to God be the glory 162 on the first this time will open with the word of
prayer you'll bow your heads with me heavenly father we thank you for this
day for another day to just be gathered together to learn from your word pray
that you would just incline your ear to us as we sing out praises that you'd
fill us with your spirit on this day the Lord's Day and that you would just
embolden pastor and give him all the clear words to speak and that we would
be ready to receive that message these things we pray in Jesus name amen all
right for our next hymn this morning turn to 323 323 more about Jesus three
23 there on the first bulletin for myself up here please raise your hand we'll
bring you one on the front you'll see our Bible memory passage of the week
Galatians chapter number 1 verse 15 and we still have two full months left in
this chapter so plenty of time to memorize it on the inside you'll see our
service times listed Sunday morning 1030 Sunday evening 430 and our Wednesday
evening Bible study through the book of Proverbs at 7 o'clock our soul winning
times are all listed there and all those meet here at the church building with
the exception of Tuesday so if you'd like to go to that make sure you talk to
brother Eric and he'll get you set up on the details for that below is our
nursing home ministry schedule brother John preaching today next week brother
Theodore and below you'll see our year-to-date statistics for salvations please do make sure you continue to report those numbers on the right side you'll see our upcoming events this evening is our men's preaching night there's still time to sign up if you would like to do that and it's gonna be 15 minute sermons if you want to participate and right after we will have a potluck so please do bring something to share this evening if you can then next Saturday is our soul winning marathon in Oklahoma City we're meeting at
Frederick Douglas Park it's right by the Willa D Johnson rec center if you're
familiar with that part of town but it's a good area it's gonna be some great
soul winning we're meeting at 9 o'clock for coffee and donuts and then we'll
start the soul winning portion at 10 we'll meet back at the same park at noon
for lunch and then we'll go out again at about 2 o'clock for some more soul
winning so I understand that a lot of churches are doing the mega marathon
that day so there's gonna be lots of Christians out soul winning all over
this country and the world so make sure to just pray for a great harvest of
souls on that day. After that the next day is going to be Easter and we're
gonna have a great Easter service we're gonna be catering barbecue right after
the morning service and also after the evening service we will be taking the
Lord's Supper as a church family here. May 16th through the 18th is the King
James Conference at Sure Foundation Baptist Church. May 31st is another soul
winning marathon in Durant Oklahoma and we're meeting up with Steadfast Baptist
Church for that event. There should be well over a hundred soul winners for that
one. June 28th is the Tinker Air Show Fellowship Day, just hanging out having
fun as a church. And June 29th, the next day, Brother Ben Naeem from Steadfast
Baptist Church will be preaching. And it was brought to my attention yesterday
that this was during June and it actually was not planned that way. But
you know, Brother Ben is more than welcome to rip on whatever he wants to.
But if you're listening, Ben, it is June so you got to keep that in mind. August
27th through the 31st is the Fire Breeding Baptist Fellowship at Steadfast.
You don't want to miss that. Highly recommend it. And October 6th through the
11th is the Bahamas Mission Trip. I'm going to it. I know a lot of people are
here and I'm really looking forward to that. Below, if you'd like to update your
information or if you're a visitor, please do scan that QR code. On the back
you see our prayer list. Brother Alex asked for an update this morning saying
that he is not doing well. He wants some prayer for his health. I know some other
people have been sick, so do pray for those people. And if you want information
about giving, tithing, there is information there below that. That's going to be it
for announcements this morning. We'll go ahead and go to our third song. Our third
song this morning, number 308308, "I Surrender All." Number 308308, "I
Surrender All." 308 there on the first. Singing, the offering plates are being
passed. Turn if you would to Genesis chapter number three. Genesis chapter
number three. Genesis chapter three. Now the serpent was more subtle than any
beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, "Yea,
hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden." And the woman said
unto the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of
the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." And the serpent
said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die. God doth know that in the day ye
eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and ye shall be as gods, knowing both
good, knowing good and evil." And when the woman saw that the tree was good for
food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also under her
husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were open, and they
knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made
themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden, in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God
called unto Adam, and said unto him, "Where art thou?" And he said, "I heard thy voice
in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." And he said,
"Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I
commanded thee, that thou shouldest not eat?" And the man said, "The woman who
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the of the tree, and I did eat." And the
Lord God said unto the woman, "What is this that thou hast done?" And the woman
said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, "Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle, and above
every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat
all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel. Under the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy
conception. In sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be
to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam, he said, because thou
hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which
I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it. Hurst is the ground for thy
sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.
For out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return. Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
And unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord make coats of skins, and clothe
them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good
and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden
of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man,
and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherry vines, and a flaming sword,
which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Let's pray.
Gracious Lord, thankful for our church, thankful for those that are gathered here today.
Thank you, Lord, for our church, and for those who come up here.
God bless you this week. Amen. All right, well, we are in Genesis chapter 3, which is a continuation of the story of the Garden of Eden.
And, of course, we know that the Lord gave Adam and Eve many options in the garden.
He said to them that of all of the trees of the garden, they were allowed to freely eat.
But there was one specific tree that he said no to, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And, of course, we know that the devil tempted and deceived Eve.
She took of that fruit, ate it, and gave it unto her husband.
And we're going to pick up in the story in verse number 9 of Genesis 3, where the Bible says,
"And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked, and I hid myself.
And he," that's God, "said, Who told thee that thou was naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldest not eat?"
Now, of course, God already knows the answer to this question, but I believe God's asking this
question to Adam for our benefit, because Adam's response is going to reveal something about his
heart here. So that's what it says in verse number 12, notice, "And the man said, The woman whom thou
gave us to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." So God asks him a direct question,
"Have you eaten of the fruit of this tree?" And again, God already knew, but I think God wanted
to reveal something to us about mankind, is that when he's asked this question, Adam, he just
immediately says, "Well, the woman that you gave to me." He immediately just shifts the blame,
he makes an excuse, he doesn't take ownership of his sin, he wants to just put it off onto someone
else. Okay, and then we'll notice this pattern continue, because look at verse 13, "And the
Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat." So both Adam and Eve, when they're confronted by God of their sin,
they both immediately just shift the blame and make an excuse for their sin. But as we continue
reading in this story, I want you to notice that though they make an excuse, it doesn't change what
they did. Making an excuse didn't change the consequences of sin. It didn't change the way
that God viewed the situation. Let's keep reading verse 14, "And the Lord God said unto the serpent,
because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." So there is some
responsibility to be had on the devil and God punishes him for that. Verse 15, "And I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and
thy conception. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice
of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee saying, thou shalt not eat of it.
Hurst is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns and also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
So notice how God responds to them giving excuses. God didn't sit there and weigh their excuses
and consider and say, oh, that's true. You know, I did give you this woman. Yeah, you did have a
legitimate excuse here. No, he just punished Adam. He just cursed the ground for his sake.
