All right, well, the title of my sermon this morning is Fix Your Face. Fix Your Face. This is
a phrase that I grew up hearing. Who's familiar with this phrase? I tried to look it up and I
couldn't really find out where it was from, but we've all probably heard this phrase before,
either from your mom or dad, or maybe if you're in the military, you might have heard this from
a drill instructor or something like this. But basically, it's the idea of an authority figure
talking to a subordinate and not being pleased with the look on their face. And by way of
introduction this morning, I want you to notice number one, that your body language reveals your
heart. Look at Isaiah chapter three, verse number eight. It says, for Jerusalem is ruined and Judah
is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of His
glory. Notice verse nine, it says the show of their countenance. Your countenance is just your
face. So when it says the show of your countenance, it's saying the look on your face, the facial
expression that you have. Look at verse nine. The show of their countenance doth witness against
them and they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not, woe unto their soul for they have
rewarded evil unto themselves. So notice this passage is telling us that Jerusalem is ruined,
Judah is fallen. Why? Because their doings are against the Lord. So this is a very sinful people.
They're not obeying God's commandments. And what God is saying is saying, the look on your face
is making me upset basically. He's saying the look of your face is witnessing against you.
And it says what? That they're declaring their sin as Sodom. Now we know that the
Sodomites were very proud. And even the Sodomites of our day, their mantra, their motto is literally
pride. And it's saying there that they have a look on their face that expresses that they don't feel
bad for their sin, that actually they're prideful about their sin. They're glorying about their sin.
They don't feel bad. They kind of have a smug look on their face, the show of their countenance.
Is witnessing against them. And God says, woe unto their soul. So God's very upset at the fact
that these people are sinful, but yet they're going around pretending like they're okay or
being prideful in the fact that they're sinful. You know, I saw this video this week and it was
this guy, Charlie Kirk, which I don't really know much about this guy, but it was this guy,
Charlie Kirk. And he was debating like 25 college students on abortion. And again, I don't know this
guy. I don't know if he's saved or not, you know, condoning of this guy or whatever. But what I
noticed in like the first 15 minutes of this video is that as he's giving good sound logical
arguments for why abortion is wrong, what you see from these college students is that many of them,
they're not interested in truth. They're not interested in logic or facts or reason.
They just have their view that abortion is okay, that abortion is good. And they have this prideful
smug look on their face where they're just saying basically like, hey, I'm a baby killer. What are
you going to do about it? And by the way, abortion is killing a baby. Abortion is murder. And you
know, Charlie Kirk has way too soft of a view on abortion because he's saying that he doesn't
think people that commit abortion should get the death penalty. But I think it's first degree
murder to go and kill your child. And I do think we should pass a law today saying that abortion's
first degree murder, and if anyone does this in the future, that they will be treated as such.
Now, I wouldn't punish someone in the past who's done that before that law was passed.
But I do think that in the future, that should be the law. But what I noticed about this video is
they just had this smug look on their face. And I'm thinking, just fix your face. The show of
your countenance is witnessing against you. And what are we talking about? Your body language
reveals your heart. And when someone is wicked, when someone is in sin, and they have a prideful
look on their face, it reveals their heart that they don't care about God, that they don't care
about authority. And even the sodomites of today, what are they? They're prideful. You could tell
who's a sodomite by their body language, can't you? Why? Because your body language reveals
your heart. Look at verse number, let's skip down to verse number 16. Moreover, the Lord saith,
because the daughters of Zion are haughty. What is haughty? Prideful, arrogant. Now,
it's going to talk about the body language that they have. It says, because the daughters of Zion
are haughty, and notice, walk with stretched fourth necks and wanton eyes. These women are
so prideful. They're just walking around with a little outstretched neck. For some reason,
I always picture like British royalty when I read this. I just picture like the British royalty
walking around so prideful, right? That's how they're walking around, because they're so full
of themselves. They're so prideful. And many times today, you could see women like this,
where you see just the way that they walk. They're so full of themselves. They're so prideful,
and just their body language can reveal that about them. Look, it says, walking and mincing as they
go and making a tinkling with their feet. Therefore, the Lord will smite with a scab,
the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.
So notice, you could often see what's going on in a person's heart by the body language that they
have, right? Can't you tell when someone's scared? I mean, can't you tell when your kids are scared,
something pops up and scares them, right? Or can't you tell when someone's very shy?
I mean, when someone's very shy, what is it going to be their body language? They're going to be
like, you know, their shoulders will be forward, their head will be down, their arms will be
crossed, something like that. It's showing that they're shy. Someone's confident, you could see
that. If someone's happy, you could see that in their body language. Someone's sad, if someone's
prideful, you know, us as human beings, God created us to just constantly subconsciously
be judging everyone's body language to learn information about that person. And it's a good
thing because it kind of reveals where a person's heart is at with their body language. And so the
sermon is basically about how we need to fix our face. We need to make sure that we're having the
right attitude internally and then it's going to externally express that through our body language.
Now, go to Genesis chapter number four, Genesis chapter number four. You know, by way of
introduction, first I'm just going to show you many, many places in the Bible where body language
is spoken about and where you could tell how someone is feeling by their body language. Now,
there's way too much in the Bible to show you every example because this is just everywhere.
But I do want to show you lots and lots of examples this morning. Genesis chapter number
four. Are you there in Genesis four? Look at verse number three. It says,
and in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offering
unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering,
he had not respect. And notice, and Cain was very rough and his countenance fell. Remember
that word countenance means your face. And so you could tell that Cain was mad because his
countenance fell. You know, he's getting the droopy lip here or something that's indicating
that he's angry. And look, you could tell when someone's angry today, can't you? Look at verse
six. And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou Roth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If
thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. And if thou doest not well sin life at the door and
unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him. You know, God's basically saying, Hey,
Cain, fix your face. Just do what's right. And you'll be fine. Why are you, why are you angry?
Why are you wrathful? Why is your countenance fallen? You know, fix your face and just do what's
right. But look at verse eight and Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when
they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother and slew him. So notice because
of Cain's anger, he acted in his envy of his brother. He actually went so far as murdering
his brother. It's the first murder in the Bible. And you could kind of see this coming. Why? From
the countenance on his face, go to Genesis 31, Genesis 31. Genesis 31 verse one, it says,
and he heard the words of Laban's sons saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our fathers
and of that, which our fathers of that, which was our fathers hath he gotten all this glory.
And Jacob notice beheld the countenance of Laban and behold, it was not toward him as before.
So notice Jacob was able to discern that there was a change in the attitude of Laban. There was
a change in the relationship that they had with each other, simply just by the look on his face.
And you see this with people today, when their relationships change, you see it in their body
language. You know, have you ever seen a boyfriend or a girlfriend that's going about to break up?
