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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It shall lead thee, when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee, and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and the reproofs of instruction are the way of life. To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman, lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a flourish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So, he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her, shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief, if he still to satisfy his soul, when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold, he shall give all the substance of his house. But whoso cometh adultery with a woman, lacketh understanding. He that doeth it, destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. Let us all bow our heads for a quick word of prayer. To your heavenly Father, I pray that you will go through the years, and also I pray that you will apply on purpose to your church, and to take your teachings, and apply them to your ancient life, and that it should be created. Amen, Proverbs chapter number six, the verse that I want to focus on is verse number six. If you look down at your Bibles, it says this, Go to the end thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provided her meat in the summer, and gathered her food in the harvest. The title of my sermon is this, Initiative, doing things without being told. Initiative, doing things without being told. In fact, I looked up that word initiative in the dictionary, and this is what it says, the ability to assess and initiate things independently. That definition kind of left me scratching my head. I'm like, what in the world does that even mean? I didn't get it the first time I read it, and I still don't get it. I'm sure if I stop and define every single word, I might be able to get what they're trying to say. But then I looked at the second definition, and it was a little bit better. It said this, the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do. Okay, that's a little better, taking charge before others do. But the definition that I used was one that I learned when I was 13 years old at my very first job. My very first job was at age 13, and my son is 14, and I still wonder, what did I look like when I was 13? Because I'm thinking to myself, man, did anybody even take me serious? Because guess what? I probably looked like a little baby at age 13. And I just turned 13 like, I think it was six months earlier, so it wasn't like I was really that old looking. But I went and I got my first job at a sports camp. So my title was coach's assistant, aka the janitor, the clean-up guy. But nobody really knew that, especially the parents and the other kids. They just told the parents, oh yeah, he's just one of our coaches. So they gave me the same shirt that they had, and the back of it is that coach. But I was not a coach at all. It was just a way for them to legally let me babysit the kids while they go on break. Because I'd be like, hey, you got the kids, right? 13 years old, we have like 40 kids, like literally watching them all like in a playground. They're like, hey, call us if you need us. All right, no problem. But one of the things that this camp did is they would take moments to teach the kids what they would call life skills, life skills. And so they would always sit the kids, and I think one a day or maybe one a week, I don't remember. But we had a list of life skills, and they were just words that we would teach the kids and define them and tell them, listen, these are things that are going to help you if you get these and exercise these things, help you to succeed in life. One of them was being prudent, you know, being prudent on time. And the other one, I believe, I forgot what it was, but one that stuck with me was this one initiative. That was one of the ones. And what would happen is the kids would just be gathered around, the coaches would get in front of the kids and be like, okay, we're going to go over the life skills. It wasn't just about sports, it was about teaching kids to be better kids and also to become better adults. And they would just say things like, all right, today's word is initiative. And this is what they said, doing things without being told. And they explain how this is how you want to be. You want to be a person that does things without being told. And of course, I'm thinking, you know what, I don't really like being told. That's a good way to kind of end this problem is instead of being told what to do, why don't I just do it before somebody tells me to do it? But then, of course, that was what I started to do because it made sense. And then I kind of told myself, hey, I don't really like people telling me to take out the garbage, clean the carpet or whatever. So once I started seeing the garbage getting overfilled, the carpet getting messy, I would just grab the broom. They didn't even give me a vacuum. They gave me a broom. So I'm literally like, we were broke in sports camp. Let me put it that way. So the garbage cans, it was easy. Just take them out, dump them and whatever. That's one of the things they started to do. Well, lo and behold, once my contract was over, they only gave me like a two-month contract. They literally begged me to stay. They're like, hey, we want you to stay. All the coaches want you to stay. And I wasn't the only one that got hired at the sports camp. It must have been about four of us. But I'm the only one that they asked to stay. So I'm thinking, of course, I'm making fat money, you know, $4.25 an hour. I'm rich. That's just how I saw life. I'm like, of course, I'll stick around working 40 hours a week, 8 to 5, whatever the case may be. But sometimes it came past five to help them watch the kids, so because the parents wouldn't get there on time. But this one just stuck with me. And if I were to say, what was the number one thing I did that caused them to just hire me and so I could make a little bit of extra money? It was this word was initiative. I do remember having a lot, you know, knowing that, hey, he likes this, he likes that. You know, knowing that the kids got to go at this time. That time I would