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In Matthew chapter 6, the part that I want to focus on is the latter part of the chapter, but really this whole chapter deals with the subject that I want to preach about, and that's faith. Living a life of faith, living by faith, and he starts out in the chapter talking a lot about prayer. And then he goes into this dissertation on how we don't need to lay up treasures for ourselves upon earth. Look at verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And then if you jump down, he says in verse 25, Therefore I say to you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. And he's basically telling us to trust in the Lord, to take care of us, to provide for us. And then the famous verse in verse 33 says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And then he says, take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So if we're going to talk about living by faith, first of all we have to know what is faith. Faith is the same as our word believe. Believe is the verb, faith is the noun. And so basically it's believing. Now where should our faith be based? According to the Bible, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So if we're going to live by faith, that means we have to have something that the Bible tells us, some promise of God, where he's telling us that he's going to provide for us, he's going to do something for us, and then we believe that promise, and then we act accordingly, that would be living by faith. God told us something, we believe what he said, and therefore we live our life based upon that. Now here he's talking about the fact that God is going to provide for our physical needs. He said, look, behold the flowers of the field. He said, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. He said, if God so clothed the grass of the field, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? And today we need to realize that in 2009, even though maybe the economy's bad, things are uncertain, I don't think anybody's job is really certain right now, unless you're working for the government, you know, because they're just getting bigger all the time. But if you have an actual job in the private sector, you know, nobody has job security right now. A lot of people are in debt right now, a lot of people are having problems with their house, they're having problems with getting cut hours at their job, a lot of people are struggling to make it, but God said that he will take care of us. He said that he's going to provide, he said he's going to give us clothing and food and drink, and that we shouldn't worry about it. He said take no thought for tomorrow, he said don't even give one moment of your time to sitting around worrying, what are we going to do a year from now, or what's it going to be like six months from now? You don't know what a day is going to bring forth. So why worry about something off in the distance? He says take no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Is God clothing you today? Is he feeding you today? You just have to believe God that he's going to do it tomorrow. Now, a lot of people today, they don't have children, because they say, oh man, you know, it's just another mouth to feed, right? And they say, or they won't get married, because they say, oh, I don't think I can afford to get married, I don't know if I'm going to be able to pay the bills, and then they get married and say, well, I can't afford to have kids, I don't know if I'm going to have what it takes to feed another mouth, and all the cost of giving birth, and the diapers, and all that sort of thing. But let me tell you something, I never could afford it when I got married, I mean, there's no way, but you know, no one can anticipate how much it really costs to get married, right? No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, you know, when you get married, it costs a lot of money. But I couldn't afford to get married when I got married. Having children in today's world costs a lot of money. And yet I couldn't afford it when my wife became pregnant with our first child, or the second child, I definitely couldn't afford it then, the third child, couldn't afford it, the fourth child couldn't afford it, the fifth child, I kind of afforded it, thank God, honestly. But the first four, I mean, it was a step of faith to just obey God, to do what God has commanded us to do, to just live my life and not sit there and wonder, hey, I'm barely scraping by with three children, how am I going to do with four? Or I'm barely scraping by just married, how am I going to bring a child to this world? God has commanded us not to worry about it, but to just believe Him that He will provide, He's going to take care of us. You see, people in this world who provide for themselves and they have their big bank account and they lay up all these treasures and all this money, they think that that's going to be some kind of a safety net for them, that no matter what happens, they're going to be okay. And yet today we see people's savings disappearing. You don't know what a day is going to bring forth. You could lose all your money tomorrow. I mean, if God wanted to take it away from you, no matter how much money you have, He could take it away from you tomorrow. He could cause some medical catastrophe, some business catastrophe, some natural disaster that would cause you to lose all your money in a moment. My faith has found a resting place not in device or creed. I trust the ever-living ones. His wounds for me shall flee. I'm not going to sit there and put all my hope in some number on a piece of paper in a bank somewhere and say that is where my faith is. That's how I know that I can have children. That's how I know that I can support my family. That's how I know that I can serve God and do what I need to know. I'm trusting in God to do it. I mean, I've had so many upheavals in my job over the past couple of years. I mean, just massive upheavals, just losing customers. And it seems like it's this roller coaster. Things are going great and they're going horrible. And look, if I thought that it was up to me to have to provide for myself, that would be pretty stressful. But if I know that God's going to take care of me because I'm doing what's