(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Hey everyone, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and grab your song books. We're going to sing song 408, Loyalty to Christ. 408, Loyalty to Christ. Song 408, Loyalty to Christ. Let's sing it out. From over hill and plain there comes the sickle strain. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. His music rolls along the hills take up the song. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. Come to victory, come to victory. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. His music rolls along the hills take up the song. His music rolls along the hills take up the song. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. Come to victory, come to victory. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. Come to victory, come to victory. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. His music rolls along the hills take up the song. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. His music rolls along the hills take up the song. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. Come to victory, come to victory. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. His music rolls along the hills take up the song. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. The strength of youth we lay at Jesus' feet today. His loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. His gospel we'll proclaim throughout the world's domain. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. Come to victory, come to victory. Christ, our great commander on. We'll move at His command. We'll soon possess the land. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Christ. Good singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the gift of being able to come together and just to worship you as a body of Christ and just to hear your word preached. Pray that you would fill our pastor with the Holy Spirit this morning and bless those that couldn't make it. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, for our second song, let's go to 238. Christ liveth in me. This is one of those songs you got to sing out nice and loud with passion. 238, Christ liveth in me. 238, Christ liveth in me. Once far from God and dead in sin, no line my heart could see. But in God's word the light I've found, now Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me. As rays of light come yonder sun, the flowers of earth set free. So light and light and love came forth from Christ living in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me. As lives the flower within the sea and in the foam the tree. So praise the God of truth and grace, his Spirit welleth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me. With longing all my heart is filled, that my give I may be. As on the wondrous thought I dwell, that Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me. and their husband and their children and to church. How about that one? Yeah, loyalty to church, right? Also, if you look at the first memory verse here, this is a challenge for all the kiddos. If you can memorize the verse and then quote it at the midweek service, you can get a special ice cream or treat at the evening service. Those who complete the entire passage, Proverbs 31, and can quote that to a non-family member can receive a special prize. Obviously, if it's a shorter chapter, it's usually a smaller prize. With the bigger chapter, it's usually a nicer prize. And so I really encourage you, especially you ladies, to work on this one. And it's a great chapter of the Bible. A lot of good verses in there. On the inside, we have our service times, our soul winning times, and then church stats down below. Then we have on the right the list of our expecting ladies. Several who are expecting. Please be in prayer for them as well as our prayer list. And if you'd like any updates or to be added, please make sure to email us or contact us. Make sure we are keeping this fresh. And so we want to make sure that we have everything in there accurate. Also, upcoming events. February 24th is our next preaching class. And then April 9th to the 10th is an event that Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California is putting on for teenagers. It's a youth rally. There is a poster that we've hung up in our hallway that has the details and information about that event. And we'll try to get a sign up sheet going as well. Just for those who may be interested or planning on possibly traveling, just so way, if people want to carpool or just have that information, they can. On the back, we just can't stop with the baby train. Congratulations to the Chamley family on the birth of Phoebe Henrietta. She was born on the 17th at 529 AM. 10 pounds, 12 ounces, 21 and three-quarter inches long. Congratulations to them. At this point, they should have just known it was going to be a girl. And then also congratulations to the Warner family on the birth of Titus Judah. He was born on the 17th at 1117 PM. 8 pounds, 9 ounces and 21 inches long. Congratulations to them as well. Dylan said at this rate, we have a baby a week. Now it's two. I don't know what to tell you. No, I'm just kidding. Praise God for that and the blessings. Let's go ahead and sing our third song for this morning. Psalm 147. It's our Psalm of the week. Psalm 147. We have a special handout with that. All right, Psalm 147. Praise ye the Lord for it is good to sing praises unto our God. For it is pleasant and praises complete the Lord God of Jerusalem. He gathered together the outcasts of Israel. He lived the broken in heart and mind if a pair rules. He telleth the number of the stars. He calleth them all. He calleth them all by their name. Praise our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite. The Lord lived with me. He casted love to the crown. Sing unto the Lord with his giving. Sing praise upon the heart. For we are God who covered the heaven with his grass. Grass to grow upon the mountains. He gave it to the east in smooth and to the young ravens which cry. He delighted God in the strength of the force. The legs of the man, the Lord taking pleasure in them that fear him and those that open his mercy. Praise the Lord of Jerusalem. Praise our God O Zion. Praise the Lord of Jerusalem. For we have strength in the force of thy gates we have blessed. Thy children within thee he maketh peace in thy borders and fill it deep. With the finest commandment on earth is worth running where he's been given so like cool heat scattered in the pore frost like ashes. Scattered in the pore frost like ashes. He cast it forth his ice like more so sweet can stand before his hold. He said it and found his word and melted then he caused his wind to blow and the waters flow he shall lift his word unto Jacob his dad to send his judgments unto Israel he hath not held so with any nation at last for his judgments they have not the liberty the Lord. At this time as the offering plates are being passed around please turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2 1 Timothy chapter 2 2 Timothy chapter 2 1 Timothy chapter 2 1 Timothy chapter 2 1 Timothy chapter 2 1 Timothy chapter 2 1 Timothy chapter 2 1 Timothy chapter 2 1 Timothy chapter 2 2 2 1st Timothy chapter 2 will read the entire chapter as is our custom prior to the preaching of God's word. The Bible reads I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, desires, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and an apostle, I speak the truth in Christ and lie not, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. 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. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven we thank you for today Lord and just for the preaching of your word. I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit as he expounds on the message you've laid on his heart and I also pray Lord that you would soften hearts in the room so that we can receive this message, apply it to our lives and make a change in our lives as well. We love you and in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. You know I love singing the psalms because just with that one psalm we sang more doctrine than the non-dom church has done in a whole year. So there you go. First Timothy chapter 2 look at verse 11 the Bible says 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 form then Eve. Now this is a really interesting passage of scripture because it's alluding to the creation account and it's you know in an epistle written to a pastor and really the pastoral epistles which are first and second Timothy and Titus some people include Philemon but essentially this section of scripture is considered the pastoral epistles are filled with doctrine filled with the principles that Christ teaches us and some of the most important things that we can learn. But what I find interesting is how the Bible is using as its proof text or using as its source of authority is the creation account itself and using Genesis as its place in scripture to say the reason why this doctrine is true is because of the creation account is because of the creation story is because of what Genesis actually teaches and so what I find interesting about this passage is the idea that the beginning or the creation itself has significance to doctrine to how we understand the world that we live in and this kind of gave me an idea to think about our priorities as people based on the creation account itself and so the title of my sermon this morning is this creation priorities creation priorities and really when it comes to priorities everyone has priorities it's more about what is your most important priority or what is priority in your life whether you've even thought actively about what your priorities are your priorities will be manifest through your actions through your actions we see demonstrated what priorities you have what are you doing first what's the most important thing to you what is something that you're not willing to sacrifice what are the things that you like the most this comes out as what your true priorities are and most people just live by just kind of on a whim they just kind of let their emotions run their daily life and run their lifestyle and they just kind of do as they please do as they