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is to hear in hearts, to understand your message, to be edified by the preaching, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. All right, it's great to be here tonight. It's always a blessing to be able to come and preach and fellowship with Faith Forward Baptist Church. I really consider it my home church away from my home church. And so happy to be here. And I wanna thank Pastor Anderson, of course, for inviting me to come. We had him come out last Thursday, and he was preaching at our church on the subject of Reuben, and so I know he's making his rounds and he's preaching through the 12 tribes there, so I'm looking forward to the next sermons that are coming up that he's gonna be preaching. But look down at your Bibles at 1 Samuel chapter 17. Of course, this is a very familiar story. Pretty much everyone knows this story, even people in the secular world. It's a very famous passage of scripture dealing with David versus Goliath. And I actually just got finished preaching through 1 Samuel 17 a couple weeks ago. And it's funny because my kids, every time I ask my wife, I always tell my wife, what should I preach on next? And I'm always like, do you have an idea? Do you read your Bible? I mean, what do you got for me? I need an idea of what you preach, you know? And then my kids are like, Dad, David versus Goliath. I'm like, well, everyone kinda knows that story already, you know? And so I was like, I'll preach that one day, and then every time I come up to my family, I'm like, what do you think I should preach on this? Do you have an idea what I should preach? My kids are like, David versus Goliath. It's like a no-brainer to them, right? So finally, I'm preaching through 1 Samuel, and I said, you know, hey, 17's coming up. You know what 17 is, David versus Goliath. So I got to preach through 1 Samuel 17, but I wanna give a different application tonight to the particular story that we see here in 1 Samuel 17. Look at verse number 48, if you would. It says here in verse 48, by the way, is this water? Is this my water? Okay, cool. All right, great. All right, look at verse 48. It says, and it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hastened and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took thence a stone and slang it and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David. And the title of my sermon this evening is Killing Two Birds With One Stone. Now I asked, John actually got me this stone here and I'm like, this is gonna kill a flock. This is not for two birds. This can kill like a whole mess of chickens like easily. And so I'm gonna put that right there. But the title of the sermon is Killing Two Birds With One Stone. Of course, that's a phrase that's commonly used to describe achieving two things or more with a single action. And I believe strongly that the Bible teaches a lot of principles in this regard that instead of working harder, although that's important, sometimes we just need to work smarter. And often God gives us a solution to kill two birds with one stone. And in fact, we have a story right here where a young man literally killed two birds with one stone. Look at verse 25, if you would. Of course, we know that the first bird that he killed is Goliath himself, right? And Goliath was a major reproach to Israel. He's mocking the God of the Bible. He's being a reproach to Saul and his armies. And he's very intimidating. He's just spending a lot of time mocking them and challenging them. And he's very intimidating to the Israelites. And of course, during this time, Saul's not right with God. At this point in the mind of God, he's already been replaced. Someone's already gonna take over for him. Of course, we know that that's gonna be David. And so Saul has a different disposition during this time. Because prior to this, he's very bold, he's very courageous, he's a strong leader. He was going down the right path. But now, because he's rebelled against the Lord, you kinda see that kinda manifest itself in his leadership because now he's not even fighting against Goliath. He's not as courageous, he's not as bold as he used to be. And you gotta think about it. Everything rises and falls on leadership. You see that because Saul's not stepping up to the plate to fight against Goliath, many of his soldiers aren't willing to step up either. So you know, during this time, instead of going to war, having one army go to war with another army, they would essentially pick the greatest fighter of each camp and have them fight together in order to spare shedding a whole lot of blood. And so they have a champion on their side, Goliath. And this guy's very intimidating, he's a giant. And no one is willing to go up against him. And of course, we have this young man by the name of David who is essentially just serving God. He's serving his father, he's just doing what his dad's telling him to do, bringing his brother some cheese and just kinda seeing how the war is going. And he's placed in this position where he sees this reproach and it really angers him. And he's kinda like, what's going on? Why isn't anybody fighting against this guy? He's blaspheming the name of God. Why isn't there anybody stepping up to fight against Goliath, okay? Of course, he ends up stepping up, he convinces Saul that he can fight against Goliath. And instead of using Saul's sword and his armor, he decides to go with a sling and five smooth stones. And we see, obviously, the rest of that is history. He comes up and they essentially confront one another, and he slings that stone and sinks into his forehead. And it's pretty epic, if you think about it, because after he kills him, after he slays him with a stone, he takes it a little step further, he chops off his head. So he decapitates Goliath and kinda parades his head around. I mean, he's basically this teenager walking around with a head around Israel, and even when he goes before Saul, he's kinda like bringing the head with him, you know what I mean? But if you think about it, why wouldn't he do that? It's a prize for him, it's a great accomplishment, and he's kinda just showing everyone, like, I'm the one who did this. And so it's a great story, and he took care of that one bird. But you ask yourself, well, what's the other thing that he did? Because you're talking about killing two birds with one stone. It sounds like he only killed one bird with that stone. What's the other thing that he achieved? Well, look at verse 25. It says, and the men of Israel said, have you seen this man that has come up? Surely to defy Israel is he come up. And it shall be that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. David