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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Grab a hymnal. Our first hymn is number 43. We're marching to Zion. Be sure to sing it out. Hymn number 43. For three, we're marching to Zion. Forty-three there on the first. We thank the Lord and let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord. And thus around the throne and thus around the throne. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion. On the beautiful city of God. Let those refused to sing who never knew are gone. By the children of the heavenly King. By the children of the heavenly King. May speak their joys abroad. May speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion. On the beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred swings. Before we reach the heavenly field. Before we reach the heavenly field. Or walk the golden streets. Or walk the golden streets. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion. On the beautiful city of God. And let our songs about and every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's crown. We're marching through Emmanuel's crown. To their world, world on high. To their world, world on high. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion. On the beautiful city of God. Amen. At this time, we'll open with a word of prayer. If you'll bow your heads with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and for your many blessings. We just thank you to have an opportunity to freely gather together. To sing out praises and to learn from your word. And Lord, though that's a frequent prayer, it's not in vain or a repetition. We should be thankful and just we are thankful every single time that we have this opportunity. To that end, Lord, I pray that you would just incline your ears as we sing praises to you. That you'd fill pasture with your spirit. And that everything for the service would be done decently and in order. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, for our second hymn this evening, turn to 224. There shall be showers of blessing. 224. 224. There shall be showers of blessing. 224 on the first. There shall be showers of blessing. This is the promise of love. There shall be seasons refreshing. Sin from the Savior above. Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we heed. Mercy drops round us our calling. But for the showers we plead. There shall be showers of blessing. Rashes reviving again. Over the hills and the valleys. Sound of abundance of rain. Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we heed. Mercy drops round us our calling. But for the showers we plead. There shall be showers of blessing. Send them upon us, O Lord. Grant to us now a refreshing. Come and now honor Thy Word. Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we heed. Mercy drops round us our calling. But for the showers we plead. There shall be showers of blessing. O that today they might fall. Now as to God we're confessing. Now as on Jesus we call. Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we heed. Mercy drops round us our calling. But for the showers we plead. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. This time we'll go through our announcements. Please raise your hand if you need a bulletin and an usher will bring you one. On the front you'll see our Bible memory passage of the week, Galatians chapter 1 verse 14. Still about two months-ish to do this, so plenty of time. On the inside you'll see our service times are listed there. Sunday mornings at 10 30 a.m., Sunday evenings at 30 p.m. and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock. Below that you'll see all of our soul winning times listed there as well as our upcoming nursing home ministry preaching schedule. And also we have our year-to-date soul winning statistics. Praise the Lord for 210 so far this year. And we definitely want to keep pushing that number up and preaching the gospel. Next Sunday evening, April 13th, we're going to have our men's preaching night. Please do sign up today if you're going to be preaching for that, that we have an idea of how many people are going to be preaching for that evening. But that's going to be our evening service followed by a potluck, so please do bring something to share. A main dish or dessert, any of those are fine. April 19th, that is not this upcoming Saturday, but the one after is our soul winning marathon. We're meeting at Frederick Douglass Park right by the Willa D. Johnson Rec Center. It's a really nice park. It's a good area for soul winning, so we're excited for that. We'll be getting some food catered for lunch and there will be plenty of opportunities of course to preach the gospel. After that, April 20th, of course that's Easter Sunday, we'll be taking the Lord's Supper for our evening service for that day. May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Shur Foundation Baptist Church. Man, I'm really looking forward to listening to these sermons because I unfortunately listened to a debate from James White and it just made me angry and I'm just ready to hear some truth about the King James Version, so I'm looking forward to hearing those sermons. May 31st is the Durant, Oklahoma Soul Winning Marathon where we're specifically teaming up with Steadfast, so there will be a ton of soul winners for that event. Please do join us for that. June 28th, this whole weekend is going to be great. We have our Tinker Air Show Fellowship Day where we're just going to hang out and have a good time as families at the air show. And the next day, Brother Ben Naim is going to be visiting us and preaching both sermons for us on Sunday. August 27th through the 31st is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. It's going to be a great conference. I know a lot of people were really hopeful for Red Hot this year and it didn't pan out, so get your hard preaching fix at the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. October 6th through the 11th is the Bahamas Mission Trip and we're greatly looking forward to that. On the back you will see our prayer list and some information about giving. And as always, if you have any prayer requests or updates, please do email me. If you need a private prayer request, email me. I'd be happy to pray for you myself. But at this time, let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for this evening. We thank you for the blessing of Anchor Baptist Church and the folks that are here this evening. I pray that you would bless this time, that you would keep our hearts soft to the word of God and to the will that you have for us in our lives. We pray also for the requests of our church members here this evening, Lord, that you would incline your ear and answer these according to your will. We pray for Brother Miles for his health to improve and also that you would just strengthen Miss Rhea during a difficult time of caretaking and dealing with these issues. We pray that you please bless their family, Lord. We also pray for Brother Alex for his job situation that he's in right now and pray that he would be able to find a job that's suiting for him. That would be your will, Lord, that you bless him financially in his search for a great career. We also pray for Miss Remy, that her travels would go well, that you bless her while she's away from us, that you keep her safe, Lord, and we pray that you'd be able to bring her safely to us again soon and bless her time with friends and family. We also pray for Miss Whitney Reed for her brother Cole's salvation, that she would soften his heart to the gospel, that he'd get many chances to hear the word of God preached. I also pray for those in our church who are not feeling well. I pray that they would get better soon, Lord. And we also pray for Brother Zach for his lost family members, that they as well would have a soft heart towards the gospel and that they would get many opportunities to hear it again, Lord. We love you and pray that you bless the service. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, that's going to be it for announcements this evening. We'll go ahead and go to our third song. Alright, our third song this evening. First you'll grab your white handout. Our third song is Holy, Holy, Holy. In your white handout. Holy, holy, holy. In your white handout. Holy, holy, holy there on the first. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty early in the morning our song shall rise in thee Holy, holy, holy holy, merciful and mighty God in three persons blessed Trinity Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee passing down their golden crowns around the classy sea cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee which were dead or dead evermore shall be Holy, holy, holy though the darkness hide thee though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see only thou art holy there is none beside thee perfect in power in love and purity Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty all thy words shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea Holy, holy, holy merciful and mighty God in three persons blessed Trinity Amen. Good singing this evening. As the offering plates are being passed, turn if you would to Proverbs chapter number three. Proverbs chapter number three. Good evening. Proverbs three the Bible reads, My son forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of day is not my and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart, so shalt I find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thine name. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine My son despise not the chaste thing of the Lord neither be weary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth He corrected even as a father the son in whom he delighted Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that get his understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst Desire are not to be compared unto her Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honor her ways Are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is everyone that retaineth her The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth by understanding hath he established the heavens by his knowledge The depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew My son let not them depart from thine eyes keep sound wisdom and discretion So shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble when thou lies down thou shalt not be afraid Yea thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet be not afraid of sudden fear neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh for The Lord shall be thy confidence and night and shall keep thy foot from being taken withhold not good from them to whom it is Do when it is in I it wouldn't when it is in the power of that hand to do it Say not unto thy neighbor go and come again and tomorrow I will give thee when that has sit by thee. Divide is not evil against thy neighbor seeing he dwelleth securely by thee Strive not with a man without cause if he have done thee no harm Envy not thou Envy thou not the oppressor and choose none of his ways for the froward is abomination to the Lord But his secret is with the righteous the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked But he blesseth the habitation of the just Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly the wise shall inherit glory But shame shall be the promotion of fools. Let's bow our heads for word of prayer Amen all right. We are in Proverbs chapter number three and for those of you that like to take notes I try to do my best to separate these into sections So if you'd like to do that number one this evening Don't forget God's law look at verse number one of Proverbs 3. It says my son forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my Commandments and I want to focus in on that word law because sometimes the law could mean a couple different things in the Bible In one way, it could just be referring to the Ten Commandments in other ways It could be referring to the Commandments in the Old Testament Sometimes it could be referring to just the Word of God in general God's law But I want to focus in on this idea that God tells us not to forget his law meaning the Commandments of God Because today there's kind of a push in liberal churches to want to ignore everything in the Old Testament Not want to have God's criminal statutes or moral statutes and kind of just get away from the law of God But here in Proverbs, which is obviously a timeless book that's applicable to all time periods of humanity But the Bible is telling us not to forget God's law go to Matthew chapter number 5 Matthew chapter number 5 and Jesus teaches this exact thing because people want to turn the teachings of Jesus on its head and teach like Jesus came and Wanted us to forget about the do's and the don'ts and the thou shalt and the thou shalt nots But really nothing could be further from the truth look at verse 17 What Jesus said think not that I am come to destroy the what law or the prophets I am not come to destroy but to Fulfill see the New Testament was not given to us so that we could forget about thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery. That was not the purpose of Jesus coming, but Jesus did come and fulfill the law There's a lot of things in the Old Testament law that was ceremonial or were purely a picture of the coming Messiah And what did he do? He came and fulfilled those things and in the book of Hebrews the Bible gives us very specific Things that are done away in the New Testament, right? So the Sabbath day the carnal washings certain dietary restrictions These things were fulfilled by Christ and are no longer a thing. But you know what God still wants us to remember his law He wants us to preach his law He wants us to preach the vow shouts and the vow shalt nots look at verse 18 For verily I say unto you Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and Shall teach men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, right? So if you are saved and you break the commandments of God and you teach people to break the commandments of God You're still saved. But what are you you're gonna be least in the kingdom of heaven and you know I do think sadly there are some safe people that get into this false doctrine that Basically, just everything in the Old Testament was done away with and look I think those people are still saved but really they're setting themselves up to be least in the kingdom of God and They're setting up their congregation their church to be least in the kingdom of God because you know what salvation is by faith But God judges us according to our works and he's gonna reward us in heaven according to our works What are those keeping the law of God doing what is good according to the Bible? But the verse says whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven I don't see how preachers and pastors all over America are not seeing this verse where Jesus is specifically highlighting doing and Teaching teaching what the commandments of God? So it's my job to do and teach the commandments We should be a people that doesn't disdain God's law doesn't shy away from the Old Testament We should be people that embrace it and love it and a bunch of the Psalms are just talking about like how we love God's Word how we love God's law, you know If you haven't noticed all of our Bible studies have been in the Old Testament like I'm not ashamed the Old Testament I don't want to shy away from it. I love the Old Testament. It's God's Word. It's God's law We should love it go to Romans chapter number three But what's fun? What I've noticed is that people who are the most? clear on salvation being by faith alone are coincidentally also the people that preach the hardest on the law of God and That is not a coincidence. You'll see that the Apostle Paul did the exact same thing Romans chapter 3 verse 31. He says do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid yay. We establish the law So no one's preaching salvation more clear than the Apostle Paul But he kind of asks this theoretical question that people might be asking Well, I mean are you just saying you could just do whatever you want, right? That's what people ask us all the time Oh, so you're just saying there's no consequences for sin whatsoever and you don't even need to keep the commandments You don't need to keep God's law. It's like no. No, we're saying salvation is by faith Salvation is not by doing those things. But are we just getting rid of the law of God? No, we're establishing the law No, we're saying you should keep all the commandments. And in fact God's standard is so high It's not even funny But people that want to believe a works-based salvation what they do is they lower the bar They lower the standard of righteousness as they sit here and claim you got to do the works You've got to keep the commandments We're over here saying you don't have to do any of those things to be saved But we actually do believe the law of God see work salvation is they would be terrified by Leviticus by Leviticus 20 verse 13 They would be terrified by Leviticus chapter 20 talking about in verse 10 the death penalty for adultery A lot of people would just shy away from that. We're over here saying like yeah We established the law. We love the law of God. We want to keep that stuff alive. Go to Titus chapter 2 Titus chapter number 2 But you know you can you can have both and if you rightly divide scripture you understand hey Salvation it's not of works. It's not of the law It's not by doing good But God still wants us and expects us to do those things to please him to have a good relationship with him That's nothing to do with salvation But people will say oh But we're under grace and so therefore the words of God in the Old Testament the commandments none of those things matter Really because Titus 2 11 look at the Bible says for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world See the grace of God did not come to tell you no big deal. You could drink no big deal You could live with your girlfriend. No big deal. You don't even have to go to church I mean, this is a big movement nowadays church isn't even a thing. You don't even have to go to church You can just have the best relationship with Jesus in your house. Just thinking about him No, no No, actually grace came to teach us that we should deny ungodliness that we should turn away from worldly lusts That we should be how about this sober? That's a big one. I mean, it's not very many Christians who are absolute teetotalers But you know what we are and we believe that you can be saved and drink till the cows come home But yet I will say that to be right with God you have to drink this much Zero and I drink this much and I want people in this room to drink this much But I could also say if someone drinks and they believe in Christ, they're still saved If someone drinks alcohol every single day, but they believe in Christ. They are still saved This is how we say hey, of course salvation is by grace. But are we gonna get rid of the law? No, we'll establish the law we want to keep the commandments of God and we do it because we love God go back to Proverbs chapter number three and Of course the carnal mind can't understand how we do this out of love for God because to them It's just fear of hell and they're they're wanting to do good works and not do terrible things The only thing that's restraining them is hell and we're over here saying like oh, yeah You could do all those things and still be saved and they're like then why are you not doing them? Oh because we love God because we fear God we want to be pleasing in his sight look at verse 2 It says for length of days and long life and peace Shall they add to thee so notice the law of God is not a burden It's not something that God gave us to punish us the law of God is a blessing The law of God is gonna give you long days and peace You're gonna have in your life in general You know because some of the things that God tells you not to do in the Word of God if you do them could literally Kill you and so by keeping God's commandments you could kind of prolong your days in that sense, right? A very easy example, of course is people getting drunk people die getting drunk all the time Mean the amount of just accidental deaths that happen or the amount of time someone literally just binge drinks themselves to death where their heart just stops or They'll die earlier in life because of liver failure heart failure throat cancer You know stomach cancer all these things is directly related to that sin And if they would have just obeyed God's commandments and been sober they would have had a longer life Okay, then of course on top of that since we