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Okay, let's do it. You can do it. No, no, I want you to do it. Go for it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it. Where the water's cold flow bathes a weary one's feet, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long, Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright, God leads his dear children along. Sometimes in the valley in darkest of night, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long, Those sorrows befall us and Satan opposed, God leads his dear children along. Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long, Alas, away from the mire, away from the clake, God leads his dear children along. Away up in glory, eternity's day, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long. Brother Mo, you want to pray for us this evening? Yes, sir. Dear Father God, thank you for this day. Thank you for the souls that were saved today, Lord. I just pray that you will be with them and guide them toward the truth and toward your word, Lord. And I pray that you will fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit tonight and let him preach a bold sermon. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. So our second song will be song number three. Jesus paid it all. Song number three. Jesus paid it all. On the first. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me Thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I Whereby Thy grace to claim, I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary's lamb. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. On the last and when He bore the throne, I stand in Him complete. Jesus died my soul to save, My lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Very good singing. If you need a bulletin, there's still some on that back cabinet. On the inside, we have our service and soul-winning times, as well as the Bible memory passage. We're in Proverbs chapter 1. As far as the salvations, did we get the full count, brother Nick? Eight. We had eight for today. Praise the Lord. Was there anything outside of our group? Thanks for working on the salvations. We went into a foreign country, it felt like, in this apartment complex, but there were still a lot of people that wanted to get saved. I actually talked to a young lady, she was 12 years old, and she was a Muslim, but she did want to accept Jesus as her savior, and she rejected that, so praise the Lord on that. So that was fun. You've got to get them when they're younger. They don't know a lot about the Quran and everything like that, because she wholeheartedly believed in Jesus Christ, and she got saved, and so we're praying for her. Also, please be in prayer for all the expecting mothers. Such a blessing for pregnancy. And also, just another announcement for households. It's not in the bulletin, but just FYI, just some reminders. Children need to be with their parents at all times in the building. We want to keep a safe environment for everyone, and children are not supposed to be coming up on the stage. If you have a child that plays an instrument, that's fine, but they need to be playing the instrument well, and with respect to the instrument, but children shouldn't be playing up here on the stage, and we just want to keep everybody safe, so parents would please keep that as a reminder. Also, we have several people listed for the preaching schedule. You should always come to every service, but obviously, we just want to give you an update of some of the guys that are going to be coming out here. Please tell them thank you for coming, and be very hospitable to all of them. Also, any prayer requests throughout the week, if you want to submit those and turn those in. The only thing I'd mention midweek that I didn't say this morning again, but we're going to have a Wichita Falls Soul Waning Marathon in the fall. Good timing, right? And so, I'm going to try and get that figured out on the calendar pretty soon. I'm thinking it's most likely going to be October, but we'll have a Soul Waning Marathon up there. Last time, we had one in College Station, and so, Oklahoma had to drive the extra across from Dallas. This time, we'll do Wichita Falls, so we have to drive the little bit of extra up there, but a lot of people from Oklahoma will be coming from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I'm expecting we'll have a pretty big result, and so, hopefully, I'll get that information. You don't want to go to Wichita Falls in the summer, because it's actually, if you can believe it, I think it's more humid there most of the time than it is here. It's one of the most humid places on the planet, and it's just like super hot in the summer, above 100 degrees. It's very sticky. I've played a lot of golf tournaments there. It's rough. And so, we want to go there in the fall. Sometimes, it will be a lot nicer weather. So, keep that in mind. With that, let's go to our final song, or our next song, 56, for the brand that's going to leave for us. Song number 56. Song number 56, when we all get to heaven. On the first... Sing the wondrous love of Jesus Sing his mercy and his grace In the mansions bright and blessed He'll prepare for us a place When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory While we walk the pilgrim pathway Clouds will overspread the sky But when traveling days are over Not a shadow, not a sign When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory Let us then be truth and faithful Trusting, serving every day Just one glimpse of him in glory Will the toils of life repay When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory Onward to the prize before us Soon his beauty will behold Soon the pearly gates will open We shall tread the streets of gold When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory Second Samuel chapter number 12 Read the whole chapter as always Verse number one the Bible reads And the Lord sent Nathan unto David And he came unto him and said unto him There were two men in one city The one rich and the other poor The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds But the poor man had nothing Save one little Elam Which he had brought and nourished up And it grew up together with him And his children did eat of his own meat And drank of his own cup And lay in his bosom And was unto him as a daughter And there came a traveler unto the rich man And he spared to take of his own flock And of his own herd To dress for the faring man That was coming to him But took the poor man's lamb And dressed it for the man That was come to him And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man And he said to Nathan As the Lord liveth The man that hath done this thing shall surely die And he shall restore the lamb fourfold Because he did this thing And because he had no pity And Nathan said to David Thou art the man, thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee king over Israel And I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul And I gave thee thy master's house And thy master's wives into thy bosom And gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah And if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord To do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword And hast taken his wife to be thy wife And hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house Because thou hast despised me And hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite To be thy wife Thus saith the Lord Behold, I will raise up evil against thee Out of thine own house And I will take thy wives before thine eyes And give them unto thy neighbor And he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of his son For thou didst it secretly But I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord And Nathan said unto David The Lord also hath put away thy sin Thou shalt not die Howbeit because this deed Thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme The child also that is born unto thee Shall surely die And Nathan departed unto his house And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David And it was very sick David therefore besought God for the child And David fasted and went in And lay all night upon the earth And the elders of his house arose And went unto him To raise him up from the earth But he would not Neither did he eat bread with them And it came to pass on the seventh day That the child died And the servants of David And the servants of David feared to tell him That the child was dead For they said Behold, while the child was yet alive We spake unto him And he would not hearken unto our voice How will he then vex himself If we tell him That the child is dead But when David saw that his servants whispered David perceived that the child was dead Therefore David said unto his servants Is the child dead? And they said He is dead Then David arose from the earth And washed and anointed himself And changed his apparel And came into the house of the Lord and worshipped Then he came to his own house And when he required they set bread before him And he did eat Then said his servant unto him What thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child While it was alive But when the child was dead Thou didst arise and eat bread And he said While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept For I said Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me That the child may live? But now he is dead Wherefore shall I go fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him But he shall not return to me And David comforted Bathsheba his wife