spake to the man that stood by, saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine and take it away their reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? The people answering him after this man are saying, so shall he be done to the man that killeth, and I don't think David misheard. I think he's just like, wait, wait, hold on a second. What do they get if they defeat Goliath? So here's the other thing that he gets to accomplish or he gets to achieve is that Saul basically puts this out there and says, whoever's able to take down this giant, whoever's able to destroy Goliath and remove their reproach from Israel, number one, I'm gonna give you monetary gain, right? Enrich him with great riches. And then he says, and I'll even give you my daughter to wife. Now, if you read later on in the story, you know, Michal isn't necessarily a great reward, okay? Because, you know, she's not necessarily the best wife, and in fact, literally Saul, you know, because he hates David and wants David to die, he's like, I'm gonna give her, I'm gonna give him Michal, you know? And hopefully, you know, he falls or something and something bad happens to him. So even dad knew how bad Michal was. And he's just like, hopefully she'll be a stumbling block unto him. But he doesn't know that. And so, you know, he's thinking to himself, well, I get great riches, number one. I get myself a wife, number two. And then it says there that his family will become tax-free in the land. I mean, that's a great deal. So he's thinking to himself, all I have to do to be tax-free in the land, to get myself a wife and being rich with great riches has killed his philistine? Done. Say no more, say less. So what do we see here? We see that two birds are killed with one stone. The first bird is, obviously he removes the reproach from Israel, but number two, he also gets riches, he gets a wife, and he becomes tax-free in the land. And of course, along with that, he obtains a great reputation before Israel. Because really, this is kind of like the introduction today, but we obviously see him introduced earlier than this when he's anointed. However, when we see him actually going out and essentially exerting leadership skills and doing something for God, we see that in chapter 17. So he, in a sense, cements and solidifies that he is God's chosen man to take over after Saul. He's killing two birds with one stone. Look at verse 54, it says, and David took the head of the philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. I thought that was funny, you know, he's going there, he's like, oh, I forgot to put this away real quick. So he puts away his armor, but he's gonna keep the head, of course. And when Saul saw David go forth against the philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, as thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, inquire thou whose son this stripling is. And as David returned from the slaughter of the philistines, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant, Jesse the Bethlehemite. Now that can be kind of confusing because you kind of wonder like, well, isn't David already working for you? Wasn't he already playing the harp before you? Why are you asking whose son is this? But the reason he's asking that is because the reward is that they will become tax-free. His father's house shall become tax-free. So he's essentially asking, who's your dad? Because now you get this reward of not having to pay taxes in the land. It's a great story there showing us the principle that you can kill two birds with one stone. Go with me if you want to Proverbs chapter three. Proverbs chapter three, if you would. Two birds with one stone. Talk about the efficiency of the Christian life. Sometimes people can really over-complicate the Christian life, honestly. They view the Christian life as just like, oh man, there's so many do's and don'ts. I gotta go to church, I also gotta read my Bible, I also gotta pray, I also gotta go to someone. I also gotta just do all these things. And they see it more as a chore. The Bible talks about people who think that the commandments of God are grievous, and it's because of the fact that they view these commandments, they view these rules as just like a chore or something. And the reality is this, is that as complex as the Christian life may seem, you can be successful in the Christian life by simply executing a few tasks well, okay? You don't have to over-complicate things and just go through all the list of things you have to do as a Christian. If you can only do a couple of things well, you can succeed greatly in the Christian life. You can kill two birds with one stone. I mean, think about this. When we think about salvation, for example, the vast majority of the world thinks you have to obtain salvation by doing a lot of things. That you have to do works, you have to keep God's commandments, and then, well, okay, which commandments? Well, you gotta do the 10 commandments, and then you have Jesus' commandments, and you also gotta get baptized, and you gotta repent of your sins, and the list just goes on and on and on and on. And what is it? Well, they don't understand that they can kill two birds with one stone. By simply believing on Jesus Christ, they essentially take on the righteousness of God. He became sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, the Bible says. You know, a lot of people out there, they're ignorant of God's righteousness, because they're going about to establish their own righteousness, right? And they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. They wanna live righteous lives, and be holy, and try to be as good as possible. But you know, the Bible tells us, as it is written, there's none good, no, not one. There's none righteous, no, not one. And you know what? You take these pastors out there, and these preachers who are preaching that the hardest as far as works-based salvation, they often end up being some of the most wicked people on the face of the planet. I mean, Peterson's one of them, if you heard about that as of recently. And you know, people end up finding out that he's a full-blown sodomite. And you know, he's the guy who says, I don't sin. He's like, I don't sin. All the meanwhile, he's doing all this filth and perversion, and now he's exposed for being a filthy pervert. But obviously, you know, the Bible rings true, and people who often proclaim from the housetops that you gotta do works for salvation, that you cannot sin, you can't do X, Y, and Z, these people end up being the most rotten people on the face of the planet, okay? But people do this all the time. And you know, there's