And you could see their countenance changes. They're not as happy as they once were. They're
kind of showing through their body language. What's about to happen. They could see, Hey,
my girlfriend's countenance is not towards me as it was before. And what is that? That's an
indication of her heart. And here with Laban, it's the same thing. He's noticing there's a
change in Laban's heart here. And how can I tell that? Well, by what's written on his face,
look at verse number three. And the Lord said unto Jacob, return unto the land of thy fathers
and to thy kindred. And I will be with thee. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to
the field unto his flock and said unto them, notice, I see your father's countenance that
it is not towards me as before, but the God of my father has been with me. We're not going to get
into the whole story this morning. That's not the point of the sermon, but just the point is
notice Jacob being a wise person. He's paying attention to these cues. He sees the body language
has changed of Laban. And he notices that there's a rift now in their relationship.
Now go to Nehemiah chapter two, Nehemiah chapter two. If you find the one in two books,
you got first and second Samuel first and second Kings first and second Chronicles,
Ezra Nehemiah Nehemiah chapter number two,
Nehemiah two verse one. And it came to pass in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of
Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him. And I took up the wine and gave it unto the king.
Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. So Nehemiah is coming up to his boss,
the king. And he says, I have never been in the presence of my boss. I've never been in the
presence of the king before being sad. I've never worn my motion on my sleeve. He's never seen that
I'm sad. Look at verse two. Wherefore the king said unto me, why is thy countenance sad? Seeing
thou art not sick. This is nothing else, but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid.
So his boss, the king, he notices, Hey, I've never seen Nehemiah sad before,
but now that I'm seeing this change in his countenance, I could see that there's something
wrong with him. And by the way, it's a good idea to have a cheerful professional countenance at
work and in front of your boss and to not, you know, show up to work all mopey and sad and
dragging your feet and having this attitude like, well, boss, you know, I'll do whatever you say,
but I'm going to do it with a sad attitude. I'm going to do it looking like I want to kill myself.
Like I want to, you know, just end it all. No, you should be like Nehemiah where it's like,
if your boss sees that you're sad, he's like, this is weird. I've never seen my employee be
sad before my presence. He's always had a good attitude. He's always been a good testimony.
You know, that's the testimony we should have as Christians where we wear a countenance.
That's a good countenance. Meaning what we don't walk around with RBF. You know,
if you know what RBF is, it's just oftentimes it's like a moniker or some sort of type of a woman.
That's just her, her natural state is just everywhere she goes. She just looks mad. Look,
men or women or children. We shouldn't be like that. We should be the type of people where it's
if someone sees that we're upset, they know that there's actually something wrong.
Not just like your default in life is to be mad and angry and sad and just bad attitude.
No, your default in life should be to have the joy of the Lord because we're saved because the
Bible says daily he loads us with benefits because we live in a great place because we have so much
freedom because we have great food to eat and we have air conditioning and heaters. And I mean,
I just go on and on. You know, there's, there's lots of reasons to be happy. It should be the
exception when you're low, when your face is showing something else. Go to Proverbs chapter
number six. I'm just showing you how you could tell someone's heart by what they look like.
Now there's a phenomenon of people called reprobates or the world calls them psychopaths.
They use body language as a tool to manipulate and harm people because their brains don't really
even process emotion the same way we do. And while you could have a normal person who's not a
reprobate, who's not a psychopath, they can kind of train themselves a little bit to, you know,
for example, have you ever heard this phrase, put on a brave face? That means what? It means you're
a leader and you might feel kind of hard. You might feel like you're not being very courageous,
but you're going to put on a brave face and you're going to let your body language show that,
Hey, I'm not afraid here. I'm leading the charge here. But psychopaths, they take this to a weird
extreme where they show what their body language, things that they're not really feeling to
manipulate other people. I want to show you that in the Bible, Proverbs six verse 12,
a naughty person. Now the word naughty is not how we use it today where it's like, Oh,
naughty little child. You know, he took a cookie. Like the Bible talks about how a naughty person
devises mischief continually. Like a naughty person is constantly dreaming up evil.
A naughty person in the Bible is a sick reprobate, a very wicked person, a naughty person,
a wicked man walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes. He speaketh with his feet.
He teaches with his fingers. So notice like the psychopath, the reprobate, he'll use his body
language just to manipulate other people. And even, you know, Ted bunny was very famous for
this. Ted money bunny was a very famous serial killer and he would feign himself as being
crippled. And he would feign himself as like having this serious injury so that he could
get these women to feel bad for him and help him load his car with something, help him come to his
car. And he'd pretend like he's crippled so that these normal people are like, Oh, this poor man
is hurt. I'm going to help him. And then next thing you know, he's kidnapping them, harming
them and killing them. And this is the type of person Proverbs six is talking about. They're
using body language as a weapon, as a tool and someone that does this, you can know a lot about
their heart too, that they're a reprobate, that they're a sick person. Proverbs 15, flip the page
there. Proverbs 15, Proverbs chapter 15, verse 13. It says a merry heart maketh a cheerful
countenance, but by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken. So again, how can you tell
if someone has a merry heart? Can we see someone's heart by their face? Yes, you can,
because a merry heart make it the cheerful countenance. You see someone that's happy,
that's smiling, that seems pleasant. It's because they're married because they're happy.
Go to Daniel. This would be the last example. I'll show you Daniel chapter number five.
You have here, Belshazzar. He's drinking alcohol in the vessels from the vessels from the house of
the Lord. And look at verse number four. It says they drank wine and praise the gods of gold and
silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand
and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.
And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's notice countenance was changed
and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one
against another. You want to talk about body language. It's very easy to tell how Belshazzar
is feeling here. He's so scared. His knees are literally just smacking into each other.
I mean, if you see someone like that, you'd be like, oh, I deduce this person is fearful,
right? But what I'm just showing you is that someone's body language actually does reveal
their heart. It actually does tell you a lot about them. So that's the introduction there.
Let's get into more of the application here. Number two, this morning, God wants us to have
the right emotions at the right times. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number three.
Now we live in a day and age where people think that their emotions are always valid.
And this has become kind of like a buzz phrase in our society of just like, my emotions are valid,
or I want to feel validated. But I'm just telling you, this is not a biblical attitude.
It's just not. Not all of your emotions are valid. Not every emotion that you have is the
appropriate emotion to have for every situation. Earlier this year, I preached a sermon called
the emotions of Jesus Christ. And we just looked at all the times where the Bible tells us the
emotions that Jesus Christ was feeling. Here's the thing. When Jesus Christ is feeling a certain
way about a situation, his feeling is validated. His feeling is right. If Jesus is showing
compassion on someone and you want revenge and vengeance on someone, your emotions are wrong,
his or right. If the disciples are saying, you know, Lord, should we call down fire from
heaven and devour these men? And Jesus said, you know, no, no, not what spirit you're up.
He's saying like, my attitude is right. Your attitude is wrong. Your emotions are not valid.