And went in under her and lay with her And she bare a son And called his name Solomon And the Lord loved him And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet And he called the name Judea Because of the Lord And Joab fought against Rabbah Of the children of Ammon And took the royal city And Joab sent messengers to David And said I have fought against Rabbah And have taken the city of waters Now therefore gather the rest of the people Together and camp against the city And take it Lest I take the city And it be called after my name And David gathered all the people together And went to Rabbah And fought against it And took it And he took the king's crown From off his head The weight thereof was a talent of gold With the precious stones And it was set on David's head And he brought forth the spoil of the city In great abundance And he brought forth the people That were therein And put them under saws And under horrors of iron And under axes of iron And made them pass Through the brick clean And thus did he Unto all the cities Of the children of Ammon So David and all the people Returned unto Jerusalem Father I thank you for helping us all Make it back here safely And Lord I just thank you For the souls that were saved And Lord I just ask that you would help Fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit And Lord just help him and his family Make it back safely And I just thank you for this church And everything that you help us with And in Jesus' name we pray Amen Amen Let's look back at verse number 14 And read a little bit more of this story again The Bible reads in verse 14 How be it because by this deed Thou hast given great occasion To the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme The child also that is born unto thee Shall surely die Now David has committed adultery With another man's wife With Uriah's wife in the story And because he committed adultery With Bathsheba He tried to cover that adultery up He wanted Uriah to come back home From the war And to lie with his wife And for it to be presumed As Uriah's child However Uriah decides not to lie with his wife To go home and see his wife And to be with her So he ends up hatching a plan to kill Uriah And to take her unto his wife quickly Take Bathsheba unto him as his wife quickly So as to cover up this adultery And he ends up killing Uriah And the prophet Nathan comes unto David He gives him this story about someone stealing someone's lamb He has plenty of lambs But he takes this one guy's one lamb And it's picture of David had actually many wives Even though that's not correct He had had many wives And he ends up stealing someone else's wife When he only has one He only has one woman And he takes this man's woman And he also takes his life And David hearing the story Wanted that man to be killed Yet Nathan looks at him and says Thou art the man And we have here in verse number 14 God actually tells David That he's not going to die for his sin Because he's worthy of death He's committed murder and adultery But God has grace on David And allows him to still be king Despite such a grievous sin However he's going to be punished And because of what David did He's given great occasion To the enemies of the Lord of Blasphemy To say oh look at their leader David He commits adultery and murder And you know look at him And really that's to show the importance That when you're in a position of leadership Or you're trying to serve God And you end up being a hypocrite It can give the enemies a reason to blaspheme God To make God look bad Because of your mistake Because of your problems And so that's why it's important To live a clean and godly life And David's going to suffer greatly Because notice his child is going to die And that's a horrible tragedy It's a horrible thing to happen to somebody I mean losing a child Has got to be one of the most difficult things To endure or to go through And especially you know this child's Going to be born And then it's going to strike and be killed I mean you get to see it You get to hold it You get to be with it For just a short amount of time And anybody that's gone through that process They understand what a horrible loss that is But David and Bathsheba are going to go through this Because of their sin Verse 15 And Nathan departed unto his house And the Lord struck the child That Uriah's wife Baron of David Who was very sick David therefore besought God for the child And David fasted and went in to lay all night Upon the earth And the elders of his house arose And went to him To raise him up from the earth But he would not Neither did he eat bread with them And it came to pass on the seventh day That the child died And the servants of David feared To tell him that the child was dead For they said, Behold While the child was yet alive We spake unto him And he would not hearken unto our voice How will he then vex himself When we tell him that the child is dead? So the servants They don't even want to tell David That his child's actually died Because they said, Look He won't even eat He won't even talk to us I mean he's just in a constant state of mourning I mean what's going to happen to this guy When we tell him When we tell him the child actually died Because they hadn't even died yet It was just sick And they're afraid They're terrified To let David know this But the verse says in verse 19 But when David saw that his servants whispered David perceived That the child was dead Therefore David said unto his servants Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead Then David rose from the earth And washed and annoyed himself In Jesus' apparel And came into the house of the Lord And worshiped Then he came to his own house And when he required They set bread before him And he did eat Then said his servants unto him What thing is this That thou hast done? Thou didst fast And weep for the child While he was alive But when the child was dead Thou didst rise And eat bread And he said While the child was yet alive I fasted and wept For I said, Who can tell Whether God will be gracious to me That the child may live? But now is he dead Wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him But he shall not return to me So he says there in verse 23 Wherefore should I fast? The word wherefore means why Why should I fast? Now what's interesting about this story Is that the servants Anticipated David's reaction They anticipated David's emotions And how he would handle himself Yet they were perplexed By what he actually did They thought wow He was gonna you know Go off the handle He's gonna go off the edge basically If we tell him that the child's dead Yet he returned back to normal didn't he? He went back on regular business And he moved on with his life And really I want to focus on that concept I want to focus on what David did here Because the title of my sermon this evening Is accepting reality Accepting reality And this is a very important concept For us to understand And I have three points that we're gonna Quickly understand from this story And then relate this to other aspects of our life But what did David do In this story that's so profound Well he accepted reality He accepted the fact that his child had died didn't he? And I have three quick points that I want to point out The first point is that If you want to be like David in this story Which is a very important aspect of our lives Is you have to accept the things that you cannot change Another word for this would be serenity Serenity is accepting things You know that you cannot change David can't change the fact that the child has died The sin has been done And the consequences of that sin is done And what is he gonna do from now? He needs to move on He needs to accept the fact that the child Didn't he do that pretty well? He accepted the fact that the child had died And it really helps him He wanted to know if the child was dead too Because he wanted to accept reality He wanted to realize, hey, is this kid dead or not? Because I'm fasting right now As any kind of hope that he can survive But once he's dead Once that reality has sunk in Once he realizes that's a truth fact He wants to move on with his life He's ready to move on with his life And to go back to normal So really his actions When you think about the mourning Why was he mourning? So that God would spare the child Then after the child's dead There's no point in mourning anymore He's just accepted reality David's emotional state is based in reality It's based on the circumstances And it's not based on things that have happened in the past It's based on things that are happening now He's mourning now Once the child can no longer be spared He accepts that reality And he moves on He goes back to his normal business He cannot bring the child back Is what he points out Another thing that he does though Is he reminds them He says, hey, I'm not gonna go The child, how's he word this? He says, I shall go to him But he shall not return to me Now what I like about this Is not only does David accept the fact that he cannot change How his child has died He focuses on the positive though, doesn't he? He says, but look I can't change the fact that I'm never gonna be with him here On this earth It's done You know, but I shall go to him He's not gonna return to me But I shall return to him So he focuses on the positive of the situation He says, but at least, you know what? I am gonna go to him And in accepting reality You have to understand Hey, there's certain things in my life I can't change But what I can do is I can focus on the positive aspects Of where I'm at And