individuals who are not necessarily wicked individuals who believe that. They're just deceived by the wicked people. And they think, well, you know, don't we have to go to church? Don't we have to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Don't we have to do works? Don't we have to couple works with our faith? You know, don't we have to just kill all these birds? No, there's one stone that can take care of all those birds. Bible says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. I mean, think about this. There's people out there who literally believe, well, you gotta confess your sins every day. Right? I'm sure you run into them out soul-winning. You run into people who are just like, you know, you gotta confess your sins every single day. Folks, even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man to whom God impudeth righteousness without works, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. You can take care of that sin problem with one stone, and guess what? It's the stone which the builders rejected. Right? Jesus Christ himself can take care of that issue. Too many people out there are just trying to, you know, pick off all these birds of works and try to make themselves, you know, acceptable in the eyes of God, but folks, the Bible tells us that we're accepted in the beloved. We have to believe on Jesus Christ in order to be saved. Think about this, you know, mankind in general has the birds of death and hell. Right? Death and hell, hell in the lake of fire, but those can be taken care of by Jesus Christ himself. The stone which the builders rejected, if they just believe on him, whosoever believeth on him shall not be confounded. And so, you know, the world needs to realize that instead of trying to, you know, do works and keep God's commandments and keep the law, folks, the Bible tells us, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. You know, for by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. And yeah, theoretically, is it possible that if you can keep all of God's commandments and all of God's laws that you could be saved? Yes, but guess what? No one's able to do that. There's not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, the Bible says. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so we need the imputation of God's righteousness, you know, in order to be accepted in God's eyes, accepted in the beloved, we just have to believe on Jesus Christ. Here in Proverbs chapter three, we're gonna look at a couple of verses here, even in the book of Proverbs, that really teaches this concept of killing two birds with one stone. Salvation is efficient. Just do one thing and then you're accepted in the beloved. You don't have to worry about keeping God's commandments. You don't have to worry about doing all these works in order to be accepted by God for salvation. You just need that one stone. Look at Proverbs chapter three, verse one. Let's look at a couple of verses here. It says, my son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. Okay, so what is he talking about here? Well, this is Solomon speaking to his son, right? But it's written in such a way that when we read it, it's like God the Father speaking unto us, right? We obviously know Solomon is admonishing his son, but because he's inspired by the Holy Ghost and because the word of God is so perfect, we can read it in a sense where it's like God the Father speaking unto his children. So when we read this, we read this as God telling us, hey, don't forget my law. Make sure you keep my commandments. Make sure that you are understanding the word of God, that you're keeping those commandments. Look at verse two. What's the byproduct of that? For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. What do we see here? Two birds with one stone. A lot of people out there are trying to lengthen their days, and I'm not against eating healthy and doing all that, but you know what? Getting a long life, the best way to do it is by keeping God's commandments, because there's certain built-in blessings that come from just keeping God's commandments and not forgetting his law. A lot of people shorten the length of their life because of the sinful habits that they have. They're drinking alcohol. They're out there fornicating. They're doing things that are just not pleasing unto the Lord, but also just detrimental, not just spiritually, but also physically to their health, okay? You know, you have Christians out there who want to advocate for alcohol, right? They're just like, oh, you know, Jesus made wine, and Jesus turned water into wine, and alcohol's okay in moderation, just not in excess, and there's literally people out there that believe that who claim to be Christians. It's insane, and you know, I just went back and forth with this one guy online, this drunkard online, this winebibber, this wino online, who was literally, you know, he's just calling me out, and he's just saying that I'm just ridiculous, and that, you know, how can you say we can't drink alcohol? So many verses in the Bible that say that alcohol's a blessing, and that, you know, Jesus turned the water into wine, it's okay to drink in moderation, just not in excess, because when you drink in excess, then it becomes sinful, but it's not sinful if you do it in moderation, just all these cliche rhetoric of people who just want to justify their sin, basically what it is, right? And you know, one of the arguments that I just thought about when I was preaching against them, I just thought about this, you know, if alcohol's just not sinful at all, if it's just never sinful to drink alcohol, even a little bit, and if it's not detrimental to your health, even a little bit, then let's just give it to kids, right? If it's just always okay, just a little bit of whiskey, just a little bit of Jack Daniels, nothing sinful about it, okay, just give it to your kids then. Well, I mean, I don't wanna do it, why, it's not sinful. If it's not detrimental to your health, why wouldn't you? I'll tell you why, because it is wicked and it is sinful and it's bad for your health. Okay, how about this? Why don't you just give it to pregnant women? There's no level of alcohol that's ever good for a pregnant woman to have, right? It's always detrimental to their health. It can always destroy their health. It's always bad for them. It's bad for everyone. And you know what? The Bible never gives an age limit for alcohol consumption because no one should drink it whether you're a child or an adult. You stay away from it, period, okay? It's nonsense. And they're just like, oh, this pastry, so he's such a party pooper. And he expects us to believe that