Your emotions are not all correct. Now here's the thing. If Jesus is angry at someone and he's
whipping people in the temple, he's fashioning a whip and he's going into the temple and he's
whipping the money changers. And you have an attitude that says, let's just be loving. Let's
be merciful to them. Let's show them long suffering. Your attitude is wrong. Your emotion
is wrong. Jesus's attitude is right. God wants us to fix our face and have the right attitudes,
the right emotions during the right time. Ecclesiastes three, look at verse one,
to everything there is a season and to ever and a time to every purpose under heaven. So notice
there is a time to think, feel, say certain things. And then there's times where those
same things would be inappropriate. Why? Because it's based on the context of the time. Look at
verse two, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which
is planted a time to kill and a time to heal a time to break down and a time to build up
a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn in a time to dance. Notice there is a time
the Bible says where it is appropriate to weep. There is a time where it is appropriate to mourn.
Now stay there. I want to read for you. James four, nine. It says this be afflicted and mourn
and weep. That's a commandment right there. That's the Bible saying be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to morning and your joy to heaviness. You know, the context of this
is saying if someone is living a super sinful life, your attitude should be mourning and weeping
and feeling sorrowful and feeling repentant. Not like the children of Israel in Isaiah three,
where the show of their countenance is witnessing against them that they're just proud of their sin.
They're fine with being in sin. You know, the Bible says if we are in sin, we should be mourning
and weeping. That's what our face should look like. You know, a face that's humble and contrite,
not a face that's just lifted up and prideful about our sin. You know, when are some appropriate
times to weep? Well, elsewhere in the Bible, the Bible says weep with those that weep. You know,
if you have a family member or a brother or sister in this church that's in the hospital
and some extreme tragedy has struck their family, you know, God forbid this would happen, but,
you know, someone's child dies. Someone gets in a car accident and their loved one dies. You know,
that would be a time to weep with your brothers and sisters in Christ. That would be a time to
cry. That would be a time to be sad. You know what would be an inappropriate expression on your face
is walking into your brother or sister in the hospital that just lost a loved one with a big
old smile on your face, with all this joy. That'd be inappropriate. And so this proves that there's
times when we need to fix our face, where we need to control what we look like, control the look on
our face. And again, people just think like, well, I can't control how I feel. You know what?
That's true to an extent, but we are supposed to as Christians be spiritual and look at the
word of God and say, this is the way God wants me to feel and try our best to acquiesce to what the
Bible says, not just let our flesh reign. You know, here's another time where it's appropriate
to weep for lost souls. And the Bible says he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed,
right? It is appropriate to be sad, to mourn, to even weep over the fact that there are lost
people out there that are dying and going to hell. You know, it wouldn't be appropriate to joke or
make fun of Joe plumber going to hell. That's just not appropriate. You know, the appropriate emotion
to have towards someone dying and going to hell. And we're not talking about reprobate, just your
average Joe would be that of sadness, tragedy, mourning, weeping. It's not something that's funny.
You know, when, when you see injustice done in this world, when a wrong is done under someone,
you know, that's a time to feel sad for your brothers and sisters in Christ. That's not a
time to joke around and look, I like joking around from time to time, but we kind of live in a
society that values joking around way too much. We live in a society that values being sarcastic
way too much. And sometimes as Christians, there's a time to be serious. There's a time to weep.
There's a time to mourn. Now, you know, here's another inappropriate time to weep. You know,
let's say that you and your coworker are up for a promotion and your, your buddy got the promotion
and you didn't, you know, that wouldn't be a time to cry and feel sad for yourself. That would be
a time to congratulate your coworker and to show respect to that person, not just wallow in your
own sorrow. But the Bible says there's a time to laugh, right? There's a time to laugh. When are
you not gonna laugh? You're not gonna laugh at the hospital bed. You're not gonna laugh at a funeral,
okay. You're not gonna laugh when your boss is giving you instructions. You're not gonna laugh
when your boss is correcting you. You're not gonna laugh when your pastor is correcting you.
You're not gonna laugh when your mom and dad is correcting you. That would be a time where you
you need to fix your face.
And us as children, when we were children,
some of us may have heard that from mom or dad,
when we weren't having a proper attitude,
we were being corrected and they said,
fix your face or I'll fix it for you.
And we need some parenting like that again in America.
You know, I looked it up and I saw online was saying like,
this is such a toxic, terrible phrase.
Well, not according to the Bible,
because I'm seeing in the Bible where it's telling us
there's appropriate times to have certain emotions
and other times where that would not
be an appropriate emotion.
We do need to fix our face.
Go to verse five of Ecclesiastes three,
a time to cast away stones
and a time to gather stones together,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to get and a time to lose,
a time to keep and a time to cast away,
a time to rend and a time to sow,
a time to keep silence and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time of war and a time of peace.
Notice the Bible says that there is a time to love
and a time to hate.
You know, now in our society,
people think that it's only ever time to love.
It's never okay to hate.
But look, there is a time to love,
meaning that there's a time
where it's appropriate to be loving.
You know, when is the time we should be loving?
How about when we go out soul winning?
You know, when we go out soul winning,
what should our faces look like?
It should look like faces that are happy,
that are joyful and that are compassionate,
wanting to see someone get saved.
Not someone where you just look like
you don't care what you're doing.
You don't care about lost souls.
You don't care that you're there.
You know, it looks like you don't want to be there.
That's not the countenance you should have
while you're out soul winning.
Because some people are like this.
Some people are really stoic.
They knock on doors like,
hey, do you want to get saved?
If you were to die today, do you want to go to heaven?
No, okay, bye.
It's just like,
that's not the right attitude you should have.
You know, the Bible says that we should be
earnestly pleading with people,
that we should be like begging people in Christ's stead.
Be ye reconciled to God, right?
We should be excited.
We should be passionate.
We should go out and care,
really care about someone's soul.
And think about if this was my mother,
if this was my brother,
how would I want the soul winner to act?
Not just, you know, looking like you hate your life.
And I've seen this many times.
This is just something that's common, unfortunately,
where soul winners, they just are so lackluster
and have no energy, no enthusiasm.
Look, fix your face.
Ready, ready?
I know it's hard.
Sometimes it's really hard, but you can smile.
You can do it, okay?
And when you knock on someone's door,
hey, we're from steadfast Baptist church.
Want to invite you to church.
Is that so hard?
No, but that's the attitude that we should have.
You know, love, love your brethren,
love your family.
You know, man, when you come home from work,
be sweet to your family, love your wife,
love your kids, smile, hug them.
You know, don't have just this down,
sad attitude all the time.
There's a time to love.
But you know what?
Also, there's a time to hate.
And some people need to fix their face,
fix their countenance, fix their attitude,
where it's like, I just love all school shooters.
And I just want God's mercy and love
on all the school shooters.
And we just need to forgive them.
And you know, Jesus loves them.
It's like, no, how about we just pray
that the police actually do their job,
unlike you, Valdi, where they're sitting in the hallway,
putting hand sanitizer on for an hour.
It's like, no, put a bullet
through the school shooter's brain immediately.
No mercy, no love for the school shooter.