then look at verse 24 This is the best part of this And David comforted Bathsheba, his wife And went in under her and lay with her And she bare his son And he called his name Solomon And the Lord loved him So my third point is this In accepting reality Not only do you need to accept the things you can't change Not only, number two, do you need to focus on the positive But number three, you need to focus on others Because he's not the only one that lost someone here He's not the only one that went through difficulty here In fact, Bathsheba went through the same struggles, if not more I think more I personally believe that if I had to carry a child in my womb for nine months And had to go through the birthing process And feeding this child and then it dying She would have much more mourning and suffering than I did You know, men can get over those things a lot easier than women can And at the end of the day David not only realizes Hey, I can't change this fact that it's dead Number one Number two I can focus on the positive that I will see him again But number three My wife needs comforting here My wife needs some support My wife needs some help here And instead of just being selfish Instead of just concerning myself with my own pity My own woe I'm going to go and comfort my wife And this is important in accepting reality People that don't accept reality struggle in these areas Number one They constantly live in the past Well, can you accept reality? Well, can you change the past? No But I just want to continue thinking about it And dwelling upon it And worrying about it And stressing And fretting And crying And mourning It's like, move on Number two Focus on the positive here You know, David could have been like Oh, woe is me And God's against me And he's killing my children You're the one to sin, David But guess what Even though you had a very small amount of time with that child You still get to go see it in heaven Isn't that better than not having the child? I mean, at least he had the child At least the child's going to still go to heaven At least he gets to go see that child He's thinking about the positive And then number three, most importantly Instead of worrying about yourself, David He's worrying about other people And their needs And their concerns And Bathsheba is going through a hard time And he decides to dedicate himself to comforting his wife Go to Numbers chapter 14 Let me show you an example of people that don't do what I just showed you That was the good example Now let's go to a bad example of people not accepting reality Not accepting reality today And unfortunately, this is a problem with our society Our society does not like to accept reality in all kinds of different ways But this is an important concept for us to get and to understand Numbers chapter 14 Look at verse number 30 Now what's happening in this story Is the children of Israel have come up to the promised land Moses and them sent out spies to search the land They've returned They were given a report unto Moses about what the land looks like And some were focused on the land with milk and honey With the grapes, how big they were The rest of them were focused on the giants They were focused on all the problems, all the difficulty And they gave an evil report of the land Well, because they complained and belly ached and mourned And, you know, weeped And they got all frustrated with the giants When they got to the promised land God just got done with them God just said, you know what, you're never going in He says in verse 30 Doubtless, ye shall not come into the land Concerning which I swear to make you dwell therein Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun So they come up to the promised land They've gone through all this pain, struggle, and affliction But because they just keep complaining and keep bellyaching Finally God just says, like, you're done You're not going in The only people going in were the two spies that gave the good report Joshua and Caleb You know, Moses is probably thinking, like, did you forget about me? Like, why do you only say them two? Because you're not making it in either, Moses, all right? But look at verse number 36 It says in the men which Moses sent to search the land in return And made all the congregation to murmur against him By bringing up a slander upon the land Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land Died by the plague before the Lord So notice what happens to the guys that bring up an evil report that slandered They died That's a warning. Don't slander Don't lie Don't bring up an evil report Hey, when you're sent out to do the work of the Lord Why don't you focus on the positive? Because they were so worried about those giants Guess what? God killed them They didn't think about that one, did they? They were so afraid that a giant might kill them That they ended up murmuring and planning against God And then God just killed them So when you start worrying about all your problems And all the difficulties and the things that God wants you to do You know, you ought to fear him more than all your problems You ought to fear him rather than the enemies out there and the giants out there They're nothing today Verse 38, but Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh Which were of the men that went to search the land Lived still And Moses told these things unto all the children of Israel And the people mourned greatly and they rose up early in the morning And gapped them up into the top of the mountain saying Lo, we be here and we'll go up Unto the places the Lord hath promised For we have sinned And Moses said Wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord But it shall not prosper So what happens? Well, they say Well, you know, I feel like we messed up here You know, we shouldn't have murmured with those other guys They died We don't even know where they are They're dead You know, we should have listened to Caleb We should have listened to Joshua We should have just gone to the promised land Hey, we're here We're ready now We're gonna follow your commandment We're gonna enter the promised land But by saying that, they're actually rebelling Because God had actually said you're not going in So they say, oh, but we're gonna go in So number one, did they accept what they could not change? No God says, hey, you're not going in And instead of just saying, alright, we're not going in They say, no, no, no, we're going in Hey, we're ready Hey, now we're gonna obey Isn't that kind of how you discipline your kids? You tell them, hey, like, you're not getting any dessert Because you're not in your dinner Now I'm ready to eat it You know, now I'm ready to clean my room Now I'm ready to obey And it's like, the door's shut Hey, your opportunity's been closed, my friend You thought you had an opportunity Hey, once you cross a certain line, sometimes it's over And they should have just accepted the reality Hey, we're not entering the promised land God meant what he said When he said only Joshua and Caleb were going in Number two, they should have focused on the positive But rather, what did they do? They mourned Notice that the people mourned It says in verse 39, and the people mourned greatly So when God tells you you're not going to the promised land Yeah, obviously that sucks Okay, obviously that's bad Obviously that's negative news But they didn't focus on the positive still You say positive, what are all the positives? Well, number one, they're not in Egypt anymore They're still not in Egypt He said, hey, you're not in the promised land But guess what, he didn't say you're going back into slavery He didn't say you're going back into Pharaoh Number two, they still have Moses as a leader He didn't take away Moses from them Wouldn't that be great to have Moses as your leader? Wouldn't a lot of people say, hey, we have Moses as our pastor You know, Moses is our evangelist Hey, they still have Moses as their leader The guy who spoke to God The guy that got the Ten Commandments delivered to him Written with God's finger I mean, this guy's pretty great I would like Moses as a leader Number three, they had received the Ten Commandments They got those Ten Commandments They just got all this special privilege They got to be with the Lord The Lord's with them The Lord's been traveling He's been a cloud, you know, by day And a fire by night I mean, they still got the Lord with them Number four, their children are not going to be in bondage anymore So why didn't they focus on that? They say, hey, you know what, we screwed up But we still got Moses as a leader We still got the Lord with us We still got the Ten Commandments We're still God's chosen people Hey, we still have the priesthood We still have all these great things Hey, at least our children aren't going to be in bondage We'll raise our children godly We'll instruct them how to go in the promised land No, they're just like, well, dang it, we're going in there We're ready to go in there They weren't ready to accept the reality that they're not allowed to get in And they are focused on the negative of, ah, I can't Now that I can't have it, I want it Every kid's woe As soon as their brother gets the toy that they weren't interested in, now they want it Right? Now that they can't have it, they want it And in fact, sometimes, you know, we'll ask a kid, we'll say, hey, do you want to carry this inside? And they're like, no And they're like, okay, we'll let them carry it And they're like, no, no, I want it now Now I want to carry it Now I want to do it It's like as soon as you take something