(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Thank you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Thank you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Amen. Welcome to Bor belongs to Bay Areaids – Baptist Church. Very nice. Let's go back to our seats. Let's turn to him number 217. Oh. Him number 217. Singing the song, He included me. Him number 217. I am so happy in Christ today, Hymn number 217 included me, Ready on the first ready sing, I am so happy in Christ today, That I go singing along my way, Yes, I'm so happy to know and say, Jesus included me too, Jesus included me, yes, he included me, When the Lord said, Whosoever he included me, Jesus included me, yes, he included me, When the Lord said, Whosoever he included me, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, Once again, that I go singing along my way, 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singing along my way, One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. All right. Praise the Lord. Anybody else? All right. Well, hopefully we'll have good weather here later today for our soul winning. And the only other thing to mention here, well, I guess two other things. One, we do have our new Bible memorization challenge. So if you want to start memorizing through the book of Psalms, chapter 23, you can start on. We'll end at chapter 41 because that's kind of, you know, the book of Psalms is divided into books. So we'll preach up till chapter 41 and take a break for a while. And if you brought any visitors here today, let your team captain know, brother Marlon, brother Jay, or brother Tito. That way we can just keep tally of the amount. For some teams, it's going to be hard to count that high, you know. I'm just saying. But anyways, just joking a little bit. But anyways. Anyways, next week is a good time, though, to invite visitors because we will have our dessert competition. And we will be having games and fellowships. So I think that's it for announcements. We'll have brother Marlon leave. And another song. For our next song, it's symptoms number 54. Let's sing the song, all that will be glory. In number 54, all that will be glory. In number 54, all that will be glory. All that will be glory. Let's sing the song, All That Will Be Glory. In number 54, All That Will Be Glory. In number 54, All That Will Be Glory. When all my labels and trials are o'er And I am safe on the beautiful shore In number 54, All That Will Be Glory In number 54, All That Will Be Glory. On the first, ready, sing. When all my labels and trials are o'er And I am safe on the beautiful shore Just to be near the dear Lord I adore Will through the ages mean glory for me Oh, that will be glory for me Glory for me, glory for me When by His grace I shall look on His face That will be glory, glory for me When by the gift of His infinite grace I am not for heaven, heaven or place Just to be there and to look on His face Will through the ages mean glory for me Oh, that will be glory for me Glory for me, glory for me When by His grace I shall look on His face That will be glory, glory for me On last, friends will be there I have not long ago Joy like a river around me will flow Yes, just a spot from my Savior I know Will through the ages mean glory for me Oh, that will be glory for me Glory for me, glory for me When by His grace I shall look on His face That will be glory, glory for me Let's take our offer. Let's take our offer. For our scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of Psalm. Psalm chapter 24. Psalm 24 at the middle of your Bible. Psalm 24. And as our custom we will be reading the entire chapter. Psalm 24. Please say amen if you're there. Amen. Psalm 24 verse 1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For we have founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek thy face of Jacob, Selah. Lift up your head, so ye gates, and be ye lift up the everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your head, so ye gates, even lift them up the everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory, Selah. Amen. Bless the reading of God's Word. Let us pray. Lord God in Heaven, we thank the Lord for the state that you've given to us, and for the Lord that you would bless the Lord for us to stay. Give us good weather for our soul-winning, and bless the Lord in the power and the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, Lord, to listen to your word, Lord, to stay. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're here in Psalm 24, and we're going to finish the entire chapter here today. It's not a super long chapter, and we're actually going to kind of fly through the early verses, and then spend a lot of time in the last couple of verses. And the name of the sermon is, Who is this King of glory? That's a question that's asked toward the end of this chapter. But let's start in verse number one. The Bible reads, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. So the Bible tells us in these first two verses that the earth that we live in, this is the Lord. It belongs to Him. He created it, and it says, and they that dwell therein. So this world belongs to God. Okay? But also the people that dwell in this world. Which means when it comes to our lives, and what we do, we need to do what God said, because we didn't create ourselves. We have created by God, and we're expected to obey what He said. Okay? Now turn to Genesis one. Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one. Now look, I'm not an environmentalist. I'm not one of these people where it's like, we got to protect the environment, and everything like that. But we also have to have a proper balance on things. You know? I don't believe we should trash the environment either, though. And part of that is because God created this earth. And look, if God created this earth, you know, I don't think that it's becoming to God when there's trash everywhere. Right? I mean, wouldn't it be great to go out sowing in these neighborhoods with no trash? I mean, is it really that hard if you got trash just to put it in the trash can? That's kind of the purpose. Right? Now look, I'm not for protecting the environment, but at the same time, I believe that since God created this earth, we should try to protect it, should try to take care of it. Right? Now, of course, what's going to come at the end of the world is this world's going to be destroyed because of sin. We understand that. At the same time, though, I would like to live in a clean environment and not just trash everything. Right? And let me show you, though, in Genesis chapter one, what the Bible says. It says in verse 26, And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So the Bible says that man was made in God's image, and that it also mentions the creation of the animals. Look, an animal is not made in the image of God. Right? Now, I know there's religions that worship the monkey god. God doesn't look like a monkey. Right? Now, I don't have a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know exactly what he looked like. I mean, his hair was probably pretty short. But, you know, he's probably a tough guy, a manly guy. You know, he had a beard. We know that. But, you know, here's the thing. I know he didn't look like a monkey. Okay? A monkey is not made in the image of God. And you got these religions that worship animals. They worship, you know, rats and mice and elephants and all of these animals. It's bizarre. Right? Many of these Asian religions, they worship animals. And there's nothing new under the sun because when you think of Dagon, he was a fish god. So they're worshiping a giant fish. Look, if you like to go fishing, praise the Lord. It's a fun activity. It's relaxing. But don't worship the fish. Okay? Now, don't intentionally harm animals. But at the same time, the Bible says we're made in the image of God. And it says we have dominion over the animals. Because, see, some people go to this extreme where they say, well, you know what? We shouldn't harm animals. We shouldn't even kill them and eat them. We should just eat plants. Never eat any animals. But is that what the Bible teaches? Because in the Bible, I'm pretty sure Jesus is eating fish. Right? And I'm pretty sure the Bible says we can eat any animal. There's nothing wrong with eating meat. Now, there are certain animals maybe you don't have a preference for. There are certain types of meat that I'm not a huge fan of. Right? But you're allowed to eat any food because God created it. Okay? That's what the Bible teaches. The Bible says we have dominion. Verse 28. And God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it. Now, when you see the word subdue, think of a submarine. A submarine goes under the water. Think of submission. Submission is when you put yourself underneath someone. When it's saying subdue, it means the animals go below humans. There's no comparison between a human being and an animal. Right? I mean, if a baby dies, that's a