right, I'm seeking the kingdom of God first, I know that God is going to step in and take care of me, that's a load off my mind. I'm not saying I'm going to sit around and go pray it down. I'm not going to pray money out of the sky. But what I'm saying is, if I go out and work hard and work my fingers to the bone and then get on my knees and say, give us this day our daily bread, hey, I believe that God will provide because that's what He promised to do in this chapter. He said earlier in the chapter, give us this day our daily bread. He didn't say give me the bread for the next year so I can store it up somewhere. He said, give us this day our daily bread and tomorrow God will feed us tomorrow when we ask Him tomorrow. And He's saying here that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be added to us. Food and raiment, we'll be clothed, we'll be okay. Now look at Philippians, about halfway through the New Testament. Philippians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Look at Philippians chapter 4. Because I'm going to make a lot of different cases with this. We're talking about living by faith. Not having to always see it in front of your eyes and saying, oh, well, I have this much money in the bank so I know I'm okay for the next five years or two years or one year. That's not faith. We're talking about relying upon God to provide your needs, okay? Look at Philippians chapter 4 and look at verse 6. Be careful for nothing. Careful means you have all these cares, you have all these worries, that's what He said. Be careful for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. You don't have to turn there. But in 1 John chapter 5 it says, and this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that He heareth whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire, doesn't it? And so what the Bible's teaching here is that if you have a problem, if you're short on money, you don't have a job, things are going back, He's saying that you need to get on your knees and pray to God, with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, be thankful for what you do have, let your requests be made known unto God, tell God what you need, and then He says, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Then you stop worrying. You don't pray and then bite your fingernails and worry about it. He's saying, pray that God will provide your physical need of food and clothing, and then He said, then just go on with your life. And don't worry about it, because you know that God heard you, you know that God will answer you, you know that God's going to take care of you. And the opposite of living by faith is taking things into your own hands, violating the scripture for a temporary gain, okay? Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and believing that those things will be added unto you. Now stop and think about this. If you believe that verse that says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. If you believe that, then you'll put God first, because you want to make it in today's world. You know, you want to survive financially, you want to have God's provision. But if you don't believe that, then what you're going to do is say, well, you know what, church is going to have to take the back seat right now, soul winning is going to have to take the back seat, because I just have to do what I have to do financially. That's not living by faith. I just have to go do it myself. Seek first the kingdom of God. And if you will, God's promise to provide. But wait a minute, what if you don't seek God first? Is He really promising to provide? No. I mean, if you're going to go out and put everybody else first, He might not provide for you. If you're going to put Him on the back burner and forget church. And let me tell you something. If I were you right now, in this world that we're living in of uncertainty, now is the time that Americans need to get on their knees and beg God to provide, to give them safety, to take care of them, because we are living in perilous times. We're living in uncertain times. And instead of sitting there, oh man, I've got to get with a different stockbroker, a different banker. Oh, I'm going to have to work on Sundays. I'm going to have to work through church to make extra money. That little bit of extra money that you're going to make by working through church is exactly what God could have given you anyway if you would seek first the kingdom of God. You say, oh well, I'm going to take this job and I'm going to serve alcohol to people for a job. I'm going to become a bartender. I'm going to work somewhere and I'm going to mix drinks and serve people alcohol because that's the only job I can get right now that pays enough money. Is that seeking first the kingdom of God? Is that really what God desires for your life as a child of God, to be serving alcohol to people? Stop and think about that. Is it really God's will for you to have a job that's making you miss all this church, not be able to go soul winning? Do you really think that that's what God intends for you? That God's up in heaven saying, that's what I want you to do right now. I want you to get a job where you miss a bunch of church. But see, the people who do that are the ones who are saying, I don't believe God can provide for me. I don't think God can take care of me. I don't think God's going to sustain me. And they'll take a job doing something dishonest. Or they'll take a job doing something that takes them out of church, takes them away from what's right. I've seen it before many times where people will take a job, like for example, being a flight attendant. Take a job being a flight attendant. Serving liquor all day and missing church about 60% of the time. You know what I mean? Because you're flying all over, you're missing all kinds of church, you have no say over your schedule, you're pouring drinks for everybody. And I've watched that person's life go downhill. When they get out of church, when they start hanging around with a bunch of sodomites. Come on, have you ever flown on a plane before? Isn't there always at least one sodomite that's deserving? I mean, it's true. I mean, you get on the airplane, and you thank God when the stewardesses are all women. Because usually when it's a