And some people teach that work didn't exist before the fall of man. But the Bible says very
clearly that God gave Adam to tend to the garden before there was sin. So it's not that the curse
here was that man has to work. It's that work became much harder. It's that the ground was
cursed and it was going to bring forth thistles and thorns. And same thing with Eve. Her curse is
that childbirth is going to hurt really bad, right? There's going to be serious pain involved in
bringing forth children. But notice how them making excuses, it didn't actually help them
whatsoever. It didn't cause them to not be responsible anymore. It didn't cause them to
evade the consequences of their actions. They still had to pay for it. So their excuses helped
them exactly 0%. And you know, making excuses in my life and in your life will help us exactly
0%. And so the title of my sermon this morning is this stop making excuses, stop making excuses.
I want to tell you why, because here's a little secret about life, about your excuses is that no
one cares. And I say that in the nicest way possible. Nobody cares about your excuses.
God does not care about your excuses. Life. This is a tough world. This is a tough life.
And this life will chew you up and spit you out with your excuses. And this train is not stopping
for you and for your excuses. So we need to just adopt a mentality right now that says, you know
what, we're not going to make excuses because they don't help us whatsoever. Go to Exodus chapter
three. Now I want to make a couple statements about excuses this morning. Number one, excuses
are a cover to disobey God. Excuses are a cover to disobey God. You know, there are legit excuses
in this life and we'll talk about those later in the sermon. But let me tell you what, most excuses
are lies. Most excuses are just you giving some sort of, you know, smoke shade to you not wanting
to obey God. And I'll show you an example of that with Moses. Now look, Moses was a great man. I'm
not showing you this to say Moses was terrible, but you know what, Moses was human and he was a
sinner. And though he was the meekest man at this time, he did make a mistake here, I believe.
Exodus chapter three verse 10, "Come now therefore, God speaking, and I will send the unto Pharaoh
that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." So here we got God
giving him a very clear task here. And when God tells us to do something, you know what we should
do? We should just do it. We shouldn't sit here and think and wonder, are we going to obey? What's
the reasons I should? What's the reasons I shouldn't? If God tells us to do something,
the answer should be yes, Lord, right away. Notice verse 11, "And Moses said unto God,
Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt." Now, on the surface, this kind of seems like a very humble attitude. And don't get me
wrong, this man is a very humble person in general, but I would submit to you that anytime you're
resisting something that God is telling you to do, that's not humility, that's pride. Okay,
so if God is telling Moses to do something, if God tells anyone to do something, the answer should
be, "Yes, sir." It shouldn't be considering like, "Well, am I worthy? Am I good enough?" You know
what? God's already decided because He told you to do it. And so it's actually pride to sit here
and resist God's word, resist His charge for your life. Notice Exodus chapter four, or wait, one more
thing here. No, Exodus four, I'm sorry guys. Exodus chapter four, my apologies on that. Verse one,
it says, and Moses answered and said, but behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice,
for they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. So notice he has some fear in his heart.
He has some worries, some trepidation about what if I go to speak and they don't believe me, right?
And this would kind of go to show how you need to trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean
not unto thine own understanding, because God told him to do it. It doesn't matter what the
outcome is going to be. What matters is what you were told to do by God. Look at verse number two,
and the Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? And he said a rod and he said cast it on the
ground and he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses fled from before it. So I kind
of view this as God saying without saying to Moses, hey, I've got your back here. I'm going to back
you up. Look, I'm allowing you to do these miracles. You know, don't worry about if they're
going to believe you or not, because what you should be worried about is the fact that I'm
with you here. Here you just had this miracle performed and Moses at this point should have
realized like, okay, I didn't do that. This is obviously God on my side. He told me to do
something. I just need to step out in faith and do it and not make excuses for it. Look at how
much God wants to back him up. Verse four and the Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine hand and
take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it. And it became a rod in his hand
that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee. And the Lord said furthermore unto him, put now
thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom. And when he took it out, behold,
his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his
hand into his bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom. And behold, it was turned again as his
other flesh. So notice, God is doing all these miracles. And at this point, he should just get
it. Like, hey, God's on my side. I'm throwing down my rod. It's becoming a serpent. I mean,
could you imagine then picking up a serpent, turns back into a rod, he puts his hand in,
becomes leprous, puts it back, it's healed. I mean, what more evidence do you need? Like,
how much more information and confidence do you need to just listen to God at this point and just
say, "Okay, clearly I'm on the right path. Clearly this is what God wants me to do." But notice
what happens in verse number 10. "And Moses said unto the Lord," here comes the excuse, "O my Lord,
I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow
of speech and of a slow tongue." You know, when God gives us something to do, He's there to give
us the tools, He's there to back us up. And you know, today we have plenty of tools to help us
in our fulfillment of the Great Commission, or just following the commandments of God,
or just serving God, right? He's given us a great fellowship of believers here. He's given us the
institution of the local New Testament church. He's given us the Holy Ghost, who is the Comforter,
to help us. He's given us access to Him through prayer, the perfect Word of God in our laps this
morning. I mean, He's given us so many things, yet today some people still want to make dumb
excuses as to why they can't serve God, dumb excuses as to why they can't follow God's
commandments. But I'm here to tell you, this excuse that He gave right here was not true.
And you want to know how I know that? Because Moses ended up successfully doing what God told
him to do. It's almost like when God tells you to do something, He's going to make sure
that you have everything you need to accomplish His will. He's not going to give you commandments
that you can't follow, that you can't follow through with. No, no, no. If He tells you to
preach, then He's going to help you preach. If He tells you to go soul winning, He's going
to help you go soul winning. And you know what? This right here from Moses was simply an excuse.
And what this excuse was, it was a smokescreen of him not wanting to obey God because he wanted to
do his own thing. He didn't want the responsibility, maybe who knows what all of the inner turmoil of
the reasons were that he didn't want to do it. But I can tell you one thing is that this excuse
was not true. And that is the truth about a lot of excuses people give today is that yes,
excuses that are legitimate do exist and you could find them anywhere you want to.
But most of the time, your excuses are not legitimate. Most of the time, your fears,
your what ifs, your personal inadequacies that you think about yourself are not even true to
begin with. And what it is, it's an excuse. It's mental laziness. Look at verse 11.
And the Lord said unto him who have made man's mouth or who make it the dumb or deaf or the
seeing or the blind have not I the Lord and you know that's a good thing to remind us is that
God has made all of us different but yet he made you the way you are knowing what he wants you to
do. So it's not like you could use something about yourself as an excuse to not serve God
because God's the one that created you. God's the one that made you the way you are you know oh I'm
too I'm too shy. I'm just naturally an introvert. I can't go soul winning. Okay God made you that
way. God knew you were going to make be that way and God still tells you to go out and preach the
gospel and so someone using that as an excuse it's a lie. It's not true. You can't sit here and say
like oh well I'm exempt from preaching the gospel because I'm shy. No that's a that's a garbage
excuse and you know what it's not going to stop people from going to hell that excuse and it's
not going to stop God from being angry at you because I want you to notice that God gets mad.