tragedy. Now, I'm not saying I want to see animals die, but it's an animal. It's not going to spend forever in heaven or hell. It's just going to be dead. It's just an animal. Right? You say, Brother Sucky, how could you say that? Well, this is what the Bible teaches. The Bible says humans are above animals. There's no comparison. Right? The Bible says that when an animal attacks the human, what does the Bible say is the punishment for that animal? The death penalty. That's what the Bible teaches. Those aren't my words. Those are the words of God. And look, when an animal, and you know, it's crazy to me, because you'll see an animal attack a little child, and then people defend the animal. Like, oh, no, we can't harm the animal. You know, it's an animal. It doesn't know any better. Well, according to the Bible, that animal gets put to death. Right. That's what it teaches. And what the Bible actually teaches is this. If you have a pet, and your pet attacks somebody else, and you're aware of it, and you don't do anything about it, if it attacks somebody in the future and kills them, you get put to death as well, because you knew that and didn't protect other people. You say, why? Because it's an animal. Right. It's just an animal. It's not the same as a human being. There's no comparison. When I was a kid, I loved my dog. There's nothing wrong with loving a pet. I understand that. But let me explain something. When my son was born, he had a dog. When my son was born, I was like, there's no comparison between a dog and a child. Right. No comparison. Right. And look, you know, I'll be honest with you. I personally don't like having my young kids around a lot of animals, because you know what? I don't trust animals. I don't trust dogs. I mean, you go soul hunting sometimes. There's dogs running around. Did you know sometimes dogs attack humans? You say, Brother Stuckey, how do you know that? Because I've got a scar under my eye from when I got bit by a dog when I was like, I don't know, six, seven years old. I got three stitches because a dog jumped up and attacked me. Right. And look, I've got young kids. And you know what? It's dangerous sometimes. Now, of course, you know, obviously in today's world, we're not even allowed to have kids in public. So this is kind of like it. But I'm just saying, I'm not going to live in fear and never have my kids go anywhere. But at the same time, I believe in protecting your children. And look, I personally have no interest in having a pet because I have two young kids. And there's no comparison. Right. There's no comparison. And so here's the thing. Yes, God made this world. He made the earth. He made us. He made the animals. But he also put a position of authority of humans above the animals. There is no comparison between a human being and an animal. No comparison whatsoever. Now go back to Psalm 24. You've got these people. They want to protect every animal in this world. But abortion is perfectly fine. They have no problem with murdering a baby in the womb. Right. No problem with abortion. But how dare you harm a little dog or a cat. And look, I'm not for harming animals. But what I'm saying is this. The same people that are obsessed with protecting the environment and protecting animals, have no love at all for a human being. They don't care about them. Look, abortion is murder and there's no argument. I'll tell you what. Everybody actually knows abortion is murder too. They're just lying because common sense tells you that they're actually alive. I mean, who's had an ultrasound of their child before they were born? Right. And I remember the first time I went to an ultrasound. You know what was amazing to me? Wow. You know, my son really looks like a human being even at like eight weeks. Right. Or whatever the age was. You know, we had the ultrasound. At a very young age, they have all their fingers. They have all their bodies. It's like, wow. Even though they're so small, you can tell that they're a human being. Right. And it's like, you know, in this world though, they want to protect the animals, but they have no problem with aborting human beings. It's ridiculous. Right. Psalm 24, verse 3. The Bible reads, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? So there's this question asked in Psalm 24, who will ascend into the hill of the Lord? Now, I personally do not think this is saying who's going to go to heaven. I don't think that's what the question is. What I think the Bible is saying is this. When it comes to being close to God, it's like climbing a mountain. Okay. To get close to God. It's an uphill climb to serve God. And the Bible is saying, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who is going to be close to God? Well, go to John 4. Let me show you something. John 4. Because when it talks about the hill of the Lord, you might see that and think that there's just like some magic boondock out there. Right. Some magic mountain where that is how you get close to God. And, you know, there's a lot of religions that believe there's certain areas of this world that are somehow more holy and spiritual than other areas. For example, Islam. Islam is a pretty big religion. Right. What do they say? Well, you got to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Why? Well, because Muhammad lived over there. Right. So Mecca is somehow more godly or spiritual than any other location on earth according to Muslims. That's what they teach. Right. They believe that area. I mean, it's one of the five pillars of Islam where it's like if you can afford to go to Mecca, you have to go to Mecca. Otherwise, you might want to question your religion. Right. You have to go to Mecca. Otherwise, you might want to question your salvation. Right. It's like it's one of the requirements of Islam. You've got to make a trip to Mecca. Right. Why? Well, they say Mecca is somehow more spiritual than anywhere else. I mean, they believe that the Quran cannot be written in any other language besides Arabic because it will lose its power. That's what they teach. That's what they believe. They believe that Mecca and the Arabic language is somehow above any other language or any other location. Of course, if you're Hindu, it's all about the Ganges River. Right. It's like, you know, I just finished the Bhagavad Gita and what it says, a quote from the Bhagavad Gita is if you bathe in the Ganges River, you will certainly find salvation. Look, I'm just being honest. If you bathe in the Ganges River, you might, you know, die. Right. It's one of the dirtiest rivers in the world. It might be the dirtiest. And it's like, but Hindus think it's somehow, you know, especially spiritual and so they'll dump, you know, people's remains of relatives that have died and it's like everyone's bathing in the river and sometimes they're drinking the water and it's actually a very dirty river. But what they teach is that somehow that's a holy location where basically when you bathe in the water, it will cleanse you of all impurities, spiritually speaking. Right. That's what they teach. In Buddhism, it's all about visiting these holy places where Buddha grew up and you make a pilgrimage to those areas and somehow you can worship God better at those areas. You know, with the Orthodox, they have this special mountain called Mount Athos. Has anyone heard of Mount Athos? Nobody? I saw this documentary several years ago and with the Orthodox religion, which is kind of the second biggest behind Catholicism under Christianity, they believe there's this one mountain in the world where you can worship God better than any other mountain. Now, no women are allowed, only men, and you've got to be like a priest. Like you get on a waiting list for ten years so you can live on Mount Athos and you just live up on the mountain on very little and you just basically do vain repetitions for eight hours a day. Literally. And they believe that you can worship God better in that mountain and it's this idea that God is found in a literal physical mountain. Okay. And they think that this location you can worship God better. You know, when it comes to the Catholic Church, Vatican City. Go over to Rome and that's the area you can worship God. When Martin Luther was a Catholic, this is what he believed and he was so excited to visit Rome, he said, man, this is the center of Christianity and serving God and when he got there, he's like, this is the most wicked place on the planet. And that's literally what Martin Luther said. He's like, man, there's all these pedophiles and they're stealing money from people, gambling and drinking. This is terrible, right? But somehow they think that there's a special location that is more holy than any location. But see, when the Bible is saying who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, it's not referring to a specific physical location. Notice what it says in John 4 verse 19. John 4 verse 19. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. This woman has this idea that there's a specific physical location of worshipping God. She says, we worshipped in this mountain. We believe this is the mountain where you find God. Isn't it true in some of the Filipino mythology, there's these stories about how there's this certain God in this one mountain or something that you worship? This is the sort of idea where it's like, in this mountain is where God is going to meet with me, right? And she said, you said in Jerusalem is where we worship. Notice the response of Jesus. Jesus saith unto a woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what? We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. Now, what he's saying to her is this. You don't understand what's going on in this mountain. You don't understand what you're doing. You're worshipping in vain. And when he says salvation is of the Jews, he's not saying that only the Jews get saved or that all the Jews get saved. He's saying that the Jews are the ones that had the word of God and they understand these things or they should be the ones to understand these things, right? Then it says in verse 22, in verse 23, but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is the spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. You say, Brother Secchi, where should I be worshipping God? It comes down to worshipping God in spirit and truth. It doesn't matter if it's the Philippines. It doesn't matter if it's Rome. It doesn't matter if it's Saudi Arabia where Mecca is located. It doesn't matter if it's India where all those holy sites of the Hindus are. It doesn't matter the physical location except for the fact inside of a local New Testament church. You see, if there's a good church in Israel, praise the Lord. If there's a good church in India, praise the Lord. There's a good church wherever. It doesn't matter the physical location. It matters that you're worshipping God in the right way. Now, of course, God set up a system of worshipping God in church and, of course, you need to be part of a good church, but it doesn't matter where that church is located. It doesn't matter any location whatsoever as long as it's a good church. That's what the Bible teaches, okay? Now, turn back to Psalm 24, Psalm 24. And look, here's the truth. If you get a job offer somewhere and you're going to have to move and leave our church, as long as you have a good church to go to, there's nothing wrong with that. Now, I don't believe that if you go to a location without a good church, I don't think that's right, but if you go to an area with a good church, nothing wrong with it because you're worshipping God inside that church with the people of God, whether it's part of this church or another church or another church, there's nothing wrong with that because there is no specific location. Now, look, if you decide one day you want to visit Israel because there's all these holy sites, I understand that. Obviously, you're reading the Bible and it would be cool to visit some of these places. You watch beyond Jordan and you're like, man, I got to go over there, right? Nothing wrong with that. I get that, but it's not like you have to worship God over in Jerusalem to serve God. You say, brother, suck you, but the wailing wall's there. Like, where else am I going to go like this, right? It's like, look, there's some people that have bad dance moves that do this sort of stuff, right? Like some sort of disco or something. It's like you only have to go over to Jerusalem to do that, okay? Now, let me prove this to you in Psalm 24 verse 4 because the question was asked who's going to ascend into the hill of the Lord Psalm 24 verse 4, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul on divinity nor sworn deceitfully. See, what the Bible's saying is if you want to get close to God, the secret is clean hands and a pure heart. And clean hands is symbolic of basically getting sin out of your life and not just being right with God on the outside, also on the inside as well. If you want to get close to God, you know what the secret is? Spend time reading God's Word, fear God and keep his commandments, right? Do the things that God says in his book and that is how you ascend into the hill of the Lord symbolically speaking. Now, go to James 4, James 4. This is consistent throughout the Bible that if you want to get close to God, it comes down to having clean hands and a pure heart as it says in Psalm 24. I hope that's your goal here today. You say, Brother Stuckey, I'm saved. Well, praise the Lord for that. But is that the end of your life? What is your goal here today? I hope your goal is I want to get close to God. Isn't that a good goal to have? I want to get close to God. I want to get closer to God with each and every passing year. Isn't that a good goal? I want to love God more now than I did last year. See, the Calvinists say that's automatic like we talked about in the last sermon, but that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches it is your choice whether or not you get close to God or not. Now, here's the thing. When you think about climbing a mountain, you know what? It's very easy to fall down and lose a lot of distance very quickly. If you're climbing a mountain and then you stumble along the way, you're going to fall down quite a distance, right? But it's going to take quite a bit of time to climb up that mountain. And see, here's the thing. You can backside very quickly. Think of King David in the Bible, right? That happened in a moment of time. But here's the thing. If you want to get close to God, that's a great desire. It's going to take a lot of work. It's going to take effort. It's going to take basically you wake up every morning and say, you know what? My flesh wants to get on Facebook. My flesh wants to look up the news. But you know what? I'm going to reject that and read the Bible and spend time with God. Each and every day spending time with God. And you know what? That's hard. When your flesh desires to do what's wrong, you say, you know what? I don't care what my flesh wants. I'm going to walk in the Spirit. I'm going to walk in the new man. And you know what? It takes time to get close to God. I can say here today, I can honestly say I don't feel desire to listen to rock music, which I used to listen to. I've been saved for about 18 years. Now here's the thing. When I first got saved, guess what? I still desired all the same music. I still desired all the things that I did before because I just got saved. My flesh didn't change. But see, here's what takes place. As time goes by, you can kill off desires. You say, what do you mean? Well, a good example is smoking cigarettes. Now I've never smoked a cigarette before, but you know, from everything I've heard, people that quit smoking cigarettes, I'm sure plenty of people in our church have smoked cigarettes. There's probably people in our church that do smoke now. That doesn't affect your salvation because salvation is by believing. But you know, it's a bad habit that obviously we should break if that's a habit you have. It's expensive. It's unhealthy. Right? Here's the thing though. People smoke because it's a habit that they have trouble breaking. But here's the thing. Let's say you stop smoking cigarettes cold turkey. You stop today. Here's the thing. Those first couple of weeks are going to be pretty tough. But five years down the road, your desire for smoking cigarettes is going to be a lot less than it was when you first quit. Or I'm sure many people in our church, you know, have drank alcohol before. Maybe some people do now. And here's the thing. When you first stop, your flesh is going to desire that. But here's the thing. You starve off the flesh and those desires start to die away. That's what you got to do. And not just with things physical like smoking and drinking. Whatever problem you have. Maybe you gossip. Maybe you struggle with bitterness. Maybe you struggle with pride. Whatever it is, kill off the desires of the flesh and serve God. And here's the thing. I'm not saying those desires will completely go away. But they're going to be a lot and a lot and a lot less. I can say here that when I first got saved, my first several years, I really desired to listen to the music I used to listen to. I don't think about it now though. Now for a while it was pretty tough because everywhere you go, you know, you're hearing music that you've heard and everything. Now one advantage here is this. In the U.S., you know, you hear all this music of like Aerosmith, music I used to listen to. Here though it's like Celine Dion's everywhere and I've never liked Celine Dion, right? There's all this Disney music and it's like, well, you know, I was never an Elton John fan or Celine Dion. So it's like it's not really a tough desire. It's like, you know, hearing songs of that. It's like, you know, whatever, right? But I'm just saying that, you know what, if you have a wrong desire, I'm not saying it's going to ever completely go