man, half the time it's a queer. Now, thank God for manly flight attendants. But they're few and far between. One time my mom was on an airplane, and she saw this guy pull a $20 bill out, and give it to the flight attendant, and say, hey, this is just for being a man. And he gave him a $20 tip, just for being a man. Because there were a couple of queers that were serving on a plane. And so, you have to think about these things, and say, wait a minute, am I making a decision based upon money? Based upon what's financially expedient? Or am I basing it upon what I think God wants me to do with my life? So, I have to think about that. Because if you're living by faith, you put Him first, and let the chips fall where they may. For example, some people will take a job transfer, they'll move them somewhere, and they don't even know if there's a good church where they're being moved to. Now, is that really putting the Kingdom of God first? If they're in a good church, a soul winning church, a church that's preaching the Bible, and then they just randomly take a job transfer that's going to put them somewhere, and they don't even know if there's a good church there. And by the way, there are a lot of places in this country where there is no King James only, soul winning Baptist church. It's true. I can name for you major cities that have no church that even meets the minimum criteria of being King James only, and preaching salvation by grace through faith, and having some kind of soul winning. I can name you cities that don't have that available. And yet people will just say, well, I have to move here for my job. You know, I would decide first what church before I decided what job. I'd decide, you know, what church do I want to be a part of? Where am I going to serve God? Where does God want me to be than to just say, oh, well, this is where the money is, so that's where I'm going to go. That's not faith in God. And you know, things right now in Phoenix are probably not that good financially, let's face it. I mean, I don't know, it's probably not that good anywhere. But in Phoenix, I mean, things are probably one, it's probably one of the worst hit places, right? Financially from the whole recession or whatever, you know, downturn, whatever you want to call it. But wait a minute, I believe that God can provide for you better here if this is where you're supposed to be, if this is where you're at and you're serving God. I believe God can provide for you better here than if you go to where the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, and you move to some place where you don't even know if there's a good church just for the money. I would never move anywhere for the money. It's a bad move. Look at the people who did it in the Bible. You got a guy, you got Abraham, went down into Egypt because times were tough, and he went into sin. Isaac went down into Egypt, got into sin. You look at Ruth and Naomi, okay? The story of, not Ruth and Naomi, I'm sorry. Elimelech and Naomi moved to the land of the Moabites because of financial reasons. They ended up going there, staying way longer than they wanted to, their whole family was destroyed, they all died, and Naomi came back a beggar and poor. When she went there for financial reasons, she came back destitute and poor. She said, I went out full and I came back empty. Okay, that's what happens when you take things into your own hands, okay? Here's another person that took things into their own hands. Look at Genesis chapter 16. Genesis chapter number 16. So basically we have people saying, you know, I don't believe God can provide for me, so I'm going to go ahead and just, you know, move to this other place. I got to go get a job where I have to serve alcohol, or I'm going to go get a job that's going to cause me to miss a bunch of church, or I can't go soloing all these different things. But here's another area where somebody lacks in faith. Look at Genesis 16.1. It says, Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. Now is that true or false? Absolutely that's true. Because God is the one who opens and closes the womb, according to the Bible. She said, The Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid, that it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai, and Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar of her maid, the Egyptian after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. Now wait a minute. She even is acknowledging the fact that God is the one who has restrained her from bearing. But then she says, But we need to have children anyway. I want to have a child anyway, so go ahead and just go in unto my maid Hagar, and basically sleep with her, and then the child will be our child. We'll raise him. Now this is a pretty wicked sin. It's adultery, right? She's basically telling her husband to commit adultery. Why? Because she didn't have the faith to believe what God had already promised Abraham, when God promised him that he would give him a child, that he would make his descendants be like the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sandwiches by the sea shore innumerable. But she, instead of that, says, Well, we're just going to do this ourselves. We're just going to take this into our own hands, and we're just going to make this happen. People are doing the same thing today. They don't have faith in God. Look at Genesis 25. Genesis chapter 25. It says in verse number 20. Genesis chapter 25, verse 20, the Bible reads, And Isaac was forty years old, when he took Rebekah the wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. So here we got a guy. He gets married when he's forty years old. Now that might seem kind of late, but you know, some of you guys are on your way there. The way you guys are going. The way I see you guys going. But anyway, it says he was forty years old when he got married. And it says his wife was barren. So she could not have children. But obviously they wanted to have children. And so he prayed to God and asked God to step in and cause his wife to conceive. And the Bible says, And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. Now that sounds pretty fast if you look at that one verse, verse 21. Because he says, The Lord entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. Sounds pretty fast, right? But look at verse 26. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. So Jacob and Esau were basically born twins. And Isaac was three score years old when she buried him. So how long was it from the time that he got married and started praying that his wife would have a child until she had the child? Twenty years. So when Isaac got married, he was already 40. And he started praying because his wife was not getting pregnant. He started praying, he was praying to God, praying to God. By the time he's 60 is when she has twins. So he had to wait 20 years for God to answer his prayer. And we just read over real fast and just say, Oh yeah, he prayed, boom, God gave it to him, done. No, he prayed for 20 years. And yet today people don't have that kind of faith to believe that God will eventually answer their prayer, that eventually God will give them the desires of their heart. They say, no, I prayed for six months and it didn't happen, so I'm just going to take it into my own hands. It's the same thing today. For example, people today have the same problem. And increasingly women are having this problem today because a lot of the unhealthy diet is part of it and a lot of the chemicals and things that people ingest. Infertility is at its highest point in history right now, in America. More people are barren and unable to have children than have ever been in the history of the United States. And this is what they do. They maybe try to have a child for six months, a year, two years, and then they say, Oh, this isn't working. And then they go to the doctor and they do these wicked process. And I'm going to tell you something, it's wicked. In vitro fertilization, IVF. You say, oh, that's my friend, my brother, my sister. I don't care if your mama had you with IVF. It's wrong. It's a sin. IVF is a disgusting process. And let me tell you something. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. Amen, right? But wait a minute. This perversion of nature causes a virgin to give birth. Did you know that? IVF, there's no man and a woman coming together to make a child as God intended. The beautiful creation of God where a man and woman lie with each other and she conceives and they have a child. That whole beautiful process is completely taken out. And IVF is where they make a child in a laboratory where they take the seed from the man and the acorn one. And sometimes the man and woman have never even known each other. I mean, women will go in and just get some random seed from a man and they'll just mix it up into petri dish. But they have to make like 40 of them because most of them are going to die because that's not the way God intended. So they'll sit there and make 40 embryos. They'll make 40 little human, you know, blastocysts and they'll make 40 of them and then most of them die off. You know, and then they'll inject maybe five or two or whatever and, you know, maybe 20% of them will live of the ones they inject. So, you know, you basically create like 40 so that one or two can live or three or four can live. And you say, oh, your numbers are wrong. Who cares what the numbers are? You're perverting nature. You're perverting God's Word. I mean, God has created a plan for a man and a woman to be joined together in marriage and to produce children, not for some doctor somewhere in a laboratory, to make children between people who've never even met. And these are the sick things that are going on today. I read in the newspaper that a man went to Iraq and fought in the war in Iraq, or it's not even a war, it's the conflict in Iraq, you know, since our Congress has not declared war on anyone since World War II. But, you know, this Iraq conflict, he died over there and his wife is having his children years later because they basically took the seed from this man and froze it, okay, and preserved it. And this guy is having children after he's already dead. I mean, see how people have taken God's plan, God's life, and just twisted it and perverted it and corrupted it and do these kind of sick things where somebody is having children after they're dead for years and years to come? And this woman had two kids by this guy years after he'd already been dead. Oh, that's cool. That's not cool. That's twisted. That's twisting God's plan. God intended for men and women to come together to produce children in marriage, not making children outside of marriage. The Sodomites are making children this way now and it's all this perversion of nature and then Christians will go down there and do it because they prayed for a year and a half and couldn't have a child. Why don't you get some faith like Abraham? Why don't you get some faith like Isaac and get on your knees and pray to God that God will answer your prayer instead of going to the doctor and saying, oh, you know, make me a child in the Petri dish? And you say, oh, I don't see what's wrong with it. You don't see what's wrong with survival of the fittest where they make 40 blastocysts and basically only the strongest 15% can even survive being on the kitchen counter because they're designed to be in the womb. And yet today, Christians will go along with this because they have no faith. Because they have no faith. What they ought to be doing is praying. Pray. You see, you say, oh, well, you know, science is that God gave us this wonderful gift of science. God didn't give us the science for children to be born of a virgin. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin by the miracle of God and Satan is trying to counterfeit that in a laboratory. All these virgin-born children, you know, through science, through a false wonder of, you know, making a child. It's not of God. It's not designed by God. You know, the Antichrist is one day coming. He'll probably be born of a virgin too because he'll probably be made in a laboratory somewhere through IVF. And so it's sick. It's vile, it's wrong. And the children of God are going to the world and using these kind of technologies because they don't have the faith in God to wait 20 years, to wait 15 years, to wait 10 years. They just run down to the doctor and say, oh, doctor, you know, fixed my problem. Instead of saying, oh, God fixed my problem. Oh, God take care of me. Now, I'm not saying that the doctor is wrong. The Bible says they to be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. So if you have a sickness, you may need to go to the doctor. But if you're well, you don't need the doctor, okay? What you need to do is pray. And so here's a man who had the faith of God to wait on the Lord for God to answer his prayer. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament. Hebrews chapter number 11. Let me tell you a story about somebody that I know who did IVF. Here's a Christian couple, okay, tried to have children for two years, couldn't have children. Of course, his wife had been on birth control for like four years before that. And obviously, they say that you have to try for at least as long as you were on birth control because it messes up your body so much that you have to get your body back to normal. You have to metabolize all that birth control. And so basically, his wife was on birth control for several years. Then all of a sudden, now that they've been telling God, you know, no, we don't want to have children. You know, we're just going to do it our way and take all this birth control and whatever. Then all of a sudden, okay, God, now we're ready to have a child. They just expect God to just like turn on a dime. Oh, oh, you're ready for me to make a child now? Oh, okay. When they've been sitting there taking these pills and damaging their body to prevent them from having a child, well, then they try for two years only and say, oh, we can't have children. They go and do this perverted process of IVF. All kinds of embryos are biting the dust all along the way. Let me tell you something, life begins at conception. It's murder. It's murder when they look at one and it's not developing properly. Oh, just throw it away. That one's no good. It's not developing fast enough. It's a little slower growth. Throw it away. That's what they do. So they sit there and they go through this sick process of IVF, right? And then they had children through IVF and then they had more children through IVF, right? And then guess what happened? His wife just became pregnant, naturally. After having three kids through IVF, his wife just naturally became pregnant. So do you think maybe she should have just waited on God, waited on the Lord, instead of taking it at his own hands? God answered his prayer. He just answered his prayer a little bit later than he expected God to answer his prayer. And so his wife had a child naturally after he'd already gone through this perverted process. Now they had four children. They only wanted three, okay? Now they had four. Now his wife's on birth control to stop her from having kids. So first his wife can't have kids. He's begging God, Oh God, give me a child. Oh God, give me a child. Doesn't have the faith to believe that prayer. Goes out and takes it into his own hand, goes to the world and does this sick process. Then he's having too many kids. God's answered his prayer too much and he's got his wife on birth control to stop her from having kids. Now is that just madness? But that's the world we live in. Either women are taking something not to have kids or they're taking something to have kids. Why don't they just believe God? Why don't they just do what God said and get on their knees and pray to God that God will bless them with children? And by the way, children are a blessing from God. It's not just another mouth to feed. And look, I've got seven mouths to feed in my house. And you'd be surprised how much these kids eat. I mean, I'm serious. These kids, when they get to be the age of Solomon and Isaac and John, they're eating almost an adult portion in many cases. I mean, you can't just give them a couple of french fries to nibble on or something. You'd have to order them a whole meal. My brother-in-law said to get to the point where each of his kids eats a whole pizza. It's like, eventually it gets to that point where you're feeding a lot of mouths. And these kids are gonna be in my house for another 10, 20 years, right? The youngest ones are gonna be in here for another 18 years. The oldest are 10 years minimum. I don't know what's gonna happen in the next 10 years financially, but I'm gonna be feeding these seven mouths minimum for the next how many years? Where's the money gonna come from? From God. And so you've gotta have the faith in a society that says, oh, you can only afford one child. You can afford two children. You gotta have the faith to say, you know what? However many children God blesses me with, I'm gonna praise God for it. I'm gonna thank God for it. If God gives me five kids, I'll praise God for it. If he gives me 10, I'll praise God even more for it. Instead of saying, oh, I don't know if I can afford it. I don't know how I can feed him. I don't know if I can handle it. God, if he gives you the blessing, he'll give you the wherewithal, the ability to handle it. And yet people today look at it as, oh, it's a burden. I'm gonna take a pill so that I don't have kids because I don't have the faith that God's gonna be able to pay the bill. And then they pump themselves full of all these harmful drugs and then all of a sudden, okay, now, God, I'm ready to have a kid now. And then it's not happening because they've already damaged their bodies to the point where it's difficult for them to have children. And then they pray and thank God and then God doesn't answer them fast enough. So then they go out and take it into their own hands to wicked science. And look, science is wicked right now. I mean, there's a lot of weird things going on in science. Modifying genetically, they want to genetically modify humans, genetically modify food, genetically modify animals. They were doing experiments I read about this week trying to combine animals and humans, genetically trying to combine and clone and do all these weird things. And I mean, it's sick. And Christians today will go to that world and say, oh, help me have kids because God can't hear me. God won't answer me. God won't listen to my prayer. So I'm gonna go to the doctor even though the Lord has restrained me from bearing. I'm gonna go to the man to help me bear. Look at Acts 27, are we in Hebrews 11? Look at this key verse in Hebrews 11. This is the faith chapter. And this verse is only correct in the King James