they're able to preserve wine in those days, juice, and so it wouldn't become alcoholic. Yeah, I mean, folks, you expect me to believe that they knew how to build pyramids, but they just don't know how to keep juice from fermenting? They can build aqueducts and pyramids, and they had all types of technologies, but how do we do this? I keep getting drunk. It's like back to the drawing board. And you know, anybody can tell you that it takes 12 to 14 weeks for the fermentation process to be completed. So you expect me to believe that as soon as they juice the grapes, they crush the grapes, they're just gonna wait for those 12 to 14 weeks. No one drank it between that period of time. It's just like, we squeeze it, don't touch it. What's in it? I don't know. We've never been able to figure that out. No one's been able to touch it ever. It's ridiculous. And you know what? He's like, we didn't have the modern technology. Folks, people today keep juice from fermenting without modern technology. They use caveman technology. Like what? Like boiling it. You can literally boil juice, which creates syrup, and keeps the juice from fermenting, okay? And there's so many other ways, but here's the thing is that, you say, well, why are they so adamant? Because they're alcoholics, that's why. And anybody who just loves sin will just figure out a way to justify it, okay? You say, well, what's the point you're trying to make with this? Well, I'm just frustrated with that whole thing, okay? I'm fitting it in somehow. What I'm saying is this, is that, and look, let me just say, you know, I challenged that guy, go get your liver checked out. You know? How is it that, you know, and I guarantee, this is what's really wicked about it, okay? This really ticks me off. Is that I guarantee you, there's hundreds of people that listen to this guy who actually struggle with alcohol. They probably are like recovering alcoholics, or they just struggle with drinking, but they see this guy just drinking alcohol and drinking whiskey, saying that it's just a blessing from God. I mean, what do you think is going through their minds? They're probably like, well, I'm not even fit to even handle God's blessing. Cause I can't, they can't have a little bit. It's wicked folks. But you know, when you understand the commandments of the Lord and what God says about particular things, you know, you can lengthen your days. You can have a long life. Hey kids, if you obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right, you can lengthen your life, okay? More than that keto diet and the carnivore diet, more than transhumanism. It's just by serving the Lord, obeying him, it could give you length of days. And by the way, it can give you peace. Bible says there for length of days and long life and peace shall they add unto thee. One stone can take care of all those birds. If you're worried about, oh man, how long am I gonna live? And what's gonna happen to me? And all this, you know, just serve God, keep his commandments, don't forget his law. And all these things can be added unto you. You can kill two birds with one stone. You can have the peace of God that passeth understanding, the Bible says, okay? You know, thou has kept him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, but he trusteth in thee. You know, by just serving God, a lot of these problems go away. Look at verse number three, it says, let not mercy and truth forsake thee. What is he talking about? You know, be a person, not just of integrity, but a person who loves the truth of God's word. But along with that, he says, mercy. What is he talking about? You know, be a kind and merciful person to other people. Show mercy and grace and loving kindness towards other people. He says this, bind them about thy neck and write them upon the table of thine heart. He says, make this a part of your life. May mercy and truth, and essentially what he's saying, because he's telling to bind it up around your neck, may it just guide you. May you be characterized as a merciful person who loves the truth. He says there, in verse four, so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man, the Bible says. Hey, if you wanna have a good relationship with God, but also a good relationship with your fellow man, be a merciful person who loves the truth. Everyone loves a merciful person. Who doesn't love someone who just cuts them a little bit of slack when they mess up, when they screw up, maybe when they make a mistake, and a person is just merciful towards you? We all need that. You know, and if we wanna obtain mercy, guess what, we have to be merciful too. You know, be merciful to that new Christian who's just not all put together yet. Okay, hey, be merciful to your spouse who isn't growing as fast as you are in the faith. Be gracious to your spouse. Be gracious and merciful to your children, just as you would want God to be merciful to you as his child as well. Why, because at that point you'll find favor with God, but you'll also find favor with your fellow man as well. You know, no one likes to be around a person who's just constantly condemning them, and you're just constantly walking on eggshells. You just can't do right. You know, you just, oh man, you know, but he's a pastor though, you know? He should be held to a higher standard. Yeah, but you need to cut some pastor some slack too though, you know that, right? You know every pastor in this world is a human being? Did you know? You know they're not like celestial beings or anything? They're like humans. They make mistakes. And if pastors make mistakes and they own up to it and they apologize for it, show them mercy. Be kind to them. Hey, I mean, isn't the Bible talking about like forgiveness and stuff too? And doesn't it say like if you don't forgive your brother, God won't forgive you? Isn't that what the Bible, I'm pretty sure that's in the Bible, right? Yeah, it is. You know, it should be, you're like, well, you know, but yeah, but you know, that was like grievous or something. They should just step down from their position of pastoring. Folks, anybody who makes a mountain out of a molehill typically just hates the pastor actually. If anybody in here ever just criticizes Pastor Anderson for just like one little mistake that he makes, just know this, it's not the mistake that's making them mad. They're using that mistake as an excuse to get on Pastor Anderson for just for the fact that they just don't like him. Because normal people who love mercy, who love truth, will cut people slack. They'll show people, they'll give people the benefit of the doubt. And you know what that does? It gives you favor with God and it gives you favor with man. You kill two birds with one stone. You're like, I want favor with God. Okay, be merciful. I want favor with man too. I want favor with my boss. Then be a man of honesty. You kill two birds with one stone. Look at verse number five. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Essentially he's just saying, be a good Christian, love the Lord, trust him with all your heart, let him direct your paths and you can kill two birds with one stone. Go to Romans chapter 13 if you would. Romans chapter number 13. Title of the sermon, killing two birds with one stone. The Christian life is very efficient. God gives us simple commands that if we just obey specific, if we just do specific things well, we can get a lot done, okay? Look at Romans chapter 13. How about just the birds of God's commandments? A lot of commandments in the Bible. Not just in the Old Testament. And we're not talking about those that have been done away with them. We're not talking about the meats, drinks and diverse washings, the cardinal ordinances, that which is imposed upon the people until the time of reformation. We're not the Hebrew roots movement over here believing that you have to keep the Sabbath and do animal sacrifices and all this nonsense that we don't have to do in the New Testament, okay? And people who promote that are a bunch of self-righteous people who obviously don't know the Bible. You know, because think about this. You know, the Bible talks about the law of God being written in our hearts, okay? And it even talks about the Gentiles having the law of God written in their hearts. Well, go ask some Gentile, some unsaved person, you know, is murder wrong? And they'll tell you, yeah, it's wrong. And go ask that same person, is it wrong to not keep the Sabbath? They're like, what's the Sabbath? And just follow up with, well, don't you know it's written in your heart? You know why? Because it's not written in their hearts. Because the ceremonial laws, those things are done away with, right? It's the moral law that transcends the Old Testament, goes into the New Testament because those are God's commandments that God still expects us to keep, okay? But you know, there's a lot of them, you know? There's a lot of commandments. And you know, the Bible even tells us, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And you know, sometimes for Christians, it can be overwhelming reading through the Bible and seeing everything that we're responsible to do as Christians. But look at Romans 13 and verse number nine. It says this, for this, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, thou shall not bear false witness, thou shall not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Go to Galatians chapter five. What do we see here? Killing two birds with one stone. Instead of just going down the list, okay, I gotta make sure I don't kill my neighbor. Don't steal from him. I gotta make sure I don't commit adultery. I gotta make sure I don't do all these things. Well, just take the stone of just loving your neighbor as yourself and boom, you did it all. It's the one shot. It's the one stone that will just take care of it all. Okay. Look at Galatians chapter five and verse 13. Same concept here. It says, for brethren, you have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. You know, a lot of problems in marriage. You know, because marriage comes with problems. It's not always a bed of roses. It's not always roses and daisies. Sometimes there's complications and problems and you can work on every specific problem that your spouse has or that you have, or you can just love your wife as Christ also loved the church and gave him so forth and then you end up fulfilling the whole thing because, you know, you can go down the line and talk about all the things that your husband, all the things wrong with your husband. He doesn't clean up. He throws his clothes wherever. He just stinks and smells or, you know, I don't know, doesn't brush his teeth. You know, just, you can come up with all types of things and you're just like, how do I solve this problem? Well, how about this? You just love and reverence your husband and that'll fix it. I'm not saying he's gonna brush his teeth when you do so, but you know what? It's a good possibility that he will after you do. You know, I've learned that when we fulfill our responsibilities as husbands or as wives, you know, the wife and the husband feel motivated to fix those issues that may irritate our spouse a little bit. You say, why? Because we love them. So instead of just like, well, you know, he just, he's so rude or she does this and she does this and she doesn't seem to understand this and she's always spending money here or whatever. You know, why don't you just fulfill just that royal law of loving your spouse and a lot of that stuff can just dissipate, okay? And obviously, you know, it takes a lifetime. I'm not saying that you're just, it's a one-stop shop and then it'll fix itself for the rest of your life, but you know what? It'll get you going until the next problem, okay? It's a lifelong process of loving your wife. It's a lifelong process of reverencing your husband. It's that one stone that can just take care of all those birds. And if anything, you know, if those birds don't go away in your spouse or something, you know, that one thing that just irritates you about your husband and one thing that irritates, and don't look at me like that. You know exactly what I'm talking about. We're all human here. You know you're thinking about something. You know this is hitting home. You know, that one thing, you know, loving your spouse may not make the birds go away, but it may help you to just kind of overlook it. You know, it may not make the, you know, the defects of your spouse go away, but because you love your spouse, it kind of like minimizes it. It's not as problematic anymore, you understand? So that's the stone that can smite those two birds. That's the stone that can help you overlook even the flaws of your spouse or just problems just in general. You know, loving your church members, amen? Because, you know, in a church, you know, church is, you know, it's just church. It's just people that have different personalities and, you know, sometimes people don't like each other in church, you know? It's kind of how it is, you know? People annoy each other and offend each other and it's just like you want to sit over there and you want to be as far away from the person from over there and it's just like that. Every time you see that person, you're just like, that person annoys me, you know? But you know what? Loving your church members, loving your brother in Christ will