Oh, you know, we just need to give pedophiles
a second chance.
No, pedophiles need to be executed.
There's no love for them.
There's no love for these people
that go around and just harm other people.
You know, serial killers, pedophiles, school shooters.
How about this?
False prophets.
You know, my countenance,
when I experience Mormon missionaries,
is not a friendly one.
I fix my face when I'm around them,
and it's anger, and it's being rude,
and it's not being nice.
Why?
Because the Bible says that it's actually a sin
to bid them Godspeed or to invite them into our house.
So, you know, my wife doesn't even like
that I do this sometimes,
but we went on a walk one time in Washington,
and these little Mormons come riding by.
They're like, hey, how you doing?
I'm just like, go to hell!
And she's like, oh, I'm telling.
They're just like, I don't care,
because they're false prophets,
and they're going around damning people to hell,
and I want them to be afraid.
I want them to be afraid to approach people with the gospel,
their false gospel, of course.
I want them to be afraid to walk up to someone's door,
and they're like, man, I just keep getting yelled at.
People just keep treating me so mean.
You know what?
We could actually help them stop doing what they're doing,
or at least be afraid to do it.
If every time someone knocks on your door
with a false gospel, you just rebuke them
in the name of Jesus Christ,
rather than being like, oh, let me just show you.
I just don't think you understand Romans chapter three.
Let me, it's like, they understand, they're false prophets.
And my view with Mormons is that
if you've been on your mission strip, you're toast.
Mormons that go around preaching a false gospel
are reprobate.
Now, I have gotten Mormon saved,
and every single Mormon that I've gotten saved
has never been on a mission strip.
Every single time a Mormon goes on a mission strip,
that person's conscience is seared with a hot iron.
They go around, they hear the truth all day long.
They preach lies.
They are absolute reprobates,
and I'm not gonna be nice to them.
Why?
I'm fixing my face.
The Bible tells me how to treat false prophets,
and it's not to treat them nicely.
It's not to give them love and mercy.
It's to rebuke them.
It's to call them out.
It's to preach against them.
Go to Matthew chapter number six, Matthew chapter number six.
We're talking about how you need to have
the right attitude for the right times.
And we already learned that your attitude
is revealed through your body language, right?
Well, look at Matthew chapter six, verse 16.
Jesus is giving us a time
where we should feel a certain way.
Moreover, when ye fast,
be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance,
for they disfigure their faces,
that they may appear unto men to fast.
Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward.
So notice, Jesus is telling you when you're fasting,
you're not supposed to walk around with a long face
with a sad look on your face
so that everyone knows that you're fasting.
It's like, you're just walking around, you're sad,
you're just acting.
You're like, oh, man,
do you guys hear my stomach rumbling right now?
Oh, it's like, what's wrong?
I'm fasting.
It's like, that's what you wanted everyone to ask you,
isn't it?
Because you're walking around with a sad face
and your body language is telling everyone,
just please ask me if I'm hungry.
And think about this.
The Bible literally says,
Jesus said, they disfigure their faces
so that they may appear unto men to fast.
So they do something to their face to change it
so that everyone that sees their face
knows that they're fasting.
You know what this reminds me of?
It reminds me of the Catholic church.
Because during Lent, what do they all do?
They all get ash.
They've ash Wednesday.
They put ash on their forehead.
They disfigure their face.
And what are they doing?
They're telling everyone, hey, guys, I'm fasting,
which is literally exactly what Jesus told you not to do.
So you just take it to the bank.
Anyone that's got the ash cross on their forehead
doesn't care what Jesus says,
doesn't care what the Bible says,
but he tells us what should be our attitude.
Verse 17, but thou when thou fastest,
anoint thine head and wash thy face
that thou may appear not unto men to fast,
but unto thy father, which is in secret.
And my father would see it in secret
shall reward thee openly.
So notice when you're fasting,
you're supposed to be fasting in a way
where other people can't just take one look at you
and know that you're fasting.
And of course, what we're talking about right now
is when you're doing a spiritual fast.
We're not talking about like, hey,
you wanna lose some weight and you wanna do a fast.
Like that's not, you're not gonna get any reward for that
because that's just a carnal thing that you're doing.
And this also isn't telling you
that you can't tell anyone whatsoever that you're fasting.
Because here's the thing,
if you have a family and you're fasting
and your wife makes dinner,
and then you're just like, you're not gonna eat,
she's gonna be like, honey, what's wrong?
She's like, she's gonna be like,
did I put poison in your food?
Like, it's okay to just be like, hey honey, I'm fasting
and just keep that between your family.
But it's about your heart,
that your heart is not going around,
just blowing a trumpet, look at me, I'm fasting.
Look, it's okay if someone finds out
or someone directly asks you, don't lie, of course.
But the spirit here is that
you're not trying to bring attention to yourself
through what?
Through your countenance.
So when you're fasting, fix your face.
Go to Jeremiah chapter three.
Jeremiah chapter number three.
Verse two, Jeremiah three,
lift up thine eyes unto the high places
and see where thou hast not been lying with.
In the ways hast thou sat for them
as the Arabian in the wilderness.
Thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms
and with thy wickedness.
Therefore the showers have been withholding
and there hath been no latter rain
and thou hast a whore's forehead.
That's gonna describe what a whore's forehead is.
Thou refusest to be ashamed.
And there's people out there today
that are complete whores or complete whore mongers
and they're not ashamed of that,
rather they're proud of that.
And you know, there's men in high school and college
that'll go around and beat their chest
and brag about how many women that they've been with.
What are they?
They have a whore's forehead or a whore monger's forehead.
Why?
Because they refuse to be ashamed.
You know, this idiot, Tristan Tate,
the brother of Andrew Tate,
he went on and he bragged about how his goal
is to find as many virgins as possible and just defile them
and then just move on to the next virgin.
And he's proud of it.
He's bragging about it.
That's someone that should be ashamed.
You know, that's someone that if you said that,
the entire country would just think
that you're a complete wicked piece of crap because you are,
but yet many people today idolize Tristan Tate,
idolize Andrew Tate, and all they are human traffickers.
People that have made their money
off of literally trafficking women.
And what are they?
They have the whore's forehead.
You know, Andrew Tate's so prideful.
Why?
Because he's got some Bugattis, he's got mansions,
he's got money.
You know what though?
God is gonna judge him.
And he's gonna split hell wide open
and he's not gonna be all prideful then.
He's gonna be screaming and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
And you know, we live, you know,
same thing with women today.
You have this phenomenon of women
just selling their bodies on the internet
and they don't see anything wrong with that.
They're not ashamed of that.
They think like, look at me, I'm making all this money.
Isn't that something great?
And it's like, no, that's not something great.
That's something shameful.
That's something dirty.
That's something that's disgusting
and you should be ashamed of yourself.
But instead people today, they have a hoarse forehead.
Look at Jeremiah chapter six.
Verse 15, were they ashamed
when they had committed abomination?