Verse 12 now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say and he
said oh my lord send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. So now Moses is
way into stubbornness territory here. First it's kind of like hey God I don't know if I'm the right
guy I'm not sure if you know I'm cut out for this then God's like hey here's the miracles you're
gonna do I've got your back then he's like well you know I'm slow of speech I'm stammering over
here I'm not that great of a speaker and he's just like who made man's mouth I'm the one who made
you the way that you are and I'm telling you to go then Moses is just like well just send someone
else look folks this is just stubbornness at this point this is just an excuse at this point for him
to not do what God wants him to do and look there's going to be times in life where we don't want to
do what God wants us to do you know that is a human reaction but what separates the men from
the boys spiritually are those who though they don't feel like doing it they do it anyways but
you know what weak people do is they make excuses and they allow those excuses to stop them from
serving God they stay in a position of excuse making their whole life and they don't move
forward you know at least Moses he ended up doing the right thing some people their whole life is
just excuses excuses excuses and they just want people to feel bad for them they want people to
you know excuse them for lack of a better term from doing what's right but it doesn't change
how God feels because look at verse number 14 and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses
and he said is not Aaron the Levite thy brother I know that he can speak well and also behold he
cometh forth to meet thee and when he seeeth thee he will be glad in his heart and thou shall speak
unto him and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach
you what ye shall do and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people and he shall be even he shall be
to thee instead of a mouth and thou shall be to him instead of god notice how the bible says that
god's anger was kindled you know he tried to work with moses here he tried to show him i've got your
back here's the miracles i made your mouth i'm with you and you know what god takes offense at us
not trusting in him like when god says i'm with you i've got your back what more confidence do
you need like is there some sort of earthly weapon that's going to make you feel more secure
than knowing that god is on your side like if god is on your side that should settle the case you
should be ready to roll at that point you should be ready to obey but you know what this is what
people do they sin they don't take ownership of their lives they simply just make excuses for it
and they think oh by me making an excuse it's going to change how god feels nope the anger of
the lord is still kindled by you making an excuse about why you're failing in whatever aspect of
life it doesn't actually change the fact that you're failing you know what excuses do it makes you
feel better about yourself but it doesn't change anything this is why it's so harmful this everybody
gets a trophy society that we live in this little soft society where nobody wants to be made to feel
bad about anything that they do that is actually harming people and you know i'm going to say some
things this morning they're probably going to piss some people off but i'm telling you that i'm
saying this from a position of wanting to help you because sure i could just sit here and coddle
everyone's excuses but it won't change the fact that you're failing it won't change the fact that
you're not moving forward it won't change the fact that god is angry with you all it serves to do is
make you feel better about yourself and what is that that's a bunch of vanity it doesn't matter
let's talk about some things people make excuses for go to psalm 100 psalm 100 psalm 100 verse 4
enter into his gates with thanksgiving 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 you know we ought to enter into the house of god and we should do so with joy with
thanksgiving with gladness we should not only come to church but we should come here with a good heart
an excited spirit excited to be here excited to hear the word of god you have so many people today
make excuses for not going to church let me tell you something if you live in oklahoma city and
you're not going to church shame on you good night folks this isn't the senetal islands here
this isn't some deep dark part of some jungle in the world this is america this is the bible belt
this is okc the buckle of the bible belt if you can't find a good church to go to here you have a
serious problem but it's like oh i can't go to any church because i don't agree with a hundred
percent of the words that flow out of the preacher's mouth that's a stupid excuse because guess what i
could look back at things that i've said in the what eight seven years i've been preaching and i
could find things that i disagree with too and here i am in church imagine that you know what
you're not going to agree with every single thing that the preacher says but guess what the onus is
on you to be searching the scriptures daily to see whether those things are so but you know what
you don't get to just say well i'm out of church now oh i just quit going to church now or people
won't won't even go to an old ifb church because they're pre-trib that's a stupid excuse because
you know what god says to enter into his courts with thanksgiving and you know what why don't you
mr perfect why don't you mr super spiritual wonderful christian okay why don't you go get
ordained as a pastor someday and why don't you start the perfect church and why don't you be
the perfect pastor and why don't you just preach every sermon just the perfect sermon if you're so
great you know what shut up and stop making excuses and get your butt in church or how about this
i'm tired welcome to being an adult you idiot we're all tired this morning raise your hand if
you're tired i'm always tired okay but i'm still always pumped up too because i just said screw that
excuse and i'm just gonna be excited i'm just gonna be happy i'm just gonna have energy despite
what my stupid watch tells me you got four hours of sleep again who cares you know what life is
about being tired and just sucking it up anyways i'm tired so you're not gonna serve god you know
what that's gonna be great when you're standing before the judgment seat of christ and it's like
but but lord i didn't go to church because i was tired you think jesus is gonna say oh well that
word excused my good and faithful servant well done no he's not gonna say you're excused and
this is why i'm trying to help you right now get rid of your stupid excuses because a bunch of them
are lies anyways and a bunch of them are just covers for you not wanting to obey god here's a
fact god wants you to be in church this morning get in church stop waking up every sunday stop
thinking every saturday shall i go to church and what's my life schedule looking like am i tired
have i gotten you know 16 hours of sleep last night why don't you just be steadfast and say i'm
gonna go to church now look when legitimate excuses come up in your life and you're sick
stay home no problem with that okay but these are like quick one week two week things but your
default pattern in life should be that you go to church every time the doors are open that should
be your default you should have some sort of anchor in your life that says i'm going to be
anchored in the house of god i'm going to be steadfast i'm going to be consistent you know
and people will do this well i'm not going to church because the church is too small right now
that's a retarded excuse where does the bible like where is this goldilocks baptist church not
too small not too big i thought you just need to go to church and you know what there's other people
they won't go to church if it's too big they'll go to church if they're friends with the pastor
they won't go to the church if they're not friends with the pastor look there's all these excuses
you can think of here's the fact it doesn't change the fact that god's mad at you if you stop going
to church it doesn't change the fact you could have all the excuses that if you're not going
to church you're missing out in your life you're suffering spiritually you're not pleasing to god
and you can make excuses and people can feel bad for you and you could feel bad for yourself but
it doesn't change the situation that you're in spiritually and that's why i'm not going to sit
here and coddle people you shouldn't sit here and coddle yourself and you know what even if you have
a real excuse in your life you shouldn't live in this default zone of giving yourself excuses
you should try to shoo away as many real excuses as you can because let me tell you something
people that succeed in anything in life ministry business family whatever it is people who actually
succeed could give you a thousand legitimate excuses as to why they should have failed like
you could find legitimate excuses in your life but you know what people who actually are just
steadfast and successful do is they don't let those things stop them and so what i'm telling
you is you're going to have excuses a lot of those excuses sure could be real but a lot of them are
fake go to matthew chapter 19 matthew chapter number 19 matthew 19 look at verse three the
Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him is it lawful for a man to put
away his wife for every notice this word cause you know what that is it's them saying hey can
any old excuse allow me to get divorced from my spouse and you know what people love to do today