help you to still be kind to them in spite of the fact that you have differences with them. You know, it'll still help you to be there for your brother in Christ even though you just don't like them personally. You don't have to like them, but you know, you got to love them though, understand? And so the stone that can kill these two birds of problems in relationship, problems with your spouse, problems in church, you're dealing with someone in church that is kind of like a new Christian. You know, because sometimes new Christians, because of their zeal, they can get, sometimes they get a little out of hand, you know? They can get a little holier than thou sometimes, you know? You know what I'm talking about? You know, loving them kind of will help them not to be that way and be patient with them and be long-suffering towards them because you know, at one point, we were all in that same position as well, you understand? And so we're talking about killing two birds with one stone. You're in Galatians 5, look at verse 19. Look at verse 19, it says, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders. Oh, look at that, drunkenness. Oh, wow, it's weird how God gives us wine so we can fulfill the lust of the flesh, huh? Revelings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have told, excuse me, as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. So we have these works of the flesh, these things that manifest itself in the old man or the old man has the potential to do. And you know, sometimes people could get caught up of like, okay, I gotta make sure I don't do these things and it's definitely true, you know, that's why we need preaching on drunkenness, we need preaching on fornication, we need preaching on idolatry, we need preaching on the works of the flesh. But you know what, there's a stone that you can just fling at it and just destroy all of that. Look at verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would but if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. So you know, what it's essentially telling us here is that we can either just focus on, okay, I gotta make sure that I don't do these specific things or you can just make a conscientious effort to just be in the spirit. Because when you're walking in the spirit, you know, the Bible tells us that that new man, that spirit does not commit sin, right, according to 1 John chapter three. And when you're walking in the spirit, you're not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, you're doing things that are pleasing unto the Lord. And obviously we understand that not all of us will be walking in the spirit 24-7. We're not all like that Peterson guy, okay. Just never sinning ever, it's just like, we're just a walking resurrected person, you know. But for the rest of us humans and sinners, you know, we have to make a conscientious effort to walk in the spirit. And you know, throughout the day, sometimes we're in the spirit, sometimes we get in the flesh. Get up in the morning, you read your Bible, you're in the spirit. You know, your spouse or your child, you know, your child comes and you step on his Lego or something, in the flesh. You get in the car, you're late for work, your wife drove the vehicle the day before, didn't fill up the gas tank, in the flesh. And you're like, you know what, I gotta show grace. I gotta be merciful. Pastor Mia talked about that last night. You're in the spirit, I'm gonna go put in gas. Then you look at the gas prices. You're like, I'm in the flesh again. You know, but the Lord will provide. So then you pump gas, and then, you know, and it's like, you're like, you know, I know God will provide, but then it's like over a hundred bucks. You're in the flesh again. So it's just this constant thing where we're just constantly going, transitioning between the old man and the new man, right? But obviously the goal would be is that we're more often in the spirit than we are in the flesh. And one of the ways that we can, in a sense, guarantee that is we give ourselves a good beginning to the day and finish well, right? You know, start the day off in the spirit. Start the day waking up, praying unto the Lord, reading your Bible. Now I'm in the flesh. Who did that? And that's the most important lesson you will ever learn. I don't know what's going on. Should I take this? All right. I don't know what I was saying. Talk about being in the spirit. Go to Matthew chapter six. We're going to skip whatever I was just saying. Go to Matthew chapter six. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Oh, that's all I was talking about. Being in the spirit. So, you know, it's easier now I'm back in the spirit. Cause I remember. So, you know, it's a constant thing that you do throughout the day where you're just conscious of that. And you think to yourself, well, I'm in the flesh. Someone just cut me off on the freeway. You know, they cut you off and they tell you you're number one or whatever. But then you got to get back in the spirit again. You understand? But a lot of these things are taken care of. We just make an effort to just be in the spirit. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Look at Matthew chapter six. You know, one of the birds that I see a lot today is worry and cares for necessities. Cause we're living in a time where, you know, just this world is crazy. Everything is crazy. You know, you got Bill Gates killing all kinds of cows out there. You just, you just, you just murked like 10,000 cows, you know, and you know, you got these gas prices and you're just like, what in the world is going on? You know, what's going to happen next? And a lot of times people can spend their life acquiring possessions or just worrying about the necessities of life, right? Well, look at the Bible says in Matthew six, verse 31. It says, therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or where shall we fill up for gas? Amen. Or wherewithal shall we be clothed for all of these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father knoweth that you have need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you, the Bible says. What is that? Two birds with one stone. Is it my mic, brother Segura? All right. I need a stone for those two birds. Well, you know, the Bible is telling us here is that, you know, instead of worrying about where you're going to eat, what you're going to put on, and of course we can apply it to today. Where's the food with the gas and all these things that are going to, what's going to happen? Well, here's the one stone that could just take care of all that seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you. What is he talking about? Priorities