Nay, they were not at all ashamed.
Neither could they blush.
Therefore, they shall fall among them that fall
at the time that I shall visit them.
They shall be cast down, sayeth the Lord.
Thus sayeth the Lord, stand ye in the ways
and see and ask for the old paths.
Where is the good way and walk therein
and ye shall find rest for your souls.
But they said, we will not walk therein.
You know, the Bible teaches that there's some things
that you just need to have shame over.
And God's saying, were they at all ashamed
when they committed these abominations?
And the answer was no.
You know, today in America,
there's so many abominations in our country
that our country is just not at all ashamed of.
You know, people in the workplace today will brag
and think it's so cool to drink alcohol, to smoke marijuana,
to point out other women when they're married.
They have no shame at all.
And what our country should do is go back to the old paths,
where is the good way and be ashamed
of where we've come as a nation.
You know, it is a shame.
When you judge 2024 America with the founding of our country
how much we've changed, it's a complete shame.
And you know what?
We are ashamed to many other countries in this world
that look at us and they see us promoting LGBT.
They see us, you know, transitioning children
and mutilating children.
You know, do you think that people in Russia have respect
for Americans that transition their children?
Do you think that people in other countries
have respect for men?
They get married, their wife transitions
and it's just like, they're like, oh, that's fine.
You know, I support you.
It's just no problem.
Is that really how you feel?
Okay, then I support you.
It's like, no, these are things that as our country
we should be extremely ashamed of.
And our country today needs to fix its face on these issues.
And I just get so sick and tired of seeing these interviews,
these videos of these young people
just bragging about how many abortions they've had.
And you know, it's like, it's not enough.
It's not enough that you just have to murder children.
It's not enough that you just have to brutally
murder children in the womb, but on top of it,
you just have to be proud about it.
And it's sad that we live in a country
where you can get away with bragging
about murdering children.
You know, Roe v. Wade hasn't really changed that
because in a lot of states you could still
murder your child and nothing really happens.
And you know, this law that passed in Texas a few years ago
made it to where you could sue a doctor if they do it.
But you know what?
We need to have some more punishment
than just suing someone.
You know, when you're mutilating a baby,
it should be the thing that us as a society protects
with all of our being.
And it's like a lawsuit, really.
That's not really a good deterrent
to stop people from this.
You know, we need to deter evil
with the way that the Bible says, which is life for life.
You want to kill a child?
Well, you just sealed your ticket.
It's time that you get executed yourself.
Go to Proverbs chapter number six,
Proverbs chapter number six.
Remember, we need to have the right attitudes
at the right times.
There's a time to be ashamed, the Bible says.
You know when it's never, you know,
it's never a time to do this.
It's never a time to be prideful.
There's never a time for that.
There's never a time where it's okay to have a proud look
or to be lifted up or arrogant.
Look at Proverbs six, verse 16.
These six things that the Lord hate,
yea, seven are an abomination unto him.
Notice verse 17, a proud look, a proud look.
We all know what this is.
You know, you see some celebrity, some movie star,
some athlete, and they complete some, you know,
accolade or some important feat,
and they have this proud look on their face
where they think, I'm so great, I'm all that.
You know, think about sports
when someone scores a touchdown in football.
What are you gonna see them do?
They're gonna cross their arms,
they're gonna spike the ball, they're gonna dance,
they're gonna look all prideful, right?
And you know, one thing I really appreciate
from my childhood, I had this one baseball coach
that really, really taught us some good things,
and he taught us, he said, hey, baseball is a gentleman's
sport, which I don't think it's like that anymore, okay?
But he taught us, like, if you do something good,
you hit a home run, if you make a great catch,
if you make a great play, he's like,
I don't wanna see your celebration on your face.
He's like, I want you to stand up
and run back to the dugout, and he told us this,
look like you've done it before.
Meaning like, your countenance when you make a good play
should be like, cool, I helped the team, let's move on,
let's do the next task.
Like, that's what my coach taught us,
and he would punish us if he saw us showboating,
bragging, dancing, any of this stuff,
and he was a great coach.
I really appreciate that he taught me that,
and what I hate is seeing people playing sports,
and even baseball now, you see this,
where someone hits a home run, and you know,
they're gonna watch the home run, hold the bat, flip it,
start doing cartwheels down the line, it's just like,
dude, that's just not okay, it's not right,
God doesn't like your proud look, okay?
And hitting a baseball 400 feet
isn't really anything to the Lord,
he's not impressed by that, okay?
You know, it's just like, so silly to be prideful,
it's never an appropriate thing to be prideful,
and you know what, you need to check your body language.
How is my countenance expressing right now?
Do I look, you know, as a lady,
am I walking with an outstretched neck and a high nose,
or as a man, you know, am I walking around
with a prideful look on my face?
You know, we need to fix our face,
and be humble at all times.
Go to Psalm 95, Psalm 95.
Now, what about our body language during this situation?
What about when you're worshiping or praising the Lord?
What should our body language look like?
Look at Psalm 95, verse three.
"'For the Lord is a great God
"'and a great King above all gods.
"'In his hand are the deep places of the earth,
"'the strength of the hills is his also.
"'The sea is his, and he made it,
"'and his hands formed the dry land.'"
I mean, when you think about the status of God,
that he created everything, elsewhere the Bible says
that all things are upheld by the word of his power,
the universe, the galaxies, the planet, the stars,
the sea, the hills, everything God created.
You know, it's like, who are we?
Why would we be prideful
when we're living on this spinning globe?
By the way, it's a globe, okay?
In the middle of a vast universe that God created,
what right do we have to be prideful?
No, what should our attitude be?
Look at verse six.
"'O come, let us worship and bow down.
"'Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
"'for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture
"'and the sheep of his hand.
"'Today, if you will hear his voice.'"
So notice the attitude that you'd have.
Because God is so powerful,
because he's so great and magnificent and holy,
our attitude should be that when we think about him,
when we worship him, that we would bow down,
that we would literally lower ourselves.
And you know, sometimes,
I don't think this would be an appropriate thing to do
in church or just draw attention to yourself,
but sometimes in your prayer closet at home,
sometimes you should get on your face, literally.
You should get on your hands and knees
on your face before God.
Why?
Because you're lowering yourself,
acknowledging that you're not great,
you're not special, that he is,
that he's so much higher than us.
And you know, there's times in our life
where we really need God,
or we just really wanna acknowledge him.
And something you could do
is to literally lower your physical body,
change your body language to God,
to show that you are in submission to him,
to show humility.
And look, we don't wanna get all charismatic
and Pentecostal in here.
I don't want people coming up to the stage
and kneeling like they do in a lot of churches.
I think that's weird and uncombling, all right?
But there's times in my life
where I get on my face before God.
And that is something that I think that people should do.
I'll read for you, Matthew 26, 39 says,
"'And he went a little farther and fell on his face
and prayed saying, oh my father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.'"