away, there's something inside that's like, oh, now I want it You know, now I want to have it, you know And that's what they were like But they weren't really accepting reality, were they? And lastly, number three, they had no concern for others, were they? Did they really care about their children? Did they care about the people that were going to go up and die in this battle? Look at verse 42 So because they did not accept reality, what happened? They went up and many of them died in battle that didn't have to happen People didn't have to die again You didn't have to have more people dying But because they just couldn't accept God's commandments Because they couldn't accept reality Because they couldn't focus on the positive Because they had no concern for others They end up causing more bloodshed They end up causing more problems Now go over to Titus chapter number two Go to Titus chapter two Let's make some practical application here Because you say, well, you know, I'm going to accept reality about the promised land I'm going to accept, you know, my plight in life Are you, though? It's easier to see these people and say like, well, I would have done it I would have gone to the promised land Or I would have accepted God's commandments Or if I was David, I would just quickly turn, you know, the morning of my child But here's the thing People are given all kinds of reality from God And they just decide not to accept it God gives you clear instruction Clear commandments Clear guidelines Clear boundaries in your life And then people just decide, nope, I don't want to accept it today How many people just don't want to accept reality today? About the gospel? Does our society accept God's reality about his commandments? About serving the Lord? I mean, people just can't accept the fact that they're even a man today People can't even accept that they're a woman today They have to decide to be something else They can't even focus on the positive That they're alive, that God's given them breath That all the things that they have They just have to be something else They have to do something else today And, you know, feminism is on the rise today Because women want to be men And I'm thinking, like, why can't a woman just accept the reality that she's a woman? I mean, what's wrong with being... There's nothing wrong with being a woman today Unless you were born a man Then you shouldn't be a woman You know what should be women? Women And you know what should be men? Men today But you know what? People have a hard time accepting that reality, don't they? Look at Titus chapter 2 verse 4 It's talking about the aged women That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands To love their children, to be discreet, chaste Keepers at home Good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed The Bible says, I didn't make this up God commanded women to be keepers at home And even teaches that the older women would teach the younger women to be what? A keeper at home You say, what does that mean? They stay at home You say, where do they work? At home I mean, it's not hard to be understood What's hard to be understood is the fact that people don't want to believe that Yet, isn't this the reality that God has laid out for us? I mean, isn't it black and white? I mean, I didn't come up with this verse I didn't make up this verse Yet, women don't want to do that Women don't want to stay home Women don't want to raise children today Women want to have one or two kids at most And have their job and have their career And go out and be this self-made woman And have their own talk show And drink their wine And just gab it up And go on the town And, you know, gallivant And shop Look, that's not what the Bible teaches The Bible teaches we're supposed to be discreet Chase, keepers at home Good, obedient to your own husband This flies in the face of 99% of women in the world today Especially in America I mean, maybe other countries or other areas Some women have a lot of these things better But in America today, you would not You'd be hard-pressed to find women that are a check mark on all those right there They actually care about their husband They're obedient to their husband They want to be at home They're chaste, which means they're disciplined Which means they're discreet They're not going out just sharing all their information And they're, you know, huff and puff and whatever's going on Go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 Let me give you another section of scripture that says the exact same thing I'm not just taking and isolating one verse here We're going to talk about scores of scripture here That say women should be raising children at home They should be keepers at home They should be guiding the house at home today But so many women don't want to accept that reality today My question is why? Why do you want to accept God's reality? When you don't accept God's reality You cause a lot of problems Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 11 The Bible says, but the younger widows refuse For when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ They will marry, having damnation Because they have cast off their first faith And withal they learn to be idle Wandering about from house to house And not only idle But tattlers also and busybodies Speaking things which they ought not I will therefore that the younger women marry Bear children, guide the house Give none occasion to the adversary to speak approachfully For some are already turned aside after Satan The Bible teaches that a woman's job is to what? Marry Her job is to what? Bear children Her job is to what? Guide the house Why? So that she can give none occasion to the adversary Who's that adversary? The devil The devil wants women to have abundance of idleness The devil wants women to have all kinds of time And all this extra availability to go out and do things Go shopping and traveling and talking and gossiping And doing all this, just getting into trouble Who got in trouble in the garden? Adam or Eve? I'm pretty sure it was Eve I mean she was deceived by the devil And you know what? The devil wants the same thing He wants young women to get out of the home And to get into trouble They're easily led astray and you say, oh that's sexist That's what the Bible says, okay? That's not my opinion Let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 2, okay? Since we're talking about this subject I don't want you to think I'm just bringing this stuff up with no Bible verse This is what the Bible says, clearly Look what it says in verse 11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection But I suffer not a woman to teach Nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence For Adam was first formed, then Eve And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression Not withstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing If they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety So the Bible says that this woman is going to be saved from what? The condemnation of the devil This woman is going to be saved from the deception of the devil From the temptations of this world And you say, how is she going to be saved from that? By raising kids I didn't come up with that God came up with that But you know what? Women today don't want to accept the reality of being a mother Of bringing children into this world But you know who's really bad at that? Men I can't give anybody life, okay? I can never get pregnant And all the other men in this room can never get pregnant I don't care what they do in a laboratory Mr. Mom isn't going to happen, okay? I don't care what Arnold Schwarzenegger video you watched It's not reality, my friend, okay? It's not going to happen You know who can bring children into this world? Women And you know who should bring children into this world? Women that are married Women that have a husband that's ready to provide for them And you know what? They're providing them in a safe home A Christian home They're there in the home They're guiding the house They're keeping the house But today, women don't want to accept this reality And it's a shame It's a shame unto Christ It allows the enemies of the Lord to speak reproachfully And whenever women are not in the home You know what happens? The kids have problems The kids are destroyed by the temptations of this world By neglect The Bible says A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame You know there's no better person to raise my kids than my wife There's not a single person on this planet that loves my kids like my wife does It's not even close It's immeasurable Even when you take a grandparent Grandparents don't care that much They spoil kids left and right They're not going to punish them They're not going to discipline them And you know, if you don't punish people, it's because you don't love them You know, if your grandparents If the grandparents loved the kids so much Then they would discipline them They would tell them no They would actually get them in check And put them in line And tell them that they're wrong You know, we need some grandparents today To lay down the law Because they love their kids But at the end of the day, nobody loves my kids like my wife No one's going to raise my kids In the nurture and admonition of the Lord like my wife will It's God's ideal plan for every single person It's for their mother to be there To educate them, to love them To be a keeper at home And what could be a better job than that? Number one, accept reality Accept that God made you a woman And you're the