(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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Since I have been redeemed Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Since I have been redeemed, Since I have been redeemed, Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in His name. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a Christ that satisfies, Since I have been redeemed. To do His will, my highest price, Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in His name. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a witness, bright and clear, Since I have been redeemed. Dispelling every doubt and fear, Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in His name. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name. I have a home prepared for me, Since I have been redeemed, Where I shall dwell eternally, Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in His name. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in my Savior's name. Great singing, everyone. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You just for being the greatest Father any of us could ever have, and just for all the love that You bestow upon us. Thank You that we are redeemed through Your Son, Jesus Christ. I pray that You bless this service for Your honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, song number 238, Christ Liveth in Me. You can't sing this song half-hearted. You've got to sing this one nice and loud. Two, three, eight, Christ liveth in me. Two, three, eight, let your voices be heard, Christ liveth in me. Once far from God and dead in sin, No light my heart could see, But in God's Word the light I 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 from yonder sun, The flowers of earth set free, So life 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. Good singing on the third. As lives the flower within the seed, As in the cloned tree, So praise the God of truth and grace, His Spirit dwelleth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, That Christ liveth in me. All right, you guys are singing good this morning. So after this fourth verse on the chorus, we're going acapella. The instruments will stop after the fourth verse. We'll sing acapella on the chorus on the fourth. With longing all my heart is still, That like Him I may be, As on the wondrous God I dwell, That Christ liveth in me. All together now. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, That Christ liveth in me. Great singing. Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high. Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. And on the front we have our Revelation chapter 1, verse number 20. Inside we have our service time, soul winning times, and our church stats. Also we have a list of several expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for all of our expecting ladies. Also we have our prayer list down below if you can be praying for our church family. If you have any other prayer requests that you would like added to our bulletin, you can email us and we try to update this every week. So please do email us your prayer requests. You can just put in the title of your email just prayer requests and we'll put them in there. If you do by chance have a private prayer request, just please indicate it's private. Otherwise we'll assume you want to put it in the bulletin on the back. Church reminders, please make sure that children aren't going on the stage of the kitchen or the mother baby room is unattended. Also the mother baby rooms are designed for mothers and their children to and under. So if you can leave the children with the father in service, that's best. If you have to take older children with you, please make sure that they're sitting quietly in the room. Also please don't be sharing any toys and we do have a quiet time from 2 to 4 at the building. It's obviously not right now, I'm just kidding. Also upcoming events, July 12th, Pastor Anderson is going to be guest preaching for us. It's exciting to have him out here and he's going to be traveling through Texas that whole week. So he's going to be in Pure Words that Sunday morning prior and then he's going to go to Oklahoma City the following day, Thursday and preach for them as well. So he's going to be touring through here. Even if you don't come on Wednesdays regularly, please if you can just show up for Pastor Anderson. That would be really appreciated and he would really appreciate that as well. He definitely really loves Steadfast Baptist Church and he's done a lot to help us. So it would be really nice if you could come out and be here. Also, I don't necessarily disclose other people's things, but Pastor Anderson and Faith Ward really helped us with this new building and coming out here. So again, it would be really special if you could be here and thank him and listen to his preaching. He's a pretty good preacher I've heard, so you might want to check it out. Also, August 17th through the 19th is our Mighty Men's Conference. We'd love for all the men to join us for this. There is a sign-up sheet. It is completely free. We're having Pastor Bruce Mejia from First Works Baptist Church come and join us. He's going to be preaching that Friday night and he's a great preacher. Definitely, I'd encourage you to come out here. Pray for him too because they're vandalizing his van and church and all that kind of stuff. They always order pizza for all of us, so that's at least nice as a consolation. Also, the Firebreathing Baptist Fellowship is October 12th through the 15th. It's been kind of like an every other year so far. I don't know if that may change, become more frequent or not, but we're planning on having this again and we're having a lot of our pastor friends come out. Pastor Aaron Thompson is going to be coming out. Pastor Bruce Mejia is going to be coming back out. Pastor Roger Mena is going to be coming out and preaching for us. Pastor Anderson will be back out preaching for us. I had to twist his arm to get him to come two times in the same year. That's definitely a treat and an honor. Also, Pastor David Berzins from Stronghold is going to be coming out and preaching for us. We've got a great lineup, lots of great events and all kinds of stuff. I really hope that you can be here. Also, if you can help with that conference, that would be great. That's pretty much all I have as far as bulletin. Just another couple reminders, especially since we haven't had to deal with this in a little while. Our church does have an usher team and a safety team. Both of these teams are equipped and trained for handling any negative situation that you could dream of. If there is a negative situation, please, please let them handle it. Please let them deal with it. If you feel necessary to say something, say something to them, especially in regards to safety. Also, there may be a lot of loud dogs outside barking that are really ugly. Just ignore them completely. Just don't even engage with them. All they want is to engage you. All they want you to do is to talk to them. They're so lonely and depressed. They just want someone to talk to them and tell them, hi. That's the highlight of their life. Honestly, they got so excited one time, I just looked at them. I'm sorry, I did. They were just so star struck. They were just like, oh, Pastor Shelley looked at me. We don't want to give them any more attention than we have to. Talking to them doesn't benefit anything. They'll be screaming a lot louder in hell. Again, their goal is just to get your attention. They're a troll. A troll only wants attention. Of course, they're going to say anything you could ever imagine to try to provoke you. Please don't engage with them. Don't talk with them. By talking to them, engaging with them, touching them, any of that, they win. If you want to do the best thing possible, just pretend like they don't exist. That just drives them up a wall. That's why they get so loud is because no one gives them any attention. They're like a toddler. No one ever disciplined them. They're waiting for hell to finally get their punishment. Again, we have great safety team members. If there was ever any kind of crisis or bad thing, please, again, our safety team will handle that for sure. We'll notify police. Also, I would give instructions if need be or anything like that. I know a lot of people in our church carry, and that's totally fine. It's highly encouraged. However, we just don't want anybody to get crazy with a firearm even in a crisis situation. Please let our safety team members and everybody else handle that. Only in your immediate danger or life-threatening situation should you ever deal with a situation yourself. It should be real apparent. Again, we have plenty of safety team. The police are notified about everything. I don't expect anything to ever happen except for maybe lightning to strike and kill a bunch of them. We should be fine. Also, FYI, it is June. I don't know if you're new to that or not. This is kind of the big hurrah for all these freaks out there. I personally don't anticipate to be this extreme every single time. Even if it is, bring it on. I don't really care. It doesn't really bother me. If it doesn't bother me, it shouldn't bother you. We can just have a great church service without our dogs. The Bible tells us that he prepares us a table in the presence of our enemies. Since it is Father's Day, immediately following a service, we are having coke floats and root beer floats. God prepared us a table this morning right in the presence of our enemies. God just likes that. He just likes us to rub it in their face and in their nose. That is why it is important to come to church and not look from afar. You don't get to enjoy the root beer float from afar. You don't get to enjoy all the experiences and the singing and the camaraderie. I appreciate you guys being here this morning. I will try to make a quick announcement about that right after the service. Just stay seated one extra second for us. Then we are going to serve the fathers first this morning for Father's Day. We are going to get them a treat. With that, let's go to our third song, Psalm 139. Psalm 139, that is an interesting coincidence. I don't know how these verses could apply this morning. The Word of God is just not relevant at all, is it? Psalm 139. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God, Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men, Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I grieve when those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? For they speak against thee wickedly, For they speak against thee wickedly, And thine enemies take thy name in vain, And thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I grieve when those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them thine enemies, I count them thine enemies. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Am not I grieve when those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? All right, as the offering plates are being passed around, please turn your Bibles to Philippians chapter number four, Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. We look at it together in your name this morning, and I pray you fill pastor Shelley with your spirit and help him to thunder forth the message you laid on his heart and I pray you will protect our church lord and not only we come here to worship you but also we go out soul winning as well. We love you and it is in Jesus name that I pray. Amen. He rise be ye, O God, as the sound of a courty intervals that match to pick out of this chapter, but if you look at verse 20 again, the Bible says, Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. And when we think about Father's Day, of course most of us will think of our immediate father, will think of our dad, but really the greatest dad is God the Father. And he's the one that should be honored the most on Father's Day. Of course we should honor all fathers, but of course God the Father is the one who should truly be honored and gets the true glory for Father's Day. And when we talk about this verse, what's interesting to me is notice that the glory is going to be forever and ever. That sounds like a long time. Already at forever. I was convinced it was forever, but then he says and ever. So just forever and ever, the glory of God the Father is going to permeate this universe. And so I have seven points this morning, seven eternal glories of the Father that we're going to always experience and we can always give glory unto God forever and ever. Now I want you to go to Matthew, chapter number five in the New Testament. Go to Matthew, chapter number five. Seven eternal truths about the God the Father's glory. And really just the title of my sermon this morning is the glory of the Father. The glory of the Father. And we want to celebrate the glory of the Father. We're talking specifically of God the Father, our Heavenly Father. We want to give glory unto him and we want to talk about the glory that he has and how this glory is going to be forever and ever. Now if you look up the word glorify in a dictionary, this is what the dictionary said about the word glorify. Acknowledge and reveal the majesty and splendor of God by one's actions. So according to the dictionary, to glorify is again to acknowledge and reveal the majesty and splendor of God by one's actions. So it's saying by us doing good things, by us following God's commandments and basically doing the things that he would have us do, that brings glory unto the Father. Because we're acknowledging and we're revealing his majesty and his splendor. And God is a loving Father. And it's incredible how much he loves his children. And I look at my children and I love them and I can't even imagine how much more God the Father loves us than I can even love my own children. But what I know about my children is no matter how good or bad, no matter how much of a bad day they may have had, no matter how rebellious they are, no matter how messy they are, no matter how sick they are, no matter what problems they have, I still love them just so much. I just get so much joy just looking at them and being around them and I want good for them all the time. And I believe that God helps us to get some semblance of how God feels towards us. That no matter how bad a day we've had, even if someone were backslidden, even if they're messy, even if they haven't done all the right things, God's still looking down from heaven and having great love towards you and really wants the best for you in your life. Of course, God the Father has high expectations for his children and we too should have high expectations for our children. But realize no matter how much you fall short, God loves you and God cares about you and God wants the best for you in your life. And even when we have bad attitudes, he still likes us. Sometimes I laugh at my children. You know, they have a bad attitude or they're being kind of sour puss or something, but you just love them anyways. They're just cute because you just like them. And it's like God still likes us. You know, think about how many times men in the Bible had a bad attitude and God still was dealing with them, God's correcting them, God's still being patient with them. I mean, Jonah is a rebellious child, okay? And yet God is still, you know, just taking care of him and he's probably laughing about, you don't even know what's going to happen, buddy. You know, you're about to get thrown into a well's belly. And it's just kind of funny how God deals with certain of his children, right? But he truly loves us and the Bible tells us that we can glorify him through our works. Look at verse 14. Matthew chapter 5 verse 14. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Hey, even on Cedar Hill, it can't be hid, okay folks? All right? You know, we're too bright. We just shine too much. You can't hide. Verse 15. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. So notice even the dictionary is teaching us a doctrine that's found in scripture if you think about it because notice by you doing good works, what does that accomplish? What does me doing something good accomplish? According to the Bible, it glorifies my Father which is in heaven. It glorifies your Father which is in heaven. And the same applies even carnally when we think about our children or you think about yourself. When you do good, when you're well behaved, that glorifies your parents. You know, a lot of people in here have really well behaved children and they go out in public. They may go to a restaurant or they may be out shopping and people will compliment you. They'll say, wow, your children are very well behaved. And they notice that the children being well behaved is a compliment to the parents just like us being well behaved Christians is a compliment to God the Father. When people can look at our good works, it can glorify God the Father. And what are some of our good works like preaching the gospel. When we go out and we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, it glorifies God the Father. And it's of course a story of his love, how he was willing to sacrifice his son for us. And so there's no greater way to glorify the Father than to go out and preach the gospel of his son and to go out and preach about his love and preach about who he is. And so of course that's the greatest thing we can do to glorify him. And a lot of people appreciate that. A lot of people, when you go soul winning, a lot of people come, hey, thank you so much for going soul winning. Or thank you for going out and sharing the gospel. You know, of course people that are saved can understand and appreciate people going out and preaching the gospel. And even people that I know in my personal life that may not agree with everything our church has ever said or done, they'll always typically be like, well, I at least appreciate the soul winning. Well, at least you guys do a lot of evangelism. At least you're going out there and reaching people with the gospel. And at least they can still just say, wow, that is a good work. That is something that gives glory and honor to God the Father. And just like children, sometimes children maybe struggle in certain areas, but when they get something right, let's praise them for the thing they got right. And of course the one thing they got right gives glory and honor unto the Father. And so us going out and preaching the gospel gives him glory. Us baptizing people gives glory unto God the Father. This is a good work that our church is doing and we're baptizing people in the name of the Father. Giving glory unto the Father. And so we're Baptists here. We believe in baptism. Obviously you don't need to be baptized to be saved, but it's a good work. And of course it's work, right? So we don't have works of salvation, but they accompany salvation and that gives glory and honor unto the Father. Also, you know, we have to understand about following God's commandments. We have to understand about serving the Lord is it makes everything beautiful. It makes everything beautiful. You have beautiful children. If we were to compare the children in this room to just the average classroom down at the public school, it looks way different, folks. And I'm not saying like, well, they just seem beautiful or internally they're beautiful. I'm saying like literal carnal beauty. I'm saying God makes you more attractive. Following God's commandments makes everything more beautiful. The people in this room are just generally more beautiful than the people of this world because they're following God's commandments. He helps you to groom yourself. There's people that don't groom themselves, okay? And cleanliness is next to godliness, all right? Not only that, it'll keep you away from wicked evil drugs like alcohol and marijuana and meth. Meth will make you look horrible. Meth will destroy you. Not only that, going to a church where they actually emphasize health or being manly and masculine is going to help the men look like men. And you know what? Men look better when they're trying to look like a man, okay? And then we have women in this room that are actually trying to look feminine and talk about a rarity in 2023 America. It is hard to find women in this world that want to look like a woman today, but you know what? That makes women look beautiful. And of course, the women in this room look a thousand times more beautiful than the women of this world because they actually try to look like women. And so what following God's commandments does is it brings beauty to this world. The first way that we're going to glorify God is by following his commandments and it brings beauty into this world, preaching the gospel. How beautiful are the feet of them. So the Bible is talking about the beautifying of our world through God's commandments. Everything that's not following God's commandments makes everything look like