just gather them up and I would just have this thing about me where I just wanted to do things before I was told to do them. Because I enjoyed life more when I had initiative. But you know what? Now, looking at what the Scripture teaches, this is something that God wants everyone to have. And what we're looking at in Proverbs chapter number 6 is an example of an animal or an insect, I guess you could say, that basically has initiative. It has no ruler, no overseer, no guide. God is telling us, learn from this animal, be like this animal, and go and do things without me having to tell you or your boss having to tell you. And listen kids, I'm telling you right now, if you listen up to me, this will make your parents bless you. If your parents have to tell you, clean the room, make your bed, do your homework, you're failing. But if you were to do the opposite, they'll be so impressed, you'll be shocked how big your gifts are going to be during Christmas times, during your birthdays. And not just that, God will be happy with you. Because God promises that if you do things, whatever good thing you do, he's going to make sure you receive the same from him. And I don't know about you, but I already get a gift from God than a gift from any man on this planet. It's like, if God's going to give me something, it's going to be good. He knows it's going to be awesome. And every good and perfect gift is from above. That's another tip, kids, when you're wondering what to do with your life. If it's good and perfect, it's probably from above. If you're like, well, it's not exactly what I wanted, you know, I can compromise a little bit, you might want to hold up on getting that car or whatever. So if that helps, you know, if it's not good and perfect for you, probably not from above. That's just the tip that the Bible gives us. But if you have your Bibles, go to Genesis 24. Go to Genesis 24. So what am I preaching about? Initiative, initiative, initiative. I mean, I know, sorry, brother, I don't mean to say anything. I know that tattoos are sinful, but if I were to tattoo something on my arm, it would be the word initiative. On my hand, initiative. If I could tattoo it on my kids and not be sitting against God, I would tattoo it on their hands. Initiative. Forget about kill or be killed or whatever people put on their knuckles. How about initiative and initiative on the other hand? You know, because you know what? It's something that God loves to see. It's people stepping up, taking initiative, doing things without being told. It makes life easy on everyone. Your parents, your friends, your boss, your supervisor, your coworkers. I mean, when I was in the Marines and I got blisters on my feet, it was always awesome when the corpsmen, without being told, just walking about, everybody good, everybody good. Anybody need some Band-Aids? Anybody need to check their feet? Hey, how's your feet? How's your feet? Hey, man, I'm tore up. Can you give me something for my blister? Boom. Just heal up my blister. He will be a blessing onto me. And nobody will tell them what to do. They just enjoy that. That's what the majority of them become corpsmen is because they do want to be doctors or nurses when they get out. And they do love helping people. And they do love the idea of saving lives out in the battlefield versus taking lives. That's why they tend to join the Navy and become corpsmen because they enjoy that type of life. But, yeah, there would be many times when these corpsmen took initiative, just checking on us, making sure we're good, checking our feet, fixing us, giving us Motrin, Marine Corps candy. Motrin is basically a painkiller. They would just pass it like candy, like Skittles. They're like Marine Corps Skittles. But, hey, you're right there in Genesis 24. Hang on tight. I'm going to read from Genesis 47. It says this, in Joseph chapter 47 is when finally Jacob meets Pharaoh, you know, because obviously Joseph was already in Egypt. And then Joseph, if you don't know the story, you know, his father Jacob thought he was dead. Later on it turns out he's alive, but he's in Egypt. And Joseph wants him to come to Egypt and live with him in Egypt. And he's the second most powerful person. Basically he's number one anyways. You know, he's just running the show. You know, but here's what happened in Genesis 47. It says, then Joseph came to tell Pharaoh and said, my father and my brethren and their flocks and their herds and all that they have are come out of the land of Canaan. And behold, they're in the land of Goshen. I'm going to skip to verse number five. It says, then Pharaoh spake unto Joseph saying, thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee. The land of Egypt is before thee. In the best of the land, make thy father and brethren to dwell. In the land of Goshen, let them dwell. And if thou knowest any man of activity among them, then make them rulers over my paddle. You want to be exalted by God? Learn this word initiative. Not just learn it, learn to use it in your life. Become a person that's known as a person that has initiative. Everybody loves a guy that has initiative. That cleans things, does things, saves things, helps people out. But in this story, Pharaoh's saying, listen, hey, your brothers, your dad, let them just dwell. He was so grateful for Joseph. Joseph was his employee. He was so grateful for Joseph because he helped save basically Egypt. They had a famine and he knew it. And because God was blessing Joseph, he was able to tell Pharaoh, hey, there's going to be a famine. This is what we need to do if you want to save your nation. And Joseph was responsible for Egypt becoming a powerful, rich nation. And so now what do we got? Pharaoh kind of returned in a favor. They're saying, listen, Joseph, your family, everyone, I want to bless them. You've been a blessing to me. I want to bless them in the best of the land. Tell them to go live there. That's a cool story. I love it. But he also says, listen, if you have anybody among them that's a man of activity, what does that mean? Somebody who's active, somebody who's doing things, somebody that's making things happen. He says, hey, those guys, put them in charge of my stuff. Why? Because they have initiative. Nobody's telling them what to