best person to be at home Raising the children God literally made you for that job I am not as good as my wife at that job I am very impatient with the children I'm a pretty strict, tyrant dictator Like, get over it That's my philosophy, you know Why are you crying? Get over it You know, fix yourself You know, but the mother is nurturing She's loving, she's empathetic She can multitask way better than I can She was literally made for this God made women to be at home He didn't say, hey, here's a job that you suck at He said, here's a job that you're the best at Why would I want to take a woman from that? And you know what, the kids that God gave you Are on purpose Why can't you just accept the reality of the kids that you have And love the job that you have And think about the positive You are a mother One of the most important jobs on the planet today Why don't you think on the positive of the fact that you have precious little souls Who worship and adore you I mean, nobody loves you like your kids do Nobody thinks that you're the greatest person on the planet like your kids do Kids love their mom I mean, they love their mom so much more than they love me even Okay, whenever there's a problem, you know what they want? Mom Whenever they're hurt, you know what they want? Mom They definitely want mom when they're hurt, okay You know, whenever they have any kind of thing, they just favor mom You know, I'd play this game, I'd be like, who's your favorite, mom or dad And they're just like, mom, you know It's always mom Mom's the greatest Mom is their whole world, okay Why can't you just accept the fact that these kids love you I remember, you know, and God bless my mother My mom was a great mom and she did a lot of good things But you know what, she didn't want to stay in this arena And she even came to me as a young child and she said Hey, I could go in the workforce And we could have more money and a bigger house And go on more trips Or I could stay home Which one would you rather have? And I said, I'd rather you stay home But she'd already gotten hired She'd already gotten a job They were trying to sell me on something that wasn't going to happen And I didn't want it, I wasn't buying I'd just rather be with my mom You know, be in a one bedroom efficiency You know, kids don't really care Kids don't care about Kids think that plastic bottles are toys They just want to be around their parents You take a five year old, a six year old, you put them in preschool You know what they do, they scream their head off And they're crying for mama And they're crying for mommy You have to desensitize kids And to teaching them that they shouldn't be around their parents And you know what, they don't get over it just in that first year First graders, second graders, third graders, fourth graders, fifth graders Any time they're scared Any time they're in an uncomfortable situation You know what they're thinking inside I want mommy I wish mom was here I just want to be around mom And you know what, when you detach yourself from your kids And they go through first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade Eventually they end up saying You know what, I don't need mom anymore I don't need mom and dad I guess I can just do this on my own And when you take away the parents from the kids You know what, you can destroy your family Well I don't want to just be at home Because then my husband's the boss Well go to Colossians chapter 3 Go to Colossians chapter 3 Ephesians 5 says wives, submit yourselves and your own husbands as unto the Lord God said obey your husband Well if I stay home then he's going to be in charge But let me tell you this You not accepting that reality It's worse for you If you don't accept the fact that your husband's your boss It's going to be worse for you If you want to follow God's commandments Look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to flesh So if you don't want to obey your husband at home Guess who you have to obey Some strange man at the office Why is that better? How is it better to obey some random dude that's not married to you That doesn't love you And you have to obey every single one of his rules and commands in the workforce How is that better than the guy that decided to marry you The guy that decided to provide for you That loves you and takes care of you And you even got his own last name I mean why would I want to obey that guy I mean that makes more sense to me You would think it would be easier And you know the saddest part about this Is the fact that women They will give more respect to this random bozo than their husband How does that make sense How does it make sense That you would say yes sir to your boss at work And not to your husband You would do everything the boss says at work But you won't do it to your husband I mean why can't you just accept reality that he's the boss He's the one that you're supposed to be obedient to And say hey this is better Than the rando at you know Chick-fil-A I mean your boss could be like some teenage punk Your boss could be another woman It could be Karen I mean I'd least rather have my husband be my boss If I was a woman than Karen Karen really doesn't care Karen's emotional She doesn't always make the right decision And you know what Your boss at work wouldn't make the right decisions always And guess what your husband will always make the right decisions But you can still cement You can still say yes sir But you know what people don't want to focus on the positive Why don't you focus on the positive That you have your husband bossing you around And not a strange person That sounds way better to me And number three When we think about accepting this reality of these commandments What do we accept Hey just accept the fact that God made you a woman Accept the fact that God gave you this job Think about the positives that you have these precious children That love you more than anything in the world You guys out there they don't love you like your children do Your clients don't love you like your children do You got the best of all the worlds You got the best boss You got the best clientele You got the best job You're perfectly made for it I mean it's just a winner winner winner chicken dinner And that's what you're going to be making right No just kidding Number three though focus on your children Isn't accepting reality It's not just accepting The things that you can't change Number two focus on the positive But number three Your children need you more than anything Why can't you just be that person For them for them And focus about your impact On your children This is literally the best thing for them Is for you to embrace being a mother Be the best mother on the planet Be one who loves your children every moment Train and teach yourself so that you can Train and teach your children Study the bible so you can teach your children Plan things for your children Why don't you say hey you know what I'm a mother I'm stuck at home Why don't I just be the best mother I can possibly be Like David He says you know what my kids dead Might as well just move on Might as well just accept the fact that I'm a mother Might as well just accept the fact that I'm a wife And be the best wife that I can be The best mother that I can be Hey you know what I'm going to teach these kids And these kids are going to be the smartest kids on the planet The best dressed The best loved They're going to know the word of God They're going to love Jesus Christ We're going to be the most respectful to my husband You know why can't women just get on fire for being a mother Why can't they get excited about being a mother And excited about being a wife today Why can't they just accept the reality And focus on other people Go to Proverbs chapter 7 Let's look at this woman who doesn't have that attitude Let's go to the negative example here We talked about God's commandments You know you say oh I would enter the promised land Well you know what your promised land looks different Maybe it's at home with the kids Are you focused on the giants or are you focused on the grapes? My wife says you always cut the grapes for the kids Because they can choke on them But you focus on those grapes Proverbs chapter 7 Look at the woman who doesn't have this attitude She has an opposite attitude Verse 10 She's not in her house Now is she without now in the streets and lithe and wait at every corner This is the majority of American women today Dressed in the attire of a harlot Her feet are not in her house She's loud and she's stubborn Number one she's not accepting her role is she She's not accepting of what God has ordained for her Who God created her to be She wants to be this other woman Number two she's not content or satisfied with thinking on the positive Because if she was satisfied with who she is She wouldn't be going out and seeking for thrills would she Seeking for some man And she's never satisfied with that man Then she moves on to the next man And the next man and the next man and the next man She's not content She's not focused on the positive of her life She's looking for something else to satisfy her She's going out Trying to get cheap thrills And cheap attention And attract cheap and vain men She's not gonna get anything special there And number three she's not thinking about other people is she She's selfish She's thinking about herself She's not thinking about her kids She's not thinking about her dad She's not thinking about her mother who raised her She's not thinking about the men that she's gonna lie with Because she's just gonna use