people love to divorce their spouse people love to break their vows that they made before man and
before god where they said till death do us part they said for better for worse they said for richer
for poorer they said in sickness and in health but then you know what they get they get an excuse
and they divorce their spouse and it's well she spent too much money he didn't buy me flowers
enough he was messy she wasn't the person i thought she was we're not compatible anymore you know
what all those excuses can make you feel better about yourself but you know what you are you're
an oath breaker is what you are you know what you are you're selfish you're only thinking about
yourself you're not taking into account the damage you're doing to your family to your children the
fact that you're offending god by breaking his commandments the fact that you're violating the
bible no it's just about you that's what divorce is it's all about you even though notice jesus's
response verse four and he answered and said unto them have you not read that he which made them
at the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave father and
mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh wherefore they are no
more twain but one flesh what therefore god hath joined together notice let not man put asunder
jesus does not excuse your divorce there is no excuse for divorce the bible says that if you
get divorced and you get remarried that you're committing adultery and you know what there's
no excuse for it and and of course everyone who gets divorced no one's going to sit here and say
like i was a crappy wife i didn't obey my husband i didn't take care of him no man is going to say
like i was a terrible leader i didn't spiritually lead my family i didn't pay the bills i didn't
love my wife you know what they're going to do they're going to make an excuse and let me tell
you the truth is that every single marriage you could find an excuse because no marriage is
perfect don't believe these people that tell you their marriage is perfect it's a lie every couple
has problems every husband has problems every wife has problems and if you wanted to you can
sit here and just focus on all the negatives of your spouse and you can go convince some bleeding
heart moron why it's okay for you to divorce them and a lot of pastors will listen to your excuses
and coddle you and say yeah that's a great decision you should get divorced you know
ladies you could go talk to your friends and you could paint your husband in the worst light
imaginable and a lot of ladies will just say you go girl you get a new man you trade up you're
good to go but let me tell you something that's not how god feels and that's not how we feel at
this church i will never ever ever encourage someone to get divorced for any reason literally
any reason any reason because it is always a sin to get divorced period end of story
now obviously there could be situations where your life is in danger where you're like someone's
trying to hurt you okay physical separation to keep your life intact i understand that could be
a situation for some people but i'm not here preaching the exception i'm preaching the rule
and you know what there's no excuse for divorce period even if you're in that type of a situation
you still don't have to get divorced because what's your other option uh to get remarried well
that's adultery that's wicked that is a sin in the sight of god notice verse number 10 it says
his disciple saying to him if the case of the man be so it is not good to marry and you know that
there's a lot of people today that kind of have that attitude where they're kind of giving up on
marriage they're afraid of what could happen to them but you know what these these are excuses
the bible says that marriage is honorable and all and the bed undefiled right so it's a good
institution it's an institution that god created don't make an excuse to get rid of it go to first
timothy chapter number four first timothy chapter number four how about not reading the bible look
at first timothy chapter four verse 13 the bible says till i come give attendance to reading
text rotation to doctrine i'll read for you revelation one three blessed is he that readeth
and they did hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein
for the time is at hand god obviously expects us to read his word folks god did not sit here and
inspire his word and preserve it through thousands of years for it to sit on your shelf collecting
dust he wants you to read it he says till i come give attendance to reading meaning it should be
something that's prominent in your mind something that you're actively doing on purpose reading the
bible every single day is something you should be doing but people like to make excuses for why
they don't and what do i always hear people say i don't have time i'm calling bull crap on that
everyone has time to read the bible you say i really don't have time okay let's talk privately
and let's look at your schedule and i guarantee that i will help you find time to read the bible
you're not reading the bible because you don't want to read the bible folks that's the truth
there's no excuse there's no pass and again the stupidity of this okay you you think that you
have some excuse as to why you can't read the bible but that doesn't change the fact that you're
not reading the bible and that you're missing out on the spiritual blessings of reading the word of
god that you're going to be missing out on wisdom and god's commandments and i'm here to tell you
that what you don't know can hurt you and so what's better to sit here and coddle you and say
yeah you just didn't you don't have time to read the bible just somehow in our first world united
states of america living easier lives than most of human history has ever lived you somehow are the
poor little house slave that doesn't have time to read the bible or you man are just so busy
that you don't know how to read the bible you don't have enough time to no that's an excuse
that's a lie you know what it is it's a cover to disobey god and i'm just telling i'm just opening
up your heart right now if you don't read the bible you are disobeying the lord and you know
what your excuses are bull crap so don't sit here and tell the people i just struggle to read the
bible because i have kids there's people that have kids that read the bible oh i struggle to
read the bible because i work a job okay there's people that work two or three jobs that read the
bible every single day it's just amazing what can happen if you actually just get rid of excuses
and take ownership of your life and actually take charge and take power and say i'm going to read
the bible no matter what i'm gonna not let these excuses stop me i'm going to read the word of god
go to jobe chapter number 23 jobe chapter number 23 here's something in your schedule right away
that i'll just help you with if you can't if you can't read the bible whatsoever notice jobe
chapter number 23 verse 12 it says in jobe 23 12 neither have i gone back from the commandment of
thy lips i have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food if you are honest to
god so busy that you cannot read the bible then you need to stop eating breakfast you should
literally just stop eating breakfast because god's words are more important than your necessary food
okay and me personally i don't even eat breakfast i don't even like breakfast very rarely do i eat
breakfast not it's not like i'm doing that on purpose or i really have to try i just don't even
want to i don't wake up hungry whatsoever some people do no problem most people probably eat
breakfast most people are probably hungry in the morning but if you can't read the bible you should
just stop eating breakfast then because it's better to stop eating breakfast it's better to be hungry
than to sit here and not read the bible so there you go no excuses it's just done stop eating
breakfast if it's causing you to literally not read the word of god but let's be honest no one
in here is like that you have plenty of other time that you could read the bible you could still eat
breakfast and read the word of god you're just an excuse maker you are just lazy you are just covering
for your disobedience to god and you need to knock it off look at psalm 119 psalm 119 you say i can't
read the bible because i'm tired because i don't get enough sleep okay look at this verse psalm
119 147 psalm 119 147 i prevented the dawning of the morning you know what that means he was up
before the crack of dawn he was up before the sun was up and cried i hoped in thy word mine eyes
prevent the night watches that i meditate in thy word notice the psalmist here is losing sleep
to read the word of god so what's more important getting three three meals a day or reading the
bible reading the bible what's more important getting sleep or reading the bible reading the
word of god so you know what sleep shouldn't keep you from reading the bible food shouldn't keep you
from reading the bible these things are excuses look at verse number 62 verse number 62 it says
at midnight i will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments so notice
psalmist is waking up before dawn he's staying up till midnight he's doing just whatever he has to do
to get the word of god into his heart and you know what sometimes we're going to go through seasons
of life where we're going to be much busier than other seasons of life but you are never excused
from just not reading the bible there's never a time in your life that it's just okay for you
to just stop reading god's word look you need to prioritize reading the bible it needs to be one
of the number one priorities of your life it needs to be more important than making money it needs to