Bible. And I'll show you what these modern phony Bibles have changed it to. But it says in Hebrews 11, 11. It says, through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was deliberate of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithfully and promised. Now this is a great verse. There's a lot of things you can learn from this verse. Number one, conception is when the seed hits the egg, according to this verse. Because it says, she, that's the woman, conceived seed. People are trying to change this definition today in science and say that, oh, conception is when it implants into the uterus two weeks later. No, according to the Bible, get your definition right, conception is when the seed is there. When the seed comes in as a woman, that's when conception takes place. That's what you learn from this verse, number one. Number two, the Bible says that to conceive is to be with child, according to Matthew 1.23 and Isaiah 7.14. So life begins at conception, and conception is when the seed hits the egg, according to the Bible. What else can we learn from this verse? It says, through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed. There, according to the Bible, a woman who has faith in God and prays to God, will be able to conceive a child through faith. Is that what that says? Through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful, who had promised. Now let me show you what the non-inspired version says, the NIV. These modern Bibles, you say, oh, they're easier to understand. So is Dr. Seuss, hop on pop, is it God's work? Is it the Bible? Listen to this, Hebrews 11.11 in the NIV. You say, oh, it's the same thing, it just takes out the D's and the Vows. Okay, well, let's see if it's the same thing. Hebrews 11.11, by faith Abraham. Now, do you notice a difference so far? different person, Sarah now it's Abraham. Listen to this, and tell me if you think it's easier to understand either. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age, hyphen, and Sarah herself was barren, was enabled to become a father, because he considered him faithful, who had made the promise. Do you see how dramatically different that is? So now Abraham's the one with the faith, and then at the bottom it has a little note, or Sarah, or, and on and on. So it's basically, so now Abraham, he's able to become a father, even though his wife Sarah's barren, because he had the faith. See how they just twist it around? No conceived seed, which is the one verse of the Bible that makes that clear. Nothing about the woman's faith, praying to God, that she would have a child. Just changing it, just twisting it. Just changing God's, and you say, oh, they're not at each five. No, it's garbage. And so we see here that Sarah had a child, because she judged him faithful to a promise. The Bible says, when you pray, he said, pray believing, and you'll receive what you ask for. You have to believe God when you pray. Look at Acts 27, 25. So a lot of people talk about living by faith, but then it's like they don't understand what it means, because you know what living by faith is? It's taking the promises of God's word, because faith cometh by hearing, and you hear it by the word of God. Taking the promises of God's word, and saying, I believe that's true, and therefore I'm gonna act accordingly. Because I believe that if I seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, God will take care of me. That's gonna be first place. Making money is gonna take second place, because I know that making money will make me money, but you know what? That doesn't necessarily mean God's gonna bless me, whereas if I seek first the kingdom of God, I'm at a boat. And you say, well, it's easy for you to say, you're a pastor. I don't take a paycheck from church. I work just like you do. I don't get paid to be here. Just like you're here, I'm here. Just like you go soloing, I go soloing. I work with my hands and by the sweat of my face to pay the bills just like you do. But I believe that church is a priority. That's why I don't miss church for work. That's why in the last four years of pastoring, I've never missed church to go to work in the last four years. I've literally sometimes had to drive all night to be here when I missed a flight, or when the flight was canceled, rather. I've had to buy a flight for several hundred dollars just to be here, because that's how it was important to me, because I said, you know what? Yes, it's gonna hurt my bottom line to be back on Wednesday or to be back on Sunday, but I gotta put God first if I want him to bless me. I have to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Look at verse 25 of Acts 27. Acts 27, 25, actually look at, let's go ahead and just read the whole story real quick. In verse number 20, it says, and when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. You hear that? I mean, there is no hope in this situation. This is when Paul is on a ship going to Rome, and the storm is so bad, he said, there was no hope for us to be saved. We were done. It was over. But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me, howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. And again, that's exactly what happened. They ended up being saved. But look at that verse. He said, I believe God, and what does it mean to have faith in God? That it shall be even as it was told me. That's what living by faith is. What did God tell you? If you believe that it's gonna be just so, that's faith. God said, if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you, food and raiment, clothing, shelter. He said, do you believe that? Then act like it. That's what living by faith is. When he says, the just shall live by faith. When he says, we live from faith to faith. When he said, have faith in God. He's saying, God has promised to provide for you. So why don't you put God first, church first, soul winning first, and then go out and work hard, work your fingers to the bone. And if God doesn't provide for you, then he's a liar. David said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. God promised to feed us and to clothe us. And if you don't believe that, he said, you have little faith. And so you don't have to worry about the economy. You don't have to worry about all the bad things. Oh man, I got