do. So Pharaoh says, hey, anybody out there who's, you know, making things happen, they're men of activity. Hey, I want those guys. I want them all. But check this out. Go to Genesis 24. That's a cool story about initiative, but I think here's the best story that I could think of. I mean, you only need one, but hey, God gives us more than one, amen. Genesis 24 says this, And Abraham was old and well-stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham sent him to his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had. Put, I pray thee, thy hand unto my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. But thou shalt go unto my country, unto my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. So this is where Abraham is getting old. He wants his son Isaac to have a wife, and he's trying to get him a wife. So he goes to his servant, his best servant, the guy that had initiative, amen. And he says, listen, I got a mission for you. Very important mission. I need you to find my son a wife. That's a tough job. The stress of trying to find a wife for your boss's son is like nail biting. Like, what if I screw this up? It's like, seriously? I mean, we probably have different tastes in females, but he's like, no problem, boss. And then this is what happened. He takes off. You know, he takes off. He tells him where to go. He tells him what to do, so he takes off. And in verse 10, it says this. If you look down, it says, the servant took 10 camels. So he's not going alone. He's going with a crew. And he's basically got himself 10 camels. Of the camels of his master and departed, for all the goods of his master were in his hands. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia unto the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water. So he ends up taking off. God says, or Abraham says, go to this place. Tell the servant, take off. I want you to go here and find my son and wife. You know, don't take the daughters of Canaan. Just go down there. I want you to go to my brethren. Go down to Nahor and I want you to go find my son and wife. So he does. He goes down there. And he gets there and he has camels. And he says, hey, you know what? These camels need to drink something. So he has all the camels kneel by basically a well. And that's where women go to draw water. You know, verse number 12 says this. And he said, then he starts to pray. Because you know what? That's a good thing to do. You know, when you want to do something and succeed, it kind of helps to ask God to help you. With God on your side, you're going to prosper. Whatever you do, you're going to prosper. It's not going to be easy all the time. It wasn't easy for Joseph to prosper. But he eventually prospered because God was with him. So this guy's smart enough to realize, you know what? I'm not going to do this and I need God. I need God to help me out. In my own power, I'm probably going to screw this up. But I'm just going to ask God to help me out. And this is a guy who obviously wants to do a good job. And so he goes to the guy, the person that can help him more than anyone, and asks God himself. And he said, oh Lord. Here's him praying in verse number 12. And he said, oh Lord God, I'm a master Abraham. I pray thee, send me good speed this day. He says, hey, give me some good luck. Help me out here. And show kindness unto my master Abraham. And he says, look, don't do it for me. Do it for Abraham. He probably felt unworthy. He says, hey, he deserves it. I don't. Don't do it for me. Do it for Abraham. And that's why we should pray as well. God, you know what? If you're not going to do it for me, do it for that person who's sick. You guys have a bunch of people that are sick tonight. Somebody looked like they were sick this morning. Hey, tell God, God, if you don't want to listen to me, hey, do it for them. If not for me, do it for them. If I'm not right with you, if I'm doing something to offend you, if you're not listening to me right now, hey, forgive me for all the bad stuff I've done since the last time I prayed, even though it was a month ago. No, I'm just kidding. You know, since the last time I prayed, hopefully it was maybe a couple hours ago. Because, hey, we send every day with our mind, right? It's very easy. So it's always good to have that clean slate with the Lord when he comes to the Lord. Say, Lord, hey, I want you to listen to me, Lord. I want you to help me out. So if I'm doing something or if I offended you, if I've sinned, I can't think of anything, but you know what? I want you to hear me. So please forgive me and listen to me and I want you to heal this person, help this person out. Lord, if anything, do it for them. You know, I want them to get healed up because it's not fun being sick. So that's what he's doing. Hey, you know, Lord, don't do it for me. Do it for my master, Abraham, verse 13. And then he says, Behold, I stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water and let it come to pass at the dam. So I mean, he can be specific. You know, it's like, hey, I want this to happen this way. So he's getting specific. And he says, and let it come to pass at the damsel to whom I shall say, lay down that pitcher of Brady that I may drink and she shall say, drink, and I will give that camel's drink also. So it's almost like he's dreaming. You know, it's like, really? Do these people really exist? He's like, you're going to ask for water? And you're like, yeah, and I also expect them to feed my camel's water. And I'm thinking that, hey, giving dogs water is very difficult. Imagine big old animals. They probably are very thirsty. And he said this, I will give thy camel's drink also. Let the same be she that thou has appointed. See, he knows where it's coming from. The Bible says that a friend and wife is of the Lord. So he knows, hey, you appointed, you know, her for thy servant Isaac. And thereby shall I know that thou has shown kindness unto my master. Verse 15. And it came to pass before he had done speaking that behold, Rebecca. So he runs into Rebecca. This is where we first see Rebecca in the Bible. Came out who was born to Bethel, son of Melchiah. Give me one second, let me get back to where I was. Son of Melchiah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. So she's going