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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Born of the Spirit, live life from above into God's family divine. Just like my holy drink, God raised love. Oh, what a sin he is mine. And the transactions of faith he was made when as a sinner I came. Look at the offer of grace in property. Save me, oh praise his dear name. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross the Savior gave me hope. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Now I hope that will surely endure after the passing of time. I have a future in heaven for sure there in those nations sublime. And it's because of that wonderful day when at the cross I believe. Rage is eternal and bless is eternal from his precious hand I receive. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross the Savior gave me hope. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Amen. Good start to our singing this morning. We will open up for some prayer. Dear Lord, thank you for Faith War Baptist Church, Lord, and thank you for Pastor Anderson. Lord, I pray you would bless the preaching this morning and help us to all be better Christians and to love you more and to love one another more. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Happy Thanksgiving, of course, everyone. This Thursday is Thanksgiving. We've got the group photo for the 2023 yearbook today, and so right after the morning service, We're all just going to step out here. It's not going to take long. Don't be that guy who just ditches out of here. It's just right here, really quick. We're just going to take a big crowd shot. It only takes a few minutes. And so I'd appreciate it if you join in for that right after the service. And then this coming Friday, the 24th, there's a trip to the Navajo reservation for soul winning. So that's leaving on Friday morning, coming back Saturday in the evening. Speak with brother Raymond Cooper for more details on that. And then a friendly reminder, please refrain from attending church if you are sick. And so children that are exhibiting signs of illness, we don't want them in the mother baby room contaminating other kids. And so be thoughtful about that. And then keep praying for our expectant ladies that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. And that's about it for enough. I hope you all enjoyed the missions conference. I know I did. And it was a great time. Thank you to everyone who participated, who helped out with decorating, cleanup, all the different activities. And it was a big success. And I appreciate everybody who worked on that. And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, in the front of your hymnal, you should find the insert of the song, North, West, North, Home. Do you want an insert, please raise your hand. ["North, West, North, Home"] ["North, West, North, Home"] ["North, West, North, Home"] ["North, West, North, Home"] ["North, West, North, Home"] OK, that good singing, everybody. Put your hymnals down at hymn number 145. Hymn number 145, It Is Well With My Soul. Hymn number 145, let's sing it out. On that first verse together, When Peace Like A River Attended My Way. 145, sing it out on that first. When Peace Like A River Attended My Way, When sorrows like sea billows blow, Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. My soul, it is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should love me, though trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. My sin, O loveless, of this glorious life, My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and thy merit no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. And, Lord, haste the day when my day shall be signed. The clouds behold back as a scroll, The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. Psalm 73, Psalm 73, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number one, Psalm 73, starting in verse number one, follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads, Psalm 73, beginning in verse number one. Psalm 73, the Bible reads, Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore, pride compassed them about as a chain. Violence covered them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore, his people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus. Behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I therein. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors? As a dream, when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou wakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reigns. So foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast holding me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all thy works. Father in heaven, thank you for son Jesus Christ and for the earnest of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of your children. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches your word so that your children would continue to grow in grace and then end in the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. Men, the title of my sermon this morning is envying the foolish. Envying the foolish. What does it mean to envy someone? It means to look at what they have or look at who they are and to wish that that were you to wish that you had what they have. And the Bible says here in verse number three, I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. You see, it's human nature for us sometimes to look at other people and to somehow think that they have it better than we do or that they're getting more benefits out of the way that they live their life than we do. And what we need to understand is that as Christians, we are living the best life as Christians and that the people of this world are nothing to envy. We should feel sorry for them because they don't have Christ, because they don't have the wisdom of God guiding them. They may be able to put forth a facade that their life is so wonderful, but we should know from studying the Bible and the older we get, we're going to see this play out over and over again that there is nothing to envy about that godless, wicked, worldly life. Look at the Bible says in verse number one here. This is a psalm of Asaph. Asaph is a great man of God. He was a musician in the Old Testament that wrote a lot of songs for the children of Israel. But what he's documenting here is kind of a spiritual low point where even though he's a godly man, he starts to doubt whether he has chosen the right path in life. And he starts thinking, you know, maybe I should have just lived the worldly sinful life because it seems like those people have it better than I do. And that's what he's going through in this chapter. It says in verse number one, truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped for I was envious of the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. The first thing I want to point out is that when you start envying the foolish, when you start looking at the prosperity of the wicked and thinking that, oh, there's something better out there in the non-Christian life. You know, the Bible tells us here you're very close to crashing and burning, right? Because he says my feet were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped. Why? Because