be more important than family it needs to be more important than food or sleep like the bible is a
priority folks you need to make sure you do it go to exodus chapter 32 exodus chapter number 32
number two this morning excuses train you to shirk responsibility this is another dangerous
thing about excuses number one excuses are often just lies they're often just covers to cause you
to disobey god but also by making excuses it causes you to constantly shirk responsibility
and you know what that damage that damages your growth as a person it damages your growth
spiritually we need to be people that take responsibility for every area of our life why
because that's actually empowering but you know what it's very easy and this is what it's just
natural for human beings it just feels good to tell yourself i failed because of this it just
feels good because we let that go we said that's not on us or feels good when someone else tells
you it's okay you failed because you had this reason and then you feel absolved you feel
excused you feel like free of that judgment but you know what what's actually better is to take
more responsibility on yourself take more control of your life take more control of your actions
look at exodus chapter 32 verse 1 and when the people saw that moses delayed to come down out
of the mount the people gathered themselves unto erin and said unto him up make us gods which shall
go before us for as for this moses the man that brought us up out of the land of egypt we whatnot
what has become of him so moses he's up in mount sinai erin's in charge and the people make this
request of him make us gods what is that talking about idols i mean what should the obvious
response be hear from erin as the leader he should take ownership of his authority take
responsibility of himself and tell the people no we're not doing that that's wicked that's
idolatry that's an abomination to god he should have just taken that responsibility and done the
right thing but notice what happens verse two and erin said unto them break off the golden earrings
which are in the ears of your wives of your sons and of your daughters and bring them unto me i
mean this is insane such weak leadership i mean it's like did erin have a gun to his head here
no they're just like make idolatry he's like okay uh give me your daughter's earrings and everything
like let's let's do this together let's start making idols together it's like what is going on
this is just a crazy story here verse three and all the people break off the golden earrings which
were in their ears and brought them unto erin and he received them at their hand and fashioned it
with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf and they said these be thy gods oh israel
which brought thee up out of the land of egypt so notice he asks for the earrings he asks for
the gold he receives it at their hand he fashions it with a tool like erin is very involved in this
situation erin gave the okay he said yes immediately and he helped the people carry out this wicked act
look at uh verse number 19 verse number 19 it says and it came to pass as soon as he came nigh
unto the camp that he moses saw the calf and the dancing and moses's anger waxed hot and he cast
the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount so moses just got the 10
commandments from god and he goes back to his little church plant that hasn't had a leader for
five seconds and he's so pissed off because immediately they're in insane sin just crazy
situation he just cast those tablets down breaks them verse 20 and he took the calf which they had
made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder and strawed it upon the water and made the
children of israel drink of it he took responsibility he took ownership he said okay here's the situation
i'm gonna go in and i'm gonna fix that problem moses didn't sit here making excuses moses didn't
say here like oh well here's why we're in the situation that we're in it's not my fault he just
said okay we're in a bad situation let's fix it let's get this going right away but erin is not
the same way verse 21 and moses said unto erin what did this people unto thee that thou hast
brought so great a sin upon them and erin said let not the anger of my lord wax hot too late for
that thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief for they said unto me make us gods
which shall go before us for as for this moses the man that brought us up out of the land of egypt
we want not what has become of him erin completely failed here just a crazy story in the bible
and he took zero responsibility when the truth of the matter what we see in scripture is that he
played a massive part in this sin where he just immediately assented to them he took their stuff
he graven he grove the idol up himself he took part of this sin but then when moses confronts
him he's you know the people you know how bad they are you know that their hearts are set on
mischief they said you know up make us gods and part of it is true that they did say that but you
know whose responsibility was to say no it was aaron's responsibility and here is the problem
with not taking responsibility yes it's uncomfortable to do it's uncomfortable to
take responsibility for your own sin because you have to have the humility to acknowledge that you
sinned and that you're not perfect you screwed up but here's the problem with not taking
responsibility is that nothing in your life can ever change nothing in your life can ever change
until you take responsibility because it just feels great to just say like well the reason my
marriage sucks is because of my wife well the reason why my whatever insert whatever's going
on in your life the reason why this sucks is because of someone else it feels so good to the
flesh because you now have no responsibility there's no action steps that you could take
there's nothing you could do to fix the problem because it's someone else's fault and let me tell
you something when something is your responsibility you actually have agency you actually have power
you actually have authority to change your situation and this is why allowing people to
make excuses is so damaging for them is because you're telling them oh you failed and there's
nothing you could do to ever change that you'll always be a failure you'll always be in this
terrible situation you'll always have this problem but it's okay because it's not your
fault isn't that great that your life sucks and that it's never going to get better but at least
it's not your fault that doesn't help anyone folks this is not a loving mentality to just
coddle people and and just let them make all these excuses the the person who actually loves you says
stop making excuses and take responsibility for your life and do something to fix it take control
of your life and do something to fix it what are some areas today that people do not want to take
responsibility how about perpetually single guys and perpetual single girls who are just for large
portions of their life single not by choice like they want to be married and they're just single
for their whole life these are people that make excuses these are people that refuse to take
responsibility because you know what's so easy to do you know what just makes the flesh feel good
is hey you know i'm 40 years old and i'm single but it's okay cuz feminism i mean don't you know
how bad american women are don't you know how every american woman is just such a jezebel and
they're all so terrible and they're none of them are saved they're all reprobate and you know i
need to go to the philippines to get a woman and i'm not against you going to the philippines to
get a woman but you know what sitting here and just blaming all women for the reason that you're
single must make you feel good because you don't have to do anything to fix it i mean isn't it just
great that you don't have to worry about you ever hitting the gym or you ever getting a good job
or you getting spiritual or you knowing how to defend a woman and defend a family it's just nice
that you don't ever have to do anything because it's someone else's fault it's feminism's fault
and look feminists are terrible marry zero of them don't marry a feminist don't marry a jezebel but
you know what sitting here and saying all american women are bad is stupid don't say that crap in
this church because there's a lot of great american women here that love god that want to serve god
that want to please him that are raising godly families and you know what you're the leader man
you want to be a good leader someday why don't you lead yourself why don't you be someone worth
following instead of just sitting here and worried about feminism yeah we all know feminism sucks but
you know what feminism didn't stop me from getting married feminism doesn't doesn't stop this church
from preaching the truth i mean couldn't i do this as a pastor oh you know we're not going to
preach hard against feminism because you see it'll make everyone mad isn't that true isn't that a
true statement of course it is couldn't i just make that excuse of why i can't preach certain
things in the bible because it's going to make people mad because our google reviews are just
going to keep going down the toilet every time i preach the truth or should i just take responsibility
and say you know what there's things that i can do that i have control of and i'm going to take
control of those things and not make excuses and you know what if something sucks in your life you
should just take responsibility for it and work on fixing it rather than just making yourself feel
better because you're blaming other people you know what that is it's mental weakness you are
a weak man if you blame the reason why you can't get married in america on feminism because you