So notice, even the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he was going through something really hard,
you know, he's in the garden of Gethsemane,
he's about to go to the cross.
What did Jesus do?
Who is God, by the way?
God himself even fell on his face
to pray to the heavenly father.
And you and I can't fall on our faces before God,
of course we can.
And that would be an appropriate body language
to have with God.
Now, go to, if you would,
Colossians chapter number three, Colossians three.
So we're talking about how God wants us
to have the appropriate attitude at the right times.
Number three, God wants us to perform the right actions
with the right attitude.
So we wanna combine what we just talked about in point two,
which is your internal state, how you're feeling,
the attitude that you have in different situations.
We wanna combine that with doing the right actions
with the right attitudes.
You know, some people just go through the motions
and I'll be honest,
going through the motions is better than doing nothing.
You know, obeying God's commandments
just cause you just wanna stay on track
and your heart really isn't in it,
that is better than nothing.
But of course, God desires for us
to do the right actions in life with the right attitude.
And part of this is gonna be about fixing our face.
What are some examples of this?
How about in the workplace?
Look at Colossians chapter three, verse 22.
It says this,
servants obey in all things your masters,
according to the flesh,
not with eye service as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
So notice the Bible says that servants
or a modern day application of this
could be employees to their bosses,
that employees are supposed to obey
everything their boss tells them to do.
You know what that means?
That means that you don't sit there
and have a prideful look on your face
when your boss is giving you instructions
and tell him, well, that's not in my job description.
No, if the boss tells you to do anything,
you're supposed to obey.
You're supposed to listen to him
and do what he tells you to do.
But here's the thing, not only should you just obey,
because look at the rest of that verse.
It says not with eye service as men pleasers,
meaning you're not gonna just listen to what the boss says
when he's in the room with you, watching you.
Why would that be?
Because then what are you?
You're just a man pleaser.
You're just saying like,
well, I just wanna make my boss happy.
So when he's here, I'll do what he says.
But when he's gone, I'll slack off and not work.
Not only that, look what it says,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God,
and whatsoever you do, do it heartily
as to the Lord and not unto men.
Meaning that when your boss gives you instructions,
when your boss tells you to do something,
you actually do it heartily,
meaning with all your strength, with all your might,
with a good attitude, with a positive expression
on your face, without complaining, without murmuring,
without asking, well, can I have this other job to do?
Instead, you just do what the boss tells you to do,
and you do it with a good attitude.
And here's the thing, you reap what you sow.
And I've thought about this since I was a young teenager.
When I learned as a young teenager
that the Bible says to obey your parents,
I thought in my heart, well, I want to be a parent someday.
I want to be a dad someday.
And so I was definitely not perfect by any means,
but I really tried hard to respect my parents,
to obey what they told me to do,
and because I wanted to be respected by my kids someday.
I wanted my family to respect me someday.
And same thing in work.
Who among us men wouldn't want to grow
and someday be a manager or a leader or a boss
in whatever company or an owner of their own company?
You know, most men desire that.
And I just, I thought from a young teenager,
I'm just going to do whatever my boss says to do
with a good attitude.
And I'm telling you, if you do this,
you will stand out in the workplace so fast,
it's not even funny.
And it's not even hard.
Like it doesn't matter what sector you're working in.
It doesn't matter what type of job you have.
Most people are disrespectful to their boss.
That's what I've seen in my life.
It doesn't matter what type of job.
Most people are disrespectful to the boss.
Most people, when the boss is gone,
they're going to sit around in a circle
and talk crap about him.
And if you don't do that,
you will stand out in the workplace.
Why?
Because that's the way God wants us to act.
God wants us to fix our face in front of our boss.
Why?
Because we're not doing it as unto men.
We're doing it as unto God.
And so we look at our bosses as an extension of God
in the sense that God has given that boss authority.
And if that authority is telling me to do something,
I'm going to do it whether I like it or not.
And I'm going to do it with a good attitude.
Go to Ephesians chapter number five, Ephesians five.
I'll read.
Oh, actually Ephesians chapter number six, Ephesians six.
Ephesians six verse five says,
servants be obedient to them that are your masters
according to the flesh.
Notice with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart
as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers,
but as the servants of Christ,
doing the will of God from the heart.
So notice you should put your heart into it.
You should put your energy into making your boss happy.
Not because you're some suck up
and really care if the boss likes you that much,
but it's because you care if Christ likes you.
You care if God is pleased with you.
Verse seven, notice with good will doing service
as to the Lord and not to men.
You know, when we go to work,
we should have good will towards our bosses.
We should have good will towards our company,
desiring that the company does well.
Desiring that the boss's orders get fulfilled
and his vision gets accomplished.
Doing good will to our bosses from our hearts.
I've seen this one guy,
I don't know what his name is on the internet,
but he makes all these short videos
and his whole shtick is just making fun
of customer service experiences
and basically where he works at Ikea
and all these people come up to him and be like,
hey, do you have anything in the back?
And he's just like,
do you think I really care about working here?
They pay me this amount of money.
And you know, some of you have probably seen this.
Let me tell you, those are stupid videos.
Like you should be ashamed of yourself
if you think those are funny
because the Bible actually teaches
that we should do good will to our bosses.
Meaning when we're working for a company,
we should want the company to succeed.
If you're giving customer service,
you should care that the customer
is actually pleased with your business.
Meaning when you're talking to a customer,
you're thinking, hey,
is this customer gonna think positively
about my boss and about my boss's business
based on his interaction with me?
Or are you just gonna have a bad attitude?
You're gonna make fun of the customers.
You're gonna talk crap about them behind their back.
That's a bad attitude.
I don't know since when Christians have believed
in this communist idea where like corporations are bad,
businesses are bad, making money is bad.
Look, I don't know about you, I'm not a communist.
And if a boss went out and took a risk to build a business
and he's making money and he's hiring me to help him,
then it's my job to help him,
not my job to talk crap about him
or to make the customers unhappy.
Go to Ephesians five, I'll read for you.
First Peter 2 18 says,
servants be subject to your masters with all fear,
not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
So it doesn't matter if your boss is mean,
it doesn't matter if he's a nice guy,
it doesn't matter if he's saved or unsaved or drunk,
or it doesn't matter.
No matter what, if he is your boss,
you're supposed to obey him.
You don't like that, then find a different job.
But don't start treating your boss poorly.
We talked about the workplace.
You know, let's fix our face in the workplace.
How about the home?
You know, this is another realm of authority
that God has ordained in our lives.
And there is real authority there.
And people there that are in subjection in the home
need to fix their face.
Look at Ephesians five verse 22.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands
as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife,
even as Christ is the head of the church,
and he is the savior of the body.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ,
so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
So notice the Bible says that wives are to submit
to their husbands.
They're supposed to be subject to their husbands.
Elsewhere, it teaches that they are to obey their husbands.
Look, there's no question about this in the word of God
that the Bible has ordained the man
as the human authority in the family.
