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7 and the name of this sermon is weathering the storms of life weathering the storms of life And this is an expression you'll oftentimes find in sports well they'll talk about how you need to weather the storm and what it basically means is picture like a boxing match and Somebody's in the corner and the person's punching them and though the announcers will say they got to weather the storm or they'll get knocked Out basically, you got to fight through the turmoil You got to fight through the storm because the storms actually you got to fight through it You'll hear this expression in sports like basketball one team is just making you know, three-pointer after three-pointer steal dunk and everything like that and the other team has to weather the storm and what it basically means is this if they Don't weather the storm the alternative would be to give up and basically throw in the towel Okay, so basically you got to weather through that storm. You got to fight through that storm You got to last through it because our life is a series of ups and downs We have good times and we have bad times. Okay, you will have a lot of storms in your life now Notice what it says in verse 28 here at the end of the Sermon on the Mount Actually just after he's done with the Sermon on the Mount in verse 28 It says and it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at his doctrine Notice how it says when Jesus had ended these sayings plural. Okay, so it's not referring to one thing It's referring to everything that was said in the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Mount Covers a lot of different material, right? I mean, it's like a sermon on like every topic in the entire world pretty much, right? So when he finished all of these sayings the people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one having Authority and not as the scribes now go back to verse 24 verse 24 The first point we have here today is this when it comes to the storms of life and weathering the storms of life the storms of life are Inevitable they are Inevitable you will have storms in your life It's a guarantee your life is not going to be perfect. There are going to be problems that happen verse 24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, plural, and doeth them I will liken them unto a wise man which build his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for is founded upon a rock and Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not Shall be likened unto a foolish man which build his house upon the sand so you have two types of people here you have those that hear what Jesus says and they do it and You have those that do not hear what Jesus says Those that do it their house is going to last and those that do not do it their house is going to fall verse 27 and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and Great was the fall of it. See when you look at verses 25 and verses 27, aren't they almost the exact same thing? both those verses say and the rain Descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon beat upon that house What I'm saying is this no matter whether you do what I say or not You'll still have storms in your life whether or not you do it or whether or not you don't the storms are going to come It is inevitable in your life. You're gonna have problems. You're going to have storms. It could be health problems It could be financial problems. You will not have a perfect life storms are going to come Okay, go back to Matthew 5 Matthew 5 You say my old preacher taught me if I gave my first fruits offering my life was going to be great Well, they didn't find that from the Bible and they didn't even find the first fruits offering from the Bible But it's like, you know The Bible never teaches your life's gonna be perfect if you're doing what's right and I'll tell you what as people sometimes we naturally Assume if we're part of a great church our problems will just all disappear The Bible doesn't say that and I've never preached that before that is not what the Bible teaches The Bible teaches whether you do or whether you don't the storms are going to come Problems happen in our life. It is inevitable. You will have Storms, I mean the Bible says there is no temptation taking you but such as this common demand see brother second I don't know how to deal with this. I'm having marriage problems. Nobody's like my I mean everybody has marriage problems These things happen to everybody man, I'm having problems raising my children. It's so difficult There's no temptation taking you but such as is common demand Everybody deals with those things the same things that I deal with are the same things that you deal with by and large Okay, the same things that you struggle with are probably the same things I struggle with we will deal with storms and problems in our life Matthew 5 verse 43 This is also part of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 verse 43 You have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them Which despitefully use you and persecute you? That you may be the children of your father which is in heaven notice this for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and Sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. It does not say the sun is only going to come for those that are good Right, the sun is going to come whether you're good or bad and the rain is going to come whether you're good or bad It doesn't matter whether you're good or you're bad. You're gonna have good times and you're gonna have bad times it says the Sun his son to rise on the evil and on the good and Sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust whether you're good or bad You're gonna have good times and bad times the storms of life are inevitable. You will have problems in your life. It's a guarantee. Now turn in your Bible to back to Matthew 7. Matthew 7. So what I would say is this. I wouldn't suggest trying to avoid all the storms of life because you're not gonna be able to avoid them. If you try to avoid them, good luck. You're gonna go from storm to storm to storm. What you need to do is prepare for the storm. The context is about the house falling, and look, those storms are gonna come. And you better make sure your house is prepared because if it's not prepared, it's gonna fall. And look, in the Christian life, many people come, many people go. People get on fire for God, and then they get out of church. People start loving the things of God, they get persecution from their family, then they quit church, right? This is reality. And look, you're not going to avoid the storms of life, but you better make sure you're prepared for the storms of life. Matthew 7, verse 25. It says, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house. Okay? Now you have the rain, you have the floods, you have the winds, and these are working together to destroy the house. They're working together to take down the house. But what I want you to understand is this, that the rain, the floods, and the winds are three different storms. They are three different things working together to take down the house. What you must realize, we saw the inevitability of storms. We need to understand the information about the storms according to the Bible. Basically, you can have various types of storms in your life. It could be health problems, it could be financial problems, it could be marriage problems. There are various types of storms that happen in your life. Turn to Job 1. Job 1. Job chapter 1. Now they work together. I'm not saying they're contrary to one another. They are working together with the goal of destroying that house. And from a spiritual standpoint, all the storms of life can be different types of storms, and what they do is they work together with the goal of destroying that house. Okay? But they're different types of storms. The rain, the floods, and the wind. Job 1 verse 14. And when you're reading about the story of Job, sometimes you just got to stop and try to put yourself in that position. I mean, if you're a guy, pretend to be Job for this story. If you're a woman, pretend to be Job's wife and think about what they're going through in this story. I mean, we read these stories in the Bible and sometimes it's almost as if it's fiction because we didn't see it with our own eyes. But these are actual stories that happened. Job 1 verse 14. And there came a messenger unto Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the acids feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The fire of God has fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Verse 17. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away. Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And so these things are happening one after another. He doesn't even get a chance to process this. One messenger comes and says, You lost all these animals and the servants. Another one comes and says the same thing, and another one comes and says the same thing. I mean, imagine your reaction. I mean, imagine if overnight all of your money was gone. Every single penny that you had. And look, for us, if we lose our money, it's usually a slow, gradual thing. It's not just like overnight we just lost every single cent that we had. Right? I mean, imagine if all your money, let's say you had two million pesos in Bitcoin and someone stole your Bitcoin. It's like all your money's gone, man. I mean, that's the sort of reaction Job has. All of his money is lost immediately like that. That's a financial storm. Verse 18. While he was yet speaking, there came also another. Now, at this point, when every messenger is saying something bad, if somebody comes in, I'm going to say, Don't say anything. Shut up. I don't want to hear what you have to say. I don't want to hear. I'd run out of there or something. Right? Another messenger comes though while he was yet speaking. So the one isn't even done talking. There came also another and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house. And it fell upon the young man and they are dead. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. I mean, can you imagine you that are parents in this room, can you imagine getting that phone call? There's been a car accident and your children are dead. I mean, can you even imagine trying to respond to that? I don't even know how to respond to that as a parent to just find out something happened to my kids. And then they're dead. I mean, losing money is one thing. And that would be terrible. But then losing your children, there's no price you can put on that. And he basically finds out out of nowhere. I mean, it's not like they had some disease where there was time to process it. It's out of nowhere your children are dead. And look, this does happen sometimes in life. Sometimes out of nowhere somebody gets that phone call, there's been a car accident, and somebody died. That happens. And look, you know, this is what you see in this story. And what you see is a financial storm, and you see a tragedy happening right there at the same time. Go to Job 2. Job 2. Job chapter 2. Job chapter 2. So when you're thinking about Job's wife, you must really put yourself in this position. I mean, the fact that Job handles things so well is just a testament to how godly he was, okay? It doesn't make his wife bad because of the fact she doesn't handle as well. She lost all of her children. I mean, imagine as a parent, and look, maybe if you're not a parent, maybe you can't fully comprehend this, but look, imagine if you have kids and then your children die instantly. That would be hard to deal with. That is certainly something that could cause a lot of people to quit church and quit the things of God and be depressed. I knew somebody that when they lost their child who was, you know, a teenager, they ended up becoming a drunk. And they never could stop. They just drank away their life after that because they just never could handle it properly. It's a tough thing to deal with, and this is a tragedy that takes place to Job. He loses money, loses all of his children. Job 2, verse 7. So when Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot onto his crown, and he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. So here, out of nowhere, the health is destroyed of Job immediately, okay? What you have is a financial storm, you have a tragedy, and you have a health storm all at the same time, and they are working together to get Job to quit living for God, right? And see, when it came to Matthew 7, what you saw is you saw the rain, you saw the floods, and you saw the winds. Those are working together to destroy the house, but they are different types of storms. And in our life, the storms of life, you know what, they are inevitable, and the information is, you know what, they can be different types of storms, okay? But go back to Matthew 7 real quickly. Matthew 7. Matthew 7. And look, these are things that you don't expect to happen. They come out of nowhere. I mean, you could literally be driving in a car, and you could have an accident, and you could have a major injury where you have permanent health problems your entire life. What we need to realize is that does not mean that you're not right with God. You can be a godly person and have storms of life. In fact, every godly person is going to go through storms of life. So just because you're going through storms, it doesn't mean you did anything wrong. I mean, isn't this what Job's friends tell Job? And we as people, we have this natural reaction. When someone's having problems in their life, we say, well, you must have committed some sin. It's like, well, who sinned, him or his parents, that he was born blind? It's like, how could he have sinned in the womb to cause him to be born blind? It doesn't make sense, right? And it's just like we naturally just assume, well, something bad happened to someone. They must have done something wrong. But is that biblical? No, it's not. Now, it could mean they did something wrong. But it doesn't mean they did do something wrong. And we need to be very careful not to stand in judgment of other people's lives. Now, by all means, if you have major problems in your life, you should look at your life and think about, is there something I did? Is there a reason why this happened? But quite honestly, you can have major storms of life, it doesn't mean you did anything wrong. Because that's what you see with Job. Matthew 7, verse 25. So we saw underneath the information that there's various types of storms. But notice this, it says, the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house. Now, think about the rain. The rain is coming from above. The floods are coming from the bottom. The wind is hitting the side of the house. See, the rain's hitting the top of the house, the wind is hitting the side of the house, and the floods are hitting the bottom of the house. You say, what are you saying? I'm saying the storms of life can come from every direction. Not only can they be different types of storms, they can come from every direction. What do I mean by that? I mean that you can show up to work and you got a storm of life. You can go home, you got a storm of life. You can go to church, you got a storm of life. It seems like everywhere you go, there's problem after problem after problem. That's what it says in Matthew 7. See, they can be different types of storms coming from different directions, united to take down the house. Not only that, though, I want you to think about this. Let's say, for example, we have a heavy rain later today. When you have a heavy rain, oftentimes what results? A flood. And also, when it's raining really heavy, oftentimes it's very windy, right? See, the rain, the floods, and the winds, oftentimes they happen at the exact same time to take down the house. And they're intentionally at the same time because the goal is to take down the house. So oftentimes when you have the rain, you have the floods and the wind at the same time. Isn't the expression when it rains, it pours? That expression comes from the fact when you have one problem, it seems like you got 50 problems. Anyway, that is a biblical concept. The rain descends, the floods come, and the winds blow and beat upon that house all at the same time. Didn't Job have all the problems at the same time? He lost all of his money and his children and his health all at the same time. His health took a little while, but all of this is happening right at the same time. And in your life, you say, things are going great for me now, but you know, when you get one storm, you might get 20 storms. That is the way it works in the Bible. That's what it says in Matthew 7. Go to 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5. So what's the information about the storms? They can be different types of storms. They can come from different directions, and they can all come at the same time. You say, Brother Stuckey, okay, I see that in Matthew 7, I get that now from Matthew 7 verse 25, but is that random? Does it make sense? You know, why is that? And I would say this, it makes perfect sense from a biblical standpoint. And 1 Peter 5 verse 8 explains it. 1 Peter 5 verse 8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. The devil is not omnipresent. He is not everywhere, okay? So that's why in the book of Job, he's basically going around from place to place, because he's not omnipresent. He can't focus all his energy in one spot. And what the Bible says is he goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He's trying to find someone he can destroy. Now we understand salvation's forever. You can never lose your salvation, but he's seeking to destroy you from living for God. And it says he's finding people he may devour. What that means is some people he can, and some people he can't. The truth is most people he can. Most people he can get to stop living for God. You say, what's the proof of that? Most people are not living for God, right? Most saved people don't really care about living for God. Now they would say they claim that they want to live for God, but the proof is in the pudding. Do you read the Bible? Do you go soul winning? Are you serving God? Are you part of a good church? The proof is in the pudding, my friend. And most people, you know what, they are not really trying to live for God. And the devil has no problem devouring people that