know what there's still good girls out there and you can lead some young lady and help her to grow
how about this the jews i mean there's people that just blame everything on the jews and of
course judaism is a satanic religion and of course jews are running a lot of things in this world
but it's like the reason i can't do anything in life is just the jews the jews the jews you're
giving them a little too much power my friend because last time i checked i could do all things
through christ with strength and if me it's like man i would love to you know have a church where
we preach the whole council of god but the jews will get us no they won't we'll still preach throw
us in jail we'll still preach shut us down we'll still preach give us some lawsuits kick us off
youtube i don't care we'll still preach i'm not gonna sit here and just blame well the jews exist
therefore we need to stop serving god shut up it's weakness how about this perpetual obesity
perpetual obesity people it may here's the thing it makes you feel good to sit here and say well
bill gates and gmos you know and if we just didn't have gmos if we just didn't have bill gates
if we just didn't have big pharma if we just didn't live in the 21st century if my parents
had just raised me better if i had just gone through a different style of life then i wouldn't
be in the situation that must make you feel good but it's never going to cause you to change
it's never going to cause you to be healthy again right you know what actually makes sense
is to take responsibility and say here i am let's work on it and look there's plenty of
legitimate excuses there are but again we should be people that though we acknowledge those things
exist we should try to ignore those things ourselves as much as possible we can sit here
and be like okay i have a legitimate excuse but starting today i'm doing everything that i can
pray for god to help you and not sit here just blame other people long-standing character issues
you have a some sort of long-standing character issue and people just make excuses like oh i'm
just a jerk it's just the way i am oh i'm just i'm just prideful i mean it's okay it's just how i am
no that's an excuse change take responsibility realize that you don't get to just sit here and
say well i'm just god just kind of made me a jerk naturally just kind of made me prideful he just
kind of oh how about this he just i just kind of i can't help it i can't help but flirting with
women i mean i'm a man over here right i mean we all have we're all the flesh right i mean women
are beautiful we just can't stop staring at them take responsibility don't sit here just use this
excuse well i'm a man how can i not stare at a woman it's like asking the sun to not come up in
the morning no take control of your life and you using excuses boy it sure makes you feel good
about yourself ah no big deal i'm just a man right makes you feel great about yourself but you know
what god's angry and you're the one that's still sinning you're the one that's still not doing
right and making yourself feel better doesn't change anything and allowing other people to
feel better about their sins doesn't change anything this is modern church movement in a
nutshell it's pastors and leadership just getting up and telling people why it's okay that they don't
keep god's commandments why it's okay that we're all just terrible and we all don't want to get
better and we all don't want to preach the bible it's all just about come as you are leave as you
came grace grace grace grace grace no take responsibility and that's actually going to
cause people to improve their lives because nothing can change in your life until you take
responsibility you know what i think is one of the biggest excuses of our generation adhd i think
adhd is one of the biggest excuses ever created cdc.gov says that six percent of adults have adhd
but it's funny because i feel like 80 percent of adults say that they have adhd oh yeah because
this is an excuse my friends even if you say everything about ad let's just pretend for a
minute that everything that is taught about adhd is true let's just for a thought experiment grant
them that okay the cdc says that only six percent of adults actually have that so why is it that
everyone claims to have adhd if it's one if it's six out of a hundred people because a lot of people
are making excuses and a lot of people their parents and their school teachers have given
this excuse to them growing up and they have just held on to it as a reason to feel good about
themselves for why they fail in life okay here's what's interesting about uh adhd i went to the cdc
website and there's a portion there's an article on adhd and they say what is it what is adhd this is
the cdc's definition of adhd adhd is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood
neurodevelopment means having to do with the way the brain grows and develops adhd is usually first
diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood children with adhd may have trouble
paying attention controlling impulsive behaviors may act without thinking about what the result
will be or be overly active so to me they didn't even answer the question it's like what is adhd
well it's one of the most common diagnoses okay i get you're saying it's one of the most common
diagnoses but what is it they can't tell you what it is because you can't go to a doctor to be
tested for it you can't go to a doctor and get a blood test and say oh crap you've got the adhd
pathogen you have to go to a psychiatrist or a psychologist which are usually people that are
extreme atheists extreme left-leaning people like that those industries are bad industries folks
if they're not industries based on the bible or christianity whatsoever you have to go to them
and then they have to do this big old personality test on you and they will just decree to you that
you have ADHD and isn't this great because their whole livelihood depends on them diagnosing you
with that i mean what kind of what kind of psychologist is going to say like oh all right
sweet rich parents keep bringing me this kid but actually the kid's totally fine the kid just needs
a spanking the kid just needs to be stopped being put in front of a screen from birth but no of
course the psychologist is going to say oh yeah this kid's super messed up come to me every week
for the rest of your life so that i could get your money oh i'm sure that's a crazy conspiracy
right no one would ever do anything for money i mean the love of money is not the root of all
evil or anything like that right here's the diagnosis here's how you get diagnosed with it
adhd and children you talk with your child's health care provider if you are concerned
about whether your child might have adhd the first step is to talk with a health care provider to
find out if the symptoms fit an adhd diagnosis deciding if someone has adhd is a process with
several steps there is no single test to diagnose adhd this is the cdc i'm not making this up and
many other problems such as anxiety depression sleep problems and certain types of learning
disability disabilities can have similar symptoms one step of the process involves having a medical
exam including hearing and vision tests to rule out other problems with symptoms like adhd so
there's excluding by chance other disorders diseases diseases that are similar to adhd
diagnosing adhd usually includes a checklist for rating adhd symptoms and taking a history
of the child from parents teachers and sometimes the child itself adhd in adults adhd can last
into adulthood some adults have adhd but have never been diagnosed the symptoms can cause
difficulty at work at home or with relationships symptoms may look different at older ages for
example hyperactivity may appear as extreme restlessness symptoms can become more severe
when the demands of adulthood increase find out more about adhd here so they can't really tell
you specifically what it is they can't really tell you exactly how it's diagnosed how you
can find out if you have it you just go to a psychologist or psychiatrist they have a checklist
they ask parents they ask teachers so they're just they're just going off of what people say
it's not like a fact just going off what people say and then if you need a certain amount of
criteria they'll just say you have ADHD which is literally just a label that was just made up to
describe a certain group of characteristics about a person this is not a disease folks this is not
something that you catch this is just completely made up in my opinion and you know what i think
most ADHD diagnoses are i think they're complete and utter excuses and you know what it does it
robs people of their responsibility to change because isn't it doesn't it make parents feel
nice doesn't it make them feel so good that their kid fails in school their kid is poorly
behaved their kid can't learn their kid can't pay attention doesn't it make parents feel so good
to sit there and say well it's not because i didn't spank my kid like the bible said
it's not that i don't discipline them it's not that i don't love them and train them and instruct
them and spend time with them i just put them in front of a screen from birth i mean we've all
gone to restaurants where the little kids they just have the tablet in front of their face all
the meal you got to believe if they're doing that in public it's probably at home the same way it's
not anything like that oh thank goodness it's just his brain oh i thought i was a bad parent for a
second there thankfully i have no responsibility thankfully there's nothing i can do to fix the
problem it's okay because johnny's brain has adhd let's give them the drugs right now let's give