And what the man says should go.
And wives today should obey their husbands,
and they shouldn't have this rebellious spirit.
You know, many wives today have a rebellious
and hard heart towards their husbands,
where their husband tells them to do something
and it's just, how dare he tell me something to do?
Or it's just like, spend more time with me, love me.
It's just like, hey, fix your face, all right?
This is how a lot of women are today.
Here's the thing, obeying your husband
is not just doing what he told you to do,
it's doing it with a good attitude.
Let me explain to you what obedience is.
Obedience is not doing something
that you already agreed with,
that your husband told you to do,
you're like, cool, I would have made the same decision.
Or it's like, hey, can we go here?
No, it's like, cool, I wanted to go somewhere else instead.
That's not obedience.
Obedience is when you disagree with what your husband says,
you're not happy about your husband's decision,
and you go with it with a pleasant attitude.
Here is, this is not obedience.
It's like, hey, can I buy this?
No, it's like.
It's just like, I'm gonna give you the silent treatment
for the next five days.
That's not obedience.
Even if you didn't buy the thing
that your husband told you not to buy,
if you treat him poorly,
if your countenance has been changed towards him,
if you now have a bad attitude towards him,
that is not obedience.
How would you treat that with your children?
Because I know what I would do with mine,
I would tell them to fix their face.
And if I tell my kids to do something,
but they do it with a bad attitude,
dragging their feet, slumping their shoulders,
rolling their eyes, they're going to get a spanking.
Why?
Because their heart is not right.
But in our weird culture where everything's backwards,
in many marriages today, the wife is the one in charge.
A lot of women think it's okay
to roll their eyes at their husband,
to look angry at their husband.
Even if they do what they say, look, that is not right.
Many wives today in our country need to fix their face
and not just do what their husband says,
but do it with a good attitude.
And I just, I don't know why women think this.
This is just a universal thing.
They think like, I'm not pleased with my husband.
I want him to be more loving to me.
I want him to spend more time with me.
And so what they do is they nag and they complain
and they get a bad attitude and a bad face.
But this is the exact opposite action you should take
if you want your husband to spend time with you.
Because having a negative face towards him
is just only gonna drive him away farther
to the attic or to the wilderness,
like the Bible talks about, okay?
But if you actually want your husband to love you
and be gentle, you know what you should be?
You should be kind, you should be pleasant,
you should be loving around him.
You shouldn't have RBF around your husband.
You should fix your face.
And look, people get really offended
by what I'm saying right now,
but I was just talking about the men at work.
And a lot of men are so soft
that if they heard that part of the sermon,
they'd be really upset too,
that I think that they have weak character,
that I think they have weak moral character at work
because they're not obeying their boss.
But then all of a sudden we talk about wives
obeying their husbands.
Now it's just like, this guy's a hate preacher.
This guy's a terrible person.
It's like, the Bible is right here in front of us.
It said what it said about employees.
It says what it says about wives.
Why don't we as Americans, as Christians, just fix our face?
Just fix your face to your authority in your life.
Go to Ephesians chapter number six.
While you go there, I'll read for you 1 Peter 3, five
or three, six.
It says, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.
So notice Sarah did what Abraham said,
but in her heart, she called Abraham Lord, meaning boss.
Meaning when Abraham told Sarah to do something,
she did it with a good attitude.
That's what obedience is.
And that is a great example for wives today
to look at Sarah and say, hey,
she obeyed Abraham in her heart, calling him Lord.
Let's talk about children, Ephesians 6, one.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord,
for this is right.
You know, we teach our children, obey right away
with a good attitude, says Ephesians 6, verses one and two.
That's what we teach our children.
You must obey, but it's not enough to obey.
You obey right away and with a good attitude.
Why, because delayed obedience is disobedience
and obedience with a rebellious heart is disobedience.
And so, just like I don't want my wife doing that to me,
just like if I was in charge at work,
I wouldn't want my employees doing that to me.
I don't want my children disobeying me,
having a bad attitude, having a mean face towards me
when I tell them what to do.
And look, parents, you are doing your children a disservice
when you allow them to disrespect you,
to roll their eyes at you, to drag their feet,
and you do nothing about it,
you are doing them a serious disservice.
Why, because as children, if they're not corrected,
that when they have a bad attitude,
there's gonna be consequences for that,
then they're gonna grow up to be the Ikea guy
that hates his boss, hates his company, is a bad testimony,
or they're gonna grow up and be that rebellious wife
that always is angry at her husband
and disobedient to her husband.
It starts as children, and we need to remember as parents
that we are not raising kids, we are raising adults.
And how would you want your child as an adult to react
to their authority telling them what to do?
It would be to obey right away with a good attitude.
So my recommendation is any time your child disobeys
or they obey but delay or they obey and have a bad attitude,
that they would get spanked every single time for that,
because otherwise you are really setting them up
to have serious heart issues when they are older.
Lastly, let's talk about church.
Go to Psalm 100, Psalm 100.
Psalm 100.
Now, this doesn't have anything to do with the sermon,
but someone let me borrow a Peter Ruckman reference Bible
one time, and it said that Psalm 100 was not written to us,
it was only written to the Jews.
So, you know, Ruckmanites, they'll read this verse
and they'll say, oh, that's just to the Jews.
But I don't know about you,
I believe this verse is for us, right?
Look at Psalm 100, verse one, it says,
make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness,
come before his presence with singing.
Notice, when you come to the house of God,
when you come to worship the Lord,
how are you supposed to be doing it?
With a joyful noise and with gladness.
You know what that means?
That means that you need to fix your face
during the singing and actually be singing
with gladness and joy in your heart,
not just sitting there like staring at the song leader.
I was a song leader for, yeah, like four years
at Steadfast Baptist Church,
and I remember there was this one person,
and they don't go to church anymore, okay,
not gonna say who it is,
but every time I was song leading, they wouldn't sing,
they wouldn't look at their hymns,
they would just stare at me.
How weird is that?
That is so weird.
Don't do that.
Okay, that is so strange.
We're supposed to be worshiping God.
The Bible says to sing joyfully,
to come before his presence with gladness.
I mean, let's sing out with some passion.
Why is it that we go to the men's conference,
all the men are so excited,
we're singing out nice and loud,
and then some of the men come back here
and they just don't sing anymore.
Sing with gladness.
Fix your face in church.
It's not my opinion, it's what the Bible says.
Look at verse three.
Know ye that the Lord, he is God.
It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves.
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Notice verse four, enter into his gates with thanks giving,
and into his courts with praise.
Be thankful unto him and bless his name,
for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting,
and his truth endureth to all generations.
Look, when you enter the house of God,
enter in with thanks giving in your heart.
Don't come to church looking like someone
is pointing a gun to your head to be here.
And look, I'm sorry, if you're a child in this room
and your parents are forcing you to be here,
I hope someday that you grow and get right with God.
But look, most of the people in this room
are coming here willingly.