trash. The places in this world that are the least godly look like trash. They are not beautiful places. And even in America, the most ungodly cities and areas of America, they're just littered with trash and filth and needles and dung and just everything gross and disgusting in this world. You know what makes a place beautiful? God's commandments. God's word and the works of God make things beautiful. People who believe the Bible bring glory unto the Father because this is God. And when we believe the Bible and we believe every verse in this book, we're bringing glory unto God. And there's nothing more beautiful than the language of the King James Bible. There's nothing more beautiful than the words of God and having them expounded by everyone. You know, the King James Bible beautifies our language. You know what makes it bad? Tick tock. You know what makes it bad? The Quran. Wow, talk about an ugly book and talk about ugly words is the Quran. I mean the Quran says that women are dirt. You know, the Bible tells us that women are beautiful and that women have, you know, they're more precious than rubies. Saying like the most beautiful objects in this world can't even be compared to a woman. Whereas Mike Murdock says that he thinks $100 bills are more attractive than women. Okay. That's because he's a faggot. So that's, you know, that's his problem. But when we believe the Bible and when we follow God's commandments, everything is beautiful. Our language is beautiful. Our world is beautiful. Our wives are beautiful. Our children are beautiful. Our cities are beautiful. Everything is beautiful. Our church becomes beautiful. Everything is beautified by the word of God. You say, well, I don't know if that's true. Okay, well, let's look at the opposite group and see how beautiful they are. What about the people that are the exact opposite of Christianity? How beautiful do they look? They're the ugliest people on the planet, folks. It brings death and destruction and ugliness and evil. And that's why people look, you have had a hard life. Why? Because they weren't following God's commandments. And you know and I know that the people that follow God's commandments, they look great. And, you know, I don't even know how to quantify it but it's like I look at my dad. My dad today, how old is he? I'm trying to remember exactly. Seventy-nine. My dad is seventy-nine years old and he still has his natural force. I mean, the guy is still going strong. He plays golf almost every day. And I look at other people. I know other people in my life that are seventy, sixty-five. And they don't look like they're going to last too long. They don't look like they're on the back nine. They look like they finished the golf course already. And I'm just thinking like, what happened? But, you know, I believe my dad cares about the commandments of God and he tries to follow them. He works hard. He has a purpose for living. And so, you know what? He looks good even in his older age. And, you know, the men of the Bible, they live to be the oldest. You think there's no correlation to that? No, no. There's a direct correlation to that. In fact, the Bible says that that's the first commandment with promise is to honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land with the Lord thy God giveth thee. And so, you know what? You children, you want to live a long, happy, healthy life following God's commandments. It'll make you beautiful and it'll keep you beautiful for a long, long time. The people in this room that follow God's commandments and are doing right, you're going to live to be older and more beautiful for the longest period of time. In fact, I mean, Sarah is 90 years old and she's still the most attractive woman on the planet. Go figure. I don't even know how that works, but you know what? She was a godly woman. Hey, maybe it was because she didn't get all those wrinkles from criticizing her husband, from calling him Lord. You know, Lord gives you the right facial structure, okay? So today, you're going to be like, yes, Lord, you know, right? When you go home. But I'm telling you, hey, the Bible literally teaches physical beauty and I'm telling you that God beautifies this world. The ugliness of this world comes from breaking his commandments and the beauty, the only things that are really beautiful in this world are results from God the Father. And think about how much he likes beauty because everything that God created is beautiful. I mean, there's the sunset and the sky and the trees and this world. I mean, there's so much beauty to behold that God has created for us. Even certain animals, like the real ones, they're nice looking, some of them, you know? And of course, if you let natural selection take care of itself, you wouldn't have so many ugly dogs, but there are some nice looking dogs, the ones that would actually survive, you know, not the little pipsqueak. If you like chihuahuas, there's something wrong with you, okay? So I'm telling you, that thing's not beautiful, all right? But the dogs that would actually survive look beautiful, okay? Like the golden retrievers and you got all kinds of, you know, the great Danes and some of these big dogs. They're beautiful looking dogs, okay? There's beautiful looking all kinds of lions and tigers. I mean, why do people even go to the zoo? Because it's so great to look at all the beauty that God has created and it's amazing. People love to go look at all the flowers and people love to go look, you know, people think Idaho is beautiful. I mean, can you believe it? No, I'm just kidding. People think that, really, you could find someone that thinks everything is beautiful. I mean, whether it's mountains, desert, ocean, just the great plains. I mean, people like where I'm from, Amarillo, where it's just flat and yellow. It's called Amarillo, okay, for a reason because it just means yellow, right? And it's like people love that. Why? Because there's beauty that God has created. There's all kinds of different beauties that God has created and yet God gives us true beauty and what really gives him glory and honor is us doing the good works and doing these things that brings beauty in the world. And once again, he's eradicated all sin and all evil and throwing everything in hell. You know what? There's just going to be beauty for all of eternity and forever and ever we're going to see the beauty, the glory that God the Father has for us. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 6, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. One other aspect, you know, and not just physical beauty but just the beauty that comes from following God's commandments is the love that we see amongst Christians. And this is some of the greatest works that we can do is when we love one another and there's nothing more beautiful than a church, than a family, than friends who love each other and help each other and support each other and that's what everybody wants. People love to see the beautiful friendships. People love to see a beautiful marriage where they see a husband that actually loves his wife and they see a wife who actually loves her husband. You know, divorce is ugly. Adultery is ugly. Even the world knows this. Even Hollywood knows this. Everyone gets upset at these horrible grotesque things that happen. You know, divorce and adultery is just so ugly. You know what's so beautiful is a couple that says, hey, we've been together for 50 years and they still like each other and they still are sweet to each other and they still, you can just tell, wow, they want to be with each other more than anybody else. Their relationship is closer than anybody else. That's beautiful. It's beautiful to see a mother who actually loves her children whereas abortion is the ugliest thing you could ever see. A mother who would be willing to take her own young life that God has given her. It's just so grotesque and so evil but we see the love that parents have for their children is a beautiful thing. Husbands sacrificing for their children. Husbands sacrificing for their wives. Wives serving their husbands. These are the things that are beautiful and, you know, you go out into the world, just your normal unsaved person and they say, wow, I wish I had a wife that wanted to serve me. Wow, I wish I had a wife that wanted to dote on me. Wow, I wish I had children that I came home to that were excited that I came home and drew me pictures and made me all kinds of presents. I woke up this morning and I had like 10 presents just for my children. I don't even know where that came from, you know, but it's just amazing and it's so beautiful to see, hey, children that love their father and a father loves their children and vice versa. This is the beauty that God gives us when we follow his commandments. This is the beauty that we have. When you don't follow his commandments, you go to the family reunion where everybody hates each other. There's division. Everybody has to drink alcohol just to get through the experience. People are just mad and angry, sometimes even fighting. I saw an unfortunate article and it was someone had passed away and so their inheritance was being fought over by siblings and it got so heated between the actual son and the brother-in-law, which was married to his sister. It was so heated between them that they literally got in a fight in the street and the one brother-in-law just pulled out his gun and just shot and killed the other brother, fighting over the inheritance, fighting over money. I mean, how sad is that? That's not love. That's not grace. I mean, you should just be like, have the money. Why would I need to kill my own brother just to have money? That's sad. That doesn't glorify the father who died. That doesn't glorify their family or their lineage when they do such things. When we fight with other Christians, he doesn't glorify God the father in heaven. He does not give glory unto God the father in heaven for you to hold your brother in a headlock and give him a noogie and to spit on him and to kick him and to be mean to him and try to destroy him. Now, of course, if my brother's at fault and I say, hey, brother, don't do that. Dad doesn't like that. You know what? That's okay and there's a time and place for correcting your brethren. You know what? I shouldn't wish for his demise. I shouldn't try to destroy him. I shouldn't just try to attack him. You know what? I get so angry at my children fighting with each other. Who gets mad at your children fighting with each other? Okay. So you really think that God appreciates it when we fight with one another? He gets very angry at that. He's very dissatisfied in that. He would rather us have love. And that's what gives so much glory unto the fathers when we see so many people in love. And the world can't get along. But let the house of God get along. Let us get along. Let us be the bigger brother. Let us be the one that gives grace unto our brothers and sisters. And let me tell you, there's going to be real life scenarios in here where the people in this room make you mad. They upset you. They offend you. They go against you. They do things that you don't like. But of course we should be the most gracious when handling them. Obviously if it comes to a point where it needs to be addressed, address it with them. But address it in love and compassion. And when you can give grace, give grace. And let us love one another because it gives the beauty that God has for us in this world. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, look at verse 19. The Bible says, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Which ye have of God. And ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. You know that your body is not yours? It's God's. You're just leasing. We're all leasing. And you know what? I don't like being evicted. And I don't want to be evicted from this body. But you know what? God, if you don't take care of that body, he could evict you from this body. And so it's important to serve God with our body. That's why we're here. We're not here to just have so much fun or to enjoy every single thing that we go through. Sometimes God puts us through difficult situations to grow us. Just like when I go to the gym with brother Nick, he's not giving me five pound dumbbells. And it's like, oh man. No, he gives me something that's hard or difficult or he pushes me. It's really hard, it's really strenuous so that I can get stronger. And so it's like, well, it would be so nice if I went to the church where they never have any issues. Yeah, but you're going to be weak like Richard Simmons. Richard Simmons Baptist Church. I don't want to go there. I want to go to the church that's going to actually make you a little stronger. Maybe go through a little adversity and maybe God wants you to to give him glory, to give him honor, to strengthen you up a little bit, to build you up a little bit, to get used to a little bit of negativity. Because you don't even know what real persecution is like yet, folks. Even in today, in 2023 America, there are still Christians being hunted down, killed, murdered, their families murdered, threatened and executed for being a Christian right now. And you think you have it tough. You don't even know what it is like. When we read the Bible, I can't find a story of persecution as light as we've gone through. It's like every story in the Bible is just so much more extreme, so much more difficult. You know what? God likes that. Because otherwise we wouldn't. What story in the Bible isn't like that? Apparently God likes it. God wants to drag his people through difficulty and adversity to show their faith and that gives glory unto God. Just like if your son was an all-star athlete, you wouldn't want him playing against girls. There's no glory in a guy beating a girl at any sport. There's never been glory about it and there never will be glory about it. Oh, you see, my son beat her up. What? Isn't that a crime? That's what people usually think. Their first thought is how is that not a crime for a guy to hurt a woman or to beat a girl at something. Whereas, you know, if you really want to show off your son, you would say, wow, my son beat the best. My son played against the hardest. My son went through the most adversity. My son had to go and play the most difficult game against the best opponents with the most adversity and when he was on the free-throw line, they were all screaming and yelling at him, trying to get him to miss the shot. You know what? Hey, they can scream and yell all they want and all I have to do is just walk through the door. You know, just show up at church, right? How hard is that? It's a free-throw, okay? Don't get discouraged by the free-throws. If you can't make a free-throw and adversity, how are you going to be able to actually contend when they're guarding you? How are you going to actually be able to contend when you're injured? How are you going to actually contend when the shot is on the line and you only have a second left on the shot clock, right? I mean, there's a lot more adversity to be had out there but I'll tell you what, it gives more glory. Whenever they show a highlight of any sports event and they're showing just a quick glimpse of something, are they showing it when someone dunked and no one was watching and the game was a blowout or are they showing a guy hitting a fade away three at the buzzer with three guys guarding him and they make it to win the game. But that wasn't easy. That was super difficult. Just like God wants us to go through difficult things and in those difficulties, when we succeed through his power and his glory, it gives him the honor. Just like the apostle Paul going through such adversity. I mean, you couldn't kill the guy. Don't you think that was annoying to the Jews that thought they'd killed him and then they hear he's still walking around? That had to freak them out. How about all the guys that swore at oath that they weren't going to eat or drink until they killed him? Have you ever had 40 men say, I won't sleep, eat, drink, anything until I kill you? Not yet, huh? Okay. That's some adversity, right? That's some serious opposition there. I don't know if they ever got a bite, you know, because Paul kept on kicking. That was a pretty dumb oath that they made, right? But people are going to go against you. But what does the Bible say? We're supposed to glorify God in our body and in our spirit. So it's not just a spiritual battle. Go back if you would to Matthew 5. I want you to go back. Why did I point that verse out? Because I think sometimes we emphasize the spiritual and we should. But we don't want to discount the idea that sometimes you're going to have to glorify him in your body too. You know, and let me tell you something about church. Church is not worshiping God in spirit. It's in spirit and body. Because you have to physically show up. You actually have to come into the congregation. And you know what? I am not against watching sermons online. If you're sick, I have no problem with you listening to something online. But don't kid yourself. You're not going to church unless you show up in your body. It's your body that needs to get into the door and show up at church. And you know what gives the most glory to God? Not how many people are watching online. You know what gives him the glory? How many people showed up. That's what gives him the glory. That's what gives him the honor is how many bodies are showing up. When we go to heaven, there's not a watch count. It's a count of the bodies that are up in heaven. And you know what? God wants us to glorify him in our body. What we do. Hey, going soul winning. It's not just a virtual experience. You actually walk up to the door and knock on the door and you open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. And you know what? That shows your love. What you do with your body. When you go to church, it shows that you love God. When you go out and preach the gospel, it shows that you love others and you love souls and you want them to be saved. What do you think means more to someone? Oh, I emailed you something or I showed up at your door with Bible in hand ready to give you the gospel. We know which one's more loving. And just like children love it when their dad shows up for their sporting event or their game, you know what? God loves it when we show up to his church service and we're there to worship him in body and in spirit. Of course, we want to have our spirits right, but we want our bodies to be present and be there physically. And God wants us to love not just people that do good unto us. You know, I think it's easy to love a lot of people in this room because they're great. I mean, a lot of you are just so great and so easy to like and you do so many good things sometimes for me, for other people. And so it's really easy to love you guys. But the Bible tells us also love others that are not so easy to love. What does it say in verse 43? You have heard that hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father, which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them, which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the public is the same. And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others do not even the public and so be therefore perfect even as your father, which is in heaven, is perfect. So our father is in heaven. He's perfect. So we should strive for perfection. Of course we understand that God's grace covers us when we're not perfect. But that doesn't excuse us from not trying to be perfect. We should always try. We should always do our best. And one of the most challenging things is to love our enemies. Of course when we talk about our enemies, we're talking about people that have done you wrong, people that have lied about you, people that aren't nice to you, people that have taken advantage of you. Notice what it even says here, which despitefully use you. Despitefully use you. That means that they took advantage of you and hated you at the same time. It's like they used you for some kind of a business relationship. They used you as a friend just to meet somebody or just for popularity sake. They pretended to be your friend. They pretended to be someone that likes you. They ripped you off. They made an agreement with you, a contract with you and then they went back on their contract. This is what it's talking about. People that despitefully use you, wouldn't it be easy to just be mad at that person or to hate that person or to wish evil upon that person? You sign a contract with someone and they break the contract. It's really easy to want to hate that person. It's really easy to even just think like reprobate. I feel like sometimes just because we know that doctrine, it's a little bit loosely applied. It's like this guy cut me off in traffic, reprobate. Pink hair, reprobate. It's just kind of like everybody that's negative, he slammed the door