them the ritalin right now this is mental weakness this is excuse making this is bull crap this is
lazy terrible parents not taking responsibility for following what the bible says and their kids
are being harmed as a result is it must make you feel so good about yourself as you're harming your
kids let me tell you this ritalin crap harms kids turns them into different people kids are
hyperactive folks kids have struggle paying attention and and let's talk about the adults
with adhd it must make you feel great about yourself that the reason you fail at everything
in your life it must make you feel good that the reason why you failed in college you don't do
good on the job you struggle in your relationships it's okay that you're doing that because your
brain it probably makes you feel real good about yourself but it doesn't change the reality of
where you are and it's not going to ever change in the future until you take responsibility for
yourself what if i told you that we as human beings have the same flesh and we are all jacked up
together what if i told you that our flesh does not want to work hard did you know that did you
know that there's no person who enjoys hurting their flesh and working that doesn't exist okay
oh man just paying attention is so hard reading is so hard it's hard for everyone like it's it's
so easy to just pull out your phone and just doom scroll that's why people do it it's so easy to
not pay attention in class it's so easy to not be consistent at your job it's so easy to be
scatterbrained and not be disorganized all these things let me tell you something it's our natural
flesh it's our sinful condition but you know what is actually loving to a child is saying hey you've
struggled your struggle in this area you've got these problems let's support you let's give you
all the tools that you need let's love on you but you know what i'm going to tell you johnny don't
let this define you don't let this excuse stop you you know what you still have to get good grades
johnny you still have to show up at work you still have to be a good employee and i'm not going to
excuse you and even if you believe that adhd is completely real and everything about it is a 100
fact let's just say you believe everything about it is true the worst thing even if that was the
case the worst thing you could ever do is tell a kid that they have that it is let's just say
that you believe it's real the worst thing you could do is tell someone that they have that
because what you've done is you've given that any kid an excuse to not work hard you've given that
kid an excuse to not overcome to not be challenged and let me tell you something you are all going
to have challenges in life we all have challenges in life and you know we don't need to be told hey
it's okay that you failed because there was a challenge there we need to be told hey embrace
every challenge and work hard anyways and push forward anyways and we all have different struggles
i'm sure that there are people who they genuinely do struggle more with paying attention than other
people okay i'll grant you that but i'm not going to sit here and tell a kid hey it's okay that you
fail in everything because you have adhd you're robbing that child of their responsibility
parents are robbing themselves of responsibility but it's all okay because it makes you feel good
doesn't it you know what that's not loving folks that is not something that actually
is caring about people and that brings me to number three this morning is that excuses rob
yourself of your potential excuses rob you of your potential go to philippians chapter number four
philippians chapter number four philippians chapter number four i hope you believe this
verse in verse 13 i can do all things through christ which strengtheneth see jesus christ
actually gives us an empowerment you know an ability to be empowered and to take responsibility
and to affect change in our life and not through our own flesh and our own intellect alone but it's
through christ with strength which strengtheneth us we can do all things through christ that
strengthens us folks and so the good attitude to have is saying hey i do have some legitimate
excuses and if you and i were to talk today you could probably tell me about some legitimate
excuses in your life that caused you to be the place that you're at i could give you some
legitimate excuses but you know what we should do is we should say hey we can do all things through
christ which strengtheneth us you know that there's people with autism that have been very successful
in life there's been millions of people with adhd because they give that diagnosis to literally
everyone it seems like you know there's been people with no legs no arms that have done great
impressive things people that have gone through severe hardships and trials and excuses beyond
anything you or i have ever experienced and yet some people have just pushed through and you know
what i guarantee you the people that have done that they weren't surrounded by a culture that says
it's okay that you're failing no big deal don't feel bad about anything that you're at in your
life i guarantee you that they were either from themselves from the bible from people around them
around people saying hey take ownership take responsibility take control of your situation
don't let these excuses stop you from growing you know you're robbing yourself of your potential
and this is what pisses me off about the psychology and psychiatrist industry i'm not saying that
there's a never a time to get help there's never a time for even some of those medicines
like if you are are planning on committing suicide if you're thinking about that kind of stuff
i'm not going to sit here and stop anyone from doing that i'm not going to have that
on me okay go ahead and get any any help that you want but this is just what's weird to me
from a christian perspective folks is that i thought we were christians i thought that we
believed the bible i thought that we believed in something called prayer i thought that we believed
that god can help us i thought that we actually believed that we could do all things through christ
would strengthen us and it's like we live in a society where it's like you can't pay attention
your stress your fidgety your depressed your anxious and christians first response is to
go to drugs and to go to god hating oftentimes atheistic left wing feminists that work psychology
and psychiatry jobs why is that our first response and again i'm not telling you never
ever seek help for something like that but again it's just like this is my mentality
with mental health is like if you are soul winning you are going to church every time the doors are
open if you are reading the bible if you are praying if you are thinking about other people
if you are hearing hard preaching if you are getting good sleep getting exercise if you are
doing these things chances are you're not going to have severe mental health problems okay this is
just common sense chances are if you're actually doing all these things you're not going to have
all these issues you could pray and ask god to help you but at least at least check all those
things off the box before you start popping drugs into your kids it's like i don't go to church
i'm not married i don't work out i eat cheese puffs all day i doom scroll on instagram and on
facebook i don't read anything i don't pray to god and i'm sad and i'm depressed it's like i wonder
why but i bet you it makes it i bet you it makes you feel good about yourself though to sit here
and say i have all these problems through no fault of my own no fault of my own i have no
responsibility i can take no ownership i just need to start taking drugs you know what we need
to stop coddling people folks we need people to take responsibility for their actions you know
let me let me give you some people who had some legitimate excuses to fail and yet they didn't
how about the apostle paul i'm pretty sure that if someone gave us his list of excuses we might
think like yeah okay he's like look i'm tired of getting shipwrecked tired of getting beaten with
rods tired of getting thrown into jail i'm tired of people trying to kill me i'm tired of all these
things like he's already beaten all the excuses of my entire life just in like five seconds and i'm
pretty sure everyone in here but did he fail no he didn't he's like you know what neither count
i in my life dear unto myself i don't care about my problems i don't care about my excuses i'm
just gonna push towards the mark of the high calling of jesus christ that's the right attitude
to have okay how about how about daniel when it's literally illegal to pray i mean that's an excuse
that's a legitimate excuse oh i can't pray because it's illegal but guess what did he let that
excuse stop him or did he just do what god told him to do anyways did he keep doing what's right
anyways and you know we may in our lifetimes face a situation where some portion of our religion of
our ability to serve god could be legislated and made illegal and you know what we should do we
should keep serving god anyways you know we should look to our brothers and sisters in christ in
germany who have been through some real persecution in the last four or five years and look to them as
an example they could have made all the excuses they want they could have stopped serving god
you know what they went through police raids at their homes getting their things confiscated
going through criminal trials going through deportations and you know what they're still
serving the lord they're still soul winning they're still preaching hard they're still
believing all the things in the king james bible as you and i sit over here and complain
as we have little kids today in school complaining about their adhd folks real excuses will exist in