to the well to go get water. And he sees her. And the damcer was very fair to look upon a virgin. Neither had any man known her. And she went down to the well and filled her pitcher and came up. And the servant, he runs. He's like, hey, this got to be it. What were the odds of that? So he's running to her. And it says that the servant is running to her. You know, and when she had done giving him drink, I'm sorry. He ran to meet her and said, let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. Verse 18. And she said, drink my lord. Man, she's very respectful. She's like, drink my lord? This guy's a stranger. But she's been raised in a way where she's very respectful. She said, drink my lord. And she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink. So it's like, hey, give me drink. She's like, no problem. Takes down a pitcher, drink my lord. Say, drink sir, drink all you want. And when she had done giving him drink, she said. Notice it says she said. It doesn't say he said. It wasn't like, it might be too much to ask, but can you feed my camels too? That's not what happened. It says she initiated it. She said, and what did she say? It says she said, drink my lord. And she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for they camels also until they have done drinking. And now verse 20 is telling us that she's actually giving water to all these camels. Not a little bit of water until they're all nice and full. And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran again onto the well to draw water and drew for all his camels. And a man went wandering at her, held his peace to wit whether the lord had made his journey prosperous or not. And it came to pass that the camels had done drinking that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold and said, whose daughter are thou? Tell me, I pray thee, is there room in that father's house for us to lodge in? And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethio the son of Milcah which he bare unto Nahor. She said moreover unto him, we have both strong providary enough and room to lodge in. The man bowed down his head and worshiped the lord. And he said, blessed be the lord god of my master Abraham who has not let destitute my master of his mercy and truth. I being in the way, the lord led me to the house of my master's brethren. Go to Philippians chapter number two. Go ahead and meet me in verse number one, Philippians chapter two verse one. And so what do we see? We see a woman who has straight up initiative. She wasn't told, hey can you feed my camels? She said, hey let me feed your camels as well. She was going the extra mile. And that is something that's very hard to find today. People that are willing to go the extra mile, they'll go the extra mile for you if they think they can get something from it. If it benefits them. But here's a woman who wasn't expecting anything in return, period. Nothing at all. Why? Because she was a virtuous woman. Listen to this. You guys are there in Philippians two one, if not you can go there when you get a chance. Proverbs 31 says, who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies. She rises also while it is yet nigh and giveth me to her household and a portion to her maidens. Verse 20, she stretches out her hand to the poor. This is a woman that cares about the poor. She's compassionate. Yea, she reaches forth her hands to the needy. And that's what she did in that story. And she saw a man that was in need. She saw the need and she took the lead. That's the tip of the day when it comes to how to be a person of initiative. Hey, take a look. Look around. If you see a need, take the lead. The garbage, the windows, whatever. The dusting, who knows. Maybe a piano. Learn some piano. We have a need. Feel like I'm too old. Hey, you can do all things through Christ. Amen. But it clearly says that she's a person, a virtuous woman from Proverbs 31. She reaches out her hands to the needy. She opens her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness. And that's what you see with Rebecca. She's kind. She cares about the needy. And she was a virtuous woman for that. Philippians 2.1 gives us more clues as to how to be people with initiative. Well, it has to come straight up from the heart. You have to want to do it or else you're not going to last long. Trying to do things for the wrong reason isn't going to really last long. You have to do things for the right reason with the right heart and then things will work out for you. So how can you be a person that's a person of initiative? Well, let's take a look at Philippians. I think we get some good answers from this section of the scriptures. It says that there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love. Wow, that's shocking. Any comfort of love. Keep that in mind. If any fellowship of the Spirit, if any vows of mercy, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love. There it is again. Love. Kind of a clue. Being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. And it's shameful when people do things for vainglory. Just to be seen of men. Pharisees straight up. And it can be in our church. It can be in other churches where people just want to help when it benefits them, when it makes them look good. And when they actually volunteer and they do a crappy job, they're like, why did you even volunteer, bro? You're just complaining. You're not doing things with your whole heart. But it says very clearly that if people do things through strife and vainglory, it's not going to work out. We should do things like it says right there in verse number three. But in lowliness of mind. And here's the key to having an initiative. And what do I mean by initiative? Doing things without being told. What am I talking about? I'm talking about helping other people without having to be told. You know, instead of being asked, yo, can you help us break down tables and chairs? You see people break down tables and chairs, just jump in. It's like, hey, grab this table, fold it down. Where do you want it? You know? Not like, hey, if you all need help, let me know. It's like, of course we need your help. Are we not in the middle of something? You know? You guys got this? Like, do it. Yeah, I guess. You know? That's not a person