want and that's essentially shapes the priorities that they have but sometimes we have to force ourselves to go back to what we should be doing and the priorities that God would have us you know have in our lives and kind of force ourselves to have the right kind of priorities now as we keep reading those it says in verse 14 and Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety so according to the text it's important that men lead because men are different than women that's what the Bible teaches the Bible teaches that men and women are different that men are to lead and specifically it's saying that Adam was not deceived when the woman was deceived showing that there's even a level of deception that men are less likely to be taken advantage of than women and it used to be a pretty well known fact that salesmen would take advantage of women just simply from the fact that they're women not because they're less educated not because they didn't get a college degree not because of there wasn't enough feminism in the world no it's just simply because women are more manipulated by emotions than men are and so it's easier to take advantage of women it's easier for women to be manipulated it's easier for women to be taken advantage of and so it's important that women embrace that you know you should embrace the idea that that's true because you know what the solution is is that you lean into your husband and that you allow a man to guide you and to lead you you recognize the fact that I may not be the best at making decisions therefore I need to lean into and trust the decisions that my husband makes for me and specifically along the lines of what scripture teaches for me and leaning into God's instruction for me now it's not entirely different that men have kind of a similar situation where we ourselves also are not very good at always making decisions and we need to lean into Christ and lean into the Bible and the word of God to know how we should act and how we should behave but ultimately you know God did create man first and then a woman and notice what helps the woman child bearing and then continuing in faith and charity and holiness and sobriety the Bible teaches that we're not good when we're idle like mankind is just bad when we're idle it's just generally speaking it's not just women it's not just men it's both of us are really bad when we're idle and so it's important for man to work it's important for woman to work and we have different roles different responsibilities different jobs that God has gifted us with different talents and one of those things that really helps women is having lots of children if you have lots of children you're going to be very busy whether you want to or not and then those ladies who maybe don't have a lot of children or maybe that don't have a lot of responsibility just laid on top of them it's good for them to still be busy it's good for them to do certain things and have certain activities that they're not just sitting around the house with nothing to do you know if my wife was sitting around the house with nothing to do I would find things for her to do right I would help her or and guide her in a direction where she can have some activities that she's doing that's taking up time now of course I don't think that I have to force her or I wouldn't have to choose that but I would want her to have something specific I wouldn't want her to just scroll on Facebook all day or scroll on TikTok all day or scroll shopping all day or something like that there's just a lot of evil that's out there for the idle mind just like it wouldn't be good for me if I had no job and all I do is just scroll through YouTube and play video games or do it I mean that would just be a waste of my efforts and energy and would cause sin on both sides of the equation what helps prevent sin in many cases is just working it's just having working and you know what keeps you out of the bar being pregnant you know I mean like that'll just keep you out of the bar it'll keep you out of the club right you know it'll keep men in their household it'll keep women in the household you know having lots of kids to raise and to teach and to guide like these are just easy ways to escape horrible life decisions and for those who maybe don't have that maybe you don't have children yet maybe you're struggling to have children pass having children you know make sure you are keeping yourself busy with things that are wholesome activities working hard go to Mark chapter number 10 for a moment I want to show you another passage here before I get into the meat of my sermon but when we talk about priorities you know priorities dictate our life they dictate the decisions that we make they dictate where we're at if you're not at church on Sunday morning what's your priority on church right and of course there's legitimate reasons if you're sick stay home right we're not mad at someone for staying home for being sick we're mad at you for showing up when you're sick okay but then when you're not sick and you don't show up then we're mad at you we're like what are you doing you know like just come to church right and we want to have that blend but of course it kind of shows where your priorities are by what you're doing where you're at what's going on look at Mark chapter 10 verse 4 the Bible says this shall be one flesh so that they are no more twain but one flesh what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder so I use this passage and I don't want to talk about marriage yet but what I want to talk about is the idea that when Jesus Christ is on this earth notice that he was using the creation account to establish doctrine again wasn't he he was using Genesis and he was using the creation account to establish the principles of marriage themselves you say like well the law said divorce but he's saying you know way before that we already established marriage that it's one man it's one woman they're married together forever till death do them part and that they're supposed to leave father and mother those are the essential elements of marriage that are being taught here in scripture and Jesus Christ is pointing to the creation account and the divorce aspect was something that Jesus brings up as being a hardness of their heart that this precept is not always been the case and of course it's never the best situation of course divorce in the Bible is different than divorce today divorce today if you just don't like each other you divorce in the Bible there was one specific provision that's similar to an annulment today so it is not what people think of as the divorce that's happening rampantly in our country divorce should almost not exist it should be such an extreme rarity of society that you you virtually don't even know about it you've never even heard of it in real life if it was followed by a biblical principle not saying it wouldn't happen occasionally but that it should be so rare that we wouldn't even know about it today it's like 50% of marriages and in some cases it seems even higher than that and it's really a shame and it's embarrassment that we call ourselves a Christian nation and 50% of our marriages are ending in divorce I mean that's embarrassing how about loyalty how about loyalty I mean why do we get up and sing a song about loyalty and loyalty to Christ and then people are divorcing their spouses I mean they don't care about the words of Christ here which he really emphasized divorce and what's a shame is how many preachers today are using these passages to teach divorce not to teach them not divorce they're like trying to teach about this passage about all the the reasons why you can divorce as opposed to the concept that Jesus is basically saying let not man put asunder never just don't do it now go back to Genesis chapter number two Genesis chapter number two what is the most important priority that we have well I believe it follows the same pattern of the creation account and if we look at Genesis chapter two look at verse number seven the Bible says this and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul so the first thing that happens is God creates man he breathes into him life and he becomes a living soul and now he has a relationship with God because he is the son of God now I'm not going to take you to this passage but you go to Luke chapter number three the Bible tells us that Adam is the son of God because he was created of God now he's not the same as Jesus it's the same wording but has a slightly different meaning but in essence Adam is the son of God because God is his father God is the one who really created Adam and so from a human perspective his father is God and that now makes him have a relationship with God and our most important priority that every person has in this world is their relationship with God that is the most important aspect you can ever have and the most important task we have is having a relationship with God okay now I want to just flip the page or look at chapter three for a moment and I want to show you a few other verses on this and I want to explain this now the word relationship is not really a word you see in your Bible but the Bible brings up the same this concept of having fellowship with God obviously relationships implied when we talk about son and father that's just how we describe that phenomenon of that relationship and God wants to have a relationship with us and beyond just the fact that we're related he wants to actually commune with us he wants to talk with us okay he wants to quote hang out with us in a sense okay now in the garden it was no different and you kind of get this implied from the text this isn't necessarily directly spoken but notice what it says in Genesis chapter 3 verse number 8 and they this is talking about Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden now in Genesis chapter 3 it opens up with the devil tempting them with sin they both sin then what happens is God comes in the evening in the cool of the day and is approaching them and they withdraw themselves what I think could be implied from the text and seems pretty obvious is that they probably experienced this in the past God probably communed with them in the past but even if that never happened it's evident that