your life and in my life and you know you should do you should push through them and not give
yourself an out mentally say i'm excused because i have this out nope it's not going to help you
go to matthew chapter number 25 but here is the truth if you want an excuse to not serve god
you will find one if you want an excuse to get divorced you will find one if you want an excuse
as to why you're failing in any area of life you will find a legitimate excuse to give people and
isn't that great to make yourself feel better as you still fail as you still don't improve i'm here
in love today telling you stop making excuses take ownership i'm not going to coddle you i'm
not going to say it's okay it's all good i actually want to empower you and tell you to change to
take ownership to say i could do all things for christ which strengtheneth me let's finish in
matthew 25 and i want to read a good portion of this it's such a great parable for what we're
talking about matthew 25 verse 14 the bible says for the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling
into a far country who called his own servants and delivered them unto his goods and unto one
he gave five talents into another two into another one to every man according to his several ability
and straightway took his journey then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the
same and made them other five talents and likewise he that had received two he gained he also gained
other two but he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his lord's money after
a long time the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them and so he that had received
five talents came and brought other five talents saying lord thou deliver it's done to me five
talents behold i have gained beside them five talents more his lord said unto him well done
thou good and faithful servant thou has been faithful over a few things i will make thee ruler
over many things enter thou into the joy of thy lord he also that had received two talents came
and said lord thou deliver it unto me two talents behold i've gained two other talents beside them
his lord said unto him well done good and faithful servant thou has been faithful over a few things
i will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy lord let's pause real
quick in this story before we read some more and understand that the two servants were given two
different quantities of goods five talents two talents but though they didn't have the same
number of assets the same number of goods both of them were productive with what they had both
of them took those talents and brought an increase for their master and notice the master's response
to both servants was very positive the master was very pleased with the person that made an extra
five very pleased with the person that made an extra two why because they're being profitable
they're doing something even though one is making a lot more money they're both being profitable
with what they were given but verse 24 says then he which received the one talent came and said
lord i knew thee that thou art and hard man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where
thou hast not strawed you know that was an excuse as to why this person is not working hard
verse 25 and i was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth lo there has there thou hast
that is thine and his lord answered and said on him thou wicked and slothful servant thou newest
that i reap where i sow not and gather where i have not strawed thou oughtest therefore to have
put my money to the exchangers and then at my coming i should have received my own with usury
take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents for unto everyone
that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall
be taken away even that which he hath and here's what i want to point out about this parable
in regards to our sermon this morning is that we all are different in this room and god has not
given us all the same talents okay and so we need to realize that some people in life are going to
be more successful than others in a production standpoint in a quantity standpoint some people
are going to have a knack for things that you don't have some people are going to be you know
having an ability to preach and lead you know fewer people are pastors than people in the pew
right we all have different roles to play we all have different talents that god's given us
some people have been given 10 5 2 1 but here's the thing you have been given something you have
been given something by god to steward you have control over something in your life and whatever
talents it is that god's given you whatever assets responsibility things to steward in your life
whatever those things are god expects you to bring a profit with those things he doesn't expect you
to take one talent and turn it into a thousand necessarily he doesn't expect you to take 10 and
turn it into 100 million necessarily but he does expect you to take the things that he gives you
and work with them and bring forth fruit with those things and make a profit from those things
go to second corinthians chapter for five second corinthians chapter number five because a lot of
times when people make excuses what they're really saying is well i don't have five talents i have
one or they're saying well i have five talents i don't have 10 but what about the five talents
that you do have though what about the one talent that you have like you have something to do you
have something to work on you may not be a 10 talent guy you may not be a five talent guy
but just do what you can with what you have be responsible take ownership with what you have
look at second corinthians chapter five verse 10 for we must all appear before the judgment seat
christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he have done
whether it be good or bad you will stand before jesus christ someday you will stand before our
savior and he will judge you according to your works and i will stand before jesus and he will
judge me and i do not want to stand before our savior and say lord here's why i didn't serve you
i didn't have a lot of money i had adhd i was fat you know i had just all these do you think that
that's going to change anything on that day as far as the rewards that i'm going to get nothing's
going to change he's not going to say well man well done now good and faithful excuse maker
you're excused here's all the rewards even though you did nothing for me here everybody gets a
trophy no not everyone will get a trophy not everyone will get great rewards he will reward
you greatly if you do great works with the talents that you are given and we're all in different
situations we're all in different stages of life we all have different responsibilities and priorities
but you know what whatever your situation is stop making excuses and get to work take responsibility
you don't look and here's the thing some people are going to be very offended by some of the things
i said today but you're the one that has to stand before jesus christ and jesus christ is not going
to sit there and coddle you so i would rather hurt your feelings now and hurt my feelings now
and just say like okay i've got a lot of things jacked up i need to take responsibility and fix
these things for the short time that i'm on this earth and have the ability to do so before i just
stand before christ and my eternity is locked in my rewards are locked in my works are locked in
and you know what i don't think that we're going to be in heaven feeling so good about ourselves
about our excuses like we do now because you know what i think that is i think that's the flesh
right now and that flesh is going to be gone okay you're not going to be up in heaven giving
yourself all these excuses the reason you give yourself excuses today the reason i give myself
excuses today is because we want to be lazy as human beings and boy does it make us feel good
to know that well we failed but it ain't our fault it's not our problem there's nothing we could do
to fix it this is a loser's mentality folks this is a mentality of someone that doesn't go forward
that doesn't grow that doesn't accomplish great things for god that doesn't fix things in their
marriage in their business in their church and i'm telling you you look at anyone in any situation
show me a successful person in ministry i will show you a person who had many legitimate reasons
to quit and many legitimate reasons to fail you show me someone who's built a big business
i'll show you someone that had many legitimate reasons to fail but you know what successful
people do especially ones that are spiritual especially us who believe the bible is say hey
i can do all things through christ which strengtheneth me stop making excuses this morning stop making
excuses take control of your life god wants to give you that empowerment through his word
through his help through the holy spirit of god don't sit here and excuse yourself trust in the
lord don't make excuses let's pray lord we thank you for this day and we thank you for your word
for the admonitions therein i pray that all of us would take account of our lives and that we
look at the problems and the areas that need fixing and not sit here and just blame our parents or
other people or circumstances but we would just take responsibility of everything that we can
that we would realize that not all of us are going to be 10 talent people but we would just be good
and be good stewards with the talents that you've given us help us to work hard until the day of
jesus christ we love you in jesus name we pray amen him this morning number 131 christ is all i need
131 131 christ is all i need 131 there on the first