with initiative. A person with initiative, he's initiating it. Not trying to get people to initiate him. He initiates himself. He goes and takes care of business himself. But what do we see? It says this. Loneliness of mind. So it takes humility to be a person of initiative. It takes love to be a person of initiative. And it says this. Ladies should steam other better than themselves. And I like this verse. I like this word in verse number four. It says, look, start looking. You'll find things. Maybe it won't be things around here, but you might hear things or see things or hear somebody talking about somebody being sick. You don't have to make a big show about it. Go in your closet and pray for that person. You may not be able to help them out financially to pay for their medical bills or whatever. But you know what? If you're right with the Lord, you got God's grace upon you, he will listen to you. And guess what? That's way better than any financial contribution you can give. Because God can do way more. He can gather the troops and have the troops come in because you initiated it with your prayer. It's like, man, I'd like to give you money, but I don't have any. You don't need to. Go and take care of business with God. That will make things happen. That will help. I mean, that's what the Bible says to do. Hey, if you see anybody be sick, pray for that person. And the prayer of faith is going to heal them. You may not be able to give them money, but the prayer of faith, that's where we come in. Amen? And even Peter said, hey, silver and gold have I none. But what I give you, I give you the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And a lot of times, hey, we like to help people out there on the streets, but you know what? The majority of them, they need to kind of hit rock bottom. You know, they kind of need to hit rock bottom and be like the prodigal son. Kind of wake up a little bit and be like, yo, man, I'm just screwing up. The Lord ain't happy with me. I need to get right with him. While we continue to basically give them money for doing nothing, hey, you're just encouraging them to keep on going. Keep on going in the wrong direction. You know, but when somebody's hungry, hey, their mind gets cleared up really easy because they're fasting. Imagine what fasting does to somebody who obviously is out on the streets. You're going to eventually crack and be like, what am I doing? I need to get right. You know, and then when we come in, they're humble. Until then, no, I'm good, man. I don't need religion. But it says really clearly to look. Not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Say, listen, pray for yourself, but also focus on others. You know, don't be the one that constantly just keeps talking to God about how bad you have it. You know what? You know what? Let's be the ones that say, Lord, hey, I have it bad, but this person needs help too. You know, it's like, hey, pray for yourself and pray for others. We should always pray for ourselves, but come on, let's have a little bit of initiative and pray for other people. And it's not like we really need to know what's going on. All we need to know is the person ain't here. Hey, Lord, I don't know what's going on, but I pray you help that individual. And it's amazing that whatever you do, God does it to you as well. You pray for people not to be sick, you tend to kind of make it in 2021 without being sick yourself. It's not a coincidence, trust me. God is watching out for you. But I like how it says he wants us to look. Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought in our robbery to be equal to God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. Sound familiar? Sounds like Rebecca. You know, she looked. You're like, hey, why don't I go help out, you know, even more by, you know, giving water to your camels until they're well drunk. And it says very clearly that she was serving him. He wasn't serving her, he was serving him and he didn't even ask. He didn't even ask for any of it. He had initiative and listen, the Bible says this, the Christ was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God also has highly exalted him and he will highly exalt you. You're like, God, hey, you know what, I want to do something big. But you know what, do something big for other people. And God will do something big for you. Go use it in a big way. And it says in Luke chapter number 6, if you have your Bible, go to Numbers 25. Luke chapter number 6 says this, But I say unto you, which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And that's a famous verse. You know, I've even heard it in movies, pray for your enemies, love your enemies. But verse 31 is what I wanted to get at. In Luke 6, what I just read, you know, was verse number 27 and 28. Then we got verse 31 says this, And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Verse 32, For if ye love them which love you, what then have ye? For sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what then have ye? For sinners also do even the same, but love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again. What am I getting at? Verse 31 says this, And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. But who is he talking about? He's talking about people that hate you. So it's not just like, hey, let me have initiative towards those that love me. You know, hey, let's have initiative towards those that even hate you. And it does help. One of the famous stories or popular stories that Pastor Anderson tells is when some guy, you know, at his job just hated everyone. He hated everyone. But because he was really good at what he did, because he was a really good electrician, he would not get fired. That allowed him to just cause a hostile work environment, to let him harass people, yell at people, cuss out people. And he said that one day the guy ended up cussing at Pastor Anderson. He was just having another bad day, and he crosses his path. And I guess Pastor's like, yo, how you doing? And the guy went off on him. Well, Pastor just took the initiative, went and bought a soda. I realized this guy's probably having a bad day. He already likes whatever type of soda. Goes and gets it and just gets to the guy, hey, I just got you this, you know. He's