I was envious of the foolish. When you start thinking along those lines, you're on the brink of disaster. You're heading down a dark path when you start being fooled by the propaganda that's out there in this world trying to make sin look good, trying to make that lifestyle look superior. It says in verse four, for there are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore, pride compasses them about as a chain. Violence covered them as a garment. He's saying because they're not going through anything bad, then they're just prideful. They commit acts of violence. They don't care because there don't seem to be any consequences. Now, of course, this is not true, but this is Asaph's perception because a lot of times we look at other people and we only see what they want us to see, right? Basically, Asaph goes on social media and he's looking at people's lives and everybody seems to be living a perfect life. And then he's looking at his own life and he's seeing all the problems. But what you have to understand is that everybody in this world is suffering. Everybody in this world is going through trials and tribulations. There is no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man. So everybody is going through hard times. It's just we know about the hard times we're going through because we're going through them, whereas a lot of people only like to show you the positive side of their life. But he says in verse number seven, their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. They're corrupt. They speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth. He's saying, you know, they're blasphemous. They say things against God and nothing bad seems to happen. They therefore, verse 10, his people return thither and waters of a full cup are rung out to them. And they say, how does God know? And is there knowledge in the most high? Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Now, another mistake that Asaph is making here is thinking that having money equals success or prosperity, right? Because he says they prosper in this world. They have riches. But guess what? All the money in the world can't actually make you happy. And in fact, some of the most miserable people in this world have the most money. And that's why you're constantly hearing about all these rock stars and actors and action celebrities. And what are they out doing? Drunk driving, shoplifting, addicted to drugs on their fifth spouse or whatever, right? They're not living a happy life. They may look all shiny and happy and healthy on camera. But in reality, that is not a prosperous life when it comes to spiritual things. You know, the Bible says godliness with contentment is great gain. But we don't want to be those people who confuse gain with godliness. Godliness is great gain, but gain is not godliness. And having money doesn't necessarily mean that you're living a successful or happy or prosperous life. But he's looking at these people that they have more money than him, and they seem like they're succeeding even though they're sinful, even though they're ungodly. And his reaction in verse 13 is verily, I've cleansed my heart in vain. You know, what am I even doing, even living a clean life? I've washed my hands in innocency. And innocency there is like naivety. He's saying like, you know, I naively cleaned up my life thinking that if I were to live a good life, god's going to bless me. But then I'm going through all kinds of pain and suffering and problems. And then I'm looking at these other people who just don't even care about the things of god. They're not even going to church. They just say whatever comes to their mind and blow off their mouth against god and everything else. And they're out there living a happy, prosperous, quality life. This is what's going through Asaph's mind. He says, all day long, verse 14, I've been plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. So what's he saying there? He's saying, look, you know, these are the thoughts I was having. But then I thought, man, I wouldn't want the children to hear me talking this way because I don't want them going out and living an ungodly or violent or perverse life. You know, that's a painful thought. And so he says, you know, I'm thinking this way. I know there's something wrong with it because I don't want the kids to hear it. I don't want the kids to think this way. And then it says in verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of god, then I understood their end, meaning the end of these wicked people who seem to be prospering. And so we see that going to the house of god, going to the sanctuary of god, going to church is a good way to actually get your mind back on track when you're falling prey to all of the propaganda and lies and all the deception that's out there in this world that's constantly bombarding you every day, glorifying the sinful life, glorifying everything that the Bible is against. You got to come to church in order to renew your mind and to get your brain back on track. This is why we need to go to church every week. And here are the preaching of God's word. You might think to yourself, well, you know, I've been in church my whole life. I already know all this stuff. I don't really need to go to church. I can skip a few weeks or skip a few months. And, you know, I don't really need to hear this stuff. But it doesn't matter if you already know these things. You need to constantly be reminded of these things. And Peter talked about how we need to have our pure minds stirred up by way of remembrance. We need to go to the house of God so that we can be reminded of what's actually going to happen in this world, that there's heaven, that there's hell, and that God is going to bless the righteous in the long run and destroy the wicked. He said, when I went to the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. No matter how good it seems like they have it now, what is their end? The Bible says there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. He says in verse 18, surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation? As in a moment, they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. You know, God is very slow sometimes to anger and slow to wrath and slow to judge, but his judgment always comes ultimately. And remember, with God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. So these ungodly people could seem like they're getting away with things for a really long time, but if God lets them go another five years or ten years or fifteen years before bringing down the hammer of judgment upon them, in the long run, in the scheme of things from God's perspective, it really doesn't make a difference. It really doesn't matter. And so God is obviously not actually asleep at the wheel, but that's how it felt to Asaph, but he realizes, hey, maybe God is sleeping on some of these people, but when he wakes up, he is going to despise their image and he will bring them into desolation as in a moment he will destroy them. Verse 21 says, thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reigns. So foolish was I, and he's saying, man, I was such an idiot before I went