aren't really dedicated. He's seeking whom he may devour. But I want you to think about this because we are in a spiritual fight, right? It's spiritual warfare. The devil is trying to destroy us from living for God. Picture a boxing match. Picture Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather, okay? Picture a boxer versus a runner, okay? So you got two people in a match, okay? And Manny Pacquiao is fighting Floyd Mayweather. Imagine that Manny Pacquiao lands a jab and Floyd Mayweather's kind of stunned. You know, because if you've ever boxed before, when you get hit hard, sometimes you're like, whoo. It's like you're on ice or something with ice skates, right? You're on shaky legs. And so imagine Manny Pacquiao punches Floyd Mayweather and he's kind of stunned. What is Manny Pacquiao going to do? Is he going to just sit back and let Floyd Mayweather recover? No, he's not. What is he going to do? He's going to rush in for the kill. You say, why? Look, the announcers always say that the boxer smells blood. And what that means is he smells the fact he can destroy his opponent, okay? So basically he smells blood. He's coming in for the kill. You say, why do all these storms happen at the same time? Because the devil smells blood. The devil's trying to destroy you. He hits you with one thing and you're kind of wounded a little bit. He tries to come in for the kill. He tries to destroy you when you're going through those battles. He doesn't let you recover. He goes in for one after another after another. And what happens is this. We either have no storms or a lot of storms at the same time. Either none or a lot. It's one or the other. And when we don't have any storms of life, we kind of get this prideful attitude. Man, I'm never going to have any problems, right? We naturally assume nothing bad is going to happen, but then all of a sudden they just come out of nowhere. And a lot of people aren't prepared for that. A lot of people, their house falls underneath the rain and the floods and the wind. Why? They were not prepared. The devil is trying to destroy you. And look, when we talk about the devil, none of us have seen the devil. If you've seen the devil, then we got more conversations to talk about after the service, right? None of us have seen the devil, but by faith we believe it. But you got to actually think about what is the devil trying to do? Look, his goal is to destroy you from living for God. That is what his goal is. There is literal real spiritual warfare out there, and it's not something we can fully comprehend here on earth. It's something we're aware of, but we do not fully comprehend this. And what I want you to understand is with the storms of life, the devil often hits you with a lot of things, and his goal is to get you to quit living for God. Now turn in your Bible to Proverbs chapter 6, Proverbs 6, Proverbs 6. Say, brother, second, I'm not going through any storms right now. Well, prepare. Prepare that house. We're not a Pentecostal church. We're not going to sit up here and tell you, well, you know, if you're doing what's right, you're not going to have any problems. Bless God. No, you're going to have problems whether you're doing what's right or not. Why? That's what it says. That's the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. You know what? The rain's going to descend, the floods are going to come, and the winds are going to blow and beat upon that house. No matter what, it's a guarantee storms of life are going to happen. So what do you need to do? You need to be prepared for those storms. Now let me say this, though. Although the storms of life are a guarantee to happen, because point number three is this. Number one was the inevitability of storms. Number two was the information about storms, that they can come from every direction, different types of storms, and they can come at the same time, working together to destroy that house. Number three, I want you to realize the immovability of the house. You cannot move the house during the storm, right? You know, yesterday when I was in Pampanga, this example kind of worked out a little bit better. I was talking about, remember during Mount Pinatubo, did any of you pick up your house and just move it to Bulacan for a couple weeks? You can't do that, right? Once the storm is there, you're stuck there. If there's a massive flood, you can't just pick up your house, say, man, I'm going to move it to another part where it's not raining. No, I mean, you're going to go through that storm whether you like it or not. Once you're in that storm, it's too late to avoid that storm. The storm is there. But what I want you to understand is this, although you cannot remove all the storms of life, if you prepare yourself, one thing you can do is you can lessen the amount of storms in your life. So what are you talking about, Brother Saki? Well, think about your health. Take two people. Let's say you have somebody that smokes a pack of cigarettes every day, and he drinks five beers every day, and he just doesn't take care of his body at all versus someone who, you know, never smokes, never drinks, eats healthy exercises. Which one is more likely to have a health storm? The person who smokes and drinks, right? I mean, there's no doubt about that. Now realize you can do everything right and still have a health storm. And it doesn't mean you did anything wrong. You can eat everything organic and perfect. You have the perfect diet. You get your zinc, your potassium, your iron, everything perfectly. You're the fittest person in the world. You can still have a health problem. Whether or not it's from an accident that happens or even just, you know what, our bodies aren't perfect. You know, as people, as time goes by, the earth is getting older and our bodies do too. You can have health problems. It does not mean you did anything wrong. But if you prepare yourself, you're less likely to have a health storm than if you're someone who's just not preparing yourself. If you're smoking and drinking and just not taking care of your body, you're more likely to have problems, right? I mean, it's just common sense. And so I want you to realize that, you know, if we prepare our bodies with our health, it is going to be more likely that we won't have major health problems. Now we could still have those problems, but doesn't it make sense to prepare yourself to try to prevent those problems? Proverbs 6, not only health, but also financial problems, okay? If we prepare ourselves, we can get rid of a lot of those financial problems. Proverbs 6, verse 6, go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest. And it speaks about the ant here, and basically what it tells you is this, that the ant, when the ant has food, it's working to get more food. It's always staying busy. It doesn't just sit there and say, you know what, I'll just sit here and relax, and you'll be on Facebook, you know, you got the ant that's on Facebook and on TV and watching TV for hours, and once I run out, then I'll start working. No, the ant prepares for that time period, okay? I mean, when you think of the ant, think about various bugs, because if you have an EP that's crawling here, I mean, they're very fast when you try to kill them. But the reason why you have an opportunity to kill them is oftentimes they're just kind of sitting around doing nothing. Show me an ant that's sitting around doing nothing. I mean, they're always doing something. They're always getting food or doing whatever. They're always moving. It's like it doesn't stop. I remember seeing a documentary on ants, and it showed this colony that basically got, you know, burned and they were killed, and it's like, you know, even to the end, it's like the ants are almost robotically just going through the motions of just, like, working. It's like they're just programmed that way, and that's the example that God is giving us here. Look at the ant, because guess what? Probably no matter where you are in the world, you've probably seen a lot of ants, and you've always seen them moving. They're always staying busy, and the Bible tells us to go to the ant. Why? To prepare for the famines. Now, are you going to be able to remove every famine? No, but you ought to prepare yourself as much as is possible. Now, look, a great example of this is 2020. This year has been crazy, and look, you know, I'm not down on anyone who, or whatever happened, you know, obviously, you know, a lot of people are struggling. I'm not saying that is your fault, because you can go through financial problems. It does not mean it's your fault, but I would say this is definitely a lesson to us that, man, prepare as much as we can in the future, because you just don't know what's going to happen in life. There could be a 2025 that's just as bad as 2020. We assume 2021 is going to be better than 2020. We assume. We'll see. I mean, I hope that the last four months of 2020 are better than the first eight months. I mean, because, I mean, I remember during the missions trip, I was thinking, man, this is so inconvenient. I mean, how they're blocking countries, like, and then all of a sudden, it's just been getting worse and worse and worse and worse. It's like, there is