, she obeyed
Abraham in her heart calling him Lord."
Let's talk about children.
Ephesians 6, 1, "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."
We teach our children obey right away with a good attitude.
As Ephesians 6 verses 1 and 2, that's what we teach our children.
You must obey, but it's not enough to obey, you obey right away and with a good attitude.
Why?
Because delayed obedience is disobedience, and obedience with a rebellious heart is disobedience.
And so just like I don't want my wife doing that to me, just like if I was in charge at
work, I wouldn't want my employees doing that to me.
I don't want my children disobeying me, having a bad attitude, having a mean face towards
me when I tell them what to do.
And look, parents, you are doing your children a disservice when you allow them to disrespect
you, to roll their eyes at you, to drag their feet, and you do nothing about it.
You are doing them a serious disservice.
Why?
Because as children, if they're not corrected, that when they have a bad attitude, there's
going to be consequences for that, then they're going to grow up to be the Ikea guy that hates
his boss, hates his company, is a bad testimony, or they're going to grow up and be that rebellious
wife that always is angry at her husband and disobedient to her husband, you know, it starts
as children. And we need to remember as parents that we are not raising kids, we are raising
adults. And how would you want your child as an adult to react to their authority telling
them what to do, it would be to obey right away with a good attitude. So my recommendation
is anytime your child disobeys, or they obey, but delay, or they obey and have a bad attitude
that they would get spanked every single time for that, because otherwise you are really
setting them up to have serious heart issues when they are older. Lastly let's talk about
church, go to Psalm 100, Psalm 100, Psalm 100. Now this doesn't have anything to do
with the sermon, but someone let me borrow a Peter Ruckman reference Bible one time,
and it said that Psalm 100 was not written to us, it was only written to the Jews. So
you know Ruckmanites they'll read this verse and they'll say oh that's just to the Jews,
I don't know about you, I believe this verse is for us, right? Look at Psalm 100 verse
one it says, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness,
come before his presence with singing." Notice, when you come to the house of God, when you
come to worship the Lord, how are you supposed to be doing it? With a joyful noise and with
gladness. You know what that means? That means that you need to fix your face during the
singing and actually be singing with gladness and joy in your heart, not just sitting there
like staring at the song leader. I was a song leader for, yeah, like four years at Steadfast
Baptist Church, and I remember there was this one person, and they don't go to church anymore,
okay? I'm not going to say who it is, but every time I was song leading, they wouldn't
sing, they wouldn't look at their hymns, they would just stare at me. How weird is that?
That is so weird. Don't do that, okay? That is so strange. We're supposed to be worshiping
God. The Bible says to sing joyfully, to come before His presence with gladness. I mean
let's sing out with some passion. Why is it that we go to the men's conference, all the
men are so excited and we're singing out nice and loud, and then some of the men come back
here and they just don't sing anymore. Sing with gladness. Fix your face in church. It's
not my opinion, it's what the Bible says. Look at verse 3, "Know ye that the Lord He
is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture." Notice verse 4, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts
with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy
is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations." Look, when you enter the
house of God, enter in with thanksgiving in your heart. Don't come to church looking like
someone is pointing a gun to your head to be here. And look, I'm sorry, if you're a
child in this room and your parents are forcing you to be here, I hope someday that you grow
and get right with God. But look, most of the people in this room are coming here willingly,
and if you're doing so, you should come with thanksgiving in your heart to God. And I like
what Brother Cameron was praying this morning, because what he said is true, that it is not
a common thing to find a church like this. We have so much given to us in this church
and in just America as general, in general, that we take for granted on a daily basis.
And it's just crazy to me that people could come into a church that has the King James
Bible being preached, that preaches salvation by faith, that preaches hard against sin,
that preaches the whole counsel of God, that goes out soul winning, that has leadership
that will pray for you, that will care for you, that has brothers and sisters in Christ
that will love you, that sings good songs with good doctrine, we have all these events
with free things being given to you and you could come and have a bad attitude, shame
on you if that's the case.
Look fix your face if you come to church, do you want to be here or not?
Come here if you want to be here, if you don't want to be here, go to Southwest Baptist Church,
go to some other Baptist Church in this area, there's one on every corner, but look if you
are here, want to be here, want to serve God, go to Ezekiel chapter number 3, Ezekiel chapter
number 3.