to church, I was such an idiot to think that these people have it so good or that I wish I had their life instead of mine, when in reality these people are on a bobsled to hell. They're on a very dark path that's going to end in destruction. He says, man, I was so foolish and ignorant, I was like a beast. I was like an animal, I was being so stupid. So foolish was I, and ignorant I was as a beast before thee, nevertheless I'm continually with thee. Thou is holding me by my right hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou has destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee, but it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all thy works. Go if you would to Proverbs chapter number 14, Proverbs chapter number 14. You see, this world today is not living a better life than God's people. They just aren't. Now at the end of the day, first of all, we know that as born again children of God, as those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ our savior, we're going to heaven when we die. Whereas those who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are going to go to hell when they die. Okay. But the question is, who's living the better life now? You know, are the, are the sinful, unsafe people, are they living a great life now, but yet in the end they're going to be destroyed. And so that's why we're glad that we're saved Christians. You know, I don't even believe that. I don't even believe that this worldly sinful life even is better now. Now sure, there are the pleasures of sin for a season, but those pleasures of sin for a season don't even last for an entire lifetime. Okay. You know, obviously unsaved non-Christian people, yeah, they're going to have some seasons of joy, seasons of pleasure in their lives where things are going good and they're really enjoying life and they're really happy. Of course, but in the long run, even forgetting eternity for a moment, forgetting heaven and hell for a moment, in the long run though, they're going to be destroyed even in this lifetime. They're going to face pain and misery and sorrow and woe in this lifetime. Even if you don't see that, it's true. It's happening. Look at the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 14 verse 11, the house of the wicked shall be overthrown, but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness. And so even when the worldly people are out there even laughing and having a good time, the Bible tells us the end of that mirth is heaviness. And even in laughter, even while they're laughing and having a good time, the heart is sorrowful. What you don't see is the sadness and the sorrow and the emptiness underneath the smile that's there. And this is why we don't want to just believe everything that we see with our eyes because people put forth a certain facade that is not necessarily the real them or how they really feel. We all want people to think that our life is a little better than it actually is, right? Just as human nature, if we're putting together a social media account or if we're telling our life story, if we're writing our autobiography, you know, typically we want to focus on the things that went well, the successes. And we're going to typically point our face toward the camera to show our good side and not to show our worst side. This is just human nature. Every single person is going to do this whether they're a Christian, whether they're not a Christian. It's just being a human being, you know. We want to be seen as successful. We want to put forth an image that we're happy and that we're prospering and that we're doing well when we send out that Christmas letter update or whatever, you know. It's going to polish the apple a little bit. Everybody out there is typically polishing the apple, okay. Obviously there are people who just want to wallow in misery and talk about how bad they have it. But I'm saying in general, people tend to polish the apple, okay. And the problem is that it's easy for us sometimes to start actually buying into that image or believing that image and we start comparing ourselves to other people. And the Bible says if we compare ourselves amongst ourselves, we're not wise, right. We shouldn't compare ourselves to other people. We're all on our own personal journey. We're all serving Christ and following God and he has an individual plan for each of our lives. And we can't necessarily compare ourselves to other people to check how we're doing or to think, well God didn't bless me in this way that he blessed some other person, right. Because our lives are all just going to be different. And so we need to at the end of the day realize that serving God and following Christ is going to give us our best possible life, our best possible outcome. And that's not going to be the same necessarily as someone else's outcome. But your best situation is going to be when you're following Christ, serving God, et cetera. But you know the Bible talks about how there's a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. And that people out there can sometimes make sin look good and that we can be deceived sometimes into thinking that these things are going to bring us happiness. Like a couple of things that come up a lot in the book of Proverbs are like alcohol and you know the fact that people, they drink and it seems fun, right, or also just riches that just having riches, having money, having nice things is somehow going to make you happy. And both of these things are a lie. This is why Christ talked about the deceitfulness of riches, right. Because of the fact that it's deceptive. People look at the nice clothes, the nice car, the nice house and they think that's the goal. That's happiness. That's everything. If I can just get to that point, you know, then I'll be satisfied and it's a lie. It's a fraud. It's a deception. Flip over if you would to Proverbs chapter 20. You know, at the end of the day, all of the riches and all the things that you can buy with money, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, what good are those things to the owners thereof save the beholding of them with their eyes? You know, at the end of the day, you only need so big of a house until it just gets to the point where it just becomes absurd. It just becomes stupid. You know, what's the point? You know, you have like two people in your family and you got a six bedroom house. It's like what is that? How many guests are you having over? You know, or like you, you know, you got five people in your family and a 20 bedroom house or something. It's absurd. It becomes stupid at some point, right? Because obviously you want to have space. You want to have room for the people in your, in your family. I get it, but at the end of the day, rich people, they just keep making bigger and bigger houses. It doesn't even make sense. And then they have to hire staff to even clean the thing because it's like an institution. It's so big that they have to have like a janitorial staff to even take care of the thing. What's the point? Or you see these people that just have all of these cars and they'll just have eight vehicles, 10 vehicles, 15 vehicles. I mean, at some point it just becomes stupid. You