in the Christian life. Because you know, God not only wants us to prioritize spiritual things, he wants us to think about spiritual things as well. He wants us to depend on him. No matter how bad things get, no matter how crazy things get, no matter how stupid our president gets, how many times he falls off the bicycle, and you know, no matter how crazy this world gets, we just need to focus on that which is eternal. Okay, and recognize that if we see God and his righteousness, we just focus on our church, we focus on the Bible, we focus on souls, we focus on our families, we focus on that which is actually most important. You'll find that God's just gonna say, well, here are these things that you needed because I want you to keep working, I want you to continue to fulfill my will, his will, I want you to keep winning souls to Christ and going to church, therefore, these things shall be added unto you, okay? You know, God doesn't want or like us to worry about things. Why don't we just be careful for nothing but in all things by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God that passeth understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the formula right there. He says be careful for nothing. He didn't say be careful for a couple of things. He says be careful for nothing. Why, because it can exhaust us when we think about those things and then we don't have enough mental energy to think about that which is most important. You know what's important right now? You being in church and listening to the sermon. Not what's gonna happen afterwards, what's gonna happen tomorrow. It's important for you to listen to the preaching of God's word and listen to what God has for you today. This is the most important thing in your life at this moment, is the meat of the word, amen? Because this is what you need. You say, well, what's gonna happen tomorrow? Take no thought for tomorrow, okay? Don't think about what's gonna happen tomorrow. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The two birds of worry and wondering what's gonna happen next with the rent, what's gonna happen next with the mortgage, what's gonna happen next with the gas, what's gonna happen next with the food. You know, are we all gonna be vegan now or something? Am I gonna just eat beans for the rest of my life? Don't worry about that. Don't worry about it. Just keep serving God. Seek the kingdom of God. Seek his righteousness. Just try to be a good Christian, amen? And the Bible says he'll take care of the rest, okay? Go with it if you would to 1 Thessalonians, or I'm sorry, Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter number three. You think about serving God, serving God can sometimes be complicated. There's a lot of capacities to which we can serve God. And if you think about it too much, you're like, man, what am I gonna get rewarded for the most though? Like, I wanna know where's the real reward gonna come? You know? And you know, sometimes people can get into navel-gazing and vain-jangling when they're just like, well, I think this produces the most rewards. Well, I think this one right here will produce the most rewards. But here's the thing, why don't you just serve God? When you just serve God, that's the one stone that'll just take care of everything. And in fact, look at Colossians 3, 23. It says, and whatsoever you do. So it's not just saying soul winning, though soul winning's important, it's not just saying serving your spouse, that's important, it's not just saying being in church, that's important, it just says whatsoever you do. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily, ask the Lord and not into men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the Bible telling us? You know, here's the one stone that'll just fix all that. Just serve Jesus Christ at every capacity, in your home, at your job, in your church, winning souls, discipling people, loving your neighbor, just do it all. And you know what? For everything that you do, as unto Christ, you will receive a reward for that. And don't get into the navel-gaze of, like, how much, though? Like, well, like, but like, how much? I don't know. And the Bible doesn't tell us. That's why we just have to do it all. So when the soul winning time is available, just go soul winning. When the church doors are open, come to church. When you hear about a need of another church member, maybe you can help fulfill, fulfill it. Serve God at all capacities, and at all points, at all times, so that we can receive a reward of the inheritance, two birds with one stone. Go to 1 Timothy chapter four, 1 Timothy chapter four. I got two more here, and then we're pretty much done. 1 Timothy chapter four. Look at verse 14, if you would. You know, it's important, you know, one of the things that the Bible teaches us is to give heed unto ourselves, right? This is the only time where God actually tells us, like, hey, worry about yourself. Pay attention to yourself. And it's not so you can't pay attention to anybody else. There's actually a good result of this. Look what it says in verse 14. It says, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which is given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself. What does that talk about? Another way to say it is just, you know, walk circumspectly. Pay attention to your spiritual walk. Make sure that you're walking in a way that's pleasing unto the Lord. Take heed unto thyself, and look what it says, and unto the doctrine. So it's not just a matter of knowing that which is practical. We need to know that which is doctrinal, too. You know, we need to be a well-balanced Christian where we know what we're supposed to do, but we also know what the Bible says about it as well. He says, give heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Kinda reminds me of, you know, when you fly an airplane before you fly, you have the flight attendants, you know, explain the whole thing about the mass, not the mass, but the, you know, the air, you know, in case the plane goes down. You guys know what I'm talking about? And they'll often say, you know, when the, I hate saying mass, because it just feels so dirty, just. What is it called? There you go, oxygen mask. That still sounds bad, no, I'm just kidding. You know, the oxygen mask comes down. They'll often tell you, you need to put it on yourself first, and then put it on your child, or, you know, the person next to you or something. Because, you know, automatically you think, well, no, I gotta make sure that my child or, you know, whoever's next to me, they're taking care of first. But they actually say, put it on first. So then, you know, you're not passing