away. It's all of us. It's going to be down there somewhere. But your desire for it is going to slowly die off. But it's going to be a struggle. It's going to be a fight. And see, ascending into the hill of the Lord, it's a battle. It's tough. It doesn't happen overnight, right? Now notice what it says in James 4 verse 7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. When you have a wrong temptation, what the Bible says is you submit yourselves to God, which is basically a humility. You're humbling yourself to God and trusting in God to help you. And you resist the devil. If you resist the devil, what the Bible says is he will flee from you, right? Now I'm not saying it happens like this. But what I'm saying is if you have a wrong desire and you resist it, eventually that desire goes away. I mean think in your own mind if you've ever had a desire to do something and you knew it was wrong and you resisted it and then 20 minutes later the desire is gone, right? Where you have a desire to do wrong and you're tempted, you resist it and then all of a sudden you don't give in to it and then 20 minutes later you feel great because you did what was right. And see, this is what the Bible says. And here's the thing in verse 8. Draw nigh to God. What does nigh mean? Well, it's basically a makalumang word for near. So draw near to God. You know, near my God to thee, right? Draw nigh to God. And notice this. And he will draw nigh to you. If you get close to God, he will get close to you. It's a guarantee. See, the Bible is saying God wants to be close to you. It's not like you draw nigh to God and then God's like I'm just going to avoid you. No, I mean God's there at the top of the mountain. The Bible says you start walking toward God, he's going to walk toward you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. You say, well, how does that actually happen? Notice what it says. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double minded. Isn't this exactly what we read in Psalm 24? Cleanse your hands and purify your heart. See, what does that mean? It means get the sin out of your life on the outside and on the inside basically. Get right with God. And you know, when you hear preaching, part of it should be you start just obeying God's commandments, but you also don't want it to just be something you do on the outside, but on the inside you have a desire to actually do what's right. I think one great desire to have, it kind of comes from that song Take My Life and Let It Be, where you basically pray to God, you know, take my will and make it thine. It shall be no longer mine. I love that line. Basically what that's saying is, God, take my desires and just kill them. Right? Just change my heart. Because here's the thing. Right now you say, Brother Stuckey, I like what you said. I want to quit smoking. I do want to quit smoking, but the problem is I desire to quit smoking. Well, here's the thing. If you're struggling, pray to God and say, God, can you just kill off this desire? Can you just get rid of this desire for me? Can you just change my heart so I want to do what's right? You say, Brother Stuckey, I struggle with reading the Bible. Well, pray to God that he'll change your heart. Now you should go through the steps of just waking up in the morning, away from social media, open up your Bible, but pray to God to change your heart in the areas where it's not right. Because here's the thing. We all have wrong desires and you can't magically just get rid of them unless, you know, you actually pray to God and God can change the desires of your heart. Right? Now go back to Psalm 24. Psalm 24. I mean, I wish it was easy, but it's not easy. It's something you need to pray about and it's something you need to actually work toward. Make the changes necessary. Which means you say, Brother Stuckey, I struggle reading the Bible. It's like I keep trying and I always find myself on my cell phone. What do I do? Because I want to read the Bible and then all of a sudden two minutes later I'm reading my cell phone. Turn your cell phone off. You know, throw it underneath your bed so you got to crawl under there to get it. I mean, do what you got to do. Tell your wife to hide your cell phone for 30 minutes. I'm sort of joking, but not really. I'm saying do what you got to do. You know what I did at my old job I had in Maryland? I always just went to work, you know, two hours early because I had to study for my actuarial exams and I need to read my Bible. And you know what? And you know what? If I show up two hours early for work, there's literally nothing I can do besides read my Bible. There's nothing I can do. No one to talk to because it's five in the morning and who shows up at work at five in the morning? Right? They literally asked me one time, like, why do you check in so early for work? Like, we don't understand. I was like, I'm just studying for my exams and just reading the Bible. They're like, okay. Right? Because nobody checks in at five. You say, why do you do that? Well, get away from distractions. Look, it's hard when there's distractions in life. You know, I'll give you a great example. You know, once you have kids, it's a lot harder to have your time with God. You say, why? Kids are a distraction. And you get into a routine. Man, I'm reading the Bible every day at five in the morning and kids break that routine by, you know, waking up in the middle of the night and then you're exhausted. It's like, oh man, it's seven. I missed my Bible reading. Right? It's true. Get away from distractions the best you can. You say, why? Because the secret to getting into the hill of the Lord is to just spend personal time with God. And you know what? That takes a lot of work. It's not easy. You've got to go through effort to do that. Psalm 24, verse five, the Bible reads, He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. So look, you serve God, you get close to God, you're going to receive God's blessings in your life. That's what the Bible says. Verse six, this is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob, Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. Now, when you think of gates, you think of basically, you know, maybe a thousand years ago or whatever, oftentimes, you know, you'd have a city that would be closed in with walls and you can't really climb the walls. Right? They build it up so no enemy can come in and attack. And basically, the only way in is through the gates. Right? And so the image I get here in Psalm 24 is the Bible saying that God wants to come in and get close to you. He wants to draw nigh to you, but you've got to make the choice to open up the gates. And once you open up the gates, God says, Hey, and he will draw nigh to you. He wants to get close to you, but it's your choice. You've got to make the choice to open up the gates. And then it says here in verse eight, Who is this king of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle? Lift up your heads, O ye gates. Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory, the Lord of hosts? He is the king of glory, Selah. Now, there's this phrase in the Bible, king of glory, and there's really a question being asked. Who is this king of glory? Now, if you have a question, you usually have an answer. Right? Unless it's a rhetorical question where the answer is known, if you have a question, you're going to have an answer. And there is an answer. Who is this king of glory in verse eight? Verse eight, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Well, if you're thinking of a battle, what are you thinking of? War, a fight, right? So who is this king of glory? Well, it speaks about God being a God of war, God being a God of judgment, God being a holy God, right? Isn't that what you're seeing in verse eight? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. It doesn't say the Lord long suffering. Now look, God's long suffering. But it doesn't say the Lord long suffering. It doesn't say the Lord patient. Is God patient? Well, yeah, I mean, pretty similar to long suffering. It doesn't say the Lord, you know, merciful. It doesn't say the Lord loving. Is God love? Absolutely. That's not the only attribute of God though. It says the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Verse 10, who is this king of glory? The question's asked again. The Lord of hosts. Now, when you say the Lord of hosts, what are you referring to? War, right? When you look that up throughout the Bible, we're talking about fighting, right? So the Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory, Salem. So this question is asked in verse eight and verse 10, and the answer is given, the Lord being a Lord of war, the Lord of fighting, the Lord of battle, right? Now, here's the thing. This is only asked in Psalm 24. You can look it up yourself. It never asks the rest of the Bible, who is this king of glory? It just does it right here. You say, what's your point, brother Stuckey? Well, here's my point. When I first got saved, I listened to Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, you know, whatever, ACDC, a lot of blasphemous music, a lot of hard rock music was my genre. And a lot of people I met, because I was in these Christian groups on campus, they listened to Christian rock music. Right? There is this song, when I first got saved, that was pretty popular by a band named Third Day. Has anyone heard of Third Day? There was a really popular band like 15 years ago in the Christian rock. Probably they're dated by this point, you know. But they sung a song called King of Glory. And in the song they say, who is this king of glory? Now, here's the thing. That question's asked in the Bible, and the answer is given. Wouldn't you think if you wrote a song called who is this king of glory, you'd give the answer the Bible says? Doesn't that make sense? Because the question is asked, who is this king of glory? Well, the Bible gives us this answer. So here's the thing. If you were to hear that Christian rock song, it would illustrate to you the problem with Christian rock music and all of Christianity. Because here's the thing when it comes to Christianity that most of what Joel Osteen says is not wrong. He says very few things that are wrong, but he doesn't say anything, right? Like this is the way Joel Osteen's service works. He opens up with a two-minute joke, and then all of a sudden he says generic stuff, and then he talks about receiving Jesus, accepting him as your Lord and Savior at the end of the service. Very generic, and he talks about your best life now, how God is loving, how God is patient, how God is merciful. Well, those things are true about God. God is merciful. God is patient. But the problem with Christianity is they focus on one side of God, and they give you a wrong balance of who God is. Because correct me if I'm wrong, but the big attribute of God mentioned in the Bible is that he's holy. Is that not true? Doesn't the Bible say the reason why our rock is different than any other rock is there's none holy as the Lord thy God? Isn't that what it says? There's none holy as the Lord thy God. Yeah, you know what? God is love. God is patient. God is merciful. But God is also a jealous God, the Bible says. God is a holy God. God is a righteous God. God demands that we worship him. And here's the thing. In Christianity today, what do they do? Well, they talk about the love of God all the time, but they never talk about the holiness of God. I mean, I remember the first church I went to after I got saved. It was a Baptist church by name, although it was really similar to victory, similar to victory maybe. They had Christian rock music and stuff like that. But it was a Baptist church, and I remember one time the pastor mentioned the word hell. We had been at the church for probably like eight months, and he had never mentioned hell. He had never mentioned really against sin and stuff like that. And when I first started going to the church, I really liked the church because he talked about salvation and he said eternal security. I was like, man, this is awesome. But as you start reading the Bible, you realize there's a lot more to God than just salvation, a lot more. And then all of a sudden, I remember he said the word hell, but he was shy to say it like hell. He didn't want to say it very loud because he was worried it was improper, like it's a curse word in churches to say the word hell. And he was afraid to say it, and he was talking about hell, about people dying and going to hell. But here's the thing, that's reality. God will cast people into hell. We don't have to hide who God is. And see, this is what Christianity does. I mean, Joel Osteen in an interview on Larry King, they asked him about the word sin. He's like, I don't like to use the word sin. He's like, I just try to be an uplifting pastor. You know, I don't want to be judgmental. Well, you know what the problem is? God is going to judge people. And when you quote what God says about his judgment, you're not the one judging. That's their choice. It's between them and God. Well, God said thou shalt not kill. That's not my decision. I'm not a governor. I'm not the president. I don't make any rules or laws. But you know what? These are God's laws, right? And the problem with Christianity is not what they're saying. It's what they're not saying, right? Because you can go to a service at CCF and probably everything you hear is right or almost everything. But the question is, what are they not saying? I'm not going to sing this song because I was planning to, but my voice is already kind of like dying, so I'm going to really screw up or whatever. But it sounds like any Christian rock song. It says, who is this king of glory? So they start off the song asking that question. What should say the Lord of hosts, the Lord strong and mighty in battle, who is this king of glory that pursues me with his love? No, it doesn't talk about the love of God. It says that pursues me with his love and haunts me with each hearing of his softly spoken words. Now, God haunts you? Is he a ghost? I'm not really sure what that is supposed to even mean, to be honest. I'd like to give this guy some poetry lessons because I'm just like, I can do a much better job. But haunts me with each hearing of his softly spoken words. I'm not sure what that means, but it's just like it's talking about God, his softly spoken words, his love, my conscience, a reminder of forgiveness that I need. Who is this king of glory who offers it to me? Who is this king of angels, oh blessed prince of peace, revealing things of heaven and all its mysteries? My spirit's ever longing for his grace in which to stand. Who is this king of glory, son of God and son of man? And then all of a sudden that's the point in the song where he lifts up his voice and it's like, you're like, his name is Jesus, right? It's like all typical Christian rock music or CCF or whatever. And it's just like, there's nothing wrong with saying God is loving. There's nothing wrong with saying God is merciful. But you're naming a song, and you just completely took it out of context and you're not answering the question. Because who is this king of glory? He's a God of judgment. He's a holy God. The Lord's strong and mighty in battle. That's what the Bible says. And this is the problem with Christianity because they're focusing on love, love, love and not the other attributes. See, here's the goal of Christianity. They want you to come to church. They want you to feel spiritual and feel good even if you're not spiritual. And that way you'll want to come back because you feel good when you go to the church. Right? Look, my goal is not to be a motivational speaker to make you feel good. My goal is to teach you the Word of God and if you're not spiritual, I don't want you to feel spiritual. You say, Brother Succy, how can you say that? Because you need to make changes in your life. Look, if you're not spiritual, if you're living an ungodly life, you need to know it. Now look, the Bible says speak the truth in love, but you got to speak the truth. Think about when we go soul winning. Do we start off with the good news or the bad news? The bad news. You say, why, Brother Succy? Nobody's going to get saved unless they believe they need to be saved. Right, right. From where? Hell. Right? It's just like, you know, we have to tell people that they're on their way to hell because they need to be saved. Because if they don't believe they're on their way to hell, they'll listen to you and say, oh, great, yeah, I'll pray with you at the end, but they're not going to get saved. They need to understand that they deserve hell. Now look, don't misunderstand me. I believe in speaking the truth in love. Right? When I go soul winning, I explain to people that, hey, you know what, I'm guilty just like you're guilty. Right? I always tell people that. I always say, you know, kurapa dapa tayo ng impirno. I include myself that I'm guilty just like you're guilty. Right? But they need to understand that they're guilty. And here's the thing about this, you know, people that are in this room and you're part of our church, you know, many of you have made a lot of changes since this church started. Praise the Lord for that. But you know, the reason why people make changes is when they get confronted with the truth and it's like they have a choice. Am I going to serve God or not? Look, I would much rather have a church full of, you know, 50 people to God, not just about his love. Now, here's the thing. Some people have this idea that, you know, I'm going to serve God or not. Some people have this idea that if you preach the truth about God, it could turn people away. Well, first off, if they're already on their way to hell, turn people away because that's the truth. Thy word is truth. And when some people hear the truth of God's word, some people decide to turn and believe on Jesus Christ. They change what they believe. Others get