can only drive one vehicle at a time. You know, you just pick one that you like and just drive it. Okay. Or you see, you know, I saw a guy the other day, he had like a hundred guitars or something, but again, it's like, how many guitars can you really play? And what's the difference? You know, I understand you might want to have the one that's a little smaller, the one that's a little bigger. You know, you got a couple of different guitars, but it's just, Oh, look at me. I got a hundred guitars. You know, it's like you're trying to fill some kind of an emptiness inside with that 175th guitar. You know, you're trying to fill the emptiness inside with your 23rd vehicle or, you know, just adding a seventh bathroom to your house is going to fix everything in your life, right? It's a deceitfulness of riches. All of these things are vanity and it seemed like rich people are just constantly trying to find new ways to eat more expensive food. So they have to, you know, they have to eat some food that has gold dust sprinkled on it, or they have to eat some fish where if, you know, if you cut it wrong, it'll kill you. Or they have to hire some Japanese grandmaster samurai to basically just like cut the fish in such a way where, you know, you're only getting the part that's not going to kill you. And I guess that's just exciting and you spend a little money on that or, you know, you eat some goose that's been force fed or something. What's that stuff called foie gras, you know, where they, they force fed the geese until the thing is just, you know, about to explode or something. And it's like, well, like what's the point, right? I mean, just have a cheat, have a good cheeseburger or, you know, you want to have steak and lobster. Great. But even those things, how much do those things really cost? You can get a really good steak for like less than 30 bucks. You don't need to be a millionaire to do that. And all those things are going to get old after a while. That's not going to bring you happiness. That's not going to bring you joy, but the world just holds that up as just the final goal of human existence. But it's vanity. It's empty. It's meaningless. King Solomon had all these things and he had all the wives and the concubines. He had all the servants and he had the pools of water and the gardens and the orchards. He had a rule over a powerful kingdom. He's the king of Israel and he said, I hated life. I hated life. Why? Because those things can't bring happiness. They don't actually bring joy. That's the deceitfulness of riches. What about the deceitfulness of alcohol? Look at Proverbs chapter 20 verse one, wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. If you are deceived by alcohol, if you are fooled by alcohol, you are not a smart person. You are not wise. It should be obvious. It should be easy to see that alcohol is destructive and foolish and will not lead you to having a better life. People who drink, they need to quit drinking. They want to quit drinking. People who've gone down that road, they know that it ends in the ways of death. They've moved on and then you've got some foolish Christian teenager looking at people drinking and partying and having a good time and somehow thinking that that is going to bring them happiness. And you know, it's so funny how this world portrays alcohol as being sophisticated, right? But it's all just a sham. It's all fraud. There's nothing sophisticated about it, but it's like, you know, they show all these people in really fancy clothing and they've got some special brand of, you know, Crown Royal or what, you know, whatever they're expensive fans. And here's the thing, alcohol is expensive. It's a big waste of money. Not only are you damaging your body, not only are you drinking literal poison that's killing you physically and poisoning your mind and making you think and say and do all these perverse wrong things, but you're also just flushing all this money down the toilet just to have your expensive, sophisticated drink. And you know, the reality is that that drink, no matter how fancy or expensive or luxurious it is, it's the same drink that some bum who's laying in the gutter right now is drinking. It's getting the same effect, like alcohol is alcohol. It's the same molecule that is inebriating you. Whether you're drinking a 24 pack of Natty Ice, you know, whether you're drinking a box of wine from CVS and you're drinking wine out of a cardboard box versus, you know, some bottle of, I don't know what fancy wine is called, um, uh, Dawn Perignon or something. Champagne, Chablis. I know all the names of wine because I used to live in a neighborhood. I used to live on Villa Rosa Way and we were right next to Champagne and Chablis and Zinfandel. Those are all the names of the streets in the neighborhood. Some wino designed my neighborhood and so all those names were like that. But you know what, it's the same molecule, right? It's the same alcohol. It's the same exact substance whether you're drinking it out of some trashy, low quality beer brand or whether you're drinking some fancy, you know, red wine, whatever. It's the same garbage and if you're deceived by it, you're not wise. But this world wants you to think that drinking alcohol is somehow sophisticated. It's an adult. It's a grown up drink. And so, you know, the children, they have their little Capri Sun, you know, and we've got the sophisticated drink over here. You know, the Jack and Coke and the gin and tonic and you know, whatever else people drink that somehow is more sophisticated and mature and civilized. But you know what, it isn't my friend. It's a lie. It's a problem. If you are more civilized or sophisticated, why would it be respectable to drink an intoxicating beverage, to drink booze, to drink something that makes you act stupid? It doesn't make you act more sophisticated. Like think about it. What if we did an actual study where we gave a bunch of people alcohol and gave another group no alcohol. Who's going to act more sophisticated? Like stop and think about it. All things else being equal. If we give alcohol to one group and no alcohol to the other group, who is going to act more polite? Who is going to be more civilized? Who's going to be more sophisticated? Of course, the sober group, but yet we're given this deceptive image of sophistication. And then people will make fun of us as Baptists, you know, for not drinking. Like we're just a bunch of just spiritual babes. We're a bunch of children, you know, the Presbyterians. They go out and they drink all their beer because they're just on a higher level spiritually is really what it comes down to. And Catholics are on the highest level of spirituality of all because they can drink so much. It's so godly of them. But it's a lie. It's a fraud. It isn't real. And if you're deceived by it, it's not wise. Not only is alcohol portrayed as being sophisticated. It's portrayed as being cool. You know, the cool guy, he goes out and drinks. But what, you know, who decides what's cool and what isn't, right? It's just somebody says it's cool and now all of a sudden it's cool to drink just because that's what people are saying or something. You know, it's nothing