Here's another thing, fix your face during the preaching, 1 Thessalonians 5 20 says this,
despise not prophesying, you know the Bible teaches us that we should not despise the
preaching of God's word, what does it mean to despise something, one thing it could mean
is like hating it, not liking it, and look if that's you, you need to get your heart
right with God, you need to get in your Bible and start liking what the Bible says, but
another way people can despise it is by not esteeming it as highly as it should be, you
know this is the people that sit on their phone all service, these are the people that
talk all service, what is that, those are people that are despising prophesying, or
these are the people that just hate what the Bible says and is just giving me the RBF or
giving the preacher the RBF, look fix your face, despise not prophesying, you know some
people wear their emotions on their sleeves and this is just a bad idea because when I
see it I'm just going to preach longer and I'm just going to preach harder because you
know one time we had this Russian visitor at a church I was going to and let me tell
you something about Russians they kind of like alcohol and I was preaching against Russian
churches how they drink alcohol during the Lord's Supper and I see this dude's face
just like and I'm just like I'm just parking it here then like you want to despise prophesying
okay the sermon just became about alcohol now because you need to fix your face look
at Ezekiel chapter three verse four and he said unto me son of man go get thee unto
the house of Israel and speak with my words unto them for thou art not sent unto a people
of a strange speech and of an hard language but to the house of Israel not to many people
of a strange speech and of an hard language whose words thou canst not understand surely
had I sent thee to them they would have hearkened unto thee.
So he's saying hey Ezekiel if you would have been sent to the Gentiles they would have
listened to you but I'm sending you to the Jews who are hard-hearted stiff-necked look
at verse 7 but the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee for they will not hearken
unto me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted behold I have made thy face
strong against their faces and thy forehead strong against their foreheads as an adamant
harder than flint have I made thy forehead fear them not neither be dismayed at their
looks though they be a rebellious house what's it talking about he said hey Ezekiel don't
be dismayed at their looks because when you're preaching they're going to have all sorts
of RBF and nasty looking faces looking back at you but hey don't worry because they're
not rejecting you they're actually rejecting me and guess what Ezekiel I'm gonna make your
face harder than their faces and your forehead harder than their foreheads and here's the
thing when you're preaching the rock and when you're standing on the rock you know the rock
is harder than any look you want to throw at me and it's not just me it's any preacher
that has the rock God's gonna make my face harder than your face and if you're preaching
the word of God he'll make your face harder than anyone else's face and I'm not saying
this from a position of being prideful or anything like that but I'm just saying I've
had my house surrounded by sodomites for over a year and I'm not going to be afraid of your
face I've had like thousands of death threats against me for preaching the word of God I'm
not going to let some woman some you know angry mom with RBF that doesn't like what
I have to say about Ephesians chapter 5 stop me from preaching the Bible it's not going
to happen because God's going to make my face harder than your face and God's going to make
any preacher who's standing on the rock he's going to make their face harder than your
face so you know I would just recommend to fix your face in church why because God cares
about our heart God cares that we're doing the right actions yes he wants you to show
up to church and if you're showing up grudgingly that is better than not coming to church you
know what he would rather you do enter into his courts with thanksgiving you know he would
rather you do sing joyfully to the Lord you know he'd rather you do you know if you're
a man in this room is to say amen at the word of God being preached to agree with it in
your heart to love it being preached to be thankful for it being preached not to have
a bad look on your face go to Psalm 19 that'll be the last place we turn I'll read Acts
17 11 says these were more noble than those in Thessalonica and that they received the
word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things
were so so notice the Bereans here they're more noble because they received the word
with all readiness of mind meaning that they came to hear the word of God and they had
receptive hearts they were ready to receive what was going to be preached now of course
they received it and search the scriptures to see whether those things were so you know
that should be our attitude when we go into church is that we should be expecting to hear
something good from the word of God and even when I went to churches that I didn't even
necessarily love like when I went to a Rukminite church the first church I ever went to I was
kind of going there grudgingly because it was the only church in my area and I would
listen to Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez after church and get fed that way but even
when I went to that church I was hopeful every single time that I would hear something from
the word of God and here's the thing when something was preached that I did agree with
that was coming from the Bible I did say amen even though I didn't like a lot of things
about that ministry and though I didn't like Sam being there right still said amen where
I could and you know if you could do that at that type of church how much more at this
type of church should you be able to say amen and receive the word of God with all readiness
psalm 1914 this will be the last place that we go here it says in verse 14 let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in my sight oh lord my strength
and my redeemer you know I'll just close with this we need to make sure that both our words
and our heart is acceptable to god but not only to god to all the authorities in our
life and so you know let us as a church learn to fix our faces to have a proper body language
but how are you going to get that you're going to get that coming from a pure heart that's
an obedience to who your god first of all your boss at work wives your husbands at home
children your parents church your pastor you know if you truly have those people in respect
and if you truly love and respect the word of god it's going to help you to fix your
face let's have a word of prayer lord thank you for this day and thank you for the word
of god it gives us so much wisdom and i just pray in here that you would help every person's
heart to truly love your word and to desire to follow what it says and just pray that
you'd help us to be good followers under the various authorities that you've placed in
our lives thank you so much for the blessing of church and for the blessing of being gathered
together. We love you and Jesus name we pray. Amen.