out, and then you can't help the person next to you, right? Well, this is kinda like that. Because he's saying, you know, make sure you worry about your spiritual well-being first. Because if you worry about your spiritual well-being first, you're taking care of your walk with God first, then you place yourself in a position where not only will you not be deceived from false doctrine and sin, but you know what, you can help other people as well from evading those things as well, right? Because the chapter begins off talking about how the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. And so the latter end of the chapter, at the end, it tells you, this is how you can save yourself from those false doctrines, by giving heed unto yourself, okay? Instead of paying attention to someone else, pay attention to yourself, and then you can put yourself in a position where you can help someone else. And you know what, this is very much true for the father and the home. You know, as a father and the home, we need to make sure that we're spiritually on par, amen? Because we're leaning about our wife, we're leaning about our children, we need to make sure that we are up to par so we can save them, physically speaking, save them from bad doctrine, save them from the false ideologies of this world, the philosophies of this world. Go to 1 Timothy, chapter five. 1 Timothy, chapter five. Here's the last one, is that, you know, the two birds of sin in the church. You know, when there's sin in the church, you know, the Bible gives specific commandments of what we have to do in order to deal with that leaven, to deal with that sin. And I think what it says in verse 19, it says, against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses, them that sin rebuke before all, why? That others also may fear. So the Bible's telling us here that when someone is involved in sin, they need to be rebuked for that, right? Now why are they being rebuked? So they can correct it. So they can repent of that, correct their ways, get right with God. But the Bible tells us here that we're supposed to do it openly. Why? Because it's one stone for two birds. Because when you rebuke a person openly, you not only help that person get right with God, but you prevent other people from doing the same exact sin that that individual did. And the Bible tells us, open rebuke is better than secret love, the Bible says. Okay? The Bible tells us in Proverbs 19, verse 25, smite a scorn, and the simple will beware, reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge. You know, we live in a day and age where churches and pastors don't like rebuking, they don't like reproving, and they don't like talking about anything negative anymore, they don't wanna preach hard anymore, they don't wanna hit on hard topics anymore. Why is that? Well, because they're man pleasers. Whereas if you truly love the congregation, if you truly love the people in your church, you would openly rebuke sin, iniquity, transgressions, why? Because you wanna save them from committing that sin again, but also you wanna prevent the little ones in your church from ever getting involved in that. You know, going back to that, the whole alcohol, the alcoholic dude, the wino guy online, you know, people were contacting me, they're like, you need to call him. Why don't you call him? Why don't you talk it out with him? Why are you guys doing this online? You know, and one person even said this, they're like, I'm heartbroken. They're like two of my favorite YouTubers, I'm like, you, me and him? I was like insulted, I'm like, you listen to me and him, like this guy? I'm like, I'm gonna quit YouTube, this is ridiculous. They're like, they're going at it, I can't believe this, and why don't you just give him a call, why don't you guys just talk about it? Because he's a false prophet. And I hate false prophets and I don't want them near me. He said, then why preach against him? I'll tell you why, for his listeners. Because people are like, why don't you just try to win him over? Because I'm not trying to win him over, because he's a reprobate. The guy believes a false gospel, he claims to be a Christian, he believes in evolution. And he drinks alcohol. And I guarantee he has probably a bunch of other issues as well. I mean, but those two alone, an alcoholic evolutionist who claims to be a Christian, that's someone I want to win over. You know, give me an alcoholic to win over, who just, you know, is just struggling, but is humble about it. That person can be won over. But this dude is teaching the Bible online. While he's teaching evolution and telling people it's okay to drink alcohol, I'm not interested in winning him over, I'm openly rebuking him that others may fear and understand that he's a liar. And so that they can sober up. Because, you know, the biggest thing that I think I could accomplish through that whole thing is that some people would say, well, I'm not gonna touch alcohol anymore. And you know, they might find my stuff on the sodomites and not like me thereafter or whatever, but hey, as long as they put the bottle down, I think that's great, amen? Turn people to righteousness. You know, I'm not interested in winning him over, I'm interested in turning people to righteousness, I'm interested in winning people over to just the truth. You understand? But it requires just open rebuke. And so, you know, what's... You know, that one stone, often when we run into problems and issues in relationships, personally, spiritually, you know, sometimes we're just making the problem too complex. It's bigger than what it really is. All we really need is that one solution, which is that one stone. That one stone that can just fix the marriage, that one stone that can fix the relationship in church, that one stone that can just, you know, fix that same problem or help you or whatever it may be. You know, you just need that one answer and that one stone that can just take care of both of you first. And that's all there is to it, amen? Father, we thank you so much for the word that you put in practicality in the Bible. And Lord, you've given us so much in the book of God to help us to experience and help us to walk in the Spirit, Lord, help us to walk in the Spirit, help us to seek that stone and force it off again through the block of our salvation. And ultimately, the main stone that we just need to make sure we're not right in our lives is just our communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. And our hope is that our life with God, and God tells us that when the man sees the Lord, he can open his enemies to Him. Father, if you'd like us to do so, bless our evening. Thank you.