a major financial storm, and look, that's all over the world. That's not even in the Philippines, just, I mean, all kinds of countries locking down, and everyone's struggling. You know what? As Christians, we can say, you know what? Proverbs 6 is true. The Bible is true. We ought to prepare for that day, and in the future, you know what? Prepare as much as possible. What does that mean? It means that if you get 10,000 pesos in your check, or 10,000 pesos is what you get, don't spend every single peso. I mean, save up some of that money if you can. You don't have to spend every peso you get. It's like, oh man, I got a thousand. I got to spend a thousand. No, you don't. If all you have to spend is 250, only spend 250. I'm not saying it's wrong to do nice things. You know, I never preached that, hey, it's wrong to go to a nice restaurant. Hey, it's fine to do nice things if you have the ability. There's no problem with that, but, you know, prepare for the future. Don't just spend up every peso you have. Use that money. Save it for a rainy day. Why? Well, you don't know how big that storm is going to be, and right now, it's gotten pretty big. I don't think any of us saw this coming, right? And so, look, according to the Bible, we ought to be like the end and prepare for the future, and one thing I know is this, you know, being a married person, when I was single, it seemed like money just flew from the sky, right? It's just like, there just aren't a lot of expenses. You know, I never bought diapers when I was single, right? You know, I saved a lot of money. It's just like, I was able to go places. I was able to go on trips and everything. I visited churches, you know, flew on to various places. It seemed like I had a lot of money. It's like, man, you know, and then all of a sudden, you get married, you have kids. It's like, you know, there's not as much money flying from the sky anymore, right? And it's just like, you know what, I'll say this, that if you're a young person, hey, you know what, save up money. Why not save up money? I mean, if you're a teenager, save up money. You don't have to have the nicest cell phone. You don't have to have the nicest things that you say, well, I need to have it because everybody else has it. Well, that's a foolish way to live your life, keeping up with the Joneses. Just do whatever your neighbor does. They've got something nice, you got to have something nice. Look, if somebody has something nice, that doesn't mean you have to have the same thing. Save up that money. You say, why? Because that money is going to mean more to you five years from now when you have kids than it means when you're single. That's reality. You don't have to spend every peso that you have. Verse number nine. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of thy hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelth and thy one as an arm in man. The Bible says when you do not have money, you're going to be traveling around and you're one as an arm in man. Basically, you're just searching for money. You're desperate. And it's like the Bible's saying, as much as is possible, don't let yourself get to that position. Now, I understand it's not, especially right now, it's not very easy to make it. There's not exactly a lot of jobs out there right now. It is very difficult. What I would say, though, is if you're going through that storm now, be smart with the money you have. It's like, don't go to the fanciest restaurants right now. It's like, save up your money. Do your best to save money or not spend as much money because eventually, you know, the storm is going to disappear. Eventually, the financial storm is gone. But while you're going through it, you've got to fight through that. You've got to weather that storm. Be smart about it. Don't use up all your money. Go to Proverbs 13, Proverbs 13, Proverbs 13. Now, I want to take a couple minutes to explain my thoughts on something. And it's something people have heard a lot of sermons on. Maybe I've never preached on it before and everything. And I want to give you my thoughts because I do believe this is something that you might have heard sermons from pastors you respect in the U.S. And I would say that the U.S. is a different country than the Philippines. And when you listen to preaching, that's something you need to realize. Okay. And you can disagree with me about this, but I just want to give you my thoughts about as we're talking about preparing financially. If my son was the age to go to college, we would send him to college right now. And I know a lot of sermons you hear like, oh, you know, not a college. And here's the thing. If I was preaching the U.S., I would say basically the exact opposite of what I just said. And you say why? Because in the U.S., blue-collar jobs and white-collar jobs make the same amount of money. It's like, you know what, if you have a job as a plumber, as an electrician or construction worker, that's a great job in the U.S. You can make plenty of money. It's a great job in the U.S. And so by all means, when you hear sermons and you hear pastors preach that, I'm not against that because I agree with that. Because I knew people like I did go to college. I did have a white-collar job, but you know, I didn't make as much money as friends that were like plumbers and electricians. And you know, you have this idea you have to go to college in the U.S. And in reality, you have as much money whether you get a college degree or not usually. So unless you got a specific degree, it might not even be a good financial decision. I would say this, though, that if you have the means to go to college here, I believe personally it is a very good financial decision. And my son, if he was at the age of the ability to go to college, you know, we would probably send him to college. And I will say this, that if you do go to college, and look, I'll say this, if our son went to college, I would have him living with us. So it's not like he would be on campus with people getting drunk and stuff like that. And I think that's the biggest problem is the fact you have kids that are outside the home that there's no responsibility or authority. But you know, we would still have him going to college. That is what we would probably do. Okay, now I don't know what the world's going to be like in 15, 20 years. That could be completely, it's like 20 years from now you hear me preach a sermon, brother suck, he's a hypocrite. He said this, and he changed his mind. It's like, look, I don't know what the world's going to be like in 16 years. I'm just giving you my thoughts right now. I know this, I got two degrees in college, one of them was a math degree. And in terms of being taught things false, like evolution, I never got any of that math, calculus and evolution. People have an idea that evolution and math go hand in hand. They don't. Everyone I knew that got a math degree, none of them believed in evolution. You say why? Because we know two plus two equals four, we just look at facts. And it's like, it's the ones that were the scientists. They were the ones that were getting like this hardcore evolution and stuff. I never got any evolution in school, but I will say this, that in my secular jobs, we would oftentimes have training like diversity training. And diversity training, you can either quit the job or you go through the training. So it's sort of similar in the fact that you're hearing things you don't agree with. What is diversity training? It means learn to love the LGBT. That's what diversity training is. But you get that at jobs all over the place. And I don't know if it's like that here, but it will spread to countries all over the world. That's going to be part of it. You're not going to be able to perfectly avoid it. So I understand that people have different positions on this. But that is what my thoughts are. And from a financial decision, I think it's a smart decision. But I will say this, that if you're going to college, make sure you get a degree that actually pays you money on the other side of that degree. It makes no sense to get a degree in college. I just like the courses. And then you graduate, no one's going to hire you for the degree that you got. Make sure you get a degree where there's jobs on the other side. Because the whole purpose of going to college is to help yourself financially. That's the purpose. And if you're going to get a degree where nobody's going to hire you, that defeats the purpose, then you're better off not going to college. Right? So look, I'm personally basing this on being here in the Philippines. I'm not colleges is wicked. We would never send our kids there. It's a bit of a different position than I would have in the US. And people are welcome to have their opinions. But what I'm talking about is preparing financially for the future. And if you have the means, that is a good way to prepare financially. Now, I personally think that the children should stay with their parents and not be on campus away from their parents. But I would just say that with our son, that is probably what we would do. Okay? Proverbs 13, verse 10. Proverbs 13, verse 10. And so when it comes to preparing to lessen the amount of storms in your