God wants to that God is coming and approaching them in the evening wanting to have what a relationship with them God is not some distant God that wants to stay up in heaven and just look down upon his creation no he wants to walk in the garden where Adam and Eve are and he wants to have a relationship with them and it's not just a relationship with Adam it's also with Eve it's with both of them because God wants to have a relationship with both his sons and daughters he wants us all to have a relationship with him what causes us often to have a a problem or a difficulty in our relationship with God it's sin sin is what causes issues in our relationship with God it causes us to want to what withdraw ourselves from having a relationship with God and what's the main emotion it's shame because we've sinned we feel shame embarrassed and we naturally withdraw ourselves from wanting to have a relationship with God and this is where it becomes really important that you become saved okay now being saved is a concept that is taught everywhere in scripture including in this passage and this is what's really interesting if you think about this passage and this is kind of cool but Adam and Eve sin and then they're approached by the voice of the Lord okay that's what it says in verse number 8 and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking okay which is kind of interesting wording but a person that is the voice of the Lord God is the word of God which would be the Lord Jesus Christ okay and think about this the Lord Jesus Christ approached them when? in the cool part of the day we would categorize this in another word in the Bible even at the even the even is kind of a time when the sun is setting it's also would be considered the cool of the day so at the even we have Jesus Christ approaching them and they're sinners okay now I'm not going to read the whole passage but if we look a little bit further in the text he ends up talking with Adam he talks with Eve he talks about how they're cursed and everything like this but look at verse 21 unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them so they were naked and they were ashamed of that picturing how our sin separates us and there's a shame associated with that they tried to sow fig leaves meaning that they tried to repent of their sins they tried to cover up their own sins that was rejected by God that is not sufficient of a covering and so he has to make them a different kind of covering what is that particular covering well according to this it's coats of skins now that would be coming from an animal and of course we don't know exactly what happened but it seems like the illusion here is that an animal was killed or was slaughtered and we took the coat from the particular animal and we applied it to them why it has to be implied that way is certain animals you can shear like you could take a lamb or certain animals and you can shear and then you can take that and you can make it into a garment but to have a coat you have to have the skin and here's the thing you can't take the skin off an animal and it survives so in order to have a coat of skins you know what you have to do? you have to slaughter the animal so it's kind of showing there's no remission without the what? the shedding of blood there's a lot of doctrines that are taught in the book of Genesis and when you have that shedding of blood then they apply that upon Adam and Eve and that covers their sin it covers their nakedness and you know the interesting thing about the Bible is Adam and Eve were naked in the garden nowhere else in the Bible does it ever talk about us being naked again in heaven we're even clothed and I think that's probably just to always symbolize the fact that we were clothed with Christ's righteousness that we were imputed his righteousness upon us and that we're not going to be naked we don't hear about the people in hell getting a garment we don't know if they have any kind of garment and spiritually speaking they have no covering, they have no garment they have no imputed righteousness upon them so we have this happen, what's cool I think about this and it's something that I recently thought of is just how Jesus approaches them at even and then covers their sin, well guess what Jesus Christ died at even on the cross and that's what covered our sin so there's a lot of amazing truths here that we can find in the book of Genesis and at the beginning but that restores the relationship between God and man is salvation is the shed blood of Jesus Christ and that's really important to God because he wants to have a relationship with man you know he could have just thrown us all into hell he could have just thrown Adam and Eve into hell and just started over with some new creation or some new creature but instead of just trashing Adam and Eve he redeemed them, he restored them he covered their sin and he showed grace upon them he showed mercy upon them and we get to see all the different aspects of who God really is we get to see that he really is merciful you know God could be merciful but choose not to show mercy and then we would never see it but God shows mercy and then we get to see who God really is God could have chose to only save everyone and then we would have never seen God's wrath or we would have never seen God's jealousy or we wouldn't have seen all of God's emotions but because of free will and because of the creation that God has given us we can see all of the vast complexities of God how he can have so many ranges of emotion and all the different intricacies of how he's truth and how he's righteous and how he has judgment I mean the Bible says the Lord loves judgment the Bible says the Lord is jealous the Bible talks about God as being truth the Bible talks about God being love you know not one of those is true all of them are true and I always hear about this doctrine of divine simplicity and it just sounds wrong because my God doesn't sound very simple he's very complex he's much more complex than anything in this world or any of the creation that we have he would be the most complex creature that exists if creature is even the right word probably not the most complex being and ever will be he's God, there's something unique about God there's the mysteries of God there's certain things about God that are too high for me that are too wonderful for me I believe that God is way bigger and more complex and there's nothing that I can really even understand in the grand scope of who God truly is and it's silly to me that philosophers want to then boil God down to divine simplicity we've figured out God it's like no, that's a foolish attitude but again relationship with God is really the number one priority it's what God really wants and the only way to have a relationship with God is to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to accept his free gift and to be covered in his blood spiritually speaking that is what saves you and now you have a potential to have a really great relationship with God but it doesn't end with salvation that's the beginning that's just the very basic of having that relationship but when we sin we now have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and instead of trying to feel ashamed and withdrawing and hiding from God we need to still approach God and we of course ask for mercy and we pray and things like that we have a relationship with God even though we've sinned we have grace that covers our sin and we have Jesus Christ who is that propitiation we have an intercessor we have an ambassador on our behalf that's helping us to continue to have this relationship go to Luke chapter 10 go to Luke chapter 10 keep your finger in Genesis if you want because we're going to keep coming back but I want to go to Luke chapter 10 for a moment and emphasize again now when we talk about a relationship with God we're not in the garden and God's not walking in the garden with us physically so that we can have this particular relationship so how is it that we do have a relationship of course the disciples when they were here they got to literally have a physical relationship with Jesus where they handled them I mean they say that in 1 John they've handled the word of life you know it's really special to them to be able to have a physical relationship with Jesus Christ but we can still have a relationship with Jesus Christ and that is through reading our Bible that is through reading the scripture and there is no substitute for reading the Bible there's zero there's none and I think in this particular passage it brings this up look at what it says in Luke chapter 10 verse 38 now it came to pass as they went they entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him to her house and she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word but Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said Lord does thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone bitter therefore that she help me and Jesus answered and said and Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her now this is important from the context because consistently in the Gospels the women are often ministering to Jesus Christ they're serving the Lord Jesus Christ and it's very important it's very needful but Jesus elevates one thing above this it's having this time with Jesus to hear the words of his mouth and you know how do you hear the words of the mouth of Jesus Christ it's the King James Bible we open up our Bible we read it and I love that this passage is centered around two ladies showing that it's not like oh men need to read the Bible no women need to read the Bible oh men need to have a relationship with Jesus no women need to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and you know what God wants us all to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and it's a personal relationship you know my wife doesn't have a relationship with Jesus because she's married to me or like I'm the go-to I kind of know Jesus and I'm introducing him to my wife no no no my wife has a direct personal relationship with Jesus and she is supposed to commune with Jesus on her own and reading her Bible and you know what that's every person in this room that you need to talk with Jesus yourself