And if you're doing so,
you should come with thanks giving in your heart
to God.
And you know, I like what brother Cameron
was praying this morning,
because what he said is true,
that it is not a common thing to find a church like this.
We have so much given to us in this church
and in just America in general,
that we take for granted on a daily basis.
And it's just crazy to me that people could come
into a church that has the King James Bible being preached,
that preaches salvation by faith,
that preaches hard against sin,
that preaches the whole council of God
that goes out soul winning,
that has leadership that will pray for you,
that will care for you,
that has brothers and sisters in Christ that will love you,
that sings good songs with good doctrine.
We have all these events with free things being given to you
and you could come and have a bad attitude,
shame on you if that's the case.
Look, fix your face if you come to church.
Do you wanna be here or not?
Come here if you want to be here.
If you don't wanna be here,
go to Southwest Baptist Church,
go to some other Baptist Church in this area.
There's one on every corner.
But look, if you are here, want to be here.
Amen.
Want to serve God.
Go to Ezekiel chapter number three.
Ezekiel chapter number three.
Here's another thing.
Fix your face during the preaching.
First Thessalonians 5, 20 says this,
despise not prophesying.
The Bible teaches us that we should not despise
the preaching of God's word.
What does it mean to despise something?
One thing it could mean is like hating it, not liking it.
And look, if that's you,
you need to get your heart right with God.
You need to get in your Bible
and start liking what the Bible says.
But another way people can despise it
is by not esteeming it as highly as it should be.
This is the people that sit on their phone all service.
These are the people that talk all service.
What is that?
Those are people that are despising prophesying.
Or these are the people that just hate
what the Bible says and is just giving me the RBF
or giving the preacher the RBF.
Look, fix your face.
Despise not prophesying.
You know, some people wear their emotions on their sleeves.
And this is just a bad idea because when I see it,
I'm just gonna preach longer
and I'm just gonna preach harder
because, you know, one time we had this Russian visitor
at a church I was going to,
let me tell you something about Russians.
They kind of like alcohol.
And I was preaching against Russian churches,
how they drink alcohol during the Lord's supper.
And I see this dude's face just like,
and I'm just like, I'm just parking it here then.
Like, you wanna despise prophesying?
Okay, the sermon just became about alcohol now
because you need to fix your face.
Look at Ezekiel chapter three, verse four.
And he said unto me, son of man,
go get thee unto the house of Israel
and speak with my words unto them.
For thou art not sent unto a people of a strange speech
and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel,
not to many people of a strange speech
and of an hard language,
whose words thou canst not understand.
Surely had I sent thee to them,
they would have hearkened unto thee.
So he's saying, hey Ezekiel,
if you would have been sent to the Gentiles,
they would have listened to you,
but I'm sending you to the Jews
who are hard-hearted, stiff-necked.
Look at verse seven.
But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee,
for they will not hearken unto me,
for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.
Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces
and thy forehead strong against their foreheads
as an adamant, harder-than-flint.
Have I made thy forehead?
Fear them not.
Neither be dismayed at their looks,
though they be a rebellious house.
What's he talking about?
He said, hey Ezekiel, don't be dismayed at their looks
because when you're preaching,
they're gonna have all sorts of RBF
and nasty-looking faces looking back at you.
But hey, don't worry because they're not rejecting you.
They're actually rejecting me.
And guess what Ezekiel?
I'm gonna make your face harder than their faces
and your forehead harder than their foreheads.
And here's the thing, when you're preaching the rock
and when you're standing on the rock,
the rock is harder than any look you wanna throw at me.
And it's not just me, it's any preacher that has the rock.
God's gonna make my face harder than your face.
And if you're preaching the word of God,
he'll make your face harder than anyone else's face.
And I'm not saying this from a position
of being prideful or anything like that,
but I'm just saying I've had my house
surrounded by Sodomites for over a year
and I'm not gonna be afraid of your face.
I've had like thousands of death threats against me
for preaching the word of God.
I'm not gonna let some woman, some angry mom with RBF
that doesn't like what I have to say
about Ephesians chapter five
stop me from preaching the Bible.
It's not gonna happen because God's gonna make my face
harder than your face.
And God's gonna make any preacher
who's standing on the rock,
he's gonna make their face harder than your face.
So I would just recommend to fix your face in church.
Why?
Because God cares about our heart.
God cares that we're doing the right actions.
Yes, he wants you to show up to church.
And if you're showing up grudgingly,
that is better than not coming to church.
But you know what he would rather you do?
Enter into his courts with Thanksgiving.
You know what he would rather you do?
Sing joyfully to the Lord.
You know what he'd rather you do?
If you're a man in this room is to say amen
at the word of God being preached,
to agree with it in your heart, to love it being preached,
to be thankful for it being preached,
not to have a bad look on your face.
Go to Psalm 19.
That'll be the last place we turn, I'll read.
Acts 17, 11 says,
these were more noble than those in Thessalonica
in that they received the word with all readiness of mind
and searched the scriptures daily
whether those things were so.
Notice the Bereans here, they're more noble
because they received the word with all readiness of mind,
meaning that they came to hear the word of God
and they had receptive hearts.
They were ready to receive what was going to be preached.
Now, of course, they received it and searched the scriptures
to see whether those things were so.
You know, that should be our attitude
when we go into church is that we should be expecting
to hear something good from the word of God.
And even when I went to churches
that I didn't even necessarily love,
like when I went to a Ruckmanite church,
the first church I ever went to,
I was kind of going there grudgingly
because it was the only church in my area
and I would listen to Pastor Anderson
and Pastor Jimenez after church and get fed that way.
But even when I went to that church,
I was hopeful every single time
that I would hear something from the word of God.
And here's the thing, when something was preached
that I did agree with that was coming from the Bible,
I did say, amen,
even though I didn't like a lot of things
about that ministry,
even though I didn't like Sam being there, right?
Still said, amen, where I could.
And you know, if you could do that at that type of church,
how much more at this type of church
should you be able to say amen
and receive the word of God with all readiness?
Psalm 19, 14, this will be the last place that we go here.
It says in verse 14,
let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my redeemer.
You know, I'll just close with this.
We need to make sure that both our words
and our heart is acceptable to God,
but not only to God, to all the authorities in our life.
And so, you know, let us as a church learn to fix our faces,
to have proper body language,
but how are you gonna get that?
You're gonna get that coming from a pure heart
that's in obedience to who?
Your God, first of all, your boss at work,
wives, your husbands at home,
children, your parents, church, your pastor.
You know, if you truly have those people and respect,
and if you truly love and respect the word of God,
it's gonna help you to fix your face.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Lord, thank you for this day.
And thank you for the word of God.
It gives us so much wisdom.
And I just pray in here
that you would help every person's heart
to truly love your word
and to desire to follow what it says.
And just pray that you'd help us to be good followers
under the various authorities that you've placed in our lives.
Thank you so much for the blessing of church
and for the blessing of being gathered together.
We love you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.