like, hey, I got this from the machine. I want you to have it, my friend. And I blew him away. He's like, dude, this kid just got yelled at, just cussed this guy out, and he bought me a soda? And Pastor said from that point on, he was only nice to him. Who's heard that story before? I figured. I figured. It's a cool story. Ever since then, I'm thinking, man, well, I worked for Pastor Anderson. It's kind of hard to exercise that, you know. But, yeah, I could think of times when my boss hated me. He wanted to fire me. He wasn't the main guy. He was the department manager, and I did my best to love the guy and treat the guy with respect, but he was trying desperately. He suspended me once and tried to suspend me twice, and they basically just started looking at me to terminate me, but he ended up getting basically taken out of the department because then they realized he was the problem. It wasn't me, you know. So I just treated him like gold and just respectful, and you know what, he was just constantly, like, whatever, finally suspended me. He was just trying to fire me for whatever reason, but then they looked into it, they investigated everything, and it turned out that he was the problem. They demoted him from department manager to just salesperson, and then they transferred him to another store because he was that bad, but they didn't want to fire him, you know. But in the end, I treated him as best I could, and I would always try to do my best and try to help him out, and even though he wasn't the best manager on the planet, I'd still try to do things that I knew he liked, you know, without him having to tell me, and that's kind of how I ended up getting promoted later on because I knew the department manager took over, and I was still a sales guy, and I just did what I had to do to basically just please the Lord, and I would just, you know, do things that other people wouldn't, and that's what caused me to get promoted, and I went from $16 to $26 an hour. You know, why? Because it was just one thing that I was doing that the other ones weren't, and that was initiative. Initiative. Was I always with the best attitude? No, but I try to just do things without being told. If I were to see things, signs messed up, people's eyes being all screwed up, they're like, hey, you need help with your hour? Let me go help fix it. You know, one time they were in a really bad, you know, closing where they had all these carts, you know, with product everywhere, and they didn't tell me anything. I just started, I clocked out, and I just started grabbing carts, and I decided to just go put stuff back, and I figured why not? The Lord will reimburse me. Are they going to say no and get mad at me for helping them put product back? All this stuff is supposed to be gone by the morning, so I figured whatever, you know, clocked out, and then basically grab a cart, put stuff away for like a couple hours, manager comments, like, what are you doing here? I was like, nothing, just helping put product back. No, no, no, yourselves, man, get out of here, man, don't do that again, you know? But then again, hey, he let me basically do whatever I wanted, give me my schedule that I wanted. So what am I saying? Hey, have initiative, not just with the people that are cool and popular and that everybody loves. What about the guy who's new, that's kind of weird or whatever? I'm not saying somebody in here is weird, but you know what I'm talking about. You know, the Bible says to greet one another by name, so instead of waiting for somebody to initiate a contact with you, why don't we become people that initiate contact with others, especially the people that we haven't seen or even gotten up to, and we've seen them a couple of times, but we're the one up to them because we're shy, because they look kind of off. It's like, listen, let's just go and show some initiative to the Lord and go to the person, I have that person come to us, let's not wait for him to come to us, let's go to them and just greet everybody by name, and if you don't know their name, just say, hey, man, I don't think I've ever met you yet, my name is Chris, what's your name, my name is such and such, hey, man, finally glad to say hi to you, you know, enjoying your time here at Faithful Word, yeah, go ahead, man, hey, we'll talk later. Hey, this is what it is, that's what God wants, amen. So, I had to go to numbers, let's take a look at numbers. Now, this is not my best example of somebody having initiative, but there's a point to this story, and this dude does have initiative, but it's a pretty crazy story, let's take a look at it. Numbers 25 says this, In Israel, abode and shit them, and the people began to commit whoredom, so the people of Israel, they're on their way to the promised land, they end up and shit them, and they end up committing whoredoms, the men are committing whoredoms, they're committing fornication, they're sleeping around with the daughters of Moab, and the Lord warned them, don't mix with these people, they're not only becoming friends, they're committing sin, they're committing fornication, whoredom, you know, they're basically committing whoredom, and they call the people to the sacrifice of their gods, now the Moabites are convincing the children of Israel to do sacrifice unto their gods. Talk about spitting in God's face, he just took you from slavery, now you're worshipping a false god that did nothing for you? But the story gets crazier, it says, and the people did eat and bowed down to the gods of the Moabites. Crazy. And Israel joined themselves unto Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, almost like a duh, so what do you think, God's just going to let that go? Oh, we're not doing anything bad, you know, we're just being friendly. No, it says the fierce anger of the Lord is turned away from Israel, or let me back that up, it says the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun. So they're saying, hey, all the leaders, gather them all up, this is their fault, I'm blaming them, I'm blaming the leadership, Moses started hunting them all down, I want them all dead. And so people start freaking out now. But now we're going to look at verse number 5, Moses said unto the Jews of Israel, slay ye everyone that is man that