mad at the message, but here's the thing, they're going to get mad no matter what because they're not going to believe. They're not going to turn people away by preaching the truth. Now, go to Joshua 2. Joshua 2. Joshua chapter 2. Joshua 2. You know, what's dangerous about that music is when you listen to it, it makes you feel spiritual. Music's very powerful. And it makes you feel very spiritual. And when I first got saved, I felt very guilty because I was like, man, all these people are listening to better music than me. I'm listening to Aerosmith and everything like that. But actually, the Christian rock music is far more dangerous because it's teaching you nothing. And here's the thing, you say, why, brother Sucky, is there such a problem with it? Well, let me help you understand something. Christian rock is a business to make money. If you're trying to make money, you don't want to offend people. You say, brother Sucky, how can you avoid offending people by not talking about anything? Because here's the thing, if you write a song and you're very specific that you must believe on Jesus, it's not repenting of sins. It's not getting baptized. Well, there's a lot of religions that aren't going to like that song, right? Because they believe that you've got to be baptized. You're very specific with your beliefs, it's going to turn a lot of people away, right? Here's the thing, these hymns are written, but they're not written to make money. I mean, they're just basically speaking about God and everything like that, you know, songs that we sing in our hymnal, right? But see, in the Christian rock, it's an industry. It's a business, so they don't want to turn anybody away. Well, here's the thing, 80% of this country is Catholic. There's over one billion Catholics worldwide. So here's the thing, can you speak against idolatry in a Christian rock song if you want Catholics to buy your album? Speak against worshipping Mary? Well, that's not going to go over too well with Catholics, is it? I mean, if you want your songs to be popular, be very generic. Don't talk about anything. Because if you talk about anything, it's going to offend people. I mean, think of the famous Christian rock song, Our God is an Awesome God. Now, I don't think that even fits under the genre of Christian rock because there's nothing about Christianity in it whatsoever. You know, Muslims could love that song. Our God is an Awesome God, praise the Lord, right? Hindus would be like, yeah, our God's an awesome God. Buddhists are like, our God is an awesome God. But that song literally says nothing. And literally, I mean, it says nothing. It just repeats the same thing over and over again. It's like, our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven and earth. I don't remember the next part, our God is an awesome God. Then that repeats. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns. And then it repeats. And then it repeats. It's the same thing over and over and over again. Here's the thing, though. That doesn't tell us anything. Nobody's going to sit here and say, well, God's not awesome. Right? It doesn't offend anybody. Right? But it doesn't teach anything. This is modern Christianity where they don't tell you anything. How many of you have been to Baptist churches and you hear a sermon and somebody asks you, what was that sermon about? And you're like, I don't know. It's one of those sermons you can't put into words. You didn't learn anything. You heard a bunch of stories. Like, yeah, I laughed at that joke and everything. It's like, well, or you might just say, well, it's about money. Right? That's a common answer with sermons. You can't go wrong here guessing on churches what the sermon's about. It is about money in some way or another. Right? But the problem is in Christianity, they don't tell you anything. Right? Well, let me just show you a couple examples about how preaching the truth of God does not turn people away from the truth. It actually leads people to the truth. Joshua 2, verse 8, this is the story of Rahab the harlot. And before they were laid down, she came up onto them upon the roof and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror is fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the Lord faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when he came up out of Egypt and what he did under the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og whom he utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. So what has she heard about the Lord? Well, your terror has fallen upon us. We're afraid. We're afraid of God. Right? We've heard of the Red Sea. What happened at the Red Sea? You say, well, that's when they crossed the Red Sea. It was this great miracle. That's when God drowned all the people trying to attack them. Pharaoh and his chariots and all the people. Right? That part's kind of left out of the Sunday school lesson maybe sometimes. I don't know. Right? Yeah, you know what? They miraculously went to the other side, but guess what? The enemies actually followed them in and that's the cool part to me. Then they were destroyed. Right? So when she said we heard about the Red Sea, we heard, why would she be afraid of that? Well, she's afraid of that because the enemies of God were destroyed. It's like, whoa, I don't want to mess with this God. Right? She talked about, she's saying, man, we heard this and our hearts did melt. We're afraid. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. We are afraid because we heard about your God. She got saved. Why? Because she heard the truth of who God is. Right? This is God. You see, Brother Stuckey, God is love. Yeah, God is a loving God. God is also a holy God. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Isn't that what it says in Revelation? Don't we sing in our heart? Well, I guess it is not in our hymnal, but it's in our back of hymnal. Holy, holy, holy, right? It's like, you know, God is holy. And if you're trying to find one attribute of God in the Bible, what is the attribute you see the most? Holy. Right? I mean, is there any, there's no word about God that's mentioned more than God being holy. There's none holy as the Lord our God. That's why he's different than any other rock. Right? So here's the thing. Hearing the truth leads Ray have to get saved. It doesn't turn her away from the truth. Go to Jonah 1. Jonah 1. Jonah chapter 1. Jonah 1. You say, Brother Stuckey, I'm excited about this visitor challenge. I want to bring someone to church, but I just want to check what you're going to be preaching on first. Because I'm just afraid. Right? It's like, I want to bring someone to church. I want to bring a visitor, but I'm afraid if your message is too mean, they're not what people need to hear. Right? You know, people can actually take more than you think. It's like people actually, you know, because here's the thing. If people believe the wrong thing, they got to be confronted with the truth. And sometimes that's exactly what they need to hear. And look, here's the truth. Over the course of, we're coming up on three years here pretty soon, in November. Over the course of three years, you know, we've had a lot of visitors over three years. The vast majority of people that have visited this church actually really like the sermon. The vast majority, almost everybody who's visited this church, they like the preaching. Now it doesn't mean that they always came back, because the thing is with this type of preaching, it sounds good when you hear it, but then you got to make the changes when you go home. And that's tough. Right? The only people who heard my sermon and they're like, I can't believe you said that. I'm leaving. Right? The only people that have gotten super offended by my sermons are people that are actually members. Not people that are not members. Not people that are visiting. It's like, the truth is that, you know, when new people come, actually most people really like the sermon, because they're like, man, I didn't know that you could learn in church. I didn't know that that was, you know, what happened in church. Right? It's like, man, I didn't even bring a Bible. I didn't think I needed one. And he's like opening up all these places and everything. And it's just like, most people actually like this preaching. So don't be afraid to bring someone that's like, oh no, what's Brother Stuckey going to preach on? Actually, most people, you know, they like this preaching. And here's the thing. If they don't like this preaching, they're probably never going to like this preaching. I hope you can get them saved, but the truth is, you know what, if they hear a sermon and they're just like so offended, I'm never coming back, well, they probably just don't want the truth. They just are not willing to change when they hear something that's different than what they've thought before. Right? Don't be afraid to bring people to church because with the story of Rahab, that actually gets her saved