actually believe in God and believe that God can move and work in our lives There's also the supernatural element of God just blessing you and so that's why you should always keep God's commandments Whether your flesh likes it or not, whether you personally agree with the Bible or not Whether you understand why God gives you those commandments or not It's for your own benefit and God's going to bless you in your life for keeping those commandments Go to if you would Let's just look at verse number three says let not mercy and truth forsake thee bind them about thy neck write them upon the table of thine heart so by Forsaking God's commandments what you're kind of doing is you're forsaking mercy and truth You're kind of like begging for God not to be merciful to you when you just completely Disregard God's commandments when you keep them when you fear God the Bible's talking about how mercy and truth is gonna be around you But those that scorn scoff at God's Word don't listen to it It's like you're asking mercy and truth to forsake you then it says in verse number four so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and Man, so again on one side you have the spiritual aspect of having God be pleased with you And that's obviously the most important thing That's what we should be seeking in our lives is to have God's stamp of approval on us God's hand with us But notice also how the Bible says that you're gonna be approved in the sight of man, too And you know people could say whatever they want about Christians and Christianity But everyone knows that Christians that actually follow the Bible are the best people Everyone knows that and a lot of times when you know people in their youth They'll obviously be really stupid and ignorant but a lot of times when people mature and life starts to hit them They'll be like, oh man my grandma was right like some of us may have seen this meme or was like When you are like 25 and you realize your grandma was right about everything being gay and satanic It's like, you know, a lot of youth are mocking. Oh grandma's crazy, you know crazy She says everything's satanic and gay and then you just like you wake up one day and you're like this world is super gay And satanic it's just like Grandma was right and it's like the Bible's right about everything and people who are not hypocrites not bad examples Not people who are you know taking the name of Christ but just doing everything opposite of what the Bible says People who actually lived the Bible everyone looks at those people and says that's the real deal. That's a happy life That's a successful life You know the world when they actually see a godly woman Look the the whores on every street corner of the Bible says but the virtuous woman who can find So when there's a virtuous woman when there's the Proverbs 31 woman and people see that they're just like whoa, this is amazing How did you find this? How did you get this right? And the answer is following God's commandments It's going to make you stand out We are the children of light in this dark world and the more that you keep God's commandments The more that you're gonna have favor in God's eyes and in man's eyes as well and oftentimes what happens is, you know We end up getting hated and persecuted and lied about but it's often for just the words of Christ or you know A sermon your pastor preached or what the Bible says, but usually, you know Christians have a great testimony with people that they know as far as like hey This person is a hard worker. This person's really good at their job. At least you should have that testimony and If you are hated by your employer and it's not because of your beliefs you should repent You need to become a better worker You need to work hard and not complain and show up on time and have good Christian character Because if you actually show up to work and work not to please man, but to please God in the process You're gonna please man, but your your goal should be to please God Stay there in Proverbs 3. I like this psalm Psalm 111 verse 10 The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they that do His commandments his praise endureth forever because you know in verse 4 talked about how you find favor and understanding In the sight of God and man, what do we talk about last week? Those who do the commandments of God are the ones who understand the most the Bible's backing that up there Number two this evening trust in the Lord look at verse 5 It says trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding this is one of the best verses in the Bible and Something that is just true about human nature that the world does not understand is that every single person? By nature is very sinful very sinful very corrupt the Bible talks about how our heart is deceitful above all things and Desperately wicked who can know it and you know what you need to understand about yourself And what I need to understand about myself is that my heart is not good Do you hear that your heart is not good? You are not a good person Okay, this is this is reality But people that are prideful they think my heart's telling me what's right my heart's leading me in the right direction But those who have actually read the Bible realize how we feel sometimes is not necessarily what's right our Emotions because what is it talking about your heart? You know trust and don't trust in your heart. That's your emotions That's how you feel and here's the thing the feeling of your heart can be very strong And that's why the Bible says it's deceitful because your feelings are real you're having real feelings But a mature person someone that understands this proverb can recognize that even though I'm having certain feelings it doesn't make it right and You should have the Christian character to sometimes look at your feelings and say yes. I'm having these feelings Yes, I want to go this certain way, but you know what I'm wrong And how do you know that you're wrong? Well, you have to trust in the Lord with all thine heart How do you trust in the Lord you take the words of God and you actually believe them? That's what trusting in the Lord is and by the way This is a great reason to be King James only because when we're King James only and you actually have a final authority Standing before you you could take the words on your page and just say Conversation over heart the Bible says this I'm gonna trust in the Lord. I'm not gonna trust in my heart It's kind of hard if you don't believe that this is the perfect word of God Because when your heart is conflicting against the Bible you could have that thought in the back of your head Well, is this even what the Bible said? because my pastor said you got to go back to the Greek to get the real meaning and that this is just the closest thing That we have and even though they've come out with like how many editions of these modern versions, right? It's constantly changing No, you need to have some solid foundation in your life It needs to be the King James Bible and you need to be able to put the Bible there as the foundation And you need to constantly auditing your heart and realize hey is my heart in tune with what the Bible says No that I need to trust in the Lord with all my heart And of course you can apply this just so many different ways You know I like to think about when someone starts reading the Bible for the first several times through cover to cover Yay, honestly your whole life. You're not gonna understand everything in it You're not gonna understand every single chapter every single verse and I like to think about this verse When I come to a passage, I don't understand because you know what I don't do when I come to something I don't understand. I don't sit here and wonder is this true? Is this right? I Realize hey, I'm a sinner. I have bad understanding at times. I am flesh. Here's what I know Okay, I don't understand this passage but I do believe God's Word is true and so I'm gonna trust in the Lord with all my heart and Rely on what the Bible says even if I don't fully understand it and Oftentimes when you have that mentality the next couple times you're coming through the Word of God God sees that you actually trust him. He gives you that knowledge. You're praying and asking for wisdom You know God countless times in my life has done that But you need to not go to the Word of God as some sort of you know Don't approach the Bible like any other book that you would read like any other book that you would read You're gonna need to be like hyper vigilant if the information that you're getting is correct But you should realize like the Bible is right and it has to be able to correct us You have to have that level of humility to get Profit out of it. Look at verse number six. It says in all thy ways Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths So the idea of God Directing our paths again It kind of goes back to this idea that we as human beings are just so naturally Sinful and simple that we don't on our own just know what the right path is We don't know where to go in life We don't know how to do all these things just naturally and so what we have to have is God Directing our steps and that's a big blessing. I'll read for you Jeremiah 10 verse 23 The Bible says Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps the Bible saying like we don't even know what we're doing We don't even know where we're walking as human beings and it's just I feel so bad for people that go through this life without The Bible I mean, it's got to be just miserable I mean people are just randomly seeking anywhere for information and just trusting everything they hear and who knows? If it's right, who knows if it's wrong, you need someone to guide your steps in this life Otherwise, it's going to chew you up and spit you out and the sooner and younger in life You could get a bunch of Bible in you the better your steps are going to be the more God's going to guide you You know You don't want to wait until you've already gone off the trail and you've already broken your ankle and you already half Mauled by a grizzly bear to have someone guide you back to the trail You know you want as soon as possible get on that trail and stay on it, right? So we want to make sure we're teaching our kids the Word of God verse number seven Again, remember we're talking about humility. It says be not wise in thine own eyes Fear the Lord and depart from evil. What is being wise in your own eyes? It's any time someone disagrees with the Bible Look, we get disagree with each other because we're fallible But if you disagree with the Bible that's called you being wise in your own eyes You're thinking I know better than God and there's tons of people Yay, even pastors even churches that are just like glorifying humanity Glorifying humanism the human intellect the human mind their sermons are like a TED talk They're not showing you a bunch of Bible and those people are wise in their own eyes and I always it always makes me think about King James only ISM because if the Bible is Not your final authority something has to be Something has to be your final authority and what our original manuscript only us. What's their real final authority? It's their own mind They're wise in their own eyes The pastor will come to a passage of Scripture that he and his flesh doesn't like and he just gets to wiggle out of it By saying well in the Greek Well, if you just go to this other version look at what this version says. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Satan could gather You know hundreds of false witnesses to give people this sense of superiority like oh, I've got 500 English translations that agree with me. Yeah, but that doesn't make it right God's Word is what's true. God's Word is what determines right? That's why you need to have a final authority and notice what it says it shall be health in verse 8 it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones Keeping God's Commandments. Yes. It could be tied to having a longer life and it could be tied to having a fuller and healthier life You know God's Commandments are going to give you the best quality of life in every way possible and sometimes Living a wicked life living a life of sin can cause issues with your bones and your heart and your physical body This is why people say oh, she's lived a rough life. What are we talking about? We're talking about some woman who's lived on the streets who's been a prostitute Who's done meth and you look at her and she looks like she's 70 years old, but she's 35 and it's like whoa You're 35 years old. Yeah, you've lived a rough life and when you live a rough life It's gonna take a toll on your health, you know, God has a lot of great health advice in his word Look at verse number nine It says honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase So we're coming right off of a passage where God's talking about trusting in the Lord with all your heart not leaning onto your own understanding and one of the first Examples that the Bible gives of how you could exercise faith and trust the Lord is to honor him With your substance and honor often in the Bible has a financial Connotation to it where it's talking about requiting the Lord paying the Lord go to Malachi chapter number three Malachi chapter number three, but you know We need to realize that money wealth is a gift from God and we should show the Lord honor With our finances, we should not get this idea to think that all of our money was earned by our own You know human intellect and strength and it's ours know everything that you have that's good comes from God God gives you the power to get wealth if you could provide for your family today. Yes There's an aspect that you have to do they're putting in hard work You know showing up on time doing the things you're supposed to do, but still God is carrying you through God is giving you breath in your lungs. God's giving you a strong body or a Intelligent mind and if you have anything good it came from God This is why God expects us to honor him with our finances verse number eight of Malachi 3 notice what it says Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings so this is the opposite of honoring God with your substance honoring God with the first fruit of your increase is Robbing God and just think about the connotation with that You know many Christians would never dream About just walking down the road and seeing some lady and just snatching her purse and running away Like like could you imagine doing that? Could you imagine yourself doing that? Absolutely not. That's crazy, right? But how many Christians refuse to honor God with their finances? What does the Bible say? You're not ripping off some lady. You're not ripping off grandma. You're robbing God You are hurting God and in the process you're hurting yourself, too Because again, it's like the person who's not spiritual they think I got all my money myself I need it me me me my my my whereas you should realize anything good I have is from God if I if I'm doing well financially that's from God and Even if I'm not it's still from God and God can make your situation way worse at any moment I mean, I'm not into the stock market, but did anyone hear about the stock market this week? It's like some of the biggest crashes since kovat the biggest recovery since World War two, you know This world is not sure this world is really volatile and you cannot put your trust in the banking system You can't put your trust in the Federal Reserve in these little paper notes You can't put your trust in those things. You need the hand of God backing you up No matter what the number in your bank account says I want whatever that number is with God's blessing I wouldn't I wouldn't trade all the money of the world for this big simple a big lump of cash But have God against me because God could take those things away so quickly God could give you some prolonged Terrible disease that could suck your wealth away in a matter of a year. God can go man lawsuits God could have someone sue you and not every time your suit is a bad but man it could be a punishment Right, and so you want your things to go well financially You need to honor the Lord with your finances and not rob God and he's saying how are you robbing him? Well by not tithing by not offering and look at the result verse 9 It says he are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation and oftentimes people won't tithe They refuse to tithe because they're scared They want to hang on to every cent that they have but what you're trading by not tithing according to the Bible is you're receiving a curse from God and That should scare you because God is a terrible God the Bible says and he will invoke terror He will invoke fear. He can judge and punish his people greatly and I don't want his hand against me What's the solution verse 10 bring ye all the tides into the storehouse that there may be Meat in mine house. So what is God's priority financially is the house of God? You want to know why God has blessed the United States for so long is because of how much churches how many churches how much work for the Lord has been happening in this country and how many Missionaries have been being sent out out of this country into the world You know, we're kind of incentivizing God to bless our community financially when anchor Baptist Church is here We're we're incentivizing God to bless America If every church is just preaching the gospel and preaching hard on sin and being a bright light, you know That's going to incentivize God to bless a nation But when God sees that oh the people of the land aren't even prioritizing my house Well, then why would he want you to have a swimming pool? Why would he want you to have a three-car garage? Why would he want you to have a nice piece of land or a nice retirement fund when you're not even prioritizing God's house Shouldn't God's house be the best thing in the world the thing that we're most invested in It should be the institution that we want to see thrive more than anything else And it's just if you just realize the truth you would realize when God's house thrives everything else thrives around it When we God's house is blessed everyone around it is blessed. Look at what it says In verse or the latter part of verse 10 it says prove me now herewith say at the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and Pour you out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field saith the Lord of hosts See by not honoring God with your substance you are hurting yourself in This idea to try to hold on to everything you have hold on to every cent You're hurting yourself and you're you're holding God back from giving you great blessings You know I believe truly that someone who tithes someone who lives off the 90% will be Financially better off in their life than people who do not tithe I believe that they will be better off in life in general because again There's the spiritual aspect of things of God seeing you trust him Seeing you not make an idol of money where it's the number one in your life where you're just like, okay God you gave this to me. No problem. Give it back to God's house now There's some people that have a big problem with tithing and you know I'm not ashamed to talk about it because I love all of God's Word and I love God's house But there are people that have a big issue with tithing in fact, you know before I was a pastor I would just preach, you know every now and then I preached probably I don't know probably well over 150 sermons before I was ordained But I never had a situation happen to me where someone comes up to you after the sermon and just starts ripping about all the Things that they didn't like, you know, I've heard like this happens Does it really though but it happened to me one time and it happened after I preached a sermon and I think I mentioned Tithing like in passing it wasn't even like the point of my sermon But this person just talked to me for like an hour about how bad tithing is how it's not biblical How it's not something that should be preached it's not something God's people should do and I learned that day that I'm never gonna give someone that much time to Critique my sermon ever again. It was very annoying and what they were saying was just wrong and bad But I'm just like what is wrong with someone? Like why would you sit here and be a part of a church and we're all reaping great Spiritual blessings for being a part of a great church on top of oftentimes carnal blessings, too I mean look if you come to our Easter service, you're gonna get blessed spiritually and you're gonna get blessed carnally Carnae meat we're bringing in the barbecue. All right, and guess what that stuff costs money and It's like who's