you need to get alone with the Bible and read the Bible and talk with God it is the number one priority of your life and of course it's coming from Genesis you're created you have this relationship we see the voice of God coming to approach them and why is it often that we struggle with this is because of sin because of sin it causes us to either get distracted feel ashamed embarrassed and perhaps not want to read you know why is it that evil people don't want to read the Bible because they don't want to hear about how bad they are why is it that sometimes we don't read the Bible it's just sometimes literally coming from a place of shame maybe we just feel embarrassed maybe we feel like we haven't been reading a while or maybe we feel like we're not living very holy or maybe we feel like we're struggling with bad thoughts that day and that bad thought could just simply be I don't really want to do spiritual things today I kind of want to be selfish and you don't want to read the Bible because you want to be selfish and you know if you read the Bible you're going to have to wrestle with the idea of being selfish that day or doing what the Bible says and so it's important that on a daily basis that we're trying to open the Bible and read some and you know this is often paralleled in the Bible you know I'm not going to go all the places but with manna Jesus Christ says in Luke chapter 4 that man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God I mean what could be more important than eating food physically almost nothing because if you don't eat you'll perish in the same way Jesus is likening that unto the word of God that we're supposed to read now of course when it came to the manna some gathered a lot, some gathered little but at least they were gathering something and then God can allow that to minister unto you and even those who were gathering very little the Bible says that they had no lack and those that gathered much they didn't spoil any so you know I'm not really mad at people depending on how much they read like to me it's less important depending on how much you're reading as opposed to the fact that you're reading on a daily basis so like even if you're struggling with Bible reading just do a chapter a day and I'm not saying like that's my recommendation I'm not recommending read only a chapter a day because you'll read you'll read the Bible in like 4 years or something ok I think you should try to read at least once a year as a minimum but what I am trying to say is on days that you struggle maybe a day that you missed your Bible reading opportunity life happens life happens ok especially when you're having kids and you're trying to raise them we have work we have all these activities crazy things are happening constantly in the world it's easy to miss your Bible reading just say oh you know what I'll at least pause to just read one chapter right maybe you're using the bathroom I'll read one chapter it's lunch I can read one chapter on my lunch break right I mean maybe the whole day the whole day was a train wreck but before you go to bed you just say I'll read one chapter that might even help you go to sleep anyways ok you know just pick like Leviticus or something right or Deuteronomy or Numbers I mean but I'm just telling you that this is our this is why we're here you know the reason why you're created is to have some kind of a relationship with God that's the whole reason you even exist that's the whole reason that's why you have a unique soul that's why you have a unique consciousness that's why you have a unique spirit because God didn't want to create robots he wanted people to actually choose to accept his free gift of salvation and to be saved and then to have a response to him you know God loves free will offerings he loves it when someone just chooses to actually worship God and of course he puts no obligation on it because then it really wouldn't be worship would it? it'd be obligation you know coming to church this morning no one in this room that's saved thought I have to come to church today or I'm going to go to hell you know they decided to come to church just simply out of their own free will their own desire people that read the Bible that are saved didn't read the Bible today to escape hell they did it because they want to actually hear from God they want God to talk to them people that prayed this morning that are saved to you know escape hell because they've already done that they were praying because they just want to talk to God they want to have a relationship they're asking for his needs and you know what this is an important aspect of who we are God created us to read the Bible and to pray and to have a relationship with him and when we stop making that a priority in our lives we stop being who God created us to be and this is what's really great about this is no matter where you find yourself and no matter what circumstance you can always fulfill priority number one you know there's been times where it's been dark and it's been hard to access a Bible and even in today's world it's difficult for some people to have access to the Bible but for us today we have we have literally no option I mean even if you were thrown in jail they'll probably give you a King James Bible I mean there's almost no circumstance upon which any of us in this room could find ourselves not capable of meeting priority number one and I believe this as long as you're seeking to fulfill priority one God will make a way for you to fulfill priority number one if you really want to read the Bible I guarantee God's going to find a way for you to get a Bible so you can read it I guarantee those who want to unless you're just out cold unconscious you should be able to pray and even then maybe you can I don't know but like there's really no excuse to not pray and I think we always get so fixated on the things that are going on in our lives that we worry about other issues that we have when this is the only issue we should be really worrying about you should be focused in on am I able to read the Bible and am I able to pray and am I doing those things every other thing in your life everything from reading the Bible and praying is a problem it's an issue and we need to constantly recalibrate ourselves and say am I even doing what I'm supposed to be like am I really doing what God created me to do God created me to have a relationship with me I mean what if Adam was reading to Eve whatever scripture they had at that point which at least he knew at least one thing hey we're not supposed to be eating from the tree in the midst of the garden right what if they're reading that and memorizing that all day it would have been harder for them to what sin not saying they wouldn't have but I am saying this that it makes it harder to sin when you're having a relationship with God when you're reading the Bible when you're praying it's easier to sin when you're not and of course the more you get away the easier it is to get away and just keep getting away and then you just feel embarrassed you don't want to read anything ashamed and it just makes it worse and worse and I find this if you haven't read your Bible in a while it gets harder every single day you don't and if you just like say I don't even like reading the Bible well I've also noticed this every day you force yourself to it gets easier it's like you say man it's going to be really hard to read my Bible tomorrow ok but if you do it it'll be a little bit easier the next day and then it'll be a little bit easier the next day and then just a little bit easier and then there'll even be sometimes when you just want to read the Bible like you just literally just like hey I really want to read it today sometimes as a human you're just not going to want to read it as much but you know what you're never going to want to read the Bible by not reading it you will destroy your appetite for the Bible by stop reading it that's why we have to force ourselves because your flesh hates reading the Bible your flesh does not want to read the Bible your flesh wants to have fun and party your flesh wants to eat sugar why do you think it is I mean think about it this way when is the most sugary foods offered what meal? it's always breakfast I mean you go to dinner it's savory lunch is just kind of typically light what is breakfast? it's like pancakes and waffles and muffins and cinnamon rolls I mean it's basically every form of bread and sugar you could possibly think of okay I mean just sugar and look I'm not against breakfast I'm not against you eating these things but there's a reason why it's because when your flesh wakes up you know what it wants? just to enjoy itself it's just like feed me yeah you know what God said? he said hey you're supposed to be feeding yourself the Bible it's more important and Job said that he esteemed the words of his mouth more than his necessary food and you know what? Bible reading is the most important thing that we can ever do if there's one thing that you do to change your life it will be reading the Bible there's a reason why people come to our church it's because they've read the Bible some you know if someone's never read the Bible and they come to our church they won't like our church very much and it won't take long for them to get really offended and really upset because you know I don't necessarily like every single word of my mouth to show you what verses I'm talking about and so they haven't read that portion and they're just thinking like how did he say that? like why did he say that? whereas people that have read the Bible a lot they're thinking like I'm glad someone finally said that because the Bible says that you know and so it's important that people read the Bible there's a reason why people go to the non-denom churches is because they haven't read the Bible and in fact they don't want to go to a church where they'll hear the Bible so they're going to fig leaf Baptist church okay they're going and hiding they're going to some hiding non-denom church experience they're going to a church where they're going to literally have the Super Bowl okay I looked it up there was a church that had you know like a Super Bowl preaching event it's called Crossroads and I was just thinking like who's