cool. If you actually get in real life around drunk people, they are not cool, okay? I have spent time around people that were drunk when I was sober. There's nothing cool about it. It's annoying, right? Go if you would to Proverbs chapter 23. Proverbs chapter 23. You're there in Proverbs 20 so just go a few pages to the right in your Bible. But the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 23, it says in verse number 29, who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling, who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness of eyes, they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. Now, does that sound to you like an advertisement for alcohol that we would see today? Is this how the TV shows and the movies and the magazine articles, is this how they portray alcohol? Hey, it's going to bring you sorrow and misery and regrets, it's going to make you contend with it. You're going to get in fights. You're going to fight with your friends. You're going to fight with random strangers. You're going to get in fights with your family. It's going to give you contentions. You're going to babble. And what does it mean to babble? Just say stupid, meaningless, nonsense things. This is what alcohol does. Who hath wounds without cause? People getting hurt, tripping down the stairs and just slipping and falling, getting in a drunk driving accident, just getting hurt for no reason. Redness of eyes, right? And then here's the other way alcohol is portrayed and somehow it's going to make you more beautiful. So you have all these just ripped dudes with the six-pack abs and they're on the beer commercial. Why doesn't the beer commercial ever just show some slob where his t-shirt can't make it all the way down to his waist because he's got such a big fat belly that he's got like a bare midriff because he just grew out of his shirt and say, hey, this bud's for you. Right? It's always some athlete. Is beer really the key to athleticism? Is alcohol really going to make you a better athlete? It's just going to finally get you down below 6% body fat as a dude or whatever? And you've got all these beautiful babes and whatever. But that's not the way real life is, my friend. No, this stuff doesn't make you more athletic. It makes your eyes red. And by the way, you could spot somebody who's an alcoholic by their nose. Right? Now, is that advertised? Like hey, you too can have a nose like this. If you drink enough beer, if you drink enough liquor, your nose can look like this too. But that's reality, my friend. That's what it does to you. There's a reason why it's called a beer belly. It's not called the beer, you know, I don't know, I want to say like beer. I mean, there is a six-pack of beer, but there's not a beer six-pack, it's a beer belly. It's not the beer biceps. It's the beer belly. It doesn't make... Oh, it's so manly. And the Bible says, woe unto them that are mighty men to drink wine. Because even thousands of years ago when the Bible was written, people still thought it was tough to... You know, they're so mighty, they can really hold their liquor, they can really drink. You know what? When you hold your liquor, that's called being an alcoholic. Because anyone who's not an alcoholic can't drink like that. People can just drink and, oh, don't worry about me, pastor, I can drink five, six beers and I'm not drunk at all. That just means that you're a raging alcoholic. Because any normal person who drank five or six beers would be completely drunk. Tolerance is a sign of being an alcoholic. He says, who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. Of course, that verse right there with those descriptions is describing fermentation, right? It's the skin of the grape that contains the yeast that ferments the wine and the skin is red, right? Because if you bite into a red grape, it's not red on the inside, right? So there's no reason why the juice from the grapes would be red unless they are soaked in the skins and the skins have the yeast, the yeast does the fermentation. So that's why he talks about it being red and giving its color in the cup. He's talking about the fermentation process and moving itself aright is talking about carbonation, right? Because just as we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, also bacteria and yeast, they also go through a respiration process that releases carbon dioxide as a byproduct, which is why you get naturally fermented beverages that are carbonated, right? And so that's what we're talking about here. He says, you know, look not on the wine when it's red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thy heart shall utter perverse things. This is something that no Christian should want to do. We don't want to behold strange women, be looking at strange women and saying perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be a sea that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or a sea that lieth upon the top of a mast. Now what does that mean you'll be like one that lies in the midst of the sea? Well, what does the sea like? The sea is constantly moving and tossing about, right? The sea is characterized by having waves. And if you think about it, if you were on the top of a mast, you know, the further you get away, if you think about like a ship, let's say a ship is wobbling or moving. What do you think is moving the most? Someone who's at the bottom or someone who's at the top? You know, because the further you get away from that fulcrum, the more extreme the movements are going to be. You know, a movement of one degree down here isn't much, but up here it's a lot, right? You know, it's sort of like we used to play with our Boston Terrier, we'd have a skimmer and basically we'd take the skimmer and it was like 10 feet long or something. And I would just stand in a circle and just go like this and just move like this. And you know, it only took me like one second to do a rotation. And the dog would be chasing the skimmer on the outside of that movement and the dog's just having to go like, you know, to keep up because the movement is just exaggerated the further you get from the point where the turning is happening. So being at the top of a mast, you can think about how you just be like, whoa. And what the Bible is saying is that when you drink, that's how you're going to be. You're going to be like stumbling around. It's going to be like you're trying to walk on a ship that's moving or something, right? The whole world is spinning and things are moving around and you're disoriented and you're off balance. That's what the Bible is saying. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They've beaten me and I felt it not. You know, so you know, you end up, you say, well, that sounds good, you know, take away the pain a little bit. But here's the thing about that is that, you know, pain exists in our bodies for a reason. Pain is to warn us that we're damaging our body. And so if all of a sudden we just had some superpower where we didn't feel any pain, you know, we'd probably be dead pretty soon because, you know, you'd start cutting yourself open or something and wouldn't even realize it. You'd, you know, you'd slam your finger in a door and just, you know, oh, oh, whoops, you know. So, you know, pain, sometimes we'll start to do something. You start to touch something hot and ah, it hurts, right? If you didn't feel any pain, you know, you'd like to start melting and then not realize it until you saw the pile of goo or whatever. The point is that, you know, pain is there to warn us about things that are going wrong. Person who's drunk, you know, they can go out and injure themselves and harm themselves in various ways and they don't feel it. They don't really feel those wounds without cause. But guess what? The next day, all that damage and all that pain is there and people wake up the next day after drinking and they've got a hangover, they've got a headache, they feel miserable, they feel sick and it's horrible. And then it says, you know, ah, they've beaten me and I've felt a knot. When shall I awake? I'll seek it yet again. Hey, let's do this again. Because it's addictive and alcohol is extremely addictive. I never really realized throughout my life how addictive alcohol was. I just assume people are just, they're just drinking because they want to drink. They want to go out and party and have fun and they've been deceived into thinking that this is the ticket to a good time and they're just foolish and that's why they're drinking. I didn't realize even how physically addictive it is until I was talking to Brother Varon and he told me that people would come into the hospital and they would be literally suffering and even dying from alcohol withdrawals. And I didn't even know that that was even a thing. You know, I've heard of people having withdrawals from smoking or drugs. I didn't realize alcohol withdrawals are so real. But it was during the whole COVID epidemic when they were talking about essential services that had to be kept open in certain areas. And one of the essential services was a liquor store. And I was like, how is that an essential service? Like people are wondering like, this is an essential service? Like people just have to get alcohol. But then Brother Varon was explaining to me, he said, well, the reason why is because people are alcoholics. If they don't drink, they'll literally end up in the hospital and they can literally die from alcohol withdrawal. I mean, it's crazy. I didn't even realize just how extremely addictive it is, but it is my friend. And if you're smart, you'll just never go down that road because once you, once you've gone down that road, then that temptation is always there. You're going to want to seek it yet again. It's better to just never touch the stuff. And oh, you're, oh, you haven't started drinking yet. You haven't tried drinking. You're missing out. Really? What are you missing out on? What are you truly missing out on? Are you, you know, it's not making you smarter. It's not making you more athletic. Now it might bring a good time in the short run. But the next day you're going to feel like garbage. And who knows what stupid things you're going to say and do. And by the way, you could drink 20 times without having any problems, but how many times does it really take to screw up your life, right? It really only takes one time driving drunk to screw up your whole life. It really only, you might get away with it 19 times, but it only takes one time to completely screw up your life. It only takes one time, fornication, adultery, to screw up your life. Only one time you get drunk, commit a crime. Now you've got this criminal record. Now you're in jail. Now you're dealing with all this junk. Like it's not worth it. And there are other ways to have fun. There are other ways to have a good time. You know, oh, you know, people drink and they get silly. You know, I don't know, just, there are lots of other ways to get silly. You know, just miss a little sleep and you'll probably act the same way. If you want to just act stupid, just skip a night of sleep and you'll probably act stupid too. But man, when you're a sober person and you're around people that are drinking, I mean, it's not cool at all. It's just annoying. You're just like, get away from me, you idiot. But yet on TV it's portrayed as fun, sophisticated, this is what attractive, smart, successful people do. They all drink. And by the way, not drinking, another, here's another blessing of not drinking. You know, when you don't drink, because our society drinks so much, if you don't drink, sometimes that'll make you actually stand out a little bit to people. Like oh, you don't drink? And often that could be a segue for you to present the Gospel to that person and say, well, I don't drink because I'm a Christian. Are you a Christian? And then if they say no, you know, you can give them the Gospel. Or if they say yes, you can still ask them if they know for sure that they're on their way to heaven when they die and you can have a chance to present the Gospel. My dad told me that. My dad told me just the fact that he didn't drink as a young person ended up giving him a lot of opportunities to present the Gospel because his friends would be like, you don't drink? Why? And then he explained to them, well, I'm a Christian. And then that would give him a chance to actually preach the Gospel. Let me tell you something. The world out there has nothing to offer, okay? All that they have to offer, their riches and alcohol and their party life and all the women and all the cars and all the fun and everything, it's all empty. It's all vain. And Asaph, he fell for this for a minute thinking, hey, man, they just have it so good out there. But in reality, it was all a fraud, number one. It's not as good as the world portrays it to be. But number two is that the end of that path is death. Now look, once you're saved, once you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, there's nothing you could ever do to lose your salvation. Okay. Once you're saved, you're always saved because salvation is not based on how good you are. It's based on whether or not you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I was never good enough to be saved in the first place, so I'll never be bad enough where he'll take it away from me. It's a free gift. It's by the grace of God that we're saved. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So thankfully, no matter what happens, I'm going to heaven. And if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to heaven no matter what as well. So we're saved. That's a done deal. But that being said, God can still punish us on this earth for sins that we do. He can still chasten and chastise us, sort of like my children will always be my children. But if they break the rules, they're going to get disciplined. They're not going to get kicked out of the family, but they're going to get disciplined. It's the same thing with God. Once we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're his children. And we are never going to be kicked out of the family. We're always going to be his children. We're never going to hell. But we can be chastised and disciplined on this earth, okay? And so as Christians, first of all, we are going to have a much worse time trying to live a life of sin than an unsaved person is, right? I would submit to you that first of all, even unsaved people are not living the fun life that they might sometimes portray. They're miserable. They're not enjoying life as much as they make out. They're stupid, fornicating, adulterous, drunken, drug-using life or whatever is not, the rock and roll lifestyle is a fraud. It's not going to bring joy or happiness even to them in the long run, even on this earth, let alone the hell that they're going to, okay? But for those of us who are saved, if we tried to live that lifestyle that unsaved people live, we would get punished on this earth for sure. Whereas the worldly people, they could get away with it, so to speak, right? I mean, you could be, you know, some unsaved rock star like Keith Richards or something could live to be 150 or whatever, however old he is. But the point is, you know, he's not saved. So he could get away, if you tried to live that Keith Richards lifestyle, you're not going to live to be 120 like him, okay? You're going to die a lot sooner and you're going to go through a lot more misery and suffering because the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he received it. And so as a saved Christian, you are going to go through chastisement and punishment if you go out and live a sinful life. Whereas worldly people, they might, quote unquote, get away with it, but in the end they're going to hell so they get away with nothing. But even in the process of so-called getting away with it, that just means that nothing bad happens to them. They might just be able to just cruise through life and, you know, live a long time. But it doesn't mean that they're happy, they're still miserable knowing how empty and vain and meaningless their lives are. Whereas the Christian though, if you try to live that life, you're going to get punished. Not only that, the Bible says unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required. You know, if you're growing up in a Christian home like I did and I grew up with Christian parents who loved me and taught me the Bible, took me to church, God's going to expect more from me than he's going to expect from just some worldly person out there that didn't have that advantage, right? So not only am I saved, not only am I a child of God, but I also had the advantage of a godly upbringing and so God expects me to do right. And if I go out there and start living a sinful life, man, he's going to come down on me like a ton of bricks. Like I guarantee you that if I went out and got drunk, I would be punished way worse than the average person who goes out and gets drunk, right? If I were to go out and commit adultery or fornication, those are huge sins for anyone. But if I were to commit those sins, I would get punished more severely than the average person because I'm a Christian who grew up in a Christian home. I've heard all kinds of Bible preaching. I know what the Bible says. I know what's right. I know what's wrong. And to go out and do those things anyway would be even more egregious for me than for someone who could just claim, well, I didn't really, you know, know better. We all know better, but they didn't know as better as some of us. We knew more better, okay? And so God's going to hold us to a higher standard. And so I just hope that our Christian young people aren't stupid enough to look out at this world and look at the rock stars and the actors and actresses and somehow think that that worldly life is somehow superior to the Christian life that God has prescribed in his word. And you know, there's nothing, there's nothing new about the Christian life that we live in 2023 at Faith Ward Baptist Church or at any other church. You know, what am I talking about with the Christian life? I'm talking about being a virgin when you get married and staying married to that same person until death you do part. That's what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about abstaining from alcohol. You know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about getting an honest job and making an honest living, going to work, and making money the right way by working hard and producing something of value, not trying to have shortcuts to getting rich, stealing, committing fraud, and doing dishonest things. You know, what am I talking about? I'm talking about not committing murder, right? I'm talking about not having an abortion, you know, not going through life obsessed with money and you're just, your biggest goal is just to see how much money you can make. I'm talking about going through life living as a humble servant of God, going to church, reading your Bible, praying to the Lord, following Christ, following his commandments, living a clean, decent, moral life. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about anything crazy. I'm up here just talking about the same Christian life that everybody who has been living for centuries that has been following Christ. That's what I'm talking about. And you know, you say, well, it sounds boring. You know what? That just means that maybe you're a boring person. For you, the only way to have excitement is to pump chemicals into your body. You know, you can't somehow enjoy life with the same person for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. So you have to just keep switching women, you know, or switching men or whatever. You know what? There's something wrong with you. There's nothing wrong with the Christian life. And you young people, don't ever for one second think that somehow God's rules are holding you back from all this fun in life or that somehow, you know, you kids that are raised in a Christian home and your parents try to shelter you from some of this stuff, you're not missing out, okay? And you say, oh, man, I wish I could just go to public school and just live a normal life, right? And you know, whenever I hear that, it always makes me think of what it says in 1 Samuel 8 where the children of Israel are like, hey, give us a king so that we can be like the other nations. Give us a king so that we can be like the other nations. You know what? We're not like the other nations. The Bible says that we're a chosen generation. We're a royal priesthood. We're a peculiar people. We as Christians are special. And so why would we want to be downgraded to being just like everybody else? But this is how teenagers think. They say like, well, you know, normal people, these are normal people do I don't care what normal people do because I'm not normal. You're not normal. We're Christian. We're saved. We are special. We are children of the king. We are ambassadors for Christ. We're not normal. And what does that mean? Why would you want to be normal? Look, today, you know what's normal today? What's normal today is for children to not be living with both of their biological parents. That is normal. That's more than half of America now. That's normal. So now I guess I guess we're abnormal, you know, because we live in a nuclear family with mom, biological mom, biological dad, biological children living together on the same roof. Wow. But no, no, no, we got to be normal. So what's normal sin? Living a life of sin. What's normal? Drinking is normal. Fornication