to buy all this gold and buy all this food and stockpile it. And look, if you want to stockpile food, go ahead. But you know what? I'm not stockpiling a bunch of gold and food, because I believe God's going to feed me every day. That's what I believe. Because I believe God, that it's going to be even as he told me. And so I'm not worried about providing future security and all these things. Well, I got to have a backup plan. You know, women who are married are told by their unbelieving sisters and mothers and cousins and friends. This is what their unbelieving friends. Well, you still, you know, even though you're staying at home and taking care of the kids, you need to have a backup plan where, you know, you go get a college degree and you get your career and everything like that. You know, what if you and your husband get divorced? You know, divorce shouldn't even be an option. Why don't you just have faith in God and say it's till death do us part for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, and we're going to be in this till death. I don't need a backup plan in case I fail. Oh, in case I fail, I'm just going to have this career, you know, that I can fall back on. In case God doesn't take care of me, here's how I'm going to take care of myself. No, God's going to take care of me. You know, I'm just going to rely on God and trust in the Lord. He's the one who promised that he would take care of me. He promised that if I prayed, he'd answer my prayer. He said that if I pray unto him, my wife and I will be blessed with children. I don't need to go pervert nature to have a child. God blessed me with children. And I've known other people who thought that their wife could not have kids and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and God answered their prayer and they had a child. A lot of it has to do with poor health and bad eating anyway. That's another sermon of itself. But the bottom line is God can answer your prayer. You don't have to take things into your own hands. You don't have to go out and get a job that you believe is immoral in your heart. And some people think different things are wrong and right. There's some things that are clearly wrong. But you know what? Why would you go do a job that you don't feel right about? You feel like you're doing things that are wrong. You feel like you're violating God's laws. You know, when you're handing somebody an alcoholic beverage or whatever the case may be. You're a nurse and you're having to do things that are immoral or wrong or you have to lie working for a mortgage company or whatever you work for. Why don't you just decide, you know what? I'm not gonna break God's laws for financial gain. I'm not gonna miss church and miss solely. And by the way, guess what? One day all the money you earn's gonna crumble to dust and the only thing that's gonna last is the people that you want to glory. That's the only thing that's even gonna matter. One day you're gonna get to the end of it all and just say, you know, oh wow, my house was messed up, my finances were messed up, my car was messed up, my life was messed up, but look at all the people that God saved. Look at all the things I did for God. Look at all the sermons that I preached. Look at all the people that I won to the Lord. Look at all the people who were baptized. Look at all the lives that were changed. You're gonna praise God for it. Or you'd say, well man, I wish I would've gone to church more but I was too busy working. I wish I would've got soul anymore, but I was too tied up with the cares of this world. I wish I would've given more to God and given in my life and my time and my energy, but I was too busy trying to make sure that I had food and rain meant because, you know, come on, I gotta provide for my family or I'm worse than an infidel, but wait a minute, God's the one that's gonna provide for your family. Don't say, well I gotta provide, so here's what I have to do. Take abstinence from church. Take abstinence from soul anymore. You know what, you'll still probably fail financially and then you'll get to it all and have nothing to show for your life because you never got anybody saved, you didn't serve God, you didn't do anything worth it. I mean, this is something that we constantly have to remind ourselves of. Because we get caught up in this world, we get caught up in everything else and we forget what's important. And we forget to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And it's gotta come first. It's gotta be the first thing that I look at in my week. What time is church? That's the first thing I look at. This is when church is, so that's when I'm available to work. Here's when church is, that's when I'm available to do whatever with my family or go on vacation or take a trip or do anything. Everything should revolve around God, around reading the Bible, around church, around soul. That's what we should build our life upon. On that foundation of the rock and not on the shifting sands of everything else that matters to us in our life right now. You gotta make church a priority. You gotta have faith in God that he's the one who's gonna provide. And you gotta have faith in God when it comes to having children. And look, you that are young or single, you may not understand this. It takes faith to have a child. Because we don't have the prosperity in America that we once had. And today it is a leap of faith to give birth to that child. To have a second child, to have a third child. Because you're gonna be paying for that child for the next 18 years of, Dad, I'm hungry. Mom, I'm hungry. You take them out to eat and they're hungry. They need more, more, more. Food, feed me, feed me. And feed them, feed them. It takes a lot of money to feed these kids. Diapers, what are diapers? Like 25 cents each. And you change it and then five minutes later it's dirty again. There's another, it's like you're just putting money into like a coin. It's a change, a change, a change, a change. Every diaper you change, it's a change, a change, a change. That's why the world is having 1.8 children or 2.3 children today. Because they don't have a God that's gonna provide for them. Because they don't even believe in God. If we have God for us, if we believe the promises of God, we can live