the pastor of this joke of a church okay and it's some guy like Brian Tomay who's ever heard of this guy Brian Tomay anybody okay apparently he's really popular like really well known his church is giant I mean I think it's in the Cincinnati area but of course it's hard to pinpoint because these churches are everywhere it's like cancer it spreads and so it's all over the place but apparently he like he had made some controversy and I didn't understand the controversy entirely but I was just watching a little video just to find out a little bit about him and I think it was a guest preacher it was either him or a guest preacher basically insinuated that trans surgeries were bad okay and what that means is that basically specifically they were saying something like they don't think it's good for children like 8, 9, 10 11, 12 year olds to get life altering surgeries where they were removing parts of their body because they think they're a different gender and based on the video I was watching he was responding to how they had insinuated this in the past and now he had to apologize about comments he had made so basically he was getting up to make an apology about what had happened at their church and again I don't understand the whole controversy I don't really want to know because I really don't care but at the end of the day he was apologizing about how insensitive they were to people who are getting these trans surgeries for children okay not just trans surgeries he wasn't saying like I speak negatively about just trans surgeries in general trans surgeries for children specifically okay he feels the need to get up and read a prepared statement that he made to tell everybody how sorry he is and how they're not they don't want to be so exclusive and you know they want to be inclusive and they don't want anybody to be feeling hurt you know by this so then of course he kind of has to address some elephants in the room on his doctrine on these issues and this Brian Tomay got up and literally says he's like well some people you know have left our church because we're going to adhere to what the bible says he's like you know we're not going to do what the world says and we're not going to do you know what what some like restrict you know literal interpreters of the bible are going to do we're going to try and do what's right you know and if some people get mad at me for not being fully republican or not being fully democrat or whatever then you know that's just the price we're going to pay and I don't care if our church grows or shrinks we're going to do what's right okay we're going to let the bible dictate what's right so we've decided that we're not going to allow homosexual marriage in our church okay we're not going to let and we've lost people over this but I do want to make myself clear that we will dedicate babies to married homosexual relationships and not only that they can serve in any capacity in the church and I know that some people are mad that we have homosexuals serving in our children's ministry but I want to reassure you that there is zero link between homosexuality and pedophilia zero and if you interpret his doctrine correctly they could even be a pastor as long as you know they're in a monogamous relationship where they're married even though we won't marry we'll marry them but as long as they're married then we'll treat them with respect weak, weak, knock, knock and we want everybody to feel welcome in our church what bible verse is that? how can literally thousands and thousands tens of thousands of people go to a church like that where the guy is literally saying you're going to take two pedophiles bring them on stage with a child and dedicate that to the Lord what in the world I mean this is insane the world that we're living in number one that grown men would allow two fags to be holding a baby for any reason I mean real grown men should be taking them out and stoning them to death but you know why? people don't like that because they haven't been reading the bible because man has forgot his number one priority and that's having a relationship with God and that's reading Leviticus 2013 that's reading Romans chapter number one and the reason why we have so much issue is because people are afraid of what the bible says about them so then we just let sin run rampant and you know because they want to be so inclusive to sinners now we're bringing in pedophiles that church is literally allowing pedophiles to work in the nursery I mean I can't really think of a worse scenario like you're supposed to be a church of God and you're going to literally let open homosexuals take care of your babies you don't even like that's insane I mean you're literally just feeding your children to wolves you might be better off just like trying to domesticate wolves and letting your children play with wolves in the backyard like that might be safer you know it's just that is so crazy to me that that's happening and it's not like this is a small tiny guy this is a giant church with multiple locations running thousands if not tens of thousands on their weekend services and he's you know we're going to do what the bible says show me a bible verse on that hey Brian told me read one verse that the bible brings up about homosexuality out loud just read one and just see if it even matches anything that you're saying oh we can't read that we're going to be inclusive you know and the guy sounds like a faggot too which look if you sound like a fag and you're letting children go to predators and the baby you're a fag I mean there's no way there's no way a straight guy is going to sound so queer and effeminate and then loving and liking pedophiles to raise children I mean to be so I mean you're supposed to be the shepherd the shepherd thinks there's zero link between pedophiles and faggots I mean you're willingly ignorant on that point I can see how maybe a child or a teenager that's going to Sodom High School and being brainwashed 24-7 could think that there's not a link perhaps but a grown man that used to be raised in a time when Sodomy was illegal in this country remind you I mean this guy is older than me I lived in Texas when it was illegal to be a faggot it was illegal folks based on what? all the facts and research and science showing the link to pedophilia and the Bible of course that's where it really gets its roots if you understood American history at all which is not taught in the school you know what's taught? We were racist that's the only thing that was taught basically you're a horrible person because your grandfather your great great great grandfather was racist and that was just a horrible trust we don't even really know what he believed we just know he was racist because slavery even though there was white slaves there was Native American slaves there was one color of slave and everybody was a racist and everybody's bad and look, you know racism is a sin but is it really the worst sin? how about letting pedophiles raise your children how about that? Is that better? like if I was to go back through history and say well one side of the family they were racist the other side of the family was letting pedophiles raise children and mutilate them with surgeries which side of the family history tree would you be more ashamed of? I'd be like I love my racist ancestors like that's the only side of my family you know? like I'm not going to embrace the pedophile tranny surgeries that's insane that's our world today it's more okay to literally mutilate children with transgender surgeries than it is to have grandpa have been racist or something right? I mean good night talk about mixed up priorities again isn't it? why? because people aren't reading the bible and look I'm against racism racism is dumb, it's stupid I personally don't even think very many people are racist honestly by true definition I think everybody is prejudice I think everybody believes in stereotypes but I don't think there's a lot of people out there that just genuinely think like all white people are genetically superior to all black people I don't think anybody really believes that hardly anywhere obviously Hitler was pretty racist but you know at the end of the day that was like the least of his problems he had a lot worse problems than just being racist go to 1 John chapter 2 but the reason why people don't like this church or what I'm saying is because they don't read the bible and if there's anything you get out of the sermon if you leave and you say what was the point of the sermon just read your bible I'm going to bring up other things if you can only think of one thought at a time that's the kind of brain that you have just remember read the bible and maybe after reading the bible a couple of times it will be a little more intelligent you get two points next week you can go away with the two points of the sermon point one read the bible if that's all you can think of just write it down maybe write it on your hand whatever you need to do I want to make one other verse application here verse 28 and now little children abide in him that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming notice that abiding in Christ is important because when you're not Christ is embarrassed of you whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh with the power of the angels so according to the bible we're supposed to be reading the bible we're not supposed to be ashamed of his words it's impossible to even be ashamed of something you've never read you don't even know read the bible abide in Christ and then when you abide in Christ notice this we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming you can actually be confident and excited when Christ is returning not be embarrassed or ashamed or trying to hide yourself and look what verse 29 says if ye know that he is righteous ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him so point one is this that we need to have a relationship but then that relationship will inevitably alter your personal life it'll alter your actions it'll alter your behavior and God created us to have a relationship and then also from that relationship to have service for him do works for him notice that the people that are doing the works for him verse 29 if ye know