is normal. Adultery is normal. Abortion is normal, right? No, those it's not normal. It's sin. It's wrong. It's wickedness is normal. Well, it's normal because man is a sinful creature because we all have a sinful human nature, because we're living in a fallen world because we're in a fallen state of humanity here. And then it's like, well, we just want to be normal. We just want to be like everybody else. I don't. I want to be special. I want to be different. I want to be a peculiar treasure. I want to be one of God's chosen people. That's what I want. And so why would I want to just fit in with a world that's failing today and with people that are failing? Don't buy into this attitude that says, well, you know, why can't we just be normal? Why can't we go to a normal church? Why can't we have a normal family? What does a normal church look like? What's a normal church? Normal lights and skinny jeans on the pastor. Is that what's normal? What's a normal church? Five Bible verses per sermon and they're from five different Bible versions because he has to pick and choose which version makes his point at that particular moment. So we will do one from the ESV, one from the NIH. Is that normal? I mean, what's, what's normal? An hour and a half of music and a 10 minute sermon about something that we all know already that we've already heard a bazillion times. Folks, we're not trying to be, I'll tell you what norm, you want to know what's normal. What's normal is a church that doesn't do any mission strips this style that we do. Those missions trips aren't normal. You know, if you were here for the missions conference, none, nothing you were at full disclosure, nothing at the missions conference was normal because the normal, the normal church does virtually no soul winning. That's what's normal. Normal is no soul winning. Normal is we go on a mission strip, we build a house for poor people and we call it a day. Okay. You want to know, it doesn't matter what normal is. You know, what's funny is I'm studying the Bible and I can't find any verses about being normal. Yeah. I can't find the verse that be thou normal. You know, why should this thou be abnormal? I can't find any of these verses. You know, but what I do find is the Bible saying that we should not be conformed to this world, but that we should be transformed by the renewing of our mind. So don't be conformed to this world. You know, that sounds like to me, don't just be normal, be different, be a cut above. I'm not trying to be average, I'm trying to be above average. Now why shouldn't I be above average when I have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside me and other people don't? Shouldn't that make me look, look, shouldn't having the Holy Spirit inside me make me live a better life than people who don't have the Holy Spirit? Like is the Holy Spirit making you live a better life or a worse life? I mean it would stand to reason that being indwelled by the Holy Spirit should benefit me spiritually. After all, his name is the Holy Spirit and if he's dwelling inside of me as a saved Christian influencing me and then I were to just live exactly like people who don't have the Holy Spirit, you know what that means? I must really suck because that's like, that's like me with the Holy Spirit and I can barely keep up with unsaved people. Think about it like, so, so Steven Anderson plus the Holy Spirit equals unsaved guy without the Holy Spirit who's a pretty good guy. That's pretty sad that I would need the Holy Spirit even just to catch up to unsaved people. The whole point is that the Holy, having the Holy Spirit inside of us is a big help. Not only that, but my own personal spirit has been transformed the moment I got saved. So if I've got a transformed spirit and I got the Holy Spirit living inside of me, man, I should be doing a lot better morally and spiritually than the average person in this world. And if I'm not, then shame on me, right? And so I'm not trying to be normal. We need to understand that we're saved. We've got the Holy Spirit. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard and not just want to be just like the people out there. And look, I'm not saying to look down on other people. I'm saying let's reach out to those people and get them saved so they can get the Holy Spirit too. And there's a difference between going through life not looking down on people and looking up to people that are morally bankrupt and saying, oh, I just wish I could be like this person. And that's what Asaph did. And when Asaph thought that way for a minute, you know what he said? He said, I was being like a beast. I was being a total idiot. I was being a fool. When I envied the foolish, when I got the wisdom of God right here in the Bible and I'm envying the foolish, he said, man, I'm such an idiot. I can't even believe I thought that I'm going to write a song about it so everybody can know my stupid thought. But you want to know why he wrote that song so everybody could know about that stupid thought was because he knew if I'm having this stupid thought, I bet a bunch of other people are thinking the same thing. And I'm glad that he wrote it down because I'm glad that this chapter in the Bible is there for us to relate to when we start having that stupid thought. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. And Lord, we thank you that you have shown unto us a more excellent way to live our lives. Help us not to be deceived by the worldly lifestyle and the seeking after riches and alcohol and fornication and the partying life, Lord. Help us not to be fooled by that facade. Help us to realize that all the pain and suffering that we go through as Christians, unsaved people are going through the same types of pain and suffering. But the difference is that we have the consolation of Christ and they don't. And Lord, help us to share that message of Christ with as many people as we possibly can. Help us to preach the gospel to every creature so that people can be saved and so that we can pull them out of the fire, yes, but also pull them out of a life of vanity and meaninglessness. And it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen, let's take our hymnals, please, and go to hymn number 472. Hymn number 472, this is my Father's world. Hymn number 472. Singing on that first verse together, hymn number 472, lift it up now. This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears all nature sings and proudly rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father's world, I'm resting in the thaw of rocks and trees of skies and sea This is my Father's world, the birds, their carols raise, the morning light, the lily wife declare their maker's praise. In all that's fair, in a rustling blast I hear him ask, he speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father's world, oh let me ne'er forget that though the rocks we top so strong God is the ruler yet, this is my Father's world, the battle is not done, Jesus, tonight shall be satisfied and heard and heaven be won. Brother Ramon is out there setting up for the picture right now. So if we could just take a quick picture let's all head out there this way and we'll do that right now.