were joined unto Baal Peor, and behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So here's the nation of Israel getting right with the Lord, they're weeping, they're saying, we're sorry, you know, we're committing horror to them with the Moabites, and this knucklehead decides he just wants to bring a woman that has a different god, a Midianitish woman, into the camp, and everybody sees it. And God gets very, very upset, where now he's punishing everyone for allowing this guy to bring in some devil-worshipping woman, all because he's in love. And it says, and when Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, but, so then here's a guy who sees them. They take off, everybody sees them, they're looking around like, what the heck is this guy doing? They know God is mad because they've been committing whoredom, and this guy's getting fired up. And he's like, no one's going to do anything about it? So he takes some initiative, and he goes to do something about it. So this guy goes with this whorish woman who's worshipping another god, and they go into a tent to go commit whoredom, and what happens? This guy gets so mad. It says that he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So he stabbed them to death. And use your imagination and you figure out what you think happened. That is a very, very horrific way to die. But I can't really get upset because God was mad that he was doing this. And it says right there, so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel, and those that died in the plague were 24,000. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Finihas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest has turned away my wrath away from the children of Israel while he was zealous, zealous for my sake among them that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. So this guy didn't do it because he was envious of the guy because he had a really cool mid-night, his girlfriend. He's like, no, he was zealous for his God. And he says, this guy's committed serious sin and I'm not saying to go do this because you will go to jail and it's not God's will for you to go around killing men and not his woman, you know. But in that time, hey, that was the punishment for worshipping another God. Because guess what, you're sending people to hell when you start worshipping another God. And people start trusting in a false God, they're all going to go to hell. And we have the same salvation today that they had back in the day. It was all by faith on the Lord, the real Lord. And this woman is worshipping a false God. She's a devil worshipping woman and this God brings her in like no big deal. Well, it was a big deal. God punished 24,000 people. He killed 24,000 people for committing whoredom against a God with the mid-nightish woman, I'm sorry, with the mobitish woman. And here's another one that just happens to walk in like, I don't really care what the Lord has to say, I'm good. Well, he wasn't good. He was good for nothing. And that was about the end of that. So he was zealous and he killed him and his girlfriend. But what is this story, telling us to go kill all these fornicators? No. What it's showing us is that, hey, God loves initiative and sometimes it's going to be hard exercising initiative. You don't think it was hard for this guy to kill someone? I mean, the thought of me killing someone is like, man, I don't know if I can do it. I'm glad that I didn't live in those bays. I don't know. I might have failed big time. Look at all the stuff they do. You got Joshua taking kings and killing them, cutting off their toes. And you're like, man, I don't know if I can do that. You know, people think Pastor Anderson is wrong. I'm like, have you not read the scriptures, what these guys did, what Moses did to people? Moses killed people. Joshua killed people. I've never killed anyone. I've shot at people and I hope I didn't kill anyone. You know, because I've been in combat, but it was just a crazy ambush. We just fired back. I don't know what happened. I don't know if I killed. I don't know. But just like with a knife and a sword, that's a different level. That's a way different level. You know, so what can we learn from this story? Hey, sometimes initiative is going to be hard, but God wants you to do it. And if you're doing it for the right reasons, hey, he's happy. This guy was doing it for the right reasons. Wasn't he just trying to kill someone because he was having a bad day? He's like, no. Hey, we just saw 24,000 people get slaughtered because of this. Now you're doing it again, but with a different, you know, woman? It's like not happening. But obviously, what do we see in the stories? We see the men of activity. There's some men having initiative. What do you see? You see Rebecca, a woman of initiative. What do we see right here? Then he has a man of initiative, even when it's hard. And that's how we need to look at things. Hey, sometimes it is hard to go up to that person and say hi, who they've never said hi to before. But be the one that initiates it. And that's how we should all be, even at work, even with our families, you know? Be a good ambassador for the Lord. And sometimes we get a little bit too shy because of what? Why? I don't really want to say hi to this person. What if he rejects me? Well, what if he rejects you? It's like God's not asking you to kill someone. He's just asking you to say hi to someone. So let's just remember that God wants us to be men and females of initiative. Amen? And here's more evidence. Titus 2, 11. If you have your Bibles, we'll finish up with. Let's go to Proverbs 22. So meet me in Proverbs 22. We'll wrap it up. I'm already past 30 minutes. Titus 2 says this. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Tell that to the Mormons. Pastor Anderson preached against Mormons. But that's what the Mormons like to say. What about the people that have never heard? We believe they're going to get a second chance. Well, I mean, Titus says the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. And I think God is so merciful. He's giving people opportunities. He's trying to get people safe. They just don't want to listen. They just don't. So it's like, hey, you know what? People in hell, I don't think they got, you know, it's hard to believe that they just live without an opportunity, you know, because they're Mormons. They know what we believe as Baptists. They're well educated before they go into the mission field. They're going to be like, hey, you know what? Out in the mission field, you're probably going to run into Baptists and this is what they're going to use. Don't forget, games. Games, too. The day without works is dead. Don't forget about that. It's just how they do business. And we're coming and telling them, no, it's not what you're saying. It's like, no, salvation is by grace to the faith. Well, you know, the Bible's a good book. Lines are translated correctly. Translation, don't believe anything we say. But contradicts what they believe. Why? Because they're brainwashed, because they have a stiff neck, hard heart, they harden their hearts, and now they're going to suffer the consequences for all eternity. But, continuing on, that's just a point that I just threw out there. Teaching us that denying ungodly and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Zealous of good works. What did it say about our good friend Phinehas? It says that he has zeal for his God. So what made him do what he did? Zeal. What made Rebekah do what she did? Love. You know, what made, I don't know, the guys in Egypt do what they did is that they were just hard workers, men of activity. You know, all these things and stuff we should pray for if we don't have them in our lives. Lord, make me a hard worker. You know, I prayed, I preached this morning, how Pastor Anderson prayed, God, make me somebody that hates sin. And guess what? He also prayed as a teenager, in case you've never heard this story. He would get on his knees and say, God, make me a hard worker. I don't work hard enough. I'm a lazy guy. He's like, make me a hard worker. Make me a whore evil. Give me a zeal for you, Lord. And I don't know about you, but I think God answered that prayer. Call me crazy. Call me crazy. But here God says that he wants us to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works. And that was Finnehath. He was zealous. He's like, hey, you know what? If no one's going to do the right thing, I'm going to do the right thing. Nobody needs to tell me what to do because I know what to do and I'm going to go do it. And he did it. And he probably saved more people from being slaughtered because God killed 24,000. What if nobody did anything about this bump continuing in accordance with a different race, a different devilish woman or whatever? It would have took out 24,000 more. But it was clear that God was happy that he did it because guess what? That woman would have just spread her religion and if it would have got to the younger generation, they would have all been basically damned. It just takes one sinner to destroy much and that's probably what would have happened. And God was like, Finnehath, I'm going to reward you for what you did. It was hard. He took initiative. That initiative was difficult. And I know it's hard, kids. I ain't in your room. I know. I know it's hard. I know it's tough. You know, I know it's hard doing your homework without being told. I know it's tough cleaning windows, cleaning dishes. You have a dog? I know it's hard cleaning that poop in the backyard, right? No? You do it when you do it with a smile? What a good kid. He's got a giant backyard. He's got a robot that picks up the poop. All I'm saying is keep it up if you got it. If you're cleaning and mommy's happy, hey, don't worry. The Christmas gifts are going to get better and bigger, all right? But, hey, even if they don't, keep initiative. Sounds good? Sounds good. All right. Because that's just the way of life. Let me prove it to you. Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16 says this. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. So guess what? That's just how life is. That's the highway. The highway, the road that we should take of the upright is to just keep doing right. Keep departing from evil. And God doesn't want to force you to do it. He wants you to take initiative and do it on your own. Humble yourself. Turn from your wicked ways. God doesn't want to smack you and chastise you and punish you. He wants you to take some initiative and clean your own life up. If you need a little help, he will. Why? Because he loves you. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you so much for all that you've done, Lord. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here, Father. Hey, Lord, I enjoy coming down here. It refreshes my soul. And these people mean a lot to me, Father. And so I ask you, Lord, to give them all special blessings, especially the ones that are sick and want to be here with their Lord. Obviously, we're all going to get sick, dear Father, and it's no fun. But I ask you to heal them all and heal them all quickly, Father, so they can continue to serve you. Hey, Lord, thank you so much for all that you did last year. And we ask you, Lord, to do more this year. And we ask you to do all this for your honor and glory. In Jesus' first name, amen. All right. Turn to your last song, song number 209. Song 209, Sunshine in the Soul. They're on the first. There is sunshine in my soul today More glorious and bright Than frozen and earthly skies For Jesus is my light For there's sunshine, blessed sunshine When the peaceful, happy moments roll When Jesus shows his smiling face There is sunshine in the soul There is music in my soul today A carol to the King And Jesus, listening, can hear The songs I cannot sing Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine When the peaceful, happy moments roll When Jesus shows his smiling face There is sunshine in the soul There is springtime in the soul today For when the Lord is near The dove he sings in my heart The bars of grace appear Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine When the peaceful, happy moments roll When Jesus shows his smiling face There is sunshine in the soul There is gladness in my soul today And hope and praise and love For blessings which he gives me now For joys laid up above Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine When the peaceful, happy moments roll When Jesus shows his smiling face There is sunshine in the soul