that he is righteous ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him the only people doing righteousness on this earth are the people who are saved are the people who are born again if they are doing righteousness then they are saved that they are righteous go back to Genesis chapter 2 some people will wrongly understand this and I think there's guilt on both sides of the equation number one you don't have to do anything to be saved salvation is a complete free gift it's just by faith and once you're saved you're saved forever and because we do have free will and because we do have the flesh it is completely possible for someone to then just live in the flesh for the rest of their days end up actually accomplishing nothing for God and still making it to heaven and the best way to judge if someone is saved or not is not based on their lifestyle but rather is based on what they believe by asking them hey, what do you believe it takes to go to heaven or what do you think it takes to be saved that is the best way to figure out if someone is saved here's the other thing that's true though it is true though that someone serving God and doing righteous acts is saved like there's not a question of whether or not that person is saved it's not even a question if that's an evidence it is an evidence of someone's salvation Jesus Christ you should know a tree by its fruit so it's like can something be an apple tree if it doesn't have apples on it? Yes but is it an apple tree if it has apples on it? Yes every single tree producing apples is an apple tree is that an evidence that it is an apple tree? yes it is now what some people do is they take fake apples and they glue them to a tree and then they try to tell you that they're an apple tree and you're like there's something wrong with these apples okay these apples look a little funny or maybe they even took real apples and then glued them to the tree I mean isn't there some, like going to church people could go to church they're gluing a real apple to a tree they got baptized they got a King James Bible they're gluing a real apple to that tree the problem is they didn't produce that particular apple they could even bring a convert hey I brought this person to church but then you look at the convert you're testing the apple and you're looking at the apple and they say that salvation is by works they say salvation is by being baptized then you're like hey this is a fake apple this isn't a real apple on the tree and then they bring you a real conversation say I talked to this guy he was a Mormon before now he believes in Christ hey this guy believed in works now he believes in salvation I mean if you're bringing in apple after apple after apple you know what I know you're an apple tree it's that clear okay so that's where we want to make sure that we have the right balance and then of course I believe there's a lot of teachers and a lot of preachers out there that are getting a little mixed up on this particular issue and then they try to say like if you're not producing apples you're not really a tree you're not really an apple tree they're wrong on that point they're wrong on that point and they're twisting things I don't think that necessarily means they're unsaved or they're teaching a wrong gospel but they're just definitely wrong on that issue and we just want to make sure that we are championing what's right and we're championing the truth on these issues and not confusing people there's always going to be confusion around the gospel and salvation and it's frustrating but at the end of the day we have to realize that we are here to serve God and so we don't want to undermine works we don't want to say that works aren't important we don't want to say that works aren't a main point of our lives we just always want to make a clear distinction on salvation and we try to do that we do I think a really good job of this when we got soul winning but you know when I go soul winning I don't just like hammer the fact that you don't have to do works I typically explain why works are important and why works are different so I typically explain how look when you became a child of your parents you can't change that but it was still important to obey mom and dad you know I say if I follow all of your dad's rules am I now his son? like no if I follow all my boss's rules at work am I his son? no if I follow the rules at church am I now a son of God? no but it's important for me to follow my dad's rules it's important for me to follow anybody's rules my boss's rules it's important for me to follow the rules at church but that has nothing to do with who my parents are that has nothing to do with me being born again or being God's child so I have to believe in Jesus Christ to become his child now I follow his rules you know I'm not necessarily trying to get up here and be like well what if you murder a hundred babies and you burn them and it's like whoa buddy people sometimes are emphasizing sin like they're just saying yeah but what if you just murder and pillage and kill and just destroy people like is that person really saved and the person's like I don't think so like why do I have to think of this murderous reprobate pedophile and then it's like well you're not saved if you don't think he's saved you know it's like think about it isn't the Bible talking about false professors doesn't the Bible say that they went out from us but they were not of us right so like if someone came to our church you be honest with yourself all you soul owners be honest for a second if someone came to our church one time and they said yeah I believe Jesus is my faith and then we read in the paper how he's an axe murdering psychopath how many of you would be like I think he was probably a reprobate infiltrator and then when you go soul winning people are like you're not even saved because you don't think this guy is saved quit using weird hypotheticals ok look I'm all for explaining the distinction between works and faith but let us not dream up the worst scenarios imaginable to present to them as the clearest way to get someone saved because then people get really confused they're thinking like what are you saying you know again I'm not against it sometimes people bring up even if I committed you know murder or suicide or something I'd still be saved and they just they just genuinely care about getting the person saved and I'm totally fine with that I'm not saying you can't say that but I try to emphasize the importance of good works while making a clear distinction just like hey I really try to obey my boss at work but I'll never be his son and I try really hard to follow God's commandments but that was never going to get me into heaven and in fact even if I didn't I was still going to be saved if I believed in Jesus and I think by putting it in the right context or in the right frame of mind it can help people understand that distinction because a lot of people they genuinely think like why would I not want to do good works or why would I not want to serve God or why would that not be important because it is important because it is emphasized in the Bible I mean the Bible emphasizes works the Bible emphasizes serving God the Bible emphasizes not sinning a lot of people they're going to think like you're a psychopath trying to tell people that they can go around being a psychopath and be saved you know I'm not saying that I'm not suggesting that I'm not trying to insinuate that I'm trying to teach the salvation of a free gift and there's ways to teach the salvation of a free gift without giving them a hypothetical psychopath getting saved okay and they probably aren't that person so you don't really need to boil it down for them like that right but look at verse 15 here the Bible says this and the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it you know God created man to work and to do service for God God wants us to work for him not just to read the Bible not just to pray but also to do work you know there's a lot of Christians today they'll read their Bible they'll pray but you know what they won't go out and preach the gospel they're not going out to the garden and they're not tending the garden they're not trying to bring forth fruit they're not trying to cultivate that fruit either you know it's partly our job not just to get people saved but then to try to bring them in and to get them baptized get them plugged into church and you know some people are better at that than others but you know I really appreciate people you know both the Lugos are great at this I don't know how but they're constantly like bringing people into church and you know it's really impressive it's really impressive to see someone's zeal to not just get someone saved but actually try to drag them into church or to try to help change their lives because you know our world needs a lot it needs salvation bad but we don't need just salvation we need a lot of people to actually get plugged into church we need a lot of people to actually have stable marriages and raise godly children and build the house of God and become new soul winners and encourage more people to get baptized and you know we need to go out there and tend that garden God wants us to do the works now we want to be careful and not be a Martha where we're elevating the works over reading the Bible you know don't be a soul winner not read your Bible you know it's more important to read your Bible it just really is like the most important priority you have reading your Bible and praying you cannot get more important than that but then secondly is doing the service of God going to church soul winning encouraging people to get baptized teaching your children doctrine teaching the world doctrine and you know what I love about this is we've done two priorities the two most important priorities anybody and everybody can do it everybody in here can read your Bible everybody in here can pray and everybody in here can serve God you can minister to the Lord you can go to church you can go soul winning you can talk to your friends and family about the Bible you know what no matter where you find yourself and here's the thing people are always mad at every other issue in their life not realizing you can still do number