hearing the truth of God's Word. Right? Jonah 1 verse 8. Let me give you another example. This is the story of Jonah where obviously Jonah's rebelled against God. He's inside the, well, he's not inside the whale's belly yet, but the ship is going through major turmoil and then everybody on the ship is like, who's to blame for this? Let us cast lots. The lot falls upon Jonah. And then they're basically asking Jonah, what did you do? Right? Because they're telling everybody, pray to your God. It doesn't matter who that God is. Right? Whether it's Shiva or Buddha or Allah, whoever the God, just pray to your God. You know, hopefully he'll answer one of us, whatever God it is. Right? Then it says in Jonah 1 verse 8, then said they onto him, tell us when we pray thee for whose cause is evil upon us. What is that in occupation and whence comest thou? What is thy country and what people are thou? So where are you from? What do you do for work? Why is this evil upon us? Why is God mad at us? What did you do, Jonah? Notice his response. And he said onto them, I am in Hebrew and I fear the war of the God of heaven which hath made the sea and the dry land. Now this is a pretty quick answer. Right? Jonah doesn't go in great detail. I mean, sometimes there's stories in the Bible where there's more information not necessarily given, but I don't think he gives a long answer. He just kind of says, I'm in Hebrew. Notice the reaction of the men. Then were the men exceedingly afraid. You say, why are they afraid, Brother Stuckey? Because they've heard of the Hebrew God. It's like, oh no, this is the thing we heard about the Hebrew God. Not the Hebrew God. The Hebrew God is really tough. The Hebrew God is holy. Because here's the thing. The first time you read the Bible cover to cover, think about the first time you read it. Was your reaction not, wow, God is a lot more holy and righteous than I thought? Like all these people are being killed for things they've done. And God is condemning this and condemning that. Your reaction is pretty much always, everybody's first reaction is, God is a lot holier than I thought. God really demands us to obey him. Right? And so they hear about the Hebrew God and then the men are afraid. Right? But this does not cause people to say, well, we want nothing to do with that God. This causes people to say, okay, how do we make this God happy? You know why you got saved? If you're saved in this room, you did not get saved because of, man, I just love God so much. I want to spend forever with him. You got saved because you're afraid of hell. That's why I got saved. That's why everybody gets saved. They're afraid of going to hell. Right? Turn your body to Malachi 1. Malachi 1. Malachi 1. And here's what's so foolish about this, and I don't want to go into too much of a rabbit trail or tangent or whatever, but you think of the religion of Hinduism and they believe in one God that manifests in hundreds of millions of different ways, and each God's different, each manifestation, and you can worship God in whatever way you want. Well, here's the thing. Even in a false religion like Hinduism, you know the God that is the most common that people choose to worship? Shiva. And Shiva is more judgmental than the other gods. Isn't that true? Shiva's a very angry God is what they say. And that's the most common form of God. And obviously it's a false religion. I'm just saying, why is it that they choose to worship Shiva? Because they're afraid. They say, maybe if we make this mean God happy, he'll be nicer to us or whatever. Right? Look, what I'm saying is this. When it comes to God, actually people being afraid of God is a good thing. Because look, you should be afraid of God. Right? You should be afraid of God. You say, Brother Saki, I'm in church and you're telling me I should be afraid of God? Fear God and keep his commandments. Right. That's what the Bible says. He's afraid of God. Look, I want my son to love me and I want my son to fear me as well. You say, what do you mean, Brother Saki? I want my son to avoid doing wrong because he's afraid he's going to get a spanking. That's the truth. You say, Brother Saki, I can't believe you'd say that. That's exactly like God and we're supposed to represent God. God will punish you as his child if you do wrong. And look, I love my kids, but it's my job to teach them right and wrong. Right? And look, when it comes to God, God demands our worship. We're expected to obey him. Who is this king of glory? Well, he's a holy and righteous God. He's strong and mighty in battle. He's the Lord of hosts. He's not just Santa Claus up in the sky. He's not the tooth fairy that, oh, I just prayed to the tooth fairy and I got this dollar. It's like, no, that's not God. Right? God is loving, but God is also holy and righteous. Let me give you one more example. Malachi 1. Malachi 1. It says in Malachi 1, drop down to verse number 14. But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock of male and valid, and sacrificed under the Lord a corrupt thing. Notice this, for I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. Look, God says, my name ought to be dreadful among the heathen. You know what the Bible's saying? The vice-pagnes of this world should hate God among the heathen, among the bad people. You know what? He does hate the God of the Bible. My name is dreadful among the heathen. You know what that means? It causes fear. Right? His name is, you know, now then, if I'm describing God, I got to talk about him being loving and patient. Yeah, you know what? God is loving. God is patient. God is merciful. God is also holy and righteous. That's what the Bible says. Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. We'll close up here. 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11. Look, we need a proper balance on things. And there's nothing wrong with the love of God. One of my favorite songs in our hymnal is the love of God. That is a powerful, powerful song. I mean, that's in the top five best hymns. There's no question. Right? I mean, it's a fantastic song. Because I read some of the words to that, and I'm like, wow. It's like, man, that hit me. That is amazing. Right? The love of God is great. And of course, that should be preached. We preach through the fruits of the Spirit. But here's the thing about this. That's only part of God. Right. God is loving, but the Bible also says that we should fear God. We should be afraid of God. And what that means is, if we do wrong, we should be afraid of what God's going to do to us. Now, of course, once you're saved, you're always saved. You can't lose your salvation. But we should be afraid of what God's going to do to us in this life if we do wrong. Because God will judge people. Judgment must begin at the house of God. That's what the Bible says. Right? 1 Corinthians 11. Let me give you one last example when it comes to this Christian rock. Because here's the thing. The lead singer of this band, Matt Powell, at least when he sung this song, I don't know about now, this guy has long hair. He's representing Christianity. Because Third Day was probably the most popular Christian band when I first got saved. Everybody listened to Third Day. Third Day and Casting Crowns were the two big bands. And the lead singer has long hair. You say, Brother Stuckey, what's wrong with somebody having long hair? Well, what does the Bible say? Right? What does the Bible say about a guy having long hair? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 13. Because what I want to show you is, these Christian rock artists, they're not representing Christianity. It's not like these are fundamental Baptists that are really obeying God and reading the Bible and doing what God says. No, actually, they don't represent Christianity at all. Right? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 13. And I want you to pay attention to this verse because if you understand this verse, this is one of the funniest verses in the Bible. This verse is hilarious. It says, Judge in yourselves is it comely that a woman praying to God uncovered. Now, comely means attractive. And he's saying, you judge for yourself. You make a judgment. Are women that pray to God uncovered attractive? Now, uncovered, if you look at the context referring to hailing and saying that, you know, as a guy with short hair, it's uncovered and a woman with long hair is covered. So what it's saying is, you judge for yourself. Are women with short hair attractive? That's what 1 Corinthians 11, verse 13 is saying. Are women with short hair attractive? Now, here's the thing. Paul asks that question. So judge in yourselves. I mean, I'm not asking for a show of hands, but the men that are in this room, right, it's like, you know, I'm not saying it's wrong for a woman to get a haircut, but you probably find your wife more attractive with longer hair. Right? There's just a difference between men and women. Right? And notice what it says here in verse 14. Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame on him? So the Bible says nature teaches you it's a shame for a man to have long hair. Okay? You say, brother, what does that mean? Well, when it's saying nature, it's basically nature versus nurture. Basically, nature is naturally born inside of you. Right? Nurture is the environment in which you're raised. Okay? And the Bible is saying nature teaches us that it's a shame for a man to have long hair. Nature teaches us that my hair should not be down to here. Now, that's not saying mother nature. It's saying inside of you that you know this. That's why it says judging yourselves because you're aware of this. Right? Nature teaches you that, you know what, it's a shame for me as a guy to have long hair. Right? Now, obviously, it takes time to grow hair. But look, if I was up here preaching and my hair was down to here, you'd probably have a problem with it. Right? Let's say you go on vacation for three months and you come back and I don't know how long my hair... But I mean, if my hair was down to here, you'd say, whoa, what in the world? There's something wrong with that. It's like, brother Stuckey, your hair should be a lot shorter. It's like, you know, you can't afford a haircut. Let me give you some money. Right? It's just like... Because we know that inside of ourselves. You're born with this understanding, the Bible is saying. Verse 15, but if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for her covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Now, what does it mean in verse 16? Well, it says if any man seem to be contentious, it's referring to fighting, and it's not saying that if somebody gets mad at you, oh, we don't have a custom, you can do whatever you want. That's not what it's saying. He's saying if anybody is basically saying, I don't agree with that, Paul's saying, well, we have no such custom of guys having long hair, neither any of the churches of God. Right? It's just like there's no custom in any of the churches of God of guys having long hair. Because here's the thing, it's built inside of you that men have short hair and women have long hair. Now, sometimes people ask this question, and I'm just trying to illustrate to you the problem with Christian rock, because this guy's supposed to represent Christianity, and he said, Brother Stuckey, didn't Jesus have long hair? No, he did not. That was a painting. It's not actually what God looks like. Jesus had short hair like men have short hair. He said, Brother Stuckey, the question comes up, how long is long and how short is short? Because sometimes people ask this question because it says, Brother Stuckey, it doesn't say anything about, you know, in the middle area, you know, how long is long and how short is short. Okay? Now, I'm intentionally wearing glasses today to prove a point. Okay? And here's the thing, when I do not wear glasses, I can't recognize anybody in this room. There's not a single person I can recognize, because my vision is very bad. If you've ever looked, I mean, you can just look at this and see how thick these are, and it's like I literally cannot see anything or read any letters past this point. You say, Brother Stuckey, why are you not tripping right now? Because I see colors. Okay? I'm not colorful. I mean, I see colors. It's just all a giant blur. So I can see, here's the pulpit, and I walk around it, but I couldn't read. I can't read any of this unless it's like I'm nearsighted. So like this is how close it's got to be. Well, here's the thing. You say, Brother Stuckey, how short should my hair be as a guy? Well, here's the thing. I can see colors. I can tell how long your hair is right now, because your hair is a different color than your face, right? I can tell the hair length of everybody in this room right now, except, you know, in the back, it's way too blurry. But of people that are here toward the front, I can tell how long your hair is. I believe as a guy, your hair should be short enough that right now I can tell you're a guy, because that's literally all I have to go off of. Now, I can tell if some people have ties, because I can see a difference in color. Brother Mateus is wearing a tie, because I can see the change in color. Brother Marlon is wearing a tie. I already know where you're sitting. I wouldn't be able to recognize Brother Mateus, because he's lighter skin than other people. But outside of that, it's like, well, all Filipinos look the same to me right now, right? Here's the thing, though. I should be able to tell right now whether or not you're a man or a woman just by your hair length, because I can see there's, what am I saying? I'm saying there should be a difference between men and women. It should be obvious, because here's the thing. Having this length of hair is like a guy's haircut. Now, I'm not saying there's a direct length, but here's what I'm saying. I don't want my hair to reach a point where it becomes the questionable zone. Now, all of us as guys have probably reached a point where it's like, man, I'm too lazy to get a haircut, but it's reaching that point, right? Next Sunday, next Sunday, everybody's going to have a shaved head or something. I don't want to, right? But it's just like, for me, I don't like getting haircuts. I'm kind of lazy with that, right? So sometimes I let my hair go, and it's like, man, I really need to get a haircut, because my hair gets curly. So it gets really curly around here, and it starts looking too long to me. But what I'm saying is this. There's a difference between men and women. And one of the differences is heroin. Now, that's not what the whole sermon's about. I'm just trying to illustrate to you a major problem. This guy's singing on behalf of Christianity, and you look at him, and it's like, well, that's not a representation of the rules and laws and the God of the Bible at all, right? So who is this king of glory? Well, he's a king of judgment. He's a king of war. And I actually decided to write a poem entitled, Who Is This King of Glory, right? Because the Bible asks this question, who is this king of glory? And according to Third Day, it's love, love, love, mercy, mercy, mercy. Well, that's not what the Bible says. Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and full of might. The omnipotent reigneth. The wicked he shall fight. He is a God of judgment casting into the lake of fire. No hope or second chance. No happy singing choir. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts is he. The captain of God's army. The wicked shall hide and flee. He is a God of holiness destroying the wicked sinner. No light shall shine upon them. Outer darkness has no winner. Who is this king of glory? The Lord who does strike fear. The jealous God above. The righteous shall draw near. He struck a fear in Rahab causing a harlot to believe. No time to wait until later. Trust on him and that gift received. His name is God almighty. Our God is a consuming fire. To the lost and dying world, the dreadful day is dire. And see, let me explain to you. I'm not embarrassed about this attribute of God. I wrote a poem about the judgment of God and God is a God of battle and war and holiness and being a jealous God. We should not be embarrassed to mention that about God because that's who God is. God is love, but you know what? God is a holy and righteous and jealous God and we should not shy away from the God of the Bible and be embarrassed and say, yeah, I mean, yes, hell's a real place, but I just want to talk about love. It's like, well, why don't you talk about the love for the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sins to save us from hell, but that doesn't change the fact you will go to hell if you don't get saved, right? And so who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty in battle. Let's close in the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic and help us never to be embarrassed or shy about, you know, worshiping you and loving you, God, and help us not to be afraid to tell people about who you are. Help us never to be afraid to invite people to this church, God, and, you know, people hear the message of God's word and, you know, many people love it, even if it's new to them, God. Help us to be zealous to bring people to church and we ask you to continue to bless us in our church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. This week, dear Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for this wonderful day. Thank you, God, to be able to give you your word. And I pray that you would speak to our hearts speak to our hearts and put these messages or lessons that we've heard, Lord, and that we may apply this in our lives. I pray that we could continue to bless our church and bless our lives, that we may be able to walk in the Spirit and in the Church of God. I pray that you bless us and have a great fellowship and also a good better this afternoon. And we're asking all of these things to be singly prayed. Amen.