actually upset by that like who's upset by a church thriving financially I often see God hating homosexuals and leftists being upset by that. Oh Yeah, take away the tax exemption from the church you call me you wicked person and it's like Christians want to get on You know again, you got to look at who's with you on the battle line if it's like fags and commies and feminists It's like you might be on the wrong side of things But look it's just common sense It's literally just common sense that tithing is a good thing because unless you just literally know nothing about the world you Understand that an operation like this. It is a business folks. It is a spiritual business But we must be about our father's business This place gets run like a real business. We've got expenditures. We've got income. We've got bills to pay We've got things that we're doing we've got long-term plans that we're saving for this is a business here and guess what it takes money It takes money to print invites to have a building to have lights to have staff Like these are just normal expenses and if you have a problem with that to me It just shows like you don't really esteem God's work very highly like you don't esteem God's work God's men God's you know Kingdom as something that's to be respected and honored It's not even worth the almighty dollar. Like that's what you're saying. Oh God's work isn't even worth my money What is money like who cares about money? We're not sit here and love money. The love of money is the root of all evil So you should honor the Lord with your substance. You should tie that's not something I'm ashamed to say but think about this like Tithing was done before the law even existed Because Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek that was before the law was even instituted So some people would say like well Tithing was one of those things that were done away in the New Testament because we don't have the Levitical priesthood anymore But it's like okay, but the Levitical priesthood wasn't the only place in the Bible where someone was tithing Abraham was tithing before the law and so that's something that's existed from the very beginning why because it's common sense How could we have the New Testament Church how could we go out and do great works for God How can we go out and do a big Great Commission fulfillment without tools? We need to do that. We need to have money It's a good thing. And of course as well if you actually read the Bible, which we're not gonna go here This isn't gonna be a study of tithing this evening But if you actually read 1st Corinthians chapter 9, you know that those who preach the gospel are supposed to be living of the gospel Pray tell me how full-time pastors evangelists deacons are going to exist in this world without tithing and Just so you know when that happens you always see more laborers more staff more godly pastors What do you see you see the work increase? You see the numbers increase you see the soul winning increase So for me my whole life, it's always been like a no-brainer like I want God's house to thrive. I want more salvations I want more good sermons. I want more good for work for God to be done So I'm gonna tithe and I fear God and I want him to bless me as well It's not a hard concept. It is biblical people that that get weird about money in church. Have a bad heart You know who really cared about the money? Judas Judas was the one who wanted to put on a show and get angry and saying all this ointment should have been You know taken and sold and given to the poor but the Bible says he didn't really care for the poor He actually just had the bag himself. He wanted to bag the money himself He wanted the Prophet himself, and I've just noticed almost without fail people that gripe about tithing and say it's wrong They almost always get exposed to be a wicked person and it's like even even the guy that did that to me I'm not gonna say his name, but he's not in a good church right now. I'll tell you that right now Not a coincidence Look at verse number 10. It says in Proverbs 3 verse 10. It says so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and Thy presses shall burst out with new wine. See God's house blessed you blessed That's that's the formula there Number three this evening the chastening of the Lord look at verse 11 my son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither be weary of his Direction so of course we are human beings we are sinful and there's gonna be times all the time where we're not fully trusting in the Lord with all of our heart where we kind of are from time to time leaning on our own understanding and We do sometimes go down the wrong path and sin and mess up and you know what the result of that is gonna Be is God punishing us God Chastising us and the Bible says there to not despise The chastening of the Lord, what does it mean to despise, you know, I think it could mean just refusing to correct Refusing to take the reproof that God gave you through his word through a preacher through your parents through whatever the authority is Despising the correction could be just refusing to get it right Refusing to change refusing to repent or it could literally mean like you're just angry at God for correcting you And of course, you know that is a terrible attitude to have to be angry at God for correcting you Why because when God corrects us he does it out of love for us. How do I know that verse 12? For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth Even as a father the son in whom he delighteth You know those of us who are fathers in the room know that we discipline our children Not out of hatred that's insane we do that because we love and delight in our children and we want to see them Improve we want to see them go down the right path and get better and the Bible says that God loves those That he corrects and of course This should also inform us that spanking is a good thing that parents should be doing Because here we see what does God do he corrects and the Bible says even as the normal father would do So that is a good example of a father is one who corrects their children Go to Proverbs 19 really quick Proverbs chapter number 19 But think about it, even if you do Despise the correction like if you don't get things right right away or you're kind of angry at God Is God just gonna stop punishing you or is he gonna keep punishing you if you're saved? What's he gonna do? He's gonna keep punishing you now This should tell us as parents what we should be like because look at Proverbs 19 verse 18 Chasing thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul Spare for his crying see if the child is crying Part of the reason sometimes is because they're despising the correction They don't want to receive the correction or they don't like it or they don't agree with it Or they're just obviously they don't want the pain and so they'll cry But what are we as parents supposed to do we're not supposed to not punish them just because they're crying We see okay, you're crying. You're despising this punishment too bad Here's some more punishment because that's exactly what God's gonna do for us If we're just gonna not listen, he's gonna keep correcting us because he loves us. He's gonna be long-suffering He wants to see us get it right. He doesn't want us to see us destroy our lives So he'll keep giving us that rod. We need to make sure we do the same for our children go back to Proverbs 3 Number four this evening the joy of wisdom Notice what it says. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth Understanding, you know, I believe that the happiest people in the world are people that read the Bible people that keep God's Commandments and it's funny because sometimes people's impression of Christianity can only be like what the pastor is behind the pulpit But God gives very specific directions to preachers to cry aloud Spare not lift up your voice like a trumpet, but oftentimes if you interact with tons of power I mean I could give you a bunch of examples tons of pastors outside of the pulpit They're always so happy like the guy I'm immediately thinking of is Pastor Anderson Like every time I've ever interacted with him Pastor Anderson is happy He has the joy of the Lord, you know, the Bible says rejoice evermore You know our default as Christians in our hearts should be joy Now I'm not saying you got to walk around like a joker like Joel Osteen with a weird smile on your face But you should have some inner joy and inner peace in your heart That should be the default of your life and you know, what is gonna give you lots of joy Reading the Bible. I'm just telling you it's true. You know, even today during my lunch break. I cracked open the Bible I started reading it and I just felt great. I just was happy I just love God's law and those of you who actually read the Bible know what I'm saying is true You know that God's Word it'll make you happy happy is the man that findeth wisdom You know when you find out that salvation is by faith when you find out it's a free gift When you find out you can never lose it. What does that make you happy? That's why it's a great gift. It's the gospel. It's good news. It's glad tidings It makes you happy and you know what those of you love God those of the people in this world that love God Everything in the Bible makes them happy even though even the dark stuff even the negative stuff, you know, it makes me happy Pedophiles getting bullets in their head. Yeah, it makes me happy. It really does why because I love kids. I Love seeing God the righteous judge execute judgment on the wicked It makes me happy why because I love God and I love his ways and I love everything that he does and I love everything that he says and I love everything that he tells us to do and it just makes me happy how I'm just Constantly seeing that the Bible is true It makes me happy. It makes me joyful Look at verse 14 for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof Then fine gold, you know, what'd make a lot of people happy is finding silver and gold I mean ever seen videos of people when they get a surprise check in the mail or when they win the lottery I mean, they're doing backflips. They're screaming. They're shouting. They're so excited for this temporal Meaningless paper this meaningless number in your bank account. They're so excited But you know what the