life, prepare with your health, prepare financially. But also just prepare your personality to avoid fights in your life. Because what it says in Proverbs 13, verse 10 is this. Only by pride cometh contention, but with the well advised is wisdom. Contention means fights. And it says only by pride cometh contention. What this means is if you have a husband and a wife who get in a fight, for sure, at least one of them has pride. And that's the reason why. Most likely when fights take place, both people have at least a little bit of pride, usually, right? But if there's a fight that takes place, there always is pride involved because only by pride cometh contention. And so here's the thing about this. You might have a lot of storms in your life, but it's because of yourself. Now, I understand that sometimes things can randomly happen, but you know what? If you always find yourself getting in fights, you're probably a prideful person, right? And so if you prepare your personality, it's not going to remove all the storms of your life, but you know, it's going to remove a lot of them. I mean, if you're a nice person and you're not prideful and you're not envious and bitter and angry, you know what? You're going to find a lot of problems vanish away. You become more patient and all of a sudden, man, all these marriage problems, these storms of life, I don't have them anymore. Yeah, it's because of the fact you've changed a little bit. And so prepare yourself to avoid these storms. Many storms in our life are our own fault. It doesn't mean that they are our fault, but many of the storms that take place in our life, it is because of us if we look back at it. And, you know, there's this thing that we want to basically just always blame other people for problems. And as I said, sometimes, you know what? It is random. It's not your fault. But, you know, oftentimes it is our own fault while we're in problems. And we always want to make excuses. People have kids that will grow up. They have like four kids that grow up, and then they all are, you know, just having children out of wedlock, not serving God. And then they make an excuse why that took place. Look, the problem is probably the parenting. If all four of your kids turned out wrong, it's like you did something wrong. That's reality. And sometimes we just got to admit our mistakes and learn from them, right? Now turn to Job 1. Job 1. Job 1. So the house is not going to move. It's immovable. So you better prepare, and you can lessen the amount of storms. You can't get rid of all of them, but you can lessen the amount of storms in your life. But you can also lessen the impact of the storms in your life. When the storm comes, the impact is not going to hit you quite as hard if you're prepared. Job 1 verse 20. Job 1 verse 20. Then Job arose and ran his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Look, the only way you could have this reaction when you're going through this magnitude of storms in your life is if you're prepared. There's no other explanation. People have this idea, well, once the storm comes, I'll stay faithful and strong. No, you won't. If you're not prepared, you're going to fold like a deck of cards. You must be prepared for the storms, and Job was as prepared as possible. No one could have been more prepared than Job. I mean, the Bible says he was the greatest man that was living at that time. He was prepared for the storm, and if he had not been prepared, he would have quit serving God. He would have gotten bitter. He would have gotten mad. He would have just gotten depressed. He would have fallen into sin if he was not prepared for the storm, but he was prepared. Now turn in your Bible to Matthew 23. Matthew 23. Matthew 23. Matthew chapter 23. You say, why do we not prepare them? Why don't we prepare ourselves in all these different areas? Because it takes work. Because we like to basically just relax and have fun and everything like that. You know, we just like to have our time on Facebook. Like, I mean, because a lot of this is just being spiritually prepared. And reading the Bible takes work. Listening to a sermon doesn't really take a lot of work. I mean, you listen to a sermon, you know, you're wearing shorts and a T shirt. You have your feet kicked up. You're popping popcorn in your mouth or whatever, listening to that sermon and everything. Then you kind of take breaks every once in a while. It's like, oh, that was cool. You're just waiting for them to yell. Yet it's not that hard to listen to a sermon. You know, it takes energy and effort to read the Bible, though. It takes energy and effort to pray. And the other thing is preparing yourself financially and with your health. Yeah, it takes energy. It takes effort to prepare yourself in those areas. But here's the thing. If you do not prepare yourself, one day you might really regret it. Everybody regrets it when they're going through a major storm that could have been prevented, right? I mean, obviously some things in life we cannot avoid. But when you're going through a major storm that you could have prevented by just spending an hour a day doing something. I mean, don't you regret it then? And it's like we always like to think everything is going to work itself out. Well, it's not going to work itself out unless you work yourself out. I mean, if you don't put in the effort, you're going to find a lot more problems. If you put in the effort, it's going to lessen the amount and the impact of those storms. It will not get rid of all of them. That's not what I'm saying. But it can certainly lessen the amount and the impact of those storms. And let me tell you something. It's worth it. Let me tell you something that is not worth it. Spending time on Facebook every day. Spending time on YouTube every day. I mean, you're not going to get to the end of your life and say, man, I wish I spent more time on Facebook. There's just some drama. I wasn't the first person to know about the drama in these churches or whatever. It's like, why do you need to be the first person? Why don't you just spend all that time? Why not just worry about your own life rather than worrying about other people's lives? Point number one was this. And let me say this. I'd encourage you not to run from the storms of your life. They're going to be a tendency to try to just avoid every storm. And the name of the sermon is weathering the storms of life. What I'm preaching to you is basically preparing for the storms and fighting through them, not just trying to dodge and avoid every storm. Because what you're going to find is everywhere you go, it's a new storm. If all you do is try to run from all your problems in life, you're going to be running your entire life. I mean, you better wish you're like Floyd Mayweather with that running stamina that he has if you're going to run your entire life, right? I mean, it works for him, I guess, right? So maybe it'll work for you. I don't know. But it's just like, you know what? You can't just run from every storm in your life. You know, sometimes you just got to fight through those storms. You got to weather those storms. You got to fight, prepare yourself and then fight through it, okay? Point number one was the inevitability of storms. Point number two was the information about those storms. Point number three was the immovability of the house during that storm. Basically, it's too late to move at this point. Point number four is this, the invisibility of the foundation of the house. What I want you to understand is the house is basically us in the example he's given in Matthew seven. And what I want you to understand is this. I see the outside of you. I see various people in this room that are dressed various different ways. And you know what? We naturally form opinions based on the outside. Man look at on the outward appearance, right? But what I do not see is I do not see your heart. And when it comes to the house that's going through the storm, you don't see the foundation. I mean, you look at a nice building, you know, right over there. That's really rich, really fancy. It's just beautiful. It's got new family, everything's just great. But that doesn't tell you the foundation of the building. Right? I mean, you could look at a very nice looking house. It's got, man, it's so big. It's so spacious, right? It's so large. They got five bedrooms, they got windows, they got new paint. It looks awesome. That does not tell you the foundation of that house though. Now you're going to form opinions. If it's a nice looking house, you assume it's built on a good foundation. And that might be true. In fact, usually that probably is true. And when I look at you based on what I see, of course, naturally we form opinions and oftentimes those opinions are correct, but they're not always correct. You do not know what somebody is built upon. You do not know what's on the inside just based on the outside. The outside might reflect the inside. The outside might be completely fake. It might not be real. The outside of the house might look really great. That does not tell you what's on the foundation, what it's built upon. Matthew 23 verse 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they're full of extortion and excess. What he says to the Pharisees and the scribes is this, you know, the outside of the cup looks great. It's like these people are dressed really great. The men are wearing nice suits and nice clothes. The women are wearing long, nice dresses. It looks great, but what was on the inside of the scribes and Pharisees? It's fake. It's phony. They were devils. They're bad people. Just because they cleaned up the outside to look really good to impress people, that didn't mean the inside was clean. Verse 26. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. And what Jesus says is, you know, first clean up the inside and the outside will naturally cleanse itself, right? This is why most preaching should be about the inside, not the outside. You say, why? Because the things on the outside are going to fix themselves if the things on the inside are fixed. That's what Jesus says here. He says, cleanse first. And what's interesting when you preach sermons is oftentimes people always want you to preach on just visible things because people form opinions because they see things. But what you need to understand is the inside cleanses the outside. And so it's more important that you fix the inside and then the outside is actually going to be fixed. Because look, I could show up today and put on a suit and look a certain way. That doesn't tell you what's on the inside, though. People can dress a certain way, they can look nice or whatever. That does not mean the inside is correct. Now, we assume when somebody looks nice, the inside must be great. But you know, oftentimes you find out that's not true. Just because somebody looks good on the outside, that does not mean the inside is cleansed at all. Verse 27. What would you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for a year like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward? You look great on the outside, scribes and Pharisees, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous on the men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. And he says, you know what? They look great on the outside. They are dressed a great way. They cleansed everything. They're really impressing everybody. But within they were wicked people. Within they were fake. Within they are phonies. What you need to understand is you look at a house, the outside can look great. It doesn't tell you the foundation. Sometimes you see people leave churches and people are shocked that someone left church. Man, that person was so dedicated. I never thought they'd leave church. Well, you didn't see what was on the inside of that person. You just saw the outside and assumed that they were righteous. Now turn in your Bible to Matthew seven, Matthew seven. When I was in Sacramento, I was probably there for about a year when the big Orlando protest happened. Now, if you don't know about that, then let me just say it in America. America is just crazy. They protest for everything, it turns out. And so it's like, you know, there's a big protest to our church because they didn't like Pastor Mendez's sermon against the LGBT. So we're basically surrounded by like 1000 sodomites. And let me just say this that people have different opinions about the LGBT, and you guys might think I'm too extreme or whatever, but you know what? I was there when all of these homos were threatening to rape all these little kids that were walking into the church building. That's what their threat was. I mean, you imagine you're on a basketball court, you know, you might get mad and say, I'm going to punch you if you don't do whatever. It's like they were threatening. They're like, we're going to rape your children. That's what their threats were. That's what they said. You say, man, the reprobate doctrine. I don't know. Well, I've seen it in action. It's real. Who would make a threat like that? It's like, I'm going to rape your children. That's what they said. And look, I'm not trying to be vulgar. I'm being honest with you. That is what they said. I've seen it in person. Those are people who are defiled, wicked, evil people. What was funny about this, they're saying these things, you're protesting because a pastor said this group of people is wicked, and then you prove them right. You prove them correct. It's like you're mad at this pastor for standing up and saying the LGBT is wicked and evil, and then all of a sudden you proved every word that was said correct by saying those things. Why? Because you can't help. The abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And they were trying to put on a good show for other people that were there that were not LGBT. They wanted to act nice to try to give a false representation, but they just couldn't help making those vile threats that came out of the hearts of them. Evil. But they were acting like they were nice people. So we had this big protest and everything. And at our church in Sacramento, some people left the church in the next week or two. Some people left immediately. They didn't even come to one church service. And then other people left over time here. But a lot of people left the church because of the protest. And a lot of people were shocked. I never thought brother so and so would leave the church. I mean, he was the most dedicated people. Yeah, but all we saw was the outside of that person. We didn't see what was on the inside. The storm revealed what was on the inside of that person. And what it revealed was that person wasn't really that dedicated. They just on the outside looked dedicated. Right? And I would say this, that the determination of how spiritual and strong you are is a determination of how you do during a storm that happens in your life. Because when things are going well in your life, it's very easy to serve God, right? I mean, if your job is great. I mean, everything in life is great. Your health is great. It's very easy to serve God. What about when you're going through a valley? What about when you're going through a storm of life? The determination. And look, this is true in sports also. There'll be a team that's just unbeatable. Nobody can beat this team. But you'll always hear experts say, well, let's see how they respond to pressure. Let's see how they respond when they're a couple points down with five minutes left on the clock in the basketball game. Then we'll see how good this team really is. Because a lot of teams, they just blow out all the bad teams. But in close games, all of a sudden they start throwing it out of bounds. It's like, man, it's not a football game. Why are you throwing it out of bounds? Like, what are you doing? It's like, you know, they just start going crazy. Just turnovers. They just start missing every shot because some people do not respond to pressure well. And they always say that in sports. You have a boxer that's like 20 and 0. He's unbeatable. He's going to be the greatest heavyweight ever. Then all of a sudden he gets punched in the face one time. And then all of a sudden he's just like curling up and giving up and everything. Why? Just doesn't respond to pressure very well. And I would say how spiritual you are is not determined how you do when things are going well. It's how do you do when you go through problems in your life that determines how spiritual you are, how strong you are. You know, what's interesting to me about this is not only can I not see the foundation of your house, I don't know what's on the inside of you. I can't see the foundation. In all honesty, the house I had in Sacramento, I couldn't see the foundation of my house either. You can't see the foundation of other people, but you also cannot see the foundation of your own house. It's invisible to you. I mean, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know? You can't see what's on the inside of yourself. Now, based on how you're living your life, you might form opinions and you could get an idea and that's true, but you cannot really see what's on the inside of your own heart or the foundation of your own house. It's invisible to you also. You say, well, how do I determine, how do I make sure I'm serving God then if it's invisible to me? Well, what does it say in Matthew 7 verse 24? Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, this is someone who's hearing the preaching, everything that was said in the Sermon on the Mount, heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which build his house upon a rock. Look, you do not know how you're going to respond to storms of your life. You do not know how heavy those storms of life are going to be. Just do everything you hear preached from the word of God. Just do everything you hear and be as prepared as possible and you will also find out. See, I would never, I would always live for God. I'm strong. I'm spiritual. All right, Peter, I'll never deny Jesus. All right, Peter, three times like a maid comes to you and then all of a sudden you say, oh, I don't know the man. Right? And I'm not trying to be down on Peter. I'm saying that could be any one of us. None of us know how we're going to respond to a storm in our life until we're in the middle of that storm. That determines how spiritual you actually are, how strong you actually are. And look, all of us like to think that we're spiritual and we're going to fight through anything. But I would say that probably none of us is as strong as we actually think we are. And I would say we need to just be as safe as possible and prepare ourselves by being as prepared as doing just everything you hear, doing what the Bible says. And look, the Bible includes everything. It includes your finances, includes your health, includes your spiritual walk, includes everything. Just do what the Bible says. When you hear these things or you read them in the Bible, just apply them to your life. Just do what the Bible says. Why? Because you don't want to fold when a storm comes in your life. I mean, do you want to be the next Demas? Is that what you want to be in your life? That we could look back in your life and say, man, brother so and so used to be such a good Christian. He used to be such a great Christian. And the reality is, when you're at a church like Verity Baptist Church, there are people that sometimes come to your mind and say, man, I miss brother so and so. I don't know what happened to brother so and so. But the reality is they just weren't as prepared as they thought they were. And they ended up fading. You must be as prepared as possible. Why? Because the storms are inevitable. They are going to come from all directions, different types of storms working to take down that house. You must be ready. It says, therefore, whosoever hear these sayings of mine and do with them, I will liken him on to a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house. And it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. The reason why it did not fall is it was founded upon a rock. This ties together with last week's sermon. This is what gave me this idea to preach the sermon. I preached something very similar about three years ago in Verity Baptist Church. And I thought, you know what? It's good timing. I know a lot of people are going through storms, financially especially, but other storms of life. And I really thought about this sermon. I was like, this would be a good sermon. I think it'll be helpful for people. But what I want you to understand is this, that in our lives, you know, we think that we're going to be spiritual and strong and last through these storms. But the reality is we really just don't know. I think Simon, I mean, Simon Peter was the one who was told, hey, here's the keys of the kingdom of heaven. I'm going to put you in charge of the church. And then he ends up folding. So this could be me. I could fade during a storm, any one of us. And the reason why it surprises us as people is we look on the outside and we just assume that so and so is really godly. We don't know what's on the inside. You don't know what's on the inside of any person. And look, you honestly don't really even know what's on the inside of yourself. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now turn in your Bible to Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24. And look, the Bible says that if you don't do what you don't do what you hear, you're foolish. You're wise if you do what's heard, you're foolish if you don't. And doesn't that make sense? I mean, you're at a church that you say is the pillar and ground of the truth. And the reason why you're here is to learn the word of God to fix your life and to help your life get better. And you hear something preached straight from the word of God of why you need to read the Bible every day and you don't read the Bible and I say, hey, just follow this chart, do this and this, and you don't apply any of it. Wouldn't that make you foolish? I mean, doesn't that make sense? You're going through problems with your parenting and here's a tip right from the Bible, do this and it will help fix your parenting and you don't do it. Foolish. Foolish. I mean, whatever area you're struggling, you struggle being a gossip and I give you tips and show you what the Bible says and you don't apply any of it. Foolish. And look, all of us, including myself, are foolish sometimes. We hear the Bible and I don't know if we just don't take it seriously enough or we're too lazy to do it or whatever, but we don't apply what we hear. Foolish. And what could end up happening is our house could fall. And I want you to understand when it comes to the foundation of your house, although a literal house has a certain foundation, when it comes to the spiritual life, your foundation can change, right? You're really serving God and your foundation, you're founded upon a rock. But you know, if you quit reading the Bible for a year, you're not on a rock anymore and you're probably not even in this church anymore. I mean, literally, if you stop reading the Bible for a year, you're probably going to end up thinking, I'm an obnoxious jerk preaching these sermons because you're no longer reading it for yourself, right? I mean, if you're not founded upon a rock and look, it can change in the Christian life. If you're not founded upon a rock, you will fold. An example of this is, in conclusion, it's churches that have changed their positions on doctrines. Because if you walked into a Baptist church 50 years ago, you know, you'd probably hear a pretty good sermon on Genesis 19. Right? You'd probably hear a pretty good sermon on Judges 19. Walk into other Baptist churches today and tell me what kind of sermon they preach. It's just like, oh, they don't have Genesis 19 in their Bible. It's like, you know, they're doing a yearly Bible. We're going to read one chapter from the Bible, each service to eventually get through the entire Bible. You know, Wednesday was Genesis 18, Sunday morning, Genesis 20. It's like, what happened to Genesis 19? I mean, well, I guess it's not in their Bibles, right? Because they don't like that chapter. They change the way they preach. Why? Because the Bible is not as popular anymore. I mean, being protested for preaching the word of God would not have happened in the US 50 years ago. It would not have happened. I mean, in fact, there was a protest about 25 years ago in California. Okay. And a church in, I think it was San Francisco, but it might've been Oakland. And the church was protested for preaching against the LGBT because obviously, you know, San Francisco is LGBT heaven, right? That's where the big AIDS crisis was. All these homos were dying from AIDS and everything like that. And then the pastor preached something and then they got protested by, you know, all these LGBT and sodomites. And you know what? The reporters were on the side of the church. They were against the LGBT. I mean, they're just like, man, they attacked an old woman and everything like that. What is wrong with them? They were on the side of the church 25, 30 years ago. Would the media be on the side of the church now if they get protested? No, they wouldn't. They've changed their position. What's sad is that church is now LGBT friendly. They don't preach against the LGBT anymore. It's like, man, you stood up against the LGBT. You went through the protest and then you changed. Now, I don't know if it's a different pastor or whatever. I don't remember, but it's just like, that's what I'm talking about. The churches that change their positions because it's not popular. This church is never going to change its positions, whether it's popular or not. Nothing has changed since this church started. You know what? This world is going to change. And the proof of whether or not a church is founded upon a rock is, are they preaching the same things they did 10 years ago or have they changed? And these churches that you see change, all that tells us that they were built upon nothing. It was fake. It was an outward show because it was popular back then to preach against the LGBT as an individual person. If you're not going through a storm right now, you need to prepare for the future. I'll be honest with you right now in my life, I'm not really going through any storms that I'm aware of now. Things can change overnight. We understand that, but right now my life is going okay. Now, obviously none of us are happy with everything that's happening, but my life is going okay right now. I'm not going through a major storm, but you know what? I'm going to go through a storm eventually. And what's probably going to happen when the rain descends, the floods are going to come. The winds are going to blow upon that house at the same exact time. You say why? Because storms usually come in bunches. When it rains, it pours. And so look, if you're not going through major problems, I would say this, prepare. In the parallel passage in Luke six, what it says when you build the house is dig deep, dig deep. And in your spiritual life, get fully rooted in the things of God. Dig deep so you cannot be rooted up. You can't, you won't fall when the storm comes. If you're not going through a storm, prepare because you will go through a storm. Every one of us is either going through storms. We just came out of a storm. We're going to be going through a storm tomorrow, right? Our life is a series of ups and downs. What if you are going through a storm right now? What do you do? Notice what it says in Proverbs 24 verse 10. If thou faint in the day of adversity, when things