and abuse them too And at the end of the day we need women today To accept the reality of who God made them to be Why don't we teach our daughters to be godly women To accept that hey you're a woman You're a woman You're a woman To accept that hey you're a woman This is a good job This is a great job This is a great honor that God has bestowed upon you Why don't you be chaste Why don't you be a keeper at home Why don't you desire marriage today You know there's so many women They turn 18 and you know what they want to do They want to go to college and get a career Why don't you just go to church and serve God And wait for a godly man to come sweep you off your feet And become a mother and become a wife You know what I've met a lot of young single men That are trying to find a woman like that And you know what? If you are an on fire godly young woman Who loves the Lord And is ready to be a happy wife And a great mother You're gonna have a lot of guys knocking on your door Have a lot of good guys knocking on your door I promise you You're not gonna be They're trying to find you They're going out looking I mean the Bible teaches this You know you have a lot of bozos knocking on your door too You need to tell them to just take a hike Hey what job do you have? See you later How are you gonna provide for me You know your price is far above rubies They better be willing to shell out the money And look if you find a woman like this You better be willing to pay men You better be willing to dig in I mean think about what Jacob did for his wife Oh yeah he worked seven years Think about how much money that could be I mean if he's working seven years And he worked overtime I mean this could be like 700,000 bucks or something I mean he's acquired to pay For this woman He loved this woman And look when you find a woman like that You should be willing to pay all of it Her price is far above rubies Go back to verse 75 You say oh man you're ragging on the women Well let's get on the men for a minute okay Let's help them out a little bit Let's see if they accept their reality First Timothy chapter number five First Timothy chapter number five verse number eight The Bible says But if any provide not for his own And specially for those of his own house He hath denied the faith And is worse than an infidel Now when God says you're worse than an unsaved person That's an insult Now here's the thing Men today need to take responsibility They need to man up And provide and lead for their home God has decided hey You want to be in charge? Well guess what comes with being in charge? Taking care of everybody The responsibility of being a man Of actually leading your home Providing for your home And notice that if you don't do this You're worse than an unsaved person And let me say this When you don't accept the responsibility Of being the leader For your home it's going to go badly There's so many men today They don't want to lead their home There's so many men today They don't want to provide for their home today They don't want to be the person in charge But you know what when you don't lead your family They will suffer that's reality And when you don't accept reality As you're the leader You're the person in charge You know what there's going to be a lot of attacks on your family There's going to be a lot of destruction and devastation to your family You as the man need to step up And lead your home Carnally and spiritually You need to pay the bill And you need to be the spiritual leader The spiritual spearhead of that family Go to Genesis chapter number 3 Go to Genesis chapter number 3 Let's see someone that's struggled In this area Of leading his home Of taking charge And realizing hey you know what My wife is susceptible just like every other woman To all those things So you know what I need to do? We need to bear children and she needs to guide the house Adam didn't do that did he? Look at Genesis chapter 3 verse 11 And he said who told you that thou was naked Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee That thou shouldest not eat? And the man said the woman Whom thou gavest to be with me She gave me of the tree and I did eat Notice when God comes to Adam He's saying hey why did you sin? Why is there sin in your family? What's going on? Well that woman that you gave me Now here's the thing only Adam has that excuse Because guess what? He just woke up one morning One afternoon and she was there It was like the giraffe or Eve He was like alright Eve But you know what? Anybody in this room that's married You picked her You picked that woman And you know what? You can't shift the blame to her You need to just man up Adam And say you know what I sinned I didn't lead my home And I let my wife eat it I let my wife hand it to me and I ate it with her We need some men today to man up And say you know He should have just built an entire fence around that tree He should have said hey you're not going anywhere near it You're not touching it You're going to stay at home You're not going out shopping at the tree of knowledge of good and evil Okay That's a bad store Don't go into that store It looks so cool, it's so fancy, it's so hip It's the music that the serpent plays It's so wonderful Yeah, don't go in that store It's a bad store The apple store, no I'm just kidding Verse number 17 Look how God responds to Adam And then Adam he said Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife Let's read that again And then Adam he said Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife He said Adam You're not leading You listen to her You let her tell you what you're going to do You let her put the pants on You let her drag you around And tell you what's going to happen She went out and got and provided for the house Was he providing? Let me ask you this question Who got the food? Adam or Eve? Eve got the food What if Adam had decided where they were going to get their food What if Adam was the sole provider What if Adam was the one leading his home Hey they wouldn't have that problem would they But as soon as he lets Eve go out and find the food Guess what she goes for Oh yeah the tree of the knowledge of good and evil And then problems enter in that home don't they But you know what if we had some men today That say hey you know what I'm going to provide I'm going to leave my home You're going to stay home You're going to wear the dress And you know what you're going to take care of the kids It'll solve so many problems in your life You're opening a door to all kinds of problems when you don't And look how God rebukes Adam Because you listen to the voice of your wife And let me say this you know what I listen to the voice of my wife Often because she gives me good advice But she doesn't always have the right advice She's like woah She might think she does But you know what Sometimes she's wrong And sometimes your wife's wrong And sometimes you're wrong But you know who's in charge? The man And he just makes the rules? The man does He needs to accept the reality of who he is And he can't just shift the blame Well she did it Well she grabbed the apple Well guess who God got mad at? Adam He got mad at Adam for not doing that He says thou shalt not eat of it Now here's the thing. What was Adam's curse? He had to work harder Isn't that interesting? He didn't provide in the first place Now he has to work even harder What if he just accepted the reality of his job in the garden? Wouldn't his life have been a lot easier? Hey the garden just makes the fruit for you You just walk around and pluck it off Now he has to go out and till the ground He has to fight a bunch of thorns and briars He has to work by the sweat of the brow of his face It's hot in Houston It'd be nice if it was just a paradise It'd be nice if it was just 70 degrees like California or something You know then liberals ruin that Go to Proverbs chapter 17 Proverbs chapter 17 But here's the thing. Men, you need to lead your home You need to tell your wife where she's going What she's wearing What she's doing You have to put boundaries in your life Because if you don't God's going to be mad at you You're where the buck stops You are the deciding factor in your family You say well my wife won't do it We'll make her do it My wife doesn't want to eat that apple She wants to eat this one Well guess what you're eating You're eating the apple that I got you Not the one that you find I can just get it I can go grab one Nope, you know the serpent delivers Well he's not delivering today You know We're eating snake for dinner That's what we're going to eat Go to Proverbs 17, look at verse 21 Now think about this Not only did Adam fail in his marriage He also failed in raising his children You know who raised Cain? Adam Think about that Cain is the son of Adam Do you really want to raise a Cain? I don't Look what it says in Proverbs 17 verse 21 He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his own sorrow And the father of a fool hath no joy Adam obviously did not raise his first child very well Did he? Cain He killed Abel And obviously God uses this as an example But you know what? Adam still has to take blame in the fact of that son Adam still has to take blame in the fact that he did not raise that child well And you know what? As the leader of the home You need to take care of your children You need to discipline your children You need to get them in line You need to teach them the word of God Do you think Adam really sat Cain down and explained to him all the sacrifices And how they're supposed to serve God It seems like he was negligent Because he