Word of God and wisdom and truth is so much more exciting It's so much more fulfilling It's gonna give you so much more joy in your life that the Bible says that the merchandise of it is actually better Than the merchandise of silver, you know, you think about it raise your hand if you know who mark dices, okay? We got a couple people who know who mark dices. He does these man-on-the-street interviews where he goes to San Diego on the beach There's all these like beach bums around all these California surfer dudes and girls and he does this really funny thing I don't know for sure if it's real I hope it is but he'll show up to like these California smoked-out pothead surfer dudes and it'll be like hey do you want this chocolate bar or this bar of gold and you'd be shocked how many people just take the chocolate and It's just like over and over again He'll have like this one thing of extreme value and then just the stupid little trinket and just over and over again People choose you want to know why I think it's real is because what this verse says is that wisdom The Word of God is way better than silver and gold yet. What do people care about so much more the thing that means nothing People will dedicate their whole entire life in every waking moment of their existence to make more Money to get more silver silver and gold and they would never go out of their way to read the Bible Most people don't read the Bible folks Most Christians don't read the Bible Even less Christians have read the Bible cover to cover once in their life Even less read it cover to cover every year of their life like people aren't seeking wisdom and knowledge like they would silver and gold But you know what? You ought to audit your own life and ask yourself, you know If you found out that you got a million dollars tomorrow How would you react to that versus do you actually wake up and read the Bible? Do you seek this like silver and gold do you treat this like a precious asset? That's extremely valuable or do you just go days Weeks months without reading the Word of God. It shows you've got your priorities messed up It shows that you're walking in the flesh that you're living in the world too much. You've got a worldly mindset You need to renew your mind by reading the Bible and what's funny about reading the Bible? It'll make you love the Bible more why because it brings you what joy it makes you happy makes you excited Verse 15. She is more Precious than rubies and all the things Thou can't desire are not to be compared Unter think about what a strong statement that is right there all the things you could possibly desire I mean That's what Solomon basically did the richest man in the world at one point. He kind of just gave himself Everything in his heart's desire And he had a thousand women and he had all the apes and the peacocks and the gardens and the trees and everything Where's brother Theodore? All right, I hear him back there the apes all of it, right? He gave himself all the pleasures that he could possibly think of But yet the Bible says that all the things that man can desire are not to even be Compared to the Word of God and you know what Solomon after his little trial where he gave himself all the Desires of his heart. He came to that realization. He said, you know what? I hate life and The end of Ecclesiastes talks about how look there's nothing better, but to just serve the Lord Serve God keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man That is what the Bible teaches go to Psalm chapter 19, and I want to Keep your place in Proverbs 3 and in Psalm chapter 19 But I just love this string of verses about the Word of God itself We see to remind ourselves how precious and how valuable the scripture truly is verse 7 The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the statutes of the Lord are right Rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure Enlightening the eyes the fear of the Lord is clean and during forever The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together notice the connection more to be desired Are they than gold? yay, then much fine gold sweeter also than honey and The honeycomb, you know, the Bible is more valuable than anything you could possibly imagine And I wish I could just press a button and cause Christians to read the Bible because it's gonna change your life It's gonna fundamentally change people's lives to read the Bible if you start any spiritual discipline in your life Start reading the Bible because everything follows from that Someone who starts reading the Bible, you know what they're gonna want to start doing they're gonna want to start cleaning up their life They're gonna start wanting to go to church They're gonna start wanting preaching the gospel preaching the Word of God getting people saved getting people baptized it all comes from the Bible Go to verse 16 of Proverbs 3 verse 16 of Proverbs chapter number 3 Says again length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand Riches and honor see it doesn't make sense to prioritize Money and riches and honor because if you actually follow God's wisdom and God's way of doing things. God could bless you with riches and honor as well It's like you can technically have both sometimes now Obviously God's not God's will is not for everyone to be rich But it is possible sometimes for people to have the best of both worlds But if someone is living that life, I could tell you one thing about them is that they prioritized wisdom first They prioritized Knowledge first and then they got those blessings as well But those who will be rich the Bible says fall into temptation and a snare and into many Hurtful lusts the Bible says so if money is the main goal Pain is coming your way if wisdom is the main goal oftentimes. God will bless you with those other carnal things that you desired anyways verse 17 her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is everyone that notice retaineth her Retaineth her, you know you think about obviously in the short term Life has its ups and downs and you're constantly going through battles You're constantly going through struggles But I believe that people who have long term happiness in life People who have long-term peace in life are those who retain wisdom Retain God's Word retain his commandments. What does that mean? It means they didn't just try out serving God for a week or for a month or for a year. They were steadfast They continued serving God they continued keeping his commandments even when things were hard They continued tithing Even though it looked like it was financially Hurting them or like you couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel the people who retain wisdom retain God's commandments those people in the long term have peace have the Bible says pleasantness I mean don't we all want pleasantness? That's what everyone wants in life right is to just live a pleasant life for things to be going Well to have peace to have happiness these things the world will constantly promise you through things that will do the exact opposite The world will promise you Happiness by committing adultery or happiness by injecting a drug into your body or happiness by Whatever the world wants to throw you real happiness comes from following God's commandments Then it says in verse 19 the Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth by Understanding hath he established the heavens go to Genesis chapter number one of course we know that God is Very wise he's the most wise being he's extremely intelligent He's extremely smart and one of the ways that we could just see that is in God's creation in Nature itself in the universe in the things that are made It's very obvious to us that there is a intelligent creator and his name is Jesus Christ of course Genesis 1 verse 14 and God said let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for notice signs and for seasons and for days and Years so all the way in Genesis we found out that we were going to be telling time Based on the patterns of heavenly bodies right and God gave us lights to differentiate that the Sun We see during the day and then the earth spins because we're globe I don't know if I need to keep saying that just in case we're globe The earth spins and when the Sun is on the other side of the earth, we're experiencing nighttime And you know what's amazing is that this just happens in a predictable pattern every single day And it's just so just like clockwork no pun intended Happens every single day and we always know exactly when summer solstice is we know exactly what the longest daylight Day of the year is we know exactly when fall is gonna come exactly when winter is gonna come we know exactly when Lunar eclipses are gonna happen to the very minute and solar eclipses down to the very minute How are all of these things possible because God is a wise creator and God obviously created this universe Such a just majestic way to where everything is timed perfectly. Everything is a system This is not a cosmic accident I mean think about the insanity of the Big Bang Theory like here we are just Experiencing just all the time the same things. We're predicting everything in the universe It's coming to pass before our eyes and then just to think that all that happened by accident Everything came from nothing make that make sense that exploded into everything that just so happened to be in a perfect time It's just crazy to think about and they do they do time everything exactly to the minute I remember I was at last year when that big solar eclipse happened. Was it here a 100% eclipse? Okay, where we were it was a 100% eclipse and to the very second you could take off your glasses and look directly at the Sun and there was 0% of the Sun shining and the birds came out and the stars came out and the the night crickets came out in the middle of The day and it was just like I look at this and I was thinking God is so amazing Like that's what any normal person does when they see Creation when they look up at the moon and the stars and the planets and you understand science It just puts you in awe of God and makes you realize how amazing and wonderful God is, you know We're not an accident people who believe that the Bible has a word for those people fools What's the modern translation of that idiots? Stupid people. I mean you have to be so stupid to look at a solar eclipse and