get tough, if thou faint or give up in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Thy strength is small means you're weak. That's what it's saying. It's like a nice way to say you're weak. Now, these are not my words. This is what the Bible says. If you faint when it's tough, it's because you're weak. And wouldn't that be true if you see a boxing match and someone in the middle of the fight basically just gives up? He doesn't come out for the 10th round. He just stays on his stool and doesn't come out for the 10th round. What you'd say is he was not strong enough to last through the fight, right? Because it gets tough at the end of a boxing match. You're tired. You're exhausted. It's very easy to just give up. Sometimes fighters do that. And what that means is they weren't strong enough. They were weak, and they could have all the muscles in the world. But we're not talking about just lifting bench press, right? We're talking about real strength on the inside. And the Bible says if you faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Look, this is a verse I have repeated many times in my head when I was going through trials. Just throughout the day, I just repeated, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Just over and over and over again. You say, why? One of the biggest insults you could ever say to a guy is you're weak, right? I mean, somebody tells you weak on the basketball court. It's like, I'll show you who's weak, right? I mean, that's one of the biggest insults you can call a guy. When I was a kid, you know, the big insult was calling someone a homo, right? If somebody called you a homo, it's like, all right, we're going to war now, right? But if somebody calls you weak, that is a major insult to a guy. I don't know how ladies feel about it, but as a guy, it's like, don't ever call me weak, right? It's like, those are big insults, right? You're playing a sport. If they call you a homo or call you weak or call you a pretty boy or something like that, it's like, all right, it's time to fight now. All right, we'll see who's tough, right? Obviously, I know a bishop's not to be a brawler. I get it, I get it, right? But look, the Bible is saying this, if you go through a storm and you give up, it's because you were too weak to finish the storm. That's what the Bible says. So look, fight through it. Weather the storm of life, it's going to go away eventually. Now, I don't know when it's going to go away, but what I know is this, you have storms all the time, they come and they go and they go and they'll be back eventually and prepare in the future. But, fight through that storm. Don't give up when it gets tough because it's going to get better eventually. So weather that storm. I heard a sermon a long time ago. Actually, let me say one other thing real quickly. The Bible says in James 4, resist the devil and he will flee from you. You say, why is he going to flee from me? Because he's not omnipresent. He cannot be everywhere at one time. Resist the devil and he might flee from you. Is that what it says? He will flee from you. He will quit bothering you. You say, why? Because if you decide, I'm just going to last and serve God, the devil's going to say, I'm wasting my time. Why would I waste my time with someone who still comes to church no matter how tough it gets, and still serves God no matter how tough I get? I'll just go to the person down the road and try to bug them. I'll just try to bother somebody else in the church because of the fact I can't stop brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so. And so look, resist the devil and he will flee from you. That is a promise of God. So look, when you go through tough times, you got to just resist the devil. You say, brother, that's easy for you to say. You're not going through a major storm. Look, I've been serving God since I was 18 years old. I got saved right before I turned 19. I started sowing since I was 19 years old. You don't last from the age of 19 to 35. Unless you have this attitude, I will not quit no matter what. Dead sure I've had storms the last 16 years of my life. Do you think there's anybody in life that never has storms? They are inevitable. And I promise you, when you see a pastor that's been serving God for 20 years, they've gone through so many storms of life and you didn't even know it. They stood up here, they preached, they preached a fiery sermon, and you had no idea the storms they might have been going through. I have to come up here and preach every single service no matter how I'm feeling. Right? I come here and preach the sermons, but you know what? I preached sermons when I was not really up to preaching. I was like, I'm going through a storm right now. I don't really feel like preaching, but you know, I don't have the liberty to just throw in the towel. I throw in the towel, the church is gone. And let me tell you something, I understand you're not the one preaching the sermons, but you know, you ought to have that attitude. I will not quit. I'm going to fight through the storm no matter what. I'm going to last through the storm. I heard a sermon, one of my favorite sermons I've ever heard from Pastor Anderson a long time ago, probably like 12, 13 years ago. The name of the sermon was the only way to fail is to quit. Now, I don't think quite honestly it was my favorite all-time sermon, but what I really liked about it, you know, because there's other sermons he's preached I like more, was just that phrase is just permanently stuck. It's, you know, tattooed on my inside my head or something, right? Just that phrase has stuck with me in my life. The only way to fail is to quit. And there's truth to that. I mean, you're in marriage, you know what? The only way to fail is to quit, to give up. And you can stay married and not get the divorce and just give up and say, I'm not going to try anymore. Or raising your kids is just too tough. So you say, you know what? I'm just going to give up. Man, I was going to homeschool and I was and it's just failing. I just give up. I give up with that. No, just the only way to fail is to quit. Don't quit. Have I made mistakes running this church? Absolutely. And I don't try to hide from the fact I made mistakes. I admit it when I make mistakes. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes, but you know, I haven't failed. Why? I didn't quit. It'd be very easy to just throw in the towel and say, you know what? I'm done. It's not worth it. It's too hard. I had a nicer life before. I can just work a secular job. Because look, I had a pretty good job before I started working for a church. I had a pretty good career. An actuary is a pretty good job. But you know, and look, I don't regret it at all. But what I'm saying is this. You just have to have that attitude. The biggest advice I got from pastors before running this church was this. Don't give up. You must just have the attitude. I will not give up. And you know what? The same thing is for true in your Christian life as well. Don't quit. Weather through that storm. Fight through that storm. It's going to get better. Now let me just say one other thing real quickly that I thought of. As people at a church, we need to be very sensitive to people that are going through storms in their life. And sometimes in life we can kind of assume, man, my life's going great. So everybody at church, their life's going great. I promise you there will never be a day at this church where everybody's life is going great. Because we're not a church of five people. Even if your life is going perfect, you know what? There are going to be people in the church that they're struggling. We need to be very sensitive and understand that. And the Bible says this. You're supposed to mourn with those that mourn. And you're supposed to have joy with those that are joy. Rejoice with those that rejoice and weep with those that weep or something like that. So if your life is going great but somebody's struggling, you ought to actually be comforting to that person. That's what the Bible says. We need to be sensitive because there are people that are going to go through storms of life. And I promise you at church, there's people at our church that are going through storms of life. But you know what? It will get better. Storms do not last forever. And you know what? Oftentimes when we go through dark times of our life, we feel like it's the worst time. But then on the other side, you say maybe there's a reason God allowed me to go through trials. That goes in the word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see your word and help us to apply this to our lives. God, help us to prepare ourselves as much as is possible for storms that will come in our life, God. And I ask you to help all of our church members that are going through various storms in our life. Help everybody out through all the problems that they have in their lives, God. Help us to be sensitive and care for one another and pray for one another and love one another, God. I ask you to continue to bless this church and all the members. Help us to have strong families and do our best to try to serve you as much as is possible. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.