got one son that loves the Lord He's got one son that's a devil He's got one son that's a murderer Look As a pastor, that doesn't really work out Half of my kids worship the devil The other half are godly You'd be like, you're not qualified Step down You know, it's not right And we as men today We need to take charge We need to accept the fact that we're the leader We need to accept the fact that you're the ultimate responsible party You're the one That's going to make sure your family goes well And you know what? When it doesn't go well, it's your fault See, I liked it when you were talking about the women doing their part That was nicer Well guess what? Any problems they have, it's your fault You say, well I hope they were listening You don't need to listen You need to listen and you need to instruct them How they're going to behave You say, well I really hope they listen No, you're the one that has to tell them You're the one that has to make the rules You're the one that has to make sure your wife Follows God's commandments Because you know what? She's susceptible, just like we all are To the devil whispering in her ear And getting her to do wickedly But think of the positive Let's just think about the positive Have you ever told your wife, no I'm so scared It's like, well look, you're in charge at least Isn't that positive? I mean, hey, at least you get to make the rules At least someone else is in charge of your home At least some other guy isn't going to make the rules for you and your wife I mean, the government's trying But you know what? You can still be the man of the castle You can still be the king Hey, you get to control your own destiny You get to control if your family serves God What did Joshua say? As for me and my house, we might serve the Lord If she lets me I'll have to As for me and my house, honey What? No He just said as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord Didn't he? He just said with certainty Hey, I'm going to get the job done And we need some men today that are going to get the job done And think of the positive Hey, you get to control your destiny, my friend Or you can be like Aiken and go steal a bunch of stuff and lie about it and destroy your whole family Or you can be like Adam and have a really big mixed bag Good one, Adam Good job, right? Number three, what was the point of accepting reality? You have to take care of those that cannot take care of themselves You have to think of others Your children and your wife are the weaker vessel They need you to lead them They need you to take care of them They need you to make these decisions Why? Because they're the ones in charge Because God wants them to lead And you know what, young men? If you want to find this godly woman You need to be someone that's willing to take the lead Take the brunt of the responsibility To get a job To be responsible, to be a spiritual leader If you want a godly woman to submit to you She wants to find someone that looks worthy to submit to Not just some bozo Not just some jerk But someone that's sober That loves the Lord That's going to work hard That's going to provide for them That cares about them And doesn't care about just themselves They care about others Go to 1 Corinthians 12 I have one more practical example that I want to give you here We could make this We could really take this to every single area of our life, couldn't we? And you know, I try to focus on ones that are really important We just need people to accept reality today Just accept who you are And my third thing I want to talk about is just You know, some people don't really like the idea of being a church layman You know, the majority of people are going to be a church layman their whole life And why can't you just accept that reality? You know, some people have to be in charge Or they have to be someone of notoriety Or they have to get their name in lights You know, I have to be, you know, the preacher I have to be whoever You know, I have to be the deacon I have to be someone You know, it doesn't matter Why can't you just accept who you are? Why can't you be excited about the position that you have? Look at 1 Corinthians 12, verse 14 The Bible says that the body is not one member but many If the foot shall say because I am not the hand I am not of the body Is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say because I am not the eye I am not of the body Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now the God set the members, every one of them In the body as it had pleased him And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body And the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee Nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you Nay, much more those members of the body Which seem to be more feeble, are necessary And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable Upon these we bestow more abundant honor And our uncumbly parts have more abundant comeliness The Bible says that the church of God is like a body And we need every single part The eyes, the ears, the nose, the hair, the elbow Every single aspect of your body is needed And it's loved and it's appreciated Now sometimes we don't always appreciate it as much as we should But when it's injured we do When it's missing, you do When you don't have it, you really miss it You really miss that Achilles tendon when you don't have it You might not even think about it that much If it's hurt, you'll think about it Hey, you'll think about that knee You'll think about that elbow You'll think about Look, just getting a splinter underneath your fingernail You're gonna think about that one A paper cut Hey, you get the webbing in your fingers just cut just right I mean, you're gonna think about it You get something caught in your ear You get something caught in your nose You get something in your eye I mean, we're talking about your whole body is in pain at that point, right? And here's the thing In the Christian life You are gonna be a different body part than many other people You might be the eye You might be the elbow You might be the armpit You know, we don't know But we need an armpit Hey, you might be the nose You might be the toe You might be the fingernail We don't know But here's the thing What we need people to do is accept Who they are in the body of Christ Say, hey, you know what? I'm gonna be the best elbow there is I don't wanna be an elbow out of joint, you know That's gonna be annoying Hey, why don't you be the best elbow The best nose The best ear The best eye And, you know, there's a flip side of this, too Some people, they think, well, if I was an eye, you know Then I would be excited about my life There's some people that are an eye And they're upset that they're the eye They're like, why can't I just be like the knee or something? You know Why don't you just accept The job that God has given to you Why don't you just accept who you are in the church of God And not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think And also accepting whatever job responsibilities you have Stepping up to the plate I mean, do you really want, when you're driving Your eye to be like, you know what? I just wanna be a knee I wanna be a knee You know, it's like bad timing You need to step up and be the eye Because the knee is not gonna be as good a driver You know Right? And you know what? Sometimes you got people You say, hey, you need to be an eye And you're like, I wanna be, you know, an elbow And you're like, be an eye And then you got some people that are an elbow And they're like, I wanna be an eye And you're like, be the elbow You really need to be an elbow, okay? You really need to be the knee But what do we have? People just need to accept who they are In the Lord You know, women say, oh, I wanna be the preacher You're not gonna be the preacher Not in this church Except not being the preacher You say, oh, that's not fair Look, most of the men in this room are gonna be the preacher Get over yourself, okay? You say, well, I just wanna be the... Look, just be who you are And be the best person that you can be Hey, be the best piano player Be the best song leader Be the best Bible reader Be the best soul winner Hey, just be someone that's always at church Hey, I like this person They're always at church They're always there They're always comforting They're always loving Just be the best person in Christ Why? Because you just gotta accept reality Why can't you just say, hey, this is who God made me God wanted me to be here God put me in this part For a reason And I'm gonna focus on the positive Hey, at least I can be part of the body of Christ Hey, at least I have a good church to go to Hey, at least I can preach the gospel Hey, I'm part of a great body here We're winning championships here, spiritually You know, some people, they just get excited to get traded to the winning team Like, they're like the second... They're like the backup kicker But they get the same Super Bowl ring that everybody else got They're like, sweet, I'm on this team This team is great They don't even do anything They're never even put in the game But they get the same trophy And we need people today to just humble themselves Accept who they are Think about the positives And you know what, realize it's about others anyways Hey, what was the point of accepting... Hey, there's other people here that need me And you know what, if everybody said I have to be the preacher, I'm not coming to this church Well, I guess I'll just preach in an empty room That's not gonna work out very well Who am I gonna motivate to go out