be like, well that was an accident No folks. That's not what happens in accidents. Okay, you know if you throw a grenade, you're not gonna create a universe You're gonna destroy stuff and there's gonna be chaos everywhere grenades explosions No, that's not how the earth was created. Look at verse number 20 of Proverbs 3 Proverbs chapter 3 verse 20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down The dew, you know I think it's a reference the depths to the fountains of the deep the Bible talks about in Genesis How when the Lord flooded the earth he caused the fountains of the deep to open up and cause the the water and I'm thinking Of Kent Hovind right now. Okay But it's funny like Scientists have discovered a big aquifers way below the ocean floor like way deep into the earth There's all these gigantic aquifers all over the globe and they discovered that but isn't it funny how? Genesis discovered that how the Word of God told you about that and you know I say that to say this we should not be afraid of science Science is not a bad word folks. I Love science. I absolutely love it. You know what science is. It's just knowledge You know what science is? It's just truth. It's just reality. It's just God's Creation that's what science is science is the study of God's creation Because God made everything and anything that scientists are studying, you know what they're studying something that God created and to me I just say bring it on. Absolutely. Let's learn about it. You know, hey in home school. Don't don't skip science teach your children science don't teach them stupidity and Stupid conspiracy theories like the flat earth don't teach them Geocentrism it is retarded Teach them real science and real science is not gonna make someone an atheist folks science falsely so-called People try to corrupt children by telling them you have no meaning you're a cosmic accident You evolved from a monkey when you die. Nothing's gonna happen. It's just over that could make someone lose their faith in God But guess what? Those things are lies That's not true science But any real science it just makes me in awe of God Everything in this world is so complex. We understand so little of the potential of God's creation I believe and we learn more about it every year It seems like human beings are learning more and more things and I welcome it. I love it I don't think we should hide from science and from truth I think Christians have given themselves a really bad reputation for believing really stupid things about science And look you do not have to deny reality to be a Christian. In fact, I would say if you believe anything That goes against reality time out. You're misinterpreting something in the Bible Because nothing in the Bible is gonna cause you to deny Reality, you know, like I said before someone said rockets have never left this earth because the Tower of Babel and I'm like, okay Hold on. Here's how we know that rockets have left earth because it's happened all the time Okay, so that's happened. So here's where we're gonna go from here. You're misinterpreting this story Okay, if you're looking at reality, we see it happening. You're like, well that can't happen because the Bible whoa That's a bad interpretation Whatever belief you have that's scary. No believe the truth. What is truth? Reality is the truth Science is the truth folks. The Word of God is the truth and these things will never contradict each other Real science will never contradict the Bible, you know the fountains of the deep let me tell you what this is not talking about Kent Hovind believes that the moon you look up at the moon and what do you see scars all over it? Big deep craters all over it Well, did you know according to Kent Hovind? The reason the moon got its holes was during the flood when the fountains of the deep broke open The rocks from earth were shot out at such velocity and force That it overcame Earth's gravitational pull went out of the atmosphere went shooting through space 240,000 miles smack dab into the moon That's Christian science for you This makes Christians look so stupid. It's not even funny. And this is why people mock Christianity is because Nowhere in the Bible did it say that there's no principle in the Bible that teaches that you're just completely making that up out of Thin air and going around saying haha. I'm a Christian. I believe this and then on top of that you say, okay Well, let's let's play his theory for a minute. How does the back of the moon? How did the back of the moon get hit then? Well, what you have to understand is the gravitational pull of the moon Brought the rocks back like a slingshot Make that make sense So it's so strong that it could go past the Earth's gravitational pull, which is way stronger than the moon Then it goes 240,000 miles through the space which space has no resistance. It's not losing any inertia It doesn't need any force or any extra push. It's going the same speed but somehow the moon's gravity Which is way less is able to pull it back at such force again The same force that it exploded out of the earth to hit the moon and cause the craters This is so retarded and I'm just so sick and tired of Christians making other Christians look stupid I'm so sick and tired of Christians denying reality in the name of the Bible You don't have to do it folks And you know what? I want a cultured anchor Baptist Church where we take learning seriously where we love the truth We love science. We love the Bible. I want people I'm just telling you my honest heart I want people to be uncomfortable to say stupid things at this church And you know what if I say something stupid I should feel ashamed. I should feel ashamed. I should feel embarrassed You know what? There's some shame. That's good. And you need to be shamed if you say space doesn't exist the moon landings fake You know the earth exploded and caused all the holes in the moon like you need to experience some shame because let me tell you who you're shaming right now God and Christians and you're making us look really bad knock it off Then it says in verse 20 and the clouds drop down the dew So again, you can see the wisdom of God just from the water cycle how it's a perfect cycle how waters constantly Evaporating it's going into the atmosphere. It's condensing into clouds It's raining down in precipitation and that just repeats over and over and over again like clockwork Why because our world was created by Jesus Christ because our world has an intelligent designer. It's God It's not an accident. It brings honor and glory to God verse 21 Notice what it says my son let not them depart from thine eyes keep sound wisdom and discretion So shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck? Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble So you're just gonna have some surety in your life and it's nice to to know where you're going in life It's nice to know that you're right. It's nice to know what God wants from you You know, we shouldn't necessarily be as concerned with you know, do you like the truth? Is it gonna feel good as just I want to know whatever the truth is and the truth is gonna give you Security a sure path. It's gonna cause you not to stumble when thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid Yea, thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be Sweet man, what a blessing to have Sleep and when you lose your sleep you remember what a great blessing it is and Oftentimes one of the ways people implement torture is sleep deprivation because it is literally torture It's terrible being tired. And sometimes you go through those seasons where you're living in torture You know, you don't want to be there very long. You want to have that sweet sleep Verse 25 it says be not afraid of sudden fear Neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh for the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being Taken so think about what we've been reading a lot in this chapter. We want to not forget God's law We want to keep his commandments. We want to trust in the Lord with all of our heart not lean on our own understanding We want God to direct our ways what comes as a result of those things that God's gonna be your confidence You're gonna have you know confidence that God's on your side You're gonna be at peace knowing that his hand is upon your life that he's got you Even his correction comforts us thy rod and thy staff comforts us And so what that should cause us to do is not be afraid of sudden fear. What's the sudden fear? What if a bomb dropped on my head right now, right? What if I lose everything? What if I die tomorrow? What if whatever the what if in your mind it that's sudden fear when something unexpected happens Don't be afraid of those things because sometimes those things just happen and They're going to happen and you should expect them to happen You should be ready for them to happen, but you should know that they're gonna happen knowing that God's on your side Knowing that you have peace with God that's gonna cause you to not fear the sudden whatever it is in your life knowing Hey I'm willing to go through whatever God wants me to go through because at least I know that God is pleased with me You know, it'd be torture is Going through a terrible situation going through the day of evil Losing your kids in a terrible way losing your spouse in a terrible way and it was your fault for being wicked There's not gonna be any peace in that there's just gonna be a lifelong pain and regret But you know, you could have a situation like job Where the sudden fear comes the day of destruction comes but you know what job retained his integrity He didn't curse God and I God blessed the latter end of job more than the beginning and So there's no reason to be afraid of the evil day of the sudden fear when God is on your side Number five this evening Christian Behavior the rest of this chapters kind of talks about some good principles of how we should behave as Christians verse 27 says withhold Not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it You know, you could spend a lifetime applying this verse because whatever is good whatever it is that you can do That's good. You're supposed to do it You're supposed to not withhold it from other people and you know, obviously I think immediately hear about soul winning Don't withhold good From someone to whom it is due who is the gospel due to the lost of this world? We owe this world the gospel of Jesus Christ Christ commanded us He gave us the Great Commission the power is in our hands. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, right? And so it's our duty It's our job to go out and warn people of the fires of hell and to offer them the free gift of salvation We should not withhold good from those people verse 28 say not until thy neighbor Go and come again and tomorrow I will give when thou hast it by thee So notice don't delay doing good when you can do good now Don't delay preaching someone the gospel when you have the opportunity right now You know, I've had people in my life That I just when I was really close to them when I spent a lot of time with them I was young and unsaved and so obviously I couldn't have preached them the gospel and later on in life You know we live very far apart from each other and I never got the opportunity to give that person the gospel and unfortunately that person died and went to hell and you know It causes me a lot of pain to think about that and shame because you know what I could have called him up I could have made an effort, but you know what? Unfortunately in my own Selfish youth and immaturity and not thinking about the future in the way that I should have, you know I missed that opportunity and that opportunity is gone for forever and I can never change that But you know what I could do going forward is that hey when the opportunity presents itself When I do have the ability, I'm not gonna withhold good from who it's due You know when we get visitors coming in our church, we should be preaching them the gospel Ladies come and visit ladies. Please approach them and offer them the gospel ask them if they were to die today Are you 100% sure they'd be going to heaven men same thing, you know, it's be a shame It would be insane for someone to walk into an independent fundamental Baptist Church and then walk out unsaved Not because they rejected the gospel but because they didn't even hear it That would be a shame. That would be sad. And you know what? You've got loved ones. I've got loved ones We've got a whole city of people here in Oklahoma City that need the gospel. Let's make sure that we give that to them Let's make sure we don't withhold that from them Verse number 29 devise not evil against thy neighbor Seeing he dwelleth securely By thee so this is talking about your neighbor in a very physical sense You're the people who are in a close proximity to Excuse me your house Be at peace with your neighbors your physical next-door neighbors in your neighborhood Be at peace with them if at all possible You don't want to have you know Hatfield McCoy situation going on. You don't want to have battles You want to be extremely long-suffering to your neighbors? Because man when neighbor feuds happen it can get ugly and it was weird This must have happened in my neighborhood before I moved in Because when I moved in when I met the neighbors the first thing they told me is just like wow the people's who you just bought that house from had a rough divorce and we're just like Okay, like I really don't want to be hearing this but it wasn't just one neighbor the next neighbor We met and the next neighbor we met and then they're telling us about all the neighbors that they hate and that they fight With and like we almost came to blows with this person you watch out for this. I'm just like what is going on here? And I'm just like alright, babe. We need to be at peace with our neighbors You know because you don't want to deal with that friction when you have to live there every single day And you don't want to move out and the whole neighborhood's just like yes That was the worst divorce ever it's like divorce is ugly How bad was it when the whole neighborhood is going out of the way to tell us like wow? Be at peace with your neighbors Verse number 30 strive not with a man without cause if you have done the no harm, of course as Christians We should be peacemakers Right the servant of the Lord should not strive. We should not be out looking for a fight out looking for a battle now we should be ready and willing to fight for the faith and Ready and willing to fight for a worthy cause whenever whoever that is no problem But you know it shouldn't be our desire to have conflict with other people as much as lieth in us Let us live peaceably with all men when I go soul winning. I want to like this person I want to get along with them I want them to agree with everything that I say and with the Bible says I want to call upon the name of the Lord Of them and leave on a good note. That's what I want I don't want to get in some arguing shouting match with them I don't want to you know rebuke them and look tough or anything like I want to get along with them I want them to get saved and you know what that should be our attitude Just everywhere like I want to get along with my co-workers. I want to get along with my boss I want to get along with my family You know if you are just constantly in strife with everyone every sphere of your life work church neighborhood Marriage you're probably just a froward person You're probably just a man that loves strife And you need to realize that hey don't strive with a man without cause there needs to be a serious reason to fight Not just over petty carnal things verse 31 envy not thou the oppressor and choose none of his ways for the froward is Abomination to the Lord, but his secret is with the righteous number six this evening last point the curse of The wicked look at verse 33 The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly the wise shall inherit glory the shame shall be the promotion of Fools and you'll often see in the Proverbs God ending the chapters like this where God is just giving you so much great wisdom so much instruction and reproof and he kind of often ends these chapters like by giving you a choice by showing you two roads two sets of people and the the life that that leads to and on one hand you've got the wicked and Who are the wicked there are the scorners? They are the froward right so the people that hear these commandments Hear these instructions, and they don't want to listen to it. They think they're wise in their own eyes right they trust in their own heart They're gonna lean on their own understanding. They're gonna reject these things. What's the end of that life the curse of the Lord? God's hand being against you then he compares that with the just What does he do to the just he blesses the habitation of? The just and all throughout this chapter talked about God blessing those that are righteous with peace With even riches and honor talks about in this chapter all these you know pleasantness all these blessings on one hand and God Wants you to make the right decision, but he's kind of showing you at the end of this look You've got a choice to make bless at the habitation of the just who are those? It's the lowly in verse 34 describes. How those that are just are those that are Lowly and of course that makes perfect sense with everything this chapters been telling you because what does it mean to be lowly it means? That you're not gonna trust your heart You're not gonna put your own thoughts above what the Bible says even if you don't understand something you're gonna submit yourself to God's Word When you're chastised and corrected by God you're gonna take that in stride and not despise the correction of the Lord that is The lowly those are who are blessed by God the wise shall inherit glory But shame shall be the promotion of fools What is the world gonna look at what are you gonna think when you look at someone that's rejected God? Rejected his commandments not followed his paths. You're gonna say what a shame You're gonna say this person's life is a shame their marriage is turned into a shame their child-rearing is a shame Everything about them is a shame. That's the end of these things And I want to read one more time before we close Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. That's what we should want from God It's for God to direct our paths you know we should not look at the law of God as a Hinderance to our lives or as something that is there to Constrict us or hurt us, but realize that keeping the commandments of God not forgetting his laws That's gonna cause God to direct your steps, and you know what those steps are directed towards peace pleasantness honor riches in some cases glory blessings all these things the Bible says are on that path or Those who are froward those who don't harken those who trust in their own heart You know what they have to look forward to the curse of God And you know what Christians their lives can be really messed up by God to the unsaved who reject God They've got the curse of God. You know what the saved can make a lot of stupid decisions, too I don't want my life to be cursed by God. I want the blessings of him I don't want to see your lives destroyed by God you need to trust in the Lord with all your heart Let's have a word of prayer Lord Thank you for this beautiful chapter and for your great wisdom and I just thank you for the beauty of your creation how we can see your glory and greatness and everything that you've made I Pray that the people here under the sound of my voice would fear you would not forget your commandments would trust in you It would follow your ways and your path. Please guide us Lord. We love you in Jesus name. We pray amen If You will grab your hymnal our last song for this evening number 105 all that thrills my soul Hymn number 105 105 all that thrills my soul 105 there on the first All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see Love of Christ so freely given Praise of God beyond decree Mercy higher than the heavens Deep earth at the deepest sea All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see What a wonderful redemption Never can a mortal know How my sin felt read by crimson Can be wider than the stone All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see Every need his hands supplying Every good in him I see All his strength did not relying He is all and all to me All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see By the crystal flowing river With the ransom God will see And forever and forever Praise and glorify the King All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see