one and two it's like the most important thing you have going for you you can still do and then the second most important thing you can possibly do you can still do you know we should be content with just one and two but of course there's more look what it says in Genesis chapter number 2 verse 20 and Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found and help meet for him and the Lord God caused deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh and stead thereof and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man and Adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she should be called woman because she was taken out of man therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh and they were both naked the man and his wife and were not ashamed so if we think about what God has created number 1 he created us to have a relationship with him number 2 he created us to serve him and then number 3 then created marriage this is important and if you want to fix your life get your priorities straight number 1 read your bible number 2 church number 3 marriage here's the problem almost everybody in this world these top 3 don't even exist in their top 10 like it's like works, cowboys NBA, fishing their guns, video games and then they don't even have anything else and then they wonder why their life screwed up or maybe their first priority is Jack Daniels and then it's the club and then it's smoking cigars and then it's doing LSD I mean you wonder why people's lives are screwed up it's their priorities where are they at? Sunday morning or maybe it's just sleeping I mean think about a homeless person what's their number 1 priority? sleeping, being lazy, being drunk I mean basically doing nothing with their life and let me tell you something you want to fix your life you have to change your priorities and you say well what does that look like? your literal hours of your day you're wrong you're screwed up if you're not going to church at all, you're not soul winning, you're not doing anything you're wrong and if you're not putting your marriage above every other aspect of your carnal life then there's something wrong there's some kind of issue now this is why I also say this that marriage is often the number 1 reason why I see people getting out of church or stop serving God because notice it's the highest priority and it should be in our lives after serving God it's like the most important thing and for most people it is kind of the most important thing and when I say marriage it's mostly just a relationship with another person because even today unfortunately a lot of people aren't getting married but they're still seeking what? a relationship to be with someone and to have that kind of a commitment almost every song, every movie everything's about that relationship or finding somebody or being with somebody or having that particular area of their life met and the reason is because it's important to us but it's partly a spiritual thing it's partly a carnal thing marriage is a good thing notice there's a part of carnal in it because it literally came out of his flesh I mean there's a closeness that comes with marriage there's a special intimacy that comes with marriage there's a special relationship with marriage but you know what I like about this is that even if you weren't married you can still do number 1 and 2 go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 7 also notice your priorities change with marriage because it says you're supposed to leave father and mother one reason why a lot of people have screwed up marriages is because they haven't left father and mother leave father and mother physically and emotionally both are just as important physically meaning you should try your hardest to not live under the roof now again I'm not saying you're wicked or evil for doing this and of course maybe you're moving you're in between housing or whatever and sometimes you just stay there sometimes you just visit for the holidays that's enough of a sample to tell you you should never do it again just the holidays but I'm telling you it's dysfunctional to be living with mom and dad now I'm going to make a clear exception to this obviously when our parents get really elderly and we need to take care of them there could be exceptions with that obviously we need to take care of our parents but I'm just generally speaking we need to get away from their authority get away from their money all the aspects that mom and dad provide their authority, leadership, money once they become elderly and dependent that completely changes the dynamic you're taking care of them you need to leave father and mother as a man you need to become the man of the house and you need to become the problem solver and your wife needs to lean on you and you're the only man in her life that is a healthy marriage if you have your family deeply entrenched into your relationship it can cause a lot a lot of problems but even if you were never married or maybe your marriage is screwed up or you failed at marriage or all the other possibilities maybe you're even just widowed or you did nothing wrong but you unfortunately just lost your spouse the Bible gives you some comfort here because look what it says in verse 27 aren't thou bound unto a wife seek not to be loose meaning if you're married never seek to be loose from her aren't thou loose from a wife seek not a wife now this is Paul's opinion but in his opinion he's saying like if you're not married and you don't have to be I think it's better not to be not being lustful and not being married which is not 99% of people verse 28 but and if thou marry thou is not sinned and if a virgin marry she hath not sinned nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh but I spare you so the apostle Paul is a little jaded he's like marriage is trouble but you know let's just be honest it is because you're marrying another sinner so if you marry a sinner guess what they're gonna sin and when they sin there's problems you know no one has a perfect marriage no one has a perfect marriage because you married a sinner according to Paul you're gonna have trouble in the flesh you will have marriage problems everybody has marriage problems everybody has issues now here's the thing we should all be working on that though that's not an excuse to just say like well you know pastor said we're gonna have problems so I don't have to work on it but at the end of the day don't get an idea of like Hollywood where this couple is fading away on the honeymoon you know they never show after the honeymoon okay and I'm pretty sure all the Hollywood celebrities already showed you what's after the honeymoon it's divorce for all of them and then they just keep going and eventually they just stop marrying because they realize they're just a whore or a whoremonger and they can't even maintain a relationship whatsoever I guarantee Johnny Depp I mean Johnny Depp and Amber Heard that's not the love story you want folks okay oh it's so amazing I want to be like them you want to be a drug in court and have all of your marital spats that were recorded aired out for the whole world I mean how many of you in here would like to say I would love for the last argument me and my spouse had to just be blasted on the internet for everyone to hear not only that but also chick who also is going to lie and slander and misrepresent everything you said so it's not even the things you said it's a bunch of stuff you didn't even say too on top of it which is every argument you've ever had I'm just kidding you only laughed because it was true no I'm just kidding but if we keep reading notice what it says this is where the comfort is coming in alright I didn't comfort you yet verse 29 as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoice not and they that buy as though they possess not saying when we get to heaven it'll be as if you were never even married anyways in some way it's like it didn't even matter there's like no extra special status in heaven like I was married and I wasn't it doesn't even matter well I had a big house doesn't matter well I cried my whole life doesn't matter I mean it's saying it's like it doesn't even matter what happened why because you know that's just a carnal thing it's just part of this life you don't have to you know if that's a train wreck in your life well be comforted by the fact that it won't even matter pretty soon like pretty soon it doesn't even matter at all not even in the scope of eternity it won't matter who you were married to how good your marriage was or any of those things I'm not saying that because I don't think marriage is important I think you should put a lot of effort and energy into your marriage you should work really hard to having a great marriage but I'm telling you this even if you put a lot of effort into it and it's not that great be comforted by the fact that it won't matter pretty soon anyways it's kind of like your job you know it's like a job that you're leaving whenever I'm leaving a job right especially even after I've put in my notice I still work just as hard as I would if I wasn't quitting but I'm really comforted by the fact that pretty soon I don't have to deal with any of y'all's problems anymore it's like you know what I mean it's such a nice feeling especially when you work for a company that's kind of a train wreck and has a lot of problems I mean I worked at a software company that was very dysfunctional and my boss was very you know dysfunctional and bipolar and what was amazing to me is usually in the tech industry when you tell you're quitting they strip you of all your privileges and rights and you basically just don't do anything for a few weeks they kept my privileges to the last second and I was still just doing work and coding all these problems and I just kept thinking like I'm so glad that I don't have to do another ticket as soon as I'm gone all of this code that sucks and y'all can't function as a proper unit I don't have to worry about as soon as I leave but you know what I'm going to do this I'm going to work as hard as I can and I literally coded till the last second and I was committing changes and putting in work and I was helping them and I wasn't even coding in a way like you're not