soul winning with me? Who am I gonna motivate to sing praise to God with me? Who am I gonna motivate... Who am I gonna pastor when it's just a bunch of chairs? I'm gonna get like stuffed animals and be like, come on buddy, you know I'll go down there, amen, yeah, you know No, we need a whole body here Go to Matthew 25, Matthew 25 I have two verses I wanna look at, we'll be finished Accept who you are, accept what talents God has given you And just use them for his glory Don't get so caught up in which talents that you have Isn't there a story when there's a man He doles out talents to different people One guy gets ten One guy gets five One guy gets one Well, I wish I had got five Wish I had ten Why can't you just say, hey, I got a talent Hey, I wanna just accept the reality that I only got one talent I wanna think on the positive that I could do something with this talent And realize that it's my master's talent And so it's about him anyways And just use it for his glory But is that what the guy did that got the one talent? Look at Matthew 25 verse 24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee That thou art a hard man reaping where thou hadst not sown, and gathered where thou hadst not strode And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth Lo, there thou hast that is thine As the Lord answered and said unto them, Thou wicked and slothful servant Thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gathered where I had not strode Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers And then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury Take therefore the talent from him And give it unto him which hath ten talents Now this is an interesting story But notice this guy, he didn't want to accept the fact that he only had one talent He's focused on the negative about his master being a hard man And he's so scared and only concerned about himself, not his master And so he hides the talent Rather than just even giving his boss just a little bit of usury Giving him a little bit of extra Just getting any kind of profit What a wicked and slothful servant today And you know what, when you get caught up not accepting reality You end up squandering the opportunity you had He can't take this opportunity back can he? Can he say, well I wish I had gotten ten Well you didn't get ten, get over it Well you know he's a hard man and I don't know He might pun it Hey, why don't you think on the positive If you do good he might reward you In fact when you read about this story When they just get like one extra talent He's like that's an extra city you get to rule over That was a pretty good benefit Think about the positive, like hey he's entrusted me with this If I'm really good with it maybe he'll give me more And not only that, just think about the fact that it's his money anyways He's entrusted him to you, it's about him Why don't you bless him with it Whatever God has given you, what kind of person are you? Are you sitting here, I wish I had ten talents I wish I had five I only got this one, well are you using it for God? You know what, everyone that's saved has one talent Because you can all preach the gospel Well I just buried it in the ground I just hid it under a bushel You know why can't you just use the talents that God gave you Use the resources that God gave you And say you know what, if you give me one talent You know what, I'm going to do the best I can with that one talent I'm going to accept the reality of what I've got And you know what, when you accept the reality of what God's given you He gives you a lot more Hey the guy that accepted that he got ten He could have been like what if I got a hundred He gets another one, he gets the guy that was lazy's talent He gets to be the top earner Accept who you are, go to Ecclesiastes chapter 9, last place I'll be turned You know Joseph went through some hard times in his life He got thrown into prison But you know when he got, he got thrown in prison falsely He was falsely accused and went thrown in prison You know he just accepted that reality didn't he He focused on the positive, he became the ruler in there And he thought about others, he was helping others with visions and dreams And then he gets elevated doesn't he Before that in his life he was sold into slavery by his own brethren in the Potiphar But you know what, he accepted that reality And he worked hard And he was diligent with what God gave him And God kept giving him more And you know what, I don't know what life situation you're in You could be in a tough situation I guarantee it's not as tough as Joseph's was though I don't see anybody in prison right now I don't see anybody sold into slavery I don't know about, okay I don't think you are And guess what, he accepted his reality He accepted his life circumstances And he said you know what, I'm going to do the best with where I'm at I'm going to do the best with what I've got You know Daniel, he was sold into slavery and became a eunuch in Babylon And I don't remember him complaining about it That's a lot to complain about He accepted his reality Not only that, he thought about the positive of where he was at And he was thinking about others the whole time And in fact, it's weird in the story But whenever they go to kill all the wise men and counselors David wants to give the dream so that they'll be spared These wicked, ungodly, you know, pagan counselors He wants to spare them He's thinking about others And you know what, God uses that to promote and to elevate him Ecclesiastes chapter 9, look at verse 5 For the living know that they shall die But the dead know not anything Neither have they any more reward For the memory of them is forgotten Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished Neither have they any more proportion forever In anything that is done under the sun Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy And drink thy wine with a merry heart For God now accepteth thy works Let thy garments be always white And let thy head lack no ointment Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest All the days of thy life of thy vanity Which he hath given thee under the sun All the days of thy vanity For that is thy portion in this life And in thy labor which thou takest unto the sun Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do Do it with thy might There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave of thou goest Why should you accept reality? Well, you can't change the things that have already happened Just accept them Number two, why not focus on the positive instead of all the negative And number three, it's always about others anyways But think about this concept When you're dead, it's over When you're dead, it's over All your love, all your hatred, all your envy, all your strife, everything you did It's all gone You lost your opportunity When the master returns, he says, where's my talent? It's like, there's no more, well, now I'll serve you Now I'll go put it in the bank Nope, the opportunity has been lost But he's saying, hey, whatever your hand finds to do Whatever job you've been given Wherever you find yourself, hey, do it with thy might This is your opportunity, this is your life You say, well, I wish I was born at the time of Christ You're not I wish I was the disciple I wish I was with the apostle Paul I wish I was in this church I wish I lived in this place I wish I was there, I wish I was this one You're not You're you Be the best you that you can be Why can't you just accept who you are And be the best version of yourself Just say, hey, I can't change my life I'm where I'm at for a reason God has me here, I still have breath And I can't change the past You know what I can do, though? I can accept the things that I can't change And you say, you know what? This is my plight in life And I can think about the positive And I can ultimately realize, you know what? I can have a positive impact on others And that's why we're here anyways Just think about the others And just do it for them And do it for the Lord Jesus Christ Let's close in prayer Thank you, Father, so much for your word Thank you for what you have given us Thank you for all the blessings that we've received I pray that we would not have an ungrateful and murmuring spirit But rather we would be ones that would accept reality Even when we go through difficulty Through struggle, we see David with the loss of a child We see Joseph in constant turmoil in prison and slavery We see Daniel going through difficulty These men had the ability to accept the reality that they were in a difficult spot They were able to focus on the positive And they were able to think about others And to love others And I pray that we would also have the same mindset Of one that could just accept reality And take what you've given us And do it to the best of our ability In Jesus' name we pray, amen Amen We'll go ahead and sing our last song It's Psalm 150 It should be the laminated hand up Or you could use your Bible On the first Praise ye the Lord Praise God in the sanctuary Praise him in the firmament of his power Praise him for his mighty acts Praise him according to his excellenness Praise him with the sound of the trumpet Praise him with the psaltery and harp Praise him with the timbrel and hands Praise him with string instruments and organs Praise him upon the loud cymbals Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals Let every thing that hath crept Praise the Lord Praise ye the Lord Praise God the Father Praise God the Son Praise God the Holy Ghost Praise God in three persons Have a good night