at me, soul wedding reprobate for sure. It's just like that's a little extreme folks. We have plenty to choose from. We don't need to necessarily label everyone. Obviously when we talk about reprobates they're the exception to this rule. We clearly don't know how to balance the scripture but most of the time enemies are just people that we should still love. The people that did us wrong, weren't nice to us or enemies at work. Of course there's plenty of people that just don't like us or are mean to us or persecute us, take advantage of us, rip us off that are evil satanic filled demons or something like that. They're just normal people having a bad day or being greedy or just being an unsaved covetous person. They're not really, they're just selfish but we should still love them anyways. This gives glory unto the Father when we love people who don't deserve it. When we love people who have been mean to you. When you love people who have taken advantage of you. When you love people that will never even love you back. You know I know that that's true because Jesus Christ died on the cross for every single person. Even the people that put him on the cross. Even the people that spit in his face when he was taking the cross down. Even the guys that shoved the crown of thorns on his head. Even the Roman soldiers that nailed him to the cross. He died for their sins and he loved them. He loved the people that wouldn't even get saved. He loved everyone. For God so loved the world. And if you really think about it, arguably Jesus Christ died for more people that aren't going to get saved than are going to get saved. Like he loved more people that will never love him back and will never appreciate what he did for them than the number of people that will actually love him. Because the Bible tells us that there's few that will be saved. So in contrast of the whole world, he died for more people that are not going to actually take his gift and appreciate his love than the people that will. And what I thought of is this, you know that gives glory unto the Father what the Jesus did. That's the greatest glory. But we can share in this by going soul winning. Because here's the fact, you spend more time and knock on more doors of people that won't get saved than the people that get saved. And you know you can have this bad attitude of like, oh well it wasn't worth it because look at all the doors I knocked and nobody got saved today. Or you go out soul winning and you get no one saved for that day. But you know what, you're just like Jesus because think about, he died for all those people and they didn't get saved either. So you get to share in his suffering. You know don't be discouraged by going out soul winning and not getting anybody saved because you know what, Jesus died for those people anyways. He died for more people that you won't talk to anyways than you could ever think of. And so if he can suffer through and die for a ton of people that won't get saved but he did it for the elect's sake, then why don't we too go out and preach the gospel not for the unsaved but for the elect's sake. Therefore I do all things for the elect's sake. Because the apostle Paul realized hey yeah I understand a lot of these Jews aren't getting saved. You know think about how hard Paul tried to get Jews saved. And he probably got a few. It wasn't a lot but he probably got a few. He tried really hard. He preached to a lot of Jews that didn't get saved. And boy talk about despitefully using him. Talk about you know persecuting him. Talk about doing evil unto him. Yet he still loved them and he was still gracious unto them and the apostle Paul just kept going from town to town, area to area, preaching the gospel and it shows his love and you know what, that love glorifies the father. And for all of eternity, all of eternity, those who we reached with the gospel, those who we preached and got saved will be with us in eternity. And so for all of eternity the love of God will be there to glorify him. The love of God. So we have the beauty of God. We have the love of God. These are going to always be with God forever and ever. We're going to glorify the father for the beauty that he brings and for the love that he has because we wouldn't get to be in heaven if it wasn't for his love. If it wasn't for the love of Jesus Christ we wouldn't have any part in heaven. We would all be cast into hell but we get to rejoice and glorify God every day that we're in heaven for the love that he had towards us and the redemption that he had for us. Go to Luke chapter 6. Go to Luke chapter 6. Let us love people who don't deserve it. Let us be gracious unto people who would not give us the time of day. And you know, they've already heard every negative thing they're going to ever hear about you so, you know, probably. So, you know, let them see something good. Let them see something that they weren't expecting. Let it be like Queen of Sheba and say, wow, it's even better. Wow, the half was not even told me of how much you hate homos. You know, it's like, I thought you did but then I watched the Sodom deception and I was like, wow. You know, I'm like, you seem kind of right. Hey, that sounds pretty good. Luke chapter 6, look at verse 36. Be therefore merciful as your father also is merciful. So, everything that we're doing, we're just copying dad. We're just copying our Heavenly Father. We're just copying God the Father in the sense that he did all these things and we're doing them back, right? He brings beauty in the world. We try to emulate his beauty. Obviously, in some regards, if you think about it, as men, we are a literal representation of God because the Bible says that men are made in the image of God. And men are made in the image of God. Therefore, by us being manly, by us being godly, we're giving the most glory unto the Father because we look like him. And we look like him when we're doing what he does. A lot of people tell me I look a lot like my father. And, of course, you know, when you're doing the things like your father would, people will praise you for saying, wow, it's just like Trey or it's just like your dad or just like your father. And, of course, we want people to look at us and be like, wow, it's just like God the Father. It's someone who's merciful. It's someone who brings beauty into this world. It's someone who brings love into this world. It's someone who brings mercy into this world. Now, what is the context here? It says in verse 35, but love ye your enemies and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again. Now, you know who would be the opposite of people like this? Jews. Because they're the opposite of their father. They're of their father, the devil. And why do you say the opposite? Now, they lend. That part's on par. They're really good at lending. But you know what? They're not very good at lending, hoping for nothing in return. Because they'll get all the collateral that you could possibly get and then some. And they'll devalue all your goods so that you have to have more collateral than is even necessary for the loan. And then on top of that, they apply this really generous thing called interest or usury, which in fact is the most ungenerous thing that you could apply to a loan. And what does the Bible say? The Bible is saying hoping for nothing in return. This is like giving people money with no collateral and no interest, no usury. That's the mercy that God has on someone saying, wow, I'll just help you. I'll just do good unto you. I'll lend. Hey, if you pay me back, praise God. But if not, whatever. This is the opposite of Jews. Jews are like, hey, I'm going to give you this. You're going to pay me back on this time and this date. If you're not, there's a fee. If not, we're going to come and break your arm. If not, we're going to come and take your goods. If not, and you're going to pay me a premium the whole time. That's not good. That's evil unto the person. It's called a loan shark. You say, oh, that's high interest rates. Well, have you seen mortgage rates recently? It's like 7, 8% in some cases. I was looking at just the calculator and I was comparing my current house versus like buying a house today and just the same loan, so the exact same loan amount, terms and everything like that, the interest rates have gone up so much, it would be $2,000 more a month for the exact same loan. That's how much interest rates have gone up in just like a few years. That's insane. For the exact same product, for the exact same house, it's like someone's getting rich here folks. Someone's getting a lot of money here and of course the love of money is the root of all evil. What would be the opposite of loving money? How about just giving money out indiscriminately, hoping for nothing in return? Isn't that seem like kind of the opposite attitude? And of course that is the mercy that God the Father shows. God just giving out and lending and loving people and you know what, that gives glory unto the Father when you would lend to someone hoping for nothing in return. You realize that just makes God the Father so happy in heaven because God wants this person to have something and he's not going to come down from heaven and give it to him. You know what, you're literally him giving it to them. You're the representation of God on earth helping these individuals. Now of course, I don't give money to drug addicts so they can buy more drugs. I'm not giving money to a drunk so that he can continue being drunk and I don't give money to lazy people so they can continue being lazy. But you know what, there are times and places when people are down on their luck, they're poor, tragedy strikes, something bad is happening and you know what, you just give unto these people because you love them and you want to do good unto them. But you know, I wouldn't give money to somebody if I felt like it would hurt them. You know, you only want to give money to people that you feel like this isn't going to hurt them, this is only going to help them, right? So the same is applied here. When we lend unto our brethren, when we lend even unto the unsaved, we should do it with the expectation of hoping for nothing in return and doing it with grace and with kindness. This is going to give glory unto the Father when God's people are those who would lend. Go if you would to chapter 11. So point one of giving glory unto the Father, you want to give glory unto the Father, you know it follows commandments so we can bring beauty into the world. Also go out and preach the gospel and show up at church so you can show the love of God. Lend hoping for nothing in return so you can show the mercy of the Father and these are things that we're going to see for all of eternity. For all of eternity, we're going to enjoy the beauty and the love and the mercy of God. Plus God is the one that owns everything, he's going to be constantly giving us stuff and allowing us to use things and allowing us to enjoy of his goods and of his riches and of his glory. Now, Luke chapter 11 gives us an example prayer. It's kind of considered the Lord's Prayer. Look at verse 2. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You know, I like this beginning because you know what he didn't say? Hey, when you pray, say, Daddy. Man, it just makes me so angry when someone says that for a prayer. Obviously, if someone just refers to God as Dad or whatever, it is what it is. I'm not mad about that. But again, when you're going to pray, can you at least call him God the Father or Heavenly Father or God or something? Daddy, it's gross. And notice it's hallowed be thy name. You know, we're supposed to bring honor unto his name. If you look up hallowed, honor as holy. Holy means it's set apart, meaning it's different. You know what? I don't think that Daddy is set apart. But you know what? Heavenly Father is set apart because I can call no man on this earth my Heavenly Father. And you know what the Bible literally tells you? Call no man Father. You know, of course, it wasn't in the context of your dad saying, Hey, Dad. It was in the context of a spiritual perspective that you would never pray or address someone in a spiritual context giving them the title of Father because it's set apart. It's holy. Hallowed be thy name. You know that name Jesus didn't go around calling himself Father because it was God the Father's name. He's the son. He's Jesus Christ. He's God. You know what? There's a set apart name for the Father. It's called the Father for a reason. And you know what? We need to separate that and we need to honor the Father, our Father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. We need to address him. Now notice the next phrase here. It says, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. So in heaven, everything's going according to God's will perfectly. But what we have to do as God's people is try to bring his will to fruition on the earth. That means that sometimes it doesn't. You know, for a, how can a Calvinist even pray this prayer? Oh, done. Check. You know. Hey God, we hope that your will be done. It's like from a Calvinist's perspective, they believe his will is always done exactly perfect every time. So this prayer is like meaningless for them. But you know, for us that actually know the Bible and realize there's free will out there, we're trying to align our wills with his will. And we're trying to bring his will about in our lives and not just our lives, our wives' lives, our children's lives, and frankly, the lives of the people in this world. We're trying to bring his will. And of course, this gives glory unto the Father when we align with his will. Just like when Jesus Christ said, Not my will, but thine be done, that gave glory unto the Father because his will was being done. And let me tell you something. Children, you want your dad to be pleased? Do his will. Do his will. It's not hard. It's not hard to know what to do, okay? Just do what dad said every single time and you'll always be happy with you. Well, it's the same with our Heavenly Father. Hey, you want God the Father to be happy with you? Just do his will? That was easy, wasn't it? All right, we can go home. Now, here's the hard part, right? We have the flesh. Here's the hard part. Sometimes we need to study and read the Bible a lot so we can figure out what his will is. And we have competing wills because you have a free will and your free will doesn't want, your flesh doesn't want to do what God the Father has for us. That's why you have to walk in the Spirit. That's why you have to crucify the flesh. So it's important to go to church and also remind ourselves, hey, I'm here for God. You know, church will help you crucify that flesh. I'll tell you what, it's not, church is not necessarily the most pleasing to your flesh. There's plenty of activities, you know, sleeping is way more pleasing. You know, I could sleep in and feel great, okay? I could just eat and party and have fun and relax. You know, that would be more pleasing to my flesh. You know, going to church, sometimes you kind of have to drag the flesh out there. But you know what, the Spirit's willing. And when we drag our flesh out there and we do his will, it glorifies the Father. And his will being done gives glory unto him. And of course, this is for sure forever and ever because once we're all in heaven and we have the new heaven and the new earth, only his will will be accomplished. And it will constantly bring glory unto the Father that his will is perfectly exercised, perfectly executed, and followed to a T. Just like it is in heaven right now, it will be in earth at one point. But let us bring as much about his will as we can today. Let us decide to dedicate our lives to following his will, not our will. That gives glory unto the Father. Go to John chapter 14. Go to John chapter 14. Now, of course, there's great reward for us when we align to his will. Just like, you know, I don't make rules for my children because I think that it will make them suffer. I don't tell them to do things because I think, you know what, how can I make their day miserable? How can I make them have no fun? No, I give them commandments and rules and instructions because I know it's for their betterment. I know it will help them. It will help them be a better person. It will help them have a good day. It will help them be healthy. Like all the things that I'm giving them instruction on are for their betterment. And the same is with God the Father. He's giving us commandments and rules and instructions for our betterment to make us the best versions of ourselves that we could possibly be. Just like when you read the owner's manual to any kind of product, you know, they're going to tell you the best way to put it together, the best way to use it, the best way to handle it, the best way to maintain it. And following those instructions is going to give you the best results. God gave us an owner's manual. And he wants us to have the most success with the body that he gave us, with the free will that we have. And the best is to align with his and to do what he has for us. And when we do such a thing, we're going to be greatly rewarded. And that reward is mentioned in the Bible. Look at John chapter 14 verse 1. Let now your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. So Jesus Christ is giving his disciples before he's going to go through his passion, he's giving them hope for the future. Of course, our hope is not in this life. Our hope is not in this body. Our hope is in the home in heaven. Our hope is in our new and glorified body. Our hope is in the resurrection. Our hope is not today. It's not now. It's not the promises of this life. It's the promises of the next life. And think about this. There are many mansions in heaven that we get to benefit from. Jesus Christ is literally preparing us beautiful places to live and to dwell in for all of eternity. He's going and preparing us. And if you realize it, Jesus is the creator. He created everything that we already enjoy and I already like it a lot. You know, sometimes it's sad when I think about how we're going to miss out on some of the things here. But apparently it's going to be so much better that it doesn't even matter. It's kind of like a kid when you move. When you're a kid, you're just like really sad about your house because you love your house, you love your bedroom, you love your yard. But it's like your parents are taking you to a much better house. And you're all sad while you're there and you're in your house and you're thinking about it and you're packing up your stuff. But as soon as you get to the new house, you forget about the old house and you're like, this house is way better. And you know, that's what it's going to be like from an eternal perspective is as soon as we kick this junky place out, we're going to be like, wow, this is some really nice place. This is a really nice house. This is a really nice mansion that he's giving us. Go to Revelation chapter 21. Now, I want you to notice something. He said, In my father's house are many mansions. Have you ever read that and kind of puzzled you? It puzzles me because it's like, how is there a house and a house? Right? Because it says, in my father's house are many mansions. It's like, that's kind of an interesting wording. And you know, in studying the Bible, I think it gives us the answer here, but it just kind of is worded in an interesting way. The Bible says in Revelation 21, look at verse 1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. So the Bible talks about when a new heaven and a new earth, this is after the great white throne judgment, the earth and everything is fled away and the hell has been cast into the lake of fire. Death and hell were cast in the lake of fire. This is the second death and all those people that are outside are going to be thrown in the lake of fire, okay? And we'll then have a new heaven and a new earth, which is great because there's no more sea. I don't even like the ocean that much, so, you know, that doesn't bother me at all. Maybe for people that like boats, I don't know, but I'm not into it. So God's not either. All right, so we'll have no more sea and then we have this other thing called a heavenly city. Now, we have to understand a little bit about a city is a city is kind of two things at the same time. It's two things at the same time. If I were to talk about Dallas, you may not know what I'm referring to because if I talked about Dallas, I could be talking about the geographical location in Texas, which is mapped out and called Dallas city or I could be talking about the people of Dallas and I'm referring to the city as a whole as just Dallas. You know, man, I really like Dallas. All the people are friendly. I'm not talking about how the bricks are nice to me or the stone or the sidewalks. I'm talking about how the people are nice to me when I use the word Dallas. So when we talk about this city that's coming out from heaven and we talk about this bride that's coming, I believe it's a boat. It's a boat in the sense that when we think about it, we can think about the people, obviously, or what makes up the city, but it's also a physical city that we're talking about that is going to be the bride that's coming down. And specifically, in this chapter, it's telling us in verse 3 that this is the tabernacle of God. What's another way to word that? How about our Father's house? Right? So essentially, I believe the Bible is kind of describing the whole city as the house of God. And let me tell you something. This city is big, folks. You want to see how big? Skip to verse number 10. Verse 11. So we have this giant city that has 12 gates, three on each side. It's kind of like a perfect square and it has 12 foundations. That's a lot of foundations because this thing is giant when we talk about it. Look at verse 16. Now, furlong, even today, is considered to be an eighth of a mile. One-eighth of a mile. So when you kind of do the math on this, it's around maybe 1,500 miles. 