going to like this change I was doing it like this is going to be good I'll help you guys I'll work as hard as I can so you know that's how you should be in marriage it's like pretty soon we're not going to be together that's not a love song sorry all the love songs are like I'll love you forever it's like pretty soon we're just going to be like bros and sisters you know whatever but you know what I'm going to work really hard I'm going to work as hard as I possibly can until you die or I die like I'll love you the best that I can because it's important it's important but but you know what I don't have to worry about you know this being a train wreck or not being perfect because eventually it won't even matter anymore it's kind of like my house too you know it's like I'm going to take care of my house and I want my house to be really nice but when I die I don't really care anymore like it's like oops you know it's like a car it's like hey I'll take care of my car but as soon as I sell it and give it to someone else it's like it's your problem now like I don't really care what happens to that car it's like it's done with you know and so it's just trying to say like from the scope of eternity you know what mattered serving God go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 12 you know the Bible says in Proverbs 16 it says this a whisper separated chief friends don't be telling your parents about your marriage unless it's positive don't be telling your friends about your marriage unless it's positive don't be telling your children about your marriage unless it's positive basically you should not be telling other people about marriage issues I mean obviously there's a case for some counseling from like a godly pastor or something like that but even then you want to be limited in what you're talking about and the reality is when it comes to relationships they often are destroyed because you're complaining about your spouse to other people and the most common is I think parents you're telling your mom or dad like I don't like him or I don't like what he's doing or this is happening you know that's the worst thing you can do do not do that don't tell your gossipy friends you know if you have a crappy marriage don't let everybody else know that's my I'm strongly for this opinion because in some ways it's almost a self fulfilling prophecy because what happens is word gets around and that person's just like I'm such a terrible person you keep telling everybody that and everybody thinks that way so then they just have no motivation to even keep being a good person and there's a truth to how you speak about yourself you know the prosperity preachers and the word of faith movement really emphasizes this but there's some truth to the fact that the way you speak things come to pass if you're a really positive person if you have a lot of energy if you're excited if you're kind of talking about the positives of your spouse often it tries to encourage them to do the positives when you bring up the negatives it usually kind of brings them down and causes them to be less motivated to do right and so it's important to be careful how you speak don't talk about these issues and a whisper separated chief friends you and your spouse can be so tight but then you reveal secrets to mom and dad you reveal secrets to friends and it starts to pull that relationship apart it starts to dissolve the trust that you have between each other you know like you should have a special bond between you and your spouse and you and your spouse should have secrets that no one else has you have your own language you have your own secrets you have your own intimacy it's a special union that's just between you you know the bedroom is supposed to be that way too unfortunately the whole world likes to share everything right and it's gross nobody wants to know you know you should keep the bedroom you should keep marriage issues between husband and wife don't be telling other people don't be broadcasting it to other people don't be mentioning it to other people you know I'm not getting up here on a soapbox telling you all the terrible things that my wife did mostly because she never does anything wrong okay but secondly even if she did hypothetically I wouldn't tell you okay and at the end of the day there's no point in me sitting up here and ragging on my wife you know I've been to churches where the pastor rags on his wife who's heard that before it's weird you know they do it as like a sense of humor it's not funny like it's just awkward I'm just thinking like I'm glad I'm not riding home with you you know it's just like that's weird you know we should constantly compliment and praise our spouse and talk positive you know it should be a Song of Solomon type situation now of course there's times in your marriage private between y'all where y'all are discussing issues and you need to but we shouldn't be telling other people these issues we shouldn't be bringing them up and this is usually the guys it's just like oh I want help but then they're just gossip oh I just need advice gossip look you have enough advice from the Bible and from sermons and you know whatever you don't need that kind of advice you need to just keep your mouth shut that will help your marriage you're not causing you're not blessing your marriage by speaking evil plus it'll affect your heart and mind you're supposed to be thinking on things that are pure and lovely you're not supposed to constantly be bitter against them and harboring unforgiveness against them and ought against them we need to be constantly letting these things go the last point and I'm not going there for a second time but it's supposed to be children obviously he created man he gave him work to do he gave him a wife and then he gave him children we want to make sure that we have those priorities I don't need to emphasize that point because I don't want to we're emphasizing reading our Bible we're emphasizing serving God and then of course marriage is important and marriage typically gets you out of church if you're not if you're screwed up on it but don't let it you know I've known people that have horrible marriages and they're still serving God and there's people that have great marriages that are not serving God but at the end of the day you know that's usually a common factor between people that struggle when it comes to the priorities of our lives Ecclesiastes sums it up and I want to just look at the last two verses here look at verse 13 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man at any point in our lives we can do this I don't care what you have if you're Job and you've lost everything you can still fear God and keep his commandments if you have everything if you're King Solomon and you have wives aplenty you can still fear God and keep his commandments it doesn't matter if you're Solomon, Job, anything in between we're supposed to fear God and keep his commandments why? because the creation priority we're supposed to have a relationship with him reading our Bible we're supposed to serve and minister you know and you know I didn't bring this up but to give you a practical solution here serving God the Bible brings up ministering to the saints ministering to the saints by preaching the gospel and getting new saints and by loving people in this room you can always love other people stop being so fixated on yourself and your problems and your issues you know that's why our world's so screwed up is everybody so narcissistic and selfish we need to be worried about having a relationship with God by ministering to other people going to church, preaching the gospel I mean when you're preaching the gospel you're not being selfish there's nothing selfish about preaching the gospel it's hard work it's a thankless job a lot of people get mad at you when you're praying for other people there's not anything you're going to get out of that carnally but you know what, it'll change everything inside of you when you're just blessing other people it'll make you happy isn't that what everybody wants, happiness but you know what, you're happy when you're reading your Bible and you're happy when you're praying for other people and you're happy when you're going soul winning and you're happy when you're going to church and you're happy when you're right with God and you're happy when you're serving your spouse and you're happy when you're serving your children you're miserable when you're not reading the Bible you're miserable when you're not going to church you're miserable when you're not treating your spouse well and you're miserable when you're not doing anything for your children that's why the celebrities are so miserable they're doing none of that and you know, you want to find happiness find it in the right places let's go some prayer thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this creation account and these principles and these doctrines I pray that we would take them seriously I pray that you would help every single person in this room and me included to just read our Bible more to draw closer to you I pray that you would help motivate our hearts and our minds to do ministry and to serve and to work and to love other people and I pray that you would help us to love our spouses and love our children and to make sure that we're maintaining the right priorities and in Jesus' name we pray, amen for our final song this morning let's turn to song number 18 take the name of Jesus with you song number 18 take the name of Jesus with you song 18 take the name of Jesus with you take it, then where ever you go take it, then where ever you go Precious name O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven take the name of Jesus ever take the name of Jesus ever as a shield from every sin if temptations round you gather greet that holy name in prayer Precious name O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven At the name of Jesus now we falling cross straight at his feet King of kings and men will crowd him when our journey is complete Precious name O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name O how sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven Thank you all for coming God bless You are dismissed Thank you for watching