our lives, go to work, go to church, win souls, hey, get married. Oh, I don't know if I can afford to get married. You know what, when I got married, we were sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a twin mattress. A twin mattress for two people, okay? Who knows how big a twin mattress is? It's not even big enough for one person, okay? We were both sleeping in a twin mattress. We had two plates, two forks, two spoons, two knives, and two glasses, literally. That's what we had. I'm not exaggerating. You can ask my wife, it's the truth that I'm telling you. We had no couch, no dining room table, no sofa. We sat on the floor in India style and ate. Or we stood at the counter and ate. But you know what, we went soul winning every week. We went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. And we served God, we sat and read the Bible together. We had a Bible. We didn't have a TV, but we had a Bible. We didn't have cable, but we had a Bible. We didn't have satellite, but we had a Bible. We didn't have a DVD, but we had a Bible. We didn't have a computer at first, but we had a Bible. And we sat together, and you know what? We were happy, and we were praising God and living a joyful Christian life as newly married young people. And then when she got pregnant, I thought, we can't even feed ourselves. How are we gonna support a child? Well, we did it anyway by faith. And then my boss went up to me and said, you know what, I heard your wife's pregnant. He said, I'm gonna give you a raise just because your wife's pregnant. He said, I'm gonna give you a raise. He's like, I like a man who's having children. He said, he's like, that's a real man. He's like a man who can produce children. He's a real man, you know. He's like, here's a dollar an hour raise. Seriously. And ever since then, every time I had another child, God increased how much money I made. And I've never been rich. I've never had a bunch of money to throw around. I've always scraped by. But you know what? God always took care of me. God always provided for me. And you know, I thank God that back then, back then, I did what was right and did the soul winning, did the church, and put my tithes in the plate, my 10%, when I couldn't afford it. Because I thank God because I can look back and say, you know what, I put God first, and that's why he's taking care of me all the way until now. And so let me explain to you one thing before I close. When you don't put God first, when you put God on the back burner and take things into your own hands, like Sarah did at one point, before she had the faith, like Sarah did when she gave Hagar to her husband, when you take things into your own hands, like Saul did constantly, you're going into uncharted waters. Because you can't rely on God to take care of you anymore. And if you want to do it all yourself, then you go right ahead. If you want to try to make it in this world, in this economy, and you're going to provide your own way, you're going to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself, you know what, have fun with that. Go ahead. But you know what, I'd rather be trusting in the Lord right now, the way things are going. And say, you know what, I'm going to put God first so I can claim that promise. But you know what, you can't claim that promise if God is fifth on your list. Put him first. Put the kingdom of God first, put soul winning first, and then you can go to sleep tonight with the peace of God that passes all understanding, keeping your hearts and minds to Christ Jesus, because you know that you put him first. You can say God will take care of the rest. And that's a great feeling, my friend. People today are stressed. People today get ulcers, they get sick, they bite their fingernails, and they get all stressed out, they get all worked up. They get sick, they get upset, they're unhealthy because they're under all this stress and they can't take the pressure and the rat race. But you know what, there's peace when you say, I put God first, he'll take care of it. He'll take care of it. God's going to bless me. That's where you get peace in your life. That's where you can just sit back and relax and say, you know what, everything's going to be okay. And you can enjoy your day, you can rejoice in the Lord, you can be glad in the day that God's made, because you know that's going to be fine. Everything will be fine. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, please just help us to put this sermon into practice to God. It's a lot easier said than done. You know, we have bills, we have pressures, we struggle to make it, we wonder. Tomorrow looks bleaker than today, and we see people losing their jobs, we see people who can't find a job, and yet, Lord, you've promised that you'll take care of us, and that even when there was a famine all over the world in the Bible, it was always your people who were still fed and still provided for, even in the worst famines. And so God, in this famine that we're going through, economically, God, I just pray that you would just bless your people there, God, and keep us safe and strong, provide us with food and raiment. As you promised, it will keep you fresh. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, let's go ahead and sing one song before we go. Let's sing the song, Faith is the Victory, song number 410. All right, song number 410, let's sing it out. Faith is the Victory. Sing it out the first verse. Faith is the Victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. And then one thing I wanna mention just before we go, we're just gonna say a brief word of prayer because Aquila is having a health problem. She's going in tomorrow for a surgery, and so we're just gonna say a word of prayer for Aquila right now as a church. We're just gonna pray for you for your, it's tomorrow, right? Yeah. All right, we're gonna go ahead and pray right now. Father, please just bless Aquila, your God, as she's going through this difficult time, I just pray that you would please just help everything to go smoothly tomorrow, whatever your will to be, and that there'll be no further infections or anything, and that the doctors would not cause any harm to your God. I just pray that you would just please heal her body and get her through this, and we love you.