1,500 miles. This way, this way, and think about this. This way. Wow. That's really big, folks. Okay. We're talking about a giant distance. I mean, from here to Houston is not 1,500 miles. Okay. So there could be a lot of mansions. He said there was many mansions that are going to be in our Father's house and he's preparing a place for us. You know, I want to have one of those nice houses in that area. You know, everybody's talking about the gated community. This is the gated community I'm looking forward to. Okay. All right. And I heard someone say, you know, gated community, what kind of neighborhood is it in? Well, it's a great neighborhood. You know, there's no C. Now, of course, to build it, they had to get a contractor. Obviously, God had to go down to hell to get a contractor. So it was a joke, folks. Okay. All right. But we have this beautiful city that's giant with tons and tons of mansions in it and that's where we get to live. Go to Hebrews chapter 11. Go to Hebrews chapter 11. And this place is going to be glorious. I mean, I don't even know how to explore all of this. But, of course, we see the unity of the entire Bible in this creation because it talks about the 12 tribes and then as the 12 apostles. So their names are forever sealed on this structure pointing to the gospel and pointing to God and pointing to the unity between the Old and the New Testament, pointing to all kinds of different things. You know, it's kind of crazy when you read these passages and not see the connections between the Old and the New Testament, see how it's the everlasting gospel, see about everything pointing to the Lamb. But Hebrews chapter 11, look at verse 13. The Bible says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, and heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. So notice, God has prepared for us a city. Doesn't that sound similar to what Jesus Christ said about how he's going to go and prepare a place for us? And of course, God's preparing us a city. So I believe when we read about this in John and it's described as our Father's house, it's describing the city because that's the tabernacle of God, that's where God's going to dwell, and in this city, in this house of God, we are going to worship God. Think of another way that we talk about the house of God. What do we mean by when we talk about the house of God? Are we also saying church? Like wouldn't we say today, this is the house of God right here. Not because of this building, not because of the structure, but because we're here. So if we're all gathered together as one in this city, that is also the house of God. It's going to be a great church service, as it were. And of course, we're going to be all gathered. You know, Ephesians 2 talks a lot about this. You could read a lot about how we're a habitation of God through the Spirit and how we're building together with him and we're built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and the apostles and the prophets. And of course, that in structure is going to almost literally come to fruition where we have these foundations labeled with the apostles and we have it built upon obviously the Lord Jesus Christ and where God's dwelling with us and we're dwelling with him in this literal city. And it says in Hebrews chapter 13, just peek over there real quick and one more verse. Look at verse 14. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. So right now we don't have a certain dwelling place. Our dwelling place is in heaven. That's what we're looking forward to. And I believe that there are literal physical mansions all littered in this giant city that we get to inherit. And really what we have for the glory of the Father is we have the inheritance of God that we get. The inheritance of God the Father has given to the Son and we get to share in that inheritance. And we get to literally inherit the new heaven and the new earth and the heavenly city, the city of Jerusalem and we get to live and be in there. I mean what an amazing honor and to have this inheritance. And this inheritance is going to be forever and ever. Wouldn't that be great to know like you're going to have this house forever. No property taxes. No one's going to come and seize on your inheritance. No one's going to take it away from you. You know we have it forever. Go to First Peter chapter one. First Peter chapter number one. You know when you have a perspective like this, it makes this world just seem like it's meaningless. Because it is. It is meaningless. And the inheritance today is meaningless and the houses today are meaningless. You know the home in heaven is what really matters. And you know you get to keep doing construction on that. You get to add additions to your house by going out and doing more work for God today. It's like hey we added another garage today. We added another, we added a bigger pool. We put in the hot tub. We put in, I mean just think about, think about if you had no evil, no problems, you know we didn't really have to, we don't have to do a secular job anymore and you just get to enjoy for all of eternity with God in the heavenly city, in the new heaven, in the new earth and it's not just the city because the entire earth is going to still have nations and peoples and there's going to be people that are kings and we're going to literally rule and dominate this earth with peace and giving glory to the Father. You know the greatest thing is we have this inheritance with them in the city. And thus that are saved we get to walk in it, we get to enjoy in it, we get to benefit in this. First Peter chapter one look at verse four, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. There is something reserved in heaven for you. You know I think Bill McGregor said this is like on Saturn or something. Or what did he say? He's like it's on some planet or Mars. I remember there was some loser that said that the new Jerusalem's hiding on some you know planet or something like that. Lie. No it's in heaven folks. It's where Jesus is. Jesus is up there building it for us you know. If it's not already built. He's preparing the place for us and you know it's going to descend out of heaven. And so we have this great inheritance that we have. Go to John fifteen. I'm almost finished this morning but I just want to make two quick points. John chapter fifteen. So point one was this. When we, we need to glorify the Father by doing good works to bring beauty. Number one beauty. Number two the love. Number three the mercy. Number four the will. Number five we're going to have the inheritance and of course we can't really do that right now but what we can do is we can just let go of the things of this world and embrace our inheritance in heaven and that gives glory to the Father. That's what Hebrews eleven is all about. It's how those people kind of let go of their earthly possessions and their earthly inheritances and they weren't seeking that. They were seeking their heavenly inheritance and that gives glory unto the Father because we're persuaded by faith seeking that inheritance rather than physical inheritance we have today. You know you can't serve God and mammon. You can have a great inheritance here and kind of miss out in heaven or you can miss out here and have a great inheritance in heaven. But you know you can't, you typically are just not going to have both. You know it's too hard of a balance. Now of course obviously by serving God he can still bless you and you can still have a nice home and still have nice things in this life but you know what you're probably never going to be the Bill Gates of this world. You're never going to be the Warren Buffetts. You're never going to have the Beverly Hills mansions and the you know live in Manhattan or whatever. You're probably just not going to have all the luxury things of this world and be rich towards God. Find me that person. Find me the person that has the beach home in Beverly Hills and has the house in the Hamptons and has the fancy apartment in New York City and also is serving God faithfully. Show me that person. You know it just typically doesn't happen. And all of those inheritances are nothing in comparison to the one that we're going to get. The worst mansion in heaven is better than the greatest one on earth. Okay. The worst shack, whatever, I don't even know. Some of you might, some people might get a shack you know. We'll go visit, we'll go visit Lot in the slums wherever he's at you know. You're like oh okay yeah nice. I'm joking alright but not really. John chapter 15 look at verse 18. The Bible says if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. Hey all these people hated God before they ever hated you. Okay. That's why they became a reprobate. They didn't start hating you first, they started hating him first. Okay. If you're of the world, the world loves its own. Because you're not of the world. But I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you. You know why the world hates you? Because you're like God the Father. Because you're a child of the Father and so they hate you just so much. Look at verse 23. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. So notice if you hate Jesus, you hate God the Father. So you know what? Jews who hate Jesus, guess what? They hate God the Father folks. And you know people who hate the sons of God, people who hate disciples of Jesus, the Christians, they also hate Jesus and they also hate the Father. So you know what? They're just transferring their hate to you. But you know they're trying to hate the Father. Here's the problem. They can't see the Father. And they'll shake their fists at heaven. You know that doesn't give us much glory. But they see God the Father walking around here and so they want to shake their fists at him and get mad at him. You know what? They're just hating on the Father. They hate God the Father. Is it any coincidence that our world today is trying to eliminate fathers and is trying to eliminate men and is trying to take authority away from men and is trying to emasculate men and is trying to turn men into women. It's because of their hatred for God the Father. And let us be different than the world. Let us be the best fathers in this world. Let us be the greatest men of this world to give glory unto the Father and not say, oh, I'm just going to hook up with as much women as I can and maybe I'll visit my kids on every other Wednesday or something. No, no, no. Let us be the best fathers. Let us show them what a real father is like. Let us not be the fathers who dress their own sons up like girls. What a shame. There are parents in this world who are making their children eunuchs. How disgusting and how evil and how grotesque and how abominable. And they're trying to eliminate fathers because we're made in the image of God. What a high calling to be a father. If you're a father, you need to take that responsibility seriously because God does. God takes his responsibility very seriously and I want to go to Exodus 14. Go to Exodus 14. All these people that hate God the Father, one day their knees are going to bow and their tongues are going to confess and they're going to confess that Jesus is Lord and it's going to give glory unto the Father. It's going to give glory unto the Father. What a great day that's going to be to watch them just have to say that. Oh, man. I hope they have to do it multiple times. I don't know how it works, but I couldn't hear you in the back. What? Oh, yeah, Jesus is Lord. Okay, thanks. Isn't God just funny? Some people think God's not funny. I'm like, what's funnier than getting all of these reprobates to have to bow their knee and to confess that Jesus is Lord in front of everybody? I mean, that's hilarious, honestly. I just think it's great. He thinks it's great, too. Exodus chapter 14. It's kind of like, you know, when you get that guy in the headlock and you're like, say uncle or say my name or say I want or whatever, you know, that's the God of the universe. Okay, folks. Exodus 14, verse 13. And Moses said, and the people fear he not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, he shall see them again no more forever. You know, it makes me it gives me that picture of the great white throne judgment. It's like, hey, you're gonna see them all again one more time. But after that, you'll never see their face ever again. And you know, there's some people out there that I'm thinking like, I wish I could never see your face ever again. But you know what? That day is coming. And you know, it might even it might even come carnally before it's gonna come before that, too. There'll be a day. I don't know which day yet. Obviously, they had to exist with these people for a long time and suffer through a lot. But there was a salvation day. And it says, verse 14, the Lord shall fight for you. And you shall hold your peace. Hey, that's a good verse for us. Hey, the Lord's gonna fight for us. And you know, it's like, hey, if someone threatens my family, my kids don't need to worry about it. Dad's gonna take care of it. The father is gonna take care of it. And you know what gives glory under the father is the victory of our father. Because he got the victory needs. You know, Moses didn't get the victory. The Children of Israel didn't get the victory. And they were with their women. And their Children and their donkey and their chihuahua dog and whatever else they're taking out with them. And they, you know, they weren't in position to fight. So they're just like, fine, we'll just let God do it. And you know what? God took care of it. God took care of it. And God fought for them. And you know, he got the victory. And let us not steal his glory. Let us allow him to get the victory because that gives him the glory. You know, we try to take things in our own hands. It doesn't give glory to the father. It always gives glory the father when we let him fight for us and let him always get the victory for us. Let him get the victory for he will look at chapter 15 verse three. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. You know what? He's gonna fight for us. He's gonna be victorious. He's gonna win the battle. Just get out of his way. It's like I heard this arrogant basketball player, Jimmy Butler for the Miami Heat. He said, you know, when it's in the fourth quarter, the rest of our team just needs to know this. Give me the ball and get out of the way. It's pretty funny. Since the last game, they gave him the ball and they got out of his way and he just walked up to the rim and let the ball get stolen from him and lost like a loser. But you know what? God the father wouldn't be like that. Right. And you know what? Men may glory in themselves. But let me tell you what. There's only one person who you give the ball to in the fourth quarter and it's God. Okay, God the father is the one who you can actually trust and he's gonna actually give us the victory and is gonna actually fight for us. And you know what? We need to fight for our children. We're in a battle today. Let the men fight for the children. Don't let the children fight for themselves, folks. You fight for your children. You fight for your little girls. You fight for your little boys. You fight for your wife. You don't let someone else fight for them. Hey, someone disrespects my wife. I'm gonna fight for her. She doesn't need to speak up. She can be meek and quiet. Hey, someone disrespects my children. I'm gonna be there to defend them. Just like God the father is there to defend me. And you know what? We need some real men and some real fathers in this world. They're gonna stick up and fight for their families. Now, when it comes to the spiritual battle, I let dad get in there. I let our Heavenly Father get in there and take care of it. But you know what? When it's my family and it's something that I need to do, you know what? I'm gonna step up. That's what it means to be a father. That's what it means to be the man. And we need some men in this world. Go to Romans 15. Last verse, I'm gonna have you go. Point one. We can give glory to the father through the beauty of this world by following his commandments. The love of God by following his commandments. The mercy of God by following his commandments. The will of God by following his commandments. Hey, we can appreciate the inheritance he has for us in heaven, not the ones that we have here. And of course, we do that by following his commandments. We can give him the victory by not getting involved ourselves, but allowing him to fight for us. And lastly, you know, all these glories we're gonna experience for all of eternity. He's gonna always be on the victory campaign in heaven. There's never gonna be a point when we have another victor. He's the reigning champ. He's the all-victorious one. And he won all the fights, all the battles, all the trophies. I mean, that's why every single person that got a trophy in heaven, you know what they're doing? They're casting their crowns down onto him. Because it's like, I don't even deserve this crown. Have it. It's just like, I don't deserve the trophy. I was warming the bench, coach. You know, it was all God that got us the victory and gave us the, you know, the chance to even be on the winning team. Because he's gonna win. No matter who's on his team. Here's my last point. Romans chapter 15 verse number 4. For whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning, that we through patience and covering of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the last thing about God the Father that's gonna be forever and ever. Glory. He's always our Father. He's always our Father. Isn't that, isn't that amazing? You know, fathers in this world can abandon you. Fathers in this world can disappoint you. Fathers in this world cannot show up. Fathers in this world cannot have time for you. Fathers in this world can die. But you know what? We'll always have God the Father. He's just always gonna be the Father. He's always gonna be there. He's always gonna have time for us. He's always gonna want to hear from us. He's always gonna love us. He's just always gonna be our Father. And you know what? We need to give him glory for the Father he is and will be forever and ever. Let's go to prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for all that you've given us. I pray that you would just help the men in this room to be better fathers by your example. And I pray that we would do the best to be the children of our Father in heaven. That we could give you honor and glory by following your commandments, by doing that which is right. And I pray on a day that we celebrate fathers we wouldn't forget the most important father, our Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for your love. Please show yourself strong on our behalf and give us the victory and bring us salvation in this day and also we look forward to our home in heaven. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right for our final song this morning. 216, surely goodness and mercy. 216, surely goodness and mercy. Song 216, surely goodness and mercy. A pilgrim was I and a wandering. In the cold night of sin I did roam. When Jesus, the kind shepherd found me and now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. On the second, He restoreth my soul when I'm weary. He giveth me strength day by day. He leads me beside the still waters. He guards me each step of the way. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. When I walk through the dark lonesome valley, my Savior will walk with me there. And safely His great hand will be gave to the mansions He's gone to prepare. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. All together. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and I shall feast at the table spread for me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. All the days, all the days of my life.